Asha Anujeeva

My cousin sent me the link to a BBC website that was talking about a new store in Germany called “The Future Store.”  He included the note “I thought you might get a kick out of this.”  So I clicked on the link and watched a video made for a tv news show where the reporter was going around the store and explaining how new technology was being used at this store.

It really was very interesting; the customers use their cell phones to scan the bar code of the product they are buying when they take it off of the shelf before they put it in their cart.  The meat counter has microchips in the meat packages to advise the store that the meat package has been removed, so the store can keep track of when they need to re-stock.  When the customer is finished shopping, they press a button on their phone, which produces a “master bar code” which they use to scan at a self-service checkout counter.  Really all quite interesting.  The biggest question I have about the process is regarding how the store expects to keep the customers “honest” and reduce the risk of shop-lifting?  I’d be curious to learn about that part of the equation! 

I was reading an article on Yahoo news about a man, who lives in a tent on a tiny Shetland Island named Forvik has filed for “independence” from the British Crown.  Apparently the chain of Shetland Islands fall under the British government, and this man (Stuart Hill) has decided to make his island a “crown dependency” out of the 2.5 square mile island that he owns.  He says he will make his own currency and collect no taxes.  What is so very funny about this story is that he is the ONLY resident of the island!  I just can’t even imagine that! 

Sunday was Father’s Day, and everyone in the family packed up and went to our parent’s house to celebrate our and have a nice picnic.  Aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone within a 200 mile driving distance was there.  It was a regular family reunion!  Our parents went a little bit overboard and rented a big moon bounce, pony rides and live entertainers (clowns and jugglers) for the younger children to keep them happy.  OK, they went WAY overboard!  But everyone had a great time, the entertainment was good, the food was great, and it was wonderful seeing the whole family and their kids and catch up on what everyone is doing.

When I got up this morning, I turned on the television news and was very surprised to hear them talking about a 7.2 earthquake in Japan.  Wasn’t there just an earthquake of the same magnitude in China?  So far I haven’t heard any details about a huge number of people being killed by the earthquake, I think that I heard that they only knew of four deaths so far, so I am hoping that is “good news” if there really CAN be “good news” about an earthquake!

I heard on the news today that the anchor of Meet The Press died at his office today.  At first I heard it was a heart attack, then “unknown causes” then cardiac arrest, and now back to heart attack.  So I don’t really know for sure what it was that killed him.

I like to watch his television show every Sunday morning, it was one of the few television shows that I felt were actually “worth” watching to become more informed about what is going on in the world.  Whoever takes his spot as anchor on that show will have a hard time filling his shoes.