Life changes everyday. Life is full of challenges. Plans do change. Do things that you want to do. Take risk co'z life goes on and on. Why waste your life on sleeping when you can have enough of it when you die! Live your dreams, make it real, do it while your awake not asleep...Start now not tomorrow. You don't know what will happen next.
PETALUMA, Calif. - Elwood, a 2-year-old Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix, was crowned the world's ugliest dog Friday, a distinction that delighted the New Jersey mutt's owners.
Elwood, dark colored and hairless — save for a mohawk-like puff of white fur on his head — is often referred to as "Yoda," or "ET," for his resemblance to those famous science fiction characters.
"I think he's the cutest thing that ever lived," said Elwood's owner, Karen Quigley, a resident of Sewell, New Jersey.
Quigley brought Elwood out to compete for the second year at the annual ugly dog contest at the Marin-Sonoma County Fair. Elwood placed second last year.
Most of the competing canines were also Chinese Crested, a breed that features a mohawk, bug eyes and a long, wagging tongue.
Quigley said she rescued Elwood two years ago. "The breeder was going to euthanize him because she thought he was too ugly to sell," said Quigley.
"So ha ha, now Elwood's all over the Internet and people love him and adore him."
Beyond the regal title of ugliest dog, Elwood also earned a $1,000 reward for his owner.
photo: WN Florida Times Union Last modified 6/25/2007 - 2:46 pm Originally created 062607
This is in response to the Lifestyle article titled "Harry The Horrible?" All hail, Harry! I disagree with the article that Harry Potter is "dumbing down readers."
On the contrary, J.K. Rowling has delivered a supply of imaginative myth in the guise of books for children to an overwhelming demand.
To say otherwise illustrates that society has no common story, and, therefore, needs Harry all the more.
In an age of reality television, screaming crime rates and Paris Hilton, there is a decided lack of imagination and belief in our lives.
Despite the evidence that imagination exists - witness every time someone acknowledges the richer imaginative experience of reading by saying "the movie was not as good as the book" - we don't celebrate it as we should. We also suffer a growing lack of commonality and shared values.
So where can individuals, seeking enlightenment or enrichment, turn?
Church is the obvious answer. But all of religion hasn't halted a decades-long decline of belief in the soul. Reasonable minds might agree that people have a need for something larger than themselves.
Enter the mythological. Harry Potter, and works like it, especially those of J.R.R. Tolkien and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, fill a lack that is evidenced by these works' enduring popularity.
Myth provides an end to man's search for understanding or a "map of life."
How many children reading Harry Potter picture themselves in the adventure?
How many of those same children will choose friendship first as a result of Harry's example, using that example as a way of defining themselves?
Those who would ban Rowling's books are missing an important point: Values such as friendship, teamwork, honor and self-sacrifice can be learned in many ways and in many books.
Lewis said that reading myth is always awe-inspiring, that myth has a value and moving power in itself, independent of the style of its narrative.
In other words, it has a power despite the "cliches and dead metaphors."
Bravo to The New York Times for recognizing children's literature.
The creation of a separate best-seller list was long overdue.
It was brought about in no small part by the Harry Potter series, which opened up not only bookstores and libraries in record numbers, but also the minds of new, young readers.
And whether you believe in the value of Harry Potter, it cannot be denied that children around the planet have a phenomenally greater interest in reading as a result of Harry Potter leading the way.
Question: Why do I get so jealous when my partner talks to other people?
Answer: When you first connected with your partner and looked into their eyes, it felt like he or she was the only person in the room. As you get deeper into your relationship and call yourselves a couple, the realization hits you: You and your partner are not alone on this planet. There are others! Are they a threat?
When we are in a committed relationship, we assume the connection we have with each other will be strong enough to fend off outside threats. In some ways, this you-belong-to-me-and-I-belong-to-you mentality is sweet; it's the stuff of pop songs and poetry. But sometimes the intensity of that connection is too strong.
When one partner sees everyone whom his or her partner comes into contact with as a potential threat, it is a sign that jealousy has taken hold. Shakespeare called it "the green-eyed monster," and once it gets a hold of your relationship, it sinks its teeth in and can rip it apart.
a sign that jealousy has taken hold
What causes jealousy?
If you've got strong feelings of jealousy, it's probably a sign that you don't have enough trust in your partner that he or she is being faithful to you. That lack of trust may be prompted by one of four factors.
You may feel insecure about your self-worth. In these cases, either you've been raised to believe, or some part of your inner self feels, that you just don't measure up. Because you don't love yourself, you can't believe that others would love you, so you live in fear that your partner's "true" feelings will be revealed and she will leave.
You're prone to cheating on your partner -- maybe even have done so. Knowing what you're capable of, you project that behavior onto your partner.
You and your partner haven't yet figured out how to establish safe boundaries within the relationship. Having a tight bond is about building walls around your love with windows that allow others to be part of it -- not doors where competing lovers can walk right in and disrupt your home. Because you don't know what's permissible within the relationship and what's not, you're constantly on your toes.
Your mate is cheating on you. Cheating doesn't have to include sex; it often has to do with making emotional connections to others outside the relationship. If your partner is sharing things about your private life with attractive members of the opposite sex, it robs a sense of intimacy from your relationship and leaves you feeling vulnerable.
establish safe boundaries within the relationship
Knowing the factors that lead to jealousy is an important first step to getting things fixed. Put your focus on building trust. If you've got some growing up to do, therapy may help. Both of you have to learn how to set boundaries in the relationship. That requires respecting your mate's definition of limits of outside relationships from the start.
Over time, as trust builds, you and your partner can redefine what feels safe for the relationship. After all, when you've got a great relationship, you want to share it with the world.
Put your focus on building trust
Want to read more articles from Hitched? Check out hitchedmag.com
Ika dalawangput isa nang Hunyo, ika walo at kalahating oras date kung saan magmemeting and CDO bloggers kasama si Ginoong Oliver Robillo. Sa kasag sagan nang ulan ay sumulong parin kame papunta sa meeting place. When we arrive pagdating namin ehhh bumuhos na ang malakas na rain so kame ay basang basa sa ulan were all like wet look ikanga:D. We thought akala namin Mr. Oliver Robillo was there already nandoon naxa kasi sabe ni maam honey nandoon nadaw xa. Kasama ko sina popoy, charlie, chepay, runel, at ako may iba pa sana pero umuwi na. Still life must go on :D
Nahhh di pa pala pero baka siguro nandoon lang xa sa ibang place nag-antay but subalit datapwa't I was wrong ako ay nagkamali mga tsong at tsang :) talagang naghintay na talaga si Mr. Robillo. Sino ba itong Mr. Oliver Robillo talaga? Ahh xa pala ang marketing consultant of the Association of Solution Integrators in Davao, Inc yayyyy ang tindi ang bigatin. Xa po ang may-akda nang Dabawenyo Bloggers at mas matindi pa PR 5 po ito after 3 months lang ang masasabe ko lang we are not worthy bowwwwww.
But we keep on looking for him on the meeting place ehh di namn familiar kasi kung anong looks nya. Guapo ba xa o hindi mataba ba xa o hindi payat ba xa o hindi basta yun na yun. Kasi namn may other kasama ayaw maghanap so kaming dalawa nalang ni chepay ang naghanap. Sos ginoo wala pala xa doon sa intended na place doon sa tabi lang na place hayyy nako nakita na namin xa pero nahihiya kaming magapproach sa kanya. U know na mahiyain po kame :D So we waited till maam honey arrive with miss jaja. Then the meeting started.
Blablabla we discuss about the upcoming summit in davao hope we can make it and join the summit. Then a lot of things that had been discussed kaso lang speechless po kame kasi namn kahit isang word ayaw lumabas sa aming mga bibig. Like jaja said lahat nasulat na namin sa blog :D. Still we make pasalamat to everyone who make the meeting successful especially to Mr. Robillo and Ms. Honey kahit even though it was cold and raining. Thank you very much sa pumunta at di namn pumunta will see each other sa davao summit. Let us clap our hands bowww.
The Arctic is warming up faster than any other region. Because it plays a vital role in cooling the rest of the globe, the effects of this warming will be felt worldwide, not just on remote tundra.
Nineteenth-century explorer Fridtjof Nansen called the Arctic "nature's great ice temple," a place teeming with roaming polar bears and a forbidding landscape frozen since "the earliest dawn of time."
But today, one cannot venture far enough north to escape global warming. The region has heated up nearly twice as fast as the rest of the globe over the past 50 years, according to a 2004 study assessing climate change in the Arctic.
Land-based ice such as glaciers, ice sheets and permafrost and floating ice are vanishing, and the ongoing thaw has profound ramifications for the rest of the world.
Arctic Powers the "Heat Pump"
The Arctic is critical to the globe's climate and influence temperatures everywhere.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but the Arctic plays a primary role in distributing heat around the world through what is known as the "heat pump." The ocean's currents circulate heat throughout the world, through a system known as the "great conveyor belt."
Two main forces keep the conveyor moving: winds and ocean density differences. The Arctic is key to the density differences.
The conveyor belt's critical points are where surface waters plunge into deep waters. This happens only in a few places, two of which are in the North Atlantic.
As the ocean surface waters cool in the far north, they become denser and sink toward the bottom of the ocean. There, the cold water flows toward the equator. This combination of sinking and flow helps drive the ocean conveyor.
Because the cold waters that flow south must be replaced, warm surface currents flow farther north and deliver warmth to places far north. Without the ocean conveyor's heat pump, Europe's temperate climate would be much colder.
Global warming is changing that key spot in the North Atlantic where the surface waters plunge. A mix of increased precipitation, river run-off and melting ice—all related to climate change—is making surface waters in the north less salty and dense, weakening this major pump in the ocean's natural circulation.
The Arctic Melt Is Speeding Up Warming
Also speeding up the Earth's warming is the loss of Arctic ice. Like a mirror, ice bounces sunlight back toward space, preventing sunlight from heating the surface. Winds carry the cooler air down from Canada into the U.S., cooling our climate.
Open water and bare soil are not as bright as ice and snow, so they absorb heat instead of reflecting it. When ice melts, the Earth's darker surfaces are exposed and thus absorb more solar energy. This extra heat melts even more ice, which leads to even more dark surfaces and absorption. This is what scientists call a positive feedback loop.
Once the loop gets going, it tends to keep going—and to speed up. Less ice means less cooling much faster. Or, as the American Meteorological Society's senior scientist Susan Joy Hassol put it to U.S. senators in a committee hearing in 2004: "What we're looking at is having a less efficient air conditioner."
Loss of Arctic ice is not just speculation—it's already happening. The year 2003 brought a dramatic example of Arctic ice disappearing. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the largest in the Arctic, broke in two, draining a unique freshwater lake that was home to a rare microbial ecosystem.
Since the 1970s, 400,000 square miles of Arctic sea ice has disappeared. That's the size of Texas and California combined. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2001) Even worse, the years 2002 through 2006 have all seen record or near-record low ice cover.
The most recent report by the IPCC finds that nearly all of the Arctic Ocean could lose year-round ice cover by the end of the 21st century if greenhouse gas emissions reach the higher end of current estimates. (IPCC 2007).
What This Means for the Rest of Us
While the Arctic melt has profound effects on the region's people and ecosystems, it also spells trouble for the rest of the world. For instance, changes to the ocean's circulation system would mean that though some places will get much warmer, other places, such as Europe, which won't get the warmth from the Gulf Stream, will get much cooler.
One of the thaw's most pressing concerns on the world beyond the Arctic is sea-level rise. When melting glaciers spill into the ocean, sea levels around the globe rise. The booming cities and counties along the East and West coasts house half of the U.S. population and are among the communities that will be most threatened by melting ice.
Currently, the retreat of the world's glaciers is adding enormous amounts of fresh water to the ocean. Between 1961 and 1997, for instance, about 890 cubic miles of ice has been lost. That means that melting glacier ice has added about 980 trillion (or 979,994,261,211,428.5) gallons of water to the oceans. That would be like dumping more than a million Olympic-sized swimming pools into our oceans.
Some studies have even suggested the possibility that warming over the next several centuries would lead to the complete, irreversible disappearance of the Greenland ice sheet. Were that to occur, sea levels would rise an extra 23 feet.
"If we ignore the Arctic's warning—and it is warming—the polar bears and native Alaskans won't be the only ones who suffer," notes Environmental Defense scientist Dr. Bill Chameides. "Our children and grandchildren could pay a hefty price."
Think that all of the great Web sites have already been invented? Think again. The Internet is evolving in new and inventive ways thanks to mashups that pull data from all over the Web and to AJAX-based interfaces that give sites the same degree of interactivity and responsiveness that desktop apps possess.
To keep you ahead of the curve, we've rounded up 25 innovative Web sites and services that are well worth watching. Some of them help you design your own personalized Web site mashups; others enable you to create video mixes, build wikis, share personal obsessions, and more. But take note: A number of these sites are works in progress, and user-generated sites depend on developing a critical mass of content, which doesn't happen right away. With that in mind, check out the following dot-com destinations. One of them may become the next big Web hit.
Mashups, Maps, and More
Build your own Web feed, poll friends and strangers, and find your way with these tools.
Popfly
Popfly provides a friendly, visual way to build your own mashups.If you haven't already discovered the world of mashups, Microsoft's Popfly is a good place to start. Mashups combine multiple Web-based sites or applications to produce all sorts of useful things, such as an overlay of traffic information over Google Maps. With Popfly, you can create your own mashups--and you don't have to know a lick of code to do it. Just drag prefab building blocks, connect them, and you have an instant mashup that you can add to an existing Web page or turn into its own site. For example, you can easily produce a mashup that grabs pictures from a site like Flickr and then displays them in a rotating cube.
Yahoo Pipes
You need a little patience to learn how to build a mashup using Yahoo Pipes.Like Popfly, Yahoo Pipes lets you create your own mashups or "pipes." As with Popfly, you drag and drop prebuilt modules, and then create connections between them. But Yahoo Pipes is much harder to use than Popfly, and the way to go about building your own mashup isn't always obvious. But if you're willing to do some digging and learning, you can build very useful stuff, such as a mashup that uses Yahoo maps to show the locations of all apartments for rent in a certain neighborhood.
BuzzDash
If you were the type of child who continually asked, "But why?" BuzzDash should satisfy your endless curiosity.Are foreign movies better watched with subtitles or with dubbed dialog? Is it okay to cry at work? Who is the best center fielder of all time--Willy Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb, or Ken Griffey, Jr.?
If these are the kinds of issues that keep you awake at night, we have a Web site for you. BuzzDash lets you participate in, comment on, and see the results of numerous quick opinion polls. The polls are organized by topic, such as movies, football, and politicians; and if you have a burning question you want answered, you can create your own survey.
Wayfaring
Wayfaring.com lets you create personalized maps, such as one that pinpoints shipwrecks in the Great Lakes.If you're obsessed with cartography, wander over to Wayfaring.com. Here you can easily create personalized maps for a walking tour of London, say, or a wine-tasting trip through Napa or a pub crawl through Seattle. The site provides the tools you'll need to build annotated maps--complete with descriptions, Web links, and photos of your favorite stops--and then post them for others to view and discuss. It's fun to check out the maps other users have created. One of my favorites: a map of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, including links to Web sites that discuss each wreck.
CircleUp
CircleUp makes social planning easier by letting you organize your contacts into different communities.Anyone who has ever tried to organize an event--or to get a group of people to respond to a simple question like "Who can drive the kids to Little League this week?"--knows how tough it is to filter and organize the answers into coherent, usable form. That's where CircleUp comes in handy. Use this site to send an e-mail or instant message to a group of people; then wait for it to return a consolidated summary of responses to you. It's simple, it's free, and it will liberate you from the recurring feeling that you're herding cats whenever you try to coordinate an activity involving more than two people.
Organizers, Searchers and Optimizers
The Web has so much information that it's hard to keep track of everything. These sites will help you pull content together and move around the Internet more efficiently.
Pageflakes
Using Pageflakes, you can customize a Web site with just the news and information you want.The Web is just as chaotic as the world--but Pageflakes can organize both of them for you. This super-customizable version of a home page enables you to pick the news and information feeds you want to read, and to specify the "flakes," or applets, you want to include. Flakes let you add all sorts of cool stuff to your page--movie times, to-do lists, a notepad, e-mail, a horoscope--even sudoku or a personal blog. If you're looking for one-stop browsing, this is it.
Spock
Spock is a search engine dedicated to finding information about people.If you spend more time than you should googling folks, you need to check out Spock.com, a search engine designed to dig up information about people. Start by typing in a name, or a search term that describe a group of people--for example, Motown Singer, or Rastafarians. The site then searches through various social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster, along with more-general Web sites, and reports on what it finds.
For many searches, you'll get multiple categories of links. For instance, type in Barack Obama, and you'll get groupings like 'Democrat', 'Senator', and '2008 Presidential Candidate'. Click any link, and you'll find pages related to both Obama and the larger category. There are also links to photographs, tags, Obama's.
Wikipedia entry, his Senate site, and so on. Spock is currently in beta form (its public launch is scheduled for sometime before September), and at the moment you need an invitation to gain access to it, but with luck you can wangle one by filling out the form on the site.
Swivel
Swivel charts everything from crime statistics to American Idol contestant popularity.Data and graph fanatics, you have a home. Swivel, holds a mind-boggling array of charts and graphs--from a line graph illustrating the relationship between wine consumption and crime in the United States over the past 30 years to a pie chart showing the percentage breakdown of bird flu cases in 14 Asian countries. But the site's most outstanding feature is its ability to integrate different charts containing seemingly unrelated data. Want to compare the national murder rate to the cost of a first-class stamp, or to total hours of media use in U.S. households, over the same period of time? Now you can.
Clipmarks
Clip elements of your favorite Web pages, and save them to your Clipmarks profile.The Internet is the best research tool in existence. That's the good news--and the bad news. Though finding information online is easy, keeping track of it all can be tough. Most people end up copying and pasting information from Web sites, printing it out, or bookmarking pages--with no good way to keep it all organized or find what they want fast.
Clipmarks solves the problem neatly by installing a toolbar that hitches on to Internet Explorer or Firefox. As you surf the Web, use the Clipmarks toolbar to clip and save sections of a page--text, graphics, and even YouTube videos. Clipping something automatically archives it under your Clipmarks profile, though you can also save it directly to your blog or send it via e-mail. You can even share your clip collections, or look at archives that other users have assembled.
OpenDNS
One reason the W eb sometimes feels poky, even when you use broadband, is the Internet's Domain Name System. When you type a URL (such as www.pcworld.com) into your browser, DNS servers must translate that alphanumeric information into a numeric IP address (such as 70.42.185.10) that Web servers and your PC can understand. Typically your ISP's DNS servers handle the translation work.
But OpenDNS speeds up the translation (called "name resolution") by handling the process on its own high-speed DNS servers. The service includes other cool time-savers, as well, such as the ability to create keyboard shortcuts. For example, instead of typing www.pcworld.com each time, you might arrange to type in the letter p and jump immediately to your favorite online destination.
Real Estate, Bookmarks, and Blogs
With these services, you can find a house, browse the Web from a single location, and make sure that your online prose never gets lost.
Trulia
Trulia gives you an idea of how much you'll have to spend when shopping for a home in a certain 'hood.There are plenty of real-estate sites on the Web, but this one comes with a twist. By combining social networking with mapping and search technology, Trulia gives you a high-tech way to find the home of your dreams. Use the different sliders and checkboxes to focus your search (price, square footage, and the all-important number of bathrooms), and Trulia will display qualifying homes that are for sale in the specified area, overlaid on a map. The site includes useful, city-specific real estate guides containing additional data on average home sale prices, most popular neighborhoods, crime statistics, and the like.
The Trulia Voices section hooks you up with other people to discuss neighborhoods, housing issues, or real estate in general. Trulia is relatively new, so that section is as yet quite sparse. But if the site gains traction, Trulia Voices may prove to be the most useful tool of all.
Tip: To view some cool time-lapse maps showing how an area (such as Las Vegas) has developed over time, hop to Trulia Hindsight.
PopURLs
Forget site hopping. Head to PopURLs, and scan all your headlines in one place.If you're an information hound, you probably spend lots of time jumping from Digg to Del.icio.us to YouTube to Fark to Google News to anything-dot-com. With PopURLs, you no longer need to waste time hopping around the Internet. An aggregator of all things informative, PopURLs features massive lists of headlines, videos, blogs, and content from all of those sites, as well as plenty of others.
One nice bonus is that you can search some of the sites--Del.icio.us, Flickr, and Wikipedia, among others--straight from PopURLs. It's also easy to tweak the way PopURLs looks and works, too, including customizing the layout of the feeds so you can put the ones you view most regularly on top. The scrapbook is a particularly useful feature; just click the 'Add to Scrapbook' button next to any headline, and PopURLs will save it (and up to 19 other favorite items).
Goowy
Goowy lets you run different applications and widgets, all from the Web.For several years, observers have speculated that the Internet will become, in essence, a vast operating system, with applications built on top of it. To a great extent, that's the premise underlying Goowy. Create an account, and you can start building your own desktop, with applications for e-mail, contacts, instant messaging, file management, and more. You can also add prebuilt widgets, called "minis," to your desktop, for news, stocks, weather, and other tidbits of information.
Don't expect the site to replace your desktop at this point: Goowy lacks full-blown applications and doesn't access your hard drive. Still, it's a glimpse into what may be the future of the Internet.
BlogBackupOnline
If you have a blog and you aren't sure that your blog provider will always have a backup in case of a crash, head over to BlogBackupOnline pronto. The site is straightforward: Log in, enter information about your blog, and the site diligently backs it up every day (provided that you use one of the 11 supported blogging services--Blogger, Friendster, LiveJournal, Movable Type, Multiply, Serendipity, Terapad, TypePad, Vox, Windows Live Space, or WordPress). The site is also a great tool if you ever decide to move your blog from one platform to another. After you've backed up your blog, BlogBackupOnline can bring all of your old entries into the new service.
Ma.gnolia
Ma.gnolia is an online keeper of bookmarks, with plenty of community aspects to boot.If you're a fan of the social bookmarking site Del.i.cio.us but wish that it were a little more social--and a little less geeky--check out Ma.gnolia. As with Del.icio.us, you can save and share bookmarks and tags. But Ma.gnolia presents a far more appealing design, and it has a few nice extra talents, such as the ability to let you save snapshots of your favorite pages.
Ma.gnolia excels on the social networking front. You can join groups, share bookmarks, and browse groups and discussions for more bookmarks on topics that fascinate you. If you're strictly interested in bookmarking and tagging, Del.i.cio.us remains the best place to go. But if you want to share your findings with others, Ma.gnolia is worth a taste.
Five Ways to Create and Share
These services help you put your thoughts together and publish them on the Web, whether you're most comfortable talking, shooting video, or just typing.
Yodio
With Yodio, you can create an audio postcard that makes your picture worth a thousand words.Of course your friends and family want to see all of your pictures from your Venetian vacation--but wouldn't it be better if they could also hear your voice, telling you cool details about what they're looking at, or narrating a story regarding some gondola hijinks?
Yodio lets you combine photos with sound files to create an audio postcard. To make a recording, call a special Yodio phone number and start talking (or you can record your own MP3 file and upload it). Once you've transferred photos to the site, you can add sound and publish your postcard on the Web for others to admire. The site also has a scheme for making money from your productions, though we wouldn't bet the farm on it.
Meebo Rooms
Goal, or no goal? With Meebo's multimedia chat rooms, you can discuss videos and pictures with other fans.You may have heard about Meebo, the Web-based instant messaging program that lets you communicate with people over various IM services, such as AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo. (See our review of Meebo.)
Well equally cool is Meebo's newest launch, Meebo Rooms, which lets you participate in multimedia chats. You'll find chat rooms on everything from sports to SpongeBob Squarepants, and the rooms support videos and photos that you can discuss with fellow fans. If you can't find a topic you're interested in, simply create a new room and post visuals for others to discuss. You can even embed rooms into your site or blog, and use them to lure people to your own Web destination.
Squidoo
Squidoo makes it easy to create (or look for) Web pages that reflect your passions.Got an obsession or special passion you want to convey to the world? Squidoo is your ticket. Using the site's simple tools, you can build a "lens" (aka, a Web page) that includes information on any topic that's close to your heart, whether it's cats or Kafka.
A lens can be quite different from a blog. With lenses, you share links to resources, book recommendations, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, eBay auction items, and other cool Web content related to a single subject. Even if you don't build your own lens, the site is worth visiting to see what others have done. You can learn a lot more about lemonade or laptop bags than you ever thought possible.
SplashCast
Build your own streaming media channel using the tools on SplashCast.For anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming a broadcast mogul, here's a quick (and free) way to get a taste of what it might be like. SplashCast lets you create your own streaming media channel that combines video, music, photos, text, narration, and RSS feeds. A wizard walks you through the steps of building your channel. Start by uploading media files from your hard drive, or point to files on other sites. Add captions, commentary, and RSS feeds, and your channel is ready to go. Once you're done finessing your channel, you can send it to friends and family, or syndicate it to blogs and social networking sites. So far, there's no way for you to make money from your channels, but the site plans to start a revenue-sharing model.
Eyespot
With Eyespot, it's a cinch to create a video mix and share it with others.To create a video all you have to do is point your cell phone, digital camera, or camcorder at something, press a button, and stay focused. The result: an instant movie. What's not so easy, though, is organizing, editing, and combining your video clips to create something aesthetically pleasing. Eyespot simplifies this process. Upload your videos to the site, and then use its tools to crop and mix them either with other clips you supply or with free video from the site. You can even add effects, transitions, and titles before publishing your video mix for the world to see.
Sites for Collaborative Work and Play
Whether you're putting together an important document or an anniversary party, these services will help get everybody involved. Also, check out a snazzy online photo editor and a new way to search.
Approver.com
Approver.com lets you keep tabs on a document while passing it around to different recipients--and track its progress.Anyone who has collaborated with multiple people on a document knows the true meaning of frustration. You have to distribute the file to the entire group, convince every person to review it by a certain date and time, and get them all to sign off on it. Approver.com lowers the pain quotient considerably. Upload the document you want to track, and the site routes it to everyone who needs to see it. It also lets you set deadlines for reviewing the document, and keep track of approvals and comments. Approver.com works with a number of apps, including Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, and Open Office; alternatively, you can use the site to create documents, and have your colleagues read them online.
Pbwiki
Create a community of opera lovers (or anything else) by building your own wiki.Though the whole world seems to know about Wikipedia these days, many people and organizations don't realize how useful it can be to build their own wiki. In business settings, it's an ideal way to share information within a group. For individuals, it's perfect for planning a get-together, organizing a fan club, or sharing memories with family members. Pbwiki makes creating miniature versions of Wikipedia a breeze. The site's simple, Web-based tools are perfect for building a wiki--you don't need to have any HTML know-how--and getting others in on the editing action.
MyPunchbowl
MyPunchbowl handles online invitations, sets up message boards, and maps your party with Google Maps.Planning a party, but unsure of what date works best for your friends? MyPunchbowl is basically Evite with a little extra kick. Like any self-respecting online invitation site, MyPunchbowl lets you create party invitations and then track who's coming, who's not, and who has yet to respond. But the site also enables you to send pick-a-date e-mail messages to see which day works best for people, set up message boards (useful for organizing things like who's bringing the vino), and produce a map of the shindig's location using Google Maps. You can also create an after-party message board where people can share comments, photos, and videos--if, um, appropriate.
Picnik
From sepia to soften, Picnik's photo editor lets you apply any number of effects. Now all we need is an old gum tree.You probably have hundreds or thousands of digital photos on your PC. And a lot of those photos would probably benefit from a little tweaking. But that doesn't mean that you have to download and install photo editing software. Picnik supplies a nice suite of tools for editing photos online. All you have to do is upload your photos, or have Picnik grab them from a site like Flickr (which doesn't have editing features), and then get to work. Picnik offers tools aplenty for performing simple editing--cleaning up red-eye or resizing photos, say--as well as doing more-extensive work, such as changing the exposure, fixing a color cast, or applying special effects.
Quintura
With Quintura, search and you shall find a standard results list, along with a visual diagram of related terms.Quintura provides a new way for you to search for things on the Internet. When you enter a search term, Quintura returns an ordinary list of results on the right-hand side, while on the left it offers a visual map (or "cloud") of related terms. Click any of these words, and the list of results changes to encompass the new term as well, which can help you narrow your search. The process may sound clunky, but it's surprisingly effective.
Alphabetical Listing
Keep an eye on these sites--you may be looking at Google 2.0. Here they are listed in alphabetical order.
Hallo everyone, I want you to meet my very cute dad. Describes him as a fat, big person with big stomach and specially with a bald forhead :) I call him pawix(opaw)a truck driver since his teenage days, were very proud to be your children. Keep up the good work.
His Mr. Gervacio Castillo Belocura, my very own father who gave me the chance to see the world because without him and my mom, I will never see the beauty of the world and the goodness of GOD's creations.
He gave us what we want, were all like spoiled brats, he showed us that life is full of challenges and we should always be strong, There was a lot of times when I was running and I saw myself down, I was happy because his always there and told me to stand up, held me his hands and pulled me up.
On my childhood days, when I got high grades I am excited to go home to show him what I got, then he was happy and so with my mom. He then treat us to sea side trips and play after church on the plaza then eat a bunch of snacks and food.
Then came graduation and school exercises to pin us ribbons and put gold medals on our neck but then may dad is not there to see all those things that I got from school. He was busy for work for us to live. Still I always understand him, I am not mad at him also because being busy is also for our good, for our baon(buy food, snacks etc) in school, for our everyday fare, for our toys and dresses for out everyday food at home, for our medicine if we will be sick and for our loho( needs for short) in life. :)
That scene I observed till I graduated in high school and college. Still I do admit that my dad never walk with me on stage and and get my diploma. Even though I was raised in a poor family, lived in a small hut. I have seen life itself through the struggles of my dad. There are a lot of times that there was nothing to eat but a small amount still my dad and my mom give us the food even though they are both hungry. Encounter a lot of problems but still my dad want us to be strong. I see him as a brave man just not for himself but for us too his family. For that I put myself an aim and goal in life that before I didn't even know. I want to grow up fast so that I may be able to help them but as life goes on I realized that its not easy to be such in a hurry now I understand that life is indeed life itself.
Life is indeed very strict. But still I am very happy even though my dad haven't seen all those things that I've been through,I still thank God that he gave me a complete family with a dad that is very supportive, loving, caring etc. all the goodness of God's likeness even though sometimes strict but that strictness leads me to the good side of my life. And with a mom that is very pretty and loving and so with my sisters and brother that is very hard headed now who is married and haven't finished school because of being stubborn, I know my brother is smart he just don't know how to use it I hope he can overcome his pride.
I still want to share you things about my dad my struggles and with my family but I have no time because I am working and my boss will get angry if i will not finish my work. So see yah people just watch out for some new topics for the next post. I just wanna say.........
Happy Fathers day to all the dads in the world : D (Single Dad, Dead Dad, Vanished Dad, Fat Dad, Thin Dad, Big Eyed Dad, One Eyed Dad, No Dad at all, None Existing Dad, Battered Dad etc)
From your sons and daughters with different races in the world, we may be stubborn, hard headed, a loving one, a sweet one, even though we don't show you that we love you very much, even though we didn't even care for you but still deep inside our heart theres the love that hides, even though we cannot expresses it all still i want to tell you........................ T H A N K -------------Y O U -------------V E R Y --------------M U C H : )
Father's Day is celebrated on Sunday June 17th, 2007
Father's Day was first observed in Spokane, Washington, in 1910.
Sonora Louise Smart Dodd,of Washington, first proposed the idea of a "father's day" in 1909.
Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, who was widowed when his wife died in childbirth after their sixth child was born. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself. Mrs. Dodd wanted Father's Day to be celebrated on the first Sunday in June, her father's birthday.
It wasn't until 1966 that President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. Coming almost sixty years after Mother's Day had been proclaimed a National day of observance.
Some kids don't have have a Dad to celebrate Father's Day with - other kids have more then one person they call Dad. Visit Father's Day Can have it's Conflicts if this applies to you. You are not alone. More...
What Is A Dad?
- Anonymous
A Dad is a person who is loving and kind, And often he knows what you have on your mind.
He's someone who listens, suggests, and defends A dad can be one of your very best friends!
He's proud of your triumphs but when things go wrong A dad can be patient and helpful and strong.
In all that you do, a dad's love plays a part There's always a place for him deep in your heart.
And each year that passes you're even more glad, More grateful and proud just to call him your dad!
Thank you, Dad ... for listening and caring for giving and sharing but, especially, for just being you!
The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help carry injured soldiers away from the battlefield.
The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain.
New Scientist magazine reports that the "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease.
It is expected to be ready for testing within five years.
While it is important to get medical attention for injured soldiers as soon as possible, it is often difficult and dangerous for their comrades to reach them and carry them back.
The 6ft tall Bear can cross bumpy ground without toppling thanks to a combination of gyroscopes and computer controlled motors to maintain balance.
BEAR FACTS
1. Teddy bear face designed to be reassuring
2. Hydraulic upper body carries up to 227kgs (500lbs)
3. When kneeling tracked "legs" travel over rubble. Switches to wheels on smooth surfaces
4. Dynamic Balance Behaviour (DBB) technology allows the robot to stand and carry loads upright on its ankles, knees or hips for nearly an hour
It is also narrow enough to squeeze through doorways, but can lift 135kg with its hydraulic arms in a single smooth movement, to avoid causing pain to wounded soldiers.
While the existing prototype slides its arms under its burden like a forklift, future versions will be fitted with manoeuvrable hands to gently scoop up casualties.
The Bear is controlled remotely and has cameras and microphones through which an operator sees and hears.
It can even tackle stairs while carrying a human-sized dummy.
Daniel Theobald, the president of Vecna Technologies, which is developing the robot for the US Army, said: "We saw a need for a robot that can essentially go where a human can. The robot will be an integral part of a military team."
Gary Gilbert, from the US Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Centre in Frederick, Maryland, said that the teddy bear appearance was deliberate.
"A really important thing when you're dealing with casualties is trying to maintain that human touch."
Vecna is working on other potential applications for the robot technology - including helping move heavy patients in hospital.
The Naked Bike Ride followed a seaside route in Brighton
About 700 cyclists in various states of undress have cycled through central London in another leg of the World Naked Bike Ride.
The naked cyclists - and others with strategically-placed body paint, sticky tape or bum bags - were highlighting the damage caused by car dependency.
They were also promoting the environmental benefits of cycling.
Earlier on Saturday, more than 200 naked cyclists rode through Brighton and Hove in East Sussex.
The World Naked Bike Ride is now in its fourth year with more than 60 cities participating in 2007.
The London leg began at Hyde Park and finished in Wellington Arch, a route of about six miles.
Some cyclists covered themselves in body paint
Martin Ireland was one of those taking part in the ride.
He said: "We are seeing an increasing number of stories of melting ice caps and Antarctica crumbling away and no government is doing anything serious about this.
"They are paying lip service to the problem so people have been taking to their bikes, unclothing, to express their feelings about it."
Duncan Blinkhorn, 45, one of the organisers of the seven-mile Brighton ride, said: "This is a fun if outrageous way to make the serious point that we should not have to tolerate roads, cities and a planet dominated by the brutishness of cars that routinely foul the air we all breathe.
"Bikes and naked bodies harm nobody. Car fumes... are driving us all to climate chaos."
The elderly should be seen as a resource, the government says
Japan's government says the nation has to work harder to encourage elderly people to remain in the workforce.
They need to see them as a resource not a burden - invaluable manpower instead of people who just need support and care.
In a White Paper published on Friday, the government says the transformation to an ageing society is unprecedented.
In 50 years time, more than two-fifths of the population will be over 65, twice the current figure.
Issues such as pensions and care for the elderly are becoming more important for politicians as a result.
At the moment, there are more than three people of working age to support each person over 65. In 2055, that figure will have fallen significantly.
Roughly speaking, there will just be one younger person to support each pensioner.
Employment opportunities
The government plans specific measures to try to ease the hardship caused by such demographic challenges.
These include promoting employment among the elderly and helping people in their 50s to shape post-retirement life plans.
An ageing society can still be a vibrant society, it says.
The growing number of elderly people here means their influence is growing too. A scandal over the payment of state pensions is likely to be one of the most important issues during national elections here next month.
The lack of care provision for elderly people and the growing income gap between them and those still in work are also expected to feature during the campaign.
When Ian and Barbara Pollard let it be known that they enjoyed gardening in the nude, they attracted a fair amount of coverage.
What they didn't expect, however, was to discover that their enthusiasm for clothes-free horticulture was shared by so many others.
So much so that the Pollards now hold special naturist open days at their highly acclaimed five-acre garden in Wiltshire. On Sunday, they had about 350 visitors, with about 300 disrobing.
Word spread of the couple's stripped-down approach after Mr Pollard, 61, and his 54-year-old wife appeared on the BBC show Gardeners' World.
Since then they have been inundated with requests from other naturists asking if they can visit their Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury, which is open to the public from March to October, and stroll around in the way nature intended. READ MORE.
"Wowowee" suspended for three consecutive episodes by MTRCB
Julie Bonifacio
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 11:13 PM
Biglang tumahimik ang buong studio ng Wowowee sa live telecast ng programa kaninang hapon, June 6, pagkatapos ng announcement ng host ng noontime show na si Willie Revillame. Malungkot na ibinalita ni Willie ang naging desisyon ng MTRCB (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board) na suspindihin sa ere ang Wowowee sa loob ng tatlong araw.
Ipinakita sa PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) ng Business Unit Head ng Wowowee na si Cynthia Jordan—o mas kilala bilang Mama Bear sa kanyang staff—ang kopya ng MTRCB decision.
Ito ang nakasaad sa huling talata ng sulat ng MTRCB: "Wherefore, premises considered this Board finds that the respondent violated P.D. 1986 and its supplementing rules and regulation and hereby suspends the showing of the television program Wowowee for three consecutive episodes." Read More.
No longer a luxury, computers have become an essential component of everyday life for most of us. But, just as we can hurt ourselves by abusing drugs and alcohol, we can injure our health by overusing or misusing our computers.
Increasingly, patients are coming to their doctors complaining of musculoskeletal symptoms of repetitive strain (or stress) injuries (RSIs). RSIs occur when certain muscles are kept tense for long periods due to repetitive motions or poor posture.
And just as has been documented in assembly-line workers, the varied symptoms of computer-associated RSIs result from overuse of certain muscles for long periods of time.
While computer users rarely suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, they may develop other RSI symptoms, including these:
Recurring pain or soreness in the wrists, hands, upper back, shoulders, and neck.
Tingling, numbness, or loss of sensation in the fingers and hands. This pain or numbness may interfere with sleeping.
"Trigger finger," in which a tendon in the hand becomes restricted so that a finger or thumb catches in a bent position.
Poor grip strength, weakness, and fatigue of muscles in the arms.
You can prevent RSI in its early stages by following these suggestions:
Stop using the computer whenever you start to notice pain or fatigue.
Watch your posture. Don't hunch your head and neck forward. Keep your back straight, your feet flat on the floor, and your arms parallel to the floor.
Take regular breaks. One option is to install software that reminds you to take breaks.
Hold your wrists straight, neither resting on a pad, nor bent upwards, downwards, or sideways. Installing a keyboard platform that can be adjusted up or down, as well as tilted forward or back, will help you keep you wrists straight.
Get plenty of sleep and regular aerobic exercises to keep in shape.
Learn a technique such as progressive muscle relaxation to keep neck and shoulder muscles relaxed.
Another health hazard of computer overuse is computer vision syndrome (CVS). Studies show that this type of eyestrain that comes from long periods of staring is far more common than RSI. Here are some symptoms to watch for:
Burning, aching, tired eyes
Dry eyes
Difficulty focusing
Double vision
Blurred vision
Sensitivity to light
Headaches
Neck and shoulder pain
Try these tips to avoid or reduce CVS:
Use proper lighting to reduce eyestrain and avoid glare. When using a computer for long periods, you should reduce room lighting to about half that used in most offices. Close blinds or curtains to lessen glare from external light.
Place the monitor directly in front of you, not off to one side, about 20 to 26 inches away from you.
Adjust brightness of the computer screen to obtain optimal contrast between background and characters on the screen.
When transcribing printed or written pages, put the document on a lighted copy stand next to the monitor.
Take 10 to 15 minute breaks every hour. In addition, every five to 10 minutes, look away from the computer screen and focus on a distant object for five to 10 seconds.
If your eyes tend to dry out in the frequently bone-dry environment of the modern office building, use artificial tears or eye drops. Dry eyes may also be exacerbated by the decreased blinking that accompanies staring at a computer.
If eye symptoms persist or worsen despite these measures, consider making an appointment with your eye doctor. Some people may need special prescription glasses that are designed to be worn when working on a computer.
Addressing 'Skeletons' in the Interview Joe Turner, for Yahoo! HotJobs
Here's a scenario that trips up many candidates: You're about to have a phone screen, or even a face-to-face interview, and you have one of the following difficult situations on your resume.
You've been out of work a long time.
You were fired from your last job (or any job).
You had a worker's comp claim filed.
You have a criminal record.
You have some other "skeleton in the closet" they will find out about, and you just know that this will become an issue.
How do you address this? Do you address it at all?
The Skeletons Emerge
Consider a job interview or a phone screen a "discovery process" where the interviewer is attempting to uncover strengths as well as weaknesses. They will uncover weaknesses; it's their job. So if you have any "skeletons" in your closet, they'll eventually come out. Many of us harbor a skeleton or two in our backgrounds. Most are no big deal. Some, however, can become major showstoppers to a job offer.
If you have a skeleton in your work history, don't wait for a major objection to come up in the interview. Instead, go on the offense and address the situation directly, which is very similar to a sales technique called "bragging about your objection."
Avoid Being Defensive
Let's say you're interviewing for a particular position, but you hadn't worked at a "real job" for almost 18 months. This is because you took time off to care for an ailing parent and perhaps also took some night classes to strengthen some software skills. One approach is to proceed with the interview and pretend this gap doesn't exist, hoping perhaps that the interviewer won't notice it. But of course, she does. She brings this up as an objection later on in the interview, and you're left to explain it.
You're now on the defensive, and it's hard to regain any high ground. At this point, the only thing that's on the mind of the interviewer is this gap, and possibly the fact that you tried to hide it. End of interview. No hire.
Here's an alternative: You walk in and greet the interviewer and begin to talk about why you would like to work for this particular company. But then you stop and say, "However, there is one thing I want to point out right now. You'll notice that I wasn't working from (insert dates). And here is the reason..." You then proceed to tell him about your 18-month gap.
Here is where you position your "objection" in your best possible light. Then let the interviewer decide if this is a showstopper. As he thinks it over, there is the human tendency to assess it up front and minimize it. He'll often say something like, "I'm glad you brought this out," and then proceed with the interview. You can now resume your interview knowing the gap has receded in the interviewer's mind as a major objection. Of course, if the gap was a big problem, the interviewer will likely say so at this point. The interview will be over, and little time was wasted on either side.
Rewards, Instead of Excuses
The benefits you gain by taking the up-front approach are:
You retain the control of your interview.
You get to tell your story without feeling defensive.
You'll earn respect for being open and honest.
You'll save time and anguish.
You can use this same approach in any interview. Much like the example above, you already know that "a long time between jobs" -- or whatever your "weakness" is -- is going to be discovered and brought up as an objection. Therefore, take the initiative to bring this objection up near the beginning of the interview. You have everything to gain in the process.
As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their careers. Discover more of his job-search insights by visiting www.jobchangesecrets.com.
Have you ever wondered why we flirt? I mean, we've all done it at some time but it's one of those things that we do without really giving any though to why or how.
Quite simply, flirting's our way of letting the opposite sex know that we're available. What it says we're available for depends entirely on how we flirt but for the sake of this article, I'll concentrate on some flirting tips hat's done when you're with somebody you might like to develop a committed relationship with.
If you're a bit on the shy side, perhaps lacking in self confidence after being away from the singles scene for a long time, flirting can be quite a daunting task. It isn't difficult. It's like everything else; practice makes perfect so if you want to be a successful flirt on the serious dating scene, you need to start sticking your toes back in the water before you dive in after the big fish. Find a few fellas who you think are nice but are unlikely to bump into at the local post-office or your regular watering hole and practice your flirting skills on them. If you get it wrong the most you'll lose is the time you spent flirting but you'll have learned a lot. When you start to feel confident, that's the time to home in on the guy of your dreams and show him what you're made of. Here are some of the Flirting Tips; * Smile Picture the scene. You're sitting at a pavement cafe on a warm, sunny day. A reasonably nice looking guy walks past, glances in your direction but looks as miserable as sin. Five minutes later another reasonably nice looking guy walks past. This one looks across as you and smiles. Which of them would you most likely want to get to know better? My bet's that you'd go with the second guy, simply because he smiled.
A smile immediately gives your appearance more warmth so you'll seem more open and inviting to others.
When he talks, smile in appropriate places. Don't sit there grinning like a Cheshire cat; at best you'll appear false, at worse he'll think you've forgotten to take your medication. A smile shows interest and best of all, it's contagious.
* Eye Contact Everybody enjoys looking at something they find appealing and you don't want him to think you don't fancy him, do you? If you're shy or insecure about flirting you'll perhaps find it difficult to hold his gaze for a moment longer than you should but you really MUST look at him when he's speaking. Looking at everything else will just say 'that crack in the pavement's more interesting to look at than you' and that's hardly what you want, is it?
If, on the other hand, you're super confident, don't go making the reverse mistake and spend the evening staring at him. Men may love to boast to their mates that 'she couldn't take her eyes off me' but in reality, being stared at makes a person feel awkward and embarrassed.
* Touch Him A difficult one, this! Especially if you're shy.
Think back to primary school and that boy who fancied you (or fancied your mate, or whoever). Remember how he used to push you in the corridor or pull your hair in the playground? It's hardly strange we find it difficult to understand the opposite sex when that's how they behave when they fancy us but it was all about having the opportunity to touch us.
Now that we're older we have to find other ways of touching one another without appearing to be too intimate. Dancing's a good solution, as is touching his arm or knee when laughing together. Losing your balance slightly whilst walking together so that you have to reach out and balance yourself against him's another good ploy, as is asking him to help you on with your coat.
* Feel Sexy Dress to feel sexy but remember that sexy isn't about showing it all. In fact, it isn't necessarily about showing anything! The way the fabric feels against your skin, heels and wearing your frillies underneath your dress can all make a woman feel sexy without looking cheap. The really good news though, is when a woman feels sexy she'll automatically appear sexy to the opposite sex.
* Show Interest Sounds pretty obvious doesn't it, but sometimes it's easy to think we're showing interest even though the signals are actually saying something else. Showing interest is a mix of all what's gone before; not looking at the floor instead of at him, touching him when you have the chance, looking him in the eye and smiling, but above all, it's about listening to what he's saying and asking questions. If you were interesting in buying a house, I'm should you'd listen keenly to what the owner or estate agent had to say and ask plenty of questions, wouldn't you? Do the same when you're interested in a man! After all, how important's a house compared with a loving, supportive life partner?
* Appreciate Your Date Whether you've had lunch, taken a walk around the park or spent an evening together, thank him for it and tell him how much you've enjoyed it. Don't go OTT; just say you've had a lovely time and that he's been good company.
Whatever you do, don't leave the date without letting him know that you're available for another. By saying nothing you're likely to leave him believing that you don't want to see him again. At the very least, you'd leave him feeling confused and if his self-confidence isn't right up there next to the likes of Mick Jagger and Peter Stringfellow, he's hardly likely to call again. Saying something like 'give me a call if you fancy doing it again' will open the way for him to make further contact. Playing hard to get rarely works.
Now it's up to you to get out there and start practising your flirting skills. Flirting with Guys may seem like a daunting task right now but believe me, it won't be long before flirting becomes second nature and you'll be wondering what the fuss was all about. Have fun Flirting.
Canada Dot Com Coffee drinkers should receive an extra boost with two B.C.-led studies published today that show the more coffee an individual consumes, the greater the reduction in their risk of gout, a painful and common form of inflammatory arthritis that often settles in the large joint of the big toe. "Coffee intake may be beneficial in the prevention and management of gout," said research leader Dr. Hyon Choi, a University of B.C. professor and rheumatologist at the Mary Pack Arthritis Centre and Vancouver General Hospital.
How do you like your coffee? Canada Dot Com Coffee drinkers who get their jolt on the run from a paper cup are missing out on a ritual steeped in history and character. Long before Starbucks took over the world, coffee drinkers from Africa to Europe to South America were getting together over coffee to gossip and distill the meaning of life. They still do. Toronto, as a meeting place for many cultures, is buzzing with cafes and restaurants that serve coffee in traditional ways.(Frappe)Peter J. Thompson, National PostMore pictures: | Depending upon the culture, these cafes and restaurants are either serene oases in the heart of the city where coffee is a time-honoured ritual woven into the fabric of family and community, or noisy, boisterous places where friends, colleagues and compatriots gather to talk, argue, hang out and unwind or rev up, depending on the time of day. These are places where a cup of coffee comes in a real cup without a plastic cover, and the rich, almost-burnt smell of just-roasted coffee beans.
Truth about coffee is it really doesn't stay fresh that long Florida Times Union Coffee has a shelf life of 10 days, after which the quality ramps off fairly quickly. I just love relating this fact to friends and customers. I always get the same reactions, as if I had revealed to them that their Aunt Virginia is actually Uncle Virgil. It's true that coffee roasters, packagers and distributors have been trying since World War II to package coffee so it may be consumed three generations later. No other agricultural product has been bricked, freeze-dried, liquefied, canned.
First the bad news: If you're female and human, you've got more than a 50 percent chance of dying from heart or blood vessel problems. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women—as well as men—and is responsible for more premature deaths every year than just about everything else combined.
Now the good news: For the most part, heart disease is preventable. If we put into practice what we already know, it would be as rare as malaria—and that's especially true for women.
a sign that jealousy has taken hold
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