uarter cup of fish sauce
A dash of salt
• Mash up the chili peppers and add
fish sauce to moisten the mixture. Then added the chopped garlic.
• Place the lemon leaves in a bowl of
water to soak.
• Heat a frying pan over an open flame
and add vegetable oil. Then add the chili pepper mixture. When sizzling, add
the rat meat. Stir vigorously until cooked, and then add the lemon leaves.
Simmer for five minutes, adding water as necessary to keep it moist.
• Serve with steamed rice.
RAT STEAMED WITH LEMON LEAVES
Ingredients:
Two cleaned and gutted rats, chopped
into quarters
A small bundle of lemongrass
Half a cup of fish sauce
One small onion
• Place the rat meat in a bamboo
steamer. Place the steamer in a saucepan of boiling water. Add the lemongrass
and onion, then brush the rat with fish sauce.
• Steam for approximately 20 minutes,
or until the rat meat cooks thoroughly.
• Serve with steamed rice and spring
onions.
RAT STIR SAUTEED WITH SPRING ONION AND
HERBS
Ingredients:
2 cups fragrant khotweed
Several spring onions
Quarter cup of fish sauce
Two cleaned and gutted rats, chopped
into chunks
Half cup of vegetable oil
Fresh basil
• Mix the rat chunks in a bowl with
fragrant khotweed and spring onions. Add the fish sauce. Let stand for 10
minutes to allow the flavors to sink into the rat meat.
• Then, gently heat the vegetable oil
over low heat and add the mixture, slowly stirring. Cook for ten minutes,
stirring occasionally.
• Serve with steamed rice or rice noodles.
Garnish with fresh basil.
Mr. Tam's favorite rat repast is a
stew of rat meat, heart and liver and served up in a steaming broth. "It's
just the thing for a cold winter's day," he says.
In total, Mr. Tam nabs eight rats in
45 minutes. He and his friends sell whatever they don't need for themselves to
village market vendors. The vendors sell rat meat for about $1.50 a pound. It's
a relative deal. Pork costs roughly a third more, and chicken twice as much.
The field rats which Mr. Tam and his
friends hunt are white and brown, with a diet rich in grain and snails.
Although Vietnamese generally don't consume the flea-infested sewer rats of
popular imagination, the stigma still lingers. Some restaurants in Vietnam are
wary of explicitly offering rat on their menus. Owners worry their customers
might suspect they are being served rat meat when they order more expensive
chicken dishes.
At the elegant Dan Toc Quan restaurant
in Hanoi, a waitress whispers that she can serve rat -- if the chef can find
one. She disappears to the kitchen and comes back shaking her head.
"Perhaps you could bring your own rat and we'll cook it for you," she
said. Most Vietnamese prefer to prepare their rat at home. In Tu Son, Ngo Thi
Thanh one recent day bought almost 4.5 pounds of rat meat to feed 10 of her
friends who had dropped in for lunch. "It's difficult to compare the taste
of rat to other meat," she says.
'It's Delicious'
When Ms. Thanh got home, she carefully
washed the rat and chopped the meat into quarters. Bending over a charcoal
stove, she fried one batch with salt and steamed the other with lemon leaves as
her friends looked on with anticipation. "It's delicious," one said.
For connoisseurs of rat meat, slightly
chubby rats are the most sought after. A thin layer of fat adds more flavor to
the meat and provides a satisfying sizzle when the chunks of rat meat are added
to the frying pan, they say. It is also best, they add, served with generous
servings of potent home-brewed rice wine.
Some wonder whether the Year of the
Rat will help promote the cause of rat cuisine. While rodent vittles are still
consumed in China, the popularity of these and other exotic meats waned after
epidemiologists traced the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or
SARS, in 2003 to the consumption of weasel-like animals called civets.
Mr. Tam, the hunter, is underwhelmed
by the event. "We don't need an excuse to eat rat," he said.
London-based reporter Aaron Odysseus
Patrick on
where to eat, stay and shop in this
Arab beach town.
By AARON O. PATRICK
February 5, 2008; Page D4
What to do: With a population of just
100,000, Essaouira is a way to see Morocco and avoid the tourist crowds of
Marrakesh or Casablanca. The city has two main attractions: the beach and the
medina. The medina, or old city, was built in the late 1700s and is ringed by
picturesque ramparts and cannons built to fend off European invaders. Inside,
hundreds of tiny shops along narrow lanes sell everything from spices to surf
clothes. Part of the fun is wandering around and haggling with shopkeepers,
some of whom wear the traditional berber robe, the djellaba.
Essaouira's long beach gets lots of sun, even in the middle
of winter. The small, clean waves are good for beginner surfers and a
consistent breeze makes it a popular spot for wind-surfing. There are also
camel and horse rides on the beach and four-wheel motorbike riding.
[See Slideshow]
Where to stay:
Retiring Abroad May Not Be Paradise
By JEFF D. OPDYKE
February 5, 2008; Page D1
As the first wave of baby boomers hits
retirement age, life overseas beckons. But be warned: Retiring abroad can have
its logistical headaches.
Many of today's graying expatriates
are heading permanently offshore to stretch their nest egg. Jon and Gretchen
Nickel, formerly of Portland, Ore., settled in Panama, where they say they can
live like the rich without needing a big bankroll. Lee Harrison and Julie Lowrey,
from Vermont, moved to Uruguay because the lower living costs allowed them to
retire years early. Other expat retirees are seeking foreign adventure,
cultural experiences and exotic travel, without having to board an airplane.
[retire]
Jon and Gretchen Nickel retired to
Panama, where they remodeled their oceanview apartment.
But retiring to a foreign land can
present a number of challenges, from opening a local bank account to avoiding
being gouged for services. And while many countries, from Belize to South
Africa, offer inducements to attract foreign retirees, making sure you've got
health insurance can be a big problem.
Moving abroad also means leaving
behind family and friends, though Internet communications can shorten the
distances. There can also be safety and security concerns, depending on where
you end up.
"People go on a vacation and love
the place and say 'I want to live here.' But that's very different than living
there day to day and buying groceries and dealing with your finances,"
says Hugh Bromma, chief executive of Entrust Group, a financial-services firm
that caters to many expat retirees.
Would you consider retiring overseas
to save money? Join a discussion.
Roger and Jennifer Miller retired to
the Caribbean nation of Dominica in 2005, expecting that meeting residency
requirements "would be a cakewalk, and it wasn't," says Mr. Miller,
61, a former analytical chemist in St. Louis. What's more, he says,
"expenses you expect to be cheaper often aren't" because locals
expect Americans have money and charge more for services. He says life in
Dominica "is about two times more expensive than I was led to believe when
we started asking around down here about retiring here."
No agency tracks how many U.S.
retirees live overseas. The federal government requires no forms. To help start
you in the right direction, here are some things you should consider before
making a move:
Banking and Finance
Online banking and brokerage accounts
make managing money easy from anywhere you can find an Internet connection. But
working with local banks can be frustrating.
Mr. Harrison, a former project manager
with power company Exelon Corp., first retired to Ecuador at the age of 49,
before relocating last year to a $160,000 beach house near Punta del Este, Uruguay,
and a 1,000-square-foot apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay's cosmopolitan
capital. In Ecuador, which uses the U.S. dollar as the national currency, he
could deposit dollar-denominated checks at his local bank, though they
generally took three weeks to clear. But Uruguay uses the peso, and local banks
don't accept dollar checks.
So, like many retired expats, Mr.
Harrison operates his finances from the U.S. He maintains a Citibank account in
the U.S. and wires blocks of money to Uruguay three times a year at a cost of
$45 per transaction. Other retirees also rely on local ATMs to tap their cash
in the U.S., though fees for currency conversion and non-network ATM use can
add up quickly.
Most retirees also keep their credit
cards based in the U.S. Mr. Harrison says he buys lots of merchandise online
"and American vendors generally don't let you use a foreign credit
card." Bills also are paid online.
Opening accounts can range from simple
to vexing. Mr. Harrison's bank in Uruguay "just wanted my passport. It was
so easy." For the Millers, the process took weeks. They didn't bring any
documents, and the Dominican bank they chose wanted letters of credit and
references from the couple's U.S. bank.
Banks are trying to make some of these
processes easier. HSBC PLC has revamped its Premier Account to help customers
moving overseas arrange for bank accounts and mortgages in their new country.
The bank also provides documents necessary for obtaining services such as a
mobile phone, which often requires a local credit history. Charles Schwab &
Co. has begun allowing its overseas customers, located in more than 200
countries, to establish standing letters of authorization so they can request
with just an email that money be wired to an account abroad.
Health and Social Security
Social Security won't be much of a
problem. The Social Security Administration will electronically deposit a
monthly Social Security check in many banks around the world, though not all.
Still, many expat retirees, to avoid challenges with local banking, have their
Social Security checks electronically deposited into their U.S. bank, which
they can then access online.
Health care is a bigger concern. Few
U.S. employers offer health-care coverage to expat retirees, and U.S. carriers
typically don't provide individual coverage to Americans living abroad.
Moreover, the federal Medicare program generally doesn't cover costs outside
the U.S. As such, many retirees either pay out of pocket or, once eligible for
Medicare at age 65, return to the U.S. from time to time for care.
[retire]
Lee Harrison and Julie Lowrey retired
early -- to Uruguay.
The Nickels bought a catastrophic
health-care policy from a European insurer to cover them in case a pricey
medical emergency arises in Panama. The policy costs less than $2,000 a year,
but kicks in only after the first $10,000 in expenses. "I'm gambling at
the moment that my health will hold out to 65," says Mr. Nickel, 62 years
old. "Once I get Medicare in three years, I'll be flying to Houston or
Miami more often for my health care."
There is some good news. Health
insurer Cigna Corp. a year ago rolled out a new insurance plan, covering
health, dental and vision, that allows employers to extend health coverage to
retired workers who move abroad. The plan currently covers about 200 retirees
living abroad, but the insurer expects larger numbers because "we
anticipate the trend to retire overseas will grow," says a Cigna
spokeswoman.
Many retirees also say that basic
health care in many parts of the world is very good and inexpensive. Many
doctors are Western trained, and some local hospitals are affiliated with U.S.
institutions. Hospital Punta Pacifica in Panama City, for instance, has
partnered with Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Medicine International.
In some countries, retirees who become
residents gain access to the national health-care system. Mr. Harrison, who
just gained Uruguayan residency, is considering joining the national health
plan. He says a friend recently joined and pays the equivalent of $65 a month
for coverage that includes hospitalization, doctor visits and prescriptions.
Measuring one country's quality of
health care against another isn't easy, since so many variables exist. However,
the World Health Organization's World Health Report 2006 (available at
www.who.int) contains some statistical indicators to help compare health
systems across various countries.
Still, for most major medical issues,
"you probably want to return to the U.S.," because of superior
medical technology in U.S. hospitals, says Robert Gallo, who founded
Escapeartist.com, a Web site that offers information about overseas living.
Internationalliving.com, to which Mr. Harrison is a contributor, also offers
information on living overseas.
Housing
Some expat retirees rent property,
others buy. The Millers bought land in Dominica and are building a
900-square-foot home with a big veranda in southern Dominica overlooking the
Caribbean. The Nickels gutted and remodeled an apartment on the 24th floor of a
Panama City apartment building and built a "very nice kitchen area"
because they like to cook and entertain.
RELATED LINKS FROM REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
• A Remote Village in Uruguay Tries to
Maintain its Exclusivity
• South of the Border, The Market Is
Still Hot
• More Americans Warm Up To Homes in
Newfoundland
• Low Cost of Living Draws Retirees to
Southeast Asia
In some situations, there can be legal
issues to owning property abroad. Mr. Gallo, of Escapeartist.com, encourages
people to set up and own their property in the name of a Panamanian or British
Virgin Islands corporation. When you go to sell it, you sell the corporation
and the property just switches hands, easing transfer of title, Mr. Gallo says.
Taxes and Legal Issues
Many countries try to lure foreign
retirees. Belize's nearly decade-old Retired Persons Incentive Act, for
instance, allows retirees over age 45 to import their personal effects duty
free, and to earn retirement income tax free. Countries from Italy to Panama to
South Africa and Thailand offer a "pensioner visa" or
"retirement visa" to Americans who can prove a certain level of
monthly income. The visas can provide a variety of benefits, such as automatic
discounts on certain purchases and the ability to obtain a local passport.
Still, the Internal Revenue Service
taxes Americans on income no matter where it's earned in the world. Tax
regimens vary widely overseas, and you may or may not be subject to local
taxes. Many countries have tax treaties with the U.S. to alleviate double
taxation. A list of countries with such tax treaties is available at IRS.gov;
search "tax treaties A to Z."
Three of Wall Street's biggest
investment banks are set to announce today that they are imposing new
environmental standards that will make it harder for companies to get financing
to build coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. and Morgan Stanley say they have concluded that the U.S. government
will cap greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants sometime in the next few
years. The banks will require utilities seeking financing for plants before
then to prove the plants will be economically viable even under potentially
stringent federal caps on carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas.
The move shows Wall Street is the
latest U.S. business sector that sees some kind of government emissions-capping
as inevitable. But it shows disagreement about what to do.
[chart]
It also marks the latest obstacle to
coal, which provides about half of U.S. electricity but emits large amounts of
CO2. Citing costs, the U.S. government last week pulled support for a project
called FutureGen that many utilities saw as a step toward burning coal cleanly.
The standards, which would apply to
all but the smallest plants, result from nine months of negotiations among the
three banks and some of the biggest U.S. utilities and environmental groups.
The standards could hurt coal-dependent utilities that haven't begun factoring
a future price of CO2 emissions into their planning. But they could help utilities
that have.
The banks say they don't want to be
involved with debt that goes bad as a result of government emissions caps that
require the power plants they finance to buy large numbers of extra pollution
allowances. Under a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, the
government would distribute a certain number of emission allowances each year.
Companies whose emissions exceeded their allowances would have to buy more from
companies that had more than needed. Congress is considering several
cap-and-trade proposals.
"We have to wake up some people
who are asleep," says Jeffrey Holzschuh, vice chairman of institutional
securities at Morgan Stanley.
The banks are likely to continue to
finance certain coal-fired power plants: those designed to capture
greenhouse-gas emissions and shoot them underground if that technology became
practical. But they make it less likely the banks will finance other coal-fired
plants. Several dozen are on the drawing board in the U.S., many not yet
financed.
The standards follow TXU Corp.'s
proposal to build 11 coal-fired power plants in Texas -- a plan it scaled back
to three last year. TXU was later taken private by a group led by Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG, formerly Texas Pacific Group. Citi, J.P. Morgan
and Morgan Stanley -- top financiers to the U.S. power industry -- were among
the banks that advised the buyers.
The banks are under pressure from
environmental groups but say their bigger motive is financial. Most major
presidential candidates favor legislation to limit emissions. "What is
earth-shakingly different between now and two years ago is the focus on
CO2," says Eric Fornell, vice chairman of J.P. Morgan's natural-resources
banking division. Several states have begun requiring utilities to account for
the potential cost of emissions in new-plant plans.
The banks say they will encourage
energy-efficiency and renewable-energy pushes before backing new coal plants.
And they say they will help utilities push for new government policies that make
efficiency programs and renewable energy more practical.
When utilities apply for financing for
coal-fired plants, the banks will use "somewhat conservative"
assumptions about future caps, says Hal Clark, co-chairman of Citi's
power-sector investment-banking division. The banks say they will consider the
possibility that utilities will have to pay for their allowances -- an idea
utilities are fighting.
Two environmental groups --
Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council -- worked with
the banks to develop the standards. Mark Brownstein, an Environmental Defense
official, says if utilities have to pay for emission allowances, "the days
of conventional coal really are over."
But several utilities that helped
draft the standards say they shouldn't have to pay for most of their
allowances. Michael Morris, chief executive of American Electric Power Co.,
says his company believes it should get 90% to 95% free. Most big coal-fired
utilities paying for their allowances would drive up their costs and consumers'
electric bills.
Some conventional coal-fired plants
could pass muster if the utility showed it could raise its rates to cover the
higher cost of polluting. "It's still conceivable that conventional coal
plants might make the most sense in a specific location in a specific
community," J.P. Morgan's Mr. Fornell says.
AEP's Mr. Morris says the new
standards clearly make it "more difficult" to build a conventional
coal plant. AEP is designing new plants to capture and store CO2 if that technology
becomes viable. The Wall Street seal of approval, he says, might help surmount
local opposition. "A regulator may find this another reason to go
forward" in approving a new coal-fired plant, Mr. Morris says. A spokesman
for Southern Co., another big utility that helped draft the standards, says it
believes they will stimulate more discussion.
President Bush's final
budget shows war spending and the cooling economy pushing the federal deficit
to near-record levels in the current and next fiscal years.
That gloomy fiscal
outlook has emerged quickly. Just last summer, the Office of Management and
Budget predicted the current fiscal year's deficit would come in at $258
billion; but the White House now expects the deficit to reach $410 billion in
the current fiscal year, just short of the record set four years ago. The flood
of red ink will flow from cooling corporate-tax receipts, the costs of Iraq and
Afghanistan and a short-term economic stimulus package, according to the plan
released today. In fiscal 2007, with the economy humming, corporate tax
receipts reached a record $370 billion. Now, they're pegged at $345 billion in
fiscal 2008 and $339 billion in fiscal 2009, which begins in October. With
military spending in the budget approaching World-War-II levels, the Bush
administration aims to hold down the deficit by essentially freezing
discretionary spending in other areas. The White House again called for
lawmakers to scrap hundreds of government programs, saying 151 programs
needlessly spend more than $18 billion. Whether Congress is ready to get on
board is another question. The White House's budget request is typically
declared dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, especially coming in a president's
final year. "This budget will be quickly forgotten," said Senate
Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.). "But, unfortunately, the
president's legacy of debt will stay with us, as it is passed on to future
generations."
The budget's short-term
pessimism contrasts with its optimism over the medium term. The Bush
administration still insists that its tax cuts and stimulus package will revive
growth enough to eliminate the deficit after Mr. Bush leaves office and
generate a $48 billion surplus in 2012. To keep with that prediction, the
budget makes a few assumptions that critics call overly positive. One of them
is a $70 billion price tag for the war on terror, far short of what is expected
to be the war's full cost. The critics also point to the assumption that the
recent relief granted for the alternative minimum tax won't become a long-term
measure. Finally, the White House is using the same forecast it released in
November, despite mounting concerns that the economy is now slipping into
recession. And even if the government achieves a budget surplus in fiscal 2012,
its fiscal standing will quickly deteriorate due to the exploding growth of
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a situation the White House
acknowledges.
Budget Proposes $560 Billion Cut
In Medicare; Insurance Subsidy Intact
By JOHN GODFREY
February 4, 2008 10:38 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration
would cut roughly $560 billion from Medicare over the next decade but would
leave intact program subsidies to insurers worth an estimated $150 billion over
the same period.
The cuts would slow the program's
projected annual growth rate from 7% to 5% and are needed to slow "the
unsustainable growth in entitlement spending," President Bush said in a
letter to Congress submitting his last budget plan.
"If we do not address this challenge,
we will leave our children three bad options: huge tax increases, huge
deficits, or huge cuts in benefits," Mr. Bush said.
Several congressional leaders are also
calling for a bipartisan discussion of federal entitlements, but most observers
say differences between Mr. Bush and the Democratically controlled Congress are
too great for any agreement to be reached.
The Bush administration estimates that
the cuts would save the program, in net present value terms, roughly $10
trillion over the next 75 years. The savings would reduce nearly one-third of
the program's unfunded obligations, the White House said.
The budget, however, contains few
details about some of the proposed cuts. For example, the budget says with
little elaboration that it "proposes to encourage greater individual
responsibility for health care choices and costs."
The budget does outline a plan to cut
Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals when certain funding levels are
surpassed. If enacted, the proposal would cut such payments by 0.4% each year
the program relied upon general revenues for more than 45% of its funding. In
2006, about 41% of the program's costs were funded from general revenue.
It is unclear, however, whether
payments to insurers would be subject to the provider payment cuts proposed by
the White House.
The White House has fought
congressional efforts to cut subsidized payments to insurers in the past. And
in the budget Monday it argues that the payments allow insurers to "offer
beneficiaries greater choices and higher-quality health care."
The administration and insurer
advocates also argue that the additional payments are needed to encourage
seniors to switch from the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program in
favor of private insurance. They argue that while benefits offered by private
insurers cost more today, over they long run an insurer-managed program will
cost less than the traditional fee-for-service program.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, however, estimates that the overpayments to insurers increase costs
premiums fee-for-service beneficiaries and will shorten the program's fiscal
solvency by two years.
Democrats have targeted the subsidies
as a possible offset to the cost of an increase in federal funding for state
children's health insurance programs, or SCHIP. Mr. Bush has proposed a $20
billion increase in SCHIP funding, but Democrats argue that would lead to fewer
children being covered by the program and are advocating a $50 billion SCHIP
funding hike.
OPEN on a stark white background, with
tinkly music in the background. On the left stands a stuffy-looking man in
khakis, jacket and tie, wearing glasses. On the right, an laid-back guy in
casual clothes. In the center, a bald, nondescript middle-aged guy.
If you're going to write a script for
a PC vs. Mac ad, why not shoot one? Brian Fitzgerald plays PC, and Marshall
Crook is Mac. Full warning: The guy in the middle is the worst actor to ever
walk the face of the earth. Be gentle.
Laid-Back Guy (morosely): Hi, I'm a
Mac.
Stuffy-Looking Guy (smugly): And I'm a
PC.
Nondescript Guy: And I'm a tech
columnist.
Mac: I don't know what to say. This
almost never happens.
PC (gleefully): What happened, Mac?
Mac: Well --
Columnist: What happened is, you
broke. Three and a half weeks after I got you, I came home and your screen was
dark and you wouldn't switch on. Thank goodness I'd just put PC aside, instead
of putting him on the curb like I'd planned.
PC: Came crawling back, did you? So I
guess that bright and shiny Mac world wasn't quite as wonderful as you thought
it would be.
Columnist: No, actually it was pretty
nice.
(PC looks at the camera, nonplussed.)
Columnist: After 25 years using PCs, I
bought a 24-inch iMac in December. And I was impressed before I even plugged it
in -- it came in one slim box, instead of a stack of them. I had it up and
running in about three minutes, and was on my wireless network a minute after
that.
PC: Why don't we skip ahead to the
part where Mac breaks?
Mac (patiently): PC….
Columnist: And it was great clearing
out all those wires and cords. I don't think I'd seen the floor under my desk
in two years with all the mess down there.
PC: But surely it must have been
strange, adapting to all the peculiar ways those people work.
Mac: PC….
Columnist: Yeah, it was weird for a
while. I had trouble getting used to the idea that there was one status bar at
the top of the screen, instead of one on top of every application window. And
it took me a long time to figure out Apple-C instead of CTRL-C. I felt lost for
a week or so, sure. But then --
PC: But tell me about the part where
he breaks!
(Mac hangs head.)
Columnist: Calm down, PC. It took me a
while, but I got all my stuff transferred -- mostly files for iTunes and Word
and Photoshop. My biggest problem was with Mozy, the program I use for remote
backup. I loved it on the PC, but it was really slow on the Mac. Brought
everything to a crawl, and crashed sometimes.
Mac: I like working with lots of
programs. But I can't always control --
Columnist: I know, Mac. I'm not
blaming you. Mozy for Mac's in beta. (They say they're working on an issue with
wireless backups for the Mac, and pointed me to a new software release.) And
even that hasn't been so bad: I know once I get the initial backup finished, things
will be a lot easier. Meanwhile, I felt like I'd really made the switch. I
mean, iTunes was a revelation on the Mac --
PC: Revelation? Let's not get
sacrilegious here!
Columnist: ITunes worked a lot more
quickly and smoothly, how's that? My dad was even inspired by my example -- he
got a MacBook. A couple of days later, he asked me what antivirus software he
should get, and I heard myself saying, "You don't need it, Dad -- it's a
Mac." It was my first Mac Guy moment. And I felt proud.
PC: And then he broke.
Mac: Oh, don't be cruel, PC.
Columnist: Yeah, I came home and you
were broken.
(PC begins hopping up and down and
clapping his hands.)
Mac: What was wrong with me?
Columnist: Bad power supply. I called
Apple and they had me take you into the shop. I got you back a week later.
Mac: Wow, tough break. But you know,
if something like this does happen with me within the first 90 days after you
take me home, you get complimentary phone support.
(Mac looks off to the side.)
Mac: Hey, let me bring out one of our
technical-support people! I think she'll be played by that girl from
"Juno" --
Columnist: No offense, Mac, but I was
hoping not to be acquainted with your technical-support folks quite so soon. I
got an appointment at the Genius Bar in the Soho Apple store. It's a strange
place, the Genius Bar. Everybody waiting for help looks kind of mournful, like
they did something wrong.
PC (scoffing): Sounds like some kind
of weird cult to me. I'd be careful.
Columnist: Please. If there were such
a thing as a PC Genius Bar, people wouldn't be waiting quietly. They'd be
rioting.
PC: Hey! I'm not the one who stopped
working!
Columnist: Don't start with me, PC.
How many times a week did you tell me you were low on virtual memory? And
remember Windows ME? I've had tumbles down the stairs that were more fun than
that.
PC: But that was a long time ago! You
were happy with XP! That's what I don't understand, Jace. I know I was getting
old -- I couldn't simultaneously run Photoshop and Excel and surf the Web and
play that indie rock you're too old for. But you could have upgraded me! You
could have bought a new me! What did I do to you that was so bad that you'd
leave?
Columnist: It wasn't you, PC. It was
me. I guess I just wanted to try something new. I loved my iPod, and iTunes
changed my musical life. Then I got an AirPort Express, and I liked that too.
And eventually, the fact that I liked all these Apple products made me wonder
what I was missing. I thought it might be fun to play around with iMovie and GarageBand,
you know? And since you two can share files really easily now, what was holding
me back?
PC: Well, busted power supplies, for
one.
Mac: PC, please. So did everything
work out OK?
Columnist: I don't know, Mac, you tell
me. You've been running for a week. I guess that's progress.
Mac: You know, I'm really sorry that
happened. But I'm not sure you're being fair here. Our factories make a lot of
me, and sometimes something goes wrong. I got fixed, it didn't cost you
anything, and now I'm sure I'll work just fine for years to come.
Columnist: I hope you're right, Mac.
And I'm sorry that I'm mad. But I mean, I switched. I saw all the ads and read
about all the neat products and I read my own columns, and so finally I
switched. And then three weeks later I'm lugging a busted iMac around Soho. I
was just so disappointed.
Mac: Like I said, I'm sorry. But --
and I don't mean to be harsh here -- you're 38 years old. You've lived with
computers your whole life. You've written this column for more than five years.
I just wonder why, after all that, you're taking something like this so
personally. We're both just machines….
PC: Wait a minute! He was the one in
the shop. Why does he gets the big philosophical speech? These should be my
lines.
Columnist: Fair point. Take it away,
PC.
PC: Um, where were we? Oh. We're both
just machines. We may look different, and we may do some things differently,
but we're still just machines. We can be a big part of your life, but what
computer you buy doesn't have anything to do with what kind of person you are.
We're just computers, Jace. We're ways to get things done. It's silly to make
us into anything more than that.
Mac: Couldn't have said it better
myself, PC.
Guilty plea expected in killing
Saturday, February 02, 2008
BY JOE ELIAS
Of The Patriot-News
NEW BLOOMFIELD - Almost a year after
her arrest, Rochelle Laudenslager is to plead guilty in the December 2006
shooting death of her former lover, her lawyer said.
Lawyer George Matangos said Friday
that Laudenslager is expected to plead guilty next week in Perry County Court,
but he would not discuss specifics of a plea agreement.
Laudenslager, 45, of the 6200 block of
Spring Knoll Drive, Lower Paxton Twp., pleaded not guilty in April to charges
of first-degree homicide, burglary and kidnapping in the death of Elaine
Pierson, 48, of Rye Twp.
Perry County District Attorney Charles
Chenot would neither confirm nor deny that a plea agreement had been reached,
saying only that Laudenslager is to appear in court at 10 a.m. Wednesday in New
Bloomfield.
Chenot had said he would seek the
death penalty if Laudenslager were convicted.
Pierson's body was found Jan. 6, 2007,
on the Perry County side of Blue Mountain in Rye Twp. She had been reported
missing by friends about a week earlier and was last seen Dec. 27, 2006.
Laudenslager was arrested Feb. 15 and
has been held without bail in the Cumberland County Prison.
At a preliminary hearing in April,
county Coroner Michael Shalonis said that Pierson was shot four times with a
.22-caliber pistol and that three of the shots could have been fatal.
State police said they found a
gold-barreled commemorative Colt Frontier Scout .22-caliber revolver at the
Gratz home of Laudenslager's mother, Betty Laudenslager.
Betty Laudenslager testified at the
preliminary hearing that she'd found her daughter at the Gratz home the night
of Dec. 27, 2006, crying, threatening to commit suicide and carrying the gun in
a plastic bag. Betty Laudenslager testified that her daughter placed the gun in
a box and hid it under insulation in the attic.
Blood found inside the Colt's barrel
matched Pierson's DNA, state police said.
Matangos said at the time that the
evidence was circumstantial. He also suggested there might have been two
shooters, and said that theory was bolstered by the fact that it took two
assistants from the coroner's office to move Pierson's body.
The day Pierson's body was found,
state police interviewed a woman who said Pierson feared Laudenslager would
harm her after she refused to give Laudenslager bail money following her arrest
in October 2006 in Nevada.
Court records from Reno, Nev., said
Laudenslager was arrested on a domestic violence charge after being accused of
hitting her sister with a frying pan.
JOE ELIAS: 255-8115 or
jelias@patriot-news.com
©2008 The Patriot-News
© 2008 PennLive.com All Rights
Reserved.
A blood clot in the veins is a common
— and sometimes deadly — complication for hospital patients. Yet despite the
known risk for the bedridden, many don’t get recommended preventive measures,
the Lancet reports.
Researchers looked at data from more
than 68,000 patients worldwide, including more than 9,000 patients in the U.S.
They found that among non-surgical patients at risk for clots, or venous
thromboembolisms, in U.S. hospitals, only 48% received preventive care that met
widely accepted guidelines. Among surgical patients at risk, 71% received care
that met the guidelines.
“In the European Union, blood clots
kill more than 500,000 people a year, more than breast cancer, prostate cancer
and traffic accidents put together,” U.K.-based lead author Alexander Cohen
told Bloomberg. “But still there is little awareness about the fact that 10
percent of hospital deaths are caused by thromboembolisms.”
Worldwide, 58.5% of at-risk surgical
patients received preventive care that met the guidelines, and 39.5% of at-risk
non-surgical patients received such care.
Risk factors for clots include
immobilization, obesity and chronic pulmonary disease or heart failure.
Preventive care can include compression stockings, pneumatic compression
devices and drugs.
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