Q & A's from around the web

Why do police have locks on their lockers?? I MEAN, POLICEMEN DON'T STEAL!!

THey hve to keep the stuff they steal from citizens out of sight. For example, I had a cop let me go for speeding if I willingly gave him a P-38 German pistol I had on me at the time. I told him a speeding ticket did not warrant me giving him my $1,000 or more P-38 and he told me "What speeding ticket? You were breaking and entering." So, yes, cops do steal.

My husband is a cop and I am sorry to tell you that police do in fact steal. They mostly steal food out of the refrigerator but they have been known to take stuff from lockers as well. From all the b.s. my husband says about his job it sounds like it is pretty much like working anywhere else. People are untrustworthy and annoying no matter where you work. Cops are not above the law, they break it as well.

Q & A's from around the web

What is the best dialogue to make someone happy within 1 minuets ?

Even without dialogue, listening to 1 minuet is usually enough to make me happy. :)

Money!

I've been putting off writing about the stock market, but I can't ignore it any longer. The economic news keeps getting worse and worse and the indexes keep going higher and higher. Something's got to give. I've been out of the market for several months, having exited before the major carnage started, but I've been reluctant to get back in the water, fearing there's sharks just below the surface.

It's possible that the market dropped too low and has corrected itself, but being a pessimist by nature, I am more prone to believe that the recent recovery is a "dead cat bounce". As far as I'm concerned, we have not yet seen the devastating effect all the layoffs are to have on the economy. Everyone is cutting spending. And that includes those lucky enough to have a job right now. They're scared #$!2^@# that they're next on the chopping block...and they probably are.

This sort of situation tends to be a catch-22. The more layoffs there are, the less spending there is. The less spending there is, the worse the economy gets. The worse the economy gets, the more layoffs there are.

I am going out on a not-so-long limb and declare that this thing will get much worse before it gets better. I know I'm not the only one predicting doom and gloom, but I have been posting, chatting, e-mailing and conversing about the emergence of third world countries and the possible economic collapse of the United States for almost 20 years now.

Having said that, I pray it doesn't turn out as bad as I have imagined it, for that would not bode well for the whole world and especially Canada, America's largest trading partner. One bright note is that the emergence of third world nations has provided a much needed diversification of trading partners. If an economic collapse of the U.S. had happened ten years ago, the entire planet might have become "the third world". Today, there's a few others to do business with.

One last thought, and remember, you heard it here first (at least if I am right), I see the American indexes dropping below their previous lows in the coming months. I'll join the market at that point because I expect slow and steady gains going forward for the foreseeable future. However, I'm not giving refunds if I'm wrong.

Ripped from the headlines

KABUL, Afghanistan – On a whirlwind trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the wars that define his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference in Iraq. Each shoe was thrown with great force and accuracy and the president narrowly avoided being struck in the head...twice.

In unrelated news...

Toronto, Canada – Early Sunday evening, the Toronto Blue Jays announced the signing of a pitcher to replace A.J. Burnett who was recently wooed to the Yankees organization with a five-year, $82.5 million contract. No name and few details regarding the Jays' new hurler are known but the release did say "He has international experience".

They didn't have robots like this when I was a kid

Here's a story right out of my own backyard. Trung Le of Brampton, Ontario, Canada has been building robots, he says, since he was four years old. He has sunk many thousands of dollars into his hobby and his latest invention is quite an amazing thing--a life-size female android. "Aiko" is a very talented girl with some interesting features such as smooth, life-like skin, breasts and even er, um, naughty bits. Trung is looking for funding that would enable him to "teach" Aiko enough skills to be a viable "employee" for home and or office.


You can read the story for yourself here:

You can watch Aiko in action here: