PSoTD

In general, a good thing - but I can't help but wonder what the businesses they compete with think about this.

Saving souls is serious business for Annandale, Va., pastor Steve Reynolds. So is losing weight.

Which is why he stepped out from behind the lectern during a service one recent weekend to deliver a blunt message to those crowded into the pews below.

"About 40 percent of you need to lose weight,” he told his congregation at Capital Baptist Church. "When you love potluck more than God, it's serious.”

And with that, the preacher, who has lost 70 pounds by relying on God and low carbs, launched a mission to lead his followers into the burgeoning world of religious dieting. "Our body was given to us by God and for God,” he said. "He is the owner. We need to take care of what He's given us.”

Reynolds, the pastor of Capital, is joining a movement that got its start in Christianity but has picked up steam and spread to other religions. Faith-based diet clubs, books and advice programs are prospering. Books advise Buddhists to practice "transformational nourishment,” Hindus are told to eat low-fat vegetarian fare.

Makes about as much sense...

If office work has taken a back seat to football chatter, it must be the annual Super Bowl slowdown.

Excitement over what has become the biggest single sporting event of the year in the United States may actually end up costing employers some $800 million in lost productivity the week before the big game, a report said on Monday.

In Chicago and Indianapolis, the two cities whose National Football League teams will face off on February 4 in Miami, losses could reach $85 million in the run-up to the game, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Assuming employees, for example, spend 10 minutes a day talking about the game, making bets, surfing the Internet or shopping for a new television, their bosses will lose some $162 million per day. In a five-day workweek, that adds up to $810 million, based on average earnings and expected viewership.

Then there is the day after the championship when people discuss the game's plays, the TV commercials, or simply call in sick, resulting in more money lost, the outplacement consultant reported.

I hope nobody is paying these people to make this guess. I know lots of people who don't care about the Super Bowl one bit, and the likelihood they spend 10 minutes each workday involved in Super Bowl discussion above and beyond the time they normally spend talking about whatever personal interest they have is incredibly slight. Then there's that whole part of the question - is this supposed ten minutes per day spent on the Super Bowl in addition to the time spent discussing and doing more personal stuff at work, or just replacing something else as a priority for that week? Is this a daily ten minutes they'd normally be talking about their house or their kids' sports or the next doctor appointment or how drunk Sheila in accounting was last weekend?

But my biggest annoyance in this PR exercise committed annually by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. is that this somehow costs "the bosses". Really. Like the bosses take home less money because of this. No, if it costs anyone, and that is a big if, it costs the marketplace, because costs are transferred eventually. So let's cut out the "this is costing the employers" talk, because that's not the way companies operate in reality. And let's quit reporting the ballooning the supposed cost into such ridiculous numbers, because there's the only point of it is to get this firm in the newspaper in the first place.

It's in the news again!

For coffee lovers who need their daily fix of caffeine, cappuccinos or latte concoctions, coffee heaven in the form of Starbucks has touched down in Ponderay

Located in the new Ponderay Plaza fronting U.S. 95 across from Super 8 Motel, the world's largest multinational chain of coffee shops with more than 12,000 stores worldwide opens its doors Friday morning in a spacious 1,700-square-foot store company officials believe could become one of the area's busiest outlets.

Showcasing a new look, the Ponderay Starbucks store will feature a drive-thru window and a fireplace with raised seating and comfortable chairs placed around the hearth. There will also be seating for about 20 customers.

It always amazes me that it is considered newsworthy when Starbucks comes to town. Here's the newsworthy part for Ponderay, Idaho: Starbucks thought your town was less important for a store location than 12,000 other areas. Twelve thousand! Take a sip.

I mean, a drive-thru window, my God! A fireplace with raised seating? Comfortable chairs! Coffee!!!???!!! You never had any of those things before? Then that's why you're 12,000th! Get it? They're just finally getting to you. After they got to Lovejoy, Georgia, and Clive, Iowa, and Toms River, New Jersey, and Paducah, Kentucky - they're getting to you. Woo hoo! Sip on that.

Okay, I'll admit to some prejudices. I think most of Starbucks coffee is pretty close to undrinkable. I also think their prices are ridiculous. Oh sure, there's really cool people inside, with wireless laptops and Bolle sunglasses and dreams of having Bono-sized personalities. But I don't find it newsworthy when they come to town. Here's something more newsworthy - the Mom and Pop coffee shop that was there for years before Starbucks showed up, and survived even though Starbucks located just down the street because they have a healthy core of regular customers. That's what is newsworthy, not McCoffees opening up everywhere. And here's why it's newsworthy for your town: the profit the Mom and Pop store makes will most likely stay right their in your community. What do you think of that? Mmmm, that's good.

Interesting use of old tourist buses...

More than 45 students from Kapi'olani Community College along with faculty and staff members plan to spend part of their Martin Luther King holiday tomorrow refurbishing former tour buses that are being converted into temporary shelters for homeless people.

Tomorrow marks the 21st anniversary of the Martin Luther King federal holiday, and the college called on its students, faculty and staff to make it a "day on, not a day off" by participating in the project to turn the buses into temporary homes.

The buses were donated by the Roberts Hawaii tour company about a year ago to the H-5 Project to help Hawai'i's homeless.

Here's a method that thieves use to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN.

When we gave corporations the same legal status as people, the law gets into weird situations. Just another good reason why corporations shouldn't be considered this way...

Corporations may be considered people under Arizona law.

But they don't have private lives, which means corporations cannot assert a right of privacy over sex acts, according to a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The three-judge panel rejected arguments by Phoenix-based Fleck and Associates Inc. that a city ordinance prohibiting the operation of live sex act businesses is unconstitutional. The judges said that only individuals directly affected have the right to challenge the law, and that has not happened.

"This would constitute the largest reduction in Canadian natural gas export volumes in a generation, and is a situation with which the Canadian and U.S. markets have been completely unfamiliar."

This is a marker for next year. The word is out to natural gas producers for next year - increase price by reducing supply.