Carnival of the Vanities #195

Welcome to the 195th edition of the venerable Carnival of the Vanities!

This week's Carnival almost had an authentic old-school touch, when my cable modem service went down. Fortunately, it came back online, so this is not the 56k Dialup Carnival. With only two days left to assemble the Carnival, I finished just on time. Here it is, posted in fast fashion!

Business

Trent showcases Wall Street at its Ugliest at Stock Market Beat. It just goes to show that everything counts--if you don't keep your eye on all aspects of the business, someone will take advantage of your lapse.

Barry Welford at The Other Bloke's Blog asks a different question: Should I Be Polite To My Clients? He suggests one needs to get the balance right between explaining how your company can help the client and coming across as self-congratulatory.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade gives us a Buyer's Basic Guide to The Foreclosure Market and REOs. Here is the house buying advice if you're looking to profit from investing in distressed real estate.

Paul M. Secunda at Workplace Prof Blog presents a surprising and shocking Report: Five of Top Ten Grossing Class Action Settlements Involved ERISA Claims. These suits work off the conflict between company executives in their dual roles as corporate heads and fiduciaries for the company retirement plans, and claim that by not disclosing information, they damaged people in the plans. I can't help feeling that the only people benefitting from these suits are the lawyers.

Wayne Hulbert at Blog Business World reminds us to Be Prepared for Change. It's only a question of time before you will see change in your profession. Those who can adapt will thrive.

Steve Faber tells us Why Boring Stocks Can Be Oh So Sexy over at Debt Free. Tech stocks are the rush of a fast car or the excitement of a hot party, and they're as ephemeral. Take a look at quiet stocks that pay good dividends.

Science

GrrlScientist shows us how the battle between offense and defense goes back long before humankind got involved. Check out the new life form discovered, a Giant Armored Dinosaur, over at Living the Scientific Life. How about naming this beast after Sherman or Abrams? From large armored dinosaurs to small sauropods, learn about how scientists determined that fossils represented a new species, at Europasaurus holgeri: the Smallest Giant.

Religion

Reb Chaim HaQoton presents Understanding Proselytes, a term originally meaning those who converted to Judaism. Many suffer well for following this calling.

Ali Eteraz at Unwilling Self-Negation learned more about life and honor from the flawed hero of a literary creation than from the unreachably flawless depiction of the Prophet; this virtual halo of goodness renders childhood irrelevant. As a result, he sees himself in the former, not the latter: "I am a Dark Elf."

Sports

The Key Monk remembers umpire Eric Gregg, who passed away recently. He was criticized for his calls at home plate, but respected for his treatment of players and coaches. Read The Largest Ump, RIP.

Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality points out that the old Sports Illustrated cover curse has been surpassed by the curses of Madden and Campbell's. Shaun Alexander and Ben Roethlisberger are Asking for trouble with their current endorsements. And then it begins....

Humor

The ever-clever Buckley F. Williams at The Nose On Your Face has a new Top 10 list, 10% off, for today only! See the Top 9 Things Overheard Coming From The Hippies Who Were Pepper-Sprayed At A Recent Anti-War Protest. I just can't get enough of these lists!

At Avant News, where they present Tommorow's News, Today, you may gain insight about the new math of troop reductions: U.S. Military to Reduce Iraq Troop Levels From 138,000 to 163,000.

Don Surber has a copy of New York Times reporter John F. Burns's coverage of the recent Yankees-Red Sox series. It's as stripped of bias as his war reporting. Follow along at The Quagmire at Yankee Stadium.

Gnotalex at Dodgeblogium gives us Die, Man, Rhymin’: The Wit And Wisdom Of Zakaria Amara. Yes, he found poetry from one of the recently arrested Canadian terrorist suspects. It's no good, but Gnolatex suspects it'll be good enough for the International Library of Poetry.

Callas at Catnabbit! warns us about the "furr-ener" threat: "Furr-eners" Featured in All-New "Deck of Terror". Easy, Tiger... and Rocky, and Spike, and Sylvester....

Attila at Pillage Idiot asks the important question: What's that smell? What to do if you're breathing in fumes? It's a good thing the New York Times Business section is covering this important topic.

Darcy X attacks spam at A weigh with the words, posted at Catymology. A serious cat doesn't want to know about your new painkiller or limited time giveaway!

The decline in the number of pirates is not the cause of global warming? Just blasphemous rumours from the Noodly Norsemen! Mark A. Rayner at The Skwib continues his saga of the schism among worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at Pirates, Vikings and The Lost Boys.

The World We Live In

Mensa Barbie at Mensa Barbie Welcomes You links to a powerful video, with photographic evidence of the atrocities suffered under Sharia law in Iran. See the Video: Ending Theocracy of Sharia Law. As she says: "Today's disappearance, tortures, or executions of journalists and bloggers, as apostates... must end."

Bull Jones at The Bull Speaks! looks to Iraq. Somebody who deserved it is dead, and Bull honors a good man, and a good turtle, serving our nation. It's at Salute to our Flag, our Sailors, a Victory, & Franklin.

Francois Tremblay tackles one condemnation of free market anarchism, the argument that reducing the power of government is necessarily bad for the poor. Join in the discussion at Using "the poor" as a moral totem, posted at The Radical Libertarian.

Doug Mataconis at Below The Beltway looks at Tiananmen Square Seventeen Years Later. Who can forget the courage of a lone man, staring down the barrel of a gun?

John discusses Blogs for Outright Insanity at Hell's Handmaiden. Just because some people treat sex as "something to do," doesn't mean they support sexual slavery.

Muse at Shiloh Musings points out the New York Times has an agenda, as demonstrated by easily disproved facts in headlines. Hamas ends a truce after 16 months? Don't trust the NY Times. Told you so!

Adam Graham at Adam's Blog looks at the cultural and religious aspects of marriage, heterosexual and homosexual. He asks, What is Marriage? If one says, "I feel loved," is that all that matters?

Jon Swift comments: Ann Coulter Tackles the Menace of Widows and Grieving Mothers. If people think she will find shame in her most recent comments, just look at everything else she's said over the years.

Watcher of Weasels cheers: Zarqawi Has Been Terminated... w00t! He has harsh words for the world full of nothing that is the liberal response to this momentous event.

Mike Taylor at Et Tu Bloge looks at the impact of Daily Kos on our political atmosphere; he sees many a black day to come, if this be the future. Read Those Cute Kos Kids and The Future Seen.

Life in General

Shang Lee at Shang Lee.com thinks about the precious lessons learned from two thin pieces of wood he's used all his life. Read about it at The Wisdom of Chopsticks.

Free Money Finance presents Chocolate is the Path to Wealth and Long Life. The bottom line: Enjoy chocolate in moderation. The health benefits may be minor, but the happiness it provides is always good.

J.D. at Get Rich Slowly has a thoughtful post about balancing the benefits of organic food with its costs, an analysis that can and should be done in many aspects of life. Clean, wholesome food isn't cheap, and what about those who can't afford it? His post is at Organic Produce: Price vs. Ethics.

Dayton Daily News reporter Kristin McAllister, blogging at Making Cents, reminds us about Kids and jobs. Don't miss out on being a kid. Work will come. If you want your child to work, she has some advice.

Douglas Sorocco at Rethink(IP) wonders Whatever Happened to Manners? When a passenger on a plane refuses to be flexible, even when it's just as easy to be polite, his neighbors respond. It's nice to see some people still have a sense of decency.

Jack Yoest takes an old quote from an auto ad, Scars Are Tattoos... With Better Stories, and looks at how pain changes a man. Would I be able to turn life changing pain into a pain I'm used to? I don't know.

Miriam at Miriam's ideas bemoans the great ideas lost when Blogger was not functioning to record them. Curse Blogger! I had a similar thing happen, unable to start this CotV while Internet access was down, and I hope these tools never let me down again.

Paul at Paul's Tips draws a lesson from a chance encounter with teenagers and their world. He compares their world with the adult world, and concludes: High-school style popularity is effectively worthless in the adult world. In the teenage world, petty divides are created because they have no real authority. When moving to the adult world, they find the landscape is changing, and those who don't change are left behind.

Koranteng at Koranteng's Toli brings us Boycott and the Gospel of Toli. All those passwords, technology problems, regulations... it's enough to render you comatose.

Elisa Camahort at The Browster Blog brings us stories of old (a week old) with The week that was in the blogosphere.

Lisa at Lil' Duck Duck reminds us that toddlers and electronics don't mix. Look at More keyboard decor... he definitely shouldn't have done that!

Paula Gregorowicz at Coaching4Lesbians realizes Pop Art Questions Convention, You Can Too!. When you feel your life or your business is in a rut, think about how an artist would see you and your life.

And finally, Great White Snark has a News Flash: "Good Girls" Don't Run Off to Jordan. What would lead a girl to con her parents into getting her a passport, then sneak off to a foreign nation? Sounds like a clear-cut case of useless parents.

That's all for today. The next carnival will be hosted at... *ahem* ... (uncomfortable silence) ... there will be another one, right? Contact Zeuswood if you're interested in hosting.

(And ten points if you detect the common thread in the entries for this week's Carnival.)