Random things:
A Digg discussion on why women confuse men about courtship. The diggers actually have a lot of hilarious commentary; a lot of it is of the Captain Obvious variety. Interestingly, the original dugg article is shallow and doesn’t even cite the original research. This is another reason why meta-sites like digg ultimately fail; they reward articles not on the basis of quality but on whether people want to discuss it.
Why companies burn you with false charges. Note that I made two longish comments there. My advice simply: Focus on limiting your expenditure of time solving these matters. Put all your demands/statements in writing. Anything conveyed through telephone is not legally binding. Be resigned to the fact that companies won’t do anything for you until you have successfully completed their fraud packet.
Boingboing discusses how credit cards impose foreign transaction fees. Outrageous! I wonder what effect this has on online purchases.
I have always been a big fan of Karen Carpenter. I’ve found some amazing things recently: Richard Carpenter answers fan’s questions about their legacy. Part One and Part Two. Here’s a wonderful BBC radio interview with the two of them when Karen were still alive, a beautiful 1974 performance of Close to You, and a classic duet/medley between Karen Carpenter and Ella Fitzgerald in 1980. In 1980, Ella was 63 and viewed as an old fogie (though she would be alive for 16 more years). Karen was 30; could she ever have imagined that in three years she would be dead and that Ella would be mourning Karen’s passing? Life: it is so fragile sometimes.
This week has been a hard week for me. I had a personal loss (which I won’t go into here). In this frantic world it’s easy to forget the important things, how time changes everything, how people leave, circumstances change, and things you take for granted can so easily slip away. People cling to the illusion of control when in fact they sit at the mercy of fate and the vagaries of other people’s actions.
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