“The modern “heresy” that medical care (as it is traditionally conceived) is generally unrelated to improvements in the health of populations (as distinct from individuals) is still dismissed as unthinkable in much the same way as the so-called heresies of former times. And this is despite a long history of support in popular and scientific writings as well as from able minds in a variety of disciplines.”

The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the Decline of Mortality in the United States in the Twentieth Century

by John B. McKinlay; Sonja M. McKinlay

Published in 1977 in the Milbank Memorial Quarterly, Vol. 55, No.3. pp. 405-428

In this study, the McKinlays’ explore a steep decline in the top 10 communicable diseases. (Tuberculosis, Scarlet Fever, Influenza, Pneumonia, Diptheria, Whooping Cough, Measels, Smallpox, Typhoid, Poliomyelitis) This unified decline occurred over a period of about 100 years from 1900 to 1973 . Even the most virulent of these diseases were near their currently flat expression when science developed the means to mass produce vaccines in the years leading up to 1949.

Male and Female Mortality Rates Since 1900

As this chart from the paper shows, the decline in mortality from 1900 to the 1970’s for both males and females was markedly dramatic.

They compare this decline in mortality to similar declines in the communicable diseases listed previously.

Decline in Communicable Diseases since 1900

And also included is a graph charting causes of death from the early 1900’s in comparison to the years just prior to this paper’s publication.

Changes in Causes of Mortality since 1900

Which leads to the authors’ conclusion:

In general, medical measures (both chemotherapeutic andprophylactic) appear to have contributed little to the overall decline in mortality in the United States since about 1900-having in many instances been introduced several decades after a marked decline had already set in and having no detectable influence in most instances. More specifically, with reference to those five conditions (influenza, pneumonia, diphtheria, whooping cough, and poliomyelitis) for which the decline in mortality appears substantial after the point of intervention-and on the unlikely assumption that all of this decline is attributable to the intervention-it is estimated that at most 3.5 percent of the total decline in mortality since 1900 could beascribed to medical measures introduced for the diseases considered here.

This graph shows the diseases and their declines in comparison:

Compilation Graph

I would imagine that even the average lay reader, on viewing this graph of the mass decline, can easily imagine each disease effortlessly reaching current levels without the advent of commonly available vaccines. But if vaccines are not responsible for the dramatic decline in mortality, how else can it be explained?

It is widely known that a sea change in patient survival came after more stringent practices regarding hygiene and sterility of spaces and implements used in medical procedures were undertaken for both patient and physician. And as medicine and science progressed in their research of communicable disease and underlying factors that allowed them to spread. Along the way researchers and doctors also began to understand the things that create health.

Massive public campaigns, programs and projects were implemented. For instance swamps were drained to reduce breeding grounds for mosquitoes. And a broad swath of society, from low to high, were educated about cleanliness and hygiene.

From the CDC’s website:

In 1900 in some U.S. cities, up to 30% of infants died before reaching their first birthday (1). Efforts to reduce infant mortality focused on improving environmental and living conditions in urban areas (1). Urban environmental interventions (e.g., sewage and refuse disposal and safe drinking water) played key roles in reducing infant mortality. Rising standards of living, including improvements in economic and education levels of families, helped to promote health. Declining fertility rates also contributed to reductions in infant mortality through longer spacing of children, smaller family size, and better nutritional status of mothers and infants (1). Milk pasteurization, first adopted in Chicago in 1908, contributed to the control of milkborne diseases (e.g., gastrointestinal infections) from contaminated milk supplies.

Refrigeration became commonly available. That and other household inventions like window screens, indoor plumbing, and strategies to deal with outhouse placement in relation to well placement and other improvements made possible by gains in real income.

Because, according to the McKinlay’s paper:

With the appearance of his book, Who Shall Live? (1974), Fuchs, a health economist, contributed to the resurgence of interest in the relative contribution of medical care to the modern decline in mortality in the United States. He believes there has been an unprecedented improvement in health in the United States since about the middle of the eighteenth century, associated primarily with a rise in real income.

In light of a number of similar reports, which have been ignored or overlooked questions about vaccines begin to center on efficacy versus the potential for harm. There are those “skeptics” who are quick to label any such questions as the “heresy” described by the McKinlays’. One would hope, at this point, they might review the widely accepted definition of skepticism as one of continuing exploration. There are no concrete truths in science, only evolving theories that should, in the best of all possible worlds, be continuously re-examined and re-tested.

We should also consider similar themes of hygiene in relation to income levels through the lens of such ideas as: mandated control of working conditions, food preparation and storage, statutes for safe drinking water and the establishment of agencies dealing specifically with issues of public health. Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle can act as a literary touchstone for the ideas presented here.

Now is the time for us to ask ourselves: Would the money spent on the now all-but-neutered health care bill be used more effectively by developing jobs for the populace so that real income levels rise for those most affected by the downturn? Would a combination of public health education and income increases work to reduce the current spate of common causes of death as it did in the first half of the last century even though the cause of mortality has changed? I think we need to take a broader view of what has worked in the past, as it is evident that medicating the problems will not solve them now any more than it did then.

‘Tis the season again:

(forgot where I got this from; sorry)

More on poverty here, and on income inequality here, here, and here. More on Christmas and human rights (yes, why not?) here (specifically on the “war on Christmas”). More political jokes & funny quotes here.

Published in Crikey

Just in case Malcolm Turbull is wondering whether the grass is greener elsewhere, I’ve compiled a handy reckoner of effort versus reward for politicians.

This chart compares the number of parliamentary sitting days for each lower house (House of Reps in Australia, House of Commons in the UK, etc) with the current base salary for a member of that house.

The UK, Irish, NZ and South African parliaments are clearly to be avoided, but how about the US or West Australia (well any Australian State except Tasmania, really)?

Sitting Day data is sourced from Horne, N, Parliamentary sitting days and hours 2008, Parliamentary Library, 19 November 2009.

Salary data is compiled from a survey of the various parliamentary websites and Parliamentary allowances, salaries of office and entitlements, Parliamentary Library, 1 October 2009.

START HERE:

Dear Stock Photography Professionals, Amateur Photographers, Illustrators and Graphic Designers

“Success” is relative …

It was just over two years ago I started to research how to sell my photography when I caught “The Bug” to start selling my images online. In September of 2007 I decided to dedicate two years to explore the possibilities of the incredible world of stock photography. I felt that two years would be enough time to give me a chance to sink my teeth into training myself from any and all sources and to get up to speed, starting basically from scratch, on this rapidly expanding and growing industry. At the time I had never even picked up a photography book or taken a photoshop tutorial. It is now two years later, and while I feel I have come very far and achieved many successes, I find that there is always more to learn. I absolutely love this work !

In July of 2007 I relocated to Washington State after accepting a transfer to work at The Boeing Company’s Commercial Airplane Headquarters in Renton, Washington just outside of Seattle, Washington. Analyzing Market Research was my specialty. Driving out to Washington from Colorado during the course of my relocation I captured a few thousands pictures on a Canon SD750 camera. At that time I was interested in seeing if I could market my images by selling prints of them at festivals, art shows and galleries. It was during this period of research that I discovered the world of commercial stock photography.

My first site that I was approved as a contributor at was BigStockPhoto in September of 2007. For that reason alone I will always have a special place in my heart for them. I found that their entry criteria was not as strict as some of the larger sites. The same applies for 123rf so these are both excellent places to explore if you are interested in selling your photography online. Recently BigStockPhoto was acquired by the subscription based microstock giant Shutterstock .

Stock Photography Sites are often referred to by short abbreviations. It was more than a little confusing to myself when I first started researching microstock on the various forums so I will list a few that I plan to reference here for you now:

• SS = Shutterstock
• IS = iStockPhoto
• DT = Dreamstime
• FT = Fotolia
• BSP = BigStockPhoto
• MP = MostPhotos

My first sale came from the second site that I was approved at as a contributor which was DT. I initially sought out DT during a time when BSP was halting uploading over the weekends. This is just one small example of the kind of roadblocks one faces when it comes to trying to build up an approved portfolio at a microstock agency.

At its most basic level, getting started in microstock photography are just a few simple steps …

• Check-out the various stock photography links on this blog
• Browse the microstock sites and become familiar and get a feel for the photography on them
• Prepare 3-10 of your best images in accordance to the respective standards of the site you wish to join
• Submit your applications to become a contributor (a.k.a photographer) and get approved to contribute
• Shoot Pictures. Post Process Images in Photoshop. Upload Photos to all sites for review. Repeat.
• Collect the revenue from sales made each month across all sites over the years for the life of the image. Large subscription based sites such as Shutterstock will ultimately produce daily sales for you after your portfolio of approved images grows to a modest size of a few hundred images however credit based sale sites such as iStockPhoto will yield higher commissions at a much slower rate. There is constant debate over which is best. Most stock photographers submit all of their work to each of the most profitable microstock sites.
• Receive your payout after reaching a threshold for each respective site. (ex. $50, $75, $100)

I believe a quick recap of where my interest in photography as a child came from will prove insightful to some readers …

Photography had been an interest of mine since I first began taking snapshot photos with “hand me down” cameras from my parents I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was probably around 1979-1981 ish when I first started using 110 film cameras that I usually borrowed from my mother. The first camera that I actually owned was a Polaroid One Step instant camera. I remember having to pay for my own film. Early on I mowed lawns and later on I worked for the family gas station starting at the age of 10 working for $2.00 / hour. At the very least I know I was responsible for paying for the cartridges of film which were very expensive for around ten photos if I remember correctly. This limited my picture taking ability as I was saving up to pay my way for a $750.00 30-Day bus tour trip across the country with the Boy Scouts to the National Jamboree in Virginia in 1981. Since the film for my camera was so expensive my mother allowed me to borrow her new at the time Sony Disc Camera. I took both cameras on my 30-day bus tour “Reunion with History” to the Jamboree.

The Statue of Liberty was getting a makeover during our tour but it was still amazing and one of my favorite subjects. However, when I went to the top of the “Twin Towers” World Trade Center, that was my favorite scene. The bridges and skyscrapers of New York City fostered my love for architecture and structures which I later studied at length. I plan to dig up a couple of those first photos of mine from that trip, scan them, and post them here as a point-of-reference …

(insert to post scanned photos from 1981)

My Timeline for Key Milestones in my Stock Photography Development

2005 Buy First Digital Camera: Canon SD750

2007 July Relocate to Washington State road trip from Colorado

2007 July Research Selling Prints / Selling digital files online

2007 July Research Selling digital negative files

2007 September Accepted into BSP

2007 October Accepted into DT / Forum participation

2007 November 1st Microstock Sale at DT

2007 November Accepted into Fotolia

2007 November Joined Microstock Group Forum (MSG)

2007 November 1st SS Application Rejected

2007 November Read Photography & Photoshop Books. Study free tutorials from all over the internet.

2007 December Start Using Canon SX100 with the plans of my first DSLR camera on the horizon Apr/May

2008 December Bus Travel from Washington to Denver

2008 February …

2008 March …

2008 April …

2008 May …

Disadvantages of Microstock Photography / Be Prepared For:

Application Rejections, Image Rejections, Disappointment, Delays, “F5 Disease”, Rule Changes, Upload Limits, Commission Reductions

Advantages of Microstock Photography / Be Excited About:

1. Create a Residual Income Stream Working Primarily from Home
2. Set your own hours
3. You decide what to photograph in your photo shoots: Studio, Models, Landscapes, Nature, Objects etc.
4. Make money from an existing hobby or even take it to the next level professionally

Developing Story … CHECK BACK SOON

If the suspense is killing you please feel free to browse the links where I submit my work to while you await the completion of my story …

I am always happy to help a newbie break into submitting their work for sale online. Learn from my own trials and tribulations without having to go through them yourself. Thank you in advance for checking out my image and design portfolios.

Start creating your online portfolios through them now. My links below will help you get started with some of the most favorable stock photography sites. The commissions on the sale of your own images will pay you dividends for the rest of the life of the image.

Microstock Photography Websites:

http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=144463

http://www.dreamstime.com/Mwp1969_info

http://www.istockphoto.com/mwp1969

http://www.123rf.com/profile_markpayne

http://us.fotolia.com/partner/200479231

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=HW16kzhvJX

Midstock Photography Sites:

http://www.mostphotos.com/mwp1969

Our Website:

www.PayneImages.com

]]> http://illinoisbankruptcylawyerblog.com/2009/11/24/qa-is-my-canceled-debt-really-canceled/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:29:06 +0000 mhedayat http://illinoisbankruptcylawyerblog.com/2009/11/24/qa-is-my-canceled-debt-really-canceled/ http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/11/24/turn-your-hobby-into-a-business/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:30:43 +0000 Alexis Jeffries http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/11/24/turn-your-hobby-into-a-business/

In researching “5 Ways to Pump Up Your Income,” a story that ran in the December 2009 issue of MONEY, my co-author Donna Rosato and I discovered a few helpful tips for people who want to make a business out of their hobby. Unfortunately, not all of these ideas made it into the published article. So here they are: To make the transition from hobbyist to small-business entrepreneur, be sure to take these key steps:

• Vet Yourself. Talented you are, but are you great at customer service? To be successful, you’ve got to be. “You may love to make jewelry but may not have the personality to deal with returns, angry customers and rejection,” says Kimberly Seals-Allers, entrepreneur and author of The Mocha Manual to Turning Your Passion into Profit. Evaluate your time and resources, confirm that you have a consenting spouse on board, and be realistic about how much effort you’ll put it to make your hobby business a success.

• Research, Research, Research. Doing at least 20 hours of advanced research on building your business will increase your likelihood that your business can be successful, says Gene Fairbrother of the National Association for the Self-Employed. Identify your potential customer and determine whether there is a market for your product. Research similar products and their price points to see what you might be able to sell yours for. Two ways to gather opinions: Create a survey on SurveyMonkey.com asking friends if they would buy your product over a competitor’s, or hold a focus group session in your home to get honest feedback about your product.

• Price Wisely. Be sure that you’ve priced your product high enough that you can make a profit after accounting for all expenses. It may seem simple, but “by the time you’ve accounted for the time spent in creating the product, you may not make tons of money,” says Rita Gunther McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School. If reasonable, price at least 50 percent above expenses, so you can compensate yourself for your time and have reserves to reinvest in the business.

• Make Smart Marketing Moves. Local community fairs and trade shows are great ways to create buzz around your business. Don’t bother putting an ad in your local newspaper, as you can gain more attention from a larger audience on the Web. Seals-Allers recommends setting up a simple Web site with photos of your product and your contact information, and then blogging for other Web sites where you can get free publicity for your business. If you plan to sell products online in the future, be sure to set up a PayPal account, which makes it easy to accept online payment (in return for a share of your sales). Also, be sure to register a domain name for your own Web site for $10 at godaddy.com.

• Remember to Pay Uncle Sam. You have to report all your business income on Schedule C of your tax return. If your profit is greater than $400 a year, you’ll need to report all income and expenses on Schedule SE (for “self-employment”) when you file your taxes, and you’ll have to pay social security takes on that income. If you lose money this year, check with you tax preparer about the hobby/loss rules in your state to see whether you can claim deductions on your losses.

Add More Money to your favorite RSS reader.  Subscribe at http://rss.cnn.com/moneyfeatures.rss.

If you want to grow your wealth faster and better, you can buy residential properties for rent. Your investment will grow faster because of the leverage of the mortgage that gives you, and grows better because the rental income, tax laws, guidelines and decision-makers keep your risk is extremely low for high performance. Here's how.

Leverage gives you high returns on investment:

Owning a residential rental income can give high returns and low risk. The high profits that come fromleverage to buy your property with a mortgage. Your investment is your capital – the value of the property, less the amount of the mortgage you need on it.

When you buy a house, get a fraction of its price down. The bank pays the rest through a loan (eg mortgage), we have now. Each monthly mortgage exclude part of the interest and the balance of the payment going toward the loan principal. The main part payment finally killed off(amortized) loan.

The first payments on a 25-year mortgage are mostly interest payments are in large part to end the primary. These two components are about 18 years. Very little capital (loan) is repaid during the first 10 years.

Thus, equity is growing rapidly:

Suppose you put down 20% for a house $ 200,000 – $ which gives you $ 40,000 in equity and a mortgage of $ 160,000 home. If housing prices are only 5% next year, your $ 200,000 house worth $ 210,000.Since we still have approximately $ 160,000 for the mortgage, the equity increased to $ 50,000. This is a growth rate of 25% of the capital of your capital with a growth rate of 5% for the home.

The multiplier effect, L is 5 (= $ 200,000 / $ 40,000) before the increase. While major increases L times faster than the growth in house prices. You get a high rate of investment growth for the price growth rates relatively low in the house.

Because your equity grows faster than the home value, the leverage decreases slowly.But a growth rate of 5% per annum for home value, it takes about 10 years for the original 20% to become half the value of the house. Overlooking a small change in the mortgage, the house would be worth $ 320,000 with a loan of nearly $ 160,000. Optimize your only factor '2 '.

You can always 'remortgage' home to withdraw money and raise the lever to maintain the level of investment.

Better tax, rental income and manager of mortgage:

TopInvestment rate that you offer your property need not get in a situation of risk. Because you can keep the cost of participation in your property at the lowest level you want, fitting enough so that the rental income will always cover the costs of participation. And tax breaks for owners of rental income to do much to help.

Rental income can cover the costs. Owners to meet their rental income on Schedule E (rental) form. But not only get to deduct their annual guideinterest paid, but the other annual costs of owning a rental property such as maintenance costs and annual depreciation.

Depreciation is an accounting deduction that you can probably put money aside for replacement of your home. It is free of charge actual costs and value of the house does not – like a car depreciates. Actually goes up! Here's how it helps you.

Ideally, when you buy a house to rent in the early years, you want theRental income to cover the cost of mortgage payments and maintenance costs that come out of your pocket. In this way, the "rental" costs nothing "because the rental income is paid for all out-of-pocket cost of participation.

But the deduction for depreciation, which does not draw from his pocket – could create a "superficial loss" on the annual rental income or an expense sheet. This suggests that "superficial loss" against your income earned on the regular 1040 to further reduce your taxeson their earned income.

These depreciation deductions lower fee based on the house. So when you finally sell, the capital gain – the house of the lower cost base – will be greater. But taxes on capital gains and techniques to lower taxes, will keep your profits high.

Conservative Investing

But if you keep borrowing costs low mortgage with a small and a fixed rate, you can probably keep your tenants paying the cost of ownership. This way, you get a price or otherstorm that threatens the interest rate on your investment.

Published in Crikey

Ever wondered how much money the bloke next to you on the bus is earning? A quick glance at what he is reading might give you a clue.

The percentage of the readership of each of Australia’s major print publications has been graphed for your viewing pleasure. I’ve also included the relevant datapoint for Australia as a whole.

*Data compiled from a survey of the online demographics information provided by each print publication as at 20 November 2009.

Have you ever felt fearful?  Do you worry a lot?  Do you feel unsafe in your own home or community?  Do you spend a lot of time thinking about your own safety?  Do you worry about your future?  Do you worry about the swine flu outbreaks?  Do you worry about your health?  Do you dwell on illness and death?  Do you worry about your job?  Do you worry about your safety on the highways?  Are your fears seemingly endless?

Well, did you know that  according to Dr. W.F. Peate in his book “Native Healing : Four Sacred Paths to Health”, the more pessimistic you are the more likely you are to develop heart disease?  He writes that  the Veteran’s Affairs Normative Aging study looked at over 2800 men over the past 46 years  and found that those who were deemed pessimistic developed  heart disease more often than not.  He reports that the results were based their findings on the Minnesota Multiphasic  Personality Inventory.  They found that pessimists had twice as much heart disease as optimistic people.  Think about that…could we be attracting the very thing that kills us because we dwell on all the negatives?

Dr. Peate also asks the question of… “what has the greatest effect on the differences in heart disease between rich and poor neighborhoods:  income, education, occupation, smoking, physical activity, diabetes, blood pressure, type of cholesterol, weight or body mass index?”

He stated that …”the answer, based on research in Britain and across the United States, may surprise us.”   He states that “Something beyond genetics, lifestyle, behavior, income, or health care disparities affect our health.”  Dr. Peate reports that “researchers suggest two areas for intervention…enhancing the social and psychological resources of individual people and improving the quality of neighborhoods and communal life.”

M.G. Marmot, one of the authors of an important study that Peate quotes in his book, states that, “My own view is that the mind is a crucial gateway through which social influences affect physiology to cause disease.  The mind may work through effects on health-related behavior, such as smoking, eating, drinking, physical activity, or risk taking, or it may act through effects on neurendocrine or immune mechanisms.”  Basically there is a good chance that what we think and feel affects our wellbeing.

Our bodies are marvelous machines that we need to understand and take care of.  The social influences in the neighborhoods we live in do affect our health.  Those people who feel that the world is out to get them will likely not fare as well as people who take responsibility for their bad decisions and make attempts at changing their behavior.  Those who blame others feel hopeless to change things while those who accept their part in things will make the changes needed.  It is the glass half full/half empty syndrome.

We recently visited relatives in Florida.  They live in a small 55 and over trailer parks.  What I observed there really made an impact on my thinking.  It seemed that those residents spend an inordinate amount of time talking about, thinking about, and sharing their thoughts on death and dying.  It seemed that who died, who was sick, and how sick they were was the primary theme of conversation on a continuous basis.  It permeated the community.  I hate to say this, but it seemed as if most of those people had gone there to wait to die.  That was their primary focus.

There were a few who organized bingo nights, karaoke, potluck dinners, etc.  However, the majority of the people did not attend.  Their lives consisted of game shows and dwelling on their illnesses.    And, the consequences of this negative focus was prevalent.  People just got sicker and sicker until they died.  Those who tried to create a life seemed hopeless and soon quit trying within the community.  Only those who sought activities outside the community seemed to fare better health wise. My theory is that the collective negative energy produced in the trailer park contributed to the pessimistic attitudes of the residents and thus a negative spiral existed.

Again let me suggest that you go to Youtube.com and type in “Quantum Physics applied to mind power” and listen to the various video clips that appear there.  It is quite the eye opener.  I was thinking that most workshops, symposiums, lectures, etc. are aimed at informing and changing thought.  It is obvious that those involved in these activities realize that good comes from thought changing ideas or they wouldn’t waste their time doing it.  All the self help books on the shelves are based on information and changing thought.  Psychologists and doctors spend a great deal of time trying to change our direction.

So, here we are at a cross roads of sorts.  We can embrace change or we can keep going down the same road.  We can change the way we think and feel or we can keep doing the same things we have always done.  The outcome, however, is becoming much clearer.  We have a choice to make in how we choose to live the rest of our lives.  We can work to change our communities for the better or we can live in fear and worry ourselves to death.  We can improve the lives of those around us, and by doing this, change our own life, or we can sit back and feel helpless and hopeless and continue the negative spiral we have been going down.

The choices are clear and our options sit before us.  What will you do?

Chris

This article is from The California Association of Realtors

Entry-level housing affordability reaches 64 percent
The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in California stood at 64 percent in the third quarter of 2009, compared with 55 percent for the same period a year ago, according to a report released last week by C.A.R. The Index is the most fundamental measure of housing well-being for first-time buyers in the state.

The minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home at $247,150 in California in the third quarter of 2009 was $43,500, based on an adjustable interest rate of 4.79 percent and assuming a 10 percent down payment. First-time buyers typically purchase a home equal to 85 percent of the prevailing median price. The monthly payment including taxes and insurance was $1,450 for the third quarter of 2009.

At 85 percent, the High Desert region was the most affordable area in the state. The San Luis Obispo County region was the least affordable in the state at 47 percent, followed by the San Francisco Bay region at 49 percent.

By Christine Hughey

People often want success. They know their life would be easier if they were successful and didn’t have worries of the world weighing them down. There would be time to enjoy all the things that they would rather be doing, than the stress that comes at them daily. They can’t imagine having time to add one more thing into their day.

So now I should add “service to others” to my list of things to do? Huh? Yeah right!!!!!

But that really is the answer. The more service you give, and love and happiness you have in your heart for everyone you come in contact with… it’s almost like magic. You will have all the time in the world and less stress in your life, and be more successful.

There are examples of people throughout history that were very successful. You can look at the amount of things they invented and did, and how on earth did they ever do it all in their life span? I tried to find a number of all the things that Benjamin Franklin invented… there isn’t a number; the same with George Washington Carver – inventor of peanut butter and a couple of hundred other things.

One of the things these two men had in common was their belief in service. Benjamin Franklin believed that ideas should be used to benefit all people, and he didn’t patent anything for that reason. George Washington Carver didn’t patent most of his inventions because of his belief in being of service to mankind. Between these two men there isn’t a day that goes by that you are not affected by, or make use of many of their inventions or services.

Okay those are huge examples of service… I will break it down! (way down)

I used to work in a processing department – the policy when I first started was “process only” -that was it. It didn’t take long being there that I found out that policy was making my life miserable. The sales reps would have a problem that the client needed help with but the way it was set up at this company, was sales reps were not allowed to talk to the processing department, so the sales reps were miserable, and the clients were miserable. I could imagine the misery continued on and on and on to the clients family, or sales reps family and others they came in contact with – I had no idea how many people were miserable because of this one bad policy or bad service.

So I went about changing it. I let the sales reps walk in the processing department! The managers thought I was committing the crime worthy of a life sentence – but I did it, and I kept doing it! My life was much happier. The sales reps liked it, and reported back happier clients and it was like magic! I had more time to get everything done that needed to be done, instead of warding off angry sales reps. I felt like I was more successful at my job, and I was definitely happier.

Now I know what I was doing was not affecting the lives of every person in the world like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington Carver, but I do know one more person put in a better mood because of service did have an effect – and one more person you are a service to, and spread happiness to has an effect… eventually that much service spread around the world can affect all of mankind.

INDIGENOUS people want the Rudd government to water down income management of Northern Territory indigenous welfare recipients by applying the measure selectively…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: water waves. The blog is also related to: sea temp.

The Winchester Mystery House was bought by Sarah Winchester, as a normal house, around 1884. She was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, who had been the second president of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and only son of the company’s owner. When he died, at the age of 44 in 1881, she was grief stricken. Having already lost her only child to marasmus in the 1860s. Believing her family to be cursed she consulted a medium who, it is said, told her that the spirits of the people who had been killed by the winchester rifle were many and they wanted vengeance. The medium told her she had to move west, she originally lived in Connecticutt, buy a house and begin continuous construction on it so that she and the spirits could live in it. She was never to stop building on the house and if she did, she would die. She followed what she had been told, buying the house and beginning work on it immediately. She had an income, from her husband’s death and owning half of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, that gave her the rough equivalent of $22,000 (£13,262) a day. The house was originally an 8 room farmhouse that stood on 162 acres in what is now San Jose, California. Construction work began on the house and continued for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next 38 years. When Sarah Winchester died in 1922 at the age of 83 work on the house immediately ceased. The house itself is set out in such an odd way that certain doors open onto walls and has staircases that lead nowhere. It is claimed this was ordered by Mrs Winchester so that the spirits would get lost in the house. Staff also needed maps to find their way around. There are around 160 rooms including 40 bedrooms, 10,000 window panes, 7 chimneys, 2 basements, 3 elevators and 2 ballrooms. The number 13 also features heavily in the house. It once reached 7 storeys high but following damage in the 1906 earthquake it is now 4 storeys. The total cost of the building work has been estimated at around $5.5 million ($70 million;  £42,079,285 in 2008) After her death she left the contents of the house to her niece. It reportedly took the removers eight trucks a day for six and a half weeks to empty it. Today it is a tourist attraction, it is said to be haunted, and is open every day except for Christmas. Special tours are held every Friday 13th and Halloween. Thanks for reading.

There are two types of hustles in the world: the Main Hustle and the Side Hustle. A Main Hustle is your Five Day a Week, 9-5 job. More times than not, it is legal (I’m keeping it real here, people) and for the most part, you get a regular check cut out to you, pay taxes on it, and it makes your life miserable. Then there’s the Side Hustle. There could be set hours for your side hustle. You can get a check, or you could be paid under the table. This really should be extra money. Money that you spend on frivolous things, while you put away money from your main hustle to savings, debt, expenses. Two types of hustles doesn’t mean that you can only have two jobs. The harsh reality is that some people have up to 3 Main Hustles to make ends meet. I’m talking about paying bills and putting food in your mouth. If you have three jobs so you can buy the fancy shmancy, then I say, at most, one of those is a main hustle and the other two are side hustles.

I’ve only had a side hustle one time in my life. The summer before sophomore year in High School, I couldn’t find an internship, so I started working at Starbucks. I actually had a great time working there and the pay wasn’t bad either. ($8.25/hr + tips) Maybe 3 weeks after I started working, I got an offer for a 10 week internship. That pay wasn’t bad either – $16/hr. I’m sure the normal human being would have have made one last frappuccino and quit, but I loved working at Starbucks. But, I, being not-normal and all, decided to do Sbux part-time and do the internship. So for 10 weeks, I worked 7 days a week! Very draining, to say the least, but I managed and I made a LOT of money that summer.

I would love to have a side hustle now. Why? I definitely don’t need the extra money. I would just like to have it. Is that Greed? Should I be finding something better to do with my time? Um, I’m going to forget about that line of thought for now and just say that, I have a lot of free time and would like that time to be used in a lucrative manner. I feel as though there is a market for people that want random stuff done and people like me that just want some money. If I were to have one, though, I wouldn’t want to be as serious as the Sbux situation. For one, I actually have like having my weekends free. Also, it would have to be something that I can do that wouldn’t dramatically alter my free time. Like I’m usually free after work around 5ish and I like to be in bed by 10. Yes, I am a grandmother. Wednesdays, I do community service. Aside from my advanced age, I’m also a criminal. Haha. I don’t think I’ve seriously looked for a side hustle, but if one presented itself, preferably in the form of a suggestion in my comment section, that would be amazing.

Do you guys have side hustles? Let me know.

I am generally not an envious person. Comparing myself to other people is something I actually avoid as I know it does not lead to anything good at all. Still  I am a human being and I am not flawless. That is not an excuse, it is just a simple explanation of all human beings.

Officially I have probably been blogging for about five years now, under different blogs and domains; which is why I have hopefully settled with this domain and name, as my articles and writing style can be rather random. Still I am not earning one cent from doing this. I started out doing it just for fun and to explore something new. I think I actually started blogging when it was more  or less new to most people in Europe. Again, I still do not earn a cent from it.
This is somewhat annoying, but somewhat my own fault too; or is it?

I have enough visitors to my blog to make me proud and feel that I have accomplished something. Still I can not help ask why I do not have more readers, and followers on Twitter. I am at least trying to avoid all the wrong things you can do with a blog and a Twitter account; so in the end I am actually clueless to what I am not doing enough.

The main thing that might be an issue is consistency; but that I have tried to cover with the name of the blog, .random[oid]. When I write and what I write about is usually very random and I tend to be all over the place. One day I write about Linux; next day I write about being an introvert or what I did earlier that day.
This is a common model most magazines and newspapers follow. They have a certain theme to what they publish and how it is written; but in the end it can be very varied. Just take Wired as an example; I love the magazine, but I don’t read all the articles in it, still I do pay for it.

I think the main type of bloggers who annoy me the most; or that I envy the most, are those who just suddenly start blogging about something completely shallow and start earning shit-loads of money. Just because they please the self-indulgent decadent mainstream.
Maybe being an introvert and who I am is what holds me back from being successful in the blogosphere and twitterverse; I am not promoting myself enough and forcing people to like me. I have never had the desire or urge to be liked by anyone. I always have and will live by my own rule; that this is who I am, it is up to you to like me or not. One of my favourite quotes in regard to this is:

I rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Another thing that might set me back is that I just blog for the fun of it. I do not lock myself in a room six to eight hours a day to write articles. I actually do it on a whim to entertain myself, and in hope to entertain others.
Just do not get me started on spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. I have not been diagnosed with it, but I do suspect I have a light version of dyslexia. Several times I have read a word or a sentence as it was intended, but later on discovering my error; or misread other people’s articles. I can also add that if I got a dollar for each spelling mistake or grammatical error I find in newspapers, books or other text-based media I would be rich. I actually own a few books with spelling errors, but you know what? I still understood the message from the writer.

Of course, the amount of blogs and Twitter accounts online is insane, so the competition is massive. Still I can not help being annoyed that some people get paid to publish garbage online. At least I am doing it for free; but I wish I could do it full-time with pay of course.
If I knew I would one day base my income on my writing, be it writing a blog or even novels and short stories, I would rather study that than biomedical science; but I don’t know and I am too afraid to take that risk.

Note: This article was written from A to B without any kind of editing. I have only checked it for spelling mistakes. In other words, take and read it as it is. It is free, so why should I bother?

No more getting up at the crack of dawn or working late into the night.   Stop wasting your daytime hours working hard to make someone else rich.  You literally have a world of opportunity in your hands with the Global Domains International opportunity.

Let me explain how you get paid when you join GDI…..

Here are just 2 ways:

First,  GDI’s bonus program.   It works like this.  For every 5 people you refer from Monday morning thru Sunday night, you get paid $100.   If you bring in 10, you get $200, 15, $300 and so on…..

Most people don’t realize how POWERFUL this really is!

Hypothetically speaking, think about this….if you paid just 5 people to join GDI in one week, it would cost you $10 per person for a total of $50.  GDI would then send you a bonus check for $100.  You just made a $50 profit! You could do this over and over again!  Your down-line could realistically double each month.

Second, you make monthly residual income.  You get paid on 5 levels deep.  (Note:  This is NOT a Ponsi Scheme, This is Multi Level Marketing at its best.) Each level pays you $1 per person.  It doesn’t seem like much at first, but, it adds up quickly.   Ten referrals on level one is $10.  If they get ten, that’s 100 on level two for $100 more.   If they get ten, that’s a 1000 on level three for $1000 more.   If they get 10, that’s 10,000 on level four  for $10,000….etc.   So you can see…your income potential is really unlimited and can build very fast.  You could realistically create an income of $100,000 per month from a simple $10 per month program!

The “Twilight  of Your Life” begins NOW!  Don’t wait until the next “New Moon” to get started.

Ok..that’s it for now.   I hope this explanation has  shed some light on the awesome potential of  the Global Domains International opportunity.

Here’s the link again if you haven’t signed up yet or would like to watch the movie:

To your success.

P.S.  Global Domains International was established in 1999 and is a highly respected Fortune 500 company.

Modern life is perhaps conspiring to make us fat, suggest Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in ‘The Spirit Level: Why more equal societies almost always do better’ (www.landmarkonthenet.com). In the past the rich were fat and the poor were thin, but in developed countries these patterns are now reversed, they add.

A study cited in the book is of the World Health Organisation, which found the steeping of social gradient as rates of obesity have increased. “By the early 1990s obesity was more common among poorer women, compared to richer women, in all 26 countries, and among poorer men in all except five.”

The sudden rapid increase in obesity in many societies cannot be explained by genetic factors, the authors aver. “People often point to the changes in cost, ease of preparation and availability of energy-dense foods, to the spread of fast-food restaurants, the development of the microwave, and the decline in cooking skills. Others point to the decline in physical activity, both at work and in leisure time, increasing car use and the reduction in physical education programmes in schools.”

But the real culprit may be income inequality, the book postulates. Scatter diagrams that plot income inequality on the x-axis and per cent obese on the y, show a preponderance of obesity, both among adults and children, in the more unequal US states.

Calorie intake and exercise are only part of the story, note Wilkinson and Pickett. “People with a long history of stress seem to respond to food in different ways from people who are not stressed. Their bodies respond by depositing fat particularly round the middle, in the abdomen, rather than lower down on hips and thighs.” Quite alarmingly, people who accumulate fat around the middle are at particularly high risk of obesity-associated illnesses.

Apart from the addition of weight in the worst places, stress can cause us to increase our food intake and change our food choices, a pattern known as stress-eating or eating for comfort, the authors report. “In experiments with rats, when the animals are stressed they eat more sugar and fat… In a study in Finland, people whose eating was driven by stress ate sausages, hamburgers, pizza and chocolate, and drank more alcohol than other people.”

Scientists are starting to understand how comfort eating may be a way we cope with particular changes in our physiology when we are chronically stressed, changes that go with feelings of anxiety, the authors inform. “Recent research suggests that food stimulates the brains of chronic over-eaters in just the same ways that drugs stimulate the brains of addicts.”

A chapter titled ‘Building the future’ forecasts that the proportion of the population feeling they could trust others might rise by 75 per cent in the US, if only the country’s inequality were reduced to something like the average of the four most equal of the rich countries (Japan, Norway, Sweden and Finland).

The authors foresee, then, matching improvements in the quality of community life; “rates of mental illness and obesity might similarly each be cut by almost two-thirds, teenage birth rates could be more than halved, prison populations might be reduced by 75 per cent, and people could live longer while working the equivalent of two months less per year.”

How do labor regulations effect a dual labor market economy? Rita Almeida and Pedro Carneiro from the World Bank study this question in their new working paper, ‘Mandated benefits, employment, and inequality in a dual economy.’

This paper studies the effect of enforcing labor regulation in an economy with a dual labor market. The analysis uses data from Brazil, a country with a large informal sector and strict labor law, where enforcement affects mainly the degree of compliance with mandated benefits (severance pay and health and safety conditions) in the formal sector, and the registration of informal workers. The authors find that stricter enforcement leads to higher unemployment but lower income inequality. They also show that, at the top of the formal wage distribution, workers bear the cost of mandated benefits by receiving lower wages. Wage rigidity (due, say, to the minimum wage) prevents this downward adjustment at the bottom of the income distribution. As a result, formal sector jobs at the bottom of the wage distribution become more attractive, inducing the low-skilled self-employed to search for formal jobs.

Copied from: CNN Money

Here are the 5 metro areas where the average American family can afford to purchase a median-priced home — and the 5 where they can’t.

Most Affordable: Indianapolis

Median home price: $105,000
Median income: $68,100
Affordability score: 94.5%

America’s most affordable housing market is the 33rd largest metro area in the United States, with 1.7 million people.

The median family income is fairly high — $68,100 — and home prices are a very reasonable median $107,000, according to the National Association of Homebuilders and Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

Helping keep home prices depressed is a fairly virulent foreclosure plague: There were more than 16,000 properties with foreclosure filings during the first nine months of the year.

The turmoil in the auto industry, which Indianapolis had been closely associated with, has hurt the city. But increased diversification, which has made pharmaceutical companies, banks government agencies and insurers all important employers, has helped keep job losses in check. The unemployment rate was just 7.7% in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, well below the national rate of 9.8% that month.

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A.J. Jacobs is doing some interesting things.  He’s the guy who read the whole Encyclopedia Brittanica, and who tried to live by all the Biblical rules for a year.  And now he’s doing a Guinea Pig Project, with a book about the various undertakings he’s gotten into as a human guinea pig.  Here’s an interview with him that I enjoyed:

http://www.smithmag.net/memoirville/2009/09/10/interview-aj-jacobs-author-of-the-guinea-pig-diaries/

Today I read an article by him in the December issue of O Magazine.  He was talking about tithing.  Listen in:  ”Since I’m a writer, I also tell myself this: one out of every ten words belongs to someone deserving.  In that previous sentence, it was the word deserving.”

He’s clever, and I’d definitely like to meet him.  Heck, I’d like to BE him.  I like these guinea pig things. My jubilee blog here IS one of those guinea pig things (“Hey… what if I actually lived out jubilee for a year.”).

But beyond being entertained, I was also touched and challenged.  If I’m going to tithe on my writing income, then every 10th word belongs to the poor, every 10th minute does, every 10th thought, every 10th project.

I’m a Christian, and I believe in the priesthood of all believers and that the work I do every day is God’s work (in that it should be honoring to Him, dedicated to His service and in line with His principles).  And then I should give 10% away, as a start.  Not legalistic shoulds, shoulds that come from gratitude.  But I don’t often think of part of my actual workday or part of my actual output as belonging to others.

Jacobs gave me something to think about, and I’m also going to go read all his books.  Though maybe not the whole Encyclopedia Brittanica.