Newmark's Door

"11 World Wonders You Can Tour From Your Desk".

See also "Visit Thailand’s Majestic Temples In Under Two Minutes".

Victor Davis Hanson:

Why is the country consumed by the trivial while snoozing through the essential? We have become a nation of instant electronic communications — Twitter, Facebook, cell phones, and the Internet — even as reading and math scores plummet in our schools, and newspapers and magazines go broke. We can communicate information at the speed of light but have trouble finding anything meaningful to send back and forth.

In prior times, writers, directors, and actors endeavored to present television drama characterized by good acting and engaging scripts. Now, it is more profitable and apparently more entertaining just to film pseudo-celebrities talking, eating, and agonizing over the day’s banalities, as with Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Another example of the Road to Hell as well as the all-pervasive gaming of regulations.

“What LEED designers deliver is what most LEED building owners want—namely, green publicity, not energy savings,” John Scofield, a professor of physics at Oberlin, testified before the House last year.

From Los Angeles magazine:

In Mexico, sushi usually means uramaki, or “inside-out” sushi rolls stuffed with Philadelphia cream cheese, surimi (krab), cooked shrimp, bacon, meats, avocado—often times everything but fish. It means sweet soy glazes, eel sauce, chipotle mayo, and even more mayonnaise. Then there are the final squirts of ketchup, maybe some salsa Huichol, and drownings in soy sauce.

Some fine advice here. Sample:

Spend 25% Less Than You Make – When your material needs meet or exceed your income, you’re sabotaging your ability to really make it big.  Don’t shackle yourself with golden handcuffs (a fancy car or an expensive apartment).  Be willing and able to take 20% less in the short term, if it could mean 200% more earning potential.  You’re nothing more than penny wise and pound-foolish if you pass up an amazing new career opportunity to keep an extra little bit of income.  No matter how much money you make, spend 25% less to support your life.  It’s a guaranteed formula to be less stressed and to always have the flexibility to pursue your dreams.