Taylor Hicks? GoFish

Taylor Hicks videos on gofish. I don't know how long they'll last but enjoy them while you can. Also some Elliott Yamin. But not much of the others.

Audition (Taylor)

Taking It To The Streets (Taylor)

Levon (Taylor)

Knocks Me Off My Feet (Elliott)

Teach Me Tonight (Elliott)

Happiness grows on trees

American cities are short on trees, and the overload of concrete and asphalt landscapes has become a drain on people's well-being, experts say.

Aside from taking in carbon dioxide and generating life-giving oxygen, trees and greenery also clean the air and water, help sick people get well, encourage children to pay attention and give hope to those living in despair, researchers say.

Health Daily

Dr. Mark Wiley writes, "In the Spring of 2004, a group of wellness and lifestyle conscience writers, editors and researchers approached me about building an on-line community where like-minded seekers of optimal health could feel at home, read the latest and share ideas and stories about their health and wellness trials and successes."

The result of that effort is Health Daily.

Damn Interesting

Created by a group of writers, this cool site lives up to its name by
providing a daily dose of interesting facts and ideas to the Internet
public. A wonderful website to bookmark, there is always something
fascinating to read that will no doubt have you saying to yourself,
"Wow, that is Damn Interesting!!"

Scroll the various sections of the site, which include interesting
facts from the subjects of "History", "Space Exploration", "Gray
Matter", "The World of Tomorrow", "Medical Science", "Wonders of
Nature" and much more.

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America is a television series presented by the History Channel. The series is comprised of 10 films, each created by a different award-winning documentary filmmaker or filmmaking team, spotlighting 10 historic events that triggered seismic shifts in America's political, cultural or social landscape. Using a range of storytelling techniques including re-creations, animation, interviews, archival footage, and historical articles, the series offers viewers a fresh perspective on well-known historical incidents while also shining a light on the tremendous impact of less frequently cited events.

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets

garlic the wonder drug

There's an invincible weapon against disease and infection--a cure-it-all remedy that kills any virus it comes in contact with. That includes the most feared biological agents like anthrax, ebola, and H5N1 (the infamous bird flu virus). No known germ has ever managed to develop a resistance to it. It is proven to wipe out cancer cells without harming healthy cells, and it clears plaque-clogged arteries like a charm.

Why haven't you heard about this wonder drug?

Because it's not a drug. It's a food, and its name is garlic.

* * *

Maybe. Maybe not.

there's good fat and bad fat

There's good fat, there's bad fat and there's truly horrible, heinous, reprehensible fat -- the Voldemort of the fat world, a fat so hideous and evil that it's despised by nutritionists and cardiologists the world over.

Trans fat -- shudder! -- is beyond bad. It's so bad, in fact, that it earned the label "metabolic poison" from Harvard School of Public Health professor Walter Willett.

Not satisfied with merely increasing your bad cholesterol, trans fat (short for "trans fatty acids") manages to lower your good cholesterol, too. It occurs naturally in low levels in milk and beef, but most of the trans fat in the American diet comes from 45,000 food products, everything from cookies to fries to Twinkies.

-- Star Bulletin, 4/2/06

The New Medicine

The New Medicine – a two-hour documentary that premiered March 29 on PBS (check local listings for future broadcasts) – explores a burgeoning movement taking place in hospitals and clinics across the country: integrating the best of high-tech medicine with a new attitude that recognizes it is essential to the healing process to treat the patient as a whole person, and not a cog in an assembly line.

The New Medicine suggests that medical practice in America may be on the brink of a transformation. As scientific findings reveal that the mind plays a critical role in the body’s capacity to heal, the medical community has begun to integrate this new understanding into effective treatment strategies that take Western medicine to the next level.

-- from Cool Tricks and Trinkets #397

why eat breakfast?

Heed this mantra because your breakfast is THE most important meal of the day. It literally breaks your overnight fast, which can last from 12 to 16 hours depending on what time you had dinner the previous night.

It helps you recharge your energy levels in the morning, which if not boosted will make you feel tired and hungry; you could end up snacking on high calorie snacks or overeat at lunch. Eating breakfast also stimulates the metabolism, which may slow down overnight.

Why breakfast is a MUST

Having trouble concentrating at work or studies? Feeling grouchy or lethargic? Here's why.

~ Memory is the worst affected by hunger as the brain requires a minute-to-minute supply of glucose for its normal functioning. Breakfast helps replenish the blood glucose levels, which in turn is the brain's fuel.

~ Research conducted across the world has shown that children who eat breakfast think faster and clearly, solve problems more easily and are less likely to be fidgety and irritable early in the day.

While those who go hungry to school are poor learners as skipping breakfast has a direct effect on a child's scholastic performance. They are not as adept at selecting the information they need to solve problems. Their ability to recall and use new information, verbal fluency and attentiveness are all affected by hunger.

~ People who skip breakfast have less energy and slower reactions. They are unable to concentrate and think fast and may suffer stomach aches, headaches and feel grouchy.

~ Skipping breakfast makes you so hungry by lunch time that you become a victim of the 'gobble syndrome,' which is bad for the stomach as the secretion of the digestive juices does not match with the rapid food intake. Also by eating fast, one tends to overeat.

~ Research studies have also shown that the human body tends to accumulate more fat when a person eats fewer, larger meals than when the same number of calories was consumed in smaller, more frequent meals.

kung fu healing

In China, birthplace of martial arts, if you announce yourself as a kung-fu fighter, sick people will approach you as if "wushu" were a Mandarin word for "healer."

In other words, it is assumed in the East that a master of fighting is also a wellness expert.

a good nazi

NANJING, China — From the outside it does not look like much: the shell of a two-story brick building with scaffolding running up its sides and, on a drizzly winter day, a pair of construction workers kicking around in a courtyard littered with building materials.

But 69 years ago the courtyard was filled with hundreds of Chinese seeking refuge from Japanese troops who were rampaging through the city, then China’s capital. The invaders subjected Nanjing to a six-week reign of terror, killing large numbers of Chinese soldiers who had thrown down their weapons and murdering and raping thousands of civilians.

The property was the home of John Rabe, a Nazi Party member and employee of Siemens. In addition to sheltering people in his own compound, Mr. Rabe led a score of other foreigners in the city to form an international safety zone that shielded more than 200,000 Chinese from the Japanese.

April 5th

On Wednesday, April 5th, 2006: at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

This will not ever happen again in your lifetime.

Cool, huh!

The 8 Virtues

President Hu Jintao has a message for Chinese who are greedy, lazy or unpatriotic: Be ashamed, be very ashamed. Mr Hu's list of eight do's and don'ts was unveiled during the meeting of parliament that ended this week.

"Love, do not harm the motherland.

"Uphold science; don't be ignorant and unenlightened.

"Serve, don't disserve the people.

"Work hard; don't be lazy and hate work.

"Be united and help each other; don't gain benefits at the expense of others.

"Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense of your values.

"Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of chaotic and lawless.

"Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures."

-- starbulletin, 3/16/06 --