Audie Murphy is a living legend even today some 38 years after his passing and almost 65 years from when his name first made the National Press followinh his heroic one man stand against the Nazi onslaught against his Company position in World War Two.
He ordered his unit to withdraw to prepared safe locations and alone held off an estimated 250 enemy soldiers and six King Tiger tanks for over an hour that were attacking his position from three sides.
this young kid with only a fifth grade education became a name synomious with freedom and he won the hearts and admiration of the American people.
This is a great video Tribute to the great Audie Murphy posted on You Tube.
Very moving and touching to this great American hero and legend.

It has been three days now since I start noticing some kind of ads on street billboards with few words on them and bunch of logos stating ‘Yes to life … No to cancer.’ Now, I do not know if it is only me … or these few words are bit offensive!

It turned out that these ads are part of the Saudi ministry of health (MoH) cancer awareness campaign. And it seems that a similar campaign with a similar tagline had taken place last year as well. This is something we should all be thankful for and MoH should be credited for their efforts in providing the public with basic information about how to prevent cancer by cutting out bad habits like smoking or considering preliminary medical care to minimize breast cancer. But with this tagline … pleeeeeeease!!!

Cancer is not something that can be easily prevented by covering your mouth while sneezing or running out of a room when someone lights a cigarette. So what about those who already have cancer and happen to see these ads; why should we tell them that they have a disease that is against life. In other words, why should we shout at them that cancer means death (we know that this is not true in all cases)!! I can hardly  imagine how emotionally and psychologically affecting such a message is for those who have cancer or those who lost someone because of it?

The bottom line is that this tagline gives you the impression that you should be blamed if you got cancer. And if you got it, you are an outcast (No to cancer!!). This sense of guilt and responsibility is not the right message that should be communicated in an awareness campaign, or any campaign for that matter. People tend to show resistance to any blames and that usually lead them to take a defensive position and miss the whole point of such ads.

Am I exaggerating; could be! What do you think?

* Make sure to read the facts below before you make an informed decision!

Lately I feel like I’m the minority when it comes to whether or not to get a Swine Flu vaccination.

I work in a support services role in my local hospital (in Ontario, Canada) which requires very little interaction with  patients or other staff.  Sometimes however I have direct contact with these people.  My employers Occupational Health Dept. has set up shop last week and started recommending and giving free H1N1 vaccinations to all staff.

There was some confusion for 3-4 weeks prior as they first notified everyone that we would be receiving the TamiFlu vaccine imminently and that the hospital had a private reserve set aside for all staff in the event of a Pandemic.  Needless to say that TamiFlu will not be provided now as recent tests and a mandate from the Ministry of Health have stated that the H1N1 vaccine is the only vaccine approved for deployment in healthcare facilities and staff.

I work in a department of about 10 people.  I now am the only person in my department who has not gotten the H1N1 vaccine and it would seem that there is something wrong with me.

On Monday I was asked over a dozen times from my coworkers if I had ‘gone down to get it yet!?’  to which I replied ‘Nope…’  A few of them made comments like ‘Well, I ain’t going to get sick, I’m going down to get it right now!’, ‘what are you waiting for?’ or ‘don’t forget!  You gotta get it man…’  It didn’t bother me at all to receive these comments.  I like to make well informed decisions and even more so, I like to pray to God for wisdom and direction before I do anything, whenever I can anyway…

Tuesday I was met with the same statements or questions but also started feeling this stigma that was being attached to me whenever I acknowledged that I hadn’t received the vaccine.  The dirty looks when I said I wasn’t sure if I was even going to get it.  I even had a co-worker jokingly say “You see?  This is why we have to get vaccinations because of people like him that won’t get them and spread disease!”  I laughed but felt ostracized, which I normally do (because of my faith) sometimes anyway but more so this time because it had nothing to do with my faith…Does it have something to do with my faith?  Maybe…

Wednesday (Today) I got a big ol’ rant from a co-worker who basically called my wife and I stupid for not getting ourselves or our kids vaccinated…  I mean come on…  It takes some serious stones to start judging peoples intellectual ability based on ones decision to weigh the odds and seek God for guidance.  It just happens that this person gave up on the church a few years back and I suspect has something against God he isn’t sharing.

The bottom line is I’m not convinced that I, or my family, need to get this vaccine.

So here’s why:

a)      More people die from the regular flu strains then have from this specific ‘new’ strain of flu.

[Wikipedia] – Typically, in a year’s normal two flu seasons (one per hemisphere), there are between 3 and 5 million cases of severe illness and up to 500,000 deaths worldwide, which by some definitions is a yearly influenza epidemic

b)      Health Canada approved the use of the H1N1 vaccine based on 130 volunteers in a Belgian.  That means that the entire population of Canada (33,825,000 people) hangs on the stats of 130 Belgians.  More on the study:

• [Canada.com] – The study involved 130 healthy adults, aged 18 to 60, who were inoculated with the same version of Canada’s vaccine, which is produced by GlaxoSmithKline under the trade name Arepanrix.
• Clinical trials will test the vaccine on tens of thousands of people, including babies over six months of age and aboriginal Canadians.
• How the vaccine works won’t be clear until well after Canada’s largest immunization program is underway.

c)       The H1N1 vaccine is the first time Canada has approved a flu shot with the Squalene adjuvant in it.  Interesting facts and the H1N1 cocktail are below:

• The Squalene adjuvant is made by Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland ranking #1 in revenues and accounted over $53 Billion dollars in 2008

H1N1 Vaccine, Qualitative and Quantitative Composition

After combining and mixing the two components, 0.5mL of the resultant emulsion is withdrawn into a syringe for intramuscular injection. The final composition of each vaccine component per 0.5mL dose is as follows:

Antigen:

Split influenza virus, inactivated, containing antigen* equivalent to:

A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)v-like strain (X-179A)             3.75µg HA** per 0.5mL dose

*              isolated from virus propagated in eggs

**            HA = haemagglutinin

Preservative content is 5µg Thimerosal USP per 0.5mL dose or 2.5 micrograms organic mercury (Hg) per 0.5mL dose

Adjuvant:

DL-α-tocopherol 11.86 milligrams/0.5mL dose

Squalene 10.69 milligrams/0.5mL dose,

Polysorbate 80 4.86 milligrams/0.5mL dose

The suspension and emulsion vials, once mixed, form a multidose vaccine in a vial. See section Nature and Contents of Container for the number of doses per vial.

List of Excipients:

Antigen suspension vial: Thimerosal, sodium chloride, disodium hydrogen phosphate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, potassium chloride, water for injections. The drug substance contains trace residual amounts of egg proteins, formaldehyde, sodium deoxycholate and sucrose.

Adjuvant emulsion vial: sodium chloride, disodium hydrogen phosphate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, potassium chloride, water for injections.

These are just a few things that are not sitting well with me…  Since when do we ‘test’ things on babies or on tens of thousands of people when we don’t exactly know the result…

You decide:  Leave your comments below if you wish…

Know the Difference between a Cold and H1N1 Flu Symptoms:

For those of you living under a rock that doesn’t have access to Bride and Blog  SCURGE on your house.  JK!  But seriously!  My best friend, and MOH from our wedding, got herself married earlier this month and we’re throwing down about it Bride and Blog style.  Check back often for more recaps!

Masih banyak yang perlu dilakukan. Saya percaya ini adalah maraton bukannya acara pecut. Peserta menunjukkan semangat yang sangat baik. Tetapi isu stigma dan diskriminasi ini tidak hanya perlukan sokongan dari bawah tetapi juga advokasi di pihak atasan. Polisi dan prosedur perlu digubal dan dilaksanakan dengan mekanisme yang berkesan.

Saya percaya usaha sebegini perlu berterusan dan disokong ramai pihak. Anda berminat? Klik sini.

We got turned on to these guys yesterday @ Wax Poetics free tracks & we are feeling these guys!!! Check them out here on Myspace.

Control Group has rolled out a number of Call Manager Express systems for our clients, and one issue that frequently comes up is what to do with callers on hold. While most companies – ours included – work to avoid putting people on hold, it does happen. The easy options offered by the Call Manager Express are a double beep at regular intervals or a ‘Music on Hold’ file that you can store in the host router’s flash memory. I have received many complaints about the beeps and even a single repeating music file can be insufficient for some users.

When I started searching for a way to connect an audio feed to a gateway router, I found that there were no great turnkey solutions. What I did find is that there is a way to make use of an available FXO port to bring a live feed into the system with some inexpensive parts. The solution I have deployed requires a surface mount RJ 45, a chassis mount RCA jack, and a stereo 1/8″ mini to RCA adaptor. All of these pieces can be found at a nearby electronics parts store and purchased for under $20. The FXO port and an iPod will set you back some but if you want easy control of your hold music it may be worth it.

Build the Adaptor

To make the adaptor, open up the surface mount box and figure out how you will attach the RCA jack. In one case I used a drill bit to make a hole for it, in another case I found a form factor where the notch for a cat 5 cable fit the connector perfectly. You may also find a general purpose surface mount with modular fittings where an RCA “snap in” would snap right in.

Once you’ve sorted that you will need a pair of wires from either a solid or stranded piece of cat 5. Punch these down to pins 4 and 5 of the RJ45 and solder the other side to the RCA jack.

When you are done it should look like this.

Adaptor wiring detail. Though the jack in this configuration is an RJ 45 you can use a standard RJ11 phone cord to connect between the adaptor and the FXO port.

Configuring the Voice Gateway

Configuring the voice gateway is pretty straightforward:

1. Create a DN for the MOH call out with an unused multicast address

ephone-dn 274
number 1 no-reg primary
moh ip 239.12.13.1 port 2000 out-call 899

2. Configure the available FXO port remain open to the iPod

voice-port 0/3/3
signal loopStart live-feed
input gain 2
description To MoH Live Feed

3. Create a dial peer to connect to the FXO port

dial-peer voice 55 pots
destination-pattern 899
port 0/3/3

4. Configure CME to use the multicast for MOH

telephony-service
multicast moh 239.12.13.1 port 2000

Then Shut/No shut the voice port to invoke the change.

I have been using one of the built in USB ports on our gateway here at Control Group to power the iPod which turns out to be very convenient.

Safety and Other Considerations

There are some very important caveats.

1. The adaptor I describe is potentially dangerous. If you were to connect an iPod to a POTS line or an FXS port feeding a battery signal you could damage the iPod or the device connected to it. You could also receive a serious electrical shock.
2. The use of copyrighted material for Music on Hold can be a violation of the rights of the copyright owner.
3. The adaptor will only work with one channel of audio from the iPod. If you use a mono 1/8″ to RCA cable it will short out the other channel.

These issues need to be minded if you would consider this solution. Also, keep in mind that people’s taste in music varies widely. Implement Music on Hold and you will find out just how much!

Miles Green is a Senior Network Engineer at Control Group and worked as a Musician and Recording Engineer in a previous life.

For a bride who is a few weeks away from her wedding, a bridal shower is somewhat anticipated whether she admits it or not.  The glorious challenge for her MOH, bridesmaids or close friends and family is to somehow manage to throw her a bash like a bolt from the blue with little or no suspicion knowing that it’s going to happen any day before the wedding.  Well, hats off to my girls because they absolutely knocked me down with a feather when the element of surprise came out of nowhere!  I was impressed to say the least especially when I saw my sister Joyce who was the mastermind of it all.  Even though she’s my MOH, I didn’t expect to see her since she was just here a few months ago to do the engagement shoot and will be coming for the wedding in a week.  Flying from Minnesota to Jax is not cheap… not to mention three times in a row.  I certainly appreciate Stef and JB for accommodating her overnight.  Everyone played it so well including Jon, my mom and dad who were responsible for bringing me to the “baby shower” party (hahaha!)  Great excuse, I even brought a baby shower gift myself.

Bel's Bridal Shower courtesy of joycedzphotography.com

Courtesy of joycedzphotography.com

Not only did I get pampered once, my friends at work gave me a shower too.  I was so overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and thoughtfulness.

Bridal Shower at work

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the showers truly special from the smallest detail to the biggest jaw-dropping wonder.  I’m so blessed with wonderful friends and family.  Thank you all for showing me the way to a joy beyond compare!  I love my girls!