Nuns a Literally Dying Breed

Very few of know any Nuns who are young. I must admit, that I haven't even been aware of any campaigns in the last 10-20 years aimed at encouraging young women in America to become Nuns. One area where this is having an impact is Catholic hospitals. Today, very few hospitals have Nuns as administrators, where as 20-30 years ago, the majority of these positions were filled by Nuns. This has caused a more profit centric view of the healthcare at these hospitals, instead of a view based on mission. It will be interesting to see how religions role in our health system evolves in the next 20-30 years.

Mammoth Find

A Russian reindeer herder stumbled upon a frozen woolly mammoth carcass in the arctic. The mammoth is said to be very well preserved and may be a great find for both scientists and mammoth lovers alike. The Russian government hope to excavate the mammoth and transport it to a facility where it can be studied and then displayed for the public.

Entire US Stealth Fighter Jet Fleet Grounded

With the current debate between the need to provide our military with the best technology and the need to cut some spending, you would think that our government would make the most of what they had. But instead, news comes out that our entire stealth fighter plane fleet is currently grounded because of one or two problems. What is worse, is that the fleet has actually been grounded since May. It is unthinkable to me that with all the best engineering minds, neither the military or the manufacturer can figure out how to fix these problems. On top of that, our government just committed to spend over a half a Billion dollars on more of these planes. I agree that we need to make sure these planes are safe before we risk our pilots lives in them, but how can it take more than 2 months to diagnose the problem? This should be the number one priority for the manufacturer and the government should withhold any future payments until these problems are fixed.

Is it Cheaper to Demolish a Home than to Repair it?

A new trend in the home market, is for banks to demolish foreclosed homes instead of reselling them. Banks have found that in some of the least sellable areas of the country, it is actually better for them to demolish a home and donate the land to the local municipality than to fix up the homes and then try to resell them. The companies also have the added bonus of not having to pay taxes or upkeep on the homes that they demolish. It will be interesting to see if this helps the housing market by taking cheap, but undesirable homes off the market, or if it just ends up creating places for people to illegally dump their trash.

Best served cold

From Speedbump

It's so hot. How how is it?

A friend passed this along and I HAD to share.

Entire Apple Stores Being Faked

We've heard of electronics and designer clothes being faked in China. (How else did I get my genuine Rolex watch in NYC for $25?) Now it seems that some merchants in China are taking it up a notch. Fake Apple Stores have begun to pop up in China. They are patterned after the real Apple Stores and even the employees can be seen wearing the same clothes as true Apple Store employees. The main way to tell the fake from the real seems to be to look at quality of the construction in the store and to test the knowledge of the sales people. If your salesman doesn't know more than you do about the iPhone, then that should raise a red flag.