Funny 0 Zero

2009-06-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's government says it has released four relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani (hah-SHEH'-mee rahf-sahn-JAHN'-ee), but continues to detain his daughter. Last week, state television showed her speaking to hundreds of opposition supporters. State radio reports after the appearance, hard-line students accused the daughter of 1 of the country's most powerful men of treason.

SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone No. 10 spot on Apple’s

2009-06-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

Pushing the App Store price envelope

For people who had been waiting since January to watch TV on their iPhones, price doesn’t seem to have been an object.

Within a day of its release Wednesday, SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone had shot to the No. 10 spot on Apple’s (AAPL) closely watched Top Paid Apps list.

The $29.99 program, which communicates wirelessly with Sling Media’s video streaming Slingbox to display TV programming on the screens of iPhones and iPod touches, is the most expensive application to have ever climbed that high.

By Friday morning, SlingPlayer had dropped to No. 12, but it was still the only app among the top 100 bestsellers listed for more than $9.99 — a price point that, until now, seemed to be the upper limit for iPhone bestsellers.

According to Jeff Scott, editor of 148Apps.biz, the closest any other high-priced apps had come to No. 10 were Jaadu VNC ($24.99), which made it to No. 19 in September 2008, and LogMeIn Ignition ($29.99), which hit No. 74 last December.

The vast majority of sales on the App Store are much smaller. Of the 38,356 applications currently active, according to 148Apps.biz’s stats,

23.4% are free
67% cost less than $1
and 97% cost less than $10

SlingPlayer for the iPhone, which was first demoed at Macworld in January, has been available for months on a variety of other mobile devices, including certain BlackBerry (RIMM), Palm (PALM), Nokia (NOK) and Windows Mobile (MSFT) smartphones.

But it never got the kind of attention on those devices as it has on the iPhone. See, for example, the fuss stirred up this week when reporters discovered that the iPhone version worked only on Wi-Fi, and not over AT&T’s (T) cellular networks.

A spokesman for EchoStar (SATS), which owns Sling Media, declined to release sales figures. But applications in the top 10 paid apps list have been known to sell hundreds of thousands of units.

Coca-Cola growth income

2009-06-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Market Cap: $113.5 billion
P/E Ratio: 16
Earnings Growth: 9%
Dividend Yield: 3.4%

While Coke's profits hinge on several variables, including commodity costs and currency, its overarching story -- international expansion -- makes it a stable option. "Eighty percent of their earnings now come from beverages sold outside of the U.S.," says Gentry Lee, an analyst at Fayez Sarofim & Co. "As per capita consumption increases around the world, Coke will benefit."

One lingering question is whether the company should follow Pepsi's tack and attempt to acquire its bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises. Coke's formerly contentious relationship with its bottler has improved, but the jury is still out on whether or not it should take the purchasing plunge. "There are plusses and minuses to merging," says Lee. "Coke has a different relationship with its bottler, so the rationale isn't the same."

Google confirms U.S. antitrust inquiry

2009-06-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Google confirms U.S. antitrust inquiry

The search engine says regulators are looking into the company's deal with publishers to make book content available online.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Google Inc. has received formal notice from the Justice Department that antitrust investigators are looking into its settlement with publishers that would help make millions of books available online.

Asked if the company had received the civil equivalent of a subpoena, Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond told reporters: "Yeah, we did."

The Justice Department's antitrust division has also sent formal information requests to Lagardere's Hachette Book Group and another publisher, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Under a proposed settlement last October between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, Google agreed to pay $125 million to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers can register works and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions or book sales.

Google's plan is to let readers to search millions of copyrighted books online, browse passages and purchase copies.

Drummond said he expected the federal court assessing the settlement and the Justice Department to work parallel to each other.

"It's a separate question from the approval of the class action settlement," Drummond said. "The judge's job is not to review every question that the Department of Justice might think about."

He also acknowledged the possibility that the agreement might be tweaked, if necessary. "We're open to that sort of thing ... if it's a compelling argument. We haven't heard it," he said.

Two experts on digitization told Reuters in April that the Justice Department was making inquiries about the settlement. U.S. states attorneys general have also made inquiries, an expert told Reuters.

Google is also part of a Justice Department probe into possible pacts by big tech businesses not to poach one another's talent.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), computer and music player maker Apple (APPL) and biotech company Genentech, now owned by Roche Holding AG, have received notices that the Justice Department has a formal probe under way, according to the source, who declined to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.

The Federal Trade Commission, which also has antitrust responsibilities, has a probe into Google and Apple Inc's overlapping board members.

The Justice Department probes are evidence that its antitrust division under new chief Christine Varney will be more aggressive than President George W. Bush's antitrust team.

In a speech last month laying out her antitrust philosophy, Varney pledged a more aggressive approach to dealing with dominant companies that use their market power to crush competition and lamented a lack of recent scrutiny of mergers by companies in the same supply chain

Chrysler + Fiat = deal

2009-06-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Chrysler and Fiat deal

The deal paves the way for Chrysler to emerge from bankruptcy

Fiat and Chrysler have completed the strategic alliance that will put Chrysler's good assets into a new firm.

Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne will take control of the new company, which will begin operating immediately.

Fiat is not paying any money for its 20% of the new firm but will contribute technology to make smaller Chryslers.

The deal was completed on Wednesday after the US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against it from three Indiana state pension and construction funds.

"This is a very significant day, not only for Chrysler and its dedicated employees, who have persevered through a great deal of uncertainty during the past year, but for the global automotive industry as a whole," said Mr Marchionne.

The deal paves the way for Chrysler to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

Debt problems

Fiat's shareholding will expand to 35% if certain targets are met.

The United Auto Workers union gets 55% of the new company, while the US and Canadian governments will take stakes of 8% and 2% respectively.

The pension funds, which hold about $42m (£26.3m) of Chrysler's $6.9bn in secured loans, were opposed to the sale, saying it inverted usual bankruptcy practice by paying unsecured creditors, such as the union, ahead of secured lenders.

Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection on 30 April, suffering from depleted sales, huge debts and crippling labour, pension and healthcare costs.

Closed dealerships

The new Chrysler will still have its headquarters in the US state of Michigan and will produce Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge branded vehicles and Mopar spare parts.

As part of the creation of the new Chysler, 789 franchised dealers have either closed down or stopped selling new Chrysler vehicles.

The factories that have been temporarily closed during the bankruptcy process should be resuming production shortly.

"Those Chrysler operations assumed by the new company that were idled during this process will soon be back up and running, and work is already underway on developing new environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles that we intend to become Chrysler's hallmark going forward," Mr Marchionne said.

The Obama administration backed the tie-up with Fiat, arguing that Chrysler had been unable to operate independently since it was spun off by the German carmaker Daimler.

Jackson sued over reunion concert

2009-06-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Jackson sued over reunion concert

A promoter is suing Michael Jackson for $40m (£24.4m) for allegedly breaching a contract to play a reunion concert in the US with other family members.

Allgood Entertainment claims it made a deal in November with Jackson's then-manager to produce the gig this summer.

It says the deal called for Jackson not to perform elsewhere before the event or for at least three months after it.

He will play 50 dates at London's O2 arena from July. Promoter AEG will not comment while Jackson was unavailable.

Allgood say the concert would have involved the singer, sister Janet, and the other members of The Jackson 5 - Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine.

Compensation hope

In legal papers filed in Manhattan, Allgood accuse the singer and manager Frank DiLeo of breaking the contract by signing up to do the O2 shows.

AEG is also named in the papers.

The papers add that AEG knew of the agreement between AllGood, DiLeo and Jackson, "but due to their dominance and power in the live performance industry, coerced and/or induced DiLeo and Jackson to disregard the agreements with AllGood and to work with it instead".

"We've given Michael Jackson and AEG every opportunity, publicly and privately, to resolve this matter and to date we have not heard from anyone," said Patrick Allocco, a managing partner for Allgood.

Allgood's lawyer Ira Meyerowitz said the company was not looking to stop Jackson from performing at the O2.

"What we're looking for is for our clients to be involved in the London concerts or be compensated for agreements they entered into," he said.

A spokesman for AEG said the company would not comment on pending litigation.

Air France Flight 447

2009-06-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled commercial flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, that crashed on 1 June 2009 over the Atlantic Ocean with the confirmed loss of all 228 crew members and passengers onboard.

The aircraft, an Air France Airbus A330-200, took off on 31 May 2009 at 19:03 local time (22:03 UTC).

The last contact with the crew was a routine message to Brazilian air traffic controllers at 01:33 UTC, as the aircraft approached the edge of Brazilian radar surveillance over the Atlantic Ocean, en-route to Senegalese-controlled airspace off the coast of West Africa.

Forty minutes later, a four-minute-long series of automatic radio messages was received from the plane, indicating numerous problems and warnings.

The exact meanings of these messages are still under investigation, but the aircraft is believed to have been lost shortly after it sent the automated messages.

After the aircraft failed to contact air traffic control on either continent, a search and rescue operation was initiated.

On 6 June, two bodies and debris from the aircraft were found 680 mi (1,090 km) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.

The debris included a briefcase containing an airline ticket, later confirmed to have been issued for the flight.

39 more bodies have been found since, bringing the total number of confirmed fatalities to 41.

This accident is the deadliest in the history of Air France, surpassing the crash of an Air France charter flight from Paris-Orly Airport to Atlanta on 3 June 1962, and the airline's first fatal crash since Air France Flight 4590 in July 2000.

Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA, Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety), described it as the worst accident in French aviation history.

It was also the first accident in commercial service resulting in fatalities in the 16-year operating history of the Airbus A330.

WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years

2009-06-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

GENEVA – The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years — as infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.

The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. WHO will now ask drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine. The declaration will also prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.

WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan said she was moving the world to phase 6 — the agency's highest alert level — which means a pandemic, or global epidemic, is under way.

"The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century," Chan told reporters. "The (swine flu) virus is now unstoppable."

On Thursday, WHO said 74 countries had reported 28,774 cases of swine flu, including 144 deaths. Chan described the virus as "moderate." According to WHO's pandemic criteria, a global outbreak has begun when a new flu virus begins spreading in two world regions.

The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities — especially in poorer countries.

Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu were previously young and healthy — people who are not usually susceptible to flu. Swine flu is also crowding out regular flu viruses. Both features are typical of pandemic flu viruses.

The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.

Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.

The decision might have been made much earlier if WHO had more accurate information about swine flu's rising sweep through Europe. Chan said she called the emergency meeting with flu experts after concerns were raised that some countries like Britain were not accurately reporting their cases.

After Thursday's meeting, Chan said the experts agreed there was wider spread of swine flu than what was being reported.

Chan would not say which country tipped the world into the pandemic, but said all countries and experts were agreed that it was time to declare a global outbreak.

WHO said it was now recommending that flu vaccine makers start making swine flu vaccine. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC said they could start large-scale production of pandemic vaccine in July but that it would take several months before large quantities would be available.

Many health experts say WHO's pandemic declaration could have come weeks earlier but the agency became bogged down by politics. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil.

"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts," said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. government on pandemic preparations.

Despite WHO's hopes, Thursday's announcement will almost certainly spark panic about spread of swine flu in some countries.

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing emergency health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu.

Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America, and the southern hemisphere is moving into its winter flu season.

In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested positive for swine flu — a move that some experts would consider an overreaction. The decision affected over half a million students.

In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases and at least 27 deaths from swine flu, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the move would not change how the U.S. tackled swine flu.

"Our actions in the past month have been as if there was a pandemic in this country," Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman, said Thursday.

The U.S. government has already taken steps like increasing availability of flu-fighting medicines and authorizing $1 billion for the development of a new vaccine against the novel virus. In addition, new cases seem to be declining in many parts of the country, U.S. health officials say, as North America moves out of its traditional winter flu season.

Still, New York City reported three more swine flu deaths Thursday, including one child under 2.

In Mexico, where the epidemic was first detected, the outbreak peaked in April. Mexico now has less than 30 cases reported a day, down from an average of 300, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova told The Associated Press. Mexico has confirmed 6,337 cases, including 108 deaths.

Cordova said he is concerned that other countries are not taking drastic measures to stop its spread like Mexico, which closed schools, restaurants, theaters, and canceled public events after the government detected the epidemic in late April.

Many experts said the declaration of a pandemic did not mean the virus was getting deadlier.

"People might imagine a virus is now going to rush in and kill everyone," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at St. Bart's and Royal London Hospital. "That's not going to happen."

But Oxford said the swine flu virus might evolve into a more dangerous strain in the future. "That is always a possibility with influenza viruses," he said. "We have to watch very carefully to see what this virus does."

___

AP Medical Writers Maria Cheng reported from London and Michael Stobbe reported from Atlanta. Associated Press Writers Michael E. Miller in Mexico City, Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong, Vincente L. Panetta in Buenos Aires and Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva also contributed to this report.

Swine flu may have been spreading in August

2009-06-11T10:18:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK – As early as last August, the swine flu virus may have been spreading among people — long before it was first recognized in April, scientists reported Thursday.

Through genetic analysis, researchers came up with several possibilities for when the virus might have first spread to humans. This past January is their best estimate. It's also possible it jumped as early as last August — or maybe even before then, said Oliver Pybus of Oxford University, a co-author of the study.

The research involved a genetic analysis of various strains of the virus and construction of a sort of family tree to see when the flu strains last shared a common ancestor. The study was published online Thursday by the journal Nature.

Raul Rabadan of Columbia University in New York, who studies the swine flu virus but didn't participate in the new work, called the timing estimates reasonable. But they must be taken with a grain of salt because of the scientific uncertainties involved, he said.

The new analysis also concluded that ancestors of the swine flu virus had circulated in pigs for years undetected. The researchers called for better surveillance of flu viruses in swine, although Pybus said scientists don't have the ability yet to identify strains in pigs that will lead to human epidemics.

Rabadan also has called for better surveillance and recently published a similar conclusion about ancestors of the human virus circulating unnoticed in pigs.

Swine Flu

2009-05-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

Swine Flu

What is Swine Influenza?

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Swine flu viruses cause high levels of illness and low death rates in pigs. Swine influenza viruses may circulate among swine throughout the year, but most outbreaks occur during the late fall and winter months similar to outbreaks in humans. The classical swine flu virus (an influenza type A H1N1 virus) was first isolated from a pig in 1930.

How many swine flu viruses are there?
Like all influenza viruses, swine flu viruses change constantly. Pigs can be infected by avian influenza and human influenza viruses as well as swine influenza viruses. When influenza viruses from different species infect pigs, the viruses can reassort (i.e. swap genes) and new viruses that are a mix of swine, human and/or avian influenza viruses can emerge. Over the years, different variations of swine flu viruses have emerged. At this time, there are four main influenza type A virus subtypes that have been isolated in pigs: H1N1, H1N2, H3N2, and H3N1. However, most of the recently isolated influenza viruses from pigs have been H1N1 viruses.

Swine Flu in Humans

Can humans catch swine flu?
Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred. Most commonly, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs (e.g. children near pigs at a fair or workers in the swine industry). In addition, there have been documented cases of one person spreading swine flu to others. For example, an outbreak of apparent swine flu infection in pigs in Wisconsin in 1988 resulted in multiple human infections, and, although no community outbreak resulted, there was antibody evidence of virus transmission from the patient to health care workers who had close contact with the patient.

How common is swine flu infection in humans?
In the past, CDC received reports of approximately one human swine influenza virus infection every one to two years in the U.S., but from December 2005 through February 2009, 12 cases of human infection with swine influenza have been reported.

What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?
The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. You can not get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160°F kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.

How does swine flu spread?
Influenza viruses can be directly transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs. Human infection with flu viruses from pigs are most likely to occur when people are in close proximity to infected pigs, such as in pig barns and livestock exhibits housing pigs at fairs. Human-to-human transmission of swine flu can also occur. This is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu occurs in people, which is mainly person-to-person transmission through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus. People may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

What do we know about human-to-human spread of swine flu?
In September 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman was hospitalized for pneumonia and died 8 days later. A swine H1N1 flu virus was detected. Four days before getting sick, the patient visited a county fair swine exhibition where there was widespread influenza-like illness among the swine.

In follow-up studies, 76% of swine exhibitors tested had antibody evidence of swine flu infection but no serious illnesses were detected among this group. Additional studies suggest that one to three health care personnel who had contact with the patient developed mild influenza-like illnesses with antibody evidence of swine flu infection.

How can human infections with swine influenza be diagnosed?
To diagnose swine influenza A infection, a respiratory specimen would generally need to be collected within the first 4 to 5 days of illness (when an infected person is most likely to be shedding virus). However, some persons, especially children, may shed virus for 7 days or longer. Identification as a swine flu influenza A virus requires sending the specimen to CDC for laboratory testing.

What medications are available to treat swine flu infections in humans?
There are four different antiviral drugs that are licensed for use in the US for the treatment of influenza: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. While most swine influenza viruses have been susceptible to all four drugs, the most recent H1N1 influenza viruses isolated from humans are resistant to amantadine and rimantadine.

What other examples of swine flu outbreaks are there?
Probably the most well known is an outbreak of swine flu among soldiers in Fort Dix, New Jersey in 1976. The virus caused disease with x-ray evidence of pneumonia in at least 4 soldiers and 1 death; all of these patients had previously been healthy. The virus was transmitted to close contacts in a basic training environment, with limited transmission outside the basic training group. The virus is thought to have circulated for a month and disappeared. The source of the virus, the exact time of its introduction into Fort Dix, and factors limiting its spread and duration are unknown. The Fort Dix outbreak may have been caused by introduction of an animal virus into a stressed human population in close contact in crowded facilities during the winter. The swine influenza A virus collected from a Fort Dix soldier was named A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1N1).

Swine Flu in Pigs

How does swine flu spread among pigs?
Swine flu viruses are thought to be spread mostly through close contact among pigs and possibly from contaminated objects moving between infected and uninfected pigs. Herds with continuous swine flu infections and herds that are vaccinated against swine flu may have sporadic disease, or may show only mild or no symptoms of infection.

What are signs of swine flu in pigs?
Signs of swine flu in pigs can include sudden onset of fever, depression, coughing (barking), discharge from the nose or eyes, sneezing, breathing difficulties, eye redness or inflammation, and going off feed.

How common is swine flu among pigs?
H1N1 and H3N2 swine flu viruses are endemic among pig populations in the United States and something that the industry deals with routinely. Outbreaks among pigs normally occur in colder weather months (late fall and winter) and sometimes with the introduction of new pigs into susceptible herds. Studies have shown that the swine flu H1N1 is common throughout pig populations worldwide, with 25 percent of animals showing antibody evidence of infection. In the U.S. studies have shown that 30 percent of the pig population has antibody evidence of having had H1N1 infection. More specifically, 51 percent of pigs in the north-central U.S. have been shown to have antibody evidence of infection with swine H1N1. Human infections with swine flu H1N1 viruses are rare. There is currently no way to differentiate antibody produced in response to flu vaccination in pigs from antibody made in response to pig infections with swine H1N1 influenza.

While H1N1 swine viruses have been known to circulate among pig populations since at least 1930, H3N2 influenza viruses did not begin circulating among US pigs until 1998. The H3N2 viruses initially were introduced into the pig population from humans. The current swine flu H3N2 viruses are closely related to human H3N2 viruses.

Is there a vaccine for swine flu?
Vaccines are available to be given to pigs to prevent swine influenza. There is no vaccine to protect humans from swine flu. The seasonal influenza vaccine will likely help provide partial protection against swine H3N2, but not swine H1N1 viruses

Are we Friends

2009-03-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Are we friends~
* * * *
~or are we not?~
* * * *
~You told me once~
* * * *
~But i forgot~
* * * *
~So tell me now~
* * * *
~and tell me true~
* * * *
~so I can say~
* * * *
~I'm here for you~
* * * *
~Of all the friends I've ever met~
* * * *
~Your the one I won't forget~
* * * *
~And if I die~
* * * *
~before you do~
* * * *
~I'll go 2 heaven~
* * * *
~And wait 4 you~
* * * *
~I'll give the angels~
* * * *
~ Back their wings~
* * * *
~And risk the loss~
* * * *
~Of everything~
* * * *
~Just to prove~
* * * *
~My friendship is true~
* * * *
~To have a friend like YOU!!!~
* * * * * *

Miss You

2009-03-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

I was feeling a littele lonely
And when I asked myself
What I seemed to be missing the most
The answer turned out to be you

Speak gently

2009-03-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

SPEAK GENTLY
Speak gently.
It is better by farto rule by love than fear.
Speak gently.
Let no harsh word marthe good you may do here..
Speak gently to the young,
for they will have enough to bear;
pass through this life as best they may,
'tis full of anxious care. Speak gently to the aged one
Grieve not the care-worn heart,
whose sand of life are nearly run,
let such in peace depart. Speak gently,
kindly to the poor,let no harsh tone be heard.
They have enough they must endurewithout an unkind word.
Speak gently... 'tis a little thingdropped in the heart's

Protect your Skin

2009-03-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Protect yourself from the sun
use sunscreen and avoid direct sunlight between the hours of 10 and 2.
Don't -- repeat – DON’T smoke.
Your skin is a large organ and it needs a lot of circulation.
Smoking impairs that dramatically.
hat's why smokers' skin looks dull and gray.
Instead of having oxy-generated blood delivered to the surface of the skin,
they're getting poisons and oxidants.
Get adequate rest and nutrition.
Protect yourself from stress
both emotional and environmental stress.
Wash your face twice a day and put on the proper treatment product.
I'm amazed when women tell me they don't wash their face in the morning.
A lot of icky stuff collects overnight --
dead skin cells, dirt, and dust! Don't neglect certain areas of the skin.
Elbows, heels, neck, and décolletage need moisturizing,
and your scalp and the tops of your feet need sun protection.
Touch your face less and wash your hands more!
Don't get too surgical on yourself.
It's very tempting to pick, poke, squeeze, and scratch in front of the mirror.
But the more you traumatize the skin, the greater your risk of scarring.
Apply treatment products and let them work.
Keep your makeup clean.
Replace the sponges in your compact on a regular basis.
Now and then, toss the whole works and start fresh --
the average shelf life for cosmetics is 6 to 12 months.
Don't buy products so expensive that you'll be heartbroken if you have to throw them away. Exercise moderation. More is not always better.
Moisturizer, for example, is the most overused product in America.
We've been bamboozled by cosmetic companies into thinking every square inch
of our body has to be slathered.
And it's simply not true.
Exfoliators are another thing to be careful with.
Used too often, they over acidify and irritate your skin.

Wedding Poem

2009-03-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

""Wedding Poem""
Today is a special day
Which we are both about to enter
A day that will change our lives
And make our worlds different forever
I have watched as you smiled
Over these many long days
I have watched your love for me grow
In many, many different ways
You always worry when
I am sad Letting me know that you have concern
Returning my life to happiness
Is for what you constantly yearn
The ease with which you dismiss
The things that made you mad
You turn everything to good
Even when it starts out badNow
I am giving you my heart
For you to hold so dear
To cherish my soul each day
And forever with each be near
The rings we give to each
Are symbols of the bonds between us
We must stand together now as one
And let no person come between us
The vows we are now giving are held sacred
And come straight from my heart
If we mean what is being said
Our new world will never fall apart
So take my love with understanding and care
And cherish what I have given you
As I accept you in fullness
And I will forever cherish you
So when this ceremony is complete
And this day is through
Remember in this closing
My darling "I LOVE YOU"

welcome

2009-03-30T07:57:00.001-07:00

welcome