New Zealand is stunningly beautiful. but they *don’t* want immigrants, from anywhere, and there’s a lot of racial bigotry. nearly twenty years ago I was told by a New Zealander that they didn’t want anyone more coming in, since then the Chinese would swamp their country and ruin it. I asked her what was so special about her ethnic group, that they got to move in, and she didn’t have an answer naturally. if it were now, I’d tell her to check sciencedaily and see that at least half of the cool breakthroughs in the U.S. are made by a team of two; a Chinese guy and an Indian guy at some U.S. university lab. what’s NZ’s contribution? more wool?
Also, if you have relatives eg. in the U.S., it’s a hugely expensive drag to see them; I know someone whose kid and grandkids are there, and they spend a fortune on flights.

if you need to put an elderly relative in a nursing home, make sure that it’s in an area full of people who are religious but also value education. my aunt in MI, after years of home tending, put her MIL (who had dementia) in one in the Grand Rapids area. it was 2k a month, furnished like a lower middle class home but *clean*, and the people who worked there cared (it’s a Dutch Reform area). my FIL is paying 8k per month in PA for my MIL’s nursing home care (also dementia), and although the care is certainly good and the employees are kindly, it isn’t any *better* than the MI place.

I know a very nice couple from Australia (they are originally from Tonga) who work in our complex as home health aides. their teenage daughter has lupus, and she was told by the doctors in Australia that there was nothing they could do for her. so they brought her here (Silicon Valley), and got great treatment for her, and she is in HS and in remission and thriving. and this is despite the fact that they have truly crappy jobs. it is really horrible that so much of anyone’s healthcare, depends on where they are at a particular moment and whom they have to advocate for them.

gracias.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090717/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_video

Apparently, NASA erased the original footage of the moon landing.

I wonder what people who return to the old neighborhood think when it’s got a starbucks and a jamba juice on the corner of what used to be the local bar. I remember that Sopranos episode where they weren’t able to shake down any local businesses at one of their neighborhoods because the stores were all corporations.

Hooray…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/business/11shares.html

‘Sleep on the floor, loser.’

Loser? Huge progress has been made. Twenty years ago the burning bed nearly took down an old line banking firm. Now, it takes hundreds of billions in esoteric securities. Upward and onward!

Hey I was still able to grab 8 dollar pitchers at Rudy’s

http://energio.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/new-york-center-of-the-universe-new-yorker-cover-steinberg1.jpg

“You got the culture coming in. You don’t have to travel to Atlanta anymore. . . .”

have always found it odd that only cities, for whatever reason, are the only places capable of culture.

anyone remember pret’s classic ‘cultural hearth comments about huntington beach?’ classic.

Sorry to hear that. I hope everyone is doing as well as possible.

“The chief said the assailant’s weapon, a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun with a retractable stock and a sling lined with slotted shells, was “a gun meant for nothing other than to hunt a man.”

where can i get one of those for when the SHTF?