Been to Starbucks lately?  Of course you have.  Have you noticed that you need to learn a new language just to order a cup of coffee?  They actually publish a guidebook for those of us who aren’t native speakers.  Here are some of the more colorful combinations you can put together.

• Triple venti skinny upside-down caramel macchiato (3 shots of espresso put in first instead of last in a large cup with nonfat milk, caramel sauce and vanilla syrup)
• Grande skim triple shot hazelnut latte, no whip (3 shots of espresso in a medium-sized cup with skim milk, hazelnut syrup and no whip cream)
• Half-Caf, Double Tall, Non-Fat, No Foam Latte (1 shot regular espresso and 1 shot decaffenated expresso in a small cup full to the top with steamed nonfat milk)
• Grande, quad, ristretto, nonfat dry cappuccino with legs (4 shots of espresso to go using only the sweetest part of the coffee in a medium-sized cup with more foamed nonfat milk than liquid milk)
• Doppio venti light ice unleaded Frappuccino con panna (2 shots of decaffeinated espresso on ice with whipped cream and only a little ice in a large cup)

Funnier than us trying to use this language is the look on the faces of the baristas when you actually get one of these out.  Ten to one they won’t have the foggiest idea what you are talking about.

Basically, we want clients who want to see improvement in their website design, SEO rankings and overall ROI. We bring you the best possible solutions to make that happen. We don’t arm-wrestle clients who want to go another route with their internet strategy. What

we’ve found over our 12 years in business is that even clients who have left our services (thinking the grass is greener on that side of the fence) return to us when they learn where the green really is.

We don’t hire average talent. We don’t want average results for our clients. We don’t want clients who think average is okay either.

So if you want out of the box solutions to FUEL YOUR BRAND, we are your next logical stopping place in your search for the best possible service and skill to create even better results.

If you decide to go elsewhere, we figure the best advice we can offer is: take two aspirin and when the headache gets too painful, call us. We’ll respond.

Unleaded Software is one of a handful of Magento Professional Partners in the world – and the only one in Colorado – which enables us to incorporate Magento into our clients’ online merchandizing with unparalleled sophistication. The beauty of Magento is that its core technology – the best on the web — comes complete, and the platform allows for nearly unlimited personalization and customization to fit seamlessly into the architecture and visual branding language already established by companies in print and on the web.

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Hoddle Street, East Melbourne.

Further increases in petrol prices are predicted as Australia’s unleaded benchmark price scaled a 10-month high of almost $100 a barrel in the past week.  

While the continued signs of a recovery in the global economy had been great news for share market investors, the same could not be said for motorists, Commonwealth Securities economist Savanth Sebastian said.

The Australian Institute of Petroleum’s weekly report showed the unleaded petrol prices rose by an average 1.9 cents per litre in the past week to 124.5 cents.

The average metropolitan price rose by 2.6 cents a litre to 124.2 cents, while the regional average price rose by 0.7 cents to 125.1 cents.

“The glut of oil inventory on global markets is not putting downward pressure on prices,” Mr Sebastian said, adding traders and investors were focussed on the recovery story.

Even a strong Australian dollar has not been able to significantly absorb the rally in oil prices.

This resulted in the benchmark for Australian unleaded petrol – the Singapore gasoline price – rising to a 10-month high of $99.70 from $97.33 in the past week.

“If there is any consolation for motorists, it is that the rise in pump prices is likely to be rather sedate,” Mr Sebastian said.

“The petrol price will rise over the next fortnight, but only modestly, up around three to five cents a litre.”

Source  :  www.thewest.com.au

Wired put together a great article on this new plane/car.

Really geared more towards pilots who want to drive home and skip out on the hangar rentals.  Reserve yours now for $195,000!

Pretty Awesome prospects here.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/its-not-a-flyin.html

I never thought I would see this again in my lifetime. I guess we’ll enjoy it while it lasts. The car wash is located at 7000 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta GA.

read more | digg story

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!   Those poor cry babie’s   Could it be they’re only only gig they have is losing its fizzle?http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081022/bs_nm/us_markets_oil_12

Whats next………….$50.00 a barrel?   

I dont know about the rest of you guys but im putting a dollar in an envelope and sending it over there.  Im sure theyre hurting pretty bad and all. 

And another thing…………………..Why am i still paying over $3.00 a gallon for unleaded?  When the markets start to rise you can watch the guy at the local gas station run from his TV out to raise the price on his sign at least 2 or 3 times a day.  But when the price fall’s it doesn’t quite come down that quickly.      The explanation we all get is…………………..”Oh, the gas I’m selling you i bought at the high price last week.  

I live 11 miles from my job.  This past July 4th i started commuting by bicycle a few days a week.  So far i saved about 50 gallons of gas.  This is now a permanent part of my lifestyle.  As long as the temp is above freezing, ill be cycling.    I’ve reduced my appetite for oil and i get a decent cardio workout.  Maybe there are alot of people who also are trying to find ways to tell these people to screw off!

Consumers are now getting somewhat of a break, at the pump. Gas prices continued to fall overnight, according to news reports. 

According to AAA, the current (Monday, July 21) average for regular unleaded gas in Illinois is $4.17, medium at $4.49, premium at $4.63 and diesel at $4.82. The average on Sunday, July 20 was regular at $4.19, medium at $4.50, premium at $.64 and diesel at $4.87.  A year ago (2007), the regular average was $3.21, medium $3.45, premium $3.52 and diesel at $3.03.

“Gas prices in Alaska, that with the highest prices, fell to $4.66 a gallon from $4.64 the day before. Hawaii, the state with the second highest prices, saw prices fall to $4.46. California prices fell a penny to $4.44 on average,” according to CNNMoney.com 

When British Leyland (BL) launched the TR7 the USA was way ahead of the UK & Europe on trying to rein in vehicle emissions. By 1975 (as early as ‘73?) all new models had to run on unleaded gas – BL were aiming the new vehicle squarely at the US market and thus were watching the situation there closely (hence the fixed-head only early models). The TR7 was also produced in a ‘California’ specification – a wimpy 86BHP from a single carburettor, in order to meet very strict emission controls imposed by that State.

The UK and Europe were lagging somewhat, in the vehicle emission stakes, and no such controls on the use of leaded petroleum had yet been introduced. So did the engines themselves differ?

Well no they didn’t – the timing may have been tweaked, and the Carbs setup a little differently to allow smoother running on unleaded juice but other than that there was no significant differences. A quick check of the UK parts list reveals that the part number for the valve seats is the same as that of the US car. The valve seats must be hardened when running on unleaded as the protective qualities of the lead is absent (the lead in petrol is ‘baked’ in normal usage thus providing valuable protection). It is therefore safe to assume that the UK spec standard 2.0litre head will cope quite adequately on unleaded petrol without major modification.

What is clear is that LRP sold in the UK has not attained a British Standard mark. Neither have any conclusive tests been carried out on this flavour of go-go juice. In effect reliance on LRP to protect your ‘leaded’ engine is no more guaranteed to lengthen the engine life than running on unleaded gas. If you are using unleaded (or will start to) it is worth using a quality fuel – such as Shell Optimax – every few fill-ups…. this does assist performance and is certainly a noticeable improvement on standard unleaded juice.

Cautionary note: What may be worth noting is that the unleaded petrol sold today is different to that sold in the mid 70’s – it is cleaner and may contain less protective qualities than early lead-free varieties.

Thanks to:  TriumphTR7.com for the article.

Oil prices have increased by an average of 50% over the past year, highlighting the failure of oil deregulation in bringing down petroleum prices and the urgency of reinstating regulation, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

Between June 2007 and June 2008, average pump prices of unleaded gasoline and diesel have increased by 47% and 52%, respectively.

Further, since the start of deregulation in 1996, pump prices of unleaded gas have increased by 492 percent. Meanwhile prices of diesel have increased by 607 percent.

Oil deregulation was supposed to ensure affordable and accessible petroleum products by breaking up the local oil cartel, allowing “market forces” to determine the real price of oil. Instead, it only gave Shell, Petron and Chevron (formerly Caltex), more room for speculation and to dictate prices and price hikes. IBON estimates that as much as 47% to 54% of the pump price of petroleum products represents windfall profits of the oil firms.

An effective way to break up the monopoly control of the oil firms over the local downstream oil sector and ensure affordable and accessible oil products is to revoke the oil deregulation law and give the government regulatory authority over the oil industry.

During a recent international workshop in Manila, I got to see  Fort Santiago for the second time. Some details:

Gangrene, maybe – Stiff Spanish soldier, Balauarte de Sta. Barbara

Dance of love

Tall dreams?