What the E!

The New York Times just published two articles today that  relate to pregnancy.   It points out how much of the conventional wisdom related to how to ensure a healthy baby has a very limited basis in science.  The articles also mention how the “common knowledge” varies drastically across different cultures.   See what you think and how it checks out against other cultures.
That Prenatal Visit May Be Months Too Late

The Weighty Responsibility of Drinking for Two

Many of us have waited a long time for the new version of the Windows, Vista or maybe even a few bug fixes that might be found in Office 2007.  We may wonder why the company with one of the largest software development staff in the world cant get anything done.  A former MS employee posts there comment in the link below describing the large, large number of staffers to just to shutdown the machine, http://www.drizzle.com/~lettvin/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html

Then after all the hard work described above, Joel Spolsky, a  software developer who write’s the Joel on Software blog responds with some very forthright criticism of the end result.  http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html

While the former MS employee hopes that his group was an outlier in the MS development process, what are the chances that it was even worse in the more critical areas?  If you have 3, 4, and 5 different groups working on the same feature with no one person in charge who has a keen interest in the overall success of the product, what can you except.

Many of us are watching our wallets and bank account balances disappear draw down as Christmas shopping takes its toll or as the heating bills roll in.  However, in comparison to the rest of the world we are all doing pretty well.

Check out the website below to find out where you stand. Almost all Americans are in the top 10% in the world in terms of income, so you may not get a new PS3, but at least you have some food.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/