I recycle all of my plastic containers and had a clean empty coffee container (on the left). When I picked up coffee the last time, I felt that something had changed, but it was not immediately clear what it was. The packaging was different, but there were none of the older, different containers in the store. So, when I arrived home, I compared the two containers as shown in the photo. However, there was no real surprise as coffee manufactures have been doing this for years. Same high price, less coffee. But, what I find interesting is that they try to draw attention away by highlighting the "new flavor lock cover" in yellow. But, the one on the left already had the "new" top. Whenever I see the term "new package" or "new and improved" I get suspicious.
So, I started doing some reading thinking that Kraft Food, the mother of this deception, was in financial distress and had to raise the price by reducing the amount of coffee. Or, that Brazil, the major producer of arabica coffee beans had experienced a bad year. But, neither was true. Kraft had a 22% profit this year and Brazil had a good harvest. In fact, coffee prices began falling in June of this year. See the article here.
Well, we can attribute the increase to the higher cost of roasting the beans, or transportation, or anything else in the chain of product to market. Or, we can just suspect that greed and a higher profit is the motive. I think that the latter is the case and that soon I will be bringing home a container the size of a K-cup for the same price. I really can't drink to that...

For those of us who are old enough to remember a time before the internet, the public library was a primary place for information. Not only did it house books, but magazines covering most interests, to academic journals. Many sources of knowledge were archived for multiple years, and really served the public, providing information  in a way that most people could not afford on their own. The use of the card catalog, or a neatly organized and labeled book collection allowed for easy access to the world and words around us. The Dewey Decimal system reigned supreme, and research was often fun and productive. It seems that almost every town and city, regardless of size, had a public library. The cover photo is a library near  my town, and the population there is less than two thousand. Yes, it is small, but there is a skilled librarian still willing to help find the right book or article.
This post was inspired by a discussion with the 12 year old daughter of a friend. We were talking about finding information on the net and I mentioned our local library as a possible source location. She looked puzzled and when I asked her why, she said that she had seen a library on a field trip when she was in the first or second grade, but has not been to one since then! Further, that everything that she needed was on the internet. It seems as though the totally connected, tech savvy, student of the future has lost the value of a public community library. I attempted to right this apparent wrong, but in some instances, she may have some legitimate basis for her lack of understanding the full scope of the "new library".
I advised her that in our town, with less than 20,000 population, our library was fully equipped with computers with internet access, multimedia rooms, classes of all types, full research assistance, interlibrary access, genealogy search, music group performance, and more. DVDs, CD's, copy services, online access from home, and skilled professional library personnel to help with questions. And, all that you need is a library card!
But, the future may be uncertain for some libraries. Most are funded by local taxes, private donations, and  some state and federal assistance. The fortunate ones have corporate sponsors as well. But the current squeeze on money may make some of these repositories fail in their mission to educate and inform. And, I advised my young friend that everything is not on the internet for free. For example, many scholarly articles are buried behind  "pay walls" where a single journal reprint may cost 35 dollars. I can get the same article through the interlibrary loan for free at my public library.
Many of the professionals at our libraries are not getting rich. Salaries are generally below comparable skill levels and volunteers help as well. So, take a trip to your local library and meet the new services and see what you may have been missing. While you are there, read a real book. Leave the eBook reader at home...

The cell phone tower in the photo is right here in New Hampshire, but to me, it really does not look like a pine tree. The photo is not mine but comes from Wikipedia public domain from a photographer with the screen name SayCheeeeeese. The article is about cell phone towers that are disguised to "blend in". Really?
The problem with all of this cell technology is not just the appearance, but rather, the fact that traffic will soon exceed the highway specifications. It is widely believed that the PC will soon be as much of a dinosaur as the old dial-up modems of the 1980's. Everyone it seems wants to be totally mobile, and the cost to do that will be very high, and there will be some pain involved. Cisco has projected that by 2016 about 50% of the internet connections will be wireless, and that 71% of that number will be large video files. And, with the sharply escalating sale of smartphones, and tablets, 2016 may be closer to the end than even the Mayan calender suggests.
Providers are scrambling to be at the head of the line to beat the rush with several technologies that are promising, but still plagued with concerns. Just a few problems like simultaneously accommodating 3G, 4G, and the soon to come 5th generation, bandwidth allotments, and  frequency restrictions lead the list of hurdles to overcome.
Mini-towers, about the size of a square softball are in the works and can be used to provide WiFi hot spots in metropolitan areas much as the femtocells that have been available from Verizon and Nextel are doing. These are designed to be multiplexed and provide coverage inside of a building. But they require a fiber optic cable and  either broadband or DSL connection.
In any conceivable event, it is our infrastructure that will fail us. With an aging electricity grid that is vulnerable to failure, the wireless network will likely suffer the same concerns. Demand is going up, supply is failing to keep pace, and any economist will say that this will mean higher prices for both.
For a good read on the problem and coming technologies, check out the article in CNNMoney here.