http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/cgi-bin/ Featuring economic news, tales from business school, and other useful information. 2006-05-07T10:12:28-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/05/index.html#000079 The gas-price posturing in Washington (see below) is a good illustration of why my politics have drifted to the point where I'd vote for any candidate who promised to do absolutely nothing for the duration of his or her term.... Urbie 2006-05-07T10:12:28-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/04/index.html#000078 These days, with gas costing upwards of three bucks a gallon, all the politicians in Washington -- Democrats and Republicans, executive branch and legislative branch -- are falling all over themselves to blast the oil companies and "do something" about... Urbie 2006-04-29T08:40:23-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/04/index.html#000077 One of my favorite blogs, Prof. Dennis Foster's Kaibab Journal, has a short piece on the hysteria surrounding global climate and the efforts of Flagstaff activists to spend a lot of money doing a lot of things that won't have... Urbie 2006-04-25T07:13:10-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/04/index.html#000076 Last week's ACC 455 exam came back yesterday, and I'm happy to report that I came in just above the median, at 66/80 (82.5%). Given the difficulty of the material, that's a better result than I was expecting -- and... Urbie 2006-04-19T10:34:32-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/04/index.html#000075 This morning, most of the golf highlights shows have focused on Phil Mickelson's win at the Masters tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. As a result, golf fans may have been starved for news of other important action over the... Urbie 2006-04-10T06:09:06-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/04/index.html#000074 This week, Jeffrey Zaslow, the Wall St. Journal's "Moving On" columnist, offers a piece called "Financial infidelity: When it's OK to shop behind your spouse's back." Zaslow's column is all about the subterfuges couples go through in order to avoid... Urbie 2006-04-04T14:09:55-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/03/index.html#000073 The Financial Times reports that the three leaders of Japan's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, have resigned their seats in the Diet (the Japanese parliament). Seiji Maehara, the party leader, and two of his lieutenants resigned earlier... Urbie 2006-03-31T05:59:28-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/03/index.html#000072 Three 7-free golf scorecards, that is. Those of you who follow my life much too closely have undoubtedly noticed that my e-mail signature concludes with the line, "Happiness is a 7-free card." This refers to a golf scorecard containing no... Urbie 2006-03-27T05:54:53-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/03/index.html#000071 In the Wall St. Journal's latest "Middle Seat" column, writer Scott McCartney discussed the FAA's plans to allow people to use cell phones on commercial flights. His followup "Mailbox" column established a new first: completely 100% unanimous feedback from readers,... Urbie 2006-03-20T07:32:50-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/03/index.html#000070 By now, I'm sure regular readers are clamoring for an update on how things are going at the NAU business school this semester, following last fall's partial setback. Well, thanks to some major realignments in my schedule (relinquishing my job... Urbie 2006-03-11T07:57:18-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/03/index.html#000069 I have to admit, I was a GMail Ad Skeptic™ for a long time. You know, one of those zero-tolerance privacy-geek types who got all upset when it was announced that GMail's software was going to scan the content of... Urbie 2006-03-03T06:59:24-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/02/index.html#000068 This may not be terribly exciting news outside of our Peaks Parkway headquarters, but today is Bix's 3rd birthday. Here's a shot of him getting ready to play a chorus of "Happy Birthday To Me!" at the Chickering. We got... Urbie 2006-02-27T06:45:24-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/02/index.html#000067 I just received a letter, which I think was in response to my series of columns on land closures and environmental politics -- if you missed them, the first one is here. Apparently, I'm not the only one annoyed by... Urbie 2006-02-17T13:30:39-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/02/index.html#000066 I've been annoying Meg this week by tuning in to NBC's coverage of the Olympic curling matches first thing in the morning. I know what you're thinking: curling's a boring sport for couch potatoes, right? Well, no it ain't. With... Urbie 2006-02-16T15:38:19-08:00 http://WWW.kafalas.com/mt/archives/2006/02/index.html#000065 Over the past few days, Islamic protesters, having a hissy fit over some caricatures published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten and other publications, have done a good job of making caricatures of themselves in the process. I realize it's considered blasphemous, in... Urbie 2006-02-06T11:51:45-08:00