China says West should deal with warming Fri Dec 7, 6:38 PM ET BALI, Indonesia - insisted Friday the U.S. and other wealthy nations should bear the burden of curbing global warming, saying the problem was created by their lavish way of life. It rejected mandatory emission cuts for its own developing industries. Environmental activists, meanwhile, labeled the United States and the worst "climate sinners," accusing them of having inadequate polices for climate problems while letting greenhouse gas emissions rise. But the activists also said no country is doing enough. Su Wei, a top climate expert for China's government attending the U.N. , said the job belongs to the wealthy. He said it was unfair to ask developing nations to accept binding emissions cuts and other restrictions being pushed for already industrialized states. He said the United States and its fellow industrial nations have long spewed greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while newly emerging economies have done so for only a few decades. "China is in the process of industrialization and there is a need for economic growth to meet the basic needs of the people and fight against poverty," Su said. While many experts believe China has surpassed the United States as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, Su noted the Chinese population is far bigger and said America's emissions per person are six times higher than in China. "I think there is much room for the United States to think whether it's possible to change (its) lifestyle and consumption patterns in order to contribute to the protection of the global climate," he said.

“ BILLION” The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases. A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959. B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were Living in the Stone Age. D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division ........ Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean? A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528 . B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787 . C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012 . Washington, D.C .. HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??

Maine Shoe Baron Leaves $500 College Savings Nest Egg for Every Child Born in State Associated Press Writer AUGUSTA, Maine Dec 11, 2007 (AP) Every child born in Maine will be eligible for a $500 college savings nest egg, thanks to the generosity of a shoe company founder who never attended college himself. A foundation started by the late Harold Alfond, founder of Dexter Shoe Co., will give new parents an opportunity to sign up for a $500 down payment for their young son or daughter's college education. The pilot program that kicks off on Jan. 1 through MaineGeneral hospitals in Augusta and Waterville will expand statewide in January 2009, officials said Tuesday. Gov. John Baldacci called the Harold Alfond College Challenge "a first in the nation." Since there are roughly 14,000 babies born each year in Maine, the foundation anticipates paying out about $7 million a year. The program will be run through the quasi-state Finance Authority of Maine's NextGen program, which already provides one-time grants of $50 to start college savings. Harold Alfond grants and their earnings can be used for courses at any accredited postsecondary school. The accounts must be opened before a child's first birthday. The money may be invested in a number of investment funds, similar to a 401(k) retirement plan. If the investment grows at rate of 8 percent per year, it would be worth about $2,000 in 18 years. But parents will be encouraged to add to the nest egg by donating $50 a month, which at the same interest rate would bump up the nest egg to about $25,000 by 2026. If the money is not used for education, the initial $500 Alfond donation plus interest it accrues is returned to the foundation.

Open Up and Bleed Field Guides to Evel Knievel's Injuries "Color me lucky" was Evel Knievel's motto, and it couldn't have been more fitting: perhaps the most amazing aspect of his cockamamie career was living to tell about the staggering extend of bodily harm he sustained. According to the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records , Evel "suffered 431 bone fractures in one season, 1972." Doing some math, that averages out to each of his 206 bones breaking slightly more than twice in the calendar year, timewise more than one broken bone per day. Others claimed that Evel had broken every bone in his body, which would apparently include the three little bones in each ear. Despite the Guinness figure, Evel says he only broke about 37 bones in his 16 years of performing. He claims he spent more than half the years 1966 to 1973 in hospitals, in a wheelchair or on crutches, recovering from an aggregate of injuries that one doctor suggested five to ten severe auto accidents would produce. By the time he quit performing in 1981, Evel had undergone 14 major operations, with several steel plates and metal pins set into him.

Texas couple celebrates 80th anniversary Dec. 5, 2007 at 8:01 PM PALESTINE, Texas, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Melvin and Minnie Lou Scott enjoy the simple pleasures in life in their Texas town and recently a rare one -- celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary. At the age of 100 and 99 respectively, Melvin and Minnie Lou may be the oldest married couple in the United States, having celebrated eight decades together last month, the Tyler Morning Telegraph said Tuesday. While the pair's habits of eating bacon almost every day and doing their own yard work may not be recommended for anyone their age, they do offer some key advice to a lengthy successful marriage. "If people want to stay married, I guess I would tell them to live right, stay off dope and live a clean life," Minnie Lou said. Yet Melvin remains dead-set that his active lifestyle and unchanging diet is the key to keeping a marriage going through eight decades. "We've always worked," he told the newspaper. "We still work. And we eat three meals a day."

U.S. reels in $4.7B of cocaine CNN WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Coast Guard has reeled in a record 355,000 pounds of cocaine over the past year, results that officials say have forced smugglers to transport their drugs through costlier methods like semisubmersible vessels and liquefied drugs. This undated photo shows a self-propelled semisubmersible off the coast of Costa Rica. Coast Guard officials are set to announce Thursday that they seized cocaine with a street value of roughly $4.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended September 30. The previous Coast Guard record for cocaine seizures, set two years ago, was 303,000 pounds. In fiscal 2006, the Coast Guard seized 287,000 pounds of cocaine. By comparison, the street value of the drugs seized or removed last year by the Coast Guard equals roughly half the agency's total annual budget, said Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. Officials say smugglers are increasingly turning to more difficult means of moving the contraband from South America. Often that involves so-called "go-fast" boats, which travel far out into the Pacific Ocean hoping to avoid detection, before dropping the cargo in Mexico, and from there it is brought into the United States. Colombia supplies 90 percent of America's cocaine, officials estimate. "We have forced them to adapt to routes that are dangerous and are expensive. Right now we're seeing guys get in go-fasts and running 1,000 miles into the Pacific and rounding the Galapagos Islands to come in," said Coast Guard Commander Bob Watts. "The fact that we're forcing them to do that is causing them angst, it's causing them pain. That's as much of a win to me on the strategy side as getting the dope." The "go-fast" boats which take long detours to avoid detection need gas to return, so fuel ships often wait for them at some distant point in the ocean. To defeat that method, Coast Guard authorities seek out the gas boats, board them and use chemicals to neutralize the extra fuel. Smugglers have been helped greatly by global positioning satellites, which make it far easier for someone without much experience to guide vessels at sea.

Sacked Santa's Ho Ho Ho Blow Thursday December 06, 2007 A Santa working in an Australian department store has claimed he was sacked for saying "ho ho ho" because it could offend women. Employment company Westaff, which supplies shops with their own red-robed Father Christmas, had earlier asked its Santas not to use the phrase. It claimed that as the word "ho" is American slang for whore, it could be offensive to female shoppers. Santas were advised to say "ha ha ha" instead. John Oakes, a 70-year-old who has been working as a Santa for three years, said: "They're trying to kill the spirit of Christmas". The retired entertainer told local news paper the Cairns Post that his rendition of Jingle Bells was also frowned upon by his employers. However, a Westaff spokesman dismissed the claims, saying Mr Oakes had been sacked for his bad attitude, not his ho ho ho-ing.

This handout image from October 24, 2006, shows the world's most premature living baby, Amillia Sonja Taylor's, feet held in contrast with adult hands, just after her birth at Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida. Taylor, only slightly longer than a ballpoint pen at birth was due to be sent home in the coming days from a Florida hospital after four months of neonatal intensive care, the hospital said on February 20, 2007.

Paramedic linked to sex abuse in ambulance Dec 11, 2007 at 8:13 AM PST KATU Web PORTLAND, Ore. - A Portland paramedic was arrested Monday on sex abuse charges after allegedly assaulting a patient during a ride to the hospital over the weekend. Police are concerned because the paramedic, Lannie L. Haszard, was at the center of a similar investigation last spring. But authorities didn't have enough evidence to bring charges in that case. Haszard, 61, of Vancouver, is facing two counts of first-degree sex abuse. Police said he responded to a call for medical help in an American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance Saturday. While riding in the back of the ambulance to the hospital, police said, he allegedly sexually assaulted the female patient. The woman called police about the assault after arriving at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Detectives investigated the complaint and arrested Haszard Monday morning. Haszard, who has worked for AMR ambulance in Portland since at least 1999, was scheduled to make his first court appearance on the charges Tuesday afternoon. Detectives are seeking information from other women who may have received emergency medical care from him while he was working as a paramedic.

NorCal Man Arrested For Massive Weapons Cache Dec 9, 2007 9:49 pm US/Pacific ALTURAS, Calif. (AP) ― A 73-year-old Modoc County man is in jail after authorities say they discovered a cache of illegal guns and other weapons, including a hand grenade, at his home. Glenn Edward Daley, who calls himself " Bunker Bob ," lives near Alturas, in the far northeast corner of the state. Daley pleaded not guilty to 44 felony counts, including being a felon in possession of firearms. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail before a scheduled court date next month. Modoc County Undersheriff Gary Palmer described Daley as a survivalist who once threatened a sheriff's deputy with a machete. He said Daley placed the weapons, ammunition and four 500-gallon fuel tanks in strategic places on his property and stockpiled enough food to last two years.

A group at Southern Taiwan University of Technology have created the world's first solar-powered wheelchair (which may or may not be true). Allegedly the thing runs entirely off solar energy and needs no plugging in. It was designed to be gentler on the environment and prevent people from being stuck out in the rain because their traditional electric battery ran out.

Women 'want no-strings sex' 5:00AM Saturday December 08, 2007 The New Zealand Herald Pante'a Farvid and Melanie Beres. Photo / Richard Robinson Two young women researchers are calling for a new form of sexual ethics that would allow women to have casual sex without feeling that they're "sluts". They say the popular view of women as either promiscuous or passive victims has failed to reduce incidents of rape and sexual assault. Instead, they want both women and men to think about what each of them really wants out of a sexual encounter, and negotiate how to get it. Canadian sociologist Melanie Beres, a post-doctoral researcher at Auckland University, and Auckland doctoral student Pantea Farvid told a sociology conference yesterday that rape prevention efforts should stop just giving women tips to avoid harm and promote an ethic of "self-care and care for the other".

TAXES Tax his land, Tax his wage, Tax his bed in which he lays. Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him tax es is the rule. Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirts, Tax his work, Tax his dirt. Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.

Tax his booze, Tax his beers, If he cries, Tax his tears. Tax his bills, Tax his gas, Tax his notes, Tax his cash. Tax him good and let him know That after tax es, he has no dough. If he hollers, Tax him more, Tax him until he's good and sore. Tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he lays. Put these words upon his tomb, " Tax es drove me to my doom!"

And when he's gone, We won't relax, We'll still be after the inheritance TAX !! Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Perm it Tax Gasoline Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax

IRS Penalties ( tax on top of tax ), Liquor Tax , Luxury Tax , Marriage License Tax , Medicare Tax , Property Tax , Real Estate Tax , Service charge tax es, Social Security Tax , Road Usage Tax (Truckers), Sales Tax es, Recreational Vehicle Tax , School Tax , State Income Tax , State Unemployment Tax (SUTA), Telephone Federal Excise Tax , Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax , Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax , Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax , Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax ,

Telephone State and Local Tax , Telephone Usage Charge Tax , Utility Tax , Vehicle License Registration Tax , Vehicle Sales Tax , Watercraft Registration Tax , Well Permit Tax , Workers Compensation Tax . STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these tax es existed 100 years ago, And our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What happened? Can you spell 'politicians!' And I still have to "press 1" for English.

These are magnification shots of a stack of salami slices. Here, you can clearly see some of the texture, the fat blobs and some dark spices that appear to be spices. This gives you a fairly close-up picture that you might be able to see with the naked eye. As you view these photos, remember that Oscar Mayer's Cotto Salami is made with beef hearts (ground up heart organs from cows).

Jimmy Dean Pork Sausages

Oscar Mayer Smokies

Valerie Begue of Reunion is crowned Miss France 2008 in Dunkerque, northern France Saturday Dec. 8, 2007.