TAROT - JUDGEMENT

JUDGEMENT

Tarot card number: 20

Element: fire

Planet: Pluto

The Judgment card is often referred to as a time of resurrection and awakening, a time when a phase or period of our life comes to an absolute end making way for dynamic new beginnings.

It may be that a long-term relationship or marriage has had its time and whilst it may feel painful to accept this finality, the Judgment card is saying try and accept that this is a time of fast-moving, positive change and action for you.

Whether it’s the end of a career, a time when your children have flown the nest, or a turn of events that make you wish your life was different, this card represents karmic change and it indicates that bigger and better things are yet to come into your life.

Quite often, fantastic events and opportunities follow sad and difficult challenges and this card can represent any events that may feel like ‘Judgment Day’ has come. Changes that may be indicated upon the appearance of this card can be significant, so this would not be a time for regret and fear but a time for courage and rejoicing in what you have achieved and what you are yet to achieve.

Your life may well pick up a pace when this card appears, so whatever future possibilities are indicated in your reading, these events may happen quite quickly.

If the Judgment card comes up in a reading about legal issues, it is a positive sign that any ruling will be in your favor. However, if this card is surrounded by negative cards, it may indicate legal battles ahead and the possibility of having a ruling made against you.

In general readings, if this card is surrounded by negative cards, it could be that the swift conclusions foretold by the positive aspect of this card may be delayed. This can mean that you are fearful of such significant change and may be ignoring opportunities that may well promise a brighter future.

I also feel that when this card comes up, it’s important to use your own judgment wisely and not to judge yourself too harshly. It is a signal for you to open your heart and mind to accept that all things come to an end and nothing lasts forever, yet for each ending there is always a new beginning.

Embrace such significant and inevitable change and a whole new world of opportunity can unfold for you – the Judgment card is a calling for you to be all that you can be.

  "AnkhIwiEmHotep"
Life and Peace be with You --Cinosam

More Things That Make You Say: "Holy SH*T!!!"

 

Airline Pilot - Dean Martin with Foster Brooks

*Thanks, Andy for the link!

Bright New Comet Could Become Brilliant

A newfound comet is about to loop around the Sun and might offer skywatchers a rare and fantastic view. But comets are unpredictable, and this one has a wide range of possible outcomes, experts say.

When Australian astronomer Robert McNaught announced Aug. 7 that he had discovered a faint comet on a photograph taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, it was a distant and inconspicuous object. But its orbital motion at once made it clear that this comet, officially catalogued as C/2006 P1, might grow very bright right about now.

Comet McNaught's orbit indicates that it will sweep to within just 15.8 million miles (25.4 million kilometers) of the Sun on Jan. 12. This rather close approach—less than half the average distance of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun—suggests the comet has the potential to briefly evolve into a bright object. The big question is, just how bright?

Brighter than Venus?

Recent estimates have ranged widely from magnitude +2.1 (about as bright as Polaris, the North Star) to a dazzling -8.8 (about 40 times brighter than Venus)!

[The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. The brightest stars in the sky are categorized as zero or first magnitude. Negative magnitudes are reserved for the most brilliant objects: the brightest star is Sirius (-1.4); the full Moon is -12.7; the Sun is -26.7. The faintest stars visible under dark skies are around +6.]

The reason for the great uncertainty stems from the fact that for the past few weeks the comet has been positioned at such a relatively small angular distance from the Sun in the sky that it has been extremely difficult to get good measurements of its brightness. Now, with a little over a week to go before the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun (called perihelion), just how bright it may ultimately get and how long a tail may develop remain to be seen.

Predicting a newly discovered comet's brightness has proven historically to be difficult, especially around the time of perihelion.

Spot it now

This is the 31st comet to bear McNaught's name and at time of discovery, it was no brighter than magnitude 17—far to dim to see with the naked eye.

Observers have followed its gradual brightening as its distances from Sun and Earth decreased. It's currently both a morning and evening object, visible very low near the east-southeast horizon about 30 to 40 minutes before sunrise and very low near the west-southwest horizon about 30 to 40 minutes after sunset.

During this upcoming week, prospective observers should seek the most favorable conditions possible. Even a bright comet can be obliterated by thin horizon clouds, haze, humid air, smoke, twilight glow, city lights, or moonlight. Binoculars are strongly recommended for locating it.

But the past few days, reports suggest that Comet McNaught is becoming easier to sight even through the bright twilight glow.

--more--

*Space.com

Celebrity patents unearthed

Ironic Sans unearthed no less than 18 bizarre and unusual celebrity patents by entertainment A-lisers not normally renowned for following in the footsteps of Dean Kamen. Obviously our pick for favorite was Eddie Van Halen's "musical instrument support" which makes two handed shredding that much easier (really though, did the patent drawing need to be shirtless too?), although other curiosities include Hedy Lamar's "secret communication system", Jamie Lee Curtis's "infant garment" diaper design, Lawrence Welk's "Welk ash tray", Goerge Lucas's patent on a demonic Yoda toy figure design, Penn Jillette's sexually jilted "hydro-therapeutic stimulator" hot tub (what? possibly NSFW), and perhaps the mostly slyly odd, Michael Jackson's "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion".

I highly recommend perusing these patents -- much is to be gained from peering into the minds of the world's greatest celebrity / inventors, whose creations may one day truly touch the lives of the everyman.

Click below:

Ironic Sans

Bush Finds Error In Fermilab Calculations

BATAVIA, IL–President Bush met with members of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory research team Monday to discuss a mathematical error he recently discovered in the famed laboratory's "Improved Determination Of Tau Lepton Paths From Inclusive Semileptonic B-Meson Decays" report.

I'm somewhat out of my depth here," said Bush, a longtime Fermilab follower who describes himself as "something of an armchair physicist." "But it seems to me that, when reducing the perturbative uncertainty in the determination of Vub from semileptonic Beta decays, one must calculate the rate of Beta events with a standard dilepton invariant mass at a subleading order in the hybrid expansion. The Fermilab folks' error, as I see it, was omitting that easily overlooked mathematical transformation and, therefore, acquiring incorrectly re-summed logarithmic corrections for the b-quark mass. Obviously, such a miscalculation will result in a precision of less than 25 percent in predicting the resulting path of the tau lepton once the value for any given decaying tau neutrino is determined."

The Bush correction makes it possible for scientists to further study the tau lepton, a subatomic particle formed by the collision of a tau neutrino and an atomic nucleus.

Bush resisted criticizing the Fermilab scientists responsible for the error, saying it was "actually quite small" and that "anyone could have made the mistake."

--more--

*The Onion

'Happy New Year' Worm Zooms To Top Of Malware Chart

The "Happy New Year" worm took the top spot in December's list of most prevalent malware, Sophos reported Wednesday, unseating former leaders such as Stration and Netsky.

Sophos calls the worm packaged with the heavily-spammed "Happy New Year" malicious e-mail a variant of the "Dref" family, although other anti-virus vendors have slapped their own names on the malware. Symantec, for example, calls it "Mixor.q," while Kaspersky Lab dubs it "Tibs."

"Dref has been spammed out far and wide in the last few days, and there's a danger that in the rush to get through the backlog of holiday e-mails, people might return to work and accidentally launch the malicious attachment," said Carole Theriault, Sophos senior security consultant, in a statement.

During December, Dref/Mixor/Tibs accounted for over a third (35.2%) of all malicious code transmitted via e-mail. Netsky came in second (22.2%) and Mytob took third (10.7%). Stration, a worm that made major inroads starting in October, was knocked off its top perch by Dref. Stration's monthly slice of the malware pie was just 7.8%, a dramatic fall-off from November's 33.3%.


"Having spread for only two days during the entire month [of December], it is astonishing that Dref has secured the top position for most widespread piece of malicious code," Theriault added. On Dec. 31, the Happy New Year worm accounted for 93.7% of all infected e-mails, according to Sophos' data.

Other anti-virus companies have remarked about the worm's quick rise to the top of the charts. At times on Dec. 29, Israeli security developer Commtouch said Tuesday, Dref/Mixor/Tibs-infected messages made up almost 12% of all e-mails sent worldwide.

By Gregg Keizer, InformationWeek, CRN.com

What Happens in Heaven

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received"


I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them."

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed "How is it that? There's no work going on here?" I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered. "Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. "If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

"And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."

Also...

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness .... You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... You are ahead of 700 million people in the world
"If you can attend a church meeting without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.

"If your parents are still alive and still married .. You are very rare.

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

Ok, what now? How can I start?

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how Blessed we all are.

*Thanks, Andy!

German Chopped Up in Egypt After Refusing to Pay for Gay Sex

An Egyptian pharmaceutical company employee confessed to murdering and chopping up a German drama teacher after he allegedly refused to pay the man for sex.

Mustapha Maher left the remains of the teacher, an expat instructing drama students in Cairo, in a suitcase on a rocky plateau overlooking Cairo.

"Police were able to identify the victim and the alleged perpetrator because the dead man, who taught at a German school in Cairo, had been packed into the case along with his cellphone."

Maher was arrested on December 27 shortly after the bloody baggage was found and allegedly said he committed the crime because the German refused to pay the agreed sum for sex.

He allegedly said he sliced up the body and dumped it on the desert plateau in the hope it would not be found. The suspect will remain in police custody while a thorough investigation continues on the murder.

*TowelRoad.com

Icy time for Dook swimmers

Around 400 revellers donned fancy dress to brave the icy waters of the Firth of Forth in this year's Loony Dook swim.


People dressed as everything from Santas to Vikings entered the waters of the Forth in Edinburgh for the charity swim, reports the BBC.

Suzanne Smith, from Edinburgh, who took part in the swim with friends, wore a grass skirt over her bikini.

She said: "You only live once and we decided we wanted to do something a bit different. But there were six of us who were originally going to do it - the other three chickened out when they saw the weather."

A crowd of several thousand watched the swimmers parade down South Queensferry's High Street and into the Forth.

*Ananova<br>

Crazy stunt wins Darwin Award

Two students who died after climbing into a huge helium-filled balloon for the 'buzz' of inhaling the gas have been named the winners of the 2006 Darwin Awards.

Jason Ackerman and Sara Rydman, both 21, were discovered with their feet sticking out of a deflated balloon used to advertise property in LakeView, South Florida.

The two apparently pulled the balloon out of the sky and squeezed themselves inside, where they died of oxygen starvation.

The awards are named in honour of Charles Darwin and given out every year to people 'who have improved the gene pool by removing themselves from it'.

This year's runner-up was a man who flew his copper wire-bound kite during a thunder storm. The 26-year-old, from Belize, died after the kite sent a fatal bolt of lightning through his body. He was an electrician.

In third place was a Brazilian who tried to dismantle a rocket-propelled grenade by driving back and forth over it with his car.

When the weapon failed to break up, he attacked it with a sledgehammer. The explosion killed him and destroyed six cars and his workplace.

*Ananova

Vista crippled by content protection

PC users around the globe may find driver software is stopped from working by Vista if it detects unauthorized content access. Peter Guttman, a security engineering researcher at New Zealand's university of Auckland, has written A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. He reckons Vista is trying to achieve the impossible by protecting access to premium content. Users will find their PCs' compromised by the persistent and continuous content access checks carried out by Vista.

Guttman thinks these checks and the associated increased in multimedia card hardware costs make Vista's content protection specification 'the longest suicide note in history.'

The core elements in Vista have been designed to protect access to premium content. The design requires changes in multimedia cards before Microsoft will support them for Vista use.

Content that is protected by digital rights management (DRM) must be sent across protected interfaces. This means cards using non-protected interfaces can't be used by Vista PCs.

Disabling and degrading

Vista is disadvantaging high-end audio and video systems by openly disabling devices. The most common high-end audio output interface is S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) which doesn't have any content protection. It must be disabled in a Vista system when DRM-protected content is being played. Equally a high-end component video interface (YPbPr) also has no content protection and must be disabled when protected video is being played.

-- Vista covertly degrades playback quality. PC voice communications rely on automatic echo cancellation (AEC) in order to provide acceptable voice quality. This requires feeding back a sample of the audio mix into the echo cancellation subsystem, which isn't permitted by Vista's content protection scheme. This lowers PC voice communication quality because echo affects will still be present.

-- This overt and covert degrading of quality is dynamic, not consistent. Whenever any audio derived from premium content is played on a Vista PC, the disabling of output devices and downgrading of signal quality takes place. If the premium content then fades away the outputs are re-enabled and signal quality climbs back up. Such system behavior today indicates a driver error. With Vista it will be normal behavior.

-- Vista has another playback quality reduction measure. It requires that 'any interface that provides high-quality output degrade the signal quality that passes through it if premium content is present. This is done through a "constrictor" that downgrades the signal to a much lower-quality one, then up-scales it again back to the original spec, but with a significant loss in quality.' If this happens with a medical imaging application then artifacts introduced by the constrictor can 'cause mis-diagnoses and in extreme cases even become life-threatening.'

CPU cycle guzzling

The O/S will use much more of a PC's CPU resource because 'Vista's content protection requires that devices (hardware and software drivers) set so-called "tilt bits" if they detect anything unusual ... Vista polls video devices on each video frame displayed in order to check that all of the grenade pins (tilt bits) are still as they should be.'

Also 'In order to prevent tampering with in-system communications, all communication flows have to be encrypted and/or authenticated. For example content sent to video devices has to be encrypted with AES-128.'

Encryption/decryption is known to be CPU-intensive

Device drivers in Vista are required to poll their underlying hardware every 30ms -- thirty times a second -- to ensure that everything appears correct.

It is apparent that Vista is going to use very much more of a PC's resources than previous versions of Windows and degrade multimedia playback quality unless the user has purchased premium content from a Microsoft-approved resource.

Such over-reaching by Microsoft could prove to be the catalyst needed to spur increased takeup of Linux desktop operating software, or of Apple's Mac OS.

*By: Chris Mellor, ITWorldCanada

'The O.C.' plagued by low ratings, is cancelled

LOS ANGELES (Associated Press)-- "The O.C.," the once-hot teenage soap opera that saw its ratings plummet in the U.S. like a delinquent student's grades, has been cancelled.

The final episode of the drama will air on Thursday, Feb. 22, Fox TV and Warner Bros. Television Production Inc. said Wednesday. The finale "will deliver real closure to the series, to the story we began telling four years ago," series creator Josh Schwartz said in a statement. "It will be fun and emotional and I think really satisfying. It is the finale we always planned to do."

Based in the affluent Orange County, Calif., city of Newport Beach, "The O.C." caught fire in its first season, 2003-04, as the top-rated drama among advertiser-favoured young adults and with a total audience of nearly 10 million.

The show's story lines revolved around Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie), an outsider thrust into a heady new world of money and sex, and rich high school kids including Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) and their families.

"The O.C." didn't sustain its momentum, dropping to about seven million weekly viewers during 2004-05 and then to fewer than six million last season. This year, returning in November after Fox wrapped its postseason baseball coverage, "The O.C." has only drawn about four million viewers.

The third-season finale's high drama, in which Marissa was killed in a car crash, didn't turn the series around. This year found Ryan confronting the death of his one-time girlfriend and the man who caused it.

Fox ordered 16 episodes for the 2006-07 season and all will have aired when the series concludes in February, a network spokesman said Wednesday.

Others in the show's cast include Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Melinda Clarke, Rachel Bilson and Autumn Reeser.

Despite its brief heyday, the show helped establish cast members including Brody, Bilson and Barton as fan and tabloid favourites.

*CTV.ca

The Wiz On The Street

President Bush gave an Earth Day address in California reaffirming his commitment to hydrogen as the alternative fuel of the future. So the Wizard hit the streets again, asking, "What do you think?"

Dan Kinicki,
Jeweler
"I don't know much about hydrogen, but if you can soak a rag in it or just sniff it straight from the can, I'm all for it."

Jackie Kennedy,
Computer Repair Tech
"If Bush is trying to save the environment, we must be in worse shape than I thought."

Scott Haalstrom,
Grocer
"He knows we're talking about cars and not bombs, right?"

*The Onion

Throw Away All Your Grudges

As we (enter) the New Year, it`s a good time to clean out the clutter in our lives. Sure, that means going through and disposing of useless papers and unused stuff, but it also means throwing away old grudges.

It has been said that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. A decision to hold on to a grievance is a decision to suffer. It extends the pain. And in a peculiar way, it gives the wrongdoer a way to hurt us again and again.

It isn`t easy to root out and release deep-seated resentments arising from hurtful words or deeds. Although sometimes we don`t remember the source of the resentment, other times we recall the incident so vividly that it still evokes a fresh torrent of negative emotion. But no matter how justified or self-righteous we feel about our grudges, we`ll be healthier and happier if we get rid of them.

Confucius said, "To be wronged is nothing unless we continue to remember it." A grudge dwells in dark memories, often deliberately revived as if reliving the hurt will somehow punish the person who caused it. In fact, we hurt ourselves far more.

Ideally, we should forgive and forget, but if we`re not ready to forgive, we can forget, or at least repress the temptation to dwell on whatever it was that made us so angry. When we let go of our resentments, we pave the way for forgiveness -- a final act of virtue and mental health.

We also free ourselves from the past so we can live better in the future.

*Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

Influential bloggers get free computers, Vista from Microsoft

Microsoft Corp.'s efforts to woo influential bloggers by sending them free computers loaded with the Vista operating system is generating controversy, with some online writers attacking would-be Vista reviewers for taking what were tantamount to bribes, while recipients defend their editorial independence, arguing that journalism-style rules prohibiting such gifts are outdated.

Bloggers who acknowledged receiving the computers as part of the joint Microsoft and AMD Inc. marketing program include Mary Jo Foley, Om Malik, Michael Arrington, Ed Bott and others.

In total, Microsoft and AMD gave away 90 PCs, all loaded with the highest-end version of Windows Vista, the 64-bit Ultimate edition. Most received Acer Ferrari laptops that list for between CDN$2,300 and $2,800 at retail stores. Others received media center desktops made by Velocity Micro Inc.

In letters accompanying the computers, which arrived last week, bloggers were given the option of returning the hardware to Microsoft, keeping it or disposing of it in some other way. "Microsoft has been very open and transparent," said a Microsoft spokeswoman. "There is no expectation of any editorial payback."

Jason Calacanis, founder of blog network Weblogs Inc. and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Sequoia Capital venture capital firm, called the PC giveaways "payola" and "bribes" that respectable bloggers should refuse.

"Any free product or service is a bribe, with very few exceptions," he wrote in an online posting. "It's wrong, and bloggers are simply new to the space and they don't know what to make of this very, very obvious situation. The bloggers who go down the road of free products will learn, over time, that their credibility takes a hit.... At the end of the day your reputation is all you have, and life is too short to blow it on some free stuff."

Skepticism also reigned at Slashdot, an aggregator of tech news, where 303 mostly-negative comments about the Microsoft-AMD program were posted.

Long Zheng, an Australian college student and blogger who received a Velocity Micro computer, had received 199 mostly-negative comments at his blog. He plans to donate the PC, after reviewing it, to his former high school.

Bott, a computer magazine editor-turned blogger who plans to return his laptop to Microsoft, argued that traditional journalism strictures against keeping expensive gifts shouldn't apply universally to all bloggers.

"I'm a journalist by training and by profession, and that dictates my decision," Bott wrote. "But what if I were a starving student or an MVP who started a blog because I was passionate about technology and wanted to share that passion with a community? Everyone in the community wins when that person gets the chance to play with new technology. In that case, Microsoft is just doing some smart marketing, seeding the market and increasing mind share. They could spend the same amount of money hiring people to write white papers or running ads in the Wall Street Journal. But the world will get a lot more valuable feedback if that information comes from real people actually using this technology."

Foley, who writes the All About Microsoft blog, wrote that accepting the Acer laptop from Microsoft made sense for her because she had no plans to upgrade her existing PC running Windows XP. Nevertheless, she told Microsoft that she is treating the Acer laptop as a "loaner, not a gift."

The Microsoft spokeswoman said the computer giveaways were the latest aspect of a three-year program to work with independent bloggers whose musings on Windows and other Microsoft products are widely read by techies online. She did not immediately comment on reports that as part of the program, Microsoft also pays the expenses of some bloggers to travel to Microsoft events or trade shows.

*by Eric La, Enterprise Infrastructure, ITWorldCanada.com

Voice Of God Revealed To Be Cheney On Intercom

WASHINGTON, DC—Telephone logs recorded by the National Security Agency and obtained by Congress as part of an ongoing investigation suggest that the vice president may have used the Oval Office intercom system to address President Bush at crucial moments, giving categorical directives in a voice the president believed to be that of God.

While journalists and presidential historians had long noted Bush's deep faith and Cheney's powerful influence in the White House, few had drawn a direct correlation between the two until Tuesday, when transcripts of meetings that took place in March and April of 2002 became available.

In a transcript of an intercom exchange recorded in March 2002, a voice positively identified as the vice president's identifies himself as "the Lord thy God" and promotes the invasion of Iraq, as well as the use of torture in prisoner interrogations.

A close examination of Bush's public statements and Secret Service time logs tracking the vice president reveals a consistent pattern, one which links Bush's belief that he had received word from God with Cheney's use of the White House's telephone-based intercom system.

Officials privately acknowledged that there is reason to believe that the vice president, as God, urged Bush to sign legislation benefiting oil companies in 2005.

"There's a lot of religious zeal in the West Wing," said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It's possible that the vice president has taken advantage of that to fast-track certain administration objectives."

--more--

*The Onion

Can You See it?

There is a hidden picture inside the picture below. It can be seen in 3D without 3D glasses! Take a hard look and see if you can find the 'hidden dino'...

*Magic Eye

The Love Doctor

Dear Love Doctor,

I'm a 15 year old gay person. For about 5 years I've had a crush on this guy. About 3 years ago, we started playing this "game" which was basically sex, but with less commitment. Just today I told him I was gay and admitted my feelings for him and yet he still tells me he is straight.

I feel as if I've falling in love with him, a deep love, but he doesn't seem to see that he may be gay too. When I ask him about all the times we played the "game", he tells me it was just sex and nothing more. I've run out of ideas, and I want him soooooooo bad. I don't think I can live without him. I need help, please.

Signed,

Confused lover

Dear Dazed and Confused,

It may seem obvious that your sleepover buddy is gay since he's fooling around with another guy (uh, you), but sexuality is not quite that simple. Experimentation is a very normal and healthy part of our development. Playing the game, as you call it, in some form or another, helps us develop sexually. Often times, though, our true sexual feelings don't become clear until much later in life. Even though you've embraced your identity, your friend may either

a) not be ready to embrace his or

b) may not by gay at all, but bi or simply curious (see Kinsey Scale).

You say you can't live without him... Then live with him! Meaning: You've already captured his attention, so live in the now and let things develop. If you kick up the pressure, you might drive him away. Play it cool and stay in the "game." Eventually, you both might end up with a win-win situation. If not, be patient. There will be plenty of games to play in the future.

The Love Doctor

--Send your questions about love to "The Love Doctor" directly from 'OZ' - The 'Other' Side of the Rainbow! I have added an email link that goes direct to The Love Doctor - this will enable quicker responses from him. You can do this by clicking on his picture in the sidebar and put your question in the email. This will ensure that The Love Doctor gets your question. The Love Doctor forwards his replies to me for posting consideration. Note: Due to the high volume of letters that The Love Doctor receives, not all letters will be posted on 'OZ' - but the Love Doctor will reply to every email. (so he says)

Want Your Kids to Eat Right?

Take a Look at Your Own Diet

(ARA) Parents know that the best way to influence their kids’ behavior is to set a good example. That’s as important with healthy eating habits as it is with good study habits. The American Dietetic Association’s 2003 Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Study found that parents have more potential to influence their children’s eating habits than anyone else.

Children ages 8 to 12 said their top role models were mother (23 percent) and father (17.4 percent). ADA officials note that the findings underscore the importance of a parent’s involvement in helping their children make good choices.

It’s easier to instill good habits if parents start when their children are young. Your attitude will make all the difference. Make it clear that it is your choice to eat healthy foods, not a “punishment” or something you do because you have to, but because you enjoy the taste of fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Your message will get muddled if you give your kids carrot sticks with their sandwich while you eat chips with yours,” says Lee Mannering of the Produce Marketing Association.

Here are some suggestions for helping your kids develop healthy eating habits:

* Make a point of offering healthy snacks -- celery sticks and dip, or an apple -- instead of empty calories from chips or other junk food.

* Incorporate fruits and vegetables into every meal -- bananas with your cereal at breakfast, salad at lunch, vegetables on the side at dinner.

* Experiment with a variety of fruits and vegetables. A trip down the produce aisle at your grocery store offers an abundance of options. Try something you haven’t cooked before. For tips on using unfamiliar produce, visit www.aboutproduce.com; this Web site has information on choosing, storing and cooking just about any type of produce you can buy.

* Offer your kids choices. That doesn’t mean one of the choices has to be cookies, but you can let your child choose between grapes or an orange for a mid-afternoon snack.

* Shop with your kids. They’re more inclined to eat something they pick out, so take them with you -- just skip the donut aisle.

* Work vegetables into your main courses in kid-friendly ways -- add peas to mac and cheese, for example.

Eating the way you’d like your kids to eat means the whole family will be making healthier food choices.

Here’s a recipe from aboutproduce.com that kids are sure to love; it puts a healthy twist on that perennial kids’ favorite -- pizza.

Garden Fresh Veggie Pizza

1/2 red pepper (medium), sliced

1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup yellow squash, sliced

1 onion (small), thinly sliced

2 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil

1/2 cup spinach leaves, torn

1 Italian flat bread or pizza crust (12-inch)

1 plum tomato, sliced

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup thinly sliced grated Romano cheese

2 ounces goat cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons balsamic or red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (2 teaspoons dried)

1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped (2 teaspoons dried)

In small skillet, sauté red pepper, mushrooms, squash and onion until crisp-tender in 2 teaspoons oil. Arrange spinach leaves on flat bread; arrange sautéed vegetables, tomato and cheeses on spinach. Bake pizza on cookie sheet in preheated 450 degree oven until cheeses are melted, about 10 minutes. Mix 2 tablespoons oil, vinegar and herbs; drizzle over pizza. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. Makes 4 (2 slice) servings.

Daddy , How was I born?

A little boy goes to his father and asks "Daddy, how was I born?"

The father answers: "Well son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe.

We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive.. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:



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You got Male!

*Thanks, Andy!

When I Whine

Today, upon a bus, I saw a girl with golden hair

I looked at her and sighed and wished I was as fair.

When suddenly she rose to leave,

I saw her hobble down the aisle.

She had one leg and used a crutch

But as she passed, she passed a smile.

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine

I have 2 legs, the world is mine.


I stopped to buy some candy

The lad who sold it had such charm

I talked with him a while, he seemed so very glad

If I were late, it'd do no harm.

And as I left, he said to me,

"I thank you, you've been so kind.

It's nice to talk with folks like you.

You see," he said, "I'm blind."

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

I have 2 eyes, the world is mine.



Later while walking down the street,

I saw a child with eyes of blue

He stood and watched the others play

He did not know what to do.

I stopped a moment and then I said,

"Why don't you join the others, dear?"

He looked ahead without a word.

And then I knew, he couldn't hear.

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

I have 2 ears, the world is mine.



With feet to take me where I'd go.

With eyes to see the sunset's glow.

With ears to hear what I would know.

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

I've been blessed indeed, The world is mine.

Sorrow looks back,

Worry looks around,

Faith looks up.

*Thanks, Auntie 'M'

Happy New Year!

Click Above.


*Thanks, Pam!

Science told: hands off gay sheep

Experiments that claim to ‘cure’ homosexual rams spark anger

SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.

The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the hormonal balance in the brains of homosexual rams so that they are more inclined to mate with ewes.

It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the “straightening” procedure on humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch.

The research, at Oregon State University in the city of Corvallis and at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has caused an outcry. Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player who won Wimbledon nine times, and scientists and gay rights campaigners in Britain have called for the project to be abandoned.

Navratilova defended the “right” of sheep to be gay. She said: “How can it be that in the year 2006 a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments?” She said gay men and lesbians would be “deeply offended” by the social implications of the tests.

But the researchers argue that the work is valid, shedding light on the “broad question” of what determines sexual orientation. They insist the work is not aimed at “curing” homosexuality.

Approximately one ram in 10 prefers to mount other rams rather than mate with ewes, reducing its value to a farmer. Initially, the publicly funded project aimed to improve the productivity of herds.

The scientists have been able to pinpoint the mechanisms influencing the desires of “male-oriented” rams by studying their brains. The animals’ skulls are cut open and electronic sensors are attached to their brains.

By varying the hormone levels, mainly by injecting hormones into the brain, they have had “considerable success” in altering the rams’ sexuality, with some previously gay animals becoming attracted to ewes.

Professor Charles Roselli, the Health and Science University biologist leading the research, defended the project.

He said: “In general, sexuality has been under-studied because of political concerns. People don’t want science looking into what determines sexuality.

“It’s a touchy issue. In fact, several studies have shown that people who believe homosexuality is biologically based are less homophobic than people who think that this orientation is acquired.”

The research is being peer-reviewed by a panel of scientists in America, demonstrating that it is being taken seriously by the academic community.

Potentially, the techniques could one day be adapted for human use, with doctors perhaps being able to offer parents pre-natal tests to determine the likely sexuality of offspring or a hormonal treatment to change the orientation of a child.

Roselli has said he would be “uncomfortable” about parents choosing sexuality, but argues that it is up to policy makers to legislate on questions of ethics.

Michael Bailey, a neurology professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, said: “Allowing parents to select their children’s sexual orientation would further a parent’s freedom to raise the sort of children they want to raise.”

Critics fear the findings could be abused.

Udo Schuklenk, Professor of Bioethics at Glasgow Caledonian University, who has written to the researchers pressing them to stop, said: “I don’t believe the motives of the study are homophobic, but their work brings the terrible possibility of exploitation by homophobic societies. Imagine this technology in the hands of Iran, for example.

“It is typical of the US to ignore the global context in which this is taking place.”

Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, said: “These experiments echo Nazi research in the early 1940s which aimed at eradicating homosexuality. They stink of eugenics. There is a danger that extreme homophobic regimes may try to use these experimental results to change the orientation of gay people.”

He said that the techniques being developed in sheep could in future allow parents to “play God”.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the pressure group, condemned the study as “a needless slaughter of animals, an affront to human dignity and a colossal waste of precious research funds”.

The tests on gay sheep are the latest in a long line of experiments seeking to alter the sexuality of humans and animals.

Günther Dorner, a scientist in the former East Berlin, carried out hormone-altering tests on rodents in the 1960s in the hope of finding a way to eradicate homosexuality.

In 2002, Simon LeVay, an American neurologist, claimed to have discovered that homosexual and heterosexual men had physically different brains. His tests on the corpses of gay men who had died of Aids were widely criticised.

*By Isabel Oakeshott and Chris Gourlay, The Sunday Times

IRISH JOKE

John O'Reilly hoisted his beer and said, "Here's to spending the rest of me life, between the legs of me wife!"
 
That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night! He went home and told his wife, Mary, "I won the prize for the best toast of the night."
 
She said, "Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?" John said, "Here's to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife."
 
"Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!" Mary said. The next day, Mary ran into one of John's drinking buddies on the street corner.
 
The man chuckled leeringly and said, "John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary."
 
She said, "Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised meself. You know, he's only been there twice in the last four years. Once he fell asleep, and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come."

”To Kill an American or Canadian”

You probably missed it in the rush of news a couple of weeks ago, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American or Canadian, any American or Canadian.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American or Canadian is, so they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!) He writes:

An American or Canadian is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American or Canadian may also be a Cree, Sioux, Nez Perce, Assiniboine, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans or First Nations Canadians.

An American or Canadian is Christian, or he/she could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America or Canada than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American or Canadian is also free to believe in no religion. For that he/she will answer only to God, not to the government, nor to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American or Canadian lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence or in the Canadian Bill of Rights, which recognizes the God-given right of each person to free speech, movement, thought, worship and the pursuit of happiness..

An American or Canadian is generous. Americans or Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans and Canadians came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!  As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans and Canadians welcome the best of everything, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services.
 
But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty, and the maple leaf flag of Canada, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.
 
These in fact are the people who built the USA and Canada. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families there and “back home” in countries around the world.
 
It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American or Canadian if you must. Hitler did. So did Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants of the past. But in doing so you would just be killing yourself. For you see, Americans and Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom and their roots are from every country in the world. In that sense, everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American or a Canadian.

Pass this around the World. Then pass it around again.
It says it all, for all of us – black, white, yellow, brown, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, etc.

Charlotte's Web

Starring: Dakota Fanning & Voices of Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese

Review: Gary Winick would seem an unlikely choice to direct a live-action, computer-animated adaptation of "Charlotte's Web," with an A-list cast providing the voices of the classic children's book's talking animals.

(Julia Roberts as Charlotte! With Oprah Winfrey as Gussy the goose! And Robert Redford as Ike the horse!)

Winick co-founded the production company Indigent, known for stripped-down movies shot on digital video like "Chelsea Walls," "Pieces of April" and Winick's own "Tadpole," in which a 15-year-old boy falls in love with his stepmom.

But he also directed "13 Going on 30," the charming Jennifer Garner comedy that struck just the right balance of childlike enthusiasm and grown-up insight. And he's done the same here.

Working from a script by Susannah Grant (the Oscar-nominated "Erin Brockovich" writer) and Karey Kirkpatrick (who wrote the delightful "Chicken Run"), Winick stays mostly faithful to E.B. White's beloved book. Couple of minor changes here and there - nothing catastrophic.

More importantly, he gets the meaning behind the message right - one of friendship, kindness and loyalty - though "Charlotte's Web" as a whole could get smothered in the shadow of the film it resembles most. We're not referring to any of the myriad animated, talking-animal movies that have come out this year (and at this point, there have been too many to count) but rather a movie from 1995: "Babe," which employed the same techniques used here and earned a visual-effects Oscar in the process. It really does look like the pig and the rat and the geese are talking; cute, slightly creepy, but effective.

Then again, maybe "Babe" resembled "Charlotte's Web" from a storytelling perspective when it first came out, with that endearing, well-meaning pig surrounded by all those farm animals who were either cranky or nosy or both. Maybe it's a chicken-and-egg thing (if you'll pardon the barnyard pun).

Either way, "Charlotte's Web" is worth seeing on its own merits (even if you don't have the excuse of a child to bring along with you) simply because it is so enduring after more than 50 years.

Dakota Fanning stars as the tomboyish Fern, who urges her father (Kevin Anderson) not to take his ax to the runt of the litter when the family pig gives birth. Instead she adopts him, names him Wilbur and nurtures him as if he were a child, and not a pet. (Fanning, by the way, is perfect for the role; she's always been preternaturally wise beyond her years, yet with a purity and exuberance of youth. And as she gets older - she's all of 12 now - she gets prettier, and has begun to resemble Goldie Hawn.)

While Fern is at school all day, Wilbur hangs out in the barn with the other animals. The tiny pig (voiced movingly by 10-year-old Dominic Scott Kay) naturally feels lonely and wants to make friends; the other animals grudgingly indulge him.

There's the aforementioned Winfrey as the goose, with Cedric the Entertainer as Golly the Gander; Redford as the curmudgeonly horse; John Cleese as Samuel the uppity sheep; Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire as the chatty cows, Bitsy and Betsy; and an ideally chosen Steve Buscemi as Templeton, the self-aggrandizing rat. Also flying around outside are the clueless crows, Brooks and Elwyn, voiced with great comic timing by Thomas Haden Church and Andre Benjamin.

And of course there is Roberts as the spider, Charlotte, her wise, assured voice warmly blanketing everything, promising this idealistic spring pig that she'll find a way to make sure he sees his first winter snow.

Roberts and Kay are so believable you actually forget that you're watching protracted conversations between a pig and spider, and get drawn into the bond they've formed as friends. And every web she spins with the hope of saving him is more touching than the last.

Corny? Overly simplistic? Perhaps. But those were grown-ups snuffling and wiping away tears at a recent screening - not kids - as the story reaches its heart-tugging conclusion. And there's no shame in that.

*Review by Christy Lemire, Associated Press

A Picture Is Worth A 1000 Words... Sad Kitty

*Thanks, Auntie 'M'