I've tried growing plants under incandescent lights but never had any luck with it. Never killed one, but they just do not grow. At present I have a never-used remote ballast and a fixture that will take either sodium or metal halide bulbs out in my barn. (They belong to my brother's widow) The materiel I've read indicates that this unit, 400 watts, will cover about a 4 ft square area. Twenty-five watts, half of what KK suggests. It also says that the intensity is goverened by distance from the plants, so apparently all that is needed to get 50 watts per square foot is lowering the fixture. These units are pretty expensive but the literature says that they are cheaper than buying the grow lights individually? Anyone know? Brother even opened the boxes before he passed away. I looked at the ballast but have not even opened the reflector box. I put my cuttings in a clear Wal-Mart storage box and set it on a hot pad in front of an east-facing patio door. But then I am a widowed hermit and can get away with such. So far they (the ones in vermiculite) seem to be thriving. Last year I put them all in vermiculite and got tremendous results. This year those in perlite went belly up very quickly. Ox

There are two issues you need to consider: (1) connecting to the television and (2) connecting the unit to the Internet. (1) To connect the player to the TV, you need a composite connection - the yellow RCA jack (video) plus red and white for audio. Down the road, when she gets a new TV, you'll disconnect the three wires (yellow, red, white) and replace it with a single HDMI cable which will handle digital video and audio. At that point she'll go "wow" and probably wonder why she waited so long to get a new TV. ;-) There's two reasons to connect to the Internet. The first is that the player needs periodic updates. The second is to use the advanced features of the player for things like streaming video. (2) To connect to the Internet the player is going to use either a wired connection (via an Ethernet cable) from the player to the router or wirelessly via WiFi. Frankly, if you want to go the wireless route, investing in a player with built in WiFi is going to eliminate a layer of technology and agnst. How she wants to use the player is going to effect how you connect to the Internet and the cost of the player. If she does not plan on using the advanced features, then a cheaper player, without built-in WiFi, and a length of Ethernet cable will be the cheapest solution. At update time, connect the player to the router via the Ethernet cable, allow the unit to update, and put the cable back in the closet. If she want to use the advanced features (and there is lots of good, free stuff out there) then WiFi is the way to go. Setting up WiFi is much like any other wireless device, you'll select the name of the network from a list and enter the password. Remember that password is not the same as PASSWORD. I hope this clarifies everything for you.

I don't see this applying to mp3 players. The Apple iPod series has the largest share of the market, and iPods come at a considerable price premium over the average player. That is true, but I really was talking about the music format itself. Most folks who deal with sound professionally will rightly tell you that MP3 is not a high-fidelity format. It sounds good, but it's not high-fidelity. If they can manage to make a shallow CRT that offers the same sharp picture and color saturation as a "regular" CRT and do so at a price less expensive than an equivalent LCD/plasma, then I agree that they have a winner. But price it too high or make it much thicker/heavier than LCDs and I think it will be a much tougher sell.

Apparently it was endometrial cancer. This is the one I'll always remember: Julia goes to see Charlene's doctor. JULIA: Dr. Mitchell, I'm Julia Sugarbaker. May I come in? DR. MITCHELL: Yes, but I hope this won't take long. I'm on the staff of three hospitals, and I still have rounds. JULIA: Oh, I understand how very busy you are, and I'll be brief. I've come because I'm a very close friend of Charlene Frazier's. DR. MITCHELL: Charlene Frazier is no longer my patient, so I can't see.... JULIA: Actually I'm not here only for Charlene, but on behalf of all your patients. DR. MITCHELL: I don't understand. JULIA: What I'd like to know is, how many more women do you plan to kill before you retire. DR. MITCHELL: I beg your pardon?! JULIA: You see, I've done a little checking on you, Dr. Mitchell, and I've discovered that Charlene is not the first woman you've told to wait. You said the same thing to another close friend of mine, only at that time I didn't know that you were her physician. Well she trusted you. She waited four months before her breasts had become so misshapen she had to come back, but by then it was too late. DR. MITCHELL: Mrs. Sugarbaker, I don't think I'd like to discuss with you medical judgments which you know nothing about. JULIA: Medical jargon doesn't impress me. I was brought up in a medical family, and my grandfather always said 80% was common sense. There's nothing mysterious about having a lump in your breast. It's simple, when you find one you have it x-rayed or biopsied. I know that. Most physicians know that. What I don't understand is, why don't you know that? DR. MITCHELL: Well, it's obvious to me that you are an emotional and overwrought woman. JULIA: Not emotional, Doctor, I'm just plain mad. Which is why I'm filing charges against you with the state medical board and the AMA. DR. MITCHELL: Well, if you'd like to make a fool of yourself, be my guest, but I can assure you you're in no way qualified to make these judgments. I think this meeting is over. JULIA: I think so too, but as for qualified, neither are you. You don't depend on medicine. Your weapon is intimidation. You're a seemingly kind, benevolent authority figure who tells women to let you do their worrying for them. Well there's just one thing wrong with that, Dr. Mitchell; you don't have to do that dying. Here is a link that might be useful: Dixie Carter cause of death