Spectre’s Sayings

You Are Boston

Both modern and old school, you never forget your roots. Well educated and a little snobby, you demand the best. And quite frankly, you think you are the best. Famous people from the Boston area: Conan O’Brien, Ben Affleck, New Kids on the Block

I’d never have guessed that in a million years.

The New York Times has a nice little article about Brewpubs.

The “Big Three” ways of observing Lent are: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Most people fast in that they “give up” something for Lent.

This year, I feel called to observe Lent the same way I did last year: by increasing the time I spend daily in prayer. My plan is to revive a practice that I’ve allowed to fall by the wayside, and pray Morning and Evening prayer daily.

Pray that I make it!

It’s indicative of how groggy I really am in the mornings that I didn’t remember that today was Mardi Gras until about 10:00 a.m. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday.” And we call it that because the season of Lent begins tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday. Because fasting and abstinence from eating meat are practiced during Lent, people developed the tradition of glutting themselves on meat prior to the beginning of Lent. And so, the traditions of “Carnivale” and “Mardi Gras” sprang up.

Brewers Carlsberg and Heineken to Buy Scottish & Newcastle for $15.3B - Beverage World

Everything he says is true, but he does leave out certain facts that may or may not be relevant. First, easy credit. It is easier to get loans for purchases now than ever before in history, and Americans are getting further and further into debt than ever before. Second, the primary driving force behind all this affluence is cheap energy and technology. 150 years ago, labor was cheap and technology was expensive. Today, technology is cheap and labor expensive. Should energy cease to be plentiful, or should it become more expensive, that trend will reverse itself. Finding new and plentiful energy sources should be a priority for our civilization. I question whether we do anything more than pay lip service to this.

This time, it’s Naomi Jackson trying to get a preposterous new gun control bill passed.

Yep. I voted today.

My candidate had dropped out of the race, but I voted for him anyway. I want him to have enough delegates at the convention so that he can influence the platform. Or broker a candidate. Or (maybe) be asked to be the vice-presidental candidate. Here’s hoping.

Apple Adds New iPhone & iPod touch Models

From: “Bookeen Contact” Add Mobile Alert
To: “Contact”
Subject: [Bookeen] Shipment status
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 12:21:03 +0100
Dear Customer,

Here is a status about your recent order(s).

If you already received it (them), you can ignore this message.

1) Your order(s) shipped last Friday, February 1st 2008, from our Paris facilities.

You must have received an email notification to track your shipment(s) on Friday.

There has been an important incident overnight and most packages have not been (cannot be) delivered.

2) Do not worry: you are in no way responsible for this.

Packages are going to be resent between today and Thursday.

You will receive a new tracking notification.

3) For your information, here are additional details:

- A FedEx truck containing a whole container of 700 parcels was hijacked between Paris and the airport last Friday night.

- The driver was seriously injured. He is at the hospital but is now safe.

- Orders dispatched via other trucks have all been delivered.

- Some of you only received a part of their multi-package shipments. The remainder is going to be resent.

- Orders which shipped on Thursday January 31st have all been delivered.

- Orders which shipped yesterday, on Monday February 4, are being delivered as expected.

- This is the first time it happens since we are working with FedEx (2004), so be assured it is an extremely exceptional case.

We are all working to solve the situation as fast as possible.

Thank you for your patience; we hope the Cybook groundbreaking reading experience will be beyond your expectations.

With our best regards,

Bookeen Team

PS:

- Please note that this is a generic message sent to all recipients of Feb 1 shipments.

- Please answer back only if needed as this will add to the current disturbance.

Yahoo! News has a story about a finger of intergalactic hydrogen gas entitled “Cosmic Finger Taps Our Galaxys Shoulder”. This finger of gas is evidence that the Large and Small Magellenic Clouds will one day merge with our own Milky Way galaxy.