In my job I have to do a hell of a lot of reading, not just writing.   I came across this news item today about our new Citizenship Test.  Aside from my ex-wife being able to pass it, how many of us could pass this test?

I took the short sample test and nailed it. Thank God!  :)

I missed ONE question out of ten. 

Ready to take the test?  Open notepad or write down your answers.  Check my answers and the actual answers with the MORE link below...  Good luck!

1. What does the Constitution do?
2. What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?
3. Name one branch or part of the government.
4. We elect a U.S. representative for how many years?
5. How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
6. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?
7. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?
8. There were 13 original states. Name three.
9. Who was president during World War I?
10. Name one U.S. territory.

I've been reading lately about hacktivism.  Examples being Governer Sarah Palin's e-mail being compromised and posted and talking head Bill O'Reilly's website with hundreds of users personal information posted. 

Being someone that has worked within the Internet world since 1995 I must tell you.  The best way to deal with this when you are average person is lay low.  Sadly the answer is as simple as keeping your mouth shut when it comes to serious subject matter.  People that want to hurt you, can.  People that want to hurt you through the Internet can really hurt you.  I'm not talking about using the World Wide Web to attack people with false discussion board posts or other forms of slander.  And while those take place, what I mean is that on the Web or in the physical world when you open your mouth too wide, you draw attention to yourself and with it bring trouble. 

I can think of at least one world issue that I've compiled a great deal of ammuntion to argue over but because I know the uglieness and ruthlessness of the Internet I don't ever discuss the subject on my blog.  I'm certain I'd be targeted for retaliation if I raised the subject on my blog.   In fact I once posted an article on another site under another name and

Hactivist don't see faces.  The only know they have the power to do harm and further their agenda.  Organizations or entities that have their way of life at stake will hurt you.  They'll use the Interent to find you and come to your door and hurt you.  Nine times out of ten, hactivist hurt many innocent people along the way. People with no dog in the fight other than having known the person under attack.

I can't ...   more »

The Modern Rules of Men for Women

These are a set of rules, answers and instructions all women must abide by with their man.  You should have no problem memorizing them all as women have the capacity to never forget. 

Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

We are not shallow because we are honest.  You only call us shallow because we are honest. 

We know if we answer a question you'll just ask another.  That is why we leave the room.

We say we are sorry because we know you won't.

Jewelry is the stupidest thing a man can spend his money on. 

We don't like shopping because we don't want to carry your bags.

We can't be what you want us to be because we still need to be deprogrammed from what our last girlfriend made us to be.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

Yes, and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

When it comes to drinks you serve at home, it is hard to find something refreshing and sometimes sweet.  There are no drinks you can buy in the grocery without ‘fructose’ or apple juice as their main sweetening agent.  The affordable healthy choices are limited to Concord grape juice and orange juice. 

Enter green tea.   While teas in general are thought to detoxify your body, green tea has been one of the more highly emphasized teas in recent years primarily because it has more flavonoids, and it oxidizes less which in turn means more antioxidants.   Why?  While both Green Tea and Black tea come from the same Camellia Sinesis plant; Green tea encounters less abuse in the preparation process.  It’s steamed and dried quickly thus leaving the leaves… green. White tea is green tea less the caffeine.  Caffeine by the way is what gives coffee and tea its bitter taste.  

The health benefits are:

The last person to pass a counterfeit is the person stuck with it.  No one wants to be the last one holding an ersatz bill (sourdough). Neither banks or merchants receiving one are obligated to reimburse or compensate the party passing the bill. (U.S. Code Title 18, Section 471).  Knowingly passing funny money is criminal.   Meanwhile new bills such as the new $5.00 bill are on the streets now.  You don't need to be a numismatist to keep yourself out out trouble.

How do you tell if the money in your pocket is real?  The United States Secret Service has tips on detecting funny money.  You can buy a special marker that when applied to real currency it leaves a yellow mark that fades.  If it is a fraud, a dark or black ink stroke will remain on the bill.  It appears the U S Reserve has a web site dedicated to keeping citizens updated on our currency. It's called the MoneyFactory.gov. Here you can read up or download materials on how to steer clear of phony bills.

There are in fact many security features built into modern bills.  I've been to the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia and there you can learn more about it.  Of course you can take an instructional course on identifying counterfeit money elsewhere.

This is not exactly new news. This has been going on for about a year. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL0383329520080603?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Now a study supports a good deal of what other scientist have been saying about anti-bacterial soap and wipes. 

I won't use them in my home.  Give this some consideration if you have kids.

Healthy goes far beyond reading the label

I eat smart. And while I do have a sweet tooth I make up for it by exercising anytime I eat foods high in calories.   I do make sure to never overdue it and I have some rules for myself.  The opinions in my article are my opinions and while I use facts to stand on, I'm not insisting I know all about the subject or that I am an authority.  I'm just a guy taking care of himself with less than 2 percent body fat.  

YOU must be acutely aware of the size ongoing.  If it takes reinvesting in smaller dinner plates, do it.  Here is one straight from my home, we have a creed, "We are Hindsley's not heathens."  We don't eat out of the bag or box.  This serves two purposes in my home.  It indoctrinates a level of class with my children and it starts them on portion control.  How many times have you eaten your way through a whole bag of chips or some other snack?  What woman doesn't eat straight out of the ice-cream bucket?  Oh!

Do not let someone serve you large portions, your human nature will overdrive your common sense.  You will eat more.  As an aside, eating slower will also give you a feeling of fullness faster. No one will listen to me on this, but in my day I've learned it to be true. 

I sold cell phones in 1986.  They first hit the streets back then.   They cost as much as $4,600.00 and I sold them to Senators, Hotels and many other important people with deep pockets.  Now cell phone sales reach over 800 million units per year. 

As cell phones came down in price and many people could afford them the use of the "handheld" became a health issue.  The .6 watts of power was the threshold of power a "handheld" could offer as to emit the least amount of "RF" to which could hurt us.

People, if you didn't know it RF (radio frequency) is everywhere.  It is boring through your brain right now.  Every radio transmitter out there is sending waves as you read this. Thousands of different radio waves are bouncing off your head (and body) this instant.

For a long time a strong argument has been made that cell phone radio waves (radiation) emit a strong enough wave to penetrate your skull and somehow cause brain tumors. 

And you may not simply able to get a brain tumor by holding up a cell phone to your head.   Why?  For the same reason I mentioned above, RF is everywhere.  The closer you are to any signal source the more concern you should have.  And here is more... just owning a cell phone can be cause for concern.  They are always transmitting, even when not in conversation although the transmission signal is much much weaker.  Just read this case: http://www.emf-health.com/reports-courtvictory.htm

Here is another point of fact about cell phones that has NEVER changed.   The further you are from a cell phone tower, the stronger the power behind the RF.   The phone knows it has to really work hard to reach further transmitters and this means more power emitted from the unit.   ...   more »

What if?

How many of us have asked this question? How many of us have so desperately wanted to step back in time and turn another corner.   What if...

It can haunt you if you are living a life you wish had gone differently.   But if you are like me, your “What if” always ends in, “then ---- wouldn’t be in my life” or “I wouldn’t be with ----”.   So you accept the bad with the good. 

What if...  What if goes well beyond what if my team didn’t win the big game.  It’s so much more.  What if you had not read that book?  Or what if you had not been influenced by what others had to say?  What if I had not taken that job?  What if I had decided to follow my heart instead of my head?  What if, usually always comes down to this though...

When I was about 26 years of age I began taking vitamin supplements for about two years; no big deal, I had the money to blow.  And that just it, taking supplements is blowing money because you pee all the vitamins out of your body which is all I ever heard from friends and doctors. Your body never retains them.  We’ll maybe two percent of the overall amount.  Which is good reason to not buy a supplement; again this is only my opinion.

Meanwhile here are the things I really go for in my diet.  It’s been this way for years and now I’m going to share my secret life with you. :)

B12

I lead an active life.  It used to be very active.  I played softball 5 days a week.  I came to believe I had a B12 deficiency because of short term fatigue. I found B12 may be my answer.  B12’s primary purpose is to create red blood cells.  But it does more; it helps with metabolism and more.  All good things. While I was always a big fan of B12 I gave up on taking that supplement years ago.  I recall playing softball using a dropper to put the liquid under my tongue.  I did nothing. Eventually I learned that although B-12 supplements such as spirulina may in fact increase risks of B12 deficiency.   In the end the solution was to consume B12 naturally.  You find it dairy products and eggs and in meat.  The good news is you can’t really overdose on B12 either. 

Lycopene

Next up is Lycopene. One of my favorite nutrients.   Lycopene is found in tomatoes of course. What does it do?...   more »

Tonight our little league play-off game suffered a rain-out. After a full day of pleasant weather and blue sky, rain showed up at dinner time.  It’s not the first time in my life that rain showed up at game time and then checked out after the game was cancelled.

So the question I once knew the technical answer to popped up into my mind again.  Why does it rain at the dinner hour, what causes rain to finally burst down upon us between the hours of 4 pm and 7 pm?  There is a reason.   Well there are scientific theories.  It has to do with air pressure.

Some rain is caused by high air pressure; some rain is caused by low air pressure.  It’s like you can’t win.  One of them is going to cause the clouds to dump on you.   In short you need three ingredients for rain:

1.      Moisture

2.      Unstable Air

3.      Lift

These three elements come together at dinner for a reason.  I’ll get to that next.

Convection Rain from Low Air Pressure – the evening rain

Warm ground + low pressure = rain

These are the short showers that show up, ruin your game and are out of here right after everyone has agreed the games are cancelled and have driven off home; and yes the sun comes out wouldn’t ya know it!

Why it happens is simple and unavoidable.  The sun takes the whole day to warm the surface of the earth.  That warmth of the earth warms the air.  That warm air rises up to the clouds and meets the cold air.  Bang, the rain dumps on us.  ...   more »

There is an old song by Naked Eye's called, (No) Flowers Please.  It often comes to mind as we men never seem to receive flowers.

Yesterday I received flowers.  Yes a man can receive flowers.  When I asked my friends Jordan and Paul that were visiting for the day they both agreed, men ...   more »