Desperation

How much is a house worth to you? Well, to one woman, it was worth her life. 

Charlene Balderama faxed a letter to the mortgage company that was foreclosing on her home that afternoon stating that by the time they had received this letter, she would be dead.

The mortgage company called police who found her dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound from her husband's high power rifle. Next to her body was a note telling her family to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house." 

This horrible situation with bad lending practices is taking it's toll in so many ways. I equate this mess to the Enron scandal. Not much is being done to hold those that got rich from this scam accountable, while others are paying the ultimate price. Shame on Countrywide, Citibank  and the other banks that took advantage of those most vulnerable. All in the name of the almighty buck.

R.I.P. Sweet Gabby

Little Gabby Brabbs-Checchi passed away unexpectedly this afternoon. Her loving family found her in their yard undisturbed. We don't know what took her short life, but fortunately she passed away outside in her favorite place to be. R.I.P. little girl. Know you were loved dearly and are missed by many.

Here is some competition for Google!

There is a new search engine on the web! www.cuil.com (pronounced cool) was designed by x Google employees who are ready to take on the big one! They claim to have the ability to search 121,617,892,992 web pages to find what you are looking for, which is far greater than Google. They also have a great privacy policy that states they do not collect data while you use their search engine. This is in direct opposition to Google which collects and analyzes how you use the web. Privacy advocates are applauding this new search engine. 

I tried to use it several times tonight, as was apparently, everyone else, as I sometimes was told to try again. However the times I did get useful information it was displayed in an easy to read and decipherable manner. I've already added it to my bookmarks. You might want to consider trying it too!

Of course the down side for me is the graphics that Google does with their name. Part of the fun is seeing what they have done from day to day which varies. It doesn't look like Cuil will be doing that.

Talula does the hula from Hawaii

What kind of a title is that? Believe it or not, it is the name of a child in New Zealand. That is until recently. A family court judge decided that this name was a burden to the child. 

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgement which this child's' parents have shown in choosing this name," he wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily". 

The girl had been so embarrassed that she had never told her closest friends what her name was. She told people to call her "K". Her new name has not been released for privacy reasons. Thankfully this child will have a chance now. 

Drawing is easy!

Think you can't draw? Well, with the tap of your fingers on the keypad you can draw your own bunny, too! Give it a try....

 (\__/)

 (='.'=)

 (")_(")

This is a bunny. Can you see the resemblance? Put him in your signature and help him make his way around the world.

Bunny revolution!

Frankin Foods

What do you know about the foods you consume? Do you read the labels? If you do, do you know what the ingredients are? 

More and more of the foods we consume are being modified for many reasons. Produce has been changed to have a longer shelf life. Did you know that food travels over 1500 miles to get to your plate on average? For it to make that distance, it has to have a longer shelf life. One way to do that is to change the cell structure of the food. If you have a fragile peach, change it to have a tougher skin and firmer body. But when you modify a peach what does that do to it's taste? Have you had a store bought peach verses a locally grown peach? There is no comparison. 

When folks tell me they don't like peaches or tomatoes, I ask, have you had a fresh off the vine/tree one before? If not, go to your local farmer's market and try one. The taste is like drinking freshly squeezed orange juice verses Sunny Delight. No comparison. Aside from the health benefits, you lower your cabon footprint since the food doesn't travel that long distance. 

Think chemical enhancement verses nature. Doesn't the latter sound better? Yep. It sounds better and it tastes better, plus it is better for you. Go support your local farmer's! Keep your economy and your body healthy! It's a win-win!

Pay Equity

Not too long ago a CEO of a company made 25 times the amount the average joe in the company makes. Now things have changed dramatically. That amount is now up to 400 times! How insane is that? 

Consider that the same is true for college professors and football coaches. How much more money do you think the coach makes? Ten times the amount a professor does. How crazy is that? 

What is ii about society that we place "value" on the guy who bosses 18 year old boys around on a field? But not on the professor that feeds the mind of the 18 year old? The latter is going to have (or should) have a bigger impact on the 18 year olds life and shouldn't we value education over sports ability. 

U.S. Army shoots pigs

Despite opposition for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups, the U.S. Army is going ahead with it's plan to shoot pigs. They are doing this as a training tool for soldiers who are training for battlefield medical trauma.

There are more advanced and humane options available, including high-tech human simulators that could be used instead. But the Army is moving forward because they are being conducted under the Department of Agriculture license. They say that the pigs will be under the careful supervision of veterinarians.

Hm. But won't it still cause indescribable pain for the pigs? How come the public allows this? Have we become so callas that we don't have compassion for our fellow beings? So, which do you think is worse, being shot or living in an industrial pig farm? As the saying goes, there is a reason slaughterhouses don't have windows. 

Should I be worried?

Okay. So I opened a can of mandarin oranges the other day and this is what the inside of the can looked like. (Sorry for the quality of the photo.) Is this something that I should be worried about? Does anyone know? 

I ate the oranges and lived to write about it, but should I reconsider doing that if I find another can that looks like this?

U of M Monstrosity

These are photos of the additions that are being constructed at the 50 yard lines of the University of Michigan football stadium. The photos really don't indicate how out of proportion the addition is to the original structure. 

The photo with the car shows the side of the structure that abuts Stadium Road. It literally is built as close to the road as possible. When you approach it it feels overwhelming. 

This project has caused quite a stir in the community. Folks who live in area had to ask the city to enforce noise ordinances as they were building every day, beginning early and ending late. Then they wanted to shut down parts of the roads so they had more room for materials, etc. The city denied this request.

This project has emphasized how badly U of M interacts with it's neighbors. They have been building at a ferocious rate (you'd never know that Michigan was in an economic crisis). This is just one example of a project that they pushed along without much consideration to the existing architecture or neighborhoods. U of M could do better in every way.

Two greats pass away....

The following was taken from an article by Charles Siebert from the New York Times magazine in the December 30, 2007 edition ~

There is in the end, no telling what tales they had to tell, the two greatest 

nonhuman linguists of our day: Washoe, the sign-language-wielding chimpanzee with an intense footwear fetish; and Alex, the wildly outspoken parrot, an African gray known to regularly order about his human researchers and to purposely give them the wrong answers to their questions just to alleviate his boredom. After all, we only ever gave them our words to work with.

To continue reading the article, click here.

Amazing animals!

My Butchered Mommy!

My, oh, my. 

My Beautiful Mommy is a book that was written so children would recognize their mom's after they had been under the knife. I guess there are women who elect to do so many surgical changes that their family members don't recognize them when they have "healed". This book helps to explain why mommy puts her life in jeopardy so that she can be "beautiful". Creepy, creepy.

Wow. How scary is that? What message does that send to a small child? Not a healthy one.

A large swarm arrives every Sunday...

Almost like clockwork, shortly after 9 PM every Sunday, a hum begins quietly in the night air. It quickly gets louder and a smile begins to cross over my lips. The hum means the motor scooter gang is headin' home! 

There is a group of up to ten riders that must meet in Ann Arbor and then ride home together. I started to notice them about three weeks ago. One of these Sundays I'm going to remember and go in search of their hang out. 

I've always been enamored with scooters, especially since my friend Beth bought a pale blue Vespa. I'm thinking about it. With todays transportation costs it becomes more and more appealing! When I do, maybe the scooter gang will let me join!

Kibble for cats and dogs

If you've been paying attention, you know I like games. You also know I am a huge advocate for animals. How perfect when I found this game that combines both of these passions! 

You answer questions and for each one that is answered correctly, kibble is donated to Rocket Dog Rescue and Urban Cat Project. Over one ton of food has been donated already!

The questions are "general knowledge", but if you sign up you can specify a category. When I played the general knowledge and the specific categories I scored about the same. These are much harder than the free rice game I've promoted before. It is the same idea except you feed people instead of cats and dogs.

Either way, when you have a moment to kill and you want to test your skills, give either a try and feel less guilty killing time!

Numbrix

The Sunday Parade magazine has a column called 'Ask Marilyn'. Marilyn Vos Savant has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person with the highest I Q as a child and as an adult for the past five years. She answers all kinds of questions in her column and posts puzzles regularly. 

This week she introduced a game called Numbrix, which is a numbers game of logic. As a math lover and puzzle solver, I checked all of them out right away. They are fun because they are not too difficult and they do make you think logically. A dying art as far as I'm concerned....

To give them a try, click here! Have fun!

Blackbird has an unusual habit

This British blackbird has taken on an annoying habit that is driving the neighborhood mad! 

He has the uncanny ability to mimic sounds. Unfortunately for it's neighbors he has chosen to replicate the sound of sirens, car alarms, and mobile telephones. It is thought that he is trying to attract a mate and is using sounds that he hears in his everyday environment. This is quite unusual as blackbirds are not known for there ability to mimic sounds. 

In any case, the early morning siren noise has gotten to be a little too much to tolerate. Fortunately for him, he has moved on and is no doubt bothering another neighborhood. 

Perhaps we have not heard the last of him....

R.I.P. Scout

This was one of Cooper's favorite pals. Scout was a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that used to live down the street from us. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer in April 2007. At the time he was expected to live for another two months.

Well, Scout didn't agree with that diagnosis and managed to survive for another 14+ months. He passed away this week. The cancer in his left rear leg made walking virtually impossible. Poor guy. We'll miss him. If there is a dog heaven hopefully he has found Bear and that they are both walking without difficulty. R.I.P. buddy, you will be dearly missed.

Woman dies on emergency room floor - no one accountable?

Yea, you read that right. In Los Angeles a woman who had a perforated bowel and was writhering in pain was denied medical help. The nurse at Martin Luther King Jr. - Harbor hospital was not criminally negligent despite refusing to examine Edith Rodriguez - who was kneeling and screaming in pain with a perforated bowel - and telling her to get off the floor, according to the   report by Deputy District Attorney Susan Schwartz.

"Prompt intervention would not have saved her life," Schwartz wrote in the report to the Los Angeles Department. 

"It cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt" that the nurse's actions were a substantial factor in the death "or that any member of the MLK nursing or medical staff was criminally negligent" the report said.

When she was denied help at the hospital, her boyfriend as well as another person in the emergency room called 911 for help. They were told that since they were at a hospital that this was not considered an emergency. 

What a nightmare. Whether the hospital was legally negligent, they were most certainly MORALLY negligent. What is wrong with this world. Have we become so desensitized that we allow people to die right in front of our eyes? Apparently so. Appalling.

Voices for Peace

My friend Nahzi passed this along to me. It is a link to a site titled, Voices for Peace. It is a public service announcement featuring fifty Iranian Americans talking about who they are, what they believe in and why they are for peace. 

For those that don't personally know an Iranian, or those that would just like to know more,  click here to view it. 

Peace is popular everywhere!

Good news for ectomorphs and mesomorphs!

A new study looked at the physical characteristics for 5,000 inmates at an Arkansas prison and found that most were athletically fit when they entered prison. Between 62% and 73% of prisoners where mesomorphs! 

There were ectomorphs (skinny people) and mesomorphs (over weight people), but the interesting finding is that they were much less likely to be violent offenders. 

But this does not mean that being fit is a predictor of criminal tendencies, said one of the authors, Jeffrey T. Walker of the University of Arkansas.

"Those who are fit may have personalities that are more likely to make them violent. In essence, what drives them to be fit also drives them to be violent. It is also likely that those who are fit find themselves in violent situations more."

Finally, some good news for those of us that could lose or gain some weight! There are some true benefits to our conditions! 

An energy efficient 5244 sq. ft. house?

This home under construction can be yours for only $927,000! 

Imagine...

... a home that saves you money by powering itself with renewable energy!

... a home that is better for the environment and healthier for you to live in!

... a tax bill of $22, 248 a year!

This can all be yours in your GIANT new "energy efficient" home! Just click here to learn more.

Doesn't this strike anyone else as an oxymoron? Don't these two concepts work against each other? Energy efficient vs. 5244 sq. ft.? 

I think the green concept was lost here. Green is about sustainability and the good use of space. While 5244 sq. ft. is about not liking your family as far as I'm concerned. Who wants to live in (or clean) a home that is so big you can ignore each other with ease? I've never understood "why bigger is better". It just makes no sense to me. Who needs a house this size?

Strong Women

There has been press about strong women lately. 

First, there is the amazing 41 year old mom who made the Olympic swimming team this weekend. Dara Torres qualified for the team with her win in the 100 meter freestyle swim and is being herald as an inspiration for all women and men too! Not bad for a woman who retired in 2000 after the Sydney Olympics. She accepted her victory metal with her two year old daughter who waved to the crowd not quite understanding what was happening. However, the crowd most certainly understood the pivotal moment!

Then we have Carla Wallenda. She is a 72 year old great grandmother who comes from a long line of aerialists. This amazing woman climbs atop her 110 foot pole and preforms a ten minute show without a net. Members of her family (including her father) have died while preforming but this gutsy woman keeps going. She can't imagine not preforming. It is her therapy. She is part of the Flying Wallendas that preform around the Ann Arbor area and the country. I encourage all to go and support this family when they have the opportunity.