Mark’s Bloomin’ Journal

Well well well, despite the much vaunted ability to withstand the assaults of a multitude of perverse minded geeks and hackers it looks like one of the worlds most vaunted fruits may have finally succumbed to a 21st century scourge. Strange timing as around these parts of the pacific northwest our orchards are only just through with blossoming and as the blossoms give way to leaves and fruit set the quality of the end results are as yet unknown and far away. Not so with a crop from the last few years, even in storage and disbursment the results have been juicy and the purchasers duly sated. However as we dig deeper into that barrel it becomes obvious that the apple has indeed been infected by worm (s). Tough at first …to identify this bad bug… and apply an insecticide of the correct efficacy, as it seems to have come from within the fruit itself.

The worm has a big time name… Steve Jobs, if former CFO Fred Anderson’s revelations are indeed held to be true. Apparently the already super wealthy and super arrogant can’t keep themselves from boring further into a fruit’s juicy accounting to further enrich themselves, possibly at the expense of those who would then make financial judgments from books that would be considered “cooked”. (more…)

Anchors aweigh? Forget that nonsense, Scuppered more likely!

Now we know why Her Majesty’s Royal Navy is being dismantled by that supreme man for all seasons, Tony Blair…It appears to be staffed and led by those who would trade in the stiff upper lip, the name, rank and serial number retort of a military force that lives by real military mojo. For what you ask? For a Persian goody bag, (as if these warriors were scrounging starlets at an oscar party) for hand shakes, photo ops, waves, feel good stories and presumably a steady supply of smokes for the head scarved woman in the party… from none other than President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Is THIS the Royal Navy of Her Britannic Majesty? The one that in some form or other knocked the caulking out of the Spanish Armada? The one that ruled the waves, pushed out the corners of empire and thus education and enlightenment to more than a few? Is THIS the Royal Navy that sailed to the Falkland Islands under the iron fist and oft maligned leadership of ex Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher? Is THIS the Royal Navy that showed up at Trafalger under Admiral Horatio Nelson? Is THIS the Royal Navy that Sir Winston Churchill called upon in those most dire days when it was an imperative to sink the German battleships and Uboats…of not that long ago? Apparently not. (more…)

There are but a few really useful things that help us operate with ease, efficiency, and dare I say it, an element of pleasure in our day to day business lives… and do they ever stand out amidst all the other clutter, gizmos and tools we might be persuaded to surround ourselves with.

No doubt it is to each his own but my short list, a list growing shorter with every aging day starts as it always has with a bicycle, any bike equiped with the exquisite elegance of Shimano Dura Ace and that list now ends with my latest acquisition of real usefulness, namely a GPS. In between of course lies the Blackberry! Not just any old fruit, rather a vintage one dating to when the devices truly represented “Guelph genius”. When they ran seemingly for ever on a AA, sat snugly in the palm or pocket and had no pretensions to be a telephone, a game boy or a way to view loosing stock.. these were the 8/900 series. (more…)