News. Sports. Fun. Life
Contributed by: filbert Friday, June 08 2007 @ 12:07 PM CST
Blogtrail: Americas North Shore Journal[*1] via Jules Crittenden[*2] and Gateway Pundit.[*3]
Contributed by: filbert Friday, June 08 2007 @ 08:34 AM CST
The world is experiencing an unprecedented glut of savings, driving down real interest rates. It is a good time to borrow rather than lend, and to buy equities rather than bonds. This has implications for central banks, corporations and individual investors.
China is investing $3 billion, a tiny fraction of its $1.2 trillion of reserves, in Blackstone, a U.S. private equity company. More such equity investments will surely follow. India, OPEC members, and other developing countries with large foreign exchange reserves should emulate China’s strategy.
Foreign exchange reserves are typically invested in bonds of G-7 countries, above all in U.S. Treasury bonds. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers estimates that developing countries are holding more than $2 trillion of reserves in excess of their needs to combat currency volatility. If this excess is invested in equities rather than bonds, the resultant gains could exceed $100 billion.
[*1] http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8272
Contributed by: filbert Thursday, June 07 2007 @ 04:34 PM CST
Ah, another simian story from the friendly folks at ScienceDaily[*1] :
“We have robust evidence that in chimpanzees there is a considerable capacity for cultural spread of innovations,” said Dr. Andrew Whiten of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “This strengthens the interpretation of cases of behavioral diversity in the wild as socially transmitted traditions. Moreover, we have now shown that chimpanzees can sustain cultures that are made up of several traditions. This again is consistent with what is seen in the wild, where chimpanzees are thought to show up to 20 traditions that define their unique local culture.”
Contributed by: snookums Thursday, June 07 2007 @ 02:54 PM CST
We had a guaranteed and confirmed reservation. Because our flight to Cabo was delayed, we arrived at the hotel on April 13 at 12:20 AM. When we arrived, the night manager told us that due to a reservation systems error they were overbooked. He said we would have to go stay at Pueblo Bonito Blanco in downtown Cabo San Lucas for at least the night and possibly longer.
Another couple from our flight was also checking in at the same time, and was being given a similar story. The night manager kept saying that he could not guarantee us a room at Pacifica starting on April 13 since the manager that could make that decision came on duty at 9 AM and so we were told to contact her. Recall, please, that we had a guaranteed and confirmed confirmation for five nights, which the property was not fulfilling. We said to the night manager that certainly at least one Pacifica guestroom would be vacated by departing guests and then that room could be ours. However, he kept insisting that he had no idea if anyone would be departing and even if they would be, he couldn’t guarantee us that we would be able to check in. We are left with the impression that the words “guaranteed” and “confirmed” have different meanings within the Pueblo Bonito organization than elsewhere in the hospitality industry. After arguing for two hours, we finally agreed to this and found ourselves in an old, musty smoking room with two double beds!
After 5 hours of sleep, we arrived back at Pacifica at 9:15 AM on April 13 in order to speak to the day manager. She was nowhere to be found so we were told that she would meet with us in the restaurant. We had a complimentary breakfast and waited for her to meet us in the restaurant. At 11 AM I asked a waiter to find her and then a phone was given to me and she was on the phone. She explained that we were going to get a room but it was being cleaned and we should come to the front desk later to check in. We finally got to our room (#1334) at 2 PM and we were pleased to see that it was clean and had a king-size bed and was not dumpy, old and musty like the Blanco room.
We met with the Rooms Division Manager and he told us that there was a water leak and that was why so many guests were not given their rooms. He assured us that the rest of our stay would be superb and that we would get an invitation to the Pacifica’s 2nd anniversary celebration on Monday, April 16. After our meeting we talked to four other guests and it should be noted that none of us ever saw any workers dealing with water leaks and we were all told different stories at check-in when our rooms weren’t available. So, we don’t really think there was a water leak. We think that Pacifica overbooked on purpose and just tried to get the guests to stay at a sub- par resort that allowed children.
On Saturday, April 14, we decided to eat breakfast in the restaurant. We received exceptionally poor service. I had to refill my water glass from the bathroom, while my husband had to wait 10 minutes, three different times, for coffee refills. We only left a 10% tip and wrote on the charge slip why the tip was so poor. We also told the waiter on three different occasions to just leave the pitcher of water and carafe of coffee if he couldn’t provide refills in a timely manner, but he kept saying “No”. On the way out we also told the hostess about our poor refill service.
That night for dinner we decided to eat at the outdoor pool restaurant since we had already eaten breakfast at the other restaurant option. I requested ice water and a yellow lemon for my drink and the waitress said she didn’t have any yellow lemons and only had limes. I told her that the inside restaurant did (i.e. the one that served us breakfast) and that it was jut over there, about 50 yards away and she continued to say that she didn’t have any lemons. So, I said that I would get it myself and she was okay with this! I also asked her if one of the seven propane heaters that were near us could be brought over to our table since it was getting cool and she said that they were out of gas. I then requested some pool towels for warmth and she provided these. I was wearing the warmest clothing I brought (pants and a jacket) but I guess I should have brought my winter coat, too! I went next door to the inside restaurant and the hostess and waiters were appalled that the pool kitchen didn’t have yellow lemons and also didn’t have propane in the outdoor heaters. After these two unpleasant Saturday dining experiences, we decided to ask to speak to the restaurant manager. We went to the front desk at 7 PM with this request and were told that restaurant manager would call our room that night. He didn’t.
On Sunday morning, April 15, I left a voice mail message for the Rooms Division Manager since he had assured us that everything would be excellent for the remainder of our stay. Well, it hadn’t and his front desk staff never had restaurant manager call us the night before so I wanted him to get us in touch with the restaurant manager. The restaurant manager did call us and after hearing about our problems on April 14, he invited us to dinner that night and we did experience good service. The resaurant manager also told us that he looked forward to seeing us at the 2nd anniversary celebration since the Rooms Division Manager told him that we were going to be invited.
On Monday, April 16 we still hadn’t received the 2nd anniversary celebration invitation that the Rooms Division Manager promised us so I called and left him a voice mail. We were trying to plan our day around the celebration and it felt weird calling about an event and asking for our invitation, but we assumed that the staff had misplaced it since we had seen other examples of their poor follow-thru. He got back in touch with us and told us that the celebration had occurred that morning and since it was only in Spanish, guests weren’t invited. I would have thought that he could have at least notified us in advance that we were not going to be invited since both he and the restaurant manager had made such a big deal about it. We were really looking forward to it since we wanted to see what a Mexican hotel anniversary celebration would be like. Needless to say, we were extremely disappointed when the Rooms Division Manager told us after the fact that we weren’t invited!
On Monday, April 16 I decided to take advantage of the book exchange at the Activities Center but found it closed. The 2007 Activities schedule that was in our room said that it was closed on Thursdays. After 10 minutes I was able to find out that the 2007 schedule in our room was old and housekeeping hadn’t bothered to replace it. The manager in charge of the Activities Center opened it for me and I was able to exchange my books, but the entire process took 45 minutes. By now, we had almost become used to the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica staff’s consistent inability to do what they told us they would do. Their ability to seemingly lie to our faces had exhausted our sense of outrage and by the end of our stay caused us only weary amusement.
On two occasions after housekeeping cleaned our room, we had to call for an extra washcloth since only one had been left in the room. Our reservation clearly had two people in our room so I don’t know why housekeeping insisted on only leaving one washcloth. I also noticed that the rooms on either side of ours had Pueblo Bonito slippers in them but our room did not. Housekeeping obviously needs a checklist of things to do for each room in order to make sure that the correct Activities Schedule and number of washcloths are in each room and any other miscellaneous items are put in the room, too.
We were also disappointed to find no drain plug or basin stopper for the bathroom sink. I needed to hand wash some clothing and when the sink doesn’t hold water that makes it difficult. We made two calls requesting a stopper/sink plug, but were ultimately told that they didn’t exist at Pacifica. However, a bucket was provided for our hand washing needs.
We travel regularly and frequent many five-star hotels and resorts, and have seldom encountered any problems at all at other properties, let alone the long list of service failures we encountered at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica. We would not recommend this hotel, or any of the others in the Pueblo Bonito chain, to anyone.
Contributed by: filbert Tuesday, June 05 2007 @ 08:44 PM CST
“Although the purpose of both of these studies was to glean insights into metabolic physiology, our findings suggest that increased levels of FGF21 may be a potential mechanism behind low-carbohydrate diets’ beneficial properties when it comes to lipid metabolism,” says Maratos-Flier. “Diets that limit carbohydrates and eliminate transfats, and at the same time emphasize fiber and good fats, appear to be healthiest, especially among individuals who are predisposed to developing diabetes.”
(Emphasis mine)
Contributed by: filbert Monday, June 04 2007 @ 07:54 AM CST
My series set out to profile the dissenters — those who deny that the science is settled on climate change — and to have their views heard. To demonstrate that dissent is credible, I chose high-ranking scientists at the world’s premier scientific establishments. I considered stopping after writing six profiles, thinking I had made my point, but continued the series due to feedback from readers. I next planned to stop writing after 10 profiles, then 12, but the feedback increased. Now, after profiling more than 20 deniers, I do not know when I will stop — the list of distinguished scientists who question the IPCC grows daily, as does the number of emails I receive, many from scientists who express gratitude for my series.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that a scientific consensus exists on climate change. Certainly there is no consensus at the very top echelons of scientists — the ranks from which I have been drawing my subjects — and certainly there is no consensus among astrophysicists and other solar scientists, several of whom I have profiled. If anything, the majority view among these subsets of the scientific community may run in the opposite direction. Not only do most of my interviewees either discount or disparage the conventional wisdom as represented by the IPCC, many say their peers generally consider it to have little or no credibility. In one case, a top scientist told me that, to his knowledge, no respected scientist in his field accepts the IPCC position.
Contributed by: filbert Saturday, June 02 2007 @ 08:47 PM CST
BROKEN LINKS!!!
May 10 (Thursday, Day 14, Docking in Los Angeles at 1 PM) –
We were awakened this morning at 6:50 AM by the ship’s horn. Janet jumped up and ran out on the balcony thinking she would see a ship in our way or something. All she saw was fog. For the next few hours, the ship continued to blow a 5 second long foghorn burst every 90 seconds. I guess it’s a maritime safety thing when the fog is too thick to see very far in front of the ship. Phil and Janet had breakfast and then went to the 12th floor observation lounge. The fog was pretty bad, but every now and then we would get out of it. Around 9:30 AM we noticed a bunch of birds and a bunch of splashes in the water. Then after a few minutes we got closer and realized the splashes were dolphins. Janet was the first one to spot them and yelled “Dolphins” and everyone else in the lounge started looking at them. There were lots and lots of them. She found out later that Mom was the first one to spot them in the restaurant so she and Dad saw them all, too. As we were pulling into Los Angeles we saw sea lions, too, sunning on the buoys. This, of course, allowed Phil to over-exercise his excellent sea lion bark.
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Dolphins riding the bow wave |
Everyone had to disembark to go through Customs. We got off the ship at 1:45 and managed to get back on at 3:40. There were a couple of passengers that didn’t get off when they were supposed to so everyone had to wait, since the rules were that we couldn’t get back on the ship until ALL passengers had gotten off. And, there was absolutely no Regent personnel in the embarkation area of the cruise terminal so it was just chaotic. Janet was miffed since “The Guardian” movie started at 3:00 and she wanted to see it. They went ahead and started it on time even though passengers weren’t on board. There were lots of complaints about how the re-boarding process was handled (or the fact that it wasn’t really handled and it was just a free-for-all). Oh, well…
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The scenic Port of Los Angeles |
When we got back on board, Phil and Janet grabbed four glasses of champagne and took them to Mom and Dad’s room. That made them happy. We went back to our suite and were pleasantly surprised to see a two-tier tray of chocolate dipped and fresh strawberries along with a note apologizing for running out of strawberries earlier at breakfast. (Janet asked for strawberries at breakfast, a normal buffet item, and was told they had run out. Then she voiced displeasure on running out of something on such a short cruise when we had just docked in Mexico. She told the head waiter that she understood running out on Day 24 of our 26 day cruise last year since we were in the South Pacific but couldn’t fathom running out in North America.) Janet took the tray to Mom and Dad’s and Mom was excitedly oogling the birthday cake and two glasses of champagne that a steward had just delivered. So, Mom was in hog heaven – two kinds of good champagne, gourmet chocolate raspberry mousse cake, chocolate covered strawberries and fresh strawberries! And, there was a single sea lion (or seal?) swimming in our docking area for a few minutes, too, that we all enjoyed watching.
Since this was LA, many crew members got off since their contracts were over. Last year our stewardess left us in LA even though we had two more days to go so we weren’t too surprised to see some of the crew leave. When we went to dinner we were seated at a table outside our “normal” dining area. Since the dining room was pretty empty, we just assumed it meant that the waiter and head waiter that we had gotten to know had left the ship. But, no, that wasn’t the case since we spotted them 20 minutes later. The dining room manager just kind of had a brain drain and assigned us to a table with a brand new waiter that had just boarded the ship that afternoon. Needless to say that waiter wasn’t the world’s best and we ended up leaving before dessert was served since it took so long. We don’t think we’ll have that problem tomorrow night!
After dinner Janet went to sleep, but Phil watched us leave the Port of Los Angeles at 11 PM from the 12th deck Observation Lounge. He was miffed that it took 15 minutes for a waiter to ask him for his drink order and then he noticed that two couples walked in and two different waiters descended on them within 15 seconds of arrival. It just wasn’t a good day for Phil! But, while leaving, he saw the fire that was ravaging 4,000 acres of Catalina Island. He said it was a curved orange line out at sea. Very weird.
May 11 (Friday, Day 15, Port Hueneme) –
When we woke up, the ship had already docked at Port Hueneme. This is a military port and if you wanted to get off, you needed to arrange for a taxi 48 hours in advance and have two forms of photo id. We stayed on-board. The only shore excursion was to the Reagan Library. This was an included stop since a local travel agency contacted Regent several years ago and bought 90 cabins and requested this as a port so its travelers could get off close to home. Our suite neighbors from Ventura live about 5 miles from here and got off today.
It’s about 50 degrees and we picked up a bunch of Alaska cruise passengers in Los Angeles and also in Port Hueneme so there are new people on board. It started feeling like our cruise was done yesterday in Los Angeles since there are new crew members and passengers. The big transfer of passengers happens tomorrow in San Francisco, but there are enough new faces that it kind of feels like our cruise is over a couple of days early.
In fact, while we were sitting by the pool talking with Bill, another old friend from the 26-day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise, Nanette, walked by and recognized the three of us. She got on in Los Angeles and her mother and sister will get on in San Francisco. She had her same suite as last time, which is one of the two master suites on the ship. Anyway, she invited us to her suite at 6 PM for a party.
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WARNING – – WARNING – – RESTRICTED HARBOR – KEEP OUT – AUTHORIZED ENTRY ONLY. Oh, by the way, Port Hueneme welcomes you! |
We didn’t see any wildlife today but we did see oil platforms along the way from Port Hueneme to San Francisco.
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Oil rig. Fortunately, no sign of Jack Bauer. That will make no sense to you unless you saw the season finale of 24. |
There was an ice cream social scheduled for 2 PM today, but when I went out to get some it was so cold that Janet figured I didn’t need any. Sigh.
We had a champagne party in Mom and Dad’s suite this afternoon. When our afternoon hors d’oeuvres were delivered (crab legs today) we took them to Mom and Dad’s cabin and Mom had already ordered the international cheese plate and champagne. Combined with their plate of crab legs, it was a nice finale to the cruise. Mom and Dad passed on going to Nanette’s suite for her party, but Phil and Janet went, and we were blown away. The butler was standing in the corner waiting for Nanette’s orders to serve the appetizers and beverages. The master suite is the most expensive suite on the ship. It is on the 9th deck at the very front of the ship (directly under the bridge so at night they have to keep their curtains closed so the lights from suite 901 don’t interfere with the bridge!). The two suites split the ship in half so that each one is ½ the width of the ship. It is 1204 sq. ft. and has two balconies. The front balcony is 727 sq. ft. and the side one is 71 sq. ft. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths, seating for 7 on easy chairs, a dining room table for 6, a high dollar coffee/espresso machine and a bar. Both Phil and Janet’s eyes glowed a little bit . . . something to think about when planning future cruises, don’t ya know?
Mom and Dad were all packed but Phil and Janet saved our packing until after dinner. Phil is the packer in our family. Janet buttoned and folded clean clothes (Janet frequently did laundry) and put everything on the bed and he distributed it among the 4 bags we were going to check.
May 12 (Saturday, Day 16, San Francisco)
Since everyone getting off in San Francisco had to vacate their suites at 9 AM (and our arrival was scheduled for 10:30), we realized that it would be a lot easier if the four of us could congregate in Nanette’s suite rather than in a public area. So, we left her a note on her door and she got it in time so we went to her suite and had a great view of sailing in under the Golden Gate Bridge from her front balcony. Mom and Dad were leaning against the railing and I was running from side to side. Phil would go inside to the second bedroom and check out the view from the side balcony every now and then and he made four cups of espresso and coffee. Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day and we saw sea lions and even some more whales.
This waiting strategy had the unintended consequence of making it impossible for our friend Bill to track us down before we disembarked. Oops. Sorry about that, Bill.
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Under the gate |
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Family portrait in the suite |
We disembarked at 10:45 and gathered our luggage (6 pieces of checked luggage and 5 carryons!) and went to the taxi line. There were no van taxis in sight so one of the Yellow Cab drivers called for one and said it would come at some point. In the meantime, a policeman saw us standing there. Janet told him we were waiting for a van cab. The policeman waved one to the front of the line for us! We managed to get all the luggage, Dad’s wheelchair and ourselves in the minivan and got to our gate at Oakland Airport by 11:45. We ate lunch while waiting for our 1:40 Southwest flight and then boarded it with 50 other passengers so that it was a nice, empty flight. (No Joe-Bob in sight.) We landed in KC early and got to Mom and Dad’s around 8:15 PM. It was a long day, but no part of it could have gone any better. It was a perfect ending to an (almost) perfect cruise.
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Caribbean clouds at sunset |
Cruise Boxscore – – –
Our sailing distances on our great cruise were:
April 27 Ft. Lauderdale to Gatun Lake Yacht Club, Panama – 1,411 nautical miles
May 1 Gatun Lake Yacht Club, Panama to Puntarenas, Costa Rica – 478 nautical miles
May 3 Puntarenas, Costa Rica to Huatulco, Mexico – 788 nautical miles
May 5 Huatulco, Mexico to Acapulco, Mexico – 251 nautical miles
May 6 Acapulco, Mexico to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico – 685 nautical miles
May 8 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to Los Angeles – 832 nautical miles
May 10 Los Angeles to Port Hueneme – 62 nautical miles
May 11 Port Hueneme to San Francisco – 317 nautical miles
May 12 San Francisco (end of voyage)
Total distance 4,824 nautical miles (or 5,551 statute miles)
Cruise Highlights
Day 1 – Seeing a drunk passenger on Southwest get off before his scheduled stop
Day 1 – Having just about every crew member from our last cruise greet us by name
Day 1 – Seeing Bill Bishofberger
Day 2 – Eating dinner with Dominique Nicolle
Day 3 – Watching a Jamaican Defence Force helicopter perform a medical evacuation
Day 5 – Going through the Panama Canal
Day 8 – Seeing lots of dolphins, turtles and sting rays from our balcony
Day 8 – Seeing the results of “shade burn” on Phil (aka Lobster-Man)
Day 9 – Eating a made to order Indian dinner while watching dolphins
Day 11 – Watching a medical evacuation via a boat off the coast of Puerto Vallarta while a pirate party ship was sailing out of port shooting cannons and playing loud music
Day 13 – Seeing whale spouts, a whale’s fluke and several backs of whales
Day 14 – Being awoken by the ship’s horn due to the thick fog
Day 14 – Watching Mom on the balcony really savor her birthday cake and champagne and the “apology” chocolate covered strawberries after the chaotic customs experience
Day 15 – Ending the cruise with a champagne party in Mom and Dad’s suite
Day 16 – Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge from the master suite (rather than a public area) and getting back to KC with no hassles at all
See you on the open ocean!
Contributed by: filbert Saturday, June 02 2007 @ 08:36 PM CST
BROKEN LINKS!!!
May 8 (Tuesday, Day 12, Cabo San Lucas)
We were only anchored in Cabo San Lucas for four hours. Bill, Phil, and Janet got off the ship and wandered around. Since Phil and Janet had been there three weeks earlier, we were able to be the tour guide for Bill as we were walking around. We managed to find a “gallery” at the end of a dead-end alley and the woman painted Cabo scenes and then framed them with cactus pieces from her father’s ranch in another part of Mexico. Dried cactus looks like rustic wood, but is extremely lightweight. Anyway, we found a framed painting that is 3 inches by 3 inches of the famous Cabo Arch (a natural rock formation close to the harbor and very close to where we dropped anchor). She said it was 100 pesos and Janet figured $10 wasn’t worth bartering over since she was the artist. Bill bought a painted tile for $10, too, and didn’t barter. This store was the only store that had anything unique in it since it was all painted by her. All the other stores were typical Mexican junk (probably made in China). So, we were pleased to have found our travel wall picture souvenir commemorating this trip (and our 5 night stay in April, 2007 in Cabo, too).
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Cabo Arch |
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Cabo crabs |
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Pelicaaaaaannnnssssss!!!! |
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More Pelicaaaaaannnnssssss!!!! |
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Husband for Rent in Cabo |
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Mariner at Cabo |
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Mexican patrol boat |
Later in the afternoon when we were at sea, Phil and Janet saw two groups of 30 or so dolphins. I called Mom and Dad’s room, but by then they were gone. Phil also saw a hammerhead shark when he was out on the balcony looking straight down. But, by the time Janet got off the bed and ran to the balcony it was gone. We have the perfect set-up: Phil sits on the deck with his headphones on while listening to short-wave radio (Radio Japan, Radio Bulgaria, etc.) and watching the waves and when he sees something, he bangs on the sliding glass doors and then Janet runs outside. She is usually reading or surfing the internets while on the bed. (In-cabin wi-fi is really nice, but cuts down a lot on socializing with the other guests.)
While at dinner we all saw another pod of dolphins. When we got back to our room we had an invitation for dinner tomorrow night with the Travel Concierge (the woman in charge of shore excursions). The funny thing about that is that Bill was excited earlier today since he just got an invitation from her for tomorrow’s dinner. Now we know that we’ll be joining him (and her)!
May 9 (Wednesday, Day 13, At sea)
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Sunrise at sea |
Janet enjoyed room service breakfast in bed and Phil went to the 10 AM naturalist’s lecture on whales. A few days ago he said that he wanted to go see whales on a 2009 trip so Janet started that research and focused on Alaska. Well, after the lecture he said that it seems like Maui and the Baja Peninsula (where we are right now) are the best places in the winter. Janet likes the idea of Maui in the winter rather than Alaska in the summer! She told Phil that she would stop the research and we would do a Hyatt December trip in a couple of years to Maui/Kauai.
This afternoon Phil was out on the balcony in his pants and coat (it’s kind of chilly with the wind and the captain said it was 62 degrees). He spotted whales and called Janet out to the deck. There were two or three whales that we could easily see their “blows” (water spouts) and the back of one. We figured it was a mother and her calf(s). Then a few minutes later we saw another two or three, including the fluke of one of them and he even got a picture of that. So, that was pretty neat! I’m amazed at the quantities of sealife we’ve seen from the ship on this cruise – turtles, dolphins, whales and stingrays. We haven’t just seen one or two of these creatures, but lots. (Janet consider 5 whales a lot since we’re on the tail end [no pun intended] of their migration season and really shouldn’t have seen any.)
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Whale fluke |
As mentioned previously, our dinner tonight was with the Travel Concierge Manager, Christina Andrusyshyn, and her colleague Nico. They are in charge of the shore excursions. It was formal night and the crew did their talent show before dinner. It seemed to be the same one that Phil and Janet saw last year, but since it had different crew in it, it was different. And, since it is totally voluntary and they have to rehearse at midnight, it’s appreciated by the passengers even though the soloists really couldn’t sing like the professionals!