June 2008

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak teaches Segway Polo.

An even more exclusive sport than playing Polo with horses.  Leave it to Silcon Valley to have enough Segways in one spot to be even able to attempt this.

Steve Wozniak teaches Segway Polo in this video

UPDATE: It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Segway site.  They have an off road version- the X2 Adventure.

It looks kind of cool by itself.  But not so cool with you and your camping gear on it. 
Note, when going back to nature, leave your electric scooter at home.

From Cincinnati Enquirer: It’s official: Folgers sold

Jams and jellies company J.M. Smucker is moving to take over more for of the breakfast table, announcing this morning that it will buy Folgers coffee in an all-stock deal worth about $2.95 billion.

A Folgers sale would leave P&G with only Pringles snacks from its once struggling food and beverage unit. CEO A.G. Lafley has been divesting brands from the slow-growing food unit over the years and focusing more on its health and beauty industries.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that P&G won’t be keeping Pringles around as the sole member of the food and beverage unit. 

From ESPN.com: Johnson says he’ll return to Bengals shortly

Johnson held out hope of a pre-draft trade or a deal with a team like Philadelphia, Dallas or Miami. When nothing materialized by mid-May, Johnson began to consider a different approach, according to his coach and mentor, Charles Collins, who was in Florida to oversee the All-Pro receiver’s offseason workout regime.

“Look how well I’ve done while talking every week and calling people out and making things so hard on me with all this attention,” Johnson said. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I could do if I just played and didn’t talk. Things would be a whole lot easier on me. And think of the numbers I could put up. Then what would people say about me?”

“It’s the reinvention of Ocho Cinco,” he says. “I’m dead serious. People need to take me as I am because I just don’t give a [expletive] anymore. That’s how I’d sum up my attitude for the next season.”

Who is this guy?  And what did they do to Chad Johnson?

Seriously, if Chad Johnson came back, kept his mouth shut, and just played, Bengals fans would once again love him.  What the fans loved was his love for the game and the joy that he brought to it.

Can Chad Johnson learn to be a team first player?  That would be the biggest reinvention yet.

From SeattlePi.com: Consumer Smarts: The IRS check may not be in the mail

Miller said Turbo Tax users had two options to pay for tax-preparation fees — using a credit card or having the fees deducted from their federal tax refund. If they chose the latter, Turbo Tax uses a third-party bank to process that transaction. That bank creates a temporary account, deposits the federal tax refund and deducts the tax-preparation fees before depositing the tax refund to the taxpayer.

The use of the third-party bank as a middleman “interrupts” the tax rebate process, Miller said, and that’s why the IRS says it will send the tax rebate directly to taxpayers by mail.

I had been wondering what happened to my economic stimulus check, but it finally arrived yesterday by mail.  I had been expecting it to be electronically deposited several weeks ago, but as mentioned in the article above, I had the fees deducted from the tax refund.

Now, all I have to do is decide what country’s economy I want to stimulate with my “stimulus”.  Sweden (Ikea) or China (Apple).  I guess I could always buy food if I avoid imported fruit and vegetables.  Maybe, I’ll just be totally unpatriotic and put the money in the bank.  Saving your money is unpatriotic these days!

Jim Borgman has drawn another cartoon about the Bodies the Exhibition.

It’s one of Borgman’s weaker cartoons.  There’s much more potential humor and insight than “it’s kind of creepy”.  One of the characters does carry a paper that says “Plastinated Bodies: were they executed prisoners?”