Most likely to suck

So, if life in your industry has you down, consider the sugar industry.

Projected annual growth rate — pegged to population growth at about 2%, except for the new Surgeon General's kick against kids consuming carbohydrates.

State of the industry — the biggest player in the US, Imperial Sugar, is coming out of bankruptcy. They diversified into “healthcare products” — hospital food — and savory condiments; they just shed their food packaging division. Tate & Lyle, the UK based sugar empire, just shed Domino, and is looking to ditch the rest of its US holdings.

And then there's tooth decay, Diet Coke/Pepsi/Whatever, and the creeping doom of corn syrup (which already displaced sugar from the soft drink business).

Pay attention, Microsoft–this is your marketplace in 10 years.

Today's sign of the coming apocalypse:

Pat Buchanan offers a well-reasoned criticism of Dubya's “Axis of Evil” posturing. Pat Buchanan as voice of reason…s c a r y.

hand-eye coordination

My lovely wife (who bought me my Handspring for Christmas) continues to feed my gadget addiction. For Valentine's Day, she got me an eyemodule 2, a digital camera that plugs into the Springboard interface on the Prism.

A picture named bear.jpg

Bear On Board

I have a confession to make: I watch Bear in the Big Blue House. My wife got my our daughter Zoe two BBBH DVDs for her 1st birthday, though I suspect it was more for her and me than for our daughter. Sure, Zoe likes Bear–but Paula and I were watching BBBH before Zoe was born, and when the kids weren't home.

Who is this ursine guru, this orange furry fakir who draws child and adult alike into a hypnotic state, unable to break contact with his beady, blinking, hood-browed eyes?

Now even our oldest son seems to have fallen under his tutelage. Maybe it's the way he cha-cha-chas.