Tuesday, December 16, 2008

three disconnected thoughts

I have finished packaging my Santa Shipments. Louie helped by rummaging in the Styrofoam to make sure everything was in place, and then by sitting proudly on top of the taped boxes to send his love to the recipients. Holiday helping hands (paws) are so welcome and cheering!

I have spent a couple of times rummaging on the Internet for a set of single-pointed bamboo needles. I cannot locate a set in smaller sizes (containing size 5 for my current project, for example), only in big sizes that I rarely use. However one can buy them singly in small sizes. Huh. The rosewood ones are loverly - I went to a yarn store to browse, and caress. I may go to another store later today. But expensive!

The company has cut our salaries to reduce overhead before things get worse. There are reports daily of my customer's companies laying off and cutting back, so the action, while unwelcome, was not unwarranted. Then I read about bailouts for the auto companies citing the network of other companies that support GM. So the government is going to spend how many million to bail out last century's technology, and how many millions to bail out science and biotech and pharmas? We are just developing personalized medicine, which would be such a blessing for people with genetic screw-ups causing autoimmune diseases and cancer. How can the government propose to invest less than a million $ in science, with a $500M jump start for the tattered economy? Come on, bureaucrats, look forward! Think of science as an integral a part of the infrastructure as bridges and buildings, for it is upon the scaffold of knowledge that industry and environmental custody can build for the next century, not the last.

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