Author: Serkadis

As part of a recent webinar presented by the International Food Information Council Foundation (which included holiday eating tips from Brian Wansink), the organization revealed data from its annual food survey regarding how Americans think about and approach their health.

Activity important, but not everyone gets it

When asked which three things were most important for maintaining good health, 80 percent of the 1,000 people who took part in the online survey (which was weighted demographically to generally match the U.S. population) said exercise was important. Sixty-six percent named healthy food choices, 53 percent said managing weight, 49 percent mentioned getting enough sleep and 45 percent keyed in on managing stress.

Twenty-two percent of those surveyed said they were physically active one or two days a week, while 56 percent said they got some activity in three to five days a week and 21 percent worked out six or seven days a week.

Just 24 percent said they worked out for more than an hour at a stretch, while 23 percent worked out 51 to 60 minutes, 11 percent 41 to 50 minutes, 4 percent 31 to 40 minutes, 25 percent 30 minutes and 13 percent less than 30 minutes.

It’s thought that working out 60 to 90 minutes each session is best for weight loss, which 27 percent of survey respondents said was their motivation for working out. Thirteen percent said they wanted to look better, 10 percent said they enjoyed getting physical activity, 10 percent wanted to prevent a future health issue and 9 percent were looking to increase their energy levels.

Many looking to lose weight

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said they were trying to lose weight, while 25 percent were looking to maintain their current weight, 18 percent weren’t doing anything special and 4 percent were trying to gain weight.

Among those seeking to lose weight, 71 percent said they’re changing the amount of food they eat, 65 percent are changing the type of food they eat, 62 percent are getting more physical activity, 44 percent have altered how often they eat and 19 percent are counting calories or eating diet foods.

When asked about their motivation for weight loss, 69 percent said they wanted to improve their appearance, while 67 percent were looking for improved health. Forty-nine percent hoped for a self-esteem boost, and an equal number hoped for increased energy.

Thirty-five percent were seeking compliments from friends and family, while 33 percent wanted to lose weight for stress relief.

Healthier food choices

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they were making changes to the healthfulness of their diet. Of those, 64 percent said they were doing so to improve their well-being, while 61 percent sought to improve their physical health and 61 percent were trying to lose or maintain their weight.

When trying to make healthy changes, 38 percent said they hadn’t used any particular resources to help them, while 29 percent looked to friends and family for support and information. Twenty-one percent said they were using a formal weight-loss plan, 19 percent used a food diary and 18 percent followed the advice of a health professional.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Americans speak out on what it takes, and what they’re doing, to be healthy

A Catholic’s first-amendment rights

Editor, The Times:

Sam Sperry’s guest commentary, “Bishops take the low road on health-care reform” [Opinion, Dec. 10] is a masterpiece of miscommunication.

I invite Seattle Times readers to get a better picture of what the bishops are trying to accomplish in health- care reform by going to the Washington State Catholic Conference Web site, www.thewscc.org. The bishops are working on a number of issues in addition to liberating taxpayers from having to fund abortions, such as the affordability of heath care for everyone, and access to health care for illegal immigrants.

What drives faithful Catholics to support these issues is our belief in Christ’s preferential option for the poor. When we speak of pro-life, we are talking about all life issues from conception to natural death. Raising our voices in support of the dignity of human life isn’t easy in our culture, especially when we advocate peace instead of war, programs to feed the hungry locally and globally, and when we celebrate our birthright as Americans to courageously speak up in the marketplace for those who can’t speak for themselves.

We strive for the higher road. We invite people to join us. Catholics in our country have the same first-amendment right to speak our hearts and minds as everyone else.

— Pastor Frank Schuster, Woodinville

Believe in abortion? Then you’re not Catholic

I read Sam Sperry’s guest commentary with amazement.

The bishops don’t want anyone denied health care. They are on record supporting health-care reform in this country — They argue the immorality of abortion.

I believe science says life begins at conception. At all developmental levels from the moment of conception forward, the child is fully human.

Bishops do not promote religious belief concerning abortion. Religious belief concerns God and our relationship with him. The bishops promote a moral fundamental, and have every right so to do in the public forum. Certain nonprofit organizations are allowed to speak freely and influence the course of public policy in the direction of their mission and acts, and so should be the same for the Catholic Church.

I recommend Sperry recall and act from the tenets and ethics of his Catholic education. Recently, I saw a bumper sticker that read, “Believe in Abortion? You’re Not Catholic.”

That Sperry’s byline cloaks him as Catholic and a product of Catholic education, I feel is a masquerade.

— Michael J. Ulrich, Woodinville

A life for a life, a good for a good

Sam Sperry’s “Bishops take the low road on health-care reform” is full of misinformation and poor conclusions.

Sperry stated the Catholic Church has “no absolute aspect to the sanctity of life.” To prove his point, he argues that the church prohibits abortion in cases of rape or incest, but is less absolute when a woman’s life is at risk. While rape and incest are heinous and tremendously emotionally and physically damaging, they are not in and of themselves life ending.

As such, they should be treated differently than a life-for-a-life scenario.

Sperry’s conclusion, that the bishop’s position on abortion may make them responsible for denying health-care coverage to the poor is flat wrong. The same faulty conclusion may be argued by stating that the Democrats position on abortion may make them responsible for denying health-care coverage to all those in need.

The bishops, in arguing against public funding for abortion, are doing what they must. They are making the point that you cannot create a good, universal health-care access, which the church has long favored, on the destruction of a more fundamental good — life.

— Brian Cummings, Port Orchard

Skepticism: every student’s favorite high-school class

When I was in high school and college I used to write letters similar in passion to Molly Freed’s epistle about Copenhagen, anthropogenic global warming and the doomsday scenario she forecasts for her generation [“This growing panic,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 10].

Then I got older, and wised up to the fact that adults are frequently wrong, that teachers are just as biased as anyone else, and that it’s my duty to engage in critical thinking and exercise good judgment when assessing the truths that other people are promoting.

I hope Freed grows up to be equally skeptical about what she is taught, reads and hears.

— Kathy Schwartz, West Seattle

Setting a positive example for the world

Paul Krugman’s column “Climate policy we can afford” [Opinion, syndicated column, Dec. 8] argued that cutting greenhouse-gas emissions is affordable, as well as essential.

I believe that not only is it affordable, but it’s the best opportunity our nation has to become a leader in green technology, create millions of new jobs and power our nation with carbon-free energy.

However, I disagreed with Krugman on the use of cap and trade as the best incentive to accomplish this. We do not need another system based on complicated derivatives that allows offsets for big polluters. A better incentive is to charge fees on carbon at the source, and rebate the revenue to citizens to compensate for higher energy prices.

This is a straightforward way to encourage investors and consumers alike to find alternatives to carbon fuels. It is immediate, transparent and predictable.

We’re ending another decade that’s the warmest on record. The level of CO2 in the atmosphere is already 387 parts per million, well above the safe level of 350 ppm.

Time is short; Congress must act quickly to create a practical way to quickly cut U.S. carbon emissions and set a positive example for the world.

— Anne Engstrom, Seattle

Pledging to be carbon free for climate change

I applaud The Seattle Times editorial, “Pledges, not pacts, for climate change” [Opinion, Dec. 6].

International focus must be on policy that will reduce atmospheric CO2 levels to 350 parts per million to avoid runaway climate change. Scientists say this is still feasible if we act quickly.

The best way to accomplish this transition to a more stable climate is a carbon fee with rebates. Gradually rising fees on carbon fuels would provide predictable incentives for investment and innovation in clean technologies and decrease fossil fuel use. Full rebates of the fees to individuals would protect consumers from rising costs.

Current focus on a cap and trade approach is a mistake. Cap and trade is too slow, too expensive to administer, and is failing to effectively curb CO2 emissions in Europe.

Our neighbors in British Columbia have already received their first checks from B.C.’s carbon fee and rebate program. A carbon fee system is cheaper, faster and more effective than cap and trade.

Let’s implement a carbon fee and rebate system for our children and grandchildren’s sake.

— Sue Berlin, Seattle

Many people still struggling in Seattle

As the director and manager of programs that work day in and day out with Seattle’s homeless and low-income populations, we would like to respond to Danny Westneat’s recent column “Homeless count down, eyebrows up” [NWWednesday, Dec. 9].

One fact remains abundantly clear to those of us who provide housing and supportive services in Seattle: homelessness is not going away.

This fall, the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) had more than 8,000 households on our waiting list for subsidized housing. These numbers represent people of every description —homeless adults, seniors, working families with children who have never before faced life on the streets. The last 18 months saw such a dramatic climb in the number of people waiting for housing, LIHI took the unprecedented move of scrapping our wait list, in order to immediately serve the families and individuals with the greatest need.

The most recent LIHI housing project, McDermott Place in Lake City, recently began accepting applications for housing. Within two weeks we had more than 300 applications for 75 units, all of them coming from people desperately in need of a place to live.

Usage of the Urban Rest Stop (a hygiene center that provides free showers, laundry and restrooms) has been climbing steadily. Each month this year has shown a 15-20 percent increase, with the biggest percentage increase among families with children.

Quantifying the number of people struggling with homelessness is a tremendously complicated endeavor. We applaud the city’s efforts to track the numbers of people using shelters, however, we are also aware that simple numbers, however they are generated, cannot possibly capture the complexities of homelessness in our region.

— Sharon Lee, LIHI Executive Director, and Ronni Gilboa, Urban Rest Stop Project Manager, Seattle

Filed under: Motorsports, Sedan, Europe, Jaguar, Specialty

Ferlito Motors Jaguar XF Superstars touring car – Click above for image gallery

We can thank the Italians for some of the most enticing race machinery ever to grace tarmac. But in this case, the Italians have taken a British saloon and transformed it for track duty.

This racing version of the Jaguar XF made its debut this past weekend at South Africa’s Kyalami circuit, where the Superstars Series held its season finale. The Italian touring car series pits all manner of specially-prepared machinery – ranging from Chevrolet Luminas and Chrysler 300s to Audi RS4s and the Maserati Quattroporte we reported on earlier – against each other at circuits around Italy, with one round this season held abroad. While you may not recognize any names from the current roster of drivers, the handicapped former CART Champion and F1 driver Alex Zanardi is set to race for BMW in the Italian series.

Few details are available on the new Jag touring car’s specifications, but it was prepared by Italian racing garage Ferlito Motors to replace an aging machine based on the old S-Type. For its race debut, the new XF racer finished 12th – dead last of the cars that finished the race, but at least it finished. Follow the jump for the press release and check out the (unfortunately low-res) images in the gallery below.

[Source: Superstars Series]

Continue reading Race-spec Jaguar XF touring car debuts at Kyalami Superstars

Race-spec Jaguar XF touring car debuts at Kyalami Superstars originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t hold your breath, United Nations

The United States can hope all it wants to win over China to agree on sanctions over Iran, but I believe there is no chance of this happening [“AP sources: US eyes January for new Iran sanctions,” Seattletimes.com, Politics & Government, Dec. 4].

Iran is becoming more of a threat, and the U.S. believes sanctions are the answer to preventing Iran from enriching uranium. It is easy for the United States to propose sanctions since the only items we import from Iran are rugs and textiles — hardly an economic loss for either nation.

China, however, imports hundreds of thousands of barrels per day from Iran as reported by the Energy Information Administration. China being a fast growing nation, cutting Iran as its second largest source would be fatal to their progress.

Sanctions may not only be impossible, but also dangerous for our nation’s security. When Japan invaded Manchuria during World War II, the U.S. was shocked at their aggression and imposed sanctions on oil exports to Japan. Out of anger, Japan attacked the U.S., thus involving the U.S. in WWII.

Today, Iran is the aggressive nation and if we were to disrupt their interests, it could provoke another attack on U.S. soil.

— Mark Korvas, Bellevue

Boy, you could have done pretty well for yourself if, at the beginning of the year, you ignored all those pundits who said to only buy the debt of the safest, AAA-rated companies.

Junk — surprise, suprise — has had a killer year, and as Bespoke notes, speculators investors have pushed the junk ETF to the highs of the year.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The U.S. Junk Bond Bubble Is Accelerating
• S&P: Whoops, We Wildly Overestimated Junk Bond Default Rates (HYG)
• Will The Junk Bond Shortage Help Business Credit Lines Open Up?

Filed under: Car Buying, Hatchback, Volvo

Possibly the biggest news to come out of Volvo’s announcement of pricing for the 2011 C30 is that there is going to BE a 2011 C30. We ogled the nipped and tucked C30 T5 in Frankfurt and came away even more smitten than before with Volvo’s neo-brake. The revised fascia and nipped and tucked bumpers bring the C30 into line with the future of Volvo design, however shaky that may be.

It’s hard to deny the allure of the stylish little dumpling, and it won’t even break the bank. Available in the United States exclusively in T5 trim for 2011, $24,600 (plus *$850 for destination and delivery charges) will get you into the Swedish hatch with a 227 horsepower inline-five hooked to a six-speed manual. If the swoopy Swede isn’t enough for you in stock trim, the C30 T5 R-Design brings lowered ride height and a monochromatic bodykit that makes the car look like it’s hunkered way down over its new 18-inch wheels.

The best part of the R-Design package are the suspension tweaks. Volvo says the stiffer bushings make the steering more direct and the rack’s ratio is faster, too. Spring rates are up, and both the dampers and the swaybars have been stiffened, as well. Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Not so much – $26,950 (plus $850 D&D) strikes us as a small bargain for the nattily styled Volvo hatch with sharpened teeth. Of course, that’s before a visit to Ye Olde Options List, where the bottom line can get pretty daunting pretty quickly. Press release posted after the jump.

[Source: Volvo]

Continue reading Volvo prices 2011 C30 T5 from $24,600, C30 T5 R-Design at $26,950*

Volvo prices 2011 C30 T5 from $24,600, C30 T5 R-Design at $26,950* originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Atlus Japan has released the first trailer for Etrian Odyssey III, the next entry in their hardcore dungeon crawling series. Most of it’s just images and CG scenes, but there’s a very brief glimpse of actual gameplay

Gina Chen has written up a fascinating column on her reaction to Nielsen’s decision to give up on Editor & Publisher, where she makes a point that I think many people may agree with implicitly, without even realizing it. And, it’s a point that any publication that is thinking about putting up a paywall needs to consider. It’s that, these days, with the wealth of information available online, subscribing to one publications almost feels like you’re limiting yourself. Obviously, that’s not directly true. You still have access to those others, but the act of making such a commitment to a single source does have a mental notation suggesting that you need to spend time with that source, at the expense of others:

The truth is, for me, not subscribing — either in print or online — has little to do with money. It’s about commitment. And I think that’s the problem many news organizations are facing as they try to bring their products online.

In the old days, I paid for E&P because if I didn’t, I’d have no idea what was going on in the industry. I wasn’t paying for news; I was paying for the chance to be in the know in my field.

Things changed with the web. Now, if I choose one magazine to subscribe to out of myriad sources, it feels like I’m limiting my options in a way. I don’t want to commit to one publication, one source, one newspaper, one magazine. Why? Because the publication has become less important than the news itself. I want to be free to surf, reading dozens of different newspapers, blogs or magazines that I may visit just once or twice. I enjoy the synchronicity of happening upon a publication I have never heard of and will probably never visit again.

This is, in many ways, related to the concept that rather than finding news, for more and more people, the news finds them. Committing to a single publication, or a small group of publications does feel limiting. Now, some people will obviously disagree, but the more familiar you become with reading multiple sources on the web, the less and less it feels sensible to pay for a limited subset of them. And, even if you don’t find that to be true for yourself, the fact is that more and more people do feel that way — and for anyone trying to build a business model based on getting subscribers, they may find that to be quite difficult for this very reason. It’s asking for commitment to a single source in an age where sources are abundant. That commitment is costly not just in money (which might not be very costly) but in the mental commitment needed. For a very large number of people, that commitment is way too costly, no matter what the monetary price.

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Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, Europe, Hatchback, Audi, Luxury

Two years ago, the Audi Metroproject Quattro concept bowed at the Tokyo Motor Show. A year later, the Audi A1 Sportback study was unveiled in Paris. And in less than two months, the production 2011 Audi A1 will finally be revealed online ahead of its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show… but not before the hype machine is put into full effect.

After the jump, you can check out three teaser videos of the A1, beginning with a graffiti homage to Audi’s new compact hatch, followed by a brief statement from Chairman Rupert Stadler and a design discussion with a few of the A1’s creators.

Predictably, all three spots are mum on details, but from previous reports, we know that the A1 is likely to be powered by a 1.4-liter TFSI four-cylinder channeling around 150 hp to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. All-wheel drive may be exclusive to the 180-hp S1 — due to arrive sometime in 2011 — with the standard model dolling out power to the front wheels alone, and a cabrio variant arriving in 2012. Expect all the details to come down from on high in February — including an announcement about Audi’s intent to sell the A1 Stateside — but until then… jump.

Continue reading VIDEO: 2011 Audi A1 teased ahead of Geneva unveiling

VIDEO: 2011 Audi A1 teased ahead of Geneva unveiling originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The premise is very simple.  Over the air broadcasters, the people who bring you TV that you can get with rabbit ears, pay nothing to the government for the allocated digital spectrum over which tv is delivered. Not only do they pay nothing to the government for that spectrum, they are no longer only using it exclusively to deliver a tv signal. They have about 19.2mbs of digital bandwidth available to them and rather than using it all for the delivery of the highest quality tv signal, they are now trying to slice and dice that bandwidth and monetize it in any way they possibly can. They create new tv channels, they lease it to companies who use it for other applications.  They basically auction it off to where ever they can find the most profitable revenue stream.  So why should the broadcaster be allowed to keep the bandwidth they are not using for their TV channel ? Rather than their auctioning it off , lets let the government reclaim it and auction it off.  Offered on a national basis, the sum value is greater than its parts and should be able to put a pretty penny in the federal coffers at a time it is sorely needed .

It makes perfect sense to me. Except that no one has really taken a contrary view on how that spectrum could be used in the future. No one has asked the question of whether or not we will regret having reclaimed that bandwidth in the future.  Of course the cynic in me always looks to see how the government might be wrong. What would cause us to regret reclaiming and reselling the spectrum ?

At least a couple things I can think of.

1. The simplest  revolves around a  question: Will there be higher bandwidth applications in the future that consumers will expect to be delivered for free to our TVs ? On the bottom of the importance scale could be 3D TV.  Of course whether or not TV is delivered in 3D is not very important.  No more important than needing to have color delivered over the air as black and white disappeared. But if 3D does become important to consumers and an expectation of the TV viewing experience (there are technologies that dont require glasses, and they will improve in quality and decrease in price), if over the air broadcasters are not required to offer it, consumers will be at the mercy of cable/telco/satellite tv distributors to charge whatever they want and the value and most likely sustainability of over the air broadcasters will decline considerably.

As I said, 3D TV is an example, but not necessarily a good one.  Ask yourself a simple question. What type of high bandwidth applications could you imagine being delivered to our future digital TVs in 5, 10, 20 years ? Now that TV is delivered digitally over the air, and all new TVs are digital, basically computers behind a screen, is there any reason not to believe that an entirely new generation of applications will be developed that benefit from being delivered over the air ? That what we call TV today, could look very antiquated in 1o years if we only had the bandwidth to enable it ?

Of course this is where people chime in and say “the internet can support all of that”. Not so fast.  The beauty of broadcast TV is that it has 2 very unique features that differentiate it from delivery of content over the internet. The first of which is economic. The marginal cost per viewer is zero. In other words, it costs the same amount to deliver the 19.2mbs of applications and content to the first viewer as it does to every possible viewer. That is not the case with the internet. If that were the case there would be no need for companies like Akamai to even exist.  Every additional internet viewer or user costs the broadcaster of the content money. Each incremental viewer requires a variety of additional resources, from CPU cycles to bandwidth.  Broadcasting over the air is always cheaper than on the net.

The 2nd feature that differentiates it significantly from the internet is the fact that it is a true broadcast medium.  There is no contention for the bandwidth that is being delivered. On the internet if someone in your neighborhood is using a lot of bandwidth, your performance could slow down. With a broadcast medium, you can run into distance limitations, and like the internet delivered over cable, there could be interference issues, but unlike the internet, the performance and quality of broadcast tv is never impacted by the number of people receiving the signal or the other things they may be using the shared bandwidth for. Thats important.

Why is it important ? For national security reasons ?

Right now the spectrum is officially owned by the government and broadcasters have an obligation to act in the interests of the people, as defined by the FCC.  If we auction off the spectrum to private interests, its gone. It is  owned privately. The government cant get it back no matter how badly it needs it without taking steps that are damning in their very nature.

What could the government need the spectrum for ?

2.  National Security. Thats what the government could  need it for. I don’t know of a single person with a technology background that doesn’t believe there will be a cyber attack of some consequence in the next 10 years that will essentially shut down a city, region of the country or worse.  I was in NY during the blackout 6 years ago. That was bad. We relied on backup generators to power our TVs and battery powered radios.  But things have changed considerably in just 6 years.  We have become far more digitally dependent.  Much of our lives is transported through the internet, and that dependence is increasing. It is going to happen. Hopefully it will be on a small scale and we will immediately get smart enough to prevent it from happening again.  But what happens while an entire city’s internet and digital infrastructure is down ? How do we communicate or receive communications ?

We get our communications through broadcast. Im not talking about being able to get your CBS evening news over the air to your TV. Im not talking about whether or not you have access to a crank powered radio to hear the latest.  Im talking about the value of having 19.2mbs of bandwidth that is able to reach most of the population in the continental US and deliver whatever type of information /data that we may need.

This isnt something that could easily happen today. But if there was a huge emergency, it sure would be nice if the government could step in and reclaim as much bandwidth as they need and broadcast whatever they need to broadcast to us. (im sure they will use satellite as well, but far from enough people have receivers).   It may be video. It may be maps localized to show us trouble spots. It may be information about utilities. It may be instructions on how to solve a problem caused by the cyber attack. Who knows. But i would rather be in a position where the bandwidth, and enough of it, was available for broadcast rather than reading how “shortsighted we were to sell off the bandwidth to wireless providers rather than consider how we could have used this broadcast bandwidth in a national or regional emergency”

I also know that once it happened twice (they would say the first time was a unique exception), then there would be a mandate to require that all new HDTVs and (possibly phones and future digital devices) to also be able to receive data from broadcast sources  and store it on internal and/or external storage  to be viewable on the tv , and potentially an executable file that provides support and help in the emergency.

The bottom line is whether or not there are applications that would benefit national security. I dont know, but i think we have to at least consider the possibility.

Of course this is all pie in the sky hypothetics. Maybe someone has already thought this side of it through. Maybe its ridiculous on its face. I dont know.

But maybe not.  I think there is a greater than zero chance that in the next 10 years  broadcast bandwidth can be of value to the country in an emergency. We need to at least consider this before we sell off the spectrum

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Bavaria, Germany | Extraordinary Flora

To see the asparagus museum as nothing more then a wacky collection about an arbitrary vegetable is to deeply misunderstand Germany’s deep connections to the slender green vegetable.

For in Germany the asparagus is not simply the “vegetable that makes your pee smell funny” as it is known in the U.S., but is the “königliche Gemüse” or “royal vegetable.”

In 150 B.C. the asparagus was first written about, and written about with great reverence by Roman writer Marcus Porcius Cato, and was later cited in a Roman book of recipes in 300 A.D. But then the asparagus disappeared. It would seem that after 300 A.D. the asparagus, or at least any reference to its cultivation, was “lost” for much of the middle ages, not showing up again in print until 1100 A.D. this time in the guise of an herb. In 1565 asparagus or ‘spargel’ appeared in a catalog of plants in the German Prince’s pleasure garden, referred to as “delightful fare for lovers of food.” Germany had officially begun its love affair with the asparagus.

Available only to the nobility for many years, the asparagus became appropriately known as the “royal vegetable,” but by the mid 1800s it had become available to the average German, who adopted it with vigor.

Today, the asparagus season or “Spargelzeit” is a massive event in Germany, focused largely around the towns of Schrobenhausen, Schwetzingen and Abensberg. Almost every restaurant changes its menu to include multiple asparagus dishes, there are asparagus seminars, asparagus tours, asparagus competitions, and in Schwetzingen an asparagus king or queen is crowned based on the ‘size of their asparagus stalk.’ They also have a statue of the much admired “Spargelfrauen” the women of the asparagus fields.

The asparagus museum extends this asparagus celebration to an all year round event. Three floors of 15th century tower are dedicated to asparagus, and include exhibits on “agriculture, horticulture, conservation, gastronomy, history, medical and pharmaceutical science, table decoration, ceramics, silver, advertising, literature, art and curiosities” all focused around the asparagus. The museum even has an Andy Warhol painting of asparagus.

While the museum can indeed be visited year around, one really must visit during Spargelzeit, when the locals eat asparagus at least once a day, and three times if they can afford it.

Crude-oil futures tanked for a ninth straight session Monday, a milestone in the commodity’s poor performance history.  Lack of demand, again, has investors looking to sell.

MarketWatch.com: Crude for January delivery ended down 36 cents, or 0.5%, at $69.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The nine-day loss was the longest such streak since July 2001.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Crude Oil Futures Drop As Report Shows Growing Reserves, Falling Demand
• Oil Drops Below $70. End Demand Remains Very Weak

Filed under: Spy Photos, Minivan/Van, Wagon, Crossover, Dodge

We’ve always been intrigued by the notion of a higher performance people carrier, from back before Car and Driver magazine’s Ford Windstar-based SHOStar to various shadetree high-strung turbocharged Chrysler minivans and outright lunacy like Renault’s Espace-bodied F1 car.

Of course, that isn’t what you’re looking at here: it’s what appears to be an SRT-tweaked Dodge Journey R/T, a vehicle that we want to like for its useful size and packaging, but can’t because of its indifferent drivetrains and tragic interior materials and ergonomics.

Now, normally we wouldn’t get too excited about something like this, in part because private owners often add badges from other vehicles in order to make them seem more impressive (we just saw an i-VTEC Chevrolet Beretta the other day), but these spy shots sent in from reader Nick Leonard appear to be the real deal – not only does the Journey in question boast a well-integrated new front fascia, but also unique wheels, a lowered stance and a quad-outlet rear exhaust surrounded by a different valance. The clincher? Michigan manufacturer licence plates.

Nick says notes that he came upon the car in the parking lot of a Best Buy in Saginaw, Michigan, and he only noted a laptop bag and a jacket in the passenger seat – no sign of any further testing equipment or interesting things on the dashboard. He further instructs that there was an AWD badge on the car (not pictured).

Now, it isn’t at all clear that this is a production-intent vehicle, especially considering that R/T and SRT are usually mutually-exclusive designations in the House of Pentastar. This vehicle might be something that bored engineers cooked up for their own entertainment, for a SEMA reveal, or perhaps for a customer clinic – but who knows? It could be something, right? If so, let’s hope there’s some genuine chutzpah under the sheetmetal, otherwise we’re looking at the decline and dilution of the SRT-branded vehicles as we know it.

Check out our gallery of images below… and thanks for the shots, Nick!

Reader Spy: SRT-fettled Dodge Journey R/T spotted originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It is often suggested that a beleaguered Microsoft should buy a newly re-invigorated Palm and dump Windows Mobile.  There are many reasons why this does not make sense, not the least being that buying a failing OS from a failing company will do little to help Microsoft’s efforts.

The Washington Post’s Big Money blog is the latest to report on the company’s troubles. Calling the company a one-trick pony that is “quickly dying” and was “beset by so many errors and miscalculations that it is a wonder it has managed to survive even as long as it did”, they note that according to Changewave the company had 33% of the US smartphone market only 3 years ago, and is now scraping the bottom at 7%.

To ad insult to injury Gartner predicts the company will hold only 1.4 percent share of world smartphone sales in another 3 years time.

They note the Palm lacks an ecosystem, and their aborted attempts to piggyback on the iTunes ecosystem ended up just embarrassing the company. The company’s attempts to attract developers has also not gone very well, with Palm recently forced to throw open doors to hackers and abandon attempts to control their marketplace.

Despite these setbacks Palm has never been shy to talk the talk, with Roger McNamee’s promise that iPhone users would convert en masse to the Palm Pre proving so spectacularly wrong Palm had to file a 10-point “clarification” with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and with their claim that the Pre being even more anticipated than the iPhone in the UK falling resoundingly flat on its face with the smartphone being outsold 20:1 on O2.

So while Windows Mobile users worry about losing marketshare and years in the wilderness, spare a thought for Palm, dying once again.

Lasagna is a dish made of alternating layers of pasta, cheese, sauce, and meat and/or vegetables.

Lasagna is believed to have originated in Italy.

The plural of lasagna is lasagne. In Italy, the plural form, lasagne, is always used when referring to lasagna.

The word lasagna originally referred to the pot in which the dish was cooked rather than the food itself as it does today. In fact, it is believed by some that the word is derived from the Greek word for “chamber pot” (lasanon).

Lasagna is made with either flat noodles or rippled noodles. Rippled noodles are common in southern Italy but rarely used in Northern Italy. Rippled noodles are also popular in the United States.

The Forme of Cury, a 14th century cookbook that was the first to be published in England, featured lasagna.

Lasagna was called “losyns” in Middle English.

Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of the song “La Bamba” entitled “Lasagna” on his album, Even Worse.

Lasagna is the favorite food of the cartoon character Garfield.

In the Seinfeld episode, “The Butter Shave,” Elaine gives the nickname “Vegetable Lasagna” to the passenger next to her on a plane.

When you choose a career, two of the biggest factors to consider are your benefits and your salary.

If you’re the kind of person looking to make $500 million a year (a la Michael Milken), stay in the private sector. But for the rest of us, becoming a government employee seems like a more lucrative option.

According to the BLS, total employer compensation costs for civilian workers, which include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $29.40 per hour worked in September 2009.

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $27.49 per hour worked in September 2009.

State and local government employers spent an average of $39.83 per hour worked for total employee compensation in September 2009.

But the killer part lies in the benefits. Health benefit employer costs were $4.43 per hour worked for state and local government and $2.01 in private industry. Ouch!

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See Also:

• Recession Benefit: It’s Cheaper To Pollute!
• CHART OF THE DAY: The Average Investor Remains Terrified Of The Stock Market
• Houses Passes $1 Trillion Mandatory Health Insurance Bill

Yet again, we’re learning how when the Olympics come to town, your free speech rights apparently disappear. Rob Hyndman sends over the news that a Vancouver art gallery was ordered to remove a mural, because it was viewed as being anti-Olympics. The Olympics, of course, comes to Vancouver in a few months. The mural in question showed five rings, in the usual Olympic pattern, with four of the rings showing a frown face, and the fifth showing a smiley. The mural was hanging outside of the gallery, so the city claims the order to take it down came due to local graffiti laws — though the gallery says in 10 years, this is the first mural it had to take down. In fact, when the landlord was told to remove the graffiti, he called the city back to ask what graffiti since he didn’t see any and assumed the mural was fine, given the history of murals hung there. And, of course, there’s already concern over a special law — passed just for the Olympics — that gives law enforcement the right to remove signage that they don’t like.

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