Small can be better...

A few of those I know who are into cigars have a preference for small cigars. I was surprised to learn that small cigars differ in many ways from cigars, they are not just "mini" cigars as you might think. What's also interesting is that at one time small cigars were not taxed the same as cigarettes, now that's changed in most areas, but many switched to small cigars when the taxation on cigarettes increased.

Here comes the bling

There have been several weddings that my daughters have attended recently, these things seem to go in waves as far as timing. Several of the weddings have included more than matching bridesmaid dresses but Bridal Jewelry as well that is picked out for everyone to match and in a few cases, specially designed to match the dresses and the theme of the wedding. One creative mother of the bride actually designed and made the jewelry for the bridal party.

Distinguished Service to Safety Awards

National Safety Council Honors Individuals with Distinguished Service to Safety Awards

Presented for commitment to safety and health

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, seven individuals were awarded the highest honor bestowed on a safety professional by the National Safety Council. The Distinguished Service to Safety Award is presented annually to individuals who, throughout their careers, have demonstrated outstanding service to the field of safety and health.

NSC honored the seven 2010 recipients at the Opening Session of its annual Congress & Expo. Award recipients are nominated either by one of the NSC occupational divisions or the Board of Directors.

"Those who receive the DSSA have exhibited a lifetime commitment to safety and health. We're thrilled to be recognizing such outstanding individuals for their efforts to prevent injuries and deaths," said National Safety Council President and CEO Janet Froetscher.

Receiving this year's Distinguished Service to Safety Award are:

Gary A. Higbee, EMBA, CSP

President & CEO, Higbee & Associates Inc. and Senior Consultant, SafeStart Safe Track

Recognized for outstanding efforts within the Chapter Services Division

Darn, we missed "Singles Week"

Unmarried and Single Americans Week: Sept. 19 — 25, 2010
“National Singles Week” was started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. The week is now widely observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 19-25 in 2010) as “Unmarried and Single Americans Week,” an acknowledgment that many unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners or are widowed.

Single Life
96.6 million
Number of unmarried Americans 18 and older in 2009. This group comprised 43 percent of all U.S. residents 18 and older.

53%
Percentage of unmarried Americans 18 and older who were women.

61%
Percentage of unmarried Americans 18 and older who had never been married. Another 24 percent were divorced, and 15 percent were widowed.

Almost 40% of Americans "inactive"

While many search for a fast weight loss method, with diet pills like quick trim and numerous other ones out there, the lack of activity and exercise is a problem. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stats state that 39.1 percent of those over 18 are "inactive" with only 30.1 percent participating in "some" leisure activities and 30.8 percent participating in regular leisure activities. The 18-24 year old age group has the highest number of regular leisure activity participation...

Majority of Americans overweight...

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 34 percent of adults age 20 years and over who are obese and 34% of adults age 20 years and over who are overweight not counted as obese. This means 68% of those over 20 in the U.S. are either overweight or obese. It's why the diet industry is a billion dollar one and why there are so many searching for diets that work. There are a variety of theories out there as to why this is happening, but the main fact is too many of us are less active and are not eating a healthy diet...

Census Bureau documents double the incidents against workers from 2000

The reality is that it is still a relatively small number of incidents of assault or threats of violence that have been reported against Census workers, 379 incidents reported so far versus 181 reported in 2000. There are over 635,000 Census workers, so that means not even one percent have experienced an "incident" -- not even half of a percent -- for more on this I recommend this Washington Post article.

Bloomberg's donations may end...

Bloomberg Is Quietly Ending a Charitable Program is the focus of the New York Times, link is creating some concern in the New York area.

Since he was first elected mayor in 2001, Mr. Bloomberg has provided money to hundreds of mostly small neighborhood, arts and cultural groups through the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic trust, in a process that was remarkably informal and closely coordinated with City Hall.

The gifts reflect the often blurred roles Mr. Bloomberg plays in the city as mayor, tycoon and philanthropist. And while the donations earned him praise from grateful recipients, who regarded him as an enlightened billionaire, they also drew rebukes from elected leaders who argued that he bought political acquiescence with his checkbook.

That tension was heightened during the mayor’s 2008 push to rewrite the city’s term limits law. His aides asked several groups that had received Carnegie grants to lobby for the change publicly, which allowed him to remain in office for four more years.

Consumerism is 'eating the future' ?

According to this New Scientist article it is. Why is that felt to be true?

One speaker in Albuquerque, epidemiologist Warren Hern of the University of Colorado at Boulder, even likened the expansion of human cities to the growth and spread of cancer, predicting "death" of the Earth in about 2025. He points out that like the accelerated growth of a cancer, the human population has quadrupled in the past 100 years, and at this rate will reach a size in 2025 that leads to global collapse and catastrophe.

But there's worse. Not only are we simply doing what all creatures do: we're doing it better. In recent times we're doing it even faster because of changes in society that encourage and celebrate conspicuous and excessive consumption.

"Biologists have shown that it's a natural tendency of living creatures to fill up all available habitat and use up all available resources," says William Rees of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "That's what underlies Darwinian evolution, and species that do it best are the ones that survive, but we do it better than any other species," he told me prior to the conference.

It's having children for the wrong reasons that makes people upset...

As I read Calling a Truce on the Octuplet Mom the article mentions that the Duggar family who has had 18 children the "normal way" have not gotten the same type of scorn that Nadya Suleman has. In a way that's true but in a way it's not, there were many people who scorned and blogged about the Duggar family in a less than complimentary way and one of the main issues was the exact same concern that was raised in the Suleman saga, who will ultimately end up caring for these children.

Had Suleman gone out and gotten pregnant naturally, people would still question her having that many children, but the mere fact that she artificially created this pregnancy knowing multiple children were going to result is what has so many angry. For the thousands out there trying to conceive, for those concerned about the well being of these children which in part exists because Suleman's own mother is raising some of the concerns.

It is irresponsible to have that many children as a single parent, purposely, especially when you are not the one financially providing for them. It's clear no matter what Suleman says, she's not "earned" the money to pay for her children's needs. Perhaps she has not gone on welfare, but she has taken financial support from her family and she was supposedly to disabled to work due to a back injury. Having been pregnant more than once myself, one wonders how someone who was deemed to be to injured to work could carry that many babies safely.

It's true that companies and communities have dumped dollar upon dollar on other families of multiples and that families have profited or attempted to profit from the media spotlight. I don't agree with that either, especially when it is a non-natural scenario where the couple purposely had that many children. There are many families out there struggling, if you can't be responsible enough to care for multiples without needing corporate sponsorship, community babysitters, etc., then perhaps you shouldn't be surprised when some out there don't agree with the choices you've made...

Chat rooms still "all the rage"

Even with Facebook and Twittering and all of the other social networking out there, there are still many who turn to chat rooms to meet people for friendship and at times when looking for love. One way the chat industry has kept this going is by offering specialized networks, an example would be a Jewish Chat Room, where those who are Jewish can meet and chat beginning with one thing in common. It's this beginning of a common bond that helps break the ice, and why there are more and more of these niche type chat rooms out there.

Take Back the Land

While the group focuses on their belief that African Americans have not been fairly treated when it comes to land ownership, it could realistically be argued that this goes beyond just one race that it's a matter of economic disparity. That said, if you have not read anything about the group, here and here are good places to start.

They also have a blog.

Cooking is an art....

One of my husband's brothers decided that his dreams could be met by attending one of the culinary art schools located in Connecticut where they live. It was amazing to watch some of the things he learned the last time I had an opportunity to see him in action in the kitchen. There are some who feel they are "born to cook" but there are many skills required to actually learn the art of cooking that going to a school that specializes in teaching these skills can move you a head much faster than being self taught.

An avid fan of the food channel, there are times when I think about taking a class or two, while I have been cooking for over 40 years, I'm sure there are some tips and tricks I could learn. Not to mention I've always wanted to have one of those small torches to brown things...With a fire extinguisher near by of course...

Don't text and drive should be common sense...

Reading this part of an article made me laugh:

I would not like them here or there.
I would not like them anywhere
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Do you like to text and drive?
Would you like to stay alive?
Driving while you write with thumb?
Holy crap! You’re really dumb!

People should have enough brains to realize that texting while driving is stupid, unfortunately, it appears many don't...

Marketing to your face...

I'm old enough that I remember a time before any acne products existed at all, when you never heard of products like Proactiv and the big marketing aspect was soap. Facial soap then lead to an increasing product line of other skin care products which then turned to acne products. What's interesting is that this also closely followed the increase of television, and when the focus became more and more on looks...

It seems to be baby time of year...

Recently the numbe of baby shower invitations have been coming in almost on a scale larger than the graduation party announcements. Part of it is because as my children grow older and their friends begin to marry and/or have children it's natural that having been involved in many of their lives in their before parenting days that they'd want to share the celebration of the birth of their first or second child. It's also been reported that more babies are born in August and September in the US which if you count back nine months, it's easy to speculate as to why.

:-)