Congrats to Rattle and his lovely new bride!!:) Many Best wishes!!

CONGRATS NICK AND YUN!!!!!

This collection is very interesting. Don't miss part 2 and part 3.

The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3) - The Big Picture - Boston.com

The strange thing is the extent to which one man's meat is another man's poison. A colleague of mine recoils as if shot when he hears "What's not to like", whereas I can't understand what's to dislike.

I felt so dirty. I felt like a piece of meat. I find being a piece of meat very exciting.

Bethlehem police allege Joseph Bullaro stole packages of steak on consecutive days from South Side grocer Ahart's Market and sold the meat on the street.

Deflation: what's not to like? Deflation is only a problem if you're the one trying to sell the cheap thing, or if the incredibly cheap thing is your salary, and your boss can't decide between paying you peanuts and finding someone else who will do your job for even less.

The strange thing is how the tons of homework and projects are justified as preparation for real life.

The fact that Penn is heterosexual in real life hikes his Oscar hopes significantly.

What's not to like? But enough about Hillary.

Is there anybody on this globe who doesn't love Prince Philip's sense of humour?

The strange thing is, even though the extra pillows are merely tossed aside, I have become deeply suspicious of hotels that are willing to part with only two per bed.

Really, who doesn’t love a little stuffed adrenal gland?

So, what's not to like? Alas, our deep state of infatuation with Barack Obama tempts us to look the other way when he does or say things that are, frankly, unlovely.

But enough about gamers.

Who doesn't love amnesia?

There was a time when I used to rail against lawsuits.
They're a drag on the economy, I used to say.
Then I began to sue people.

I used to say our kids will pay dearly for this.
But actually, it's our problem.

When people complained about what they read in the newspaper,
I used to say, "What do you expect for 50 cents -- the truth?"

If I wanted something, I used to say it quickly and loudly in a certain way.
Now I tap a spoon on the counter and they all know what I mean.

"I used to say, 'How can we be right and everybody else be wrong?'"

Maybe "nostalgia" isn't the right word.
It's not about fondly looking back so much as looking back in horror.

Maybe brooding isn't the right word.

I used to say that my crayon box had only two colors in it: black and white.
I guess that's why I love computer science.

Gape upon the greatness that once was presidential campaign slander ... something old and something new — but none of it was impromptu ...

Money and vision are inseparable. The enduring question is where the money would come from ... an exclusive enclave on the outskirts of Islamabad ... the mega-budget tent-pole movies ... looming above the ocean, like dusty mushrooms ...

Texas is going through a dry spell ... Effective government was never this region's strong suit.

The Chinese must not understand the cheesy side of capitalism yet, because someone has clearly missed a big chance to cash in.

He has become a middle-management cultural icon -- vulgar, puerile and needlessly gross, a feisty and jovial mood -- who has been exceedingly gracious with his valuable time. The hero, in his porn days, had "buttocks ripe like the plump half-melons for which Japanese businessmen will pay a small fortune." All of this was the result of neglect that was politely called deferred maintenance. Old-school journalists may bemoan the changes, but viewers do not necessarily suffer. My skin was as soft and clean as undisturbed yogurt.

Mr. Schmidt was impressed by Mr. Obama. "He listened more than he talked, which is always a good thing," Mr. Schmidt says. "He clearly sees himself as a clever synthesizer of other people's ideas. And I think that is an important skill in a president."

Or, in the blunter words of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Democrat of Tennessee: "Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

What reflects the human-size soap opera that is the life of a real teenager are all the casually stinging asides, the surge and abrupt decline of social power, the unforgivable betrayals and gnawing insecurities that the kids experience.

There is rage. And most important, there are rules.

This is like a parking lot. But it is what it is.

"Students are desperate for hands-on experience," says Neil Gershenfeld.

"All I know is, there is water where it didn't used to be."

"This new reality," she added, "is a lot more pleasant."

She knew how to exploit a rich idea.

"I didn't think it was possible for her to do it, or anyone to do it, for an entire year."

We Americans demand too much from our athletes, particularly our girls.

"Only the real special ones can do this kind of thing."

They blame "imperfect" systems for monitoring such problems.

And then there are the culprits of a more conceptual kind.

Instead, we leap at the chance to deem someone — anyone — responsible.

Parents were alarmed. Blogs buzzed.

"You can't stop them and ask them what their names are."

"The consensus was that we should just let it peter out," he said.

School is school, you know. "Looters are looters," said Pyotr Taslagan.

It's not the problem, and it's not the answer.

The hulking timbers illustrate Gehry's obsession with "big wood" ... which probably says more about ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

She compared herself to a "plump caterpillar" waiting to break free of its cocoon.

Jenny has had a hard life, even by elephant standards. Now, Jenny has become the focus of a boisterous debate about what to do with an aging elephant with a troubled mind.

Where they stopped, they were met by throngs of people who crowded at the windows, hoping to be given a plastic bag that included breads, sausage and canned goods.

"She worried about being shlumpy, and the word 'shlumpadinka' was thrown around a lot."

That could happen if passengers reach a personal tipping point.

Some, though appalled, emphasize that there is a danger in opting out as well.

The most poignant scene was the triple burial of a petite woman lying on her side, facing two young children.

So the converse is clearly not a good idea either.

Is the oil business the new whaling business? And, if so, is that a good sign or a troubling one?

What about women’s gymnastics?

The performances are incredible and fearless, but it isn’t the athleticism that draws me in.

It’s not that they tippy-toe around either.

Mothers living near highways are more likely to give birth to preterm or low-birth-weight babies, but contrary to previous studies it found the association only in wealthy neighborhoods.

But minor drama is the lifeblood of suburbs.

Can all these often contradictory reports be right? Yes.

Who is buying Zunes, and why?

There are even those who suggest humanity should collectively decide to turn away from some new technologies as inherently dangerous.

And those who are obsessed have a whole new range of technological tools to indulge their obsession.

“Design stupidly produces more things, and for years I’ve spoken about the importance of living with fewer things. But my position is a little ambiguous.”

Americans are as addicted to bandwidth as they are to oil. The first step is facing the problem.

Elvis Presley’s most treasured performance costume, a peacock jumpsuit, was sold to an unidentified bidder on gottahaveit.com for $300,000. The white costume is decorated with an embroidered blue-and-gold peacock emblazoned on the back, with blue peacock feathers trailing down both flared pants legs.

Yes! That’s what I was experiencing, too. Those garish colors, that craziness and freedom, that painfully stark clarity about what was important and what was not.

One mother says: “We shouldn’t blame the Americans for everything. There is something wrong with us too.”

The American video game ... [ Read More (0.7k in body) ]

King believes that the impulse to collect comes "partly from a wound we feel deep inside this richest, most materialistic of all societies." But he also considers other possibilities -- "It finds order in things, virtue in preservation, knowledge in obscurity, and above all it discovers and even creates value." His own fondness is for "the mute, meager, practically valueless object. ... What I like is the potency of the impotent thing, the renewed and adorable life I find in the dead and despised object." For him, there's "something in nothing." A lot of nothing.

"There are a lot of really great stories out there," said museum director/curator Karen Bachmann, "and time to share with the community."

Many definitions of distraction exist. An April report by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, for example, describes three basic, unofficial categories: purposeful, incidental and uncontrolled.

My observation of people in general, not just my clients, is that we desperately want to take a break from our hectic, overscheduled lives--but not right now. Try it: Put down this magazine and do nothing at all for ten minutes. No planning, no worrying, no activity of any kind. Just ten minutes of empty time.

Did you do it?

I thought not.

After the salted yak butter tea had been served, the chief continued: "If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Mr. Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea."

Perhaps owning a personal vehicle is a false entitlement that will become economically impossible for many of us in the near future. But something will need to fill the void.

Over a stove burning dung in the centre of the main room, Lhamotso boils a kettle of water to make yak-butter tea, a salty brew popular here. The television is the only appliance.

"I ... [ Read More (1.0k in body) ]

According to Paola, our kids started off right because she breast-fed them, which “opened their taste buds.” I’m not sure that’s scientific. It’s possible Italians are so haughty about their cuisine that they think even their breast milk is superior.

Internet metering is a throwback to the days of dial-up service, but at a time when video and interactive games are becoming popular, the experiments could have huge implications for the future of the Web.

“This is not something that lends itself to short-term solutions.”

“The continued success of GTA IV is not translating into big hardware sales for the PS3 or the 360.”

When the governments of South Africa, China, Libya and Indonesia support Sudan’s positions in Darfur, do they really mean to adopt a pro-rape foreign policy?

Since poorer Americans spend a higher proportion of their incomes on low-wage imports (shoes from China, for instance), trade can also be seen as favoring the less well off. If only politicians would stop preaching to them otherwise.

Age of Conan has at least the potential to become the best new massively multiplayer game since World of Warcraft.

New York City during the 1970s was a beautiful, ravaged slag — impoverished and neglected after suffering from decades of abuse and battery. She stunk of sewage, sex, rotting fish, and day-old diapers. She leaked from every pore.

And as they sifted through files and images on the hard drives, investigators found tons of material — orders for equipment, names and places where the Khan network operated, even old love letters. In all, they found several terabytes of data, a huge amount to sift through.

“Now is the greatest time to be bartering,” Scott Ebberbach of Itex, a bartering outfit, recently told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Unfortunately, it’s that way because of the economy.” Unfortunately.