Virginia Tech: Professor Sacrifices Life To Save Students

A tribute to Dr. Liviu Librescu

List of Accomplishments: VT Staff Page

In scenes you get to only see in movies and read about in the Bible, we hear a true to life hero that selflessly sacrificed his life for his students. Dr. Liviu Librescu, an immigrant that saved lives, is in sharp contrast to the stories we hear of the madman immigrant that killed.

Eye witness accounts state he held the door until his students could escape through the classroom's windows. He was shot down as the bullets pierced the door. A student named Alec Calhoun, 20, said the last thing he saw before he jumped from the window was Librescu, blocking the door against the madman in the hallway.

Let's highlight this man's bravery today by re-posting this bulletin throughout blogs and MySpace. He taught his class the greatest lesson of all: There is no greater love than to die for others.

Why Virginia Tech's gun policy failed its students

A sad day in the nation

Let me preface this post with my sincere condolences to those that have been hurt by the recent tragedy that occurred in Virginia Tech today. Over 20 students have been killed with over 20 more that have been injured. These young adults were innocent, and they were defenseless. I'm saddened to hear this tragedy, which could have been avoidable.

Understanding Virginia Tech's security weaknesses

No matter how you look at it, Virginia Tech's security was NOT enough. Criminals being able to come in and have a shooting rampage is unacceptable in any campus, much less such a prestigious university such as Virginia Tech.

One major problem with Virginia Tech is that it prohibits students from defending themselves with guns. Last year, Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear that a gun rights bill was defeated. The bill would have allowed legal citizens with legal concealed weapons licenses to be able to defend themselves on campus if a shooter was going to go on a rampage.

"I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Source: Gun bill

Notice the word "feel". Our gun policies have been based on feelings rather than facts. Fact: Criminals own guns and will use it. Fact: Less lives would be wasted if civilians were able to shoot back. We should not go with "feelings" but rather with reason.

Instead what we have here is a tragic case of good motives but bad policy. The idea that we can somehow control criminals with laws on paper is outrageous. They will get guns, tazers, knives, or other types of weapons no matter what. Our society, our world is 'naturally' imperfect and it will never be perfect until something 'unnatural' happens. We have to understand that as a reality before we can even understand the phrase: "campus security".

Let students and teachers defend themselves

As we can see from the policy of banning legal citizens from having legal guns, it is wrong. Why? Because in this scenario, criminals are the only ones that have guns! Our society cannot be perfect; hence, we have to accept realities. And that reality is to give members of society the ability to defend themselves.

The sheep must look like a threat for the wolf to back off. Otherwise, the wolf will simply attack. Preferrably we'd want law enforcement to be at every classroom, but the tragic truth about govt budgets is, they simply can't do that.

Give students and teachers proper training. Get them through background tests. But for goodness sakes, give legal citizens the right to bear arms to defend themselves against criminals!

8 bodies found in Fort Myers, FL -- possibly a serial killer?

The other day, I commented how I was surprised that a murdered body was found behind the Harley Davidson store in Fort Myers, FL, a stone throw away from one of my old offices [the Teleperformance / CallTech building] where I worked for almost 5 years.

Now, CNN and other media channels are taking a look at 8 skeletons also found just a few miles away, which may, some have speculated, is the result of a serial killer (yikes!):

"Fort Myers police have been deluged with media calls after an Associated Press report hinted police believed eight human skeletons found in a wooded area off Arcadia Street on March 23 were the work of a serial killer."

Source: NewsPress

Murdered man found behind Ft Myers Harley Davidson, near CallTech/Teleperformance

Matthew Haller, 23, of 15513 Monterosso Lane in Naples, was found dead by a city garbage collector at about 3:43 a.m. in the driver's seat of a blue 1985 Mercedes, Fort Myers police said. Authorities are investigating his death as a homicide. The Mercedes was taken from the scene, at 2160 Colonial Boulevard, to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement facility for processing, police said. Matthew apparently had a gunshot wound.

The car was located right behind the Harley Davidson store. The plaza shares its space with a Cuban bar/restaurant and CallTech / Teleperformance. Having worked in that vicinity for 5 years, I find it very surprising that crime has increased there tremendously. Before it was just people getting rowdy at the bar, or at worst, people stealing from the parking lot.

Now a murder. Yikes!

Last three NJ governors = broken legs

Governor Corzine of NJ had severe injuries the other day from a car accident. He broke his leg and suffered other injuries. Thankfully, no one died but the accident has added a strange footnote in history...

The injury to Corzine's left leg means that the last three people elected to serve as New Jersey governor have all broken a leg while in office. Fellow Democrat James E. McGreevey broke his left leg during a nighttime beach walk, while Republican Christie Whitman broke her right leg while skiing in the Swiss Alps.

Source: http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070413/NEWS03/70413005

Sen. Patrick Leahy says emails cannot be erased

I read an interesting article today where Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont (Democrat) states that e-mails cannot be erased.

His statement is as follows:

"You can't erase e-mails, not today," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. "They've gone through too many servers. They can't say they've been lost. That's like saying, 'The dog ate my homework.' "

His critical comments are aimed towards the White House, who said they've lost some e-mails and are doing their best to recover it. Now borrowing from the senator's own words, can electronic dogs really eat electronic homework? Can e-mails actually be deleted? The short answer? Yes.

The long answer?

• First let's correct Senator Leahy that it goes through "too many servers". The packets are transmitted through a variety of routers and switches on Internet backbones, but in the end, only two servers communicate to transmit the e-mail: the sender and receiver. [smtp]
  
• The e-mail is then processed and stored, which can then be downloaded by email software, usually via pop3 or imapd. This all happens in a few seconds (assuming the 'average size' email).
  
• The assumption made here by the senator is that the sender or receiver servers somehow contain or retain the e-mail indefinitely. The answer is no. The moment the user "purges" the email from his account, it does get deleted.
  
  
  
  • There are backup servers that may be involved in which case e-mails are not deleted and can 'easily' be recovered. This is unlikely since the White House publicly claims its been deleted. Their first attempt would to first recover it from backups versus come out embarrassingly that their emails are deleted.
    
  
  
• Usually, there's copies of e-mails on the email software (ie: Microsoft Outlook's Sent Items or Outlook's Deleted Items folder). However, these folders may be purged automatically depending on the settings.
  
• Any computer forensic experts knows that deleted data isn't actually deleted until the data 'space' is re-used again. Hence, if you delete a file you can still recover it for a certain amount of time since the space has not been taken up yet.
  
  
  
  • Imagine a bowl of cereal that you consider old and in your mind you're no longer going to eat it. You're too lazy to clean the bowl so you're just going to wait until you get new cereal before you empty that bowl. Technically, the 'old cereal' is deleted from your choice of foods but it is still there until you replace it with new cereal.
    
  • In the same way, files still exist on the computer until new files go on top of it.
    
  • If the data is too old and it's been replaced over and over again, the likelihood of recovering anything is minimal.
    
  
  
• There's also crashes and data corruption. Your hard drive crashes, the mail server mail spools are corrupted, the server fails, backup disks get 'fried', etc. There are a number of ways data gets lost. No matter how rich you are, no matter how much money you've invested in a computer, there's still a likelihood that it could crash some day. That's life!
  

In summary, yes, you can lose your e-mail. In this case, the electronic dog can eat your electronic homework.

The Jesus Tomb: Is It Fact or Fiction? Book Discredits Documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus

Link: PRWeb

A new book says The Lost Tomb of Jesus documentary was deceptive to its viewers and illusory to the scholars that worked on the production.

Fort Myers, FL (PRWEB) April 6, 2007 - New evidence surrounding The Lost Tomb of Jesus including personal interviews by leading scholars consulted in the film, suggest the 2,000 year old Jerusalem tomb is NOT the Jesus of Nazareth’s final resting place. In the new book, The Jesus Tomb: Is It Fact or Fiction? Scholars Chime In, Don Sausa reviews all of the claims, math, and the ‘evidence’ of The Lost Tomb of Jesus, to simply answer one question: Is it fact, or fiction?

The documentary that aired on March 4th, 2007 and the companion book, The Jesus Family Tomb, come from science fiction director James Cameron, controversial journalist Simcha Jacobovici, science fiction author Dr. Charles Pellegrino, and textual scholar Dr. James Tabor.

The book’s findings suggest that some plausible explanations were conveniently ignored in the documentary, such as the different types of family relationships Jesus and Mariamne [“Mary Magdalene” could have had. For instance, they could have been father and daughter, paternal cousins, half brother and sister, or grandparent and grandchild.

“Our review of the evidence, DNA findings, statistical analysis, and personal interviews of the experts used in the film clearly show that the claims are largely based on speculation and hype,” said Don Sausa.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release (or for a sample review copy), contact Don Ariel at support(at)thevisionpress.com or visit www.JesusTombReview.com. Book distribution date is April 16, 2007, ISBN 0978834690. Author is available for interviews.

About author:

Author and speaker, Don Sausa, is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, an organization that promotes biblical scholarship. He has studied biblical history for over 10 years, and is an ordained elder for the Fort Myers Ortiz Church.

April Fools Jokes Around The World

Just wanted to drop a note on some 'cool' April Fools jokes.

What got me:
- Aftercast.org said they were being added to xm satellite. Ok, Jason, that was good. You got me.

Google's Matt Cutts got hacked
Nope, the shout outs were a dead giveaway.

Google's toilet Internet service
Original, but not believable. Announcing wireless Internet would have been believable.

ThinkGeek inventions
And my favorite of all...

cyrus imapd crash

WARNING, EXTREMELY BORING TECHNICAL STUFF BELOW. READ ON YOUR OWN PERIL.

This post is mainly for system administrators out there needing information on how to fix a cyrus imapd index/header corruption. I think my MS Outlook messed up the cyrus index headers for my e-mail account when I accidentally clicked 'Undo Delete' on a message that was already deleted and purged from the INBOX.

Since then, on my Outlook, it would give me this error: "Failed to update headers." I wasn't able to delete or purge messages from my INBOX. I was able to do normal functions on my TRASH folder.

LOG ERRORS FROM /var/log/maillog

Mar 29 19:29:20 c2000 imap[21893]: open: user email@email.com opened INBOX
Mar 29 19:29:21 c2000 master[25621]: process 21893 exited, signaled to death by 11
Mar 29 19:29:21 c2000 master[25621]: service imap pid 21893 in BUSY state: terminated abnormally

Also got these...

Mar 29 19:57:54 c2000 last message repeated 2 times
Mar 29 19:57:55 c2000 imap[22490]: SQUAT failed to open index file
Mar 30 19:57:55 c000 imap[22490]: SQUAT failed

HOW I FIXED IT WITH WEBMAIL
1. I went to my webmail and I was able to access all of my messages. I use SquirrelMail. I moved all of my messages and moved it into the TRASH folder, which I knew was not corrupted.

2. I accessed it with my MS Outlook and all my INBOX messages were gone (as expected). I sent two test messages to myself and it showed up. I then deleted those two messages and purged it and the action was successful. That means I didn't get the error messages anymore.

3. I went ahead and moved back my messages from my TRASH folder into the INBOX. Mission success!

HOW I FIXED IT WITHOUT WEBMAIL
1. If you don't have webmail/SquirrelMail, you could also manually do this by going to your mail folder and manually moving messages. My mail folder was: /var/spool/imap/domain/e/email.com/d/user/don

2. I created a /backup folder.

3. I moved all of my messages to the /backup folder. The messages are usually named as 5 digit numbers. I saw most of my messages numbered as 4xxxx so I just 'mv 4* /backup'.

4. I went back to MS Outlook and accessed my INBOX and I was able to without any errors.

ADDITIONAL NOTES
This solution worked for me and I'm blogging about it just in case it happens again -- at least I know what to do. If it still gives you problem, please refer to the manual or go to online discussion boards and ask some admins.

Sugar powered cars

Over the past few days, scientists and engineers around the world have been celebrating over a potentially new energy source. What is it? Sprite.

Okay, well not only Sprite, but anything that has liquid sugar. According to news reports, within 5 years, we'll start seeing batteries and other devices using sugar as their portable power source.

This could also be applied to the lithium batteries that we use now in hybrids, we could replace the lithium batteries with sugar-powered batteries.

Here's the cool part, the waste product of sugar batteries is plain old water. Where in the world did these scientists get this idea from? Simple, from the human body. Our ability to use sugar and convert it into energy gave them an idea -- what if we can do that with electric circuits? Funded by the Department of Defense, chemists at St. Louis University pulled it off.

Why should you care?
1. Laptops that can run 12 hours.
2. iPods that can run 2 weeks.
3. Automobiles rechargable with sugar power source, more money in your pocket.
4. Keeps the environment clean, less dependency on fossil fuels.
5. Since the batteries are biodegradable, it doesn't end up in a landfill.

If I had my way...
1. Replace hybrid cars' lithium batteries and replace it with sugar-powered batteries. Put in two types of tanks, one for gas and one to recharge the battery through any type of liquid sugar. Car gets instantly recharged.

2. NASA's Mars Mission -- use sugar powered batteries to run internal power in future spacecrafts. Sugar batteries create water as a waste, water can be run through plants that produce fruits, and the cycle restarts.

Potential problems
I like sweets. I may eat or drink the fuel source (ie: Sprite) before its even used.

More reading...:
Science Daily
Live Science

Source: Technology News

Researchers at St. Louis University in Missouri on Sunday announced the development of a fuel cell battery powered by liquid sugar at the American Chemistry Society's 233rd national meeting.

Using nearly anything from natural substances such as tree sap to man-made beverages including soda, the new technology could potentially operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, scientists said.

"This study shows that renewable fuels can be directly employed in batteries at room temperature to lead to more energy-efficient battery technology than metal-based approaches," Shelly Minteer, an electrochemist and the study's leader, told TechNewsWorld. "It demonstrates that by bridging biology and chemistry, we can build a better battery that's also cleaner for the environment."

The benefit for consumers could be substantially longer talk and playback time for cell phones and digital media devices such as the iPod, according to researchers.

As the technology is biodegradable, the batteries have a one-up on lithium ion in environmental impact.
Sugar High

One of the major problems with batteries is that they are not very efficient, Minteer told TechNewsWorld. The consequence for consumers is that they spend a lot of time recharging their batteries.

Using sugar to generate energy is not new. In fact, all living things convert sugar into energy in one way or another, Minteer explained. The challenge, however, was to create a way to harness the energy-dense power of sugar to produce electricity efficiently.

"What my group did was we looked at the fact that when humans, animals or any living cell consumes sugar or carbohydrates, the body is extremely efficient at converting the simple energy from that fuel into the energy to you need to go out and about and do everything we do every day - - energy to grow, to run a marathon," she said.

Similar to other fuel cells, the Saint Louis University researchers' sugar batteries contain enzymes that convert the sugar into electricity. Minteer has successfully run batteries on glucose, flat sodas, sweetened drink mixes and tree sap.

However, tests conducted using carbonated beverages failed, Minteer noted, as carbonation seems to weaken the fuel cell. In the case of sugar fuel, the simplest approach is best. Ordinary table sugar (sucrose) dissolved in water came out on top in test results.

"We took that process that happens in the body and we mimicked it on an electric circuit," Minteer said. "We just made a much more efficient battery."

After all of the energy has been discharged, the battery keeps on giving. Not only are the batteries biodegradable, but, according to Minteer, the battery's main byproduct is water. While lithium ion batteries contain no toxic metals, they do include cobalt, copper, nickel and iron. In the U.S., roughly 2 billion batteries make their way into municipal landfills and incinerators.
Convenient Recharging

If the research continues to show promise as the technology is tested and refined, Minteer said that it could be ready for commercial manufacturing within three to five years.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the batteries are of particular interest to the military to charge portable electronic equipment on the battlefield and in emergency situations when access to electricity is limited. Devices could be instantly recharged, Minteer stated, by adding any convenient sugar source. One example of possible use includes remote sensors for detecting biological and chemical weapons.

Consumers could see the battery first used as a portable recharger for cell phones akin to similar other quick recharge products already on the market that enable users to instantly recharge their mobile phones on the fly. The recharges would ideally consist of special cartridges pre-filled with a sugar solution, which could be replaced when they are used up.

Eventually, Minteer said, the sugar battery could replace traditional batteries depending on that battery's function.

"Whether it replaces every battery is probably going to be a function of what the needs of that battery are," she explained. "If you have a little disposal battery in your remote control, those batteries -- though there are some environmental implications -- are really cheap and work really good. So we're not trying to replace that type of battery.

"We are trying to replace the rechargeable batteries -- those that tend to be a little more expensive and have more environmental hazards, etc.," she continued.

Long-term goals include developing a battery for laptops and other similarly-sized devices. Other avenues of research include modifying the battery's performance for varying environmental conditions, such as high temperatures and extending the life of the battery.

E coli outbreak in Sept 06: What caused the problem?

The FDA, yesterday, released their report on possible reasons for the E coli outbreak in September 2006, killing at least two people and sickened hundreds of others. Though the report is inconclusive, they gave plausible explanations.

“One of the key findings from this investigation is that very clearly the problem is multifaceted,” said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the F.D.A.

The E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria found on four California ranches not long after the outbreak could have spread to leafy greens in a number of ways, officials said. Contaminated irrigation water, uncomposted manure used as fertilizer, the presence of wildlife and livestock and the hygiene of the workers handling the crops all might have served to transport the bacteria, they said.

For more information on the report, check out this New York Times article.

Thoughts
It's disturbing that in this day in age, the country's ability to check for basic contamination such as E. coli is inadequate. This particular incident was accidental, but one can only imagine what would happen if there were more sinister attempts to disrupt our food supply. Food is one of man's basic needs; hence, it should be one of our highest priorities to protect our food supplies, ranches, and farms.

This is especially important when year after year, farms are being consolidated and our foods are being distributed from centralized facilities, which increases the likelihood of other crops being contaminated.

Start asking questions:
1. What's the best, economical method of protecting against future outbreaks?
2. Is there new technology that allows us to detect contiminated foods in the supply chain?
3. What procedures can the FDA take that will protect both consumers and the bottom line of farmers that have razor-thin margins?

Francois Bovon sinks Cameron and Simcha's Lost Tomb of Jesus ship

Francois Bovon, Scholar Used To Translate Mary Magdalene Disagrees With Documentary

In a stunning public letter to the Society of Biblical Literature, Francois Bovon, the main source for Simcha Jacobovici's claim that Mariamne was Mary Magdalene, calls the documentary's conclusions as science fiction.

His letter is as follows:

"As I was interviewed for the Discovery Channel's program The Lost Tomb of Jesus, I would like to express my opinion here.

First, I have now seen the program and am not convinced of its main thesis. When I was questioned by Simcha Jacobovici and his team the questions were directed toward the Acts of Philip and the role of Mariamne in this text. I was not informed of the whole program and the orientation of the script.

Second, having watched the film, in listening to it, I hear two voices, a kind of double discours. On one hand there is the wish to open a scholarly discussion; on the other there is the wish to push a personal agenda. I must say that the reconstructions of Jesus' marriage with Mary Magdalene and the birth of a child belong for me to science fiction.

Third, to be more credible, the program should deal with the very ancient tradition of the Holy Sepulcher, since the emperor Constantine in the fourth century C.E. built this monument on the spot at which the emperor Hadrian in the second century C.E. erected the forum of Aelia Capitolina and built on it a temple to Aphrodite at the place where Jesus' tomb was venerated.

Fourth, I do not believe that Mariamne is the real name of Mary of Magdalene. Mariamne is, besides Maria or Mariam, a possible Greek equivalent, attested by Josephus, Origen, and the Acts of Philip, for the Semitic Myriam.

Fifth, the Mariamne of the Acts of Philip is part of the apostolic team with Philip and Bartholomew; she teaches and baptizes. In the beginning, her faith is stronger than Philip's faith. This portrayal of Mariamne fits very well with the portrayal of Mary of Magdala in the Manichean Psalms, the Gospel of Mary, and Pistis Sophia. My interest is not historical, but on the level of literary traditions. I have suggested this identification in 1984 already in an article of New Testament Studies."

François Bovon, Harvard Divinity School

My wife hid my soda

Today's poetic rant:

People have their vices, mine seems to be Sprite. I don't drink and I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, but yet I drink Sprite. There's nothing wrong with drinking carbonated sugar water with lemon lime taste that satisfies your thirst, no not at all, but if you drink it too much, then yes, there's a problem. I drink it while I'm on the boat fishing, I drink it if I'm going out to eat, I drink it during business meetings, and heaven forbid during prayer meetings. Yes, it's a habit that my wife recognized. "Babe you're going to get diabetes", she said. But I ignored her warnings. "Babe you're going to get fat", but I didn't care. Then she's done the unthinkable. She hid my soda. So here I am today unable to find my Sprite. And she went out, leaving her cell phone at home...forgetfulness or conspiracy?

How credible is the Lost Tomb of Jesus?

When you look at documentaries, you have to look at the source. When you ask the director's main objective, what his response to critics are, you'll quickly learn what his priorities and motivations were.

Weight loss surgery may cause memory loss

Just in! News reports state weight loss surgery may cause memory loss. I personally know three employees in the past that went through this type of operation (2 females, 1 male) and have not seen any memory problems with their job performance; however, it is still something to consider if you think you'll need to lose weight in this manner versus the traditional way of not eating too much and exercising.

Memory loss fear over obesity ops
Obese woman
Frequent vomiting after surgery can lead to the syndrome
Weight loss surgery could lead to a condition which can result in memory loss, according to US research.

The syndrome - Wernicke encephalopathy - affects the nervous system and brain, and can lead to confusion and the inability to co-ordinate movement.

The study, published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, says the syndrome is caused by a lack of vitamin B1, or thiamine.

Frequent vomiting after surgery can lead to the syndrome, the study found.


Clearly we need to note this report... but I don't think it should lead to a knee-jerk rejection
Dr Colin Waine, National Obesity Forum

The researchers identified 32 cases of Wernicke encephalopathy after obesity surgery, 27 involving women.

The report says it is not clear if the condition is more common in women, or if there were more cases in women because 75% of obesity surgery patients are female.

Dr Colin Waine, of the National Obesity Forum, urged against avoidance of weight loss surgery, for those most in need.

"Clearly we need to note this report and we must be aware of it but I don't think it should lead to a knee-jerk rejection," he said.

"The results of weight loss surgery can be very good.

"Some people are so at risk that they are going to die from other causes without surgery.

"The risk of encephalopathy is probably much less than the risk they are facing from obesity."

'Outlook usually good'

The syndrome was found to occur within one to three months of weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass surgery, although one case occurred 18 months after surgery.

Study author Sonal Singh, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, urged those who had undergone weight loss surgery to take their prescribed vitamin supplements and be alert for symptoms such as vomiting, confusion, visual changes and lack of co-ordination.

"When people who have had weight loss surgery start experiencing any of these symptoms, they need to see a doctor right away," he said.

"If treated promptly, the outlook is usually good."

For treatment, patients are given vitamin B1 through an IV or injection.

Of the 32 people in the study, 13 made a full recovery, though others continued to have problems such as memory loss.

Singh said more studies are needed to determine how often the syndrome occurs after weight loss surgery.

One of Lost Tomb of Jesus' holes: The Tenth Ossuary

There's been a lot of media hype regarding The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Personally, I have reserved my comments and limited it to scholars, archaeologists, and forensic experts for now until my book is published. However, after seeing the debate on the Discovery Channel, I found out something disturbing, and I feel I must share this with my readers.

You see, Dr. James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici assume that the tenth missing bone box in the Talpiot tomb is James, the brother of Jesus. From this, they can make huge statistical assumptions.

But here's the problem...
1. On June 18, 2003, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in a unanimous decision the 15-member committee, condemned the 'James ossuary' as a modern forgery.
2. While #1 is a problem, this is even a greater problem. There is a picture of the James ossuary dated 1976. The Talpiot tomb, where they found 10 ossuaries, was opened in 1980.
3. In fact, Amos Kloner, one of the three original archaeologists that supervised the dig site, stated the tenth ossuary found in 1980 was blank, it had no inscription on it:

"Due to a lack of storage space, only nine of the 10 ossuaries found in the tomb in 1980 were held by the Israel Antiquities Authority after they were examined and documented, said Kloner. But the tenth one that was discarded did not have any inscription, he said."

OUCH! This is significantly damaging. Yet Dr. Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici claimed in the Discovery Channel debate that one of Israel's most experienced archaeologists, Dr. Kloner, must have missed the inscriptions because there were some dirt on it! Extremely unlikely -- that's the first thing they would check. Even if a remote chance of that were true, how can you explain the James ossuary photo made in 1976 when the Talpiot tomb was uncovered in 1980?

Why Dr. Tabor and Mr. Simcha Jacobovici do you continue to support that the James ossuary is legit? Please, for the sake of your reputation, do not continue to make it part of your hypothesis. Please remove this from your blog, which the world is now mocking you on:

3. One other new bit of data related to the Talpiot tomb are the patina tests carried out by Rosenfeld and others that indicate that the James ossuary, acquired by Oded Golan, and made public in 2002, came from this particular Talpiot tomb. This data is summarized in the Discovery documentary as well as the book, The Jesus Family by Jacobovici and Pellegrino. Originally in 1980 there were ten ossuaries recovered from this tomb but one went missing early on. If the James ossuary is this missing 10th from this tomb, and I do believe there is some good evidence to support that possibility, adding an ossuary inscribed names “James son of Joseph,” or “James son of Joseph brother of Jesus,” (if the full inscription is authentic as I believe it to be) to the cluster, the statistics change dramatically toward an identification of this tomb with Jesus of Nazareth.

I have sent this letter to Dr. Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici. I hope one of you respond.

Iran's president says nuclear program is like a train without brakes...Iranians remind him trains like that crash and burn

He's at it again! On Monday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said his country's nuclear program is like a train without brakes. He told a group of clerics that Iran's nuclear ambitions were unstoppable. "The train of the Iranian nation is without brakes and a rear gear ... We dismantled the reverse gear and brakes of the train and threw them away some time ago," he said.

Reaction
Not only is he getting criticized around the world for his comments but he is also getting some rare criticisms across the political spectrum in Iran. Here are just some Iranian thoughts on the matter:

Etemad-e-Melli, National Confidence, "Why are you speaking a language that causes a person to be ashamed? A train's brakes are needed to reach its destination safely. You represent the voters of the great Iranian nation. Speak equal to the name and dignity of this nation."

Resalat chided "neither weakness nor unnecessarily offensive language is acceptable in foreign policy. Our foreign policy must reflect the ancient Iranian civilization and rich Islamic culture of the Iranian nation. Therefore, delicacy ... rich diplomatic language and non-primitive policies must be part of a calculated combination to work"

A train without brakes...

Hopefully, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can control his bull dog; otherwise, the Iranian people might do it for him.

CBS shows North Iraq -- the diamond in the rough

Tonight on 60 Minutes, I saw an update on North Iraq. The Kurds, ethnically different from Arabs but are still Muslims are enjoying an economic boom! Because they are not killing themselves like Southern Iraq is doing, the Kurds have commercial infrastructures, universities, and other modern day luxuries popping up throughout their side of the country.

This is the "dream" of what we want in Southern Iraq, but it maybe sometime before Southern Iraq will ever be that way. Despite we have strong U.S. presence in Southern Iraq, deep-seated hatred is still hurting the dream of a unified Iraq.

But at least we see a ray of hope with the Kurds. On evening prayers at their Muslim mosques, they don't say words of hatred towards the United States, but rather praise of the liberation that they received after years of turmoil and genocide by the Arabs.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin broke the law, federal court finds

Mayor Ray Nagin, the supposed 'hero' of the New Orleans disaster has been found in contempt of court. Federal court records shows that he has been hiding/refusing to reveal records of who ordered the confiscation of legal firearms.

Instead of allowing citizens to defend themselves against gangsters during the Katrina disaster, Nagin sent an edict to act against civil liberties by removing legitimate guns from citizens. So the only ones armed in the city were...CRIMINALS.

No wonder New Orleans is now hailed as the Murder Capital of the country. You have armed criminals, a distraught police force, and citizens who have no weapons to defend themselves because their mayor doesn't respect the Constitution.

Resign Nagin. Your office is a shame.

Congress spends 1.4 million dollars arguing about non-binding Iraq resolution

I'm sure you've heard about it by now.

The United States House of Representatives spent over 40 hours arguing about a non-binding Iraq resolution of how they disagree with President's Bush decision to secure Baghdad and protect American troops and civilians.

Democrats, along with 17 Republicans, passed the resolution to show that they do not like securing Baghdad or protecting American troops. As you may know, after winning the Nov 2006 congressional elections, Democrats have promised to "change course" on Iraq from winning to running away. And they state this is just one of their first actions.

Democrats, along with their Iraq promise, also promised reform and changes within their first 100 hours of session. Perhaps they should start by not wasting tax payer's money on useless, non-binding resolutions! So how much did this useless, non-binding resolution cost? The labor cost was about $1.4 million USD, assuming all of the representatives that voted [428] were there for the full debate.

Great job congressmen -- good job on arguing about things that don't do anything.

A new U.S. dollar coin...again!

If you first don't succeed, try, try again...

The U.S. Mint is once again pursuing the dollar coin for mainstream uses. Their first initial attempt, Susan B. Anthony/Sacagawea coin, didn't fare well with the public because the dollar bill still existed. For this attempt, they will be using George Washington's image. They will be putting images of future presidents in future editions of the coin, similar to how they release different emblems for the quarters.

The difference between this attempt and the previous release is the media hype surrounding the new dollar coin. With the Internet, TV, and other media blitzing the news across the world, banks are already reporting consumer interest in the dollar coin.

Interested in one? In a few weeks, just go to the bank!

My baby turned 3 months old...Dohgirl is growing!

My baby is 3 months old now. Here's a quick look at what she looks like last month versus her birth pic. She's doubled her weight. Gotta love babies!

2.5 MONTHS

BIRTH

UN claims Global Warming is warming the earth, while I'm freezing in Florida

The United Nations just sent out global warming reports and warnings to its member nations, describing that the world's going to end because of man. And while I agree, we are the cause of our own disasters, they should have timed their reports better.

At the moment, southwest Florida is receiving freezing temperatures. This is an area where it is suppose to be tropical and have mild winters, yet we are freezing here. If someone was going to tell me the world is warming up year after year and it's going to be the end of the world, they should try to do so when we don't get record freezing temperatures in a semi-tropic climate.

It seems year after year we keep drumming the same tune that we are being cooked, and while there are ample evidence that glaciers are melting and weather's being affected, there is an equal amount of evidence that we are hitting record lows. Which begs the question, is global warming really something that is a true science or is it yet another guess, another theory? What if Earth was going through cycles? Why are scientists who oppose global warming get belittled in the media and scientific world? Why don't we keep an opend mind?

So you're thinking about upgrading to Microsoft Vista

After about six years Microsoft has come out with a new and exciting operating system, Microsoft Vista. Most people that have tested it have given it high marks compared to Windows XP. But what's required to run this new OS? I've got a rundown for you from Microsoft's web site.

1. 800mhz CPU
2. 512MB RAM
3. 20GB HD with 15GB free
4. CD-ROM drive/DVD

From what I hear, it might come as a DVD disc.

Hacker [Muslix64] makes name for himself, cracks Bluray and HD DVD code

The Advanced Access Content System Licensing Authority (AACS LA) on its Web site stated that it "confirmed that AACS Title Keys have appeared on public Web sites without authorization."

They have attempted to seal up HD DVDs and Bluray DVDs from being copied. Unfortunately, since these DVDs were readable on PCs, Muslix64 was able to find the keys that was residing in memory.

Doh.

Florida state legislators worked hard over the weekend to reduce skyrocketing home insurance rates

Citizens across the state of Florida were looking to the state to help them against losing their homes. And it seems like they have something in the making. After being flooded by calls, mail, and faxes, state legislators are frantically looking for a solution on how to preserve the economy admist a growing home insurance crisis. Due to the increased hurricane activities, home insurance rates have gone up across the state.

Sun Sentinel, one of the newspapers in south Florida, described it best. This is a historic, almost unprecedented event...both Democrats and Republicans sitting in meeting rooms working together to try to come up with an answer.

By Sunday evening, a deal came together that highlighted a level of bipartisanship and urgency in the Legislature that hasn't been seen for years in Tallahassee.

Source: Sun Sentinel

If you're a Florida resident, you should be proud -- your legislators worked hard to get this issue fixed!

Apple Lawyers Bully Bloggers Over iPhone Skins

You would think Apple would learn from bullying geeks from blogging. They've already lost one case when they attempted to get the anonymous source that tipped off one of their releases. Now they are bullying people that's posting about their iPhone user interface...claiming copyright infringement!

It might just be a freshman lawyer who doesn't understand the idea of fair use and free speech. But one thing is clear, Apple is no Google. Google's ideology is exchange and freedom of information, "do no evil"...while in contrast, Apple is restrictive, making any excuse to threaten bloggers if they feel their intellectual property rights are stepped on (which they aren't in this case).

For more information on how Apple's been threatening geeks and bloggers, view these links:

Techcrunch: Apple Bullies Bloggers, Again

Techdirt: ould Apple's Lawyers Really Not Understand That Reporting Isn't Copyright Infringement?

So how's the Internet reacting? Just view these comments from techcrunch.com:

# hornswaggled
January 13th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
First Cisco and now this. I am not a Mac guy but they are not winning me over with these kind of moves. When will these companies embrace the blogging community?

# Morgan
January 13th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
I’ve never seen a community more willing to bend over for a company than Apple fans. Totally closed, secretive, often overpriced and protective, defaults to DRM in iTunes, litigious, and just arrogant. If it were any other company people would get truly angry. With Apple it’s always a sigh leading into breath-holding for the next big announcement.

# Robert Dewey
January 13th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
I’m an Apple fan, and I can surely say this is crap. If they want users to switch from PC to Mac, they need to take the “don’t be evil” approach. When a prospective Mac user sees this, you can bet they’ll change their mind…

# John
January 13th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
When Jobs and Apple get out from under their “options” scam I’ll bother to look at Apple Inc’s issue with bloggers and legality.

# Jorge
January 13th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Apple users are like abused lovers: you can beat them all you want, but they’ll never complain, and they’ll even defender the abuser.
So much for Apple empowering its users…

# Spencer P
January 14th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Apple is definitely the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation of our day.

# Scott N.
January 14th, 2007 at 9:57 am
It’s incredible to me that apple is able to preserve their reputation when they pull this sort of thing on a semi-regular basis. They’ve become just as ridiculous as the competition.

Pelosi shows her stupidity - wants to increase American Samoa's wages

I have studied American Samoa and its economy last year for an IPP report (business paper). I looked at its history, and where it stands in the world. They are one of our territories. They are U.S. nationals but not citizens; hence, they cannot vote but has every other privilege an American has. One of their main industries is tuna processing and they are being paid at a lower wage than mainland USA because of the cost of living. This gives employers like Del Monte the ability to employ a significant amount of the population which would otherwise go to jobs in Asia or other low-cost countries. In short, Del Monte and StarKist (yes makers of Chicken of the Sea) have been able to single handedly feed the island.

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently wants this all change. She wants to increase the minimum wage laws in the area and double the cost of labor for these companies. The Samoan people have asked these companies to hire them and have had public hearings on how much they should be paid. Now Pelosi and her aides want to ruin that.

What's the risk of increasing minimum wage?

Non-voting Rep. Eni Faleomavaega said, "decrease in production or departure of one or both of the two canneries in American Samoa could devastate the local economy, resulting in massive layoffs and insurmountable financial difficulties."

The island's prominent politician has clearly said it. If you increase the labor pressures against the two tuna companies that have done so much for American Samoa, two things will happen. Either the price of tuna will increase and the two companies will probably go bankrupt because foreign tuna companies will beat its pricing, or they will simply leave the island and go to an offshore location.

Why I call this the stupidity of Pelosi

Any congressman or senator that goes along with this plan I consider stupid. Why such a harsh word? Because they are about to make a whole island suffer and a significant amount of the population will become unemployed. There are no other major employers in American Samoa. It isn't like they could just move around freely and get a job like in the mainland.

Politicians who do not take into account local culture and the local economy are stupid. Very very stupid.

Update - What gift to get my wife "contest"

Just an update of what I got for my wife's birthday. I stuck with the classics - flowers and dinner with friends and family. I threw in a digital camcorder and a black video iPod for kicks.

Now on to Valentines Day gift ideas. If you have a gift idea that I will use, I'll ship you a free business investment book titled Investing Without Losing as a thank you!

Why People Give Gifts
There are many ways to show love. You can do it by an action of kindness, a song, a hug, or a gift. As we give gifts to our love ones for whatever reason, whether it's Christmas or a birthday, always remind yourself why you are giving. It's not to meant to impress but to show that you love.

Need ideas -- my wife's birthday coming up, what to get her?

Okay my wife's birthday is coming up and I need some gift ideas. And Valentines is not that far either, so I guess I need two gift ideas.

Tips:
1. She likes shopping (as many wives do I think)
2. I don't like giving gift cards. Gift cards are great for friends but when it comes to my wife, I need to give something more personal (and maybe plus a gift card).
3. We don't like jewelry so diamonds are out.

What's been discussed:
1. She likes my PSP and Gameboy micro. So I asked her if she wanted a PSP or a GameBoy DS. She doesn't know and she doesn't think she really has the time to play it.
2. She's wanting a new shelf put in.

What's already understood:
1. I'm already giving her cake and flowers.

Send your emails to me at don ( at ) donsausa.com. If I use your idea, I'll send you this investment book for free.

Apple shares tumbles 6% due to options fraud scandal

Apple is making headlines again, but it isn't about new gadgets.

Justin Scheck reports:

According to people with knowledge of Apple's situation, federal prosecutors are looking closely at stock option administration documents that were apparently falsified by company officials to maximize the profitability of option grants to executives.

The faked documents were revealed in a three-month internal probe — conducted by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges — that concluded in October, said individuals familiar with the case who requested anonymity because it remains the subject of criminal and civil government investigations.

The falsification of documents is perhaps the key issue for government officials trying to determine which of their 100-plus backdating investigations will be pursued as criminal matters and which will be limited to civil SEC inquiries.

Steve Jobs reportedly has hired an independent lawyer to mount a defense against SEC inquiries. Hopefully, this will end soon. Worst case scenario = Jobs quits, Apple gets fined (fines for companies like Apple are like ant bites, the bottom line isn't significantly hurt).

Reduce 2006 taxes by helping Typhoon Durian victims in the Philippines

Over 1,000 people died as Typhoon Durian swept through northern Philippines. They didn't die by the winds. They died being buried alive by the mountains that they thought could protect them from the winds. How did this happen? Nearby mountains became wet and unstable...the end result was an oncoming onslaught of mud and rock wiping out entire villages. See a picture below of a Durian mudslide.



Aid workers on the ground are still trying to recover, with many families separated and children left parentless. One of the first aid groups to respond, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, is currently doing its best to help and assist with volunteers from all over the Philippines. But they need your help!

If you wish to donate to this cause and to also give yourself a reduction in IRS taxes for 2006, click here.

Merry Christmas 2006

I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hope all of you got what you wanted!

Consumer complains to police - cocaine she bought was not good

This is from Tampa Bay's 10 News. A woman from NC bought crack cocaine and when she tasted it, she complained it wasn't that good. She flags down a deputy at a convenience store, showing him how bad the cocaine was.

Kids, this is what happens when you do drugs. Not only do you lose money, you lose IQ.

HWTHORNE — A North Carolina woman was arrested after complaining to a Putnam County deputy that the crack cocaine she had just purchased wasn't very good.

Eloise Reaves approached the deputy at a convenience store Friday, telling him that another man had sold her 'bad crack,' that contained wax and cocaine.

The 50-year-old woman pulled an alleged crack rock out of her mouth and placed it on the deputy's car for inspection.

The deputy told Reaves that she would be arrested if the crack tested positive for cocaine.

She was charged with possession of cocaine and bonded out for $1,500.

'Pursuit of Happyness' is the best movie of 2006

I don't consider movies as the "best" too often. So take this one seriously. The movie about Chris Gardner, how he went from homeless to success is an inspiring tell-all story of a man who didn't give up even though everybody else was giving up on him. His live-in girlfriend left him as a single parent. His sales job was not paying the bills. Eventually, he was kicked out of his rental home, then kicked out of a motel, and finally found himself on the streets. Yet through this experience, he persevered and looked for a job that would pay well...he was going to be a stock broker, despite the fact that he's barely had any education beyond high school.

Will Smith stepped up as a serious actor in this movie...enough I think to put him for an Oscar nomination. His son made his first film debut. The pair's father and child connection was real which made the movie so much more realistic.

In real life, Chris Gardner was homeless for almost a year, and his child was merely a toddler, not a six year old that could talk and walk. These realistic facts put the movie into a different light. A man who hardly had any education but had the will to go above and beyond his status quo.

It is a clear success story of someone with perseverance. Someone choosing success.

Why we're losing in Iraq (video joke)

The British public, like their American counterparts, is asking themselves...why are we losing in Iraq. See the video below...

Case Study: Why WalMart Lost Sales This November

WalMart today posted a 0.1% decline in sales for November, their first ever decline in nearly 10 years. Stock analysts report WalMart is losing out to Target and other competitors. Below are my observations and perhaps a reason why WalMart lost this round. I've forwarded these observations to their corporate office so they have some feedback on what happened.

My WalMart Experience
I went to my first Black Friday ever -- waking up at 5:00 am to look at the stores in my area. Places I looked at were WalMart, Target, and CompUSA. My main goal was to secure an XBox 360 Premium console, home theather, LCD TV, and a digital picture frame.

WalMart advertised online that they were selling XBox 360 Premium systems for $399 with a free $50 gift card. The ad stated there were at least six consoles per store. Believing that this ad was true, I went to WalMart exactly at 5:00 am and was the second in line for the XBox 360 -- but then the bad news, they didn't have any in stock! The employees and acquisitions manager didn't even know about the promotion.

Suffice to say, I was disappointed at WalMart, one of the most aggressive retailers in the world, known for its ability to be effecient and delivering products to the masses. One of the most important sales days of the year, my local WalMart failed miserably.

My CompUSA Experience
The CompUSA store in my town is relatively new, they've been opened less than two years. After being disappointed at WalMart, I went to CompUSA and asked if they had XBox 360's. My business contact who I usually buy from says he was told there was no more. As I came out disappointed again, another manager overheard what I was saying and said there were two at the back. I waited for a few minutes and finally got my XBox 360! I looked around for other sales but really found nothing -- they apparently opened on Thursday night (Thanksgiving) and sold most of their products. So I went off to Target.

My Target Experience
Target opened at 6:00 AM. An hour after other retailers. This tactic seemed to work because I was able to go to other retailers (WalMart/CompUSA) and still had the time to go to Target. As I parked in the parking lot, there was a huge line of people gathering outside the door. I told myself, "I guess I better wait at 6:15 AM when everyone clears out."

When I finally came in, the whole place was packed, but I was able to move around without any problem. I looked for their sales and for some odd reason they moved all of their electronics that they advertised for sale away from the electronics section. Why? Nobody knows. Perhaps space concerns.

I found one employee who was refilling other inventories and I asked him where the electronics were. He said, "They're in the infants section." And when I looked there, there were LCDs, home theater systems, DVD players, etc. all stacked up. Tons of inventory available!

I bought what I wanted and didn't have to really "fight" for it. They had enough for everyone it seems.

Lessons Learned

1. Target was clearly the winner with my money. They advertised items and they were in stock.

2. CompUSA was in the middle ground. Better communication of what's in stock would help. Still, I was happy to get an XBox 360 from them.

3. WalMart was the clear loser. They didn't get a penny from me because they didn't have what they advertised. Employees and managers also didn't know about the online promotions/advertisements.

Republican-held Congress fails to support seniors, Medicare for seniors capped in 2007

On the eve of the elections, the United States Congress, previously controlled by the Republican party, failed to enact legislation to stop Medicare caps on speech and physical therapy. A person in need of outpatient physical or speech therapy will be severely limited starting January 1st, 2007.

Who are these people in need of physical or speech therapy?

You see, after a serious surgery, you need to rehabilitate. For instance, after a knee surgery, you need to strengthen your muscles, exercise, and other long term treatments to bring it back to full functionality.

Almost 1 out of 7 senior patients require such treatments. People with hip surgeries for instance will take several months to heal. Physical therapy increases the likelihood of functionality and often times reduces the length of time to heal.

What's happening on January 1st, 2007?
On January 1st, 2007, patients will only be allowed $1,700 worth of treatments from outpatient clinics. That means for most patients, 3-4 weeks of treatments and from there, they can no longer go to the clinic. Instead of months to heal and rehab in a specialized facility, they are given weeks.

Why does Congress ignore the elderly?
The problem is, the elderly doesn't make their voices heard. I receive AARP news bulletins and there's even barely a sentence covering this. So often times, they won't know this problem exist until its too late -- when they are on the wheelchair wanting to be able to walk again but they can't because the government won't pay for their rehab. Additionally, due to enormous commitments elsewhere in the world, Congress has to re-allocate its resources from helping its senior citizens.

Well Congress got some drug plans out!
Physical therapy brings someone back to functionality and removes the pain, and often times saves a patient from going to surgery. This means less surgeries and less dependency on pain medication. In other words, Congress limited the ability to fix the pain by therapy and instead supported the drug industry's route which hides the pain (not fix it).

What can I do?
Ask your congressman or senator to support S. 3912/HR 6132, which effectively puts an exception process to therapy caps. Write, call, e-mail, or fax. January 1st, 2007 is coming around the corner.

Dohgirl is born!

As the country turned on election day to choose their new U.S. leaders, a new generation was born. The cutest baby girl in the world was born!

Is sin part of Christianity? Thoughts on Ted Haggard

Rev. Ted Haggard, with a following of roughly 30 million evangelicals, recently admitted that he bought drugs but didn't use it and had massages from a gay man but never had any other type of relationship with the gay man. This admission comes shortly after he stepped down as the pastor and head of his evangelical Christian association.

A man by the name of Mike Jones, announced on the radio that he had a gay relationship with Haggard for over 3 years. He came out out of the "closet" so to speak because he said Haggard was a hypocrite for denouncing homosexuality publicly and campaigning against it. Mike Jones then later failed a polygraph test about having a relationship, with the tester saying that there was some deception in his answers.

Bottom line
1. The reverend denies he had a gay relationship and the gay massager showed deception during a polygraph test. I think you can make your opinion out of that without any problem.

2. The reverend admits to buying drugs but not using it. This is like Clinton saying he did marijuana but never inhaled. This is the problem.

Is hypocrisy and sin part of Christianity? The answer is yes. All men and women have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), meaning all of us have sinned and will continue to sin until Jesus Christ comes back. This is no excuse for breaking laws or sinning, but merely an understanding of our human nature. We have that tendency and propensity to sin. The main difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians admit they are sinners, that they cannot get fulfillment from the world and only through Christ. They understand that they cannot save themselves from their own human nature, only through Christ.

So if you're a Christian, how do you respond to this type of scandal? First, Christianity by in large put their faith and their doctrine in Jesus versus any human person. If someone put their faith in Haggard or any earthly leader, they are going to be in a world of hurt. A proper response is one of prayer and forgiveness, to pray for his family and for Mike Jones and also to forgive any party that you might have negative feelings of.

Pray for your leaders, pray for yourselves, and above all, pray for His soon coming.

U.S. troops declare war on Democratic Senator John Kerry

Gotta love the U.S. troops in Iraq, they know how to respond to botched jokes. Source: http://www.drudgereport.com/. Keep up the fight guys!

Democrats show true colors: Kerry suggests U.S. troops uneducated

In a speech to college students, Democratic senator John Kerry tells his audience to try hard in educational opportunities because if you don't, you'll end up in Iraq. If Kerry is a representation of the Democratic party and their attitudes towards the U.S. military (which is the most educated military in the world), you won't find me voting for that party.

In fact, the United States military is considered to be more educated than the general population.

"In summary, we found that, on average, 1999 recruits were more highly educated than the equiv­alent general population, more rural and less urban in origin, and of similar income status."

Source: Heritage Foundation
URL: http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda05-08.cfm

Use of mobile phones causes male infertility?

The Cleveland Clinic, a clinic reknown for its fertility studies, have recently released a study that seems to suggest mobile phones as the cause for some cases of male infertility. According to Dr. Agarwal, he found that sperm count, viability, motility and shape declined as mobile phone usage increased.

While some may say that the electromagnetic waves or heat is causing this, there may be another reason that's more common. You see, if a person is on the cell phone for four hours a day or more, more than likely he has:

1. A high stress job, which is known to cause adverse effects to the body
2. A non-physical job, where he is less mobile and doesn't exercise as much

At any rate, further study needs to be done in order to make a conclusive decision on whether cell phones really affect male fertility. But if this study suggest anything, it is our habits and our lifestyles that affect us the most. Get off the phone and do something useful.

Some iPods carry viruses due to Apple's negligence

Apple announced recently that some of the new iPods they released had viruses in them.

Critics claimed this is unlike Apple. They usually have a good process for quality checks. What was disheartening to hear was that Apple blamed their stupidity on Microsoft. This was posted on their web site:

"As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."

How unfortunate that they blamed Microsoft for their stupidity versus looking at themselves in the mirror. I've learned in life that when you make a mistake, you admit to the problem versus trying to say it's someone else's fault. It'll save you headaches.

At any rate, this was a bad PR blow for Apple. First for not having proper quality checks and for bad sportsmanship. Don't blame others for your mistake. I've had Windows XP since it was released and never had a single virus. It isn't the operating system, it is the user.

Note to Apple marketing execs: Just because you have 1% market share and don't have as many uneducated users, that doesn't mean your operating system is more secure. It just means no viruses are infecting Macs because nobody cares about Macs in the hacker realm. Why would hackers design a virus for 1% of the Internet population?

Sudan genocide continues - Bush might be facing Clinton's Rwanda

Man killed by helicopter gunship burning village.

Man murdered outside of his village.

Village burned down by hostile helicopter gunships.

There is currently inaction in Sudan, because the country refuses to accept UN peacekeepers. The United Nations does not want to impose on the country that's killing its citizens.

Come on people! Wake up. We have people dying every day because of killings, diseases, etc. The country of Sudan is a shameful example of what happens when an Islamic government (church and state) takes power. It is a killing machine.

Here is one of the African Union's pictures regarding Sudan's violations of the cease fire. The photographer is an ex-US Marine (Brian Steidle) who's quite saddened that he couldn't fight people that was killing civilians. All he had was a camera and a pen.

What Can You Do?
Write to your politicians! Don't let Sudan become another Rwanda. Let people know that you care. Write letters to newspaper editors and TV broadcast stations -- make them cover this and put it in front of the media.

Support S. 3912/HR 6132 - extension of Medicare therapy caps

Contact your congressman and senator to support S. 3912/HR. 6132.

It's important that we support our disabled and senior Americans out there in whatever way possible. The following bills in the Senate and House just does that by allowing exceptions to Medicare caps for physical therapy and speech therapy.

In the past, disabled citizens and seniors would not be able to go to outpatient rehabs after they exhaust $1,800 worth of Medicare benefits. What that translates to is a person recovering from a stroke or a patient with major hip surgery can only go for about two months and after that, despite not being well or fully functional, they are no longer allowed to come back to the clinic.

I believe this is an injustice, especially for folks that have paid their Medicare benefits since the day they started working. Secondly, I don't believe in socialistic policies for people that are able to work; however, we as a people should do our best to support and protect those that are not able to fend for themselves.

Tony Blair: The world's best statesman gives his retirement speech

If you thought the U.S. Congress was a tough place to debate at, you should see the British Parliament. Politics in Britain mirrors much like the United States, except their debates are quite fierce and often times, quite loud. But out of all of the confusion that comes from Britain's legislative body, there is one man that has always been a cut above the rest - Tony Blair.

Blair's achievements during his tenure as prime minister is a long one, so I'll highlight some big ones that dramatically pushed Britain into the 21st century as a viable power in the world stage:

* A Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998
* a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly were set up
* Most hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords in 1999
* The Greater London Authority and the post of Mayor of London were established in 2000
* The Freedom of Information Act was passed later in the same year
* Leading out in the Kosovo War against Milosevic
* Helping topple Saddam Hussein
* Olympics awarded to London in 2012

His close ties with the United States has earned him praise and criticisms, but in the end, he is known for someone that stands by his convictions and believes in doing the right thing even if it is unpopular. He has helped topple two dictators that have committed genocide -- that's already an achievement for a lifetime.

Clinton get's angry when asked why he didn't kill Bin Laden

This is the first 20 minutes of Bill Clinton’s interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. In this clip, Wallace asks Clinton why he didn’t do more to capture or kill Osama bin Laden while he was in office. Clinton clearly feels like he has been set up and doesn’t hold back in telling Wallace just how he feels. He definitely feels guilty. Full transcript here: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/24/fox-clinton-interview-part-1-osama-bin-

Chavez's anti-US comments unite Republicans and Democrats

Venenzuela dictator Hugo Chavez with Cuban dictator Castro

The White House's lack of response against Chavez's anti-US remarks during a UN session was appropriate. But I was surprised to hear that people across the U.S. political platform denounce Chavez, not only Republicans but Democrats. I welcome anytime both of these parties actually agree on something and it is for the good of the people.

What Chavez said

Chavez called Bush "the devil" and went on to say unfounded allegations that the United States tried to start an uprising in his country. The State Department conducted its investigation and found completely the opposite. The United States tried to WARN Chavez of impending coup attempts and his government would always pridefully say, "Yeah we know."

It's one thing to attack the policy of a government but another to attack people personally. As a nation, we must take pride in the Office of the President. The president has responsibilities, but has privileges, and one of those privileges is respect for his office.

As an American, I'm insulted by Chavez' remarks, calling our president the "devil". And I'm equally impressed with the White House's silence, the turn-the-other-cheek approach which makes Chavez looks like the only devil on the platform.

Democrats and Republicans unite

Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel said this about Hugo Chavez, "I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president - don't come to the United States and think because we have problems with our president that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State...any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said, "He fancies himself as a modern day Simon Bolivar, but all he is an everyday thug."

"I think Chavez would be much more effective if he would say something that's true," Mr. Clinton said on CNN. "You know, to me, that would be a much cleverer thing for him to do, where he'd really be doing something good, and he could say, 'I disagree with President Bush,' instead of calling him the devil."

I guess we could say thank you Mr. Chavez. You actually helped find an issue that our nation can unite against...YOU!

Eating fish reduces kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma)

A recent study suggests eating fish like salmon significantly reduces kidney cancer risk. Specifically, according to a report in JAMA 2006, Vol 296, No 11, researchers observed that those who consumed one or more serving of fatty fish each week seemed to have a 44 per cent decreased risk of RCC compared with those who consumed none at all.

Studies in this field is few and far between. Follow-up studies need to be conducted to confirm this hypothesis, but clearly we see why fish should be an important part of one's diet.

Investing Without Losing: The Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Tax Lien and Tax Deed Auctions

My book on real estate tax auctions is coming out in October 2nd, 2006. It's called Investing Without Losing: The Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Tax Lien and Tax Deed Auctions.

What's the topic?
There are thousands of properties and tax liens being sold every month throughout the United States. Most of which are being sold for pennies on the dollar of their market value! Investing Without Losing: The Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Tax Liens and Tax Deed Auctions gives investors like you everything from the basic concepts of bidding in real estate tax auctions to investment plans and strategies. Plus, you'll be able to access updated materials and resources on Investing Without Losing's web site.

You can pre-order now directly from Barnes & Noble or access it through the Forbes Magazine's Book Club by clicking here:




For more information about tax liens, visit the complementary site at: Investing Without Losing

Visit San Luis Valley

The San Luis Valley is an 8,500 square mile area in Colorado that offers a variety of views and mountain terrain. I traveled here last month and I'm always impressed at the "untouched" wildlife and nature scenary in the area.

Here's some more information about the San Luis Valley area:
http://www.sanluisvalley.us/

If you want to RV somewhere and enjoy some beautiful scenes, visit San Luis Valley of Colorado.

Southwest Florida gets hit by 6.0 magnitude earthquake! Is the world coming to an end?

I have lived in Florida for over a decade and I have never seen this happen before. An earthquake with a 6.0 magnitude hit near our coast. Apparently, this was the second time within the past few months (same spot in February had a 5.2 which was unfelt). These crazy earthquakes might be something to be expected in the years to come. What could cause it? Plates that we didn't know existed before? Oil rigs digging too deep? We truly don't know -- but as a state, we need to investigate this.

I go on a boat often and today I was off the Gulf of Mexico fishing -- this type of event does not make me happy, as it can cause some tremendous waves (remember the Indonesian tsunamis?). Residents from as far away as Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana also felt the earthquake. No one wants to create panic, but this type of disaster is far more dangerous than hurricanes, as it cannot be detected by radar two weeks prior.

What Lessons Can We Learn From This Philosophically?

You can't take each day for granted. What we are sure of in the past may not exist in the future. As in this event, we were so sure that Florida would never get major earthquakes, yet in September of 2006, we got our first ever major earthquake. Don't take for granted the days you have on this earth or what is sure. Make up the mistakes that you've had, tell your love ones that you love them, correct your regrets, do the best that you can, go back to school for that degree, or finish off a project that you've been putting off.


What Lessons Can We Learn From This Biblically?

The Bible clearly has some guidance on this in Mark 13:7-8 in this time of turmoil. "When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains."

Clearly, these signs need to occur before the time of the end and the events of our war on terrorism among others are just an introduction of what's to come.

Experiences By Other People

"It was originally reported as a 5.8 and recently upgraded to a 6.0," said Tim Sedlock of the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

"I felt the tremor, my computer screen monitor shook and I could feel a little shaking on the floor," said Scott Kelly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

"I was just sitting here in my little condo when my chair started rocking. It felt strong to me and I wondered if other people felt it," said Rockledge resident Lina Norwood sitting in her second-story condominium.

"This is a fairly unique event...” said Don Blakeman, an analyst with the National Earthquake Information Center. “This kind of occurrence is unusual in that spot, especially for an earthquake of this size.”

''I didn't give it a lot of thought then I heard people talking and I put it together...", said Sally Mayse of Bradenton.

''My bed shook and probably the whole room,'' said Mary Scottoline from Miami. ``It shook once and then it shook again.''

"Some people definitely felt a little shaking in counties along the Gulf Coast," said Mike Stone, a spokesman for the state's Division of Emergency Managemen.

"As far as a fault area, there are no major subduction zones...it's a rare place historically for an earthquake," said Guy Urban, an expert at the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.

"It's undoubtedly a strange event, you can get earthquakes in very unexpected places...", said Chris Harrison, a geophysicist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Mary Ruiz of Holmes Beach was leaving a supermarket when she felt "an extraordinary change in motion."

Diane H Rosser on a web log said, "I live in Jackson, Butts Co., GA and there were tremors here this morning. That’s why I checked the AJC site to see if there was a report of an earthquake near us."

John Creviston reported on a web log said, "I was laying in bed about 11:00 Sunday morning and felt the bed shake very subtly. Then a few minutes later I felt the bed shake again. I was a little harder, but still very subtle. It was enough to make me look at the clock - 11:09 AM. I live around Clairmont and I-85. I thought it may had been from a sonic boom from a 9-11 memorial service or something since may services start at 11:00 on Sunday mornings, but Sunday was 9-10. I did not hear any boom so I thought it was far off. It did cross my mind that a large terrorist bomb had gone off. Then I saw on CNN a few hours later about the earthquake."

Taylor Jackson said, "I was sitting in my 7th story condo in Ormond Beach, FL (near Daytona Beach) when my building began to sway. I thought I was just imagining it, however it happened again a few seconds later. At that point we figured that it was a quake. It was strong enough to rattle our windows and rattle dishes in the china cabinet."

Juan Ruiz said, "I just moved down to Tampa a month ago and I only thought I had to contend with Hurricanes. Well, this morning, while eating breakfast I noticed my table shaking and for a split second I thought it was an earthquake, but I’m in Tampa, not California! So I thought it was my crazy neighbors having a good time, somehow shaking the building. I mean what else could it have been? Well, I came to ajc.com to see how the dirty birds beat down the panthers and I was flabergasted to see an article confirm that it was an earthquake… Crazy! Oh yeah, and Tampa lost!!! Go Falcons!"

John Shaw said, "I was sitting at my computer desk,here in Covington, Ga., when the desk began shaking back and forth maybe 5 or six times, then a few second pause, then shook again for about the same duration."

Stacy Dumas said, "I was sitting outside, reading the paper, when it felt like someone was shaking my deck. I thought I was losing it. Good to know I wasn’t. LaGrange, GA"

Who controls the oil and gas prices? YOU DO!

Are gas prices high compared to previous years?
Actually no. In 1981, gas was actually more expensive (roughly 20-27 cents more) than now! This is with inflation being factored in. (Source: Gibson Consulting)

Who controls the oil prices?
This is simple. Supply and demand. The more you demand, and the less supply, the higher the price. Americans dominate the demand in the world market. Consider these facts:

• Americans are 5% of the world population but consume almost half the demand of gasoline around the world. (Source: Gibson Consulting) This is INCREDIBLE! We are only 5% of the world yet we take in nearly half the demand of the world's gas! Why is that? Because we want our lawns cut, we need big trucks, we have large RVs, boats, etc. Everything that moves in America burns gas!
  
• America consumes roughly 20 million barrels a day, that's 13,889 barrels every minute! (Source: Howstuffworks)
  
• It takes 14 Exxon oil ships just to feed America's hunger for gas for ONE day. (Source: Howstuffworks)
  

YOU THE CONSUMER HAVE THE POWER TO LOWER GAS PRICES!
You as the consumer have the power to lower gas prices. Here are some tips:

• Not overspeeding reduces gas consumption in boats, cars, etc.
  
• Car pooling with friends and family.
  
• Choosing vehicles with 30+ miles per gallon.
  
• Walking instead of driving to nearby places (if it is safe).
  
• Educating others so they know that they control the market.
  

Why the world misses Steve Irwin

All across the world, people are mourning. News articles around the world highlight Irwin's life and pay homage to a man that introduced animals to kids. Australia's prime minister is offering a state sponsored funeral. The U.S. embassy in Australia has paid their respects, and fans across the globe have sent in flowers and cards to Irwin's zoo in Queensland, Australia.

Why the world misses Steve Irwin...
Steve is soundly missed by kids around the world. I consider myself a big kid, so I guess I'm missing him too. He was the original animal showmaker, the one that offered a documentary of animals in a unique way -- up close and personal.

He was an alternative to the common media of sex, drugs, and vanity. His programming was wholesome. Kids thought of him as a hero, and someone they could look up to. Many veterinarians and zoologists that will be graduating in the next decade or so have been inspired by him.

I liked him because he showed God's creatures as unique. He showed that mother nature did offer mankind recreation, that there are wonders and curiosities left untouched on our earth that needs to be protected and nortured.

And lastly, Steve Irwin introduced the word, "Crikey!" His full-of-energy personality was original and unescapable, and "Crikey!" represented his character and his energy. He was the Energizer bunny on steriods.

Goodbye Steve Irwin, may we see you in heaven -- on the flip side, the animals don't sting.

SHOCKED: Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dies of freak stingray accident

I wish this was a joke, but Steve Irwin, died of a freak stingray accident yesterday. He was diving and was stung by a stingray to his chest (near his heart). Irwin died soon after being hit by the barb while he was filming a documentary at Batt Reef, near Low Isles off Port Douglas in north Queensland, Australia. Doctors and biologists around the world consider this accident "rare" and "unusual" -- stingrays do not usually inflict this type of damage.

I don't know of anyone that didn't enjoy watching Steve as he traveled across the world, documenting all types of animals and critters...and of course, crocodiles.

He will be sadly missed by his family and by his fans. He died doing what he loved the most -- showing what animals can do.