Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:13:54 GMT

The Great Fall sweater/coat debate

I don't know about you but I LOVE fall. I love the warm coats, the soft sweaters, the feeling of being all bundled up and don't forget the hot chocolate, yummy! Ok, I am getting a little ahead of myself here with all the hot chocolate talk, let's get back to the clothes. One dilemma I often face is sweater alone or sweater with jacket during these cool fall days, most times I opt for sweater alone, but often I pick a heavier sweater. Here are two of my favorites.

They may be famous for their bras and underwear but their sweaters are simply divine. This one is long enough to cover down to your mid-thigh, warm enough to just wear a light shirt underneath and stylish enough to pair with some black pants and boots. The turtleneck sweater coat from Victoria's Secret, $118How can you go wrong with cable knit? You can't. It is warm and stylish with a touch of preppy-goodness. Try this one available at Bluefly for $119

Throw a little tank top or a short sleeve shirt on for a semi-warm day or put a long sleeve shirt on for a colder day. Perfectly versatile and oh so cute! I LOVE FALL!! Posted by: Ryan      Read more     Source

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:55:37 GMT

Shorts, 10 -16

"The movies made during the studio era - what the cineastes have dubbed 'the classical Hollywood cinema' - are, along with jazz, America's best creative work from the late 1920s to about 1950." And yet, "ny Hollywood history illuminates the dichotomy between those movies that the system most highly prized and those we love now, raising some doubts about the much-vaunted 'genius of the system.'" The Atlantic Monthly's Benjamin Schwarz reviews Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis, What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting and The Star Machine.

"The older Funny Face gets, the more mixed feelings it's likely to arouse, but for three things [fans will] say it gets wrong, there'll be one that redeems all of that, for this is a musical filled with moments still hypnotic and evocative of the 50s in ways few others are," writes John McElwee.

"There's a certain kind of twisted logic to it: a novel about the persistence of love has turned, in the hands of a mediocre director, into a a campy, puffed-up piece of rotten Oscar bait, a movie of such boundless badness that it would take somebody with a Nobel Prize in literature to truly fathom the extent of its wretchedness." Jürgen Fauth has seen Love in the Time of Cholera. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:42:00 GMT

Living large

I went for a walk this morning along the portion of the property line that runs straight down the Bald Eagle Valley side of the mountain. A scrim of cirrus softened the contrast between light and shadow without actually blocking the sun, and thinned out as the morning wore on.



Just off the crest, a 15-foot-tall, fire-scarred white pine snag glowed in a private sunbeam as if spotlit, and I stood admiring it for several minutes. The longer I looked, the more impressed I became, until finally I had to back away: this thing had power.



I avoided the open talus slopes as much as I could, though the wooded portions of the upper slope are just as rocky. The thin soil is enough to keep most of the rocks from tipping underfoot, though. I renewed my acquaintance with several outlandishly crooked rock oaks.



Why go to all the trouble of picking my way down to the base of the mountain? Well, for one thing, this corner of my parent’s land contains the largest rock on the property. It’s about five feet tall and ten feet long, and forms a cluster with two smaller companions. They’re probably the remnants of a single boulder that calved off the ridge crest during the last glacial epoch, as a result of the intense freezing and thawing that also gave us the open talus slopes.



I sat with the boulder for a long time, trying to block out the roar from the other side of the property line. There’s a reason why I don’t come down here very often.



No matter where you are in America, a Wal-Mart truck goes by every twenty minutes. I’m convinced of it.



A hundred feet up-slope from the biggest rock on the property stands the biggest tree. It’s a red oak, well over 200 years old, I would guess, and close to five feet in diameter at breast height (sorry — I never remember to pack a tape measure). At one time, there was a small grove of giant oaks here in this corner — maybe eight of them in all — but the line wasn’t surveyed very well, and our neighbor to the south along the mountain laid claim to most of the grove and put it under the chainsaw about fifteen years ago. The one other giant on our side was split down the middle in an ice storm, though the standing half still lives.



It’s a bit of a mystery how such big old trees could’ve survived, given that they adjoin an old charcoal hearth and haul road dating back to 1815. I can only surmise that some early settler had fenced the area for pasture, sparing it from the collier’s axe, and left a scattering of oaks for shade. That would also explain their big, spreading crowns, which are atypical of forest trees. The grove might also have been much bigger before the construction of the highway in 1970; we didn’t move here until 1971, and didn’t acquire this portion of the property until the mid-80s.

The lower flank of the mountain is dotted with small seeps and springs, so even though it faces northwest and doesn’t get much sun, trees grow a lot bigger down here than up on the dry ridgetops. Running northeast of the corner, paralleling the highway, there’s a ten-acre stand of mature oaks and other hardwoods that would seem pretty damn big if they didn’t suffer by comparison with the last of the giants.

See the whole photoset from today’s walk: Down in the corner. Posted by: Vianegativa      Read more     Source

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 03:15:04 GMT

My Kid Could Paint That.

"Amir Bar-Lev's [My Kid Could Paint That] may take its title from the ultimate philistine lament, but its beef is as much with the people who fork over millions for abstract smears as it is with the folks who cloud the line one interviewee draws between 'prodigy' and 'freak' when it comes to its controversial four-year-old subject," writes Fernando F Croce at Slant.

"As a literary critic, teacher, and occasional film critic, one element of the film that I appreciated was the participation and presentation of New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman," writes Kenneth R Morefield at Looking Closer. "It is rare in mass media these days for a critic to be portrayed as insightful or knowledgeable. Usually the critic is portrayed as pompous, egotistical, and/or completely self-serving. Kimmelman does an excellent job here. He doesn't endorse or refute the paintings but he does help explain their popularity by explaining how some strains of modern art intentionally provoke and alienate the audience. 'Nobody is saying 'fuck you' in this painting,' Kimmelman says of Olmstead's alleged work and why so many people find it refreshing."

Updated through 10/6. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:01:34 GMT

Tricholomopsis rutilans

Monika F (aka monika & manfred@Flickr) is the contributor of today's photograph (original via BPotD Flickr Pool). Thank you!

One of the common names for this species isn't well-illustrated by this photograph of a mature specimen. A photograph of younger individuals on the Fungi of California site, however, fully justifies the common name: plums and custard. Also known as red-haired agaric, Tricholomopsis rutilans is native to coniferous woodlands of the Northern Hemisphere (and before anyone asks, it's only barely edible).

Michael Kuo and Roger Phillips both provide descriptions of this fungus. If you're interested in more photographs, the folks at MushroomObserver.org have a series of images on Tricholomopsis rutilans. The Illinois Mycological Society provides a key-based description of this fungus, as well.

In BPotD news, a photograph from a couple years ago is appearing in film! This image of the golden spruce makes a few-second cameo in Mark Leiren-Young's “The Green Chain” (warning: turn your speakers down). The Green Chain recently debuted at the Montreal World Film Festival and is now playing at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it's been nominated for a “Climate for Change” award. I'll let you know what I think of the film next week after viewing it, but from what little I've seen so far, it has me intrigued (here's the first review via The Green Chain Weblog).

If you're interested in forestry issues, you should also be following Mark's “Trees and Us” podcasts on The Tyee: Trees and Us with Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Why Humans and Nature Collide with John Vaillant and Why Rocket Science is Easier Than Forestry with Jean-Pierre Kiekens. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:25:26 GMT

Sad Vacation.

"Director Shinji Aoyama made the brilliant 2000 feature Eureka, and this narrative both refers to the earlier film and builds upon it," writes J Robert Parks, offering a first impression of Sad Vacation. "I found the unwieldy story compelling, and the themes of parents and children, revenge and forgiveness are explored with verve, if not subtlety." Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:10:30 GMT

Coach Bleecker Duffle Sac Purse

The original Coach Duffle Sac, produced in the early 70's, has been brought back from the dead and reinterpreted for today to be featured in Coach's latest Bleecker Collection. Available in a couple sizes (price range $328 to $448) and in a bunch of dark natural colors - Bottle green, British tan, Cora black, Ink blue, Rust, Wine and Brass Putty. I'm not a huge fan of the earth-tone colors. Well the blue-ish ink color is kinda cool, but nothing for me to go crazy about. So if you are like me and are looking for a bleecker bag with a little bit more lively color, then mark your calendars, Coach is releasing the Magenta color on October 12th. Although it's "Coach Magenta," so it's probably still going to have a dark tint, I'm sure.


Price: $328 - $448 Posted by: Jennifer      Read more     Source

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:50:00 GMT

Fraud a growing problem

More than five years after the Bush administration brought in the world's toughest anti-fraud law, and Governments around the world followed suit, the latest data suggests that fraud is stronger than ever.

In the past three years, four out of five firms have suffered from some form of corporate fraud. One in five companies have suffered from information theft, management conflict of interest, financial mismanagement, internal financial fraud, procurement fraud, and corruption and bribery, according to a report by Kroll in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Theft of physical assets or stock was experienced by 34 per cent of surveyed 892 respondents and average damage for the large companies with an average turnover of $5 billion came out to more than $20 million, with about 1 in 10 losing more than $100 million. And despite Sarbanes-Oxley, nearly half of companies ranked themselves as at least moderately vulnerable to such threats as regulatory or compliance breach (50 per cent), management conflict of interest (49 per cent) and financial mismanagement (49 per cent).

Tougher anti-fraud laws have not only failed to stop wrongdoing. A large proportion of companies feel no safer with one in three now saying corporate fraud is on the increase, and 81 per cent saying their exposure to it has grown. Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:21:52 GMT

Competitive Advantage Means?

More and more industry are indulging themselves with outsourcing as they realize that outsourcing would be a great tool for a competitive advantage over other companies.

The latest industry to realize (and admit) that they are outsourcing most of their back office workis the bank industry particularly international banks. Sameera Anand recently wrote an article which was focused on outsourcing for the banking industry.

Though the banking industry is now reaping the benefits of this kind of industry, it was not an easy thing to do. The hardest part, as shown in the article is the "legitimization" of this industry. Banks which utilized this kind of business strategy were able to overcome this hindrance as they have developed a systematic and legal way of implementing outsourcing. Posted by: Carol Kendrick      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:27:33 GMT

Shot of lethally poisoning your child

Despite efforts to decrease lead in children's toys and jewelry, "recent surveys by health officials and children's advocates in Massachusetts, Maryland and Ohio, [....] found lead contamination in children's jewelry as often as 40 percent of the time" according to a New York Times article.

A nationwide government survey found an overall one in five occurrence of dangerous lead levels in children's jewelry.

Culprits include those egg packaged trinkets in vending machines from places like Wal-Mart, K Mart, Toys R Us. Also included are bonus trinkets from marketing incentive programs.

Basically - anything small, obviously cheap, and just the right size for a kid to swallow.

And last year, Jarnell Brown, a 4-year-old in Minneapolis, swallowed a heart-shaped charm that had been given away by Reebok International as a sales incentive on its children's footwear. Jarnell died after suffering vomiting, seizures and respiratory arrest. During the autopsy, a charm imprinted with the Reebok logo was removed from his stomach.

By the way, those are classic symptoms of lead poisoning. Why is this happening? Well, apparently current laws only allow for recalls, and don't give officials the ability to charge fines or otherwise discourage repeat offenders. Additionally, importers and manufacturers aren't exactly being very diligent. Posted by: Miche      Read more     Source