This year marked several changes to our society and the way we look at things. People we know move on, while others move away. All we take with us is the knowledge that we start anew in 2008. Remember your most cherished possessions are the ones taken for granted. Keep your New Years merry! Here is to a great 2008, cheers.

The firing of a 10 year veteran of a specific gaming website only quantifies what is already known. The editing department is dead and has long been replaced by the marketing department. The sponsor in questions pulled their lucrative advertising campaign which got one of the reviews fired. If you “inadequately” (notice I didn’t say unprofessionally) review a sponsors product or service, you might find yourself unemployed. The person was uncerimoniously let go even with 10 years of loyalty and decent work. The next time you read a game review check around the margins of the page, if the sponsors are advertising it, take the review with a grain of salt.

source doc: valleywag

Browsing around the deals forums seems to lead to the same conclusion, “was there really a sale today?” A couple popular deals were 500 GB external drives for $80, and $99 30 GB Zune players, $150 GPS navigators, and maybe a below $360 video game bundle. If you weren’t in the market for these things you might of felt left out in the cold. Supposedly on Monday the online retailers will see huge sales (and discounts).

Here are store flyers for tomorrows exciting sales provided by spoofee.com

If you are wondering about this video, it was black friday last year. Yes, you may want to get their early, Best Buy for one will be handing out tickets before 5 a.m.

Update: Most of the deals I was watching are already sold out.

- source doc Best Buy

Hopefully I’ve found a stable host that will keep this humble blog online for a while. Expect continued maintenance for the next few weeks.

 Having washboard abs might just save your life. According to a study done on heart disease by the Coronary Care Unit at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, they found a strong correlation between belly size and plaque inside your arteries. What they found after a study on 2,700 men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 were not surprising. After factoring out all other variables, a disproportion in belly to hip ratio nearly doubled the chance of heart disease. According to the researchers calcium deposits collect years before the onset of chest pains or a heart attack.

This news isn’t likely to change very much, as we all know being healthy is a worthy and attainable goal. Being unhealthy already has also been associated with a multitude of health risks and complications.

Also, a note about the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measurement of health isn’t without its legitimacy concerns. According to the BMI a muscular football player is considered obese, which is saying they are less healthy then the average person of the same BMI. The reason is the BMI doesn’t take into account that muscle weighs more then fat, so according to the BMI such a person is obese because he weighs more.

The study also has shown that a slight improvement in waist size does reduce the risk of disease. If people looked at it from the prospective of “portion control” rather then “over control” or “no control”, it makes the goal of becoming more healthy more attainable and rewarding.

Source doc: healthday

The majority of the world knows its 2007, so why on earth has a banned substance like lead coated toys still on the news. If you guessed it came from China you’re right.

Zhang Shuhong, a supplier for Mattel Toys in China committed suicide over the weekend while in a company warehouse. His company supplied the millions of recalled lead coated children toys worldwide.

The company who willfully known it was supplying the lead coated paint to manufacturers like Zhang and Mattel is a company called “Lee Der”. China’s government promptly revoked the company’s business license.

Lead poisoning in simpler terms inhibits the two vital processes that take place in the human body; oxygen and nervous system regulation. Let’s be clear, lead is a known poison to all humans, but it’s especially harmful to young children. Long term exposure to lead (toys, paint, candy, ect.) can cause kidney damage, severe abdominal pains, and irreversible cognitive retardation.

Click here to read more

According to whistle-blowers inside the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, federal investigators have uncovered a grotesque culture of laxness. In its report it found procedural recommendations made in 2005 which were never addressed or fixed.

The lax adherence in airport procedures is nothing to ignore, much less when it’s the air traffic controllers. When we are talking about thousands of lives on those planes the difference between 2.8 miles and 3.0 miles is nothing to ignore, but that’s exactly what air traffic controllers at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport are being accused.

The proper clearance is 3.0 miles between planes, but according to a former supervisor at the airport, when errors happen because of the controllers they would blame the pilots instead. During the start of the year about 100 such incidents have been reported as “pilot error”.

Its one thing to be cautious of mechanical failure at the back of your mind, but now having to worry about the people guiding your plane down being blatantly careless is completely unacceptable. The FAA is continuing to investigate the matter and will probably seek key personnel resignations, and hopefully criminal charges being brought up.

Source doc aero-news

According to the Internet security company Symantec many online credit card thieves sully the name of charity for the purposes of covering their tracks.

Millions of people have their credit cards stolen from simply dining out to disgruntled employees. These cards are usually sold in conjunction with personal info with the intent to defraud both the card’s owner and the credit card companies. Many of today’s cards come with some sort of fraud protection. The credit card companies have a department which monitors the pattern of charges, and if something out of the ordinary happens it immediately flags the transaction. Usually the owner of the card gets a call to verify the purchase before it can be completed.

Through no fault of the charities the criminals make small donations ($0.01 - $10) to charities to test the status of the cards.

Since the way charitable donations are handled they do not raise red flags with the credit card companies. After verifying the cards the criminals usually sell off the card for less than 0.01% of their credit limits. This would be nothing compared to the suffering it would cause the owner to repair the damage to their credit.

A few ways to protect your credit is to never use your credit card to pay for dining out, as your card can be charged even after you’ve left. And from the financial standpoint, using credit to buy perishable items isn’t wise. Also, buy a paper shredder with a cross-cut feature. Toss any documents with any value into your shredder. For an added effect toss in the content of your cats litter box into the bag and seal it. Never buy anything through an email advertisement, and never follow links inside emails (always type it yourself).

If something does get stolen, call all three credit reporting agencies and explain it to them, they’ll be able to tell you how to flag your account. The first thing to do when you notice your card missing is to call and report it stolen, and a delay in reporting could mean thousands.

Source doc informationweek

  It was a story that shocked many when it hit the front page. Biomedical Tissue Services of New Jersey, a company involved in illegally harvesting body parts sold from unscrupulous funeral home directors, now faces prosecution and jail time. The lasting damage is some 10,000 people were recipients of these body parts of unknown quality. Black market body parts are of a higher risk of spreading diseases or failing.

In response U.S. health officials are continuing investigations of all registered and non-registered companies that deal in the body part industry. Their findings show that the majority follow the strict regulations of the newly formed Tissue Task Force’s regulations.

The FDA and the HTTF want to educate the academics along with the public in the serious nature of handing procedures and safety when working with replacement body parts.

This is because on the other side of the coin there are people willing to sell their organs to the black market for profit. When procedures are done under the table the donor could possible experience health issues, or die from over donation. The current 2,000 major tissue recovery firms registered with the FDA, and the countless unregistered ones are slowly being scrutinized, but with limited resources the task will take a while. This number probably does not include the countless unregulated firms outside the states.

With the scarcity of available parts, and the lengthy waiting lists, it’s no wonder many take what they can get. This when coupled with life and death situations further blurs the distinction of the ends justify the means. As long as the tissue as been adequately tested for any possible diseases and was handled in a manner for maximum recipient acceptance, then everything should be fine.

Source doc forbes