Knowledge workers vs. Manual trades

The Case for Working With Your Hands - New York Times

An article by someone with a PhD who left the "knowledge economy" decided to run a motorcycle-repair shop.  Bonus point for mentioning a lineman fixing the lines after a storm.

New research on aging and avoiding dementia

At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age

From an article in the NY Times, there are suggestions that staying active mentally and socially is the best way to avoid dementia.

Rooster Chili Sauce

A Chili Sauce to Crow About – NY Times

 

One of America’s favourite “ethnic” hot sauces is not imported, but is instead a domestic success.  The Sriracha Chili Sauce (aka Rooster Sauce or Cock Sauce) is used as a condiment in gourmet restaurants, pho restaurants, and as a ketchup or salsa replacement in burger and hot dog joints.

 

The sauce is made with fresh red jalapeños, garlic powder, sugar, salt and vinegar, which produces a not-TOO-spicy, garlicky hot sauce.

 

Thanks to MeFi for the bonus links to recipes using sriracha sauce to make steak fajitas, Korean-style filet mignon, and how to make Sriracha Chili Sauce yourself.

 

Bargain Basement Goalies Pay Off

High-priced goalies guarantee little - si.com

An interesting perspective from ex-goalie, Darren Elliott, regarding the performance of stud goalies in the 2009 NHL Playoffs.  The four goalies left in the playoffs are not normally considered the league's top goalies: Detroit's Chris Osgood,  Carolina's Cam Ward, Chicago's Nik Khabibulin and Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury.  

Meanwhile, the so-called top goalies (and top-paid goalies) have already been eliminated; such as:  Henrik Lundqvist (with his $7.75 million price tag), Presidents' Trophy-winning veteran goaltender Evgeni Nabokov from the San Jose Sharks ($5.5 million salary), New Jersey's Marty Brodeur (at $5.2 million), Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff ($8.5 million) and the Vancouver Canucks' own Roberto Luongo ($7 million).  

How much is a top goalie really worth?

Clean Up & Speed Up Your Mac - Lifehacker

Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated,  Sluggish Mac - Lifehacker

I'm running out of space on my Macbook, and it's starting to slow down.  It needs to be cleaned up, just to install Apple's new Mac OS X system update.  Thank you Lifehacker for this article.

Leadership video from TED conference

Tribes – TED Video

The video from my favourite talk from the 2009 TED Conference has finally been posted online- Seth Godin talking about leadership in his video Tribes.

 

Internet travel research - NYT

Frugal Traveler: Research: The Traveler's Best Friend

New York Times blog post by their Frugal Traveler columnist, Matt Gross, about how he does his research on the internet to find not only affordable and frugal ways to travel, but also to find current hot spots and perspective on his destinations.

How Much Money Can Free iPhone Apps Make?

Just How Much Money Can Free iPhone Apps Make? Quite A Bit - TechCrunch

Interesting article from TechCrunch on the economics of iPhone/iPod Touch application developers that create and distribute free applications with advertising.  Not surprisingly, results vary.

Maybe it's just an iPhone/ iPod day...

NYT- The Pentagon Adds iPods to the Arsenal

The Lede: The Pentagon Adds iPods to the Arsenal

From the New York Times blog, an article about the US military using iPods in Iraq and Afghanistan to wage war.

Going Postal The Imminent Death of the U.S. Postal Service?

Going Postal  The Imminent Death of the U.S. Postal Service?

Georg Jensen tears into the USPS in The American Interest Online.  He builds the case that the USPS is running as a spam-mail distribution company, and is subsidized by first-class letter mail.   

"When you tax something, you get less of it, and when you subsidize something, you get more of it. That is part of the reason the USPS now handles less first-class mail, because it is in effect taxed, and more junk mail, because it is subsidized."

Now that business is bad, the USPS is going to do the same as General Motors, ask the government for a bailout.

How different is Canada Post's business model?

From Kottke