From the article:“3Com, which faces brutal competition from Cisco Systems Inc. and others, is now a shadow of the high-flying star it became in the late 1990s technology boom. At one point in 2000, its shares briefly rose above $100 apiece.

Bain Capital, a private equity firm, decided the 28-year-old company still has enough potential to justify a buyout carrying a hefty 44 percent premium to the stock’s Thursday closing price of $3.68 per share.

Shareholders will receive $5.30 in cash for each share of 3Com stock.”

I remember when 3Com was synonymous with networking and Cisco was an upstart. Many years and too many missteps later, 3Com is now going private. I hope that this move will give them the breathing room to reorganize and think of some serious long-term strategies. I would have to this icon of the 80’s and 90’s to go away.

From the article:“The pope focused on St. John Chrysostom, one of the most prolific of the church fathers whose 16th centenary of his death is being marked this year. “Called Chrysostom, meaning ‘golden-mouthed,’ for his eloquence, it could be said that he is still alive today through his works,” Benedict said. The pope said that the saint had constantly sought to “to connect Christian doctrine to daily living,” emphasizing life-long development of a person’s physical, intellectual and religious dimensions.”

I find this article fascinating for two reasons. First, Pope Benedict is bringing attention to the importance of adolescence in the faith-formation of the youth. Second, he brings attention to the importance of the youth to the entire Church. I see this as an acknowledgement of the continued growth of the Church — always changing to at once support the new generations of the faithful and teaching the new generations about the rich traditions to which they are connected.

From the article:“Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity and could power homes and businesses around the globe with clean energy for roughly the same cost as traditionally generated electricity.

Sampath has developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with a cadmium telluride thin film instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon. Because the process produces high efficiency devices (ranging from 11% to 13%) at a very high rate and yield, it can be done much more cheaply than with existing technologies. The cost to the consumer could be as low as $2 per watt, about half the current cost of solar panels. In addition, this solar technology need not be tied to a grid, so it can be affordably installed and operated in nearly any location.”

From the article:“Myanmar-based blogs went dark suddenly. But London-based blogger Ko Htike — who has been one of the most prominent bloggers posting information about the violence — has vowed to keep up the fight, saying where “there is a will, there is a way.”

“I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the Internet connection throughout the country,” he said on his blog Friday. “I, therefore, would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta.”

Ko Htike is a 28-year-old who left Myanmar, once known as Burma, seven years ago to study in England.”

From the article:“It is 9 o’clock on a Friday night and rain is about to fall, but 100 happy children aged 6-16 are waiting outside a school. “Let’s go into the classroom. The teacher is coming!” a loud voice calls out from among the children running about in front of the school building in Kompong Speu, 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) west of Phnom Penh.” The children were not excited about another school lesson, but about a storytelling session by Jesuit Services Cambodia (JSC) staff.

Everybody has heard of the Virgin Mary appearing in everything from trees to flowers to pastries. Evidently all those claims were completely bunk because a group of nuns in Arkansas maintain that Mary was reincarnated at the founder of their order. — My first reaction is to say that any sense of faith is good, but there is something very dangerous when a particular individual claims that THEY are a DIRECT mouthpiece of God.

From the article:“The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary.

The Vatican has declared all members of the Army of Mary excommunicated. Hebert said the excommunication was the first in the diocese’s 165-year history.”

From the article:” CNN has honored a request from the Department of Homeland Security not to divulge certain details about the experiment, dubbed “Aurora,” and conducted in March at the Department of Energy’s Idaho lab
In a previously classified video of the test CNN obtained, the generator shakes and smokes, and then stops.

DHS acknowledged the experiment involved controlled hacking into a replica of a power plant’s control system. Sources familiar with the test said researchers changed the operating cycle of the generator, sending it out of control
“

From the article:“Myanmar’s generals launched pre-dawn raids on rebellious monasteries on Thursday in their crackdown on the biggest anti-junta protests in 20 years, defying increasingly desperate international calls for restraint.

The raids suggested the generals, who have lived with Western sanctions for years and routinely ignore all calls for change, were not listening to the diplomatic clamor a day after five monks were reported killed in mass protests.”

Sad, but not surprising considering that the Myanmar military cabal has long ignored ANY view that is not 100% in line with their own. I have nothing but admiration and prayers for those brave monks who have put their lives on the line for freedom.

From the article:” Google’s reported interest in laying a new trans-Pacific underwater fiber optic cable is the most prominent sign that, after a six-year hiatus, companies are starting to build massive conduits for internet data.

After the market collapsed in 2001, telcos stopped laying new cables. With a glut of capacity on the market, Google bought “dark fiber” — unused fiber-optic cable connections — at discount rates. Google won’t disclose how much fiber capacity it owns, but experts concur that it is a significant amount.”

A few years ago, Google went on a buying spree, snatching up as much of the “dark fiber” around the country as was possible. In many cases, Google purchased this fiber for pennies on the dollar, letting them build out their own private network for very little work on their part. — If they were to have their own Submarine cable, Google would have a tremendous bargaining chip with the Telcos who have enjoyed making threats to end Google’s “free ride” on their networks. — Bottom line… BETTER FOR US!

From the article:“Microsoft Corp’s “Halo 3″ video game set an opening-day U.S. sales record of $170 million, outdoing any video game or movie debut and giving the company’s money-losing entertainment unit a strong boost toward profitability.

Alien-shooting fans also surged onto Microsoft’s Xbox Live online service. More than a million members took up virtual arms in “Halo 3″ in the first 20 hours on September 25, the day the game debuted, Microsoft said on Wednesday.”

WOW!! – I knew it would be big… but seriously?!?! — I actually was one of those people who played Halo 3 the day of release and enjoyed “finishing the fight.” My head is STILL spinning from the nausea!

From the article:“For more than 50 years Iceland has been decreasing its dependence on fossil fuels by tapping the natural power all around this rainy, windswept rock of fire. Waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs provide Icelanders with abundant electricity and hot water. Virtually all of the country’s electricity and heating comes from domestic renewable energy sources — hydroelectric power and geothermal springs. It’s pollution-free and cheap.”

THIS is how developed nations should look at “alternative energy” — It’s not an option, but an absolute necessity if you consider more than just short-term gains. Granted, the $8 a gallon gas price probably gives Iceland a little extra push for energy alternatives, but that kind of forward-thinking makes sense no matter where you live.

From the article:” The diocese and its parishes still have to raise millions of dollars for the $48 million fund that will be used to compensate childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse and to pay the professional fees of the bankruptcy proceeding and expenses incurred in determining the claims.

The $20 million that diocesan insurers contributed to the settlement was wired to the fund May 31. “

From the article:“Society certainly supports the notion that being thin is what’s important. I wanted Maddie to see that, when it comes to being fit, there’s a much bigger picture. I sat down with her and explained that I simply wanted to be fit and healthy – regardless of my size. That meant eating right and exercising more, both things I had let go by the wayside.”

Ugggg…. I guess I need to stop the McDonalds and Doritos diet…

From the article:” Calling it “exciting” and “providential,” the cardinal said the new stewardship initiative “really is basic renewal of the church.”

The effort comes at a historically important moment, added the cardinal, because it follows more than five difficult years of confronting the scandal of sex abuse within the church.

“Your faith over these years has been so inspiring to me,” he told parishioners gathered at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in Los Angeles. “This is a very special moment for us and I think that the whole stewardship concept is one of the main pillars of rebuilding who we are here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

This is a hopeful move as long as our leaders take to heart their own teachings that stewardship is about more than tithing. If we truly want the people of the Church to take stewardship of the Church, then we have to be willing to give them real responsibility in the strategic planning and goal setting of the Church. We have to be ready to tap our congregations for management and administration skills, ministerial talents AND financial resources. If we, as the clergy, are to ask our flock to take stewardship of the Church, we must be willing to give them the tools and authority to fulfill that stewardship to the best of their abilities.

I know that past experiences don’t bode particularly well, but if the past few years of scandal and disgrace have taught us anything, it’s that we must change and adapt to the needs of the Spirit or become irrelevant. I for one will hold out hope that this is the first small step in the rejuvenation of a Church that is trusted, vibrant and once again ready to serve.

This is the last of the USB-powered heater/cooler units that was sent to us by Brando and I have to say that I’ve been impressed by their effectiveness. Many of the reviews that I have read online have trashed similar units as being useless, completely ineffective at cooling a soda, or even downright dangerous. On the contrary, my experience with the Brando coolers has been that they can keep a cold drink cool and, given enough time, can make a warm drink cold.

With the quality of the products that I’ve received from Brando Workshop, I’m thinking about dedicating an entire episode of gadget to their USB devices. Let me know what you think… some of these gadgets are definitely high on the uberGeek scale!