Best the interweb
Intelligentsia is one of the leading specialty coffee roasters in the US – and this tour is well worth a look, particularly because it deals with the process from green bean to retail.
– This stuff is similar in origin to Kopi Luwak – but the guys from the Heritage Tea Rooms don’t think it’s quite as nice.
– More RLSHs
– And another one…
– Another best of round up of a pretty handy blog – The Simple Dollar. A guide to living well within your means.
– The best thing about holidays is nap time.
– Some people like to take all the fun out of life by drinking low fat decaf soy lattes… which to me is one way of saying “can I have some coffee flavoured water please”… here’s a pocket caffeine test for those thinking the barista might be sparking said order with some of the heavy stuff.
– Rebranding can be painful. So much work goes into what is such an insignificant insignia in the long term. Nobody really pays attention to a logo – they’re more interested in the services you provide. And yet a good logo can be a vital part of your brand. Catch 22. This website offers an instant logo. Free. They do one a day. Painless rebranding.
– “Kiva enables you to make small $25 or above loans to an individual or small group of individuals in a developing country. They use these small loans (aggregated to about $200-$400) to finance a food stall, repair shop, hair salon, sewing machine, new cash crop, etc. When they pay it back to you in about 11 months, you can then re-lend it to another person of your choice.”brbrThis is the kind of thing that harnesses the power of Web 2.0 and peer-to-peer stuff for good rather than for whatever Facebook harnesses it for…
– More goodness from six revisions. I hope that link text doesn’t get broken by this rss import.
– When my holidays are over and I’m back at work looking to do something with my blog I’ll probably install a few of these plug-ins. I like plug-ins. I don’t know if you’ve noticed the “related posts” list at the bottom of each post’s page but it’s pretty clever. There are a few great links at the bottom of this article too listing Firefox plug ins and Windows software for making blogging easy. Does anyone who reads me use Twitter?
– Why do even the best restaurants serve dishwater coffee?
I have my Facebook access back. Can I suggest not using an intuitive
word and 123 as your password. I’ve learned my lesson. I also managed
to almost get my hacker convinced that I’d buy my account back off him
for $US250. He told me he “only did it for the money” and wished me a
happy birthday. What a friendly hacker.
– One of the dilemmas we face when going on holidays is feeding the fish… here’s a real time internet based fish feeder.
– Another Christian response to the “clean feed”. Another chance for Senator Conroy to show just how little he understands about his portfolio.
– Driscoll on Santa… I guess for the WWMDD camp this settles the debate…
– This is my project for 2009.
– Wii is dangerous – not only can you destroy your shiny TV, or deliver a stunning backhand to an unsuspecting husband while he sits on the beanbag… they’re also proving to be a health hazard while making you healthy…
– Some of these could be worth a non work time watch. This blog is worth checking out – he’s committed to writing 22 word posts.
I like it when a post I’m writing tangentially leads to a new post. In the caption of that font message I mentioned silkworms – I can’t mention silkworms without remembering the quite excellent Amiga game that went by that name. It featured a jeep and a helicopter in two player mode – and I wasted enjoyed countless hours hunched over my side of the keyboard while my friend/family member hunched over the other.
I’m going to have to track down a downloadable version when I get home.
Uncle Santa needs you
According to some Christian’s it’s no coincidence that Santa is an anagram of Satan. My wife doesn’t think fondly of St Nick. Who by all accounts was a lovely guy who anonymously and generously gave to the poor and downtrodden of his community.
There’s a long and passionate debate regarding the evils of Santa – and specifically the evils of teaching your kids about Santa. Is it a lie? Probably. But I’m not overly worried by it – if you’re going to tar all “fiction” with the same brush then go for it. Hate Santa, as much as you hate Harry Potter. Ironically, Harry Potter is probably considered evil by most people who hate Santa.
The other refrain as commonly heard as “Jingle Bells” at this time of year is that Christmas has been commercialised. That commercialisation is evil. That modern Christmas has been stripped of its meaning. Well yes. Christmas is commercial. That’s no reason not to support it. Particularly this year. Christmas means jobs. We’re facing the “economic downturn” since the great depression. Jobs are good. Spending money is good. Do it wisely.
I wonder sometimes if our spirit of Christmas protectionism – it’s our holiday and you guys can only celebrate it if you remember our God – damages what could be a great PR opportunity for the church. People are generally thinking nice things about us Christians at this time of year – we get them a “holy day”, they sing carols that often contain the gospel message. And here’s the church, harping on about commercialisation.
Did you know that in Scotland Christmas was banned for almost 400 years – right up until the early 20th century. In fact – the good old Presbyterians were so keen on the ban, they made their signing of a treaty with England contingent on its introduction there.
Scottish Presbyterians, when called on for support by the Puritans of the English Parliament in 1644, did so on the understanding that their allies would in exchange impose the ban on Christmas. For over a decade traditional English Christmas festivities were prohibited
Really. A ban on Christmas. That’s a public relations disaster. Like the “war on Christmas” being waged throughout churches world wide now.
Christmas in Australia is big business. $37.2 billion worth of business. If you divide that by the average Australian wage – or an aggregated household average wage of $115,000 – that’s 328,000 households who keep their jobs because of Christmas (unless I’ve got my zeroes wrong in the billions bit of the calculation… it’s nine in Australia right?). In very poor economic modelling. Of course, retail workers earn less per hour than the “average wage” – which probably means more jobs rather than less… and because we import a lot of the stuff being bought and sold a lot of the money leaves the country, and trickle down economics is dead… anyway. Christmas means jobs. Christmas means food on the table for families this Christmas.
In a second set of calculations – Mastercard reckons the average Australian spent $800 on Christmas last year. That comes up with a figure about half that of the above methodology. 20 million people, multiplied by $800 is $16 billion, which works out to 320,000 jobs paid at $50,000 per year – nice round figures. Whichever way you look at it – Christmas means jobs.
Unemployment is set to surge. Be a good citizen. Celebrate Christmas in the spirit of St Nick – who gave generously and anonymously. And buy me something useless from here… oh wait, that’s a Japanese site. In a slightly related note – the CASE blog has an interesting post about “ethical shopping” that’s worth taking into account. It’s not that fair trade garbage that has taken over people’s sensibilities when it comes to coffee – it’s just biblical advice for shopping with a clean conscience.
For those of you unconvinced by my argument – or more convinced by this (satire warning) those of you who want your children to believe Santa is evil – here’s an evil Santa generator – if you put pictures of Evil Santa all round your house your child will thank you for it later – and be much less messed up than they would be were they to believe in Santa. What do I know anyway, I’m not a parent yet.
– If you’re looking for a cricket fix between now and Boxing Day – and anyone wanting to compile video evidence that Ponting is the worst Australian Cricket Captain since federation – this could be for you.
– I wonder if this gives credence to my parent’s theory the cheap wine in the microwave = good wine.
– The death of the business card – in tacky “hello kitty” inspired design form.
is constantly trying to keep his unread google reader items under 1000+