TODAY IS MONDAY - MARCH 23, 2009

The Morning Show
with
Jim & Karen
on
Spirit FM

LIFE CHANGING WORD

LOVE DARE # 31

Love and Marriage

A man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

This verse is God’s original blueprint for how marriage is suppose to work. In involves tearing away and a knitting together. It reconfigures existing relationships while establishing a brand new one. Marriage changes everything.
Couple who do not take this “leaving “ and “cleaving” message to heart will reap the consequences down the line when the problems are much harder to repair without hurting someone.

Are you and your spouse still living with unresolved issues because of a failure to cut the apron strings? Do either of your parents continue to create problems within your home – perhaps without their even knowing it?

TODAY’S DARE: Is there a “leaving issue you haven’t been brave enough to conquer yet? Confess it to your spouse today, and resolve to make it right. The oneness of your marriage is dependent upon it. Follow this with a commitment to your spouse and to God to make your own marriage the top priority over every other human relationship.


TODAY IS…..

This month the World Wide Web is celebrating its 20th birthday. The World Wide Web - one small step for computer related technology -- one giant leap for clicking.
Today is National Chip and Dip Day.

Today is Cuddly Kitten Day.

Today is National Puppy Day. In one day, sponsors hope to save 10,000 homeless puppies across the nation.

1743: Handel's "Messiah" premiered in London. King George rose to his feet during the "Hallelujah Chorus," prompting the entire audience to rise and creating a tradition that remains during live Messiah performances to this day.

1775: Patrick Henry made his famous call for American independence from Britain, telling the Virginia Provincial Convention, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" On this day in 1775 Patrick Henry screamed, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Today, to mark the occasion, the American taxpayer will scream, "Give me a break!"

1998: The movie Titanic won 11 Oscars, tying Ben Hur for most Academy Awards won by a single film. In 2004, Lord Of The Rings, The Return Of The King also won took home 11 Oscars.



In The News…..

March Madness Hurting Productivity at Work
Statistics show when the NCAA college basketball tournament rolls around, there's just not as much getting done.
The employment consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas estimated that March Madness "watching" cost employers as much as $1.7 billion in wasted time last year and this year could be worse.


Wal-Mart Bonuses
Wal-Mart is handing out $933 million worth of bonuses to every one of its hourly employees. It's encouraging news for the dozens of former AIG executives who are now working part-time at Wal-Mart.


Buick Wins
Buick is now the #1 car model for customer reliability according to the latst J.D. Power & Associates survey. It turns out the one guy in America who owns a Buick really likes it!


JD Power and Associates says Buick and Jaguar are tied as the most reliable new cars on the market. Both of them dethroned Lexus for the first time.
Toyota won awards for five of its models — more than any other nameplate


In Geneva, Switzerland, researchers announced the results of a two-year study, which concluded that women's underarms typically smell like onions, while men's underarms more often smell like gouda cheese.


"President Barack Obama has apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics for his late-night talk show quip equating his bowling skills to those of athletes with disabilities."

Well, you know what they say: "An apology is a good way to have the last word."

Evidently a lot of people need help apologizing. There is even a website that specializes in "I'm Sorry"poems:

http://www.perfectapology.com/im-sorry-poems.html

"The top bowler for the Special Olympics looks forward to meeting President Barack Obama in an alley. Michigan's Kolan McConiughey said: 'He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily.' McConiughey, who is mentally disabled, is just the bowler for the job. He's bowled five perfect games since 2005. The 35-year-old McConiughey has been bowling since he was 8 or 9. His advice for Obama? Practice every day."



"The Clorox Company is offering a $5,000 reward and a year's supply of toilet cleaning products for tips leading to the arrest of San Francisco's notorious portable potty pyromaniac.

The Oakland-based chemical company deployed a 'potty patrol' team in the city to make residents aware of its offer marrying marketing and community service.
Since November, more than two dozen construction site toilets have been set on fire in the city, causing an estimated $50,000 in property damage and leaving a trail of foul-smelling evidence."



Sometimes Homemade Can Save BIG bucks!

Here's the grand total for a year's supply of spaghetti sauce:
Ragu (two jars a week): $286
Make it yourself, with ingredients from a local grocery store: $166.63
Make it yourself, with ingredients from Sam's Club: $89.68
That means with some smart shopping and a little labor, you could save between $120 and $200 a year ... just on spaghetti sauce.
Make it yourself? It's a chore, sure. But the savings in this particular case add up quickly.



Another Effort to Keep You and Your Kids Safe

Doctors are warning kids across the country to stop "smoking Smarties" -- a fad they say can lead to infections, chronic coughing, choking and even maggots feeding off sugary dust in your nose.

Adolescents and teens have been crushing and inhaling candy, and then exhaling it, in an effort to look as though they’re smoking cigarettes, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Countless youths have even posted how-to videos, like this one on YouTube, of themselves engaging in this behavior.

Health experts fear the behavior may lead to harmful conditions. Some kids have already shown signs of developing a “smoker’s cough.” Oren Friedman, a Mayo Clinic nose specialist, cautioned that frequent use could lead to infections or even worse, albeit rare, conditions, such as maggots inside the nose.

The trend came as a surprise to officials at Summit Middle School in Frisco, Colo., in the fall when a clique of sixth graders started “smoking” Smarties -- a popular, disk-shaped sugar candy.

Though they call it “smoking,” the kids aren’t actually lighting a match to the candy. Instead, they crush it into a fine powder in its wrapper, draw it into their mouths and then blow it out in a cloud of dust.

The fad worries Corinne McGrew, the school nurse at Summit School District. "My biggest concern was that they would aspirate the wrapper or a whole Smarties and it would be a choking hazard," she told the Wall Street Journal.

The problem is happening all over the country — and Smarties isn’t the only candy of concern, said Eric Ostrow, vice president of sales and marketing at Ce De Candy Inc., which manufactures Smarties in Union, N.J.

“It can be done with anything made with sugar and compressed — Necco Wafers, Conversation Hearts, SweeTarts, Lik-M-Aid is already pulverized and so is Pixy Styx,” Ostrow told the Journal. “I don’t want to be complimented that we’re the number one choice.”



94% of Facebook Users Give a Thumbs Down to the New Design

So there's a new Facebook app out there, designed to poll users on the social network's latest redesign. The results? Hundreds of thousands have responded. 94 percent give it a thumbs-down. Ouch.

Comments range from "WHY FIX IT, WHEN IT WASN'T BROKE, you will be SORRYYYYYYYYYYY" to "It feels counterintuitive and less technologically advanced than the last layout."

Now, this is clearly not an official vote. Chances are, you're not going to install a third-party polling application with the sole purpose of voicing an opinion on the new Facebook design unless you're really opinionated about it. So the 94 percent might be kind of high.

But still. Facebook is so big now - over 175 million members - that even an interface change may throw many of the less technical users completely off-guard. And from what we've heard, non-geeks really do find the new design more difficult to use. The new site, particularly the activity feeds on member profiles, really do look different. The blurring between status messages and wall posts doesn't make much sense in my opinion - though I do like the improved news feed filtering tools.

The new layout is a forward-thinking one, inspired by streaming content services like Twitter. Executives from Facebook have said that they see "the stream" as the next evolution of how we interact on the Web.

Facebook's last redesign was finalized in September. That's only six months ago. If a site is putting out changes every six months that a mainstream audience sees as drastic, they could get fed up with it fast.



GOOGLE Introduces “Un-Do Send Feature

Oh dear. You didn't really mean to send that nasty e-mail to your boss, did you?
Until Thursday, your only recourse would have been the "rescind e-mail" in corporate versions of Microsoft Outlook. And that only works under certain conditions, and is useless if your boss has already opened the message.

Now Google's stepped up to the plate to save your bacon.

Its "Undo Send" feature, just added to Gmail, actually holds your outgoing e-mails for 5 seconds, giving you enough time to say "Ulp!" and cancel delivery.

To turn it on, sign in to your Gmail account, click "Settings," click on the "Labs" header and scroll almost all the way down the page to "Undo Send."

Then breathe a bit easier.



The Rapping Flight Attendant is Now A YouTube Hit!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5015315/Air-steward-who-raps-safety-announcement-becomes-YouTube-hit.html

David Holmes made the unusual preflight announcement to entertain customers on the flight and to relieve his own boredom with the familiar routine.

He was captured on video asking passengers to "stomp and clap" while he rapped the instructions over the public address system.

"Shortly after take-off, first things first/there's soft drinks and coffee to quench your first," he announced. "Carry-on items go under the seat/in front of you so none of you have things by your feet.

"Before we leave, our advice is/put away your electronic devices."

The lyrical announcement was made to passengers on a Southwest Airlines domestic flight to Oklahoma City in the United States, one of whom recorded it on camera and posted it on YouTube where it has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

"I've had five flights today and I can't do the regular boring announcement again otherwise I am going to put myself to sleep," said David in the video.

"If you have a seat on a row with an exit/we're gonna talk to you so you might as well expect it. You gotta help us out in case we need you/if you don't want to then we're gonna reseat you."

The rap finished to a roar of applause from passengers.

Speaking about his musical entertainment Mr Holmes said: "I didn't know how they were going to react, but I like to have fun at work. People started getting off the plane and said to me 'that's the first time I have listened to the emergency instructions'."



President Obama’s Gift to British PM Doesn’t Work

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship – or "special partnership", as we are now supposed to call it – by registering a complaint.

A Downing Street spokesman said he was "confident" that any gift Obama gave Brown would have been "well thought through," but referred me to the White House for assistance on the "technical aspects".

A White House spokesman sniggered when I put the story to him and he was still looking into the matter when my deadline came last night.

By the way, when Obama's unlikely gift was disclosed, a reader emailed me to ask if Clueless was among the films. Funnily enough, it was not.

Brown, on the other hand, presented a rather more thoughtful gift to the American President in the form of a penholder carved from the timbers of an anti-slavery ship. The sister ship, in fact, of the one that was broken up and turned into the desk in the Oval Office.