Friday at lunch time. You know what that means: Time to clear out the collected links that didn’t fit into any of the week’s themed news chum posts. As a reminder, I do it this way to make your life easier, as opposed to loads and loads of Facebook shares. Now, aren’t you grateful for that 🙂
- Holiday Gifts. Let’s start easy. Yesterday was my daughter’s 17th birthday. She came to me, and indicated she wanted an iPad for Chanukah. Guess what? She’s not alone. Nielsen has surveyed kids, and iPads are the most requested holiday electronic gift, followed closely by iPod Touches and IPhones. ETA: Here’s a buying guide.
- College Planning. Speaking about my daughter, she’s busy with college applications. So, naturally, articles about college catch my eye. The first is an interesting discussion of legacys and applications, and whether legacys should have application priority. For the record, legacy is only a factor at one of my daughter’s hopes, Wash U. in STL, where my mother went. UC doesn’t care about legacys. Of course, one problem with colleges is cost, and colleges are now offering more effective cost calculators. Lastly, with respect to colleges, I’m sad to report that my daughter’s desired major, History, is on the list of the 11 majors with the highest unemployment. This is a big deal for the economy, as college grads moving back home are a big drain on local economic purchasing.
- Money. This week, Canada introduced a new plastic monetary note, with all sorts of high tech features. I think this is pretty cool: not only does it last longer, but it is more resistant to counterfeiting. Of course, it is worse for the environment. Meanwhile, the US continues to debate whether to change the $1 bill to a coin.
- Wait Wait. Alas, I haven’t seen many more details on this than what is in the article, but “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” is coming to TV.
- Muppets. I don’t see movies that often. One that is attractive to me, because I love the humor, is the upcoming muppets movie. The NY Times has an interesting article on how they designed the new muppet.
- Loving Your Music. As many folks know, I love me my iPod classic, and have over 26,000 songs. It appears that neither Apple nor Google love me back. Not only has there been talk about getting rid of the large-capacity Classic, but iTunes Match won’t work with libraries greater than 25,000 songs, and Google Music won’t work with libraries greater than 20,000 songs. What’s a music lover to do?
- House Hunting. Looking for a house? Perhaps the answer is to buy the land, and then find a house to move to it. That’s an approach a lot more people are doing, as moving a house is often cheaper than building one.
- Actors Synagogue. Lastly, an article about the Actors Synagogue in NYC, which is down on its luck and trying to raise funds. This is quite an interesting article, demonstrating the plight of the older city-based synagogue, as well as how religion has changed in the modern era.
Speaking of synagogues, a note for those in the LA area. Temple Ahavat Shalom is having its Holiday Boutique on Sunday from 10a to 3p. My wife will have a booth there, so come on over (I’ll be helping the Men’s Club). I’ll be posting a more specific plug regarding this on Facebook.
