[tagname] Ten Interesting News of the Day: September 2006

Friday, September 29, 2006

It Sounds Too Good to be True if It is Attainable

The idea behind the undertaking is to allow ordinary people to afford the $200,000 ticket, either by air miles they are accumulating using Virgin Atlantic when it reaches two million, or through public lotteries, or by signing up to a reality television programs. There will be many such incentives to put tickets on the hands of enough ordinary folks so that they would join on the 90 miles space-flight that is slated to begin in 2009. The would be passenger that are believed not to need a protective spacesuit might need a three day training for the flight whose speed could reach 3000 miles an hour. One of the surprises will be once reaching the 90 miles latitude, passengers will be allowed to take off their belt and experience a six-minute no gravity floating in the cabin. The organizers believe that giving as many people as possible (200 people are already registered) a chance to go up there and see how the atmosphere is thinning will raise environmental consciousness.

It is not only that Sir Branson who has promised to give $3 billion of the Virgin Groups’ profit for environmental causes, one of which is to come up with a clean fuel system is planning to use such a fuel for the vehicles that will be leaving for the journey. The effort is compared to the amount of fuel the space shuttles are using on take off, which is not only polluting but the quantity is said to be enough to power a big city like NY.

Musharraf Wroth $70-$80 Million a Month

Such an information has leaked that the U.S. could be paying the Pakistani government the aforementioned amount on a monthly basis. The twist here since the U.S. government cannot pay money directly to governments, there should be individuals that are taking the money or a clandestine payment could be made through the CIA. No one is admitting to the leakage even if Musharraf at one point had said that his government had earned a bounty fee for handing over Al Quaida members. The other thing is, it is true that the U.S. incurs a lot of money to pay for Ashraf’s security and other expenses, without which he will be vulnerable to all sort of attacks. Amidst all this, the head of state is said to be living within his means, one of which is going to be the money he might make from his memoir.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Is It Possible to Curb Trans Fat from Food?

That is what a report is saying about an effort undergone in N.Y. City where restaurants are expected to cut on the greasy stuff that is compared to a lead in paint and to a bacon grease on a kitchen sink. Americans consume six gram of trans fat on a daily basis, where one fast food could contain up to ten grams, even if the recommended amount by the American Heart Association is two grams. According to the report, N.Y. City Restaurants have six months to switch to other safe cooking oils and 18 months to bring trans fat content to half-gram. It might sound a tall order but it seems doable according to the report. One more requirements the restaurants are required to meet is to inform their customers the amount of calorie in the foods they are serving. This requirement includes food outlets like McDonald and Kentucky Fried Chicken that have web sites that tell customers the calorie content of the food they are serving.

The French have Claimed Performing a Zero-gravity Surgery

The operation had taken place on an Airbus 300 Zero G airplane reportedly falling freely while flying in an arc, which was said each free-falling was giving it a 22 second weightlessness. In the two by two cubicle, where the operation took place, the surgical instruments were held down by powerful magnates, while the surgeons were strapped down. The whole idea behind the experiment was the understanding that someday such an operation might be needed in space, and for now there is no mechanism to deal with it if the need comes into existence. If there is a new lesson learned, it is that the surgeons must work harder, the heart does not pump regularly, and blood comes out of the wound in spheres requiring a special vacuum to do the sucking. The final aim of the experiment is to come up with robots that will do the job while they are instructed remotely.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The American Civilization Going the Maya Way

It is such an outlook that had brought back Gibson into the public attention. One of the reasons he stated why things will end up being like that is there is similarity with the precursor that is signaled in the case of the U.S., by the sending of people to Iraq to die with no justifiable reason. It would mean, according to him, there should have been other ways of dealing with the problem, which is a different school of thought, because it had been believed by many, getting rid of Sadam Hussein will don a decisive solution as he was at the center of the Arab problem.

The other issue he raised was manipulating people with fear to the point where freedom of speech would be gagged, for what a handful of people believe to be the right course of action. This brings to light that if this handful of people are wrong, all that had taken place was futile. In a situation like this, time will do the correction as this administration will not remain in office forever, and if the new administration chooses to follow the same beaten path, then it will be easy to say it’s democracy that handed down the decision. And if the majority of the people think alike and their vision is not workable, then the whole nation will be in trouble, and he might have some suggestion, as to what action to take collectively.

Menthol Flavor on Cigarettes Makes Smoking a Tough Habit to Kick Off

It’s difficult to kick off a smoking habit as it is, but smoking menthol flavored cigarettes is said to make the effort more difficult. This means menthol itself is another habit-forming ingredient in cigarettes. Unfortunately it’s the black population that is very much fond of smoking menthol cigarettes and they are suffering the consequences. According to research made on smokers, aged 18–35 that stretched 15 years. The reports stated that the number involved was 1,535 smokers out of which around 730 were men and the rest females. Sixty-three % of these smokers preferred smoking menthol-flavored cigarettes. Statistics has it that 70% of black Americans prefer the mentoled cigarettes compared to 30% whites.

The conclusion after 10 years observation was that 69% of those who were smoking menthol cigarettes were still smoking when the research ended, while the figure for those who were not smoking menthol cigarettes was 54%, a significant amount of difference that made it possible to conclude that those who are smoking menthol cigarettes have a hard time of kicking off the habit. As far as the health ailment is concerned, both groups had shown similar deterioration in their health, the wellbeing, and normal functioning of their lung.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Japanese invest $3.1 Billion in Magnetic Train

At the time the Germans are grappling with what happened on their magnetic train testing line the Japanese are going ahead with a new development. The technology allows trains to skim on a magnetic field without touching the track and the speed can reach 360 miles an hour. There are only two commercially operating magnetic train lines; one in Japan and one in China that is using German technology. Despite what happened in Germany, the technology is deemed to be safe as it has a computer controlled safety mechanism that could easily prevent similar accidents that took place in Germany by preventing two trains from using the same line, and when that happens it is possible to stop both trains before they are close to each other. There had only been one fire accident that took place under the train cabins and there were no incidents reported. All the involved parties are optimistic about the development of the technology and Japan is planning to replace its line between Tokyo and Osaka so that it will be possible to bring down the 2.5 hours travel to one hour.

We Love Your Institutions…

However, we do not like your policy is how the Arab so-called intellectuals are inferring what is taking place in the Middle East and elsewhere. The American involvement in fighting terror and bringing an end to it globally does not have support among the many Arabs of the region. A newspaper publisher claimed that America is not winning, in fact, according to him it is not even in the game. He continued to say ''America has forfeited the race… We've got a real problem — it's the world versus the Beltway.'' Others perception of what happened on 9/11 is the harm done to the U.S. took place only once, but what is happening to the Middle East is not stopping, it is continuing. Others are saying that the whole anger has nothing to do in believing what bin Ladin stands for. It is simply that the so-called "Arab Street" is so angry because of what is happening in the Middle East and they just want to harm America.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

The Iraqis are still Staggering to Carry the Brunt

There was a disappointment when only one thousand soldiers made themselves available when the U.S. asked for four thousand to shore up security in Baghdad. One of the reasons might be the distance involved as some of the recruits were from the provinces and will have to travel some distance to make it to Baghdad. There were some acts of atrocities that had taken place by people wearing the Iraqi’s army uniform where close to 27 people were shot killed while attending a wedding, which does not do any good to the image of the army. In spite of it all, the country’s Prime Minster had traveled to New York to attend the UN summit and had talked with U.S. officials. He had pledged to the international community to expedite the promised aid package that would amount into billions of dollars.

Yet, according to officials, the Iraqi army lacks means of transportation to effect a quick deployment when the need comes. More planes and armored vehicles are needed to undertake effective deployment. When there is a lack of efficient deployment process the security work could suffer as there will be neighborhoods that will have to go without a security presence, and the overall perception is things are not for sure looking rosy for the army even if they might get better in the future.

The U.S. in a Much Hotter Water

It was noticed at the UN summit that a number of world leaders were outspoken about America’s interventions and war against terror as a threat to their own and the existence of other third world countries. The three outspoken leaders who seemed to read from the same line were the leaders of Iran, Venezuela, and the Sudan. Even if they still do not have the backup of the whole of the third world countries, they had made enough stir whose outcome is eyed as worrisome by U.S. official and some have gone as far as saying more work is needed to smooth the wrinkle and the rift created.

Each leader had their own well-formed opinion about what America is doing around the world. Chavez worries about the imperial aspiration of the Americans, while Ahmadinejad condemns the Americans drive to become "rulers of the world", and Bashir is worried to death that powerful intruders are trampling on his and other countrys’ sovereignty. Polls taken around the world have shown that the Americans effort in fighting terrorism around the world has got only a lukewarm support among Europeans, while those in the Middle East are against it. The highest opposition was 77% in Jordan and in France, it was 57%. In addition, the showdown against the U.S. had even been more pronounced in Havana where 118-nation summit of the non-aligned movement took place, which involved more heavyweights like Evo Morals of Bolivia.

Friday, September 22, 2006

A Showdown is Brewing

A law introduced in 1954 had put a gag on churches and charities that are getting tax exemption from the government not to intervene in politics in anyway. This smacks directly on the freedom of speech from the layman point of view, but the churches and charites are looking at it the same way and they are ganging up. They are not going to be only Christian churches; it is going to involve the major faiths like Jewish and Muslims. The first victim IRS has started probing is All Saints Episcopal Church that is accused of allowing a sermon attacking Bush’s stand in particular and the war effort in general, two days before the 2004 election. What this means is if found guilty, because they have unanimously agreed to go to court, they could lose their tax exemption that is if it does not get worse than that. Opinion is divided about the issue, and the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, "Churches should not endorse political candidates. But the IRS is seriously out of kilter and wrong-headed on this one; it's an appalling intrusion." It is a good warning shot for the others even if the final decision will have to come from the courts.

Ban Lifted on Coke and Pepsi in India

The controversial ban of soft drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo was lifted by the countries higher court. The ban was implemented after an environmental group finding that the soft drinks had a high level of pesticide making them unsafe for consumption. Both companies had refuted the finding and had claimed that their products are safe for consumption. Even if the higher court overruled the ban, the environmental group still believes that the soft drinks are not safe for consumption and are banned to be sold near schools and hospitals. The measure does affect both companies seriously that have close to $1.2 billion annul sales, which is miniscule when seen from the overall global market share both companies are enjoying. However, as anything else, it is always possible to see a market grow, and an economically advancing nation in the world with a huge population holds some promise and might be worth fighting for, and it seems business will go back to normal soon.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

News Corps Eyeing to Expand MySpace

Murdoch, who could be switching to his wife for a successor is another huge gorilla that has started moving its weight around in cyber space when it bought MySpace, which was out of his line of interest, except that as an entrepreneur, a seasoned one as such had seen the future prospect of the social networking site, and probably a payoff could be at hand. New Corps had joined the big mammoths of the cyber space business like Google and Yahoo to get the piece of the action in what is taking place globally by expanding into China with MySpace, which could definitely have a sizeable participants among the huge Chines youth population. Both Yahoo and Google had shown some result even if they still have a stiff homegrown competition, but till date there is no site that is doing social networking at a popular level as MySpace. This means if News Corps is swift, it could do a brisk business until things start getting crowded, because there will be others that will jump in the bandwagon, as what is involved is not as complex as a search engine, which is challenged if not cornered and has only a small slice of the pie.

One of a Kind Project

The Saudis are preparing to launch a $1 trillion project that will spread over the next few decades. The custodians of the project will be two mosques that are expected to try to adapt the Saudis traditional value with the existing global change. According to reports, the focus of the Saudis economic reform and restructuring will include the streamlining of the decision making process, economic diversification, strengthening the private sector, introducing a favorable investment environment, and integrating the Saudis’ economy into the global economy. Saudi Arabia, with a GDP of $355 billion is the largest in the Middle East followed by UAE’s $150 billion. The kingdom that has cut corporate tax from 45% to 20% and had paid 60% of its national debt is hopeful and is investing on its 65.4 % youth population that are under 24.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

P*nis Transplant Removed After Two Weeks

A Chines man who lost his p*nis by accident had one transplanted for him and it was in the process of healing when it had to be removed because the psychological problem the husband and wife developed. The p*nis was obtained from a brain-dead 22 years old man and the 44 year old man went through the surgical process, which was successful and it was properly healing with no major rejection except that the p*nis looked a bit swollen. The doctors did not elaborate on the psychological problem both the husband and wife suffered as they were said to be very insistent for the transplant to take place, but after two weeks, the p*nis had been removed.

Woods Mad about Wife’s Link to Porno Sites

The Dubliner, an Irish magazine stated that Nordegren, the Swedish wife of Woods had posed for various porno sites. However, his lawyer said that even if she had posed in bikinis when she was a model before marrying Woods, the nude photo is not obviously her. Woods said he cares a lot about his wife’s feelings and he understands that it is sometimes difficult to deal with the media, but when news are fabricated they could trigger a legal action, and that is exactly what he is contemplating to do and is consulting his lawyer, and his lawyer had said they are weighing their options.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Gibson's Daugher Tied the Knot

Gibson’s only daughter from wife Robyn, Hannah, the eldest of their seven children had tied the knot with Ken Wayne Shepherd, blues-rock guitarist who had proposed to her on New Year’s Eve of 2004. She is 26 while he is 29 and reports are saying that the occasion will do some repair to the battered image of Gibson who was arrested and fined for driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Aids is No Longer a Death Sentence

It is so wherever there is enough supply of medication. Those who can use medicine to suppress the disease could lead a normal life. Statistics according to New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene states that 31% of HIV patients died due to substance abuse, 24% died of cardiovascular disease, and 20% died of cancer that has nothing to do with the virus. The problem escalates when those infected with the virus engage in unprotected sex. Those that reported to having unprotected sex with other men were almost 10% and among them 70% were married. However, the picture is not rosy in regions where there is shortage of medication like Africa for example, while at the same time no matter how much it is suppressed by using medication, it still remains incurable.

Monday, September 18, 2006

The Tough Sexual Offenders Measure

It was so tough, a government official had this to say about it: "It makes you wonder if it's a false promise based upon a false premise,". People can live with some of the measures that will restrict convicts and felons from living 2000 feet near schools or parks, or they have to wear electronic monitoring device for life that will cost the government up to $200 million as it adds up. Nevertheless, what prompted the official to say what was stated above was the banishing of the convicts from urban centers like San Francisco and L.A. and dump them into the rural suburbs. The first opposition stems from the fact that it will banish them from urban settings that have services, jobs, and family connection that will enable the convicts and the offenders to become law-abiding citizens. The other cited problem is those who are living in the rural suburbs do not deserve to be a dumping ground for such loathed members of society. Even the 2000 feet restriction had been overturned in 2003 putting the decision making on the hand of the states that can take measures that they believe have acceptance by individual communities. The issue is so controversial the U.S. Supreme Court had declined to hear it.

News Still Awash with the Spinach Case

The spinach case has reached 109 victims and it does not seem it will subside anytime soon in spite of all the precautions that had been taken. The company that was identified as the source of the tainted spinach with the E. coli bacteria, Natural Selection Foods LLC had stated that it is cooperating with federal and state health inspectors and the inspectors have attested that the origin of the tainted vegetable is not from organic farms. The finding does not exonerate the company though since it deals both with organic and non-organic spinach even if it has recalled all of its brands it sold in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. The outbreak is affecting more than 19 states, the worst hit state being Wisconsin and what consumers are advised to do is to boil the plant as washing it will not rid it of the bacteria.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Windows Live Onecare

This product sounds superb for any PC and it has all the utilities users used to pay for each one of them. It stays in the background protecting PCs from viruses, spyware, hackers-- because it comes with a firewall, and it servers as a backup in case something goes wrong with the content of the PC. All this service costs money if it is installed individually but now it is only going to cost $49 subscription fee for a year to have all these services at one’s disposal. It also automatically cleans and tunes up a PC so that it will run at a top speed. It sounds too good to be true and it is bad news for those companies that were reliant on providing only one service, but users will have a lot of advantages except that owning these various software that can be updated for their recent version regularly might have some advantage even if some of them charge money. Nevertheless, the Onecare one-year subscription from Microsoft will avail the most updated utility as especially fighting viruses needs updating the software regularly.

Melbourne the Best Livable City?

Certainly, the city with a population of four million had snatched this title three times, which means there must be something special about it. There are 4000 restaurants, the city is modern looking with a mixture of high tech skyscrapers and the traditional Victoria era English architecture, and people live in brick houses with their neat gardens. The other amenities that everyone looks for are there too. The streets are safe, there are a big number of parks, flunked by an excellent symphony orchestra, vibrant theatres, and performing arts centers. On top of that, the air is clean when compared with major industrial centers that must be its competitors. There is also enough ethnic diversity due to the sizeable immigrants where it is possible to go into a given neighborhood and forget that it is located in fact in Melbourne. The same goes with shopping, where those with money could visit "Paris End" and a high-end department store that equals London’s Harrods and Berlin’s KaDeWe called David Jones and Myer.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Pope in Hot Water

All for insinuating that Islam is a violent religion. He had to go back to 14th century to quote a Byzantine Christian Emperor who stated that the fact that the originator of the religion whom he believed did not introduce anything new was wrong in teaching his followers to spread the religion by the sword. According to him it is such teaching that has persisted up to today causing all this problem where the Muslim community members find it very easy to resort into violence, and as long as they do it in the name of Jihad there is nothing that will recriminate them and according to him that should change. It seemed that his outlook and suggestion had touched raw nerves among the Muslim community.

A Surprising Finding

Taking calcium supplement pill is scientifically proven not to be beneficial for anyone including kids above the age of three and especially women whose bone density will decrease after menopause and could suffer from Osteoporosis as they get older. That is in addition to fractures people suffer from as they age. The finding showed only a 1.7 bone density increase on those who were taking the supplement and the increase was only on the upper limbs, leaving the rest of the body unaffected. This means the hip and the lower spine that are vulnerable for fracture will not be benefited from the supplement. The recommendation is to depend on vitamin D, fruit, and vegetables from early on so that the bones will build resistance to fracture as individuals age.

However, even if it is proven that bone density and its structure is built and formed before reaching the age of two and breast-feeding has a lot to do with it, to keep a healthy and strong bone structure a daily calcium intake for life is required, whether it is obtained from milk or supplements.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Crosslegged Strike in Colombia

Wives and girlfriends of gang members in some of the coffee growing regions or Colombia are joining hands in what they dubbed as "cross-legged strike preparing to deprive their mates sexual pleasure. Even if there had been 480 killing in the region the crime rate has dropped in Colombia’s coffee-growing regions since 2002, but many of the gangs are not handing in their gun, and the strike is to put pressure on the men group to do so.

Houston is Asking for Separation

It is amazing that the separation of Whitney Houston with her 14 years husband Bobby Brown came after bin Ladin admitted that he had a crash on the black singer. One of his sex slaves, a Somali woman who is living in LA now admitted that the fugitive has told her so that he would go to any length to marry her as a Muslim woman. This means if she agrees, she would among the several wives he should have as a Musliman, and it is difficult to say that will sit well with the popular singer. At the same time he would not be allowed to do it in the open unless she chose to join him in his hiding, which will end up making her his accomplice. It is all a bad karma.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Spain had Become the First Nation to Ban Thin Models

The reason is they are deemed as unhealthy role models and according to the authorities, eating disorder has its roots in young ladies trying to imitate what they see at the catwalk. There were uproars from as far as New York’s Elite Modeling that stated there are girls that are naturally thin and taking such measure is discriminatory. While Spanish modeling companies support the measure, eating disorder activists stated that many model agencies and designers oppose the ban. However, the authorities said it is not difficult to tell those who are abnormally underweight, because according to them some of them are sickly looking. What the Madrid fashion show is looking for is healthy looking models that will portray healthy living. According to the authorities, not adhering to the ban might necessitate coming up with legislation.

The Rise in Sea Surface Temperature

Scientists are saying that the sea surface temperature is rising because of human activity, especially the burning of fossil oil. This issue is a heated argument up to now whether the green house effect is due to burning fossil or not, but the U.S. government, in 2005 had stated that there is no green house effect due to human activity, it is all due to natural causes. Scientists at University of California used computer simulation to evaluate how the earth would be faring if the Industrial Revolution did not happen and their finding showed up to two-third of the sea surface temperature is generated by human activity, and that is what is causing the intensity of the hurricanes.

Smart Cell Phones

Cell phones are being loaded with many features that used to be PC’s domain such as email, word processing, spreadsheets, TV streaming, music downloading, live TV shows and full-length movies. What the new trend is, all theses functionality where voice, contact, appointment, email, and access to the web were attractions for business people who were willing to pay for them. Now that trend is changing and ordinary customers from all walks of life want to use them too, and cell phone companies are noticing.

BlackBerry’s new Pearl phone, Sprint’s Treo 700wx, Cingular/Nokia’s e62, and the updated Sidekick 3 from T-Mobile are leading the way according to reports. What is fueling the new trend is the coming down of the prices of the smart phones that could be obtained with prices such as $199, $149, and $99 where many consumers have demonstrated their willingness to own these smartphones, because they like the connectivity and the added features. Some of them for example could serve as good as iPods since it is possible to expand their disk space up to 2GB by accepting cards.

According to some reports if there is something that should come down is the service providers’ fee that is being paid now by users, and that could be difficult for a while since the networks will have to upgrade their speed and connectivity. Other than that, watching live TV on cell phones will become a household item soon when the speed of the networks and the various software that are being developed are capable of handling the functionality.

Hydrogen Cars

BMW is going to be the first carmaker that is planning to produce cars that will run on both hydrogen and gas. The slated model is the 7 series luxury model and the leasing cost will be similar to the 760 L1. The targeted customers for the limited trial are mostly opinion leaders such as politicians, media people, and high power brokers so that they will see the technology has come of age after 30 years of research, and what is expected of them is to contribute to the alleviating of the shortage of filling stations so that the production level will be elevated. For now, hydrogen-filling stations are nonexistent except a few that are located in Germany built to accommodate the research. When the car runs out of hydrogen until it makes it to the next hydrogen filling station it could switch to gas.

BMW is not the only carmaker in such pursuit as companies like GM, Honda, Peugeot, and Mazda are also betting on the feasibility issue where it will soon be possible to mass-produce such cars for consumers. Nevertheless, all carmakers agree that hydrogen powered cars are at least 10 years off and the assumption is, by the year 2025 it might be possible for BMW to put around 140,000 vehicles on the road. The second runner up Honda has even a plan of a home station where hydrogen could be produced from natural gas and can be used for all utilities in the house, which is believed to bring the cost down 50%.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Car-Sharing is a Hot Issue Again

The average cost for running ones own car for a given month is $664 nationally and this is not peanuts at all. That is why car-sharing companies such as Zipcar, Flexcar, and many others have become the choice of a big number of people, because they definitely help save a lot of money and hassle. What is involved is $40 annual payment and $10 an hour fee that will cover every related cost, including gas. Most users testified owning their own car is becoming a thing of the past in most big cities where there is adequate transportation system and whenever there is a need to have a car to do things such as shopping or doing errands, these cars become handy as they could be picked from many locations that are easily accessible at a walking distance from work or home.

After doing whatever is at hand all that is required is to bring them back to where they were picked and users who are members use a card issued by the companies to enter the cars. When they leave them finally all they have to do is to leave them as clean as they found them. The number of members is surpassing the 100,000 mark and the agencies are expected to outdo car rental companies soon that are not very expensive either, except that the paper work and some of the location inconveniences are not there.

Losing Bolt in Space

It is not the first time astronauts lost items while walking in space, once thy had lost a 14 in-long spatula that is still floating somewhere in space, but in their recent walk they lost a bolt, spring, and a washer. The washer is said to have made it into space while the spring and the bolt were nowhere to be found, which means if they float into any of the mechanisms they could cause a lot of problem. Other than that once in space, they would join other debris that are floating, but the question is no one might know whether it is an endless straight line journey into nowhere or they could be circling around the sun or the earth for that matter, responding or obeying to gravity. It is said that there could be a huge number of debris floating in space that could be harmful if they pierce the space suit or the wall of the space shuttle or the station.

A Little Bit of a Twist in the U.S. Life Expectancy

It is not going to be between the known races, this time researchers have created eight groups, that include Asians, northern low income rural whites, middle class Americans, low income Americans in the South, the Appalachia and Mississippi area, Native Americans, middle class blacks, blacks in the south, and blacks in the high risk urban areas. The whole issue comes down to access to healthcare as many of the reasons causing death are disease related like heart disease or diabetes that are treatable in most cases and some of them are preventable. Yet the causes could be life style related or work related where people die because of accidents. The gap between what they called the best-off and worse-off is close to 16 years. The conclusion is more than race what determines the life expectancy of Americans is access to health care, life style, and what people do for a living, whether it is risk oriented or not.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Are There Many Things Left that Cannot be Offshored?

Legal works started to be offshored at a bigger chunk when DuPont hired Office Tiger to help it offshore some of the cases involving the asbestos suits that are going to cost it millions of dollars where it is anticipating it could save at least $100 million by using paralegals in the Philippines and elsewhere where it costs only $30 an hour compared to $150 in the U.S. for similar service. The probability could have been that DuPont would have rather complied and pay out compensation simply to avoid the cost of defending the suit and that could be astronomical making the payout economically sensible.

But now, as long as Office Tiger delivers on time, it is in to save money on the arrangement, and it is going to set a new precedent, because even if there were minor legal services that were getting their way to Asia into countries like the Philippines and India, such an amount of work was unheard of. The fear is others might start to follow suit and it is said that it does not have much down side for now since what will be offshored will be the laborious part of the work, which could sometimes take 18 months, but now it could be done within three months and by doing so it is estimated that companies could save up to 30% of their cost. DuPont alone stands to save six million dollars a year from insurance related cases.

Eternal Forces

It is the title of a new video game based on Left Behind Christian books novel series that are written by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHay that had sold more than 63 million according to reports. The theme of the game focuses on those that will be left behind after the chosen ones had gone to heaven. The Eternal Forces video that will cost from $3 to $5 million to make could sell from 250,000 to one million copies at a price of $49.99 according to analysts. Videos based on Christian belief are almost non-existent and Eternal Forces is the first effort by the Left Behind Games Inc that has a license to make video games based on the Left Behind novel series. What kind of a bite it will take from the $6.1 billion video industry pie will remain to be seen. Analysts are optimistic and are painting a rosy picture about the success rate of the video, since the Christian theme of the video, where the interaction involves using bible scriptures, terms, and actions like the prayer button that are part of the game when confronted by evil forces would make it attractive for parents to allow their children to play with it.

Mysterious Death of a Celebrity’s Son

Ann Nicholas Smith’s son Daniel Wayne Smith was found dead in his bed in Bermuda Island where he had been to visit his newborn baby sister. Anna who married a Texas oil baron, J. Howard Marshal II in 1994 and who died the following year had a bequeath of close to $500 million that was ordered to be frozen by the Supreme Court out of which she had won close $89 million and she is still litigatin the rest of the money. No one knows how the young man of 20, Ann was very much fond of died except that he was found dead in his mother's hospital room where he spent the night sleeping on a chair, and Ann claims not to know the father of her new child. The young man used to play minor roles in some of the movies his mother was starring.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Risky Business

Two arrests, the first one copyright infringement in L.A., while selling copyrighted software on a website from big name software companies like Microsoft and Adobe, a daring transgression that must have been lucrative, because Peterson, the individual involved was asked to forfeit homes, cars, and a boat that is in addition to serving a seven year prison term.

The second one was a bit disheartening because it were ladies whose logo was ro$e$ that were soliciting in the open from all places on Craig List, which has a big number of poring eyes, and FBI agents happened to be one of them. All it took was to make a phone call to a cell phone number that was shown on the ad, make an arrangement to meet the ladies at a motel, and consequently 12 of them were arrested. Five boyfriends that accompanied them were also arrested with drug charge. The question is there are a huge number of personal ads or websites with photos and explicit material online whose owners are doing lucrative business from, and why these ladies were victims is a bit amazing, at the same time they were asking for a donation of $125, although the cause is not known.

Are Autistic Children a Burden to Society?

That had always been a difficult question to answer and there are two approaches to it. The first one is they have to be treated in their young age so that they will lead a productive life and that costs money, in fact close to $2 million that might have to be footed by tax payers. After going through the early treatment the outcome is some will finish college and get job while some will have to wrestle the sickness for the rest of their life, and among them there are some who need help.

What mostly determines their success in life is their IQ point where if it is below 70 the likelihood that they will have a difficult time copping is high. But there is nothing that will prevent them from going into the workforce, and the fact that they are autistic surfaces when they require some kind of special treatment, otherwise they can melt into the normal crowd.

The second problem is depending on what they could be doing, could they cause damage or create some kind of problem or could people suffer from their sickness? That is a difficult question to answer because most autistic patients do not want to be considered as handicaps, and to make things worse there is no easy mechanism that will identify them outright. This question of their being burden will remain unanswered as proving the sickness 100% had been difficult too. There is a similarity between autism and downs syndrome and for the most part, it might be possible to tell by how they look, other than that, it is all categorization.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Another Top Gambling Official Arrested

Peter Dicks of Sportingbets Plc was arrested at JFK airport with an arrest warrant that originated from Louisiana making him the second gambling top official to be arrested. The arrest has shaved up to $1.5 billion from the market value of the $12 billion gambling industry. Since the arrest of David Carruthers of Betonsport in Texas in July most of the gambling houses are in the process of either reducing the percentage of their intake from the U.S. citizens or they are closing some of their U.S. operations until the anti-gambling bill that was introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte is decided upon, which had already faced a lot of opposition.
Good or bad, the public should have its say, because in the near future, the handy online gambling could be out of the reach of Americans that used to access it easily, but those determined ones could get around of any legal barrier the government might put in place. But the companies will find it difficult to operate from the U.S. and most of them do not anyway.

The Iraqis Take Charge of the Army

Whatever it might be its long term implication, at least the Iraqis have taken the first necessary step of taking charge of their own security when they are handed the first control of the army unit that was disbanded in 2003. The new Iraqi army had been on training for a while and it consists of a small brigade of navy and airforce unit in the south. The whole idea is when the U.S. decides to withdraw from Iraq in the future, they are expected to take full responsibility of looking after their own security. This opportunity will avail them the possibility to develop a future plan as to what direction the military will take in the future as the chain of command will originate directly from the prime minister who is the commander in chief.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Princes Kiko of Japan Gave Birth to a Boy

The other interesting news piece today is Princes Kiko of Japan has given birth to the first third male heir in line, which will clear the dust as to who will be in succession to the Japanese throne where the Japanese parliament was drawn into introducing a bill to allow a female heir in case there was no a male heir. Akishno 40 who is Kikos husband is third in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito and the royal couple already had two daughters and it was just appropriate for her to give birth to a boy so that the 1500 old Japanese royal line will have a third generation male heir. However, the boy's arrival might not mean the debate about female heirs ascending the Japanese throne would come to end, because it has support, and it is possible that it will continue.

Suri Cruise on the Cover of Vanity Magazine

Interesting news piece today is at least the public was able to have the first glimpse of Suri Cruise and there is no doubt that she will be another good looker in the list. Both parents seemed to had been under pressure to release the photo of their newborn, but they clang to their right-time release long enough and Vanity magazine has managed to put the picture on the cover of its October issue that will be on sale on Wednesday, and it is mentioned there are more photos inside. The pressure must have affected Holmes more than it did Cruise according to the interview they made for the magazine, and finally everyone came to know that Suri is a real cute little girl and was added officially into the list of celebrities’ children.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Windows Vista

This is an interesting news piece for anyone planning to upgrade or to buy Vista. Microsoft seems to slate the price for the software that will be released on January, while close to five million consumers are said to be testing the beta version, Release Candidate 1. It doesn’t mean this is the final date for the release as there had been five delays. The spokesperson for the software publisher has stated that there could be more delays if problems develop.

The price is $100 - $299 for customers upgrading from older version, while for first-time buyers it could cost from $199 - $399. The Home Premium edition will go for a cool $159 if it is an upgrade that is said to be a good bargain for those who are in the middle of the Basic bare bone edition and the Ultimate version that is more business-oriented.

World Powerful Women

Their number worldwide runs up to 48 and they are being praised for the mopup job they had done at ailing companies. Two names to mention are Patricia Rucco at Lucent Technologies and Anne Mulch at Xerox. Both had brought back companies that were at the brink of bankruptcy. A few of them had gotten the boot for wrong doing and one of them is Carla Cico of Brasil Telecom who was stripped of her post for simply hiring a company to spy on a competitor. Carly Florin of Hewlett-Packard is on the list of fallen executives. Another fallen star was Linda Wachner who was at the helm when Warnaco went into bankruptcy. Another one is Jill Barad forced out of Mattel the toymaker after the company's stock price plummeted 75%. Of course, the highly publicized high executive who disgraced was Martha Stewart who had to serve time. It does not mean these powerful women will go out of the picture completely, they make a comeback at different capacities.

To add a few more that are at their post currently to the list Angela Merkel, Condoleezza Rice, Wu Yi, Indra Nooyi, Anne Mulcahy, Sallie Krawcheck, Anne Lauvergeon, Brenda Barnes, Zoe Cruz, with Patricia Woretz make the current list.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Fathering Children After 40 is a No-No!

This issue surfaces frequently where the age of the father affects the psychological make-up of the children born, and a case in point here was autism. Most children that suffer from the disease are born from fathers that are older than 40 years and this is a medical data that is an outcome of a through research that involved up to 300,000 people and the chance it will go wrong could be low. The mothers’ age was not an issue, yet children of older mothers could suffer from much worse and complicated disease and psychological malfunctions such as Down’s syndrome, dyslexia, mental retardation, and brain damage at the time of the pregnancy.

The advanced paternal age in fact does not stop at autism alone, and according to the various researches made over the years many bizarre cognitional disorders like Apert's syndrome, a congenital disorder characterized by craniosynostosis, midface hypoplasia, and fusion of appendages and bony structures of the hands and feet could occur in the children born for older fathers.

The conclusion is it is much preferred if child bearing is done earlier than in latter years, but the chance that older fathers can bring healthy children into this world is also there even at a much advanced age. The point is the medical society recognizes that because they never say it is 100%, which means they will also have to find out why it isn’t happening in a large scale. The reason could be, those parents who give birth to children that have problems might themselves have complications that the other parents don’t have.

Brnagelina ending?

You bet and it’s in the making, but why? Angelina is said to have moved to a luxury hotel with all her entourages that include the three kids. Main reason: the couple are doing a lot of fighting and the reason of the fight is Brad insists Jolly to be a nice little wife, of course, the answer for that must have been no and that’s why she had to flee their Malibu love nest. At the same time, she has agreed to film Sin City II and Big Heart, while Brad’s grandmother had said the wedding is on hold. It’s a bit surprising simply because from the start the whole thing had been shrouded with mystery and in a situation like this anything gives.

Labor Day

The history books say it came about when Peter McGuire a carpenter and a union leader suggested that it would be a good idea to give workers a holiday in their honor that will take place between Independence day (4th of July) and Thanks Giving Day (the fourth Thursday in November). The first observance of the holiday took place in New York City in September 5, 1882, which involved a parade from City Hall to Union Square, and afterwards there was a gathering, speech, and a picnic at a park. Oregon was the first state that made it a legal holiday in 1887 and the U.S. Congress passed a law in 1894 to make it a federal holiday and that’s how people in the U.S. and Canada are observing today as a labor day. In Europe May 1, May Day is observed as labor or workers holiday.

The Troikas were Back in the News

Brook Shields has accepted Tom Cruise’s heartfelt apology about all the comments he did about her and all this commotion might help to bring the beautiful 41 years old actress back into the limelight. It might help her land some role in a movie, because everyone is talking about her lagging career, which might be the source of the depression she is suffering from. It does not seem that she had anything spectacular going for her after "Suddenly Susan" TV sitcom, which demonstrated that she is a highly talented actress. Sometimes it is difficult to say what is behind getting all these lucrative movie deals, because being young really helps, but those who are aging also should have great roles to play. If there is something interesting, Cruise’s own production company will have to come up with movies, and this good relation that’s starting might bring some windfall her way.

The other news was her X-husband Andre Agassi had said goodbye to the world of tennis emotionally, in fact, he broke down and wept, which made many of his 23,000 fans to join him. It seems that if he had no problem with his body, a chronic back pain that was interfering with his movements, the 36 year old tennis player that had won eight grand slam titles would have loved to continue playing. But that isn’t going to be and he had made an emotional exit the game he started playing when he was 17.

The Notorious Abu Gharib

Another interesting news item is the Abu Gharib prison had been handed to the Iraqis government who said they would find use for it that will serve a national interest. The infamous prison, emptied on August 15 the prisoners had been transferred to a $60 million new detention center at Camp Cropper, near the airport. The prison had been used by Sadam to lock up his political opponents and of course the U.S. after the occupation had been using it to bring down the Sunni uprising that had raised a lot of furor and had led to the disciplining of some of the wards for wrong-doing, because the media had been able to air a lot of dirty laundry where human abuse had taken place at an alarming level. Even if it doesn’t signal much, it could be the precursor of what might take place in Iraq, because sooner or later the U.S. might decide to bring about full withdrawal of the military. Nevertheless the President is still gung-ho about staying much longer for fear of the construed Islamic fundamentalism and had stated recently if that takes place, Americans won’t be safe on their own streets.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

A small step or a big step for the first female tourist to space

This is a hot news item of the week and it will continue to be until September 14, the date Anousheh Ansari will be blasted into space in the Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, and she was able to fork out $20 million to be the first female tourist in space, and that’s a considerable cough-up for a petit lady of Iranian origin that came to the U.S. in 1984 and got her Masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and went on to work for MCI.

Where does all that money come from? That’s the interesting part of it because she was a co-founder of a company called Telecom Technologies Inc. with her husband and brother in-law and made a fortune when Sonus Network Inc. bought it for an estimated $180 million. Now the group has started another venture capital company called Prodea that has its eye on space travel vehicles and is working with Space Adventures, Ltd. and Federal Space Agency of Russia. The $20 million could be a drop in the bucket and a huge start that could turn out to be successful. Some have called it the American dream and it must be a wonderful achievement for recent immigrants to take a good bite out of the American pie. Good for them, it’s something to keep an eye on, and a good accomplishment Iranian women could look up to.

The most interesting question of the day, are we fighting WW III?

This was a question posed about what’s taking place around the world and participants were asked to email in their opinion. Among the yeah replies there seem to be a meeting of minds and there is, of course, oil in the middle of it all as a scarce commodity the Americans were planning for the last 20 years to control the flow, production, and supply, and now what took place had given them the pretext they were praying for. They are not stopping in Iraq, Iran is next in line, where no one knows what will happen when the dust settles down, and they are intervening in Sudan through the UN. The fact that the other two world powers abstained to vote the sending in of UN troops send a message that they are worried to death about the intent of the U.S. even if the troops could be needed badily. However, what is amazing is as long as their interest is not trampled upon, the U.S. could have a good night sleep, but that would never be the case since every measure these nations are taking is so provocative they are literary playing into the hands of the U.S. like Sadam did and bin Ladin exacerbated the whole thing.

The nay emails are mainly focused on the scale of the war most called a skirmish in small part of the world involving a small number of weak governments, and it does not qualify as WW III.

You should participate

It might be possible to stay informed of what is really taking place in a daily basis if everyone posts what they found to be interesting in a given day on a blog, it could be anything, and anyone can comment on it. The upside of such a blog is participants can access it any number of times in a day and go through what is being posted and comment on some of them, while at the same time post whenever an iteresting news item is encountered or any interesting idea crosses the mind. It would be much better than anyone of the news portals, because there is no limitation as to the genere of what to post, except that Blogger does not allow certain things, one of them be pornographic material or foul language or hate mongering of a particular kind, and a few other things that are mentioned in the signup agreement.

Other than that the moderator alone will be responsible at least for posting ten interesting news items or anything else for that matter on a daily basis and all visitors are encouraged to participate, and see ya at the post. Watch out, do not copy and paste, this means you can rewrite any news piece, and if there is a need to send visitors to an original material posted somewhere add the URL, that will make things much safer and law abiding.





Google Pagerank without google toolbar