Started the new job yesterday. So far so good. Three miles/10 minutes is definitely nicer than 40 miles/75 minutes, especially in the age of $3 gas.

The office is located in Palo Alto’s “California Avenue Business District” which on one hand is good because there are a bunch of restaurants (not to mention a Radio Shack in walking distance :geek: ), but not so good in that parking is restricted to two or three hours at a time. The company reimburses the cost of a parking permit, but the wait time to obtain one is currently eight weeks. So until then I either get to move the car every couple of hours, park in the residential areas, or ride my bike to work.
That last is looking pretty good, but since I haven’t been on the bike in two or three years it’ll need an overhaul first.

Meanwhile I’m missing my corner window cube a bit; here I’m in a corner cube, but the corner is formed by two interior walls and the closest window is across the office. Nothing has come close to beating the 11th floor corner office in the Bayview Building when Network ICE was still Network ICE.

We spent the weekend at Disneyland, and I actually felt motivated to write a trip report.

An underground transformer exploded in San Francisco’s central
financial district on Friday, injuring at least one woman and
prompting police to close several city blocks. While city workers
searched to find a cause, Optimus Prime of the Autobots said, “It
wasn’t one of our Transformers — it must have been a Decepticon.

(TopFive.com/James Floyd)

US firm to market breast milk | The Register

A US firm has announced that it wants to buy breast milk and then flog it to hospitals for the treatment of sick babies. LA-based Prolacta Bioscience has set its sights on stocks at independent milk banks which it will pasteurise and supply for the treatment of underweight rugrats, the BBC reports.

Naturally, Prolacta’s primary concern is the welfare of said mewling infants. It also intends to ‘carry out research to develop breast milk-based therapies’. As Prolacta supremo Elena Medo notes: ‘Human breast milk is really an incredible therapy. Let’s try to develop processes where we can preserve every bit of its nutrients and the potent antiviral and all of its diseases fighting properties.’

I know I can’t be the only person who immediately flashed back to Piers Anthony‘s short story “In the Barn” (included in Again, Dangerous Visions as well as his own Anthonology) when I read this on The Register. The idea of selling human breast milk bothers me for some reason I can’t quite articulate, but has nothing to do with the fact that I have dropped cow milk entirely in favor of Soy milk.

Former Cendant Executive Gets 10 Years

Former Cendant Corp. Vice Chairman E. Kirk Shelton was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for his role in an accounting scandal that cost investors more than $3 billion.

Of course he’ll serve a fraction of that, and probably in Club Fed, but it’s good to see a tiny bit of justice for people who lost due to this guy.

Treasury Says 30-Year Bond Is Coming Back

The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it is bringing back the 30-year Treasury bond next year, a move that would help finance the national debt and should hold appeal for investors looking for a safe, longer-term investment option in their portfolios.

Which is funny, because earlier this year our Commander-in-Chimp said “There is no trust fund, just IOUs that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay” [Knight Ridder, 4/5/05] So which is it? Sound long-term investment or worthless IOU? Oh wait, I’m asking for honesty and consistency from someone who knows nothing of either.