Food deflation

Last Sun. we passed by Wendy's and saw the 99 cents promotion hamburger deal.
No kidding. 99 cents!!!

Just in another corner, Boston market offers $1.99 for whole chicken if you buy a family package.
Wow, that is amazing to know food price has been deflated that much. And it's obvious that the business is really facing a severe challenge in this recession.

However we'll never dare to try them. Who knows what kind of meat they use? :P

Gas price drops below $2.5

Today the gas price drops below $2.5 per gallon. That is really unbelievable to us.

It was only a few months back that gas was almost $5, and now it may go even lower.

When gas price was high, we noticed that people were driving less but now it seems that the traffic is picking up again.

Anyway, it is a good news for us to drive to northeast coast in the coming Thanksgiving though. :)

Pride and Prejudice - Political Chapter

2008, an important election year for many countries.

In the long process of debates and arguments, each party holding their believes for their candidate and sometimes irrational.

While we discussing who should we vote and how to make the decision, I cannot agree more to my husband's comment: people should not always vote for the only political party they believe but see the policies of each candidate to decide whom to vote every time.

Though I agree with him, I cannot help to think how did I decide to vote in those years in Taiwan. Can I really choose rationally not because of the color of the party flag?

Now looking back, I am glad that I didn't vote for Chen who might be a good lawyer, election speaker and promoter, city mayor, but not an integral man that requires courage and judgment. That is why he was corrupted totally by the total power he gained during his presidency.

Now Chen Yunlin, the China counterpart of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) visiting Taiwan and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) protests accusing President Ma of selling out to the Chinese. Some violent bleeding happened during the demonstration.

Friends told me they are so tired of these news making them very upset. The instability definitely shakes the foundation of society and turbulence people's mind. When Pride and Prejudice come and take over people's ration, all we see are comedies, one after another.

In USA, after Obama being elected as the next President, it is a huge step for African Americans undoubtedly. However, it is still long way to go to let racist problem really being abolished on this land.

Baby Boomer politicians will stick with what they believe but they will fade away. The society and the future is for the young generation. Same as for my hometown, if education cannot give people logics of thinking, independent judgment, then sadly the next generation will need to live with the consequences caused by their indulgent pride and prejudice.

Go to play FREE RICE to help end hunger

"For each answer you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger." ~ Free Rice website

http://freerice.com/index.php

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide education to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Go! Go! Go! And PLAY!!!

So far I have tried 7 categories:

1. I started with English vocabulary, I was not doing very well and sometimes asked the help of my husband, so very soon I skip it to the next one.

2. Spanish vocabulary: Oh My God! That is so easy and within a few minutes I reached to the highest level (level 10).

3. Famous Paintings: I thought I am good but it is more difficult than I imagined. I went up to level 6 and then down to level 2 by guessing wrong some unfamiliar works for me. After half an hour or more, I finally got to level 8 when I really felt exhausted by that. However, I enjoyed it as well, so I will come back to train myself on this subject later.

4. World Capitals: I am good in Europe and Latin America but quite bad in Southeast, Africa and Middle East. And after a while I lost the interest and moved to the next one.

5. Identify countries on the map: this is fun but frankly speaking I have a lot to learn on this too. hahaha

6. Mathematics Multiplication table: Oh My God. This is totally designed for 10 years old kid. So if you are not good at all the above subjects, go to this one and it definitely will help a lot with high speed to get tons of rice to help end the hunger.

7. English grammar is a easy one too though I missed some grammatical details when did the answers.

And today my contribution to that is 12420 grains of rice!

You may go to "options" to Remember my personal rice donation total from the last time I played when I start FreeRice.

This is an awesome website to play, learn and to help. Hope everybody enjoys it.

Why need art?

"I have used these things to say what is to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

"Art is both love and friendship, and understanding of the desire to give. It is not charity which is the giving of things, it is more than kindness, which is the giving of self. It is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is art - something said about something felt." ~ Ansel Adams

What is art to you?

The above is what I read in an Youth Guide of The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lately a TV program indicated that nowadays Americans become ruder than before. I was surprised to know though but my husband later commented that it is true, esp the youth generation.

I think it is a perception question to define what is "rude" to you at the first place.

Is it rude that people typing an email while talking to you on phone?
Is it rude that people stealing your parking lot?
Is it rude to gossip behind others' back?
Is it rude to interrupt a conversation while your cell phone rings?
Is it rude to sit wherever you want in a restaurant disregard waiter's instruction at a busy night?
Is it rude to steal the food in company's refrigerator?
Is it rude to let your dog poo or pee on the neighbors' lawns?
Is it rude to not tip 15% to 20% in a restaurant?
Is it rude to ask people how much money you make?
Is it rude to ask how much money people spend every month?

I think some questions' answers would vary depend on the interaction with each different person and the relationship you both have with each other.

What does this have to do with art?

Definitely there is a strong connection from my viewpoint.
Do you see rude people more in a museum or in a parking lot? :D
Why people change behaviors when they attend to an art venue?

What is art to you?

For me, art is the beauty presented in different creative ways and it also purifies human being's mind.

Do we want a rude world or not? Do we need art?!

Global Carbon Emissions by Country

1. USA: 1,650,020
2. China: 1,366,554
3. Russia: 415,951
4. India: 366,301
5. Japan: 343,117
6. Germany: 220,596
7. Canada: 174,401
8. UK: 160,179
9. South Korea: 127,007
10. Italy: 122,726
11. Mexico: 119,473
12. South Africa: 119,203
13. Iran: 118,259
14. Indonesia: 103,170
15. France: 101,927

Source: U.S. Energy Department's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, 2004

LHC & Higgs boson

This morning just after I woke up and turned on my laptop, I saw my google logo popped out with LHC. Haha That is really awesome and creative.

Later on my husband told me he found a news about Stephen Hawking bets against Large Hadron Collider's success. He thinks the machine won't succeed in one of its big goals: finding the very mysterious Higgs boson but might find superpartner particles though.

I found the news amusing enough to start a good day. Will the world end soon? Who cares.