Should I Throw That Out?

Real Simple | Surprising Expiration Dates

I came across this interesting page in my net travels today. It is a fairly comprehensive list of general grocery items and how long you can expect them to last.

For example white rice will supposedly last 2 years from purchase while dried pasta is only good for 12 months. Honey amazingly, will last indefinitely.

Anyway, I could list them all, or you could take a look for yourself.

BAD Fortune

An interesting article in the Guardian today about the extent of Michael Jackson's financial situation. A lot of people I know weren't aware that Michael made a deal with Sony years ago to share the royalties from the Beatles publishing rights when he needed to raise extra to pay for his extravagant habits. It's definitely worth a read.

Now that the trial is over and Michael has been cleared. OJ was, why not Michael? I think he needs to seriously consider Marlon Brando's offer and live the rest of his life as a recluse. He needs to do it for his own sake and that of anybody else who might possibly be affected by his actions in the future.

If he wants to, and lays low, he could consider a comeback in about 10 years.

Sprol - Tasmania's Forests

Sprol: Pulping The World, Part 2: Tasmania,Australia

I've been meaning to blog this site for a while. They made it easy for me with an entry on the state of deforestation in my part of the world... Australia.

The Sprol blog entries use satellite photography to illustrate our impact on the planet. Today they are showing the extent of damage done to the wetland rainforests of Tasmania.

I found it shocking and sad to see the areas of forest completely levelled. A lot of the logging is in supposedly protected forests and concerned people are helpless in fighting it.

I enjoyed reading their take on how old these trees actually are...

"People seem to have a hard time with time spans longer than their own lifetimes.

Picture a seedling in the year 1555. The English were burning clergymen at the stake at that time. Back then, in South America, Brazil -- which was named for the Portuguese word for the red color of brazilwood, which the early visitors would clear cut -- Brazil was being settled by the French. That's how long ago it was."

And how they trivialised the end use of the paper product...

"That seedling, grown and felled yesterday, to make a product manual that no one is going to read, and cardboard for boxes to ship it, and cardboard for that extra printed marketing sleeve that comes around the box. To make paper for laser printed documents that people will forget to pick up at the workgroup printer."

I really don't know how we can stop all of this.

File under What Next?

A short blog to get back into the swing of things.

According to this article, Walmart has refused to make prints of photos a mother took of her son. The reason, it looked too professional and therefore must have been taken by a professional. They refused to print the image without authorisation from the photographer. Of course, unable to provide said proof as they don't believe she took the photo, they will not print it.

This is another example of crazy fear for loss of another form of control on intellectual property with the arrival of the digital era. Walmart and other third party photo printers should simply take the contact details of the person putting in the images for printing and make them sign a disclaimer. This should remove the onus from them. That way if a professional photographer ever finds out (yeah right), and he knocks on Walmart's door, they can show who received the print and send him on his merry way. Or, maybe the photographers could start to think differently and maybe charge for the actual work they do... taking the photo.

How they can claim copyright on an image of YOU is crazy to me.