Can You Afford Extreme Early Retirement?

Could retirement before you're even eligible to join AARP be the quintessential impossible dream? Not if you're consistently disciplined, focused, driven and don't give a hoot about what the Joneses think of that beat-up Chevy in the driveway, say experts.

Whether you work to live or live to work is a question increasingly answered in favor of living by couples who have opted out of the daily grind before the traditional "early" retirement age of 50-something. What's more, they're not going quietly, but instead are springing up on Web sites and in media interviews, telling their stories and encouraging others to follow suit.

Bankrate found two such couples who were eager to share their tales of extreme early retirement: Billy and Akaisha Kaderli, and Sandy Aldridge and partner Dale Lugenbehl. Though their lifestyles are vastly different, they share many traits. Several Bankrate readers also shared their early retirement experiences.

Set free to roam the world
The Kaderlis can count themselves as members of a small group of founders of the extreme early retirement trend among baby boomers. Now in their 17th year of retirement, the couple ditched their 9-to-5 jobs when they were 38 years old.

At 55, they say they would have made the same choice again, only investing sooner and with more confidence. The Kaderlis' initial $500,000 nest egg has grown steadily, partly because they hung in the stock market through the '90s boom and the historic bust that followed, and partly because they've lived on an average of just $24,000 a year. Initially, they put all their savings in a low-cost index fund.

Retiring at 38, they say, was an excellent age because they had accumulated life experiences through their careers: He was a former restaurant chef and owner, and at one time, the youngest branch manager at brokerage Dean Witter, while she continued to run the restaurant.

"We retired with youth, vigor and plenty of enthusiasm to venture out into traveling the globe. Retiring earlier, we would not have acquired enough skill or self knowledge about how we are able to interact with the world," the couple wrote from Thailand.

The Kaderlis sold their home when they retired, and remained homeless while they explored the world, spending time in the Caribbean island of Nevis, as well as in Venezuela, Mexico and Thailand. They recently purchased a small home in an Arizona retirement community, and now split their time between Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Mesa, Ariz., when not traveling to other countries.

Their Web site, www.retireearlylifestyle.com, gives them the opportunity to communicate with other early retirees, as well as educate the younger generation. Their advice to 20-somethings who want to follow the same path is simple: Save everything and stay out of debt.

Out of the mainstream
Extreme early retirement strikes a chord with people now more than in the past, says MSN personal finance columnist and author Liz Pulliam Weston. While going against the fearsome icon of the "company man" used to be part of the '60s counterculture, Weston says she's seeing a resurgence of the attitude among 20-somethings who are rejecting the consumerism that began in the 1980s. "They want more than to be chained to their desks," she says, and they have more desire to redesign their career to have more personal meaning. Sometimes that means working until 65, but shifting often to careers that suit their changing mindset.

Whether today's employees are enchanted with the idea of dropping out early or not, it's still a small group of people who can make it happen, according to Weston. "You have to be out of the mainstream to do this," she says, adding that in her experience, the successful extreme early retirees are "laser-like, and don't seem to care what people think."

Aside from an unwavering focus on their goal and an indifferent attitude toward amassing all the latest stuff, extreme early retirees can't be lumped into the same category. They run the gamut from young parents, singles and dual-income couples without children. Weston has talked to couples with as many as four children who are living in expensive areas of the country, as well as those who have no family ties and a cabin in the woods.

They share an excitement about their lives, a desire to spend time in pursuits that are meaningful to them, and often, an environmental conscience.

The simple life
All three traits apply to Aldridge and Lugenbehl, who retired more than a dozen years ago to an eight-acre parcel in Cottage Grove, Ore., with a starting nest egg of $135,000 each. They each contributed $50,000 to buy the land where they built their home, and the remainder is in CDs. They live on $400 a month, and have a health insurance policy with a deductible of $7,500.

The money has remained conservatively invested in CDs. "We like to sleep at night, so it's more important to us to know what's coming in, rather than to maximize the possible income," says Aldridge. "We've seen too many folks lose money rather than make money from their so-called investments."

Aldridge and Lugenbehl, who retired at ages 48 and 47, don't have a television and rarely eat out. Yet they don't feel like their life is lacking, says Aldridge. "We are fortunate to have found what is enough for us. I feel so totally blessed with how much we have that I can't imagine wanting more. At this point, I'd have to say it's more than enough to meet our needs and our wants."

Tips for extreme early retirement 'wannabes'
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli, the "grandparents" of the extreme early retirement movement for baby boomers, share their mantra for those seeking to follow the same path: Work hard, spend little, save a lot and spend wisely. Their additional tips include:

• Set spending and investment priorities now for the future
• Stay 100 percent out of debt, except for a mortgage
• Invest in stocks through index and mutual funds
• Use the compounding effect of time by investing early
• Seek a partner with the same financial values

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli at Kata Beach, Thailand
Aldridge acknowledges that the cost of living is lower where they are, but says they make an art form out of living well on less. They grow most of their own food, shop for clothes at yard sales, which Aldridge says is a form of entertainment for her, and find joy in small construction and gardening projects on their property.

The two cook their own meals from scratch, and volunteer to give presentations on the environmental impact of food choices, as well as what Aldridge calls "voluntary simplicity."

"Dale and I would both rather have our time," she says, "even if we end up choosing to work hard at gardening or building. At least we're the ones determining what we're going to do with our precious life energy."

Pursuing passions
Finding passion outside of a career that had become a chore is a theme among most extreme early retirees. For the Kaderlis, that meant world travel and a chance to experience diverse cultures.

"We have our youth and spirit of adventure," they wrote. "The opportunity to travel to exotic locations and meet people from foreign lands has given us a global view that no amount of money could buy."

Aldridge and Lugenbehl enjoy their day-to-day life so much that the thought of vacationing elsewhere rarely occurs to them. "We exercise faithfully three days a week, and usually take a long walk on the other four," says Aldridge. "My mother lives up here now and we take care of her. We do all the regular garden and orchard work."

The abundance of time and the freedom to choose how to spend it are the most satisfying aspects of retirement for Aldridge. "It's being able to get up each morning and decide for myself what I'm going to be doing that day. Honestly, I can't think of any downside; at least there hasn't been one for me."

Surprising reactions
Whether it's the green tinge of envy or an aversion to anyone who steps off life's predictable treadmill, extreme early retirees often face unexpected opposition from those around them.

"Back when we left our jobs, we got mostly shock," says Aldridge. "Dale's mother was a classic. She was sure we were going to go hungry and be out in the cold. That was about 13 years ago, and it's never been a problem."

"Some people have expressed envy, but we don't think we did anything they couldn't do if it really was a priority for them," she adds. "Most of our work history was part-time, and not all that highly-paid."

Aldridge says Lugenbehl's mother couldn't imagine how they would fill their time in retirement. "It was as if she thought we wouldn't be able to find things to do. My response was to ask her what she did with her time. Not another word was said because she realized that she'd never had any trouble in that regard."

The Kaderlis say that when they first retired, people treated them like they were on an extended vacation and would soon return to work. "Some thought we were committing social and financial suicide, and others projected that we were selfish or lazy since we opted out of the mandatory working world. This included family members, friends and even strangers. Our choice of early retirement was too far out of the box for them."

Think like an entrepreneur
Both the Kaderlis and Aldridge say they have always been debt free, except for the time when they had mortgages, and they avoid debt now like the plague. They also live below their means, even when their investments throw off more income.

These two actions are key to the ability to retire early, says Herb Hopwood, president of Hopwood Financial Services in Great Falls, Va. "It really comes down to the fact that you can't control what the markets are going to do, but one thing you can control is your expenses, and that's probably the biggest thing."

Hopwood likens extreme early retirement to extreme sports. "Extreme sports are risky and you must be in great physical shape. Early retirement is risky, because what you're planning is going to be for a long period of time without income...and you have to be in great financial shape."

After an initial financial plan is developed, whether informally penciled on the back of an envelope like the Kaderlis' or more formally with a financial planner, it has to be monitored and changed. Setting yourself up to receive the same income no matter how the markets perform can result in financial disaster, says Hopwood. "The objective is not to tap the principal."

Once you begin doing that, he says, it's alarming how fast principal erodes, leaving you with a smaller pot from which to draw income. A portfolio should remain fairly aggressive in equities, up to 70 percent of the total. But Hopwood cautions against a blanket approach when it comes to what's considered aggressive. "You can be aggressive in allocation, and stupid in investments." For instance, he wouldn't recommend that all the equity allocation be in biotech, or growth stocks, but in a balanced blend that will return an average of 8 percent over time.

Hopwood recommends that clients seeking a long retirement train themselves to think like entrepreneurs. The portfolio, rather than a job, is providing income, and like an entrepreneur, a retiree should be constantly watching and adjusting the rate of income.

"Too many people adjust their lifestyle to their income. That's a very dangerous thing to do."

Copyrighted, Bankrate.com. All rights reserved.

Source:

by Judy Martel
Thursday, November 29, 2007 provided by Bankrate.com

Environment: Mother Nature feels the pains of divorce

Mother Nature feels the pains of divorce

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer | Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 3:48pm PST

WASHINGTON - Divorce can be bad for the environment. In countries around the world divorce rates have been rising, and each time a family dissolves the result is two new households.

"A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household," said Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University whose analysis of the environmental impact of divorce appears in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More households means more use of land, water and energy, three critical resources, Liu explained in a telephone interview.

Households with fewer people are simply not as efficient as those with more people sharing, he explained. A household uses the same amount of heat or air conditioning whether there are two or four people living there. A refrigerator used the same power whether there is one person home or several. Two people living apart run two dishwashers, instead of just one.

Liu, who researches the relationship of ecology with social sciences, said people seem surprised by his findings at first, and then consider it simple. "A lot of things become simple after the research is done," he said.

Some extra energy or water use may not sound like a big deal, but it adds up.

The United States, for example, had 16.5 million households headed by a divorced person in 2005 and just over 60 million households headed by a married person.

Per person, divorced households spent more per person per month for electricity compared with a married household, as multiple people can be watching the same television, listening to the same radio, cooking on the same stove and or eating under the same lights.

That means some $6.9 billion in extra utility costs per year, Liu calculated, plus an added $3.6 billion for water, in addition to other costs such as land use.

And it isn't just the United States.

Liu looked at 11 other countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico and South Africa between 1998 and 2002.

In the 11, if divorced households had combined to have the same average household size as married households, there could have been a million fewer households using energy and water in these countries.

"People have been talking about how to protect the environment and combat climate change, but divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered," Liu said.

Liu stressed that he isn't condemning divorce: "Some people really need to get divorces." But, he added, "one way to be more environmentally friendly is to live with other people and that will reduce the impact."

Don't get smug, though, married folks — savings also apply to people living together and Shaker communities or even hippie communes would have been even more efficient.

So, what prompts someone to figure out the environmental impact of divorce?

Liu was studying the ecology of areas with declining population and noticed that even where the total number of people was less, the number of households was increasing. He wondered why.

There turned out to be several reasons: divorce, demographic shifts such as people remaining single longer and the demise of multigenerational households.

"I was surprised because the divorce rate actually has been up and down for many years in some of the countries ... but we found the proportion of divorced households has increased rapidly across the globe," he said.

So he set out to measure the difference, such as in terms of energy and water, land use and construction materials and is now reporting the results for divorce.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.

___

On the Net:

PNAS: http://www.pnas.org

Santa Claus is coming to town -- for 34 microseconds

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Christmas is hectic for all but particularly for Santa, who must live in Kyrgyzstan and make his rounds at lightning speed if he is to deliver gifts to all the world's children on time, a Swedish consultancy has concluded.

Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Santa Claus's route around the planet includes stops at 2.5 billion homes, assuming that children of all religions receive a present from the jolly man in the red suit, Anders Larsson of the engineering consultancy Sweco told AFP.

"We estimated that there are 48 people per square kilometer (120 per square mile) on Earth, and 20 metres (66 feet) between each home. So if Santa leaves from Kyrgyzstan and travels against the Earth's rotation he has 48 hours to deliver all the presents," he said.

Father Christmas has long been believed to reside at the North Pole, although a number of northern towns, including Finnish Rovaniemi, claim to be his true home.

But Sweco's report on Santa's most efficient route -- which takes into account factors like geographic density and the fewest detours -- shows that he wouldn't be able to make his round-the-world trip from there in time.

"He has 34 microseconds at each stop" to slide down the chimney, drop off the presents, nibble on his cookies and milk and hop back on his sleigh, Larsson said.

Santa's reindeer must travel at a speed of 5,800 kilometers (3,604 miles) per second to make the trip on time.

Another report circulating on the Internet suggested however that Santa's sleigh, weighed down with presents and travelling at supersonic speed, would encounter such massive air resistance that the entire contraption would burst into flames and be vaporised within 4.26 thousandths of a second.

Source: Yahoo.com

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507 Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers.

Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovered the Pacific?

"That's the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there," said John Hebert, chief of the geography and map division of the Library of Congress.

The 12 sheets that make up the map, purchased from German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg for $10 million in 2003, were mounted on Monday in a huge 6-foot by 9.5-foot (1.85 meter by 2.95 meter) display case machined from a single block of aluminum.

The case will be floodePublish Postd with inert argon gas to prevent deterioration when it goes on public display December 13.

Researchers are hopeful that putting the rarely shown map on permanent display for the first time since it was discovered in the Waldburg-Wolfegg castle archives in 1901 may stimulate interest in finding out more about the documents used to produce it.

The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.

The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.

"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy."

Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.

The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.

"So this is a rather compelling map to say, 'How did they come to that conclusion,"' Hebert said.

The mapmakers say they based it on the 1,300-year-old works of the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy as well as letters Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci wrote describing his voyages to the new world. But Hebert said there must have been something more.

"From the writings of Vespucci you couldn't have prepared the map," Hebert said. "There had to be something cartographic with it."

MISGIVINGS ABOUT AMERICA

Waldseemuller made it clear he was naming the new land after Vespucci, describing how he came up with the name America based on the navigator's first name.

But he soon had misgivings about what he had done. An atlas Waldseemuller produced six years later shows only part of the east coast of the Americas, and refers to it as Terra Incognita -- unknown land.

"America has gone out of his lexicon," Hebert said. "(No) place in the atlas -- in the text or in the maps -- does the name America appear."

His 1516 mariner's map, on the same scale as the 1507 map, steps back even further, showing only parts of the new continents and reconnecting the north to Asia. South America is labeled Terra Nova -- New World -- and North America is labeled Terra de Cuba -- Land of Cuba.

"Essentially he's reconnecting North America to the Asian mainland, suggesting a continual world of land mass rather than separated by those bodies of water that separate us from Europe and Asia," Hebert said.

Why the rollback? No one knows.

In writings accompanying the 1516 map, Waldseemuller comes across as if he "has seen the better of his error and is now correcting it," Hebert said.

He speculated that power politics played a role. Spain and Portugal divided the globe between them in 1494, two years after Columbus, with territory to the east going to Portugal and land to the west to Spain.

That demarcation line is oddly absent from the 1507 Waldseemuller map, and flags marking territorial claims in South America suggest Portugal controls the region's southernmost land, even though it is in Spain's area of influence. On the later map, the southernmost flag is Spanish, Hebert said.

"It is possible one could say the 1507 map is influenced strongly by Portuguese sources and conceivably the 1516 map may be influenced more by Spanish sources," he said.

Although the map conceals many mysteries, one thing is clear: it represents a revolutionary shift in the way Europe viewed the world.

"This is ... essentially the beginning or first map of the modern age, and it's one that everything builds on from that point forward," Hebert said. "It becomes a keystone map."

Source: Yahoo.com (Editing by Eddie Evans)

Environment: Oh Christmas tree, oh green Christmas tree?

Nothing says "Christmas" like the smell of pine in your living room on a winter morning! But is that smell really "green" or is it bad for the planet? Is it more environmentally responsible to buy a fake tree and use it year after year? What about keeping a live tree for Christmas? Let's look at the options one by one.

If you want a tree for the holiday, the experts at Grist and TreeHugger say it's actually better to buy a cut real Christmas tree than an artificial tree.

Why? In a word, plastics. Fake trees are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Producing this type of plastic creates a lot of pollution, and PVC is difficult to recycle.

Plus, lead has been found in PVC. According to a report (PDF) in the Journal of Environmental Health, lead levels are higher in older artificial trees. You've probably heard about lead in children's toys, so just imagine the kiddos hanging around lead-tainted branches of your fake Christmas tree. Not a merry scene.

Farmed Christmas trees are ultimately a renewable resource. Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, and after the holidays, the trees can be recycled into mulch. Check Earth 911 to see where to take your dead tree after the 25th.

What about a live tree? This is often promoted as the ultimate eco-friendly holiday option. Well, it's not that simple. First, you have to live in the right climate to plant a tree after Christmas. If the ground is frozen outside, you can't do it.

Then, you can only keep a live tree indoors for a few days, either 4 to 10, depending on the type of tree. You can't have this tree up after Thanksgiving and around till New Years, or you'll kill it.

Some types of live trees can be kept outside in containers for a year or two. Others grow fast and must be planted in the ground sooner. Either way, this isn't a long-term solution to your Christmas decorations -- what do you do the following year? Pretty soon, the tree won't fit in the house.

Also, you must carefully consider how much space you have in your yard to plant trees. Remember, these trees may grow up to 60-feet tall.

So, the most practical solution for earth-friendly folks who celebrate Christmas is to look for a locally grown tree. Ask if the farm uses integrated pest management instead of tons of chemicals.

If you can, find a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm. It's good family fun too.

Source: Yahoo!Green By Trystan L. Bass

Football field-sized kite powers latest heavy freight ship

A kite the size of a football field will provide most of the power for a German heavy freight ship set to launch in December.
The Beluga shipping company that owns the 460-foot Beluga said it expects the kites to decrease fuel consumption by up to 50% in optimal cases as well as a cutback of the emission of greenhouse gases on sea by 10 to 20%. Interestingly, the ship will be hauling windmills from Esbjerg, Denmark to Houston, Texas.
The company that makes the kite for the German transport, SkySails, has made kites for large yachts but is targeting commercial ships with new, larger kites. And it has the ambitious goal of equipping 1,500 ships with kites by 2015.
The SkySails system consists of a towing kite with rope, a launch and recovery system and a control system for the whole operation. The control system acts like the autopitot systems on an aircraft, the company says. Autopilot software sends and receives data about the sail etc to make sure the sail is set at its optimal position.
The company also says it provides an optional weather routing system so that ships can sail into optimal wind conditions.The kites typically fly at about 1,000 feet above sea level, thereby tapping winds that can be almost 50% stronger than at the surface.
Skysail isn't the only company pioneering kite technology. A US company, KiteShip, in Martinez, Calif., has been building ultra-large kites mostly for the private yachting sector, with plans to expand into cargo and cruise vessels.
Not everyone is sold on the kites however. In an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today, John Barnes, editor of Marine Engineers Review, a marine engineering magazine in London, said the jury's still out on kite propulsion systems. "This could work, but there is an extra cost entailed, and it won't make much sense if the price of fuel falls back," he said. "It seems to be a practical approach, but we still need to see what the benefits and penalties will be."One hurdle is the costs associated with the hiring of crews to actually tend the kites. Another: drawback: The system obviously won't work in a head wind, the article stated.

Source: networkworld.com Submitted by Layer 8 on Sun, 11/25/2007 - 11:19pm.

Invention Of the Year: The iPhone

Stop. I mean, don't stop reading this, but stop thinking what you're about to think. Or, O.K., I'll think it for you:
The thing is hard to type on. It's too slow. It's too big. It doesn't have instant messaging. It's too expensive. (Or, no, wait, it's too cheap!) It doesn't support my work e-mail. It's locked to AT&T. Steve Jobs secretly hates puppies. And—all together now—we're sick of hearing about it! Yes, there's been a lot of hype written about the iPhone, and a lot of guff too. So much so that it seems weird to add more, after Danny Fanboy and Bobby McBlogger have had their day. But when that day is over, Apple's iPhone is still the best thing invented this year. Why? Five reasons:
1. The iPhone is pretty

Most high-tech companies don't take design seriously. They treat it as an afterthought. Window-dressing. But one of Jobs' basic insights about technology is that good design is actually as important as good technology. All the cool features in the world won't do you any good unless you can figure out how to use said features, and feel smart and attractive while doing it.
An example: look at what happens when you put the iPhone into "airplane" mode (i.e., no cell service, WiFi, etc.). A tiny little orange airplane zooms into the menu bar! Cute, you might say. But cute little touches like that are part of what makes the iPhone usable in a world of useless gadgets. It speaks your language. In the world of technology, surface really is depth.
2. It's touchy-feely

Apple didn't invent the touchscreen. Apple didn't even reinvent it (Apple probably acquired its much hyped multitouch technology when it snapped up a company called Fingerworks in 2005). But Apple knew what to do with it. Apple's engineers used the touchscreen to innovate past the graphical user interface (which Apple helped pioneer with the Macintosh in the 1980s) to create a whole new kind of interface, a tactile one that gives users the illusion of actually physically manipulating data with their hands—flipping through album covers, clicking links, stretching and shrinking photographs with their fingers.
This is, as engineers say, nontrivial. It's part of a new way of relating to computers. Look at the success of the Nintendo Wii. Look at Microsoft's new Surface Computing division. Look at how Apple has propagated its touchscreen interface to the iPod line with the iPod Touch. Can it be long before we get an iMac Touch? A TouchBook? Touching is the new seeing.
3. It will make other phones better

Jobs didn't write the code inside the iPhone. These days he doesn't dirty his fingers with 1's and 0's, if he ever really did. But he did negotiate the deal with AT&T to carry the iPhone. That's important: one reason so many cell phones are lame is that cell-phone-service providers hobble developers with lame rules about what they can and can't do. AT&T gave Apple unprecedented freedom to build the iPhone to its own specifications. Now other phone makers are jealous. They're demanding the same freedoms. That means better, more innovative phones for all.
4. It's not a phone, it's a platform

When apple made the iphone, it didn't throw together some cheap-o bare-bones firmware. It took OS X, its full-featured desktop operating system, and somehow squished it down to fit inside the iPhone's elegant glass-and-stainless-steel case. That makes the iPhone more than just a gadget. It's a genuine handheld, walk-around computer, the first device that really deserves the name. One of the big trends of 2007 was the idea that computing doesn't belong just in cyberspace, it needs to happen here, in the real world, where actual stuff happens. The iPhone gets applications like Google Maps out onto the street, where we really need them.
And this is just the beginning. Platforms are for building on. Last month, after a lot of throat-clearing, Apple decided to open up the iPhone, so that you—meaning people other than Apple employees—will be able to develop software for it too. Ever notice all that black blank space on the iPhone's desktop? It's about to fill up with lots of tiny, pretty, useful icons.
5. It is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come

The iphone has sold enough units—more than 1.4 million at press time—that it'll be around for a while, and with all that room to develop and its infinitely updatable, all-software interface, the iPhone is built to evolve. Look at the iPod of six years ago. That monochrome interface! That clunky touchwheel! It looks like something a caveman whittled from a piece of flint using another piece of flint. Now imagine something that's going to make the iPhone look that primitive. You'll have one in a few years. It'll be very cool. And it'll be even cheaper.

By LEV GROSSMAN on Time.com

Lost wallet found after 55 years

A wallet misplaced during a romantic embrace has been returned to its forgetful owner after 55 years.
Two classic car collectors from the US state of Idaho found the wallet after it fell out of the back of a vintage car they were planning to restore.
After an internet search they found and contacted the owner, Glenn Goodlove.
Mr Goodlove said he probably lost the wallet in the back seat of his 1946 Hudson car while kissing a girl when he was home on leave from the US Navy.
"If it was in my sailor-mentality years, I might have attempted to, as they said in those years, 'make out,"' Mr Goodlove told the Idaho Twin Falls Times-News.
Vital clues
Jon Beck, 61, and Chuck Merrill, 72, bought the now-vintage vehicle in Idaho after placing an ad in a local newspaper to buy a classic car in need of restoration.
Like a couple of kids, we thought we had a goldmine
Jon BeckClassic car collector
Since 1952, the car had travelled from Washington state, where Mr Goodlove's grandfather owned it, to finish up neglected in Idaho, changing hands several times en route.
Driving the car home after buying it, the collectors stopped at a restaurant and saw something had dislodged below the back seat.
"Like a couple of kids, we thought we had a goldmine," Mr Beck said.
Instead, they found some small change - the leather wallet held a $10 bill, Mr Goodlove's military ID, his Social Security card, his driver's licence and several jewellery receipts from 1952. But they were all in the name of Glenn Putnam.
After searching online, Mr Beck discovered that Mr Putnam had since changed his name to Glenn Goodlove and moved to San Diego, California.
He called Mr Goodlove, asking to speak to a man who used to drive a '46 Hudson.
"There was a silence for about 15 seconds," Mr Beck told the Twin Falls Times-News. "Then he said, 'Who is this?"'
Mr Goodlove, now 75, says he did not even remember losing the wallet, but the find has brought memories of his youth in Everett, Washington, flooding back.
"I could see the house and the car and the town and all the good stuff from living there," he said. "They've been flowing ever since he talked to me."
Mr Beck and Mr Merrill will post the wallet back to Mr Goodlove.
From: BBC news

Science: Sea scorpion fossil belonged to biggest bug ever

A giant fossilized claw discovered in Germany belonged to an ancient sea scorpion that was much bigger than the average man, an international team of geologists and archaeologists reported Tuesday.
The 46-centimetre-long claw was discovered by report co-author Markus Poschmann, from Germany, in a quarry near Pruem, a city about 200 kilometres east of Frankfurt.

The researchers said the scorpion lived between 460 and 255 million years ago and would have been among the top predators in its environment, feeding on early vertebrates and smaller arthropods. The report said the creature likely only lived in the water because with the construction of its body, "it is hardly imaginable how such a huge arthropod could effectively walk on land."

In a report in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, the team said the claw indicates that sea scorpion Jaekelopterus rhenania was almost 2.5 metres long, making it the largest arthropod — an animal with a segmented body, jointed limbs and a hard exoskeleton — ever found. In the report, the authors said the scorpion exceeds previous size records for arthropods by almost half a metre.

The fossil, found in a 390-million-year-old rock, suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, the researchers said.

"This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realized, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were," said co-author Dr. Simon Braddy from the University of Bristol.

Some geologists believe that the giant arthropod evolved due to high oxygen levels, while others argue that they evolved in an "arms race" alongside their prey, the early armoured fish.

Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 9:27 PM ET
CBC News

Scientists ask: Where are all the bees? - A Dade City beekeeper sounds a nationwide alarm as colonies mysteriously disappear.

DADE CITY - To a veteran beekeeper like David Hackenberg, it was as astonishing as seeing water flow uphill.
Last October, he left 400 hives in a field in Ruskin to feed in Brazilian pepper tree blossoms. When he returned a month later, all but 36 of the colonies had been abandoned, right down to the part of the honeycomb filled with larvae and pupae - the future of the hives.
"I could tell the whole order of things had just gone haywire," said Hackenberg, 58, who has been keeping bees since he was 12.
Hackenberg, who spread the word to scientists and other beekeepers, is credited with sounding the alarm about what may be the most devastating honeybee die-off in U.S. history.
The crisis, marked by bees mysteriously vanishing from their hives, has been identified in 24 states in every part of the country, said Jerry Hayes, Florida's chief apiary inspector; about 35 percent of Florida's colonies have disappeared, he said, with the losses concentrated in the southern half of the state, where many beekeepers from the eastern United States spend the winter.
Unless scientists can find the cause of the die-off, and a solution, its long-term consequences may be as ominous as its name: Colony Collapse Disorder.
Not only are the livelihoods of beekeepers endangered, Hayes said, but so is the estimated one-third of the nation's food supply that depends upon honeybee pollination - apples, almonds, melons, blueberries and some varieties of citrus, including grapefruit.
"Honey is a byproduct of pollination," he said. "It's wonderful and it's great, but more importantly, without honeybees taking pollen from one flower to another, that plant has no reason to build a fruit or a nut."
Scientists alerted
Even so, beekeeping remains a small and underappreciated industry, Hackenberg said, "the ugly stepchild of agriculture."
That is why Hackenberg has been so important, Hayes said. He is well-connected, opinionated, funny and, for an interview on Thursday afternoon, dressed to stand out, wearing a multicolored hat advertising his business, Hackenberg Apiary, and a large, square belt-buckle engraved with images of bees and honeycomb.
A former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, he has been on the telephone constantly in recent weeks, talking to reporters across the country from his winter headquarters in a remote corner of northwestern Pasco County.
When he began telling fellow beekeepers of his vanishing hives last fall, some were skeptical, but others told him they had been losing large numbers of bees for more than a year.
By reporting this to agriculture officials, Hayes said, Hackenberg "was the one who got this whole thing started."
In response, farming experts from several states and universities have formed an emergency working group to study the disease.
So far, the scientists know only two things for sure, said Dennis vanEnglesdorp, Pennsylvania's state apiarist: The main symptom has been the mass abandonment of hives. And the variety of fungi, viruses and mites found in collapsing hives suggests a widespread failure of the bees' immune systems.
"It's a lot like AIDS," Hackenberg said.
The rest, at this point, is conjecture, according to the study group's preliminary report.
Bees are increasingly trucked long distances to take advantage of crops, such as almonds, that pay high pollination fees. This may strain their ability to recover from infections, the report says, and expose them to a wider range of diseases and toxic chemicals.
"They forage over a large area so they pick up a lot of junk," Hayes said. "I'm surprised there's a honey bee alive."
The "prime suspect" for the collapse, according to Hackenberg, is an increasingly popular class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified as highly toxic to honeybees.
Another possible culprit, vanEnglesdorp said, is a new strain of fungus that has appeared in many of the failing hives. But both he and Hayes warned it is far too early to settle on a single cause of the outbreak.
"The awkward and frustrating thing at this point is that we're all grasping at straws," Hayes said.
Colonies disappear
Beekeepers have reported several smaller but equally mysterious collapses in the past, vanEnglesdorp said. In the 1980s, invasive mites from South America all but wiped out the feral bee population and contributed to a steep decline in U.S. beekeeping. The number of hives in Florida has since dropped from a peak of 12,000 to about 1,000 currently, Hayes said, and the number of colonies from nearly 400,000 to 279,000.
That, at least, was the count before the current collapse, which cost Hackenberg about 2,000 of his 3,000 hives - and an estimated $350,000 in lost revenue and the expense of rebuilding his stock of colonies.
By "splitting" hives, taking bees from a healthy colony to a new box with a young queen, Hackenberg has already created 400 hives. He has deposited some of these into nearby orange groves, where they will improve the harvest, produce a premium grade of honey and use the nectar to build "good, strong, boiling-over beehives that we can take up North to pollinate apples."
So, he is confident his business will survive this year, he said. "But what's going to happen next year, if whatever is causing this is still out there? What's to say the problem is not going to get bigger?"
Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

By DAN DEWITT Published March 3, 2007 on St. Petersburg Times

50 Coolest Websites 2005: Blogs

Arts & Entertainment
opus1classical.com
A rich, expansive resource for music fans more into Handel than hip-hop, Opus 1 provides information on classical-music concerts, festivals and opera in dozens of cities around the globe. Browse by city and calendar month, or try the Venue Finder. Listings include program information and links to where you can buy tickets.

digitalgallery.nypl.org
Lose yourself in this vast collection of rare prints, manuscripts, vintage maps and other artifacts from the New York Public Library. There are more than 300,000 digital images of original materials. The My Digital page will save your favorite discoveries.

music.yahoo.com/ unlimited
Yahoo's new digital-music site offers unlimited downloads from its library of 1 million-- plus songs for a flat fee of $7 a month or $60 a year. Tunes will transfer to portable players from iRiver, Creative Labs and others (but not to iPods).

BLOGS
mocoloco.com
Whether you're a serious consumer of modern contemporary design or only wish you could be, you'll enjoy scrolling through page after page of photos and descriptions of cutting-edge products, materials and decorating concepts, organized by category.

LIFESTYLE & HOBBIES
flickr.com
This public showroom for personal pics is one of the fastest-growing --and most addictive--social networks on the Web. Upload your images and assign identifying tags to help others find your stuff. Groups share interests: cats, say, or the color blue. Free membership includes 20 MB of uploads a month. Or you can turn Pro and pay $25 a year for a host of perks.

digitalhome.cnet.com
Interactive video tutorials teach non-geeks how to set up HDTV, install a wireless home network or stream digital music from a PC to another room in the house. The Convince Me pages are geared toward the skeptical spouse. Visitors are invited to vote on which projects CNET's experts should tackle next.

RESOURCES
answers.com
When you want fast facts about someone or something, try plugging your query into the general search field or browsing the directory of reference material. You'll get dictionary definitions and encyclopedia articles culled from Wikipedia and other resources licensed from a variety of publishers.

idtheftcenter.org
A surge in identity-theft crimes in recent months makes the Identity Theft Resource Center, run by a San Diego--based nonprofit, a must-read for consumers. See Victim Guides, under Victim Resources, for tips on how to avoid trouble and what to do if the worst happens.

shopzilla.com
This site helps online shoppers find the best price and feel confident that they're buying from a reputable merchant. You can refine your search by cost, brand and product features. Click on ALL DEPTS at the top of the page to find an alphabetized list of hundreds of specialized product categories, from action figures to yogurtmakers.

Eavsdropping
http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/
Amusing verbatim accounts of stuff people say to each other in public. Anybody can submit; just email your (brief) transcript to the editors for consideration.

Overheardintheoffice.com is equally hilarious. Warning: on both sites, some material is not suitable for children, and profanity, stupidity or bigotry is generally kept intact.

Cars
Jalopnik, Autoblog
http://www.jalopnik.com/, http://www.autoblog.com/
Crazy about cars? Between these two blogs, you should be able to feed the beast within. Jalopnik's scribblings have more personality ("Volkswagen continues to tease us like the self-hating louts we are, releasing another teaspoon's worth of details on its yet-unnamed convertible....") while Autoblog delivers industry news straight-up ("Hybrids are Hot: Honda sells 100,000"). Bonus link: 10 Hot Vehicles for Techies, from the new cars.cnet.com.

Celebrity
SlamsGo Fug Yourself
gofugyourself.typepad.com
A daily shredding of the sartorial choices of Hollywood stars, complete with photographic evidence. To wit: Parts of Courtney Love's new, larger body "are sort of sloshing around, uncontained, like a Big Gulp spilling all over your gear shift when you take a turn too fast." Chloe Sevigny proves "high-waisted pants are the spawn of Satan's sewing machine."

Confessional
ArtPostSecret
postsecret.blogspot.com
A fascinating public airing of private thoughts—some dark, others funny, endearing or disturbing—written on homemade postcards and collected by blogger Frank Warren of Germantown, Maryland. Anyone can contribute, and thousands have. Just make a card and mail it to Warren—he suggests that you be brief, legible and creative—and, if he likes it, he'll scan it and post it on his site. The range of efforts (meticulous, sloppy, artful, ponderous) will astound you.

Design
MoCo Loco
http://www.mocoloco.com/
Blogger Harry Wakefield of Montreal keeps you plugged in to the world of modern contemporary design and architecture. Whether you're a serious buyer or only wish you could be, you'll enjoy scrolling through page after page of photos and descriptions of cutting-edge products, materials and decorating concepts, organized by category (furniture, lighting, jewelry, bathroom fixtures, wallcoverings and more). Entries include links to manufacturers and retailers.

EBay Watch
Bayraider
bayraider.tv
Bayraider ferrets out the silliest, freakiest stuff being auctioned on eBay and other auction sites—a laser-etched Buddha, say, or the Slightly Used and Possibly Defective Husband kit—and provides direct links to where you can place your bid. There are things you may actually want, too. Discoveries are organized by category (Music, Sporty Stuff, Weird). New from Shiny Media, a U.K. weblog company.

Entrepreneurs
Allen's Blog
http://www.allensblog.typepad.com/
Allen Morgan, managing director at Mayfield—a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California—backer of Beatnik, PlanetOut, Tribe and Pluck —guides entrepreneurs on how to pitch ideas and get financing. The recent "10 Commandments" series on how to handle those critical meetings with VCs is a must-read.

Food
Chocolate and Zucchini
http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com/
The blogger here is English-speaking Parisian Clotilde Dusoulier, who professes to love every food-related act, from shopping for ingredients to garnishing a plate to consuming the results, and recounts all of it with unpretentious aplomb. Recipes are indexed. Extras include a Bloxicon page, where you can brush up on French culinary terms from cassoulet to ganache, and a helpful Conversions cheat sheet. Honorable mention: The Accidental Hedonist, written with flair by one Kate Hopkins. Newsy, political and practical all at once (she offers 14 pointers "for better enjoyment of your cheese" in a May 27 post). The quotes on each page ("My favorite animal is steak." -Fran Lebowitz ) are like the cherry on top.

General Interest
Boing Boing
http://www.boingboing.net/
A grab bag of links to cool, odd and interesting things happening online and off—like the bit about the engineering student who cobbled together an air conditioner using a fan and a bucket of ice water, and the Florida couple who found the image of Jesus on a Lay's potato chip. Gadget news, kitsch, digital art and disturbing consumer trends are all fair game for the Boing Boing team, which solicits, and vets, suggestions from the audience.

Humor
Anonymous Lawyer
http://www.anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com/
Deadpan and ironic, this delicious insider account of life at a big law firm is pure fiction—and should be required reading for attorneys who haven't yet learned how to laugh at themselves. Being a lawyer, according to the author, boils down to "fooling clients into believing [we] have some real expertise and using fear and manipulation to extort excessive hourly fees." He rails against idiot clients, partners and associates, admitting "you can't work at a place like this and have integrity." But he's not offering apologies, only rationalizations. What separates him from the "truly evil," he writes, is this: "I know when I'm over the line. I do it anyway, but I know."

Motherhood
Dooce
http://www.dooce.com/
Hilarious personal blog by one Heather B. Armstrong of Salt Lake City, Utah, a whip-smart, sassy (and sometimes vulgar) stay-at-home mom. Even the exploding poop stories are good. Also: DotMoms links to dozens of blogs written by parents about parenting. Not all of them are "momoirs;" some of the bloggers are dads.

Photography
Chromasia
http://www.chromasia.com/
Instead of text, each daily post is a single (beautiful) photograph taken by amateur enthusiast David J. Nightingale of Blackpool, England. Tiny arrows at the top left-hand corner of the page allow you to view other images; to scan Nightingale's entire online portfolio (some 543 images to date), click on Thumbs. The Archives section offers a detailed description of each image, including how it was shot (which camera, type of lens, shutter speed, etc.). The Snowsuit Effort is also excellent; featuring close-ups of the individuals photoblogger Ryan Keberly meets on the streets of Detroit and the things they say.
For a Top 100 list of photoblogs and a directory organized by country and language, visit Photoblogs.org.

Baseball
SportsBlogs Nation
sbnation.com
Home base for nearly two-dozen baseball blogs, most of them devoted to specific teams. There's Lookout Landing (for Seattle Mariners fans), Fish Stripes (about the Florida Marlins) and Amazin' Avenue (Mets), as well as the terrific Beyond the Box Score and John Sickel's Minor League Ball. And each one has a diary where readers can chime in—a feature SportsBlogs Nation co-founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga ported over from his popular (leftie) political blog, Daily Kos. If you blog about a team not yet represented here, make yourself known—score a spot on the roster and you get a piece of the ad revenue. Also good: BaseballBlogs.org

Technology
Lifehackerhttp://www.lifehacker.com/"Don't live to geek; geek to live." This site, one of the latest blogs from Gawker Media (backer of Wonkette, Fleshbot, Gizmodo and a slew of others, including our next pick), dispenses sound tech advice with the understanding that computers can be frustrating, time-sucking monsters that we can't do without. There's an invaluable set of links running down the right-hand side of the home page, covering spyware cleaners, spam filters, online photo sharing and more. For the fashion-tech report (Hello Kitty cell phones, desktop fondue) visit PopGadget.

Travel
Gridskipperhttp://www.gridskipper.com/Its mission: to "scour" the web for juicy tidbits on urban travel, nightlife and culture, "with one eye on sophistication and the other on playful debauchery." Posts point out neighborhoods, restaurants and activities you probably won't read about in other guides, with a healthy mix of the practical and self-indulgent. A typical entry might cover a summer music festival or obscure art exhibit, or link to the World's 100 Sexiest Hotels.

By Maryanne Murray Buechner in the TIMES Monday, Jun. 20, 2005

Environment: LED Lights will replace bulbs in Taiwan

Taiwan vai substituir, a partir de 2012, todas as lâmpadas de filamento incandescente por diodos emissores de luz (LED), a fim de poupar energia, anunciou hoje em Taipe um responsável do Ministério da Economia.
O Governo vai proibir a produção de lâmpadas incandescentes em 2010 e erradicá-las-á a partir de 2012, disse Yeh Huey-ching, do Ministério da Economia.
A ilha gastou 26 mil milhões de quilovátios/hora na iluminação pública em 2006 e espera uma poupança de 41 por cento com a introdução das lâmpadas LED.
Os organismos oficiais taiwaneses já começaram a substituição das lâmpadas e, a partir de 2009, será proibido uso de incandescentes nos estabelecimentos públicos.
Taiwan estuda também uma revisão do seu sistema de transportes públicos e dos impostos sobre veículos para fomentar a poupança de energia.
Source: Diario Digital