SWCAMBORNE

Google is great for finding stuff.  But it has gotten commercial and is being manipulated by special interests.  Try googling hotels in York, England as a test.  First you get 50 ads and thinly discised ads before you actually find a hotel.  Now there is a new search engine that may be able to find out facts better than Google and be more discriminating than Wikipedia.

If you use search engines try Wolfram Alpha. It won’t be better than Google for finding out the name of a restaurant in La Jolla, CA but it seems to be very good for finding out the deepest spot in the Pacific Ocean.

Here is a link to the Wolfram Alpha Introduction tape.  Be sure to have ten minutes or so available to watch it.  Thanks to David Julian in Memphis for the introduction to this very useful new tool.

There is a great article by John Steele Gordon in this mornings Wall Street Journal titled Why Government Can’t Run a Business.

Gordon is the author of Empire of Wealth an excellent book that explains how capitalism has worked  for the United States.  I used a Herbert Hoover quote from the book for the Weekly Maxim in November 2006.

One of my favorite quotes from this article is:  “Capitalism isn’t perfect. Indeed, to paraphrase Winston Churchill’s famous description of democracy, it’s the worst economic system except for all the others.”

Read this article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124277530070436823.html

We are all something, but none of us are everything.

Blaise Pascal

(1623-1662)

From The Birthright Lottery by Ayelet Shachar

My Father-in-law is still in a nursing home and so I’m still learning about aging.  It turns out that almost as important as having good finances is having a good social network.  Building social capital by doing good deeds, going to social gathering and showing interest in others will make being old easier.  Belonging to some groups that have younger people in them is a useful way to build social capital.  Go to Synagogue or Church regularly.  Join a hiking club or a quilting group or play Mahjong.  Go often to the same restaurants or bars so that you become a regular.  If you do these kinds of activities when you are young, you will have social capital in the friendship bank when you are old.  Socail capital can be used to get rides, have visitors, have fresh people to talk to or get necessary errands run.  It is critically important when your mobility and other capabilities decrease.

While writing this I have just talked myself into keeping the job of PJTC Library Dude.

This could be titled “How Kai Underwood took an hour of my time.” or “Pleasant memories and current failures.”

While getting out the records for Nurit’s very successful 60th birthday party I found this album recorded in the 1960′s by a high school band that included my life long friend Kai Underwood. Kai was the drummer.  He still is.

I then spent an hour looking for the turntable and the cables to play the record.  I finally realized that I was on a fools errand and went back to cleaning up.  But I have added getting a turntable working to my to do list.   Life is complicated and we make our own hell.

Present clouds do not banish future promise.

James Flanigan

Author of

Smile Southern California, You’re the Center of the Universe

I do like optimism.

Boring meetings are important.  They help to restore the karmic balance in your life after all of the excitement of driving to work.

From the Borowitz Report May 6, 2009

“I don’t want to frighten people, but we haven’t seen a story this scary since Y2K.”

Andy Borowitz is a very funny comedian who emails his column almost every day.

You can sign up for it here.

“It is a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”

Bertram Russell