Why, oh, why do I read the business news?
Just from today:
Boeing to cut 10,000 jobs
Starbucks to close 300 more stores, will cut almost 7,000 more jobs
Continental Airlines posts $266 million loss
Shell loses $2.8 billion
Kodak to slash 4,500 jobs
Ford lost $14.6 billion.

Porque, ai, porque eu leio a seção de economia?
Só de hoje:
A Boeing vai cortar 10.000 empregos
O Starbucks vai fechar mais 300 lojas, vai cortar quase 7.ooo empregos
A Continental Airlines declara perda de US$266 milhões
A Shell perde US$2.8 bilhões
A Kodak vai cortar 4.500 empregos
A Ford perde US$14.6 bilhões.

I go to this place almost everyday. My gym is there.

Eu vou nesse lugar quase todos os dias. Minha academia é lá.

Scores of schools and other government buildings have been blown up over the past two years, in Swat, Bajaur and Mohmand, restive parts of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as the Taliban seek to impose a radical Islam and challenge the authority of the government.
“The militants have been throwing the girls’ students to the Stone Age by burning and bombing
their schools while the government has become a silent spectator,” says Jalal Khan, principal of a Swat-based school.

Last year Taliban destroyed 162 girls’ schools in Swat
Parents have been warned against sending their daughters to “un-Islamic” schools(…)
Other affected districts in NWFP are Mardan, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar where schools were attacked with the purpose of scaring away the girls from seeking education.
“This reminds one of the Afghan Taliban, who had banned women’s education and doctors and nurses in Afghanistan,” says Dr Ashraf Ali, an authority on the Taliban. He sees the roots of the problem in the government’s inability to protect its schools.
Hundreds of female students in Mardan have switched to wearing the veil after threats from the Taliban. “The militants had threatened to cut the throat of any girl above seven years who was not veiled on the street,” says Bakht Jehan, a schoolteacher.
Ten elected parliamentarians have stopped visiting Swat out of fear.
Nadir Shah, who runs a private girls’ school, believes the Taliban are in charge of Swat.
“On Thursday (Jan. 22), they killed a teacher and hanged his body from an electricity pole in Mingora,” he says. The teacher had refused to follow their dress code, he adds. The Taliban want all men to wear traditional clothes and grow their beards.
(Inter Press Service, via Huffington Post)

So sad about John Updike. Excellent writer, in fiction and in non-fiction. He wrote essays about a multitude of subjects, always with brilliant insights. My favorite books by him were Gertrude and Claudius, and Self-consciousness: A Memoir.

Triste a morte do John Updike. Excelente escritor, de ficção e de não-ficção. Ele escreveu ensaios sobre uma incrível variedade de assuntos, sempre com insights brilhantes. Meus livros favoritos escritos por ele são Gertrude and Claudius, e Self-consciousness: A Memoir.

Via Web Urbanist

These are the best tomatoes, heirloom cherry tomatoes in several varieties.

Esses são os melhores tomates, tomates cereja de vários tipos.