Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager at Apple, and Andrew Ang, of Singapore, were named in a 23-count federal grand jury indictment for wire fraud, money laundering and kickbacks. The allegations assert that Devine used his mid-level manager position at Apple to obtain confidential information which he then provided to Apple's suppliers in China, Japan, Hongkong and Singapore. The information he provided potentially gave these suppliers negotiating advantages in securing contracts with Apple that were more favorable than they might otherwise have been. Devine was then handsomely rewarded in monetary payments to a series of bank accounts, some in his wife's name, and by cash payments when he visited Singapore. Devine then shared the money with Ang. Devine, a 37 year-old Sunnyvale resident is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service.

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What would you do with the amount of money the United States has spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? As of May 2010, this amount of spending reached $1 trillion—and continues to grow daily.  As we now know, the cost of sending one soldier to Afghanistan is the same cost needed to build 20 schools in the same country; imagine what else could be done with all of those funds instead of keeping the conflict going and our families in harm’s way.

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"Sending Jogger Coordinates..."

If the talking, seeing, all-knowing Sauron clothes weren’t enough, now we’ll have something else to contend with: Big Brother clothes.

Wal-Mart apparently isn’t happy with being the devil; now it has chosen to take the role of General Devil God. In other words, it will start inserting “smart tags” into its clothing sometime this month. These electronic tags will not be able to be turned off by buyers (though they can remove them) and they are, yes, trackable, meaning that Wal-Mart will now be tagging its victims like a wild animal species.

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I’ve had many complaints about the social network giant Facebook lately, I know. I don’t know if I’m just sick of it—or if what it has slowly become has made me sick. (I did get sick from the heat over the weekend, but I’m pretty sure that has nothing to do with Facebook.) There are a lot of hate groups, a lot of whiny people, and a lot of negative comments on the site that I would much rather stay away from, thank you very much.

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The Social Security Program is 75 year old, or seventy five years young. 75 years is young for a program that needs to last forever.

This past week, the nemesis, the arch enemy, of the program from Day 1, the Republican Party, cranked up its doomsday machine a little tighter, as its minions went about the land plotting, and speaking, of and about ways, to destroy this good program, which makes it possible for millions of elderly Americans to eat and to keep a roof over their heads.

The GOP minions, in so many words, are playing a bizarro Piped Piper's tune, as they say that they are going to save America by destroying the elderly. They tell America to gamble with her people's retirement years, by forcing her people to gamble, with their retirement cash, in the casinos of Wall Street.

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I liked this video clip of President Obama's reaction to his nine year old daughter hitting a hole-in-one on a miniature golf course, because it is a human reaction by a father, delighted at seeing his little daughter doing something well. This is always a good thing to see. It is good to see a politician showing human, joyful emotion, and making a connection with his child, or with a child in his life. I suspect that the benefits of what he receives, in sharing joy with his child, carries over to how he approaches his job, knowing that what he does will affect his child, and thinking of his child and of how what he does may impact her, maybe he will be thinking of other children, and of how what he does in his official capacity has an effect on their lives, and as a consequence, on the lives of our us. See the video.

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5. Comedians

Comedians must come up with all new material during the appetizer round. Material must surround topics provided by the game. In Round II, comedians have to perform the material in front of a rowdy bar crowd and make the customers laugh at least 75% of the time. In round III, they must take turns dodging thrown vegetables, drinks, and chairs, with the most points going to the person who sustains the least amount of injuries.

4. CPAs

Each accountant must sign, stamp, and seal as many papers as possible in ten minutes. During round II, a complete audit of a major, unsavory corporation (Enron, Halliburton, ect.) must be conducted within 30 minutes. In round III, each accountant must explain the ins and outs of financial, estate, and tax planning and preparation to a client without making him or her fall asleep.

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You may already have seen, and presumably been charmed by, Tanya Davis' video poem titled "How To Be Alone."  It is a step-by-step guide to re-entering the world as a single person after a break-up.  And, frankly, it's adorable.

But not to The Globe And Mail columnist Russell Smith, it's not.  

He calls it "pair-bonding-obsessed weepiness," which confused me.  Did we watch the same video? 

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A few weekends back the DJ was having some fun with the music, and suddenly I was hearing new takes on old songs, whether it was the sounds of a female voice (I don’t really know who it was…) singing over the top of a Michael Jackson beat, or even a classic Tribe Called Quest song playing with their standard use of samples. It was awesome. They were mash-ups, remixes, hip hop classics at the mercy of, well, the hands of, a talented DJ who knows how to play with the anatomy of a beat. The art form of turning a something that wasn’t what it was originally into something new that sounds just as sweet, or maybe even better. But that’s a different kind of beat…

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Yes, we are still in Afghanistan and yes, it is still going pretty much the same as it was the last time you checked. The U.S. forces are going after certain pockets and having minimal success- the Taliban are still in the mountains and not coming out or surrendering anytime soon. I mean, it’s been 10 years. Sometimes you sit back and think, what is going to change now? Why can’t we just exit the war… oh, wait, we’re doing that next summer. But in the meantime, we are increasing our troop levels, and that may have something to do with an increase in the civilian death rates in the country.

A statement issued by the presidential palace said Obama agreed in a video call to start talking about a review, which Karzai also proposed in a letter.

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