5/28/10

Rawhide Dog Chews can be Dangerous

Rawhide dog bones and chews can be a great treat for your pet. However, there are dangers you need to be aware of. The past few weeks have shown me that these products can be dangerous to your pet’s health.

Last month, our 3 year old Sheltie was happily chewing away when, suddenly, he began to choke and gag. He came to me heaving and nothing would come up. I tried to find what was lodged in his throat, but couldn’t reach it.

Upon calling our vet, we raced him over and she sedated him and probed for the cause. I knew it was a piece of rawhide. After he came awake, he tried to vomit but couldn’t. He was given an inducer and threw up a little.

That night, he started vomiting blood. He was restless all night and I sat up with him and held him so he could get some rest. In the morning, he was resting comfortably, when he suddenly went limp. His gums were purple and breathing ragged.

We raced to the vet; she put him on fluids, sedated him and took x-rays. He almost died.

The problem was a large chunk, the size of a golf ball, stuck in his small intestine, just below the opening of the stomach.

When he was stabilized, surgery was performed, the obstruction removed and he was sewn back up and kept for observation for a few days.

He seemed to perk up, was sent home with pain meds and antibiotics and a bland diet. The next day, he was listless and running a temperature of 106, very dangerous. Back to the vet, more x-rays and the vet had to go in and remove 3 inches of his small intestine. The blockage of the rawhide had caused necrosis, or rotting, of that part of his intestine.

Another few days of observation and he was sort of back to his old self. He was sent home with more pain meds and antibiotic, bland diet and to be watched carefully with frequent temperature checks.

I can happily say that now, 3 weeks later, he is back to his normal self. He is eating regularly, drinking, playing and alive. But 2 surgeries, thousands of dollars later and weeks of recovery, just because of a piece of rawhide, have shown us that we will not be using it any longer.

Large dogs seem to swallow and digest rawhide better than small dogs. Their stomach and intestines are larger, therefore allowing larger pieces to pass through. However, there is always a chance that it can become an obstruction.

If you give your dog rawhide, natural is easier to digest than man-made. And small dogs should not be given large pieces of rawhide. There are sticks available that are sufficient for the small dog to chew instead of chips or bones.

Our vet suggested an alternative to rawhide chews. Give your dog dental sticks or bones. These are made to break up when chewed so no large pieces are ingested and they break down without problem in the system. They are made of natural ingredients so there is nothing foreign in the body.

So, if you are giving your dog rawhide, please monitor him carefully. If the piece he is chewing gets too small, take it away from him. If your small dog is trying to swallow a large piece, again, take it away.

Rawhide is a popular toy/treat for dogs. I have shared my experience with you to show you the risks that are involved. I really hope that you never have to go through what we did these past few weeks. Proper use and monitoring of this product can save you a lot of problems.

5/27/10

Drake f/ Jay-Z - Light Up (Tags)

shouts I.G.O.D.

Red Cafe - No Witnesses (Mixtape)

http://www.datpiff.com/pop-mixtape-download.php?id=m07aa354

PackFM - I F*cking Hate Rappers

shouts I.G.O.D.

T.I. f/ Keri Hilson - Got Your Back

shouts I.G.O.D. 

Raekwon - Alphabet Soup

shouts I.G.O.D.

Donny Goines f/ Asher Roth, Mistah Fab & Rapper Big Pooh - Rock NYC (LGA/JFK Remix)

shouts I.G.O.D.
 

5/26/10

Lil Kim has signed to Roc Nation - its official

 

Two-year-old boy smoking at 18 months

This is the two-year-old Indonesian boy who throws a tantrum when his parents refuse him a cigarette.
Ardi Rizal was given his first cigarette by his father when he was just 18-months-old. The smoking toddler was witnessed by a reporter who recently visited his home in the fishing village of Musi Banyuasin, in Indonesia's South Sumatra province.
Two-year-old Ardi Rizal, who was given his first cigarette when he
 was 18-months-old, throws a tantrum when his parents refuse him a 
cigarette Two-year-old Ardi Rizal, who was given his first cigarette when he was 18-months-old, throws a tantrum when his parents refuse him a cigarette  'I'm not worried about his health, he looks healthy,' shrugged the boy's father Mohammad Rizal. He cries and throws tantrums when we don't let him smoke. He's addicted.'
Ardi's youth is the extreme of a disturbing trend. Data from the Central Statistics Agency showed 25 per cent of Indonesian children aged three to 15 have tried cigarettes, with 3.2 per cent of those active smokers. The percentage of five to nine year olds lighting up increased from 0.4 per cent in 2001 to 2.8 per cent in 2004, the agency reported. A video of a four-year-old Indonesian boy blowing smoke rings appeared briefly on YouTube in March, prompting outrage before it was removed from the site. Child advocates are speaking out about the health damage to children from second-hand smoke, and the growing pressure on them to smoke in a country where one-third of the population uses tobacco and single cigarettes can be bought for a few cents.
Seto Mulyadi, chairman of Indonesia's child protection commission, blames the increase on aggressive advertising and parents who are smokers. 'A law to protect children and passive smokers should be introduced immediately in this country,' he said. A health law passed in 2009 formally recognizes that smoking is addictive, and an anti-smoking coalition is pushing for tighter restrictions on smoking in public places, advertising bans and bigger health warnings on cigarette packages. But a bill on tobacco control has been stalled because of opposition from the tobacco industry. The bill would ban cigarette advertising and sponsorship, prohibit smoking in public, and add graphic images to packaging. Benny Wahyudi, a senior official at the Industry Ministry, said the government had initiated a plan to try to limit the number of smokers, including dropping production to 240 billion cigarettes this year, from 245 billion in 2009. 'The government is aware of the impact of smoking on health and has taken efforts, including lowering cigarette production, increasing its tax and limiting smoking areas,' he said. Mr Mulyadi said a ban on advertising is key to putting the brakes on child and teen smoking. 'If cigarette advertising is not banned, there will be more kids whose lives are threatened because of smoking,' he said. Ubiquitous advertising hit a bump last month when a cigarette company was forced to withdraw its sponsorship of pop star Kelly Clarkson's concert following protests from fans and anti-tobacco groups. However, imposing a non-smoking message will be difficult in Indonesia, the world's third-largest tobacco consumer. Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, a member of the National Commission of Tobacco Control, said Indonesia must also address the social conditions that lead to smoking, such as family influence and peer pressure. 'The promotion of health has to be integrated down to the smallest units in our society, from public health centres and local health care centres to the family,' he was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe on Friday. Health Minister Endang Sedyaningsih conceded turning young people off smoking will be difficult in a country where it is perceived as positive because cigarette companies sponsor everything from scholarships to sporting events.'This is the challenge we face in protecting youth from the dangers of smoking,' she said in a statement on the ministry's website.

Gold Plated HDMI V1.4 Male to Micro HDMI Male Shielded Connection Cable (1M-Length)

Sean “Diddy” Combs headphones

5/25/10

Hubble catches planet being devoured by its star

Hubble catches planet being devoured by its star AFP/NASA – This NASA artist's concept image shows that the hottest known planet in the Milky Way galaxy may … 
 
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Hubble space telescope has discovered a planet in our galaxy in the process of being devoured by the star that it orbits, according to a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The doomed planet, dubbed WASP-12b, has the highest known surface temperature of any planet in the Milky Way -- around 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). But it could be enveloped by its own parent star over the next ten million years, the paper's authors have concluded.

Using a new instrument called the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph that was installed on Hubble in 2009, the researchers observed how the planet was whipped into an elongated shape by gravitational forces. "We see a huge cloud of material around the planet, which is escaping and will be captured by the star. We have identified chemical elements never before seen on planets outside our own solar system," team leader Carole Haswell of The Open University in Great Britain said. Discovered in 2008, WASP-12b is located about 600 light-years from Earth in the Auriga Constellation and is more than 300 times the size of Earth.

It also has a mass 40-percent greater than that of Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. It is so close to its parent star that it orbits it in little more than 24 hours. Astronomers already knew that stars will swallow a planet that comes too close to it, but this is the first time that the phenomenon has been observed so clearly.
The paper, which was published in the May 10 edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, confirms a theoretical paper published in the journal Nature last Friday by Shu-lin Li, an astronomer at Peking University in Beijing. Shu-lin had predicted that the planet's surface would be distorted by the star's gravitational pull, and that gravitational tidal forces would make the interior so hot that it would greatly expand its outer atmosphere.

Frozen Yogurt recipes worth trying

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Heidi notes: First off, remember it is important to use good-quality whole-milk yogurt. The version in David's book is Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. This time around I skipped out on the vanilla, opting for straight, bright white yogurt with the sweetness playing off the tang of the yogurt. I also used slightly less sugar than called for here, more like 2/3 cup - but you can go either way depending on what you like.
3 cups (720g) strained yogurt (see below) or Greek-style yogurt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla (if using). Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Refrigerate 1 hour.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
To make 1 cup (240g) of strained yogurt, line a mesh strainer with a few layers of cheese cloth. then scrape 16 ounces or 2 cups (480g) of plain whole-milk yogurt into the cheesecloth. Gather the ends and fold them over the yogurt, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. So, for the above recipe start with and strain 6 cups of yogurt.
Makes about 1 quart.
 
Click here for whereindc's frozen yogurt recipes


Frozen Oreo Yogurt Recipe

This was made before Hydrox cookies were released, but I made some Oreo Yogurt.
  • 1 cup of Greek yogurt (or strained yogurt)
  • 1/4 cup of half-and-half
  • 10 cookies, crumbled
  • 2 TBSP sugar
  • 4 cookies, crumbed
Mix the first four ingredients in the ice cream machine until well mixed (usually 20-30 minutes).  Now mix the last ingredient (4 cookies) into the yogurt you’re going to eat. 
You should do that every time before you eat the yogurt so you have the crunchiness from the cookies. 
Oreo Frozen Yogurt  Oreo Yogurt
It’s still low-fat (considering you’re using Oreo’s), but it’s good.

Frozen Chocolate Yogurt

  • 1 cup of Greek yogurt (or strained yogurt)
  • 4-5 TBSP of dark cocoa powder
  • 4-5 TBSP sugar
  • 1/4 cup of whipped cream
After making chocolate ice cream, I decided I wanted to make chocolate yogurt.  This was pretty good — still the damn tang, but I’m getting used to it.  I’m learning though that if you want to remove the tang, add more fat.  So I find adding 1/4 cup of half-and-half helps.
It was also darker because I added more dark cocoa powder, but that also means you need to add more sugar.
Frozen Chocolate Yogurt  Frozen Chocolate Yogurt
While I loved this recipe for vanilla ice cream, I am confident there’s more fat than I would care to know in it.  So I thought this one would help cut it down without losing the rich, creamy flavor.  Also, there was no yogurt tang.
  • 1/3 cup of half and half
  • 1/4 cup of whipped cream
  • 1 cup of greek yogurt (or strained regular)
  • 2 TBSP of sugar
  • 2 tsp of vanilla
Mix together according to your ice cream machine maker’s instructions.
Lower in Fat Frozen Vanilla Yogurt
So I’ve determined all frozen yogurt has a bit of a weird tang to it.  But that’s OK.  I made this yummy frozen mango yogurt.
  • 2 cups of mango pureed
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 pint of yogurt, drained (or Greek yogurt)
  • 2 TBSP of sugar
Put into your machine and mix for 30 minutes.  Then put into the freezer for an hour to harden.
Frozen Mango Yogurt

How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace

5/24/10

Do a Total Background Check On Yourself


Now you can know what Big Brother knows about you and get access to the same dirt everyone from your boss, landlord, insurance agent, to your favorite casino has on you. Here is a comprehenisve list of websites and phone numbers for most of the "specialty" consumer reports, like your employment, rental, and check writing history. Be sure to check them out and correct any errors, before a crisis hits.
 
Employment History Reports
The Work Number
ChoicePoint (866) 312-8075
Acxiom
Abso
Tenant History Reports
ChoicePoint (877) 448-5732
First Advantage SafeRent (888) 333-2413
Tenant Data Services
RentBureau
UD Registry (818) 785-3905
Auto & Home Insurance Claim Reports
ChoicePoint
Insurance Services Office (ISO) (800) 627-3487

Credit Bureaus Reports
Equifax
Experian
Transunion
Innovis
Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC)
Full File Disclosure/Personal Information Reports
ChoicePoint
LexisNexis

Check Writing History Reports
ChexSystems (800) 428-9623
TeleCheck (800) 835-3243.
Shared Check Authorization Network (800) 262-7771 Fax: (800) 358-4506
Health History Reports
Medical Information Bureau (MIB) (866) 692-6901

Prescription Drug Purchase History Reports
Ingenix MedPoint
Milliman IntelliScript

Social Security Statement
Social Security Administration

Purchase Returns History Reports
Retail Equation

Gaming Patron's Credit History and Transaction Data
Central Credit

Other Reports
TeleTrack

Utilities & Telecommunications Reports
National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange, Inc (NCTUE) Call 1-888-201-5643 for reports

Beer for baby" dad facing reckless endangerment charge






CHICOPEE, Mass. (WGGB) -- A man accused of trying to sell his infant daughter for two 40-ounce bottles of beer or possibly drugs will be facing a judge June 1 when he is expected to be arraigned for a charge of reckless endangerment of a child.
Matthew BraceAccording to Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett's office, Matthew Brace, 24, appeared before Chicopee District Court Assistant Clerk Edward Valego Friday for a show cause hearing, which resulted in a criminal complaint being issued against him for the endangerment charge. They said Brace had been issued a summons to appear back in court June 1 for his arraignment.
Brace, who had a last known address in Northampton, but was thought to be living at a Chicopee Econo Lodge, located at 357 Burnett Road, allegedly attempted to put his daughter and her stroller in the truck of a service technician working at a nearby Pride gas station Monday in an effort to trade her for two 40-ounce bottles of beer, according to police. Police have since said they were investigating whether or not Brace was allegedly seeking alcohol or crack cocaine.
Police located Brace near a dumpster at the Econo Lodge after the technician alerted police to the alleged attempted transaction. The child's mother had been in the gas station during the alleged incident, according to police.
The issue of homeless families being temporarily placed in hotels drew greater attention from local and state politicians in the wake of Monday's incident.

Facebook partygoer shot dead

Dane FreemanA middle-school reunion that drew hundreds to a Queens home after the invite went viral on Facebook ended early yesterday with a young man dead and five other people wounded, cops and witnesses said. Airport baggage handler Dane Freeman, 20, was fatally shot in the head just after 2 a.m. amid a crush of people outside the home on 145th Drive in Springfield Gardens."Everything was going smooth, and then someone came out of nowhere, and, 'Boom! Boom!' " said partygoer George Sampson, 17. "That's when everybody started running."I saw [Freeman] collapse. He was looking at me, and I looked away. When I turned back, his eyes were closed."

Three men and two women, each 21 to 25 years old, were also shot and were recuperating last night at area hospitals.Witnesses said the bullets started flying after about eight motorcyclists tore down the street doing wheelies and spinning out.But it was unclear whether the bikers were involved in the shooting or even attended the party.Sources said Freeman had been arrested nearly 10 times, but his brother, Bryan, 17, called him "a good guy" who "was always looking out for me and protecting me." Partygoers said there were still about 200 people at the annual bash for IS 238 grads when the shooting began. The soirée has swelled in recent years to include anyone linked to the organizers' Facebook and Twitter networks. With the invite touting a deejay and free food and booze, 318 Facebook friends had said they would attend.The shootings left neighbors outraged."[They] were told they were going to have a little party," said city Councilman James Sanders, who represents the area."This is not what they signed up for."It's a cautionary tale: Once it goes on Facebook, it's in the universe; there's no way you can control it."

Duchess Sarah Ferguson Scandal – Caught on Camera Getting $40,000

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has apologized and says she is "devastated" after being caught on video accepting money in exchange for a promise of business access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, who is a British trade representative.

"If you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you … you'll get it back tenfold," Ferguson, 50, is seen saying while accepting a $40,000 cash down payment from an undercover News of the World reporter.

"That opens up everything you would ever wish for," she says. "And I can open any door you want. And I will for you."

In the video, Ferguson falsely claims Prince Andrew, 50, knew of the deal, and advised her to demand more than $700,000. "He knows that he's had to underwrite me up to now because I've got no money," she says on the video.

In fact, Andrew reportedly knew nothing of Ferguson's secret dealings, which will be a royal pain for him as he seeks to maintain his credibility as a British ambassador.

Ferguson has now apologized and says she is "devastated" by the sting operation, according to the Times of London.

"I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused," she said. "It is true that my financial situation is under stress. However, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened. I can confirm that the Duke of York was not aware or involved in any of the discussions that occurred."

Scotland Yard has been quoted as saying Ferguson did nothing illegal.

She Is 'Remorseful'

Simon Monjack, Brittany Murphy's Husband Found Dead of natural causes

click this for link to the full story.

5/23/10

Two Motorcycles Become One Car

This is the real deal in modern wild design. This is the “Plug-In” affordable youth mobility project by Ramesh Gound. According to Gound, there is a big “buy 1 get 1 free” shopping attitude in the market around the Ahmedabad area of India. This simple concept gave Gound the idea to take two motorcycles and attach them in the middle. Each motorcycle is owned by its respective party, a young person with a big appetite for sports vehicles but a small pocketbook, then they attach. Once two motos attach in the middle, they become that fantastic sports car from heaven.

Two drive-by-wire bikes are owned by separate people. They wanna attach them for a longer drive or some sort of trip that’s not great for motorcycle, or hey, if they just wanna cruuuze… they attach in the center of the two.

The hood is made of D3O, which when the bikes are not attached, stows away in the bike configuration. This whole concept is aimed to take on congested cities such as Mumbai.

NOTE: some info from Gound — This project is my final year Diploma project at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad India sponsored by Renault Design India.
Rock it!

Designer: Ramesh Gound
Plug-In affordable youth mobility by Ramesh Gound
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