For those who travel internationally, it looks like the U.S. is finally taking a few steps to improve the presently onerous experience of customs. According to the Customs and Border Patrol web, a new service is being launched that will ease U.S. entry for frequent travelers. The Global Entry Program allows registered users to pass [...]
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Researchers have been studying sleep patterns for decades. In fact, much of what we know today has been studied since the 1920’s and even earlier, but until quite recently there hasn’t been a solid understanding of why we behave the way we do.
According to Dr. Clifford Saper, MD, MS, PhD, who is Chairman of the [...]
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Coevolving Innovations posted iPod Index, versus Big Mac Index a few months ago. While it’s fascinating to look at the calculated economics, there’s a slight flaw here. The iPod Index lists Brazil as the most expensive place to buy an iPod nano, but they’ve overlooked Iceland. Thanks to incredibly shocking import costs on all portable [...]
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How do I get an iPhone that works (natively, not using roaming) in Iceland? I’ve visited the Iceland Apple Store but the site is woefully out of date and offers no information about iPhones. And yet, there are a scattering of references across the ‘net that make passing reference to using iPhones in and [...]
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I’ve long believed that a cup of coffee provides a good cost of living index. It’s a ubiquitous product, almost a staple, highly available, and a commodity. (The McDonald’s theory is flawed, because they maintain their U.S.-derived pricing in many third world countries—for example, in La Paz Bolivia a burger is unreasonably expensive).
Anyhow, the interesting [...]
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Posted by zbeckman - May 14th, 2007 Comments Off
While browsing through my iPhoto database I found these beautiful shots from the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate park. Thought I’d upload a few to my Flickr feed (visit Flickr to see the whole set).
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Posted by zbeckman - May 13th, 2007 Comments Off
We recently visited Mumbai and stayed in one of the hopelessly Americanized resorts there (you know the type, tailored for corporate visitors for the most part). It was beautiful, we were waited on hand-and-foot, and I felt completely out of touch with India.
It was a wonderful visit. I’ll post a bit [...]
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Posted by zbeckman - May 12th, 2007 Comments Off
Well, I’ve reorganized this blog a bit in an effort to start… well, using it. Chiefly, there are more categories, nooks and crannies for me to start filling up with assorted oddments of my life.
In so doing I’ve come to realize that I spend way too much time working, much too little time traveling, and [...]
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Posted by zbeckman - December 31st, 2006 Comments Off
I imagine my plethora of loyal readers (that would be you, Frank) may have noticed the complete lack of any postings from mid-October to mid-December. So what happened? I was in India.
Thing is, I had planned on having a lot of time to write while I was there. It didn’t work out as planned — [...]
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