Americans Less Likely to Text While Driving after Viewing Controversial U.K. Public Service Announcement

http://www.mediacurves.com/NationalMediaFocus/J7508-PSA/
Majority of Americans (85%) say the PSA should be aired in the U.S.

I tend to agree, especially lately, tho I was always firmly against this dangerous idiocy.

My daughter and now-ex-husband are on our county's Rescue Squad. A couple of months ago they responded to a call. It was a young man, a boy really, about 20-23, who'd left the road and hit a tree, and died on impact. They knew then that he'd died on impact, because his eyes were open wide, mouth open in a scream - so he saw what was happening but it happened so fast he couldn't stop it. Time to see, not to act. And, still clutched in his hand so tightly they had to pry his fingers loose, was a cell phone, and a partially completed text message.
HCD Research Inc., through its MediaCurves.com® website, is the leader in public perception of topical issues and draws from its MediaCurves™ panel to report on Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events, visual broadcasts, and advertisements.
Utilizing proprietary and patent-pending curve technology, survey participants view and evaluate a video or broadcast of current events by “dial testing” (moving their mouse back and forth on a scale) to indicate, for example, believability or agreement with the video. The responses are compiled and curves are created so that you can see when people agree/disagree or believe/disbelieve what is being said in the video.Studies conducted using the MediaCurves™ survey method cover topical areas including healthcare, business, politics, and other national and international news, both for single studies as well as longitudinal studies. In many cases, data indices have been developed for various topical areas and subject matter.
The above was copied directly from Media Curve's site, but I can tell you that I really enjoy being a member. The surveys are fun or interesting to take - not boring like many survey sites, and you won't find a page full of tiny circles to spend half a day clicking away at. There are also fun subjects as well as serious ones, such as entertainment, and culture.

https://www.hcdsurveys.com/panel/index.cfm

STOP GOV'T FROM RAISING FOOD TAXES, STOP BIG MEDIA CORPORATIONS FROM METERING INTERNET, RAISING NET BILLS WHILE RESTRICTING ACCESS TO NET AS WELL

I wrote about these two subjects on my other blog, but they're so important I wanted to do so here as well. But rather than repeat everything all over again I'm going to provide you with the links to the 2 stories on the other blog:

http://searchingfortruth-anonpartisansite.blogspot.com/

This is the link for my other site, above.

The following is a direct link to the story AMERICANS AGAINST FOOD TAXES

and has a link to the AAFT website and a petition to sign to tell our representatives in Congress that we do not want this tax passed - that we're watching and listening, and thinking, and they cannot get away with what they have been in the past. We won't tolerate any new taxes on the common people, the middle and lower classes are barely scratching by as it is and we no longer have much of a chance in this nation due to the rich sticking it to us and Congress taxing us to death, as we can barely keep up with our basic needs much less have time or resources to try to jump ahead in the world. NO MORE TAXES ON MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES, AND CERTAINLY NO MORE FOOD TAXES.

http://searchingfortruth-anonpartisansite.blogspot.com/2009/08/americans-against-food-taxes.html

And this link is for the story SAVE THE INTERNET, to stop companies such as Time Warner from charging us much higher rates for net usage, limiting how much we can use it, and charging us as if on a meter, depending upon how much we use it, how long we're on it per month, how many sites we visit, etc. So far Congress has prevented this, and Obama has spoken against it, but money is power, and we must fight to keep it that way, since they're fighting to squeeze more money out of something that doesn't belong to them. We pay for the access to internet per month, and that is all they should be allowed to charge for. Consider, too, that to meter the sites is to know too much about the sites we go to and what we do online. There is a link to the petition site, which itself has links to several groups fighting this outrage, as well as other abuses of power and abuses of the average citizen.

http://searchingfortruth-anonpartisansite.blogspot.com/2009/08/save-internet.html

Larry Garrison, The Newsbreaker

The NewsBreaker
A Behind the Scenes Look at the News Media and Never Before Told Details about Some of the Decade's Biggest Stories
Trade Paper
By Larry Garrison
For twenty-five years, Larry Garrison has been a news broker, operating within the secret side of the news, finding and releasing some of the most sensational stories of the last couple decades. Now, in this riveting account of the news behind the news, Garrison lets readers in on how such headlining stories are found, manipulated, and released to the public, blowing the whistle on the news media, and divulging what really happens when all of the major news agencies compete to report the same top stories. Garrison goes inside some of his biggest cases, providing never-before-released info on the Terri Schiavo case, Michael Jackson, TWA Flight 800, 9/11, the Oklahoma bombing, Andrew Cunanan and the murder of Versace, Jon Benet Ramsey, the Robert Blake murder case, Mary Kay Letourneau, and many, many more. Gutsy and gritty, Larry has uncovered and been exposed to facts of some of the biggest headlines of our times. And now, in The NewsBreaker, he finally tells the story behind the headlines, how news is made and reported, and why the networks wouldn't, or couldn't, give the full story on some of the most important news events of our time.
http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595552871&title=The-NewsBreaker&author=Larry-Garrison



http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=2406142&page=1

Garrison reveals what happens behind the headlines -- how the news changes from the scene of a story to when it hits a television screen -- and offers readers a rare look inside one of today's hottest industries. My clients are of a different nature. I don't practice in a court of law; I operate in the court of public opinion. But the people I represent need me in the same way a victim needs a lawyer. My clients have often been thrust into territory so far
from what they're accustomed to that the process could chew them up and spit them out without someone like me to watch out for their best interests. In much the same way lawyers help their clients through the legal system, I help my clients navigate the media machine, specifically the news media. And even though I don't always chase them, I am always on the lookout for them.
Read an excerpt from "The Newsbreaker" below:

{skipping most, just giving you a hint of what's in the 4 pages of the abc story, which is an exerpt of his book, so I'm literally giving you small exerpts of an exerpt,and I don't think I've ever used the word "exerpt" in 2 weeks as often as I have here.}


My clients are of a different nature. I don't practice in a court of law; I operate in the court of public opinion. But the people I represent need me in the same way a victim needs a lawyer. My clients have often been thrust into territory so far
from what they're accustomed to that the process could chew them up and spit them out without someone like me to watch out for their best interests. In much the same way lawyers help their clients through the legal system, I help my clients navigate the media machine, specifically the news media. And even though I don't always chase them, I am always on the lookout for them.

Guilty of Homicide, Sisters Grossly Abuse, Neglect 84 yr old Mother

I don't know anyone involved and haven't followed the case. But when I see the condition this poor woman was in, my God, I have no doubt and don't understand how anyone can support the sisters in any way. I'm not being a smart-ss, I mean it, I'm flabbergasted and wondering what I could've missed. When someone is sick enough you call a doctor. Period. Nevermind wishes about being home vs nursing home. The woman had dementia, and may not have known where she was. But forgetting all that, the report says not just bedsores, but one of the bedsores so deep you could see the poor woman's vertebrae! Come ON! When you see bone its LONG past time for help! And covered with ants?! And anyone can believe for a second the daughters were doing the best they could, or that the mother had rather be at home with bed sores to the bone and ants all over her, among the other horrid health conditions, than at a nursing home? Its just, I mean, Well I don't even know what else to say - It's just unbelievable that anyone could conceive of any way of believing any of this was okay. From what I've read, they not only killed their mother, they tortured her for a long time. Who among us wants to end our lives as this poor woman did? Imagine the pain she was in, physical to be sure, and surely mental anguish as well, for hour upon hour, day upon day, week upon week, til rescued for the last week of her life by the paramedics. Breaks my heart. Old people are people the same as anyone: they had lives, were young and full of hope, had dreams, lived their lives, and certainly learned thru experience and gained in some amount of wisdom. Our society does not value its elders as it should, as they deserve. Too often they're treated like 2nd class citizens, or as less than human, etc. And these daughters - when I see the mugshots I see nothing but self-pity and indignancy, as if they truly believe they are in the right. Sickens me. I've seen comments on a couple of sites supporting them, but the details weren't so specific in those stories, and I wonder if those who support them have read what I have about the mother's condition, cuz I just can't imagine anyone supporting such horrors. That is what it is too, something right out of a horror movie. ANd I can't help but feel that at least some people would react differently, be more upset about it that is, if it would've been a younger person, and nobody would accept this if it were a child (as well they shouldn't, but neither should they for ANY human being - even an animal should never be treated like this.) Here's the AOL story link among others if you wanna see what they say about it all.

http://news.aol.com/article/barry-sisters-guilty-of-neglecting/618975?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http://news.aol.com/article/barry-sisters-guilty-of-neglecting/618975 The previous is the AOL news link, and has the mug shots of July and Jill Berry - it was actually the mug shots that called my attention to this story. I wasn't looking at the headlines, as I was searching for another AOL news story. But the looks on the faces of these women struck me as hateful and selfish and so I then looked at the headline, and then the story, and I'm so mad and disgusted I could spit.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/verdict-expected-in-sisters-neglect-case.html The above link had less detail about the mother's condition, and is one where commmentors support the sisters, with one woman saying she knows one of them and saying what a sweetie she is. Surely, they don't know the full story, yet the woman calling the sister a sweetie says she followed the story closely. I just dunno.

------------------------- Finally, I'll end with this one. I was looking for mug shots I could include (but can't find any that will download, tho you'll see them if you go to the aol story) and I came across this story, and decided to copy this portion of it so you can see what I've read and understand exactly where I'm coming from on my opinion of these horrible women. I know, too, a lawyer is supposed to defend his or her clients to the best of his/her ability, but I don't think that should mean lying or misleading anyone, or trying to get guilty people completely off. That's done for money and for future customers (ie more money), surely. If I were an attorney and had clients as these women, I'd have to tell the basic truth and look for some mercy or something, else refuse the case. I just could not try to get the guilty off scott free, its not justice. Well, here is the link to the final story here, and a section I copied and pasted from this story:

http://www.kcchronicle.com/articles/2009/06/17/83488486/index.xml

But defense attorney Gary Johnson described the Barry sisters as loving caregivers, dealing with their mother, who turned “ornery” and sometimes violent with dementia and refused to live in a nursing home or receive home health care.

To follow their mother’s wishes, the Barrys altered their work schedules and their lives to care for their mother in “heroic” fashion, Johnson said.

Barsanti scoffed at Johnson’s description, saying it was “cowardly” to fail to seek help they knew they needed to care for their mother.

He recounted testimony throughout the trial from hospital workers that described the elder Barry’s condition when she arrived at Delnor Hospital on April 20, 2007.

She was malnourished, dehydrated, had bed sores, feces on her body and under her fingernails and was wearing urine-soaked clothes, according to testimony. Barry died one week later from pneumonia, brought on by cancer and enhanced by her bed sores, malnourishment and dehydration, according to testimony.

Barsanti pointed out that in the four months before her death, there was no hospital or doctor visits or calls to medical professionals. It was during that time that Barry developed the bed sores – one of which was stage four – and dropped from 96 to 70 pounds, he said.

“There was nothing done at all,” Barsanti said. “They saw what was happening to her and they decided not to do anything.”

Barsanti said the Barry sisters’ testimony “should be taken with a grain of salt,” and was not entirely truthful. Each sister testified that they bathed their mother daily, but did not see any bed sores because of their positioning during sponge baths.

“It’s impossible to believe that you could bathe this woman and not see bed sores,” Barsanti said, adding that “anyone that would have seen [the most advanced] bed sore would have called a doctor.”

Johnson argued that the Barrys did everything they could on their own, and were afraid to upset their mother by hiring a nurse or other caregiver. The elder Barry had already suffered a stroke a few years before her death and they were afraid upsetting her would bring on another, he said.

======================== "It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death, they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change." - Colette {Of course the quote has nothing to do with the story in this post above; the subject of death is coincidental only}

Amazing Hotel Swimming Pools

"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them." - Washington Irving

========================================================

While surfing the net I came across tons of photos of these gorgeous pools (which I will likely never be able to afford to visit much less stay), and decided to share a handful here on my little blog in case someone that hasn't seen them happens across them 1st here instead. There are certainly many more to be found, to the point I had a hard time choosing which to include, and ended up choosing these at random.

This is the pool in the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, top suite of the Las Vegas Palms.









Here I see I've accidentally included 2 pix (I know its 3 shots, but the top one is a split shot and came with the 2 angles), but I'll just leave em rather than fool with editing it. These are from the San Alfonso El Mar in Chile - what a pool! Some shots show boats operating in this pool.




Palace of the Lost City hotel, Sun City, South Africa.







Jade Mountain, St Lucia.




Hotel Caruso, Italy.









Well, I managed to lose the name and location of this one, but its pretty, so I'm leaving it.





This is the Blue Lagoon Geothermal Pool in Iceland, tho I neglected to note the name of the resort. I think, tho I'm unsure, that this is not really a hotel but more like a health resort. And tho its lovely, I've seen (and been thoroughly freaked out by) the movie Hostel, which had a resort too much like this one for me to actually ever want to stay here.






I hope nobody looks at these hoping to USE my info to vacation at these hotels, since I've been sloppy: I didn't note the names of this hotel, or the following one, either. I don't even know the country this one is in...


But this one is in Hong Kong.








These last several are all from the same hotel/pool: The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. The pool has several very cool features (I think I even missed a couple of them), including a water slide which goes down thru a shark/fish tank.














The photo of the water slide from inside the shark tank is obviously photoshopped: its from the Golden Nugget's pamphlet, and meant to demonstrate what its like from inside. I'm sure its easier to do it this way than to try to get a good quality real photo from inside, not to mention safer since there IS a shark. Well, and I'd be surprised if you really got such a good view of the fish and shark in reality.