I’m having a clear out this weekend. Old clothes, old junk, old food from the fridge and what ever is under my bed.

There’s something under there, not sure what, I’m hoping I’ll be pleasantly surprised and find a wad of cash/stash of gold/lost Turner painting but the dust now creeping out suggests otherwise.

So, what’s under your bed? Anything interesting?

If so I’m available for a free evaluation……

With google launching ‘Knol’ their rival to Wikipedia and their term for a unit of knowledge it looks like user generated content is here to stay.

Wikipedia, the sprawling online encyclopedia lets any visitor makes alterations to online pages and remain anonymous whereas knol articles are written by an individual and stress an opinion. Sound familiar?

The fledging knol project appears to be gaining little ground on seven year old Wiki which boasts more than 8.2 million articles (we’re almost at 2,000 blog posts). However, the highlighted knols posts relate to health issues such as migraines and irritable bowel syndrome. Whatever next? Detox at a Thai Spa that we know and love here? Maybe go online to quit smoking?

We ask you - Do you use Wiki and would you use knol or any other online medium to cure your ills as we plan to start ramping the health category up here at GSTF. What did you do to get better when you were last ill? Try home remedies, head straight for the Docs or google your cure and give it a GO!

Do tell at a time when Doctors have admitted googling away to unearth the right prescription. Cheers!

Evidently, the US slump is really a clinical depression and not truly a “recession”.  It’s all in our heads.  We US Citz are evidently suffering from a psychological disease, and all we need to do is “snap out of it”.

Okay!

Excellent!

I’m all for that!  YaY!

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~long pause for effect~

So, ah … erm … *looks around at the crowd* … um …
Okay.
Yeah.
Cool.
Let’s do this thing!  RIGHT!

*enter in the sound of crickets chirping*

Oh kayyyy …
Well.  Then.  I can see that the crowd isn’t responding quite the way some anticipated.  Suggestions?  Comments?  Anyone up for giving American Citizens a pep talk?  Anyone?

*the sound of crickets chirping louder*

Right.  Fine.  Sure. 
Uh huh …

Mighty Morgan here!

Today started like may other days…uneventful and wonderful all rolled up in a picture perfect morning. I headed up to the store to grab some things for around the house and then the headlines of the morning paper caught my attention.

Rarely do I ever read the newspapers or even watch the news on T.V. because it just seems to suck the joy out of living. But today was different, because right in front of my eyes at the checkout line at the local supermarket I saw that another person had been lost to the horrors of addiction and the family was now left to pick up the pieces of the life of their daughter who is now gone forever. (The full story can be read here.)

Her name was Natalie Ciappa, she was only 18 and she will never get the chance to recover.

Many days can come and go in which I forget the cesspool life that I escaped from; but then there are days like today, that remind me that addiction is still a problem that many will never get the opportunity to find freedom from it.

I read the parents heartbreaking story as well as the mis-information they held within their minds of what an addict is and it reminds me of how many people just don’t fully understand the nature of addiction. Addiction is not just a physical problem in which only abstinence can cure. It is an internal problem, a dis-ease of self that infects the emotional, spiritual and finally the physical aspects of a person. Recovery from this begins with abstinence, but more work has to be done in order to find freedom.

I often find it so ridiculous the money that is spent on “The War on Drugs.” because this approach in focusing on the drugs, has done little or nothing in helping to combat the ever increasing problem. I sometimes wonder how many more people will die before it becomes known that the methods of treating the symptoms of addiction; just the usage…

..Is just as ineffective as placing a band-aid on cancer.

I know that I used because my entire outlook on life was based on finding relief from the constant state of dis-harmony I wandered in on a daily basis. I had no capacity to understand that the quick fix I felt when I used a substance would never free me from the dis-ease I felt.

I do quite a bit of work in helping other people that have found themselves at the end of the road trying to find the path back to life. But today I feel powerless in the grand scheme of it all, because it is just not possible to reach out my hands to everyone; and not everyone is ready to receive the help they may need.

It’s days like today that I stop and wonder how I escaped and why I got the chance to live another life, while so many others don’t. I know there will never be an answer will ever adequately allow me to just accept that I survived. But I do know that it empowers me on a daily basis to carry the message to those who are still sick and suffering and to be an example of the hope that is available.

How do you set the example for the people in your life that are brought before you or do you even bother?

How many push ups can you do?

How about 100?

Blogger CymruSteve is inspiring others to do exactly that - working up to 100 push ups!

The hundred push ups plan is a simple, progressive but effective plan to increase strength and improve fitness and is currently sweeping the internet. Check it out and give it a GO!

Come now, rocky, you can do it:

Comments welcomed here as we must press on or is it push-up?

Us flowers have recently learnt that the New York Daily News reported that off-label Viagra use has become “bigger than creatine” among athletes and bodybuilders looking for an extra power boost—one that’s not banned from competitions, at least so far, as steroids are.

Among the nonsexual benefits that blokes are allegedly enjoying from the small blue pill is ‘helping build endurance if you happen to be competing way above sea level’.

 We ask you - would you ever take something that was not originally intended for it’s original use AND do you think athletes can carry on avoiding playing with science like this?

Are there any high level athletes classed as ‘natural’ thesedays and does it really matter?

Comments welcome  - stiff upper lip is optional!

Does anyone else find they no longer need to remember the likes of phone numbers and birthdays or have lost the ability even if they tried?

Maybe we are the google generation that thrives on high speed information without the need to recall it. Are we fast losing the capacity to think deeply, camly and seriously as we succumb to internet attention-deficit disorder?

Maybe this is the techno induced first steps of dementia? Here’s some tips on how to give your brain a tune up to help us on the way whatever our excuse for remembering very little as it’s all at the touch of a button:

We ask YOU - Do you remember phone numbers, email addresses and birthdays like you used to? Do tell and we promise we won’t forget!

(Founders - This youtube clip was posted by pressing the youtube symbol and pasting the url of the youtube page in the text  -no need to embed the code - feel free to give this a GO! on your next post or over at forums)

I know Climate Change has been done to death and to be quite frank about it I am over it.

Yep totally sick of Climate change being used as an excuse for our own selfish needs, oil, economics, and just plain greed.  I thought I had heard it, until I read something today which shocked me to say the least.

DID YOU KNOW GLOBAL WARMING WAS FIRST NOTICED IN 1827. No this is NOT a typo….

1827: French polymath Jean-Baptiste Fourier predicts an atmospheric effect keeping the Earth warmer than it would otherwise be. He is the first to use a greenhouse analogy.

I thought the issue was relatively new given the talks have been around for about 30 years… dam hippies again hey Urban… but no this was not true…

For a full run down of all the latest facts, results etc, such as the fact that Oceans are warming at rate 50% higher than previously thought (is a bit of an under estimate dont you think) all links to the data, and full story is at Aussie Cynic.

But a short question is How much time do we need?

After all isnt 141 years long enough……?

This video has come across my path a few times in the last few days from different sources so I thought it about time that I share it. Do you think it will make a difference to how the United Nations conducts itself? Watch as 12 year old Severn Suzuki tells it like it is to the UN about Global Warming, Poverty and Hunger around the world and asks what they are going to do about it?

You will find it at Make this Video GO Around the World and admin may want to embed it for me.

Hi from Dubai folks after an 8 hour delay at Toronto airport we took deep breaths, checked our luggage in and headed off to explore downtown Toronto. With a 14 hour flight ahead of us we both folded like cheap suits and knocked back Canada’s infamous coffee - Tim Horton’s - like it was going out of fashion. From de-tox in Thailand to re-tox in Canada!

Others must have done the same plus e-numbers as when we returned some of the rapid fire abuse the poor airline staff were getting at check-in was jaw dropping. We sat back and watched as insults where exchanged between fuming passengers and the team that was only doing their jobs and apologizing through understandably gritted teeth.

Rather than step in and try and save the day we thanked the staff for doing a great job and understood what pressure they must have been under explaining the reasons for the delay (Emergency maintenance work in London - Gulp) that was out of their control.

So, two questions for you to ponder and reply to:

1) What would you have done during an 8 hour delay in a major City with only hand luggage to hand?

2) Would you have stepped in to stop the insults to the airline crew - assuming you wouldn’t opt to complain yourself, of course.

We’d love to read your comments on this one and please, 25 words per person is your maximum word limit permitted on this post and anything that is fluid and over 100ml has to be displayed in a clear plastic bag