The news articles that tend to draw my attention are the ones with a hidden story buried in the details. Here’s one of those articles.

New York Health Officials Move to Get More Moms to Breastfeed.

Here’s a snip of the article from below the fold:

Even though some formulas use nutrients found in breast milk, city doctors say research proves the natural way is best.

“Decrease in infections, upper respiratory, ear,” said Dr. David Garry of Jacobi Medical Center. “Some benefit when it comes to IQ scores.”

Kim Williams-Mann breastfed her daughter for five years, and doesn’t agree with the ban.

“That doesn’t mean that those people have the nutrition or the education to support it,” Williams-Mann said. “It should be an option.”

Wait… whoa… huh? Back up.

Did you just say that Mrs. Mann breastfed her daughter until she was FIVE!!?? Aw… Eww… Ick.. That’s just… Ugh… I can’t… even… speechless.

If any of you read Arvel’s first post about his cruise from [heck] and asked yourself, could it possible get any worse, shame on you! Because of your casual question, Arvel is now suffering even more.

Read part two, “Shiver me times or How the pirates stole my underwear.”

My boss, Arvel, is on vacation and blogging about the worst cruise ever. Funny stuff.

For lunch today, I wanted something different. I stopped of at Jack in the Box where their latest pitch is a burger made with 100% sirloin beef and offers you a choice of cheeses. Sure! That sounds better than plain old hamburger to me plus I get yummy swiss cheese instead of the normal yellow rubber stuff. I decided to give it a shot. As usual, I eschewed the combo and went for the sandwich alone. Fries are fattening and soft drinks are all sugar. Aw, what the heck. I threw in a side of onion rings (not health food, but better than fries).

My first clue that something was amiss was the fact that the paper bag I was handed looked like it came from Safeway. When I got back to the office and settled in with my big mug of water, I was pretty surprised at the size of the burger. It’s big! Really big. Bedaubed with some sort of special sauce, big pickle slices (cut longways) and bacon (didn’t mean to order that, but too late now). I dug in with nescient glee.

Even after taking off the top bun (which I always do), I could barely get my mouth over it. But I had to admit it was toothsome and lacked the drippy greasiness of most burgers. I made it through and soon after began to realize, that burger was just too big.

Hm. “Just how big was it,” I wondered. So I pulled up the Jack in the Box nutrition page. Holy heart attack Batman!!

(Before reading on, I recommend you refresh your memory on the recommended daily dosages of fat, sugar and salt in my original nutrition post.)

This monster (bun, special sauce and all) weighs in at nearly a pound. It’s crammed with a whopping 1120 calories (over half of my recommended 2000 per day) along with:

73 grams of fat (That’s well over the recommended 65g per day.)

2620 milligrams of salt (Again, more than my daily allowance of 2400mg.)

And this surprised me most of all. 11 grams of sugar (Almost half my daily allowance.)

Factor in the half order of onion rings I managed to eat and it looks like I’m having water for dinner. “Ohhh. I can’t believe I ate the whooole thing.”

I know that most of my readers are pretty tech-savvy and this will be old news to them, but phishing has become such a big problem that I felt this was still a worth-while public service.

It’s common knowledge that identity theft is a major problem in this digital age. We’re all taking extra care about our personal information even if our main motivation is to avoid spam, junk mail, and unsolicited phone calls. But ID theft is very real and being aware of what the bad guys are up to can eliminate 90% of the risk.

Wikipedia has a pretty good description of phishing. I even did some artwork for a phishing t-shirt for my buddy Dave. Phishing is broadly defined as deceptively gathering personal information. Almost all of the phishing attempts you will see will come to you via unsolicited emails.

I advise every internet user to set up a “spam” email account. Mine is on hotmail. Hotmail allows you to set up your account so that all messages that arrive are put into a “junk mail” folder unless I have expressly added the sender to a safe list. (So if you send an email to darkmanwork@hotmail.com, there’s a good chance I won’t see it for a few days because it’s sitting in a junk folder.) Any time a web site asks for your email address (more common now than ever), use this spam address. That way if the web site turns out to be crooked and sells your address to spammers, you won’t be affected.

Even if you’ve never gotten a single piece of spam email, you should always be suspect of emails you are not expecting. This one hit my hotmail account over the weekend.

Now, this looks like most every e-card notice I’ve ever received with one exception. Where’s my name? If I recall, when I get a notice from Hallmark.com, they put my name in the salutation. Hmm.

If you don’t have the status bar visible on your browser, make it so! (Usually, it’s in the “View” menu.) The status bar is the gray bar across the bottom of the browser window. When you mouse over a link, the URL of that link should appear in the status bar.

I moused over all the links in the Hallmark email and all of them went to Hallmark.com with one exception. The link to view the card (“To see it, click here.”). The “here” link looked like this in my status bar.

That is not a link to Hallmark.com! That is a link to some mysterious IP address that is certainly some villainous spammer or worse. This particular villain was not even smart enough to cover up the fact that he’s linking you to an executable file, which would most likely install spy-ware or some other kind of virus.

PayPal and eBay are the most common targets for this kind of identity theft. You get an email asking you to log in to you account for some reason or other and they provide a link to do so. The web site that the phishing email links to looks exactly like the real PayPal web site. It might even have some dummied up pages so you can click around and it looks like you’re really on PayPal’s site. But you’re not. Look at the URL. If it’s not paypal.com, you’re being phished. As soon as you “log in”, you will notice something wrong. You won’t be taken to your account. By then it’s too late. They have your PayPal login info. They can log in as you and access your bank info and start making fraudulent purchases using your PayPal account. (This is how my mom got phished. Later she received dozens of Dell credit cards in the mail. Fortunately the guys who phished her were pretty stupid and didn’t change the mailing address before they applied for the cards.)

If you find yourself in this situation, don’t panic. Go immediately to the real site; be it PayPal, your bank, or whatever; and change your password. Then check your account for any activity. It would not be a bad idea to notify the organization that you got a phishing email and that your account may have been compromised. It’s better to go through the hassle of getting a new credit card number than to go through the hassle of dealing with fraudulent charges to said card.

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle! (YO! JOE!)

One more story kids, and then it’s off to bed! I mean it!

Okay, so most of the time I get a little sadistic tickle when I read a negative story about Wal-Mart. (Like this one. Tee hee! That tickles.) But this story is just too dumb to qualify.

An Iowa woman is suing Wal-Mart for negligence because she slipped in a puddle of puke and hurt her back. The suit does not explain how the blue giant was negligent and no word yet on whether she’ll also sue the in-store McDonald’s for selling the dangerous happy meal in which she stepped*. Some people really make me want to throw up.

Hey lady! Here’s a tip. If there’s puke on the floor, don’t step in it. Mmkay?

* There is no evidence linking any McDonald’s Happy Meal™ with this story. It was just an attempt at humor by recalling several law suits filed against bars from which drunk drivers received their bedrunkedness. Also it was a little jab at my other least favorite American staple.

Read the whole story.

What has become of our dear old George?

It seems to me like G Dub has embraced the “lame duck legacy” format almost a year too soon; as if Pelosi’s win last November broke his spirit and now he’s just grasping for straws, trying desperately to come up with some presidential legacy other than, “Oh, he’s the dumb one who started the war.”

I don’t believe that. I don’t believe he’s dumb at all. It takes a very able and quick minded person to become President of the United States. But clearly, George has given up the ghost.

We knew back when he was only Governor G Dub that he had unconventional views on illegal aliens. Now, he’s trying to push through this amnesty bill that is really tearing his party apart. Just last week the RNC let go its entire fund raising phone bank. They had their spin, but the people on whom the ax fell made it very clear.

“There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, [a] fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call ‘amnesty’ for illegal aliens.”

Granted, it’s not a huge surprise that George is hanging his hopes some kind of “Proclamación de la Emancipación”. But I was completely blown away to read this. With the storm clouds gathering around his “immigration compromise”, he has announced that he has seen the light in global warming! Whaa? That’s as silly as Bill Maher becoming a Southern Baptist; Billy Graham coming out of the closet; Brittany Spears claiming to be a Rhodes Scholar!! It’s just too ridiculous to be taken seriously!

C’mon, George. Really. What are you thinking. We love you, George. You don’t have to try and impress us. In fact, the harder you try, the worse it looks. Just stick to what you know, George. You know… “Strategery!” Because if this is some kind of joke, no one is laughing. (Other than the people who read this blog, because let’s face it, I’m friggin’ hilarious.)

I think we should change the law to make burglary legal. As long as no one gets hurt, why should we punish someone who breaks into your house and steals your electronics and jewelry. They’re just trying to support their families.

It’s hard work breaking into houses. And dangerous too! Maybe we should offer free health care to burglars! I mean, come on! Where’s you’re compassion? These people could be out of work for weeks if they cut themselves on the broken glass while climbing through your living room window with your flat screen TV. Who will feed their children in the mean time? Thieves are people too!!

I’m not talking about amnesty here! Noooo. I’m talking about treating these good people with the respect they deserve. We’ll just make sure they pay taxes on the income they get from pawning your grandma’s diamonds.

I hope that you’ve figured out by now that I’m not serious. I’m making a point. There are reasons we have laws against burglary. There are also reasons we have laws against sneaking across our borders. There are reasons we have laws that require you to have a valid social security number or work visa to get a job in the United States. Anyone who thinks we should change our laws to make previously illegal behavior legal needs to have an answer for every reason behind the existing law, and compassion alone is not a reason.

The current immigration reform is being driven by two forces that are usually complete opposites. First are the bleeding-heart, leftist liberals who just want everyone to get along and can’t grasp the notion that not everyone who sneaks across the border is pure of heart. “They’re just trying to support their families!” Second is big industry who sees the endless flood of unskilled labor as a way to cut costs without out-sourcing the work to India. “Do you know what will happen to the cost of cabbage if we got rid of all the illegals?!” This is the group influencing George Dub and it breaks my heart to see it.

Both are bunk! Illegal is illegal for a reason. That is why any “compromise” is equally bunk. That’s also why intelligent people who understand politics and the issues booed their US Senator when he tried to defend his actions in pushing through this latest immigration bill. Sen Graham, after speaking at his home state’s Republican convention, said, “Immigration got booed. It’s an emotional topic. People are mad.” (Read the whole story here.) Heck yeah, we’re mad! We’re made that our law makers are excusing law breakers.

I try to be a nice guy to everyone. But some people think I’m a bit of a word snob. (Tammy would say I border on word jerk.) You can blame my mom. She’s one of those folks that reads “Enriching Your Word Power” every month in Reader’s Digest. Growing up, she constantly corrected my grammar and worked on my vocabulary. I’m glad. I like being able to speak well.

But there are down sides. Often I’m told that people are intimidated by me; that I make them “feel stupid”. I haven’t yet figured out a way to correct someone’s English without coming off as a know-it-all jerk. And I’m way too Monkish to just stand by and let someone speak incorrectly. I can usually let one faux pas slide, but repeated abuse just eats at me.

Another thing I can’t stand is bad English in print. I’m honest about the fact that I suck at spelling. I use dictionary.com all the time. (I just looked up faux pas, for example.) My grammar is usually spot on, so that’s not a worry, but I try avoid posting anything that’s incorrect. I feel like it makes me look stupid. Thus, I feel I must question the person who puts something like this on a professional web site.

“Firstly”?? What is that? Yes, it’s a real word, but not a good choice, and where’s the “secondly”? I know that I abuse ellipses, but this, along with the weird word choice was just too much. You’re trying to convince me to use your service. Hire a copy writer, dude. Seriously.

This is why I refuse to write copy for a web site. I’ll give you a cool layout and neat functionality, but you provide the words. I’m a programmer. Never trust a programmer to write good English. (Not even one whose mom taught him well.)

Yesterday I won for the second time on Blingo. Blingo is essentially Google wrapped in a different interface and run by Publisher’s Clearing House. Every time you perform a search, you have a change to win a prize. The idea is that if you use their search engine, you’ll see preferred links and ads that are paid for. But there are no pop-ups or anything too annoying, so it’s really no pain all gain.

I’ve now won two Fandango movie tickets, so Tammy and I can go see Spidey 3 for free! (Which, from what I’ve heard, may still not be worth the money.)

You can sign up for Blingo by clicking the mini-banner at the bottom of my side-bar.