This is just what we need in our building. After all, elevator music increases productivity 30 percent. The song is “remix to a remix” from Ronald Jenke’s just-released CD.

Ron has made a series of “elevator” videos. I’ll check them out and maybe post a few in the weeks to come.

Billed as the ultimate anti-theft device for your iPod or iPhone, Hide-a-Pod is a modified Zune case, gutted and hinged in order to conceal your iGadgets.

Welcome to the Anti-Social

You made a smart choice in choosing an iPod. And now you can protect it from theft and still enjoy using it in public with the new Hide-a-Pod anti-theft case.

It’s really very simple. Just tell us what iPod model you want to protect and we provide a gutted and hinged Zune with our custom molded iPod casing adapter. We also include a custom cable from the Zune’s controls (see FAQ) and audio output jack that you simply plug into your iPod. No iPod modifications are necessary.

The idea isn’t entirely a new one. People have used ugly “covers” for years to disguise their fashionable leather luggage and protect it from would-be thieves in airports. I’ve used them myself. So it was only a matter of time before someone provided a way to keep sticky hands from your iPods and iPhones — by making them look like Zunes!

Okay, let me come clean; there isn’t really such a product. It’s just another “joke” website aimed at poking a little fun at Microsoft, the idea being that, while iPods are thief-magnets, the Zune is a big brown box which nobody wants. Had ya’ going for a minute, though, didn’t I? It’s a working site with some pretty funny sections. Go ahead and explore.

*iPod and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple and Zune is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Hide-a-Pod is not associated with them in any way. This is all just a big gag and you couldn’t order a Hide-a-Pod if you wanted to. So there. (But check out the T-shirt!)

Andy sent this…

Unless you’ve been marooned on a desert island, you’ve probably noticed that the stock and bond markets have been somewhat volatile during the last several weeks, largely the result of concerns about “sub-prime” mortgages. We’ve all read or heard about them lately in the news, but what exactly are “sub-prime mortgages” and how did they lead us to where we are today?

Here’s the short (sort of) answer. Worldwide credit conditions have been relatively easy for the last five or six years, encouraging the creation of creative mortgage loans with unusually generous terms. Many of these loans were originated by startup mortgage companies owned by real estate agents and other industry insiders with potential conflicts of interest, and offered to home buyers with low incomes or poor credit histories. These loans were bundled together and sold to investment banks, leaving little incentive for the real-estate-agent-cum-mortgage-broker to enforce the lending standards typically associated with traditional banks. The investment banks then repackaged these loans into derivative securities with varying degrees of risk and resold them to investors whose appetites for higher yielding investments have grown substantially in recent years. As the homeowners began to default on their loans — their monthly payments often rising dramatically after an introductory period — the securities backed by these loans lost significant value, sparking broader concerns about the easy credit and ample liquidity that have fueled the waves of speculative investing we have witnessed in the last decade.

Somewhat troubling news indeed but, at least according to Sacramento investment firm Dalatri, Jenkins & Manginelli, the recent volatility is ultimately healthy for the markets, allowing them to work off pent-up excesses. They believe the equity markets remain in a long-term uptrend, supported by the expanding global economy and strong corporate earnings. They make a strong case for high quality investments with global exposure that have been under represented over the past six years.

What does all this mean for you and me? Well, I’m no investment guru but, if they’re right, we should be selectively adding high quality investments to our portfolios. Be aware of risks, of course, and remember the old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While high-grade, high quality investments may not always appear to offer the best returns, in the long run they usually do.

Everyone knows that the “dog days of summer” occur during the hottest and muggiest part of the season. Webster defines “dog days” as the period between early July and early September when the hot, sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere. But have you ever wondered where the term originated? Why do we call the hot and muggy days of summer “dog days”?

Well, according to Jerry Wilson, in ancient times, when the night sky wasn’t obscured by smog and artificial lights, people drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different images than Europeans. We know these star pictures, mapped by our European ancestors, as constellations.

Most of us are familiar with the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the bears; Gemini, the twins; Taurus, the bull: and, among others, Canis Major and Canis Minor, the dogs. The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which is also the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January.

In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the sun’s heat, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

The conjunction of Sirius with the sun varies somewhat with latitude. And the “precession of the equinoxes” (a gradual drifting of the constellations over time) means that the constellations today are not in exactly the same place in the sky as they were in ancient Rome. Today, the “dog days” occur between July 3 and August 11. And although it’s certainly the warmest period of the summer, the heat isn’t caused by added radiation from a far-away star as the ancients believed, but by the earth’s tilt.

So, for those of us in the northern hemisphere, today marks the end of the “dog days” of summer. Thanks, Michael, for reminding me. I feel cooler already!

                     Click to enlargeWhen told by Roman officials to surrender the Catholic church’s valuables, St. Lawrence brought the city’s poor and sick. “Here is the church’s treasure,” he said. Rome didn’t find this amusing and legend says that he was put to death in A.D. 258 by being roasted on a grate, although some scholars say he was more likely beheaded.

In either case, folks in southern Europe still mark this day every August 10. It is customary there to eat only cold meat in recognition of the reputed manner of his death. Fair weather on St. Lawrence’s Day presages a fair autumn. More 

I know we just took a vacation last month, but Dawn and I are in serious need of some rest and rejuvenation as we lick our wounds from a disastrous turn of events with our home renovation. I won’t go into it now; we need to put it away for a few days, collect our thoughts and prepare for what will likely be a nasty legal battle.

But for the next few days, we’ll be taking a little walkabout. So although I probably won’t be posting for a few days (unless I decide to drop by an Apple Store), it’ll be a good opportunity for you to visit the “Archives” and see what you may have missed.

And hey, it wouldn’t kill you to comment, ya’ know…

The second leg of our road trip was a visit to Yosemite National Park. With summer vacations in full swing, there wasn’t a prayer of getting accommodations in the park, but we’d snagged adjoining cabins near the tree line at Evergreen Lodge, about 8 miles or so outside the park. What a delightful find! We’ll definitely return during cooler weather.

Since it was a first visit for both Cindy and Ray, we stayed pretty much on the valley floor, and hiked in to see the big sequoias which was on Ray’s “must see” list. And we enjoyed a thunderstorm, complete with lightning and hail as we sipped Irish coffees on the veranda at the Awahnee Lodge.

We even took a long and bumpy ride with a lodge guide up a fire trail to a clearing with a panoramic view of the valley below and watched the sunset while enjoying wine and cheese. It was during this outing that our guide reformatted Cindy’s camera card!

It was a wonderful vacation, all too short, of course. But we all vowed to return for a longer stay… During spring if I have anything to say about it. I’ve posted 25 images here. Enjoy!

Dawn and I vacationed last month with her sister and brother-in-law in the Carmel area and in Yosemite National Park. Cindy had visited Carmel with us before but neither she nor Ray had ever visited the park.

Now, summer isn’t my favorite season to vacation anywhere except where we can enjoy spring-like temperatures, but it was their vacation and their choice. And despite the heat and crowds, we had a wonderful time. We’re looking forward to vacationing with them again!

Everyone took lots of vacation photos although there were a couple of camera related “incidents” that momentarily threatened to spoil our fun: Dawn’s new camera inexplicably “quit” during the first leg of our trip leaving her reliant on her new iPhone for photos; and Cindy let a guide in Yosemite “set” her camera for her, accidentally reformatting the card and erasing all her photos from the Carmel leg of the vacation. I had taken the heavy gear so I’d pretty much limited myself to scenics and wildlife. But we were all surprised at how nimble the iPhone was in a pinch. Dawn was able to snap photos and email them instantly from wherever we were along the way! Very handy!

This linked album contains 14 images I took along Pebble Beach’s 17 Mile Drive. The original files are large, so I’ve “optimized” them to load faster on the website. I’ve noticed, however, that the colors are somewhat muted in the compressed form. My suggestion is that, once you navigate to the album, you click on each image to slightly enlarge it.. The colors will be a little brighter at that size. Then click on the enlarged image to remove it from the screen and continue using the arrows to advance through the photos (I hope that makes sense.)

I’ll post some shots from Yosemite tomorrow (I hope.)

Today is Lughnasadh, or Lammas, half-way between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox. For many it represents “sweet corn harvest time… when Summer leans back and watches her abundance roll out.”

Michael says it’s “from the Old English hlaf (loaf)  and maesse (mass or feast) and is very old indeed.” It derives, he tells me, “from the ancient English festival the Gule of August, which marked the beginning of the harvest, traditionally August 1. The early English church kept this pagan dedication of the first fruits but converted it to Christian usage. Through the centuries, loaf-mass became corrupted in spelling and pronunciation to Lammas. On Lammas Day, loaves of bread were baked from the first-ripened grain and brought to the churches to be consecrated.”

In Scotland, “Lammastide fairs became famous as the time when trial marriages could be made. These marriages could end after a year with no strings attached.” Wilson’s Almanac offers a lot more information and history if you’re so inclined.

Whatever its origin, it’s celebrated by relatively few in this country. I’m thinking we should follow the Scots’ lead and celebrate with good food, good drink and good fellowship. And maybe some dancers. And that “trial marriage” thing might be a nice touch…