After decades of trying - Microsoft finally makes a good commerical.

Bill Gates talks education and health

An interesting speech by the billionaire philanthropist.

Great news - Chuy's is coming back.

Last year a Mexican restaurant that I really enjoyed named Chuy Arzola's shut down. Some blamed the highway 40 closure while others said it was a management issue. Either way it looks like they are coming back only to Midtown!!

New restaurant district sprouting at the northwest end of SLU

By Joe Bonwich

P-D Restaurant Critic and Food Writer

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Some of this is old news, some has been previously blogged elsewhere (and I’ll attribute appropriately) — but here’s an attempt at a roundup of the restaurant activity along the northwest perimeter of the SLU campus.

The as-far-as-I-know new-news is that the old mansion at (approximately) 3915 West Pine, just east of Cafe Ventana, is said to be in the process of redevelopment to a Sicilian-themed restaurant. It actually was a bar/restaurant once before, sometime around 1978. My dim memory was that it was called Harpo’s, tried to cater to the SLU crowd and only lasted a few months (and might even have been enjoined for using the name by the Columbia, Mo. landmark bar).

What that means, however, is that a small restaurant district keeps growing in that immediate area. Behind Cafe Ventana, the cafe’s chef, Chris Lee has been involved in turning the old Playboy Club space at 3914 Lindell into an upscale restaurant called Tables On Lindell. Meanwhile, a new microbrewery called Cathedral Square is also housed in that 3914 space and already making beer; catch the whole scoop on the Sauce blog here.

An unconfirmed source says that Dr. Gurpreet Padda, who’s also behind Cafe Ventana and Tables on Lindell, is the backer for the new Sicilian place.

Also via Sauce and my own Off The Menu forum, the news is out that Chuy Arzola’s is being resurrected at 3701 Lindell, the Coronado building, in the space that has housed Joe Boccardi’s since the building’s renovation.

So there’s lots going on at the northwest end of SLU these days.

TED Talks - Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

A days worth of flying, in 72 seconds.

Some political films to get you ready for election day:

Have election fever? Me neither. But if you would care to seem some quality documentaries on real down-in-the-street grassroots campaigns, I have a couple of movie recommendations for you.



"Street Fight" chronicles the 2002 mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey in which the Cory Booker attempted to unseat longtime mayor Sharpe James. Cory Booker is an interesting and engaging character. A Rhodes scholar, young, black, and charismatic. He has a lot in common with Barack Obama and the two are said to be friends. It is actually pretty exciting to watch his upstart campaign take on the old-timer political machine of his opponent.

"Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" is a St. Louis tale about Jeff Smith, a diminutive young go-getter running for the Congressional seat left open by retiring veteran slimeball Dick Gephardt. It too has a David and Goliath vibe going for it as the young Mr. Smith takes on one of the dynastic polictical families in Missouri, the Carnahans.

What if he could really do this?

Ford's teen speed limits - a good idea but not enough.

Ford announced today that starting in 2010 some of its models will give parents the ability to limit the top speed that their teenager can drive.


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DETROIT - So you think junior is a little too lead-footed when he drives the family car? Starting next year, Ford Motor Co. will give you the power to do something about it.

The company will roll out a new feature on many 2010 models that can limit teen drivers to 80 mph, using a computer chip in the key.

Parents also have the option of programming the teen's key to limit the audio system's volume, and to sound continuous alerts if the driver doesn't wear a seat belt.

"Our message to parents is, hey, we are providing you some conditions to give your new drivers that may allow you to feel a little more comfortable in giving them the car more often," said Jim Buczkowski, Ford's director of electronic and electrical systems engineering.

The feature, called "MyKey," will be standard on an unspecified number of Ford models when the 2010 cars and trucks come out late next summer. The feature will spread to the entire Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineup as models are updated, spokesman Wes Sherwood said.

Ford arrived at the 80 mph limit even though freeway speed limits are lower in most states because it wanted to leave a margin in case an unusual situation arises, Buczkowski said. In some states, freeway speed limits are above 70 mph, Sherwood said.

"Just lopping it off at exactly 70 mph was felt to be too limiting," Buczkowski said.

The company already uses computer chips in its keys to prevent thefts. The car won't start unless it recognizes the chip in the key.

"It's making use of existing technology, and through the magic of software, we're able to build features on top of the features we already have," Buczkowski said.

In addition to speed limits, MyKey also will limit the volume of the audio system, and it will sound a six-second chime every minute if seat belts are not fastened. The chime sounds for adult drivers, too, but ends after five minutes to avoid annoying adults who adamantly don't want to wear seat belts, Buczkowski said.

Parents also have the option of having the car sound a chime if the teen exceeds 45, 55 or 65 mph.

The feature will debut on the 2010 Focus compact car and quickly move to other company models as a standard feature, the company said.

Ford said its market research shows 75 percent of parents like the speed and audio limits, but as you might expect, 67 percent of teens don't like them.

Danisha Williams, a 16-year-old senior at Southfield-Lathrup High School in suburban Detroit, said she's against the idea.

"I wouldn't want my parents to have that much control over how I'm driving," she said. "If your parents are holding your hand, you're never going to learn."

Brittany Hawthorne, 17, another Southfield-Lathrup senior, said there may be emergency situations where she'd have to drive more than 80, possibly to accelerate to avoid a crash.

Ford's research shows that parents would be more likely to let teens use their vehicles with the system, Sherwood said, and if it gets them the car more often, the number of teens objecting drops by nearly half.

A top official from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry that is pushing to raise the minimum driving age to 17 or 18, found the key intriguing and said she was not aware of any other manufacturer offering such a feature. IIHS says car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers.

"Research we've done has shown that speeding is a major factor in teen crashes, especially novice teen drivers," said Anne McCartt, the institute's senior vice president for research. "So I think a system that tries to correct the speeding behavior has the potential to improve safety."

More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes. The rate of crashes, fatal and nonfatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Several U.S. auto insurers have begun offering in-car cameras or global positioning equipment to help parents monitor their teens' driving behavior, in the hope of reducing the number of crashes.

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My thoughts.....why should we limit this to just teens.? I've said before, there really is no reason for anyone to go faster than 80mph. I know this may not be the "fun" point of view. No drag racing or pretending you are in "Gone in 60 Seconds". But really it is just a sensible thing to do. Most people love to think they are good drivers...no great drivers, and most people are dead wrong. The faster you go the harder it is to control your vehicle and the more damage there will be if you hit something or something hits you.

I realize some people hate to be limited in any way. However, 80mph is not a very major limit. There are almost no places in America where it is legal to go 80 anyway. Oh, and as for Brittany Hawthorne, 17, who insisted that she might need to go 80+ to "avoid a crash", NO Brittany you won't. No situation you need to avoid will last long enough for you to need to take the time to accelerate over 80.

So let's just use some sense and limit everyone. We are supposed to be an advanced and civilized nation. So why are tens of thousands of people dying or being maimed in traffic? We can do better.