Current Recession Already One Of The Longest Ever

With the latest economic news showing that the nations economy shed over 531,000 jobs in just the month of November alone it would appear that the current recession is not only showing no signs of slowing down but is in fact picking up speed. As recessions go it is already one of history's longest. As of December of 2008 this recession is now officially in its 12th month. There have only been three others since the Great Depression that have lasted this long. From May of 1937 till June of 1938 the nation suffered a 13 month long recession. From November of 1973 till March of 1975 we had a 16 month recession. From July of 1981 till November of 1982 another 16 month long recession occurred under President Reagan. After these three the current one is the longest and being that it is showing no signs of improvement we have yet to see if it will in fact end up being the longest period of economic contraction in the last 70 years.

Somali Pirates Get More Daring With Each Attack

A lot of people in the world were surprised to find out that piracy still existed when news came out of Africa that ships were being hijacked on the high seas off the coast of Somalia. The total so far is that 17 vessels have been successfully attacked and held with a total crew of over 300 who are being held for ransom. What is surprising to many is the size of the vessels that are being gone after. A cargo ship captured on September 25, 2008 was over 500 feet long. A Saudi oil tanker captured on November 15, 2008 is over 1000 feet long. The most recent news is that a cruise liner was attacked but it was able to get away by simply outrunning it's would be hijackers but not before several shots were fired at it and some bullet holes were pierced through its hull. Several naval vessels from countries around the world are now patrolling the area where the attacks occurred in an attempt to cut down on this activity but even they admit they cant be everywhere all the time and that this action still may not stop all the hijacking. The problem is getting so bad that many shipping firms that do business in the region are considering avoiding the waters around Somalia all together and just sailing their vessels around the entire continent of Africa to get around the problem. This move is both more expensive and time consuming and will add cost to the amounts payed for the goods shipped when they finally reach consumers.

The New Mars Rover Is Bigger And Better

The scientists at NASA are still gathering both data and images from the last two rovers that it launched to Mars years after they were expected to go dead. Spirit and Oppourtunity are still running around the surface taking pictures of all they see. They are certainly going to be a tough act to follow but NASA thinks it can do it. They are calling it the Mars Science Laboratory and it will include technology based on the lessons learned from their two great and long lasting rovers running all over Mars now more than 4 years after thier mission began (The rovers were expected to last only a few months with a little luck) and have been astonishing all with their staying power. The new rover will not only be built tougher but much larger and heavier too. It is just about 9 feet long and well over 200 pounds and will be powered by plutonium which should give it much more kick than it needs. Among its features it will have on board a neutron gun which it will use to fire at the ground in an attempt to detect any kind of ice beneath the surface. If there is ice then that is water and if there is water than there is the possibility of life either microbial or other and that is among the mysteries that NASA is trying to get to the bottom of with these missions. The Mars Science Laboratory (God I hope they can come up with a better name than that - why not call it MAC or something) is set for launch sometime in 2009.

Government Bailout Costing Taxpayers Trillions

With the decision just coming down today that the government has decided to rescue Citicorp with another 20 billion dollar handout in addition to the 25 billion it gave it a little over a month ago it made me wonder just how much has the government spent so far bailing out corporations with taxpayer money? Well if you add it all up so far the figure is about 7.4 trillion dollars. This figure includes money that has already been spent in addition to money that has been alotted and is being considered for other corporations such as GM. To give you an idea of just how much help that is the entire U.S. economy added up would total about 15 trillion. In addition one should consider that these "Loans" will not even guarantee that these companies will not return to "Uncle Sam" 3, 4, or even 6 months from now asking for even more which is probably likely.

Poverty In America

It should come as no surprise to anyone that under President Bush poverty in the United States increased. According to The U.S. Department of Agriculture over 320,000 U.S. households were forced to cut back on food consumption for their children due to a lack of money to buy food in 2007. This figure is up from just over 220,000 who had to do the same in 2006. The U.S.D.A. estimates that 1 in 25 U.S. households had to cut back on the purchase of food or limit their purchases because of a lack of money. 1 in 14 households had to utilize some kind of assisstance program such as food stamps or visiting a food pantry in order to meet their food needs both for themselves and their children. 1 in 6 households could not afford to but enough food to adequately feed all its members. That translates to a little over 16% of U.S. households who have members who go hungry on a daily basis.

The Monotracer: Coolest New Car On Earth

Finally some clever engineer came up with it. A vehicle that combines the features of both a motorcycle and a car. Called the Monotracer it looks like a cross between a motorbike, a car, and something you would see flying around in an episode of The Jetsons. You will be able to zip around traffic because it is not any wider than a conventional bike while at the same time you and a passenger will be in air conditioned spendor inside the dome that is made of Kevlar, which is the same stuff they make some parts of suspention bridges out of, just in case you can't keep your balance on its two wheels. It has windshield wipers for the front window, which is made of carbon fibers so it wont shatter, plus a roll cage that is made of aluminum hidden cleverly just beneath the skin of the outer surface. It is as energy efficient as anything on the road now getting about 65 miles to a gallon and it can go from zero to 62 M.P.H. in less than 5 seconds. So if you want the speed and manuverability of a motorcycle, the fuel efficiency of a compact car and beyond, and the safety of a reinforced protective dome you should give it a look maybe. In addition its futuristic style should cause heads to turn.

Cell Phone Sales Exceed 1 Billion For First Time

It seems that people all around the world love to talk and talk and talk especially to people that they dont have right in front of them at the time. For the first time in the history of the world the total number of cell phones sold in one year exceeded 1 billion worldwide. In 2007 1.15 billion cell phones were sold to chatty consumers all around the world. This represents an increase from 990 million in 2006. The company that has benefitted the most is Apple. The company sold millions of its I-phones around the world in 07 making it the third largest cell phone retailer in the world. It is still behind South Korean Firm Samsung which is still the worlds leader. Sales have already slowed down however due to the worldwide recession that is just beginning to take hold and sales have dropped from these historic highs this year.

Vatican Updates Seven Deadly Sins

In an attempt to keep up with modern times the vatican has updated its seven deadly sins with seven more modern ones it calls social sins. The seven new ones are:

1. Bioethical sins
2. "Morally Dubious Experiments" --- Such as Stem Cell Research
3. Drug abuse
4. Causing Pollution
5. Social Injustice
6. Being very wealthy -- wealth in great excess
7. Creating Poverty or causing poverty

Total U.S. War Dead And Wounded So Far

The war on terror has gone on now basically ever since we invaded Afganistan in October of 2001. It has cost the nation over 600 billion dollars and counting and thousands of lives. Here is a precise look at how many so far. These figures are official as of November 8th, 2008 and have been estimated where ever precise figures are not possible. The total number of American dead in Iraq: 4193. Total number of war dead since George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech (5-1-03): 4054. Toal dead since the capture of Saddam (12-13-03): 3732. Total wounded: 30,774. This figure is official but unofficial estimates have placed this number at over 100,000. Total number of U.S. dead in Afganistan: 626. Estimated number of Iraqi dead since the invasion of Iraq began (4-19-03): 1,284,105.

Flying Windmills May Point The way to Energy Future

There is an interesting attempt going on to try and make the idea of wind power actually generate enough energy to be useful. A company in california called Sky Wind Power has already designed a device that it calls A Flying Electric Generator (FEG). Working in conjunction with an engineer named Bryan Roberts from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia the idea simply put is a flying windmill. What it would do is harness the power of the high winds that blow in the upper altitudes of the atmosphere. Up in the sky between about 15,000 feet and 45,000 feet the winds that circulate around the world can blow at speeds of up to 200 M.P.H. The idea is that they would build a plane type structure that would float up in the sky not unlike a glider and be maintained in flight by the winds while at the same time it would have rotating propellers that would spin like windmills and generate energy. They would have a tether connecting them to a power station (The power grid) on the ground that would convert the energy produced to electricity. Basically they would be like kites in the sky collecting energy. It has been estimated that if a mere 1% of the power of these winds that exist in the upper atmosphere could be harnessed that it would be able to provide enough energy to meet the worlds current entire demand levels without doing any damage or polluting of the enviornment. All the research at the company has been done and the only thing they need now is a $4 million dollar investment in order to build the first prototype.

Buildings Being Built With Cement That Eats Smog

There is a new and interesting way of going about reducing smog and other pollutants in the air in Italy. They are using a cement that has been developed that will actually (or so they claim) significantly reduce the amount of pollution on a given street simply by paving the sidewalks and buildings with it. It is called TX Active and it took nearly 10 years to develop by a firm called Italcementi. It is ordinary cement that is mixed with a substance called Titanium Dioxide which it is believed breaks down smog into its componant parts and basically eliminates it from the air and leaves freash, clean air to breathe. They have tested the new cement by paving it all over a busy street in Italy and they claim that the amount of smog on that street has been reduced by 60%. An added benefit is that the residents of the street have been noticing that the buildings do not appear to be getting as dirty and blackened by smog and soot as they used to. A company called The Essroc Cement Corporation has begun producing the stuff now in North America.

The Secret Service Just Became Much More Important

On November 4th there was a call from the public for big changes to occur in the direction that this country is going. So much so that the constituants were willing to make an historic change by electing the nations first black president. Consider how important that makes the Secret Service now in light of that fact. They have always been important and even vital but never more so than now. The installation of the first black president still will not change the reality that the United States is still in many ways a nation divided by race. There are certain elements of the population that were not interested in having a black president and they are still not. It would not be shocking to anyone to believe that there are likely to be individuals or groups who are plotting already to reverse the change that the country has made with this historic election. Protecting every president is important but this one is a special case in many ways as we all know. If this particular president were to be asassinated it would be a disaster for the nation especially in terms of race relations. When Martin Luthur King Jr. was killed in April of 1968 there were race riots in over 100 U.S. cities that lasted for the better part of one week. The amount of damage was estimated to be in the billions. This time around such an occurance would likely be worse. The African American community would not react in such a way upon the assassination of a white president. They may well react this way if such a fate were to meet Obama. That makes the Secret Service and their work infinately more important guarding this president than perhaps any other. If they fail this country faces the possibility of tearing itself apart from within and inflicting upon itself a wound from which it may never recover.

First few years Will Likely Be Rough For Obama

It is undeniable that the euphoria that has arisen in the wake of President Elect Obama's victory on this past November 4th is Kennedy like. The country feels to me like it is taking a deep breath and a long sigh of relief and placing a good deal of hope for the future in the newly minted president. It is at this time important to remember that after his initial honeymoon period that times will begin to get rough for him. No new president escapes it. When a new administration comes in the public both hopes and expects big positive changes to occur and when they dont materialize quickly the initial joy that was expressed begins to fade into disappointment. Even the "Great Communicator" himself Ronald Reagan had these rough times. When reagan took office in 1981 the economy was in a similar state than what Obama is facing now. His policies were enacted quickly to effect changes especially after Reagan survived his assassination attempt but the results were lagging. Reagan was well into the third year of his first term and the economy had still failed to respond to his stimulus initiatives and as a result his popularity had dropped significantly. It had gotten so bad for Reagan that he privately was even considering not running for a second term because he felt he had little chance to win a victory because he was so unpopular by that point. He had to constantly give speeches urging the public to be patient and "Stay The Course." Fortunately for Reagan the economy responded just in time for the 1984 election cycle and it saved both his presidency and his legacy. This little bit of history would serve us well now to recall and help us understand that Obama faces the same situation likely. He will make changes and attempt to stimulate the economy but the fruits of these efforts will likely be years away. It is important to remember this and understand it. Even Ronald Reagan came within a few short months of just being a one term president and a presidential failure. Which of these futures is in store for Obama is something that sound policies, time, and a little bit of luck will determine.

Ten Interesting Facts About The World

This blogpost is just about ten interesting facts that i have come across over the last few months that i have been doing research for the articles on my blog. I thought they were very interesting and i hope you do too.

1. The Earth is the only planet that is not named after a pagan god.
2. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
3. The wingspan of a 747 jetliner is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight.
4. The National Orchestra of the nation of Monaco is larger than its army.
5. Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest person ever to serve as Defense Secretary. (He served under Bush and under President Ford in the 1970's)
6. 90% of plane crashes have survivors.
7. Iceland has the worlds largest concentration of broadband internet users.
8. The Himalayas cover 10% of the Earths surface.
9. Every U.S. president has had glasses.
10. The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

Reality Check: Edison Did Not Invent The Light Bulb

Can you believe that it has been over 130 years now and there are still people out there who think that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb? The simple truth about it is that it was not the case. The actual inventor was a British physicist named Joseph Swan (1828-1914). He began working on the idea in 1850 and it took him ten years to actually have a working model. Initially the device had problems. The light did not work very well and did not last very long and after struggling with it for a while Swan abandoned the idea and did not return to it for 15 years. By 1875 he had tackled it again and improved its performance and received another patent for the improved design in 1878 which is almost a full year before Thomas Edison announced his breakthrough with light in 1879. As it turned out Edison's version was almost an exact copy of Swans idea. Swan sued him in court and won and in 1883 it forced Edison to go into business with swan to form a joint company called The Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company, a.k.a. Ediswan. In the deal that they struck Edison retained the rights to the invention in The U.S. while Swan kept the rights in the U.K. They both spent the following years lighting up the lives up their fellow citizens on both sides of the Atlantic with this invention.

Black Church Burned After Election In Boston

Anybody who knows anything about the city of Boston will tell you that it is not the most racially tolerant place in the world and now comes an incident involving a fire in a black church just hours after the election of the nations first black president and off the record investigators are calling it suspicious. Firefighters were called to the Macedonia Church of God In Christ at a little after 3 a.m. on November 5th and found the church was in flames and immediately set out to put out the fire. The flames were put out but not before officials estimated that there were about 2 million dollars in damage done to the building. The timing of it has police and citizens of Boston suspecting that the fire might have been deliberately set and may have had something to do with the results of the presidential election earlier that night. Officials are not stating this publicly for the record but they are suspecting. Federal investigators have been called in to look over the incident.

Solar Panels Might Finally Become Viable--Finally!

It is common knowledge that a move to solar power and away from fossil fuels would be good for the planet but the trouble with it is that its been too expensive a move to make for most of the public. Usually having solar panels installed on a home's rooftop can run anywhere between $25,000 -$50,000 and more. Now there is a company that makes these panels and they say that they can make them cheaply and it has the potential to change everything. The company is called NanoSolar and they are a new company based in San Jose, California. They manufacture what they call "Thin Film Solar Panels." The first thing that is different about them is that they are very light weight. So light in fact that they can actually be carried easily which is a marked difference from the usual heavy, bulky, and thick solar panels that are the standard today. The other big difference is the way that they are manufactured is radically different too. Usually silicon solar panels are complicated to make and require several steps not the least of which is that they have to be baked at high temperatures. The new thin film panels do not require that and as a result production costs are lowered and the panels can be manufactured faster and in greater numbers. Because of their light weight they are much easier to transport and can be delivered and installed quicker and faster as well. In addition to the technology being superior in general all these other factors work to help drive down the cost. We may finally be looking at a viable and affordable solar technology.

Bionic Contact Lenses Are New And Super Cool

Like everything else in the universe even contact lenses are making a quantum leap technologically speaking into the future. A researcher named Babak Parviz from the University of Washington has created a set of contact lenses that will be able to project a dispaly over the lens itself so that the wearer can view it just like the cockpit on a fighter jet. You will be able to view any kind of data such as maps, images, and other information right on the lens. The whole thing will work with the help of tiny L.E.D. (light emitting diodes) which will be embedded within the lens itself and can be powered by either radio waves and or solar cells. This of course can only mean the the coolest people in the world in the future are going to be the near-sighted and the far-sighted.

New Fingerprint Technology Will Solve More Crime

Imagine what law enforcement agencies would be able to do if they could still lift a fingerprint from a gun even if the prints have been totally wiped off. An English physicist named John Bond has developed a technique for doing just that. It seems that even after a fingerprint has been wiped off of a surface there is still some residual matter left behind and Mr. Bond had developed a way to uncover it. His method involves the use of an electrical charge which when combined with a fine carbon powder will reveal that residual matter on a surface and in many cases the entire fingerprint can be clearly revealed. This new discovery will open up a wealth of possibilities for police and other investigators because it will allow them not only to solve crimes that are taking place in the present but also to go back into their files and open up some of their cold cases and solve crimes that have not been able to be solved up until now with this new crime fighting tool. The technology is less than 6 months old and already it has begun to help in doing exactly that.

An Old Idea Of Einstein's Being Looked At Again

Albert Einstein came up with a few good ideas in his life. Some of them are more famous than others and an old one that had until now been largely forgotten is being looked at again. It is little known by the public that early in the 2oth century Albert Einstein actually dabbled in inventions and he came up with as it turns out an eco-friendly design for a refrigerator that he and a collaborator actually patented in 1930. His refrigerator design is different from the traditional fridge in that instead of using freon, which is a chemical that is contributing to the problem of global warming worldwide, his design cools the inside of a fridge using amonia, butane, and water. It is also incredibly energy efficient. His original idea is being looked at now and studied as to whether it can be in fact implemented and brought to the market place for consumers to consider.

Researchers Working On An Earth Friendly Fuel

Imagine being able to fill up your car gas tank with a fuel that had no carbon in it and thereby posed no threat to the enviornment. Well this guilt free driving experience may be coming in the future. Researchers at Arizona State University are attempting to grow an Algae that they would be able to turn into a biofuel that would work just as well as gasoline in your cars gas tank only without the harmful global warming exhaust coming out of the back. Algae consume carbon dioxide when they grow so the stuff would not have any in it to spit out into the enviornment when it is burned in your cars combustion engine. The added benefit is that it will not cut into the supply of food for people to eat like the biofuels that are used now such as sugarcane and corn because algae cannot be eaten, it is not a food source. The reason the price of food has been skyrocketing in the last few years is due in large part to the fact that nearly 1/3 rd of the crops that farmers have been growing in this country has been going to make biofuels. This has lowered the amount of food available to buy for consumers and as a result the price for many foods has shot up because the demand for food has remained the same and the supply shrunk. If this works and it can indeed be pulled off it will be a win/win for the earth and the people living on it.

Global Seed Vault Opens For Business

As the saying goes "if you build it they will come" and they have built it and it is up and running. What it is and what it is for has everything to do with insuring that there will be enough food for future generations in the event of a catastrophic agricultural disaster or nuclear event. The Global Seed vault has opend in a northern region of Norway on an island called Spitsbergen. It is designed to be a warehouse for seeds of every kind from around the world. Almost every country in the world has donated seeds that are native to its region for storage. In the event of a catastrophy there will be fresh seeds available for planting and new food can be grown and insure the survival of the human species. It has been deliberately located near the Arctic circle because the thinking was that the freezing climate would do well to preserve the seeds for many thousands of years it is estimated. The vault can hold up to 4.5 million seed samples at a temperature of -18 degrees.

Lincoln-Kennedy Assassination Coincidences

It is not that unusual to have a coincidence or two occur between two events in life but the sheer number of them that exist between both Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy, who served a century apart is really uncanny. Consider some of them:
1. Lincoln was elected to Congress for the first time in 1846. J.F.K. in 1946.
2. Lincoln elected president in 1860, J.F.K. in 1960. Lincoln was also nominated for vice-president in 1856 and John Kennedy was nominated for vice-president in 1956.
3. Both had last names containing 7 letters and both had assassins who's names contained 15 letters.
4. Both men suffered the loss of a child while president.
5. Both men were shot on a Friday and both were shot in the head.
6. Both had Vice-Presidents named Johnson who succeeded them.
7. Lincoln's V.P. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, Kennedy's V.P. Lyndon Johnson born in 1908.
8. Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth shot him in a theater and attempted to escape by running to a warehouse. Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shot him from a warehouse and attempted to avoid capture by running into a theater.
9. Both assassins were killed before going to trial.
10. President Lincoln was shot in a theater called Ford's Theater and president Kennedy was shot in an automobile built by the Ford Motor Company. The car was called a Ford Lincoln Continental.

There is one myth however that has lingered for a while and as it turns out is not true. The one that states President kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln and that president Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy. While it is true that Kennedy had a personal secretary named Evelyn Lincoln there is nothing to indicate that President Lincoln had anyone in his administration who was named kennedy at all. Lincoln's two White House secretary's were named John Nicolay and John Hay. But even here there is almost a coincidence sort of. Both of Lincoln's secretary's had President Kennedy's first name.

India Enters Space Race With Rocket Moon Launch

Along with the growing number of nations around the world that will be joining the club of countries with nuclear weapons and capabilities there are also a number of nations that are now entering the space race for the first time. The latest one is India. On october 22nd The Asian nation of 1.2 billion people launched an unmanned spacecraft it calls Chandrayaan 1 (translates to Mooncraft 1). The rocket is set to orbit the moon for two years during which time it will attempt to map the lunar surface. This launch comes only a year after China launched its first rocket into space. The launch took place from the Satish Dhawan space center which is located in the southern part of India. This now makes 4 the number of countires that are active in their space exploration. The list would be 5 if you included the European Space Agency (E.S.A.) which is a joint effort on the part of several European nations that combine their resouces and efforts. The total list now includes the U.S., Russia, China, India, and the E.S.A.

God Bless The U.S.A. As They Say

Some people take it for granted in this country that you can say whatever you want to say, for the most part anyway without getting into any real trouble. In some parts of the world it is not the case. Take Afganistan for example. An Afgan man was recently convicted of blasphemy because he was critical of womens rights under Islam and he dared to say so. His original sentence was death. The powers that be over there had second thoughts and commuted his sentence to a mere 20 years in prison. If This is the kind of stuff that goes on in countries that are supposed to be our allies well then God help us all. Imagine going to jail for 20 years because you expressed an opinion that someone else did not like. The world can be a crazy place sometimes and it keeps proving that over and over again.

Study Says Panhandlers Do Better Than Workers

A new study that was recently undertaken in the city of Spokane, Washington indicates that being a panhandler may actually be a more lucrative choice in terms of making money than actually doing the old 9-5 jobs in some instances. The report indicated that some successful panhandlers are capable of making somewhere between $30-$40 an hour. Minimun wage in the U.S. right now is about $7 an hour and the average American worker is currently making about $19 an hour. The study also indicated that most panhandlers are not actually homeless as they claim to be and many of them suffer from substance abuse problems and alcohol issues and that very often the money they collect goes towards these ends and also in many instances they have criminal records.

Billionaire Nearly Loses A Billion Betting On Auto Stocks

For most people the name does not ring familiar to them like that of other billionaires like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates and he may not have quite the billions that they have but he has done quite well for himself anyway thanks. His name is Kirk Kerkorian and he is living proof that even the most successful among us do not always get it right. Kerkorian is 91 years old this year. He is president and C.E.O. of his own private holding company called Tracinda Corp. Forbes magazine estimated that his net worth in 2008 was about 18 billion dollars and that placed him at number 41 on the worlds list of richest people. He recently placed his faith in the future of the Ford Motor Company when in the spring of 2006 he bought up about 1 billion dollars worth of the companies stock when the price was hovering between $8 and $9 a share. Well as of this monday the price for a share of Ford stock was fluctuating between $2 and $3. Kerkorian has apparently had enough and is looking to get rid of the stock and is willing to take a loss of about 800 million dollars in the process. This is proof positive that the stock market is a gamble even for the most successful among us and sometimes it can go really badly for even the most experienced investor.

What Really May Have Caused The Hindenburg Disaster

It is one of the most memorable disasters ever to have been captured on film. On May 6th, 1937 The great German airship Hindenburg was reduced from a majestic, soaring collossis hovering peacefully in the sky to a roaring ball of flames crashing into the ground while mooring at a naval air base in lakehurst, New Jersey. The 800 foot airship took less than one minute to destruct and of the 97 aboard (36 passengers and 61 crew) 35 died (13 passengers and 22 crew) leaving 62 survivors. Most people have heard the audio commentary of reporter Herbert Morrisson and his famous exclamation "....Oh The Humanity..." as he witnessed the disaster first hand and was overcome with so much emotion that he could no longer speak.
For decades it has been suspected that the cause of the accident may have been the fact that the airship was filled with a flammable gas called hydrogen instead of the much safer and non-flammable helium with which most airships were inflated. It is well known from the footage of the disaster that when the Hindenburg was attempting to moor it was a rainy day with thunder and lightning booming in the area. The theory goes that perhaps with all the static electricity in the atmosphere on that day that it somehow must have sparked the hydrogen on board the airship and caused it to explode in a fireball. This sequence of events has been accepted ever since the accident occured but in more recent years has been challenged by some scientists and experts and been replaced with other possibilities. One of the more interesting ones is that it was not the hydrogen that caused the explosion that occured but instead may have been the paint that coated the entire surface of the airship. Research has uncovered that the paint that was used to give the Hindenburg its shiny mirror like metallic appearance contained iron oxide which is an ingredient that is used to make rocket fuel in addition to some other chemicals which would have made it extremely flammable. They claim that the proof lies in the footage of the disaster itself. On the tape of the tragedy it can be seen that after the initial spark starts a fire in the tail of the airship that it is the outer surface of the ship that is consumed by flames first and that the flames ran along the outside and spread. That is the part of the ship where the metallic paint was present. If it had been the hydrogen exploding then there would have been additional explosions following the initial one and they would have originated from within the sections of the airship where the hydrogen was stored in its internal tanks. Another fact revealed in the footage is that the Hindenburg was still air born for several seconds while it was being consumed by flames on the outside of the ship which would indicate that the hydrogen inside the internal tanks had not yet caught fire and was still functioning to keep the ship floating above the ground.

The Truth About Botox

We have all seen them on TV by now. The current batch of aging female celebrities mostly who all have that familiar swollen face botox look. Probably the most noticable among them would be people like Meg Ryan and Nicole Kidman but there are in fact a universe of stars who use the drug in an attempt to lessen the wrinkles and laugh lines that appear on ones face as they age and can often be fatal to an actresses movie career. What they may not know is that the drug that they are turning to in order to turn back the hands of time is in fact one of the more seriously dangerous poisons out there.
Botox, (A.K.A. Botulinum toxin) is a neurotoxic protein and a powerful bacteria that can cause sickness and death. It also has the brand names Dysport and Myobloc. It does have the ability to improve the appearance of wrinkles around the eyes and face and because of this has become popular as a cosmetic treatment. The way it reduces wrinkles is by paralizing the muscles underneath the skin at the injection site. When it does this it reduces and diminishes the appearance of laugh lines and frown lines on the face causing a more youthful appearance. The effect is temporary however usually lasting about 4 months or so. After that time the treatment has to be repeated to maintain the desired effect.
There are side effects. Among them are the fact that for some reason the botox treatments may in some cases cause the patient to have droopy eyelids. This usually lasts a few weeks. It also causes Flu like feelings which may last a few weeks as well. Headaches may occur and also upset stomachs. The biggest risk is that of botulism (poisoning). If the doctor injecting the botox is not careful enough and injects too much of the stuff it will lead to a life or death illness known as botox poisoning which when aquired makes it hard for the patient to move their arms or legs (paralasis). Usually however the cause of death in these instances is due to the fact that the patients lungs become effected and they lose their ability to breathe and this causes death. This has occured in some patients in a few reported instances.
A form of botulinum toxin has also been used as a terror weapon in an attempt to kill a large number of people in a rather famous incident of bio-terror in Japan that took place in March of 1995. A religious group that had declared war on the government of Japan went down into the subway of Tokyo and released a poisonous gas that containd a neurotoxin that is related to botulinum toxin. The attack killed 12 people and injured 6000. It could have been much worse. The reason it was not was because the group that lauched the attack failed to properly weaponize (prepare) the neurotoxins and as a result the gas when released into that subway was not nearly as effective as it would have been had it been prepared correctly. Instead of having thousands dead you had thousands who were badly effected but lived. The only people that died were the 12 people who were in the immediate area where the gas was initially released. The U.S. has even studied the possibility of using Botulinum toxin as a chemical weapon for use in war but they abandoned the idea in favor of easier, cheaper, and more proven poisons.

Florida Man Jailed For Neglecting His Front Lawn

Sometimes the neighbors that we end up stuck with can be the biggest problems that we face in life and civic associations can be funny things. Here is a case in point. Recently in Florida a retiree named Joseph Prudente had to spend a night in jail for failing to maintain the front lawn of a house he has been living in for ten years.
In 1998 Prudente retired and moved to florida after buying a home there. Everything has been going well until the recent economic downturn began to effect his family. His step daughter had to move into his house along with her husband and her two kids. Prudente's retirement income has been stretched to the limit while he tries to help feed and clothed his family and so he has been forced to neglect matters such as the front lawn due to a lack of money. A neighborhood watchdog group called The beacon woods civic association which runs around worrying about these kinds of things began to notice that Prudente's front lawn just was not being maintained according to a standard that is set out in a neighborhhod rule book about the maintanance of lawns and property. They sent him a warning letter telling him to resolve the issue or they would take action. Prudente, who did not have the money to resolve the issue ended up having to ignore the lawn and instead opted to use his limited funds to buy things like food for his family and to pay his mortgage. The Civic association once they saw no action being taken on the lawn decided to take him to court. The judge in the case did not want to hear about any of Prudente's problems and ordered him to fix his lawn within 30 days or face the possibility of going to jail. After 30 days Prudente still did not have the money to fix his lawn so he turned himself in and had to spend 1 night in jail.
The matter got resolved by a kind neighbor who came to Prudente's rescue the following day, Andy Law. Mr. Law organized some helpers from the neighborhood and gathered up some supplies and they went to work fixing up Prudente's front lawn. The civic association dropped its complaint against Mr. Prudente the next day and he was released from jail after the lawn had been taken care of to the associations satisfaction.

Species Disappearing At An Excellerated Rate

It is no surprise to anyone that more and more of the world's animal species are going extint but they are doing so at a rate that is faster than in the past. According to The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (I.U.C.N.) They estimate that about 20% of the worlds mammals are now threatened with extinction and that within the next few years the figure could rise to almost 40%. They believe that 1/5th of all mammals, 1/7th of all birds, and 1/3rd of all amphibians are all threatened in a serious way with extinction in the next several years. Their research covered a five year span and cullled data from over 1700 scientists around the world to shape their findings and conclusions. They believe that almost 1200 species are at risk to some degree or other but that about 200 of those are seriously at risk and they consider them critically endangered. The biggest reasons according to the I.U.C.N. is the loss of habitat due to the encroachment of man and also to a lesser degree hunting.

Election To Decide Future Of Supreme Court

The presidential election that is set to take place in just over 3 weeks from now will have a big impact not only on the direction that the country is going to take politically for the next 4 to 8 years but it will be big in determining the future bent of the Supreme court for decades to come. The current make up of the Court has a heavy lean to the right with 7 of the current 9 justices having been appointed by republican presidents. Only 2 of the current justices serving were appointed by a president who was a democrat, Bill Clinton. Currently 6 of the 9 justices who are serving on the court are 70 years old or over (well one of the six i counted is 69, David Souter) If John McCain prevails in the November election it is possible that during his term he could appoint enough new justices to actually turn the entire court conservative. The court would in effect have a total lean to the right and this would be the case for decades likely since the appointees are set in place for life. Below is a list of the current make up of the Supreme Court. It lists each member of the court, the year they were appointed, the president who appointed them, and their current age:

John Roberts -------2006--- Bush Jr.--------- 53 years old
Samuel Alito --------2006----Bush Jr.---------58 years old
Steven Breyer------ 1994---- Clinton----------70 years old
Ruth Ginsburg------1993---- Clinton---------- 75 years old
Anthony Kennedy---1988---- Reagan----------72 years old
Antonin Scalia------1986---- Reagan--------- 72 years old
David Souter--------1990---- Bush Sr.-------- 69 years old
John Paul Stevens--1975-----Ford------------ 88 years old
Clerence Thomas---1990---- Bush Sr.-------- 60 years old

Post script - On August 8th, 2009 the newest Supreme Court Justice was placed on the court. Sonia Sotomayor was appointed by President Obama in May of 2009 after Justice David Souter announced his desire to retire from the court by the end of June 2009. Sotomayor is 55 years old.

Golden Gate Bridge To Get Suicide Net

On Friday October 10th Officials in charge of The Golden Gate Bridge In San Francisco voted overwhelmingly in a vote 14-1 to build a net on the bridge that will prevent people from jumping off to their deaths. The Golden Gate Bridge was opened in 1937. It was built in the middle of the Great Depression and ever since it was opened to the public it has attracted some people who have used the bridge as a suicide machine. In the 70 years that the bridge has existed there have been over 1200 people who have jumped from the span to their deaths. So far in 2008 there have been 19. In all of 2007 a total of 38 have died this way. The estimated cost of the project will be somewhere between 40-50 million dollars. Officials considered several plans including doing nothing but settled on a net that will be placed about 20 feet below the walkway where most of the jumpers usually jump from. A similar net idea was considered both in the 1970's and then again in the 1990's but in the end both times nothing was done.

A Simple New Weapon In The Fight Against S.I.D.S.

Doctors are saying that there is a new way to fight the tragedy of S.I.D.S. (sudden Infant death syndrome) and the weapon that you need to fight it with you probably already have in your home. A new study has indicated that running a simple fan in the room where your baby is sleeping will reduce the risk of an occurance of S.I.D.S. by over 70%. The reason for this doctors believe is that fans may prevent an infant from breathing in exhaled carbon dioxide simply by circulating and recirculating the air in the room. Doctors suspect that one of the reasons for the occurance of S.I.D.S. is that infants become oxygen deprived while they are sleeping. They also advise parents to place their infants on their back when they put them in their beds to sleep. Children sleeping on their stomachs is not advised. Having children sleeping on their backs is believed to have cut the number of S.I.D.S. deaths in the United States in half as a practice on its own over the last 15 years.

CEO Knocked Out After Announcing Bankruptcy

It seems that some people are getting a little bit punchy about the bad economy and the meltdown that is currently under way on wall street. Lehman Brothers Chief executive officer Dick Fuld could probably attest to this in a seriously personal way. After having announced the bankruptcy of a company that he has headed for nearly 25 years last Friday on that following sunday he was working out in the companies Gymnasium when suddenly another man in the gym who was weight lifting came over to him and knocked him out. Fuld was on a treadmill and attatched to a heart monitor when the incident happened and according to some sources that are high up in the company was knocked out cold.
Lehman brothers is heavily involved in the current sub prime mortgage mess that is effecting many companies these days. They were the biggest underwriter of subprime debt in 2006 and the nations 4th largest investment bank overall. Despite the poor performance over the last few years Fuld still was paid $22 million in 2007 and handed a bunch of restricted stock that totaled $41 million. The person doing the knocking out was apparently someone who has suffered losses due to Fuld's mismanagement of the company.

Sarah Palin --- Book Banner

Some people who never heard of Sarah Palin's name until a couple of months ago are now beginning to understand her a lot more than they did and their initial enthusiasum about her is beginning to wain a little bit. Her near disasterous interview with CBS new anchor woman Katie Couric has shed some real light on just how little she is prepared to handle the job of even vice president let alone president should the 73 year old John McCain be elected and fail to live to the end of his term in office. Even when she tries to take a shot at her democratic counter part for V.P. Joe Biden by claiming that he is too old and says things like "I remember some of his speaches from when i was in grade school" it came back to bite her because every news person after the remark came up to her to remind her that the person that she is running with on her ticket is the oldest candidate ever to run for the office. John McCain is even older than Ronald Reagan was when he was elected to his first term in 1980. Few people however know about Sarah Palin the book banner. When she first became mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Alaska (population 6000) one of the very first things she did was run out to the town library and ask the librarian who worked there how she could begin to go about banning certain books that she objected to that were on the shelves of the library. The librarian responded back to her with an incredulous look and informed her that they dont ban books here. She proceeded to have her fired. That whole incident too ended up blowing up in her face and she eventually had to have the said librarian returned to her job.
It can make you wonder about how well informed she is about the contents of the Constitution. I would refer her to The Bill Of Rights. Its the first amendment, that refers to freedom of speech among other freedoms. It was the intent of the founding fathers that anyone be free to say and write anything in this country and that it would be up to any individual listening or reading it to determine whether or not they believed it or thought it was valid. They never meant for any politician or government official to ban any type of speech ever. This was one of the reasons the Revolution was fought. 230 years later why is it that this kind of stuff is still around? Because people like Sarah Palin are still around who dont get it all these centuries later. The Nazi's used to ban books and burn them not the Founding Fathers. People like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were too intellectually curious for that kind of nonsense.

Gun Crazy In The U.S.A.

The love affair that has been going on between Americans and their guns has been both a crazy and a long standing one. The United States by far is the country that has the most firearms per person and some of the weakest restrictions to owning guns. It is no wonder in light of these facts that for a long time the United States had the highest murder rates in the world and those rates while they have fallen over the last years still remain high relative to the rates of other countries in the world that are not so "gun Crazy." Here below is a list of the top 5 countries for gun ownership in the world. You will notice that the U.S. is far and away first on the list.

1. U.S. ---------- 89 guns per 100 civilians
2. Yemen ------- 55 guns per 100 civilians
3. Switzerland --46 guns per 100 civilians
4. Finland ------ 45 guns per 100 civilians
5. Serbia ------- 38 guns per 100 civilians

Another Marine Rapes A Japanese Girl This Year

The young women of Okinawa and their families live with a special kind of fear due to the presence of U.S. servicemen there and rightly so. Earlier this year another U.S. marine stationed there raped an underage girl. It is not the first time. On february 10th, 2008 Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38 stationed at camp Courtney in Okinawa raped a 14 year old japanese girl who lived in a nearby town. The case brings to mind a similar incident that took place in 1995 when in which 3 U.S. servicemen basically "gang banged" a 12 year old japanese girl. The incident back then caused horror and outrage among the people of Japan and actually strained relations between the two countries for a while. This time as well the same effect has resulted. The women of Okinawa actually wrote a letter to President George W. Bush in protest. In the letter they demanded U.S. withdrawal from Okinawa claiming the the U.S. servicemen stationed there posed a threat to the safety of their children and are a constant source of fear for them.

Student Goes On Shooting Spree In Finland

We in the United States have had so many school shootings in our country by now that we are all numb to it and have accepted it as a new reality but sometimes these shootings go on overseas in other countries as well. In Finland a 22 year old student went on a shooting spree at a trade school that he attended in the town of Kauhajoki which is about a little less than 200 miles northwest of Helsinki which is the capitol. His attack on the school took the lives of 11 people in total before he died himself. This is the second killing spree that has taken place at a school in Finland since last November when 9 students were killed in a similar attack. Both Incidents have factors that are in common. The most striking of which is that each individual attacker before each incident had uploaded a video onto the website You Tube that was ominous and threatening in its tone. In this latest case the shooter, Matti Juhani Saari had actually been interviewed by police before the attack and questioned about the video and the threats that it contained. After questioning he was released.

Free Gas For Politicians In California

While the driving public struggles with the brave new world of having to pay $3.50 - $4.00 a gallon for gas there is one segment of the population in California that is not feeling that particular strain these days, politicians. One of the perks of being in the California legislature is that you get unlimited use of a charge card for gasoline at taxpayer expense. It has been estimated that in the first 7 months of this year legislators have spent over $220,000 on gas and have sent the bill to the taxpayers of the state. In addition to the free gas courtesy of the everyday taxpayer they get state issued vehicles which is another perk that is usually unavailable in most other states. The gas cards that they use are not limited to just buying gasoline either. They can be used to purchase all sorts of incidentals such as snacks, drinks, and the like.

Republicans Tear Down U.S. Economy Yet Again

If you have been listening to the news lately then you perhaps have some idea about the new economic crisis that is gripping the U.S. economy and the consequences for the American taxpayer. It is estimated that it will take about 700 Billion dollars to bail out the country's most major financial institutions such as fannie Mae and freddie Mac and lenders like AIG and Washington Mutual and there are likely many more to come. The city of new York has estimated that its economy this year will shrink by more than 1.5 billion dollars forcing yet another property tax increase on a city that it is already almost impossible to live in economically. It is no great shock that this disaster comes at the end of a republican administration. It has happened this way before in history.
In 1987 under President Reagan the stock market went into meltdown and lost nearly a quarter of its value in one day after nearly 7 years of republican freewheeling and deregulation of financial institutions and an orgy of military spending that the country could not really afford. The consequences to the economy lasted for years. It was not until the mid 1990's that there was a turn around and then a boom period under President Clinton.
If you want to go even further back you can go to 1923 when Republican Calvin Coolidge became president upon the death of Warren G. Harding. Under harding the "roaring twenties" were already well under way and so were a good many scandals that gripped his administration. Coolidge continued these policies of deregulation and maintained the usual republican stance of keeping a hands off attitude towards capitalism and wall street and letting them just go unregulated. The stock market crashed only a few months after he left office after refusing to seek another term and it left fellow republican Herbert Hoover holding the bag historically. Hoover got blamed in history for all of it.
Usually after a republican period of excess that leaves the country in a mess there is a democrat that rides to the rescue. In 1932 it was Franklin Roosevelt and his new deal and alphabet soup of new organizations that he created to help get Americans back on their feet. Despite his efforts it took years to recover. The U.S. actually did not recover until the arrival of World War 2 in the 1940's really.
In 1992 Bill Clinton came into power and within about 3 years the "dead" economy that he had inherited from both Reagan and George H.W. Bush was humming again and prospered in the late 1990's. It has been estimated that 23 million new jobs were created under Clinton during his presidency.
Now perhaps the stage is set for another demcratic hero in Barak Obama. He is saying the right things. Things like this country has got to get to a place where it starts taxing the wealthy again in order to get them to carry their fair share of the burden proportionally which under republican administrations they are always avoiding. He has also said that the war in Iraq should end which would save U.S. taxpayers currently about 13 billion dollars a month which is money that could be spent on health care and education back here in our own country among other things. If John McCain is elected he has basically said that he is at heart "A De-regulator" and you can expect policies towards wall street that will look very Bush like and we as a country will then be able to go completely over the cliff. The stage is set for Obama to come in and start to turn this thing around. It will take many years for him to achieve this even if he is elected and begins to impliment policies to do it. In November we will see if the working class Americans in this country are going to be smart enough to overlook the color of his skin and focus on the content of his character and make the right move to save the future of this country both for themselves and their children. It is true what they say that history repeats itself but if people are not paying attention to it then the lessons of history are lost.

Controversy Over New Film And Child Rape Scene

A new film opened on friday September 18th in L.A. called "Hounddog" and the controversy that has followed it from its initial premiere at the Sundance film festival opened with it as well. It has been 18 months since it opened at Sundance where it received the cold shoulder from movie distributors and some audiences. The controversy stems from one scene in the film that depicts the rape of a 12 year old girl. The film tells the story of a young girl named Lewellen who one night runs into trouble with a teenage boy and is raped. The story deals with how the young girl copes with what has happened to her and her struggle to overcome it and return to a normal life. The character is played by the young and talented actress Dakota Fanning who has given excellent performances in such films as "War of the Worlds" in which she played Tom Cruise's daughter and "I Am Sam" in which she starred with Sean Penn.
Religious and conservative groups have objected to the use of the 12 year old actress to depict the rape scene and have protested the movie for that reason as well as some other objections. The scene itself is not a very explicit one. it was mostly shot in total darkness and it is mostly the sounds of the victim of the rape shouting at her attacker to "Stop it!" in a loud and horrified tone. Despite this the controversy still continues and now some theater owners are caving in too. There have been to date over 5000 movie theaters that have pulled the film and are no longer showing it due to complaints about the films rape scene.

Mystery Of Stonehenge Possibly Revealed

For decades and in fact even centuries scientists and historians have been debating over what the famous site in England known as Stonehenge was built and used for. The latest theory suggests that it may have possibly been a site dedicated to healing the sick. The site has been dated to about 2300 B.C. and is surrounded by an unusual number of skeletal remains that are dug up from time to time by archeologists who work at the site. The skeletons that are recovered often show signs of having been diseased or physically injured. Two skulls that were recently uncovered scientists believe actually show signs of having had some kind of primitive surgery performed on them. The commonality and consistancy of finding remains that are in that condition has lead researchers to consider that Stonhenge may have been a place for ailing people to go and seek to be cured of their ills.

Beatle Denies Gay Rumors

In the nearly 50 years that the Beatles have been around there have been a million rumors about them. Some true but most were really just a bunch of junk. Here is another junky one. In response to a new biography that has come out claiming that John Lennon was gay Paul MacArtney has been denying it in interviews all over. When asked about whether John Lennon ever hit on him he replied: "John never tried anything."... " I have seen him roaring drunk....and it was always with a female."
Anyone who has studied the Beatles however will be able to tell you about an incident that occured between John and the Beatles Famous manager Brian Epstein who actually was gay. The incident occured early in the Beatles success when they were on tour in the early 1960's. John knew that brian Epstein "fancied" him and he allowed him while in a drunken state to perform an act of fellacio on him. It was Just an experimental thing John later said in a few interviews and in private but that was all there was to that, it was just a one time thing.
It is also important to remember that John fathered two children by two different women in his life so on the surface it does not appear that he was gay in any real way. There are also stories of his having sexual relations with literally hundreds of women while on tour and off. Some of those affairs with some rather famous people like Joan Baez and Maureen Cleave. Cleave was the reporter who John made his famous quote about the Beatles being bigger that Jesus to in 1966. They were apparently having an affair at the time. In addition while John was married to Yoko Ono and living in NYC in the early 1970's he was having an affair with May Pang whom he met while she was working as a receptionist at a record company.

Marijuana Arrests Hit New High In U.S.

The number of people in the United States being arrested for possession of marijuana hit an all time high in 2007 and has continued a trend that has been going on for the last several years. The new record number is 872,627 individuals. In 2006 the number was 829,627. In 2005 it was 786,545. At the current rates there is an American being arrested for marijuana possession every 38 seconds. Marijuana possession accounts for 44% of all drug arrests in the United States. A total of 8 million Americans have been arrested and charged with marijuana possession in the last decade in the U.S. The argument about whether to legalize marijuana possession or at the very least de-criminalize it has been going on for years. Some citizens and even some law enforcement officials have expressed the belief that their time, efforts and limited resources could be better spent going after the more hardcore drug offenders in their communities instead of chasing after people who smoke "Pot" when studies have indicated that those who do so overwhelmingly pose very little or no threat to the general public and are considered low risk to no risk offenders.

Church Of England To Apologize To Charles Darwin

In an unusual move by the Church of England, or any other church for that matter, they are going to apologize to Charles Darwin for their initial reaction to his famous theory of evolution that he proposed in his famous book nearly 150 years ago. The apology will be written by Rev. Dr. Malcolm Brown who is church director of public affairs. In Darwin's Book "On The Origin of Speices" he proposed that life on this planet was the result of a process of evolving over time which was a contradiction of the churches preaching that life was instantly created by a higher being or "God" totally evolved from the start. Darwin also proposed that human beings were in fact genetically related to "lesser Life forms" such as apes and monkeys which the church and other creationists not only objected to but were offended by. Over time as scientists have studied Darwin's theories they have further gained acceptance as more than likely to have been accurate and are now considered valid. The church in the beginning condemned Darwin for his theories as flying in the face of the teachings of the church. He was villified in some circles and continues to be among Christian conservatives to this day for his studies and his conclusions.

Teacher Who Lost Her Job Over Porn Past

Kind of an interesting scandal took place a little while ago in the town of Paducah, Kentucky. Some of the students who attended Reidland High School one night were watching an adult video and they noticed that one of the actresses in the film looked alot like their science teacher from school. The gossip began to go around and it eventually came to the attention of the superintendent. It was confirmed that the actress in the film was in Fact Tericka Dye who was a science teacher at Reidland High. She was immediately suspended and banned from school property.
Back in 1995, at the age of 23, after her first tour in the army, Tericka Dye began a career as a porn star and starred in the first of a series of adult films under the stage name Rikki Andersin. She starred in such titles as "Major Slut," "tight Ass," and "In Thru The Out Door 7."After her brief stint she left adult films and re-enlisted in the army and was given the opportunity to attend college on the G.I. bill. She graduated at the top of her class and discovered that she excelled in science. After her second tour as an MP in the army she applied to become a teacher at several High Schools. In 2004 she landed the job of science teacher at Reidland High and began her time there until she was fired.
During her time as a porn star some of the films that she was involved in were pretty extreme. Some of her sex scenes involved her being penetrated by two men at the same time both vaginally and anally while performing oral sex on a third. In one of her films Titled "Anal Cravings #25" she is in fact featured on the front cover of the box while being penetrated during anal sex. On another box cover titled "Ass Whores #12" she is shown being penetrated by two men at the same time while being held upside down.
The officials at the High School said that they had no choice but to suspend her and not renew her teaching contract after her porn career past came to light because it would be just too much of a distraction to the student body and would hinder the learning process at the school.

Ford Wont Sell New 65 MPG Car In U.S. Market

In 2009 The Ford Motor Company is set to come out with a new car called the Ford Fiesta Econetic. It is a new modern, sleek looking car that will be capable of seating 5 comfortably. At 65 miles per gallon it will be the most fuel efficient car out there yet. Ford is planning to sell the car only in Europe and will not introduce it to the U.S. Market. The problem according to Ford is that the car runs on diesel fuel and they have a fear that the U.S. market will not go for a diesel burning car. In the U.S. diesel has a reputation of being a dirty burning fuel. it is usually associated with big giant dirty tractor trailers running down the highway spewing out all that black soot into the air. The technology known as "clean diesel" which has been utilized in the production of this car has largely eliminated that problem. Clean diesel cars are often even less polluting than cars that run on gas. It is the outdated image of diesel in the U.S. as an old and dirty technology however that Ford thinks will stand in the way of the Fiesta selling well stateside. In Europe there is no such obstacle. The Europeans are aware of the clean burning nature of the newest diesel technology and have embraced it and the fuel efficiency that goes with it. In Europe currently 50% of all the new vehicles sold run on clean diesel technology. In the U.S. it is less than 3%.

Another Tainted Food Scandal Hitting China

It is beginning to get almost as common as a sunrise. You wake up and you start hearing about the latest scandal in China involving some manufacturer of something using a chemical they know is harmful and they cant use but doing it anyway because its cheaper than using the real thing and taking their eyes off the fact that they are going to kill people and not caring about that. The latest scandal involves 22 companies that produce food products such as milk, yogurt, and baby food. Over 6000 children have become sick and needed hospitalization and so far 3 have died in China after consuming milk that was contaminated with a substance called Melamine which is actually a type of plastic compound. Under some tests Melamine will actually show up as protein and investigators suspect that the reason it was used by the manufacturers was to make their product appear to have more nutrition than it actually does.

Civilian Deaths In Afganistan Down This Year

It seems that the United States military is finally starting to get the message about how counter productive it is to kill innocent civilians in Afganistan and has begun taking a little bit more care when it comes to dropping those bombs on targets where it suspects the enemy is hiding out. In 2007 both U.S. and Nato air strikes accounted for the deaths of 319 civilians in Afganistan. That was a number that is three times higher than the year before. This loss of innocent life was having negative effects on the people of Afganistan in terms of how they viewed the Americans and their war effort in their country. In an attempt to avoid any further negative backlash the military this year has taken steps to be a little more cautious and not so freewheeling with the collateral damage that it inflicts on the country. This year as of mid september the number of civilians killed is down to 119 so far. It is still more than in 2006 but it is a reversal of the upward trend that was seen in 2007.

Catholic Priest Arrested For Dealing Drugs

The Holy Roman Catholic Church has long had its problems with priests that have engaged in behavior that has been less than perfect. We are all well aware of the many scandals over the years and there are likely more to come. Well here is another one. On September 10th Police in Illinois arrested Reverend Christopher Hayden who is 33 years old and charged him with posession and distribution of cocaine after searching his home and finding more than 3 grams of coke and various other drug paraphernalia. The police accused him of dealing cocaine both out of his home and from the church rectory located on the campus of the University of Illinois. He has pleaded not guilty in court and has been suspended by the Catholic diocese of Peoria.

Automaker Plans New Car That Runs On Air

We all know that the use of oil and gas to run our cars is a luxury that the planet will soon no longer allow us to afford. In an attempt to get us off of that track there is a new york based automaker that is planning to build a new car that will run on compressed air instead of gas and will be capable of getting the equivalent of over 100 miles to the gallon. Zero Pollution Motors is the name of the company and the type of car that they have planned will look not unlike the Mini Cooper. They believe the technology will work fine for a small car but not as well for a larger sized one such as an SUV. The engine will work exactly like the steam engine of a locomotive only that instead of steam it would be compressed air that moves the pistons. They are estimating that they will have the first one built by about 2010 and that the cost wil be about $18,000. The compressed air that you will need to run the car will be free and will be pumped into the tanks by an on board compressor that will be built into the design of the car.

Civilian Casualties In War Have Grown Over Time

In the 20th century war underwent a revolution. It was technological mostly and the effect of this change was that increasingly in war it was civillians that ended up doing most of the dying whereas before it was mostly soldiers. It is estimated that during World War 1 the total number of civilians killed during the conflict represented about 10% of the total who died. By World War 2 just twenty years later the total of civilians killed was estimated to be about 50% of those who died in that conflict. During the Vietnam War 70% of the people killed in the war were civilians. In the current War In Iraq that total is now estimated to be about 90%.
The reason for this change as mentioned before is technological. In conflicts like World war 1 the fighting usually was between soldiers and soldiers alone for the most part. You had to get pretty close to your enemy and engage them in a much more personal manner than in the later conflicts although this even during World war 1 was beginning to change.
By the time World war 2 began to rage the enemies in the conflict had fully developed Air Forces which allowed for the ability to bomb entire parts of cities and wipe out civilian populations in just hours in some cases by the thousands. This ability and reality continued into the Vietnam War later in the century and now in the War in Iraq. As war progressed during the 20th century technology made it possible for an army to no longer need to "see the whites of their eyes" when it came to their enemies. You could simply launch missiles at them from hundreds of miles away and just "fire and forget" and in the process take a good many innocent civilians out of this life. The pentagon has a nice, clean, antiseptic phrase for it, "collateral damage." That phrase is usually double speak for "innocent dead civilians."

Women In The Army Face Threats From Both Sides

You would think that it would be hard enough to be a soldier in a war zone who has to worry about the enemy striking but if you are a woman in the military you also have to worry about your fellow male soldiers and what they might do as well. Deparmant of Defense Statistics indicate that in the military currently 1 out of every 3 women has either been the victim of a rape or attempted rape or some other kind of assault by a fellow male soldier. 2 out of 3 have reported receiving unwanted or uninvited sexual behavior while in the military. In one recent year D.O.D. figures indicated that 9% of the women serving in the marines had been raped, 8% of the women in the army, 6% in the navy, and 4% in the air Force.
If you are a female victim of such an assault it may not be worth reporting it either according to the stats. In one recent year figures indicated that 95% of the men who were accused of rape in the military were found not guilty.

Solar Powered Rotating Skyscrapers Coming Soon

Usually the big deal when a new tall building is being built is how tall its going to be but in the case of the "Dynamic Tower" it wont be height but its uniqueness that will make it stand out. An italian artchitect named David Fisher has designed an 80 story skyscraper with floors that will be able to rotate individually and be solar powered. Each floor will be able to rotate on its own based on which direction the resident of that particular floor would like his apartment to be facing thereby changing the view from out of the window. Each floor of the building is going to be pre-fabricated off site. The only part of the structure that is going to be built on site is the center of the building. That is going to be the rod or tube that is going to provide the strength of the building. Each pre-fabricated floor will be designed with a hole in the center and when it arrives on site will be simply lifted over the center rod and lowered down onto it. Once in place it will be able to rotate like a merry-go-round on its axis. All 80 floors will be able to face in different directions or be lined up to face in the same direction at once. There are plans to build two of them so far. One in Dubai and one in Moscow. They are planning to begin building in ernest this fall and are thinking that they can have both buildings complete by 2010.

Large Piece Of Arctic Ice Shelf Breaks Away

Scientists and climatologists initially predicted that the effects of global warming were not going to seriously cause problems for the planet until about the year 2030. More recently they revised that prediction and now say it may be as early as 2012. Perhaps they will need to revise that date even further with the latest developments in the Arctic. In early August of this year a huge chunk of ice about the size of manhattan island broke off from a section of the Arctic ice sheet known as the Markham Ice Shelf in the northern Arctic Ocean. That particular piece of the ice shelf is estimated by scientists to have been intact for about 4500 years. The 19 square mile piece that has broken off is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean.

Famous Actor Sues Over Movie Role Royalties

Actor Tommy Lee Jones has decided to sue Paramount Pictures and the Producers of The Film "No Country for Old Men" for $10 Million dollars. Jones claims that he was promised "significant box office bonuses" for participating in the film based on the success that the movie had. He starred in the film as sherriff Ed Tom Bell in the successful 2007 box office hit. It earned $160 million dollars and was also a critical success garnering four oscars including one for best picture. The 61 year old Jones has declined to comment thru his publicist on the matter and the case is pending.

Highest Paid Yakity -Yaks On TV

The old saying goes that talk is cheap but not if you are one of the following people on this list. Forbes magazine has put out a list of the highest paid personalities on TV. All the names will likely be familiar to you. Below listed are the top five and how much money they in fact raked in for talking their heads off on TV as estimated by Forbes for the year starting in June of 07 and ending in June of 08:

1. Oprah Winfrey----------------275 million
2. Howard Stern ---------------- 70 million
3. David Letterman ------------ 45 million
4. Judy Sheindlin (Judge Judy) 45 million
5. Phil McGraw (DR. Phil) ------40 million

Teen Suicides Spike In U.S. In Last Few Years

Suicides among teenagers in the U.S. have been stedily declining since the mid 1990's but in the last few years there has been a spike according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In 1996 the CDC recorded that the rate of teen suicides in the U.S. (young Americans between age 10-19) was about 5.5 per 100,000 people. By 1998 it had dropped to 5.2 per 100,000. By 2000 it had fallen to 4.7 per 100,000. By 2003 it dropped to 4.1 per 100,000. In 2004 there was a sharp rise recorded and the rate increased to nearly 4.8 per 100,000. By 2005 it had fallen slightly to 4.5 per 100,000.
The CDC believes that some of the factors for this rise may have to do with a link between anti depressants and teen suicides. They also believe that it may be due to an increase in alcohol consumption among teens and the easy access that many teens have to guns. What the CDC did not mention at all is the possiblility that The war in Iraq may have had something to do with it. 2004 was the first full year that the U.S. was involved in the war in Iraq. All the news out of Baghdad about how the war was going that year was bad and depressing. It may not have been a coincidence that a spike in teen suicides occured that same year. As many adult parents of teens know they can be overly emotional about matters both large and small and therefore more seriously effected by bad news than others in the population who are older, wiser, and more emotionally mature. I merely throw out this thought to cogitate as a possibility and an additional factor to the reasons cited by the CDC for the sharp rise in teen suicides in 2004.

World's Latest Tallest Building Now Rising In Dubai

If you think that you might know where the world's tallest building is you may in fact know where it is for the time being but if you blink twice the name and the place changes these days it seems. There has been a building boom going on in the world over the last ten years or so and everywhere there is a new building going up that seems determined to become the world's tallest. This time around it is happening in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. it's called the Burj Tower and it has not even been completed but it already is tall enough to be the world's newest tallest structure. No one is sure yet how tall it will finally be, the people constructing the building are holding that fact close to their vests, but already it is measured at 694 meters. In other words the thing is already one half of a mile high. If you have ever seen it you know that it dwarfs all the other "skyscrapers" that are around it by far. It is so tall that from a distance it actually looks like it is the only building in the area. The other buildings around it tend to blend into insignificance to one's eye.
But things being the way they are these days no one is betting that the Burj Tower will hold on to it's new title for long. There are plans on the drawing board in jeddah, Saudi Arabia to build a tower that they are planning to call "The Mile High Tower." If it is possible to build a tower that high and the plans are ever executed it will dwarf even the Burj tower by plenty. They are planning to get going with it next year.

Sony Recalls 450,000 Laptops Due To Burn Hazard

On september 4th The Sony Corporation of japan announced that it is recalling nearly 450,000 of its Vaio-Tz series laptops worldwide in a recall that is mandatory in Japan and so far for the rest of the world is voluntary. The laptop models effected are the Vaio-Tz series 100, 200, 300, and 2000 that were manufactured between May of 2007 and July of 2008. The problem with the laptops is that they have a tendency to overheat and this may cause a burn hazard for the user. There have been 15 reports in the United States of vaio laptops overheating and 1 reported injury to a consumer who was described as suffering "light burns" to his person. Worldwide there have been some 200 such reports with 7 people being injured in a similiar way. The Sony corporation has offered to make repairs to the effected products for free. If you are the owner of one of these laptops Sony has advised that you stop using the unit immediately and contact their company in order that they can arrange for an inspection of your laptop and then repair it.

Extreme Makeover Rebuilt House In Foreclosure

If you have ever seen the Show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition then you know that behind the efforts of the show is a well intentioned motive to help people who in most cases through no fault of their own find themselves in distress with regard to their housing situation. Sometimes the best intentions dont always turn out for the best however.
In 2005 the show took on its biggest project up to that time. It renovated the largest home it had ever done for the Harper family who lived in Georgia. It took a total of 1800 volunteers only six days to tear down the old structure which had a series of problems, not the least of which was that the sewage system used to back up into the home, and replace it with a new, modern updated mini mansion basically.
Ater the home was completed the Harpers decided to take out a loan for $450,000 using the house as collateral in order to finance a new constuction company that they wanted to start. The company failed and the loan came due and the Harpers could not make the payments that were owed. The house went into forclosure and was auctioned off on August 5th.

V.P. Nominee Sarah Palin's Teen Troubles

Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been having her troubles this last week with the revalations about her teen daughter Bristol's pregnancy and the awkward situation it has put her in at the worst possible time. it is even more awkward when you consider some of her positions with regard to the subject of teens and sex. She is against state funded sex education of any kind. She has in the past advocated abstinence for teens and continues to do so. She is also strongly anti-abortion.
The father of Bristol's unborn child is even a more interesting character when you take a closer look at him. He had a myspace page up until about two days ago where in which he talked about himself and his likes and dislikes. The page has been taken down probably by the McCain campaign handlers for fear of having to deal with any more embarassment. On the obscenity laiden page Levi Johnston described himself proudly as a "redneck" who likes to go "Shooting and chillin" and ride dirt bikes. He sees himself as a little bit of a tough guy. One of the lines on his myspace page went ..." If you fuck with me i'll kick your ass".... He also said that he was in a relationship but that he did not want kids.
The Palin family has announced that Levi and Bristol are going to be married. Now the baby is due in December of this year so i am actually wondering if the marriage between these two love birds is going to take place before or after the presidential election.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Rings False Alarm

If you spent the last few days before hurricane Gustav made land listening to New orleans mayor Ray Nagin you would have thought that the world was coming to an end. He spent the whole last week talking about how Gustav was the biggest threat in the history of the universe. He said that Hurricane Gustav was ..."The mother of all Hurricanes"... and that if you lived in New Orleans ..."You had to get your butt outta town and start heading north out of the city"... and that if you were a tourist visiting the city ..."it was time for you to go"... and get out of town so you could save yourself.
Well Gustav made land on monday morning september 1st at about noon. It did not hit the city directly it was about 40 miles to the east which resulted in only a glancing blow to the city and minimal damage. Within hours it had shrunk to a category 1 hurricane which means that the most it was going to do by then was just rattle the trees a little bit and not much more.
Mayor Ray Nagin, who is if you listen to him closely enough one of the country's most entertaining speakers without really meaning to be, has since said that if he had to do it all over again he would play it exactly the same way and over sell the threat of the hurricane in order to get people to evacuate and leave the city. Well here is the problem with that. If you cry chicken enough times people are just going to stop listening to you. He went on and on about what a threat gustav was and in the end it turned out to be almost nothing. Estimates are that about 2 million people evacuated Louisiana in the last week because of the warnings from officials. How is Nagin going to hope to get people to respond to him the next time if they feel that this time around they were lied to about the extent of the threat? I understand that Nagin's heart was in the right place but he has to understand that people dont like to be mislead by their government officials and that when they are they get angry about it and they dont respond in the future at all. Credibility is important when one speaks and Nagin's took a hit this week. It's not his own fault but people are the way they are and if they see that you were not right about something they are going to hold it against you the next time around its just that simple.
The other thing about it is that we cant get into a habit of evcauating entire sections of the east coast of the country every time a hurricane threatens and forms in the atlantic ocean. You have to understand that about 95% of the time a hurricane is going to be what they usually are. They are going to be a threat but not a catastrophic threat. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was an anomoly. Most hurricanes are not that kind of a catastrophy. They will do some damage and kill some people ( in Gustav's case 8 people died) but they wont make the city look like it got hit by an atom bomb. The best thing to do is just board up your windows or tape up your windows and hunker down, pray and hope for the best. Life is full of threats and this is just another one of them. You have to just go through it and hope it all goes all right in the end. Usually it does for the most part.

Your Cellphone, Bacteria, And You

Cellphones these days are everywhere. It is estimated that over 200 million people in the United States own one and use one on an everyday basis. They are a handy and convienient way for people to get in touch with one another. They have also proven to be convenient for the germs and bacteria that reside on the surface of these cellphones that can in some cases spread disease and even in rare cases kill. Methacillin Resistant Staphylococus Aureus or MSRA is the staph infection that is most commonly found on the surface of cellphones. It is resistant to most anti-biotics and it can kill if it enters the bloodstream.
University of Arizona researchers recently tested 25 cellphones randomly from their student body population. They discovered that 20% of the phones tested came up positive for MSRA. The researchers discovered that the germiest parts of a cellphone were usually the keypad and the mouth piece. The researchers also state that the best way to fight this germy problem is by regularly cleaning your cellphone. While this will not eliminate the problem totally it will help reduce the amount of bacteria on the surface of your phone and thereby reduce the risk.

Detroit Mayor Still Refuses To Resign Over Sex Scandal

If you think that you are under fire in your day to day life consider what Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is going through these days but all of it in fact is of his own doing. In the summer of 2007 rumors began to fly in and around Detroit that the mayor was having an affair with his Chief of staff who is a woman named Christine Beatty. He has resisted calls from his political opponents to resign for over a year. Last August the mayor and Beatty both denied under oath that an affair had taken place. Earlier this year in March of 2008 text messages surfaced between Kilpatrick and Beatty in which the two were being very romantic with each other and in some instances explicit. After these texts came to light both were accused of lying under oath and charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Just this past August 7th Kilpatrick was forced to spend one night in jail for violating the terms of his bail agreement. He is while being investigated and charged not allowed to leave the city limits but he chose to do so anyway with a trip to Canada in July. The next day he is charged with two felony counts for assaulting two police officers who attempted to detain him. On August 14th both Kilpatrick and Beatty were arraigned. On September 3rd a hearing will be held to determine whether Kilpatrick will be ousted from office.

Post script -- On September 4th, 2008 KIlpatrick admitted that he "lied under oath." He pleaded guilty to felony charges and resigned. As part of his plea deal he will serve 4 months in jail for obstruction of justice and will pay a fine of 1 million dollars.

Hiv in Nyc Spreading 3x Faster Than In rest Of U.S.

In the ongoing battle to stop and prevent the spread of HIV and aids New York City has historically been the epicenter of the fight in the United States and it seems that it is also the place where the least progress has been made. New data released by the City Health Department indicates that HIV is spreading at a rate that is three times faster than the national rate of infection within the nation's most populated city. 4800 new cases were reported in NYC in 2006. That breaks down to 72 new cases for every 100,000 residents of the city. The national rate is about 23 for every 100,000. The data indicates that the rate at which the infection is spreading is holding steady among the white population in the city, slightly rising among the hispanic community, rising steadily among the african American community, and rising sharply among the gay community. Blacks and gays have historically been hit the hardest by the disease and that trend has continued to the present day not only within New York City but nationwide.

Gender Gaps In The U.S.A.

An interesting development has been unfolding with regard to the widening gap between available single men and women in the United States in the last several years. If you are a single woman living on the east coast you may be finding it hard to find a single male for a mate because there are not as many of them around as there are of you. Similarly if you are a single male living on the west coast you are experiencing the same struggle likely because there are fewer women available on that side of the country.
There are gender gaps on both coasts of the United States and here briefly is how it breaks down. This study examined men and women who are between the ages of 25-44 (considered marriage age). In New York City the gap between available women and available men is the largest in the country. Unmarried women outnumber unmarried men in the city proper by over 400,000. In the surrounding metro area the number rises to 770,000.
In the colleges of the city the stats reflect the same facts. Hunter college, for example, Has a student body that is 72% female currently. NYU is 59% female, Columbia is even at 50%. At Pace university in manhattan there is a ratio of 5 to 3 in which women outnumber men. There are a total of 230,000 males in college in New York City and a total of 308,000 females. Single women outnumber single men in every major city on the east coast in fact. The best places to go and live for a single woman looking to find an available man would be Philadelphia and washington D.C. where women outnumber men by a mere 50,000 in both cities.
If you have ever heard the phrase "go west young man" then you perhaps understand what is happening here because many young men have taken that phrase as a call to action and have in fact moved out to the west coast to live in recent years. So much so that the gap between available men and women has widened. There are now over 90,000 more available men then women in Los Angeles. It is in fact the case that men outnumber women in all of the cities and counties in California both large and small.