Moose, reindeer to take taste tests
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) Moose and reindeer at a Stockholm wildlife park have been invited to an unusual taste panel that will help decide which type of salt should be used to de-ice the country's roads in wintertime.
The less they like it, the better.
The National Road Administration plans to introduce a new, sweeter blend of road salt, but wants to make sure it doesn't attract wildlife to Sweden's highways, project organizer Frida Hedin said Tuesday.
She said the 14 hoofed jury members at Stockholm's Skansen open-air museum will be presented with two salt blocks - one with the new sugary flavor and another tasting like the road salt being used today.
The project is expected to start in about a week and last for around two months, Hedin said. Traffic accidents involving wildlife are fairly common on the Scandinavian country's highways.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Moose, Reindeer to take taste tests
Woman Survives Six Story Fall into Pile of Human Waste
Woman Survives Six Story Fall into Pile of Human Waste
A woman in Nanjing, a city in the Jiangsu province of China, survived a six story fall on Wednesday after her landing was cushioned by a pile of human excrement. The heap of waste that cushioned her fall was estimated to be approximately 20 centimeters, or 7.9 inches, in depth.
The woman, who news sources in China did not name, fell after accidentally slipping off the edge of an outdoor balcony at her home in a sixth floor apartment. According to a report from the China News Service, the fall occurred when the woman was stretching to hang her laundry on a clothesline. She lost her balance and went over the edge of the balcony, tumbling rapidly towards the street.
Meanwhile, maintenance workers six stories below were excavating the storage tanks in the building's septic system. A pile of waste that workers had cleared from the tanks broke the woman's landing when she reached the ground.
According to an official state media source located in the southern city of Nanjing, the workers had been called in to clear the tank's contents after complaints were made by area residents. The article about the incident in the local Kuaibao newspaper suggested that the building's occupants had demanded the septic tanks be emptied after the lack of septic tank maintenance began to affect daily life in the building. Occupants reported experiencing frequent blocks in the building's pipes, blocks that were probably due in large part to the overloaded septic tanks.
The woman walked away from her ordeal without serious physical damage, and suffered only minor cuts, scrapes, and bruising. She has remained as anonymous as possible to the public sphere, declining to comment to reporters or media outlets, and has no known plans to release a public statement about her experience.
Experts and past precedents confirm that, if not for the mass of fortuitously placed septic tank contents, the fall could easily have proved fatal.
Survival in a fall of this magnitude can occasionally occur, depending largely on the conditions of the landing. This past March, a child in the northeastern Heilongjiang region of China fell six stories onto a pile of snow and survived with only a broken leg. Scientific studies on impact and trauma suggest that it is nearly impossible to survive a free fall of more than six stories. There are several documented cases of people surviving six story falls, but cases of free fall survival without lasting damage are unusual, and highly dangerous to attempt to replicate.
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ontheavenues
www.theworryclub.com
Kurt Russell's first kiss left him scarred when the object of his affection knifed him.
Kurt Russell's first kiss left him scarred when the object of his affection knifed him.
The Grindhouse star - who is married to Goldie Hawn - believed he was about to have his first kiss when a girl seductively beckoned him, but instead she freaked him out by slashing him across the chest with a knife
hidden in her hair.
Kurt told Men's Journal magazine:"I was in third grade, and I noticed this really hot chick hanging out under the bridge with her friend.
"She was probably 13, and there was this vibe about her. She says, 'Hey, come here.' I think I'm going to get my first kiss."
"She lifts my shirt, then all of a sudden reaches into her bee hive, pulls out a penknife, and drags it about six inches across my stomach. It starts to bleed, and they haul ass. I was, like, 'What' "
The 56-year-old is currently starring in Grindhouse the much hyped double-feature directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
But after the film - which is over three hours long - only took $11.6-million at the box office in its opening weekend, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is considering re-releasing both films - Death Proof and Planet
Terror - separately.
He told the New York Post newspaper: "I don't think people understood what we were doing.
"The audience didn't get the idea that it is two movies for the price of one. I don't understand the math, but I want to accommodate the audience.
"People are put off by the length." - Bang Showbiz
You Can Make an Art Car
You Can Make an Art Car
This primer on automotive ingenuity comes from the American Visionary Art Museum, one of the nation's foremost supporters of self-taught artists. If followed with the proper dosage of derring-do, these "seven tips for art car success" can lead you to a much deeper and more satisfying experience when the rubber hits the road. Or at least, fill you with pride when you gaze on the contents of your driveway.
Notable tenets to help you along:
Step #4: "When deciding how you will transform your car, consider its shape, style, and detailing."
Step #6: "Costuming for the driver and passengers can be an effective part of your presentation."
Step #7: "Consider using props, sound, light, and maybe even smell as you design your car's personality."
ontheavenues
www.theworryclub.com
www.worry-help-line.com
The New Yorker Video Cartoons
The New Yorker Video Cartoons
Duct Tape Fashion Statement
Duct Tape Fashion Statement
I have to tell you that I have never seen a better use for duct tape in my life. Makes you want to require everyone carry a roll for emergencies.
www.best-fun-games.com
ontheavenues
www.theworryclub.com
www.worry-help-line.com
Monday, April 9, 2007
Cool Site: Wreck This Journal
Cool Site: Wreck This Journal
Wreck This Journal
Wreckers, unite! Originalists, journalistas, and fabulists of all forms, wait no longer! The revolution is here—and it will not be tidy. Illustrator, master blogger, and "guerrilla artist" Keri Smith has thrown open the doors to the life of "creative destruction" and invited you in. Get a blank book. Carry it with you wherever you go. Subject its pages to the elements. Think you're alone? No way! Browse the gallery of notebooks already stained, stitched, painted, torn, folded, glued, scratched, and stapled by your inventive comrades. Return to the site for suggestions. In one, Keri calls for marking your journal with "whatever is around you." In another, she says make a "resist" and then coat it (definitions are provided). Now, get out there and spoil your book! Demolish your pages! Shatter the clean, white sheet! We can't wait to see the shipwrecked results
Cool SIte: Unusual Hotels of the World
Cool Site: Unusual Hotels of the World
If you're looking for the ones that'll really make your postcard stand out, check into these:
Dog Bark Park Inn — Stay inside the world's largest beagle.
Ice Hotel Quebec — Wear your parka!
Creek n Crag's Wild Canopy Reserve — Spy on a tiger from the treetops.
Utter Inn — Sleep with the fishes, and wake up the next morning.
The Old Jail — A different kind of bed and breakfast.
Cool Site: Montana Meth Project
Cool Site: Montana Meth Project
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Hitman Emails: Scams or Urban Legends
Hitman Emails: Scams or Urban Legends
In December 2006, we started seeing emails in which scammers claim they are "hitmen" who have been hired to kill you, but that they won't carry out their contract if you'll pay them a (large) fee.
Here is an example of a popular Hitman email going around:
--- Begin Hitman email (Includes many uncorrected typos) ---
Good Day,
I want you to read this message very carefully, and keep the secret with you till further notice, You have no need of knowing who i am, where am from,till i make out a space for us to see, i have being paid $50,000.00 in adbance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer,its one i believe you call a friend,i have followed you closely for one week and three days now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusation.
Do not contact the police or F.B.I or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do i will know, and might be pushed to do what i have being paid to do,beside this is the first time i turned out to be a betrayer in my job.
Now listen,i will arrange for us to see face to face but before that i need the amount of $80,000.00 and you will have nothing to be afraid of.I will be coming to see you in your
office or home dtermine where you wish we meet,do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation,my employer is in my control now,
You will need to pay $20,000.00 to the account i will provide for you, before we will set our first meeting,after you have make the first advance payment to the account,i will give you the tape that contains his request for me to terminate you, which will be enough evidence for you to take him to court(if you wish to), then the balance will be paid later. You don't need my phone contact for now till am assured you are ready to comply good.
Lucky You.
--- End Hitman email ---
Is this email true, a scam or an urban legend? This is an extortion scam that attempts to get you to pay large fees. These Hitman emails are sent out in bulk -- which means that no one really has paid scammers to kill you.
So, the extortion attempt is real; the threat against your life is not. In other words, you do NOT need to pay off a hitman. ;-) We've seen the amount of money the scammer asks for not to kill you vary from $50,000 to $150,000; however, new versions may well have different amounts.
Further, a new variant of this Hitman scam surfaced in January that seems more focused on identity theft. These email scams are supposedly from the FBI in London. They claim that: - "An individual was recently arrested for the murders of several United States and United Kingdom citizens in relation to this matter. - "The recipient's information was found on the subject identifying the recipient as the next victim. - "The recipient is requested to contact the FBI in London to assist with the investigation." This variant seems more geared toward identity theft, and asks for personal information from the victim to "help" the FBI. Unfortunately, all of these emails can be very scary, and it isn't hard to imagine people getting conned.
The FBI has posted information about these scams here: http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan07/threat_scam011507.htm
Action: If you receive a Hitman email, don't panic. It's most likely bogus. Don't send money and don't give any personal or financial information. Next, read the email a few times to see if it seems like it is specific to you, or does it look like it easily could have been emailed to millions of unsuspecting potential victims? For example, does the email use your name, address, phone number, family members' names, and several other specific things that show the information is truly about you?
If the email contains significant information that is specific to you, call your local police and report it to the FBI at: http://www.ic3.gov
If there is little in the email to make you believe that the email is unique to you, simply delete the email. Or you can report it to the police anyway, but tell them it is probably a scam.
**************************************************************
Earlier this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released their 2006 Internet Crime Report. It's interesting that the Hitman emails are included in this report.
Here is a summary of some of the most interesting findings:
- $198.4 million was lost by the 207,492 people who filed complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in 2006. This is the highest total ever. -
Online auction fraud was the most frequent type of complaint, comprising nearly 45% of the complaints. -
Surprisingly, nearly 61% of the scammers lived in the US. The U.K., Nigeria, Canada, Romania, and Italy were the most common countries scammers came from. -
Three quarters of the scammers were men. -
People who lost money lost an average of $724.
People conned by the Nigerian scam lost an average of $5,100.
You can find more information here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/march07/ic3031607.htm
Source: Scambuster
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Places To Submit Your Blog. What good is having one if it cannot be found
Places To Submit Your Blog. What good is having one if it cannot be found
2Rss
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Answers
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BOTW Blog Directory
http://blogs.botw.org/helpcenter/submitblog.aspx
Blawg
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Blogcode
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Blog Ranking
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Blog search engine
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Blogsweet
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Bloogz
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BoingBoing
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Bulletize
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Crayon
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DayPop
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Diarist
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EastonWeb
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Easy Rss
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Everyfeed
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Fastbuzz
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Feed-Directory
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Feeds4all
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Feedage
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FeedsFarm
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Feedster
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FindingBlog
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Findory
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FlybySearch
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Globeofblogs
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HeadlineSpot
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Industry-blogs
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Kiosken
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LSBlogs
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NewsXS
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NewzFire
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NewsGator
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Nooked
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Only Feeds
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Plazoo
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Pluck
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Portal.eatonweb
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Postami
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Pressradar
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PubSub
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RDFTicker
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RocketInfo
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Search4Rss
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Small Business Blog Directory
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SmallBusiness.com
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Sphere
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SynBlog
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Tailrank
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Technorati
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Terrar
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Topix
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The Weblog Review
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Wilsdomain
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Yahoo.com
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Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Worry Relief is Just a Phone Call Away - Phone-A-Worrier Now Available
Worry Relief is Just a Phone Call Away - Phone-A-Worrier Now Available
Phoenix, AZ - - April 3, 2007 - - Now worry relief is just a phone call away. The Worry Club, an innovative stress relief service, now offers professional worriers to listen to callers’ worries. The Worry Club started out as a website, and now has a worry hotline at 1-866-WORRY4U.
Up to 25 percent of people whom psychiatrists would diagnose as depressed may be reacting normally to such stressful events as divorce or losing a job, according to a new analysis that re-examined how standard diagnostic criteria are used. As such, these people would benefit by calling The Worry Club as a source of help for immediate relief and assistance and it also will be a cost savings to prescriptions, counselors, social workers, gas money, time and more.
“Many worries are worsened by the fact that there simply isn’t anybody to talk to about them, even if it is just to get concerns off one’s chest. We offer to take on the burden of your stress and worries. We listen to your worries, so you can worry less and enjoy life more,” says Bonnie Burns of The Worry Club.
Worry leads to many medical disadvantages, such as high blood pressure and anxiety headaches. Worry can also pile up into serious neuroses over time, further exacerbating the problem. The WorryClub.com and WORRY4U hotline are dedicated to using humor to deal with worry. The Worry Club employs professional worriers on a worry hotline at 1-866-WORRY4U. These worriers all have education and training in the mental health field. They are excellent listeners, willing to lend an ear to any tales of woe or stress and relieving worries with a sense of humor and pragmatism.
In addition, The Worry Club website offers a range of free online stress relief games, ideally suited to play in the midst of a busy work day or a stressful time.
“The thing is, each individual has to know what they can control,” Burns says. “Most worry is caused from issues we have, and many can be worked on. But if all you do is worry and not look for solutions, you are doomed. Worry weakens the soul, and a worrier needs to find inner strength to fix the problems and issues.”
About The Worry Club:
The Worry Club was created by a woman who worried constantly. After her friends dubbed her the ‘CEO of the Worry Club’, Bonnie Burns decided to help fellow worriers. She created www.theworryclub.com. The Worry Club just recently added a worry hotline. The Worry Club is dedicated to helping those who worry and changing lives for the better.
www.theworryclub.com
www.worry-help-line.com
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He's 101, Passed His Driving Test And Can Be In The Car Right Behind You
He's 101, Passed His Driving Test And Can Be In The Car Right Behind You
LANGLEY, Wash. - Alden Couch just celebrated his 101st birthday. And he passed his Washington state driver's test with flying colors, if you listen to him.
"I haven't parallel parked for 10 years and I sailed through it like nothing," he said.
A resident of the Whidbey Island town of Langley, Couch planned to take a birthday drive — by himself — down to the local senior center, where his friends had a party planned for him. Then he planned to drive home — by himself again.
The state's decision to give his father a driver's test took a lot of pressure off his 64-year-old son, Bill Couch, of Clinton. The son said he sometimes follows his father in his car to make sure his dad is driving safely.
"I feel a lot better about that," Bill Couch said.
Alden Couch's new license that he received in the mail a little more than a week ago expires in 2012.
During his recent driver's test, he admitted he wasn't bothering to turn on his turn-signal blinker because Whidbey Island is such a rural place. But then he noticed the omission was costing him points with the state examiner.
"Every time I didn't do it, she would write it down," Couch said. "So I got smart and started signaling."
During his lifetime, Couch has owned 10 to 15 cars.
He's a former lineman for Puget Power who is 95 years older than the Impala he now owns, which happens to be his all-time favorite car.
"It isn't the cheapest one in the whole deal, but it's a good one," he said.
Couch used to be partial to Oldsmobiles until he outlived the make, which was discontinued in 2004. The first car Couch drove was an oldie but goodie, Ford's Model T. It was his parents' car.
Couch conceded he makes some limits for his age now by limiting his driving to south Whidbey Island, going only as far as Oak Harbor. He doesn't like driving in too much traffic.
But he drives around Langley all the time, filling up at the gas station on the highway, heading to the grocery store or dropping by the senior center for lunch and a game of Dominos or bridge. He figures he drives about 7,500 miles per year.
Couch was born in Bismarck, N.D. He moved to Zillah in the Yakima Valley when he was 6. He went to Washington State University before having a career at Puget Power in the Seattle and Bellingham areas.
At 90, he moved to Langley at age 90 to be near his son, who owns Donna's truck stop in Arlington. He has grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live in Snohomish County.
"He's pretty sharp," his son said.
Source: Associated Press
Prozac Moment NOT Waiting To Happen. 25% of 'depressed' may be reacting normally
A Prozac Moment NOT Waiting To Happen
25% of 'depressed' may be reacting normally
WASHINGTON - Up to 25 percent of people whom psychiatrists would diagnose as depressed may be reacting normally to such stressful events as divorce or losing a job, according to a new analysis that re-examined how standard diagnostic criteria are used.
The finding could have far-reaching consequences for the diagnosis of depression, the growing use of symptom checklists in identifying people who might be depressed, and the $12 billion a year U.S. market for antidepressant drugs.
Patients are diagnosed on the basis of a constellation of symptoms that include sadness, fatigue, insomnia and suicidal thoughts. The diagnostic manual used by psychiatrists says that anyone who suffers from at least five such symptoms for as little as two weeks may be clinically depressed. Only in the case of someone grieving over the death of a loved one is it normal for symptoms to last as long as two months, the manual says.
The new study, however, found that extended periods of depressionlike symptoms are common in people who have been through other life stresses such as divorce or a natural disaster, and don't necessarily constitute illness.
The study also suggested that drug treatment may often be inappropriate for people who are going through painful but normal responses to life's stresses. Supportive therapy might keep a person who has been through a divorce or has lost a prized job from developing full-blown depression.
The researchers, who included Michael First of Columbia University, the editor of the authoritative diagnostic manual, based their findings on a national survey of 8,098 people. They found that people who had been through a variety of stressful events frequently had prolonged periods when they reported many symptoms of depression. Only a fraction, however, had severe symptoms that deserved to be classified as clinical depression, the researchers said.
About one in six Americans is expected to suffer depression at some point in their lives. Under the more limited criteria the researchers urged, that number would be 25 percent lower.
"The cost of not looking at context is you think anyone who comes under this diagnosis has a biological disorder (and) so should more or less automatically get antidepressant medication, and everything else is superfluous," said lead author Jerome Wakefield, a New York University researcher who studies the conceptual foundations of psychiatry. "There is a trend to treat people in this somewhat mechanized way."
"One issue this would play out at is at the level of medication," First said. "If someone has a normal grief reaction, you wouldn't give that person an antidepressant, you would favor counseling. If someone has major depression you would be more likely to medicate. So this could influence how clinicians think about medications or psychotherapy."
Drawing the line between normal and abnormal suffering has long been controversial in psychiatry, because normal people often experience the same symptoms as those with disorders, but the symptoms typically are less prolonged and intense. Where to draw the line involves subjective judgment: If the criteria are too conservative in order to make sure no one who is not sick is diagnosed, it could mean that some people who do need help won't get it.
Source:Shankar VedantamWashington Post
What's Up With That
TheWorryClub
Best Fun Free Online Games
Monday, April 2, 2007
Polyvore - mixing paper dolls with fashion magazines
Polyvore-mixing paper dolls with fashion magazines
For some Carrie Bradshaws, mixing paper dolls with fashion magazines is a recipe for losing the entire day. But when it comes to the committed fashionista, this site is far beyond child's play—it solves an important dilemma for the style-obssessed. It can be a pain to lug your shopping bags, brimming with bargains as they surely are, from place to place in order to put a smashing outfit together. So why not upload photos of the items and mix and match virtually? Prep for your island vacation, museum date, school barbeque, or casual office day. Or plan your attire around that new top or pair of shoes. When you've finally created the perfect look, share it and see what the critics say. It's seriously addictive. But that little thing about losing the whole day? Beware. We glanced at the clock after morning coffee, and the next thing we knew, it was time to hit the mall.
Top 10 Worst April Fool's Day Hoaxes Ever
Top 10 Worst April Fool's Day Hoaxes Ever
Listen to a Movie - For The Cubicle Workers Of The World
Listen to a Movie - For The Cubicle Workers Of The World
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Google announces free in-home wireless broadband service
Google announces free in-home wireless broadband serviceNew! Get FREE breakthrough broadband with Google TiSP (BETA).
Sign up for our free in-home wireless broadband service
Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for?
Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD.
TiSP in-home wireless broadband is:
Free, fast and highly reliable
Easy to install -- takes just minutes
Vacuum-sealed to prevent water damage
Interested? You can learn more about TiSP via the links below, or get started now.
Learn More:
Press Release How TiSP Works FAQ
"Dark porcelain" project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1, 2007 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)™, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.
"We've got that whole organizing-the-world's-information thing more or less under control," said Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called "dark porcelain" research and development. "What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you."
For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a "last hundred smelly yards" solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities. "There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time," says Page. "And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC."
Users who sign up online for the TiSP system will receive a full home self-installation kit, which includes a spindle of fiber-optic cable, a TiSP wireless router, installation CD and setup guide. Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushing™ the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router. Within sixty minutes, the Access Node's crack team of Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) should have your internet connection up and running.
"I couldn't be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product," said Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience. "I firmly believe TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom."
Interested consumers, contractually obligated partners and deeply skeptical and quietly competitive backbiters can learn more about TiSP at http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html.
About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. wannabes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.
How It Works
Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.
Installing a typical home TiSP system is a quick, easy and largely sanitary process -- provided you follow these step-by-step instructions very, very carefully.
#1 Remove the spindle of fiber-optic cable from your TiSP installation kit.
#2 Attach the sinker to the loose end of the cable, take one safe step backward and drop this weighted end into your toilet.
#3 Grasp both ends of the spindle firmly while a friend or loved one flushes, thus activating the patented GFlush™ system, which sends the weighted cable surfing through the plumbing system to one of the thousands of TiSP Access Nodes.
#4 When the GFlush is complete, the spindle will (or at least should) have largely unraveled, exposing a connector at the remaining end. Detach the cable from the spindle, taking care not to allow the cable to slip into the toilet.
#5 Plug the fiber-optic cable into your TiSP wireless router, which has a specially designed counterweight to withstand the centripetal force of flushing.
#6 Insert the TiSP installation CD and run the setup utility to install the Google Toolbar (required) and the rest of the TiSP software, which will automatically configure your computer's network settings.
#7 Within sixty minutes -- assuming proper data flow -- the other end of your fiber-optic cable should have reached the nearest TiSP Access Node, where our Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) will remove the sinker and plug the line into our global data networking system.
#8 Congratulations, you're online! (Please wash your hands before surfing.)
Note: If you have any difficulty installing, operating or simply living with TiSP, we suggest joining the TiSP Help Group. .
Learn more about TiSP: Frequently Asked Questions
Friday, March 30, 2007
For $200,000, you can spend your next adventure in space. It is a trip that is out of this world.
For $200,000, you can spend your next adventure in space. It is a trip that is out of this world.
Thrill seekers who have already "been there, done that" - running with the bulls or bagging mountain peaks - will have some new heights to scale.
It is a trip that is out of this world.
Virgin Galactic will launch suborbital space flights as early as 2009, with travelers rocketing to 75 miles above the Earth at 3,000 mph. advertisement
Adventurers with a burning desire to glimpse into space can book the $200,000 flight through Camelback Odyssey Travel, one of 45 agencies booking the trip - and the only one in Arizona.
"We're stepping into a new frontier," said Camelback travel agent Diane Eide.
Space tourism has been science fiction for decades. But now the richest of the superrich can buy their way into space for a $20 million flight to the International Space Station.
Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group, is putting space flight within reach of wealthy adventurers who have done nearly every trek imaginable. And it appears that this is not a fantasy flight that will stay grounded.
Virgin Galactic is building a six-passenger spacecraft modeled after the SpaceShipOne, which already accomplished the manned suborbital flight into space twice in two weeks in October 2004.
Here is how Virgin Galactic plans to launch its space tourists:
• A special carrier aircraft will fly to 50,000 feet with the spacecraft attached to its underbelly.
• Upon separation from the carrier plane, the spacecraft's hybrid rocket motor will fire, accelerating it within 10 seconds to the speed of sound and to about 3,000 mph within a half minute. During a 90-second rocket bust, the space travelers will experience G-force of about 3.5, an extreme rate of acceleration.
• The rocket will then shut off and the space travelers will experience the silence of space and four minutes of weightlessness as the craft starts its descent. During that four minutes, the captain will turn off the fasten seat belt sign and the passengers can float around the cabin.
Travelers' 2-hour tour
The whole trip lasts about two hours. That includes about 45 minutes to reach 50,000 feet where the spacecraft is released, plus another 45 minutes gliding down to a conventional aircraft landing on a runway, said Carolyn Wincer, Virgin Galactic head of astronaut sales.
She describes the 90-second rocket burn as incredibly loud, "like a thousand screaming cats" as the spacecraft accelerates to three times the speed of sound and becomes a blur across the sky.
The initial trips will take off from Mohave, Calif., north of Los Angeles. But Virgin Galactic plans to build a spaceport and hotel near Las Cruces, N.M., with $20 million in funding from New Mexico, Wincer said. The trips will include a few days of training before the flight.
Virgin Galactic unveiled the details of the spaceflight to the Camelback Odyssey Travel agents last week.
Last month, adventure travel agent Betsy Donley of Camelback attended a two-day training session for Virgin's "space agents" at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
"Going into space is going to top all the other types of adventure travel," said Donley, who for 15 years has been booking adventurous trips, including whitewater rafting and gorilla treks in Rwanda.
About 200 adventure seekers, none from Arizona, have signed up so far for Virgin Galactic's trip aboard the spacecraft.
The trip requires a $20,000 refundable deposit. Virgin Galactic is still working out details on the health requirements for the space travelers.
The company plans to carry about 500 travelers into space in its first year and develop the technology to allow orbital flights and eventually one-hour trips around the globe from New York to Sydney, Australia, for example, Wincer said.
Virgin also expects that the suborbital space trip will become more affordable.
Source. AZ Republic
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Thursday, March 29, 2007
Get Ready For Space Travel. How to become an astronaut.
Ready for space travel? How to become an astronaut
If you are looking for a career that combines cool technology, interesting science and great adventure, you could hardly make a better choice than becoming an astronaut. And there is potential for growth in the field. With the construction of the International Space Station, there will be a permanent human presence in outer space and a need for astronauts. But becoming an astronaut in the U.S. space program is not easy, and the process can take several years.
There are three types of astronauts in the U.S. space program:
Commander/pilot
Mission specialist
Payload specialist
The commander is responsible for the mission, the crew and the vehicle. The pilot assists the commander in operating the vehicle and deploying satellites. The mission specialist works with the commander and pilots in shuttle operations, performs spacewalks and conducts experiments. The payload specialist performs specialized duties as the mission requires. Payload specialists are people other than NASA personnel, and some are foreign nationals.
The basic qualifications for becoming an astronaut include:
U.S. citizenship (for pilots and mission specialists)
Bachelor's degree (engineering, biological sciences, physical sciences, mathematics) from an accredited college or university.
Three years of related experience after obtaining the bachelor's degree.
A master's degree equals one year of experience.
Doctorate equals three years.
Passing a NASA space physical examination.
Pilots need to pass a Class I physical; mission/payload specialists must pass Class II. Both are similar to civilian and military flight examinations.
More than 1,000 hours experience as pilot-in-command of a jet aircraft (pilots only)
Height of 64 to 76 inches (162.5 cm to 193 cm) for pilots, 58.5 to 76 inches (148.5 cm to 193 cm) for mission/payload specialists
To apply for an astronaut position, you fill out the appropriate forms and submit them to NASA, which accepts applications continuously. You can download the forms here. NASA then screens the applications, and you may be asked to go for a weeklong session where you will participate in personal interviews, medical tests and orientations. Your screening performance will be evaluated, and if you are lucky, you may be accepted as an astronaut candidate. NASA announces candidates every two years, selecting about a hundred men and women out of thousands of applicants.
If you are selected, you will report to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, for training and evaluations, which last two years. During the training period, you will take classes in basic science (math, astronomy, physics, geology, meteorology, oceanography), technology (navigation, orbital mechanics, materials processing), and space shuttle systems. You will also be trained in land and sea survival techniques, SCUBA, microgravity, high- and low-pressure environments, and spacesuits. You must pass a swimming test (swim three lengths of a 25-meter pool in flight suit and tennis shoes, and tread water for 10 minutes). If you are a pilot, you will train in NASA's T-38 jet aircraft and shuttle training aircraft at least 15 hours each month. Mission specialists fly four hours each month.
At the end of the two-year training period, you may be selected to become an astronaut. As an astronaut, you will continue classroom training on the various aspects of space shuttle operations that you started as an astronaut candidate. You will begin training on each individual system in the shuttle with the help of an instructor. After that, you will train in simulators for pre-launch, launch, orbit, entry and landing. Depending upon whether you are a pilot or mission specialist, you will learn how to use the shuttle's robotic arm to manipulate cargo. You will continue generic training until you are selected for a flight.
Once you are selected for a flight, you will receive specific training for the mission at least 10 months prior to the flight. This includes training in flight simulators, full-scale mockups of the shuttle and space station, and underwater training for spacewalks. The simulations will prepare you for every type of emergency or contingency imaginable.
After your training, you will prepare for your flight with training in the shuttle itself (pilots), meetings and more simulations. After your flight, you will have several days of medical tests and discussions; these are called debriefings.
Astronauts are expected to stay with NASA for at least five years after their selection. They are federal civil service employees (GS-11 to GS-14 grade) with equivalent pay based on experience. They are eligible for vacation, medical and life insurance, and retirement benefits.
So, you can see that you will need education, hard work and steadfast dedication to become an astronaut. However, the view is tremendous!
Are left-handers quicker thinkers than righties?
Are left-handers quicker thinkers than righties?
All those parents in the '70s and '80s who made their left-handed children struggle to use their right hands may be kicking themselves right about now. As it turns out, left-handers might have the advantage in certain areas like, say, piloting a jet fighter or talking and driving at the same time. A recent study published in the journal Neuropsychology suggests that left-handed people are faster at processing multiple stimuli than righties.
The research conducted at the Australian National University (ANU) seems to back up earlier studies showing that left- or right-handedness is determined in the womb and that many lefties process language using both hemispheres of the brain, as opposed to righties, who seem to use primarily the left hemisphere for this purpose.
The two hemispheres, or halves, of the brain are pretty much identical, and for the most part, they process the same information, with data passing back and forth between them primarily via one large neural pathway. However, certain tasks, like the language processing mentioned above, tend to take place in one hemisphere or the other. For most people, language processing happens in the left hemisphere. For left-handed people, it might actually take place in both hemispheres. Another area of specialization is that of sensory-data processing: Typically, data picked up on the right side of the body (the right eye, the right ear, etc.) goes to the left hemisphere for processing, and data picked up on the left side goes to the right hemisphere. In the end, the brain essentially combines the processing results from both hemispheres to come up with what we consciously see and hear.
The new research adds to the slowly growing body of work supporting the hypothesis that people who favor their left hand for writing probably have brains that are more conducive to simultaneous, bi-hemisphere processing of information. The ANU researchers set up tests intended specifically to test the speed of information flow between the two sides of the brain. There were 80 right-handers and 20 left-handers involved in the study. In one test, a computer would show a single dot either to the left or to the right of a dividing line, and the subjects had to press a button to indicate which side the dot showed up on. The left-handed subjects were faster overall at this task. In another test, subjects had to match up multiple letters that appeared in some cases on either side of the line and in other cases on just one side of the line. In this test, the left-handed subjects were faster at matching letters that appeared on both sides of the line, while the right-handed subjects were quicker at matching up letters that appeared on only one side of the line. This latter observation could indicate that righties are faster than lefties at processing stimuli that targets only one hemisphere of the brain.
According to lead researcher Dr. Nick Cherbuin in an interview with AM ABC, the results support the anatomical observation that the major "connection between the left brain and the right brain" is "somewhat larger and better connected in left-handers."
So what does this mean? It could mean that left-handers have a slight advantage in sports, gaming and other activities in which players face large volumes of stimuli being thrown at them simultaneously or in quick succession. Theoretically, they could more easily use both hemispheres of the brain to manage that stimuli, resulting in faster overall processing and response time. It could also mean that when one hemisphere of the brain got overloaded and started to slow down, the other hemisphere could more easily pick up the slack without missing a beat. Experts also theorize that left-handed people could fare better mentally as they move into old age and overall brain processing starts to slow down: With a greater ability for one brain hemisphere to quickly back up the tasks of the other, left-handed seniors could retain mental quickness longer than their right-handed counterparts.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
How To Turn Your Computer Hardrive Into A Beer Keg
How To Turn Your Computer Hardrive Into A Beer Keg
FINALLY, after going through a virus attack, losing a hard drive, fighting off hackers, upgrading all my software, installing fire-walls, being threatened with being cut-off by my email provider, and a host of other problems... I have fixed my computer... and NOW it works exactly the way I want it to!.
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Satirical Onion adds another layer: Talkies
Satirical Onion adds another layer: Talkies
NEW YORK - Having already blossomed as a newspaper, Web site and book publisher, the Onion - perhaps the most dominant provider of fake news anywhere - is bringing its brand of humor to the hot medium of the moment: online video.
The dispatches on the Onion News Network, which went live Tuesday, aren't likely to be causing much missed sleep over at CNN and Fox News Channel, unless those outlets start covering fake news stories like Civil War re-enactors being dispatched to Iraq.
But on the Web, the Onion is going up against several others who have already established themselves in comedy video, including Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. advertisement
Much of that awareness, however, came from unauthorized clips being viewed on Google Inc.'s YouTube, something that Comedy Central's parent company, Viacom Inc., is suing YouTube over for $1 billion.
Sean Mills, the president of the closely held company that runs the Onion, says he has "some tolerance" for unauthorized use of clips and is optimistic that the company will reach a mutually beneficial arrangement with YouTube.
Clips from the Onion News Network will also be available for free downloads on Apple's iTunes store, and Mills said the company is in talks with other Web companies about possible distribution deals.
In the meantime, the Onion wanted to give its audience as much flexibility as possible and will allow features that are popular on video-sharing sites such as allowing Web publishers to embed clips into their blogs.
"We want as many people to see our news reports as possible," Mills said. "We can work out a deal with YouTube when they're ready."
The Onion's network will start out with two new video clips per week, supported by ads. An in-house staff of eight will work on the videos, which have a professional look to them despite the buffoonery being discussed, such as a top-level technology executive forced to sell his estate and take a job at TGI Friday's after his job goes to an illegal immigrant.
Scott Dikkers, a founder of the Onion who returned about two years ago and is now its editor, says the company is frequently approached with offers to do television shows but so far has declined.
"What makes the Onion what it is is that it's a totally uncensored voice. If you go through a network filter, you get a totally different vibe," Dikkers said. "I don't need someone to tell me what I can't do."
Although the subject matter of the videos is sure to be funny, the network also is a real business that a number of advertisers have already signed up for, including Dewar's Scotch, Hyundai and Red Stripe Beer. Mills said he expects the online video operation to become profitable by the end of the year.
All this comes as the Onion's print publications continue to expand. In early April, the company is scheduled to launch a Washington edition, its 11th, bringing its total weekly circulation to just more than 700,000.
Although its print side remains profitable, the Onion also is focusing more on the Web, where it now draws about 60 percent of its advertising revenue.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Breasts Injure Four in Bazarre Accident
Breasts Injure Four
Four people were admitted to a hospital after a string of bizarre accidents earlier this month. Sherry was admitted with a head wound. Tim was diagnosed with whiplash and chest contusions. Bryan suffered from torn gum tissue, and several of Pamela's fingers were bitten off.
These are the facts: When Sherry dropped her husband off for his first day of work, she kissed him goodbye and flashed her breasts at him. "I'm still not sure why I did it," she said. "I didn't think anyone would see, and besides, it couldn't have been for more than two seconds."
Unbeknownst to her, the cab driver did see her breasts, and he lost control of his taxi. It careened over a curb and into the corner of the Johnson Medical Building, where Pamela, a dental technician, was cleaning Bryan's gums. When the car came through the wall, Bryan bit down in shock, severing two fingers from Pamela's righthand.
Breast-flasher Sherry was injured by masonry falling from the Johnson Medical Building.
Man Tries To Shoot Wife But Bullets Hit Falling Suicide Jumper
Man Tries To Shoot Wife But Bullets Hit Falling Suicide Jumper Instead
At the annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS, President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story: On March 23,1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect, indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the descender was aware that a safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor, whence the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. Thed old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
How Spontaneous Human Combustion Works
How Spontaneous Human Combustion Works
Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged burning of a person's body without a readily apparent, identifiable external source of ignition. The combustion may result in simple burns and blisters to the skin, smoking, or a complete incineration of the body. The latter is the form most often 'recognized' as SHC. There is much speculation and controversy over SHC. It is not a proven natural occurrence, but many theories have attempted to explain SHC's existence and how it may occur. The two most common explanations offered to account for apparent SHC are the non-spontaneous "wick effect" fire, and the rare discharge called static flash fires. Although mathematically it can be shown that the human body contains enough energy stored in the form of fat and other tissues to consume it completely, in normal circumstances bodies will not sustain a flame on their own.
History of Spontaneous Human Combustion
Many people believe that Spontaneous Human Combustion was first documented in such early texts as the Bible, but, scientifically speaking, these accounts are too old and secondhand to be seen as reliable evidence.
Over the past 300 years, there have been more than 200 reports of persons burning to a crisp for no apparent reason.
The first reliable historic evidence of Spontaneous Human Combustion appears to be from the year 1673, when Frenchman Jonas Dupont published a collection of Spontaneous Human Combustion cases and studies entitled De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. Dupont was inspired to write this book after encountering records of the Nicole Millet case, in which a man was acquitted of the murder of his wife when the court was convinced that she had been killed by spontaneous combustion. Millet, a hard-drinking Parisian was found reduced to ashes in his straw bed, leaving just his skull and finger bones. The straw matting was only lightly damaged. Dupont's book on this strange subject brought it out of the realm of folkloric rumor and into the popular public imagination.
On April 9, 1744, Grace Pett, 60, an alcoholic residing in Ipswich England, was found on the floor by her daughter like "a log of wood consumed by a fire, without apparent flame." Nearby clothing was undamaged.
In the 1800's is evidenced in the number of writers that called on it for a dramatic death scene. Most of these authors were hacks that worked on the 19th century equivalent of comic books, "penny dreadfuls", so no one got too worked up about it; but two big names in the literary world also used SHC as a dramatic device, and one did cause a stir.
The first of these two authors was Captain Marryat who, in his novel Jacob Faithful, borrowed details from a report in the Times of London of 1832 to describe the death of his lead character's mother, who is reduced to "a sort of unctuous pitchey cinder."
Twenty years later, in 1852, Charles Dickens used Spontaneous Human Combustion to kill off a character named Krook in his novel Bleak House. Krook was a heavy alcoholic, true to the popular belief at the time that SHC was caused by excessive drinking. The novel caused a minor uproar; George Henry Lewes, philosopher and critic, declared that SHC was impossible, and derided Dickens' work as perpetuating a uneducated superstition. Dickens responded to this statement in the preface of the 2nd edition of his work, making it quite clear that he had researched the subject and knew of about thirty cases of SHC. The details of Krook's death in Bleak House were directly modeled on the details of the death of the Countess Cornelia de Bandi Cesenate by this extraordinary means; the only other case that Dickens actually cites details from is the Nicole Millet account that inspired Dupont's book about 100 years earlier.
In 1951the Mary Reeser case recaptured the public interest in Spontaneous Human Combustion. Mrs. Reeser, 67, was found in her apartment on the morning of July 2, 1951, reduced to a pile of ashes, a skull, and a completely undamaged left foot. This event has become the foundation for many a book on the subject of SHC since, the most notable being Michael Harrison's Fire From Heaven, printed in 1976. Fire From Heaven has become the standard reference work on Spontaneous Human Combustion.
On May 18, 1957, Anna Martin, 68, of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was found incinerated, leaving only her shoes and a portion of her torso. The medical examiner estimated that temperatures must have reached 1,700 to 2,000 degrees, yet newspapers two feet away were found intact.
On December 5, 1966, the ashes of Dr. J. Irving Bentley, 92, of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, were discovered by a meter reader. Dr. Bentley's body apparently ignited while he was in the bathroom and burned a 2-1/2-by-3-foot hole through the flooring, with only a portion of one leg remaining intact. Nearby paint was unscorched.
Perhaps the most famous case occurred in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mary Hardy Reeser, a 67-year-old widow, spontaneously combusted while sitting in her easy chair on July 1, 1951. The next morning, her next door neighbor tried the doorknob, found it hot to the touch and went for help. She returned to find Mrs. Reeser, or what was left of her, in a blackened circle four feet in diameter.
All that remained of the 175-pound woman and her chair was a few blackened seat springs, a section of her backbone, a shrunken skull the size of a baseball, and one foot encased in a black stain slipper just beyond the four-foot circle. Plus about 10 pounds of ashes.
The police report declared that Mrs. Reeser went up in smoke when her highly flammable rayon-acetate nightgown caught fire, perhaps because of a dropped cigarette.
But one medical examiner stated that the 3,000-degree heat required to destroy the body should have destroyed the apartment as well. In fact, damage was minimal - the ceiling and upper walls were covered with soot. No chemical accelerants, incidentally, were found.
In 1944 Peter Jones, survived this experience and reported that there was no sensation of heat nor sighting of flames. He just saw smoke. He stated that he felt no pain.
Theories about Spontaneous Human Combustion
- Alchoholism - many Spontaneous Human Combustion vicitms have been alcoholics. But experiments in the 19th century demonstrated that flesh impregnated with alcohol will not burn with the intense heat associated with Spontaneous Human Combustion.
- Deposits of flammable body fat - Many victims have been overweight - yet others have been skinny.
- Devine Intervention - Centuries ago people felt that the explosion was a sign from God of devine punishment.
- Build-up of static electricity - no known form of electrostatic discharge could cause a human to burst into flames.
- An explosive combination of chemicals can form in the digestive system - due to poor diet.
- Electrical fields that exist within the human body might be capable of 'short circuiting' somehow, that some sort of atomic chain reaction could generate tremendous internal heat.
No satisfactory explanation of Spontaneous Human Combustion has ever been given. It is still an unsolved mystery.
What Remains After a Spontaneous Human Combustion Event
- The body is normally more severely burned than one that has been caught in a normal fire.
- The burns are not distributed evenly over the body; the extremities are usually untouched by fire, whereas the torso usually suffers severe burning.
- In some cases the torso is completely destroyed, the bones being reduced completely to ash.
- Small portions of the body (an arm, a foot, maybe the head) remain unburned.
- Only objects immediately associated with the body have burned; the fire never spread away from the body. SHC victims have burnt up in bed without the sheets catching fire, clothing worn is often barely singed, and flammable materials only inches away remain untouched.
- A greasy soot deposit covers the ceiling and walls, usually stopping three to four feet above the floor.
- Objects above this three to four foot line show signs of heat damage (melted candles, cracked mirrors, etc.)
- Although temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit are normally required to char a body so thoroughly (crematoria, which usually operate in the neighborhood of 2,000 degrees, leave bone fragments which must be ground up by hand), frequently little or nothing around the victim is damaged, except perhaps the exact spot where the deceased ignited.
Types of Spontaneous Human Combustion
Some events of Spontaneous Human Combustion are witnessed but some are not.
All reported cases have occurred indoors.
The victims were always alone for a long period of time.
Witnesses who were nearby (in adjacent rooms) report never hearing any sounds, such as cries of pain or calls for assistance.
In the witnessed combustions - people are actually seen by witnesses to explode into flame; most commonly. Here the witnesses agree that there was no possible source of ignition and/or that the flames were seen to erupt directly from the victim's skin. Unfortunately, most of the known cases of this type are poorly documented and basically unconfirmed. Sometimes there are no flames seen by the witness.
Non-fatal cases - Unfortunately, the victims of these events generally have no better idea of what happened to them than do the investigators; but the advantage to this grouping is that a survivor can confirm if an event had a simple explaination or not. Thus, there are far fewer cases of Spontaneous Human Combustion with survivors that can be explained away by skeptics without a second look.
Sometimes victims develop burns on their bodies that have no known external cause. These strange wounds commonly start as small discomforts that slowly grow into large, painful marks.
Sometimes the victim will exhibit a mysterious smoke from the body. In these odd and rare occurences smoke is seen to emanate from a person, with no associated fire or source of smoke other than the person's body.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Pizza boxes carry deadbeat parents mug shots
Pizza boxes carry deadbeat mug shots
CINCINNATI - Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms — wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.
The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.
"It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza," said Brown, whose county is north of Cincinnati.
Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular phone companies seeking addresses and phone numbers. California's Kern County seizes and auctions parents' vehicles, with proceeds going to the children, said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association.
State child support agencies collected more than $23 billion in child support for 17.2 million children in 2005, but the cumulative past-due child support since the agencies were first formed more than 30 years ago is $106 billion, Cullen said.
"While we have made progress, putting the wanted posters on pizza boxes is an example of the innovation and commitment that we need," she said.
Other Ohio counties put posters on their Web sites and work with local Crime Stoppers programs, and a few contract with companies that can track people through rental and cell phone records, according to the Ohio Child Support Directors Association. Some include fliers in water and sewer bills.
Butler County has printed posters with mug shots of its 10 most-wanted parents, placing them in post offices and other government buildings and sending them to Ohio's 87 other counties. The lineup, chosen by prosecutors, is changed twice a year.
The Butler County sheriff's office served 1,224 nonsupport warrants last year, said sheriff's Sgt. Todd Langmeyer. The county has about 350,000 residents.
Brown approached several restaurants and chains with her idea of affixing the posters to pizza boxes, but so far only three pizzerias are participating.
Since the first pizza posters appeared in August, they have led to one arrest, Langmeyer said. "It's a good idea any time you can put the faces out there," he said.
The owner of Karen's Pizzeria hasn't heard any complaints about her participation in the poster program.
"Some customers joke about it and say they're glad they aren't on it," Karen Willis said. "Most seem to think it's a good idea."
An attorney who focuses on fathers' rights cases called the tactic "horrible."
"It's just a way of shaming people," said Maury Beaulier, whose firm is in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Many circumstances can cause people to get behind in support payments, but that doesn't make them deadbeats, he said.
Widespread public shaming also can devastate the children, said Michael McCormick, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.
"Think how children feel to see a parent on a wanted poster and know their friends might see it," he said.
Brown said her agency tries to work with parents by trying to help them find work and seeks most payments through civil court. Criminal charges are a last resort. Conviction on a felony count of failing to pay child support brings a prison sentence of up to 18 months, with fines usually set in the amount of the support owed.
"We aren't trying to penalize these people," Brown said. "We are just trying to help the kids who have a right to be supported."
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'It was like a flying toilet roll': France opens up its UFO files
'It was like a flying toilet roll': France opens up its UFO files
France has become the first country in the world to open to the public its official archives on unidentified flying objects.
Flying saucer fanatics now have access to some 400 files - about a quarter of the 1,600 cases of UFO sightings reported in France since the 1950s - which have been published on a website by the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The centre is confident that, between now and the end of the year, the remaining 1,200 cases will be made available to view online.
The first 400 documents are chiefly the declarations and testimonies of witnesses of UFO sightings,but photographs and videos will be introduced later this year.
The problem facing UFO researchers may be the vague and often bizarre descriptions used in many of the witness statements. The reported sighting of an object shaped "like a flying toilet roll", for example, gives little in the way of precise or scientific detail.
Jacques Patenet, head of the Research Group for the Study of Unidentified Space Phenomena, said: "Everything will appear online. But UFO experts will find no scoops or undiscovered cases on this database."
The archives can be searched by region, date, or key words. They can also be viewed in four categories, ranging from A (objects that were definitely not UFOs) to D ("unidentifiable").
The spokesman for CNES, Pierre Tréfouret emphasised that the centre does not wish to be involved in debates about the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms. "Our only role is to provide the general public and the scientific community with data," he said.
The archives are online at www.cnes-geipan.fr - but the server was yesterday overwhelmed by visitors.
ontheavenues
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Former Arizona governor reveals belief in space aliens
Former Arizona governor reveals belief in space aliens
PHOENIX — Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington trotted out an aide dressed as an alien 10 years ago to spoof the frenzy surrounding mysterious lights in the Phoenix sky. Now he says he saw the lights himself, and believed from the start that they were extraterrestrial.
Now a pastry chef and business consultant, Symington said he didn't acknowledge his own encounter at first because he didn't want people to panic. The former governor, who faced fraud charges at the time, also said he didn't need the additional problems such an admission would have created.
Symington discussed the sighting with a UFO investigator making a documentary, and in media interviews this week.
"I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies," Symington, a former Air Force captain, told the Arizona Daily Star on Thursday. "It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people. I don't know why people would ridicule it."
Symington told CNN the craft he saw March 13, 1997, was "enormous. It just felt otherworldly. In your gut, you could just tell it was otherworldly."
Symington said he initially told no one but his wife that he had seen the lights.
During a news conference that June, Symington, in his second term as governor, told reporters that an alien had been captured. He then ushered out his chief of staff, Jay Heiler, dressed in a costume complete with oversized head and eyes.
"This just goes to show that you guys are entirely too serious," Symington said then.
Later in 1997, Symington was convicted of bank fraud charges stemming from his bankrupt real estate empire. The conviction later was overturned and he was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001 before federal prosecutors decided whether they would retry the case.
Heiler, who says Symington is one of his closest friends, said he isn't surprised he believes in UFOs. He described his former boss as a "Trekkie" who believes earthlings will travel to distant solar systems at above the speed of light "in our lifetimes."
The Phoenix lights, which appeared in a V shape as they moved across the sky, were widely explained as flares dumped by a military training flight, although many still doubted the government was telling all it knew.
Tucson astronomer and retired Air Force pilot James McGaha said he investigated two sightings over Phoenix that March night and traced both to A-10 aircraft flying in formation at high altitude.
"It was clearly aircraft in formation, flying at two different times and then dropping flares and it's clear to any rational person that's what it was," McGaha said.
McGaha said Symington "is not a trained observer and what he feels in his gut doesn't make any difference."
ontheavenuesPhotocopiers: A New Culprit for Identity Theft -- Especially During Tax Season?
Photocopiers: A New Culprit for Identity Theft -- Especially During Tax Season?
Consumers have seen lots of identity theft warnings recently, but one potential danger that almost no one is aware of is the threat posed by photocopiers.
Last year alone, more than 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft, a crime that cost them roughly $5 billion.
Photocopiers???
Yes, photocopiers have become a potential source for identity fraud because most digital photocopiers manufactured during the past five years have disk drives that are used to reproduce the documents.
This means that when you photocopy documents -- including tax returns, for example -- you could be making yourself vulnerable to identity theft. If the copier's hard disk is not protected with encryption or a functioning (and effective) overwrite mechanism, and if a scammer gains access to the hard drive, experts agree that the information that was photocopied could become a tool for identity theft.
Some manufacturers are now adding security features to their photocopiers; however, many of the digital photocopiers that have been manufactured in the past five years and are currently in use in public venues and businesses are at risk.
According to Keith Kmetz, an analyst at market researcher IDC, "it is a valid concern and most people don't know about it." Kmetz adds: "copying wasn't like this before."
The likelihood of having your data stolen from a photocopier disk drive is probably quite low right now. Nonetheless, with networked photocopiers or during tax season when unscrupulous employees working at copy shops watch people make copies of their tax returns, it is certainly possible -- and it is disconcerting.
Action: Perhaps most important, recognize that there could be a problem and try to take precautions. For example, consider asking your tax preparer or the copy shop you use to copy your tax return whether their photocopiers have data security installed.
ontheavenues"Pump and Dump" Scams Are Growing Fast
"Pump and Dump" Scams Are Growing Fast
Here's a scary, but not surprising, fact: According to the Internet security company, Secure Computing, 90% of all email messages are now spam. This is a large increase.
Further, stock spam has been a significant part of this growth, and now represents 30% of all spam.
The most popular type of stock spam is often called "pump and dump," because scammers tout supposed benefits of a penny stock, usually claiming hot insider information, which they hope will "pump" the price up.
Then, they "dump" their own shares, which drives the price back down.
This month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started an enforcement effort it's calling Operation Spamalot, in which it suspended trading for 10 days in 35 stocks that have recently been promoted with "pump and dump" scams. Further investigation could lead to arrests.
According to the SEC, 100 million "pump and dump" emails were being sent out each week, and this has been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of investor losses!
Many of these companies have (or had) offices in Western Canada. The SEC is working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and two Canadian regulatory agencies.
Action: Delete stock spam. Never invest based on "hot tips" from emails, chat room posts or other similar information on the Internet.
ontheavenuesFriday, March 23, 2007
So What Really Is In A McDonald's Chicken McNugget?
So What Really Is In A McDonald's Chicken McNugget?
Most folks assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know, for example, that a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is 56% corn?
What else is in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget? Besides corn, and to a lesser extent, chicken, The Omnivore's Dilemma describes all of the thirty-eight ingredients that make up a McNugget – one of which I'll bet you'll never guess. During this part of the book, the author has just ordered a meal from McDonald’s with his family and taken one of the flyers available at McDonald’s called "A Full Serving of Nutrition Facts: Choose the Best Meal for You." These two paragraphs are taken directly from The Omnivore’s Dilemma:
“The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.
According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasiedible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant.
These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry.
The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”
Bet you never thought that was in your chicken McNuggets!
Source:Lawyerguy
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Copy of Declaration of Independence sells at auction for $477,650
Copy of Declaration of Independence sells at auction for $477,650
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A rare 1823 copy of the Declaration of Independence sold at auction for $477,650 by a man who found it last year in a Nashville thrift store for $2.48.
Michael Sparks, a music equipment technician, sold the document Thursday at Raynors’ Historical Collectible Auctions in Burlington, N.C.
Six bidders contended for the document, most by phone or Internet, when bidding opened at $125,000. The identity of the winner was not disclosed.
Sparks found his bargain last March while browsing at Music City Thrift Shop. When he asked the price on a yellowed, shellacked, rolled-up document, the clerk marked it at $2.48 plus tax.
The document turned out to be an “official copy” of the Declaration of Independence - one of 200 commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820 when he was secretary of state and printed by William Stone in 1823.
Sparks said he had a few plans for the money: a used car, adding a sun room to his house, helping to support his parents and giving some to charity.
“You think it is a huge fortune, but by the time you figure it up and put some off for the taxes it is not. It is not a huge fortune, but more like a small fortune,” he said.
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Do you think ABC TV should have picked a different anchor to do this story?
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Gold theft in a Japanese museum
Gold theft in a Japanese museum
Three masked men have stolen a massive block of gold bullion on display in a museum in Japan. The gold bar, valued at $1.71m (1.27m euro; £0.87m), weighed about 220 pounds (100kg) and was kept in an open safe.
The museum, in the central city of Takayama, said the gold was not protected by sensors as they wanted visitors to be able to touch it.
But the group of thieves went one step further, helping themselves to the precious metal and dragging it away.
The gold was lugged past an employee alerted by the noise, down a staircase and out of the museum where the three men were driven away by a fourth accomplice.
"The gold was exhibited on the second floor, which was monitored by a security camera from the first floor," said 59-year-old Hisao Nakahagi, the owner of the gold
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Mac PC Spoofs
Mac PC Spoofs
We love Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign, which pairs older guy-PC with younger guy-Mac and shows off how much hipper and cuter and cooler Mac is. But now, we're roaring just as loudly over these four spoofs of the ad series from writer and director Laurie McGuinness. Before the same white background, portly PC and adorably disheveled Mac meet, talk, and occasionally disagree. But in these scenarios, PC wears sharply tailored suits and has a hot blonde girl friend. Mac shows up late, looking groggy from working all night on a web site for his cat. PC wants to hear what Mac is listening to; Mac doesn't want to share. PC allows that he deals with all the boring spread sheets and businessy stuff; Mac suddenly realizes that he can't make the rent. Sure, sure, we're propagating the most horrific of computer stereotypes. But, hey, it's funny. Besides, some of our best friends are PCs and Macs.
Winter on Mars
Winter on Mars
It could be any stretch of dry land under a cloudless sky. The soil looks just as gritty and reddish brown, the rocks just as chunky and carelessly strewn, the far-off hills just as smoothly formed as any arid place known to humans. But this is not Earth. It is Mars. And the pale sky and sandy, coarse ground is truly and utterly alien. Over the course of five months last year, NASA's Spirit rover captured shot after shot of this area, which the space group dubbed the "Low Ridge." More than 1,400 of the images were then pieced together to form this remarkable—and interactive—panorama of the Martian vista. Hosted by a German site of 360-degree views, Winter on Mars allows you to scroll endlessly across this part of the Red Planet's surface and then, if you want, swoop upwards into its thin, blank atmosphere
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So Bad It's Good
So Bad It's Good
Colorful and funky murals throughout Southern California decorate many Mexican markets, restaurants, and taco trucks. As this site lovingly documents, these vibrant works of art sit squarely at the delicious intersection of folk art and food. Tony Mora stakes out L.A.-area carnicerias and lets his pictures of these "surreal and fanciful" paintings do the talking. Stop by and see cows grazing in a grass of fluorescent green or a mermaid awash in shrimp cocktail and octopus. Certain recurring themes make appearances, including La Virgin de Guadalupe, plump pigs, and abundant plates of food. Even if you're not a fan of Mexican food (blaspheme!), you'll enjoy the rich colors and outlandish themes of these marvelous murals.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Funny things people actually said in court, word for word.
Funny things people actually said in court, word for word.
A: July fifteen.
Q: What year?
A: Every year.
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Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
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Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?
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Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years.
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Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.
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Q: And where was the location of the accident?
A: Approximately milepost 499.
Q: And where is milepost 499?
A: Probably between milepost 498 and 500.
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Q: Sir, what is your IQ?
A: Well, I can see pretty well, I think.
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Q: Did you blow your horn or anything?
A: After the accident?
Q: Before the accident.
A: Sure, I played for ten years. I even went to school for it.
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Q: Trooper, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing?
A: Yes.
Q: Did the defendant say anything when she got out of her car?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: What did she say?
A: What disco am I at?
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Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
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Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he?
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Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
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Q: Was it you or your younger brother who was killed in the war?
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Q: Did he kill you?
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Q: How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?
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Q: You were there until the time you left, is that true?
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Q: How many times have you committed suicide?
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Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
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Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
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Q: You say the stairs went down to the basement?
A: Yes.
Q: And these stairs, did they go up also?
--------------------------------------------------
Q: Mr. Slatery, you went on a rather elaborate honeymoon, didn't you?
A: I went to Europe, Sir.
Q: And you took your new wife?
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Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
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Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?
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Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
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Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
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Q: All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.
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Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
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Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
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Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?
A: It is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
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Q: You were not shot in the fracas?
A: No, I was shot midway between the fracas and the navel.
You think your job is bad?
You think your job is bad? Pictures that make you say i'm glad that is not my job!
Intern Sold Civil War Items on eBay
Intern Sold Civil War Items on eBay
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - An intern with the National Archives stole about 165 Civil War documents - including the War Department's announcement of President Lincoln's death - and sold most of them on eBay, prosecutors charged Thursday.
Denning McTague, who runs a Web site that sells rare books, worked at a National Archives and Records Administration site in Philadelphia last summer, prosecutors said.
McTague, 40, of Philadelphia, has helped officials recover most of the missing items and plans to plead guilty, his lawyer said.
The stolen documents include telegrams concerning troops' weaponry, the Lincoln death announcement sent to soldiers, and a letter from famed Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, prosecutors said.
The sale of one of the items on eBay aroused suspicion and led to the investigation, National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said. The office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said that all but a handful of the items have been recovered.
McTague, who holds master's degrees in history and information systems, secured the unpaid internship through an affiliation with a university, court papers state. The papers do not name the university, but Cooper said a professor at New York's State University at Albany recommended McTague.
McTague had been responsible for arranging and organizing documents in preparation for the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War. As an intern, he may not have had to go through the security checks mandated for volunteers and visiting researchers, Cooper said.
McTague's lawyer, Eric Sitarchuk, declined to comment on the value of the stolen items, which was listed only as more than $1,000 in court documents.
A telephone number for McTague could not immediately be determined, and he did not immediately respond to a query sent to his Web site
All True Offbeat News
All True Offbeat News
There are odd happening occuring all around us. Below are just a few such bizarre and weird offbeat news. Sad part, it is all true!
LONDON - A passenger on a British Airways flight complain- ed after he awoke on the plane to find a corpse had been
placed nearby his first-class seat. Paul Trinder said he awoke from sleeping on the nine-hour flight to find the corpse of an elderly woman who had died on the flight in a nearby seat accompanied by her grieving daughter crying loudly, The Times of London reported Monday. Trinder told the newspaper he found the experience "deeply disturbing" but the airline told him to "get over it" when he voiced his concerns. "It was a complete mess -- they seemed to have no proper plans in place to deal with the situation," he said. "I didn't have a clue what was going on. The stewards just plonked the body down without saying a thing.
I remember looking at this frail, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill," Trinder told The Times. "When I asked what was going on I was shocked to hear she was dead." He said he was also concerned with the health issues
involved. "When you have a decaying body on a plane at room temperature for more than five hours there are significant health and safety risks," he said.
Security Guard Blows Away Compensation
CHICAGO - A security guard who accidentally shot himself at a Chicago apartment complex has been denied compensation by the Appellate Court of Illinois. The court ruled against Emmitt Kelly's request to be awarded $90,000 for his medical bills after he accidentally shot himself in 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday. One of Kelly's co- workers told the court he had been jokingly acting out the Russian roulette scene from the movie "Malcolm X" with a
single bullet in the chamber. The co-worker said Kelly took the gun away from his head, but the weapon unexpectedly discharged, struck Kelly in the jaw and exited through his temple. "There has not been another case in Illinois where
someone has been, to be politically correct, so careless, and then expected his employer to pay for his injuries," said Marc Cairo, an attorney for United Security
Investigative Services, Kelly's now-defunct former employer. The court ruled that the injury would likely have never happened if Kelly had not been "engaged in horseplay."
Love Bites
CALIFORNIA - Some people are so adorable that you could just eat 'em up. Unfortunately for a 65-year-old Cali- fornia man, his sex-starved wife took the cliche a little too seriously. After Arthur Pratt had denied his wife's request to make love, Kelli attacked her husband with teeth of fury. During her assault, Kelli managed to tear out two huge chunks of flesh from her elderly husband's chest. When police arrived on the scene after Arthur's frantic 911 call, Kelli was found "with blood all over her mouth from the bites." Six days after the ravenous onslaught, Arthur passed away from a heart attack. In an effort to take a bite out of crime, police may prosecute Kelli on a homicide charge, pending a coroner's investigation
Future Brides Forced To Squat On Brooms
SERBIA - Guys, before you say "I do", it's a good idea to double-check and make sure your bride-to-be is not a witch. Superstitious grooms in Serbia are using broomsticks to check whether their brides are witches. The test conducted at
Djundjerski Castle in Kulpin involves weighing women and then weighing them again sitting on a broomstick. If they weigh more the second time around, they are not being supported by the broomstick and "certainly not a witch." To make it official, certificates are issued to non-witches. However, many men claim
they don't need any test to tell them that their wife is a real witch.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
High court hears Bong Hits 4 Jesus case *today*
High court hears Bong Hits 4 Jesus case *today*
Morse v. Frederick is being argued before the Supreme Court, March 19, 2007. This case came about when a high school student was suspended for hanging a 17' sign reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" during the 2002 Olympic Torch Relay touch. He kept getting denied in his appeals to school administrators and the district courts.
WASHINGTON -- High school students may have a right to free speech, but it does not go so far as to include the freedom to unfurl a banner promoting "bong hits" at a school event, former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr told the Supreme Court today.
"This is disruptive of the educational mission and inconsistent with the school's message" against using drugs, Starr said.
Starr, now dean of the Pepperdine Law School, represents a school principal from Juneau, Alaska, who was sued for ripping down the banner and suspending the student who unfurled it.
The case forces the court to reconsider the line between a student's right to free expression and a principal's authority to limit what is said and done at school.
During the hourlong argument, the justices struggled to draw such a line.
Most of them sounded as though they leaned in favor of the school principal. At the same time, they were wary of saying officials have broad power to punish students whenever they think a student's message is offensive or inappropriate.
Several religious-rights groups filed briefs supporting the student's free-speech right in this case. Their lawyers worry that school officials might, for example, say it was inappropriate for a student to wear a T-shirt that praised Jesus Christ.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said it would be "disturbing" if principals had such broad authority to pass judgment on what students say at or near school.
But Starr said the court could rule narrowly and give principals the power to forbid signs and banners promoting drugs, alcohol or tobacco. "This case is ultimately about drugs," he said.
The student's lawyer insisted the opposite was true.
"This is a case about free speech. This is not a case about drugs," said Douglas K. Mertz, a lawyer from Juneau.
His client, Joseph Frederick, was an 18-year-old senior in 2002 when an Olympic torch parade was scheduled to pass in front of his high school. As the local TV cameras came by, he and a few fellow students unfurled a 14-foot banner that said: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
The message seemed designed to provoke Principal Deborah Morse, and it succeeded in doing so. She tore it down and sent Frederick to the office. She planned to suspend him for five days, but when he invoked Thomas Jefferson and the First Amendment, she doubled the suspension to 10 days.
Frederick later sued and alleged she had violated his constitutional rights.
A federal judge rejected his claim, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled for the student and said the principal could be forced to pay damages.
No damages have been set, and the school board urged the Supreme Court to overrule the 9th Circuit.
The outcome may turn on a ruling from the Vietnam War era. In 1969, the high court upheld the right of high school students to wear black arm bands to protest the war. Young people do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," the court said then. But its opinion made clear that principals and teachers need not tolerate "disruptive" speech or protests.
During today's argument, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the student's "bong hits" banner was disruptive.
"Can't a school say part of its mission is to discourage drug use?" he asked.
Surely such a pro-drug message would be out of line in a classroom, added Justice David H. Souter. "Does the school have to tolerate that sign [promoting 'bong hits'] in a class about Shakespeare?" he asked.
Mertz held his ground, however, insisting that Frederick's sign was not disruptive, and "a non-disruptive message has to be tolerated."
Though the justices seemed unsure of the limit on students' right to free speech, they sounded certain they will shield the principal from being sued.
In the past, the court has said public officials can be held liable for paying damages if they violate someone's "clearly established" rights under the Constitution. In the case from Alaska, the 9th Circuit judges said principal Morse had violated the student's clearly established right to free speech.
"You think it was clearly established--so she should have to pay out of her pocket!" Roberts said to attorney Mertz.
Souter noted that the back-and-forth argument in the court today showed the 9th Circuit was wrong on that point. "We've been debating this for 50 minutes," he commented. If nine justices of the Supreme Court are uncertain of the reach of the First Amendment in this area, how can a school principal be punished for
"You think it was clearly established--so she should have to pay out of her pocket!" Roberts said to attorney Mertz.
Souter noted that the back-and-forth argument in the court today showed the 9th Circuit was wrong on that point. "We've been debating this for 50 minutes," he commented. If nine justices of the Supreme Court are uncertain of the reach of the First Amendment in this area, how can a school principal be punished for getting the wrong answer, he asked.
A ruling in the case, Morse vs. Frederick, will be handed down later this spring.
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Monday, March 19, 2007
Man Eats Basketball For March Madness
Man Eats Basketball For March Madness
Topeka KS: James Stein loves basketball. The team does not matter, just watching basketball is what he lives for. With March Madness, the thrill is just as intense as any major sport finale. To show his devotion, and yes, addiction to basketball, James elected to actually eat a Spalding professional basketball.
James Stein lives by himself in a two room apartment. He works part time as a hair sweeper in a barbershop. He purchased his Spalding basketball online through ebay. When it arrived, he prepared for the basketball feast. What is more amazing, James had his mother come and help him cook his meal and also serve as proof that he did eat the basketball. And as we all know, a mother would never lie.
James contacted us and we were amazed at the fact that this young man did indeed eat the basketball. We called James for an interview, and here are the facts and process.
"I knew that eating a basketball would not be easy" stated James. "So I decided to eat it as a 3 course meal" As the story goes, James first shredded the basketball into strips. He them placed each strip into a Cuisinart and chopped it into very small pieces. He then placed all pieces into a bowl filled with water and allowed it to soak for 3 days. "I then went about preparing my meal" stated James. He started with shrimp cocktail. He took about a cup of shaved basketball and mixed into the cocktail sauce and also into the shredded lettuce. He placed four cups of basketball shavings into his homemade stuffing for the Cornish hens. Another cup went into the mashed potatoes and a cup went into the homemade rolls. Two cups of basketball bits were added to the chocolate cake batter. James prepared his meal with loving care and then proceeded to enjoy what he made. "At first it was a bit chewy, but with such small pieces it was not to difficult to get down" said James. No, his mother did not partake of the feast.
In our opinion, March madness just got a bit 'madder'. But, James did survive his basketball meal. He stated he did have some very bad gas and did stay home from work as the oder was very overwhelming, and he himself almost fainted from the smell. But three rolls of bathroom tissue later, the only thing that got clogged was, well, his toilet. We asked James if he would do this again. He said " Why not. I had great meal and just a few days of some heavy bathroom time. Maybe I will write a cookbook titled 'Ball Cooking Made Easy'. We wish James good luck with that.
Source: Bonnie Burns
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IRS Announces “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams for 2006
IRS Announces “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2006 “Dirty Dozen”––its latest annual tally of some of the most notorious tax scams––along with an alert to taxpayers this filing season to watch out for schemes that promise to reduce or eliminate taxes.
Two new schemes have worked their way onto the list in 2006. In recent months IRS personnel have noted the emergence of the two scams––“zero wages” and “Form 843 tax abatement”–– in which filers use IRS forms to claim that their tax bills have been wrongly inflated.
Also high on the list in 2006 is “phishing,” a favorite ploy of identity thieves. Over the past few years, the IRS has observed criminals working through the Internet, posing even as representatives of the IRS itself, with the goal of tricking unsuspecting taxpayers into revealing private information that can be used to steal from their financial accounts.
Several of the usual suspects from last year remain on the list. The IRS, for example, continues to see schemes designed to exploit charitable organizations. Some taxpayers, meanwhile, still use frivolous arguments to claim they do not owe taxes, despite the fact such reasoning has been thrown out of court time and again.
“When it comes to taxes, everyone has to pay their fair share,” IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said. “I urge taxpayers not to be taken in by hucksters who promise to lower or eliminate taxes. Getting caught up in the Dirty Dozen or similar schemes can lead to big headaches.”
Namely, involvement with tax schemes can lead to imprisonment and fines. The IRS pursues and shuts down promoters of these and numerous other scams. Anyone pulled into these schemes can also face repayment of taxes plus interest and penalties.
The IRS urges people to avoid these common schemes:
1. Zero Wages. In this scam, new to the Dirty Dozen, a taxpayer attaches to his or her return either a Form 4852 (Substitute Form W-2) or a “corrected” Form 1099 that shows zero or little wages or other income. The taxpayer may include a statement indicating the taxpayer is rebutting information submitted to the IRS by the payer.
An explanation on the Form 4852 may cite "statutory language behind IRC 3401 and 3121" or may include some reference to the paying company refusing to issue a corrected Form W-2 for fear of IRS retaliation. The Form 4852 or 1099 is usually attached to a “Zero Return.” (See number four below.)
2. Form 843 Tax Abatement. This scam, also new to the Dirty Dozen, rests on faulty interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code. It involves the filer requesting abatement of previously assessed tax using Form 843. Many using this scam have not previously filed tax returns and the tax they are trying to have abated has been assessed by the IRS through the Substitute for Return Program. The filer uses the Form 843 to list reasons for the request. Often, one of the reasons is: "Failed to properly compute and/or calculate IRC Sec 83––Property Transferred in Connection with Performance of Service."
3. Phishing. Phishing is a technique used by identity thieves to acquire personal financial data in order to gain access to the financial accounts of unsuspecting consumers, run up charges on their credit cards or apply for new loans in their names. These Internet-based criminals pose as representatives of a financial institution and send out fictitious e-mail correspondence in an attempt to trick consumers into disclosing private information. Sometimes scammers pose as the IRS itself. In recent months, some taxpayers have received e-mails that appear to come from the IRS. A typical e-mail notifies a taxpayer of an outstanding refund and urges the taxpayer to click on a hyperlink and visit an official-looking Web site. The Web site then solicits a social security and credit card number. In a variation of this scheme, criminals have used e-mail to announce to unsuspecting taxpayers they are “under audit” and could make things right by divulging selected private financial information. Taxpayers should take note: The IRS does not use e-mail to initiate contact with taxpayers about issues related to their accounts. If a taxpayer has any doubt whether a contact from the IRS is authentic, the taxpayer should call 1-800-829-1040 to confirm it.
4. Zero Return. Promoters instruct taxpayers to enter all zeros on their federal income tax filings. In a twist on this scheme, filers enter zero income, report their withholding and then write “nunc pro tunc”–– Latin for “now for then”––on the return. They often also do this with amended returns in the hope the IRS will disregard the original return in which they reported wages and other income.
5. Trust Misuse. For years unscrupulous promoters have urged taxpayers to transfer assets into trusts. They promise reduction of income subject to tax, deductions for personal expenses and reduced estate or gift taxes. However, some trusts do not deliver the promised tax benefits, and the IRS is actively examining these arrangements. There are currently more than 200 active investigations underway and three dozen injunctions have been obtained against promoters since 2001. As with other arrangements, taxpayers should seek the advice of a trusted professional before entering into a trust.
6. Frivolous Arguments. Promoters have been known to make the following outlandish claims: the Sixteenth Amendment concerning congressional power to lay and collect income taxes was never ratified; wages are not income; filing a return and paying taxes are merely voluntary; and being required to file Form 1040 violates the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Don’t believe these or other similar claims. These arguments are false and have been thrown out of court. While taxpayers have the right to contest their tax liabilities in court, no one has the right to disobey the law.
7. Return Preparer Fraud. Dishonest return preparers can cause many headaches for taxpayers who fall victim to their schemes. Such preparers derive financial gain by skimming a portion of their clients’ refunds and charging inflated fees for return preparation services. They attract new clients by promising large refunds. Taxpayers should choose carefully when hiring a tax preparer. As the old saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” And remember, no matter who prepares the return, the taxpayer is ultimately responsible for its accuracy. Since 2002, the courts have issued injunctions ordering dozens of individuals to cease preparing returns, and the Department of Justice has filed complaints against dozens of others. During fiscal year 2005, more than 110 tax return preparers were convicted of tax crimes.
8. Credit Counseling Agencies. Taxpayers should be careful with credit counseling organizations that claim they can fix credit ratings, push debt payment plans or impose high set-up fees or monthly service charges that may add to existing debt. The IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division is in the process of revoking the tax-exempt status of numerous credit counseling organizations that operated under the guise of educating financially distressed consumers with debt problems while charging debtors large fees and providing little or no counseling.
9. Abuse of Charitable Organizations and Deductions. The IRS has observed increased use of tax-exempt organizations to improperly shield income or assets from taxation. This can occur, for example, when a taxpayer moves assets or income to a tax-exempt supporting organization or donor-advised fund but maintains control over the assets or income, thereby obtaining a tax deduction without transferring a commensurate benefit to charity. A “contribution” of a historic facade easement to a tax-exempt conservation organization is another example. In many cases, local historic preservation laws already prohibit alteration of the home’s facade, making the contributed easement superfluous. Even if the facade could be altered, the deduction claimed for the easement contribution may far exceed the easement’s impact on the value of the property.
10. Offshore Transactions. Despite a crackdown by the IRS and state tax agencies, individuals continue to try to avoid U.S. taxes by illegally hiding income in offshore bank and brokerage accounts or using offshore credit cards, wire transfers, foreign trusts, employee leasing schemes, private annuities or life insurance to do so. The IRS and the tax agencies of U.S. states and possessions continue to aggressively pursue taxpayers and promoters involved in such abusive transactions. During fiscal 2005, 68 individuals were convicted on charges of promotion and use of abusive tax schemes designed to evade taxes.
11. Employment Tax Evasion. The IRS has seen a number of illegal schemes that instruct employers not to withhold federal income tax or other employment taxes from wages paid to their employees. Such advice is based on an incorrect interpretation of Section 861 and other parts of the tax law and has been refuted in court. Lately, the IRS has seen an increase in activity in the area of “double-dip” parking and medical reimbursement issues. In recent years, the courts have issued injunctions against more than a dozen persons ordering them to stop promoting the scheme. During fiscal 2005, more than 50 individuals were sentenced to an average of 30 months in prison for employment tax evasion. Employer participants can also be held responsible for back payments of employment taxes, plus penalties and interest. It is worth noting that employees who have nothing withheld from their wages are still responsible for payment of their personal taxes.
12. “No Gain” Deduction. Filers attempt to eliminate their entire adjusted gross income (AGI) by deducting it on Schedule A. The filer lists his or her AGI under the Schedule A section labeled “Other Miscellaneous Deductions” and attaches a statement to the return that refers to court documents and includes the words “No Gain Realized.”
Two Fall off the List
Two noteworthy scams have dropped off the “Dirty Dozen” this year: “claim of right” and “corporation sole.” IRS personnel have noticed less activity in these scams over the past year following court cases against a number of promoters.
How to Report Suspected Tax Fraud Activity
Suspected tax fraud can be reported to the IRS using IRS Form 3949-A, Information Referral. Form 3949-A is available for download from the IRS Web site at IRS.gov, or through the U.S. Mail by calling 1-800-829-3676. The completed form or a letter detailing the alleged fraudulent activity should be addressed to the Internal Revenue Service, Fresno, CA 93888. The mailing should include specific information about who is being reported, the activity being reported, how the activity became known, when the alleged violation took place, the amount of money involved and any other information that might be helpful in an investigation. The person filing the report is not required to self-identify, although it is helpful to do so. The identity of the person filing the report can be kept confidential. The person may also be entitled to a reward.
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Pagejacking and Mousetrapping
Pagejacking and Mousetrapping
These two terms refer to a recent technique used by scammers to divert internet users from their intended web destination ("pagejacking") to the scammers' site from which the user is unable to leave using his or her browsers "back" or "forward" or even "close" buttons ("mousetrapping").
How do scammers pagejack and mousetrap?
To pagejack, scammers make digital copies of certain web pages including meta tags. Meta tags are hidden text in a websites page that inform the Internet's search engines about the subject matter of a site and permit the search engine to properly categorize the site in the engine. The scammers then insert one change to the copy of the web page by adding a command to "redirect" any user intending to go to legitimate site to be redirected to the pornographic site.
For example, to find an innocent site like "wedding services", the innocent internet user would type in "wedding services" in the appropriate search engine field. The search results would list a number of sites including the copied site which users would assume is legitimate. Once the users clicks on the copied site, he or she would be rerouted to the offending site by virtue of the added "redirect command".
Once at the offending site, the user would be mousetrapped. The offending site has been programmed to redirect the user to another site. Each time the user depresses the "back" button of his browser, he or she goes back to the initial page of the offending site which then again redirects him or her to the other offending page. This creates a loop out of which the user will be unable to break using his "back" button of his or her browser. The scammer is able to program his web page to redirect the user with the use of either Javascript, a popular internet programming language or the insertion of HTTP-EQUIV, a line of coding, in the meta tags. (Note that the "back " button on Internet Explorer 5 is not vulnerable to this type of programming since it will not record instructions that send the user forward when the "back" button is depressed. As such, the "back" button can be used to exit the offending site using Internet Explorer 5.)
How does this benefit the Scammer?
The scammer can make money pagejacking and mousetrapping by:
*increasing the advertising revenue at his site since the scammer is paid for each new visitor that comes to his site. Each redirection to his site resulting from the user's attempt to leave counts as a new visit and hence more money to the scammer.
*referral fees to other offending sites. Sometimes the redirection is to another pornographic site that pays the scammer for each referred visitor. Furthermore, the other pornographic site owner makes advertising revenue in the same manner described in the preceding paragraph.
*increasing his or her advertising revenue by charging premium advertising rates. Busier sites can command higher advertising rates.
*offering visitors other pornographic material for a price.
*using the scheme to inflate the value of the domain names or Web addresses of their sites, by increasing the viewership of those addresses. The scammers would then tried to auction those sell their sites or the domain names of their sites on the internet at many multiples of their original cost.
What is the real cost of pagejacking and mousetrapping?
*Users lose time in trying to get out of offending sites.
*Users lose a sense of security and control when surfing the net.
*Children can get exposed to offending materials. One can not quantify the damage to a child by his or her being subjected to this kind of material at young ages and their frustration at trying to escape the offending pages.
*Parents lose sense of security in letting children surf the net alone.
The legitimate website loses customers by virtue of the diversion of his page. This results in lost customer sales, lost advertising revenue and reduces the value of his or her site if he or she is trying to sell it to another company.
Search Engines can become tools for scammers and become less effective. Without search engines the ability to find desired websites becomes a difficult if not impossible task.
Advertisers pay more than would be otherwise required because of inflated number of visits to a site.
What can users do to prevent Pagejacking and Mousetrapping?
Disable the "Java script," function of your browser before you surf the net. This will allow you to exit the scammer site where the type of programming used in the meta tags is Java Script. Certain users will not like this since many sites use Java script to enhance the visual and audio feeling of a site.
Obtain internet filtering software which would filter pornographic and other offending material. This should help in avoiding being redirected to the pornographic site. Ensure that your filtering software is constantly updated.
If you find yourself at the scammer site, manually enter a new URL or web address or choose a new site from your favorites folder.
Talk to your children to prepare them for what they might encounter on the net and how to handle the situation if they find themselves being pagejacked and mousetrapped.
By depressing the triangle on the "back" button of both Netscape and Internet Explorer, and choosing the second last URL (web address).
Pagejacking and mousetrapping is prohibited under the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices affecting commerce since these techniques involve the improper diversion of consumers away from Web pages they were intending to visit.
If you encounter pagejacking or mousetrapping, report it to our Complaint Centre and to the FTC
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Top Ten Consumer Scams
Top Ten Consumer Scams
For convenience, the current "top ten" consumer scams in North Dakota are listed below. You can click on the link to find more information regarding each scam.
This information is updated continually, as different scams are common at different times of the year. If you have questions regarding other suspicious offers, additional information is available on the Consumer Protection pages at: http://www.ag.state.nd.us/cpat/cpat.htm or by contacting the Consumer Protection Division at 1-800-472-2600.
Discount medical plans. While there are legitimate discount cards that may offer savings, usually the offers exaggerate the number of medical providers who will accept them, and the services that are covered. Legitimate discount cards can offer savings on prescription drugs and visits to doctors, dentists, and other health care providers. But the cards touted by telephone and over the Internet frequently inflate savings, hide "administrative fees" and other costs in fine print, and exaggerate the number of providers that accept them. Some issuers mislead buyers into thinking the cards are a substitute for health insurance. As part of their pitch, these scam artists lead consumers to believe they are affiliated with the consumer's insurance company, financial institution, or state government. More information is available at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/medplanalrt.htm
"Nigerian" letter scams. The scam varies, but usually you will receive a letter, or more often, a fax or email offering you a business "proposal" or transaction. The person writing may claim they are a government official, the widow of a government official, or from a charity or business group - the situation varies, but it always involves a foreign country, and a promise that you will receive money in return for your help in offloading some cash or other commodity. To ensure a "hitch free transfer" of your share of the windfall, they will often ask for your bank account details. This is only the beginning. Once you're hooked, you'll be asked to pay all sorts of "advance fees" (eg customs, taxes, bribes) to facilitate the transfer. These fees are the real purpose of the scam, and may add up to tens of thousands of dollars. Form more information, see: http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml.
Foreign lotteries. These are ALWAYS a scam. The operators - often based in Canada and other foreign countries - use the telephone, direct mail and email to entice U.S. consumers to buy chances at high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and Europe. These solicitations violate U.S. law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail. It is illegal for any foreign lottery - legitimate or not - to use the U.S. mail to solicit customers! For more information, see: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/intlalrt.htm.
Work at Home. You can find work at home ads everywhere - from the street light and telephone pole on your corner to your newspaper and PC. While these ads may seem appealing, especially if you can't work outside your home, proceed with caution. Not all work-at-home opportunities deliver on their promises.
Many ads omit the fact that you may have to work many hours without pay. Or they don't disclose all the costs you will have to pay. Countless work-at-home schemes require you to spend your own money to place newspaper ads; make photocopies; or buy the envelopes, paper, stamps, and other supplies or equipment you need to do the job. The companies sponsoring the ads also may demand that you pay for instructions or "tutorial" software. Consumers deceived by these ads have lost thousands of dollars, in addition to their time and energy.
"Phishing" or copycat e-mails scams. The consumer receives an e-mail claiming to be from a business the potential victim deals with - such as their Internet service provider, online payment service or bank. The e-mail warns the consumer the account must be "updated" or "validated" - usually because the company has updated its security features - and directs the consumer to a "look-alike" website of the legitimate business, further tricking consumers into thinking they are responding to a bona fide request. Unknowingly, consumers submit their financial information - not to the businesses - but to the scammers, who use it to order goods and services and obtain credit. The consumer has just become a victim of identity theft. For more information, see: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishregsalrt.htm.
Online auctions. A key point to remember when you buy something from an on-line site, such as eBay.com, is that you often are purchasing from a private individual. The website is only a clearinghouse to bring buyers and sellers together. If you have a problem with a sale or purchase, you are on your own. Government and non-profit consumer fraud agencies generally cannot intervene in private sales transactions between two individuals. For more information, see: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/auctions.htm.
Cell phone pirating. Subscriber fraud (cell phone pirating) occurs when someone signs up for service with fraudulently obtained customer information or false identification. The victim gets the bill without even having access to the cellular phone or service. See: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cellphonefraud.html.
Classified ad scams. You get a response to an ad; the prospective "buyer" offers to pay with a check for more than the purchase price if you will wire the rest onto a third party... the buyer's certified check is fake and you lose the money you send. The fake check is often good enough to fool the bank. For more information, see: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/features/CONSUMER/021704_fs_nigerian_scam.html
Sweepstakes. Scam artists often use the promise of a valuable "prize" or "award" to entice consumers to buy vitamins, cosmetics, or other merchandise or services or to contribute to bogus charities. Usually the consumer is asked to pay a nominal "processing" fee of $3.95 to $29.95. But remember, you should not have to pay to play! For more information, see: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/prizes.htm.
Grants. You may have seen the ads, claiming "FREE GRANTS Never Repay - acceptance guaranteed. Government and private sources $500 - $5,000. Education, home repairs, home purchase, business, non-profits. Phone live operators 9am-9pm. Monday-Saturday 1-800-123-4567, ext. [xxx]." The ads claim that you will qualify to receive a "free grant" - that your application is guaranteed to be accepted, and you never have to repay the money. But "money for nothing" grant offers often are a scam: the grant isn't free, it isn't guaranteed, and often, it isn't even available to you. For more information, see: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/grantalrt.htm.
Cool Site: Ketchup Art
KetchupArt.com
If the medium is the message, then the message here is: ketchup. Okay, we'll roll with that. Check out the site's Top 10 to view such museum-worthy pieces as Mao Tse Tchup and My Dog Dong Dong, but not the under-rated imaginary uncle, our sentimental favorite because it reminds us of co-workers. The artists featured here have clearly been influenced by such movements as minimalism, such artists as Matissse and Edvard Munch, and such styles as ornate, mustard -inflected, and psychotic. Will working in ketchup ever be considered a legitimate art form? We think so. On the other hand, we can't guarantee the IRS response the first time a self-employed ketchupist tries to claim a bottle of Heinz as a tax deduction.
Man in hot water for collecting urine
Man in hot water for collecting urine
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (UPI) -- Police in New Britain, Conn., are searching for a man who allegedly offered schoolboys $10 for urine samples so he could pass a parole drug test.
New Britain police Sgt. Gregory Wright said Jose Berrios, 24, was to meet with his parole officer Tuesday and apparently feared failing a urine test for drugs.
Investigators allege Berrios went to his nephew's elementary school last Thursday for a birthday party and in the boys' washroom, at least six students said Berrios offered them $10 to urinate in a plastic cup. One did and that's what tripped up the plan, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported.
The boy's mother spotted the money that afternoon and asked the boy how he got it and she then contacted the school.
Berrios, who reportedly has a lengthy criminal record, missed his parole meeting on Tuesday and is being sought on six counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of unlawful restraint, police told the Courant.
Source: United Press International
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Weird News From Around The World
Weird News From Around The World
Norway - One Norwegian man has had enough of all the beautiful people he sees portrayed in the media. Trond Andresen of the Norwegian Institute of Technology claims the media is discrim- inating against ugly people. Reports from the Bergens Tidende
quote Andresen as saying that "Ugly people should be spot- lighted in the same way that the media wishes to emphasize persons from ethnic minorities." Andresen's sentiments are supported by Wencke Muhleisen at the Centre for Women and Gender Research who says that the media should be giving ugly people more exposure. Unfortunately, no ugly people were avail-
able for comment.
Businessmen in Britain are paying to lie on a couch for half
an hour and pour their hears out to a parrot named Jessie.
Despite the fact that Jessie doesn't talk, those who have
tried it claim it helps enormously. The pet's owner, hypno-
therapist Raymond Roberts, said that by talking to the parrot,
your blood pressure lowers resulting in a general feel good
factor. Roberts first used budgies and then cockatiels before
realizing Jessie worked the best. The sessions have now taken
off - and Raymond is planning to take on more birds.
TEL AVIV - A 33-year-old man has been arrested by Isreali
police after they found 205 pairs of ladies shoes, as well
as socks and undergarments, in his attic. Apparently, the man
got his kicks stealing and sniffing the shoes and socks of
his female colleagues. He would take the keys of his co-wor-
kers, make copies of them and then go to their houses when
they weren't home. The man was caught after 14 women reported
missing shoes, and a private investigation agency planted one
of their female detectives as a new employee at the high-tech
company where he worked. Police say the man would get sexually
aroused by smelling the shoes, and then he would swap stories
and shoes with men who have the same fetish over the Internet.
German engineer Matthias Knigge has designed a desk that
converts into a giant pillow for all the hard-working (or
hard-slacking) office workers of the world that need a quick
snooze in the middle of their work day. A prototype of the
desk, made out of walnut, looks ordinary until a small button
is pressed underneath that activates a fan that inflates a
bright orange airbag which unfolds through an opened panel on
the desktop. Knigge hopes his "airbag table" doesn't inspire
people to work longer hours. He thinks it's good for people
to get out of the office after a while and get a life.
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Friday, March 16, 2007
Linda Cole’s Alien Encounter Proven True after 41 Years
Linda Cole’s Alien Encounter Proven True after 41 Years. Cole’s Older Sister, NSA Speak Out
Topeka AP: After 41 years of captivity in a Taliban prison, Ida Finkel, older sister of Linda Cole, (now 50, and jet-setter recently spotted in Chicago, Paris, Palm Beach and Topeka, Kansas), narrowly escaped her capturers Tuesday with help from Israeli soldiers.
The 52-year older sister claims, “I knew I was set up by my younger sister Linda. The alleged running away from home was a farce. Linda was abducted by aliens” charges Finkel. “I always knew my sister had Middle-Child-Syndrome. She set the whole thing up” claims Finkel. Finkel says she can prove it as she saved one piece of evidence which got her through her years of being held in captivity.
“I still have the Lee Press-On-Nail from her thumb. I knew some day I’d get my turn to tell what REALLY happened. For years now she’s blamed me for having a naturally perfect nose up to the moment the aliens swooped her away from her bedroom when I was bringing her nightly demand of a glass of water.” Finkel continues to state, “When forces were sucking her through the window of our Short Hills NJ home, I grabbed her hand, trying to pull her in, trying to save her. The last thing I could hang on to was her hand when the forces became so strong, I lost my grip just as the alien forces sucked her out, and the only thing left behind was that Press-On-Nail.” A distraught Finkel maintains, “I knew all they wanted was her nose. All I could hear were voices saying, ‘We want your nose, we need your nose’ and then she was gone.
Finkel interview with “The Enquirer” ended after that statement, but an inside source close to the Finkel family tells us that Cole’s last words to Finkel during the abduction were, “I’m gonna get you for this. I’ll be the eldest yet!”
Finkel declined to comment but the same inside source says that Finkel s showed her the Lee-Press-On-Nail while telling the story shortly after Finkel escaped the Taliban.
NSA - National Security Associations Speaks
Ken Thembers, Alien Spokesman for the NSA came forward today on Finkel’ behalf. In a Topeka, Kansas press conference, Thembers told reporters, “After Linda Cole (then Linda Finkel) was extensively interviewed by the highest governmental officials from Area 51 more than 41 years ago in order to get alien cosmetic rehabilitation secrets, and after hours of interrogation and fighting Cole’s massive subconscious manipulation, Cole began to cooperate but only after striking a deal with authorities.”
Thembers continues to charge, “Cole demanded that her older sister Ida Finkel be placed in a witness protection program.” Weber recalls Cole repeating over & over, “Ida saw the aliens. I wanna be the eldest, MAKE IT HAPPEN and I want to be paid for it, too.” Authorities had no choice but to give in to Cole’s demands.
Thembers did not disclose the amount of money given to Cole for the deal, but ends the press conference saying, “We needed the cosmetic technology. We made it happen.”
Aliens Profiting from Linda Cole’s Original Nose
Sources say Linda Cole, now 50, is arguing with alien officials over royalties and profits from duplications of her original nose from a cast made during her abduction. Cole claims that her original nose is being duplicated in alien sweat shops and being sold by high-end alien outfitters. Cole is demanding royalties from outer-space profiteers and the Alien Government and is threatening a universal lawsuit.
Inside sources say Linda’s third husband, Topeka business mogul Alex Cole struck a deal with top Alien officials to alleviate lengthy litigation. The NSA and Homeland Security were brought in to mediate negotiations. Most details are being kept quiet. But inside sources say third hubby Alex paid an unprecedented amount of money to purchase the nose cast from the aliens and has opened sweat shops in Taiwan where mass duplication of Cole’s nose is being produced.
The same inside family source says Mr. Cole had to make another fortune fast in order to keep up with his wife’s jet-setting habits including the demands of a Paris apartment and continued, early retirement.
The nose dupes are currently for sale on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Malibu, Paris and Topeka, Kansas. Cole’s new company, NobodyNose, Inc., is said to being going public within a few months. For investor relations, go to www.LookLikeCole.com.
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Ontheavenues SEO Blog
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Turn Google into your own free napster to download music
type this. or cut and paste, {-inurl:(htmhtmlphp) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wmamp3) "Music Name"} in the search bar and replace Music Name with your favorite band, and you will only find open indexes that contain downloadable music files. This really works.
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Ontheavenues SEO Blog
BBB Name Used to Scam Online Buyers
BBB Issues International Alert: BBB Name Used to Scam Online Buyers
Better Business Bureaus have issued an international alert to warn about individuals misusing the BBB and BBBOnLine trademarks to extort money from online shoppers seeking to purchase automobiles. The BBB received an inquiry from an online shopper who was searching for an automobile on cars.com. The shopper was sent an invoice by e-mail from someone posing as an escrow service that displayed a cars.com and BBBOnLine banner and listed several other BBB sites. The fraudulent e-mail invoice contains claims that the Better Business Bureau and cars.com are trusted, neutral third parties.
Arlington, VA - Better Business Bureaus have issued an international alert to warn about individuals misusing the BBB and BBBOnLine trademarks to extort money from online shoppers seeking to purchase automobiles.
The BBB received an inquiry from an online shopper who was searching for an automobile on cars.com. The shopper was sent an invoice by e-mail from someone posing as an escrow service that displayed a cars.com and BBBOnLine banner and listed several other BBB sites, including BBB Dispute Resolution, BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), National Advertising Division and National Advertising Review Council.
The fraudulent e-mail invoice contains claims that the Better Business Bureau and cars.com are trusted, neutral third parties. The e-mail goes on to say that, "With cars.com Security Center and Better Business Bureau you will receive your merchandise before the seller is paid." Buyers were encouraged to make their cash payments through Western Union to an address in Sweden.
"These scam artists are falsely using the BBB and BBBOnLine trademarks to inspire trust and confidence on the part of the buyer," said Steve Cole, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. "The CBBB has taken steps to prevent others from being victimized by demanding that the individuals involved cease and desist from using the BBB and BBBOnLine trademarks to pursue their extortion schemes."
This e-mail is in no way affiliated with the Better Business Bureau, BBBOnLine or any other BBB entity, or with cars.com. BBB trademarks have been misused in the past in this same manner. It is important for the public to know that Better Business Bureaus do not provide escrow services or secure financial transactions. Cars.com does not provide escrow services, however, it does provide consumers access to reputable escrow services through its partnership with escrow.com.
Cars.com states on its Web site that it is not involved in the transaction between buyers and sellers. In addition, the reference in the e-mail of a "cars.com security center" is not consistent with any messaging provided by cars.com or any of its affiliates.
"We advise consumers to make sure they use a licensed, reputable escrow service and never blindly accept an escrow service proposed by a buyer," said Chris Long, cars.com's director of product management. "We also recommend that consumers use extreme caution when dealing with buyers or sellers who claim to do business overseas, as this is a high indicator of fraudulent activity."
The BBB advises consumers to:
always contact the BBB when there are questions concerning the legitimacy of an offer or an unknown business entity (to find your local BBB, go to www.bbb.org);
always check with the BBB when its name is being used in an unusual or questionable fashion;
"click to check" BBBOnLine Reliability or BBBOnLine Privacy program seals displayed on merchant Web sites or go to www.bbbonline.org for a list of merchants meeting BBBOnLine standards.
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Bizzare News - What A Silly World We Live In
Mom's solution to cramped living
MOSCOW (Reuters) A Russian woman paid a former convict to kill her 17-year-old son because she was fed up with sharing her small one-room apartment with him, the newspaper Izvestia reported on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old crane operator paid the man a 2,100 rouble ($80) deposit to kill her son, Izvestia said. But the would-be hitman told the police who set up a sting operation and arrested her when she handed over the 900 rouble 'completion' payment.
The woman and her son shared the tiny apartment in the Moscow region with their respective partners and there were frequent rows, which became worse when the son's girlfriend became pregnant.
"The woman decided that by snuffing out her son she could solve her housing problems," the paper said. Prosecutors confirmed the report and said the suspect would be charged soon.
Chronic housing shortages have dogged Russia for decades. The problem has eased slightly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but many families of several generations still share cramped apartments.
GEORGETOWN, Malaysia - A group of Malaysian Buddhist monks, who are forbidden from harming living creatures, are seeking help with a fire ant infestation. The monks at the Ang Hock Si Temple in Georgetown say they are seeking imaginative non-violent solutions to stop the fire ants from biting worshippers, the BBC reported Monday. The head monk at the temple, the Venerable Boon Keng, said the ants drop from the temple's sacred bodhi tree and bite worshippers meditating. Keng said the ants are not a problem for he and other monks who practice what he referred to as "letting go" meditation, which entails "letting go" of the pain, but he is looking to displace the ants out of consideration for those who practice less advanced meditation. Keng said an attempt to relocate the ants using a vacuum cleaner failed. He said the temple's
Buddhists cannot encourage anyone to harm the ants but if someone were to kill the insects without the monks' knowledge it would be seen as the will of the universe.
Scavenger hunt results in 40 arrests
LAREDO, Texas - Police arrested 32 adults and eight juveniles in Laredo, Texas, engaged in a high school scavenger hunt, which officials called "organized criminal activity." The senior-sponsored scavenger hunt included a requirement to abscond with the globe at the Texas A&M International University's entrance to become an "automatic winner," the Laredo Morning Times reported. The globe was not taken, officials said, but a total of 40 students were taken into custodyafter a scavenger hunt list containing things like traffic signs, garden hoses, game consoles and other items was found by police. "I'm sure it started out as a prank; but, when they started taking other people's property and taking stop signs and traffic signs and compromising people's safety, that's when they crossed the line from fun and games, to criminal activity," said Laredo Police spokesman Juan Rivera. "Items recovered include assorted clothing and other items including, water hoses, electric drills, Christmas trees, three fast food
restaurant signs, five Xbox game consoles, one United States flag, five traffic control barrels, one El Metro bus stop seat, four fire extinguishers, one speed limit sign, five handicapped parking signs, two stop signs, and
five dead end signs," Rivera said.
Man tells court he has six kids on the way
AVONDALE, Ohio - An Avondale, Ohio, music producer convicted of attempted theft told the court he is the expectant father of six children -- with six different women. Hamilton County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge Melba Marsh asked Ricky Lackey, who was convicted of defrauding U.S. Bank out of $3,975 by depositing bad checks and inserting empty envelopes into automatic teller machines, how many children he had, and the 25-year-old responded: "None, but I have six on the way," the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday. Lackey clarified before being silenced by his lawyer that the six children, due in August, September and October, are with six different mothers. Court records showed that
Lackey had since repaid the money to the bank and Marsh declined to impose additional punishment, the Enquirer said.
Australia Bazarre Laws
In Victoria, it is illegal to wear hot pink pants after midday Sunday.
It is illegal to walk on the right hand side of a footpath.
In Victoria, only licensed electricians may change a light bulb. The fine for not abiding by this law is 10 pounds.
It is illegal to roam the streets wearing black clothes, felt shoes and black shoe polish on your face as these items are the tools of a cat burglar.
Children may not purchase cigarettes, but they may smoke them.
In Victoria, you must have a neck to knee swimsuit in order to swim at Brighton Beach.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Can an interactive web site produce false memories
Can an interactive web site produce false memories
Possibly so, according to a fascinating paper to be published this month in the Journal of Consumer Research by Ann Schlosser, a business professor at the University of Washington. Schlosser performed an intriguing experiment: She took two groups of people and had them check out two different web sites devoted to the same digital camera. One site included static pictures; the other was interactive, allowing users to play around with a virtual version of the product.
Later, she tested them on their ability to recall details about the camera. She intentionally included details that were false, but sufficiently plausible that they might have been true. The result? The people who viewed the interactive demo of the camera were much more likely than the folks who'd only viewed static images to "remember" the false details as being present. Or another way of putting it: The interactive demo was more likely to produce false memories of the product -- potential buyers who thought the camera could do things it can't.
Why? Schlosser theorizees that it's partly because interactivity encourages more "certainty" in our memories, and thus increases the likelihood that we'll believe suggestively false details to be true. And, as she concludes:
These findings suggest that marketing managers should test their campaigns for both true and false memories. Although it may seem advantageous for consumers to believe that a product has features that it actually does not have (e.g., by increasing store visits and purchases), it may ultimately lead to customer dissatisfaction. Because false memories reflect source-monitoring errors—or believing that absent attributes were actually presented in the marketing campaign—consumers who discover that the product does not have these attributes will likely feel misled by the company.
One interesting thing Schlosser points out is that market-research folks almost never study the false-memory effects of advertising. Sure, they test to see whether consumers who've looked at promotional material can recall true information about a product. But they rarely check to see whether the consumers also remember false information. An interesting -- if telling -- elision, eh?
This also makes me wonder about whether other virtual-reality environments, such as simulation video games, can create false pools of knowledge. This is a potentially a big deal for the "serious games" folks, because many of them create brilliant little simulations as a way of educating people about complex situations. Cool enough! But what if they these sims also unintentionally impart bogus knowledge -- making the gamers feel so artificially sure of the complex system that they attribute properties to it that don't exist?
Interesting stuff to think about, either way.
Source: Collision Detection Clive Thompson
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Funny air traffic controllers quotes
Funny air traffic controllers quotes
Real (allegedly) funny air traffic controllers and pilots conversations
A military pilot had been having difficulty with smooth landings and the crew was required to make note of the exact time the plane landed at different bases. One particular landing took several bounces before staying on the ground. The crew reportedly called up to the pilot, "Which landing shall we note for the record, Sir?" (Ack A & M Martin)
Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!"
Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"
"TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."
"Centre, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"
"Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"
From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: "I'm f...ing bored!"
Ground Traffic Control: "Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
Unknown aircraft: "I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!"
Control tower to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."
United 239: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this.... I've got the little Fokker in sight."
A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down. San Jose Tower noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadalupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."
A military pilot called for a priority landing because his single-engine jet fighter was running "a bit peaked." Air Traffic Control told the fighter pilot that he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. "Ah," the fighter pilot remarked, "The dreaded seven-engine approach."
Allegedly, a Pan Am 727 flight waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard the following:
Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"
Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."
Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?"
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war."
Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7"
Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way, after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact Departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"
Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and yes, we copied Eastern... we've already notified our caterers."
One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?" The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough for another one."
Allegedly the German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They, it is alleged, not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven." The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark,... and I didn't land."
Allegedly, while taxiing at London's Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727. An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going?! I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!" Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?" US Air 2771: "Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded. Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking: "Wasn't I married to you once?"
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What Credit Card Companies Don't Want You to Know
What Credit Card Companies Don't Want You to Know
Of all the games the credit card companies play that end up costing you thousands of dollars (late fees, over-limit fees, transfer fees, and so on), it's always been the interest rate game that hurt the most -- until now.
There's a new, completely legal game they're playing, and it can literally wipe you out financially if you're not careful.
The Universal Default Clause
If you own a credit card, you know by now that if you're late with a payment the credit card company will charge you a late fee in addition to raising your interest rate. But did you know that they can raise your interest rate if you've made a late payment on any of your other cards, including those issued by other companies?
Not only that, but your interest rates can skyrocket to 30 percent or more if you make a late payment on your car loan, mortgage, or even your phone bill!
"How can that be legal?" you may ask. The answer is found in the fine print of your credit card agreement, and it's called a universal default clause. According to the Institute of Consumer Financial Education, currently almost 40 percent of credit card issuers apply this policy to their customers.
A Late Payment 'Trigger'
Generally, a universal default clause states that a creditor reserves the right to penalize you with an increased interest rate if you're late -- that is, in default -- of a payment to any other creditor. They justify this practice because, in theory, if you pay any of your creditors late, you pose a greater credit risk and are less likely to pay your debt.
Your creditors also have the right to routinely monitor your credit file. So a creditor with a universal default clause will be watching -- and waiting.
Let's say your Visa card has a universal default clause. Any late payment -- whether it's on your utility bill, home equity loan, or Macy's credit card -- acts as a "default trigger" allowing the bank that issued the Visa card to double or even triple your interest rate overnight. Your all-important credit score will be hurt as well.
According to a study by the nonprofit advocacy and education group Consumer Action, the top three default triggers that cause your interest rates to spike are a decline in credit score, paying your mortgage late, and paying your car loan late.
Other Triggers to Worry About
Under the universal default clause, your interest rates can be increased for several other reasons, including exceeding your credit limit, bouncing a check, having too much debt, having too much credit, getting a new credit card, applying for a car loan, and applying for a mortgage loan.
How does this affect your financial future? Take a look at the numbers. Let's say you're an average American household, with $8,000 of credit card debt. Assuming you make no additional purchases on your card, you have a 9 percent interest rate, and you make the minimum monthly payment, it'll take you 218 months (18 years) to pay off your debt and you'll end up paying $3,334 in interest.
Now let's assume that for whatever reason you were late one month with your car payment. This late payment triggers the universal default clause with your credit card issuer, and now your penalty rate gets increased to 24 percent (the average default rate in 2005). It'll now take you 679 months (56 years) to pay off your credit card debt, and get this -- you'll pay $30,813 in interest.
Staying Ahead of the Clause
Here are six ways to protect yourself from interest rate hike triggers:
1. Stay away from credit cards with a universal default clause.
If you're looking to open a new credit card account, be sure to choose one without a universal default clause. This means you have to truly read the fine print. If you're confused by the fine print (as many are), call the credit card company and ask what specific circumstances will affect your interest rate.
I read recently that Capital One cards don't have a universal default clause (although you should double-check before applying), and Citi has dropped its universal default policy as well. In addition, sites like CardWeb.com, Bankrate.com, and LowerMyBills.com let you compare credit card offers, so visit them before you apply.
2. Know your current obligations.
Check your current statements and credit card agreements to find out your current interest rates, and to identify which cards have a universal default clause that you weren't aware of until now. Again, if you're uncertain after reading the fine print, call your credit card company.
Consider transferring your balance from a card that has the universal default clause to one of your cards that doesn't. But don't rush to cancel the card altogether, because it could have a negative effect on your credit score.
3. Run your credit report.
Not only do you need to know exactly what your current interest rates are, you also need to know exactly what's on your credit report. Visit Freecreditreport.com or myFICO to order your credit report and credit score today.
4. Pay your bills on time.
According to the American Bankers Association, late payments for most types of consumer loans were on the rise during the third quarter of 2006. If you're having trouble with your credit card payments, at the very least strive to make your minimum payment on time.
5. Be proactive -- call your lender for relief.
If you're struggling to make monthly payments on your other bills, like utilities, car payments, or mortgage payments, call your lender to see what options they might be able to offer you. They might be able to adjust your monthly payments so that they're more manageable.
Your goal is to protect your credit report and credit score with a consistent record of on-time payments.
6. Fight back for your money -- write your local legislator.
Right now, there are amendments to the Truth in Lending Act that, if passed, would prohibit many unfair practices within the credit card industry -- including the universal default clause.
As a consumer, you can take action by letting Congress know that you want laws to protect your rights. For more information on how you can be heard, visit Consumer Action's web site.
As I write this, Congress is holding hearings to discuss the abusive and deceptive practices of the credit card industry. Read more about it here.
A Good Night's Sleep
Obviously, what you don't know really can hurt you. Check today and see if you have the universal default clause on your credit cards.
If you do, be careful to stay on top of your debt. Better yet, find a credit card that doesn't have the clause -- you'll sleep better at night.
Source: David Bach
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Chicken Fat Spill Shuts Down La. Highway
Chicken Fat Spill Shuts Down La. Highway Chicken Fat Spill Leaves Interstate Stinky, Slippery In Louisiana; Briefly Shuts Down Highway
(AP) Chicken fat clogged a major traffic artery Tuesday, a day after a leaky truck left a stinky, slippery trail along a one-mile stretch of Interstate 20.
The vacuum truck crossed the Ouachita River before it was pulled over about 3:30 p.m. Monday. The truck's owner, Dixie Hydro-vac Specialist Co., an industrial cleaning company from West Monroe, tried to clean up the mess with a chemical, but then it started to rain, said John Kelly, district administrator for the state Department of Transportation and Development.
Crews spread sand over the gunk, which was mainly in one eastbound lane, and worked Tuesday to scoop up the mess and keep it from oozing farther on the concrete bridge deck, Kelly said. Traffic was able to use the second lane. "The stench was overpowering," Kelly said
He said the crews couldn't just turn fire hoses on it because that would have sent the smelly pollution straight into the river. The time for finishing the cleanup depended on whether it rained again, he said.
A second truck was brought in to transport the remaining fat. The spill was considered noxious but not toxic, according to a hazardous materials officer, Monroe fire officials said. It wasn't immediately clear where the fat originated.
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Lawyer: Man said unicorn caused crash
Lawyer: Man said unicorn caused crash
BILLINGS, Mont. - A man told police not to blame him for crashing his truck into a light post — it was that unicorn behind the wheel. Prosecutor Ingrid Rosenquist said Phillip C. Holliday Jr. initially denied driving the truck involved in the March 7 crash in Billings. He told officers at the scene that a unicorn was driving, she said.
Holliday, 42, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony charges of criminal endangerment and drunken driving.
A pickup truck drove through a red light and nearly struck another truck in the intersection, according to court documents. The driver then made an erratic U-turn through a gas station, crossed the street and crashed into a light pole. Nobody was injured.
Holliday has five drunken-driving convictions. District Judge Gregory Todd kept his bail at $100,000 despite his lawyer arguing that Holliday's last such conviction was 14 years ago.
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A refrigerator that will toss you a can of beer
A refrigerator that will toss you a can of beer
RALEIGH, N.C. — When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.
"I conceived it right after I got out," said Cornwell, a May 2006 graduate from Huntington, N.Y. "I missed the college scene. It embodies the college spirit that I didn't want to let go of."
VIDEO: Watch the beers launch
It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.
With a click of the remote, fashioned from a car's keyless entry device, a small elevator inside the refrigerator lifts a beer can through a hole and loads it into the fridge's catapult arm. A second click fires the device, tossing the beer up to 20 feet — "far enough to get to the couch," he said.
Is there a foam explosion when the can is opened? Not if the recipient uses "soft hands" to cradle the can when caught, Cornwell said.
In developing his beer catapult, Cornwell said he dented a few walls and came close to accidentally throwing a can through his television. He's since fine-tuned the machine to land a beer where he usually sits at home, on what he called "a right-angle couch system."
For now, the machine throws only cans, although Cornwell has thought about making a version that can throw a bottle. The most beer he has run through the machine was at a party, when he launched a couple of 24-can cases.
"I did launch a lot watching the Super Bowl," he said. "My friends are the reason I built it. I told them about the idea and hyped it so much and I had to go through with it."
A video featuring the device is a hit on the Internet, where more than 600,000 people have watched it at metacafe.com, earning Cornwell more than $3,000 from the website.
Cornwell said he has talked to a brewing company about the machine, but right now only one exists. Asked if he might start building some for sale, he said: "I'm keeping that option open, depending on interest."
When Cornwell was a student at Duke — an elite, private university in Durham — he participated in the engineering school's robotic basketball contests, said mechanical engineering Professor Bob Kielb. He said students tried to build a robot that could retrieve a pingpong ball and toss it into a small hoop.
"He always did well in it," Kielb said. "He came up with completely unique ideas."
The Associated Press
What's Up With That
our comments: are we so lazy that we can no longer get up and get our own beer out of the fridge. Or are we to drunk to get open the fridge and select a beer...and if we are so drunk, how will we catch the beer can when it is tossed
Macaulay Library Animal Sound & Video Catalog
Macaulay Library Animal Sound & Video Catalog
What do the howler monkey, horned screamer, and common loon have in common, aside from being nicknames for Paris Hilton? They've been captured on audio (and some video) at the Cornell Ornithology Lab's Macaulay Library. Here you'll find assorted hums, moans, shrieks, and roars from over 3,000 species. Categories include courtship, stalking, territory defense, long distance communication, and marine mammals. We recommend the avant-garde stylings of the horned screamer; the sci-fi sounds of the Weddell seal, and the tortured rumblings of the American alligator. (Think one monster-sized stomach doing battle with an extra-large pepperoni pizza.) The ghostly ensembles of common loons and the strange emanations of the harp seal are sure to send chills down your spine. The gray wolf, on the other hand, can sound remarkably like Fido announcing the arrival of the mailman. So woof.
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Politician seeks Klingon votes
Politician seeks Klingon votes
HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) -- A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series "Star Trek."
"Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon," said Jyrki Kasvi, an ardent Trekkie. "Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves."
He said his politics posed some translation difficulties, since Klingon does not have words for matters such as tolerance, or for many colors, including green -- the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections on March 18.
Non-warriors can also access the site in English, Swedish and Finnish
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The Top 10 Contestants For The 2006 Women Drivers Award
The Top 10 Contestants For The 2006 Women Drivers Award
Mortuary puts funerals on the Web
Mortuary puts funerals on the Web
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - In Ireland, they bury people quickly — and now they're harnessing the speed of the Internet to help families grieve across the globe.
A Northern Ireland mortuary director has launched a pioneering service of broadcasting funerals on its Web site for mourners too distant, ill or busy to make it in person. It's reckoned to be the first of its kind worldwide.
"We have one camera to give you the perspective of the minister looking out to the congregation, one showing the hearse and cortege of mourners outside, and one that looks like you're sitting in amidst the mourners," said Jim Clarke of Clarke & Son undertakers in Newtownards, an eastern suburb of Belfast. advertisement
The family-owned firm, founded in 1918 by Clarke's grandfather, began experimenting with streaming audio and video of funeral services two years ago at its other mortuary and chapel in another nearby suburb, Bangor.
It is launching new software and a suite of cameras at its second funeral home in Newtownards this week — a development that, to the surprise of Clarke, has spurred international interest.
Clarke said more funeral homes should take advantage of the Internet, particularly in places like Ireland, where funerals typically happen within three days of a death — and a tradition of emigration can mean cousins from Calgary to Canberra.
"It used to be that we'd be asked: Is there any chance you can take a tape recording of the service for our friends in Canada? We always did that. Now we can offer so much more," he said.
About 20 percent of the company's clients use the Web broadcast, or about 50 funerals so far at the two chapels beside the mortuaries, according to Clarke. It carries no additional charge.
He said the service last year proved invaluable for two brothers — one living in New Zealand, the other in the United States — who had traveled back to Northern Ireland to visit an ill relative who then died.
"They said, `There's no way we can get our wives and families here at such short notice,' and we had the solution to hand. It really removes a burden for some families," Clarke said.
Just last week, he said, the funeral home negotiated with an internet service provider in New Zealand to upgrade one woman's connection temporarily to high-speed broadband so that she could see her sister's funeral without freezing screens or dropped audio.
Not just anybody can log on to eavesdrop on the grief. The service requires special software downloads and password access controlled by Clarke & Son.
"We're trying to use the latest technology to help families in a time of need," Clarke said. "We're not trying to encourage morbid curiosity. There is far too much of that on the Internet already."
Woman Seeking Drug Dealer Instead Calls Cops
Woman Seeking Drug Dealer Instead Calls Cops
(AP) COLBERT, Okla. A woman looking for a cocaine dealer called a number on her son's cell phone only to discover later that she had phoned a police officer, authorities said. Ramona Williams, 42, was arrested on a drug complaint, Durant police Lt. Mike Woodruff said. Prosecutors were preparing charges Monday of possession of drugs with intent to distribute, he said.
Woodruff's number was on her son's cell phone because he had been arrested previously on drug charges.
"She was looking through her son's cell phone directory and found my number," Woodruff said. "Her son had told her that if she ever needed help with anything to give me a call. I think she misunderstood.
"She thought she was talking to a drug dealer."
Woodruff said he played along and set up a meeting between her and an undercover officer.
Williams and Tony Whitt, 36, who also allegedly participated in the meeting, were arrested Saturday night.
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Monday, March 12, 2007
The Definitive Free Poetry Contest
The Definitive Free Poetry Contest
and become a respected and honored member of the
International Society of Famous Poets!
Just enter our FREE amateur poetry contest. Then mail me only $69.95 for the beautiful faux leatherette perfect-bound deluxe edition of our anthology Night of Stars where your poem will be prominently displayed alongside other wonderful poetry from all around the world. Add only $49.95 more to your order and we will immediately rush directly to your home a genuine simulated gold-lettered plaque which you can proudly display on your mantle declaring you to be an Internationally Famous Poet and a member in good standing of the International Society of Famous Poets.
This is not a real contest. If you found yourself interested in entering this contest you are a candidate to be victimized by one of the several poetry contest scams found on the internet. Unfortunately, there are many amateur writers and poets who are the victims of internet scams which are just as blatant and obvious when the varnish is stripped away. Because of the web pages I've posted alerting poets and writers to the presence of similar web scams, I receive frequent e-mail asking me questions like, "How can I tell if a poetry contest is a scam?" There are two factors which immediately arouse my suspicions--- ---First, the word "Free." Surely we should all know know enough to be suspicious of anything that's offered to us for "Free." Such offers are almost always followed by various requests for your money. ---Second, beware of any organization that exists solely for the purpose of running poetry or writing contests. Ask yourself, "Where does the MONEY come from?"
Don't Let it Happen to You Unfortunately, there exist many poetry scam artists who advertise on the internet and in popular magazines or local newspapers. They prey on the trusting and unwary, especially the young and the elderly, with their offers of FREE entry in poetry contests having awards of large monetary prizes and publication. The sponsors of these contests care more about contestants' money than their poetry. Virtually all contestants' poems are accepted (regardless of merit) with glowing praise, then money is requested and cajoled by various and nefarious schemes-- beginning with giving the writer the "option" to purchase the book in which their own work will appear. Friends, the legitimate world of publishing does not work this way. Real publishers pay poets for their work. These contest schemes take millions of dollars from unsuspecting amateur poets each year.
Source: Poetry Scams
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Bet on for fate of Heather Mills' leg
Bet on for fate of Heather Mills' leg
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An online gambling site is taking bets on whether Heather Mills' artificial leg will fall off during her upcoming appearance on "Dancing with the Stars."
Mills, 39, the estranged wife of Beatle Paul McCartney, lost her left leg below the knee in a traffic accident in 1993. She is the first contestant on the hit ABC television show to compete with an artificial limb.
A week before Mills' March 19 debut, Antigua-based gaming site http://www.bodog.com opened bets on whether her prosthetic leg would fly off during a dance routine -- and made "no" a heavy favourite. The site added that Mill's leg "must fall off, not be purposely taken off, during a dance routine for all Yes wagers to be graded a win."
Mills, a former model, has been upfront about her unique challenge. "It's very very unlikely my leg's going to fly off even though it would be quite funny to knock one of the judges out," she told U.S. celebrity TV show EXTRA last week. "I'm hoping to show people that even with a prosthetic leg you can dance," Mills said.
Mills will be paired with professional dancer Jonathan Roberts on the dance contest show. Other celebrities in the season starting March 19 include female boxer Laila Ali, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno.
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Self-help gone nutty 'The Secret'
Self-help gone nutty. A craze called 'The Secret' blends Tony Robbins with 'The Da Vinci Code,' telling people to have it all without trying
NOTE: Also Visit Newsweek: Decoding 'The Secret'Oprah lives by it. Millions are reading it. The latest self-help sensation claims we can change our lives by thinking. But this 'new thought' may just be new marketing.
WHEN MY SISTER arrived from New York over the holidays, she plopped a hand-tooled leather satchel on my piano bench and said, "See the beautiful bag I manifested for myself?" Gorgeous, indeed. But manifested?
Well, I suppose that's easier than dealing in cash.
"Manifesting," for those outside the self-help loop, is the big buzzword from "The Secret," a new DVD with a tie-in book featuring the ancient idea of having it all without trying very hard. If "The Secret" had a plot, it might go something like "Tony Robbins uncovers the Judas Gospel and learns to use the Force."
The DVD is screened regularly at gatherings of the energy-healer crowd. The video opens with a "Da Vinci Code"-style shot: A man in a ragged tunic makes off with a hot papyrus. A voice-over assures us that an ancient secret, hidden from most of mankind, is about to be revealed. (Insert little conspiracy montage: A medieval priestly type privately unrolls the secret scroll; men in suits scheme in a smoke-filled boardroom.) Then motivational speakers take turns elaborating on this idea: If you want something, think of it with loving and positive feelings and it will "manifest." The concept apparently stems from the work of Esther Hicks, a famous channeler.
I never would have heard of "The Secret" if it weren't for my sister, the sort of person who has a spirit guide and professes to "massage energy." (Friends say the wrong sister moved to California.) But apparently it has found major cultural traction. It was featured on "Oprah" last week. The book is No. 4 on The Times' nonfiction bestseller list and No. 2 on Amazon (with the audio CD set No. 3). At my local Barnes & Noble, it was sold out.
Americans are never too jaded for another get-rich-quick chimera. In "The Secret," real and sustained effort is unnecessary, even frowned on. The scheme lays out a "law of attraction" — a strange misreading of quantum physics — that asserts that the universe grants your wishes because you are the "most powerful transmission tower on in the world." Send out "wealth frequencies" with your thoughts and the universe's wealth frequencies will be pulled to you.
Here was my favorite bit: "Food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your thought that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight." It's a position that seems to have a lot in common with President Bush's ideas about global warming. Carbon emissions warm the Earth only if you worry that they will.
On the flip side, nothing — nothing — happens to people that isn't brought to them by their own persistent thoughts, and the book strongly implies that this includes those killed in the Holocaust and the World Trade Center. Under this philosophy, why bother contributing to Oxfam or worrying about Darfur? What a guilt-reliever.
Near as I can tell, the whole idea is just a new spin on the very old (and decidedly not secret) "The Power of Positive Thinking" wedded to "ask and you shall receive." So it's not surprising that its author, Australian TV producer Rhonda Byrne, is best known for a show called "The World's Greatest Commercials." Warming over others' old work appears to be her area of expertise. She took the well-worn ideas of some self-help gurus, customized them for the profoundly lazy, gave them a veneer of mysticism — and she tapped right into that wealth frequency. What a pro.
Strange to say, people are buying it. Not just the book and DVD. The message. Therapists tell me they're starting to see clients who are headed for real trouble, immersing themselves in a dream world in which good things just come. The therapists obviously ought to visualize smarter clients.
My sister says I'm over-intellectualizing. She, after all, had manifested a fine leather satchel. And I have to admit, if there were designer leather goods to be had out of this, I was interested.
The reality was — drat it all — far more prosaic. Watching the DVD gave her the idea that she could afford this bag if she really wanted it, and so she went ahead and charged it. I say, if you need an Amex card to make a handbag appear, you're an amateur.
Source:By Karin Klein, KARIN KLEIN is a Times editorial writer
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Trial begins in former New York teacher's lawsuit; woman claims boss thought she was a witch
Trial begins in former New York teacher's lawsuit; woman claims boss thought she was a witch
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Was she casting spells or teaching spelling?
In an unfolding trial, lawyers are debating a former teacher's claims in a $2 million federal lawsuit that she was improperly fired from Hampton Bays elementary school because administrators and others thought she was a witch.
Lauren Berrios, 37, who denies ever practicing witchcraft, sued in 2001 after she was fired following her second year as a reading specialist teacher. She has since moved to the Atlanta area, where she is working as a teacher. The trial in the lawsuit began Wednesday in New York.
While the school district was not under obligation to explain why Berrios was not granted tenure, its lawyer claimed Wednesday that Berrios didn't get along with co-workers, had a condescending attitude and was eventually reported to Child Protective Services after telling tales about imaginary injuries to her own son.
"It's been quite a long time since we've seen a witch trial in this country," defense attorney Steven Stern told a jury during opening statements in U.S. District Court.
But an attorney for Berrios, John Ray, said during his opening statement Wednesday that Berrios was terminated by the principal at the time, Andrew Albano, "after he decided she was a witch." Albano was a born-again Christian who thrust his religion on the public school, Ray said, and viewed Berrios as suspect.
"He brought his religion into the school," Ray said, claiming the principal would have children sing "Jesus Loves All the Children of the World" over the school's public address system, and make other pro-Christian pronouncements. "He was foisting his own brand of Christianity on the school."
Stern countered that Berrios told co-workers once about going to a coven meeting and taught students about the Salem witch trials, but insisted her firing "had nothing to do with anyone thinking that she was a witch."
Stern said co-workers will testify during the trial that Berrios fabricated stories, including that her husband was in a plane crash and that her 2-year-old son required surgeries and suffered debilitating injuries. She reportedly told others that her son's fingers were severed when his hand was caught in a VCR, prompting her to send a letter to the school staff warning of the dangers of VCRs, Stern said.
The attorney said school officials were concerned Berrios may have been suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare form of child abuse in which parents make up a child's illness to gain attention and sympathy for themselves.
The concerns became so great, the attorney said, that Albano filed a report with Child Protective Services officials. A spokesman for Suffolk County's Child Protective Services, citing confidentiality requirements, said officials do not comment on whether an investigation exists.
Hampton Bays is on Long Island about 80 miles from Manhattan.
Source: Associated Press
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Airborne Cats
Airborne Cats
The feline resume already boasts a crowded list of attributes: cuter than heck, worshipped by ancient Egyptians, subject of numerous comic strips. Now add to that list: amazing when photographed midair. Witness this portrait of a crouching tiger, flying kitty. And this guy bravely fending off a giant corkscrew. Behold feline worship: "All hail the orange fuzzy!" And see, err, catsercize? "1-2-3, 1-2-3, come on girls, it's easy." This cat laments that the other refrigerator magnets make fun of him. But he doesn't care! And ... boing! The airborne skill of these cats hardly seems fair. If cats are gonna fly, birds should be allowed to sleep all day, then gnaw on our leather shoe straps.
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Bunny Yawns
Bunny Yawns
It's exhausting being a bunny. Their rabbity obligations may call them to the mischief-making of Peter Rabbit, the meticulous work of the Easter bunny, or just the lying-around-looking-adorable of so many of their short-tail brethren—but all, eventually, require their 40 winks. And a good yawn precedes this. Yes, Virginia, bunnies yawn. If you've never glimpsed the fleshy, pink inside of a rabbit's mouth, hop up now and peer inside this photo gallery. There, opening their maws wide with fatigue (or boredom?) are little Thumpers of every hue—and a few that bear a striking resemblance to the killer rabbit from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." They yowl at the moon, they expose their fearsome little mouths, they flash those long white incisors, they sit back on their pom-pom tails. And then, if all is well in the world, they lie down for a long afternoon's rest.
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The 10 Most Notorious Presidential Pardons
The 10 Most Notorious Presidential Pardons
It's been awhile since the presidential pardon enjoyed such heated attention. Just the thought of President Bush issuing a pardon for Lewis "Scooter" Libby has bloggers and pundits from both sides of the political spectrum pounding their keyboards and roaring. But as TIME magazine reminds us, this is far from the first time that an act of forgiveness by the big guy in the Oval Office has created a brouhaha. Should Libby get word that he's off the hook, he will join such charged characters in the annals of U.S. history as the citizens of Confederate states, draft dodgers from the Vietnam War, two FBI agents, one legendary chief of the Teamsters union, and the current owner of the New York Yankees. Of course, President Clinton's unforgettable "eleventh-hour" move for Marc Rich makes the list of infamous acts. And the party couldn't even get started without the one guy to both pardon and be pardoned.
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Abandoned Shopping Carts
Abandoned Shopping Carts
Like many major cities, Los Angeles doesn't like it when shopping carts are discarded on its streets—and it's passed legislation forbidding it. Now, photographer Morgan Hager takes to the sidewalks, ravines, and fields of the City of Angels to document the outlaw carts in the wild. In the process, he does for the shopping cart what Sam Mendes did for the plastic bag in "American Beauty": He lends it a mournful dignity. Here, various carts nose up to garbage cans, linger under a tree, or park beneath a "No Parking" sign. Sometimes the metal wheeled bins lurk far off in the distance, as if too shy or wary to come closer. It's almost heartening to see some form of contact between the "modern-day pack mule" and another object, even if it is just a lone plastic bag. (They meet, at last!)
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Sunday, March 11, 2007
Relatives killed after man feels cheated in grandmother's will
Relatives killed after man feels cheated in grandmother's will
NEW ORLEANS — A man was indicted on charges of murdering four people because he was angry that his grandmother left her house to her children instead of him. Felton Bernard, 34, was indicted Thursday along with Corey Berniard, 25, in the Nov. 4 deaths of two of Bernard's uncles, an aunt and her live-in friend. Leon Miskell, 49, and Lionel Miskell, 51, were shot to death in the disputed house in eastern New Orleans. Diane Miskell, 52, and John Robinson, 47, were shot hours later in a FEMA trailer blocks away. Leon Miskell identified his nephew as the killer before dying three weeks later, police said. Police said Bernard was furious that he hadn't inherited the home from the grandmother who raised him, Marjorie Miskell, after she died in December 2004. The two suspects, who each have prior murder arrests in cases that prosecutors dropped, were arrested Nov. 13 in Houston and booked into Orleans Parish Prison on Jan. 10. The indictment came two days before a deadline that could have forced prosecutors to release the two.
Source: Associated Press
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Book draws fire for claiming sex 'hookups' can damage women
Book draws fire for claiming sex 'hookups' can damage women
NEW YORK — During a class discussion on adolescence, a high school teacher recently asked her students whether they go on dates. We don't "date," the 12th-graders reported. We "hook up."
If you're in your 40s, "hooking up" might mean catching a friend downtown for lunch. But to people in their teens or 20s, the phrase often means a casual sexual encounter — anything from kissing onwards — with no strings attached.
Now a new book on this not-so-new subject is drawing fire in some quarters for its conclusion: That hookups can be damaging to young women, denying their emotional needs, putting them at risk of depression and even sexually transmitted disease, and making them ill-equipped for real relationships later on.
For that, Laura Sessions Stepp, author of Unhooked and a writer for The Washington Post, has been criticized as a throwback to an earlier, restrictive moral climate, an anti-feminist and a tut-tutting mother telling girls not to give the milk away when nobody's bought the cow.
The author "imagines the female body as a thing that can be tarnished by too much use," wrote reviewer Kathy Dobie in Stepp's own paper, and suggested that Stepp was, in one part, trying to "instill sexual shame." For Meghan O'Rourke, literary editor at Slate.com, Stepp is "buying into alarmism about women," and making sex "a bigger, scarier, and more dangerous thing than it already is."
Stepp argues these critics have misconstrued her ideas.
True, she regrets that "dating has gone completely by the boards," replaced by group outings that lead to casual encounters. True, she regrets that oral sex "isn't even considered sex anymore." But she isn't saying girls should not have sex; just that they should have it in the context of a meaningful connection: "I am saying that girls should have choices."
Too often, Stepp argues, girls and young women say proudly that they like the control "hookups" give them — control over their emotions, their schedules, and freedom to focus on things like schoolwork and career (the students she profiles in her book are high achievers).
But she says they frequently mistake that freedom for empowerment. "I often hear girls say things like, 'We can be as bad as guys now,'" she says. "But I don't think that's what liberation is all about."
Stepp says her book stems from an experience she had almost 10 years ago. She and other parents were summoned to her son's middle school. The principal informed them that all year long, a dozen girls — ages 13 or 14 — had been performing oral sex on several boys in the class. (Her own son was not involved.) Stepp wrote about the sex ring in a front-page article for the Post, which led to further research.
She's had her share of positive feedback, including from educators and from young women like those in her book.
One 18-year-old student, who calls herself a feminist, e-mailed her to say she had approached the book warily, but came to believe it "will change the way my generation views sex."
Contacted later by telephone, the student, Liz Funk, said she agreed with Stepp's contention that "real relationships among college students don't really exist anymore."
"If I or my friends had the opportunity for real relationships, we'd take it," says Funk, who attends school in New York City. "But my generation hasn't really been conditioned for it." Hookups, she adds, which she rejected for herself long ago but some of her friends still embrace, "are like Thanksgiving for guys. They don't have to do anything to get sex!" And she bemoans the amount of time fellow students can spend on hookups: "It can be like a full-time job."
Another student, at a small women's college in South Carolina, says the "hookup culture" is not all that pervasive, in her experience.
"I'm aware of it," said Grace Bagwell, 22, a senior at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C.. "But it's untrue to say women aren't having meaningful relationships at this point. I've been in one for three years, and I have a lot of friends who are getting married or are engaged."
Sociologist Kathleen Bogle has also studied hooking up, which she says dates back to the '80s. She has a book, Hooking Up, coming out this fall.
"I argue that we shouldn't look at this from a moralistic viewpoint — as in, our youth is in decline — and we shouldn't celebrate it either, in a Sex in the City light," says Bogle, who hasn't read Stepp's book. She also believes that it's wrong to assume women aren't hoping for something more from their hookups.
"It's a system for finding relationships — and there isn't really an alternate system," says Bogle. "It feels like it's the only game in town, and if you don't do it, you're left out." She did find that after college, there was a transition back to traditional dating.
The debate over hooking up — how prevalent, how harmful — was neatly displayed not long ago in a high school classroom in Virginia. Nancy Schnog, who teaches a course in adolescence to 12th-graders, was discussing Stepp's findings.
"She hit the nail on the head," one girl said, according to Schnog. "She perfectly described our social climate." Many agreed, but an equally vocal faction argued the opposite. "This is totally overblown," said another girl. "Why do adults always stereotype our generation so negatively?"
At the University of Maryland, Robin Sawyer, who teaches a course on sexuality, finds Stepp's book pretty much on target.
"Men have always hooked up," says Sawyer. "What you are seeing now is a desire of women to act in a masculine way, without being judged a whore." He also finds that the "hookup" vocabulary softens the impact of the behavior. "'I hooked up with someone' sounds a lot better than 'I had oral sex with someone whose name I don't even know,'" says Sawyer, who is mentioned in Stepp's book.
"Can you generalize from a few women? If you can find a criticism, it is probably that," Sawyer said. "But her thesis is pretty accurate. This is not your grandparents' generation."
Source: Associated Press-Ontheavenues
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$25,000 stolen diamond found in shower drain at prison
$25,000 stolen diamond found in shower drain at prison ORANGE, Calif. — A $25,000 diamond was found stuck in a shower drain at the prison housing the man accused of stealing it two years ago. Bret Allen Langford, 39, allegedly asked the owner of a Jewelry Express store to show him a 2-carat colorless diamond in April 2005. Langford then grabbed the diamond and sped away, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. Langford was arrested shortly after but the police did not retrieve the diamond. Langford was charged with commercial burglary and, after several transfers, ended up at Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, where he awaited trial. This week, an investigator representing Langford told jail officials to search the jailhouse drains if they wanted to find the diamond. Officials discovered the rock wedged in a screen beneath one of the facility's shower stalls. Authorities said Langford told them he stole the diamond and swallowed and regurgitated the rock each time he was transferred. But 14 months ago, just as Langford was about to be searched he threw the diamond into a shower stall and it fell down the drain. Amormino suspects Langford came forward as part of a bargain he made with prosecutors. Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office, would not confirm such a deal. Langford's trial is set to begin May 7 and the diamond is expected to be a featured piece of evidence. Then it will be cleaned and returned to the store.
Source: Associated Press
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Coffin To Big For Grave Site
Coffin To Big For Grave Site
LONDON - A London woman was horrified when her husband's coffin wouldn't fit into the grave provided by New Southgate Cemetery. Sarah Coleman and her family watched
as pallbearers tried again and again to lower her husband's solid walnut coffin into a grave at the North London cemetery, The Daily Mail reports. Finally realizing the task couldn't be accomplished, the burial was interrupted
for an hour while the grave was enlarged. Cemetery managing
director Richard Evans said funeral directors are responsible for providing grave measurements. Undertaker Ian Argent Coleman a letter of apology and a check for $600.
The Cure for Everything If You Have Something
The Cure for Everything If You Have Something
It was a drug I had never heard of for a disorder I didn't know existed. Did I need it?
"It may not be daily life," the Web site warned. "It may be DSACDAD."
Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder. It's a mouthful, but then these illnesses usually are.
What are the symptoms? Sufferers report the following: "Worrying about life, feeling tense, restless or fatigued, being concerned about their weight, noticing signs of aging, feeling stress at work, home, or finding activities they used to enjoy, like shopping, challenging."
Oh, no! I have them all.
Then there was the photograph of the woman slumped at the table, shopping bags at her side. She looked exhausted, miserable. That could be me.
"Did you know?" the Web site asked. "More than 50 percent of the population over 18 suffer from some degree of DSACDAD."
That settled it. There was no chance I was in the other 50 percent.
But no fear, help was here, in the form of Havidol. It promised physiological adjustments to effect positive change without my needing to know exactly what was wrong. If despite all of my opportunities, achievements and acquisitions, something was still missing, Havidol might be right for me.
I was convinced. Where could I buy it? How much did it cost?
Of course, as you've guessed by now, Havidol is a spoof. (Have it all. Get it?) Its supposed generic name is avafynetyme.
It's a dead-on parody of all the drugs and the advertisements for them that you've seen on television, in magazines and on billboards. It's a send-up of our desire for the perfect life, achieved effortlessly.
An artist named Justine Cooper devised the scheme - an imaginary illness, a drug to cure it and an entire marketing campaign from "Paradise Pharmed, a division of Future Pharms Inc."
"I'm not against the pharmaceutical companies, but I was poking fun at this rise of the lifestyle pharmaceutical," she said. "And our desire to have them. I didn't come up with the syndrome DSACDAD out of the blue."
Instead, she imagined a composite of a lot of different syndromes that have become of our vocabulary.
Her multimedia display is on exhibit at an art gallery in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood - the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery on West 25th Street - and other images are on the Havidol Web page. You'll find mock glossy ads for magazines such as Parenting and Cosmo. There's a hand silk-screened Havidol hoodie. And there are oil paintings of impossibly flawless spots such as Tropical Beach and Rainbow Valley, the later created from a photograph of the Croton Reservoir that Cooper took. Her husband's family has a home in Cortlandt Manor.
"It's all about perfect places that you can't actually get to," she said.
Cooper, 38, is from Australia, which does not permit direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs, and she was struck by the phenomenon after she had returned from a trip home. She got $35,000 in grants from various arts councils, and ultimately spent $60,000 on the project.
Direct advertising remains controversial. Even as it has exploded since the late 1980s - from $12 million worth in 1989 to $4 billion in 2001, according to various reports - there are attempts to restrict it. A recent study in the journal Annals of Family Medicine looked at 38 televisions ads and found that an overwhelming majority promoted different drugs but only about a quarter described the medical conditions the drugs were supposed to treat.
Historically, prescription drug advertising was aimed at doctors. Then in 1981, the first print ad directed at would-be consumers appeared, according to a report in the Food and Drug Law Journal. By 1985, the Food and Drug Administration decided the public would be protected if those ads had to meet the same requirements as those directed at physicians, and then changes in 1999 in the agency's guidelines about major risks and product labeling opened the doors to "a plethora of advertisements," according to the Food and Drug Law Journal report.
So now we tell our doctors what drugs we want and they report feeling pressured to prescribe what they're asked for. Proponents of direct advertising say it educates us about what's available, and gives us more control over what medications we take. Opponents say the ads induce consumer demand for high-priced drugs that might not even be what we need.
What's Cooper's position on such direct advertising? She says she's skeptical that pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars as a public health initiative.
"I think that it uses a lot of the health care resources for people whose decisions about those kinds of things should be in consultation with their doctor and that they shouldn't necessarily be bringing that to the table," she said.
But she also knows drugs save lives.
"It's poking fun at people who are perfectly normal, healthy people."
And so here's a testimonial on the Web site:
"I used to wake up feeling great and raring to go," said an unidentified man emerging from a pool of water. "I was happy about everything. Satisfied with my performance and appearance. Generally just pleased with myself. I now know I had a serious condition."
"Millions of people do. When I took a closer look at myself I realized I was occasionally tense, restless, irritable and fatigued. I'd stopped craving the rapid-fire, information-saturated, 24/7 excessive consumer culture I used to enjoy. I'd come to a standstill. Scientists believe this condition is caused by our human biology's inability to adapt. But now there's Havidol."
Source The Journal News Noreen O'Donnell
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