Archive for December, 2006
Restaurant lets you decide what you pay.
Deciding between the spicy peanut stew and the pesto chicken, or the squash soup and the avocado, chicken, lime soup, are not the only decisions tempting patrons at the One World Café in Salt Lake City and the SAME (So All Might Eat) Café in Denver. They must also decide what the meal is worth. These pay-as-you-can cafes have missions that are unapologetically altruistic—call it serving up fare Robin Hood style. “Our philosophy is that everyone, regardless of economic status, deserves the chance to eat healthy, organic food while being treated with dignity,” explains Brad Birky, who opened SAME with his wife, Libby, in October. Customers who have no money are encouraged to exchange an hour of service — sweep, wash the dishes, weed the organic garden — for a meal. Likewise, guests who have money are encouraged to leave a little extra to offset the meals of those who have less to give. “We’re a hand up, not a hand out,” says One World owner Denise Cerreta, who prides herself on the fact that everyone can afford a meal at her café.
The Truth About Where Your Donated Clothes End Up
According to various estimates, here’s what happens to your clothing giveaways. In most cases, a small amount of the items, the best quality castoffs — less than 10 percent of donations — are kept by the charitable institutions and sold in their thrift shops to other Americans looking for a bargain. These buyers could be people who are hard up, or they could be folks who like the idea of a good deal on a stylish old item that no longer can be found in regular stores.
The remaining 90 percent or more of what you give away is sold by the charitable institution to textile recycling firms.
Most of the clothes are recycled into cleaning cloths and other industrial items, for which the recyclers say they make a modest profit.
Twenty-five percent, however, of what the recycling companies purchase from charities is used not as rags, but as a commodity in an international trading economy that many American may not even know about.
Inside the Situation Room
For more than four decades, the Situation Room at the White House has been the hub of presidential activity during historic moments, from the Cuban missile crisis to Hurricane Katrina. But for all of its importance, it had fallen way behind the technology curve. A radically updated Situation Room–actually, a suite of rooms–is set to go into operation on December 27 after four and a half months of renovations.
New technology being put into place in the main conference room includes NEC plasma flat-screen TVs for secure videoconferences, while the remainder of the facility is getting LCD TVs from LG, according to The New York Times, two of whose reporters toured the Situation Room this week.
Hawaiian Dollars
World War II ushered in the printing of specialized military currency to provide economic stability for the U.S. dollar in occupied countries. In Hawaii, the Treasury Department replaced all U.S. currency with special issue notes as a precautionary measure in the event of a Japanese victory. Had the Japanese invaded Hawaii, the special currency would have prevented the Japanese from confiscating U.S. money, which was negotiable around the world.
Other interesting money stuff here.
Send A Letter To God
Your wish can reach the holiest place on earth, where God’s spirit dwells.
Send your letter now, we will print your wish and place it for you in between the holy stones of the western wall, the last remains of the house of God, on the temple mount, the closest place to God’s ear.
More stuff I didn’t know . . .
I remember thinking at one point that a 9 volt battery was just a small box full of acid or something, but as you can clearly see, it is just constructed of six smaller 1.5 volt cells wired in series.
I never knew that . . .
I was told that the arrow in the amazon.com logo means they have everything from A to Z. It would have never occurred to me unless someone pointed that out.
Christmas Card #23
Today in the mail was my 23rd Christmas card since starting my little BagOfNothing experiment, and this card comes all the way from Germany!
Thanks to Jim and Rita for sending such a beautiful panoramic picture of their little town of Wiesbaden, Germany.
Christmas Card #22
Yesterday in the mail was my 22nd Christmas card since starting my little BagOfNothing experiment.Â
This card comes from BoratLundy who dwells in ”The Mothership” in Cowtown, that’s Fort Worth, TX for those of you that weren’t aware. Along with a very sincere note, he included a picture of himself and his wife at the New York City marathon. And here I thought most BON readers were out of shape folks who sit at a cubical all day. Shows what I know! But running in the NYC marathon, wowzers, I think that makes BoratLundy the official athlete of BON . . . well, until some professional lets me know he or she is an avid reader. 
Knight Bono
LONDON, England (CNN) — Bono — the Irish rock star, anti-poverty campaigner, and philanthropist — has been awarded an honorary British knighthood, the British Embassy in Dublin said on Saturday.
“The British Embassy in Dublin takes great pleasure in announcing that Her Majesty The Queen has appointed Bono to be an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work,” according to an embassy news release.
The British ambassador to Ireland, David Reddaway, is to give Bono — a member of the rock group U2 — an “insignia of this honorary award” after New Year’s in a ceremony in the Irish capital.
