Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Top Ten (10) Things NOT to Do If You Are Arrested

Top Ten (10) Things NOT to Do If You Are Arrested

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS ADVICE. A wide variety of people are arrested every day and the majority of the individuals make the same mistakes which make there situation even worse. Many of these reactions are understandable, however some defy logic and reason. Nobody plans on being arrested, but you may be arrested for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Share this with your colleagues, friends and family because it will come in handy for many of you. The basic rule is to simply listen to the officer and do as your told, "Put Your Hands Behind Your Back" and do NOT do any of these Ten Things:

1. Don't Talk.

Do not say a word to the officer. Shut the F. up! I cannot stress to you the importance of this rule. Do not talk! Do not attempt to convince the officer of your innocence. Everyone is innocent, no one should be arrested and no one should be in jail and that is all the officer hears all day every day. He / she does not care generally whether you are innocent or guilty and there is nothing that he / she can do at this point. Most times, when people speak to officers they say something that makes their situation far worse. Keep your mouth shut, there will be plenty of time to talk later.

2. Don't Run.

I said above to listen to the officer and follow his / her instructions. Do not be scared and do not let the liquid courage aka alcohol convince you that you can outrun the twelve officers and helicopter that will track you down. Also, police become highly suspicious that someone running has a weapon and may be quick to draw their weapon. Additionally when they do run you down expect much stronger force used to subdue a fleeing suspect.

3. Never Resist Arrest.

Perhaps the most important thing not to do is touch the police officer at all! Again, sober up quick and follow what the officer says. Many people attempt to bump the officer or swat an officers hands away. This often falls under the assault statutes and now a minor misdemeanor arrest becomes a FELONY. Thus a reckless driving charge leads to a year or more in state prison. Additionally, touching the officer in any way can lead to a batton in the mouth.

4. Don't Believe the Police.

It is perfectly legal for the police to lie to get you to make an admission. The police frequently separate two friends and tell one the other one ratted him / her out. Because of the lie, the other friend now rats the first friend out. Police and detectives also state that "it will be easier" to talk now...LIES!!! DON'T BELIEVE THIS BS! It will only be easier for the police to prove their case!

5. No Searching.

Do not allow the police to search anywhere! If the police officer asks, they do not have the right to search and must have your consent. If you are asked make sure you proclaim to any witnesses that "You (the police) do not have consent to search." If they perform the search anyway, that evidence may be thrown out later. Also, if you consent to a search, the officers may find something that you had no idea you had placed somewhere, ie: marijuana left by a friend.

6. Don't Look At Places Where You Don't Want Police to Search.

Police are trained to watch you and react to you. They know that you are nervous and scared and many people look to the areas that they don't want the police to search. Do not react to the search and do not answer any questions. LOOK DOWN AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!!!

7. Do Not Talk Shit to the Police.

I don't care if you have been wrongly arrested and the true culprit is standing in front of you. Don't talk shit! Police hear all day that my dad is the the Governor's Assistant's Intern and I will have your badge for this! Police have a lot of discretion in the upcoming charges brought. Police can add charges, change a misdemeanor to a felony, or even talk to the prosecutor that is ultimately prosecuting you.

8. If Police Come to Your Home, Do not Let Them In and Do Not Step Outside Your Home

If the police are confident you have committed a felony, they are coming in anyway, because they generally don't need an arrest warrant. Make it clear to the police by stating: "No you may not come in", or "I am comfortable talking right here", or "You need a search warrant to enter my home." If they return, your attorney can arrange for you to turn yourself in should that be necessary and you will spend no time in jail between the hearings.

9. Outside Your Home Arrested, Do Not Accept Offer to Go In Your Home for Anything.

The officer may say to you, how about you go inside and change, freshen up, talk to your wife, husband, get a jacket, or any other reason. The police will graciously escort you in and then tear your home apart searching through it. Also, do not let them secure your car. Your car is fine. Remember they are lying to you. They don't give a damn if you are really cold or if you need to talk to your wife or husband.

10. Don't say a word.

It's incredible how many people feel that they can convince the officer, the booking officer or a detective (if your case reaches that stature) that they are not guilty. YOUR CASE IS NOT DECIDED BY THESE PEOPLE. They have no affect on your records. Wait to speak to your lawyer! The courts give enormous weight to "confessions" during this stage. A suspect is almost NEVER released after being arrested.

Follow these ten simply rules religiously and many of your rights will remain intact. I don't care how nervous, scared or drunk you are, THESE RULES ARE VERY IMPORTANT, and will help you tremendously in the short and long run.

Quick Test Question

An altercation occurs with your live in girlfriend. When the police arrive they find you on the sidewalk, a few houses down the street. Your girlfriend points you out and the officers then arrest you for assault. During the arrest, they let you know that they do not intent to question you. They just need your name and address. What do you do?

Answer

Well the police are lying to you and rule number 1 is to keep your mouth shut, so you don't say anything. Your name is all you may need to give. If you give your address, that may indicate that you live together converting your alleged crime from a misdemeanor to a felony. An officer will attempt to get you to make an admission, especially when they have no evidence. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Adventurers Unite on National Geographic’s TOPO Explorer

via TechCrunch by Jason Kincaid on 4/28/08

Remember when wireless technology was supposed to help us get out of our offices once in a while? What happened to that? Sure, we might not be constrained to our cubicles all day - instead, we carry them around with us. And let's be honest… We all know a certain blogger who could stand to lose thirty pounds.

It's nice to see that sometimes this wireless stuff lives up to the hype.

National Geographic's TOPO! Explorer gives daring technophiles a chance to create and share their favorite trails using detailed topographic maps provided by USGS. These maps support GPS integration, which makes things easy. Just upload a map to a supported device, head off in the general direction of the trail, and you're on your way. You can also attach geo-tagged photos to your maps, allowing you to show points of interest (or beauty). And when you're done you can share you experiences through comments or on the site's forums.

The site has just opened in feature-limited public beta, and hopes to fully launch on May 30th. Unfortunately, GPS integration, which may well be the site's greatest asset, is not free. Currently National Geographic is charging $25 for the desktop software that enables this feature - a price that, while reasonable, may be the site's undoing. Hopefully National Geographic will abandon this setup, at least while the site is establishing a user base. Maps are currently pretty sparse, and many people might be turned off by the prospect of paying when there is so little content to be had.

With enough users and some support more from the esteemed National Geographic brand, this site has a decent chance at taking off, or at least getting the hardcore outdoorsy niche audience on board.

Update: National Geographic has informed us that the desktop application is free, and that the $25 applies to map credits. This page is the source of confusion, and is going to be updated shortly.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.


Field Guide to Windows XP SP3 [Windows XP SP3]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 4/29/08

Windows XP Service Pack 3 officially hit Microsoft servers this morning, and although it won't be available through Windows Update today, it should be sometime soon. Your desire to stay on the cutting edge of XP features and security may dictate that you install the latest service pack, but in case you were wondering what you can actually expect from your SP3 update, we're breaking down the new and improved features with our field guide to Windows XP SP3.

What Should I Expect?

You may be disappointed to find out that SP3 isn't really bringing much to the table in terms of new and sexy functionality. In fact, the majority of updates included in SP3 have been available as per-item hotfixes and updates for XP. However, there are also four new features being back-ported from Vista to XP. First, let's take a look at the back-ported features.

New Features in XP SP3

For the most part, Microsoft is doing their best to avoid pulling Vista features into XP, with just a few exceptions. They are:
  • Network Access Protection (NAP): A new system in Vista and Windows Server 2008, this feature sets system "health" requirements to validate a computer's health before it allows that computer to connect to yours.
  • "Black Hole" Router Detection: This new feature detects when your router is silently losing or discarding packets and is intended to protect from such problems.
  • Product Activation Not Required on Installation: Like Vista, you can now install XP without first providing a valid product key. Windows will prompt for a product key after installation, though, if you want to take advantage of Windows Genuine Advantage.
  • Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module: In a nutshell, this Vista back-port makes it easier to encrypt data through a single algorithm. Enjoy that one!

explain-settings.pngAside from these Vista back-port features, other new features include more descriptive security options that better explain your security settings and improved administrator security.




Previously Released Features


As I said above, the majority of updates in SP3 were already available in one form or another via hotfixes or installations, but unless you're a system administrator, there's a good chance that they will still be new to your computer. Some are rather developer-oriented, so I'll highlight the updates that might mean something to the general user.

  • Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2): Provides support for WPA2, the latest wireless security protocol.
  • Peer Name Resolution: It's not sexy, but this minor update allows SP3 computers to communicate with Vista programs that use the Peer Name Resolutions Protocol (PNRP).
  • MMC 3.0: This is a framework to help simplify system management tasks in XP. You can learn more about it here.

For a fuller rundown of every new feature, you can grab the XP SP3 overview from Microsoft as a PDF. Like I said, SP3 isn't the sexiest update your computer has ever seen, but if you're planning to continue using XP (and judging from our poll, that's a lot of you), then it's an update you're likely to be using for a while.

If you've updated and noticed a feature tweak or two, let's hear about it—love it or lump it—in the comments.

Fixing a Minor SP3 Annoyance

One reader found that his SP3 update disabled the address bar option for the Windows taskbar—a feature removed "due to legal restrictions." If you fall in the same boat, you can still get your address bar back.


Sunday, April 27, 2008

Income Tax = Illegal

Don't Pay Your Taxes Because They Are Unconstitutional

Did you know that taxes are unconstitutional and that you don't have to pay them? It's true! Turns out that the Sixteenth Amendment was never ratified and the U.S. Code doesn't tax domestic income. Sound complex and illegal? Hit the jump to see how it's the answer to all your money problems.

The Sixteenth Amendment is an illegal post-it note on the Constitution, passed thanks to the support of the backstabbing lowlanders occupying Ohio, who ratified the Amendment on January 19, 1911. Here's the thing: Ohio wasn't a state in 1911. Congress retroactively accepted the territory's pitiful pleas for admission in 1953, when they needed to guarantee the Sixteeenth Amendment's staying power to out-tax the Communists.

Thanks to Captain No-State's late entrance we know that the supposed power "to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived" is complete hogwash. Nice lie, Nannie State! What else can you make up?

The U.S. Code? Sorry, 26 U.S.C. 861 says that the government can collect taxes only from certain clearly defined foreign activities. Not on the list: your job.

So let's say you mentioned this to your egghead friend, the one nobody likes with the glasses and degrees, and he said that Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes..." Well tell your friend to shutup and that nobody likes him, ok? This country is run by men, not nerds, and occasionally women, too.

Now sure, the courts may call these arguments "legally frivolous," but those judicial lackeys are hopelessly latched to the tax-tete for their salaries. "Independent judiciary," our ass.

All true patriots should stand up for their rights and defend our Constitution by scribbling "861" all over your 1040. The boys down at the IRS will know it's code for "In The Know."

Whiten Your Teeth with Strawberries [Clever Uses]

via Lifehacker by Adam Pash on 4/26/08

strawberry.pngIf you've never been keen on commercial teeth-whitening products and you love strawberries, today is your lucky day: Web site Health.com says that one ripe strawberry plus half a teaspoon of baking powder equals a natural teeth whitener. The secret is malic acid—the product of the mix—which is an astringent that can buff coffee and cigarette stains from your teeth. The post emphasizes that you should be careful, though—too much use could lead to damaged enamel. While a professional teeth bleaching by your dentist will lead to better results, the strawberry method is a fast, cheap alternative.



Friday, April 25, 2008

Relationship Advice

The Seven Deadly Sins of a Relationship

"Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand." - Emily Kimbrough

While I can't claim to be the world's foremost expert on relationships, I do know that my wife and I have a very strong marriage, and have never been more in love.

I've failed at marriage before, but that's helped me become better at it. I've learned the deadly sins of relationships, and how to recognize them and avoid them.

A reader, newly married, asked me to share my tips on how to make a marriage work. I wish I had a magic formula, but here's a simple list of tips:

  • spend time alone together;
  • appreciate each other;
  • be intimate often;
  • talk and share and give.

But just as important as what you should do is what you shouldn't do — and I'm sure many of you have stepped into these pitfalls yourselves. I know I have. I've learned from my mistakes, and have learned to recognize when I'm making a fatal error, and how to correct it.

If you can avoid these seven things, and focus instead on doing the four things above, you should have a strong relationship. I'm not going to guarantee anything, but I'd give you good odds. :)

  1. Resentment. This is a poison that starts as something small ("He didn't get a new roll of toilet paper" or "She doesn't wash her dishes after she eats") and builds up into something big. Resentment is dangerous because it often flies under our radar, so that we don't even notice we have the resentment, and our partner doesn't realize that there's anything wrong. If you ever notice yourself having resentment, you need to address this immediately, before it gets worse. Cut it off while it's small. There are two good ways to deal with resentment: 1) breathe, and just let it go — accept your partner for who she/he is, faults and all; none of us is perfect; or 2) talk to your partner about it if you cannot accept it, and try to come up with a solution that works for both of you (not just for you); try to talk to them in a non-confrontational way, but in a way that expresses how you feel without being accusatory.
  2. Jealousy. It's hard to control jealousy if you feel it, I know. It seems to happen by itself, out of our control, unbidden and unwanted. However, jealousy, like resentment, is relationship poison. A little jealousy is fine, but when it gets to a certain level it turns into a need to control your partner, and turns into unnecessary fights, and makes both parties unhappy. If you have problems with jealousy (like I once did), instead of trying to control them it's important that you examine and deal with the root issue, which is usually insecurity. That insecurity might be tied to your childhood (abandonment by a parent, for example), in a past relationship where you got hurt, or in an incident or incidents in the past of your current relationship.
  3. Unrealistic expectations. Often we have an idea of what our partner should be like. We might expect them to clean up after themselves, to be considerate, to always think of us first, to surprise us, to support us, to always have a smile, to work hard and not be lazy. Not necessarily these expectations, but almost always we have expectations of our partner. Having some expectations is fine — we should expect our partner to be faithful, for example. But sometimes, without realizing it ourselves, we have expectations that are too high to meet. Our partner isn't perfect — no one is. We can't expect them to be cheerful and loving every minute of the day — everyone has their moods. We can't expect them to always think of us, as they will obviously think of themselves or others sometimes too. We can't expect them to be exactly as we are, as everyone is different. High expectations lead to disappointment and frustration, especially if we do not communicate these expectations. How can we expect our partner to meet these expectations if they don't know about them? The remedy is to lower your expectations — allow your partner to be himself/herself, and accept and love them for that. What basic expectations we do have, we must communicate clearly.
  4. Not making time. This is a problem with couples who have kids, but also with other couples who get caught up in work or hobbies or friends and family or other passions. Couples who don't spend time alone together will drift apart. And while spending time together when you're with the kids or other friends and family is a good thing, it's important that you have time alone together. Can't find time with all the things you have going on — work and kids and all the other stuff? Make time. Seriously — make the time. It can be done. I do it — I just make sure that this time with my wife is a priority, and I'll drop just about anything else to make the time. Get a babysitter, drop a couple commitments, put off work for a day, and go on a date. It doesn't have to be an expensive date — some time in nature, or exercising together, or watching a DVD and having a home-cooked dinner, are all good options. And when you're together, make an effort to connect, not just be together.
  5. Lack of communication. This sin affects all the others on this list — it's been said many times before, but it's true: good communication is the cornerstone of a good relationship. If you have resentment, you must talk it out rather than let the resentment grow. If you are jealous, you must communicate in an open and honest manner to address your insecurities. If you have expectations of your partner, you must communicate them. If there are any problems whatsoever, you must communicate them and work them out. Communication doesn't just mean talking or arguing — good communication is honest without being attacking or blaming. Communicate your feelings — being hurt, frustrated, sorry, scared, sad, happy — rather than criticizing. Communicate a desire to work out a solution that works for you both, a compromise, rather than a need for the other person to change. And communicate more than just problems — communicate the good things too (see below for more).
  6. Not showing gratitude. Sometimes there are no real problems in a relationship, such as resentment or jealousy or unrealistic expectations — but there is also no expression of the good things about your partner either. This lack of gratitude and appreciation is just as bad as the problems, because without it your partner will feel like he or she is being taken for granted. Every person wants to be appreciated for all they do. And while you might have some problems with what your partner does (see above), you should also realize that your partner does good things too. Does she wash your dishes or cook you something you like? Does he clean up after you or support you in your job? Take the time to say thank you, and give a hug and kiss. This little expression can go a long way.
  7. Lack of affection. Similarly, everything else can be going right, including the expression of gratitude, but if there is no affection among partners then there is serious trouble. In effect, the relationship is drifting towards a platonic status. That might be better than many relationships that have serious problems, but it's not a good thing. Affection is important –everyone needs some of it, especially from someone we love. Take the time, every single day, to give affection to your partner. Greet her when she comes home from work with a tight hug. Wake him up with a passionate kiss (who cares about morning breath!). Sneak up behind her and kiss her on the neck. Make out in the movie theater like teen-agers. Caress his back and neck while watching TV. Smile at her often.
  8. Bonus sin: Stubbornness. This wasn't on my original list but I just thought about it before publishing this post, and had to add it in. Every relationship will have problems and arguments — but it's important that you learn to work out these problems after cooling down a bit. Unfortunately, many of us are too stubborn to even talk about things. Perhaps we always want to be right. Perhaps we never want to admit that we made a mistake. Perhaps we don't like to say we're sorry. Perhaps we don't like to compromise. I've done all of these things — but I've learned over the years that this is just childish. When I find myself being stubborn these days, I try to get over this childishness and suck it up and put away my ego and say I'm sorry. Talk about the problem and work it out. Don't be afraid to be the first one to apologize. Then move past it to better things.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

8 Years of Bush - Track Record

What 8 years of Bush-Cheney have done to our economy

Harry Truman said, "No man should be allowed to be president who doesn't understand hogs." That's never been more true than it will be for the man or woman who walks into the White House on January 20, 2009.

The Bush LegacyIf you've ever entered an enclosed, industrialized hog facility where hundreds of fattening porcines live out their short lives, you know that the smell of pig excrement completely redefines "stink." This stench will knock you to your knees, sear your lungs and brain, and make you scream for mercy. For nearly eight years, the White House has been a confined hog pen for corporate porkers, right-wing ideologues, imperialists, autocrats, and other swinish mess-makers. America's next president must not only set a new direction but will also have to clean up the mess and eradicate the stink left by the Bushites.

To help presidential contenders, congressional candidates and the rest of us get perspective on the odiferous legacy of the Bush-Cheney regime, the Lowdown is presenting a two-part factual accounting of the administration's achievements since 2001. This issue will feature Bush's domestic performance, and the May issue will highlight his international agenda. Hold your nose--and get out your scrubbers.

The 3 biggest hits to the economy

  1. Bush's tax cuts for the rich have reduced annual tax revenue available for public needs by $300 billion each year.
  2. BushCheney's occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has cost $700 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service. That's about $400 million a day. Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz says the tab is well over $2 trillion when you add rehabilitation for injured vets, replacement of military hardware, and the value of things we could have produced (but didn't) with that money over the past seven years.
  3. Bushites have finished off the deregulation of banking that began in earnest during Bill Clinton's presidency. This ideological madness has caused the collapse of investment funds, banks, and the stock value of corporations that depend on them (which is to say most of Wall Street and much of the financial world), as well as a steep decline in the value of most homes in America and a sharp rise in the cost of living in them.

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Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
U.S. national debt $5.7 trillion $9.2 trillion*
* Of which China holds IOUs worth $390 billion
Real GDP growth over prior 8 years 4.09% 2.65%
U.S. trade deficit per year $380 billion $759 billion
Cost of imported consumer goods $1,147 billion $1,954 billion
Value of consumer goods imported from China $102.3 billion $322 billion
(in 2007 China became #1 source of U.S. imported consumer goods)
Cost of one euro $1.01 $1.45
Cost of one ounce of gold $319 $892
U.S. budget surplus/deficit +$236 billion -$354 billion

Getting by in America
Fair trade!Bush says: "In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth."(State of the Union speech 2008)

The facts say: While the overall economy has grown, the wages of the average worker have not even kept up with inflation. Meanwhile, nearly five million more Americans have fallen into poverty since 2001.

Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
Corporate profits before tax $719.2 billion $1,769.5 billion
Corporate profits after tax* $503.8 billion $1,351.9 billion*
Pharmaceutical company profits (top 9) (top12)** $30 billion $80 billion
Cost of imported consumer goods $1,147 billion $1,954 billion

*Standard & Poor's 500 top corporations' profits more than doubled in the period 2001-2005 and reached 8.6% of Gross Domestic Product in 2006–the highest percentage of GDP on record.

**Drug-companies' profits continue to be around 18.5% of their sales income, versus 3.1%for other top-500 companies.

Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
Net worth of the wealthiest 1% $186 billion $816 billion
Number of billionaires 186 415
Their combined wealth $816 billion $3.5 trillion
Average salary of top 500 corp CEOs in 2007 $15.2 million
In 2006, buyout mogul Henry Kravis paid himself $51,400...an hour.
Bush tax cuts to the top 1% 2001-2007 $546 billion

Fighting it out at the tippy top
Piggy piggyThe top 1% include many more Wall Street financiers than CEOs. The 25 highest-paid hedge-fund managers are earning more than the CEOs of the largest 500 companies combined. Several of these fund managers are taking home more than a billion dollars a year. And guess what? Democratic party campaigns get twice as much in contributions from hedge-fund types as do Republicans!

Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
EARNING
Median pre-tax household income $49,158 $48,201
  • decrease for African American households under Bush
$2,766
  • decrease for Asian American households
$1,381
  • decrease for Hispanic households
$1,043
  • decrease for white households
$745
WORKING
Salary of full-time minimum-wage earner in 2007 $12,168
Increase in productivity of American workers under Bush 18%
Increase in real earnings of American workers under Bush 9%
Total # manufacturing jobs 17.3 million 14.2 million
National unemployment rate 3.5% 5%
Number unemployed Americans 5.6 million 7.7 million
Number including discouraged or underemployed 9.9 million 13.5 million
LIVING
Americans living in poverty 31.6 million 36.5 million
Americans going hungry according to USDA 31 million 38.2 million
Cost of a gallon of milk $3 $3.79
Cost of a loaf of bread $.98 $1.32
Rent, 2-bedroom home, Los Angeles (month) $1,658 $2,229
Rent, 1-bedroom home, Boston (month) $1,453 $2,000
Total consumer credit debt $7.65 trillion $12.8 trillion
Personal savings rate +2.3% -0.5%
HOMEOWNERS & RENTERS
Increase in number of home foreclosures from 2006 68%
Households currently at high risk of foreclosure 2 million
Households paying more than half their income for housing 13 million
Households unable to afford even the lowest-priced home rentals in the U.S. 2.8 million

Defunding good government
Cowboys
While military spending has grown 7.5%
since Bush took office, spending on almost all domestic discretionary programs has been cut. "Discretionary" means that Congress and the administration can decide, year by year, how much each program deserves. Under BushCheney, that means less of anything that serves the common good, like (in order of size) education, highways and other ground transportation, housing assistance, biomedical research, federal law enforcement, public-health services, regulation of air traffic, and space flight.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has tracked federal spending over the course of BushCheney's reign of error and concludes that almost all of these programs have shrunk when measured in relation to the growth of the economy as a whole. The Center reports that outlays to mandated federal programs--Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid--have declined 2.4%, while discretionary programs have been cut by 3.7%.

Our health

The World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care 37th in the world, behind France (1), Singapore (6), Japan (10), United Kingdom (18), Colombia (22), and Costa Rica (36). Of six nations studied by the New York-based commonwealth Fund--Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States-- the U.S. ranks last.

Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
Americans without health insurance 38.4 million 46.9 million
Children without health insurance 8.7 million
  • African American households uninsured
20.5%
  • Asian American households uninsured
15.5%
  • Hispanic households uninsured
34.1%
  • White households uninsured
10.8%
Cost of family health insurance per year $6,230 $12,106
Cost of family health insurance per month $519 $1,009
FOOD SAFETY
Number of shipments of agricultural imports 4.5 million 9 million
Number of U.S. FDA inspectors of imports 3,500 3,488
Percentage of imported food inspected by FDA 1.3%

Veterans' healthcare
Veterans' healthcare Bush says: "We have increased funding for veterans by more than 95 percent." (State of the Union speech 2008)

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH SAYS: In 2004 nearly 1.8 million veterans were uninsured and unable to get care in veterans' facilities. An additional 3.8 million members of their households were also uninsured and ineligible for VA care. No new study has been done since 2004 but things have only gotten worse.

Education
Bush says: "a new $300 million program called Pell Grants for Kids [will] help liberate poor children trapped in failing public schools." Bush's Pell Grants for Kids is a plan to shift government funding from public schools to private schools, mostly Christian schools.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) says: the average adjusted school mean for Conservative Christian schools "in reading was not significantly different from that of public schools. In mathematics, the average adjusted school mean for Conservative Christian schools was significantly lower than that of public schools."

Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
Average cost/year at a public 4-year college $8,400 $13,000
Average cost/year at a private 4-year college $22,000 $29,000
Average debt shouldered by college graduates $12,000 $21,000
Gap between maximum federal Pell Grant and cost of a 4-year degree in a public school $5,282 $8,746

New Orleans
Bush says: "We reaffirm our pledge to help them build stronger and better than before." (State of the Union speech 2008)

THE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU SAYS: "Almost 40% of the people displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina [lived] below the poverty line last year," and "nearly a third of those who fled the hurricane could not find jobs last year, and thousands more [had given up] trying."

Bushleague Management of Our Economy Then: 2001 Now: 2008
Average price of a gallon of home-heating oil $1.40 $3.39
Average price of a gallon of gas $1.47 $3.14
Portion of our liquid fuels imported 52.75% 60.38%
Gap between maximum federal Pell Grant and cost of a 4-year degree in a public school $7.9 billion $36.1 billion

Bush's 2009 Budget

Bush's 2009 budget
...deals with the housing crisis by proposing to:

  • Cut the number of housing vouchers that help very poor people pay their rent by 100,000.
  • Cut the budget for housing for poor elderly people by 27%.
  • Cut the budget for housing for people with disabilities by 32%.
  • Cut the fund for repair and maintenance of public housing by 17% and eliminate funding to repair public housing damaged by natural disasters.
  • Cut the lead-hazard reduction funds by 20%.
  • Cut the block grants to cities and states for housing and community-development programs by 18%.
  • Cut low-income energy assistance by 20%.

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Sugar Alternatives

Five Alternatives to Sugar

While the South Beach Diet® suggests you eliminate sugary products (because they increase blood sugar levels, which may lead to cravings), we never want you to feel deprived. If you're in the mood for something sweet, you can happily enjoy a treat (like a rich-tasting, no-sugar-added fudgsicle) made with a sugar substitute. Unlike regular sugar, sugar substitutes are calorie-free, and consuming them does not lead to an increase in blood sugar levels. Here's a look at some common sugar substitutes that are approved for all Phases of the South Beach Diet®:

  • Sucralose: At 600 times sweeter than table sugar, sucralose is the sweetest of all artificial sweeteners. It is used to produce low- or no-calorie frozen and gelatin desserts, beverages, and gum. In addition to being heat stable, sucralose has the advantage of measuring like sugar, so it's a good substitute for sugar in baked goods. There are over 110 studies on sucralose that verify it's safe for consumers.
  • Aspartame: Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and it has a wide variety of uses — from sweetening whole-grain cereals (Phase 2) to sweetening cold beverages like iced tea. Manufacturers use aspartame in chewing gum, beverages, and desserts. Since aspartame loses some of its sweetness during extreme heat exposure, it's best to cook or bake with it only when recipes have been specifically designed by aspartame manufacturers. Aspartame is the most extensively researched sugar substitute on the market, so consumers can be confident that it's safe. However, certain people, including those with phenylketonuria (a rare metabolic disease), pregnant women, and those with advanced liver disease, are urged to avoid it.
  • Saccharin: Frequently found in baked goods and diet soda, saccharin is the sugar substitute with the longest history. Saccharin is heat stable, so it's an acceptable choice for cooking and baking. It's also commonly consumed as a sweetener for coffee and tea. While there has been concern over a possible link between saccharin and stomach cancer, this suspicion has not been proven in scientific studies.
  • Acesulfame K: Acesulfame K , also known as acesulfame potassium, was approved by the FDA in 1988. It's 200 times sweeter than sugar, and manufacturers often use it in combination with aspartame in candies, baked goods, beverages, and frozen desserts. At home, you can use acesulfame K in both hot and cold beverages. More than 90 studies involving the use of acesulfame K document its safety.
  • Sugar alcohols: Sugar alcohols provide sweetness and texture similar to sugar, but they contain fewer calories and they don't impact blood sugar levels. You can identify the many different sugar alcohols available by looking in the ingredient list for words ending in "ol," such as mannitol and sorbitol. The main concern with sugar alcohols is the laxative effect they can produce. Some people are more sensitive to this effect than others, so take note of your reaction to foods that contain sugar alcohols. The limit on Sweet Treats (75 to 100 calories daily) should also help reduce any unpleasant side effects.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 goes on a diet, eats less memory than IE and Opera

By Ryan Paul | Published: March 17, 2008 - 10:05AM CT

In our recent coverage of the Firefox 3 beta releases (1, 2, 3, 4), we have noted performance improvements and a significant reduction in memory consumption relative to Firefox 2. The enormous amount of effort that developers invested in boosting resource efficiency for Firefox 3 has paid off, and the results are very apparent during day-to-day use.

During intensive browsing with approximately 50 tabs, I have found that Firefox 3 generally consumes less than half of the memory used by Firefox 2.0.0.12. Firefox 3 is also snappier and more responsive when switching between tabs and performing other operations that typically lag in Firefox 2.0.0.12 when the browser is experiencing heavy load.

Mozilla developer Stuart Parmenter has written an overview of the tactics that were used to reduce Firefox's memory footprint and also reveals the results of a memory benchmark he performed to compare Firefox 3 with other browsers. The memory benchmark, which uses the Talos framework and was conducted on Windows Vista, replicates real-world usage patterns by automatically cycling pages through browser windows and then closing them. Firefox 3 used less memory than Firefox 2, Internet Explorer, and Opera, and it also freed more memory than the other browsers when pages were closed. Safari 3 and Internet Explorer 8 could not be benchmarked because they crashed during the test.

The results of this experiment, which others have been able to consistently reproduce using the same tools, represent a big victory for Firefox, which has previously faced widespread criticism for its high memory consumption. To achieve that victory, developers approached the problem from many different angles. To reduce memory fragmentation, the developers attempted to minimize the total number of memory allocations, particularly during startup. The developers also adopted FreeBSD's jemalloc allocator, which helped reduce fragmentation and improve performance.

Another big improvement is the new XPCOM cycle collector, which automatically detects unused objects that are persisting as a result of mutual references. Parmenter notes that the cycle collector has notable implications for extensions because it will be able to proactively eliminate certain kinds of memory leaks introduced by Firefox extensions that manipulate Firefox's internals. Caching behavior has also been improved so that it is less wasteful, and decompressed image data is no longer stored.

Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard, who also wrote about the memory improvements, offers readers another insightful take-home message: the small memory footprint in the latest Firefox 3 beta, he says, is proof that Firefox is ready for mobile environments. "What it shows to anyone who looks is that we're able to hit the kinds of memory and performance requirements that mobile platforms demand," wrote Blizzard. "Users who use our software on mobile devices can expect web sites that just work, access to add-ons all balanced against the hardware limits imposed by mobile devices. In essence, we can bring that no compromises approach to mobile, just as we've done it with the desktop."

The upcoming Firefox 3 release has much to offer in addition to a smaller memory footprint, including an improved user interface, new themes that increase visual platform integration, a completely revamped bookmark and history system that uses an SQLite database, a Cairo-based rendering backend, full-page zoom, support for JavaScript 1.8, and many other new features. These improvements will likely continue to push Firefox's climbing market share.

The Web in Charts—Google vs. Microsoft-Yahoo vs. China

via TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld on 3/18/08

Today more than ever, the Web is a global game. Below are charts from a new State of the Internet report from comScore that paints a picture of global competition on the Web.

In 1996, two thirds of all people online (66 percent) lived in the U.S. By last October, that had completely flipped, with 77 percent of the online population living in the rest of the world and only 23 percent in the U.S. The U.S. still has the largest total number of Web surfers (162 million a month), but China is catching up fast (with 96 million):

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In China, homegrown sites such as TenCent, Baidu and Sina all reach more native Web surfers than Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo:

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In fact, the leading Websites in many big markets such as Russia, Japan, and South Korea tend to be homegrown as well:

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Social networks are the fastest-growing category of sites (nearly 60 percent annually), but they still lag in terms of penetration (less than 40 percent) behind photo sites, entertainment sites, search, and portals:

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The fastest growing of all social networks, of course, has been Facebook, which jumped from the second pack to where it is now running neck-and-neck with MySpace:

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Drilling down into search, Google still dominates with 62 percent share worldwide:

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And it dominates search even more in other countries than it does in the U.S., where it only commands a 53 percent market share (compared to above 90 percent in parts of Europe and Latin America):

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Looking at the efficiency of its search ads, Google puts up an ad against only about half of its searches, whereas Yahoo puts up an ad 75 percent of the time. Yet for those searches where an ad is shown, Google gets 0.24 paid click per search compared to 0.18 for Yahoo and 0.14 for Microsoft. (Search advertising on AOL and Ask are also powered by Google and they show the same or better clickthrough rates).

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For display ads, Yahoo and MySpace control the most market share, with 19 and 15 percent each, respectively. (Microsoft comes in a distant third with 6.6 percent):

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The report also gives an estimate of the unduplicated reach of Microsoft and Yahoo. A combined Microsoft-Yahoo would have 173 million unique visitors a month across the globe, a 10 percent share of all page views, 32 percent share of search, and 24 percent share of display ads:

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Both Microsoft and Yahoo each have about 260 million Webmail users (with duplication), with Google's Gmail bringing up third place with 87 million (no wonder Google execs keep bringing up market concentration concerns in relation to mail and instant messaging):

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