This Popular Mechanics article was written 4 years ago.

(popularmechanics.com) The fact that New Orleans has not already sunk is a matter of luck. If slightly different paths had been followed by Hurricanes Camille, which struck in August 1969, Andrew in August 1992 or George in September 1998, today we might need scuba gear to tour the French Quarter.
“In New Orleans, you never get above sea level, so you’re always going to be isolated during a strong hurricane,” says Kay Wilkins of the southeast Louisiana chapter of the American Red Cross.

Read Full Story: New Orleans Is Sinking

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(bankrate.com) Motivating yourself to save money for unexpected events such as a job loss or a major medical bill is difficult. It is more fun and somehow easier to stash away money for an immediate goal such as a new stereo system, summer vacation or the latest fashions.
But building and maintaining a savings cushion is vital for your financial health. Most financial experts recommend having a minimum of three months’ worth of living expenses set aside in case of an emergency.

Read Full Story: 15 simple ways to squeeze your budget

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(lifesite.net) A new study has revealed that unborn babies cry within the womb. Ultrasound videos taken of infants within the womb revealed 28-week-old babies crying in response to a noise stimulus.

Read Full Story: New Study Finds Babies Cry in the Womb – “Even the Bottom Lip Quivers”

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(whig.com) Members of the Quincy/Adams County 911 Governing Board have hired a Canton, Ill., firm to build the emergency dispatch center near 52nd and Broadway.

Work should begin within weeks, with completion expected before the middle of 2006, according to board chairman John Johnson.

“When it all is said and done, Adams County and Quincy, Ill., will have an enhanced 911 system in a state-of-the-art building, with a proper backup in the old courthouse building that will make us much more secure. It’s kind of a quality of life thing,” Johnson said.

Read Full Story: Quincy Herald Whig

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(publish.com) It’s no disrespect to the technology to replace the term RSS with something like Web feeds, just a friendlier public face.

Read Full Story: RSS Is a Label We Don’t Need to See

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(catholic.org) For Frank and Sally Casey of the Fargo Diocese, practicing natural family planning has been good for their marriage.
“It keeps us honest with each other and it forces us, even sometimes against our will, to be realistic about what size our family should be and when we should have our children in terms of God’s will, not our culturally formed will,” Sally Casey told The New Earth, Fargo’s diocesan newspaper.

Read Full Story: Catholic Online - Cathcom - Couple says natural family planning has been good for their marriage

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(cnsnews.com) Sen. Richard Durbin will vote against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in the Senate Judiciary Committee if Roberts disagrees with the Illinois Democrat’s view that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to abortion. But that vote would directly contradict Durbin’s beliefs as expressed in a 1989 letter to a constituent.

The recipient of that letter, Frank Tureskis, says he feels “violated” by Durbin’s abandonment of the right-to-life position. He lived in Springfield, Ill., when Durbin was running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1981.

Read Full Story: Constituent ‘Violated’ by Durbin Change on Abortion — 08/18/2005

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(bankrate.com) When’s the best time to buy an appliance? If you think you should wait until yours breaks, think again. As you indefinitely put off a decision, you’re likely paying much higher utility bills because of the inefficiency of your old appliances.

The recent energy bill signed into law by the president will soon provide tax credits to manufacturers of energy-efficient dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators that meet the latest efficiency standards and may also result in rebates for consumers. Regardless, consumers will benefit when purchasing high-efficiency appliances by paying lower utility bills.

Read Full Story: Time to replace home appliances? (Page 1 of 2)

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(startupjournal.com) Six years ago, Neil Kugelman found himself puzzling over the very first customer to arrive at the Web site he had launched to sell jewelry online.
The order: a $496 men’s diamond ring. The North Carolina address didn’t match the address tied to the credit card. The shipping address was different still. Mr. Kugelman tried to telephone the customer, but the number didn’t work. His email bounced back. He was no expert on fraud, but neither was he born yesterday. He spiked the order.
“Our first order — order No. 1 — was fraudulent,” he marvels.
Since then, as family-controlled Goldspeed.com Inc. grew from a basement start-up to a 10-person operation that fills more than 50,000 orders a year, Mr. Kugelman has taught himself to regard each and every customer as a potential online crook — and with good reason. He says fraudulent orders have risen to a staggering 30% of the total, up from just 5% when he started.

Read Full Story: StartupJournal | E-Commerce

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(bankrate.com) Red Sox vs. Yankees. Seat up vs. seat down. Microsoft vs. Apple. To the list of issues people feel irrationally passionate about, add one more: Whether it’s more economical to drive with windows down or with the air conditioning on.

Read Full Story: Will rolling down windows save fuel or not?

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Found this one on Mike’s blog.

(bbc.co.uk) In August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Fourteen years on, he tells BBC Newsnight’s Mark Lawson how blogging is closer to his original idea about a read/write web.

Read Full Story: BBC NEWS | Technology | Berners-Lee on the read/write web

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(cnsnews.com) Two days after the birth of Susan Anne Catherine Torres and the death of her brain-dead mother, pro-life groups now believe this “miracle baby” will help preserve life and convince abortion rights supporters to switch sides.

“It will cause people to stop and think twice about abortion and what the truth and the reality of it is,” Amber Dolle, media director for the pro-life group, American Life League, told Cybercast News Service.

“[The birth of Susan Anne Catherine] really helps people that maybe have sat on the fence and don’t know if the child living in the womb is really a person … to see that this is a living human person [who] we need to do all we can to protect by nature and by law in this country,” Dolle said.

“It has shown the humanity of the child in the womb,” she added.

Read Full Story: Pro-Life Groups Say Torres Baby’s Birth Will Sway Opposition

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(cnet.com) The most astounding thing about the dot-com boom was the obscene amount of money that was spent. Zealous venture capitalists fell over themselves to invest millions in Internet start-ups; dot-coms blew millions on spectacular marketing campaigns; new college graduates became instant millionaires (albeit on paper) and rushed out to spend it; and companies with unproven business models executed massive IPOs with sky-high stock prices. Of course, we all know what eventually happened to this world. Few of these companies actually made enough money to recoup that cash, and when their investors fled to the hills, these start-ups died dramatic deaths. These are the celebrity victims of the new-economy bust.

Read Full Story: Top 10 dot-com flops - CNET.com

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(msn.com) Add it up: cigarettes, dry cleaning, insurance, breath mints. And the toll doesn’t stop there — it could even cost you your job.

If the threat of cancer can’t convince you to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.

The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance and lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits. And now, being a smoker can not only mean you don’t get hired — you can get fired, too: Weyco Inc., a medical benefits administrator in Okemos, Mich., after announcing it would no longer employ smokers, fired four employees who refused to submit to a breath test.

Read Full Story: The high cost of smoking

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(msn.com) Top parenting pros share some of their worst goofs — and show how moms and dads can turn their mistakes into the best lessons of all.

Guess what, parents? You’re not perfect. Even the most dedicated and insightful moms and dads make mistakes when it comes to raising kids.

The good news is that kids, and families in general, are resilient. You can’t erase your worst parenting moments, but with a little bit of insight and introspection, you can keep from repeating them and can use those experiences to the benefit of everyone in the family.

Read Full Story: MSN Family/Raising Kids

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(msn.com) Have you ever wondered why your teeth chatter when you’re cold, or if you could really catch a disease from sitting on a toilet seat?
New York physician Billy Goldberg, pestered by unusual questions at cocktail parties and other social gatherings over the years, puts the public’s mind at ease in his book “Why Do Men Have Nipples?”

Read Full Story: New book answers why men have nipples - More Health News - MSNBC.com

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(illinois.gov) Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn awarded a $20,000 Wireless Main Street grant today to Historic Quincy Business District’s Executive Director Karol Ehmen for the group’s innovative approach to deliver a wireless network to the community.

Twelve Illinois Main Street communities applied for the grant but only Quincy and Mt. Vernon won the nod. A unique component of Quincy’s proposal aims to extend the wireless network from the downtown business district to the Mississippi River, so boaters can also log on to the World Wide Web.

Read Full Story: QUINN AWARDS $20,000 WIRELESS MAIN STREET GRANT TO HISTORIC BUSINESS DISTRICT IN QUINCY

Posted in Quincy, WiFi/WiMax | No Comments »

(zdnet.com) Instead of hunting for hotspots, I pay $45 for unlimited data transfer on a 3G-rated EVDO network that lets me connect most anywhere. Is it worth the price? You tell me.

Read Full Story: » My EVDO will beat your WiFi any day (well just about)

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Found this one on Mike’s Blog:

(in-forum.com)
A man upset about a $120 speeding ticket satisfied his fine Monday by paying Clay County District Court in pennies.
But the intended statement to upset the court may have backfired when a judge forced the man to wait around until the change was counted.

Read Full Story: One, two, three … : Judge one-ups man who pays $120 fine in pennies

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(cnet.com) Working in the online world during the late 1990s was like entering a new country. The customs were different (long hours but lots of zany perks), the clothes were different (casual Friday every day) and even the language was different. Dot-commers needed a whole new way to describe their fast-paced world, so they came up with a unique lexicon of trendy buzzwords to distinguish themselves from their old-economy friends. Most of the words would make a grammar purist scream in terror, but that didn’t stop many people from using them in a meeting with a straight face.

Read Full Story: Top 10 buzzwords - CNET.com

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(washingtonpost.com) A cancer-stricken woman declared brain-dead three months ago gave birth yesterday to a baby girl at an Arlington hospital.

Susan Torres of Arlington was about 15 weeks pregnant when she was felled by a brain tumor in May, but she was hooked up to a ventilator and other machines in the slim hope that her baby might survive.

Susan Torres’s cancer spread from her brain to her other vital organs. (AP)
She had hoped for a girl, and at 8:18 a.m. yesterday Susan Anne Catherine Torres was delivered by Caesarean section at Virginia Hospital Center. The newborn weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces and was 13.5 inches long.

Read Full Story: Brain-Dead Va. Woman Gives Birth

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(chicagotribune.com) Cell-phone users are asked to program into their phones the names and numbers of people they want contacted preceded by the acronym I.C.E., for “in case of emergency.” That way, if paramedics and emergency personnel locate a cell phone, they can contact someone right away.

Read Full Story: Chicago Tribune | I.C.E. your cell, police say

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(chicagotribune.com) President Bush said Monday he believes schools should discuss “intelligent design” alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

Read Full Story: Chicago Tribune | Bush: Intelligent Design Should Be Taught

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