I've visited many islands in the Caribbean and I started wondering, "why did Christopher Columbus name islands after obscure saints like St. Martin, St. Eustatius and St. Lucia but not after two better known saints from his own Italy, St. Francis and St. Clair?"
We know St. Bartholomew (better known today as St. Barts) was really named after his brother Bartholomew, but what about the others?


I've always found it somewhat annoying the way the job requirements in IT job ads are worded.  You would thing it was crazy if someone wrote a job ad for a carpenter that said:
"Must have 5 years experience with Stanley screwdrivers, 3+ years experience with Ryobi circular saws, seven years experience with Sherwin-Williams paint, ..."

But that is exactly how software job descriptions are written most of the time, as if a professional can't learn to use the tools available but must already know them.  A typical example I copied from an actual job description:
"Expert knowledge of CSS,XHTML, HTML, DOM, JavaScript & Ajax concepts. Good working knowledge of RSS / JSON/ REST principles.  Advanced JAvaScript knowledge with JQuery or other JS toolkits: Prototype or DOJO.   Working knowledge of Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator. "

IT's sad that one of the West Virginia miners told his wife the day before the explosion that he was worried about going into the mine and another wrote a letter to his wife and daughter the day of the accident indicating that they, and possibly others, had an intuitive warning that they didn't share because it would have not been taken seriously.  When will we learn to trust our intuition?



"There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always." ~ Gandhi




One early tulip in my garden