Cool Tools (technology, gizmos)

REVIEWED BY: Margarite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Cool Tools, by Cool Tools

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: According to site creator, Kevin Kelly, cool tools really work. "A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group. Items can be old items, or cheap things that you still dote on after years of use. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted. Tell me what you love."

MY REVIEW: Multiple writers contribute to this blog, giving reviews of the very items they use. The tools they talk about are all kinds - things for the kitchen, bathroom, car, workplace, etc.

They tell you where you can purchase each item, as well. If you visit the blog on the web, you can click on the link to go to the particular businesses's website. IF you're reading via Kindle, just write down the name of the manufacturer and look it up at your leisure.

RECENT POSTS:
--Quick bike-chain fix - PowerLinks
--Elevated light source - Coleman Lantern Hanger
--Cheap adjustable laptop table - kea Dave Laptop Table
--Easy 120 to 220 volt converter - Quick 220
--Locking wire cutters - Companion 8 in. Wire Cutters

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Check out these blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

All Things Digital (industry specific)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: All Things Digitial, by Dow Jones

WEB ADDRESS: http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: All Things Digital is a blog devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. Sassy, but also well sourced and accurate, All Things Digital offers lots of opinion and analysis, with plenty of fact as well.

MY REVIEW: This blog receives articles multiple times a day, from the authors: John Paczkowski, Katherine Boehret, Peter Kafka, and Walter Mossberg.

Anyone who is a "techhead" or is interested in investing in such businesses will find this blog of interest.

Sample post:

Can’t Wait for Google Music! (But We Can’t Say That Out Loud)
by Peter Kafka
Posted on August 5, 2010 at 6:32 AM PT

SharePrint Warner Music Group (WMG) saw revenues drop last quarter, while losses increased. Meanwhile its digital business, which is supposed to be its growth engine, bumped up only 2 percent.

Warner has the same problem that the rest of the business has: For now, digital music is pretty much owned by Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes, and that business has been flattening out for some time, at least in the U.S.

What’s going to change that? Google (GOOG), says CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. More specifically, Google getting into the mobile music business, where the market is still open.

Bronfman, speaking to analysts during Warner’s earnings call this morning, chose his words carefully: “Google has yet to make any announcements about its music plans, and I certainly don’t want to preempt those.” And for the record, I don’t believe Google has a deal yet with Warner or any other big music label yet.

But Bronfman and the rest of the industry certainly expect Google to get into music — most likely some kind of download store tethered to Android, perhaps coupled with some kind of cloud-based “locker” service. And the hope is that when Google does that, it will accomplish two things:

Provide the industry with a new revenue source and
Even more important, provide competition for Apple, and give the industry real bargaining power when it comes to setting terms with Steve Jobs.
It might even happen! Then again, it might not — the industry had similar hopes for Amazon (AMZN) when it got into digital music a couple of years ago. But while Jeff Bezos clawed a few share points, the market hasn’t fundamentally changed.

RECENT POSTS:
--Warner Music: We Can’t Wait for Google Music! (But We Can’t Say That Out Loud)
--Time to Go: Time Warner Set to Swap Out Magazine Boss Ann Moore
--Murdoch: We’re Not Giving Up on MySpace Yet

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Check out these blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Our schedule resumes tomorrow...

I apologize to my many loyal readers for being a bit sporadic with my reviews for the last few days. I recently learned that my move to another state, which I thought wasn't going to occur until next year, is happening within the next two months. So I'm busy packing up seven rooms worth of books, and being a bit obsessive compulsive about it, it's been taking over my life! However, I've lined up a new reviewer who will be contributing three reviews a day starting tomorrow, and once I get back in business, this blog will average at least six blog reviews a day.

Cato&Liberty (politics and opinion)

Reviews by: Ms. Cairo

Recommendation: YES

Web URL: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/

Amazon Subscription page: Cato@Liberty .

Blog description: This is the official blog of the Cato Institute. Founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, the Cato Institute is a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute is named for Cato's Letters, a series of libertarian pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution.

I like this blog a lot – most of the authors make a lot of sense. Several authors make posts here, so its updated several times a day. Each entry is well thought out and well-written, and sticks on point.

Well worth checking out.

Sample post:

Matlock’s Medicare Pitch Ruled Out of Order
Posted by Michael F. Cannon

FactCheck.org says that in an ad purchased with your tax dollars, actor Andy Griffith (a.k.a., the sheriff of Mayberry and Matlock) used a “weasel word” to mislead Medicare enrollees about how ObamaCare will affect them:

Griffith tells his fellow senior citizens, “like always, we’ll have our guaranteed [Medicare] benefits.” But the truth is that the new law is guaranteed to result in benefit cuts for one class of Medicare beneficiaries — those in private Medicare Advantage plans…

[T]he term “guaranteed” is a weasel word — a qualifier that sucks the meaning out of a phrase in the way that weasels supposedly suck the contents out of an egg. It may sound to the casual listener as though this ad is saying that the benefits of all Medicare recipients are guaranteed to stay the same — and that may well be the way the ad’s sponsors wish listeners to hear it. But what the administration is really saying is that only those benefits that are guaranteed in law will remain the same.

FactCheck.org neglects to mention that ObamaCare will weaken the guarantee behind those “guaranteed” benefits, too. Medicare’s chief actuary Richard Foster notes that ObamaCare ratchets down Medicare’s price controls, which will “possibly jeopardiz[e] access to care for beneficiaries.” That’s not to say that the old price-control scheme is any better than the new one. It just means that the Obama administration is being even less honest and more weaselly than FactCheck.org says.

And they’re dragging Matlock down with them.

Recent posts:

-The Federal Government is bribing states to create more welfare dependency (actively recruiting people to go on food stamps)
-President Palin (why it won't happen)
-The Census and the Constitution
-ObamaCare=Litigation Bonanza
-The Government can monitor your location all day every day without implicating your fourth amendment rights

American Expat in London (Lifestyle and culture)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: American Expat in London, by kristina smith

WEB ADDRESS: http://anexpatinlondon.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: What's it like to be a single, 30-something American female living and working in London? Heck if I know-but I'm going to find out! Join me as I blog about what it's like to live, work, play, date (yikes!), and generally try to get by in London.

MY REVIEW: I kind of enjoyed this blog, and I kind of didn't. It's a melancholy feeling, really. Twenty years ago, I was able to visit England - and specifically London - quite frequently, and I loved the tube and I loved Londoners. They certainly weren't as rude as the Londoners the author of this blog describes. But then, 20 years have passed and the England I knew has changed a great deal in many ways. It was turning into a nanny state then, it is very much a nanny state now, and so on...

Anyway, if you want to know what it's like to live in England, this is the blog for you.

My only reservation is that the author only seems to post once a week or so.

RECENT POSTS:
--The North and South
--Engagement Photos
--Tube Musings
--The Lighter Side of London Life

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death