A Moment

How many more BABIES have to die?

I am not the most active of bloggers, but when something so heinous that no person with a conscience can keep mum, then I, too must lend my words. Israel continues to bomb the Gaza strip despite the U.N.’s resolution for a Cease-fire and Truce. Whether it is on sites, like Facebook, MySpace

The world looks to Barack Obama with the faith that if the U.S. President-Elect comes out against Israel the bombings will end. On January 20th we say goodbye to the Bush Administration amidst the crisis in Gaza. The world is waits for our new Chief Barack Obama to prove he is for “change” including a change of the U.S. historical backing of Israel, but to date he has remained mysteriously unvocal about this. Some perceive this as meaning the U.S. will once again side with Israel on this issue, but what does it really mean?

If you have watched Obama you might have noted he is contemplative and methodical. There are many facets and ramifications on either side of this issues. According to his wife, Michell Obama, he is sportsman who is as much a team player as well as a great leader. What does this tell us about Obama, the man?  I would imagine that coming in on the heals of a President who led a country into two battles, he is carefully gathering information before he comes out on either side. He is not yet in office and the President who is still there, also has not come out on either side. Yet, world journalists, editorial writers and global citizens are already questioning Obama’s silence as an indication that he may side with Israel and that there will be no change on this particular issue.

The U.S. is part of the body that has put forth the U.N. resolution for a truce. Yet, the world (and Israel) waits for Barack Obama to clearly say…….STOP IT NOW OR ELSE! I leave you with two questions, is America’s President the parent of the world or should he/she be put in that role? If the U.N body made up of all the member countries of the world (including the U.S.) says STOP, why isn’t that enough?

 

How many more BABIES have to die?

 

Please refer to the following articles from across the world:

 

CNN: Israel, Hamas Brush Off U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution

London Times: Gaza: international plan hatched to bring back Fatah

Los Angeles Times: Israel and Hamas both ignore U.N. call for cease-fire

New York Times: For Arab Clan, Days of Agony in a Crossfire

Bangladesh, The Daily Star: Israel defies UN call for truce, bombs Gaza

 

Of course their are also many cause pages and groups on the many social networks as well. Let us all unite by writing our congressmen and senators to send a message to Israel that we will not accept the terrorist acts of  Israel against Palestine any longer. Let us stop the killing of the innocent.

Promoting Misconceptions?

Somehow (though I am not certain when or why) I ended up on this mailing list. Usually I browse through what Mr. Chowdhury has to say and then disregard it as not worthy of comment or further review. However, this time I felt I must correct the incorrect stipulations here. Like Mr. Chowdhury, I have left my country to embrace another. In my case I am an American living in Bangladesh. However, rather than criticize Bangladesh for its shortcomings, and believe me there are many, I try to empathize with its people and appreciate their good qualities.

Bangladesh has a rich heritage which helps me to look past its problems of today, in the hope that eventually it will work past them and become a great nation (even as America has been).

When I (or most Americans) look at the financial mess America and other countries are facing we do so looking back at history. What could have been worse than the crash of 1929? The Great Depression?

Let’s look briefly at some of the reasons it is believed to have came about and perhaps some people’s perspective may change. Today, the government made a bailout plan, but back then there was no way to save anyone. People had invested heavily in the stock market. Everything they had and even took loans to invest money they didn’t have. It was the Roaring 20’s and people were living high and in general having a great time using their inflated fortunes. Industry was booming and people believed there was no end in sight and grossly miscalculated.

Then the stock market crashed on a day referred to as Black Thursday, October 24, 1929 and continued to fall on Black Monday and Black Tuesday. In three days the gains of five years dissipated into nothing. People panicked and sold off stock shares. (“Black Tuesday”, October 29, 1929, about 16 million shares were traded. The volume on stocks traded on October 29, 1929 was “…a record that was not broken for nearly 40 years) Many people realized their worst nightmares. For many it was such a devastating shock that they couldn’t imagine facing their families or friends with the grim reality of their financial woes and they took the cowards way out, committing suicide or running away. The Great Depression followed with formerly affluent families in abstract poverty. However, financial experts declare that the collapse of the stock market and the Depression of the 1930’s could not have happened overnight.  

From Wikipedia on the Stock Market Crash of 1929:

“The crash followed a speculative boom that had taken hold in the late 1920s, which had led hundreds of thousands of Americans to invest heavily in the stock market, a significant number even borrowing money to buy more stock. By August 1929, brokers were routinely lending small investors more than 2/3 of the face value of the stocks they were buying. Over $8.5 billion was out on loan more than the entire amount of currency circulating in the U.S.^{[citation needed]} The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest; people hoped the share prices would rise further. Speculation thus fueled further rises and created an economic bubble. The average P/E (price to earnings) ratio of S&P Composite stocks was 32.6 in September 1929, clearly above historical norms. Most economists view this event as the most dramatic in modern economic history. On October 24, 1929 (with the Dow just past its September 3 peak of 381.17), the market finally turned down, and panic selling started. 12,894,650 shares were traded in a single day as people desperately tried to mitigate the situation. This mass sale is often considered a major contributing factor to the Great Depression. Some hold that political over-reactions to the crash, such as the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act through the U.S. Congress, caused more harm than the crash itself. According to “Thomas K. McCraw, a professor at the Harvard Business School,” the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act “…exacerbated the problem by preventing Europeans from selling enough goods in the United States to earn enough dollars to pay off their debts from World War I.^“

My point is that the current situation is not the worst thing that has ever happened in America (in fact the Stock Market slump called Black Monday that occurred on October 19, 1987 was said to have been a bigger financial loss) and perhaps it is true to say it will take a few years, but American will rally again. It is defeatist’s attitude to paint a picture so dire and smart people always have a plan B.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Secondly, from where would you think that America doesn’t allow students from countries other than Europe or India to study in the U.S.?  It may be true that America has changed the financial and scholastic requirements over the years required to obtain a student visa. I am certain that this was not done to keep certain countries out, but to increase the percentage of foreign students successfully completing their studies and returning back to their native countries.  

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Below is the email letter I received from the moderator of this group:

Dear All,

Even it looks like that the financial crises problem origins at USA but its effect will felt every corner in the world.  Lets see if I can explain how this problem has accumulated for more than 20 years.

Most of the countries in the world have invested, lend money to USA to use it.  In return of this cheap money inflow, they have got great access to their products in USA.  USA customers were happy to use this cheap money and spend it like free fall.  This has created a bubble in home prices (Cost of a house price shoot up to 4 times some areas).  People in USA have become addicted to cheap money and easy credit access where they should not have in the first place where they can not afford it.

Second problem is that USA is no longer in leader for new technologies and in competition like before.  Their manufacturing industries have evaporated last 8 years.  Few of US policies made worst for not letting new students to study in USA if they were not from Europe and India.  So revenue of USA has dropped in every areas you can think about it.

Third problem is that USA consumes more product than they manufacture, like importing more than they can export.  In this case China & India have beaten them badly.

By looking at this financial crises,  I predict that this financial slump will stay between 6-8 years unless some miracles happen.  USA is not in good condition like 1930’s or 1980’s where USA has greater advantage in new technologies and were very few competitors compare to China and India.

Iraq war cost USA more than $700 Billion and more than $2 Trillion dollar benefit for injured soldiers.  This will be a great burden for USA form the years to come.

Forth problem is that foreign countries won’t lend cheap money to USA like before which can bring down the standards of living in USA.

Our children future in USA might be in trouble by looking at all the indication that I can see.  So the bottom line is that it does not matter which prism you use to see USA future,  it looks bleak and scary.

I like to urge everybody to have plan B in their financial solvency.  We may have to adopt lower standards of life in future.  This is the compromise we have to take either we like it or not.

God Bless America and her people.

Regards,

M. M. Chowdhury (Mithu), USA

www.amreteckpharma.com

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Finally to Mr. Chowdhury I would like to say:

If you are living in the U.S., you must have left Bangladesh for better opportunities there. Show your new homeland some love and empathy, brother.

 

Technorati Tags: Balck Thursday,Black Monday,Black Tuesday,Stock Market Crash of 1929,Bailout of 2008,Bangladesh,USA,America’s Financial Mess

Palin For President?

Sarah Palin is everywhere right now. The Republicans have taken her to be their personal Savior, the democrats the arch nemesis. The real question to consider is whether she has the skills to be President, actually that is the question whenever a Vice President is selected. Consider that in the history of the United States quite a few V.P.s have become Presidents.

In the history of the United States: 

Vice Presidents who became President
Fourteen U. S. Vice Presidents became President. Five were elected in their own right; four inherited the office through the natural death of the incumbent, four by assassination, and one by resignation.

We are currently looking at a candidate who already has a history of Cancer and is 71 years old. So while weighing in on his ticket, we would be fool hardy not to consider the reality that Sarah Palin might become President during McCain’s term. What is the status of McCain’s bout with Skin Cancer? What is Palin’s position on some of the key issues?  Let’s take a look.

In February Newsweek published this on John McCain’s Health:

As the leading GOP presidential candidate and someone who has battled melanoma, McCain has put the potentially deadly disease in the spotlight.

Sarah Kliff

Sen. John McCain’s battle with the most deadly type of skin cancer began in 1993, when doctors discovered and surgically removed a melanoma on his left arm. A second occurrence, in the middle of the 2000 Republican convention, became big news shortly after his first bid for the Republican nomination for president. Doctors removed the two new melanomas–one on his temple, another on his left arm–and at least one of his lymph nodes as well, likely to ensure that the cancer had not spread. The procedures were successful, though McCain’s presidential run was not. He is having better luck this year. Now the likely GOP nominee for the 2008 election, McCain is quick to point out that he’s been cancer-free for several years. Still, the possibility that he will be the next U.S. president has brought renewed attention to the potentially deadly disease.

Melanoma is the least common form of skin cancer but the most lethal. It has few treatments. It causes about 60,000 new cases of skin cancer each year, just 4 percent of all skin-cancer cases diagnosed. But it is responsible for more than half of all skin-cancer deaths annually–about 8,000. And while survival rates have steadily increased for melonomas detected early, it is an extremely challenging disease to treat in late stages. If the cancer spreads to distant sites in the body, like the liver, lungs and brains, the chance of survival becomes drastically worse. “In that situation, there’s a high likelihood the patient would die from the melanoma,” says Martin Weinstock, chairman of the American Cancer Society’s skin-cancer advisory group and a dermatology professor at Brown University. Unlike many other common cancers, melanoma strikes at any age, occurring in younger as well as older patients. While rates do increase with aging, melanoma is still one of the most common cancers in adolescents and young adults.

Most of the risk factors for melanoma are unavoidable. Weinstock says the biggest three are family history, having many irregular moles and prior occurrences of melanoma. So McCain’s two prior incidents of melanoma put him at increased risk of having a third. Exposure to sun, however, is the one important risk factor that patients can do a lot about. “The standard recommendation for anyone who has had a prior melanoma is to protect themselves from exposure to ultraviolet rays because it’s the most important, avoidable risk factor we know about,” says Weinstock. “It’s not the only one, but [it] is the most important one that is avoidable.”

Time of detection greatly effects melanoma’s cure rate. At an early stage, when the melanoma is localized and thin, there’s a good chance that simple surgery to remove the cancer will be an effective treatment. If the melanoma has exceeded a particular thickness, doctors will also regularly remove a sentinel lymph node to biopsy the area for evidence of melanoma, a procedure that McCain had after his melanoma was discovered in 2000. “That’s become pretty common in recent years, just to check if the disease has spread to new areas.” (The results of McCain’s biopsy are unknown because his health records have not been made public. But it’s assumed that the cancer had not spread.) Doctors are using a two-pronged approach to better treat melanoma: improving early detection techniques while also developing new technologies to treat late-stage melanoma that has spread to distant sites. In the meantime, Weinstock stresses the importance of protecting against UV exposure as a preventive measure and of regularly checking for unusual moles or suspicious spots that may be early signs of cancer. For more information on identifying possible melanomas, click here. For more information on skin cancer, check out the Web sites  of the American Cancer Society or the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Being that several articles have appeared in all the major news magazines, people must think this is an important issue to consider. In fact, an article that appeared in Time Magazine clearly states that McCain knows his age will could be a negative point to his candidacy. If elected, he will be the oldest first time President. This makes considering Sarah Palin to be a Presidential candidate even more important.

What is Sarah’s position on some key issues? :

1. Despite problems at home, Sarah Palin does not believe in giving teenagers information about sex.

2. Sarah Palin believes the U.S. Army is on a mission from God.

3. Sarah Palin believes in punishing rape victims.

4. Who’s really not in favor of clean water? Sarah Palin.

5. Sarah Palin calls herself a reformer, but on earmarks and the “Bridge to Nowhere,” she is a hypocrite.

6. Sarah Palin believes creationism should be taught in schools.

7. Sarah Palin supports offshore drilling everywhere, even if it doesn’t solve our energy problems.

8. Sarah Palin loves oil and nuclear power.

9. Sarah Palin doesn’t think much of community activism; she’d much rather play insider political games.

So, before casting your vote imagine Sarah Palin as President because she may very well be. The race is not between Obama and McCain , so much as it is between Obama and Palin.

 

Technorati Tags: The Vote 2008,sex education,religion,iraq war,environment,economy,abortion,beliefs,palin

Palin for Change?

When I look at Governor Palin, it reminds me of one of those movies showing the beautiful young girl courting the man in the wheelchair. Some thing about just feels wrong. As we review her record I am certain we will see a clear line of her spin on what she has done and the Truth the record shows. The bridge to nowhere is probably the first of many that where the Truth differs from the Republican spin.

For sure I can say that anytime a Republican has sat in the White House it has spelled bad news for the American public as whole and Good News for Big Business.

In looking at the differences or the similarities between the candidates, we need to see who is giving us the truth. Who is being genuine and who is just following the script.

Altnet freelancer Mark Taibbi who also writes for the Rolling Stone says this:

Obama manages to appeal somehow to that part of us that is tired of there always being another side of the story when it comes to our presidents. We don’t want to live in a world where there’s always a set of lurid secret tapes that will come out someday, or a mistress with a cigar in her twat hidden off-camera somewhere, or a backroom deal to juice a prewar intelligence report for a bunch of oil-fat-cat golf buddies.

We’ve become trained to look for the man behind the mask, for in real life there is no one whose emotional life is confined to a lifelong, passionate love for his high school sweetheart wife and their two children, an undying appreciation for the sacrifice of soldiers, awe before the flag and concern for the future of the middle class. Oh, and a burning passion for reducing dependence on foreign oil 30 percent by 2018 and for full federal funding for special education. Because that’s the standard we set for our presidential candidates; anyone who reveals himself to have other things going on inside, to be more human than that, never makes it this far.

But I’m not sure there is a mask when it comes to Barack Obama. It sounds crazy, but he might actually be this guy, this couldn’t-possibly-exist guy, inside and out. I heard Joe Lieberman talk about his middle-class dad, I heard Hillary plaster every corner of Pennsylvania with talk about her grandfather’s sojourn in the lace factory, I heard John Edwards tell everyone who would listen, and even some who wouldn’t, about what being the son of a millworker meant to him, and in every case I could feel the cold hand of political calculation crawling up my shirt as they spoke.

Then I hear Obama tell audiences about his grandmother and her time working on a bomber assembly line during World War II. Intellectually I know it’s the same thing — but when you actually watch him in person, you get this crazy sense that these schlock ready-for-paperback patriotic tales really are a big part of his emotional makeup. You listen to him talking about his grandfather waving a little American flag on the Hawaiian beach as he watched the astronauts come in to shore, and you can almost see that these moments actually have some kind of poetic meaning for him, and that he views his own already-historic run as a continuation of that pat-but-inspirational childhood story — putting a man on the moon then, putting a black man in the White House now.

Obviously, Obama has some off-script moments of anger, and ill humor, and ego; his personality sometimes comes out looking well short of iconic. During his appearance in Chesapeake, a teacher gets up to complain about her long working hours since the passage of No Child Left Behind and starts to say something about how no one should have to work 13 hours a day, and –

“Not unless you’re running for president!” Obama quips rosily, thinking the audience is with him. Instead, many in the crowd grow silent, drinking in the rock-star candidate’s curious decision to compare his admittedly tiring-but-still-thrilling quest for ultimate earthly power with some dreary educator’s slavish pursuit of a paycheck.

Obama also makes dumb jokes, and flirts with his audience (“Y’all are silly!” he told a group of girls who overdid the shrieking-Beatles-fan act when he took off his suit jacket), and overdoes it on the gooey poeticizing (his gushing over the beauty of America “from sea to shining sea” is particularly atrocious). But all in all, you never get a sense that there’s a more interesting side of Obama lurking underneath somewhere. Oddly enough, the guy only really lights up when he starts delivering those same ham-handed lines about the American Dream that fell out of the mouths of Dean and Kerry like dead bullfrogs.

And maybe that’s the difference. When those other guys took this act on the campaign trail, it was obvious they were just reading lines in a bad script. But maybe it sounds different coming from Obama because he actually means what he says, as weird as that would be. The American Dream, after all, is dying. We do need something new. That much is painfully obvious.

The trouble is that Palin appeals to women, but is she ready to be President. Here is David Frum’s take from the National Review Online and his article in the National Post is linked here.

“The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing.

John McCain wanted a woman: good.

He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally.

He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart.

And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency “on day one.”

Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I’d guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It’s a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I’d be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it’s John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.

Here’s I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign’s slogan is “country first.” It’s a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.

But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?”

The Republican team knows that Palin is not ready to fly solo and in fact, have her on a short lease. The excerpt from an Associated Press article reveals the vast differences between the two vice presidential candidates.

“John McCain took a risk in picking little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, but now the campaign’s playing it safer. She’s sticking to a greatest hits version of her convention speech on the campaign trail and steering clear of questions until she’s comfortable enough for a hand-picked interviewer later this week.

More than 40 million people tuned in last week to listen to the speech from Palin, the 44-year-old, first-term governor whom McCain announced as his surprise vice presidential pick just days before. Since then, that basic script is all anyone has heard from her publicly, and her only interaction with the media was a brief conversation with a small group of reporters on her plane Monday — off the record at her handlers’ insistence.

Associated Press reporters were not on the plane, but an aide told the journalists on board that all Palin flights would be off the record unless the media were told otherwise. At least one reporter objected. Two people on the flight said the Palins greeted the media and they chatted about who had been to Alaska, but little else was said.

By comparison, her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, has been campaigning on his own, at times taking questions from audiences. He split off to campaign separately from Barack Obama the day after Obama announced his selection. They reunited at their party’s convention and spent the following weekend campaigning together.

Biden’s appearances have touched on a range of issues — in Florida he talked about U.S. support for Israel, in Pennsylvania it was economics and tax policy. He was interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday”

So, again the real question is what their records reveal, who is telling the truth and who is for real change. While the McCain/Palin ticket seems to pushing the ‘Change’ Agenda heavily, how can they stick to the party line and still vow change?

Technorati Tags: Palin for Change,Palin for women voters,McCain/Palin ticket,Obama for real change,Obama/Biden ticket.

Palin For President?

Sarah Palin is everywhere right now. The Republicans have taken her to be their personal Savior, the democrats the arch nemesis. The real question to consider is whether she has the skills to be President, actually that is the question whenever a Vice President is selected. Consider that in the history of the United States quite a few V.P.s have become Presidents.

In the history of the United States: 

Vice Presidents who became President
Fourteen U. S. Vice Presidents became President. Five were elected in their own right; four inherited the office through the natural death of the incumbent, four by assassination, and one by resignation.

We are currently looking at a candidate who already has a history of Cancer and is 71 years old. So while weighing in on his ticket, we would be fool hardy not to consider the reality that Sarah Palin might become President during McCain’s term. What is the status of McCain’s bout with Skin Cancer? What is Palin’s position on some of the key issues?  Let’s take a look.

In February Newsweek published this on John McCain’s Health:

 

As the leading GOP presidential candidate and someone who has battled melanoma, McCain has put the potentially deadly disease in the spotlight.Sarah Kliff

Sen. John McCain’s battle with the most deadly type of skin cancer began in 1993, when doctors discovered and surgically removed a melanoma on his left arm. A second occurrence, in the middle of the 2000 Republican convention, became big news shortly after his first bid for the Republican nomination for president. Doctors removed the two new melanomas–one on his temple, another on his left arm–and at least one of his lymph nodes as well, likely to ensure that the cancer had not spread. The procedures were successful, though McCain’s presidential run was not. He is having better luck this year. Now the likely GOP nominee for the 2008 election, McCain is quick to point out that he’s been cancer-free for several years. Still, the possibility that he will be the next U.S. president has brought renewed attention to the potentially deadly disease.

Melanoma is the least common form of skin cancer but the most lethal. It has few treatments. It causes about 60,000 new cases of skin cancer each year, just 4 percent of all skin-cancer cases diagnosed. But it is responsible for more than half of all skin-cancer deaths annually–about 8,000. And while survival rates have steadily increased for melonomas detected early, it is an extremely challenging disease to treat in late stages. If the cancer spreads to distant sites in the body, like the liver, lungs and brains, the chance of survival becomes drastically worse. “In that situation, there’s a high likelihood the patient would die from the melanoma,” says Martin Weinstock, chairman of the American Cancer Society’s skin-cancer advisory group and a dermatology professor at Brown University. Unlike many other common cancers, melanoma strikes at any age, occurring in younger as well as older patients. While rates do increase with aging, melanoma is still one of the most common cancers in adolescents and young adults.

Most of the risk factors for melanoma are unavoidable. Weinstock says the biggest three are family history, having many irregular moles and prior occurrences of melanoma. So McCain’s two prior incidents of melanoma put him at increased risk of having a third. Exposure to sun, however, is the one important risk factor that patients can do a lot about. “The standard recommendation for anyone who has had a prior melanoma is to protect themselves from exposure to ultraviolet rays because it’s the most important, avoidable risk factor we know about,” says Weinstock. “It’s not the only one, but [it] is the most important one that is avoidable.”

Time of detection greatly effects melanoma’s cure rate. At an early stage, when the melanoma is localized and thin, there’s a good chance that simple surgery to remove the cancer will be an effective treatment. If the melanoma has exceeded a particular thickness, doctors will also regularly remove a sentinel lymph node to biopsy the area for evidence of melanoma, a procedure that McCain had after his melanoma was discovered in 2000. “That’s become pretty common in recent years, just to check if the disease has spread to new areas.” (The results of McCain’s biopsy are unknown because his health records have not been made public. But it’s assumed that the cancer had not spread.) Doctors are using a two-pronged approach to better treat melanoma: improving early detection techniques while also developing new technologies to treat late-stage melanoma that has spread to distant sites. In the meantime, Weinstock stresses the importance of protecting against UV exposure as a preventive measure and of regularly checking for unusual moles or suspicious spots that may be early signs of cancer. For more information on identifying possible melanomas, click here. For more information on skin cancer, check out the Web sites  of the American Cancer Society or the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Being that several articles have appeared in all the major news magazines, people must think this is an important issue to consider. In fact, an article that appeared in Time Magazine clearly states that McCain knows his age will could be a negative point to his candidacy. If elected, he will be the oldest first time President. This makes considering Sarah Palin to be a Presidential candidate even more important.

What is Sarah’s position on some key issues? :

1. Despite problems at home, Sarah Palin does not believe in giving teenagers information about sex.

2. Sarah Palin believes the U.S. Army is on a mission from God.

3. Sarah Palin believes in punishing rape victims.

4. Who’s really not in favor of clean water? Sarah Palin.

5. Sarah Palin calls herself a reformer, but on earmarks and the “Bridge to Nowhere,” she is a hypocrite.

6. Sarah Palin believes creationism should be taught in schools.

7. Sarah Palin supports offshore drilling everywhere, even if it doesn’t solve our energy problems.

8. Sarah Palin loves oil and nuclear power.

9. Sarah Palin doesn’t think much of community activism; she’d much rather play insider political games.

So, before casting your vote imagine Sarah Palin as President because she may very well be. The race is not between Obama and McCain , so much as it is between Obama and Palin.

 

Technorati Tags: The Vote 2008,sex education,religion,iraq war,environment,economy,abortion,beliefs,palin

Climate Change Impact

Came across this little article. I don’t know about you, but climate change worries me. I live in a country that might disappear if Global Warming caused climate change is not halted. Shouting out to all, to think GREEN!

Thaw of Polar Regions May Need New UN Laws

OSLO, Sep 07 (Reuters) – A new set of United Nations laws may be needed to regulate new Arctic industries such as shipping and oil exploration as climate change melts the ice around the North Pole, legal experts said on Sunday.

They said existing laws governing everything from fish stocks to bio-prospecting by pharmaceutical companies were inadequate for the polar regions, especially the Arctic, where the area of summer sea ice is now close to a 2007 record low.

"Many experts believe this new rush to the polar regions is not manageable within existing international law," said A.H. Zakri, Director of the U.N. University’s Yokohama-based Institute of Advanced Studies.

Fabled shipping passages along the north coast of Russia and Canada, normally clogged by thick ice, have both thawed this summer, raising the possibility of short-cut routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Dozens of legal experts are meeting in Iceland from September 7-9 to debate the legal needs of the polar regions. Other threats include a surge in tourism, with 40,000 visitors to Antarctica in 2007 against just 1,000 in 1987.

Many legal specialists believe there is a lack of clarity in existing laws about shipping, mining, sharing of fish stocks drawn northwards by the melting of ice, and standards for clearing up any oil spills far from land.

"Oil in particular and risks of shipping in the Arctic are big issues. It’s incredibly difficult to clean up an oil spill on ice," said conference chairman David Leary of the Institute of Advanced Studies, which is organizing the conference with Iceland’s University of Akureyri.

"The question is: do we deal with it in terms of the existing laws or move to a new, more global framework for the polar regions?" he told Reuters.

"SEVERE" CONDITIONS

Some experts say the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea is unclear, for instance, when it speaks of the rights of states to impose restrictions — such as compulsory pilots for ships — off their coasts in "particularly severe climatic conditions" or when ice covers the sea for "most of the year."

With the ice receding fast, defining what conditions are "particularly severe" could be a problem, said law professor Tullio Scovazzi of the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Leary said the eight nations with Arctic territories — the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland — have so far preferred to limit discussion to existing international laws.

The WWF environmental group is among those urging a new U.N. convention to protect the Arctic, partly fearing that rising industrial activity will increase the risk of oil spills like the Exxon Valdez accident off Alaska.

"We think there should be new rules, stricter rules. We are proposing a new convention for the protection of the Arctic Ocean," said Tatiana Saksina of the WWF.

Alaska’s state governor Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate in November 4’s U.S. election, is an advocate of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A boom in tourism in Antarctica meanwhile risks the accidental introduction of new species to an environment where the largest land creature is a flightless midge.

Bio-prospecting may also need new rules. Neural stem cells of Arctic squirrels could help treat human strokes, while some Arctic fish species have yielded enzymes that can be used in industrial processes.

 

Technorati Tags: Global Warming,United Nations,Climate Change,Polar Regions

Introducing Google Chrome

Being of a technical nature, I love to try new things. My standby has always been Mozilla Firefox. It has at times been my savior when Internet Explorer wouldn’t open, refused to download files, everything it downloaded was corrupt or it just froze up.

Netscape never real worked for me. It’s dependence on Java and the long download to install it completely, was always a drawback.

Internet Explorer has always been a snail, even the newest version I had to remove from my Laptop after I had installed the upgrade because it caused application errors in other software, besides just being slow to open. Not to mention all the windows it creates on my desktop when I am working on a project.

Opera (the free version) was just too advertisement intensive, although it lives up to the reviews about it being fast.

So, when I saw the news about Chrome and as I already use many Google software applications including: Google Apps, Google Sites, Google Earth, Google Talk and Google Reader in addition to Gmail; I had to give it a try. I have to say at first launch it is a bit intimidating (no word menus) and yet, very clean looking. Once you get past your old dependencies on word menus, you will be sailing along the Internet. Its home page will make sites you visit frequently available at your finger tips the moment you open the browser, just waiting for your click. Downloads no longer require a separate window, but sit happily at the bottom of the web page you are browsing. If, by chance you like to customize your browser (as I do) there already are Themes available. 

Kudos to Google for another great App!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How To Install Themes in Google Chrome?

Google Chrome was released only yesterday and there are several tips and tricks already making the rounds including our own Ultimate list of tips and tricks for Google Chrome. The good thing about the Internet is that you can find interesting things quickly.

One such thing we came across was changing the default theme for Google Chrome, though this is not available as a option it can be easily done by following these steps. Google has its own Theme Free Chrome Themes website, but it is not live yet.

To change the theme for Google Chrome you will need to replace the default.dll file with the new theme file. Location for theme folder are as follows:

For Vista Users: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.27\Themes\

For XP Users: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.27\Themes\

Replace C with your Windows directory, UserName with the user name you have installed chromed with, the number is the version for Google Chrome.

Make sure to keep a backup of the default.dll, before you overwrite it with a new one. DeviantArt already has a Picthblack theme which you can use to replace the default Google Chrome theme.

Other Resources to Download Google Themes

•  Chrome Dark
• 3 Themes for Google Chrome

[via WinMatrix]

Technorati Tags: Google Chrome,Google Apps,Google Chrome Themes

Email mistakes

I got this in my inbox the other day and it hits all the right points.  I think I’d only add two others,

• Replying to all, when you really are writing to the sender of the email.

• Forwarding out email virus warnings and other “death and doom” type messages, without verifying the alleged threat is true.

Anyway, credit for the 10 Top Email Mistakes given below goes to Robert Half.

If you’re like most professionals, you use e-mail in the office on a regular basis. Because of its immediacy and relative lack of intrusiveness, it’s the communication method of choice for many workers, including, chances are, your boss. According to a Robert Half International survey, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of executives polled prefer e-mail over other forms of communication.

While hitting “send” may be an effective way to get your ideas across, doing so too quickly or without a lot of thought can send the wrong message. Here are 10 common e-mail mistakes and tips for avoiding them:

1. A vague subject line.
The subject line not only lets the person receiving the message know what it’s about but also provides him or her with a reason to read it. Some people – and your boss is probably one of them – get hundreds of e-mails each day and may not have the time to open each of them. The subject line acts as the window into the message and can also indicate its urgency, so be specific with what you write there.

2. No sign-off.
A weak signature is almost as bad as a weak handshake: Both convey a lack of professionalism. A signature at the end of your e-mail should include your e-mail address, physical work address and phone number. Including these details gives recipients multiple means of contacting you. This information is especially important for people to whom your e-mail might be forwarded or individuals either outside the company or in another office.

3. “Im writing re: the meeting @ 3.”
Many people take a casual approach when using e-mail. But what you write is a reflection of your professional self, so take the time to craft complete sentences, use proper grammar and check your spelling. And don’t depend solely on your computer’s spell-check function, which won’t find misused words; review your e-mail carefully before sending it.

4. Going on and on and on.
This strategy might work for the Energizer Bunny, but your goal when crafting a message should be to keep it short. You don’t want to write the e-mail equivalent of a novel, so get to the point as quickly as possible, using both short sentences and paragraphs. At the same time, you don’t want to write too brief of a message, which could make you appear curt.

5. SHOUTING IT OUT.
Some people like the ease of typing in all capital letters. What they may not realize is this is the online equivalent of shouting, so avoid the temptation of using the caps lock button.

6. Striking the wrong note.
Unfortunately, it’s easy for tone to be lost with the written word, especially in shorter messages. An attempt at humor, for instance, may be read as something offensive or inappropriate. If you’re not sure how something you wrote will be interpreted, err on the side of caution and leave it out.

7. Weighing others down.
If your e-mail inbox is continually clogged, you know how frustrating it can be to receive large attachments, especially when you don’t want them. And, according to a survey we developed, executives agreed, ranking the receipt of large, unsolicited files as the most annoying aspect of communicating via e-mail. Limit the distribution of massive files to people who absolutely need them.

8. Sending to the wrong box.
Before you send a message, always double-check the list of recipients. Many e-mail programs automatically fill in information you’ve previously typed, such as the e-mail addresses of frequent contacts. If you have multiple people in your address book with similar names, you could mistakenly choose the wrong person and send him or her a message intended for someone else.

9. Mixing business and pleasure.
When the information is confidential or sensitive, this move could limit your career. Any time you use your work e-mail account, the message should be business-related. After all, you are using your firm’s resources, and the company has the right to monitor your communication. Get to know your organization’s e-mail policy, and have your friends send non-work-related e-mail to your personal account, which you can check at home.

10. Over e-mailing.
Do you find yourself typing a long message in order to avoid confusion on the recipient’s part? Do you hesitate to click Send because you think your contact might forward your message to someone who shouldn’t see it? E-mail is best suited for quick communication, and, in situations like these, it’s wise to call your colleague or speak to him or her in person instead.

With e-mail correspondence becoming increasingly important in the workplace, you can only benefit from learning how to craft an effective message. So keep the above tips in mind the next time you sit down at the keyboard.

Heating oil prices turn firewood into hot commodity

Looks like we are returning to the old method of heating our houses!

USA Today

By David Sharp The Associated Press

DURHAM, Maine — On a recent scorching-hot summer day, workers at Reed’s Firewood used heavy equipment to cut and split logs into firewood until it was too dark to see.

Despite its relentless pace, the family-run business is failing to keep up with demand as homeowners shellshocked by the price of heating oil look to firewood as a way to lower their bills this winter.

The cost of seasoned firewood in Maine has jumped about 50% from a year ago, but it remains a relative bargain compared with heating oil, which is nearly $2 a gallon more than it was last year. Many customers are doubling their usual orders, and some firewood dealers are turning away customers. “We’ve really never seen anything like this before,” said Lloyd Irland, who teaches forestry economics at Yale University.

While most heating oil customers aren’t abandoning the fuel altogether, they’re using less by upgrading furnaces, turning down thermostats, insulating their homes and turning to alternative fuels. A survey by the Maine Forest Service found most dealers out of seasoned firewood and some short of green wood, which doesn’t burn as well because it isn’t as dry.

Paul Reed, the owner of Reed’s, tells customers he has plenty of firewood, if they’re willing to wait until December and accept possible price increases.

For the first time in his 23 years in the business, volatility in the market has forced Reed to abandon fixed pricing that customers count on. His price for a cord — a tight stack 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long — rose from $190 early last winter to $255 for green and $300 for seasoned wood.

Firewood remains a deal for those who don’t mind the hassle of lugging it around and periodically feeding their wood stoves or fireplaces.

A cord of firewood has the same heating potential as 155 gallons of heating oil, said Peter Lammert of the Maine Forest Service. Thus, a cord of seasoned firewood costing $300 is a bargain compared with 155 gallons of heating oil costing $685.10, based on $4.42 a gallon, the statewide average.

It’s a stark contrast to the mid-1990s, when heating oil sold for 79 or 80 cents a gallon and a cord of seasoned firewood was about $125. Oil was so cheap then, trading at less than $20 a barrel vs. $115 today, that Reed resorted to calling longtime customers in the spring to drum up orders.

Today, Maine’s firewood producers are heavily competing for the same hardwood logs used by paper mills to produce pulp. Both are paying more because loggers have to pay so much more for diesel fuel, paper industry officials say.

The rush to buy more firewood is having an impact on heating oil dealers. Last year, heating oil consumption fell 13% nationwide, in part because of homeowners’ fuel-efficiency efforts, said John Huber, president of the National Oilheat Research Alliance. Huber expects consumption to drop again this winter, but not by as much.

The run on firewood started last winter, when heating oil surpassed $3 a gallon and kept on climbing. This summer, some customers were close to panic as heating oil approached $5 a gallon before dropping over the last couple of weeks.

Heating oil is the dominant home-heating fuel in New England, ranging from 75% of homes in Maine to about 40% in Massachusetts.

David Rooker feels lucky that he was able to get the two cords piled in his driveway in South Portland: “With the price of heating oil, we’ll have fires every night.” He estimates he saved $1,000 on oil the first year he installed a wood stove.

Reed’s, Maine’s largest firewood dealer, has a pile of logs stacked 20 feet high and stretching more than a football field long. The company expects to deliver nearly 4,000 cords, a record.

But other dealers are struggling to get raw logs.

Southern Maine Firewood, a large dealer in Gorham, had only 100 cords recently but orders for 1,000. “It’s just a nightmare right now,” owner Jake Dyer said. “You’d think in a state like this that you could get wood.”