A mush up of thoughts

Ah, the internet, a vast expanse of opportunities for aspiring wordsmiths to showcase their talents, make a living, and change the world, one carefully crafted sentence at a time. Or, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, you could sign up with eHow, the self-proclaimed haven for writers seeking quick cash and exposure. Don't let the sunshine-and-rainbows exterior fool you; a deep dive into their contractual labyrinth reveals a dystopian landscape where creativity goes to wither and die, all while eHow maintains a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon. Let's start with the illusion of ownership. Sure, eHow graciously allows you to "retain ownership" of your intellectual property. But hold on a second, there's a catch - a rather large, gaping one, at that. They also grant themselves non-exclusive rights to do pretty much whatever they please with your work. It's like owning a car but letting your neighbor borrow it whenever they feel like it, maybe even r...

There I was, minding my own business, sipping my overpriced coffee (thanks, inflation!), when I overheard a conversation that made my blood boil. It was the same old song and dance about the outrageous cost of medications and the devastating consequences for people around the world. One person lamented the fact that life-saving drugs are priced out of reach for many, while another chimed in with the tired old excuse: "But Big Pharma has massive R&D costs to cover." Oh, really? So, the solution is to grant these pharmaceutical giants a monopoly for years on end, allowing them to charge whatever they damn well please? They get to recoup their costs and rake in obscene profits, all while people suffer and die because they can't afford the medications they desperately need. It's enough to make you want to scream. Let's take a closer look at this "R&D costs" argument, shall we? It's not as ironclad as Big Pharma would have you believe. In fact, t...

It is the time of year when I need to start on my tax returns and I was thinking of software that I have used in the past. Of course Intuit came to mind and they have a product right now called TurboTax with the latest changes required to make your 2008 / 2009 returns. What suprised me even more is that Intuit is announcing its figures this week and do you know, they are a 3.1 billion dollar company now? Well, I thought I would look into them a little more in detail and guess what, this year I think they have managed to turn on themselves. They had a great set of products and Turbo tax was certainly one of them. For many years people would pay a tax advisor or accountant to do their books for them and it was hard enough to persuade them to do it all themselves by using a piece of software. But Intuit did a good job over the years of persuading people to use their doftware and of course once people used it they realised that it was not as painful as previously thought and so year after ...

I am sure that 365 days a year you will find people surfing in the English Garden in Munich. This is a canal off the Isar that flows through the English garden and at this particular point the water forms a wave that is great if one wants to practice their surfing technique. These 2 guys were at it this morning and there is a third just out of the picture. A few minutes later a girl joined them and one of these guys packed it in for the day. He stood barefoot in the snow and slowly took off the wet gear, stood half naked and dried himself whilst watching his friends. I caught a cold just watching him. Oh did I forget to mention that the temperature was about -5C and with the wind chill factor it was more like -15C. The water is freezing cold all the year through. The Alps that feed it are justa few Km down the road and this river is practicaly a straight line to them. Respect to these people, I could not do it.