GIVE THE GIFT OF FAT

Have you seen the new McDonalds Gift Card?

Who the hell in their right mind would gift this card this Christmas? Hasn't anyone seen Supersize Me? Giving someone an ArchCard is like telling them, "I don't give a shit about your diet, your weight or your health problems. Just stuff your face with burgers until this cheap card expires. Then buy yourself another one."

Way to go Ronald.

weight loss
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Original of the Species

Have you seen the U2 video for Original of the Species? This must be one of their best songs in years. Download it if you haven't done so already. I'm not a big fan of the graphics, as I prefer live videos beter. I do like how U2 is constantly evolving their songs post album recording. Their extensive touring leads to inventive new riffs which seem to make it into the later singles.

u2

This helps prevent automated registrations?

Can you read this?

Word verification is designed to repell the wanton advances of an automated submitter, however they also are excluding the optically challenged, such as myself. am I the only one? As an english major, I never taken such a poetic license with the english language as I've seen by the automated submission crap pictures. Why is everything so damn grainy and irregular? I firmly believe the designers are just a bunch of gamer geeks who play Fallout and Halo and want to live in a pseudo Blade Runner universe. Can you please just revert back to plain old ARIAL .. .??

DAMN.




FALLOUT
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What happened to CortiSlim?

Los Angeles Times had this article about our favorite weight loss pill, CortiSlim:

A legal skirmish with the Federal Trade Commission has pushed the maker of CortiSlim, a purported diet pill, into federal bankruptcy court.

Last week, Brea-based Window Rock Enterprises Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana.

The company was sued in September 2004 by the Federal Trade Commission, which alleged that Window Rock falsely claimed CortiSlim spurred weight loss.

Two co-defendants, chemist Shawn Talbott and marketer Thomas Cheng, have settled with the FTC, agreeing to pay $4.5 million in cash and assets. But Window Rock still faces an FTC claim of $160 million, which represents the company's revenue from CortiSlim at the time the lawsuit was filed.

Remember CortiSlim's massive media campaign? I could barely drive home from work without hearing three commercials starting spokeman Greg Cynaumon peddling this pill like some traveling chemist town selling Elixirs to hapless farmers. Cynaumon was apparently a former negotiator for the police. Well, I wonder if he will be any help negotiating with the FTC and FDA agents beating down Window Rock's doors.

The sad thing is, what if this pill actually works? There's alot of talk out there by pill peddlars that indicates the FDA is in bed with food and drug manufacturers in america. Who knows? But government has been rife with corruption recently. look at the recent political appointments and congressman falling into disrepute due to corruption scandals, not to mention the contract signed by Halliburton . . . is a ideal of corrupt FDA and FTC so apocryphal?

CortiSlim
weight loss

Online Dating Background checks

You may think you don't need to run a background check on your date but you do. The fact is most online dating companies don't run background checks on their members. How can you be sure they don't have criminal background, a lousy debt record, or even a spouse?

For the price of this week's starbucks allowance you can run a background check on your prospective mate. Check them out and make sure they are telling them the truth before you really fall in love and bring them home.

Corra Group can give you everything you need to know in a fast in-depth background check report. Most reports are returned in 24 hours. You can find more information about online dating background checks here:

Michael Savage shows victims of Tookie Williams

Michael Savage, radio talk show host, is apparently the only person in the media willing to show the pictures of the Tookie William's victims. Take a look at these photographs and decide for yourself if Tookie should be granted clemency.

I find it curious that people are so ready to overlook the victims of a grisly murder and focus on children's books written with the same hand that was convicted of shooting three "budda-heads" with a shotgun. This was a hate crime; but no one is talking about it that way. Remember to research the background of any subject before lighting your vigil candle.

tookie williams

Strong Earthquake felt in upper Pakistan

Aftershocks continue to strike the upper region of Pakistan:

ISLAMABAD: Strong earthquake with 6.7 magnitude was felt in wide area of upper Pakistan including entire Punjab, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Balakot and Gilgit early Tuesday at 2.51 am.

Met Office said the intensity of the quake was 6.7 at Richter scale. Reports from more than two dozens cities said that scare gripped entire Punjab, Islamabad, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Mansehra, Swat Peshawar and Gilgit, Kaghan and Balakot.

These were the sever jolts after October 8, deadly earthquake. Thousands of people ran out of their houses for safety in minus degree centigrade.

Reports said jolts were also felt in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Occupied

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was a magnitude 6.7 and was centered in the Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan.

A magnitude-7.6 earthquake on Oct. 8 killed at least 87,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Indian Kashmir.

A magnitude-6 quake can cause severe damage.

Posted by Nick from Corra Group Background Checks

Exodus: movement of God's People

Largely unheard in the west, the earthquake agony continues:

Geo Tv writes:

Mass exodus from quake-hit areas begins
CHAM: Headmaster Safdar Ali smiles as he says none of the 110 children in his school died when this tiny village nestled in a valley high in the mountains of Azad Kashmir was pummelled by the earthquake.

But two months later, most of the children are living in tents. Nearly all are sick. Worst of all, winter is coming.

"They must all leave," Ali says as his students mill about near the river that runs beside their refugee camp. "We aren’t hungry now. We are getting supplies. But we are worried about the weeks ahead, and beyond that."

With the snows about to fall, the plight of the hundreds of thousands of villagers living in the Kashmir high country has become a key focus of relief efforts following the Oct 8 quake.

The International Red Cross says more than 200,000 people live in this valley, the Neelum, and the Jhelum next to it, and hundreds or perhaps thousands are migrating down from the mountains each day.

The terrain is rugged under the best conditions. The only way to get to Cham, a collection of hamlets scattered over steep hills and mountainsides, is by foot, mule or helicopter. When the winter weather sets in, making helicopter drops impossible, this and hundreds of other villages will be even more isolated.

The area is politically sensitive as well. Cham, 1,700 metres above sea level, is just 8 km from the Line of Control. The Pakistan Army has an outpost and rudimentary hospital in Cham, and the surrounding slopes have in the past been the scene of intense shelling from India.

For the time being, it appears that political issues have been set aside. Pakistani helicopters loaded with supplies buzz through the valleys regularly, and the Indian military has so far overlooked minor incursions into the airspace over the LoC.

Before the climate—natural and political—changes, relief workers are racing to get as much done as they can.

The Red Cross has established a base camp here and makes frequent helicopter runs from a soccer field in Muzaffarabad. Cham is about 50 km from Muzaffarabad, a 20-minute ride by helicopter.

"Now that we have this distribution centre, we are targeting the most vulnerable people, such as widows, or men who were spared but now must take care of their children alone," says Jessica Barry, a Red Cross spokeswoman.

Though the destruction was intense, many villagers don’t want to abandon their hamlets, fearing their goats and chickens will die, leaving them without a livelihood. "They are very attached to their animals and to the soil," says Sarah Baumgartner, the Red Cross’ team leader in Cham. "They are used to harsh conditions. But this winter will be extremely severe because they have lost what they have had."

Baumgartner and other aid workers stress that no one is being forced to leave. The emphasis is instead to provide materials such as tin roofing sheets so they can rebuild their shelters, or to give them clothing and ensure they have access to medical care.

A massive migration from the high areas could spell disaster for the many refugee tent villages below, stretching resources and creating overcrowded conditions that could spawn disease. How big the migration will become remains an open question.

When his own home was destroyed, Muhamad Munir descended from five villages deeper into the mountains to a relative’s house about 2 km up the river from Cham in a hamlet called Morian. For now, he says, he’s staying. "This is where we were born, this is where we live and this is where we’ll stay," he says.

School Is Target Of Investigation

HARTFORD COURANT - Nov 30 - - Four years after shutting down the notorious Haddam Hills Academy for boys, two state agencies are investigating allegations of abuse and neglect at a sister school - Lake Grove at Durham.

Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal are also examining hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual fees that Lake Grove pays related companies for consulting services.

And both officials say they are concerned that the state Department of Children and Families has failed to monitor Lake Grove effectively. The department paid Lake Grove $8.6 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30 to care for 116 children with severe mental retardation and mental illness.

DCF within the past two weeks has flooded Lake Grove with behavioral-health specialists to watch the nurses and other staff members at the school closely after hearing concerns over the safety of the children.

DCF Spokesman Gary Kleeblatt declined to discuss the nature of the concerns. This "intensive program review" will last another six weeks, said Kleeblatt, but Milstein and Blumenthal are concerned the intervention may have occurred too late.

Neither official would elaborate on the nature and scope of the alleged abuse.

"We certainly hope history isn't repeating itself," Milstein said Tuesday, referring to Haddam Hills that closed in 2001 following a series of confirmed cases of child abuse.

Haddam Hills in East Haddam also was paying millions of dollars to related companies for rent and consulting work - driving up the fees that the state paid to send troubled children there.

Lake Grove at Durham paid Windwood Meadows and Oikonomos of Medford, N.Y., $4.7 million from 1998 to 2003 for personnel and management services, federal financial filings show.

Lake Grove, Windwood Meadows and Oikonomos are part of the controversial Lake Grove family of schools headquartered in Medford.

These types of "close-party relationships can indicate conflicts of interest and waste, as well as fraud," Blumenthal said Tuesday.

"We want to make sure every dime of taxpayer money goes to the care and protection of children," Blumenthal said.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, presided over the legislature's Select Committee on Children during the Haddam Hills debacle. He said he is concerned about the situation at Lake Grove in Durham.

"These apparent close party transactions are very troubling," Williams said Tuesday. "I hate to think we are wasting millions of dollars that could otherwise be providing services for children in need. I think this needs a full and complete investigation."

Kleeblatt said the DCF was not aware of the underlying business relationships at Lake Grove in Durham until it began a closer scrutiny of the company following the Haddam Hills disclosures. Kleeblatt said DCF is satisfied that Lake Grove is not overcharging the agency.

New York state mental health authorities shut down all of Lake Grove's New York-based treatment clinics and sober houses last year for Medicaid fraud. The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is conducting an audit of all Lake Grove entities in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, including Lake Grove at Durham.

Albert Brayson, formerly of Simsbury, is listed in New York business records as chief executive of Oikonomos, and he is one of the leaders of Lake Grove at Durham's parent corporation.

Brayson and Oikonomos executive Anthony Grimaldi did not respond to telephone messages and an e-mail Tuesday. Michael Suchopar, executive director of Lake Grove at Durham, did not return a telephone message Tuesday.

Blumenthal and Milstein's inquiry is separate from the federal audit. Milstein said she is particularly concerned about DCF's ability to closely monitor a business like Lake Grove, which the agency relies on because it is believed to be the only residential program in the state for abused and neglected children with significant mental retardation and mental illness.

"In addition to the money aspects and the allegations of abuse, we're looking into DCF's role as licenser, overseer, and consumer of Lake Grove's services," Milstein said. "These are some of our most vulnerable children."

DCF is reviewing staff supervision of children, administration supervision of staff, the use of restraints, and reports and incidents of abuse and neglect, Kleeblatt said.

He would not elaborate on the abuse reports or on the agency's specific concerns about Lake Grove.

He said the review has already resulted in "staffing and policy changes."

DCF expects to have a full corrective action plan in place for Lake Grove within six weeks.

Lake Grove has to comply with the corrective measures or it risks losing its contract with DCF.

FULL ARTICLE @ HARTFORD COURANT

Dating Sites Crack Down on Convicts

CONTRA COSTA TIMES -- Nov 28 -- Robert Wells advertised himself on an online dating service as a semiretired physician who enjoys wine tasting, "The Sopranos" and reading science fiction. But a woman surfing the Web site recognized the Walnut Creek man from another dating site she'd used a year earlier. She told the current service, Dallas-based True.com, that Wells was lying. Not only had the medical board revoked his license, according to a lawsuit, but he also was a convicted sex offender. The company sued Wells earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Texas, alleging Wells committed fraud by misrepresenting himself. "I make a promise to my members," said Herb Vest, TRUE's CEO. "If you are clever enough to get around our site securities, I'm going to prosecute." TRUE is suing Wells for at least $200,000. "If anyone who's married or has a criminal conviction thinks they can get on our site, go ahead and try me," Vest said. FULL ARTICLE @ THE KANSAS CITY STAR

so Match.com dupes members by sending female employees on "dates" in order to preserve memberships tallies. And This week, True.com prosecutes fraudulent online members. It will be interesting to see if True recovers the $200,000. It's interesting to see one dating site seizing the opportunity to promote their vetting process.