Cave News

Did you name your dog Fido instead of Max?

There is an interesting USA Today article at the link below titled:Names for dogs miss the Spot.

Fifty years ago almost no one gave their dogs human names. Instead it was Spot, Buster or something similar.

Top names among male dogs are Max, Buddy and Rocky. For females, Bella, Molly and Lucy head the list. The research was conducted by Veterinary Pet Insurance from the names of insured dogs in its database.

Dogs have long been considered man's best friend, but for many Americans, they mean even more than that.

"It's a reflection of the position that pets hold in a household," says Mary Thurston, an anthropologist in Austin who has studied dog history for more than 25 years. "They are integral members of the family, just like a child."

Our slightly spoiled Schnauzer -- well, OK, our completely spoiled Schnauzer, Zipper (pictured) is no less a member of the family just because he doesn’t have a human name.

Link

Strong words about the Amnesty Bill

Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner has voiced his strong opinion against the Amnesty Bill working its way through congress.

Click on the picture below to hear CNN’s Lou Dobbs explain just what will happen if the bill passes in its present form.

(click on Lou Dobbs picture to see video)

Pretty scary stuff, but this is what most Democrats in Washington, including Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, have wanted to see enacted.

This bill is liberalism at its worst!

This spy device is a digital “fly on the wall”

A digital intruder spy camera (upper picture) by Swann Communications has a Digital Private Eye™ video camera and time-lapse recorder with motion trigger.

The manufacturer says:

Position the camera at your front door or hallway, then simply plug in your SD Memory Card, power cable or 9V battery then watch the camera go to work! You can use up to a 1GB on your SD Memory Card, which takes up to 30,000 images.

This covert surveillance device is motion activation and can take pictures at set intervals.

Maxwell Smart, agent 86 (lower picture), would have given up his shoe-phone for this device!

Link

The on-again off-again cell phone scare is on again

Mobile phone radiation warnings have come and gone over the last several years. As soon as a cell phone warning is reported, another expert will tell us cell phones are safe after all.

The latest scare is more dire than most. An article from the UK warns that the use of mobile phones can be more dangerous than smoking or or asbestos.

Complacency on the part of cell phone users is the natural result of on-again off-again warnings. Medical professionals have cried wolf too many times to be taken seriously.

We wonder why most of the mobile phone radiation warnings come from the UK.

Link

Clinton short of cash: fails to pay bills

A political candidate getting behind on paying bills is nothing new. However, Hillary Rodham Clinton (pictured) seems to be taking unpaid campaign bills to a whole new level.

Clinton’s camp has put off paying bills for months, earning campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

Hillary Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

Some of Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000.

Clinton also reported debts more than one month old to a slew of apolitical businesses and organizations, large and small, in the states through which this historically expensive Democratic primary campaign has raged.

We wonder if she paid the $95,000 sandwich bill in Iowa last February?

The Iowa deli pig-out story is here. The Hillary campaign unpaid-bill story is here.

= = = = = = UPDATE = = = = = =

A new article here says:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s communications director Howard Wolfson said Monday that the former first lady’s presidential campaign is raising “a considerable amount of money” and that its “cash flow is good.”

“Our cash flow is good. Bills are being paid. We are continuing to raise a considerable amount of money. We had the best fundraising month in the campaign's history last month,” said Wolfson on MSNBC. “We are continuing to do well this month. The support that we’re receiving over the Internet especially is very, very strong.”

Are Wolfson’s comments accurate or is he “whistling in the dark?”

Lasting harm feared in Democrats battle

The article at the link below wonders if the fierce name-calling in the Democratic race will give the Republicans an advantage in the fall.

Some Democratic Party leaders are growing more concerned that the protracted, caustic fight for the presidential nomination will cripple the eventual nominee, and there are new signs they have reason to worry.
More party leaders are saying that the increasingly personal crossfire between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns serves only to write the script for Republican ads in the fall and to give John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, a head start in framing his candidacy.

One Republican strategist called it a “two-way Democrat suicide pact.”

Link

Terminal disgrace: Heathrow flight delay fiasco

The long awaited opening of the new Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport has turned into a nightmare!

Poor training and computer failings are to blame for chaos at T5.

Flight delays are expected to continue well past the weekend.

The carrier (British Airways) is facing a wave of anger from holiday and business passengers who claim the shambolic launch of the £4.3billion ($8.8billion) facility is 'a national humiliation'.

Some said they were "ashamed to be British" after fights broke out among passengers as BA announced it was cutting a fifth of its flights.

This was not their finest hour.

The article at the link below says the major blunders include:

1. A lack of car parking space for baggage handlers arriving for the morning shift yesterday. Many were still driving round the airport looking for somewhere to park as the first passengers were checking in their bags

2. A shortage of BAA security staff to let baggage handlers into the terminal

3. A programming "human error" that meant staff could not log into the baggage handling computer when they finally got into the terminal building

4. Inadequate training that meant baggage handlers did not know where they were supposed to go to take suitcases off the belts and out to the gates

5. A breakdown this morning of the transit system that is supposed to move passengers from the main Terminal5 building to the satellite Terminal 5B

Sounds like DIA during the first months of operation in Denver.

Link

Ford Fab 1 from the film Thunderbirds revisited

The DVD movie by Universal Pictures called Thunderbirds is based on the Thunderbirds TV series. I didn’t see any of the TV series episodes and I have not seen the DVD movie. However, after looking at the awesome methods of transportation on various web sites, it should be worth the cost of the DVD just to see the travel action.

One of the stars of the
movie Thunderbirds

What intrigued me most was the pink car with two sets of front wheels. Ford helped by providing design and technical support in the design of the car called FAB 1. It is more than a car. It can act as a boat on water and can also fly. Short wings “sprout” from the lower sides and the trunk lid slides back to reveal a jet engine.

More photos of FAB 1

The movie is set in the year 2010 hence the futuristic designs and capabilities of the transportation vehicles. FAB 1, the car/boat/aircraft, is surely one of the stars of the movie. This awesome pink vehicle is the personal transportation of London Agent, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward played by Sophia Myles. The car will probably upstage the people using it in the movie.

Click here for more information.

Obama may double capital gains tax

Senator Obama (pictured) told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo he favors increasing the capital-gains tax rate.

Bartiromo reported after her interview: “Right now, as you know, the cap gains tax is at 15 percent. He has yet to give us a specific number. How high he wants that number to go? He has said, and he told me today, that he won't go above 28 percent. So we are talking about the possibility of a doubling in the capital gains tax.”

Following is the exchange with Senator Obama:

BARTIROMO: "How do you plan to change the tax code when it comes to capital gains? How high will that 15 percent rate go?"

Sen. OBAMA: "Well, you know, I haven't given a firm number. Here's my belief, that we can't go back to some of the, you know, confiscatory rates that existed in the past that distorted sound economics. And I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was the 28 percent.

Doubling the capital gains tax would once again stifle investment as it did under Bill Clinton.

Link

Signature Sound Quartet - Old Camp Meeting Days

Erny Haase and Signature Sound Quartet singOld Camp Meeting Days

(click on picture to see video)