My ears perked up the first time I heard Phil on my local K-Love station. Wonderful worship music, a high tenor voice that seems to lift into the clouds, and the lyrics - amazing. I went to I-Tunes and bought the song I heard but you can get it for free, plus 14 more. From your good friends at Jesus Freak Hideout and Phil himself. Cool. 
While Google still gives in my humble view the best search results on the internet, and kindly hosts this and my other blog for free, there's a new kid in town to shake things up and make things interesting. Searchme shows you the whole web page - I-Tunes Style - and it really is stunning, and fun to play with if you have broadband. If your on dial-up or in a hurry this is not a good choice, but it does render the images fast if your computer is good and your internet is good as well. You can also search for video and images.
Tired of the same old exercise routine? Changing it up could do more than just beat boredom. Interval walking may help jump-start your metabolism.“Instead of going at a steady state, warm up for three, four or five minutes,” Agatston explains. “Then, walk almost as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Then, recover for 30 seconds, a minute.”
Agatston suggests repeating the cycle throughout the workout. He says it's a more efficient way to lose weight.“You will burn more calories, more fat, in less time,” he said. “The time will go much faster and you'll improve your fitness levels.”
Cheapskate, skinflint, tightwad -- whatever you want to call us, we hate spending money and love finding a good deal. If we can save a few bucks, we're happy. And if we can get something for nothing, we're in heaven.Even in these days of $400 haircuts and million-dollar starter homes, you can find plenty of things for nothing. We've pulled together a list of 26 of our favorite freebies, and they're not junk. These are valuable goods and services you'd actually want, from free music and movies to legal advice and financial services.
A Georgia company looking to solve America's energy problem has finally teamed up with the federal government, hoping to make millions of barrels of oil every day from virtually anything that grows out of the Earth.
Bell Bio-Energy, Inc. says it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Defense Department to build seven test production plants, mostly on military bases, to quickly turn naturally grown material into fuel.
"What this means is that with the seven pilot plants – the military likes to refer to them as demonstrations – with those being built … it gives us the real-time engineering data that we need to finish the designs for a full-scale production facility," J.C. Bell, the man behind the project, told WND today.
"In 18 months or so, we will start manufacturing oil directly from waste and we will build up to about 500,000 barrels a day within two years. In another six months, we'll reach a million barrels a day."
Diabetes sufferers may be able to give up their cake and eat it, too. According to a new study, people who lost weight in the 18 months after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes experienced sustained benefits even if they regained the weight later. They were up to twice as likely to reach their targets for blood pressure and blood sugar as those who didn't lose weight, although by the end of the four-year study, most of them had regained the weight they had lost.
You've heard of hybrids, electric cars and vehicles that can run on vegetable oil. But of all the contenders in the quest to produce the ultimate fuel-efficient car, this could be the first one to let you say, "fill it up with air." That's the idea behind the compressed air car, which backers say could achieve a fuel economy of 106 miles per gallon.Plenty of skepticism exists, but with many Americans trying to escape sticker shock at the gas pump, the concept is generating buzz.
The technology has been the focus of MDI, a European company founded in 1991 by a French inventor and former race car engineer.
New York-based Zero Pollution Motors is the first firm to obtain a license from MDI to produce the cars in the United States, pledging to deliver the first models in 2010 at a price tag of less than $18,000.
The concept is similar to how a locomotive works, except compressed air -- not steam -- moves the engine's pistons, said Shiva Vencat, vice president of MDI and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors.
Digital Praise® Inc, the leader in Christian-themed, family-friendly entertainment software, today announced Guitar Praise™, its new inspirational PC guitar game, at the International Christian Retail Show 2008 in Orlando. Combining unique play features with a playlist of today's most popular Contemporary Christian rock hits, Guitar Praise gives Christian retailers a headlining opportunity to build on the $1 billion guitar game segment that continues to smash sales records among young consumers. In creating Guitar Praise, Digital Praise has applied its intimate knowledge of player tastes gained through its #1 best-selling Dance Praise™ dance arcade game franchise. "Our research shows that 92% of Dance Praise families, and 100% of Dance Praise churches, are interested in Guitar Praise," said Tom Bean, President and CEO of Digital Praise, Inc. "People love the console guitar games on the market, but many would like more family-friendly songs and graphics. Guitar Praise gives kids, families and youth groups the play features they like best, plus some new twists as well as the best Christian rock titles out there today."
Guitar Praise features 52 of the most inspirational and pulsating tracks from the Christian rock world, all by the original artists. Today's most popular hits are combined with classics from the 80's and 90's; the playlist includes titles from Flyleaf, Skillet, Stellar Kart, tobyMac, Newsboys, Petra, 12 Stones, Spoken, Whitecross, Thousand Foot Krutch, Paul Baloche, David Crowder, and Red, plus many others.
Eight years ago, Lopez Lomong didn't even have a country. Now he'll be carrying the flag for his adopted nation, leading the U.S. Olympic team at opening ceremonies Friday night.Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, won a vote of team captains Wednesday to earn the honor of leading America's contingent into the 90,000-seat Bird's Nest Stadium.
The 1,500-meter track runner will be the flagbearer only 13 months after becoming a U.S. citizen.
"It's more than a dream," Lomong said in an interview with The Associated Press moments after he got the news. "I keep saying, I'm not sure if this is true or not true. I'm making the team and now I'm the first guy coming to the stadium and the whole world will be watching me carry the flag. There are no words to describe it."
No one could imagine an accident so terrible, as Maria, the child they adopted from China, now 5 years old and full of life and personality dies due to being ran over in an SUV by their youngest son. Amazingly it seems instead of tearing this family apart, this has brought them closer together. How you might ask? Only by the grace of God and the prayers of thousands of fans including myself. Get out your hankies for this video, this one is going to make you cry.
Didn’t you know that toothpaste (despite its name) is for so much more than your teeth? It’s truly handy to have on hand (I pity the household - and their teeth - that has no toothpaste at all), because it is quite multi-functional. Here are a few ways you can get your toothpaste working extra hard for you: 
A great band from Canada with a unique sound, you will likely be hearing a lot more from Downhere over the next few months and years. Never turn down the chance to get a free legal download like this one.
What's better than cheap, pre-owned movies delivered to your door? Free ones. And for a very limited time, you can take your pick of hundreds of movies at Blockbuster for the cost of tax. Blockbuster online has a large selection of new and pre-owned DVDs for you to purchase. You don't have to be a member to buy, but you do get a nice discount (5-10%) if you are. With Christmas less than 6 months away, I had been meaning to buy a few pre-owned DVDs to put in the kids' stockings, and with the latest in promo codes, I got them at a very nice price (FREE!)
Here's what you do: They Will be glad to tell you how over at Wisebread
One year after winning college football's highest honor, University of Florida star Tim Tebow was pulled from consideration for Playboy's pre-season All-American team because the magazine conflicts with his Christian beliefs, a school official confirmed. Tebow, who last year became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy, comes from a family of missionaries and is a devout Baptist. Assistant Sports Information Director Zack Higbee said he chose not to nominate his quarterback for the Playboy spread based on what he knew about Tebow's spirituality.
"I've been working with Tim since his first day here and I know his priorities and his family," Higbee said. "He has that trust in me to make the decision."
As a teenager, the home-schooled Tebow made annual trips to the Philippines, where his father, a minister, runs an orphanage. This year, he went on separate missions to the Philippines, Croatia, and Thailand.
Higbee said Tebow supported the move when told of it this month. Playboy Sports Editor Gary Cole downplayed the university's decision, however, and said that Tebow would not have made the team anyway.
The son of one of the most popular leaders in the Hamas terrorist organization has moved to the U.S. and converted to Christianity, it has emerged. In an exclusive interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Masab Yousuf, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, slammed Hamas, praised Israel and said he hoped his terrorist father will open his eyes to Jesus
and to Christianity.
"I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God," Masab said.
Creative.com offers the refurbished Dell Pocket DJ 5GB Digital Jukebox MP3 Player for $19.99. With $5 for shipping, that's nearly $175 less than what Dell charged for this MP3 player back in 2005. Features include a 4.4-oz. weight, 10-hour battery life, MP3 and WMA support, earbuds, 1.62" blue back-lit display, and USB 2.0 interface. A 90-day warranty is included, although it's unclear who supports it.
So what's the catch? They are E-Books that you download for free. Until Aug. 4th The World eBook Fair is offering the free downloads from some of the worlds top E-Book providers. Load up while they are free, you don't see a deal like this every day.
50 years old and going strong, they have not only helped mankind reach beyond our planet on to others, but technologies they have developed have so enriched our lives it would be hard to think about modern life without them. The discovery channel will be noting their groundbreaking work over the next 90 days. Check out the link below for on-line video, articles and more. It's going to be some pretty cool stuff.
Imagine being able to convert water into a boundless source of cheap energy. That's what BlackLight Power, a 25-employee firm in Cranbury, N.J., says it can do. The only problem: Most scientists say that company's technology violates the basic laws of physics. Such skepticism doesn't daunt Dr. Randell Mills, a Harvard-trained physician and founder of BlackLight, who recently claimed that he has created a working fuel cell using the world's most pervasive element: the hydrogen found in water.
"This is no longer an academic argument," Mills, 50, insists. "It's proven technology, and we're going to commercialize it as quickly as possible."
For the first time in his company's 19 years of persistent trial and error, Mills says he has a market-ready product: a fuel cell that produces a chemical reaction to alter hydrogen atoms. The fuel cell releases heat that turns water into steam, which drives electric turbines.
The working models in his lab generate 50 kilowatts of electricity - enough to power six or seven houses. But these, Mills says, can be scaled to drive a large, electric power plant. The inventor claims this electricity will cost less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, which compares to a national average of 8.9 cents.
“What could you accomplish if you stopped watching TV? What would you do with all the extra time?” My wife asked me these questions two weeks ago. After a short discussion, we decided to find out for ourselves. We completely eliminated television from our lives last week. It turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience. We now have a plan to drastically reduce our future viewing habits. See what this writer accomplished. Here are 40 positive effects from our week without television.
There's a woman who saves every $5 bill she gets, blogs Get Rich Slowly. She's been doing so for three years and has saved $12,000. JD at Get Rich Slowly also shares his wife's personal money saving trick:
For several years, Kris has been rounding every transaction up to the next dollar in her checkbook. If she spends $49.74 at the grocery store, she enters this in her checkbook as $50. If she spends $33.13 on gas, she enters it as $34. As a result, she saves an average of 50 cents every time she performs a transaction. In 2-1/2 years, Kris saved an extra $500 using this method. That's enough to treat herself to something nice.
Learn More tricks at Get Rich Slowly
In two previous campaigns by Christians to disrupt America's abortion industry with continuous prayer, officials with the 40 Days for Life campaign say 35,000 have participated in vigils, 514 babies have been saved and five abortion industry workers have lost their jobs. Now a third campaign is on the calendar, with a signup deadline of July 29 for cities to take part in the outreach. Most locations will have prayer warriors on the sidewalks outside abortion clinics 24 hours a day from Sept. 24 through Nov. 2.
Spokesman David Bereit said the first campaigns have seen 150,000 people praying and fasting for an end to abortion in the U.S., and half of the 35,000 marching in vigils were on the lines for the first time.
He also said two abortion centers have closed their doors following the campaigns.
"We have had 340 cities express interest [in the new campaign,]" he told WND. "We are well on our way to having more than 100 actually registered.
"It's a massive undertaking. People are committing to call on believers to pray and fast for 40 days – that's 960 hours with people physically present," he said.
Planned Parenthood remains closed for abortions after their abortionists, who are flown in from other states, refused of work under the new law that went into effect last Friday. The law orders abortionists to inform patients of the humanity of their babies and that the procedure could affect their mental health two hours before the abortion can be done. The law also provides that abortionists can be sued if they do not comply.
This law was the brain-child of attorney Harold Cassidy and passed with the help of determined pro-life leaders Dr. Alan and Leslee Unruh, who pushed for the regulation in the face of opposition even from those in the pro-life movement. The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for the law's enactment last week.
In remains unclear if the Planned Parenthood office has permanently ceased the practice of abortion. However, several women who were scheduled for abortions this week went to a pro-life center instead where some have reportedly changed their minds about having abortions.
Today, many people looking for alternatives to prescription and over-the-counter drugs are turning to herbs for relief from everyday ailments and chronic diseases. But, with so many herbs to choose from, how can one be sure which are the most useful and effective? For our Fifth Anniversary issue, Veggie Life clears up some of the confusion by gathering the most effective, well-researched herbs we've covered since our debut. There's a brief synopsis of each herb, including when and how to use them and recommended dosage for optimal healing power.
With air pollution, harmful pesticides and an unhealthy diet, your body is probably full of chemicals and poisons that you don’t even think about. If you want to detox your entire body, mind, spirit and life, turn to this list, which has over 100 ideas for removing the poison.
When it comes to cutting costs, consumers always look at the big stuff. Postponing that vacation. Keeping your car a few more years. Nixing the addition on the house.But it's often the little things that can make an even bigger difference. For instance, Joseph Montanaro, a certified financial planner for USAA Financial Planning Services, says he saved $130 a month just by kicking his daily Dr Pepper habit. That's a savings of $1,560 over a year.
We calculated the savings you might see from making various adjustments over a period of one year, from carpooling to work, to drinking a cheaper cup of coffee, to taking a quicker shower. If you do all the things we suggest here, you could save at least $5,000 over a year's time. That's real money.
So, what lifestyle change can save you the most cash? Read on.
How much can you save over one year if you...
Forget hydrogen. The car of the future has an extension cord and a great big laptop battery. The next evolution of the automobile will be plug-in hybrids that get their juice from a household electrical outlet. They'll start rolling into showrooms within in 18 months. Experts say plug-in hybrids could account for about 20 percent of vehicle sales within a decade -- and half of all sales by 2050.
"It all boils down to the three ways electricity is better than gasoline," says Felix Kramer of Cal Cars, a plug-in advocacy group. "It's cleaner, it's cheaper and it's domestic."
Advocates say plug-in hybrids are the best chance to address global warming and wean the nation from oil. Consumers remain unsure about electric vehicles. Ethanol's a shaky proposition because of the food-for-fuel debate. And it'll be decades before hydrogen is a viable option. That, advocates say, leaves plug-ins as the best option. They'll go up to 40 miles on a charge; but they'll also have a gas engine to keep you going beyond that at 80 to 100 mpg or more.
A shopping list is a useful way to remind yourself what you do and do not need to purchase. But most frugality experts emphasize shopping with a list because it prevents impulse purchases. Impulse purchases wreck grocery budgets. In Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, Paco Underhill writes: Supermarkets are places of high impulse buying for both sexes — fully 60 to 70 percent of purchases there were unplanned, grocery industry studies have shown us.
More than half of all grocery purchases are unplanned! No wonder creating and sticking to a list can bring down grocery costs.
But that’s not the only way to save money at the supermarket. Over the past two years, I’ve published a lot of tips for saving money on your grocery bill. Some of these have been obvious — others less so. All of them can help you save at the supermarket. Here are some of the best:
Not a Great Night to be an Atheist
Sonshine Festival, which takes place July 17-19 in Willmar, MN, kicks off Wednesday night, July 16, with a free concert by Jars of Clay. No tickets are required and everyone is invited. The folks at Sonshine Festival just want to show their appreciation to the community that has hosted their annual Christian music festival for the past 27 years.
The festival then kicks into high gear on Thursday, with a line up that includes artists like Jeremy Camp, Third Day, Newsboys, TobyMac, Pillar, BarlowGirl, Superchick, Thousand Foot Krutch, Kutless, David Crowder Band and Skillet.
For more information about the event, camping, or tickets to the festival visit the Sonshine Festival wesite.
In a few days, Francisco Martinez will land in Iraq.He is one of tens of thousands of men and women who, with various motivations, enlisted in the armed forces, knowing that they’d someday end up there.
For Martinez, Iraq is a kind of perdition, a receptacle for all the dark emotions, anguish and guilt that have buffeted him for the last three years.
When Martinez steps off the airplane, he will be in the country that took his only son, a 20-year-old skateboarder and budding graphic artist whose loss is felt every single day of his father’s life.
This deployment — in fact, his entire enlistment — is completely his doing. Nobody forced this on Martinez, except maybe the sniper who put one well-placed bullet in Spc. Francisco G. Martinez on March 20, 2005, in Ramadi.
If there's one thing most people know about solar cells, it's that they are too expensive. Now, MIT researchers think they may have found a way to double the performance of solar arrays with cheap dyed glass and some tricks borrowed from fiber optics.
Their so-called solar concentrator could be placed on top of existing solar arrays. It could capture some wavelengths of visible light and guide them to high-voltage solar cells on the edges of the array, while still allowing the infrared light that largely powers current solar systems to pass through.
"If you stick one of these on top of existing solar panels, we think we could nearly double the performance of these systems with minimal added cost," said Marc Baldo, the lead researcher on the work.
The new research, published tomorrow in the journal Science, is another major advance in solar energy, a field that's received renewed interest due to concerns about climate change and rising fossil fuel prices. The new MIT technology marries the science behind two of the most promising ways of harnessing solar energy: light concentrators and thin-film solar cells.
The fairytale weddings that many couples have yearned for are starting to come back down to earth -- leveled by everyday problems like house payments and rising gas and food bills.
It's called the LandShark, and the shopping cart-sized robot is a memorial to a young U.S. soldier killed in Iraq whose father is convinced the device can be effective in thwarting at least some of the explosive attacks that are aimed at U.S. forces in that war-torn country."He asked me to help him," Brian Hart told The Associated Press, recalling a call he got from his son in Iraq. "Get us body armor and vehicular armor," the son requested.
"He thought he'd be killed on the road and in an unarmored Humvee," the father continued. "And a week to the day later, he was."
I, like a lot of you, grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets. But do you ever stop to wonder where they came from? Some of the characters we know and love today were recycled from other T.V. shows and commercials Jim Henson worked on and others were invented by using whatever materials were around. Be prepared for a little nostalgia for today’s Q10. And don’t be offended if I left out some of your favorites (I know, Big Bird?!) – not all of the characters have interesting background stories. But if you know the story behind one that I left out, share with us in the comments!
The Reverend Billy Graham says he prayed for John McCain when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam -- decades before the two finally met for the first time in North Carolina on Sunday. Publicist Mark DeMoss says the 89-year-old evangelist told McCain that he met the senator's father, who was an admiral in Honolulu, during the Vietnam War.
Graham recalled that he and Admiral McCain prayed for young John McCain's release, and did so again at a subsequent meeting.
This past Sunday, DeMoss says the Republican presidential candidate prayed with both Billy and Franklin Graham during a 45-minute private meeting.
From Christian World News
An Ocala firefighter lifted a vehicle about a foot off the ground, allowing other firefighters to free the arm of a driver who was involved in a crash.According to Ocala fire officials, two firefighters who were not at the fire station drove up on the crash, which took place on Northeast 36th Avenue, at about 12:15 p.m. Tuesday.An older model Chevrolet Blazer was on its side and two people were inside the sport utility vehicle, fire officials said. A small white car had apparently pulled out of a nearby convenient store parking lot and struck the SUV, causing it to flip, fire officials said.
I had no idea there were so many different types of effects and I definitely didn’t know they had names. To me, their names are, “The Ones That Do That Shooty Thing,” “The Ones That Scream” and “The Ones That Kind of Sparkle Out”. Very technical. If you’re like me, here’s a mini-lesson for you – try to spot them at whatever fireworks display you attend this weekend. I don’t usually do pictures with the Quick 10, but thought this post kind of warranted them.
Americans gave a record amount to charity in 2007, topping $300 billion for the first time, despite mounting economic worries. Still, there are indications that slowing growth is taking a toll on giving. The 3.9% increase in donations last year was far less than spikes of roughly 10% and 13% in 2004 and 2005, respectively. In addition, researchers revised 2006's giving increase downward to a meager 0.4% from 4.2%.
![[Chart]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-AR005B_GIVIN_20080622190059.gif)
Americans donated $306.39 billion last year, according to the closely watched annual report from the Giving USA Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization in Glenview, Ill. After adjusting for inflation, donations rose only 1% from the roughly $295 billion donated in 2006.
The report culls data from the Internal Revenue Service and Bureau of Economic Analysis, among other sources. The findings are preliminary estimates and subject to revision.
A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.Lodamin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that Folkman's team has been working to perfect for 20 years. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, his colleagues say they developed a formulation that works as a pill, without side-effects.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal this week signed into law the Louisiana Science Education Act, which allows school districts to permit teachers to present evidence, analysis and critique of evolution and other prevalent scientific theories in public school classrooms. The law came to the governor's desk after overwhelming support in the legislature, including a unanimous vote in the state's Senate and a 93-4 vote in the House.
The act has been criticized by some as an attempt to insert religion into science education and hailed by others as a blow for academic freedom in the face of pressure to ignore flaws in politically correct scientific theories.
Robert Crowther, director of communications for The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank on science and culture, called the act necessary.
Specifically, the act allows teachers in the state's public schools to present evidence both for and against Darwinian theories of evolution and allows local school boards to approve supplemental materials that may open critical discussions of evolution, the origins of life, global warming, human cloning and other scientific theories.
A hand-held device that painlessly sends a magnetic pulse into the head may offer some migraine sufferers relief, a small study suggests.The device delivers a therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. It sparks a magnetic pulse that, when held against a person's head, creates an electric current among the nerves cells of the brain.
This, in turn, disrupts migraines in the "aura" phase, before they trigger pain.
Though migraines strike without warning in most cases, some people experience an aura stage, which is marked by visual disturbances, like flashes of light or zigzag lines, or other sensations such as tingling or numbness.
For the new study, researchers recruited 201 patients suffering from migraine with aura, then randomly assigned them to use the TMS device or a "sham" device the investigators used for comparison. Patients were instructed to apply the device over the site of the migraine, at its onset.
The site Rotten Tomatoes sets up its ratings on how many critics nationwide like or dislike a film. If it gets a 60 it gets a ripe tomato, and that's a good thing, because less than 60 gets you a rotten tomato. As of the time I'm posting to this blog, Wall-E has a 97, one of the highest ratings any film has ever gotten. And just wait till you read some of the reviews. Remember, this is a PIXAR film, that is fine and safe for the whole family. 
Have you ever felt exasperated when you bumped into someone at the store but absolutely couldn't remember their name? Sure, it happens to all of us.
For the first time in U.S. history, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that individual Americans have the right to own guns for personal use, and struck down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital. The landmark 5-4 ruling marked the first time in nearly 70 years the country's high court has addressed whether the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, rather than a right tied to service in a state militia.
In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said the Second Amendment protected an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
He averaged just 88.3 miles per gallon.
Most drivers would take a victory lap if they managed to squeeze that kind of mileage out of increasingly precious gasoline. Even on this, a bad day, Hudgin coaxed 28 mpg more out of his 2000 Honda Insight hybrid than its federal highway mpg rating.
Hudgin's disappointment — he usually averages about 100 mpg this time of year — stems from his pride in being no ordinary driver.
He's a hypermiler, part of a loose-knit legion of commuters who've made racking up seemingly unattainable mpg an art. And a sport.
Hypermilers practice such unorthodox techniques as coasting for blocks with their car's engine turned off, driving far below speed limits on the freeway, pumping up tire pressure far beyond car and tire makers' recommendations and carefully manipulating the gas pedal to avoid fuel-burning excess.
