This caught my eye the other day.

For-profit colleges sue Dept of Education over new rule
(Reuters) - An association of for-profit colleges in the United States has sued the Department of Education to block the implementation of a controversial rule, saying the rulemaking process was flawed and the agency was overreaching in its capacity to frame ( Read more... )

My brother was telling me about paperbackswap.com.  I see there's also bookins.com and goodreads.com.  Does anyone have experience with these book swapping sites, or with another comparable one?  Which is the best? This entry was originally posted at http://serenissima.dreamwidth.org/268084.html.

While I was at my parents' house, I saw an ABC World News series of segments about shopping for products made in the USA. I've kept the idea in mind since.

My everyday shoes, a pair of flat Mary Janes from Lands' End, have rather worn insoles and outsoles. I've only had them for a year and a half and expected them to last longer; but perhaps I ( Read more... )

I'm at my parents' house for a couple weeks - they hadn't seen my son since last September. Their house is packed full of junk accumulated over 35 years, so I've tried to cull some of the stuff I left here after college. While tidying my old room, I came across a paperback novel aristeros gave me years ago: Siege of Shadows by Lynn Abbey. I liked the ( Read more... )

For Christmas, I got aristeros a subscription to The Economist. I leafed through an issue from a couple weeks ago and found this little technology update towards the back:  
America’s navy is developing an antenna made of seawater
Apparently, a fountain of saltwater makes a decent radio antenna. This entry was originally posted at http://serenissima. ( Read more... )

Here's one of the nifty things I came across recently: World's Smallest Postal Service
I want to have letters from the tooth fairy sent to our house via this service.

The woman who runs the business seems to like small things... check out the other goods and services she has for sale, like Matchbox Theater. This entry was originally posted at http:// ( Read more... )

Found this list by browsing the journal of an LJ friend's LJ friend:
20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the WorldTo this list I would add the Tagalog word "pasalubong," which is a gift (or maybe it's a collective plural) one brings back from traveling to give to the folks at home. It differs from a souvenir in that a souvenir is for ( Read more... )

Last week, as I was shopping for groceries, I was a bit taken aback to see that the mushrooms I was buying for dinner came in a pink foamed plastic tray instead of the usual blue. Of course: it's Pink Month, when just about everything comes in a pink version, sometimes for a bit more money.

Let me quote from my post on the subject two years ago.
( Read more... )

siege just linked to this old article, and I thought it was worth sharing more widely. It's originally from the New Yorker, but to get it directly from their site you need a subscription. The writer is the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, among other books.

"Million-Dollar Murray"
by Malcolm Gladwell
...if you totted up all his hospital bills ( Read more... )

The leaking oil well makes me very depressed; I've been disinclined to learn details of what's going on, I just assume that area of the world will be severely damaged for a few generations. It's painful to think about ( Read more... )