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A Happy new year to you and Yours!

A new year brings new Beginnings

“You are growing when you get to the point where you can do your best, seen or unseen.”

“If you have failed thus far to plan out how you are going to spend your time, you are making a mistake and you will find that kind of a mistake largely contributing to your failure in life. Do not go out into the world to hit or miss on some chance, but plan now.”

“No man shall drag me down by making me hate him.”

-- Booker T. Washington

Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

We are the protagonists and authors of our own drama.

It is up to us; there is no one left to blame.

Neither the "system," not our leaders, nor our parents.

We can't go out and hang the first amoeba."

- Rebecca McClen Novick

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

- Ecclesiates 9:10.

Wind Power in the Backyard

A compact and affordable backyard wind turbine is now available that could cut utility bills in addition to generating clean energy.

Homeowners will soon be able to generate clean power in their backyards while reducing electricity bills, thanks to a small, quiet, and affordable wind turbine developed by Arizona-based Southwest Windpower. The company designed the turbine in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has 120 orders already, and expects to sell 1500 units next year.

The turbine can be designed with a tower as short as 35 feet. It delivers 1.8 kilowatts of power and gives best results when installed on a property of greater than 0.5 acre with wind speeds above 10 miles per hour, the manufacturer says. The costs of the turbine plus installation fees add up to $9,000–12,000, about half the price of other similar-sized wind generators.
Trial runs show that it trims $500–800 off of an average home’s yearly electricity bills, depending on the wind speed in the area and the local price of electricity.

Company officials say the system will pay for itself in 5–12 years. States such as California and New Jersey are helping to promote backyard wind power with consumer rebates that cover half the installation cost, says Miriam Robbins, the company’s marketing manager. Plus, where possible, customers could sell any extra power they don’t use to utilities.

The key to encouraging homeowners to invest in wind energy is “getting the cost down even more through more mass-produced pieces,” Robbins says. The company is pushing for more state-sponsored rebates. But interested buyers might face additional challenges—local zoning rules that prohibit wind turbines in a backyard and municipalities that restrict the tower’s height, not to mention neighbors and bird enthusiasts who object to the sight of a turbine in their neighborhood.

Guess who...

First James Brown now Gerald Ford. Anyone Wanna Start a Dead Pool Bet for # 3

Gerald Ford was not elected President but was elected Vice President so he is included in this photo because he did win an election.

Brown’s Hynie Gets Booted

ATLANTA — James Brown's lawyer said Tuesday that the late singer and his partner were not legally married and that she was locked out of his South Carolina home for estate legal reasons.
Brown's partner, backup dancer Tomi Rae Hynie, was already married to a Texas man in 2001 when she married Brown, thus making her marriage to Brown null, Dallas said. He said Hynie later annulled the previous marriage, but she and Brown never remarried.
"I suppose it would mean she was, from time to time, a guest in Mr. Brown's home," Dallas said.
On Monday, after the 73-year-old "Godfather of Soul" died at an Atlanta hospital, Hynie, 36, found the gates to Brown's Beech Island, S.C., home padlocked and said she was denied access.
"This is my home," Hynie told a reporter outside the house. "I don't have any money. I don't have anywhere to go."The couple had had a sometimes tumultuous relationship. Brown pleaded guilty in 2004 to a domestic violence charge stemming from an argument with Hynie and was let off with a $1,087 fine. He was accused of pushing Hynie to the floor at the home and threatening to kill her.

Was it necessary to use the atomic bomb?

Using the atomic bomb on Japan at the end of World War II shortened the war and saved thousands of American lives. Or, so the argument goes.

But were the bombings and the destruction and mutilation of hundreds and thousands of men, women and children even necessary?

· According to J. Samuel Walker, chief historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
“It is clear that alternatives to the bomb existed and that Truman and his advisers knew it.”
· According to Curtis E. Lemay, the U.S. Air Force general who led the B-29 bombings of Japanese cities
“The war would have been over without the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.”
· For Harry Truman’s good friend, Fleet Admiral Leahy
“In being the first to use the atomic bomb, we adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.”
· And for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander –in- chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
“There was no military justification for the dropping of the bomb.”
· Dwight Eisenhower clearly voiced his grave misgivings and twice recommended to Truman against the use of the bomb. According to Eisenhower
“It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing… to use the atomic bomb, to kill and terrorize civilians… was a double crime.”
· Other U.S. military leaders including General Douglas MacArthur, said that it would be unnecessary and immoral.
· Albert Einstein attacked the use of the bomb, as did Norman Cousins and many other prominent Americans. But, most Americans were strongly in support.
· For Admiral Leahy, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were “barbarous weapons” “I was not taught to make wars in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”
· For the Chief of the U.S. Naval Operations, Ernest J. King, the use of the atomic bomb was both “unnecessary and immoral.”

Can it be?

Chocolate can do good things for your heart, skin and brain.

Scientists at the Harvard University School of Public Health recently examined 136 studies on coco -- the foundation for chocolate -- and found it does seem to boost heart health, according to an article in the European journal Nutrition and Metabolism.

Studies have shown heart benefits from increased blood flow, less platelet stickiness and clotting, and improved bad cholesterol. These benefits are the result of cocoa's antioxidant chemicals known as flavonoids, which seem to prevent both cell damage and inflammation.

If your blood pressure is high, chocolate may help. It was recently found that hypertensive people who ate 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate per day for two weeks saw their blood pressure drop significantly, according to an article in the journal Hypertension. Their bad cholesterol dropped, too.

It sounds almost too good to be true, but preliminary research at West Virginia's Wheeling Jesuit University suggests chocolate may boost your memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain. Chocolate companies found comparable gains in similar research on healthy young women and on elderly people.

The Honeybee Crisis

The honey bee is in severe decline. Honeybees are dying off. Without honeybees plants would be in a terrible predicament. So would humans. These creatures are the world's pollinators, quietly nuzzling and probing flowers for nectar and in the process, transferring DNA-bearing pollen from stamen to stigma. Without their work we wouldn't have healthy fruit and vegetables or viable seeds. We depend on this free service for 90% of our staple crops.

During the honeybee heyday after World War II, the U.S. had nearly 6 million hives. Now there are less than half that many, and mites continue to plague the remaining colonies. "We are working desperately to produce resistant bee stocks," says Tom Linderer, who directs a honeybee breeding and genetics lab in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the Agriculture Department. "But we have only glimmers of success."

In Europe and North America, the number of honeybee colonies has plummeted and most wild bee colonies have been lost. Poor pollination leads to poor fruit development. According to the USDA we are facing an “impending pollination crisis.” No pollination. No harvest. “We’re losing between 40 and 60 percent of our bee population annually in this country,” says Gordon Wardell, an entomologist based in Tucson. “The bee industry is right on the edge.”

Bees pollinate alfalfa, fruit trees and gardens. California alone depends upon bees to pollinate billions of dollars worth of crops. Crops that require bees for pollination include apples, avocados, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, oranges, grapefruit, sunflowers, tangerines and watermelon. In addition, the production of most beef and dairy products depends on alfalfa, clover and other plants that require pollination.

Two types of mites are killing honeybees. The more deadly, known as the Varroa mite, attacks when bees are most vulnerable: in their pupal stage. As the pearly white pupae develop within the wax-capped confines of a comb's hexagonal cell, the mites feed. "They just suck so much blood that the bee comes out not very well developed, or even deformed," Stanghellini said.

Another common parasite, the tracheal mite -- which is native to European honeybees -- lodges itself inside the honeybee's air passages, debilitating it with congestion and eventually piercing its insides.

It is humbling to realize that entire civilizations have been put to the sword, not by force of arms, but by microbes.

We are well aware that if we commit certain actions against our neighbors, fighting and impoverishment will result. Somehow we think these same actions create peace and plenty if applied to our community, state, nation, and world.

P Diddy Re-defines Meaning of What’s up Dogg?

Macy's has pulled from its shelves and its website two styles of Sean John hooded jackets, originally advertised as featuring faux fur, after an investigation by the nation's largest animal protection organization concluded that the garments were actually made from a certain species of dog called "raccoon dog" (pictured).

Raccoon dogs — which are not domestic animals — are indigenous to Asia, including eastern Siberia and Japan, and have been raised in large numbers because their fur closely resembles raccoon

Orlando Veras, a spokesman at Macy's, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., confirmed Friday that the retailer had removed the jackets, releasing a statement saying that it has a "long-standing policy against the selling of any dog or cat fur." He continued, "This policy is clearly communicated to all suppliers."

What have you learned this year?

Have you grown? Have you matured? Are you a better person now? Share with us, just one little tidbit. And, how will you be better next year?

Benefits of Olive Oil

Olive oil 'can cut cancer risk' Adding plenty of olive oil to a diet could help protect against cell damage that can lead to cancer, experts say. A study of 182 European men found those who had 25 millilitres of olive oil per day had reduced levels of a substance which indicates cell damage.

The Danish team said it may explain why many cancer rates are higher in northern Europe than the south, where olive oil is a major part of the diet.

Sales of olive oil have gone up 39% in the last five years and for the first time outstrip all other oils. Why? The Mediterranean diet has long been hailed as cutting the risk of a heart attack, with olive oil hailed as the key ingredient.

Scientists believe they have pinpointed the micronutrients in the oil that make it a good heart protector and say introducing it to a diet can have a significant impact.

Using olive oil in cooking may prevent the development of bowel cancer, research shows.
Writing in the medical journal Gut, a team from Barcelona say their findings suggest that olive oil may have some protective qualities.

The prevention of skin, breast and colon cancer has been linked to properties such as oleic acid and phenols, found in olive oil.

How to Succeed

CNN has a series, "How to Succeed in 2007"

We asked 50 of the brightest minds in business how they do what they do - and how you can cash in on their advice in the year ahead.

I read all 50 replies and thought these below were the most practical and useful:


Donald Trump Chairman, Trump Organization
OBSESS ABOUT SOLUTIONS, NOT PROBLEMS

There's a lot to the credo that success breeds success. It puts you on a high that makes more success like a magnet. I'm a positive thinker who does frequent reality checks. Negatives turn into positives, problems can be solved, things can turn around. The image of success is important, but even more important is the ability to focus on solutions instead of on problems. That way, you'll never be thinking like a loser, and you probably won't look like one either. Andrea JungChairman and CEO, Avon ProductsReinvent Yourself, Not Just the CompanyLast year the momentum of Avon's business turned abruptly from five years of record-breaking sales growth to a major slowdown. And it became clear to me that Avon had to reinvent itself - and I had to reinvent myself along with it. You can't ask an entire company to change and not change yourself. I have set higher expectations for myself and our people, I've raised the level of accountability, and as an organization we have become more focused and disciplined. Avon and I are both still in a period of reinvention, and I believe in order to remain competitive, the process should never end.



Sergey BrinCo-founder, Google
SUCCEED WITH SIMPLICITY

Simplicity is an important trend we are focused on. Technology has this way of becoming overly complex, but simplicity was one of the reasons that people gravitated to Google initially. This complexity is an issue that has to be solved for online technologies, for devices, for computers, and it's very difficult. Success will come from simplicity. Look at Apple, the success they have had, and what they are doing.

We are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.




Debra LeeChairman and CEO, BET Networks
DON'T BE A BRIDGE BURNER

In my negotiations with business partners, I always maintain good relations whether the deal is successful or turns sour. You never know who you will be dealing with next or even who you may report to next. Philippe Dauman, who is now CEO of Viacom and to whom I report, once was a board member with me on a now defunct company. We had a terrific relationship, but who knew that several years later he would be my boss.




Chris AlbrechtChairman and CEO, HBO
TRUST YOUR GUT

You can't guess at what's going to be popular. You have to use your instinct, intuition, and intelligence to try to help you determine what will be high quality. I think if you err on the side of quality, you never really fail.



Edgar Bronfman Jr.CEO, Warner Music Group
TURN GRIPE SESSIONS INTO BRAINSTORMS

The first thing I did when we bought Warner Music was to fly to every major location and hold town hall meetings. I introduced myself, told them why we bought the company and what our vision was. I followed that up with regular town halls.

I also have what we call employee roundtables, where every other month I'm meeting with 15 or 20 junior-level employees, and we hold completely confidential two-hour sessions. I've held them in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, other European cities, and Hong Kong. I usually start them off with a 15-minute soliloquy on where I think the company is headed and what I want to accomplish from the meeting. Once the discussion starts, it's very free-form. Everything that happens in that conference room remains confidential within the group. So if people have criticisms that involve a more senior person in the company, nobody gets threatened, which is both informative to me and also builds a feeling of trust between the employees and their senior leadership.

It's a little like going to an AA meeting. You make a pledge and ask them to honor their commitment. As it turns out, because you give people that freedom, it doesn't turn into a gripe session. Instead they give us ideas about how to make the company better. There are waiting lists now for these roundtables.



Carly FiorinaFormer Chairman and CEO, Hewlett-Packard
TURN A SETBACK INTO A COMEBACK

Don't wallow in it. View it as an opportunity to do things differently. The goal is not to make the same mistake twice. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn the lesson, and move on.
Richard BransonFounder and Chairman, Virgin GroupLearn How to Say No (Even if You're Known as "Dr. Yes")I turn people down with extreme difficulty sometimes, because the people I'm saying no to are people I don't want to discourage. And it should be difficult. Saying no shouldn't be an easy thing to do, and you have to be good at it. I often used to dodge doing it myself, and hide behind other people and delegate it, but if you're the boss, that isn't the right thing to do.

I remember when I was a 15-year-old asking Vanessa Redgrave or James Baldwin for an interview, and the fact that they took the time to respond meant an enormous amount to me. It inspired me. So it's extremely important to respond to people, and to give them encouragement if you're a leader. And if you're actually turning people down, if you must say no, whether it's for a job or a promotion or an idea they're proposing to you, take the time to do it yourself.
I met two big San Francisco entrepreneurs recently, and they said they get e-mail like this too, but they just dump it all in the dustbin. They don't try to answer at all. I asked them why, and they said, "The time we spend responding could be used to create something of value for our business." That may well be pragmatically right, but I still think it's morally wrong, and I suspect that anything that is morally wrong is ultimately bad for business.



Rachael RayChef, Author, and Entrepreneur
TURN YOUR PASSION INTO AN EMPIRE

You have to be open-minded when those early opportunities present themselves. Take advantage of them, whether they're going to make you a lot of money or not. I did 30 Minute Meals for five years on local television, and I earned nothing the first two years. Then I earned $50 a segment. I spent more than that on gas and groceries, but I really enjoyed making the show and I loved going to a viewer's house each week. I knew I enjoyed it, so I stuck with it even though it cost me.

I've also learned that you can't be all things to all people. Whatever it is that you're successful at, that has to be the No. 1 goal. In my case, it's accessibility. So all of my products have to be usable, accessible, affordable. The olive oils we're developing with Colavita will be priced to be competitive with every other affordable olive oil. We chose to be in grocery stores, not fancy food stores, because that's where most of my audience shops. Our pots and pans have to be heavy-bottomed and sturdy but also affordable. Decide what it is that you are and then stay true to that thing. My brand is based very much on how I live my day-to-day life.

What's the top cash crop in the United States?

And, it's not subsidized by the federal government.

Answer: Marijuana

Marijuana is now the biggest cash crop grown in the US, exceeding traditional harvests such as wheat, corn and soy beans.

This News Will Make All The NASCAR Fans Very Happy

Optimizing the delivery of 14.5 million packages per day In a CIO Sessions interview, United Parcel Service CIO Dave Barnes tells ZDNet editor in chief Dan Farber that his company will save $600 million per year through package flow technologies that include preloading vehicles in the morning, routing drivers according to volume and favoring right-hand turns.

Birthday pics of Violet

Vianne just sent this picture to me

Thanks Vianne.

Giant Rabbit

According to the BBC, the rabbit's name is Herman and lives with his owner in Berlin, Germany. German Giants are domestic rabbits. They do not exist in the wild and can live as long as 12 years. The BBC says that Herman can eat a bale of hay per week.

He weighs in at 22 pounds and measures a little over 3 feet. This is his owner, Hans Wagner, struggling to hold him up.

We don't feed him an unusual diet, said Wagner. His favorite food is actually lettuce...he can never get enough of it. Look at those feet!

Construction Begins in Earnest

Freedom Tower is rising from the ashes of September 11. Construction has begun in earnest on the September 11 memorial.

The 1,776-foot tower, set to open in 2011, will be the tallest of the five skyscrapers planned to replace the trade center. It will be the tallest building in the world.

"Rising from the heart of the World Trade Center site, the Freedom Tower will symbolize the spirit of our city and our nation: inspiring, soaring and undefeated," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The columns installed Tuesday -- among the largest in the world -- were forged in Luxembourg, then shipped to Lynchburg, Virginia, where workers welded steel plates onto them so they could be properly set in place.

The tower will be built with 45,000 tons of steel, builders say.

Bob and Linnette's Remodelled Kitchen!

Just had to mention this: Yesterday I had the pleasure to seeing Bob and Linnette's new remodelled kitchen! Wow! Everything Bob does is such utter perfection! You find yourself just standing there in awe, admiring it. I snapped pictures with my cell phone to show Carol, then found out she had seen their kitchen since it was done, so deleted them. I could have put them up on the blog, but cell phone pictures could never do Bob's professional work near the justice it deserves! He does work of only the highest quality! Excellence and superb taste in every thing he does!! A lot of exclamation points in this post, but when it comes to Bob's work, I can't help it.

Leo, Alyssa and Violet...

I'd just like to say thank you again to Leo and Alyssa for such a great party! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I told several people, "I sure do like Leo's family!" They are all such nice people, all of them! It was an honor to have a nice conversation with Henry, in which I learned a little about the family history and what good stock Leo and his siblings come from! I learned how you all jump in and help each other, etcetera. One thing that was really nice in my eyes is that, in every conversation I participated in, there was not a critical word, no gossip, just kind, postive words about one another. It felt really good to have been a part of such a gathering of such decent, solid, good people!

It was a pleasure to meet Drew also! I bet he and Tave have such fun, great times together. Drew is from Arkansas, we hail from Arkansas too, on my mother's side; yes, we are going to get a long great. ha. But I think Drew writes a lot better than most Arky's. ha. Henry told me he really likes reading Drew's comments. That's makes 20, 30 or more, of us, Drew. And here you were concerned about wearing out your welcome. ha.

I'm always proud of my Mom, and was very happy that she was there! There's a number of people I hoped to be able to talk to more, but there will hopefully be future opportunities. I missed my brother Greg, his wife Kelly, Kala and Anna, also Chaz, Neisha, Carol, Cate (whom I met at the last family gathering) and others.

Violet is so precious! With all the attention, toys and everything she doesn't seem to be the least bit spoiled. Leo and Alyssa are certainly doing something right!

Your house is wonderful. I like the layout a lot! The way someone can be sleeping in the bedrooms, yet be undisturbed by activity in the kitchen or living room. Built in 1929, what a gem! What possibilities!

Thank you again, Leo and Alyssa for a great party! Love you!!!

Countdown to American Idol

The wait is almost over. The premiere of American Idol will be a 2-Night 4-Hour event. Tuesday and Wednesday, January 16th and 17th, starting at 8 p.m. on FOX.


Less than a month till the Season Premiere!

Merry Christmas...

Now that I've got your attention, anyone into New Year's Resolutions?

Oldest Lady in the World Died on Monday

Guinness World Records recognized Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden as the oldest person in August. She was 116.

She had 40 grandchildren, 75 great-grandchildren, 150 great-great-grandchildren, 220 great-great-great grandchildren and 75 great-great-great-great grandchildren.

The man in the picture is HER GRANDSON, John Louis Bolden---he is 75 years old.

Do you own yourself?

(Do you own your own body?)

It's Violet's Birthday!

1 day to 1-1/2 months

2 months to 5 months

6 months to 8 months

9 months to 10 months

11 months to 12 months

In Case Anyone is Wondering What To Get A Loved One for Christmas and Why...

It is all well and good for children and acid freaks to still believe in
Santa Claus— but it is still a profoundly morbid day for us working
professionals. It is unsettling to know that one out of every twenty people you
meet on Xmas will be dead this time next year....Some people can accept this,
and some can't. That is why God made whiskey, and also why Wild Turkey comes in
$300 shaped canisters during most of the Christmas season."
"Fear and Loathing in Elko" Rolling Stone (1992-01-23)

When they were kids....