Jungle Musings

New Blog Address

2010-11-30T14:35:00.000-05:00

All new posts are now done on our davoice.net domain powered by Tumblr. This blog has been depreciated. We may post things here from time to time but primary publication will happen at http://davoice.net. Please update your bookmarks.

Trash Service in Fort Mill, SC - The joys of privatization

2010-05-13T10:20:00.002-04:00

So over the past week, I've been doing some research on garbage pickup in Fort Mill, SC. I ended up having to do the research because I was asked about service in the area and neither the county, nor city, nor Google had any information. It turns out that in York County, SC there is no such thing as coordination!

In the Fort Mill Township areas of York County SC, trash pickup is a totally private affair. You have to go to the yellow pages, call around and find someone who services your area. There are a few different companies and prices and service vary widely.

I needed to know about Regent Park, specifically Baden Village at Regent Park, but I couldn't find a single page on the internet with more than a sentence about it. In the information age, you would think the county or even the city would have this info on their website. Nope. And if you call them, they just refer you to the yellow pages. What if you don't live there and don't have a printed copy of the yellow pages?! Comporium, the local phone company in Fort Mill, does not have squat on their website. I searched for "trash service" in Fort Mill and got 1 result - for a company that serves Indian Land & Van Wyck, not Fort Mill! Grrr!

Thus I set off on a research project to find out who actually provides garbage service in Regent Park. And in case you found this page looking for the same, here were my results:

Garbage Options in Regent Park, Fort Mill, SC

1) Sharon Trash Service (STS)
2120 Garvin Road
York, SC 29745
803-684-7777

- Offers service weekly or twice a weekly.
- Weekly = $22/mo
- Twice Weekly = $25/mo
- Pick up days, Tuesday and Thursday.
- Recycling at no charge. Picked up on Thursdays. Customer provides own box or bags in clear plastic.
- Billed quarterly by mailed invoice, 1st day of quarter.
- Payments accepted: Check via mail, Money Order via mail

2) Morningstar Waste Services Inc (Not affiliated in any way to MorningStar Church)
651 Red River Road
Rock Hill SC 29730-7434
(803) 324-2966

- Offers service weekly.
- Weekly = $17/mo
- To get the $17 rate, tell them Daniel Pentecost sent you. Usual rate is $22/mo.
- Pick up day, Thursday.
- Recycling at no charge. Picked up on Thursdays. Customer provides own box for recycling or bags recycle items in clear plastic.
- Billed quarterly by mailed invoice, 1st day of quarter. 1st quarter prorated.
- Payments accepted: Check via mail, Money Order via mail

3) Signature Waste Systems
660 Westinghouse Blvd,
Ste 106
Charlotte, NC 28273
704-714-9400
- Offers service weekly.
- Provides 2 rolling carts. 1 for trash, 1 for recycle.
- Weekly = $23/mo
- Trash pick up day, Wednesday.
- Recycle picked up every other Friday
- New Customers receive first month free ($46 billed for 1st quarter of service)
- Payments Accepted: Check via mail, Money Order via mail, Credit cards incur 5% service fee

4) Allied Waste Services of Fort Mill
3358 HWY 51
FORT MILL, SC 29715
(704) 377-0161
- Trash pickup available with and without recycling
- Weekly w/o recycle = $34.95/mo (104.85 billed quarterly)
- Weekly w/ recycle = $37.97/mo (113.90 billed quarterly)
- Payments Accepted: Check via mail, Money Order via mail, Credit Cards, Payment by phone, Payment online

For those willing to haul their own trash and recycling, there is also a free option. York County offers "Convenience Centers" for recycling and low-volume trash drop-off. They are open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. The two nearest Baden Village at Regent Park are Baxter and Fort Mill East. The list of centers is here.

So... What did I learn about waste services in Fort Mill SC? That everyone takes it for granted and no one has thought about what new businesses and residents go through when they move to the area. The trash guys rely on people seeing names and numbers on the curbside garbage cans for advertising. Too bad that doesn't work when you're not actually in the area to see the cans. Only *1* company out of the three reasonably priced ones even has a website!

AT&T can't even excel at 3rd place

2010-04-12T18:53:00.000-04:00

Verizon Wireless and Sprint each carried over 16 billion more megabytes of mobile network data than AT&T in 2009. But yet in major cities iPhones brought AT&T's network to its knees.

That is the closest to a flat out indictment of lack of network equipment spending and network engineering you're ever going to see. A servant cannot serve 2 masters... nor can AT&T. Pick one... serve your customers or serve your investors.

Other wireless and landline carriers should take note. If you serve the interests of your shareholders over the needs and future needs of your customers, it will eventually catch up with you. You cannot systemically short change the capex of your network and hope to cover it up with marketing.

Just imagine how many potential customers AT&T lost due to the network problems and news/insinuation of network problems. Those losses equate to squandered mindshare, marketing and acquisition dollars. I don't have exact figures (b/c AT&T would never in their right mind release them) but I'm sure those squandered dollars amount to at least double what they spend on capex in 2009.

Saxapahaw General Store on UNC TV

2010-04-11T00:09:00.000-04:00

UNC TV, North Carolina's premier educational television network, featured Saxapahaw General Store on their North Carolina Weekend program on April 4, 2010. Bob Garner shares his experience with the fabulous food and the atmosphere that is Saxapahaw General Store.

Sue Hausmann Gets A New Website

2010-02-21T22:59:00.003-05:00

She may be "semi" retired but she still gets around! After blazing through age 65, last year Sue decided to slow down a little and 'retire' from her full-time position as Executive Vice President for Consumer Motivation, Education and Training with VSM Sewing (now part of SVP Worldwide, makers of Husqvarna Viking, Singer and Pfaff).

Now for Sue, "slow down" and "retire" may not match up with your expectations. She still has over 50 appearances and educational sessions on the schedule this year.

Many people know Sue from her host role on the TV series, America Sews, featured on most PBS stations around the country. There is also a new show called America Quilts Creatively. Regardless of how you meet Sue - on TV, in person, or on the phone - one thing you can't miss is her energy and true passion for sewing, quilting, embroidery and all the sewing arts.

Now there's a new way to meet Sue. She has a new website and will be using it to coordinate and communicate all of her scheduled appearances, project sheets, and soon promises to wade into the waters of video blogging.

"Sew" for all things Sue Hausmann, check out: http://www.sewandquiltwithsue.com.

(And yes, I helped her organize the website.)

Design Your Own T-Shirts for Christmas

2009-12-14T20:22:00.000-05:00

EPA Recognizes 1&1 Internet as Leading Green Power Purchaser

2009-12-14T12:09:00.001-05:00

1&1 Internet, Inc., the world’s largest Web host by known servers, today announced that its Lenexa, Kansas Data Center has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a Green Power Partner for its annual purchase of 17.5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power (electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, like wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal). This is equivalent to 100 percent of the purchased electricity use for the Kansas Data Center.

1&1 Internet’s new partnership with the EPA is the company’s next step in its efforts to protect the environment. In 2008, 1&1 first purchased certified Green-e renewable energy certificates (RECs) from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a leading national supplier of green power products, as an initiative to lessen the company’s impact on the earth’s climate. The EPA calculates that 1&1’s new green power purchase for their Kansas Data Center will equal the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of more than 2,000 passenger vehicles per year.

“This is a huge honor and we are proud to be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” said Oliver Mauss, the CEO of 1&1 Internet. “1&1’s continued purchase of green power helps our organization become more sustainable, while also sending a message to others companies across the U.S. that supporting clean sources of electricity is an important choice in reducing climate risk.”

Globally, 1&1’s five data centers are among the most energy efficient data centers in existence. In addition to purchasing RECs for the Lenexa, Kansas Data Center, 1&1 continues its green efforts by using highly efficient power supplies with less than 20 percent heat loss as well as omitting any unnecessary components within its servers.

"EPA commends our leading partners for their continued commitment to protecting the environment by using green power," said Kathleen Hogan, Director of the Climate Protection Partnerships Division at EPA. ”By supporting green power, 1&1 Internet's Kansas Data Center is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, supporting clean energy technologies, and contributing to a clean energy future."

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program organizations can participate in to help raise awareness about green power. Generating power in these ways creates a net zero increase in CO2 emissions. Purchasing green power also boosts the support for developing new ways to generate renewable energy nationwide.

1&1 is the one-stop-shop for Web solutions, providing a high quality service with the security of its five state-of-the-art green data centers. Globally, 1&1’s green efforts will offset emissions of over 30,000 tons of CO2 per year.

For more information or to order services, visit: http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=11323829

AT&T Now Blaming Customers for Its Problems

2009-12-10T18:18:00.000-05:00

By David Coursey

AT&T, the whiny wireless carrier, is back at it again. Fresh off whining in court about Verizon's map ads, AT&T is now whining to financial analysts about its customers. And it is warning that customers should use less of the company's all-you-can-eat data service, lest it become portion-controlled in the future.

Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, told analysts yesterday that 3 percent of the company's customers account for 40 percent of its data usage.

"What we are seeing in the U.S. today in terms of smartphone penetration, 3G data, nobody else is seeing in the rest of the planet," de la Vega said, quoted in the New York Times . "The amount of growth and data that we are seeing in wireless data is unprecedented."

OK, so de la Vega is saying customers are responsible for the company's service issues? Or is it more like a) AT&T should have built a more robust network or b) should stop accepting customers until its network is less overloaded, so that existing customers get the connectivity they are paying for.

Blaming customers for AT&T's internal issues is just whining. It sounds almost like AT&T is sorry we bought iPhones, which it may very well be, given the problems the company faces.

However, is it fair to blame those who send the company fairly large checks each month in support of their iPhone addiction?

Hardly.

Mr. de la Vega told analysts that while AT&T is rapidly adding capacity, it also plans to educate all its customers about data consumption in hopes they will cut back.

My solution: Why not have a heart-to-heart with those in the 3 percent club and leave the rest of us alone?

The AT&T chief also held out the possibility of pricing changes that could promote changes in how customers use data.

One positive step AT&T could take would be to help users understand how much data they are using and how their own usage compares to other users. Many in the top 3 percent probably have no idea their data usage is way above average, and might cut back if they knew.

This could be the companion application to "Mark the Spot," a new AT&T iPhone application that lets users tell the carrier about service problems.

The app, introduced this week, was met with mixed reaction: Negative that such an app is needed and positive that it gives the impression that AT&T wants to hear from customers about coverage issues, dropped calls, and other complaints.

As I've said, I don't think AT&T is the devil's spawn of the wireless industry (at least no more than the other carriers). We customers understand that the success of the iPhone has been a bit of a mixed blessing for the carrier, but, really, AT&T's whining needs to stop.

Customers are a good thing and AT&T needs to stop blaming them and the iPhone for its problems.

David Coursey has been writing about technology products and companies for more than 25 years. He tweets as @techinciter and may be contacted via his Web site.

Tier 1 networks becoming less important

2009-10-13T13:19:00.006-04:00

Broadband Reports is reporting on a study by Arbor Networks: 'The majority of Internet traffic now goes through direct peers and does not run over tier one incumbent provider networks. That's not particularly surprising, given the number of companies like Google that are building their own fiber networks. According to the firm, about thirty so-called "hypergiants"(Google, Facebook, Microsoft) manage about 30% of all Internet traffic. The study, which tracked traffic over 3,000 peering routers on 110 different networks, also notes that P2P traffic has "declined dramatically."'

The Bitter End

2009-09-15T04:30:00.001-04:00

My grandmother lived a full life and sought a quiet death. America's health-care system had a different idea of what was best.
By Jesse Ellison | Newsweek Web Exclusive | Reprinted from Newsweek, Sept 14, 2009.

In the two weeks leading up to my grandmother's death from lung cancer last January—three months shy of her 92nd birthday—she was transferred through four separate health-care facilities and six different beds. First, there was a hospice, where she was not allowed to receive more than just "respite" care. Next, she was moved to an assisted-living facility, where she fell, twice. After her second fall, she was strapped to a gurney and pulled along a bumpy sidewalk through a snowstorm to an awaiting ambulance. She was taken to the emergency room at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. Ten hours later, she was assigned to a bed. She stayed for three days before being transferred to another hospice, where she died minutes after she arrived. If my father hadn't redirected the ambulance driver who took her from Lenox Hill to the second hospice, she would have died in the back of a van headed in the wrong direction.

At each stop along the way, my grandmother was handed off to a new set of doctors, nurses, social workers, and case managers. Again and again, she was poked and prodded and tested and assessed. At the first hospice, her health initially seemed to improve, so she wasn't sick enough to stay. But in assisted living, she declined, precipitously, so was too sick to stay. At Lenox Hill, she didn't need the ongoing treatment that would warrant taking up a bed. So she was punted from place to place, always either too close to death or too far from it. It was a pointless nightmare: a Kafkaesque labyrinth of doctors and hospitals and paperwork. When she came out of her semi-conscious state in her room at Lenox Hill, one of the first things she said was, "Why aren't I dead yet? Can't we just get this over with already?"

Until her last few weeks, my grandmother had enjoyed a long, full, fiercely independent life—the kind of life, in fact, that many people would envy. Despite being legally blind, she lived alone in Manhattan, visited museums regularly, took the bus all over the city to meet friends for lunch, and went to Shakespeare in the Park and lectures at NYU. One Friday night a few years ago, I called her and got the answering machine. When I didn't hear back, I called again, and then, as I began to get nervous, again. Finally, around 10 p.m. she called me back, laughing. She'd been out drinking wine with her friends on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Though we were separated by six decades, in some ways we were a lot alike. I moved to New York because of my grandmother. She taught me how to make an omelet like Julia Child, gave me an appreciation for red caviar, showed me how to tie silk scarves, and introduced me to the magic of what she called the "golden hour"—that small slice of the early evening when people have turned on the lights in their apartments but haven't yet drawn the blinds. At dusk, during that golden hour, we used to take walks through Greenwich Village and peer up into the stately townhouses that lined the side streets. I adored those moments. I adored her.

She was not some doddering cliché of elderly living. She was astoundingly brave. She learned to use the Internet at age 85 so that she could send e-mails to relatives in Florida and read Frank Rich's column online. She was also blunt and unsentimental on the subject of death. She believed in the circle of life, and often joked that she would come back as a petunia. A couple of times she tried to prepare me for the possibility that I might one day discover her body in her apartment. She told me that if it happened like that—if she died quietly, peacefully, as she went about her day, or, even better, in her sleep—it would be a blessing. At the time, the idea terrified me. Now it seems like a dream.

When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the fall of 2007, my grandmother set about preparing for her death. She finalized her will. Together, we picked out charities whose missions she supported and she gave them sizable donations. Last fall I hosted her final Thanksgiving dinner, and nobody at the table, least of all her, shied away from the truth: this would be her last family gathering.

By then, she had gone through chemotherapy, radiation, and a colostomy—all measures that the doctors assured us were, for various reasons, considered "palliative": we all knew she couldn't be cured, but the doctors insisted that these painful treatments would make her last days more pleasant and possibly cede her a little more time. She endured all of it with her typical steel-jawed strength. But by Christmas, she was frail and weak and could barely make it around the block. Her vision was almost entirely gone. She began lamenting how long it was taking to die. And her mind, which had stayed vital far longer than her body, was beginning to slip. She grew paranoid and snappish. When my father and I first decided to bring her to the hospice, it was because she had become convinced that we were watching her through her television set. We later discovered that she had cut wires all over her apartment and tried to change the locks.

When you've lived to be 91, death is not untimely. It is not a tragedy. And my grandmother's death, in particular, should not have been so cruel. Money was not an issue. She had great insurance, and enough savings to pay for anything that Medicare and her insurance company would not. She had signed all the right forms. And she had the support of her family to die on her terms, as peacefully as possible.

Yet there was nothing peaceful about her death. She was forced to endure exactly what she had been so afraid of. During respite care, at the assisted-living facility, and especially at the hospital, my grandmother was treated like a problem to be solved, not as an elderly woman who had had enough. Because of the way her health improved, then so quickly declined, and because the system is set up to save people, not let them die, those last few weeks became needlessly tragic. They were also—and this really would have made my grandmother irate—enormously wasteful. Tens of thousands of dollars were spent on care and treatment: the ambulance trips alone averaged $500 apiece; the first visit to hospice cost more than $10,000; and the bill for three days in Lenox Hill came to $36,772.43, not including visits from doctors. All this for a 91-year-old woman with terminal cancer and no wish to hang on.

Last week I was back at her apartment, sorting through some of her things, when I opened a bag and was hit with a smell so intense I reeled backward. It was the smell of my grandmother dying, of her sickness and cancer and final days. It was a bag full of the pillows from her bed. As if possessed, I ran to the building's incinerator and one by one shoved each pillow, still in its pillowcase, down the chute and into the black. Immediately, my ancestral thrift hit me: throwing away perfectly good pillows was a silly, wasteful thing to do. Self-indulgent, my grandmother would say.

I'll probably always feel a certain amount of guilt over what happened to her, over my inability to give her what she wanted. But even now I don't know what my family could have done differently. We tried, again and again, to push for the absolute minimum in treatment during those last weeks. I asked, again and again, for nurses to give her as much morphine as they could so that she might finally stop thrashing around on her bed. But it's hard to tell strangers whose job is to keep people alive that you actually want your loved one to just die already. And it's brutal to say it dozens of times, to dozens of strangers, who don't really seem to be listening anyway.

There is, in retrospect, one moment I wish I had handled differently. After her second fall in the assisted-living facility, I noticed that her left leg was puffy and swollen. I told the on-duty nurse, who called, of all people, a podiatrist, who diagnosed her with deep-vein thrombosis. The staff at the facility insisted that treatment was considered palliative, and that it was necessary, and that they wouldn't be able to treat her there. They also promised us that if we brought her to Lenox Hill, we could avoid the emergency room and get checked directly in to a bed. None of that turned out to be true. And because of it, for a few minutes, my grandmother lay on a gurney on the street in a snowstorm.

One of my coworkers at the time had a habit of quoting, over and over, an adage that she thought might give me comfort. "You can't make it good, Jesse," she would say. "But you can make it rich." She was voicing a sentiment common in this country. We want to treat death with a kind of reverence—with awe and solemnity. But for many of us, the truth is that it's not deep, it's not rich, it's not meaningful. It's just ugly, especially when it's prolonged for no good reason. Who are we protecting in moments like these? Who are we helping? Who are we thinking of? Not me. Not my father. Certainly not my grandmother.

Scam: NC Democrat Throws Consumers Under the Bus, Broadband Map Crayoning, & $350 Million Taxpayer Dollars Flushed

2009-07-10T12:19:00.000-04:00

North Carolina residents should be outraged at Rep. Bill Faison, the Democratic chairman of the state House Select Committee on High-Speed Internet Access in Rural Areas. He’s set to do for North Carolina broadband what Hurricane Katrina did for urban renewal in New Orleans. Faison, along with some other cronies, are examples of what is wrong with broadband stimulus planning when certain elected officials open their doors on big special interests, and slam them on the fingers of actual consumers.

Eight years ago, the North Carolina legislature commissioned the state to produce accurate, detailed broadband maps, depicting who has access to what broadband services, if any, across the Tar Heel State. e-NC, an organization of excellence recognized worldwide, set about not only doing broadband mapping, but also advocating for consumer and business interests across the state by pushing for higher quality and faster service. e-NC’s mapping standard has been recognized by the European Commission, Microsoft, and IBM for its detailed, accurate depictions of broadband service.

e-NC has had its work cut out for it. AT&T and other North Carolina telecom providers have stonewalled the group since day one, refusing to disclose “private company information.” Where e-NC could obtain agreements, they came with ludicrous non-disclosure agreements that were the equivalent of ‘here is the information you requested, but you cannot use it in your maps.’

That’s where Faison comes in. He sends out an invitation to the media to announce North Carolina finally has a broadband map available, and then proceeds to slam e-NC because it produced maps that, at one point, he compared with “swiss cheese.” Faison is fully aware that e-NC had been complaining about provider stonewalling, and he did nothing to stop it. But then he did something even worse: he praised the very providers who did the stonewalling and are now in charge of producing the “detailed maps” that the providers want the legislature to see.

Faison said, “In the face of legislation recommended by the Committee which would have required the providers to disclose precise information to the Legislature for our staff to generate a detailed map of availability, the providers have come together and collectively decided to provide the information through Connected Nation, to not only provide the “street address” map but also to make the map both accessible and interactive through the internet. Special recognition should be given to AT&T, Embarq, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, The Cable Association, the Telephone Co-op association, and Alltel for their work on this matter.”

Shameful.

Of course, Faison’s anti-consumer efforts on behalf of his good friends in the telecommunications industry are no secret to our North Carolina readers. Faison was one of the proponents of the anti-consumer nightmare legislation S1004, which was hand-crafted by big cable and telephone companies to stop municipal broadband projects across the state. Faison is a menace for consumer interests in North Carolina.

Faison doesn’t care, of course. He has his eyes on some of that $7.4 billion in broadband stimulus money he hopes to grab for the state AT&T, Embarq, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, and any other provider that will try and use their own maps to “qualify” for the tax dollars you and I are going to hand over for broadband development.

Faison said: “North Carolina will be one of only six states with a detailed “street address” interactive map of broadband availability. It positions us advantageously to obtain a portion of $7.4 billion in Stimulus money available for broadband deployment. A map, such as ours, is now a precondition for obtaining this portion of the Stimulus money. The collaborative work of the Committee and the providers has now postured North Carolina in the most favorable of positions to not only obtain this portion of the Stimulus money, but also to advance broadband deployment for our people.”

In other words, by replacing reality with the telecom industry’s own version of reality, they hope to sneak through applications that look good on paper, whether or not they accurately depict the real “on the ground” state of broadband in North Carolina. If I were a grant application reviewer with this kind of “detailed” conflict-of-interest map work, I’d disqualify the entire state from getting one penny.

As the excellent investigative piece by Art Brodsky points out over on Public Knowledge (thanks Stop the Cap! reader Michael for showing the way):

AT&T stiffs the state, and then makes up its own map, which state legislators accept. There is no transparency, no verification, no nothing. (But it is interactive.) The only way in which this can not be a total conflict of interest is to recall the (perhaps) apocryphal story of the Maryland state legislator who also owned a liquor store. He introduced a bill to help liquor stores and was asked if this bill was a conflict of interest. “How does this conflict with my interests,” he was said to have replied. Exactly.

Meanwhile, the oh-so-aptly named (well-)Connected Nation, packed to the rafters with big cable and telephone company lobbyists, is busily doing its part to flush $350,000,000 of taxpayer funding down the drain with its own “broadband maps” which resemble the crayoning work your 1st grade son brought home from school.

Connected Nation, a creature of AT&T, spent $7 million dollars of your taxpayer money to commission Connect Ohio, an affiliate, to map broadband availability in that state. The result was a map you could have drawn yourself during a TV show commercial break. I think I’ll use Light Pink myself.
Connect Ohio's "Broadband Map" for Summit County, Ohio

Connect Ohio's "Broadband Map" for Summit County, Ohio

No, the blue speckles are not from blueberry pie stains. Those are bodies of water. What exactly does Connect Ohio’s map say? Not a whole lot. Basically, it claims the areas in beautiful pink are locations where broadband service is supposed to be available. The whitish areas are outta luck.

Seven million well spent dollars there!

Meanwhile, here is a map from Strategic Networks Group, a company that was never eligible for federal mapping grant money:
Map from Strategic Networks Group, that didn't cost taxpayers a cent

Map from Strategic Networks Group, that didn't cost taxpayers a cent

Which map would you prefer to rely on? The $7 million dollar boondoggle from Connect Ohio or the zero taxpayer dollar map from Strategic?

Why didn’t Strategic get the contract? Because Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois custom wrote language into the Broadband Data Improvement Act, that specifically defined who received the award money. Basically, it came down to only those well-connected politically with state governments (Connected Nation) getting the lion’s share. No merit-based mappers need apply.

Strategic’s maps were apparently too good. Take a look at this exceptionally detailed map they produced for just western Akron, Ohio (and notice this is page four of a series of detailed maps):

Unlike Connected Nation's maps, you WILL have to click to enlarge!

Unlike Connected Nation's maps, you WILL have to click to enlarge!

Stop the Cap! stands with Art Brodsky and Public Knowledge regarding this travesty:

The government notice setting out the terms for the mapping grants was sadly deficient. Even if one grants that Connected Nation was wired in under the terms of a misguided bill, the agency notice of funds availability had no conflict-of-interest safeguards. There are no requirements for transparency or for verification of information. There are no standard data sets to make sure all the maps measure the same things. Instead, there are what appear to be protections for “confidential” information that could render the process useless.

Perhaps some of these deficiencies can be cured at the program moves forward. Perhaps not. In either case, these cautionary tales are getting a bit tiresome. Jury-rigged RFPs, no-bid contracts, hot-wired legislatures and state agencies are no way to run a program as important as broadband.

The stimulus broadband mapping program is set up for massive failure unless changes are made. Congress has to allow more competition for grants. The Durbin argument that private, for-profit companies shouldn’t do public work like broadband mapping, while non-profits should, falls apart when one considers the advantages of an independent company vs. a compromised non-profit. The agencies responsible need more detailed criteria to protect the public investment. Consistency, transparency, public verification and less protection of information are needed. Maybe then can an #epic fail can be avoided.

Health insurers want you to keep smoking, Harvard doctors say

2009-06-08T02:36:00.000-04:00

Health and life insurance companies in the US and abroad have nearly $4.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks, according to Harvard doctors.

“It’s the combined taxidermist and veterinarian approach: either way you get your dog back,” says David Himmelstein, an internist at the Harvard Medical School and co-author of a letter published in this week’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The largest tobacco investor on the list, the 160-year old Prudential company with branches in the US and the UK, has more than $1.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks. The runner-up was Toronto-based Sun Life Financial, which apparently holds over $1 billion in Philip Morris (Altria) and other tobacco stocks. In total, seven companies that sell life, health, disability, or long-term care insurance, have major holdings in tobacco stock.

Why is it a big deal? “If you own a billion dollars [of tobacco stock], then you don’t want to see it go down,” says Himmelstein, “You are less likely to join anti-tobacco coalitions, endorse anti-tobacco legislation, basically, anything most health companies would want to participate in.”

The letter is the third report that the doctors – who all support a national healthcare program – have published in the last 14 years.

We decided to check in with some of the insurance companies mentioned in the letter to learn more about their policies with respect to tobacco stock. Prudential was unable to respond by press time. Sun Life, however, flatly denied the charges.

“Sun Life does not carry significant holdings in tobacco stocks,” says representative Steve Kee, “We do not disclose specific holdings and, for good measure, we conducted a review further to your inquiry and our exposure to ‘tobacco’ stocks is less than 0.005 percent [about $5 million] of the investment portfolio. Importantly, tobacco-related businesses can be part of a broader conglomerate involving other aspects such as food production.”

Himmelstein rechecked his numbers in the Osiris database, and said, “I fear that if Sun Life has a dispute, it is with Osiris not with us.”

In any event, the doctors’ persistence over the years seems to be working to some extent. They targeted MetLife and Cigna in their 1995 and 2000 letters to medical journals, but neither is listed in the latest reckoning, indicating that the insurers no longer hold enough to stock to be noted on filings for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, a representative for Cigna says they currently have no direct holdings in tobacco stock unless it is part of an index fund.

But with $4.5 billion still invested in Big Tobacco, many insurers are reaping profits from a cancer-causing industry. As Himmelstein puts it, "Is this who we want running our healthcare system?"

Should Congress investigate why oil is nearing $70 in a recession?

2009-06-08T02:32:00.001-04:00

By: Joseph Lazzaro

Is it time for the U.S. Congress to systematically investigate the oil futures market?

Market absolutists cry no, but an oil price pushing $70 per barrel amid the worst U.S. recession since 1982, the first global recession since World War II, and 10-year-high inventory levels argue otherwise.

After hitting a record high of $147.27 per barrel during the leverage-fed investment and trading frenzy of 2008, the price of oil collapsed with the onset of the U.S. recession and then the implosion of the financial crisis, the latter of which took numerous hedge fund and investment fund oil futures buyers out of the market. Prices plummeted to a low around $35 in December 2008.

Historically, $30 is a high price for oil

Further, it's significant to note that although crude's price collapsed, $35 is still, in historical terms, a strong price for oil, which has averaged $25-30 per barrel, in current dollars, over the past 150 years.

Moreover, many experts expected oil's price to recover only slowly in 2009. U.S. gasoline demand declined for much of the past 12 months, on a weekly basis. Emerging market demand growth -- a major factor in oil's price rise during 2003-2007 -- was low, and the world was set to record its second consecutive decline in global oil demand. But the incremental rise in oil's price did not occur: instead, the price of oil skyrocketed in the past six weeks, essentially doubling in a very short period of time, in macroeconomic terms.

Oil bulls say the oil futures market, like the stock market, is merely pricing in likely oil demand conditions six to nine months out: investors and traders sense a bottoming recession in the U.S. and better economic conditions internationally, and its implied rising global oil demand, and are pushing up oil's price accordingly. Under this thesis, a $70 (or higher) price is justified given likely, future economic conditions.

However, oil industry analysts, among others, are increasingly citing investment funds as the primary reason for the rise.

"It's the funds that are pushing the market higher," Jonathan Kornafel, director for Asia at options trader Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore, told Bloomberg News Friday. "When everyone reads the same report and comes to the same conclusion, then you're going to have the market moving in one direction. The general trend is for the dollar to get weaker and for crude to get stronger."

Or, in other words, some, if not many institutional investors are buying oil futures as an alternative asset – a perfectly normal deployment of capital in free markets, and one that's largely innocuous (except for the speculator or the hedger) if you're investing in oat futures or cotton, so says economist Peter Dawson. However, if the asset is the world's most important commodity - one on which the developed world's, and now much of the developing world's - economy hinges, depending on its price – the deployment of capital could become a concern, particularly if it is concentrated, Dawson told DailyFinance. At least in theory, a sector-wide concentration of institutional investors could 'artificially boost' the price of a commodity well above what supply and demand would typically dictate – in effect grossly distorting its price.

"No conspiracy or collusion need occur. Just concentration," Dawson said. "Concentration is enough to cause a price bubble, and the U.S. housing sector is an example of that. There was no 'conspiracy' to cause U.S. median home prices to rise to dizzying heights, but rise they did, and a bubble formed, due to the concentration of players, in housing's case, a lot of buyers due to the availability of subprime loans."

Tail wagging the dog?

Dawson said he wants price discovery to continue in markets, particularly in oil, "but what could be occurring now is not price discovery, but 'pack mentality.' " The U.S. Congress, Dawson said, should begin a formal, long-term study on the relationship between the rise in futures trading and oil's price, "and systematically research whether the ten of thousands of new oil futures players have led to higher prices than they would have been, under similar supply/demand conditions, with these players absent."

The oil market today - if prices don't moderate in the coming months - also "is capable of exhibiting characteristics that border on 'The Twilight Zone,' " Dawson added.

"The problem with the futures activity is that it's pushed prices up so high that, if a $60-70 price holds, it will further dampen consumer spending and crimp corporate budgets to the point that the economic recovery will be hurt," Dawson said. "And if that's the case, the futures activity will have the affect of eliminating the very economic recovery that prompted the oil futures buying in the first place. And when you think about it, that type of market behavior is just absurd and irrational, from an economic development standpoint."

Economic Analysis: Oil has quickly vaulted to levels few thought possible, given the inventory glut and tepid demand. The weaker dollar has played a role, but the dollar is down roughly 10-15 percent during oil's leap to near $70 – hardly enough to explain the price surge. Like economist Dawson, the view from here argues Congress should research the relationship between the number of oil futures players and oil's price.

NC SECU POI for TomTom Live

2009-04-09T15:49:00.006-04:00

Special thanks today goes out to Kai H. Cheng at North Carolina State Employees Credit Union (SECU). Kai just sent me POI files for TomTom GPSes that have all the SECU locations for branches and ATMs.

TomTom users who would like to always know where the nearest SECU ATM or branch location can grab the POI file via TomTom Home. To do that:

Connect your TomTom to your PC.
Open TomTom Home if it doesn't start automatically.
Click on "Add Traffic, Voices, Safety Cameras, etc." at the main screen. (Note, Home may prompt you to update some stuff on your TomTom before you get the main screen.)
Click on Points of Interest.
Search for "SECU" in the search box at the top right. Scroll down 3/4 the way down. (Past all the Spanish names.)
You will see 2 POI lists. 1) ATMs. 2) Branches.
Click on the Add button list you'd like to add to your TomTom.
Confirm you'd like to add the community submitted list.
Repeat for second list if you'd like both.

Once you have the list loaded, when you are driving you will see 2 different icons depending on what you are approaching. Branches will have this icon: . ATMs will have this icon: .

PS... SECU has ATMs in every county in NC. And they are all surcharge free. So even if SECU isn't your bank, you can still use their ATMs without having to form over $2-3 to an ATM just for the privilege of using it. (Your bank may still dig in your pocket with a "foreign network ATM" fee. If so, get a new bank!)

State Employees' Credit Union is a member-owned, non-profit cooperative. Membership is limited to persons who meet the eligibility requirements. For more information, visit their website.

If you're not eligible to join SECU, please take a look at the local, hometown banks and credit unions in your area and support them with your business. The hometown banks and credit unions in your area form the backbone of community banking that keeps our towns and small businesses running.

Without your support, they don't thrive and we're left with only banks that are "too big to fail" and too big to know you as a person. So, make it a point to check out your local banks this week. They'd love to get to know you. When is the last time your banker asked how your son's soccer game went last night?

Stop the Time Warner Caps in NC

2009-04-06T15:35:00.002-04:00

Greensboro and surrounding area residents are outraged to discover Time Warner throwing their community into the “test markets” forced to endure heavily rationed Internet access plans from Road Runner. Greensboro is the first test market due to lack of competition from AT&T and Verizon. If we don't stop it in Greensboro, the rest of NC will soon follow.

Cities first affected: Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Burlington, Graham, Mebane, and Saxapahaw. Any city in what used to be called the Triad market.

It's almost laughable how thinly veiled this change is. Time Warner is implementing caps so low as to dissuade people from consuming online TV and video content from competing venues like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, NBC, BravoTV, etc.

Customers with teenagers in the house should be especially outraged as the content consumption of their children is likely to net $100+ internet bills every month.

Co-op Market Coming to Burlington, NC

2009-03-23T20:52:00.003-04:00

FreePress Visits Person County

2009-03-04T12:50:00.002-05:00

Day 2 of the "Five Days on the Internet Dirt Road" series by FreePress' Internet for Everyone project visits my home town and describes what many of those related to my family experience in rural Person County.

The Flaw in the System: The Bankers Don't Care About the Banks

2009-03-03T12:24:00.000-05:00

by Cenk Uygur, Daily Kos

Alan Greenspan says he is in a "state of shocked disbelief" that the concept of self-interest did not protect the banks from taking excessive risks and destroying themselves. But he, along with Tim Geithner and Larry Summers and many others, are missing the fundamental flaw in the system. The bankers don't care about the banks; they care about the bankers.

The enlightened self-interest of the bank executives has been separated from the interests of the banks they work for. In the 1970's, the banks were still privately owned. So, the guy up at the top wanted to protect his company, his interest and his money. If his executives took unwarranted risks with the boss's money, they were goners. But these days the people at the top of these companies don't own the companies. It's not their money.

Here is how the Wall Street Journal explains it (a useful nugget in an otherwise horrible piece):

"The Wall Street compensation system has evolved from the 1970s, when most of the firms were private partnerships, owned by partners who paid out a designated share of the firm's profits to nonpartner employees while dividing up the rest for themselves. The nonpartners had to earn their keep every year, but the partners' percentage ownerships in the firms were also reset every year or two. On the whole, everyone's performance was continuously evaluated and rewarded or penalized. The system provided great incentives to create profits, but also, because the partners' own money was involved, to avoid great risk."

These days, the way executives make money instead is in the form of bonuses for years where they bring in a lot of return (and often times for years they don't), but the threat of being fired for too much risk taking is minimal. The more risk you take, the more money everyone makes. And it's not the partner's money you're playing with anymore. You're playing with house money. No one is minding the store anymore.

Now think about it this way: if you were going to make ten million dollars in bonuses for taking high risks with other people's money, would you do it? The answer invariably is - hell yes!

If it's your own money on the line, you might be extraordinarily careful with the risk you take. But if you are going to get a multi-million dollar reward for taking risks, but you expose your company to a little bit more risk, what percentage of people would take that extra risk on behalf of their company? I would venture to guess 98%.

And the other 2% are suckers. There is no downside for you. The higher the risk, the higher the return in the short-run (which actually lasted a long time) and the higher your take home salary is. Are you going to be the only guy on Wall Street saying, "Well, golly gee willikers, everyone else is making millions but I really care about my shareholders. I don't want that huge bonus. I want safe investments for my company."? That's not how human nature works.

So, now we have Tim Geithner and the rest of Treasury working so hard to prop up not just these failed banks - but these failed bank executives - because we don't want government running these large companies. The self-interest of the market will do a better job of managing these companies. But it hasn't - because of this fundamental flaw.

These executives did not actually fail. They succeeded wildly. It's just that they had a different goal - to take home as much money as they possibly could for themselves. Mission accomplished!

I don't blame them. The system is set up wrong. Almost anyone in their position would have done the same - and will continue to do the same as long as we are foolish enough to keep pouring money into these companies. They are going to try to move every nickel they can from our pockets into theirs.

The Treasury plan is all wrong. We have to first acknowledge that the boards of these companies are not truly representing the shareholders. They are largely friends with most of the CEOs and they do not have an incentive to reign in out of control compensation for the top executives. Then those CEOs pass on the wrong incentives to the executives below them. The more risk they all take, the more money they take home. And if their company goes broke one day - who cares?

Most of these guys took home millions upon millions of dollars already for profits that never really existed. If the company goes under, okay the gravy train came to an end but they still have all the money they made from all those years. It's in their personal bank accounts. That's enlightened self-interest!

Do you know that last year, as Merrill Lynch was in its death throes, 696 executives got bonuses over a million dollars? 696! As the company lost tens of billions of dollars, the executives took home a combined $3.6 billion that year. Billions in bonuses in the worst year in the company's history. They're not stupid; they're smart. They're looting the store before the cops show up.

This is the financial equivalent of the federal government not showing up to rescue people after Hurricane Katrina. Last year the five biggest Wall Street securities firms lost $25.3 billion. The executives at those companies still took home $26 billion in bonuses. In other words, they wouldn't have lost a nickel if they hadn't taken any bonuses.

Do you think if the guys up at the top still owned the companies they would allow their employees to take home $26 billion in bonuses when they lost $25 billion that year? Self-interest would never allow that. But now no one is looking over their shoulder.

So who cares what the company loses? Take the money while you still can. The Treasury Department still hasn't shown up to take over these looted stores. In fact, they keep pouring taxpayer money into these same shops, as the money continues to move out the back door. Tim Geithner is the worst sheriff in the world.

But we already knew that. Because the main guy who was overseeing all of these banks in New York, as they took these giants risks, was the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Tim Geithner.

He is under the misimpression that his job is to protect the sanctity of the banks. Not only is that not his job, but that is working against his actual goal. His real job is to stabilize the financial system, with or without these particular banks or bank executives. The longer he keeps these guys in charge, the longer the looting continues.

Somebody send in the cavalry already. Geithner and Summers make it appear as if we are all dense and don't get the urgency of shoring up the financial system. We all get it. But there are several different ways to skin that cat. And their way is not working - and because of the fundamental flaw in the system - cannot ever work.

Even if they stop the bleeding in the short term, if they don't fix the flaw, the executives will be back to the same routine very shortly. Why? For the same exact reason that Greenspan thought the system couldn't fail - self-interest.

Weekend dinner at the local gas station

2009-02-09T02:05:00.002-05:00

Ok, so there's this little place out on the Haw River in Alamance County called Saxapahaw. Quite often for me that little place is also called home. Just up the hill we have the Saxapahaw General Store, otherwise known to locals as the "Shell Station".

Well, this little Shell Station is square in the middle of the most radical transformation she's seen in 60 years. We might be 13 miles from everywhere in the middle of nowhere but there's something happening in Saxapahaw you might not expect.

To illustrate my point, here is the weekend dinner menu from this "Shell Station":

Weekend Dinner Menu
5-9 P.M. Friday and Saturday, 5-8 P.M. Sunday
February 6-8

Shrimp Chowder
cup for 4—, bowl for 5—

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
cup for 4—, bowl for 5—

Crispy Pork Belly
Apple cider glaze, garlic mashed potatoes, garlic and shallot green beans
12—

Pan-seared Duck Breast Salad
local goat cheese, currants, grilled onions, balsamic glaze
10—

Steel Head Trout
sweet potato hash, asparagus
14 —

6 oz. Wagyu Sirloin Steak
sautéed spinach, duck fat fried potatoes
14—

Kurobuta Pork Chop
Portobello mushroom gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts
14—

Eggplant Parmesan
mixed greens salad
8—

Wild Caught Sea Scallops (after 6 p.m. Friday)
risotto cake, asparagus
16—

Lamb Shank
white bean ragout, sautéed greens
12—

Plate of Mussels
roasted garlic and tomato broth, grilled baguette
8—

Dessert:
Local Sweet Potato Pie, Chocolate Pecan Tart, Local Chevre Cheesecake
4—

Yes, you read all that right and I didn't embellish a single bit. You might want to follow what's going on at the Saxapahaw General Store over at their blog: http://saxapahawgeneralstore.blogspot.com/

Soon a restaurant and pub will be popping out as the upper mill of RiverMill is completed... yep... out here 13 miles from anywhere. If it turns out half as good as the mom and pop run steak place I used to drive 15 minutes into the middle of nowhere to get to in Brandon, Mississippi, it will be the best thing Alamance County has ever seen. (And I'm expecting it to hit a higher mark than that.)

Sometimes it's good to live in the middle of nowhere. ;)

AT&T And Verizon FTTH On The Same Block?

2009-01-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

From BroadbandReports.com... Things get really weird down in Texas...

Verizon has started laying fiber in some neighborhoods that are already served by AT&T U-Verse. The select broadband incursions may evolve into a broader battle, depending on who you ask. Some believe any AT&T or Verizon direct competition could remain limited to very select greenfield developments in just a handful of Texas areas. Others think that once Verizon gets a taste of greenfield profits, they'll expand the idea into states like California.

Light Reading editor Phil Harvey e-mails me to note they've taken photographs of the only town in the U.S. where you can see AT&T and Verizon FTTH gear on the same block. AT&T forgoes VDSL/FTTN for FTTH in some developments, though they cap the bandwidth delivered back to the same max speed of regular VDSL U-Verse (up to 18Mbps, at least until AT&T perfects channel bonding).

That would seemingly give Verizon, whose top speed is 50Mbps, the advantage in any head to head battle. At least in terms of speed -- AT&T could offer more alluring bundles. In many high-end greenfield developments though, price isn't going to be as important as just getting the best product. Most budget-minded consumers in lower ROI regions will probably never have to worry about AT&T and Verizon fighting to offer them FTTH.

The photos are from a new Frisco, Texas development, and (probably to AT&T and Verizon's chagrin) show both carrier's cabinets all up close and personal like -- both inside and out. Despite the boxes being so close, they're still serving different upscale developments. For now, anyway. Verizon will be lighting up FiOS in AT&T areas over the next few months -- the first time the two giants will go head to head.

N.C. Contradictions: Mapping General Election Territory

2009-01-15T14:05:00.002-05:00

This is a republication of Angie Santiago's May 2008 article from her NC Contradictions series in The Huffington Post.

---

Historic Saxapahaw, N.C. -- As I continue to travel east on 54 from Graham to Chapel Hill, I pass by a sign that reads, "Mebane - 10". I remind myself to take that turn sometime. Here 54 is wide enough to accommodate trucks transporting logs or livestock, allowing them to avoid the Interstate, where they're a target for highway patrols regulating weight and seeking permits. During the day, the drive along 54 East is uneventful but come sundown it transforms into a dark foggy deer-ridden obstacle course. The first thing I learned about navigating this area at night is that deer travel in packs. If you see one grazing along the road, there are probably three to five of them just waiting for their chance to run towards your car rather than away. Here they are a nuisance that eat my neighbor's crops or the food intended for their livestock. It's a beautiful drive and it's hard to believe it's just fifteen minutes from town because it seems so distant. I can listen to full NPR programming when I take this nice road.

The next sign directs me to turn left toward Saxapahaw, a remote self-contained five-and-half square mile community once known for its state of the art hydroelectric powered yarn mill founded and managed by B. Everett Jordan's Sellers Manufacturing and later expanded to Sellers Dyeing and Jordan Spinning Company. Saxapahaw is 13 miles from everywhere in the middle of nowhere but it may have been the home of the mysterious extinct tribe of Native Americans, the Sissipahaw Indians. The mill was sold to another company in the 1970's. Like so many manufacturing and textile concerns, it fell victim to NAFTA and closed its doors in 1994. Armed with their trusted family name and a degrees from Duke and NC State, including a Masters in Architecture, Mr. Jordan's son Mac led the charge to raise funds to re-purchase the mill and develop it into the historic Rivermill Village.

I walked the stairs to the musty office and waited for John Jordan, another descendant of the famous Saxapahaw family, to arrive. Surrounded by blueprints, family pictures, historical photos, and political cartoons, Mr. Jordan came in with a packaged lunch for his wife, Irlene, who was waiting for him at home. Peppered throughout the state, there are monuments, dams, lakes, and schools named in honor of his father, B. Everett Jordan, a Democratic U.S. Senator from 1958 to 1973. This Mr. Jordan, however, is a registered Republican. Now that's a story I need to follow up on.

When asked about what change meant to him during this election he asked: Change from what? Change to what? Interest rates are low. Do we want them higher? Terrorists have not attacked America again. The unemployment rate is low. Stocks are good. Americans spent $100 million dollars at the movies this weekend.

As a property investor and manager, Mr. Jordan cited the fraudulent bait and switch practice of sub-prime loan industry as the real reason people are losing their homes. Given enough time the housing market will straighten itself out. "Things aren't as bad they say," Mr. Jordan defended. History will show that the current Bush administration was inaccurately portrayed.

With respect to rising fuel prices, Mr. Jordan shared that the number one problem in this country is our dependence on foreign oil and people's lack of ownership to do their part. Since 9/11 Mr. Jordan purchased two hybrid cars but still drives less. A true believer in microeconomics, Mr. Jordan hopes that consumers will take a stand by making better choices to drive less, conserve energy, carpool, and take public transportation, if available. Such choices should lower the demand for oil and prices. He would like to see public policy leaders and environmentalists compromise, collaborate and reconsider drilling for oil in our own territory as well as develop alternative methods of energy. Public policy leaders should also invest in public transportation to reduce the commuting and the demand on fuel.

He cast his vote for John McCain because he believes that America is safer, the economy is strong, and jobs are being created. So why change that?

How I chose to live greener

2008-11-21T15:16:00.004-05:00

A lot is being said lately about going green but the fact of the matter is that a few of us have been living greener than most for quite some time. Quite honestly we look at it as a good personal decision and don't make any fanfare.

This past week, I surprised a few friends of mine with the details of how I've made greener choices they didn't even knew existed.

For example, I have an office out an in rural area of North Carolina known as Saxapahaw. Most people have never heard of Saxapahaw and even fewer can spell it correctly the first time. When i was looking at the area, a few things intriqued me.

First, the Saxapahaw River Mill was restored instead of being torn down. Something that examplified the death of the textile society in North Carolina was converted into townhouses, apartments, business spaces, and soon condos. In the process of the conversion there was conservation. Brick walls were kept and restored. The old hardwood floors, posts and support beams were kept and restored. Wherever possible, as much of the old skin of the building was retained while upgrading key components (like windows) for efficiency. Plus the super high ceilings provide a natural cooling effect in the warmer months.

Then there is the particular location. I had found myself driving between Roxboro, Burlington and Chapel Hill. Saxapahaw is located almost exactly half way betweeen Burlington and Chapel Hill. So locating there instantly cut 1/2 of my driving - and fuel consumption. And even deeper cuts in fuel consumption were made possibly by my being able to work so close to home now that I don't need to drive at all some day. Even in the midst of tremendous gas price increases, I managed to cut my monthly fuel budget by 40%.

Now what surprised my friends was how the Saxapahaw area is powered - hydroelectric. Back in the days of the cotton mill there was a hydroelectric dam which provided power to the mill (and originally provided sheer mechanical energy through wheels and pullies before the days of electrification).

The hydroelectric dam had set unused from 1964 until 1980 when a group known as Haw River Hydro Company bought the dam and began the process of restoration. In 1982, the generator was brought back online, a contract was signed with Duke Power and it began distributing clean energy into the Duke Power grid - and subsequently the surrounding Saxapahaw area. The dam generates enough power to continuously provide clean power to about 700 homes. This means that Saxapahaw is carbon neutral for its electric power... and we don't even have to pay extra for it.

More importantly though, this same sort of restoration is beginning over at the old Glencoe Mill on the other side of Alamance county from here. Glencoe, like Rivermill, has a small hydroelectric plant that is being brought back online to generate clean electricity. Glencoe promises to become an interesting mixed use community. Again turning something that was lost in the community into something valuable and sustainable.

Other greening projects are underway here in Saxapahaw. Some are simple - like changing out all of the incandescent lighting that was historically in the building to use florescent and compact florescent bulbs. Some are a bit more complex - like water conservation and sewage mitigation. Since Saxapahaw runs its own water system, conservation is able to take a local flavor and truly reflect the community here.

On a closing note, I must admit I get a little giddy thinking about the fact that when I turn on my electric baseboards or heat pump, there is a little turbine up the street in the river that's generating the power which is providing me heat. And nowhere along the way is a lump of coal or a therm of natural gas -or a gram of plutonium - being consumed.

Michelle Obama: a new type of First Lady

2008-11-07T07:49:00.001-05:00

That rather sad, muffled noise you hear behind the whoops and cheers of Democrat America is not the sound of defeated neocons mourning the passing of trickle-down economics; it is the sound of sobbing in the Élysée Palace. For Carla Bruni, reigning queen of First Ladies, the game is finally up. Cindy McCain would have been a push-over; even Sarah Palin she could have coped with, sexy specs or otherwise. But in Michelle Obama, Ms Bruni has truly met her match. This is a First Lady like none before.

In truth, from the moment Michelle Obama stepped on to that podium at the Democrat convention what seems like, ooh, about three million years ago, we all secretly knew which way this race was going. Sure, he had big, sticky-out ears; sure, all those luvvies made that embarrassing YouTube song about him; but if Michelle thought that he was OK — if she chose him — then he just had to be a good man.

Everything about this woman speaks to the modern, post-feminist woman: she is manifestly clever, independently minded, attractive in a normal, accessible way (and not in a scary, plastic-fantastic Cindy way). Her demeanour is a reassuring mixture of sassy and self-deprecating; her easy, confident dress sense neither too sexy nor too self-conscious. Most of all, however, she appears to be the personification of sanity, a woman who, while clearly supportive of her husband’s quest for world domination, is nevertheless not afraid to point out when he is danger of drinking too much of his own Kool-Aid.

The evolution of the role of First Lady is a fascinating one. Until now, they have essentially been available in two flavours. The first is the meek, supportive grin-and-bear-it model, as exemplified by Laura and Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan and Mamie Eisenhower. Often Republican, invariably well-coiffed, they seem to simultaneously be at the centre of the action yet a million light years away from power. Often, this impression is grossly unfair. Laura Bush’s favourite writer, for example, is Dostoevsky — not that you would have known it from the press release: too intimidating, too intellectual for the wife of the man everyone wanted to share a Bud with.

The alternative is the two-for-the-price-of-one First Lady. These tend to be ball-breaking Democrats such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton. They have their own careers, their own lives and their own minds.

There is one exception: Jackie Kennedy. She was pure style, a fashion clothes horse who still, 40 years on, has the power to inspire double-page spreads in Vogue magazine.

What makes Michelle unique is the way she so skilfully unites all three: supportive, independent and a fashion icon. Sarah Palin blew £90,000 on her campaign wardrobe but let’s face it, it is that blue shift dress that we all remember.

In the last American election, the big question was this: who would you most want to share a beer with? In this one, it was more like: who would you like to share a Martini with? The answer of course being Michelle. (Barack could maybe make himself useful by popping out for some crisps.) Michelle is not only invigoratingly intelligent, proud of her urbanity, but also unafraid of showing her abilities. She is certainly the only wife of a presidential candidate I can remember who, instead of playing herself down, played up the general uselessness of her husband in matters domestic — and in doing so not only held her ground intellectually but also reached out to all those women who, while devoted to their spouses, also find them slightly useless in matters of sock-tidying.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Michelle however is what having a woman lawyer like her in the White House means. For it is not often one can go to sleep safe in the knowledge that there is an educated, intelligent, sensible female voice being heard in the corridors of power.

At the 2004 Democrat Convention in Boston, when the unknown Barack Obama stepped up to the plate to deliver the keynote speech, she famously said to him: “Don’t screw it up, buddy.” One cannot help hoping those words were repeated last night.

Big Guns Come Out In Effort To Show RIAA's Lawsuits Are Unconstitutional

2008-10-31T01:04:00.000-04:00

Thanks to TechDirt for their coverage and analysis of this issue!

from the this-ought-to-be-worth-watching dept

People have been submitting this story nonstop, but I wanted to take some time to read the details before commenting on it. It's not the first time that folks have argued that the damages sought by the RIAA in various lawsuits against file sharers are unconstitutional. However, the few times it's been brought up in court, the arguments haven't been persuasive. However, this time around, it looks like the big legal guns are getting involved, and the argument seems a lot more comprehensive and compelling.

In the past, it's been noted that the RIAA has curiously avoided suing any Harvard students, with one of the theories being that Harvard had made it quite clear to the RIAA that it would fight back hard. And, with Harvard law school at its disposal, and various professors there indicating that they had serious legal problems with the RIAA's strategy, the RIAA simply decided to ignore any file sharing going on at that prestigious university.

However, for RIAA critic and well known law professor, Charles Nesson, waiting around for the RIAA to sue someone at Harvard was getting boring, so he went out and found a case to participate in. Along with two third year law students, Nesson has hit back hard on the RIAA's efforts in a court filing, where it's noted that the very basis for many of the RIAA's lawsuits is very likely unconstitutional.

He makes the argument that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is very much unconstitutional, in that its hefty fines for copyright infringement (misleadingly called "theft" in the title of the bill) show that the bill is effectively a criminal statute, yet for a civil crime. That's because it really focuses on punitive damages, rather than making private parties whole again. Even worse, it puts the act of enforcing the criminal statute in the hands of a private body (the RIAA) who uses it for profit motive in being able to get hefty fines:

Imagine a statute which, in the name of deterrence, provides for a $750 fine for each mile-per-hour that a driver exceeds the speed limit, with the fine escalating to $150,000 per mile over the limit if the driver knew he or she was speeding. Imagine that the fines are not publicized, and most drivers do not know they exist. Imagine that enforcement of the fines is put in the hands of a private, self-interested police force, that has no political accountability, that can pursue any defendant it chooses at its own whim, that can accept or reject payoffs in exchange for not prosecuting the tickets, and that pockets for itself all payoffs and fines. Imagine that a significant percentage of these fines were never contested, regardless of whether they had merit, because the individuals being fined have limited financial resources and little idea of whether they can prevail in front of an objective judicial body.

Beyond just questioning the constitutionality of the law, Nesson argues that the court ought to punish the RIAA for its abuses of the law.

This Court should exercise its inherent power to allow background image redress to Joel Tenenbaum for Plaintiffs' abuse of law and federal civil court process. As detailed throughout this brief, Plaintiffs are using any and all available avenues of federal process to pursue grossly disproportionate -- and unconstitutional -- punitive damages in the name of making an example of him to an entire generation of students. The case at hand warrants the use of inherent federal power not just because of what Plaintiffs are doing to Joel Tenenbaum in this Court, but because of the manner in which Plaintiffs are abusing the federal courts all across the country. Plaintiffs have pursued over 30,000 individuals in the same way they have pursued Joel.... For these 30,000 individuals, Plaintiffs have wielded federal process as a bludgeon, threatening legal action to such an extent that settlement remains the only viable option. Joel Tenenbaum is unique in his insistence, in the face of it all, on having his day in court. The federal courts have an inherent interest in deciding whether they will continue being used as the bludgeon in RIAA's campaign of sacrificing individuals in this way.

The filing goes on to describe in rather great detail just how this is an abuse of the law and the courts, noting that it is a "perversion of lawfully initiated process to illegitimate ends," and citing the case law that suggests such behavior should be punished by the courts: "One who uses a legal process ... against another primarily to accomplish a purpose for which it is not designed, is subject to liability to the other for harm caused by the abuse of process."

And this is where it gets good.

To prove the abuse of the process, the filing uses the RIAA's own words against it. First, the writers note (and cite the relevant cases) that even if there is a "proper purpose" behind the filing, it's an abuse of process if the primary purpose in filing the lawsuit is different than the "proper purpose" behind the lawsuit. And, then the authors point to multiple sources where the RIAA noted that the reason it was filing these lawsuits was not to punish these particular individuals for file sharing, but as part of its "deterrence" educational program. From deterrence, Nesson shows how it's actually used as more of a bludgeon to get students to settle, which is clearly not the "proper purpose" of the law:

In essence, Plaintiffs are using the prosecution of Joel Tenenbaum to extort other accused infringers: the accused are told to either pay the settlement, or else be exposed to the protracted litigation and potentially astronomical damages that Joel now faces. See Milford Power Ltd. Partnership by Milford Power Associates Inc. v. New England, 918 F.Supp. 471 (D. Mass. 1996) (holding that "the essence of the tort of abuse of process is the use of process as a threat to coerce or extort some collateral advantage not properly involved in the proceeding"). The intimidation tactics are working: of the 30,000 accusations the RIAA has leveled against individuals, only a single defendant has made her case in front of a judge and jury... (that sole defendant is now awaiting a new trial).

The RIAA intimidates and steamrolls accused infringers into settling before they have their day in court and before the courts can weigh the merits of their defenses. The inherent dangers in allowing a single interest group, desperate in the face of technological change, led by a voracious, cohesive, extraordinarily well-funded and deeply experienced legal team doing battle with pro se defendants, armed with a statute written by them and lobbied and quietly passed through a compliant congress, to march defendants through the federal courts to make examples out of them should lead this Court to say "stop."

This case is going to be worth watching closely. It looks like the RIAA failed in its efforts to tiptoe around the legal bees' nest of Harvard Law.

Five Ways to Get Free Wi-Fi, Even in Bad Times

2008-10-29T14:08:00.001-04:00

The economy is in the toilet. Maybe you've been laid off (or you're worrying that the proverbial ax will soon fall at your company). It's not that difficult to foresee a bunch of bills starting to pile up at home -- one being your monthly Internet connection.

But you absolutely need Internet connectivity to do anything today: to find a new job, network with colleagues and business friends, and check your LinkedIn, Facebook and Gmail accounts, just to name a few. So as everyone looks to cut costs and everyday expenses, here are five ways to hitch a free ride on the Internet connectivity train.

1. Go to a Panera. This is, by no means, an advertisement for Panera Bread Company (though, you have to admit that their bread products and cookies are delicious), but since 2003, the chain of restaurants has offered free Wi-Fi to all its customers.

CIO Tom Kish told CIO.com that Panera has "established one of the largest free Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. with approximately 1,200 cafes providing the service," and that executives "see it as another amenity for our customers."

Kish added that "free Internet access is one of a series of Panera's innovations designed to engage, connect and support our customers."

However, if you're married to Starbucks and you want access to their two-hour-a-day "complimentary" Wi-Fi access, you'll have to get a Starbucks Rewards card, put some money on the card (defeating our purpose, of course) and agree to receive some AT&T marketing e-mails. (To read an analysis of the Wi-Fi strategies at Starbucks, Panera, McDonald's and Borders, see "Should Retailers Offer Free Wi-Fi to Customers?")

You want a free lunch, too? Don't be greedy, people.

2. Visit Your Local Library. Unless you've got children, it may have been a long time since you last went to your city's or town's library. Many people will be pleasantly surprised to realize that their town's library now offers free, high-speed Internet connections, and many do so via Wi-Fi service.

According to 2007 data from the American Library Association's annual survey of technologies and Internet offerings inside U.S. libraries (pdf file), 99 percent of library branches offer Internet service to the public, and 66 percent of them offer wireless Internet access. Just make sure you keep quiet-the local senior citizens usually don't like a lot of that "noise" that young whippersnappers make.

3. Love Thy Neighbor's Connection. This one should be a last resort, because it is not legal and not secure (unless you get neighbor Bob's permission and can vouch for his attention to WLAN security protocols).

However, tapping into your neighbor's wireless signals pales in comparison to what some other desperate laptop users have done for an Internet connection: An August 2008 survey of 300 remote employees who work on company-issued laptops revealed that people can be creative and a bit nutty. A sampling of the verbatim responses might give you some (bad) ideas: "Had to climb on my mother's roof once." And: "Had to 'hack' into a phone line at a hotel to get dial-up to work." Then there's: "Turned someone's TV antenna into a wireless internet antenna." And finally: "Sat outside an airport for 4 hours so I could use the free wireless across the street."

4. Across the Pond, Visit Free-Hotspot.com. The name of the service pretty much says it all: Free-Hotspot.com operates 3,500 free hotspots in 18 European countries. Simply log on to their website and find the closest one to you.

And if you're in Belgium, you can get free Wi-Fi service at the McDonald's there. (Sadly, Ronald McDonald makes customers pay for Wi-Fi service in the States.)

5. Watch This "How To" Video. We at CIO.com cannot vouch for the validity of this video, whether this software actually works as shown in the video, or whether this is highly illegal, but maybe it's worth a try: "How to get Free WiFi access anywhere, anytime." (If you're at all curious, the 2 minute, 39 second video on YouTube is worth a quick viewing.)

5 Devices That Spell Trouble For Your Comcast Bandwidth Cap

2008-09-02T03:06:00.001-04:00

NewTeeVee posts an article this month that will become increasingly important as the "unlimited" bandwidth freeforall on residential broadband accounts comes abruptly to an end on most providers.
...
One of the problems with Comcast’s new 250 GB bandwidth cap is that, as Om points out on GigaOM, it’s metered without a meter. Comcast doesn’t provide you with a central tally of all your data use. The company instead suggests its customers install bandwidth metering software on their machines and then add up the numbers. Its FAQ reads: “Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware that they will need to measure and combine their total monthly usage in order to identify the data usage for their entire account.” Got multiple home machines consuming data every day? Better bust out that spreadsheet — and get ready for some wild guesstimates. After all, you can’t just install a bandwidth metering application on your Slingbox.
...
Read the rest over at NewTeeVee.

I can no longer eat Hershey's chocolates

2008-08-28T03:04:00.004-04:00

File this in the "Well CRAP!" file...

Those who know me know that I love chocolate. Love with a capital L-O-V-E. Now I tend to love the fancy stuff or at least the pseudo fancy stuff. In the less than $5 a bar category, I usually look for Cadbury's or even better Milka (by Nestle from Germany in a purple wrapper with a cow on the front).

Occasionally I'd slum it with a Hershey bar or more often a Mr. Goodbar since I'm a sucker for chocolate and peanuts.

Well, tonight I found out the hard way that Hershey's has reformulated their product. What should have tipped me off was the "Half Pound" size chocolate bars had apparently be downsized from 8oz to 7oz... and then again to 6.8oz. (7oz and 6.8oz versions were sitting on the shelf together so it made it kind of obvious.)

According to sources on the internet, Hershey's reformulated their product in Fall 2007 to include lactose, milk fat, and the food additive PGPR (which is substituted for real cocoa butter to save money and reduce the fat content).

Here's the problem... I'm pretty severely lactose intolerant. Hershey's did not put any sort of warning on their product or announce the change in any way. The only way to know would be to have read the ingredients panel. And really, who reads the ingredients panel every time they buy the same thing they've always bought?!

This probably explains one particular tummy blow out that I had around Christmas that I wasn't able to explain. I had just chalked it up to my IBS but looking back it was most like Hershey's chocolate induced.

Yesterday I learned of this formulation change after having consumed ~1/2 of a 7oz bar of chocolate... within minutes, I was in full on cramps and running for the bathroom.

Now I've been lactose intolerant long enough to know exactly when I'm experiencing a full on lactose issue. It is unlike anything else. If you're not lactose this won't make sense to you but fellow intoleranters know what I'm talking about. The cramps are unmistakeable. So immediately after the first sit down episode I ran for my lactase powder. It tastes aweful but works much faster than the pills. (Sort of the same premise as those BC headache powders.)

After my stomach calmed back down I headed for the product label. There in the ingredient list was the culprit... LACTOSE. Dammit. I had to give up M&M's for the very same reason! And now they have taken Hershey's from me too!

Why do companies include an ingredient in their product that is known to give some people problems? Simple, lactose is cheaper than regular sugar. It also aids in the sweet milky aftertaste so they can get away with using less real milk and milk solids in the product.

Futher insulting my palatte I found that Hershey's had added milk fat in place of cocoa fat content AND added PGPR to replace even more cocoa butter. So in the name of saving a few cents Hershey's has adulterated their products with fake ingredients.

How ironic that Hershey's just launched the "Pure Hershey's" campaign this month. It's pure alright... a pure lie. Their chocolate is no longer chocolate, cocoa butter and milk. Now its chemical fillers, fake vanilla, cheap sugar and fake fat. On top of all that and the product downsizing, they just announced an across the board price increase.

It's so depressing I think I need some... non-Hershey's chocolate.

Starting over again at 64

2008-08-11T00:06:00.002-04:00

Consumer's Union (the folks who publish Consumer's Reports) are almost finished with their tour across America in which they have interviewed and logged stories from all classes and socioeconomic classes regarding healthcare insurance... or more appropriately, the lack of affordable coverage.

The article below is a reprint from their blog of their North Carolina stop. Woefully, if my father didn't have good coverage from Lowes, this very same scenario would play out with my parents. Still, he is, at 50, essentially working for healthcare. What will Medicare look like for him in 15 years? What will it look like for my mom (now 55) in 10 years? How did we let insurance and more specifically, healthcare coverage, get this way in America? The picture was so rosey 20 years ago. Who was alseep at the wheel? And how do we get back on the road?

I encourage you to check out the Cover America Tour. Your children, parents and even yourself are likely to be affected by this issue at some point.
...

Starting over again at 64

We waved goodbye to Dave and Betty and climbed back into the RV, our arms full of goodie bags packed with fruit, snacks and Betty’s sour cream chocolate bundt cake for the road. They had raised three boys (now grown) and Betty, like many southern moms, had never felt right sending them out the door without some of her home cooking for the road. Now she insisted we do the same – and who were we to argue.

It looked like a nice life they had carved out here in Asheboro, NC. A cozy home on a quiet street with lots of greenery, Champ the dog and Jaybo the goat roam the back yard together; the grandkids had been here this morning. The perfect set up for a couple of retirees – if only retirement were an option.

After 42 years with the same company Dave’s position was eliminated, forcing him into what he thought would be an early retirement. Not long after, the company decided to stop subsidizing retiree health benefits, and the $1000 a month premium suddenly became their burden.

If they both were about to turn 65 and qualify for Medicare, that would have been okay for a short time. Or if they’d found a reasonably-priced individual plan, that would have worked too. But the cheapest plan they could have bought on their own would have been $3000 a month, and, while Dave is 64 now, Betty is still four years away from Medicare.

So Dave went back to work full-time for the healthcare benefits. He got a good job with the county, and now every day, 8 to 5, Dave works so he and Betty have an affordable health care plan.

He’ll keep working until they both qualify for Medicare, and by then he’ll be 69. It’s certainly not the future they envisioned. Says Dave, “So much for the retirement plans that we had made!"

By the time we left it was after 7:00. We drove off through the rolling Carolina foothills, dotted with tiny churches and a perfect sunset – and we were frustrated. Dave and Betty had struck a nerve. They were our dads and moms – people who worked hard for decades for their families and deserved a break when they were ready to take one, not being forced back into the workplace until almost the age of 70 by the high costs of health care.

Privacy rights and the rule of law took a serious blow today when the House of Representatives passed blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies

2008-06-20T14:55:00.001-04:00

Washington, D.C. - Privacy rights and the rule of law took a serious blow today when the House of Representatives passed blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies that participated in the president's warrantless surveillance program. The FISA Amendments Act, H.R. 6304, which House Leadership rushed to the floor today after its introduction yesterday, passed by a vote of 293 to 129. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week.

The bill was touted as a bipartisan "compromise" on the issues of electronic surveillance and immunity. But in fact it requires dismissal of lawsuits against companies like AT&T that participated in the program as long as the companies received a piece of paper from the government indicating that the surveillance had been authorized by the president and was determined to be lawful.

"Immunity for telecom giants that secretly assisted in the NSA's warrantless surveillance undermines the rule of law and the privacy of every American," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Congress should let the courts do their job instead of helping the administration and the phone companies avoid accountability for a half decade of illegal domestic spying. If this legislation passes the Senate and is signed into law, the American people will have lost their last best chance to discover the true scope of the president's wiretapping program and to determine whether or not the law was broken."

"We are deeply disappointed that the House Leadership, which was so courageous in its previous opposition to telecom immunity, caved to the Administration's fear-mongering and put this seriously flawed legislation on the floor for a vote," said Bankston. "We look to leaders in the Senate who value the rule of law to stand up and strongly oppose this blanket immunity for telecom lawbreakers, and in particular urge Senator Barack Obama to lead his party in rejecting this false compromise."

EFF is representing the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of the millions of AT&T customers whose private domestic communications and communications records were illegally handed over to the National Security Agency (NSA). EFF has been appointed co-coordinating counsel for all 47 of the outstanding lawsuits concerning the government's warrantless surveillance program.

Additional coverage at MSNBC.

Help my church buy a new sound board

2008-06-12T01:31:00.012-04:00

So... I want your money. Not all of it; just some of it. Many of you who read my blog have been blessed by me in various ways... so much so that every Christmas I hear my close friends moan about how hard I am to buy for. We'll here's your chance to give me a Christmas blessing in June. Yeah a little early, I know... but those of you who know me personally know I celebrate my own personal - and very non-commercial - Christmas in July. So not really that early.

Here's the scoop. If you've spent any time around me, you've heard our worship team's music and we continue to expand and enhance our musical capabilities. To that end, our intrepid sound director, Bill Sanders, found a killer deal on a soundboard that fits what we need quite well. The problem is our church runs on a really tight budget and we don't have any money budgeted for a new board. Bill and I both have already committed financially to the project but we can only fund ~1/4 of it out of our own pockets.

That's where you come in. I want some of your money. Nothing drastic - just your Starbucks money for the week. Or if you're feeling generous, your gas money for the week. (Hmm... strange turn of events, gas is finally more expensive than Starbucks... but I digress.) Or if you're just in a crazy generous mood, whatever you feel like parting with.

Below is a fancy little donation button. Donations to Integrity Church are tax deductible and Integrity is a real 501.3(c) tax exempt organization. Due to credit card processing costs, I've set the minimum donation at $10. (Otherwise Visa and Mastercard get their money and we don't see much.) You don't get anything in return for your donation except a tax receipt, a big smile on my face and a LOLCat Thank You posted to your MySpace, Facebook or Email.

And without further ado, that donate now button I promised (scroll down a little):

Teach your teens to make money at home this summer... instead of flipping burgers.

2008-06-07T17:10:00.007-04:00

Ok, so summer is here and schools across America are getting out for the summer. The question on the mind of every teenager right now (and most parents of teenagers) is - How can I make money this summer?

Of course there are the old standbys - retail, foodservice, babysitting, life guarding. I'm not going to knock any of those since our economy needs those kinds of positions filled but I would like to expand your horizons of thinking a bit before you settle for one of those.

What would I like you to think about is - residual income. A 15 year old has, on average, 3 years left before they have to head off to college or graduate high school and join the "real world". Those 3 years are perfect for building an online ecommerce business or engaging in any number of residual building enterprises.

First, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the world of residual income, let me give you some pointers and warnings. Residual income is slow money - i.e. income that comes in over a period of time based on continual sales efforts. Anyone who talks about making money fast is just going to end up taking money out of your pocket and putting it in theirs. The beauty of residual sales is the additive effects of previous efforts. So while the first few months might leave you with little to show for your efforts, the combined effects of continued effort plus the passage of time will yield tremendous rewards.

Some of the greatest examples of residual income in today's market come from the blogging world. A popular blog with Simple Google Ads plus the occasional sponsored post can yield can yield several thousands of dollars a month in free cash flow.

What most people forget when they're embarking on the journey of residual income is the fact that it takes time to build a base from which you can start generating the level of income you might want. For a mom or dad with starving kids who need to eat right now, this can be a challenge mentally. For a teenager, however, this is perfect since they're still within their parent's grace zone and don't have the pressure of a mortgage looming every month. This breathing room means they can start now and be well in their way to fully supporting themselves through college once they get there (instead of needing to dip back into mommy and daddy's wallets for laundry money).

Now, once they have decided to start blogging, creating commerce websites or promoting products they will need something to promote and someone who will actually pay them when they make a sale. There are quite a few agent/commission programs out there such as Commission Junction, Element 5, etc. Personally, I favor Commission River.

Commission River was created by the same guys who launched Telarus back in 1999. They have a known track record of success and some of the Telarus agents make high-six figure incomes every year from their sales efforts. Commission River charges no fees to join their program and pays out commission on a monthly basis as it is accrued.

Don't get swayed by the big dollar figures just yet. Those large incomes require a lot of work - and something more akin to a full-time job than a summer internship with a part-time job during the school year. That said, there is no reason a student can't be making a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars a month on the side with little effort compared to a traditional part-time job. Even better, they can earn that money working from home - where their parents can keep an eye on exactly what they're getting into.

So what are the steps you need to take to get going with Commission River (or any other type of residual program)?

Sign up for the program. Here's the link to sign up for Commission River.
Get a blog. I personally like Blogger but there are lots of others.
Find products that you can promote. Things like DSL, credit cards, home security, cell phones, wireless data cards, enterprise T1s, etc. Chose 1 fast sell product (like cell phones or credit cards) and 1 slow sell product (like T1s). (Fast sell products pay fast cash but less of it. Slow sell products take longer to sell one of but pay much more money over time.)
Start blogging. Talk about personal stories, friends, things you've seen. Comment on the news, current events, local interest items. Anything you can write about, someone will want to read. In the midst of your blogging, when appropriate within context, mention on the of the products of services you have in your bucket for promotions. For example, if you get a new cell phone, link to the cell phone sale page that matches what you bought. That way others can get what you have or compare it to what they might have been looking for.
Create a website. Start small... it doesn't have to be fancy. Use something like Google Pages, SquareSpace or 1&1 Webbuilder. Your goal is not to out do all the professional web designers out there. Instead your goal is to start providing a repository of useful information you have collected, cross promote your blog postings, and give you more space to write feature articles about things you're interested in.
Market, market, market. Become active on Facebook, MySpace, Pownce, Twitter, etc. And be sure your profiles and pages link to your blog and website. Make up some simple business cards for yourself with your URLs on them. Put your URLs in your email signature. Your goal is to be the person someone thinks of when they need something so instead of going to Google they go to your website first.
Have patience. Remember this is slow money. It builds over time. You are running a marathon here, not a sprint. So don't wear yourself out at the beginning. Allocate a certain number of hours each week and stick to it. If you have 20 hours a week to work on it, always put in your 20 hours. Treat it just as if you were clocking in and out at a "real" job. Keep in mind your goal is 2 years down the road... that's when you start getting those bigger checks and laughing to yourself about how little work it took to make that much money.

Good luck and happy promoting!

REVIVALIST CLAIMS HUNDREDS OF HEALINGS

2008-05-30T03:10:00.000-04:00

By Alice Rhee, NBC News Producer

LAKELAND, Fla. – "Holy Spirit fall! God is here! We want more! More, more, more!"

That's what Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley yells out nearly every evening to the thousands who gather to hear him preach. The 32-year-old Bentley looks more like a biker than a minister, with body piercings and tattoos all over his arms and neck. But the crowds don't seem to mind how he looks. They just want what they believe Bentley has – the ability to heal them.

Courtesy of Fresh Fire Ministries

Todd Bentley at the Lakeland Convention Center in Lakeland, Fla. on May 21.

Bentley claims that God has used him to supernaturally heal hundreds of people of diseases ranging from glaucoma to diabetes to even cancer. How to explain it?

Bentley said in an interview that he doesn't know exactly why now, why him, why Lakeland, and he does not promise that everyone who comes to him will be healed. But he does maintain a pragmatic posture toward prayer.

"I say, you have nothing to lose but your sickness. If the doctors can't help you, why wouldn't you give God a chance?"

Growing crowds
"If you want God, just come get some," he shouts on stage nearly every night.

Bentley has repeated a version of this invitation daily since April 2 when he and his team from Fresh Fire Ministries, which he founded in 1997, first arrived here from British Columbia, Canada, for what he thought would be five days of "revival" meetings in a local church. But those plans changed, he said, because "God is moving...and people know something is happening here." His meetings have been extended indefinitely.

While Bentley and Fresh Fire Ministries are not part of an organized Protestant denomination, his beliefs tend to follow Pentecostal, charismatic traditions.

He claims that God has used him repeatedly before this revival to heal the sick, but added that this series of revival meetings is unprecedented in his personal experience as a minister.

The meetings have outgrown four venues, including a local convention center that seats roughly 7,000. Now they meet under an air-conditioned tent that can accommodate 10,000 on the grounds of the local airport. Organizers estimate that more than 140,000 people from at least 40 nations have attended meetings here.

In this country, the self-billed "Florida outpouring" has generated mostly local media attention. But word of the revival has been generating plenty of buzz online, taking Bentley’s message and claims far beyond Florida.

So far, according to Fresh Fire Ministries, 1.2 million people have watched live streaming broadcasts of the meetings on the Internet. The meetings also are carried on the religious satellite channel, God TV, which transmits Bentley's healing services to more than 200 nations. In this country, God TV is carried on DIRECTV.

Not everyone is comfortable with this expression of Christianity, including some Protestant theologians. R. Douglas Geivett, a professor at the conservative, evangelical Talbot School of Theology, is deeply skeptical of the "Florida outpouring" and does not believe Bentley’s claims of supernatural healing are consistent with Christian doctrine

"I don’t think it fits neatly into any branch of Christianity," said Geivett. "Mr. Bentley’s worldview appears to be a mixture of New Age notions, an obsession with the paranormal, and an untutored grasp of Christian theology."

Courtesy of Fresh Fire Ministries

A woman named Deborah, who suffers from scoliosis, prays with Todd Bentley in Lakeland, Fla. on May 5 as David Tomberlin looks on and Russ Roderick acts as a “catcher.” Afterwards, she claimed her illness was healed.

Claims of healing
Still, what seems to be drawing all these people of varying ages, ethnicities, and classes is a clear hunger for what Bentley's meetings are offering: the hope of healing and some sort of touch from God.

David Tomberlin, an evangelist who's been dubbed the "Ryan Seacrest" of these meetings because he serves as an emcee of sorts, tried to explain the claims of healings, saying, "The Bible talks about Jesus healing sick people. It says he was moved by compassion, so part of it is God's heart of compassion."

So every night, Bentley and his ministry team take to the stage and try to call heaven down to earth.

That's when the sick are urged to come forward for prayer and healing.

In many instances, Bentley places his hands on someone's head or area of infirmity and cries out for the power of God to descend. In response, some people may stand and physically tremble, while others may literally fall down to the ground in what they call "falling under the power" of the Holy Spirit.

Bentley’s associates say that this is not a painful experience, but rather one of being physically overcome by the loving presence of God. Anticipating these sorts of responses, one of Bentley's staff members stands behind each individual to serve as a "catcher" to gently guide the person down to the floor. Skeptics claim this "falling" can be the result of being overcome with emotion or a learned behavior.

At a recent meeting, Stephen Godula was brought on stage to tell his story. He testified that he had been healed of multiple forms of cancer by watching the meetings on the Internet at home. He plans to return to his oncologist in Philadelphia to document his healing.

Patsy Wallingford traveled from Arkansas in search of healing. Since a tractor-trailer plowed into her mobile home three years ago, Wallingford has been bound to a wheelchair because of nerve damage in her legs and feet.

On a recent night, Wallingford took to the stage and received a prayer from Bentley. "I felt like what was a warm water flow from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet," she explained.

And that's when, she said, she could feel something cold against her right foot; she decided to step out in faith and step out of her wheelchair in front of clapping and cheering crowds.

As she pushed her wheelchair off the stage, she paused to answer questions from one of Bentley's staff members, who filled out a one-page form detailing the claims of miraculous healing.

Bentley and his staff say they welcome as much documentation as people are willing to provide after they return home.

What about the money?
Bentley and his ministry do not charge an entry fee for his meetings. Each evening, four hours into the service, at close to 11 p.m., white plastic offering buckets are passed around.

They asked for money only once and strangely, on the night this reporter was there, they took their offering so late at night that the crowd had thinned-out. Bentley also receives donations directly through his Web site.

The ministry said that the average donation per person is $3-$5. While some people were reluctant to talk about what they gave, one visitor from Finland said he was only able to put in a few dollars because his travel costs were so high.

A spokeswoman for the revival, Lynne Breidenbach, said the offerings have covered their enormous operating costs. Before the move to the airport grounds, she said the ministry paid a daily rental fee of $15,000 for the local convention center, as well as comparable fees for use of a stadium. His spokesperson didn’t know how much the current setup costs. The offerings, said Breidenbach, have not contributed to a significant infusion of cash for Bentley or his ministry.

According to Breidenbach, Bentley "continues to draw his standard salary, set by his board, from his office in Canada. It is a modest salary and is in the five-figure range." The ministry said that their financial records are subject to an outside audit every year.

Bentley said he was willing to open Fresh Fire Ministries’ bookkeeping records for the Lakeland revival meetings, but has yet to provide the documentation to msnbc.com. He said that he welcomes media attention and scrutiny because the "outpouring" is a work of God and he has "nothing to hide."

Taking the notion of any potential criticism head on, he said, "I don’t have time to debate whether revival is happening or not. I don’t have time to nitpick the reasons why God might not be moving." Instead, he said, his greater concern is to move as fervently in faith to see as many people healed as he can during this time.

Miracles?
And indeed, Bentley’s claims have stirred up debates within and outside the church.

Erik Thoennes, also a professor from the Talbot School of Theology, offers a more accepting, though still cautious stance, than his colleague Geivett.

Thoennes believes many Christians today are open to the idea that God might move in miraculous ways, even if they don’t embrace movements like Bentley’s. And, he offered specific advice to non-Christians who may be confounded by such reports: "I’d hope they wouldn’t get distracted by movements that seem odd, or by how goofy Christians can be, so that they miss seeing Jesus as the most beautiful, good, loving, just, true, person there is."

The Pirate Bay meets Jesus

2008-05-13T03:28:00.003-04:00

Well... Tonight I need some kind a new award to send to the guys at MorningStar in Fort Mill. In order to get the videos out of the recent outpouring sessions that have been happening there at Heritage International Ministries for the past few weeks, they did the unthinkable (well, at least unthinkable to traditional ministries). They're using BitTorrent and have their torrent files on The Pirate Bay! (Yes, the same place well known for less-than-legal video, music and software filesharing.)

Now, here's where you come in. They need people to seed these torrents for this to work. Peer to peer filesharing works by sharing the bandwidth load across the entire community wishing to receive the content.

Please take a moment to check out their torrents, download a BitTorrent client (I recommend uTorrent) and start downloading. In the process, once your downloads are complete, leave your client running for a few days (or forever) so others can benefit from you having downloaded the files.

Jesus has met The Pirate Bay. Now lend a hand and help Jesus meet the world!

Wireless data cards

2008-05-11T01:35:00.004-04:00

My business colleagues have already noticed a funny little thing in my laptop bag of late. Due to some business availability requirements, I recently started carrying a Sprint wireless card (from Millenicom) and a Cradlepoint personal hotspot (the PHS300 battery powered unit).

If you're looking to take wireless data on the road with you or there is simply no other broadband option at your home, a wireless data card could be for you. The only caveat is data cards only work where there is cellular signal. Luckily in most of the US there is at least one company who has decent cellular signal everywhere humans exist in all but the most rural of rural areas.

Our communications website has all 5 major carriers' offerings in one place to make comparing easy. Check it out online - wireless data cards. The carriers represented include Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

I generally recommend starting with Sprint's service as the benchmark. Sprint wireless data cards do not have limits on how the service can be used and generally perform better than the competing products in most markets. Sprint has long been the road warrior - and tech enthusiasts choice - because they do not have the 5GB transfer limit that Verizon does.

If you're in an area where Alltel is prevalent, an Alltel wireless data card is a good first start since Alltel and Sprint have reciprocal roaming agreements. So in populated areas (major metros) you can roam in Sprint and at home you'll be on native Alltel. I personally live in Alltel territory and the good news is my Spring card works in the reverse also - it lets me roam on Alltel.

AT&T is a good choice... sometimes. The wireless data cards by AT&T are limited by what AT&T's network can deliver. Good news in that statement is AT&T can provide ubiquitous - if but slow - coverage across their entire network. Much of AT&T's network performs at GPRS speeds (not all that much better than dial-up). Major markets have been upgraded to UMTS and as the new 3G iPhone approaches other markets should be seeing their upgrades coming online soon.

The last choice for power users - and anyone with sense - tends to be a Verizon Wireless data card. Verizon is a bit protectionist. (Now isn't that an understatement.) While their cards often perform well, their limits are widely reported. The most important one is the 5GB transfer limit on their service. For all but the lightest users this can be a concern.

Regardless of your choice, a wireless data card comes in handy for anyone who needs to take their internet service with them. And likewise it comes in handy for people where the wired infrastructure fails us (or is outrageously expensive). The last time I was in Las Vegas for a trade show I saw many exhibitors using wireless cards to avoid paying the convention center's "internet tax" - in most cases a $600 per day charge for a mediocre internet connection in their booth.

So... get wireless and go forth and surf!

Save money at places you're already shopping

2008-05-05T02:18:00.003-04:00

Tonight, apparently I was bored. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) There was something on HSN (yes, the cable shopping channel, yes really) that I wanted. But I'm a tightwad when it comes to buying online. I expect to be able to use a coupon, get free shipping or some other sort of promotion on everything I order.

Now, yes, I'm aware that people like me are the reason so many online retailers went bankrupt. Oh well. Still I needed an HSN coupon. Well, I'm a existing customer so I can't use their juicy 15% off any 1 item first purchase coupon. A reasonably exhaustive search netted no usable coupons. Well poo.

Then something caught my attention. Most all of the major ecommerce sites have paid referral relationships. Great... but I don't want to manage hundreds of referral links and agreements. So I did what I always do. I went digging.

At the end of my digging I found a neat program called BigCrumbs. There are some competitors I was already aware of - like FatWallet and eBates. BigCrumbs' model is much like Telarus' master agency model, automate, automate, automate and pass as much money to the end users as possible.

So it turns out that BigCrumbs has relationships with most of the majors - including HSN. And on HSN purchases if you click on the BigCrumbs link (or use their bookmark) before you go shopping you get 7.2% back on all purchases except electronics and clearance, which yield 3.6%.

That means if you bought a $100 piece of jewelry, you would automatically get $7.20 back via BigCrumbs. It's sort of like an automatic rebate.

Some of the deals are even wilder. For example, right now through Expedia using BigCrumbs you can get 50% off on Hertz car rentals plus 1.8% cash back. That's astonishing!

For eBayers, you get 36% back of the fee of the transaction! You read that correctly... you get 36% back on the fee the seller paid to eBay for the auction! So you get to dip in eBay's pocket and take money back you didn't pay in the first place. Wow.

Beyond that, BigCrumbs also lists any coupons and special offers that apply to the site you're about to go shopping on. For a tightwad like myself this has to be nirvana.

Take a look for yourself at their Special Offers page, sign up and start saving today. You can even just use their special offers page to save money without signing up. (Of course you don't get the cash back then.)

Now I guess I should sit here and write out a Thank You note to HSN for the 7.4% I'll be getting back tonight. No thanks to their stingy coupon policy. All thanks to BigCrumbs.

Revival Breaking Out Across America

2008-04-27T00:19:00.003-04:00

If you're not tuned into GodTV or one of the major prophetic ministries in America you might have missed the news. Revival - real healing and spiritual revival - is breaking out all across America right now.

Rick Joyner of MorningStar Church in Charlotte, NC (technically Fort Mill, SC) received a word from the Lord which prompted a conference called Honoring the Fathers earlier last quarter. The word was that if we would honor the spiritual fathers who came in previous generations, the Lord would pour out an unparalleled revival across the nation.

In early April, a Canadian evangelist and prophetic healing minister named Todd Bentley went to Lakeland, FL to minister there at a church called Ignited Church. During their meetings the Lord powerfully visited the church and miracles of healing and deliverance became common.

Bentley and Ignited Church continued the meetings on through April. On Monday of this week, April 21, GodTV started carrying the revival meetings live on the television channel via satellite uplink.

Along the way, word spread through the evangelical and prophetic communities about the revival happening in Lakeland and many visited it with the intent of bringing it back to their own home towns.

One of the places where it has broken out is in MorningStar Church in Charlotte where Joyner had held the Honoring the Father's Conference. It started this past Monday in quite an unusual way.

MorningStar's CSCL (K-12 Christian Private School) had 2 students who had been down to Lakeland, FL to Bentley's meetings. During a religion class, they gathered on one side of the room and started praying. What precipitated throughout the day was a full-scale revival in the school. Class was canceled and everyone moved into worship and release down in the conference center on-site.

Here is a video from that day:

Throughout the week, every day has seen a bigger and bigger annointing, presence and glory of the Lord building in the facilities and meetings. 250 people showed up on Wednesday night for a spontaneous worship event... 450 people showed up on Thursday for a youth service. And Friday night's School of the Spirit service was packed.

MorningStar's leadership has committed to continue the breakthrough meetings right into next week's Business in the Kingdom Conference. The services are available through their webstream and I highly recommend tuning in.

Now is the time for revival in our nation. The economy is tanking. We're in a crisis of real leadership. And husbands and wives across the country find themselves faced with challenging financial and personal decisions thanks to the credit woes, bad choices in a booming economy and a tightening in the employment sector.

If you need a miracle, need your faith rebuilt, or just want to see the Lord moving like this generation has never seen, get to one of these meetings. MorningStar will be chronicling its holy spirit breakout on the web here - Holy Spirit Breakout. Bentley's Fresh Fire ministry chronicles the Lakeland events here on their blog.

This is truly a revolutionary time for revival. We are sitting in the middle of a fire beginning to burn across our nation... and it will be the first move ever chronicled live on the web, broadcast around the world and documented fully on film and by media.

My personal thanks go out to the Media and Audio-Visual Teams at Fresh Fire, Ignited, MorningStar, GodTV and every other ministry experiencing this outpouring. These guys behind the scenes are making it possible for people all around the world to participate in, receive miracles and transfer the outpouring to their own towns and areas.

In one month, the Lord has used multimedia to shrink time and space. An omnipresent and omniscient God just needs us to connect with Him. And He can build all the connections we need - whether they're via satellite, TV, internet streaming, someone laying on physical hands or being in a meeting.

Why I stopped watching Oprah... And won't vote for Obama

2008-04-14T01:57:00.002-04:00

Almost 6 years ago, I stopped watching Oprah. My spirit detected a change in her that completely turned me off. I couldn't stand to even pass by her on the TV. Fast forward 6 years... the reality of Oprah's real beliefs is being seen in her fruits. She has become what amounts to the Queen of the New Age Movement.

I am a democrat. A conservative, religious democrat. Yes, I'm aware of the contradictions in that statement but they are no more contradictory than "compassionate conservatism" espoused by the radical Replican left.

It appears that Obama worships at the Temple of Oprah. Just as he would not condemn the character of his own pastor who spewed racially charged pseudo-doctrine, hate and malcontent from the pulpit for over 20 years, you will not see Obama condemn Oprah for her New Age pseudo-religio babble.

Watch for yourself... hear in her own words. Then carefully consider the people she supports and the people who support her.

The Church of Oprah Exposed. Consider yourselves warned.

When $1 stands between you and a customer

2008-04-09T16:18:00.004-04:00

Over the past two weeks, I have watched a large national communications carrier - who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty... for now - fall all over itself within its order processing and legal groups.

Those of you who know and and know the frequency with which I touch telecommunications contracts can safely assume it's not the first time I have seen it happen. And it certainly won't be the last.

In this particular instance, however, the idiocy of the processes and people involved traveled to new stratospheric heights. So high, I'm surprised the oxygen masks didn't deploy.

What did they do? They refused to process an order because it was $1 (yes, 1 dollar) short of the revenue required to be able to send the customer a bill. Somewhere along the way, some corporate idiotog implemented a process whereby only customers billing $200 or more per month are entitled to invoice billing. And they did so in a way that completely eliminated all flexibility, sense and reason of the part of their provisioning staff.

My client had ordered services totaling $199 - which with tax would be well in excess of $200. (To the tune of ~$214 per month.) But... Thanks to the idiostratespheric policy in place, the legal department of said carrier refused said order because the billing amount was under $200. That's right, they outright denied an order because it was, on paper, $1 too small an order to qualify for invoice billing.

I'm all for processes and procedures... until they cause a company who is struggling in the marketplace to lose a new customer over $1 in revenue.

When did the telecommunications world - especially the CLEC world - grow so stupid that it would willingly turn down a paying customer who would generate profit for the company? We're not talking about $25/mo DSL service here with no margins. This is real business service with real margins.

Maybe somewhere along the way I missed the class all these MBA graduates apparently take on "How to screw your customer and trash your business' reputation."

In this particular case, I was able to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with all of the management involved and force them to fix their flawed policy.

What's unfair however is the fact that most normal customers wouldn't have had ready access to all the decision makers required to fix the problem. Instead, they would simply have been steamrolled by an inflexible policy, stupid management and a company who refuses to admit it's so screwed up someone needs to hit the "reboot" button and start all over. Somewhere along the way, this CLEC forgot who it was and has, as such, forsaken its customers.

We are in an economic downturn. All the CLECs had better be listening: LEARN TO LOVE YOUR CUSTOMERS AGAIN! Those who fail to heed the message will find themselves sitting in bankruptcy liquidation or being sold off to some vulture capital firm who will milk as much money out as possible and then close down the company.

BusinessWeek ViewPoint: There Is No Gas Shortage

2008-04-05T18:40:00.001-04:00

But Washington, Wall Street, and ethanol and oil and gas companies want you to think there is, says automotive expert Ed Wallace

by Ed Wallace

"They see speculation in the market, I see decline in global inventories. I don't think this is a big surprise, that we've had a jump in price when there has been a decrease in crude inventories."— Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, Bloomberg News, Mar. 5, 2008

"It should be obvious to you all that the [gasoline] demand is outstripping supply, which causes prices to go up." — President George W. Bush, Associated Press, Mar. 5, 2008

One wonders if verifiable facts ever get in the way of this administration's statements on issues that are critical to the average American's wellbeing. After all, last time I checked, when politicians are elected to public office, or appointed, as is Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, they must take an oath to the American people before assuming their new positions. How can they forget a sacred oath so quickly? Were they daydreaming when they took it, so it never meant anything to begin with? Maybe it's just another promise you have to make to get into office: When you're securely incumbent you can ignore even solemn oaths you took.

Obviously, the two quotes that led this article came from discussions concerning the current high price for oil on the futures market. Bodman appears to be protecting the speculators in oil, as opposed to looking after the interests of all Americans. President Bush, apparently, has never talked to the Energy Dept.'s Energy Information Agency to see whether gasoline demand is actually up. More troubling, the writer of that particular Associated Press article obviously didn't look up the EIA's numbers to verify the President's assertions. They weren't accurate.

1. There Is No Shortage

Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early 1990s, which is remarkable considering the nation's refineries have been cutting back on the production of gasoline because their margins have declined. In fact, average gasoline reserves on hand have risen since this past October, while oil reserves in this country have gone up virtually every week this year—and only fog in the Houston Ship Channel that kept oil tankers from unloading their crude one week kept it from being every week.

In the same Bloomberg article that quotes from Bodman's CNBC appearance on Mar. 4, he also said that it was thanks to ethanol that the gasoline problem isn't even worse. He then added that the fact that making ethanol is forcing up prices of other farm commodities, including hog and chicken feed, is "nowhere near as important as trying to relieve pressure on [gasoline] supplies."

Of course, there is no pressure on gasoline supplies in this country as of today, but Bodman's statement must have made eyes roll among the executives at Pilgrim's Pride PPC; the Pittsburg, (Tex.) poultry producer announced 1,100 layoffs on Mar. 13, closing one processing plant and 6 of their 13 distribution centers because their company's outlay for chicken feed went up $600 million last fiscal year and was on track to increase by another $700 million this year.

Here's the scorecard, in case you missed it. There's no shortage of gasoline or oil in the U.S. today, and we have near-record reserves on hand. Meanwhile the Congressional mandate for ethanol has jacked up the price of chicken feed for Pilgrim's Pride, which is the U.S.'s largest processor of chickens and turkeys—by $1.3 billion. And that's for just one company processing chicken. This is what passes for acceptable to our Energy Secretary?

2. Demand Is DOWN, Yet Prices Are UP

Just so we can all get on the same page, here are the verifiable facts on oil supplies, production, and gasoline demand.

In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year. Ronald Bailey of Reason Online has pointed out that worldwide production of oil has risen 2.5% in the first quarter, while worldwide demand has grown by only 2%. Production is expected to increase by 3.3% in the second quarter, and by as much as 4.1% by the third quarter. The net result is that the U.S. daily buffer for oil production against demand, which was a paltry 1.5 million barrels as recently as 2005, is now up to 3 million barrels in excess capacity today.

So what is going on here? Why would our Energy Secretary say there's a supply and demand problem when none exists? Why would he say that speculators have little or nothing to do with the incredibly high price of oil and gasoline, when it's clear they do? President Bush—a former oilman—gives the ever-growing demand for gasoline as the primary reason prices are so high, yet that notion can be dispelled with one minute of research. That's the problem with rhetoric; it rarely matches the facts.

3. Speculation is Up, and the Dollar Is Down

On the same day the President and our Energy Secretary made those foolish comments, no less an authority than ExxonMobil (XOM) Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson was quoted by Marketwatch as saying, "The record run in oil prices is related more to speculation and a weakening dollar than supply and demand in the market." He added, "In terms of fundamentals, fear of supply reliability is overblown."

As for the speculators, in 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion. Now, if any publicly traded company had an additional $241 billion put into its stock in the same period, its stock would rise out of sight too—even if the company was not worth anywhere near that amount of market capitalization.

Moving on to the weak U.S. dollar as a primary cause for skyrocketing oil prices—there is "some" truth in that statement. But consider this: The dollar has depreciated 30% against the world's currencies since 2002, while the price of oil has gone up 500%. So is it the weak dollar that has caused a 500% increase in the price of oil, or is it the extra $241 billion worth of speculation? You can make the call on that one.

Possibly just to ensure oil prices don't respond to real-world market conditions, Goldman Sachs (GS) forecast on Mar. 7 that turbulence in the oil market could cause oil to spike as high as $200 a barrel. This flies in the face of all known information—but then again, Goldman Sachs is the world's biggest trader of energy derivatives, and its Goldman Sachs Commodities Index is a widely watched barometer of energy and commodities prices.

What Is Washington Thinking?

Rounding out the list of experts discussing our oil and gasoline situation is Bill Klesse, head of San Antonio (Tex.) Valero Energy (VLO). He spoke in San Diego a week after those comments from Goldman Sachs, the President, and Secretary Bodman. Believe it or not, Klesse said poor margins may cause Valero to sell one-third of its refinery operations; he stated that poor margins in recent months had caused planned refinery expansions—which would have produced 500,000 more barrels per day—to be canceled. Moreover, according to a report from Reuters on Mar. 11, 2008, Klesse recently released the information that gasoline production has been curtailed in response to slowing demand.

Imagine that: Refiners cut gasoline production, yet gasoline reserves have grown to their largest since late 1992. So much for "surging demand."

Klesse also called for the government to start imposing a tariff on imported gasoline to protect U.S. refiners' profits. Protectionism? As famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith correctly said, "In America, the only respectable form of socialism is socialism for the rich."

Which takes us back to the original question: Why is Washington doing everything it can to convince us there is a shortage when there isn't one? After all, the only people they're protecting are those heavily invested in oil futures—and that's to the detriment of all other Americans.

We're Paying for What?

When it became undeniable that poor decision-making by company executives had put a respected 85-year-old U.S. institution in financial peril, why did the Federal Reserve rush in to save investment bank Bear Stearns (BSC)? Of course, we need to restore confidence in our financial institutions, but why protect the personal assets of those who were responsible for the mess? Both the corporation's officers and its board members should contribute their personal assets toward saving the bank they put in the ditch—the bank all of us are going to pay to bail out.

Instead, the Bush administration is protecting those responsible for creating yet another speculative bubble in oil futures, and is protecting investors in the ethanol industry—much to the detriment of food-processing companies such as Pilgrim's Pride. And the net result of all this is that the prices of crude and gasoline rise ever higher thanks to a "shortage" that does not exist, while food costs are soaring thanks in part to the ethanol mandate.

The Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, but the cost of mortgages goes up six weeks in a row—and last month Bank of America (BAC) credit-card holders started being charged more than 24% interest on new purchases.

This is what they call "Republican Prosperity?" Ronald Reagan was both right and wrong when he said, "Government is not the solution, government is the problem." And government is still the problem. Instead of a fair and open market they gave us a free-for-all marketplace with no regulations at all, which lately these "bubble boys" have sent south for all of us.

One would guess that Washington missed the obvious: Protect all U.S. consumers and you're also protecting business expansion.

Solidarity. Pantone solidarity: T-Mobile Threatens Engadget For Use Of Magenta

2008-04-01T16:56:00.005-04:00

No it's not an April Fool's joke. T-Mobile has decided to give well known techno-blog Engadget the riot act because they're using the color magenta for the phone related reviews.

Maybe I should give T-Mobile the riot act for using magenta since I was using magenta in my personal business logo 10 years before T-Mobile became an international company! Magenta, purple and lime green no less. So I definitely have first use rights on them... and I have the real USPTO copyright on my logo so they can't claim ignorant.

I mean "P" sounds like "T" after all. I think that's confusing to people. They might mistake T-Mobile for me.

Mean while, Engadget has released a helpful comparison chart for those who might become confused by the similarities between Engadget and T-Mobile.

So fellow bloggers out there, if you'd like to help take a stand against oppressive lawyers who are simply being asshats, Ryan Block posted a solidarity glyph that you can use on your own website. Feel free to snag it below or on his website.

No company should be able to trademark a color. Maybe the use of a color in a certain logo. Definitely not the color as it relates to a specific topic, broad concept or business segment. Colors are simply expressions of wavelengths of light. God created them all. HE holds the sole patents and trademarks on them then you very much. Who do these crazy lawyers think they're going to sue next? Prisms and the sun? The nerve.

They shrunk the toilet paper!

2008-03-26T06:03:00.004-04:00

Kimberly-Clark and apparently most other toilet paper manufacturers have gone and done something over the past few months they hoped we wouldn't notice. Well, this morning, I NOTICED!

They've gone and shrunk the sheet size of a sheet of toilet paper. In some instances not once, but twice!

Toilet paper used to be almost uniformly 4.5x4.5 inches. It was pretty much square. Now it's shrunk as much as 30%.

I'm a single guy and I prefer moist wipes for the bulk of my bathroom business. But sometimes you just need or want toilet paper. A family pack of Cottonelle Ultra from Costco lasts me about a year. Well, I finished off a pack before my recent trip out west and bought a new pack at K-Mart on the way home from the airport (along with sinus meds... a whole different story).

I thought I was buying exactly what I'd always used - Cottonelle Ultra in the purple package. And that purple package can be hard to find since not every store carries it. But somewhere in the past few months Kimberly-Clark thought they could pull a fast one and get away with it. Along the way Cottonelle Ultra became "Cottonelle Not-So-Ultra".

The new Cottonelle Ultra is no longer square. Oh no. It's now 4.2x4.0". Yes, 1/2" shorter in one direction and 1/4" shorter in the other. The nerve!

This size difference was immediately apparently to me when I went to use it. The only nice way I can put it is... it didn't "span the gap". And it's not nearly as soft as it used to be. From all appearances, they made it a little thinner too - which likely accounts for the lack of softness.

Now maybe the rest of America has smaller butts that I do. Uses the bathroom less than I do. Or maybe Kimberly-Clark is courting the children's demographic. Whatever they're doing, they shrunk my toilet paper!

I'm not the only one to notice this. Over at RoutingbyHumor, they have documentation of the incredible shrinking Scott Bathroom Tissue has been through over the past few months. It's down to 4.5x3.7". At least it's only shrinking in one direction.

I understand that the cost of production has gone up on resource intensive goods like toilet paper but really... downsizing toilet paper in an America where butts certainly haven't downsized in a long time. That's what I call deceptive product engineering. And further it's what I call a pain in the a$$. (rim shot)

So now I'm the proud owner of a 12-pack of toilet paper that no longer suits my needs. I always considered Cottonelle Ultra to be the Lexis of toilet paper. So when that Lexis becomes a Ford, where do you go?

If anyone out there knows of a super soft toilet paper that's still 4.5x4.5", send me some! (Or at least let me know what it is.)

I guess it's a good thing Wal-Mart recently upsized their Equate Flushable Wipes from 50 count to 60 count... with no increase in price mind you. I'll certainly be using more wipes now that the toilet paper just doesn't cut it.

MobiTV's Incompetence

2008-03-07T12:50:00.009-05:00

So the mobile TV stream provider for Sprint has proven themselves completely incompetent. They are using plain text XML with no passwords, no nothing to send the links for video streams to Sprint handset users on the Sprint TV Xtra service.

Now after some smart people posted the xml results on a well known mobile phone website - Howard Forums - they're threatening to litigate against the site owner. When are corporations going to learn that you can't litigate away software engineer stupidity?

So, in case the Howard Forums thread gets pulled, here's what has their panties all up in a wad (strip out all the br's that Blogger insists on inserting):

<mcd version="1.0"> </mcd></code><listing> <category name="Sprint TV Xtra"> <active> <channel name="MSNBC" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/1-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="FOX News" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/8-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> FOX News </description> </channel> <channel name="Discovery" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/3-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="TLC" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/4-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> TLC </description> </channel> <channel name="Animal Planet" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/63-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="NBC Comedy" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/1500-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="ESPN Mobile TV" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/4103-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="NBC Sports Mobile" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/1513-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="Lipstick Jungle" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/1508-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> </description> </channel> <channel name="Maxx Look" href="rtsp://live.mobitv.com:554/48-CDMA.sdp" type="video/3gpp"> <description> Bikinis, lingerie, and less. Beach, Bedroom, Hot tub. MAXX Look ??? All Girls. 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My favorite cake - "Peter Paul Mounds Cake"

2008-02-24T01:24:00.002-05:00

Made with a cake mix, coconut filling and chocolate icing.

INGREDIENTS:

* Cake:
* 1 box chocolate or chocolate fudge cake mix

* Filling:
* 14 ounces frozen coconut
* 16 regular marshmallows
* 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
* 1 cup granulated sugar

* Icing:
* 4 squares unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/3 cup water
* dash Salt
* 1/4 cup butter

PREPARATION:
- Bake cake as directed and split layers.
- Mix milk, sugar and marshmallows; melt. Stir until sugar is dissolved and marshmallows melted. Remove from heat and stir in coconut.
- Put this mixture between each split layer and on top.

Make Icing.
- Melt chocolate with the brown sugar; add salt, water, and butter.
- Simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla; mix well.

Put chocolate icing on top and sides of cake.

US News Article & Rebates

2008-02-21T12:12:00.003-05:00

Attention Dallas Friends: If you are available to discuss experiences you have had with rebates being returned, please email daniel ~at~ anyion dot com. You need to live within reasonable proximity of the Dallas metro.

So those of you who read US News & World Report in the print edition have already seen my face this week in the article about "Why Shoppers Love to Hate Rebates". Special thanks to Kimberly Palmer for running across my blog and picking up comments I had made about my experiences with rebates. For those of you online readers, sorry, they didn't include all the photos from the print edition online. Hopefully I can post an electronic reprint sometime.

I've been a rebater for a long time. It probably comes from the fact that by nature I'm a tightwad and by nurture I'm a shopper.

As an update to Kimberly's article, as the article was going to press I received the Toshiba HD DVD player rebate back DENIED again. This time for "failure to correctly complete the form." Now I'm not sure how it could have been incomplete... seeing as how everything was filled in. And especially since I returned it to them with the previous submission, all the UPCs, and their previous denial letter.

In my personal opinion, I think Toshiba's rebate group already knew about Toshiba giving up on the HD DVD market. And they were just denying all the rebates to save having to spend the money on them.

No matter. At least they returned the UPC panel with the denial. So I taped the UPC code back on the box, packed up the Toshiba A20 HD DVD player, took the copy of the receipt and headed back to Wal-Mart with it.

Thankfully, Wal-Mart still has a 90 day return policy on electronics excluding computers. So 2 on a quiet morning at my local Wal-Mart last week, I ditched the Toshiba HD DVD player and its associated rebate hassles and walked out of the store with $100+ back in my pocket.

For those who would like to become rebate nuts like me, here are some other tips that have helped me stay on top of my rebates:

For online purchases, always print the rebate out on the spot while you're shopping. You may never find the form again. Sometimes items can completely disappear from a site before you get yours in the mail. I've had this happen to me with Fry's Outpost and QVC.com.
Keep all your rebate forms posted somewhere you can easily see them. I use a cork board for this. I pin rebate forms that are waiting for something to come in or occur to the board near my desk. That way I see them often and they don't fall into the cracks of my mind.
If you have multiple rebates in play at a time like I do, use a spreadsheet or some other electronic organization method to track how much is owed to you, when it was sent and when it was purchased.
Keep copies of everything! I use my scanner for this purpose. (A Brother MFC actually.) I scan and electronically file copies of every receipt I get - even non-rebate related ones. I'm the physical world, I'm a packrat. But in the digital world I'm able to organize that mess into something easily searchable and instantly retrievable thanks to OCR and PDFs. Before I went digital I used to have boxes and boxes of receipts. Come tax time, my account is grateful too!
Don't buy something on rebate that you can't afford at full price. The nature of rebates is that a certain percentage of them are simply going to fail, be rejected or go belly up. At best you'll be floating that money for a good month or two. At worst you'll never see it again. While most retailers will try to accommodate you if the rebate company goes bankrupt or otherwise fails to honor their obligations, it might take you 6 months to a year to get your money back. And in the case of purchases from small retailers or online shops, you might never get any of the rebate money back at all. And if you didn't have copies of all your paperwork, expect to be turned away at the door regardless.
Don't buy something on rebate that isn't a good value before the rebate. This ties back in to #5. If the only reason the price of something is attractive is due to an attached rebate, move on. The manufacturer or retailer is playing a game with you and you'd be best to stay out of that game. Think of rebates as "found money" and treat them as such. A rebate should be an incentive to buy a particular product over a similar product from some other company. It should not be compensation for an overpriced or underperforming product.

Happy Shopping!!

UPDATE 2/25/2008: For those who missed a copy on the newsstand, here is a scan of the article. Hopefully I'll have a real reprint to post soon.

The fat lady sung... HD DVD dead... Wal-Mart picks Blue-Ray

2008-02-16T03:34:00.002-05:00

Well... looks like I called one right. Blue-Ray won.

The New York Times is reporting that Wal-Mart will no longer be carrying any HD DVD equipment or HD DVD titles after June 2008.

"HD DVD, the beloved format of Toshiba and three Hollywood studios, died Friday after a brief illness. The cause of death was determined to be the decision by Wal-Mart to stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format.

There are no funeral plans, but retailers and industry analysts are already writing the obituary for HD DVD.

The announcement by Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer of DVDs, that it would stop selling the discs and machines in June when supplies are depleted comes after decisions this week by Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer, to promote Blu-ray as its preferred format and Netflix, the DVD-rental service, to stock only Blu-ray movies, phasing out HD DVD by the end of this year."

Now if only the manufacturers will ramp up Blue-Ray production so we can get $100 players on the shelf and decently priced media available to consumers who are willing to pony up for the available recorders.

If they don't hurry up and get players to the market in that magical $100-150 pricepoint, all of the consumer electronics brands stand to lose even the Blue-ray battle to videos delivered via streaming over the internet and to upconversion of standard DVDs.

I know you can't put bits back that aren't there anymore but the upconverting DVD players that hit the market in the past 12 months do a stunning job at putting a pretty image on the screen.

Artificial sweeteners = weight gain

2008-02-11T07:28:00.000-05:00

Finally, someone has caught on to what us hypoglycemics have known for years... Artificial sweeteners screw up the body's ability to respond to sweetness.

Several news outlets (including Time linked above) are reporting that artificial sweeteners may actually be one of the culprits in American weight gain. Summarized, the research points to a de-conditioning effect being caused by the artificial sweetness. This means that the body stops revving up the metabolism when sugar is ingested. In turn, weight gain, increased bad cholesterol and abnormal levels in fats and triglycerides seem to be occurring.

I've known this myself for quite a while. There isn't a single artificial sweetener that I can ingest without ending up with a headache. So, early in my teenage years I learned to avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague.

There was no way for me to have known what was causing my headaches when drinking saccharin and nutrasweet sweetened products. No one had ever studied it. But now the research is fairly conclusive... initially people who intake artificial sweeteners experience an insulin spike as if the body was going to be processing sugar. That is what causes my headache - the insulin spike causes my blood sugar drop since no sugar is coming in to offset it.

As people continually ingest artificial sweeteners, their bodies say "fool me once..." Thus begins the process of desensitizing the body to sugar such that problems develop as the metabolism is no longer geared to handle it.

The assumption of the researchers who have analyzed the study results is that consuming sweet with no corresponding incoming calories is what causes what they call "metabolic syndrome". (Metabolic syndrome meaning that the body's metabolism is off-the-tracks and not running at the rate it should.)

Gift cards for groceries... the recession is here

2008-02-08T04:19:00.000-05:00

The LA Times is reporting Wal-Mart shoppers are buying more milk and bread with gift cards received at Christmas than they are using them on splurge purchases like iPods.

This is a bellweather for our economy... the canary in the mine if you will. Americans are smart and when grandma and your cousins are using their gift cards to buy groceries the message is clear: The recession is here.

For several years I gave my own grandmas Wal-Mart gift cards and encouraged them to do just that - use them to pay for their medications and groceries. Neither of them would do it and the cards got saved for splurge purchases on clothing and kitchen electrics.

I've seen this change with my own eyes however. Grandmas are using gift cards to buy everyday essentials like milk, bread and eggs. Many of them are the same people who lived through the depression. They're not stupid. It means their personal finances are constrained enough that they have entered a resource saving mode. The same instinct kept their families feed during the depression.

Personally I don't think we'll hit a depression again this time... not unless the drought devastates crops. We are heading into a substantial recession. Younger generations would do well to connect with those in the 80+ club and start learning how to stretch a dollar now. Otherwise those younger folks are going to find themselves going to dinner a lot at grandma's because she's the only one with food left after everyone else blew through their paycheck.

Think Before You Post

2008-01-18T02:00:00.001-05:00

Extra credit... Did you know you can mail a coconut?

2008-01-08T02:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm known for my depth of knowledge concerning all things weird, strange and useless. Today I ran across a tidbit that I thought others might get a kick out of.

Did you know you can mail a whole coconut via the USPS with no additional packaging and no surcharge? Just apply an address and postage to the coconut and deposit with your mail carrier or at the post office. (Remember to use correct postage for the weight.)

Apparently we have the tourist travelers to Hawaii to thank for this unique ability. It was started as an alternative to sending a plain postcard. The ability isnt limited to Hawaii though. You can run down to Wal-Mart or any local grocer, buy a coconut and mail it from your local post office to anyone in the US.

For those looking to send a unique birthday card or promotional item, this just might fit the bill.

Analog cellular shutdown affects more than you think

2007-12-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

There are several impending shutdowns that users of wireless devices - not necessarily cell phones - need to be aware of.

AT&T, Verizon and Alltel will be shutting down their old analog cellular networks - known as AMPS - in February. For users in rural areas or those who relied on analog coverage when they were roaming, it's time to start looking for alternatives. Verizon is especially guilty of relying on analog roaming when out of their own CDMA coverage area.
In rural areas, there will be some new coverage blackholes created by the shutdown. So expect coverage to get worse before it gets better. None of the carriers are admitting to this but it's definitely the elephant in the room. Also keep in mind that it might be a good idea to stop into your local carrier's retail store and have the update the PRL (preferred roaming list) on your existing phone. Any phone more than 6 months old needs the update. Phones more than a year or so old absolutely need the update. Otherwise your phone will not know about the new digital roaming arrangements carriers have been making to provide coverage for their users.
If you have an alarm system of any type that contains a wireless monitoring or notification system, call your alarm company NOW. Most of the systems installed in the past decade relied on the older analog cellular networks for connectivity. Your alarm company will be able to figure out what kind of cellular connection you are using and if necessary can install a replacement unit that will work on the digital networks. It won't be free but without it your alarm monitoring will cease to function in an emergency.
Automobile communications systems that were made before 2005 and in some cases including 2005, may need to have their wireless transmitter units replaced. Of specific concern are OnStar and similar systems. The older OnStar units were analog only and will cease to function after the analog networks cease. That means protections like crash notification and remote lockout assistance will stop functioning along with it.
Older wireless credit card terminals from all of the major credit card networks will also cease to function when the analog network dies. These units were normally powered by the analog networks because the analog networks supported the direct host connectivity the units needed. I don't know of retrofit options for any of them since the communications modem is embedded into the body of the unit. They will need to be replaced with newer equipment, preferably IP based units running over GPRS, 1XRTT, EVDO or UMTS. Hint... go with EVDO or UMTS if at all possible. That will give you the most number of years of service out of the unit and the fastest transaction processing speed.

Make your own joke

2007-12-27T00:07:00.000-05:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone. The boxes are open, the paper is in shreds and the leftovers are wrapped in plastic. From comparing notes with colleagues and friends, I wasn't the only one who was a little blah about the whole thought of Christmas this year.

For me, I think it came from overexposure. Something about singing Christmas music since October made the whole thing less magical. By Christmas eve the last thing I wanted to hear was Christmas music on the radio. So when I was driving home from our candlelight service at church I popped in a Jump5 CD.

But like me, some of the other people who experienced the blahs this year had that blah punctuated by moments of fun and frivolity. Here's an example:

Now I'll let you make your own joke about the pose. But at least she got out of the ho-hum for a few minutes.

Christmas Weight Limit

2007-12-24T11:55:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas fellow bloggers and blog readers!

PS... I lost 2 pounds this month. Hehe. See ya at the New Years resolution booth.

CIA caught with fingers in the cookie jar

2007-12-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

Another fine mess brought to you by a government who has become addicted to hiding the facts, spinning the leaks and getting away with anything they please.

I did it again... Killed another Time Warner 8300HDC

2007-12-07T01:40:00.000-05:00

Well my name isn't Brittney but Opps, I did it again! Another "wonderful" Scientific Atlanta product has bitten the dust at my house. Time Warner pushed down a firmware update for the 8300HDC - cable card units - sometime this week. My units picked it up tonight when I power cycled them due to no guide data being available (common problem).

One unit updated itself and came back fine. The other unit still hadn't turned back on 20 minutes later. So I turned the TV on and found this:

The firmware update had stalled at 99% and bricked the cable card. Ghee. Whee.

So here's my obligatory - Time Warner Sucks! for the week.

HIV 101: World Aids Day Weekend

2007-12-02T00:50:00.000-05:00

HIV, also commonly referred to as its symptom complex AIDS, is a disease that we know how to get and that we know how to prevent. Yet it remains the greatest challenges facing our modern society. Please take a moment to watch the video below.

This is the weekend of World AIDS day. The Global Summit on AIDS & The Church is taking place this weekend. For more information on how your church or organization can get mobilized in the fight please visit the Purpose Driven community for for the Global Summit on AIDS.

IPTV... I had high hopes for SkyAngel

2007-11-29T21:48:00.000-05:00

Those of you in my close circle of friends have heard me talking about my hope for the IPTV service that SkyAngel is eventually bringing to the US. I was hoping they would enable GodTV reaching more people in the US (currently limited to DirecTV only). Well, today my hopes aren't quite as high.

Back in August, I emailed SkyAngel to let them know I'd like to be included in their beta of the new service. I knew they had already successfully lunched the service in Canada and were working on plans for the US version.

Specifically I'd emailed them "I'm a professional IT geek and a blogger. I already have ethernet connections at each of my TVs, use TiVO and have HDTV service. I also have 802.11g and 802.11n wireless networks in my home." I sent my request directly to their VP of Corporate Communications and got an acknowledgment the same day.

Well September, October and pretty much all of November came and went with nary a word from them. So today I sent a follow-up to the same VP. This time it triggered a chain of emails and a call from another VP apologizing for the fact they had dropped the ball and no one ever followed up on my email.

That would have been a great call... except they had already sent all their beta invitations out earlier this month. And each one of them was specially coded for survey tracking... and their IT department was too busy to program in and send out another code.

Now I've been in corporate IT myself. So I understand busy. I understand beta and phased deployments. I understand things getting missed. What I don't understand is why you call someone after they've been forgotten for 3 months only to tell them they were forgotten and there's nothing you can do about it. That just seems asinine.

I've been trying to figure out the possible motivation for that kind of call but really I'm at a loss. How often am *I* at a loss?!

Then later this afternoon I get an email from the VP of Communications apologizing for having dropped the follow-up on my initial email. She also informed me that post launch they're thinking about inviting some media to test and review the service.

Her email settled it for me. This is the same old Dominion Satellite. They didn't learn anything from SkyAngel's satellite service launch, lack of uptake in the broader market, and the experiences (trouble) people had with their service. Common sense in marketing dictates that you want to generate positive buzz before something hits the general market.

What troubles me most is this is a group that represents Christian ethics and morals. I truly appreciate what they're trying to do with religious programming distribution but they are apparently clueless about how the business world works. And that cluelessness has translated into a lack of understanding of the tech world.

Here they're launching the sort of product that all of the tech industry would like to see - standalone IP based TV. Think of it as Vonage for television - SkyAngel TV channels delivered over any viable IP reception method - cable, DSL, T1, etc.

This is exactly the thing that we Christian IT leaders, bloggers and executives would like to put our weight behind. Alas SkyAngel has proven they lack vision for IPTV just like they lacked vision for how to get out into the general market with family friendly satellite service. So instead of Vonage for television, we're destined for SunRocket for television.

I may one day own a SkyAngel IPTV box... I did sign up back in October for notification when it comes out. And it is exactly the sort of service I'm looking for. I just hope I get more use out of it than I got out of my Sunrocket phone before the service dies.

Too bad SkyAngel, a communication company, simply does not understand how to communicate in the 21st century. SkyAngel IPTV service is destined for the same limited market exposure as SkyAngel Satellite garnered.

In economic terms, based on their current market savvy it's unlikely the addition of IPTV to their portfolio will generate enough cash flow to keep the company afloat. Those of who were looking for IPTV to fix the channel bandwidth crunch caused by them losing transponder space on Dish Network appear to be in for sore disappointment. Sorry friends.

SDV coming to TiVo - TiVo here I come!

2007-11-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

For those on digital cable systems like those sucky bozos at the Greensboro, NC division of Time Warner, there's good news! TiVo will be getting and add-on module that will allow it to work on systems that have deployed switched digital video (SDV).

SDV is a new feature on some cable systems that keeps the channels that aren't being watched by anyone in the area from being broadcast on the cable coming into your home. That allows the cable system to theoretically add more channels. (Now don't get me started about all of the crap channels that people don't want to watch. If those weren't there SDV would be irrelevant. Duh!) I won't get into the technical limitations of that but I will summarize by saying its a stop-gap measure at best. Spectrum on coax is limited by the carrying capacity of the wire. Fiber is the final and only option that will really be a viable long term solution.

The problem with TiVo, especially HD TiVo, is that it couldn't do the special handshake that the cable system needed in order to say "ok, send me these channels and let me know where they are." Several cable system divisions were using that lacking feature to poopoo TiVos and similar products in order to get people to accept the crappy cable boxes like you heard me fussing about last week. Customers who bought TiVos on SDV enabled systems were often finding the HD channels they were getting cable for in the first place to be inaccessible.

Today's announcement by the NCTA and TiVo puts and end to that madness. I'll be out getting 2 TiVos to replace these 2 B%T$H Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC boxes. (Few things in life I hate... they have managed to get themselves added that list!)

PS... Dad if you had time to read my blog, you have time to put a new electric outlet in the basement!

Let's Say Thanks

2007-11-25T01:46:00.000-05:00

I may not like our bozo president. Or the lame war he and his cronies got us into. BUT I do support our men and women who willingly agree to serve in our armed forces - even if they are technically under the direction of said bozo.

Here's your chance to let our men and women in service know that we appreciate them. Xerox is powering a program called Let's Say Thanks (LST). Click over to the LST website, pick a postcard style, personalize the card and poof, Xerox prints it and sends it to a service man or woman for free.

You can also download the kid-drawn art from the cards for use in your own personal cards and letters to those in service you have a personal connection with.

So what are you waiting for?! Let's Say Thanks!

Online advertising... getting a little too personal

2007-11-25T00:18:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't been tracking the fuss that Facebook started lately, you might want to pay attention. I've linked to an article over at Broadband Reports in the header above.

What's all the fuss about? Simple - technology has caught up with us and internet anonymity is now non-existent. The technology now exists and is in place for multiple sites to all share data with each other about what you've been doing on their sites - what you've bought, what you looked at, who you've talked to, etc.

The reason they're doing this is not so much "big brother" but so they can charge advertisers more money. See the more they can say that they know about you, the more they can charge for putting someone in front of your eyeballs.

Facebook's latest nuclear explosion stems from the fact that they let out a little too much information. Friends don't need to know you went to Overstock and bought a pair of silk underwear. At least not my friends.

I'd encourage you to take a closer look and start tracking where this privacy train is headed. Europe appears to be headed in one direction (legally mandated privacy protection) and the US appears to be headed in another (open season on every tidbit of data someone can get about you - i.e. *no* privacy).

All I have to say about Thanksgiving...

2007-11-24T03:56:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I did a little shopping today... oh alright, a lot. Here's all I have to say about Thanksgiving 2007:

Special thanks to K&W Cafeteria for keeping us out of the kitchen. Now if only they'd hurry up and build one of the new concept K&W Cafe stores in Roxboro.

Soapbox: My take on OJ

2007-11-21T22:10:00.000-05:00

I was catching up on some reading and just had to say something about this mess. So here, quote me!

If you are blessed to get away with killing 2 people, you might want to lay low and keep your mouth S.H.U.T, stay out of Las Vegas and hire someone to keep you from doing something else stupid!

Time Warner Cable Sucks

2007-11-17T23:02:00.001-05:00

Ok... I've endured the services of Time Warner Cable via their Greensboro, NC division now for 6 months. I can now officially say - They Suck!

Why do they suck? Let me count the ways:

Laughable HD DVR. The Scientific Atlanta 8300HD/HDC. I have 2 of them. I hate both of them. I've gone through 5 of them trying to get 2 that work. I still get audio drop-outs on HD recordings (the live versions were fine), the user interface was teleported in from 1985, and recordings just fail to occur for no explainable reason. Tonight was the last straw. I couldn't watch Ch 557 (HGTV HD) or Ch 558 (Food Network HD), called tech support, they did something and I could watch it on the livingroom unit. Went into the bedroom later and it said "Guardian has determined your software must be updated. This may take 20 minutes or more..." Well 2 hours later and a call back to tech support confirmed I just toasted *another* SA8300HDC. Tech scheduled for Monday. I'm going to Best Buy and buying 2 HD TiVo's tomorrow to replace these SoBs! And I'll make the tech use the M-Cards from the 8300HDCs in the TiVo's. Ha!
Inexplicable lack of certain channels. I've never been on a cable system where there were no national religious channels. I mean come on, everyone has TBN - they pay local systems for placement just like QVC! But for some reason the Greensboro market has no mainstream religious programming. No TBN, no Daystar, no EWTN, no GodTV, no nothing. I think we may get some Catholic channel a couple hours a day. I can't believe the churches around here or at least the cable customers haven't complained.
Craptacular HD Channel Lineup. I can't believe they're actually advertising how many they have - 29! They even trumpet it in their on-hold announcements. DirecTV - which I have at one home - has 70 channels. Time Warner doesn't carry 7 of the local HD broadcasts I get on DirecTV.
Limited internet bandwidth. I have the "Turbo" package which is supposed to yield 8mbps x 512 kbps. That's great except Time Warner doesn't overprovision... so you only get ~85% of the stated speed. I've never downloaded faster than ~7.5 mbps. Upload is never over 500 kbps. Compare that to the Embarq service I have... 6 mbps x 896 kbps. I consistently download at the actual 6 mbps and upload around 850 kbps. I miss having 1/2 my upload speed horribly when I'm on the Time Warner connection. I'd like to see them move to 10 mbps x 1 mbps.

Well, I'm off to bed. Can't watch HGTV HD, Food Network HD or a handful of other channels on the fried 8300HDC. The only thing I get now on those channels after an hour on the phone with tech support is a black screen. Whee.

Christmas performance season is heating up!

2007-11-13T18:18:00.001-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again. The radio stations have started sneaking in Christmas music, I just loaded Christmas tracks into the on-hold system in the office and I bought one of the $99 HD-DVD players at Wal-Mart's "Secret" pre-holiday sale the other week.

There's a big event happening in Burlington, NC this year. On Sunday, December 9th, Integrity Church and Brookwood Church are joining their bands and worship teams together to produce a night of worship and entertainment unlike anything in the Piedmont Triad.

The event is billed as United In Worship: the Nativity story. It will be held at the restored Paramount Theatre in downtown Burlington, NC and tickets are only $5 but need to be purchased in advance because they're selling out fast. Showtimes are 4:00pm and 7:00pm. Proceeds from the event go to support Alamance County's premier food pantry - Loaves & Fishes.

Integrity's band is known for rocking down the house on Sunday mornings and Brookwood is known for its variety in its vocalists. Combined, the two should create an unforgettable evening for all those in attendance.

I would encourage anyone within 300 miles of Burlington to buy tickets and get to this event on December 9th. While you're at it, buy a few extra tickets and load up your car. That way you can split the gas expense with a few someones.

You can hear a sample of Integrity's rockin' worship here. And you can buy tickets online via the United in Worship e-ticket site. They can also be bought in person on Sunday mornings from now until they run out at both Brookwood and Integrity.

PS... Integrity also knows how to go soft and smooth.

I won!

2007-10-31T02:10:00.000-04:00

Those who know me, know I love food. Those who really know me, know I'm a dern good cook. (Ok, enough with the modesty.)

I won, I won, I won. Hehehe. This past weekend, Integrity Church of Burlington, NC held its annual chili cook-off and Trunk-o-Ween. Last year I entered the chili contest with a 100% organic, high vegetable chili made with buffalo. Well, one of the judges... a redhead who's getting married next Friday but shall otherwise remain nameless... torpedoed me because she didn't like the idea of eating buffalo.

This year I was smart. Going for a laugh and figuring she might judge again this year, I didn't put my own name on my entry. Instead I titled the entry "Nacho Mama's Chili". (Pun intended.) With the enhanced name and a killer recipe - made with a base of a cured and smoky pork essence, chipotle and mole poblano - I knew I had all the right buttons pushed. Not too hot, not too spicy... a little hint of smoky... a dash of earthiness. It was ~98% fat free, contained 2 whole servings of vegetables per bowl, and all organic meat and produce.

Luckily I didn't have to wait long. The judging happened before anything else. Bingo! Nacho Mama's Chili won first prize in the Healthy category. And having tasted the winner in the hearty category, if I'd had another pot to enter I would have been a strong contender there too.

Yum yum. Whoo hoo! I won.

They're out to do it again...

2007-10-25T12:53:00.000-04:00

Well, the guys who created Telarus and set out to revolutionize how T1s and DS3s were quoted - as the first people to quote them on the internet in real-time, are back at it. Patrick, one of the co-founders, just started a new blog for the enterprise they've started called Commission River.

I can't spoil the surprise but I'd suggest keeping an eye on the Commission River website over the next few weeks. There are some very interesting developments in the wind. Other online affiliate programs had better take notice. These guys intend to out innovate and out perform you.

When is the last time you backed up your computer?

2007-10-23T20:49:00.000-04:00

So... if your computer died tonight, what would happen? Would you lose everything you have on your hard drive? Do you have copies of all your emails? Did you remember to back up all those digital photos?

Most people never think about all the stuff they have stored on their computer until their hard drive dies or their machine blows up. Then it's too late. The damage is already done and everything is already lost. I hear from at least one person every month who has lost everything and is looking for some glimmer of hope that I might be able help them recover the 5 years of stuff they just lost.

For the past 8 months I've been using an online backup service called Carbonite. It works in the background and uses your existing broadband connection to store the data within Carbonite's datacenter. The data is encrypted and safely locked up waiting for you to need rescuing. When it comes time for that rescue, your data can be restored to any PC with an internet connection.

So if you're traveling or are otherwise away from your home or office when your computer dies, there's no worrying about not having your backup discs, media, etc. You can simply start restoring all your lost data onto a new computer via any available internet connection.

You can even use Carbonite to do what I did recently - to move all your data to a new PC. I work in lots of different offices and getting data from my main laptop onto a new laptop is always a hassle. I'm usually traveling when I need to make the switch and that just complicates it even more. With Carbonite I just installed the software on the new machine and initiated Restore mode, chose the files I wanted to restore, told Carbonite where to put them and went to bed. The next morning, all of my data had been pulled down by Carbonite onto my new machine.

Carbonite is the cheapest data insurance you'll ever buy! I highly recommend it. They offer a free 15 day trial.

Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash

2007-10-19T20:50:00.000-04:00

By Ryan Singel

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) is reportedly steering the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee to give retroactive immunity to telecoms that helped the government secretly spy on Americans.

He has also recently benefited from some interesting political contributions.

Read the rest at Wired.

Verizon Wireless: If you don’t opt out, we get to share your CPNI call data

2007-10-15T15:44:00.000-04:00

From BroadbandReports:
A startup named SkyDeck notes that Verizon Wireless customers need to opt out of a new plan to sell customer CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) data to third parties. That data includes all numbers called or called from, the length of each call and additional information on services purchased. Verizon is sending this letter to customers, alerting them that they have thirty days to call a 1-800 number or they agree to the sharing. Verizon tells RCR Wireless News "we’re doing the right thing here."

SkyDeck has a scanned copy of the notice available here.

From ARS Technica:
Over the weekend, a small storm erupted over new legal language that Verizon Wireless is passing quietly on to its subscribers. It appears as though the cellular provider is changing its terms of service to give the company the right to share sensitive calling data with third parties.

At issue is so-called Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) data. While CPNI data does not include explicit information identifying your name and address or your phone number, it does include data on the calls you make and receive, and the services that you may make use of. This includes information about the features of your phone and its capabilities. The data could easily be mined to see what kinds of businesses you call and how often.

Verizon Wireless has been contacting its customers via snail mail to inform them of their intent to share CPNI data with its "affiliates, agents and parent companies (including Vodafone) and their subsidiaries." The company says that customers who do not want their CPNI data shared need to call 1-800-333-9956 to "opt-out." Upon dialing the opt-out number, Verizon customers will be prompted for their phone number, billing ZIP code, and last four digits of their Social Security Numbers (in the case of businesses, their Employer ID numbers). Failure to opt-out will be interpreted by Verizon Wireless as "consent" to the company's data-sharing practices.

Although the Federal Communications Commission has said that it is very concerned about the protection of CPNI data, and is exploring the possibility of strengthening its rules on the issue, Verizon's opt-out notice appears to fulfill the Commission's CPNI disclosure requirements.

The Skydeck company blog was the first to suggest that what Verizon wants to do here is use CPNI data to offer targeted advertising. For its part, Verizon Wireless only says that it hope to improve its "services," but give no concrete examples of what such improvements would look like. Without a doubt, the notice given by the company is extremely vague. Skydeck has a scanned PDF copy available for your perusal.

Verizon Wireless may just be a first mover among other telcos. The race is on in the telecom industry to tap the well of advertising for mobile services, and this opt-out approach is guaranteed to give Verizon a lot of CPNI data to share, an undeniable treasure trove of information for marketers. We don't envision Verizon selling this data to third parties, using it instead to build its own analytic advertising system to capitalize on the targeting in-house. The company isn't likely to broadcast such plans until they are very close to fruition, however.

Sometimes evolution is just pure luck...

2007-10-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Inside France's secret war

2007-10-07T01:16:00.000-04:00

For 40 years, the French government has been fighting a secret war in Africa, hidden not only from its people, but from the world. It has led the French to slaughter democrats, install dictator after dictator – and to fund and fuel the most vicious genocide since the Nazis. Today, this war is so violent that thousands are fleeing across the border from the Central African Republic into Darfur – seeking sanctuary in the world's most notorious killing fields

By Johann Hari in Birao, Central African Republic

Published: 05 October 2007

I first heard whispers of this war in March, when newspapers reported in passing that the French military was bombing the remote city of Birao, in the far north-east of the CAR. Why were French soldiers fighting there, thousands of miles from home? Why had they been intervening in Central Africa this way for so many decades? I could find no answers here – so I decided to travel there, into the belly of France's forgotten war.

On the battlefield - Birao

I am standing now on its latest battlefield, looking out over abandoned mud streets streaked with ash. The city of Birao is empty and echoing, for the first time in 200 years. All around are miles of burned and abandoned homes, with the odd starved child scampering through the wreckage. What were all these buildings? On one faded green sign it says Ministry of Justice, on a structure reduced to a charcoal husk. In the market square, the people who have returned are selling a few scarce supplies – rice and manioc, the local yeasty staple food – and talking quietly. At the edges of the town, there are African soldiers armed and trained by the French, lolling behind sandbags, with machine guns jutting nervously at passers-by. They are singing weary nationalist anthems and dreaming of home.

To get here, you have to travel for eight hours on a weekly UN flight that carries eight passengers at most, and then ride on the back of a rusting flat-top truck for an hour along ravaged and broken roads. It is hard to know when you have arrived, because you are greeted only by emptiness and silence. What has happened here? Sitting amid the mud and dust and sorrow, I find Mahmoud, one of the 10 per cent of Birao's residents who have returned to the rubble.

He is a thin-faced 45-year-old farmer, and explains, in a low, slow voice, how his home town came to this. "I woke up for morning prayers on 4 March and there was gunfire everywhere. We were very frightened so we stayed in the house and hoped it would stop. But then in the early afternoon my brother's children came running to our house, screaming and crying. They told us the Forcés Armées Centrafricanes [Faca – the army trained and equipped by the French, on behalf of their friendly neighbourhood strongman, President François Bozize] had gone into their house. They wouldn't calm down and explain. So I ran there, and I saw my brother on the floor outside, dead. His wife explained they had forced their way in and rounded him up, along with three men who lived nearby. They took them out on to the street and shot them one by one in the head."

Mahmoud's friend, Idris, lived nearby, and feared he, too, would be shot. He says now: "We could see the villages burning and the children were screaming and really scared, so we ran two kilometres out into the jungle. From there we could see our whole city on fire. We fled along the river and stayed out there. We ate fish, but there weren't many. Some days we couldn't catch anything and we starved. The children were so terrified. Still, when they hear a loud noise, they think there are guns coming and they start shaking." Idris looks off into the distance and continues: "On the fourth day, we saw the French planes come. They each had six rockets that they fired. The explosions were loud. We don't know what they were targeting, or why. Then the French soldiers arrived." A military truck filled with French soldiers rumbles by not long after, its tanned troops wearing designer sunglasses and a "why am I here?" anxiety.

As Mahmoud and Idris talk it gets dark, and a suffocating blackness and silence falls on the city. There is no electricity and no moonlight. They explain in this blackness that the French-backed troops began firing and the French military began bombing in March for one reason: the desperate locals had begun to rise up against President Bozize, because he had done nothing for them. People here were tired of the fact that "there are no schools, no hospitals, and no roads". "We are completely isolated," they explain. "When it rains, we are cut off from the world because the roads turn to mud. We have nothing. All the rebels were asking was for government help." As I stumble around Birao, I hear this every time: the rebels were simply begging for government help for the hungry, abandoned people. Even the bemused French soldiers and the Bozize lackeys sent to the area admit this privately. Yet the French response was with bombs against the rebels' pick-up points. Why? What is there here that they want?

I look out towards the jungle and realise many of Birao's residents are still hiding out there, risking the wild beasts. In the similarly burned-out areas in the north-west, I drive out into the jungle with Unicef and find these clusters of starving families scattered everywhere. In one cleared patch, I find a group of four men with their wives and mothers, clearing an area of ground with their bare hands where they will try to plant peanuts. They are living in handmade huts and set traps to catch mice to eat. Ariette Nulguhom is cradling her eight-month-old grandson with his distended little belly and praying he will survive another night. She tells me: "He's been sick for a long time. We tried to get him to a nurse but there aren't any. We think it is malaria but there is no medicine here. We don't know what will happen... We are all weak and feverish. We're exhausted because we work all day, every day. I have not eaten for days now." When they left behind their houses, they left behind access to clean water, electricity, and medicine. When the Faca burned those homes, they burned away the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries for these families, too.

This is a forgotten corner of a forgotten country. Birao lies and dies in the far north-east of the Central African Republic. CAR itself has a population of just 3.8 million, spread across a territory bigger than Britain's, landlocked at the exact geographical heart of Africa. It is the least-reported country on earth. Even the fact that 212,000 people have been driven out of their homes in this war doesn't register on the global radar. In Birao, I realise I am too close to the immediate horror to find the deeper explanations for this war. I only begin to uncover the origins of this story when I stumble across a very rare find in the CAR – an old man.

A country of children - Paoua

In the CAR, you have beaten the odds if you live to be 42. There are times when this seems like a country of children, swarming around with guns and hardened laughs, without an adult in sight. So when I see Zolo Bartholemew limping past the wreckage of another burned-out town – this time in the distant north-west, outside the city of Paoua – he seems like a mirage. He has no teeth and a creased face, and when I ask, he does not know his age. But he remembers. He remembers the tail-end of the first time the French were here – and why.

"I watched my parents forced to work in the fields when I was a child," he says in Sango, the local language. "When they got tired, they were whipped and beaten and made to go faster. It was constantly like this." The French flag was first hoisted in the heart of Africa on 3 October 1880, seizing the right bank of the Congo for the cause of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité – for the white man. The territory was swiftly divided up between French corporations, who were given the right effectively to enslave the people, like Zolo's parents, and force them to harvest its rubber. This rubber was processed into car tyres for sale in Paris and London and New York. A French missionary called Father Daigre described what he saw: " It is common to meet long files of prisoners, naked and in a pitiful state, being dragged along by a rope round their necks. They are famished, sick, and fall down like flies. The really ill and the little children are left in the villages to die of starvation. The people least affected often killed the dying, for food."

Zolo nods when I mention this. "When the whites were here, we suffered even more," he says. "They forced us to work. We were slaves."

One horrified French administrator wrote in the 1920s that the locals reacted to being enslaved by the corporations by becoming "a troglodyte, subsisting wretchedly on roots until he starves to death, rather than accept these terrible burdens". Areas that had "only a few months ago been rich, populous and firmly established in large villages" became, he wrote, "wasteland, sown with dilapidated villages and deserted plantations".

But in the 1950s, men like Zolo rose and refused to be enslaved. "We followed Boganda," he says. Barthélemy Boganda was born in a Central African village near here in 1910, and, as a child, he saw his mother beaten to death by the guards in charge of gathering rubber for a French corporation. He rose steadily through the Catholic priesthood, married a French woman, and, quite suddenly, became the leader of the CAR's pro-democracy movement. He would begin his speeches to the French by introducing himself as the son of a polygamous cannibal, and then lecture them on the values of the French Revolution with a fluency that left them stunned and shamed. He crafted a vision of a democratic Africa beyond tribe, beyond race and beyond colonialism. He was passionate about the need for a plurality of political parties, a free press, and human rights. He rhapsodised about his vision of a United States of Africa, linking together the countries of Central Africa into a USA Mk II.

"And they killed him," Zolo says, shaking his head and kicking at the earth beneath his feet. On 29 March 1959, not long after the French era of direct rule had ended, President Boganda's plane was blasted out of the air. The French press reported that there had been "suspicious materials " found in the remains of the fuselage – but on the orders of the French government, the local investigation was abandoned. The French installed the dictator David Dacko in his place. He swiftly shut down Boganda's democratic reforms, brought back many French corporations, and reintroduced their old system of forced labour, rebranding it "village work". French rule over the CAR – the whippings Zolo remembers – did not end with "independence". It simply mutated, into a new and slippery form, and it is at the root of the current war.

But the clues to this lie far to the west, in the capital city. " Nothing happens in this country without somebody pulling a lever in Paris," a taxi driver tells me as I leave to travel to Bangui at the bottom of the country, driving through clouds of red-dust and past swarms of street-children. I have an appointment with an underground figure in the opposition to keep.

A tortured president - Bangui

Bangui looks like a city that rose with a heave from the jungle a century ago, and has been sighing back into it ever since. Every building appears to be rusting away, and great eruptions of vegetation are shoving the homes and shops aside, reaching for the sky. On corner after corner there are huge, hideous caricature-statues of black people, showing them as thick-lipped and kinky-haired, giving the city the ambience of a Ku Klux Klan garage sale.

Every few hours, the power supply dies, and the city stammers to a halt. People dawdle in the streets, playing cards and wiping away their sweat with the back of their wrists. It is during one of these blackouts that I arrive at the office of a leader of the opposition with a delegation from the British campaigning group Waging Peace. His office is above a parade of shops, and it is a simple room filled with African carvings and pictures of past and faded glories. He walks towards us in a green suit, and – although he does not say it – we all know he is taking a huge risk by meeting us secretly like this. Last year, 40 political figures who criticised the government of President Bozize were tossed into jail and tortured. " They tried to kill my son. They are trying to assassinate me," he says, with a matter-of-fact shrug. He gives the long, horrible details. I cannot repeat them here because they would identify him – and become a death sentence.

"The country is in a dire situation," he says. "We have been described by the magazine Foreign Policy as one of the worst failed states in the world, after Iraq and Afghanistan." He says the CAR is now " a total and ferocious dictatorship" under the absolute command of Bozize. The roots of the wars in the north-east and north-west are, he says, simple. "Local people in these regions are rebelling against the government, because the government provides them with nothing. There are no services. There aren't even roads. So the rebels rise up to get attention – and the government retaliates by rampaging through the area, killing civillians and burning homes."

So who is this Francois Bozize, and why are the French supporting him with batallions and bombs? I telephone the vast presidential palace to meet the man who stares out from behind a smartly-trimmed moustache in the pictures hanging on every wall, and the President's press officer eventually gets back to me. "Call me back, I am running out of credit on my mobile phone," he snaps. Then he promises a meeting with the President, but finds mysterious "complications" that lead him to cancel every time. There are rumours across Bangui that Bozize is becoming ever-more paranoid and locked down, employing food tasters to check for poison before every meal and refusing to meet strangers. So I look instead to the few scraps of independent journalism that survive here for clues as to who this French love-child really is.

Le Citoyen is distributed on rough photocopied paper every day and sold on street corners for a few pennies – but it is one of the bastions of Central Africa's remaining freedoms. Its editor Maka Obossokotte has a neat grey beard, square cheekbones, and balls of steel. He has been jailed for criticising the President and his cronies more than once, but he insists I quote him on-the-record and by name. "In jail, you were given rotten fish to eat. I got gout. The toilets..." he shakes his head. "It is hell." He says he knows now that "it is very likely somebody from the presidential clan will kill me... Every morning when I wake up, I think there are three beds I could end up in tonight. Back here at home, the hospital, or the morgue." But he says: "I will not be afraid. It is when you are afraid that you lose."

Sitting in a delicious cloud of smoke, puffing away on high-tar cigarettes, Maka talks me through the President's biography. He was born in nearby Gabon, the son of a police officer from the CAR. He wasn't smart at school, but he managed to get a coveted job as bodyguard to Jean-Bedel Bokassa, one of the vicious dictators flattered and fawned over by the French. Bokassa was famously mad, declaring himself "Emperor of the CAR", eating the leader of the opposition, and opening fire on a group of children who were protesting for help to buy their school uniforms. Bozize carried Bokassa's cane and his bag, and, Maka explains: "It was through watching him that Bozize got his taste for power." The "Emperor" promoted him to the rank of general.

After a while, Bokassa's foaming madness made him an unreliable servant of the French, so they backed a coup against him. Bozize left to study at the Ecole Spécial Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, and returned only to stage a farcical coup attempt of his own. In 1982, he seized control of one of the national radio stations and announced that he was now President. Everybody laughed; Bozize fled. A few years later he was deported back to Bangui to be punished. "They tortured him," Maka says. "They pissed in his mouth, they broke his ribs, they really mistreated him for three years."

Eventually, they let him go back to France for medical treatment – and the French government swiftly began to build him up as an alternative president, in case their current pick became too disobedient and got ideas of his own. From being a poor man, Bozize suddenly had the money to run a huge presidential campaign. He ran, and he lost. So in October 2002, he paid for a vast private mercenary army (you might wonder – with whose money?) to invade the CAR from neighbouring Chad, depose the sitting president and install himself as the supreme ruler. Since then, he has "won" a disputed election he arranged for himself and bathed in French approbation.

"France sees the CAR as a colony," Maka says. "The presidents are selected by France, not elected by the people. The presidents do not serve the interests of this country; they serve the interests of France." He lists the French corporations who use the CAR as a base to grab Central African resources. This French behaviour is, he reasons, at the root of the wars currently ripping apart the north of the country. Whoever becomes president knows his power flows down from Paris, not up from the people – so he has no incentive to build support by developing the country. Rebellions become inevitable, and the president crushes them with the house-burnings and French bombs I learned about in Birao.

"The country will only be able to develop when France stops putting in place these dictators and the people choose," Maka adds, stubbing out his cigarette into an overflowing ashtray. "The CAR will only progress when the president is scared of his people, not the French."

Into rebel country - Bossangoa

I am driving now through the skin-sizzling heat of Bossangoa, the home-town of Bozize – and the last outpost of his power before you stumble into bandit-and-rebel territory. The Marie Celeste villages stretch for miles once more. Silence. Walls eaten by fire. Dead towns. In the houses there are smashed pots, abandoned as their residents fled Bozize's marauding murderers. I find a stray shoe sitting alone in one. In another village, the bell that calls children to school is still hanging from a tree, forgotten. On the blackboard is the final lesson, still there: a map of the CAR in chalk.

But then, after an hour of driving beyond Bossangoa into the jungle, there are signs of life. In yet another burned village, there are 20 young men, all sweat and Kalashnikovs. We pull up, and realise we are in an unexpected rebel camp. The boys' leader strolls toward us – an elder, at the age of 24 – and shakes our hands. He explains they are part of the rebel Army for the Restoration of the Republic and Democracy (French acronym APRD), who have taken this area. His "troops" are dressed oddly. One is swearing ski glasses and a ski hat, in a place as far from a ski slope as any on earth. Another is wearing nothing but bright red swimming trunks, and half a dozen strings of bullets around his neck. He is wearing a single woman's flip-flop, silver and glittering in the sun.

They explain they are not allowed to make statements – only their leader can do that – but they are eager to have their photographs taken. As soon as I agree, they contort themselves into wild poses. They stick bullets in their mouths, flex their muscles and screw their faces into a fake rage, like they are recreating a Rambo poster. The baby-faced soldier in the corner, they tell me casually, is 13. They look like teenagers on any street corner anywhere in the world, playing at being rebels. Except these are real rebels, with real guns. A 13-year-old with a gun is a comic sight – until he points it towards you and smiles strangely.

Why, I ask, did you join the rebellion? "Bozize killed my father, my mother and my brother," their leader steps forward to say, in a low voice. He peels up his vest and shows an angry scar where he says he was bayoneted. "They thought I was dead, so they left me." I ask what the rebels want. "We want peace, we want schools, we want roads," the leader says. Most of them nod. Do you want power? "That's up to God. We want roads and schools."

With that, we drive away, and they cheerfully wave their guns in our direction. I follow the trail of burned homes up to Paoua, a town at the top of the north-west – and I am sitting now on a bench with the man who ordered so many to be torched. A lieutenant of the Garde Présidentiel (GP) is chewing gum in the sun, behind barbed wire and sleeping security guards. The GP is the jagged spike of the country's military accountable only to President Bozize – his own private militia. When you see them approach on the streets, with their wild eyes and ready guns, pulses surge and spines stiffen. In the market-square in Paoua, a GP "officer" put a gun to the head of a Médecins sans Frontières doctor and told him: " We will do what they did in Rwanda." And I am making small talk with one of its bosses.

He is wearing long shining purple robes and a white fez, and he tells us haltingly that he will be interviewed, yes, but we cannot use his name. He is young – 33 – with hunched shoulders. His bodyguard is a muscled ripple of anxiety, and he watches every move we make, as if ready to pounce. So, lieutenant, why do you think people join the rebels and fight against you? He makes eye contact only with his bodyguard. "I don't know." Chew, chew. Why do you think people are so scared of the GP here? " There have been a few undisciplined elements, but we have dealt with them." Chew, chew, chew. So it is only undisciplined soldiers who burn all these thousands upon thousands of homes? You don't order them to? "If they burn homes, we deal with them." How have you dealt with them? "We use discipline." He stops leaning and sits up. Really? How many people have you disciplined? When? His bodyguard doesn't like this question; he glares at me. "I had an officer who went to the market when he was not supposed to. I disciplined him." That's it? "We have disciplined."

That's not what people in the villages say, I comment. They are terrified. " Show me the villages. I will show you how we have done good." After we drive away from his compound, we meet up with two pale, disturbed workers from the Italian charity Coopi. They explain that as the lieutenant was assuring us his forces are disciplined, a GP officer drove up on a motorbike and waved a gun in their faces.

At every one of these scenes, the question keeps coming back: why? Why are the French providing military support and training for these militia? The French government says it is in the CAR because it signed a military agreement back in the 1970s to protect the country from external aggression. The rebellions in the north are, they say, supported by Sudan – so this counts. Mes amis, we are protecting a democratically elected President from a tyrannical and genocidal neighbour.

But I couldn't find anyone in the CAR – not a single person, not even the most pro-French – who thought Sudan had anything to do with the rebels. So I arrange to meet up in Bangui with Louise Roland-Gosselin, an Anglo-French director of the group Waging Peace, who has been studying the Central African Republic. "The policies here in the CAR are part of a much bigger approach by France towards Africa," she says. "We call this system 'Franceafrique', and it was set up by Charles de Gaulle to replace the former colonial system. There is clear continuity from the imperial system to the present day."

The motives for this war are, Roland-Gosselin says, drenched in dollars and euros and uranium. "The overarching goal is to take African resources and funnel them towards French corporations," she says. "The CAR itself is a base from which the French can access resources all over Africa. That is why it is so important. They use it to keep the oil flowing to French companies in Chad, the resources flowing from Congo, and so on. And of course, the country itself has valuable resources. CAR has a lot of uranium, which the French badly need because they are so dependent on nuclear power. At the moment they get their uranium from Niger, but the CAR is their back-up plan." So this is, in part, a war for nuclear power? " Yes, but also a lot of this money has been funnelled, through corruption, straight back into the French political process. Say somebody needs a road built here in the CAR. The French government will insist on a French company – and the French company back home donates a lot to the 'right' French political party."

This neo-imperial war reached its psychotic apogee in 1994, when the French government used the CAR as a base to fund and fuel the Rwandan genocide, the most bloody since the death of Adolf Hitler. Vincent Mounie is a leading figure in Sur Vie, a French organisation monitoring its government's actions in Africa. He explains: "The French were totally complicit in the genocide. There were French troops there before, during and after the genocide, backing the most extreme Hutu forces as they murdered the Tutsis. You know the identity cards that divided the Rwandan population into Hutus and Tutsis in preparation for the slaughter? They were printed in Paris."

The French military base in Bangui had to be abandoned in 1996 after it was burned down by enraged locals, tired of the French ramming tyrants down their national gullet. Today the old base is overgrown, and the French military has shifted to new camps in Birao. But I stare at it now. The French planes that backed the Rwandan holocaust left from here.

President François Mitterrand began his career supporting one genocidal force, and he ended it supporting another. As a young man he rose through the ranks of the Hitler-hugging Vichy regime, only quitting and joining the Resistance when it became obvious the democrats would win. He then became nominally a Socialist and, finally, President – when at last genocide entered his life again. The French government had long seen the Hutu nationalists in Rwanda as Their Men, the people most friendly to French demands for military and corporate access. So when, starting in 1989, the Tutsi refugees who had been driven out decades before started to demand their right to return to their homes, the French were furious. Mitterrand saw this Tutsi rights movement as a creation of the CIA, designed to displace a pro-French regime and replace it with a buddy of Uncle Sam. His own aides told him there was no evidence of a link to the CIA – but he refused to listen. He announced that the Tutsis were a "Khmer Noir" , an evil anti-French force, and began to rapidly build up the Hutu Power forces to fight back.

In just four years, starting in 1990, the French buffed up the Hutu nationalist military forces in Rwanda from 10,000 to more than 40,000. The moderate forces within Rwanda began desperately trying to broker a power-sharing agreement between the two sides, "And the French government deliberately destroyed any attempt at a peace deal," Mounie says. Then the hacking up of Tutsi men, women and children began. Mitterrand extended bigger loans to the Hutus, which they used to buy more weapons and ammunition. He publicly mocked anyone who talked about a Hutu-led genocide.

Then, when the international outrage became so great even Mitterrand could not ignore it, the French announced they would send in a military force to stop the killing. "It was France's last lie, and the most cruel," Mounie adds. "Even at this point, Mitterrand's real aim was to recapture Kigali and restore the Hutus to power." In Birao today, many of the soldiers patrolling the city are veterans of this "rescue operation". I am sipping sweet tea in one of the local bigwig's ramshackle houses when a group of local soldiers on patrol arrive. They are working-class men from the Paris and Lyons banlieues, and in the course of the small talk, they admit that they were in Rwanda – and they are still traumatised by what they were ordered to do by Mitterrand and his men. " Children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help," one says, "but our orders were not to help them."

A year after the holocaust ended, Mitterrand told an aide: "Nobody in France cares about the genocide." These disturbed soldiers, sitting in the waning sunlight, show the old cynic was wrong, at least, about that.

Mother, do not beat us - Bangui

In the red-dusted heart of Bangui, there is a rusting, collapsing metaphor for this war – and where it is going. On one side of the road is the vast stadium the French government built for Bokassa in the 1970s, so he could crown himself Emperor of Central Africa and Lord of All He Surveyed. It is falling down now, a dangerous wreck. Opposite, there is a gleaming new sports stadium with plush seating and marble floors. It was built by the Chinese. France is only one slice of this new great game, this global scramble for Africa's resources. Every swaggering world power – the US, Britain, China – is grabbing Africa's remaining riches now, shunting aside democracy and human rights to get to them. But even the Chinese dictators remember to toss some of the loose change from the riches they have pillaged to Bangui. The French have long since given up even on that. They come only with bullets and bombs.

As I prepare to leave the CAR, I am told by senior French and African sources that Paris could be getting ready to ditch President Bozize. Like a string of Central African dictators before him, he has been tugging too hard on the French leash, imagining he is the independent ruler of an independent country. He has decided to nationalise some of the energy companies operating here, including the French mega-corporations Total and ELF. " If he wants the French to crush his rebellions and keep him in power, he has to do what they say," my source says. Bozize is trying to deal with this pre-emptively, by offering the rebel leaders a place in his cabinet. As I drive past his presidential palace for the last time, I wonder if the paranoia that kept me from meeting him was justified all along.

But as my plane finally propels me away from this place, one CAR voice – angry, crazed – seems to follow me. In the jungles around Paoua, I was taken to the entrance to a remote burned-out village to meet Laurent Djim-Woei, the spokesman for the rebels in the north-west. He is a man talked about in awe by his followers – and his enemies.

A group of young men greeted us. They were carrying spears alongside their ski hats and scars. Silently, they beckoned us to follow them through more charcoal villages and dense foliage and beyond. Eventually we reached a clearing. Laurent was dressed in stained combat gear. He had a big smile that was marred by the absence of almost all his teeth. There were three cellphones hanging from his neck. He led an inspection of his rag-tag forces for our benefit, getting them to stand to attention and yelling hoarse orders at them in Sango. Then Laurent told us to sit down and embarked on a rambling, barely comprehensible lecture.

There were only a few of us in a silent jungle, but he looked beyond us and boomed, like he was addressing a stadium full of supporters. The CAR needs " a guard dog" to "bark about justice" and not "the kind of dog that leads you, which we have had in the past", he said. It is the first of a string of odd metaphors. I kept trying to draw him back to specifics: what does he want? He would only use abstract nouns – justice, peace – but then occasionally he voiced his grievances succinctly, before they were doused in metaphor and burned into incomprehensibility again: " Bozize is burning our villages. A country shouldn't burn its own country's villages. It is like a mother and a child, a mother does not burn her child, it would be madness." His eyes danced nervously around the jungle as we spoke, as if he was waiting for a raid.

"France is the mother of Central Africa, and we are the child," he said, oddly picking up the old racist metaphor and making it his own. " The French must now change sides and support us, not Bozize. The French are our parents, we want them to be good parents." This is a sentiment that kept cropping up in the rubble of France's interventions – an appeal to the French to suddenly become a benevolent mother, acting on the side of good, despite all the evidence. France and the CAR are, it strikes me at last, locked in a sick embrace. The French crave the riches offered by this lush, hungry patch of Africa, and the people of Central Africa pine for a deus ex machina to enter stage right and resolve their internal disputes with raw force.

Looking into the far distance, Laurent cries: "We say to France: 'Mother, we are your child, you must love us like a mother should. Do not beat us.'" In the jungle, his voice echoes for miles, until it dies, unheard.

Welcome to America

2007-10-07T00:21:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking this has to be in Las Vegas or somewhere in SoCal. Either way... Only in America!

Autism is Reversible

2007-09-21T21:23:00.000-04:00

Autism is Reversible. A controversial statement for sure but for thousands of parents it is exactly the seed of hope that the Lord has ordained for this time.

As someone who had to learn to live within their own body and the constraints thereof, the basics of the biomedical intervention methods that trailblazing doctors and parents are pioneering resonate with me.

I am one of potentially millions of Americans who are enzyme deficient... my body simply doesn't make enough viable enzymes for me to digest certain things. Pretty much all products that come from a cow are off limits for me - both meat and milk. Same goes for any meats that are vibrant red and for eggs of any kind.

So how does that relate to autism? Simple: Foods are chemicals. That is a fundamental concept that most people would rather not entertain. Regardless, every piece of food you place in your mouth causes some sort of chemical reaction in the body.

The base theories being investigated in autism healing at the moment center around those chemical reactions - specifically often from wheat and dairy, and potentially triggered by mercury - are responsible for the core physiological problems that cause the range of symptoms that get lumped into the diagnosis called autism.

Cause for trigger is yet unknown but likely candidates are theorized to be a buildup of heavy metals in our bodies and environment, immune system overload from inoculation with live viruses and viral material, and exposure to bacteria and bacterioforms.

If you are a parent of a child who has been diagnosed with autism, take hope! And fire your existing doctor! (Because if you're reading this and it's news to you, you need a new one.)

Here are 2 good starter resources for learning more about the problems and potential treatments:

Confessions of a Rebate Whore

2007-09-06T13:32:00.000-04:00

Ok... so I admit it. I'm a rebate whore. There, I've said it. But really, aren't most techie shopaholics the same way?

Nothing says "DEAL" like a product that is free or almost free - after rebate. The newbs among us often forget that to get that deal you basically have to float the retailer or manufacturer a small loan. That float is returned 6-12 weeks later in the form of a rebate check.

Sure I'd probably be better off with a low price upfront. But there is an adrenaline rush that comes with going to the mailbox and picking out a rebate check that you "forgot about". (Yeah right! Who forgets about a check that's coming?!)

Here are some tricks and tips I use to make success with rebates much better:

Fill out the rebate before you start using the product. Don't wait before submitting your rebate, unless the rules make you wait. While you're at it, read the rebate submission rules before you put your pen down. Most rebates follow a simple formula of complete the form, include copy of purchase receipt, original UPC... but high dollar rebates and those of annoying tech companies who shall remain nameless often have additional requirements, such as a signature, serial number, DNA sample or copy of the Magna Carta. It takes just a moment to read the fine print. Forget one little thing, and it's so long rebate, hello denial.
Get the rebate form as a PDF whenever possible. Save the PDF on your computer. Personally, I take it a step further by scanning the completed rebate forms, receipts and even UPCs as PDFs on my PC. For this purpose I use one of the Brother MFC units I have and a Custom Scan button I have configured in their Control Center software to automatically scan to a file, save it as a PDF and put it in the "Rebates Due" folder on my hard drive. Since most rebates tells you to keep copies of the documentation until after the rebate arrives, this also eliminates paper clutter in my already cluttered office.
Keep a spreadsheet, Word doc or other task list with rebate info, such as amount, date submitted, and rebate status URL if given. Since I use Google Apps and Gmail for my email, I also have a filter and tag setup for rebate status emails. That way I can see all my rebate emails with a single click.
Make sure you have supplies handy. It's a total P-I-T-A not to have an envelope around when you need one. Also consider using a electronic postage program like Endicia or Stamps.com instead of hand writing the envelopes. That saves you from having to keep stamps around. Yes this costs a monthly fee... but if you do much other mailing the gas saved on trips to the post office for stamps will quickly save you enough to pay back the fee. The electronic postage also serves as proof of mailing since it logs the exact date and time the item was postmarked. For high dollar rebates you can add Delivery Confirmation for just a little more then the regular postage.
And of course... Be lazy when possible! Look for shortcuts. Many rebates can be partially submitted online. Costco is great about doing that with all their rebates. OfficeMax's "Easy Rebate" is similar. You save them from having to read your crappy penmanship and pay someone do data entry. And in return you get status updates and tracking for your rebate. I consider that a fair trade.

Now go find that rebate you had forgotten to send in, check the "Mail By" date, go dig the box out of the trash and get cracking. Time to cash in that no-interest loan you made to the manufacturer.

PRAY FOR THEM! Iraqi women: Prostituting ourselves to feed our children

2007-08-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day.

Suha, 37, is a mother of three. She says her husband thinks she is cleaning houses when she leaves home.

"People shouldn't criticize women, or talk badly about them," says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. "They all say we have lost our way, but they never ask why we had to take this path."

A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her.

"I don't have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother," she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself.

Anger and frustration rise in her voice as she speaks.

"No matter what else I may be, no matter how off the path I may be, I am a mother!" Watch a woman describe turning to prostitution to "save my child" »

Her clasped hands clench and unclench nervously. Suha's husband thinks that she is cleaning houses when she goes away.

So does Karima's family.

"At the start I was cleaning homes, but I wasn't making much. No matter how hard I worked it just wasn't enough," she says.

Karima, clad in all black, adds, "My husband died of lung cancer nine months ago and left me with nothing."

She has five children, ages 8 to 17. Her eldest son could work, but she's too afraid for his life to let him go into the streets, preferring to sacrifice herself than risk her child.

She was solicited the first time when she was cleaning an office.

"They took advantage of me," she says softly. "At first I rejected it, but then I realized I have to do it."

Both Suha and Karima have clients that call them a couple times a week. Other women resort to trips to the market to find potential clients. Or they flag down vehicles.

Prostitution is a choice more and more Iraqi women are making just to survive.

Don't Miss

Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq

"It's increasing," Suha says. "I found this 'thing' through my friend, and I have another friend in the same predicament as mine. Because of the circumstance, she is forced to do such things."

Violence, increased cost of living, and lack of any sort of government aid leave women like these with few other options, according to humanitarian workers.

"At this point there is a population of women who have to sell their bodies in order to keep their children alive," says Yanar Mohammed, head and founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. "It's a taboo that no one is speaking about."

She adds, "There is a huge population of women who were the victims of war who had to sell their bodies, their souls and they lost it all. It crushes us to see them, but we have to work on it and that's why we started our team of women activists."

Her team pounds the streets of Baghdad looking for these victims often too humiliated to come forward.

"Most of the women that we find at hospitals [who] have tried to commit suicide" have been involved in prostitution, said Basma Rahim, a member of Mohammed's team.

The team's aim is to compile information on specific cases and present it to Iraq's political parties -- to have them, as Mohammed puts it, "come tell us what [they] are ... going to do about this."

Rahim tells the heartbreaking story of one woman they found who lives in a room with three of her children: "She has sex while her three children are in the room, but she makes them stand in separate corners."

According to Rahim and Mohammed, most of the women they encounter say they are driven to prostitution by a desperate desire for survival in the dangerously violent and unforgiving circumstances in Iraq.

"They took this path but they are not pleased," Rahim says.

Karima says when she sees her children with food on the table, she is able to convince herself that it's worth it. "Everything is for the children. They are the beauty in life and, without them, we cannot live."

But she says, "I would never allow my daughter to do this. I would rather marry her off at 13 than have her go through this."

Karima's last happy memory is of her late husband, when they were a family and able to shoulder the hardships of life in today's Iraq together.

Suha says as a young girl she dreamed of being a doctor, with her mom boasting about her potential in that career. Life couldn't have taken her further from that dream.

"It's not like we were born into this, nor was it ever in my blood," she says.

What she does for her family to survive now eats away at her. "I lay on my pillow and my brain is spinning, and it all comes back to me as if I am watching a movie."

Find fiber near your business

2007-08-11T00:39:00.000-04:00

Forever, and I mean FOREVER, it's been darn near impossible to find out what fiber is near a business. It's been even harder to find out what fiber is in a specific area in case you're looking to locate in the building that is already fiber connected.

The carriers specifically kept their fiber lit buildings lists under the cover of darkness. At most carriers, not even their own sales staff can look at maps and automatically visualize where the network they are trying to sell is located. They work off printed lists and general information about streets that the fiber networks run on.

This week that changed. The guys at Telarus, the first company to automate multi-carrier real-time T1 pricing via their GeoQuote and ShopforT1 system, released a system called ShopforEthernet on Wednesday.

Using ShopforEthernet, anyone with access to the internet can enter an address and see what lit buildings are near their address in a matter of seconds. No calling multiple carriers. No dealing with pestering sales guys. Real-time. Accurate. Reality today. If fiber is nearby, one of the product specialists who works with Telarus can provide the customer with pricing and find out about any buildout requirements.

Convincing the carriers to turn over the data was a mammoth undertaking. The control freaks at most of the major carriers initially balked. After some persuasion and reminding them that Telarus has a proven track record of automating real-time comparison quoting, Telarus was able to bring Level3, Time Warner Telecom, Caviler Telephone, Telnes Broadband, Megapath Networks, and XO Communications to the table. Several carriers are still on the fence and an unnamed incumbent carrier outright denied their request for information.

Enterprises needing 10, 20, 50 or 100mbps of Ethernet service, have historically had DS3s and bonded DS3s pushed at them because no one could tell them what fiber was nearby without a lot of work. (And sales guys don't like doing work when there is no guarantee of a sale.) And for enterprises needing gigabit ethernet and 10 gigabit ethernet service, it used to take weeks - yes, literally weeks - to get information back. ShopforEthernet immediately changes that game.

Telarus continues to be a disruptive force in the industry. They have been leading the charge for automation, automation, automation. No one else in the master agent industry empowers their agents with next generation tools like they do. In fact, most of their competitors wince when they announce a new back office feature or web tool because they know it will take a lot of work to catch up with Telarus' latest advancement.

Quote that sounds like I could have written it...

2007-08-09T00:47:00.000-04:00

Christine Comaford-Lynch, multi-business CEO and multi-millionaire put something into words in her recent book "Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality" that sounds like it came out of my mouth. It succinctly sums up my business viewpoint, so I wanted to share.

"My greatest challenge when working with businesses is getting them to change course after they've poured tremendous resources into making something happen that isn't working.

"Remember: an illusion is something you use to change the reality around you. A delusion is something that prevents you from seeing the reality around you. The companies suffering under delusions prefer to die a slow death by staying in a losing proposition rather than accepting the risk that comes with being a quick change artist."

RULES FOR RENEGADES: Among Entrepreneur.com’s Top 10 Business Books This Summer! Click Here for details! Learn the New Rules

Coley’s Cancer-Killing Concoction

2007-07-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

On October 1st 1890, William B. Coley, a young bone surgeon barely two years out of medical school, saw one of his first patients in private practice at the New York Memorial Hospital. Although he’d only finished his residency earlier the same year, he'd already gained a good reputation and many considered him a rising star of the New York surgical scene.

The seventeen year old patient had a painful, rapidly growing lump on the back of her right hand. She had pinched the unlucky appendage between two railway carriage seats on a transcontinental trip to Alaska some months before, and when the bruise failed to heal she assumed the injury had become infected. However the bruise turned into a bulge, the pain steadily worsened, and her baffled doctors were eventually compelled to call for Dr. Coley. As a surgical man, Coley would never have guessed that this innocuous referral would take his career in a totally new direction– into an unusual branch of medicine now known as cancer immunotherapy.

At first Dr. Coley was also uncertain about the diagnosis. But as the girl’s condition rapidly deteriorated– with the lump becoming larger, more painful, and associated with the loss of sensation in some of the surrounding skin– the awful truth became apparent. She had a sarcoma, a type of cancer that affects bone and connective tissue in the body. Unfortunately, 19th century medicine offered very few treatment options.

On November 8th, Coley amputated her arm at the elbow. Although the operation appeared to go well, the girl– named Elizabeth Dashiell– developed severe abdominal pain three weeks later. Soon thereafter she noticed more lumps in her breasts and armpits, signs that the cancer was metastasizing, or spreading. She rapidly lost strength and died on January 23rd 1891, a scant three and a half months after her initial consultation, with a traumatized Dr. Coley at her bedside.

Elizabeth’s death hit the young surgeon hard. While a more experienced physician might have shrugged away the apparent failure and moved on, Coley was determined to do something. His ensuing efforts culminated in the development of a famous fluid that, for a time, appeared to promise the fulfillment of that long-held dream: a universal cure for cancer.

Coley began by poring through the hospital’s records, looking for clues from previous sarcoma cases that might lead to better treatments in the future. He soon found what he was looking for: the case of a German man who came to the hospital with an egg-sized sarcoma in his left cheek some seven years earlier. There were several attempts to excise the tumour but none of them were successful– each time the cancer came back, as aggressive as before. The final operation could only partially remove the huge mass, leaving an open wound that subsequently became infected. The unfortunate immigrant was deemed a terminal case.

Yet four and a half months later, the man was discharged with no trace of disease. Coley personally tracked down the former patient to verify that the miraculous cure had taken place. Indeed, the man was healthy and happily settled into his new life in the United States. The records showed that after the wound became infected with a commonplace bacterium, Streptococcus pyogenes, the patient went through several bouts of fever. With each attack of fever the tumour shrank until eventually it disappeared entirely, leaving only a large scar under the left ear. Coley surmised that the infection had stimulated the German’s immune system– as evidenced by the repeated fevers– and that it was this immune response that had caused the eradication of the cancer.

The story so convinced Coley that he– perhaps cavalierly– contrived to contaminate his next ten suitable sarcoma cases with Streptococcus. His initial approach was to inject a solution of live bacteria deep into the tumour mass on a repeated basis over several months. The first patient to undergo this treatment was a bedridden man with inoperable sarcoma in the abdominal wall, bladder, and pelvis. Using this experimental method, the patient was cured spectacularly. He staged a full recovery, and survived another twenty-six years before dying from a heart attack. But subsequent results were mixed; sometimes it was difficult to get the infection to take hold, and in two cases the cancer responded well to treatment but the patients died from the Streptococcus infection.

Coley’s discovery, as it turns out, was actually a re-discovery. The idea of a link between acute infection and the resolution of tumours was not new, and the phenomenon of infection-related "spontaneous regression" of cancer has been documented throughout history. A 13th century Italian saint was reputed to have his tumour-afflicted leg miraculously healed shortly after the malignant growth burst through the skin and became infected. Crude cancer immunotherapies working along similar lines to Coley’s early experiments were known in the 18th and 19th centuries, and may extend back to the time of the pharaohs. Ancient writings suggest that the renowned Egyptian physician Imhotep may have used a similar infect-and-incise method to treat tumours.

But Coley took those first important steps in dragging this old remedy into the twentieth century. After the fatalities with the ‘live’ version of his therapy, he developed an improved fluid containing killed bacteria of two different strains, Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marcescens. This was based on the idea that the dead bacteria would still have the immune-stimulating capability of their living brethren (in the form of purported ‘toxins’), but not share their inconvenient tendency to cause death. His invention became variously known as ‘Coley’s Toxins’, ‘Coley’s Vaccine’, ‘Mixed Bacterial Toxins’ or ‘Coley Fluid.’ The treatment was met with considerable success, with one study in 1999 suggesting that it was at least equally as effective in treating cancer as conventional modern therapies. With due care in dosing and management of the induced fever, it was also remarkably safe.

Although Coley took the concept of immunotherapy much further than his pharaonic forebears, he had no clear idea how his toxins actually worked, and the tools did not yet exist for him to find out. But given the rapid scientific progress at the turn of the last century, he reasoned that a deeper understanding of his therapy would arrive soon enough. Although the true extent of his "Toxin" success has been questioned by historians, the validity of his approach has never been seriously called into doubt. Indeed his results are regularly cited in the cancer research literature to this day.

Over the following years Coley continued to refine his technique. He determined that the toxins should be administered to patients at progressively higher doses to counter the body’s innate "immune tolerance" to the treatment. Other physicians in America and Europe also experimented with the method, and found that the toxins appeared to work just as well in a number of different non-sarcoma cancer types such as carcinoma, lymphoma, and melanoma. They could also be given intravenously some distance from the site of the tumour, and still be effective. Variations on the basic bacterial recipe and different dosing regimes were tried, depending on the individual patient and the particular cancer’s type and proliferation. Through his career Coley himself treated over one hundred patients with his concoction, and countless more were treated by other doctors.

As the fame of his fluid grew, so did Dr Coley’s stature: in 1915 he became head of the Bone Service at the New York Memorial Hospital (which later became the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center). By the time he died in 1936, Coley’s Toxins were mentioned in a number of different surgical textbooks as a standard anti-cancer therapy.

Conventional modern medicine, however, very rarely employs Coley’s Toxins in the treatment of cancer, for reasons almost as complicated as the human immune system itself. One concern is the far-from-complete understanding of the mechanism of action; generally, doctors are reluctant to administer treatments whose workings they don’t fully comprehend. The stimulated human immune system is a whirling tempest of different physiological and biochemical responses, and even now there’s much uncertainty about how Coley’s Toxins modified this complex mechanism to better attack its cancerous target. One theory stresses the importance of the fluid-induced fever in killing the cancer cells; another considers the debris-engulfing macrophage cells to be the main players, while others consider various different immune messenger molecules– or cytokines– to be important.

The eclipsing of Coley’s Toxins also had something to do with the concurrent development of radiation therapy and, a little later, chemotherapy. Soon after Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895, the possibility of using radioactivity to treat cancer was investigated. The technology was exciting, new, and developing fast along well-understood principles. Although the first results of radiotherapy weren’t all that impressive, it had the advantage of fractional doses, and once the equipment was in place it didn’t require the complicated, patient-specific preparation which was needed with Coley’s Toxins. Likewise chemotherapy was based on known scientific principles, and could be manufactured and used relatively easily.

Furthermore, both radiotherapy and chemotherapy have an immune-suppressing side-effect. Since both treatments kill the rapidly dividing cells of the immune system along with the rapidly dividing cancer cells, both can be used together if care is taken. But immune-stimulating Coley’s Toxins work entirely differently, and their effect would be cancelled out if used at the same time as high-dose immunosuppressant chemo- or radiotherapy. It became an either/or situation– and in the end, the fashionable new treatments won out over Coley’s fiddly reworking of an ancient 'natural' remedy.

So when the US Food and Drug Administration changed the status of Coley’s Toxins to that of a 'new drug' in 1963– meaning that it could only be used in clinical trials, and greatly reducing its availability– it seemed that its time had already long passed. But cancer immunotherapy does have limited applications today. Perhaps its most frequent mainstream use is in the treatment of bladder cancer; solutions containing the tuberculosis vaccine are routinely instilled into cancer-affected bladders, and are effective in causing regression of tumour deposits. It is theorized that the bladder's immune response deals with the cancer in a similar way to the whole-body immune effect of Coley’s Toxins. Melanoma, a particularly nasty type of skin cancer that responds poorly to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, is sometimes treated with an immune-stimulating cytokine called interferon.

In some ways this century-old form of treatment is still a fringe area of medicine. But researchers have once again begun to probe the possibilities of immunotherapy. New antibody-based treatments like Mabthera and Herceptin are making a real difference in the treatment of common cancers like lymphoma and breast cancer. Although these therapies don’t stimulate the body’s immunity as a whole, they are based on antibody molecules which are key components of the human immune system. They show that our increasing knowledge of the molecular nitty-gritty of the body’s own defence and repair network is starting to make a real difference in the battle against cancer. One tumour at a time, such advances in modern medicine are finally vindicating William Coley and his one-hundred-year-old cancer-killing concoction.

10 things your restaurant won't tell you

2007-07-13T01:44:00.000-04:00

1. "It's more about the sizzle than the steak."

Business is good for the restaurant industry. Americans now spend roughly half their food budget dining out, and restaurants expect revenue of more than $537 billion in 2007. That's a 67% increase since 1997.

But it's not just our collective avoidance of the kitchen that's pumping profits: Restaurants work every angle these days, using marketing psychology to get you to spend more.

At legendary Aureole Las Vegas, spandex-clad "wine angels" retrieve bottles from a 42-foot-tall spirits tower. The thinking behind the spectacle: "Anything that gets patrons' attention will get them to spend," says restaurant designer Mark Stech-Novak.

Fast-food outlets use a high-stimulus environment to maximize the source of their profit: "It encourages faster turnover," says Stephani Robson, a senior lecturer at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. "Specifically, the use of bright light, bright colors, upbeat music and seating that does not encourage lolling."

Even menus are rigged. "We list the item that makes the most profit first so it catches your eye," says restaurant consultant Linda Lipsky, "and bury the highest-cost item in the middle."

2. "Eating here could make you sick."

The 2006 E. coli outbreak that started at a New Jersey Taco Bell and sickened more than 60 people was traced to green onions. But food-borne illness isn't the only cause for concern: In a separate December incident, 373 people in Indianapolis got sick after eating at an Olive Garden where three employees tested positive for the highly contagious norovirus.

"You don't call out (sick) unless you're on your deathbed," says freelance chef Leah Grossman. Indeed, according to a recent study, 58% of salaried New York City restaurant workers reported going to work when sick; the number is even higher for those without benefits.

"A lot of poor, transient people work in restaurants," says Peter Francis, a co-author of industry exposé "How to Burn Down the House." "They're not giving up the $100 they'd make in a shift because they're sick."

How can you protect yourself? Check inspection results, which are often posted online by local departments of public health. Or just visit the restroom; it "tells you everything you need to know about a restaurant," Francis says.

3. "Our markups are ridiculous."

It's no secret that restaurants enjoy huge markups on certain items: Coffee, tea and sodas, for example, typically cost restaurants 15 to 20 cents per serving, and pasta, which costs pennies, can be dressed up with more expensive fare and sold for $25 a dish or more. At a fine-dining restaurant, the average cost of food is 38% to 42% of the menu price, says Kevin Moll, the CEO and president of National Food Service Advisors. In other words, most restaurants are making roughly 60% on anything they serve.

It's not all gravy though. Restaurants keep only 4 cents of every dollar spent by a customer, says Hudson Riehle, the vice president of research and information services at the National Restaurant Association. The remainder of the money, he says, is divided among food and beverage purchases, payroll, occupancy and other overhead costs.

Given the slim profit margin, many restaurants rely on savvy pricing to create the illusion of value. Putting a chicken dish on the menu for $21 will make a $15 pasta dish, where the restaurant is making a big profit, seem like a bargain, says Gregg Rapp, the owner of consulting firm MenuTechnologies.net.

4. "Big Brother is watching you . . . eat."

No one likes having their every move scrutinized, but that may be just what's happening at your favorite restaurant. Cameras are popping up everywhere, from four-star eateries to the place where you grab your lunchtime sandwich.

At historic Randy's Steakhouse in Frisco, Texas, where checks average $45 to $50, co-owner Don Burks has installed 12 cameras around the premises. Of those, two pick up activity in the dining rooms, and two are aimed at the bar.

"We've had customers stand on chairs to try to take out a camera," Burks says. "But the cameras aren't even pointed at them; they're pointed at the wine rack." Their primary purpose: deterring employee theft.

At some restaurants, however, the cameras are indeed trained on the tables. At New York City's four-star Daniel, for example, four closed-circuit cameras monitor the dining rooms, offering a bird's-eye view of every plate.

"It's about maintaining a quality of service," says Daniel spokeswoman Georgette Farkas. "With the cameras, the chef can tell when each course needs to be plated and served." So much for that romantic dinner for two.

5. "There's something fishy about our seafood."

Even when you pay top dollar for a seafood dish, you might not get what you're expecting. About 70% of the time, for example, those Maryland crab cakes on the menu weren't made using crabs from Chesapeake Bay, says James Anderson, the chairman of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island. Because of high demand, crabs are often from other Eastern states or imported from Thailand and Vietnam. (Look closely at the menu: "Maryland-style" crab is the giveaway.)

There's also the problem of outright substitution -- inexpensive fish, such as pollack, getting passed off as something pricier, like cod. How widespread is the problem? In 2006 the Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal sent fish samples to a lab to prove that four out of 10 local restaurants were pawning a cheaper fish as grouper. The same lab also checked seafood from 24 U.S. cities and found that, overall, consumers have less than a 50-50 shot at being served the fish they ordered.

What can you do? Ask where the fish comes from. "If they're not sure if the fish is from Alaska or Asia, I order the beef," Anderson says.

6. "Reservation? What reservation?"

When Timothy Dillon, 34, showed up at new Chicago trattoria Terragusto for his friend's birthday, he wasn't expecting a wait. He'd made a reservation for four, then called the day of to confirm and add one more. The restaurant told him no problem, but when the party showed up, they were met with a long wait.

"After almost an hour of standing by the bar being ignored, we ended up leaving for another restaurant," Dillon says. Terragusto says it was its first week open: "We were probably working out a lot of glitches," a spokesperson says.

As Dillon discovered, a reservation isn't a guarantee. "Overbooking is almost a necessary evil," says John Fischer, associate professor of table service at the Culinary Institute of America. Restaurants calculate their average no-show percentage for any given night, then overbook the restaurant by that much, hoping it will come out even.

How to avoid Dillon's fate? It's considered poor taste to offer a tip before you're seated, Fischer says, so if it's your first time, inquire politely after 15 minutes. But go ahead and slip the manager or maître d' $10 or $20 on the way out; it should ensure you're seated promptly next time.

7. "Our specials are anything but."

"I'm very careful about ordering my food," says Rick Manson, the owner of Chef Rick's restaurant in Santa Maria, Calif. If he orders oysters, Manson says, he'll offer multiple dishes on the menu that use oysters, "to make sure I use every one of them." Nonetheless, countless variables can leave surplus ingredients at the end of the day -- which often become tomorrow's special.

"It could be the chef legitimately wants to try out something new," says Stephen Zagor, the founder of consulting firm Hospitality & Culinary Resources. "But it could also be something nearing the end of its shelf life that needs to get out of the kitchen."

How can you tell a good special from a bad one? Watch out for "an expensive item used in a way that's minimizing its flavor," Zagor says, such as a lamb chop that's been cut, braised and put into a dish where it's a supporting player.

Pastas, stews and soups containing expensive meats are also suspect. "There's an old saying in the restaurant industry," says David A. Holmes, the vice president and director of Out East Restaurant Consultants. "'Sauce and gravy cover up a lot of mistakes.'"

8. "There's no such thing as too much butter."

Think that salmon fillet you ordered for dinner is good for you? Think again. Restaurants load even their healthiest fare with butter and other calorie-heavy add-ons. Restaurant meals average 1,000 to 1,500 calories, says Milton Stokes, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the American Dietetic Association. That's roughly two-thirds of the daily average calories recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And according to a recent study, women who eat out five times a week consume an average of 290 additional calories per day.

Though most Americans assume that fast food is the worst offender, similar fare at casual sit-down restaurants can be even more caloric. The classic burger at Ruby Tuesday, for example, has a whopping 1,013 calories and 71 grams of fat. The McDonald's Big Mac, with its 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, seems downright diet-worthy by comparison.

"We butter our hamburger buns," says Julie Reid, the vice president of culinary for Ruby Tuesday, "so we tell people if they're looking to cut calories, they shouldn't eat the bun." If that sounds less than appetizing, try splitting an entrée with someone, or order an appetizer instead of a main dish.

9. "Nice tip -- too bad your waiter won't get it."

Just because you tip your waitress 10 bucks, it doesn't mean she's going home with that money. More than likely, she'll have to pass on some of it to the people who helped her serve you: The bartender might get $2, and the busboy $3 to $5. It's called a tip pool, and it's becoming standard practice in many restaurants. "It happens often that if someone leaves a voluntary tip (for their server), a significant portion of that money is going to other people," Zagor says.

According to federal law, only employees who customarily receive tips -- wait staff, hosts, bartenders and bussers -- can participate in the tip pool. But sometimes management takes a cut. In 2006, waitstaff from the Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, Mass., won $2.5 million in damages after complaining that managers dipped into their tips.

Mandatory gratuities are also divvied up. At high-end restaurants such as New York City's Per Se and Napa Valley's French Laundry, both owned by chef Thomas Keller, the practice is called service compris.

"The 20% service charge is clearly stated on the menu, and it's equally divided among the staff," says a spokesperson for both restaurants. Though the tip pool is designed to foster a team environment among staff, for customers it means something else entirely: that your gratuity isn't specifically rewarding the waiter or sommelier who provided you with exemplary service.

10. "Never go out to eat on a Monday."

If you think that Monday, when restaurants tend not to be crowded, is a great time to eat out, think again. "You're being served all of the weekend's leftovers," says Francis, the exposé co-author. Kitchens prepare food on a first-in, first-out basis, meaning whatever is oldest gets served first. It's a way to ensure that everything on the menu is as fresh as possible.

The system works great most days, but it can run into a little glitch over the weekend. Distributors typically take Sunday off and make their last deliveries Saturday morning, which means that by Monday any food not used over the weekend is at least three to four days old. And it will be served before the same ingredients arriving in Monday's delivery.

What to do if you wish to dine out on a Monday? Ignore your instincts and go to a place that's perpetually crowded. "If you are open 24/7 and busy all the time," says New York chef Lucia Calvete, "all your ingredients are fresh all the time."

This article was reported and written by Christine Bockelman for SmartMoney.

Thanks for the song...

2007-06-20T21:26:00.000-04:00

Thanks to 2 members of my extended family, I now have a song stuck in my head! I guess there are worse things to have stuck in your head. Usually, I have stuff like T1 rates and integrated T1 engineering info stuck in there. Oh well.

For the enjoyment of the rest of you, here's what's stuck. Hey! At least it's not "It's a Small World".

Title of that little diddy is "Let's Make a Baby King". This version is by Michael English. Maybe this Christmas we'll get the hear the 2 particular people who got it stuck in my head do their own version! (Hint. Hint.)

}Davoice

Sick Children, Working Moms

2007-06-14T14:23:00.000-04:00

Ellen Bravo, The Nation

Teachers tell researchers they've never seen so many children coming to school sick. Guilt-ridden mothers share stories of sending ailing kids to day care or school out of fear that staying home with them would result in discipline on the job.

These stories don't surprise me. But what was startling was hearing how many kids drag themselves to school sick to keep a parent from losing pay or getting fired.

I first became aware of this three years ago at a 9to5 leadership conference in Washington, DC. Members were getting ready to tell their elected officials why they need paid sick days--something half the workforce, and three-quarters of low-wage women, do not have. For these workers, staying home to care for one's own illness or a sick family member could mean not only loss of pay, but loss of a job.

First I stopped by the group from Wisconsin and heard Robbie Bickerstaff describe how her son Eric, then age 7, got hit by a car on the way home from school but chose not to tell her for fear she'd lose her second-shift job if she didn't go in to work. Later an older sibling called her to say that Eric was crying because his arm hurt from being hit by the car and she had to take him to the hospital. When Robbie informed her boss, he was adamant: "Leave and you're fired." Her pleas didn't move him. She did leave; she was fired. Eric turned out to have a broken arm.

I moved on to the 9to5 members from Pennsylvania and shared Robbie's story. Carissa Peppard, the 21-year-old daughter of activist Kiki Peppard, was sitting next to her mom. "I've never told my mother this before," she said, "but when you're a kid, you know everything. Whenever I was sick, I'd ask myself, 'Should I tell Mom? Will we have groceries this week if she stays home with me?' If I could, I just dragged myself to school."

I related these stories recently at a briefing for Congressional staff organized by 9to5. Among the recommendations that came out of that briefing was support for the Healthy Families Act. On the panel with me was Jeannetta Allen, an energetic 18-year-old with a disability that affects her balance and her speech. She'd just testified how lack of paid sick days had cost her mother a job.

"I'm that kid," Jeannetta said when I'd finished. "After my mother was fired, I always tried to go to school no matter how I felt. I didn't want her to be fired again."

A chain reaction started among 9to5 members in the audience. One after another, they told stories of discovering a child was walking around with bruised ribs or the flu or strep throat because staying home meant Mom could lose her job.

"My son had stopped eating," Christina said. "He thought it would save on groceries."

Nearly twenty years ago, a Wisconsin coalition brought a group of children to Madison, Wisconsin, to fight for a state family and medical leave bill. They represented the range of reasons children might need a loved one by their side--childhood cancer, being adopted, death of a grandparent, having a sibling with a developmental disability or asthma, being hit by a car. After listening to the kids' stories, the Secretary of Employment Relations was visibly moved. "You know," he told them, "we're so used to dealing with lobbyists, we forget about those who are affected by our legislation."

Too many elected officials are preaching family values but listening to lobbyists who want those values to end at the workplace door.

It's time we listened to the children instead.

Church Cancelled, Service Begins

2007-06-04T06:07:00.000-04:00

Across the country, churches are closing their doors on Sunday mornings to serve their communities through the new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Will you join them?

By Heather Johnson

Curtis Lake thought the flood of 1996—when eight inches of water filled his suburban home—was disastrous. But what the first week of November 2006 brought him and the other residents of Sumner, Wash., turned out to be much worse. Nearly 10 inches of rain fell on the town of 10,000 just south of Seattle. Seven rivers flooded. Streets filled with mud and silt. And this time, Lake’s belongings sat under 18 inches of water. Also destroyed were 33 of the 41 mobile homes of River Park Estates, the senior living park he manages.

“We lost everything,” Lake says. “And most of the residents just left.”

But, to his surprise and relief, help arrived. Nearby Calvary Community Church (cccsumner.org) had cancelled that weekend’s services to head out and serve the community as part of a new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Little did the congregation know their service weekend would be so well-timed; Sumner had never needed so much help.

Early on that Saturday morning, a forlorn Lake stood surveying the damage at the River Park Estates’ front gate, when more than 250 volunteers “just started showing up,” he recalls. Volunteers set out to save salvageable items by removing mud and sifting through personal belongings. Clean-up crews from the church eventually emptied 49 trash dumpsters of debris collected at the mobile home park.

“You know, Calvary was just an absolute God-send,” says Lake, who now chats with the church’s associate pastor on a regular basis. “I saw those people there to help, and it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”

Demonstrating Christian service is the heart of the Faith in Action campaign created by leading Christian publisher Zondervan (zondervan.com), Christian relief organization World Vision (worldvision.org) and church communications firm Outreach Inc. (outreach.com) [parent company of Outreach magazine]. The three organizations have put together a name and program to a movement that has been gaining momentum for more than a decade, starting with pioneers like Vineyard Cincinnati founder Steve Sjogren’s servant evangelism ministry (servantevangelism.com) and Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark. (fbclr.org), with Pastor Robert Lewis. Eighteen years ago, Lewis led a focused, churchwide reorganization to make serving the community a core value of the church.

Faith in Action focuses a congregation’s attention on local, national and global needs, as well as God’s heart for service. For a full month, sermons and worship services, small group discussions and daily devotional readings, all lay the foundation for the campaign’s culminating event—“Faith in Action Sunday” community service project(s) and the corresponding cancellation of regular worship services. Moreover, the campaign also has an intentional outreach focus, where unchurched friends and community members are invited to join in the volunteer efforts, serving alongside church members.

It has been said that the unchurched don’t care about what Christians know until they know that Christians care. And to that, Calvary Community and many other U.S. churches are saying OK, we’ll show you by putting our faith into action.

Following the leader

“I asked why in the world we’d want to go through the trouble of putting our faith into action when it involved risk, reaching out, and rearranging schedules and resources,” says Jeffrey Olsen of Grace Community Church in Wesley Chapel, Fla. (exploregrace.com). “And of course, the answer is in the person of Jesus,” he told his church of 75 on the first Sunday of its Faith in Action campaign. The first week’s message, titled “Detour,” kicked off with a sermon warning people that their regular schedules would be interrupted if they choose to commit to serving.

“Two thousand years ago when Jesus came to earth, He was the only person who was able to both fully love God with His whole heart and also to fully love His neighbor as Himself,” says Olsen. “And although He was the Son of God, He made himself vulnerable and entered a world of risk, pain and hurt.”

A congregation will only take serving their community as seriously as their leader takes it, says World Vision Vice President Steve Haas. This is why the Faith in Action campaign begins from the pulpit.

“As is true in most community endeavors that have any sustaining value, it is the leader’s exhortation and example that moves people to obedience. Jesus’ rabbinical methodology was ‘Let me teach you ... let me show you ... let me watch you do it yourself,’ ” explains Haas. “The pulpit message and affirmation from the leader of the church’s spiritual life are critical ingredients in moving a congregation to biblical faithfulness.”

It made Olsen’s congregation move. On Sunday, Feb. 4, 15 Grace Community groups—nearly 90% of the church’s average attendance—built picnic tables for a foster home, cooked and served meals to young mothers at a crisis pregnancy center and landscaped a local school, among other acts of service in their neighborhood.

However, while some pastors may advocate cancelling Sunday or weekend church services to “be the Church” in their community, many leaders have encountered some internal opposition to the unconventional concept.

“We didn’t have any pushback from church leaders, but we did from some members who had a hard time understanding that we were worshipping through our actions,” explains Stacy Armstrong, community development director at Calvary Community. “Cancelling church is a huge deal. Senior pastors have to be behind it. They have to be the driving force.”

Other churches have chosen not to cancel services, but rather dedicate Saturday and Sunday—after church—to serving. And 50-member Faith Mennonite Church in Hutchinson, Kan., took a different route, offering a special worship service during its normal Sunday school hour before heading out to serve. The church discovered that Sunday morning is actually the most opportune time to serve at the local laundromat; that’s when the most people are there. Participants helped moms fold clothes and entertain children.

Allowing personal transformation

Throughout the four-week campaign, participants complete daily devotions to challenge their current perceptions of the needy and vulnerable, and encourage actions that live out Jesus’ words.

The second week of the devotional, titled “Lens,” asks participants if their view of the world is like Christ’s. Heidi McAdams, a member of Calvary Community, knew her answer immediately after reading Luke 6:30: “Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.”

McAdams had always avoided eye contact with the homeless man standing on the corner she passed every day on her way to work. “I would think, Oh, he only wants money for cigarettes, or alcohol, or even worse, drugs,” she says. “I’d slide my hand over and make sure all the car doors were locked, then breathe a sigh of relief when the light turned green and I could go.”

After working through the judgments, fears and challenges of servanthood, both individually and with her small group, McAdams couldn’t help but change her perception. “I realized I had been very narrow-minded about the homeless people who stand on the corner. God wanted to open my eyes and heart,” she says.

And He succeeded. For her service project ironically, McAdams was assigned to a local ministry to homeless people called the Dream Center. There she prepared food, and even ate and fellowshipped with them.

“After that, I knew I would never look at the man on the corner the same way. Next time, I can share a blanket or food,” says McAdams. “Now I ask, ‘God, help me to see what you see.’ ”

This kind of transformation is exactly what Calvary Community’s Armstrong hoped for. “Through the curriculum, light bulbs are coming on,” she says. “People are realizing that we have to ask for forgiveness first, and then if we love God, we have to serve others.”

Strengthening servanthood through groups

Once a week, Faith in Action small groups meet in homes to discuss what they heard on Sunday morning, as well as what they’re learning during their personal devotions. They also work through the week’s DVD-based curriculum and discussion questions in the Faith in Action workbook and engage in corresponding activities that help define local and global needs.

For example, during the second week, groups learn that 29 million children in the United States are growing up in low-income families. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, a family of four must earn an annual income of $40,000—twice the federal poverty level—just to provide their children with the essentials of food, housing and health care. And more than 880,000 people over the age of 25 earned at or below the minimum wage in 2005. So, Faith in Action small groups break up into pairs, which then pretend to be parents of two children: Sarah, 8 and Brett, 6. Both parents work full time, but their combined annual income is only $23,000—not enough to pay for rent, utilities, car insurance, gas, childcare, allergy medicine, etc. The question for Faith in Action participants becomes: How does this exercise challenge my assumptions about people in need?

In addition to completing activities like this one, the small group setting gives church members the opportunity to invite their unchurched friends into a neutral environment to talk about helping others—a topic of universal appeal—as well as share the motivation behind their community service.

Stefanie Alberts and her husband, Gary, group leaders for the Faith in Action campaign at Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, Calif. (missionhillschurch.org), experienced this firsthand.

The Albertses invited two couples they work with at their chiropractic practice to join their group—one couple, the Theismans, were unchurched, yet they agreed to come. Then the Albertses asked a neighbor couple, who, although members of Mission Hills, were not active in the church. Not only did the four couples become fast friends, they also energized each other to serve by sharing their fears and hesitations about serving, as well as their successes.

“I’ve always been the guy in back, not liking much attention,” says Doug Reich, one of the group members who works with the Albertses. “But I’ve learned that you don’t have to be a Billy Graham, a movie star or a model in order to change someone’s life. I love the Gospel because of that.”

To make a difference, you can take a widow out to lunch, like Stefanie and Dee Theisman did. Or you can stay later at work—without pay—and help a boss in a wheelchair, like Pam, another group member, did. Sharing stories like these became part of the group’s regular meetings.

“Through our actions, we’re throwing pebbles in the water, and God will help make the ripples,” says Stefanie.

The solidarity built within the Albertses group will also make lasting ripples in the members’ daily lives.

“My Faith in Action group has really allowed me to open up. When we started meeting, I was struggling with clinical depression. But these friendships have helped me face some things I would never have had the courage to face,” says Richard Theisman. “I think now my charter is to reach out and help others who are suffering from depression.”

In addition to that, he and Dee went to church at Mission Hills on Easter Sunday.

Doing what we’re told

On March 25, San Marcos Elementary School in San Marcos, Calif., swarmed with volunteers young and old, painting, weeding, landscaping, cleaning playground equipment, sanitizing the cafeteria, and much more.

“It was just so great!” says the school’s assistant principal, Stephanie Wallace. “To see the community involved in our school is so exciting.”

The project initially began nearly three months ago when Mission Hills’ Pastor of Ministries Carlos Sales stopped by the school in the early days of planning the new church plant’s Faith in Action campaign. He asked Wallace what his congregation could do for the school. The list was endless—or so she thought. But on their service day, some 200 Mission Hills Faith in Action volunteers completed the planned projects within two hours and began doing more than what Wallace had asked.

While Mission Hills volunteers transformed the rundown school, many of the students looked on from the nearby soccer field where their fathers were playing in a community soccer league game. “The kids were wondering what was happening at their school,” explains Wallace. “When they came back on Monday, we got to tell them that all these people pulled together to help make the school better.”

As Mission Hills transitioned from its mother church campus to its first building, the service day fueled more momentum for the new church, which had already grown to 900 adults. “We didn’t want to move into this community and say, ‘Hey, come to us.’ I wanted to enter the community with the DNA of service, saying, ‘We’re here to be part of the community and serve,’ ” says Sales.

But an integral part of Faith in Action’s serving is also mobilizing those outside of the church. Grace Community in Wesley Chapel, Fla., found that its service day impacted many more than just volunteers and those they served.

Wanting to include the community, the church intentionally partnered with area schools in advance. An entire school PTA helped the church collect donations of food for the hungry—500 pounds of non-perishables. And several classes at another school collected donations for Grace Community to assemble AIDS Caregiver Kits on service Sunday.

“Even though we’re a smaller church and didn’t have a lot of people on our big service day, there were a lot more people in the community who felt like they were part of what we were doing,” explains Grace Community’s Olsen.

Across the country, churches’ campaigns are ending with action, as volunteers actually do what God commands. “The success of a church’s spiritual enterprise is never that sanctuary seats are filled, services are orderly or that the sermon packs power,” explains World Vision’s Haas. “God measures impact based on faithfulness to His directives, obedience to His promptings, sensitivity to His Spirit. A church must ‘not merely listen to the Word,’ but instead ‘do what it says.’ ”

Making service a lifestyle

“We surveyed our participants, and 100% said they would do Faith in Action again,” says Armstrong of Calvary Community. “We have to do this again. We have to make service a lifestyle.”

To that end, the church not only plans to organize more campaigns, it will also require all of its leaders and participants to sign a form committing to following up with those they serve.

Curtis Lake and his wife are still recovering from the November flood that hit Sumner, Wash. They moved into one of the remaining mobile homes, but Lake says they won’t soon forget what Calvary Community did for them. In fact, a couple of women who had helped him in November stopped by a few days before Christmas to drop off gift certificates.

And, hopefully, all those who have served nationwide will also not quickly forget the campaign’s power. “I think this experience definitely gave me a glimpse of God’s grace—the grace He has extended to me, and the grace I need to extend to people,” McAdams says. She and her family now regularly head to downtown Seattle to serve food to the homeless. “I want my more positive perspective to be ‘caught’ by my kids,” she says.

Ultimately, Faith in Action is not just a four-week campaign, but a way of living each day. “The church service day was great, but it was pretty easy and not really that intimidating. We could sign up for an hour or two and work with a lot of people we knew,” explains Stefanie Alberts. “The situations that aren’t planned though ... going up to someone and filling their need instantly—whether that be giving a water bottle to a homeless person or even talking to the person you don’t want to talk to—is a bigger challenge and is really what Faith in Action has equipped us to do.”

Heather Johnson is managing editor for Outreach magazine.

The churches interviewed for this piece participated in the Faith in Action pilot program in late 2006 and early 2007. The official campaign material for Faith in Action will be available mid-May 2007.

Getting Started

The Faith in Action churchwide campaign is available to churches at any time, but many are planning to participate on what is being called National Faith in Action Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007. Here’s how to get started:

1. Request a free information kit at putyourfaithinaction.org.

2. If this campaign is right for your church, purchase a Faith in Action Campaign Kit for $49.95.

3. Allow four to 12 weeks for the planning and preparation of your Faith in Action campaign, services and projects. The larger the scope of your campaign, the more time you will need.

4. Using the campaign’s instructive manual, plan and prepare. The campaign planning kit includes sermons, sermon video clips, service project planning guide, promotion suggestions and other resources, as well as samples of all the small group and leader materials.

5. Have sign ups. Based on the number of participants, recruit the necessary number of small group leaders.

6. Order the appropriate amount of small group participant and leader materials.

7. Gather information about potential service projects, and select those that will meet the biggest need, but are also feasible for your church’s size.

8. Share your Faith in Action learnings and ideas with other churches at putyourfaithinaction.org.

-EXCERPTED from Outreach magazine, "Features," May/June 2007

Response to Angels and Applied Reasoning

2007-06-01T12:32:00.000-04:00

Acts 12:1-18
So here's a weird one for you... When Peter's followers were praying for him to get out of jail and he showed up at the door of Mary, Mother of Mark, (b/c the Lord had already gotten him out of jail thanks to another angel), Rhoda didn't let him in b/c the others said "it must be his angel".

That's a rather nonchalant response to an angel at the door don't ya think? In every other biblical account of an angel appearing, the first response was fear and awe. Could it be that in the early church Angels appearing were commonplace in the period immediately proceeding Jesus' death?

Beyond that, how would they think his angel would look just like him? And if Peter had an angel that looked just like him, are we all assigned an angel that looks just like us? If we're assigned an angel that looks like us, does that mean satan originally looked like someone? Could he have appeared to Eve in the Garden as herself? Before the fall of the angels, was satan - as the chief angel - assigned to be Adam and/or Eve's angels? Could the disfigurement punishment meted out for him tempting them have been removing his ability to look like his assignee?

[Questions to which I don't have clear answers of course.]

Houston, we have a problem - we all need new email addresses

2007-05-31T12:54:00.000-04:00

Oh boy... here it comes. Now that Comcast has taken over the cable modem network in Houston from Road Runner, everyone needs a new email address. The @houston.rr.com domain will officially be killed at the end of the year.

To ease the switch, Comcast will be providing users with a “migration tool”. Haha. So you can move to an @comcast.net email address and have to change your email again the next time you change email providers.

If now isn't a good time to register your own domain and take control of your own email address destiny, I don't know when is. You can register a domain with 1&1 for $5.99 per year and you get free email account with up to 200 aliases. You can get 5 additional email accounts with 2GB of storage each for $0.99 per month. If you use a Windows Mobile device you can get an Outlook enabled account which includes Outlook Mobile Access for $6.99/mo.

Take this as an opportunity to get your own domain name and control your own email destiny. Once you own your domain name you'll never have to change your email address again.

Integrity Church - Dude You Got a New Website

2007-05-29T14:44:00.001-04:00

Well... talk about a Cinderella story. Integrity Church in Burlington, North Carolina just went from this:

To this:

That's what I call a dramatic church website overhaul. The new design is definitely more in line with Integrity's stated purpose of being an innovative church in its region.

Read more about the new features and information about the new Integrity Church site here. They were previously hosted by a service called "ThisChurch" that provided the equivalent of web training wheels. They are now in complete control of their own website running a full Joomla CMS engine on 1&1 web hosting.

Bird comments on Bush's politics...

2007-05-24T23:23:00.000-04:00

Bird Sh*ts on Bush During Press Conference

"Seems a passing sparrow took an opportunity to weigh in on what the President had to say."

From ABC:

As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, "I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job."

Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino promptly put the incident through the proper spin cycle, telling ABC News, "It was his lucky day…everyone knows that's a sign of good luck."

What kind of web worker are you?

2007-05-18T13:22:00.000-04:00

Excerpted from Web Worker Daily

The Digital Bedouin: This is the web worker that gets the most media attention, the roving nomad “able to set up shop wherever there is an Internet connection, chairs, tables, and sources of caffeine” and running a company or a consulting business on the go.

The Telecommuter: Unlike the digital bedouin, the telecommuter normally works from one fixed location, and is a full-time employee - it’s just that the location is (usually) home rather than office. Some people telecommute full-time, others combine telecommuting with some more traditional days in the office.

The Entrepreneur: Gone are the days when being self-employed meant drumming up business from your local community. Whether you’re selling t-shirts or accounting services, the web can give you global reach from your own home office.

The Corporate Web Worker: We think this is the most overlooked class of web workers: people in a traditional corporate setting, going into the office every day but still using the web to empower themselves and gain amazing productivity. If the web enables your job: you’re a web worker.

Covad ADSL2+ Service

2007-05-17T13:11:00.000-04:00

Covad now offers business class ADSL2+ services in many of the popular areas of their footprint. The 8Mbps/1Mbps, 10Mbps/1Mbps and 15Mbps/1Mbps speeds are $149.95, $174.95 and $194.95, respectively. Service is available in 758 central offices across 11 markets.

The new ADSL2+ speeds are available in the following markets:
Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.

Customers need to be within 4,000 feet of the CO to get the fastest 15Mbps service.

Covad also launched bonded T1 service in almost all of the markets. 3mbps symmetric T1 service - 2 T1s bonded together. As with any T1 product, there are no distance limitations but pricing is way higher than that of any DSL type product. T1 service includes very strong SLAs.

Pricing and availability are already loaded in the Anyion Services real-time quoting engine.

Money changes... well... not much

2007-05-17T13:06:00.000-04:00

What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first million? Not much. (better shoes)

What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first hundred million? Not much. (more people know his name)

What changed in his lifestyle after Warren Buffett made his first ten billion? Not much. (a personal Gulfstream jet.)

GAO Says Homeland Security Is Breaking Privacy Laws

2007-05-16T16:05:00.000-04:00

Not that anyone the Republican led side of the government actually listens to the General Accounting Office these days... but.

The latest from the GAO is a report noting that the Department of Homeland Security appears to be breaking privacy laws by not telling people how it uses personal information for people flying into and out of the country. With all of these efforts to set our elected officials straight, you'd think that people would hit back against these GAO reports. Unfortunately, it seems like they are almost universally ignored. It's great that the GAO seems to keep telling it like it is -- but when everyone ignores those reports to focus on industry approved talking points, are they really holding anyone accountable?

Are you a human being or a human doing?

2007-05-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

So here's a question to ponder. Are you a human being? Or have you evolved into a human doing?

Human doings are those who no longer enjoy doing what they are good at doing but yet fail to be good at doing what they enjoy.

Even the President Gets Hooked on Broadband

2007-05-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

Once you have broadband, you never want to go back, which is presumably why the Air Force Air Mobility Command and the Defense Information Systems Agency are looking for commercial satellite communication firms to continue to provide high-speed Internet service on the fly to Air Force One and the other 17 planes that fly senior leaders around the world.

Boeing originally provided broadband to Air Force One via its commercial service that linked airlines to the Internet, but Boeing folded that business, called Connexion, last summer because of poor sales. However, Boeing continues to provide the broadband service to the Air Force VIP fleet, which transports the president, vice president and other pooh-bahs, including the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, State and top military commanders.

While internal Air Force budget documents indicate the service is satisfied with Boeing, whose airborne broadband contract runs through fiscal 2008, the Air Force's request for proposals seeks alternative suppliers capable of providing broadband voice, video, data and video teleconferencing services to the VIP fleet, with 50 or more users connected at the same time.

Besides the Boeing 747s which serve as Air Force One, the VIP fleet also consists of 757s, 737s and Gulfstream executive jets, with the bulk of the aircraft based at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

DISA also intends to beef up VIP air fleet service through the specialized AT&T “Northstar” network, which provides T-1 circuits (1.54 megabytes per second) from a terrestrial network in the United States over UHF radios to Air Force One.

The Northstar network provides close-to-complete coverage for aircraft operating in the continental United States, according to a background paper from MITRE, but DISA wants to extend the network's reach and has awarded a sole-source contract to AT&T to provide on a 24-hour notice two teams of personnel and gear ready to install a temporary ground site wherever Air Force One or the command post aircraft travel.

While a T-1 circuit pales in comparison to the 5 megabytes-per-second service offered by Connexion, it’s good to know our leaders can still do some serious Web surfing and download a lot of PowerPoint slides (the digital glue of government) on the expanded Northstar network at 1.54 megabytes per second while zooming around at 35,000 feet.

Press 'Asleep At The Wheel' On Astroturf

2007-05-08T10:36:00.000-04:00

Allowing baby bells a greased track for 'franchise reform'

Consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick wonders why nobody in the press seems to care that the baby bells are using consumer groups (often fake ones) to manipulate the public as part of their recent push for video "franchise reform". Consumer advocates (real ones) note the reform bills making their way through dozens of states will eliminate public access, legalize cherry picking resulting in less broadband penetration, erode local eminent domain rights, and strip away consumer protections -- which will lead to higher prices.

Yet the vast majority of the news coverage of these laws is bubbly editorial regurgitation of incumbent lobbyist talking points, fed to consumers via these conflicted groups. In a piece for the Harvard University Nieman Watchdog, Kushnick laments the fact that nobody in the technology sector seems particularly concerned about any of this (there are, after all, iPhone stories to write).

You would think it would be embarrassing for the press and media to quote astroturf and co-opted groups as ‘authentic’ – but most press simply are asleep at the wheel. In many cases, as with the Newark Star Ledger, op-ed pages run pieces by astroturf or co-opted groups while news coverage seldom questions why various non-profits have come forward to support a corporate position.

He points to similar Gordon Cook concerns from last summer. Also see the older Common Cause report on astroturf organizations and their impact on public telecom-related discourse.

FDA Approved Viral Adulteration of Our Food Supply

2007-05-06T00:41:00.000-04:00

On Friday, August 18, 2006, the FDA approved a viral cocktail to be sprayed on foods we eat. This is the first time viruses have been approved for use as food additives. The FDA wants you to believe it will be safe to consume these viruses every day for the rest of your life with no adverse health effects. Not surprisingly, the FDA doesn't want you to know which foods are adulterated in this manner, for fear you may not buy them; thus, no labeling will be required. This is a monumental announcement by the FDA, indicating they are throwing all caution to the wind regarding the safety of our food supply.

Are you willing to stand in line for a virus-laden sandwich? How do you like the idea of buying virus-infested food for your family? The first virally contaminated foods entering our food supply with the blessings of the FDA will be luncheon meat and poultry. Live viruses will be sprayed on foods such as cold cuts, sausages, hot dogs, sliced turkey, and chicken.

At issue is the very real problem of a poor quality FDA-approved food supply that is already full of diseased and sickly animals, many of them imported from other countries. The use of antibiotics during growth and radiation during food processing is required by the fast-food animal farms owned by multi-national companies to cover up the horrendous health of the animals they wish to feed to Americans. Animals in poor health are a friendly place for bacteria to grow and prosper, especially after such meat goes to market. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants to add another adulteration into our food supply.

The stated goal of the new FDA-approved viruses is to kill a rare bacterium known as Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterium is killed by cooking; however, it poses a problem in meats that are cooked during processing and not cooked again prior to consumption, so it can readily infect foods such as deli meats.

Yes, the FDA plans to use one infectious organism to fight another. The carnage of battle will end up in your digestive tract along with the victorious live viruses, which the FDA assures us will not attack human cells. However, they cannot possibly be certain the viruses will not attack the friendly bacteria that make up the lining of your digestive tract. The FDA approval was based on scant human testing, mostly from unrelated medical experiments. Such safety data is woefully inadequate to determine safe ingestion of a specific product by humans over the course of a lifetime.

Turning Loose the Bacteria-Killing Viruses

The company that produces these biotech viruses is Baltimore-based Intralytix, Inc. The viruses are known as bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria, or phages for short. Phages have been around a long time, living as parasites inside many bacteria.

Intralytix uses biotechnology to grow viral phages in a culture with Listeria, in theory teaching the viruses to recognize the bacteria. The FDA-approved cocktail contains six different viruses intended to attack one strain of bacteria.

This concoction is then sprayed on food. If Listeria is present in the food, the bacteria will ingest the viruses. This results in massive viral replication inside the bacteria, until such point as the bacteria simply bursts. This battle results in significant production of bacterial poisons called "endotoxins", as the bacteria tries to defend itself. When the bacteria burst, these endotoxins are released. These, along with the victorious live viruses, will now be on the food that will be eaten.

The FDA and Intralytix would like us to believe that these viruses will only attack the specified bacteria they are intended to kill and will be harmless to humans. I'm sorry to burst their bubble, but they can't possibly guarantee such safety. It is true that the viruses, at least at this time, cannot recognize human cells. However, the virus can potentially recognize normal bacterial cells in the human digestive tract and may be able to adapt to infect one or more of these friendly bacteria.

The FDA Certainly Knows There Are Risks

The FDA had some concerns about the amount of bacterial endotoxin in the Intralytix product before it is sprayed; however, FDA tests apparently showed that the product was adequately purified and so they declared it safe if used as approved. Will the FDA diligently monitor the quality of this product once it is on the market, or will it go the path of many FDA-approved drugs that the agency can't keep track of?

There is certainly a risk that humans will be exposed to excessive amounts of endotoxin. This could come from the manufacturing of the viral cocktail, the interaction of the viruses with bacteria after being sprayed on food, and/or the interaction of the viruses with bacteria in the digestive tract.

The human immune system is highly reactive and sensitive to bacterial endotoxins. They provoke allergy, asthma, autoimmune problems, and elevate cholesterol. They also interfere with the healthy function of cells lining the digestive tract. Researchers have demonstrated that the presence of bacterial endotoxins can start cancer in the colon .

Additionally, the human immune system reacts directly to viral phages. Thus, a person who eats a lot of processed deli meat is certain to evoke an immune reaction to the viruses. What will this reaction be? Allergy? Asthma? Autoimmunity? Cancer? How can the FDA approve a food additive that it knows can induce a variety of human immune responses? Phages are so good at disrupting normal immunity that they are being considered for use as part of organ transplant medicine.

The ingestion of significant amounts of viral phages into the human digestive tract is a wild card full of unknown outcomes. For example, it is certainly possible that these phages, which constantly mutate in order to survive, are likely to find a way to infect bacteria they were not intended to infect. Since phages are parasites, they could hijack the friendly bacteria of the digestive tract and turn them into viral machines, constantly generating viral particles that are likely to confuse the human immune system, if not directly infect the body. We know from history that these viral phages can turn innocuous bacteria into a killer, which is how cholera occurs.

Furthermore, the Listeria bacteria are not going to take the issue lying down. They will develop resistance to the viruses over time, as we have seen with the overuse of antibiotics. Going down this path we are likely to have hundreds of viral food additives in the food we eat, all designed to combat some possible infection coming from poor quality food. Sooner or later we will inadvertently create deadly new super-strains of bacteria and/or parasitically infect the human digestive tract with an untreatable infection.

There is also the very real possibility of unintended viral recombination. What happens when a person with viral stomach flu eats food containing a dose of this viral food additive? It is certainly possible for the genetic material of the flu virus to interact with the genetic material of the viral phages, provoking an undesirable new viral infection.

Let's not forget that the FDA won't tell us which foods in the food supply contain genetically modified organisms (GMO). Seventy percent of the packaged food on grocery shelves already contains GMO adulterated food. These foods have viral promoter genes woven into the DNA of every cell, a technique used to implant a pesticide toxin into every cell of this fake food (see Fight for Your Health, chapter 15). What happens when the viral phages interact with the viral promoter genes in GMO food? What new virus will be encouraged to form?

Keep in mind that the FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously ill by this infection each year. The ill are mostly pregnant women, elderly with compromised immunity, and small children. It would be a lot more to the point if the FDA would simply warn such people that eating these foods, due to their poor quality of production, may be dangerous. What the FDA should really do is improve the quality of our food supply, the true source of the problem. Why expose millions of Americans to an unproven ingestion of live viruses for the benefit of so few?

The FDA has failed miserably for the past century to protect the public from the adulteration of our food supply by vested interests. This is just one more insult added to a long list of injuries.

The Tip of an Iceberg

Intralytix has an agenda for the American food supply, as well as for healthcare in general. This recent FDA ruling allows Intralytix and other similar biotech companies to get their foot in a door that should be slammed shut and bolted closed.

The company is also seeking FDA approval for viral sprays to treat foods that could be contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella, which means that similar "trained" viruses could end up in a majority of the protein foods in our food supply.

Intralytix sees financial opportunity. They have already licensed their now FDA-approved viral spray to an undisclosed multi-national company for use around the world. When the CEO of Intralytix, John Vazzara, was recently asked about this partner company, he refused to disclose their name. The grand profit-driven biotech experiment on the health and well being of all Americans is now in full swing.

John Vazzara also owns stock in, as well as provided seed money to start, SteelCloud Inc. (formerly Dunn Computer Corporation). SteelCloud is a defense contractor with lucrative deals with the Department of Defense, recently landing a 3.4 million dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress should investigate the financial ties and backroom dealings that would allow this bizarre food additive approval by the FDA.

Of course, we will need new wonder drugs to combat the new bio-tech produced infections. Americans will stay sick and the sickness-driven bio-tech industry will flourish. The bio-tech industry will make people sick on the front end and treat them on the back end. It's a win-win situation for profit on illness.

The FDA is Rapidly Becoming a Public Enemy

Experimenting with viruses being added to the food supply is incredibly dangerous and reckless. It is completely impossible for the FDA to guarantee safety in the near term or the long term. Thus, the FDA has made the bureaucratic decision that relative safety is acceptable to them. What right does the FDA have to tamper with the food supply in this manner?

It is quite clear that the Bush agenda has been to promote American biotech companies as the new future for American prosperity. Administrative opinions have trumped science in virtually every situation wherein safety conflicts with profit.

The FDA will refuse to require labeling on food sprayed with viruses, just as they refuse to require notification that food has been genetically modified and contains toxins in every cell. The reason is obvious; no person understanding these issues would buy or eat such food. Thus, the FDA acts to hide the information from the public to foster profits for biotech companies and the growth of the biotech industry. This is a betrayal of the public trust.

The leaders of the FDA are personally responsible and need to be held accountable. This means Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., temporary head of the FDA and his chief science officer, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. These men are not only obsessed with approving risky drugs for the benefits of Big Pharma, it is now clear that they are willing to allow obvious adulteration of the food supply. They seek to control what we eat, and they are tampering with survival of the human race.

The FDA does not truly know how safe viral phages are to consume on a regular basis. They have no idea of the cumulative effect over the course of a lifetime, especially as more of these viral cocktails are added to the food supply. They have no way to measure how this new type of adulteration in the food supply will interact with the poor digestive/immune health of half the American population, in combination with all the other serious adulterations already approved by the FDA. The FDA lacks due diligence in honoring its mandate to protect the American public.
Boycott Viral Tainted Foods, Support Your Sustainable Farmers

The only hope Americans have is to resurrect the quality of our food supply. Doing so is against the odds, as there are billions of dollars of profit-mongering taking our food supply in the wrong direction. One day Americans will realize that food security is as important to national security as any other topic. It is now crystal clear that we cannot count on the FDA to do the job that Harvey Wiley, M.D., envisioned one-hundred years ago.

How can any responsible parent feed virus-tainted food to their children? The FDA should be forced to revoke this approval. Since the FDA is refusing to make food companies list the viruses as ingredients in food, consumers have no choice but to avoid buying all foods that could be sprayed. I see no other way that safety can be assured, since the FDA refuses to do its job and is putting American's health at risk.

Every American has an obligation to support food security for our nation. Congress must correct the leadership at the FDA and the FDA itself. Americans must quit buying poor quality toxic food. Your greatest ability to change this problem is based entirely on what you purchase.

Get connected to the sustainable family farms in your community. Buy meat that is range raised without antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Demand that the food you are eating is labeled with a country of origin. Buy American; buy locally-produced food whenever possible. Support those who truly believe in being the stewards of our land and food for our people and for future generations. These good people are being squashed out of existence by multi-national agribusiness, companies that could truly care less about the quality of our food supply or the security and health of Americans. How you spend your money is your most powerful vote. Vote for those who care.

More than 5 credit card digits = lawsuit for retailers

2007-05-05T22:08:00.000-04:00

Credit Receipts From Rite Aid, Wendy's, Fedex Draw Fire for Containing Certain Consumer Data

So far this year, plaintiffs' lawyers have filed more than 100 federal lawsuits seeking class-action status against big merchants such as Rite Aid Corp., Wendy's International Inc., FedEx Corp., TJX Cos. and Inter Ikea Systems BV. Also in the line of fire are lesser-known regional restaurant chains such as In-N-Out Burger and Melting Pot fondue restaurants.

A slew of suits brought on behalf of consumers have been filed in recent weeks in U.S. district courts in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas.

Merchants are under pressure to help ensure the security of electronic transactions. Still, most of the nation's retailers don't comply with the card industry's myriad rules that prohibit the storage of certain customer data and require the installation of sophisticated firewalls to protect their computer systems.

Earlier this year, TJX, parent of discount clothing chains T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed that its computers had been hacked in a security breach that left at least 47.5 million of its customers vulnerable to fraud.

The requirement that retailers cut off card data is part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which sought to protect consumers from fraud and identity theft amid the growing use of electronic payments. Although it was enacted more than three years ago, the law gave retailers some breathing room to make the change. In addition to the receipt requirements, the law also gives consumers the right to obtain a credit report, without charge, every 12 months.

As of Dec. 4, retailers are prohibited from printing more than the last five digits of a credit-card or debit-card account number on receipts that are handed to customers. The receipts also can't include the account's expiration date. The law applies only to electronically printed receipts, rather than those that are written by hand or imprinted on old-fashioned manual machines.

"Slips of paper containing people's financial information should not be floating around," says J. Mark Moore, a lawyer at Spiro Moss Barness LLP in Los Angeles. The law firm has filed more than 40 lawsuits against retailers, charging that they "knowingly and intentionally continued to use cash registers which were not programmed to, or otherwise did not, comply" with the law.

Although the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for enforcing the law, the legislation also gave consumers the right to sue for violations. For those who receive receipts with the full account information, the best thing to do is either keep it in a safe place or rip it up, experts say. A consumer can also report a violator to the FTC. A spokesman says the agency hasn't received consumer complaints about violators and hasn't brought any enforcement actions tied to the law. The agency's regional offices are working with retailers to remind them of the law.

The lawsuits contend that retailers are "willfully" violating the law -- a practice that could result in fines of as much as $1,000 per transaction.

Blue roses - it's finally been done

2007-03-22T02:33:00.000-04:00

For all of you out there who are still playing the dating scene, maybe next year you'll have a new option for telling your "special someone" that the gig is up. Now that these have been successfully bred, you should start to see them pop up in commercial grower greenhouses pretty quickly.

Australian and Japanese researchers have demonstrated the application of RNAi technology for gene replacement in plants, developing the world's only blue rose.

Breeders had attempted to make true blue roses for several years, but none had successfully bred roses with blue pigment until fairly recently. In its first commercial application in plants, technology was used to remove the gene encoding the enzyme dihydroflavonol reductase (DFR) in roses.

Roses are very old garden subjects – a favorite for some 5,000 years. The 'something blue' was the delphinidin gene that Florigene's geneticists cloned from a pansy, to direct pigment synthesis in the rose into the 'blue' pathway. The 'something borrowed' was an iris gene for an enzyme, DFR, required to complete the delphinidin-synthesis reaction.

A Note To Employers: 8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happy

2007-03-12T16:06:00.000-04:00

There are many reasons to let geeks work the way they want to work. Today they work in every industry. They are the knowledge base, blood and sweat equity of many businesses. They work harder than most. They work longer than most. Their job isn’t a separate “thing they do” while they look forward to going home and relaxing. Geeks *live* what they do. They eat, sleep and breathe it. They are your systems administrators, your IT team, your programmers, your web developers, your designers… and sometimes even your customer service and sales people.

Anyone who understands how to leverage todays technology to increase intelligence, productivity and efficiency; anyone who stays up nights working to get better at what they do; anyone whose job is their life - is a geek. These are the most important asset your company has. For this reason, its important to give geeks what they want. Best part is, if you do, they most likely will not leave your company to work for someone who will.

#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 - 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing (, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.

#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.

#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.

#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.

#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.

#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.

#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.

#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.

Another year, another ACC Business Platinum Cup

2007-03-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

Telarus, Inc. took home another Platinum Cup award from ACC Business for being in their top 1% of agents again this year at the Channel Partner's Expo in Las Vegas. This makes the 3rd year in a row Telarus has walked home with this award. You don't get awards for sitting on your hinee. Pictured are some of the great agents and staff who help make Telarus the best telecom master agency in the business.

A Neutral Net Means More Capacity Investment

2007-03-09T17:30:00.000-05:00

Telco lobbyists and think tanks have been busy suggesting that all of this network neutrality foot stomping will scare off bandwidth investment, resulting in capacity armageddon. In reality, core investment is booming. Telco lobbyists are simply trying to fend off laws that would prohibit them from creating a new revenue stream by charging a prioritization toll to content providers. Techdirt points to a new study that says retaining network neutrality will actually increase telco investment in bandwidth.

"The conventional wisdom is that Internet service providers would have greater incentive to expand their service capabilities if they were allowed to charge," says Professor Kenneth Cheng, in a study summation. "That was completely the opposite of what we found." That's not to say that network neutrality laws should be passed, since there's still the possibility that our existing lawmakers are too incompetent to construct functional legislation (that doesn't, say, outlaw VoIP prioritization).

But is it possible to retain network neutrality without laws?

From: BroadbandReports.com

My opinion: No, it is not possible to retain network neutrality w/o laws. Consolidation in the telecom's industry has made coopetion impossible. Investor led companies have no real incentive to do what is best for the public good. They are first and foremost responsible for returning a profit to their investors. Their motivation is to spend as little as possible while returning the greatest ROI.

Spending as little as possible means squeezing as much into what you already have in place as possible without spending any money. Thus the carriers have extreme onus to impose paid prioritization - in order to force people to pay or else get their traffic left behind due to lack of capacity for unpaid traffic.

Rest assured that carriers absolutely want to get into the bill-by-the-bit business. They abhore being treated like a "dumb pipe" or commodity.

Personally, I think all transit capacity should be regulated as if it were an interstate highway. It should be available to all comers at a set price with non-discriminatory access. Transit should be forced into wholesale only mode with the retail divisions of said operator being structurally and financially separated from retail and sales operations.

Honda paying out $6 million for 'overclocked' odometers

2007-02-20T17:25:00.000-05:00

If you've been wondering how your Honda or Acura just seems to cover ground an awful lot quicker than your previous ride without even getting you a speeding ticket, listen up. Apparently, around six million Honda / Acura owners have been wheeling around in vehicles that are clicking off miles quite a bit faster than they're actually being driven.

Rubik's Cube... for those more interested in a nap

2007-02-16T01:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, now I'll admit that I'm professionally lazy. But this even got me going! It's perfect for those of us who like the thought of solving a Rubik's Cube and can never seem to take it all the way to completion. Myself, I had one of my desk most of the way through college in some 1/2 solved form or another. And oh yes, I knew about the websites that would give you the solution. Too much work. I'll be adding this to my Christmas wish list this year. A Rubik's Cube for the lazy! I are one.