Yesterday and Today

I saw these photos of France from WW2 and then the same locations present day and it's just amazing how much of the original structures are still standing. I think the things those walls must have seen... amazing.
To see the pics, click here.

Jones' BBQ and Foot Massage

LOL. Funniest crap ever.

The Cucumber and Weight Loss

A few months back I went on this binge of water consumption and cucumbers. The change I saw in the two week period was shocking. I lost 12 pounds. I was going through some other health issues at the time and I wasn't sure if it was the diet I had or something else. So, this last week, I decided to repeat it as an experiment.

Here's what my diet consists of-

• Breakfast- 8 oz. of bottled water
• Lunch - WHATEVER I WANT :D weeee!!
• Dinner- Half of a large cucumber.
• Water all day long
  

It sounds like a starvation diet, huh? Wrong. It's not. I've been doing research on this. Guess what- I could be onto something. In six days already, I lost 3 pounds. That's pretty fast. Also I don't feel as hungry all the time. Yes, there is temptation to pig out but I think that's a mixture of boredom and social conditioning of the culture I live in. Also, don't snack on junk food; that's obvious but veggies and fruit is fine.

I did some research on the cucumber and I found some pretty awesome things about it... check it out! :D


The cucumber has a very long history in this world, going back to almost 3000 plus years of cultivation by humans. From what the reports say it has originated from Asia and it moved gradually through China to Europe (Italy, Greece and France in about 8-9th century). You will find mention about the cucumber in England around the 10th century, and it took another good 500 years to reach America.

Wherever it went, the cucumber became a hot favorite owing to the fact that it was tasty and cool while eaten – mainly raw. In many parts of the world the cucumber is also eaten pickled and/or cooked as any other vegetable. The pickle cucumber is usually a small species called gherkin (from German ‘gurke’ for cucumber), which is a little sweetish in taste.

The cucumber has great antioxidant properties, being very rich in both Vitamins C and A. It also offers manganese, potassium, tryptophan, molybdenum and a good deal of fiber when consumed. Cucumber has been used with great success in weight loss diets, which have worked just great because the cucumber is also a great diuretic. What is a diuretic, you would ask. Well, a diuretic is any chemical (or drug), which encourages the removal of fluids form the body. When used in the right proportions, a diuretic would accelerate the metabolism and expel with the waste fluids a good deal of fat cells as well – just as a large flush of water would wash away whatever it crosses in its path. The diuretics are, as a matter of fact, capable (and often do) to break down large fatty deposits into tiny pieces, which can be easily flushed out from your body. In this process, you will loose your fat cells in a rapid and systematic manner while at the same time remove the excess water from the body as well.

It has been observed often that when people adopt a diet that consists mainly of cucumber – taken raw or in the form of juice – its properties affect the body’s fat and the excess water, both of which are systematically eliminated. The result is that you will find a drastic reduction in weight over a relatively small period of time. This effect is also owed to the high silicon and sulphur content of the cucumber, which by nature act as stimulants to the kidney to flush out the uric acid that has accumulated in the body.

Along with this uric acid, the kidney would also be instrumental in gradually breaking down the fat layers and expelling the tiny fat particles through the waste products that the kidneys siphon out of the body. In this manner in no time the body would rid itself off most of the fat accumulated under the skin and other parts of the body through the excreted fluids.

The result is a glowing looking you, thinner and healthier as well!

Is Obamamania Fading Amonst the Media?

Written by Alan Caruba...

The day following President Obama’s State of the Union speech I opened my daily newspaper to read the headline “What the president said and what the facts say.” It was an Associated Press story and it drove a tank through the President’s various promises and assertions.

The AP reporters weren’t the only people who had some doubts. A Reuters news story confirmed my prediction, noting that “Stocks fell on Wednesday as investors found little new in a major speech by President Obama on how he planned to stabilize the economy, while gloomy home sales data weighed on the market.”

Facts are stubborn things. Eventually they cannot be ignored.

I have previously pointed out that this new President’s start in office has had what is surely the shortest “honeymoon” on record with both the public and the media. We’re not talking about FDR’s famous “first hundred days.” We are talking 56 days as this is being written.

There is, I suspect, a growing feeling among both the public and the media that this recession, if the White House and Congress had done NOTHING, would have run its course. All recessions do. But Obama came out almost immediately calling it a “catastrophe” in order to gin up support for a “stimulus” bill that surely had been in the works for the last two years that Democrats had control of Congress, but were unable to get passed because of a potential presidential veto by George W. Bush.

All that pent-up desire, for example, to reverse the welfare reform that occurred in 1996 after the GOP had gained control of Congress and for which then President Clinton took credit is now being undone. Never mind that it required people to find work in order to qualify for assistance. Never mind that it greatly reduced the cost of welfare to both the federal and state governments.

But I digress. While it is undeniably true that Obama knows how to deliver a speech, it is increasingly evident that he has great difficulty delivering the truth. Even his birth certificate is in doubt. The Hawaiian document put forth during the campaign has been declared a forgery by experts and a bad one at that.

There is no need for me to repeat what others have said about the contents of the State of the Union speech. It was a political statement, full of dubious promises and claims. I have this vision of a small group of historians some years far from now sitting around like a group of Talmudic scholars and laughing hysterically over what Obama said.

The problem for the rest of us, however, is that there is NOTHING to laugh at in his speech and the initial reaction of Wall Street had a lot of investors bailing out. The market will surely regain some, lose some, regain some, lose some. The operative word is “fluctuate.” Still, it is a window to how the speech was received by real people dealing in real money.

If the economy does improve, it will not be due to anything in the “stimulus” bill. It will be because a lot of people, small businesses and large, will make their own private bet that they must invest in their own future. Others will take advantage of the low housing prices and interest rates on mortgages. It’s called capitalism.

If public opinion about Obama is this tepid less than two months into his administration, I suspect the polls will report a continued dip in his numbers. This happened to the unlamented Jimmy Carter whose failure to deal with a recession and the taking of hostages by the Iranians gave him one term in office. I’m only surprised he has not moved to Iran and run for president there.

As to the Republicans, they are being handed the 2010 Congress on a platter. What they need is a real leader. Gov. Bobby Jindal is not that man. Louisiana, home of the populist Huey Long who gave FDR indigestion, is famed more for its history of corruption and general ineptitude than, say, Indiana, whose Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels was re-elected because of---not despite of---real fiscal prudence.

There are some potentially strong Republicans who could give Obama a real run in 2012. The party did the right thing in opposing the “stimulus” bill, but now it has to find some real courage and carry the fight to him every step of the way. It’s time to take the gloves off.

All this talk about being non-partisan makes me want to puke.

Early signs the media is already having second thoughts and buyer’s remorse must be acted upon before those sheep lead the other sheep over the cliff. Again.

President Obamanation.

A fun little tribute vid :D

Okay so I am a geek; I admit and I'm proud of who am. One of the things I do as a geek is make homages to awesomely epic movies that I love. Here is one that I made to my favorite fantasy movie of all time- Lord Of The Rings (I count all 3 as one movie).

Super Useless

This is an awesome blog and pretty funny. Check it out!
Super Useless Super Powers