Who ever heard of a Maltese Sparrow?

I happened to check my site meter the other day and noticed that I’ve had some surprising international readers as of late – Spain, India, Romania and Malta. Curious as to how these people arrived at my page, I checked to see if they had referring URL’s and the most interesting one was from Malta. The person had googled “maltese sparrow” and I was immediately intrigued. We’re all familiar, on some level, with “The Maltese Falcon”, but a Maltese sparrow? I began to investigate further and googled this myself. Among the hits delivered to me were a song, a weird government document from New South Wales, and this image. However, the most noteworthy was a charming detective story, told in 10 installments (old-school style) and you can read it here. Enjoy.

Really?!

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat - A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

read more here

Deadly E. coli outbreak tied to bagged spinach

Dozens sickened in 8 states; consumers warned not to eat fresh greens

Consumers nationwide should not eat fresh bagged spinach, say health officials probing a multistate outbreak of E. coli that killed at least one person and made dozens of others sick.

Food and Drug Administration and state officials don’t know the cause of the outbreak, although raw, packaged spinach appears likely. “We’re advising people not to eat it,” said Dr. David Acheson of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Washing the spinach won’t solve the problem, because the E. coli bacteria is too tightly attached, another FDA official warned on Friday.

“If you wash it, it is not going to get rid of it,” said Robert Brackett, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition.

Eight states were reporting a total of 50 cases of E. coli, Acheson said Thursday.

The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 people were reported ill, 11 of them in Milwaukee. The outbreak has sickened others — eight of them seriously — in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. In California, state health officials said they were investigating a possible case there.

The outbreak has affected a mix of ages, but most of the cases have involved women, Acheson said. Further information on the person who died wasn’t available.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wisconsin health officials alerted the FDA about the outbreak at midweek. Preliminary analysis suggested the same bug is responsible for the outbreak in all eight states.

Source unknown
The warning applied to consumers nationwide because of uncertainty over the origin of the tainted spinach and how widely it was distributed. Health officials did not know of any link to a specific growing region, grower, brand or supplier, Acheson said.

“Typically we would try to narrow it down as focused as we could,” Brackett said in an interview. “The fact that it was distributed all over the country, the fact that people are getting seriously ill from this, warranted us to have an abundance of caution and just to say ‘OK, stop now until we figure out exactly what’s going on.”’

Brackett noted that most of the spinach crop at this time of the year comes from California. A special effort is under way in the Salinas Valley of California, a major leafy-vegetable growing region, to look for any possible source of contamination there.

Amy Philpott, a spokeswoman for the United Fresh Produce Association, said that it’s possible the cause of the outbreak won’t be known for some time, even after its source is determined.

“Our industry is very concerned,” she said. “We’re taking this very seriously.”

Reports of infections have been growing by the day, Acheson said. “We may be at the peak, we may not be,” he said.”

E. coli causes diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, although some people — including the very young and old — can develop a form of kidney failure that often leads to death.

Anyone who has gotten sick after eating raw packaged spinach should contact a doctor, officials said.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk

This is my 5th year participating in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. I started participating in honor of my mother, who is thankfully a survivor. If she hadn't gone for her routine check-up, things surely would not have turned out the way they did - SO CHECK YOURSELF OR GO GET CHECKED.

I'm asking you to please support me with a donation of any amount. Whether its $5, or $500, every bit truly does help. We're making great strides in our fight against breast cancer, but I won't quit until we're done. Hope Starts Here... With Us!

If you'd like to make a donation, please email or IM me and I will send you the link. Thanks so much, in advance, for your support!!!

Headed for a heartbreak?

We started our relationship about 2 years ago. It's always been a bit one-sided and he's disappointed me over and over. Still, I continued to believe in him and through him I learned a lot. Then he went away for a while and I wasn't sure if he was coming back or if I even wanted him to. Now, the cycle starts again. I'm hopeful this time. Some of his old wounds seem to have healed and maybe this time it will work out. He might be ready to take this on or he may break my heart all over again. Only time will tell. Chad, I'm trying to have faith so I hope you're not starting something you can't finish. Let's take it all the way, baby!

I was just thinking about you...

Telephone telepathy - I was just thinking about you Many people have experienced the phenomenon of receiving a telephone call from someone shortly after thinking about them -- now a scientist says he has proof of what he calls telephone telepathy.

Rupert Sheldrake, whose research is funded by the respected Trinity College, Cambridge, said Tuesday he had conducted experiments that proved that such precognition existed for telephone calls and even e-mails.