Hello? I won a trial gym membership? How did you get my name? You pulled it out of a fishbowl? Do you have any idea who I am? I don't have any legs. And I have only one hand. I lost them over in Iraq. No, don't worry about it. I'm fine now. But I probably won't use it, so you might want to give it to someone else.

The next time you think you have problems, read this.

What I've Learned: Sgt. Bryan Anderson

Since then, in addition to the $200 billion thrown away paying for but not achieving the NII goals, we've spent another $500 billion (not including interest) on various foreign adventures intended to make us all feel safer. I just wonder what we could have got for that money, for the full $700 billion, if we'd spent it more thoughtfully, perhaps more as a business might do?

No. Bob Cringely is not my mouthpiece. But I'll definitely buy him a beer the next time I see him.

A Prius in Every Garage

Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world.

And if you believe this, then it's worked. Yes, you have perhaps more convenience and capability than ever before. But you don't control anything. Large institutions control everything. In fact, you've sacrificed personal freedom, economic prosperity, liberty, and privacy to enable this to come about. From the food you eat, to the clothes you wear, to the 'indie' this n that which you seek out in order to feel like you're still an individual. Even this article which soothes your wary soul into thinking it's okay comes from a large corporate source. Yes, even the religious establishment of your choice is most likely a corporation. So while you may move through the anxieties of life with the greatest of ease and capability, don't think for a second that you are in control. Big money is in control and the second you take the red pill, you'll understand that.

TIME Magazine's Person of the Year: You

Hello friends. I'm writing you due to a really sad and unpleasant experience. Someone has stolen my pride and joy 1997 Land Rover Defender 90 right out of my back yard while I slept! The larceny occurred around 4am early Sunday morning, December 10, 2006 in the Hillsboro Village area of Nashville, TN. She was unlocked and parked in my back yard, but behind a double locked gate. If you see her, please phone me immediately! 615.429.4502. I'm offering $500 for information that leads me to her, and $1000 for information that leads to the arrest of the scum that took her from me! If you forwarded this email/message to someone who gets either of those rewards, I'll give you $100. The VIN is SALDV3243VA122379.

As I'm sure some of you know, these are extremely rare and pricey vehicles, so even if the insurance company gives me everything that I've put into her over the years, I can't exactly go up to the local dealer and buy a new one. So recovering her is the best I can hope for. Here's some pictures. These pictures were taken awhile ago, but she essentially looks the same. You enthusiasts know that you've always got at least one or two projects going on at any given time but this is basically the last state she was in.

She's a NAS D90 SW #2342, Arles blue with Alpine top, auto trans, with air conditioning and the 4.0L petrol engine with two of the four jump seats installed. She has about 97K miles on her and is due for an oil change. The front windshield has a large spidered crack on the passenger side that's about a foot wide. Of note are that she has black diamond plating armor on the hood wings, side sills under the doors, and rear wings above the rear wheels. The trail lights are IPF, both on the bull bar and the light rack. Of particular note is that she has a custom installed Pioneer AVIC Z1 GPS/Audio/Video system that sits in the center console where the switches for rear defrost and such used to reside. The cigar lighter is relocated into the top of the console next to the shifter and there are several more located inside the console under the hatch. She also has a duel battery kit, with the switch on the bottom left of the drivers dash. She still has my vanity plate, "OLD PUNK", with expired tags (Sept 05) using the old style plates, NOT the new green Tennessee hills plates. She also has the spare tire off the rear carrier and a lighted skull in the rear hitch socket. She's got an OME suspension kit, but if you're looking underneath her, then something even worse has happened! Again, if you see her, phone immediately! 615.429.4502.

CASH REWARD FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO HER RECOVERY AND/OR PROSECUTION!!!!

Thanks!

Cheers,
Scott

In the go-go late 1990s, Ford went to similar lengths to recruit new talent. Now, its survival hinges on cutting its work force to match dramatically reduced demand for its cars and trucks.

WOW! Talk about a hard job to do. This goes against every grain of your body as a business person.

How 38,000 were enticed to leave Ford

The Global Orgasm for Peace was conceived by Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, whose immodest goal is for everyone in the world to have an orgasm Dec. 22 while focusing on world peace.

Make your plans!

Calif. couple calls for orgasm for peace

Apple put software on cassettes in its early days, but lacked automated tape duplication machines which required Apple employees to conjure up a system with a rack of Panasonic tape machines linked together with an Apple II. The team had to simultaneously press play and record on all the tape machines and hit the return key on the Apple II to begin the process of duplicating as many tapes at a time as possible. "Any time someone would come in and talk about something like a $25 million Bank of America credit line," Espinosa recalled, one Apple employee might have to "stop the meeting and go over and switch out the cassettes and put in new ones and then come back and say, 'So what were we talking about?' That's the kind of place it was."

Garage days revisited. =)

Woz details 'Apple in the garage'

The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice cleared the roughly $80 billion deal on Oct. 11, declaring that there were no competitive concerns and opting not to require the combined company to divest assets or make other concessions.

Of course this is the biggest sham of the entire process, since the entire reason why this merger is a bad idea IS the fact that it will reduce competition and consolidate power in the telecom monopolies. Prices will go up. Innovation will continue to be shackled. And if net neutrality gets the boot, then you'll also have this hegemony spreading into other industries.

It will be supremely interesting to see what the standout committee members actually get in the discussion. They seem to be pointing towards pricing and service concessions, which to me feels like a 'too little too late' compromise.

As usual, when it comes to politics, they are completely missing the point. Both of these organizations should be charged with manipulating the market, robbing the public, and committing shareholder fraud.

FCC splits on ATT-BellSouth terms; merger vote put off

This film is a documentary about the recent elections and how various tactics and methods were used to skew election results (one way or the other). Ian Inaba, the film's director, is heading up a movement to monitor the midterm elections next week with a cadre of volunteers using video cameras, camera phones, and the Internet - in an effort to not only document voting indescrepencies, but also to prevent them through detente.

American Blackout - Official Site.

This webpage will produce a boarding pass good enough to get anyone past TSA, and thus, into the "secure" gate areas of the airport terminal.

Chris's NWA Boarding Pass Generator