What Fantasy Book Heroine Are You?

You are Garth Nix's SABRIEL. You confine the Dead beyond the Ninth Gate, and even when you're afraid you don't back down.

Niall Quinn in good advice shock

Most football journalism is crap, even (especially?) that written by ex-players. But here Niall Quinn explains something simple that Peter Crouch could change. It may be silly to judge by appearances, but I like Peter Crouch and hope he can make the most of his talent. And then leave Liverpool just as soon as he has mastered his trade.

Walmart's drive to the bottom of hell

Another set of own-goals from Walmart.

To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers [M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits] suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."

Ms. Chambers's memo voiced concern that workers were staying with the company longer, pushing up wage costs, although she stopped short of calling for efforts to push out more senior workers.

The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its subject

Yes, I find this sort of thing funny.

Google map mash-ups

A guide to Google map mash-ups

Tiled monuments to railway related heroic deaths in small London park

In London I have the sense of being in a a place where humans have lived for a long time.

On October 24 1975, 90% of Iceland's women refused to work, cook or look after children

In this inspiring story, Annadis Rudolfsdottir writes:

I, like many women of my generation, became a feminist that day at the ripe old age of 11 - despite being left at home alone with my nine-year-old sister, furious at being forbidden from attending the rally. It was a spur to action and many feel that the solidarity women showed that day paved the way for the election five years later of Vigdis Finnbogadottir, the world's first democratically elected female president.

Interrupts in the workplace

It can take 25 minutes to recover from an interruption.

[Gloria Mark] discovered that people in open-cubicle offices suffer more interruptions than those who work remotely. But they have better interruptions, because their co-workers have a social sense of what they are doing. When you work next to other people, they can sense whether you're deeply immersed, panicking or relatively free and ready to talk - and they interrupt you accordingly.

Restored "Little Nemo in Slumberland"

I want this. But it is $120. I'd be buying it for the child. Not for me. Really.

For those who believe everything Bush does is evil

Congress is stalling a bill which would allow US aid money to puchase food in Africa. At present the money must be spent in the US and then more money spent to transport the food to its destination.

Ravi Coltrane on John Coltrane

Ravi Coltrane:

If the plane starts going down, I'm going to put this on, because it's really the last thing I want to hear.

US Supermarkets in trouble

When I came to the US I was at first fascinated by supermarkets. A trip to the big Safeway was very exciting. I quickly realized however that the food sold was not nearly as nice or enticing as that sold in UK supermarkets. Now it seems a lot of consumers are turning to upscale stores such as Whole Foods for nicer stuff, and big box stores such as Costco for staples.

The 1918 flu epidemic came from birds

The 1918 flu epidemic killed more humans than any other disease in a similar duration in the history of the world.

Miraloma Elementary now has a website

Everything is squashed into a narrow column, but it's a good start.

Yuk

When did the farming industry become totally like a factory? Is it capatlism that drives farmers to feed brains and spinal cords to their animals? A new proposal from the FDA

allows chickens, pigs and other noncattle animals to be fed material that some scientists consider potentially infectious, including the brains and spinal cords of young animals, and the eyes, tonsils, intestines and nerves of older ones.

I was considering taking up cycling

In a bluntly worded editorial in September's Journal of Sexual Medicine with [some] articles, Dr. Steven Schrader, a reproductive health expert who studies cycling at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said he believed that it was no longer a question of "whether or not bicycle riding on a saddle causes erectile dysfunction."

More disaster preparedness

What financial documents you need to save and how to do it.

Best soccer site on the net

The creator of this site has created his own weird parody world of Machester United fandom. Posing as a new Glazer-loving supporter from the USA he interprets every piece of news through this warped mirror. In his world Rooney and Ronaldo are brothers, Ryan Giggs cannot get into the Great Britain team, and Mike Phelan is the brains behind United's success. I thought it would be a short lived pleasure but the author has managed to keep it going. Bravo!