Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson

TEA just sent this song to the girls..

Wanted to post. She is right, the lyrics do have meaning to all of us, in our own individual ways. Love you TEA.

Grew up in a small town,
And when the rain would fall down,
I'd just stare out my window.
Dreaming of what could be,
And if I'd end up happy,
I would pray.

Try hard to reach out,
But when I tried to speak out,
Felt like no-one could hear me. Wanted to belong here,
But something felt so wrong here.
So I'd pray,
I could break away.

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly,
I'll do what it takes till I touch the sky,
And I'll make a wish, take a chance,
Make a change, and break away.
Out of the darkness and into the sun,
But I won't forget all the ones that I love.
I'll take a risk, take a chance,
Make a change, and break away.

Wanna feel the warm breeze,
Sleep under a palm tree,
Feel the rush of the ocean,
Get onboard a fast train,
Travel on a jetplane,
Faraway, and break away.

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly,
I'll do what it takes till I touch the sky,
And I'll make a wish, take a chance,
Make a change, and break away.
Out of the darkness and into the sun,
I won't forget all the ones that I love.
I've gotta take a risk, take a chance,
Make a change, and break away.

Buildings with a 100 floors,
Swinging around revolving doors,
Maybe I don't know where they'll take me.
But I gotta keep moving on moving on,
Fly away, break away.

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly,
Though its not easy to tell you goodbye.
Gotta take a risk, take a chance,
Make a change, and break away.
Out of the darkness and into the sky,
But I won't forget the place I come from.> I've gotta take a risk, take a chance,
Make a change, and break away.

Break away, break away

Keane - Somewhere Only We Know (Island)

As you may have already been told, Keane are the next Coldplay. To a degree this is true: they released their first single on indy label Fierce Panda, as did Coldplay, and appear to be middle-class, university educated boys whose approach is very much engrained in touching, piano-led music, just like Coldplay.

But the comparison simply doesn’t do Keane justice. Longview were initially greeted in such a way, and ultimately found that familiarity breeds contempt. Somewhere Only We Know, as Keane’s debut on a major label, is epic. It crescendos perfectly, boasting vocals and sentiments that will make your hair stand on end.

Hyped bands seem to be cursed a lot of the time, but I suspect these three lads have already penned tunes that will far outlast any NME-driven media spin. A low key headlining gig is underway, and Somewhere Only We Know should pour from radio systems for months to come - an admirable, endearing and uplifting effort.

How to help tsunami victims

Remitting Disaster
Let disaster survivors get back to work—in the USA

Will Wilkinson

How can the United States best help the millions of people who were rocked by the Indian Ocean tsunami? America's generosity has been impressive. The federal government has pledged $350 million; private, voluntary donations from Americans will soon surpass that amount. American helicopters and aid workers have been critical for rendering aid in the aftermath of the disaster. All this will help.

But there is something more we can do that will have long-term positive benefits for the citizens of tsunami-battered nations—something that will buy us goodwill but cost us almost nothing.

Let them work in the U.S.

When migrants earn money while working abroad and then send it back to their families living in their home country, it's called a remittance. Not many people know that total remittances around the world now add up to $80 billion a year. That's impressive because it's twice the amount of government foreign aid.

Mexicans working in the United States ship close to $20 billion a year to their families on the other side of the Rio Grande. In some nations, such as Jordan, Albania, Nicaragua, and Yemen, remittances account for over 15 percent of GDP.

Unlike aid from governments and multilateral agencies like the World Bank, remittances are not squandered by bureaucracy and are not channeled through often corrupt governments, which routinely use money intended to buy milk to buy missiles. Instead, remitted money goes straight to common people on the ground, the people who need it and for whom it is intended.

In a 2003 Foreign Policy article, Devesh Kapur of Harvard University and John McHale of the Queen's School of Business in Ontario note that immigrant communities have begun to pool remittances and use them to finance small business and public works projects in their home communities.

Kapur and McHale report that remittances have helped people living in collapsed states such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, and Somalia to survive. They call remittances the “most reliable source of foreign money going to poor countries” and the “principle source of foreign capital for small family businesses throughout the developing world.”

The potential for remittances to help rebuild businesses, communities, and lives along the battered coastlines of South Asia should be obvious. But in order for remittances to work their magic, Indonesians, Malaysians, Sri Lankans, and other victims of the tsunami need to gain entrance to and employment in other countries. Help from the United States may already be on the way.

Last week, President Bush proposed a new temporary worker program that would allow foreign citizens to work legally in the U.S. for a limited time. The program is intended primarily to bring illegal Mexican and Central American workers into the legal labor market, and to expedite the ability of foreigners to begin working for American businesses who have offered them a job. However, the program could easily be reconceived as a prime source of aid to disaster-stricken nations.

American citizens have been laudably generous with their charitable giving. But South Asians need more than a sudden influx of money. And recall: Iranians received only a small fraction of the aid pledged by the UN in the wake of the Bam earthquake, and the Red Cross created a storm of controversy when it proposed to use funds donated to the victims of 9/11 for other purposes. The victims of the tsunami need the kind of steady, medium- and long-term support that remittances offer.

So Congress, with the disaster victims in mind, should speed the passage of Bush's temporary worker plan, and charities should begin working to match South Asian workers with American employers. Handouts initially produce gratitude that eventually shades off into resentment. But because everyone gains through trade, longstanding economic relations tend to engender friendship and trust.

A concerted effort to bring South Asian workers to the U.S. would not only provide tsunami victims with effective aid through remittances, and American employers with needed workers, but would also foster benevolent sentiments toward the United States in this largely Muslim part of the world.

Some pundits have excoriated the United States government for failing to win the government money-pledge numbers game. But Americans know that private charity can often help the needy better than the government. We also know that helping people to become independent is better yet.

By quickly implementing a temporary worker program, and working hard to bring South Asian workers to the U.S., Americans can demonstrate to the world the wisdom and compassion of helping people help themselves.



Will Wilkinson is a policy analyst for the Cato Institute.

Sticky #3: HTML colors FMI

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test:

What the President reads

By John F. Dickerson


George Bush's critics think of his reading list as a spindly thing -- the Bible, the box scores and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, his favorite choice to read to school kids.

So there will be chuckles of disbelief when his detractors hear that one of his latest passions is Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy and that when it comes to approval from the intelligentsia, the President is more needy than he lets on. Written by an Israeli Cabinet minister and former Soviet dissident, the book argues that true security in the Middle East and the world can come only with ballot boxes. The President has pressed it on his top advisers and is even proselytizing outside his inner circle.

"I want you to read a book," Bush told a TIME reporter, interrupting his own version of Sharansky's thesis. "It will give you a sense for what I'm talking about."

Bush liked the work so much that he invited Sharansky into the Oval Office in early November for an hourlong discussion of the book and how it applies to the war on terrorism.

Sharansky is not the first author in the presidential book club. Bush has also been host to, among others, Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis and Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis. These sessions undermine Bush's own anti-intellectual posture. He boasts about not reading newspapers or being worried much about the judgments of historians, most of whom, he says, "wouldn't have voted for me."

But in his readings and talks with authors, he is seeking theoretical scaffolding for his actions from the pointy-headed intellectuals he often appears to disdain, rather than combing through their pages looking for ideas that would challenge his world view.

This does not make Bush a closet intellectual. Bill Clinton read widely and voraciously, sampling and skimming ideas like a whale does plankton. Bush is more particular, and when he locks onto a book, he shows his trademark discipline, almost always reading it to the last page. When Sharansky stopped by, Bush sheepishly pointed out in his copy that he was only up to page 211 --but said he would finish the remaining 92 pages soon.

Authors who have talked with Bush about their writing are anxious to point out that he has done his homework.

"He obviously had read it and taken it seriously," says Gaddis, who writes about American foreign policy after 9/11. "The image of him as unquestioning just seems totally wrong."

But if Bush is gathering information, it often seems to be sustenance for his pre-existing views. Soon after the attacks of 9/11, he read the Civil War history April 1865, and the example of Lincoln's strength left him even more convinced that he should not change direction.

"Lincoln set the goal and stayed the course," he wrote to author Jay Winik. "I will do the same."

He did not mention another point made in the book, which some of Bush's critics would note: how wars are managed at the end is as important as how and why they are begun.

In The Case for Democracy, Bush found validation for his central theory about Iraq: give people liberty, and they will thrive.

"It made him very excited," says Sharansky. "He said, 'These are the things that I believe, but here you give a theoretical basis for those beliefs.' He said he is going ahead even though he knows that the two most hated people in the world are he and Ariel Sharon."

When Gaddis paid his visit last summer, he was surprised to learn that the President was asking aides to read a book that was not wholly supportive of the Administration's foreign policy.

"The book is quite critical, but this did not seem to cause a problem," he says. "His questions were not the kind that indicated defensiveness." Bush quizzed his guest about Otto von Bismarck. The author had written that the 19th century German Chancellor shared the President's belief in the benefits of showing military might but also had a diplomat's touch for handling the messy aftermath.

Bush seemed to be looking for a softer approach to foreign policy after waging two wars.

"There was a recognition that not everything has gone as expected in Iraq," says Gaddis, "that a lot of friction has been generated and that one has to take that into account."

Six months after his visit, Gaddis says he hasn't seen Bush emulate Bismarck much. That may be fuel for a new debate for Bush's critics: Can a President who finds support for his beliefs in history also learn from it?

Pending...

Another class (Athabasca) I'm interested in:

South Asian Studies 315

Understanding South Asia

The roots of ancient civilization; society, resources and environment; racial, ethnic and cultural diversities; philosophic and religious traditions; arts and aesthetics; historical bases of tradition and modernity; role of education in social development; ideological differences and economic development. Primary focus on India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.

School Sticky #3: Top priority things to do

Work out amount of classes to take

Calculate GPA (hypothetical scenarios, too)

Figure out school schedule

Buy notebooks (need 2 packets)

Buy school textbooks

Wrap textbooks

Send birthday pictures to Nick

Find a part-time job wise? unwise? thinking...

Watch Grave of the Fireflies with Nathan, Nick, Chris and Mitch

Write thank you letter and card to Dr. Yue (orthodontist)

Overload Jeff Jewett's Speech Class

Write Matthew email about course status

Work out schedule for Karate with Nick and Theresa

Write May (poor may!)!!

Email Dr. Sciban about Summer Exchange Program to China

Fix Resume

Show Will Bilozir my resume for editing

Look in Classifieds for Job

Write email to Jeffrey Jewett about course overload

Get into SPCH 1110 Class

Apply for U of A-Zhejiang Summer Exchange Program 2005

Make posters for Piano Teaching

Email Dr. Laifong Leung or Mr. Haiying Cao

Sticky #2: What is HTML?

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML code is the major language of the Internet's World Wide Web. Web sites and web pages are written in HTML code. With HTML code and the world wide web, you have the ability to bring together text, pictures, sounds, and links... all in one place. HTML code files are plain text files, so they can be composed and edited on any type of computer... Windows, Mac, UNIX, etc.

School Sticky #2: Look into...

*LING 3321 Modern English Grammar Lec 080
MWF 12:00-12:50 PM (Room LP EA 2062)
Teresa Vanderweide CRN 11252 MRC

*SPCH 1110 Speech Fundamentals Lec 004
Fri 1:00-3:50 PM (Room LP EA 1026)
Jeffrey R Jewett CRN 11886 MRC

*MUPF 205 Musical Performance Lab 01
Tues, Thurs 12:30-1:45 PM (Room CHC 119)
Malcolm Edwards & Edette Wilks UofC

*CHIN 2207 Beginners' Chinese II Lec 001
Tues, Thurs 4:00-5:50 PM (Room LP EA)
Yuhuan Wang CRN 12426 MRC

*Denotes Registered

---

Fall 2004
ADMN 1210 009 Business Communications (School for Business & Entrep.)
Will Bilozir CRN 43779 MRC

CHIN 3317 001 Chinese Civilization (Languages)
Yuhuan Wang CRN 43183

WMST 205 Women's Studies
Fiona Wilson UofC

MUPF 205 Lab 01 Musical Performance
Malcolm Edwards & Edette Wilks UofC

An opinion piece by Bill Gates and Bono

Demand a better deal for the world in 2005
By Bill Gates and Bono

There are moments in history when civilisation redefines itself. Times when momentum builds to bring down a status quo that people are no longer willing to accept. The abolition of slavery was one. So were the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid.

When it comes to the wanton loss of lives to extreme poverty and disease, 2005 might be such a moment. Right now it seems unthinkable: the year has begun on an incomprehensibly tragic note in Asia. Yet momentum has been building to make this the year when the world finally gets serious about changing the future for its poorest people. The coming 12 months are a test for us all - especially the leaders of G8 nations, whose vision and resolve have never been more on the line.

History's judgment will be harsh if we fail, precisely because we are the first generation with the power to succeed. New tools and ideas are creating opportunities that were, very recently, unthinkable. Conventional wisdom used to be that foreign aid could not buy measurable results. That attitude -with its ally, indifference - is eroding in the face of dramatic progress, particularly in health.

Diseases that have wiped out generations of poor people are now, themselves, on the brink of extinction. Fifteen years ago, polio afflicted 350,000; today, that number is 800, and could soon be zero. In the past five years, increased immunisation has saved the lives of half a million children, a number that could triple over the next decade.

Another old, unjust idea is fading: the notion that poor countries, shackled by old Cold War debts to the richest countries, have to pay us back, no matter the cost in human suffering. Now that wealthy nations are writing off some of that debt, the poorest countries have been able to boost their spending on other urgent priorities such as health and education. Uganda, for example, has used its savings to double the number of children in primary school.

More than ever, the world knows what works. Five years ago, world leaders vowed to make it work even better, in more places, for more people. A set of Millennium Development Goals pledged to the world's poor that, in this new century, basic human needs would finally be met. Food, clean water, health services and education would be the birthright of every child.

Heads of state are talking seriously not just about fighting disease and deprivation, but about ending them. After a decade of declining aid flows, some wealthy countries are stepping up to their pledges to do more, including Britain. In 2005, Britain's role in the chair of the G8 group of nations and as president of the EU means that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are ideally placed to broker a much better deal from other countries.

The temptation to trim or cut back is a strong force in nations facing budget pressures. This has to be weighed against the costs of inaction. In Africa today, 10 million Aids orphans need care because their parents could not get access to anti-retroviral drugs. There may be 20 million more by 2010. Surely it's cheaper, smarter and easier to prevent fires like these from starting than to stop them once they're raging.

Only one of us is known for crunching numbers. But we both believe that investments in human potential pay off many times over. They have the power to end extreme poverty. But only if we learn to think big again.

The Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe after the Second World War and became a bulwark against Soviet expansion, cost the United States two per cent of its GDP over four years. Today, in tense, nervous times, an investment of less could not only transform more people's lives, but also transform the way those people see us.

Our momentum, then, is real but fragile. This year brings a unique convergence of global summits, progress reports, and negotiations on debt, trade and effective aid. The acronyms - G8, UN MDGs, WTO, IMF - cause eyes to glaze, but they amount to the best chance yet for the world to learn from its successes and to keep moving forward.

For a start, we hope that the leaders of every developed nation will resolve to take four crucial steps in 2005. The wealthy world has already committed itself to some of these ideas. Promises made must be promises kept. First: double the amount of effective foreign assistance - possibly through the International Finance Facility, a UK proposal to frontload aid and get it flowing immediately.

A British- and French-backed initiative using the same principles is ready to roll now and could save five million lives by increasing child immunisation. Second: finish the job on poor countries' debts. They need more than relief - they need full debt cancellation. Third: change unfair trade rules, creating a pathway for poor countries to reach self-reliance. Fourth: provide funding for the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, a more aggressive and coordinated approach to developing an HIV vaccine.

In these and other ways, our governments can make history - and we must demand that they do so. That is why, three days into the year, "2005" movements have already taken root, bringing unlikely allies - CEOs and NGOs, pop stars and priests, mothers' unions and student unions - together in a global campaign for justice.

The story of 2005 will have its leaders and laggards, and in a year's time it will be clear to all of us who was which. In the meantime, it is up to us how we want our generation to be remembered. For the internet? Or the war on terror? Or for finally deciding that where a child happens to live will no longer determine whether that child gets to go on living?

Lines of latitude and longitude are stronger than any Iron Curtain and divide us more than apartheid. The world has the resources and the technology to change all this. The question to be answered in 2005 is whether we can summon the will.

Bill Gates is chairman of Microsoft and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bono is lead singer of the pop group U2 and co-founder of DATA (Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa)

School Sticky #1: Athabasca Courses

Global Studies (GLST) 307 The Pacific Century

Overview
GLST 307 is a telecourse that provides an introduction to Southeast and East Asia in the twentieth century. The course is designed as a systematic study of modern Asian history, geography, and political economy through an examination of the cultures and modern histories of the various Asian countries on the Pacific Rim. As a broad survey of the Pacific region's economic, political, and cultural development over the last one hundred and fifty years, this course employs an interdisciplinary approach to explore a number of themes that are fundamental to the emergence of modern East and Southeast Asia. The recurrent tensions between tradition and modernization, democracy and authoritarianism, imperialism and nationalism, independence and interdependence, and Eastern values and Western methods are among the themes discussed from the perspectives of various disciplines including anthropology, geography, history, political science, and economics.

Course Objectives
The course will provide students with an understanding of the major political developments that have occurred in the Pacific Rim region since the mid-nineteenth century, and of the economic links that have grown up among the countries of East and Southeast Asia, and between these countries and the industrialized Western world. As well, the course will increase student awareness of the culture and achievements of each of the peoples of East and Southeast Asia, of the social and political structures that have influenced how each Pacific Rim country has developed, and of the factors that hamper or promote modernization in each of these communities.

Outline
Unit 1 Dynasties, Empires, and Ages of Commerce: Pacific Asia to the Nineteenth Century
Unit 2 The Seaborne Barbarians: Incursions by the West
Unit 3 Meiji: Japan in the Age of Imperialism
Unit 4 The Rise of Nationalism and Communism
Unit 5 Maelstrom: The Pacific War and Its Aftermath
Unit 6 Post-World War II Asia: Reinventing Japan, Redividing Korea
Unit 7 Miracle by Design: The Postwar Resurgence of Japan
Unit 8 The New Asian Capitalists
Unit 9 Power, Authority, and the Advent of Democracy
Unit 10 Sentimental Imperialists: America in Asia
Unit 11 China's Long March Toward Modernization
Unit 12A Beyond the Revolution: Indonesia and Vietnam
Unit 12B Siberian Salient: Russia in Pacific Asia
Unit 13 Pacific Century: The Regional Perspective

Pacific Ring of Fire

I wanted to receive permission to "substitute" two courses for my East Asia Minor from Athabasca University, one in which Dr. Jenkins agreed, which was: HIST 377 (20th Century China From Fall of Manchu Qing to Death of Deng Xiaopeng).

Overview
HIST 307 is a telecourse that provides an introduction to Southeast and East Asia in the twentieth century. The course is designed as a systematic study of modern Asian history, geography, and political economy through an examination of the cultures and modern histories of the various Asian countries on the Pacific Rim. As a broad survey of the Pacific region's economic, political, and cultural development over the last one hundred and fifty years, this course employs an interdisciplinary approach to explore a number of themes that are fundamental to the emergence of modern East and Southeast Asia. The recurrent tensions between tradition and modernization, democracy and authoritarianism, imperialism and nationalism, independence and interdependence, and Eastern values and Western methods are among the themes discussed from the perspectives of various disciplines including anthropology, geography, history, political science, and economics.

Course Objectives
The course will provide students with an understanding of the major political developments that have occurred in the Pacific Rim region since the mid-nineteenth century, and of the economic links that have grown up among the countries of East and Southeast Asia, and between these countries and the industrialized Western world. As well, the course will increase student awareness of the culture and achievements of each of the peoples of East and Southeast Asia, of the social and political structures that have influenced how each Pacific Rim country has developed, and of the factors that hamper or promote modernization in each of these communities.

Outline
Unit 1 Dynasties, Empires, and Ages of Commerce: Pacific Asia to the Nineteenth Century
Unit 2 The Seaborne Barbarians: Incursions by the West
Unit 3 Meiji: Japan in the Age of Imperialism
Unit 4 The Rise of Nationalism and Communism
Unit 5 Maestrom: The Pacific War and Its Aftermath
Unit 6 Post-World War II Asia: Reinventing Japan, Redividing Korea
Unit 7 Miracle by Design: The Postwar Resurgence of Japan
Unit 8 The New Asian Capitalists
Unit 9 Power, Authority, and the Advent of Democracy
Unit 10 Sentimental Imperialists: America in Asia
Unit 11 China's Long March Toward Modernization
Unit 12A Beyond the Revolution: Indonesia and Vietnam
Unit 12B Siberian Salient: Russia in Pacific Asia
Unit 13 Pacific Century: The Regional Perspective

Course Materials
Textbooks
Borthwick, Mark. 1992. Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia. Boulder: Westview Press.

Borthwick, Mark, and Gil Latz. 1992. The Pacific Century Study Guide. Boulder: Westview Press.

Other material
The course materials include a student manual.

Special Course Features
HIST 307 is a telecourse, and the television programs are an integral component of the course. Whereas the textbook provides factual information and interpretative analysis, the videotapes bring a valuable sense of reality and immediacy to the study of East and Southeast Asia. Through vivid portrayals of conflicts and achievements captured in photographs and on film, students are able to watch history unfold and listen to the central issues of the course being debated by prominent scholars, journalists, and political figures. The television programs are available to students in two formats: they are broadcast regularly on ACCESS, The Education Station in Alberta and on the Knowledge Network in British Columbia, and they may also be borrowed as videotapes from Athabasca University Library.

---

The other class I wish to substitute is: HIST 307 (Pacific Century).

Here is the course description found at the Athabasca University Calendar Website
http://www.athabascau.ca/html/syllabi/hist/hist307.htm:

Overview
HIST 307 is a telecourse that provides an introduction to Southeast and East Asia in the twentieth century. The course is designed as a systematic study of modern Asian history, geography, and political economy through an examination of the cultures and modern histories of the various Asian countries on the Pacific Rim. As a broad survey of the Pacific region's economic, political, and cultural development over the last one hundred and fifty years, this course employs an interdisciplinary approach to explore a number of themes that are fundamental to the emergence of modern East and Southeast Asia. The recurrent tensions between tradition and modernization, democracy and authoritarianism, imperialism and nationalism, independence and interdependence, and Eastern values and Western methods are among the themes discussed from the perspectives of various disciplines including anthropology, geography, history, political science, and economics.

Course Objectives
The course will provide students with an understanding of the major political developments that have occurred in the Pacific Rim region since the mid-nineteenth century, and of the economic links that have grown up among the countries of East and Southeast Asia, and between these countries and the industrialized Western world. As well, the course will increase student awareness of the culture and achievements of each of the peoples of East and Southeast Asia, of the social and political structures that have influenced how each Pacific Rim country has developed, and of the factors that hamper or promote modernization in each of these communities.

Outline
Unit 1 Dynasties, Empires, and Ages of Commerce: Pacific Asia to the Nineteenth Century
Unit 2 The Seaborne Barbarians: Incursions by the West
Unit 3 Meiji: Japan in the Age of Imperialism
Unit 4 The Rise of Nationalism and Communism
Unit 5 Maestrom: The Pacific War and Its Aftermath
Unit 6 Post-World War II Asia: Reinventing Japan, Redividing Korea
Unit 7 Miracle by Design: The Postwar Resurgence of Japan
Unit 8 The New Asian Capitalists
Unit 9 Power, Authority, and the Advent of Democracy
Unit 10 Sentimental Imperialists: America in Asia
Unit 11 China's Long March Toward Modernization
Unit 12A Beyond the Revolution: Indonesia and Vietnam
Unit 12B Siberian Salient: Russia in Pacific Asia
Unit 13 Pacific Century: The Regional Perspective

Course Materials
Textbooks
Borthwick, Mark. 1992. Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia. Boulder: Westview Press.

Borthwick, Mark, and Gil Latz. 1992. The Pacific Century Study Guide. Boulder: Westview Press.

Other material
The course materials include a student manual.

Sticky #1: Skype (FMOI)

It is a VOIP telephone service, it's free and good for international calls. It's a way to make inexpensive to free calls using your PC as the bridge.

Quality is better than regular phone (no delays), provided the PC's at both ends have suitably-set up audio.

Conference feature is also useful.

Skype is only free when you're calling another Skype PC. For $.017 Euro's a minute, it is a fabulous way to talk to the world cheaply. If you're calling someone who doesn't use Skype, you'll pay these rates (in euros):
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/

You can SkypeOut to call people not on a VOIP connection:

If this was a perfect world, there’d be no yodelling, we wouldn’t be ashamed of our love handles and everyone would be using Skype to talk for free.

Unfortunately the world is far from perfect, and not everyone has Skype yet. That’s why we have SkypeOut, a low cost way to make calls from Skype to friends who still use those traditional landlines or mobile phones. That means calling anyone, anywhere in the world at local rates.

Just as an example, when you use SkypeOut to call the United Kingdom you can save up to 80% per minute compared with Bell Canada.

The application doesn't come with any spyware and runs seamless on the PC machine. It doesn't crash and it has become the de facto mean of communication in many companies with offices all over the world. The conference call feature is very cool. There is an OSX version that will come out which I'm sure it will be defined as a killer app.

Every small thing.. is something

A little small reminder... for me. And you. And all.

Movies

The Aviator
Finding Neverland
The Chorus (Les Choristes) - 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Incredibles
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Closer
A Very Long Engagement
House of Flying Daggers
Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason

About:
Finding Neverland
Set in the early 1900's in London, this is the true story of how the Scottish playwright and author James M. Barrie (played by Johnny Depp) struggled to bring to the stage for the first time a play called "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up". This play was inspired by his friendship with his neighbors, the Davies Brothers, George, Jack, Michael and Peter, whose father had abandoned them, and their dying mother, Sylvia (played by Kate Winslet). As Barrie found himself becoming a surrogate father and role-model to the boys, and comfort to his dying neighbor, he was inspired to write a play about a magical place where people never grow up or die or have any worries... a Never-Neverland.(*FMOI)