Notes:

There is a study of people who lived past 100 that says there is a collection of some number of jeans the may be used with a 77% accuracy to tell who will live to a ripe old age. The only use of this I can think of is for retirement planning and insurance rates. "You can retire at 65, but your spouse has to wait until 90." Would I want to know if I have the trait? I doubt I can afford the test right now but it will cost $7.08 at Wal-Mart's genetics kiosk in ten years.

It is just plane bleak in the job market. Every bit of news sounds bad. The over all rate is 10%. For black people it is 15.x%, women 12%, men, 17%. For black male teens the rate is 43% unemployed. Remember, these are only people still looking for work.

Interest rates are at their lowest numbers in 50 years. New home loans are down over 30% from last year. Habitat for Humanity is doing pretty well. They are looking at buying foreclosed homes and giving them away as apposed to building them.

GM sales more cars in China than the U. S..

Nat came home Monday with 100 44 cent stamps. Why didn't you get "forever stamps?" "I didn't think about it." I hear Tuesday that they are going to 46 cents. sigh!

There was a British board game form the seventies called BP Oil Strike. One of the 'hazard cards' caused a blowout and had one million dollars cleanup cost. Now, why were the costs in U. S. dollars I wander? Creepy.

I have a simple idea for a very short fiction story, but it is too close to what we do at work to clear the censors. I'll keep it in my mind and try to figure out how to write something that isn't too close to reality.

How ... Cold War -- From CNN email "Judge: 10 spy suspects pleaded guilty and will be deported to Russia, which in turn will release four prisoners to U.S."