contest -- lifetime's future frontrunners

The other day I was watching Lifetime and I saw that they have a contest where you can win a trip to the Democratic National Convention or the Republican National Convention. I decided today to look at the details, thinking that I should enter. The rules are simple, either make a 1 minute video about what you would do if you were elected president or write an essay about the same thing. It didn't seem that difficult for the prize at hand. Well lucky for me I decided to look at the eligibility requirements. You may enter if you are a legal resident of the United States, except for those living in Hawaii, Alaska, or DC. Seriously?! Last I checked those are all part of the United States. There is really something wrong with that. Everywhere I look on their website there are links for registering to vote. But I think that if you are trying to get people to vote and are trying to get people to participate in the two big parties, you shouldn't be excluding people who may know a lot about the topic at hand as well as those that are truly passionate about it. The contest is supposed to also be able getting girls to speak out and get involved in politics, so they shouldn't be squashing dreams.

Wannabe -- Spice Girls

Since one post today just doesn't seem like enough I'm going to post another! Here's a video that my friend Kristy and I made with the help of some of our other friends! enjoy!

a month and a half -- and i'm finally back

I don't know what I've been doing all this time, but just now I ran across a web site that I think I will pass on.

You can find it at http://crummychurchsigns.blogspot.com/ and I must say that it is pretty entertaining. But then again, funny church signs, of course they're going to be entertaining.

top 10 -- most painful bites according to victims

I was just on Fark to see if there's anythigns interesting and strange going on lately. I ran across an article about the most painful bites.

So here is a list of the top 10 most painful bites...according to victims.

The Gila Moster, which ecologist for the USGS Cecil Schwalbe says, "My finger was on fire, the wave of fire moved slowly up my body. Within five minutes I turned pasty green and went into shock. … I had pain in my kidneys, blood in my urine. … All of my sphincters in my body were trying to relax. It was on my finger for two minutes and it bit me five times — every bite went right to the bone."

Next, the Black Widow Spider. In one case where a man was bitten he said "It hurts too much to breathe." And after that he just stopped. That really shows how painful it must be if, it hurts so much that you are willing to just give up the ghost.

Now, the Stonefish. An anonymous victim described the experience. "I got spiked on the finger by a stonefish in Australia … never mind a bee sting. … Imagine having each knuckle, then the wrist, elbow and shoulder being hit in turn with a sledgehammer over the course of about an hour. Then about an hour later imagine taking a real kicking to both kidneys for about 45 minutes so that you couldn't stand or straighten up. I was late 20s, pretty fit physically and this was the tiniest of nicks. Got sensation back in my finger after a few days but had recurrent kidney pains periodically for several years afterwards."

The Tarantula Hawk Wasp. Like most wasps and bee's these don't go out of their way to sting people. But, "When that one when it hits you, it almost feels like you've been hit by a lightning bolt," said Schmidt. "You'll be screaming and writhing in agony. … It feels like every gland in your body is purged of all its hormones, you'll feel absolutely drained from the experience."

And now, the Spitting Cobra. The Spitting Cobra's vemon doesn't actualy sting until it gets into your eyes. Van Wallach knows what that's like, "It is excruciating. "The only way I could relieve it was to pour milk into my eye about every 15 minutes. I was blind for about four to six hours."

Scorpions! Dr. Leslie Boyer, who is medical director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center says it will, "send shooting sensations up your arm. You just give it a tap and you're screaming in pain. Just that one little spot hurts like heck, it radiates up to your arm pit with this throbbing pain — but there's nothing to see."

They say that Stingrays killed Steve Irwin, but I actually went swimming with them at sealive park. Regardless, they made it onto the list. Jon Hoech, director of husbandry operations at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Said that "It's extremely painful, like getting punctured with an eight-penny nail. Also, it's like a cat scratch, it can carry a lot of bacteria."

Rattlesnakes and their relatives are next. Kelly Zamudio of Cornell University says, "It feels like burning, like you're being branded, but the brand never lifts." The only thing that I have to say to that is, if it hurts so much why do we brand animals? It's just cruel.

Next up, the Box Jellyfish. There is no quote on the pain level, but it is apparently nothing compaired to our next contender, the Bullet Ant.

The Bullet Ant scores highest on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which was devised by entimologist Jason Schmidt. His description of the pain (just to note, my favorite description of them all) is that it is, "Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch rusty nail in your heel."

Now all I have to say it...ouch.

To read more about the creatures and about why their bites sting so much, there is a link above.

stalkers and delegates

Just a few minutes ago I was reading the 360° blog, trying to catch up on all the Anderson's Views. He blogged yesterday and I just found it entertaining so I thought that I'd post it up here before I go off on some other topic. It was somewhat about a conversation he had with Conan O'Brien the night before about how all the Anderson stalkers can talk to him during the live blogging during his show.

"As most of you know, there is a big difference between being a fan, or a regular viewer and being a stalker. What’s the difference? Well if you have to ask yourself that question, that’s probably not a good sign. But here’s a handy guide in case you are…well…confused.

1. If you’ve been contacted by authorities and asked not to attempt to contact me further… but you still do, there’s a good chance you’ve crossed the line.
2. If you’ve attempted to gain entry to my apartment under false pretenses, and can’t imagine why that might be inappropriate, that’s another red flag.
3. If you believe I am secretly communicating to you online, or with the clothes I wear, or by telepathy through your radiator, that’s a problem as well.
4. If you have read the last three items and laughed, or said, “wow, that’s weird” you are not a stalker.
5. If you have read items 1-3 and notice they apply to you, but then tell yourself they actually don’t apply to you. Well, that’s not good. "

I love his sense of humor, and boy do I feel bad if some of those things actually happened to him!

So now onto what I really wanted to write about. I am really not a fan of spliting up delegates within states. I like the way that the Republican's have it in some states, winner takes all. Last night I was watching Jon Stewart on Larry KIng Live and he was saying how they're essentially just giving delegates to people for no reason. His example was something like, oh you only got one percent of the votes, here have a delegate. He's got a point there. I thought that how delegates were distributed depended on how each individual district voted. Well in Hawaii, Obama won every district by a landslide as he did for the entire state and he only ended up with 14 of Hawaii's 20 delegates. It makes no sense to me, but then again what do I know.

caucus -- hawaii

So, last night was the Hawaii caucus. I thought about writing about it last night, but by writing today I now know what the results are.

OBAMA WON HAWAII!

(by like 3 to 1)

Which makes me happy since I voted for him. So now he's got a 10 state win streak! Anyways, I wasn't standing in line as long as I thought. In fact I showed up at 6:45 (voting started at 7) and I ended up getting out of there by 8:15. In all honesty, I was prepared to be there for hours, long into the night. To make the wait even better volunteers were passing out food. So, way more people showed up than was intended. That was apparent to all of us waiting in line when they ran out of forms to register for the Democratic Party of Hawaii and had to run over to Kinko's to copy more. It was also apparent because they ran out of ballots and we just had to write our choice on a piece of paper and dump it in with all the other "ballots." Even though it wasn't as organized as I thought it would be, I'm still very glad that I went.

I don't think that anyone else in my imediate family has been to a caucus. Partly I'm glad because the person I voted for won the state, but also because I feel like I did my duty as a citizen and that feels good. Even though this was a caucus and I didn't have to stand in a booth to vote it was a good experience. I'm not sure when I'll get to vote in a booth, which I would like to do at some point since I think I'll be in Oregon next fall so I'll have to vote absentee, but I guess that doesn't much matter.

Maybe it's just me, but I had a lot of fun.

rape -- drc

I know that I've written about rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before, but it's something that I feel is very important. Plus, I have to give a speech on it in my Speech class so I might as well start researching.

Looking through the CIA World Factbook I found that the Congolese have a Total Fertility Rate of 6.37/ children per woman which means that their poplution will not be in decline for a while. (Thanks to my Geography class I know know what a lot of this stuff actually means!) According to my Geography teacher the rate that equates to neither an increase of decrease is 2.1. That is because 2 children are needed to replace their parents and the .1 for children that die in infancy.

Now back on topic. In a 2006 interview with CNN, Dr. Dennis Mukwege Mukengere states that "some of them have knives and other sharp objects inserted in them after they've been raped, while others have pistols shoved into their vaginas and the triggers pulled back." I remember hearingabout that on the 60 minutes report. I don't remember what exactly I wrote on the last blog I posted on this topic, but in many reports, it is said that Congo's own soldiers are the ones who are raped thousands of women a year.

In another interview that came out in Ms. Magazine,Dr. Mukwege says that, "[T]o see so many raped, that shocks me, but what shocks me more is the way they are raped.”

A lot of the cases make me think of the old Discovery Channel show, I Shouldn't Be Alive. With everything that these women go through, they are often left thinking that they'd much rather be dead than continue getting raped. Even afterwards, some women wish they and their child was dead. Each time they see their child brings all the memories back.

Many of the rape victims and even those who work with them to help them move on with their lives say that rape is a powerful weapon, it can often be more powerful than guns and bullets. Women may be killed, but they are tortured and left with the memories for the rest of their life. On top of that, virginity is a prized possesion.

photo from npr.org

Now, onto the medical facilites in Congo. Often the medical centers are makeshift and they usually have only one doctor, in the whole facility. The center's are funded by the governments, but that isn't enough to get by. They rarely recieve supplies, but the women need a lot more than things like band-aids. According to the article in Ms. Magazine, a typical visit costs 70 cents.

In 2003, there were about 1.1 million people in the DRC that had HIV. With an estimated 20-30% of rape victims contracting HIV that number is sure to rise.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I've always been one to think more about the ethical treatment of animals over other things, but since I read Dispatches From the Edge things have been different. I don't feel this strongly about everything, but something about this is different. I really want to do something about this, I think that's why I'm doing a speech on it, even if no one is interested. I would really like to start an organization or something to help these women rather than just donate to some company that I'm not sure where exactly the money is going.

politics -- register to vote!! oh and happy valentines'

Happy Valentine's Day, what some psychologist's call the most depressing day of the year. What happened to Blue Monday? I guess people have different most depressing days of the year. I'm sure for many today was horrible, a terrible reminder of being single and for others a reminder of how it feels to be in love. Personally, I didn't think being single today was all that bad, but perhaps that's because I've been inside my Grandma's house all day and have just been studying and waching TV. The worst thing so far was my ex calling to say 'Happy What Would Have Been Our Anniversary!' As lovely as that was to hear, it didn't bring me down. Maybe I'm just looking foreward to that date with Cooper and Colbert tonight. Something is terribly wrong with me.

Well I haven't written anything in a while and I'll be writing for a bit to catch up on all that I failed to write. I feel like writing about politics right now so that's what we're recapping.
-Super Tuesday, Obama came out with more wins but when calculated Clinton had more total delegates.
-Sat. February 9, Obama wins Louisiana, Washington and Nebraska. Clinton has 1,095 delegates to Obama's 1,070.
-Sun. Febraury 10, Obama wins Maine.
-Tues, February 12, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. all go to Obama and he finally has more delegates that Clinton, 1,212 to 1,191 respectively.
-There were all the republican races too, McCain is still waaaaaaay ahead.

Will Obama's win streak continue?

I would like to add that I hope all of my friends who are Democrats will go out and vote at the Hawaii Caucus next Tuesday, February 19. Well, I don't actually know of any of my friends, other than myself who are registered to vote, but at te very least register even though it's too late for the Caucus.

primaries -- south carolina democrat

Barack Obama won...by a lot! In the end Obama had 55% of the votes (295,091) compared to Clinton's 27% (141,128) and Edwards' 18% (93,552). Wow.

I can't wait to see what Super Tuesday has in store and Tuesday's Florida primaries. Will Giuliani's strategy of only focusing on Florida pay off? Personally I don't think so, but we'll see.

video -- Jerry O Connell Funny Tom Cruise

I know that I didn't put the original video of Tom Cruise talking about Scientology up, but this one is pretty close. It's Jerry O'Connell, but the background lighting clothes and all that jazz is practically the same. Oh, and the way he acts it quite similar.

love -- i hate the word but this is so cute

Generally I don't talk about love and all that because I've got some strange fear of things starting with the letter ''L" and love is one of those words. But, I found these two stories and I couldn't resist, it's just so cute. First some facts that I found on the Lancashire Evening Post website.

Some facts about marriage proposals:
* 54% of men still get down on one knee
* 44% of men ask their partner's father for permission to marry
* 57% of men cry when she said yes
* 65% of women say he could have put more effort and preparation into the proposal
* 25% of couples wait longer than five years before taking their relationship that step further
* 23% of women have been proposed to more than once
* 69% of women thought the timing of the proposal in their relationship was perfect

And next the story of a couple who have been together for 50 years.

Lawrence and Lena Nelson were married on November 23, 1957 when interracial marriages were still out of the question. But, that didn't stop them, they were in love. Because their relationship was essentially illegal the couple had to practically hide and do whatever they could so that others wouldn't be suspicious. When they finally got engaged Lawrence's parents were thrilled, they loved Lena. On the other hand, Lena's parents were, well the opposite. Lena's father told her that if she married Lawrence she "didn't need to come home anymore." Eventually Lena's mother approved of the couple and now 50 years later they are still in love.

blue monday -- the most depressing day of the year

Now, this would have made so much more sense had I wrote it yesterday, but I thought that the women in Congo were more interesting and important. Anyways, according to Erica Hill, yesterday was "Blue Monday." I've heard of "Black Friday" before but never Blue Monday. Anyways, yesterday was supposedly the most depressing day of the year because of all the Christmas debt, unkept New Years Resolutions and all that jazz.

Maybe it was depressing to others, but not me. I have an idea, limit your spending, people will understand that you don't want to end up in debt, no one does. And about the resolutions, be like me, don't make any. Most people don't keep their resolutions anyways so save yourself the energy and don't come up with one in the first place.

Wow, I sound so grumpy...it's to early in the morning.

rape -- congo

Nearly ten years ago the genocide in Rwanda spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, there are more deaths in Congo than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur combined. It is the deadliest time in history since World War II. Much of this has spread to women, what 60 Minutes has termed "the war against women."

In some villages up to 90% of the women have been raped. Most of them are gang raped, some of them children, only 3 years old and others as old as 75. The UN has created shelters, protective camps for the women, but even there some of them are raped.

In one case, a 24-year-old women was raped and the gang that did it made her brother hold the flashlight for them. After they were through they tried to get him to do the same. Her brother refused so the gang stabbed him to death right in front of her. She was then taken from her children to their camp where they raped her everyday for 8 months. Eventually she was able to get away. But, when she returned home, her husband abandoned her and she found out the she was pregnant. She ended up naming her child Luck, for the hope that she has.

Wives are often left after they are raped because of their husband's shame. Some say that the men feel humiliated because they were unable to do anything, unable to protect their wives, not because their wife was raped.

In addition to now being a single parent, the women are often shunned by their village because of the fear that they have contracted HIV. The women are also publicly humiliated since they are often raped in front of others. Even with all this happening, officials in Congo aren't doing much if anything about it. It is said that a $10 bribe may get them to investigate.

But, there are thankfully groups like Women for Women who help the women who have been shunned and abandoned. They teach the women skills to get by in life. they are often taught to cook and even to read and write.

To watch the full 60 Minutes story click here.

lying -- most common

I heard a story which I'm pretty sure was on NPR's All Things Considered, but I could be mistaken and it was all about lying. They said how men lie more than women with about 5 versus 3 lies respectively per day. The number of times per year that we lie was stated, some insanely high number that I forgot. Anyways, the story seems like it could be from Relevant Magazine as they have a very very similar story.

Anyways, it seems that the most commonly used lie is "there's nothing wrong with me, I'm fine." I am not surprised by that at all.

Other lies that didn't make it to the most common, but are well liked are:
"Nice to see you."
"Sorry I missed your call."
"I'll call you back soon."

Agree? I do, a lot of those are statements that people say all the time, but generally you can tell by their expressions if they're lying or not...unless they're just a really good liar.

scientology -- tom cruise and others

I realize that I haven't written for a while, but I hope that I can make up for that with this post. The week that The, rather A Daily Show and The Colbert Report returned to the air, actually the night after the New Hampshire primary Colbert said that Will Smith had become a Scientologist. I thought little of it since I didn't know much about Scientology.

This past Thursday, there was a report on 360° about Scientology and videos of Tom Cruise preaching it. I can't find any online since the Church of Scientology apparently had them all removed and I'm too lazy to record what was on 360°, but I've got a lot of pictures! I just had to use the one above with Anderson for my own pleasure.

Cruise stated in a video for the Church that Scientologists experience "new and better realities." I was going to try really hard to keep my comments to myself on this, but instead I'll just have to limit myself. Doesn't that sound like something that someone who's high would say? Maybe it's just me. Anyways, many have long known that Cruise supports the Church and many have thought that he has a high role in it. According to the Church of Scientology however, Cruise is "a parishioner and holds no official or unofficial position in the church hierarchy." You can make up your own opinion on that. Below is Tom Cruise with Church leader David Miscavige at a Scientology award ceremony.

On the program Anderson Interviewed former Scientologist Bruce Hines who stated that Scientologists believe that "only they have to answers to the problems of the world." That's not the worst thought in the world, but most people feel that way, Scientologists and not.

Then on 360° they showed an interview from June 29, 2005 between Anderson and Scientologist Bruce Wiseman.

Wiseman, as well as many other Scientologists feel that psychiatry and psychology are crimes against humanity. They pretend to help society and they are responsible for suicides because of the drugs that they prescribe. In the picture above, Cruise is talking to some guy about just that, if there was sounds it'd make more sense. Just a little note, I'm not sure how psychologist fit into that since in most places they can't prescribe medications unless they work for the federal government, and most don't. That is my summary of the heated conversation, but I'll post the parts I found interesting below.

COOPER: You don't believe [Psychiatry] has helped anybody?

WISEMAN: How can it help someone? You talked about the anti- depressant drugs. Anderson, studies at Harvard, studies at Yale, studies at Columbia, studies at the State University of New York tied these drugs to acts of suicide and/or violence, yet the psychiatrist slaps a label on a child who looks out the window or buts into line, and puts them on these mind-altering drugs.

COOPER: But just factually speaking, though, the actual number of suicides or side effects is actually quite small compared to the number of people who say they derive very real life-saving benefits from these drugs.

WISEMAN: Factually speaking, studies show that people on these anti-depressant drugs commit suicide almost twice as much as those who don't. Studies...

COOPER: Well, wait a minute, wait a minute -- what that -- what you're really -- there's no clear, necessarily correlation between the drugs themselves. You can make the argument that these are people who are, you know, have real problems and maybe would have committed suicide anyway, and perhaps the drugs didn't help them.But you're just saying, categorically, no drugs work.

WISEMAN: No. And it's important to understand the difference when you say the words drugs. We're talking about mind-altering drugs. We're not talking about medicines that actually help. Insulin, or antibiotics, we're talking about mind-altering drugs.

--

COOPER: Let me ask you, though, because what you have been talking about is drugs. And what Tom Cruise keeps talking about is drugs and electroshock therapy. He makes it sounds as if anyone who goes to a psychiatrist gets pumped full of drugs and suddenly gets electroshock therapy against their will. That's misleading. I mean, the number of people who actually get electroshock therapy, electroconvulsive therapy is tiny compared to the number of people who enter into talk therapy. Are you opposed to talk therapy as well from psychiatrists?

WISEMAN: 100,000 people a year get electroshocked, Anderson.

COOPER: Right, and 10 million people get anti-depressant medication. So, relatively speaking, it's a tiny number given the number, given the number of people who are actually in better therapeutic situations. So, are you opposed to talk therapy?

WISEMAN: I'm opposed to any psychiatric practice that pretends to be a science, and it's not.


COOPER: So, is any form of counseling, other than with a scientologists, or Scientology approved group, inappropriate?

WISEMAN: Communication is a universal solvent. Pretending that someone has got some kind of chemical imbalance. That's the falsehood. There is no chemical imbalance. And yet...

COOPER: OK, but if communication is the universal solvent, then it's OK to go to a psychiatrist and communicate and talk and talk about, you know, experiences -- cognitive therapy. That's OK?

WISEMAN: But, the psychiatrist pretends that there's a chemical imbalance, and they're going to treat this with drugs, or with shock, or...

COOPER: But that's not true, sir. That not all psychiatrists pump you full of medication. I mean, that's just simply not true. There are plenty of people who are with psychiatrists who don't receive medication, who are in talk therapy.But I just want to make sure we're accurate, you're saying that's still wrong, because this person is a fraud, basically.

WISEMAN: I'm saying that they're pretending to be a science when they are not. That they are a pseudo-science. That -- that whatever treatment they're using is based on a falsehood. It's based on a lie. It's based on a pretense that there's some underlying, chemical basis that there's a medical problem when, in fact, there is not. And I think the public is being -- has been misinformed, teachers have been misinformed about the subjective nature of psychiatric diagnosis. And the violence-inducing nature of the drugs used to treat them. I think it's criminal, frankly.

COOPER: Bruce Wiseman. We really appreciate you joining us tonight. It's rare to actually talk to -- I've never talked to you. I really do appreciate it. It's an interesting perspective. And we value everyone's perspective on this program. Thanks very much for joining us.

On another note, politics. Today was the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina Republican primary. Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney won in Nevada and John McCain in South Carolina. What I don't understand however is how Barack Obama ended up with more delegates in Nevada with him coming in second. I missed Michigan the other day where Mitt Romney also ended up on top, with Clinton thought that didn't much matter because practically all the other Democrats dropped out due to the fact that there were no delegates since the Democratic Party wasn't supposed to move their primary before Super Tuesday, but they did anyway, or something like that.

maternity leave -- for teens?

Earlier this week there was a story on Prime News about public schools considering giving 4 weeks of maternity leave to pregnant teens. My views on this differ from what Erica Hill and correspondent Mike Galanos, but are somewhat along the lines of Janice Crouse of the Concerned Women for America.



Stating the statistics that only 1/3 of teen mothers make it through high school and that only 1.5% of them graduate college, Galanos thinks that it's a good idea. He also felt that it's a good idea because bonding time between the mother and child is awfully important. Hill also thinks that it is and stated that employers by law must give at least 6 weeks of leave, in some cases you can get up to 12 weeks.

Their guess, Janice Crouse feels that bonding time is important, but giving maternity leave doesn't send the right message to the teen mothers peers. According to her, others in the school may see the pregnant teen or the child and think "cute." By seeing it as cute, they may want to do the same.

To me, bonding time is important though I can't say to the extent like Erica Hill can. But, I don't think that high school student should be allowed to have maternity leave. Crouse thought about it being "cute", I don't agree with that. I don't think I've ever thought a pregnant woman was cute, and babies are okay but sometimes they look...well cute wouldn't describe it. In my opinion maternity leave shouldn't be given because it makes it almost okay to be pregnant at a young age. It'll tell students that if they're pregnant they'll essentially get a break. I know it's not exactly that, but it doesn't deter them in any way from having kids. And on the topic of people in the work force getting maternity leave. Generally, those folks have been around this planet long enough that they are aware of the consequences of their actions and are more likely to be planning to have children. They have gotten their education and have jobs so they hopefully can support their child.

fun facts -- courtesy of mental floss

Here are some fun/interesting facts courtesy of the magazine Mental Floss. If you ever need a magazine to read, that's one you should definitely check out. My dad subscribes to it and I always am anticipating the day that it arrives in the mailbox. It's a magazine for geeks (no offense to anyone) with a lot of interesting tidbits inside, most are probably things that you'll never need to know, but hey that's the best kind of knowledge.

-Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

-Oak trees do not produce acorns till they are 50 years of age or older.

-Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

-Apples are more efficient in waking you up in the morning that caffeine.

-Turtles can breathe through their butts!

I wish I could breathe through my butt...

myths -- medical myths

Have you ever been told that reading in dim light will ruin your vision? How about shaving will make your hair grow back faster, thicker, and darker? Well, Rachel C Vreeman, of the Indiana School of Medicine, and Aaron E Carroll, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Regenstrief Institute in Indiana, are out to tell fact from fiction on these well known medical myths.

Let's start with reading in dim lighting. It has been found that it doesn't ruin your vision. Your eyes may experience some strain in the short term but there are no long term effects of reading in dim light.

Hair growth? Doesn't it grow back any faster, coarser, or darker. Visually we think it does, but actually when you shave it just removes the dead part of the hair, the living part in under the surface or your skin. Hair also only looks thicker because the tips or unshaven hair taper off. And finally in the respect of hair the only reason that your hair appears to be darker is that the sun hasn't had the time to lighten it up. Unshaven hair has been exposed too sunlight for years and has essentially been bleached by the sun.

Some other myths look at by Vreeman and Carroll are "we only use 10% of our brains" and "eating turkey makes people especially drowsy." To read more about these and other myths log on to http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7633/1288

copycat -- billabong

I copied this off a bulletin I got through myspace. I just want to pass the word along that if you see the billabong shirt, please don't buy it.

"Oh no you didn't! Above you can see my original golden tooth Johnny Cupcakes design, which was created and released in 2005. It was featured in many magazines, blogs, and even seen on television. Next to it you'll see something very similar. Anyways, a ton of my loyal fans just sent me some different links to this new shirt the Billabong JUST released, called "Billabong, Bling Bling". Looks familiar, eh? It's the exact same things, minus the cupcake! Look at the teeth, look at the bottom row of teeth. With them being a bazillion dollar corporation, you figured they could of at least changed it around a little bit, or hired a decent designer. I guess they had to so this so that all the other corporate giants wouldn't pick on them for not being bully enough. Tssk Tsk! PLease spread the word on this not so good situateion / "coincidence" via blogs, myspace, facebook, etc.. The truth MUST be told about this type of nonsense! (Feel free to use the photo & info above.)"

And while your at it, check out Johnny Cupcakes, they've got some pretty cool designs.

politics -- NH primaries...and santa!

Clinton and McCain seem to have one New Hampshire. 100% of the votes don't seem to be in but in either case 1% wont really change the outcome. I must congratulate Sen. McCain, he seems to be a great Senator for Arizona.


Though this is way off topic, while I was reading a book I realized that if you rearrange the letters in Santa, you get Satan. Lovely, but I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

politics -- NH primaries

I had intended to write about the outcome of the New Hampshire primaries tomorrow morning when I got up, but I find myself writing now. Not all the votes are in yet, at this moment only 95% are, but it is projected by many sources that Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain will get NH. Of all the polls that I saw this morning, they were right about McCain, but not Clinton. It was thought that Obama would end up beating her, again.


I'd rather not saw who exactly I'd like to win the nomination, but I guess that means I can say who I wish wouldn't. I've never been a fan of Sen. Clinton and after tonight I'm even less of a fan tonight. I'm sure it was hard for Obama to have to make a speech congratulating Clinton after he was expected to win, by a lot. But, Sen. Obama did sounding quite sincere, he even told all of his supporters to give a round of applause to the former First Lady. Now, it is reported that Clinton's supporters booed Obama during his speech. Maybe I'm just extremely polite, which I highly doubt, but after your political nemesis congratulates you, it doesn't seem appropriate to boo them. Even though it was her supporters and not Clinton herself that did the booing they're linked to her.


I'm getting too worked up in all of this. And assuming that the final result are in before I fall asleep, I'm sure I'll have something to say here about it. If not, I'll have something to say in the morning.

Time to Catch Up

I'm not sure that I should say a lot has happened since the last time I was here, but stuff has happened so it's time to bring some of that up.

First off, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The 54-year-old former Pakistan Prime Minister was said to have been shot in the neck and chest before the gunman blew himself up killing himself and 22 others. The doctors said that she died of gunshot wounds, but the Interior Ministry is saying that she died of a fractured skull when she fell and hit her head on her van's sunroof. And by the way, I'm not sure what the "September 26" is on the picture, but since I got the pic off TV I'm thinking that it's from the video that they had showed previously.

Then, Happy New Year! My plan had been to watch the celebration on CNN, but since my mother doesn't have cable I was forced to record it and watch it this morning, only 8 days late! Anyways, decide the fact that Anderson Cooper was hosting it, I liked the fact that you could send in you own message to people and it'd be shown on the bottom of the screen. And, I seem to remember hearing a while ago that they'd show ALL the messages. So, I sent a message to my friends, did I see it? No. That's sad perhaps you'd say that there were just too many messages to show them all, I don't think so since I saw a couple of them twice. Sigh.

On January 3 was the Iowa caucuses. I remember reading in the Wall Street Journal and in USA Today that day that the front runners were Huckabee and Obama. Perhaps polls do come true since they came out on top.

Not that this matters to anyone but me, but The Daily Show and the Colbert Report were back on last night and they weren't as bad as I thought. And somewhat related to that, I spent a lot of my time away reading and I've got two books to recommend. First, Stephen Colbert's I Am America (and so can you!) That one's an entertaining book. And next, Rich Blake's The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up. It you need a tearjerker, read this book. It is the true story of Donny Herbert a fire fighter who was in a minimally conscious state for 10 years before he miraculously woke up and started talking. In the end he hurt himself in a fall and later got pneumonia which took his life. I first heard this story on 60 Minutes and watching it made me cry.

Today, the New Hampshire primary. According to the WMUR/CNN poll and the USA Today/Gallup poll report Obama and McCain are in the lead. In the event that Clinton doesn't get New Hampshire, I can see what her chief strategist Mark Penn will say. "President Clinton lost the first five states." We'll just have to wait and see.

And The Mole is coming back to ABC. That was such a great show, even without the Cooper factor. I doubt that they'll get Anderson Cooper as the host again, but one can only hope.






I know there is more, watching the 10 hours of 360 that I missed is making me realize that, but I think I'd be spending the rest of the day writing here. As much as I'd like to do that I should probably do as I was told and help take the ornaments off of the Christmas tree that still stands in my living room.