Did You Know ...

The average human foot has 250,000 sweat glands and the average pair gives of about 1/2 pint (a cup) - (almost 250mL) of perspiration per day!

Maine man sheds 140 pounds to join the Marines

Army and Navy recruiters took one look at 330-pound Ulysses Milana and told him to forget about joining. "'You've got to lose weight,'" Milana remembers them saying. But Marine recruiters were willing to work with him as he began his weight-loss journey in December 2007.

Now, 11 months later, Milana is 140 pounds lighter as he leaves Monday for Parris Island, S.C., to begin boot camp.

It wasn't easy, Milana said, but he managed to slim down through exercise, healthier eating habits and forgoing an occasional beer after work. The 23-year-old said he even refused a beer at his going-away party Saturday night.

Milana said he always wanted to follow in his family's footsteps by serving his country. His wife, Latoya, also comes from a military family.

Much of his weight-loss motivation came from Latoya, a nurse, who helped him reduce his calorie intake when he began his effort in earnest last December.

"It was really difficult for him at first. He always said, 'I'm gonna lose weight.' But I never took him seriously," Latoya told the Sun Journal newspaper. "Then, when he started to do it, I told him he needed to cut his portion sizes way down."

Marine recruiters also worked with him, helping to develop a workout regimen.

"You can sit there and preach and preach, but if you're not willing to help, then it doesn't lead you to success," Staff Sgt. George Monteith said. "If I say, 'Go lose weight and I'll see you in a year,' then what kind of help have I offered to make that happen?"

A former culinary student, Milana said it was a challenge to give up favorites like pizza and hot wings, but cracking open a cold beer after work was perhaps the toughest guilty pleasure to abandon.

"It was really hard. You see all your friends drinking beer, and you're like, 'Oh, man, I want one,'" he said. But his determination kept him on track, and he would head for the gym or don a head lamp and go out for a run.

As if they needed any 'protection' from consumers being confused

An Austrian pumpkin seed oil producer faces possible legal action by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the producer of Viagra, over his "Styriagra" chocolate-coated pumpkin seeds, according to media reports.

Pfizer reportedly found that Richard Mandl's light blue glazed candies, which are oval in size, resembled the potency pill too much, both in name and colour. But Mandl, who has already registered the trademark, argues the name is simply a combination of the words Styria -- the southern Austrian province, known for its pumpkin seed oil, where Mandl works -- and "agra," referring to agricultural or organic products.

Blue, meanwhile, was the only colour he had not yet used for his chocolate-coated seeds...

Pfizer reportedly wants to sue him for up to 36,000 euros (45,640 dollars) in damages.

Sweet pumpkin seed snack leaves businessman with sour taste

And I Quote

"The Wall Street bailout looks a lot like Iraq — a 'free-fraud zone'
where private contractors cash in on the mess they helped create ..."

~ Naomi Klein

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

What is so tragic is that this isn't a lampoon as much as it is reality!

Financial Collapse worse for economy than 9/11

It's official: the financial collapse caused by inadequate banking regulation have harmed America's economy worse than the 9/11 attacks did:

The Commerce Department said Friday that retail sales fell by 2.8 percent last month, surpassing the old mark of a 2.65 percent drop in November 2001 in the wake of the terrorist attacks that year.

U.S. retail sales collapse

The China Syndrome Bites Back

Julian Darley of the Post Carbon Institute writes about the effect of the economic slowdown in China.

[T]he fact that the US meltdown has now flowed into China is potentially disastrous for this most populous nation, but as its exports shrink and its factories shut, the meltdown is starting to flow back to America again, making an ugly situation even worse.

This vicious cycle is playing out in interconnected ways. Reduced Chinese exports to the US mean that the Chinese have less foreign currency to lend back to America, which further exacerbates the credit crisis and tends to tighten the money supply, making it more difficult for Americans to buy Chinese exports (or anything else).

The solution (for the US, anyway), says Darley: "rebuilding of the American and British manufacturing economies (less so the European), along with the supply chains to feed it and the return of the knowledge and skills to recreate it and run it."

The China Syndrome Bites Back

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Moron - In - Chief

The true legacy of George W Bush, the Moron in Chief of the USA was his mangling of the English language, littered with Freudian slips, it is a wonder he was elected Twice, oh yeah right HE WASN'T!

According to at least one late night host out there ... It is so bad that even the Ku Klux Klan is saying 'can we go ahead and get the black guy in there already!'