Our grandma is no longer calling us on the phone...

... because she now has:



You have probably heard of skype. An internet telephony network, that is absolutely free no matter where in the world you are, if you and the other participant are signed up with skype. The coolest thing however is that you can also see the person you are talking to if they have a webcam or a video camera hooked up to their computer. This is great if you have family far away and want to show off the kids once in a while.



It is really easy to install - our grandparents just did it. Things are still a bit blurry and of course a visit in person is always much nicer.

You can also call regular telephones from your skype account. Their international rate is very low ($0.021/minute) and full year of unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada is just US$14.95 till January 31st.
Quick - that's today!!

This months series of unusual sports presents: Wife Carrying

What a concept: Strong big husband carries tiny helpless wife!

Believe it or not wife carrying is a sport that originated in Finland. Check out the video and see for yourself.



And if you think this might be something you and your spouse want to sign up for you don't have to go to Finland, instead just register for the North America championships. I wonder if you have to be married to participate, but I would guess they are pretty liberal in Scandinavia...however in Berkeley this event would probably be called "partner carrying".

It would definitely NOT work for my husband and me because:

1. He has a hard time picking me up
2. I don't like to be carried

A big thanks to Andy V for bringing this to my livingroom safari and for the great link to this article from the lonelyplanet.

Do you know of any other strange sports?

Too bad it's not myPhone

Guess what, Macworld is just another ordinary trade show. I was curious and registered as "Livingroom Safari" for $25 to go and see what all the fuss is about.

This year's fuss at Macworld, as you probably know, was the iPhone, Steve Jobs newest addition to the endlessly fruit-bearing apple family. I had never seen a phone that has it's own security guards - the smallest celebrity in the world received big-time attention as it was floating in it's plexiglass display.



In a presentation a clever Apple-lady showed us how easy you can zoom in on images just by sliding your fingers over the display - which will make all of us moms out there look like old fashioned technophobes when we remind our kids for the 10,000th time to NOT touch the screen.



A very cool phone. Now all you need to do is switch your phone service to Cingular and put your name on the waiting list and for $499 it will be yours in June. Too bad, I just renewed my T-mobile contract and got a Blackberry Pearl... I wish Steve would have told me - but he likes surprises!

This months series of unusual sports presents: Curling Vegetables

Getting people to come to the farmer's market in Berkeley year round is a pretty easy task in our relatively mild climate but is definitely a bit of a challenge in a place such as Ithaca, NY - where you might have to shovel your way through the snow in order to get there. But the clever Cornell Community came up with an unique event that nobody should miss (if you happen to live in Ithaca, that is). 100 people signed up to participate in the Ninth Annual Rutabaga World Championship in December 2006. The Rutabaga Curling competition - brainchild of Steve Sierigk - has become a popular event centered around the rutabaga, a root vegetable that wikipedia describes as a cross between cabbage and white parsnip. This vegetable is not only a healthy food choice but takes on another purpose by being tossed down the hall at the local farmers market. There are no prizes but a lot of cheering will be guaranteed if your rutabaga wobbles closer to the scoring marker.




If you have a few minutes (and it really does not take very long) you should listen to David Sommerstein's coverage on NCPR.

A special thanks goes out to our friends in Ithaca for supplying me with important background information on the event and to Tom who was the first person that ever told me about this.


Do you know of an unusual sport? Drop me a note or leave a comment....