Gross domestic product, a broad measure of the total value of goods and services produced in a given economy, has been expanding for the last year, leading many economists to believe the recession  that began in December 2007 is technically over.

Still, G.D.P growth in the last quarter of 2009 — at an annual rate of 5 percent — was much more robust than it has been this year. This slowdown, coupled with disappointing job creation, has led to worries that the recovery is losing steam. The nation’s unemployment rate continues to linger just below 10 percent.

Here’s a HUGE reason why there is a slowdown and unemployment is so high:

Senator John McCain

What he really said is:

Money is more important than our future.

It’s not our plan, it’s the Democrats, so we wont vote for it.

I want to get elected again so I’d rather be in office than save the planet.

Environmentalists said the decision to delay action on the broad climate legislation marked a serious setback.

“It would seem like the longest of long shots to me because the window for opportunity in the fall before the election season goes into high gear is very small,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an activist group.

So let’s start over or let’s debate some more, or let’s do nothing. Good work, John.

Elvis was rocking at the Collingwood Elvis Festival this past weekend. Final numbers are not in but it certainly looked like one of the most successful Festivals yet!

Images of the Elvis Festival

Amazon.com announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books.

In that time, Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.

The pace of change is quickening, too, Amazon said. In the last four weeks sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies. Amazon has 630,000 Kindle books, a small fraction of the millions of books sold on the site.

Book lovers mourning the demise of hardcover books with their heft and their musty smell need a reality check, said Mike Shatzkin, founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, which advises book publishers on digital change. “This was a day that was going to come, a day that had to come,” he said. He predicts that within a decade, fewer than 25 percent of all books sold will be print versions.

Books Then and Now

“The road to knowledge begins with the turn of the page.” Anonymous

Today:

“The road to knowledge begins with the press of a button.” JC

Past:

“A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas—a place where history comes to life.” Norman Cousins

“A good library is a palace where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet.”Samuel Niger

Today:

“A good library will fit in the palm of your hand.” JC

Quotes about Books and e-books

“A book is a human-powered film projector (complete with feature film) that advances at a speed fully customized to the viewer’s mood or fancy. This rare harmony between object and user arises from the minimal skills required to manipulate a bound sequence of pages. Each piece of paper embodies a corresponding instant of time which remains frozen until liberated by the act of turning a page.” The Reactive Square - John Maeda

“We read about 1,000 times more than we write.” Xerox PARC – Rich Gold

“We think of an eBook as an intelligent pet.” BeeHive Hypertext - Talan Memmot

“It took people 10 years to figure out that while stuck in a morning commute, they could be listening to a book.” Publishers Weekly- Paul Hilts

“Change can be scary. When papyrus replaced clay tablets, and the Gutenberg press calligraphy, did a bit of panic set in? Are we in the midst of a revolution of similar proportion? Very probably.” Susan McLester

“We should not see print and electronic literature as in competition, but rather in conversation. The more voices that join in, the richer the dialogue is likely to be.”

N. Katherine Hayles

“I cannot live without books.” Thomas Jefferson

Wonder if any other countries have a National Ice Cream Day??

“People just don’t understand that when the end of affordable energy comes, it’s going to be chaos. What do we do to prevent that?”

To that end, Hagman took his nine-bedroom, 18 000 square foot,14 1/2 -bathroom Mediterranean-style estate off-grid in 2003, causing his annual electric bill to plummet.

In his personal life, Larry Hagman had followed through his own words. The 78-year-old actor and his wife Maj own the largest residential solar-power system in the United States. Since he first installed the solar power system in 2003, the annual electric bill for his mountaintop home and 46-acre farm plummeted from $37,000 to $13 overnight, according to a press release.

BP Says That Oil Flow Has Stopped as Cap Is Tested

“I am very excited that there’s no oil in the Gulf of Mexico,” Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP, said about the flow during a teleconference on Thursday, “but we just started the test and I don’t want to create a false sense of excitement.”

No oil in the Gulf of Mexico!!!!

How many gallons have gushed from the well

in the last three months????