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The sisterhood of the traveling flip flops
IT was my second day in Japan and I returned to my hotel to find two pretty Japan-based Filipinas waiting for me in the lobby. Kreng! Jaki! I greeted them warmly. We spent the afternoon in Shibuya and Harajuku buying shoes and accessories, and stopping by Oshmans for a Havaianas fix. The funny thing is, it was the first time I met the two Filipinas, and it was the first time they met each other. But we had spent hours of our lives exchanging messages online. Rewind. The link to Female Networks Girltalk forum kept appearing on my blogs site meter referrals earlier this year. One day, out of curiosity, I clicked the link and found a group of girls that were as enthusiastic about Havaianas as I was. To me, the thread was a gold mine, a real treasure. I went from having no one to share my addiction for Brazilian flip flops with to being able to talk to the girls about it 24/7.
Column: With arrival of fall comes new season of planting
Autumn features many gardening joys and chores. Let's begin with those houseplants we summered outdoors. Before moving them back indoors to shelter them from frost, it makes sense to spray the plants with pesticide. Now I'm cautious about pesticides, but this is one time I spray plants thoroughly. .
AOL to offer free content to everyone
"AOL is changing" ads have been bloated all over the AOL.com website for the last month. So what exactly is AOL changing? How about I describe that with one word. Free. AOL now offers its free AOL.com e-mail addresses to anyone wishing to have one. In addition, AOL now offers free videos and spyware protection to users signing up for their free e-mail service. According to an AOL spokesperson off CNET.com, AOL feels it is necessary to "catch-up" with their comepitors, such as Google, MSN and Yahoo, whom have been offering an entire bag full of goodies for years now. Unlike signing up for AIM.com e-mail, when you sign-up for an AOL e-mail address, you are required to give a lot more information, such as your address and phone number. That is because AOL actually considers new users customers, and sets up an account.
Is PAT Leaving Quality Behind?
The recent emphasis on continuous improvement, operational excellence and Process Analytical Technology (PAT) within the pharmaceutical and biotech industries has driven us to evaluate the basic tenets of our approach to quality. Historically, the ability to ensure that a drug will meet its intended form, fit and function has been achieved through the combined application of quality infrastructure (SOP's, policies, specifications), qualification or validation (commissioning, IQ, OQ, PQ process Validation) and Testing (in-process and final release). Despite this rigid environmental approach, the number of drug recalls continues to rise, escalating from 176 in 1998 to 354 in 2002 [US CDER website]. In a break from tradition, the FDA recognized that the methods that lead to this problem could not be part of the solution.
Concerns over Navy plans to build landing strip near refuge
Endangered red wolves prowl the pine bogs and farm fields in a part of North Carolina where the Navy wants to build a jet landing strip, according to federal tracking data released by an environmental advocacy group. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which is challenging the Navy's plan to build the airfield near a national wildlife refuge, said eight wolves in several packs have moved onto the refuge and surrounding private farmland near the proposed landing field site in the three years since the Navy studied the area. The presence of red wolves, an endangered species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been trying to reintroduce in the wild for two decades, could further complicate Navy plans to locate an airfield near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
Shares of JDS Uniphase falling after disappointing profit report
NEW YORK The shares of J-D-S Uniphase are tumbling after a disappointing profit report. At last check, shares of the maker of fiber-optic networking gear were down more than 14 percent on heavy volume. The slide in J-D-S stock comes after the Milpitas-based company posted weak fiscal fourth-quarter gross margins and issued a lackluster sales forecast for its fiscal first-quarter. After the markets closed yesterday, J-D-S reported its fiscal fourth-quarter loss narrowed to 45-point-eight (m) million dollars, or three cents a share. That compares to the 145-point-seven (m) million dollars, or ten cents a share the company lost during the same period a year ago. In posting the quarterly numbers, officials at J-D-S also said they expect revenue for the first quarter to come in below Wall Street's expectation.
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