Technically Speaking

We live in a crazy world.

Did you hear that a group of “prominent ecologists” want to relocate wild elephans and lions to the Great Plains region of the United States?

According to an an AP article (new window) supporters of the plan say say “it could help save some species from extinction in Africa, where protection is spotty and habitats are vanishing. They say the relocated animals could also restore the biodiversity in North America to a condition closer to what it was before humans overran the landscape more than 10,000 years ago.”

It is an interesting idea–one that would take a lot of getting used to before I’d be able to swallow it. That is, unless I got swallowed whole by one of the lions…

Yesterday I talked about the rising cost of gas, and today the price of crude oil has climbed to $67 dollars a barrel. The rising cost of gasoline is starting to hurt America where it hurts–in the pocketbook. A CNN.com online (unscientific poll) today asks users if they are starting to suffer from financial hardship due to the rising price of gasoline. As of 15:00 EDT, here were the results:
56% of respondents said “yes” and 29% of respondents said “no, but it will if it keeps rising”; only 25% said “no”. There had been 47,900 votes.

When gas prices rise, everybody feels the pain. Just about every thing we purchase is affected by the price of gasoline, because fuel is used to transport the product from wherever it is manufactured or processed to the store where you purchase it. So when gas prices go up, so does the price of milk, and a whole host of other things.

If your budget is starting to feel the crunch, let me introduce you to a website I found online today: Cairo.com. Cairo is a site that compares the weekly ads from major retailers to help you find the best current deals in your area. Cairo reads the ads so you don’t have to. You can simply go to the website, enter your zip code (e.g. _84047_) and the item you are looking for, (e.g. _milk_), and Cairo will show you the places that your item is on sale (e.g. _3 gallons for $6 at Smiths_).

Not only does Cairo check your grocery ads, but it checks ads at department, electronics, and drug stores as well. Stores listed near my zip code include Smiths, Albertsons, Walgreens, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, CompUSA, Radio Shack, JC Penny, and Linens and Things. Here, however, is the caveat: it *doesn’t* list local supermarkets like Reams, Harmon’s, or Maceys. So, you will still have to check out _those_ ads. However, Cairo is still a great place to start.

Cairo even lets you search by retailer, brand, or you can just browse current sales. Looks like a pretty cool tool for finding what is on sale near you right now!

Happy web surfing! Have a great weekend.

With gas prices hitting an all-time high in Utah this week ($2.37 / gal, low-grade unleaded), and with crude oil prices topping a whopping $66 dollars a barrel, its no wonder that airlines are raising the prices on flights.

Christina and I are going to be in California this Christmas, and we bought our tickets last Friday. When I checked prices on Delta’s website today, I found that round-trip, non-stop travel from Salt Lake to Sacramento has increased by $30 per ticket. We saved $60 dollars by purchasing our tickets last weekend!

Whew! Glad that is taken care of!

If I were a Lego^TM^, this is what I’d proably look like:

If you want to design yourself as a Lego^TM^ character, try Mini-Mizer. Unfortunatley, the site works best in Internet Explorer.

Have fun!

Many of you will remember when I made the switch from Blogger to WordPress back in May. When I made the switch, there was a dramatic change in the format of my blog.

Well, I’ve changed the format again. I’m still with WordPress, but I’ve changed the theme. This theme comes from our friend Trevor Richel (website, blog) in Ludoc, Alberta. I found Trevor’s Urban Sprawl site through my web hosting provider, and I liked the theme so much, I asked if I could modify it for my own blog. With lots of Trevor’s help, I finally have it working here on Technically Speaking. I hope you like the changes.

Let me know if you have any questions. There is now a “contat me” link that allows you to fill out a form to send me an email message, without requiring you to comment on a specific post.

Have a great day.