Saturday, May 31, 2008

Meet the Mini Pigs !!!

Chris Murray needed 9 years and 24 generations to develop a breeding programme that resulted in the minitature pigs you’ll see.The smallest pigs the farmer created are the ones below, that are no bigger than your standard tea cup. The pennywell miniature pig is a variant of a rare breed of pig from New Zealand and make excellent pets.

More from Fuzz-time, with some super cute pics!

50 Habits of "Naturally Thin" People

Small Changes, Big Weight Loss

This is not a diet -- or a rigorous exercise program. (Nobody can stick to those for long.) Instead, it's a simple way to make weight loss a natural part of the life you already live. And guess what? It's fun! You don't have to give up the foods you love or join a gym. It's about balancing calories in tiny ways that add up to big benefits. You just adopt some tricks naturally lean people do. Pick the ones you like, stick with them, and you'll slim down and tone up -- for good!


See the 50 at Reader's Digest

Friday, May 30, 2008

U.S. troop deaths in May near lowest level of war

This May has been one of the least violent months of the Iraq war. The relative calm follows a cease-fire agreement by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia in the face of steady pressure from U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Overall, militant attacks in Iraq have dropped to levels not seen since spring 2004, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said this week. Attacks are down 70% since President Bush ordered a U.S. troop increase, or "surge," early last year.

"We're seeing progress because we're getting more capability out of the Iraqi security forces," said Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, the number two U.S. commander in Iraq.

More from USA Today

Wal-Mart puts the squeeze on food costs

With gas, grain, and dairy prices exploding, you'd think the biggest seller of corn flakes and Cocoa Puffs would be getting hit by rising food costs. But Wal-Mart has temporarily rolled back prices on hundreds of food items by as much as 30% this year. How? By pressuring vendors to take costs out of the supply chain.

"When our grocery suppliers bring price increases, we don't just accept them," says Pamela Kohn, Wal-Mart's general merchandise manager for perishables. To be sure, Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) isn't the only retailer working to cut fat from the food chain, but as the largest grocer - Wal-Mart's food and consumables revenue is nearly $100 billion - it has a disproportionate amount of leverage. Here's how the retailer is throwing its weight around.

More from Fortune

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Mediterranean diet may also help stop diabetes

A Mediterranean diet rich in fruits and vegetables -- already known to protect against heart disease -- also appears to help ward off diabetes, Spanish researchers said on Friday.

The study published in the British Medical Journal showed that people who stuck closely to the diet were 83 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who did not.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 percent of all cases and is closely linked to obesity and heart disease. The condition accounts for an estimated 6 percent of all global deaths.

More good health news at Reuters

Voters to decide whether unborn 'persons'

Nation's 1st statewide initiative seen by some as threat to Roe v. Wade

Colorado voters in November will become the first statewide electorate in the nation to decide whether the unborn should be granted "personhood" under the law, pro-life advocates announced today.

Officials with Colorado for Equal Rights, which is sponsoring the proposed state constitutional amendment, confirmed state officials notified them enough valid signatures had been verified to place the issue on the election ballot.

The Colorado secretary of state's office confirmed 103,377 valid signatures, far surpassing the 76,047 required for the amendment, the group said. Officials with Colorado for Equal Rights said it will be the first time in U.S. history the issue of personhood will be decided in a statewide election.

More at WorldNetDaily

10 Tips to Make Your Car Last Longer

Getting from point A to point B by car costs a certain amount of dough, and thanks to recent record-high gas prices it takes more of your hard-earned money than ever before. But while you can’t always control ownership costs such as fuel, repairs and insurance rates, one thing you do have power over is making your car last longer and maintaining its value. Here you have a choice: Either spend money on a new car every few years or keep your current car running great and looking sharp. If you decide to go the latter route, follow these 10 tips to help keep your ride rolling.

Find out how to stretch the life of your car at MSN Autos

Workers shifting to 4-day week to save gasoline

When Ohio's Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices. "We offered it to 94 employees and 78 have taken us up on it," said university spokesman Scott Rainone.

The reason is simple: rising gas prices and a desire to retain good workers. And while so far only the university's custodians are eligible, Rainone hopes the option will be offered to all departments -- including his own.

But the surge in gasoline prices is pushing more private employers as well as local governments to offer a four-day week as a perk that eliminates two commutes a week.

More from Yahoo News

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Ten Simple Meals in Ten Minutes or Less

It’s all well and good to save money on meal prep, but for those working outside the home or juggling various other projects, saving time can be just as critical. Here are ten simple meal ideas you can prepare in ten minutes or less.

Why can't everything in life be so easy?

Good Eats from Wise Bread

This Story Stinks - and that's a good thing. Sweden turning sewage into a gasoline substitute

Taking a road trip? Remember to visit the toilet first. This city is among dozens of municipalities in Sweden with facilities that transform sewage waste into enough biogas to run thousands of cars and buses. Chemically, biogas is the same as natural gas from fossil fuels, but its manufacture relies on a process where bacteria feed on waste for about three weeks in an oxygen-free chamber. The result is two-thirds methane and one-third carbon dioxide, as well as a nutrient-rich residue that can be used as soil or construction material.

Once the methane is purified, it is pumped through Goteborg's network of gas pipelines to specialized filling stations, where it is pressurized for delivery. Any car with an engine and tank configured for compressed natural gas can use biogas.

More from IHT.com

Hybrid Technologies Building 220+ MPG Supercar With 'Wild' Horsepower

As if the Silicon Valley sportscar darlings at Tesla didn’t have enough competition from the startup pal it just sued and the company that built the world’s cheapest ride, now EV gurus lurking in the hills of North Carolina are well into R&D on a new green supercar.

Is your mouth not watering over the concept designs pictured above? Well, how do two versions of it sound—a gas-electric hybrid entrant for the Automotive X Prize, and an all-electric for (almost) the rest of us? Yeah, we thought so. Best part: A drivable prototype should be ready by September.

But power under the hood will have to trump a cushy ride: Hybrid Technologies is aiming for a 150- to 180-mi. range per charge from the all-electric model, while the lithium-ion-meets-gas hybrid needs to hit 220 mpg—minimum. And that’s not to mention performance. When we asked Cerven if Hybrid Technologies could hit ZR1-level horsepower equivalent numbers in the mid-600s, he laughed, vaguely adding that we were “way out of the ballpark—it’s gonna be wild.”

Be careful with this one.
More from Popular Mechanics

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The 100 Best Tech Products of 2008

After a good deal of--ahem--lively discussion, the editors at PC World have completed this year's list of the 100 best technology products available today. How did we do it? After nominating hundreds of devices, apps, sites, and services we knew to be good, we rated each one on its design, functionality, performance, and impact; the ones garnering the highest total scores made our list. Note that we chose not to rate products specifically on their price or value, focusing instead on their overall quality. After the scoring was over and the dust had cleared, we had a list that served, among other things, to remind us of what an exciting time in tech this truly is, with game-changing product development happening on many fronts.

The Best 100 from PC World

Eight Sure-Fire Ways to Sock Away $100

Let the economic pundits argue whether or not we're in a recession.

Either way, consumers are cutting back on spending.

Along with this comes a desire to save money as well. But how? If you have a few hours to spare you can find ways to put $100 or more back into your pocket.

The money may not show up instantly, but the time and effort to create the savings is minimal. By year's end you will have saved a nice chunk of change. In some cases, your savings will keep piling up well after that.

Check them out at Yahoo Finance

Monday, May 26, 2008

Cold-fusion demonstration "a success"

On 23 March 1989 Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton, UK, and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah, US, announced that they had observed controlled nuclear fusion in a glass jar at room temperature, and — for around a month — the world was under the impression that the world's energy woes had been remedied. But, even as other groups claimed to repeat the pair's results, sceptical reports began trickle in. An editorial in Nature predicted cold fusion to be unfounded. And a US Department of Energy report judged that the experiments did "not provide convincing evidence that useful sources of energy will result from cold fusion."

This hasn't prevented a handful of scientists persevering with cold-fusion research. They stand on the sidelines, diligently getting on with their experiments and, every so often, they wave their arms frantically when they think have made some progress.

I'd like to let you know that one of the handful of diligent cold-fusion practitioners has started waving his arms again. His name is Yoshiaki Arata, a retired (now emeritus) physics professor at Osaka University, Japan. Yesterday, Arata performed a demonstration at Osaka of one his cold-fusion experiments.

More at Physicsworld.com

Toyota Building $192M Green-Car Battery Plant

Toyota is building a $192 million plant in Japan to produce batteries for gas-electric hybrid vehicles, as it seeks to keep its lead in an intensifying race for green cars among the world's automakers.

Toyota's joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, is building the plant in Shizuoka prefecture, in central Japan, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said Friday. He declined to give more details.

The plant will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries, now in the company's hit Prius hybrid.

The Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, reported Friday that Toyota was building another plant in Japan to make lithium-ion batteries, set to be running by 2010, for future ecological cars. Nolasco said no decision has been made on such a plant.

Japan's top automaker, which leads the industry in gas-electric hybrids with its hit Prius, has said it will rev up hybrid sales to 1 million a year sometime after 2010.

Hybrids reduce pollution and emissions that are linked to global warming by switching between a gas engine and an electric motor to deliver better mileage than comparable standard cars. But they are still a niche market.

The Prius, which has been on sale for more than a decade, recently reached cumulative sales of 1 million vehicles.

More at HappyNews.com

The Magnifying Glass Gets an Electronic Twist

PEOPLE who lose part of their sight to macular degeneration, diabetes or other diseases may now benefit from some new technology. Several portable video devices that enlarge print may help them make the most of their remaining vision. Swipe one of the devices over an airline ticket, or point it at a medicine bottle on a shelf, and all of the fine print is blown up and displayed in crisp letters on a screen.

The tiny, high-resolution video camera within the device captures the image, and the electronics bolster the contrast in the display, making it easier to read words on the monitor.


From the New York Times

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, Age 83 Just Got Married

It just goes to prove, it doesn't matter how old you are, it's all about the heart.

More from Fox News and AP

Saturday, May 24, 2008

The History Of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

More at Usmemorialday.org

JESUS film frees villages from witchcraft

A JESUS film team responded to an epidemic of witchcraft in the Central African Republic by “soaking” villages in the region of Bossangoa with the Gospel. They walked from village to village and showed the JESUS film every night. Eighteen new churches have been planted as a result.

Area witches reportedly have the power to kill and cause tremendous physical suffering, besides terrorizing the community. The government routinely imprisons accused witches, but prison walls cannot contain their power.

When witches in the villages saw the JESUS film and heard the Gospel in their own language, many were convicted by the Holy Spirit. They joyfully repented of their sins, experienced freedom from bondage, and turned their lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the people of the area call the JESUS film “The Miracle Film.”

More from Mission Network News

Missing Kentucky Dog Found More Than A Thousand Of Miles Away

It's hard to believe, but a dog, lost near Lexington, Kentucky nearly a month ago, has been found in Texas, more than a thousand miles away from its home.

Tom and Debbie Griswald's 9-month-old German Shepherd, Trudy, disappeared on April 25th.

Tom told our sister station, WKYT, "I had pretty well decided that Trudy was dead, that the coyotes had gotten her because I couldn't imagine anyone picking up a dog in that good of condition with a collar and not trying to find the owner."

What they didn't know is that a woman had picked up the dog in a restaurant parking lot in Nicholasville and driven it to her home in Texas.

She even renamed the dog Lexie.

But then, on May 1st, the Griswalds got a break in the form of an e-mail from the Texas woman's sister-in-law in Vermont.

Debbie Griswald recalls, "The Vermont woman saw Trudy on Dog Detective.com and said her sister-in-law picked up a dog, a female German Shepherd , in the Lexington area in April. She wondered if that could be our Trudy."

Luckily, the Griswalds had implanted a micro chip identifier in Trudy, and authorities in Montgomery County, Texas were able to determined that the dog there did indeed belong to the Kentucky couple.

Tom and Debbie now give the lady who took the dog the benefit of the doubt, sort of.

Tom Griswald says, "Misguided Samaritan I think is what I've finally come to call her. I had some other names before."

Police in Texas say the woman will probably not face any charges.
Trudy was flown from Houston to Lexington Thursday night where her grateful owners were waiting to be reunited with her.

From WTIN.com

Miracle: Woman Wakes Up after 'Death Set In'

The Thomas family experienced a medical miracle and wants everyone to know.

Val Thomas from West Virginia died and her family said their farewell. But 10 minutes after her heart stopped a third time, she miraculously woke up and called for her son.

"I feel very blessed," Thomas told NewsNet5. "I know God has something in store for me, another purpose. I don't know what it is but I'm sure he'll tell me."

Thomas' heart had stopped at home on Saturday at 1:30 a.m. Doctors at a West Virginia hospital say she suffered two heart attacks and had no brain waves for more than 17 hours, according to the local news channel.

More from The Christian Post

Friends Quit Smoking? You Probably Will Too

The urge to smoke is contagious, but quitting apparently is, too. A team of researchers who showed that obesity can spread person-to-person has found a similar pattern with smoking cessation: A smoker is more likely to kick the habit if a spouse, friend, co-worker or sibling did.

What's more, smokers tend to quit in groups and those who don't stop puffing increasingly find themselves pushed to the edge of their social circles, the researchers found.

''Your smoking behavior depends upon not just the smoking behavior of the people you know, but also the people who they know'' and so on, said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the new report.

The findings back up previous studies showing that peer influence plays a key role in people's decision to stop lighting up and provide evidence that the ''buddy system'' used by smoking cessation, weight loss and alcoholism programs to change addictive behavior works.

More from HappyNews.com and AP

Study: N. Pacific Humpback Whale Population Rises


Once hunted to the brink of extinction, humpback whales have made a dramatic comeback in the North Pacific Ocean over the past four decades, a new study says.

The study released Thursday by SPLASH, an international organization of more than 400 whale watchers, estimates there were between 18,000 and 20,000 of the majestic mammals in the North Pacific in 2004-2006.

Their population had dwindled to less than 1,500 before hunting of humpbacks was banned worldwide in 1966.

''It's not a complete success, but it's definitely very encouraging in terms of the recovery of the species,'' said Jeff Walters, co-manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

More from HappyNews.com

Friday, May 23, 2008

Get 45mpg out of a 28mpg car

Check this out. See how one guy used information from the website Wisebread and applied it to his driving habits. You can do the same things too, and make that expensive fuel go even further. I've been trying some of the tips myself, and they really do help.

More from Wisebread

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Pilots run out of fuel, pray, land near Jesus sign

WELLINGTON, New Zealand --It seemed like an almost literal answer to their prayers. When two New Zealand pilots ran out of fuel in a microlight airplane they offered prayers and were able to make an emergency landing in a field - coming to rest right next to a sign reading, "Jesus is Lord."

More at Kentucky.com

9 Summer Offers That Will Give You Gas

The price at the pump isn’t going down soon, but if you’re looking to do some shopping, there just might be some free gas in it for you. Here are some special promotions from 9 companies looking to give you gas.

More at Wisebread

Great-great-grandmother, 96, does laps at Indy

A 96-year-old great-great-grandmother says it was "fun" going around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 180 mph. "Oh, that was fun!" Edith Pittenger of Muncie said recently after taking a trip around the famous track in a two-seater Dallara with driver Arie Luyendyk Jr.

The ride from the Indy Racing Experience was a Christmas gift from Pittenger's children. Pittenger, who is retired from Ball State University as assistant director of personnel services, began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1965.

"I like the excitement, the speed, the noise," she said. "I'm one of the few that like the noise."

More at Yahoo News

Bible class bill goes to governor

A bill that authorizes the Tennessee Board of Education to create an academic nonsectarian elective course about the Bible has passed the state House and Senate and is now going to Gov. Phil Bredesen for his signature.

The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, who represents Henry County as part of his district.

The bill also protects the existing Bible courses presently taught in less than 20 percent of Tennessee counties, Herron said.

“Our teachers cannot constitutionally preach the Bible, but they can teach the Bible,” Herron said. “The Bible is the world’s best-selling and most influential book. It has shaped this country and changed this world. Our young people must know the Bible to understand literature, art, music, culture, history and politics.”

Herron said the bill survived vigorous debate both in committee and on the floor of both chambers of the state Legislature.

More at Parispi.com

Top 10 Firefox 3 Features

The newest version of our favorite open source web browser, Mozilla Firefox 3, offers dozens of new features and fixes, but only a handful will make the most dramatic difference in your everyday browsing. After 17 months of alphas and betas, Mozilla’s finally made a feature-complete release candidate available, so it’s time to spotlight the biggest improvements that will make “Gran Paradiso” the browser to beat. Nearly everything in the open-source app has gotten a second look from the minds at Mozilla, from back buttons to bookmarks, address bars to add-ons, passwords to performance, and the changes will make Firefox 3 worth the upgrade come its official release date, slated for sometime next month. Let’s take a look at the 10 best upgrades in Firefox 3, and how they’ll bolster your browsing, after the jump.

Note: Firefox 3 hasn’t been officially released yet-a public preview release is available and intended for testers only. While it’s a very stable preview, only use it if you’re willing to deal with bugs and instability as the Mozilla teams ready the official release.

I've been using it for most of a week and I'm just giddy about how fast it is. It has been very stable, and it allows me open up 20 or more tabs on my old laptop. You really should try this out.

More from bspcn.com

Release notes and link to download

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Netflix set-top box debuts, looks pretty nice

Finally living up to its name, Netflix today introduced the Netflix Player by Roku, a small piece of hardware that can play any Netflix titles available for Internet streaming. With a cheap price and Netflix's signature subscription model, the Netflix Player brings a new set of rules to the video distribution table.

Manufactured by Silicon Valley startup Roku, the Netflix Player is about the size of a Mac mini and a bit thicker than an Apple TV. The unit impressively includes a full gamut of outputs, including HDMI, component video, S-video, optical audio, and even good ol' fashioned composite RCA jacks. Netflix doesn't want to leave any viewers in the dust just because they haven't sprung for the latest and greatest. The Netflix Player can get online via Ethernet or Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, and setup reportedly requires not much more than entering a five-digit code the player gives you into your Netflix account.

After that, the movies and TV shows you've queued from Netflix's catalog of 10,000-plus "Watch Instantly" streaming titles appear on your TV, waiting for a command from Roku's notably simple remote. You can browse the rest of the streaming catalog right on your TV and select another title to begin streaming instantly, and titles can also be rated while you browse.

The cost? This is where things get interesting. Roku's Netflix Player is a one-time purchase of $99 (and available now). As long as you subscribe to any Netflix plan costing $8.99 or more, you're ready to stream as much content as you want.

Would you believe I live in a rural area with no broadband? Arrrrggggg!!!!

More from Ars Technica

Lost Parrot Returns Home After Telling Veterinarian His Address

When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

More from Fox News

Clean Diesels are coming, at upto 60 MPG!


Later this year we will finally begin to see an influx of new model diesels in the United States. While diesels make up 50% of the market share of vehicles in Europe, they’re still trying to shrug off the stigma of being dirty, noisy beasts here in the US. So what changed? In 2006, the EPA required the introduction of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), which removed a major polluting component of diesel fuel. Since sulfur would damage advanced emissions control systems, ULSD paved the way for better emissions control technology.

As early as August, we will start to see a new era of diesels that employ new technology to meet the strictest emissions standards in the world—BIN5/LEV II—which are enforced by 5 US states: California, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Vermont. BIN5/LEV II standards severely cap nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions (0.05 g/mile), one of the two tailpipe pollutants that have given diesels a bad rap (that and particulate matter).

Check out 9 new models at Gas 2.0

Gov. Arnold: Let homeschooling continue

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other officials have told an appeals court there's no need to dig into state constitutional issues regarding homeschooling since state laws already provide for that choice for parents.

"The governor's brief supports the right of California parents to teach their children at home," stated the governor's press secretary, Aaron McLear. "It explains how the California Education Code already provides for homeschooling and urges the court to recognize and affirm this important right."


Way to go Arnie!
More fro WorldNetDaily

'Good' Bacteria Aid Weight Loss Surgery

A bacteria pill a day may enhance weight loss among obese people undergoing gastric bypass surgery.

Researchers studied 42 morbidly obese people who had weight loss surgery. Six months after surgery, those who took a daily probiotic supplement had shed 70% of their excess pounds vs. 66% for those who did not.

Study participants who took probiotics after surgery also had less nausea and bloating and generally felt better than those who did not, says researcher John M. Morton, MD, of the Stanford School of Medicine.

"It's a very safe, cheap, and easy-to-administer adjunct to weight loss surgery," he tells WebMD.

More from WebMD

Foreclosures mean opportunity for Habitat charity

The foreclosure crisis that has forced thousands of families from their homes has given something good to the nation's best-known housing charity: Cheap properties for sale in communities around the country.

Some Habitat for Humanity chapters have seized buying opportunities in neighborhoods affected by the mortgage meltdown, snapping up scores of empty lots and unoccupied homes — some for as little as half price.

"The down real estate market is a wonderful opportunity for all Habitats," said Gage Yager, executive director of Trinity Habitat for Humanity in Fort Worth, Texas. "As prices drop, we have the opportunity to acquire at prices that just weren't available a few years ago."

More from AP

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Homemade power banishes the bills

Charmaine Watts hasn't had a power bill for eight years.

Her family of two adults and three children are one of hundreds around the country generating their own electricity.

With power prices on the rise, the $20,000 the Watts spent installing solar panels, a small wind turbine, storage batteries and wiring is starting to look like a good investment.

"I don't need to worry about power cuts," said Ms Watts. "It's just like a normal house. I flick the switch on my computer or my DVD player and away I go."

More from the New Zealand Herald

Is the price of gas too high? Maybe you need a BUDDY to help you out.

The high price of gas got you in a bind? There is something you can do about. Use the internet to find the lowest prices where you live, or even in your state. Try this out, you'll be checking back often.

GasBuddy.com

Athletes to share love of God at Olympics

Despite strict statements made by the Chinese government that it will not tolerate evangelism during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, many Christian athletes are planning to share the roles God has played in their lives.

Steve McConkey, president of 4 Winds Christian Athletics in Madison, Wis., has been in track and field ministries since 1981. He said China does not have the right to censor faith at the Olympic Games.

"As long as it is done in a peaceful way, and they proclaim the true Jesus Christ, no person should ever take it away, regardless of who they are, government or whatever," he told WND.

Section 51 of the Olympic Charter states, " … no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."

McConkey said he spoke with the United States Olympic committee, and he asked if the athletes will be required to change their responses during press interviews to omit Christ from their statements.

"They told me no," he said. "In other words, they can witness."

More fromWorldNetDaily

In rubble, Chinese couple clung to each other, and to life

At the moment of greatest despair, Wang Zhijun tried to kill himself by twisting his neck against the debris.

Breathing had become harder as day turned to night. The chunks of brick and concrete that had buried him and his wife were pressing tighter by the hour, crushing them. Their bodies had gone numb.

Then there was the rain, sharp and cold, lashing at them through the cracks.

“I don’t think I can make it,” he told his wife, Li Wanzhi, his face just inches from hers, their arms wrapped around each other.

She sensed he was giving up. “If God wants to kill us, he would have killed us right away,” she said. “But since we’re still alive, we must be fated to live.”

More from bspcn.com

20 Timeless Money Rules

Need some good advice about money? Don't we all. Here are 20 of the smartest things I've seen in a while, and it makes for a good read too. Remember though, money is just a tool in life, not something to fall in love with.

More from Yahoo Finance

Monday, May 19, 2008

$2 Billion Wind Turbine Order Is Largest Ever

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has placed an the largest ever order for wind turbines: he ordered 667 wind turbines from GE, each costing $3 million dollars, making the total order $2 billion. Pickens plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in the panhandle of Texas.

The $2 billion order is just one quarter of the total amount he plans to purchase. Once built, the wind farm would have the capacity to supply power to over 1,200,000 homes in North Texas. Each turbine will produce 1.5 megawatts of electricity. The first phase of the project will produce 1,000 megawatts, enough energy to power 300,000 homes. GE will begin delivering the turbines in 2010, and current plans call for the project to start producing power in 2011.Ultimately, Picken’s company, Mesa Power, plans to have enough turbines to produce 4,000 megawatts of energy, the overall project is expected to cost $10 billion and be completed in 2014.

More on this Amazing Project

6 Hobbies That Can Make You Money

Looking for extra cash to keep your household afloat in this storm-tossed economy? Maybe it's time to turn your hobby into a business.

Whether you wade in part-time or dive in full-time, there are several advantages to launching your hobby as a business. For starters, you already enjoy it. You also have the knowledge base and skill set upon which to build, and may have a network of fellow enthusiasts to help get you started.

It's likely that you also have a sense for pricing and market dynamics surrounding your hobby.

More from Yahoo Finance

MythBuster: Why Electric Vehicles Beat Gas in 5 Extreme Tests

In a PopularMechanics.com exclusive, Jamie Hyneman breaks down his team's most recent eye-popping experiment: rolling out a Ferrari, Harley, ATV, compact car and hand-built go-kart to the track, and pitting each against its electric-propulsion counterpart. The bottom line? Plug-in vehicles aren't just clean, they're fast—and might be easier to build than a toy car.

From Popular Mechanics

'Prince' wears box office crown

Disney sequel “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” grossed an estimated $56 million from 3,929 theaters to easily win the weekend at the domestic box office in a strong, but not spectacular, start.

The adventure-fantasy, reteaming director Andrew Adamson with the cast of the first film, wasn’t able to match the $65.5 million domestic opening of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” in early December 2005.

Overseas, “Prince Caspian” grossed $20.7 million as it rolled out in its first 12 territories, besting the opening performance of the first film.

More from Variety

Court Upholds Law That Prohibits Promotion of Child Pornography

The Supreme Court today upheld Congress's most recent attempt to prosecute those who would promote child pornography, ruling that the law did not violate free speech guarantees.

The court voted 7 to 2 that the law criminalizing "pandering" of real or purported child pornography over the Internet or through the mail met constitutional standards. The majority dismissed arguments Justice Antonin Scalia called "fanciful hypotheticals" that the law might make documentarians, movie reviewers and even unsuspecting grandparents subject to its pandering standards.

"Child pornography harms and debases the most defenseless of our citizens," Scalia wrote for the majority, adding that federal and state authorities have been frustrated to find it "proliferating through the new medium of the Internet."

More at The Washington Post

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Indiana's first commercial wind farm online

A nearly treeless stretch of northern Indiana that once produced only corn and soybeans is now dotted with 87 hulking wind turbines that harvest the region's incessant breezes, generating enough power to light 43,000 homes. The 130-megawatt Benton County Wind Farm -- the state's first commercial power station fueled by the wind -- went online this month about 90 miles northwest of Indianapolis near the Illinois state line. The $250 million project is the first of six Indiana wind farms in the works that will generate a combined 3,000 megawatts, and several other projects are in the planning stage.

Indiana was once deemed unsuitable for wind farms because of the assumed lack of sufficient winds. But its wind potential was uncovered by a series of wind studies by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The most recent, released in 2006, found that Indiana's winds could produce at least 40,000 megawatts of electricity, or more than twice the state's current generating capacity.

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Prius Sales Top 1 Million

The Prius has become near ubiquitous in the decade since Toyota introduced it, and now there are more than 1 million of them on the road. You can bet that number will keep rising right along with fuel prices.

Toyota says cumulative worldwide sales of the Prius hit 1,028,000 last month -- when sales jumped 67 percent amid record gas prices -- and claims the cars have eased global warming "by producing approximately 4.5 million tons less C02 when compared with gasoline-powered vehicles in the same class."

Despite Toyota's impressive sales figures, hybrids are still just 2.3 percent of the U.S. market. That number is sure to change as consumers ditch their gas-guzzlers. Hybrid sales rose 38 percent last year even as overall vehicle sales fell, and with gas prices approaching four bucks a gallon, Toyota's having trouble meeting demand for the Prius.

More from Wired

Saturday, May 17, 2008

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Yahoo! Music To Premiere New Casting Crowns Video 'Slow Fade'

castingcrownsbandpicture08.JPG The anticipated world premiere of the powerful new music video “Slow Fade” from Christian music’s top-selling artist Casting Crowns, launches next week exclusively at Yahoo! on Wednesday, May 21. The video will go live on Yahoo! Music’s homepage at midnight EST on Tuesday, and will have homepage and video premier page placement. Casting Crowns is in line with Yahoo’s recent premieres from Sugarland, Kid Rock, Scarlett Johansson and Rascal Flatts. As one of the most visited U.S. websites, the average Yahoo! Music video premiere initially receives 150,000 views and 2-3 million impressions.

“Slow Fade” is the first music video from the GRAMMY-winning, multi-platinum band’s blockbuster RIAA Gold album The Altar and The Door. Produced and directed by the Erwin Brothers, the “Slow Fade” music video was shot in Birmingham, AL., and features crashing pianos and stained glass windows as the storyline follows the heart-wrenching reality of a deteriorating family.

The song, which highlights vocals from lead singer Mark Hall’s daughter Reagan, was “inspired by the spreading cancer of moral failure in the fathers of this generation,” Hall said.

The “Slow Fade” video tells the story of a family slowly fading because of compromising decisions they have made. Hall adds, “As believers, we must guard our hearts and understand that no one crashes and burns, they just slowly fade away, one little compromise at a time.”

View it May 21 on Yahoo! at: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/premieres/.

Thanks to CMSpin.com

Street preacher set to challenge powers that be

A street preacher who earlier claimed he was harassed by police for speaking about the Gospel on public streets has announced his candidacy to be mayor, so he can work on some of the problems he's seen.

"I would require that the city police go through a mandatory course on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and a course training them on what their actual legal authority is and training them on when it is proper to use force to apprehend a suspect…" Daniel Guyeski said in a campaign statement released to WND.

Now Guyeski is launching his campaign.

He said his agenda would include addressing faith:

"As a Bible believing Christian I firmly believe that there is a God and that we are all created in his image and I firmly believe that as individuals and as a community and as a nation that we are accountable to God for how we live and act," he said.

"As mayor I would fight to preserve our Christian heritage and speak out on issues of local importance and take a stand against the liquor and pornography industries coming into our beautiful city. I would protect the churches from unlawful taxing and interference with worship and other activities and I would protect the right of street preachers and evangelists to share their faith freely in public," he said.

He also cited his allegiance to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

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