It's a dogs life!

If you want someone who will eat whatever you put in front of him and never say its not quite as good as his mother's

..then adopt a dog.

If you want someone always willing to go out, at any hour, for as long and wherever you want ...

..then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who will never touch the remote, doesn't care about football, and can sit next to you as you watch romantic movies

..then adopt a dog.

If you want someone who is content to get on your bed just to warm your feet and whom you can push off if he snores

..then adopt a dog !

If you want someone who never criticizes what you do, doesn't care if you are pretty or ugly, fat or thin, young or old, who acts as if every word you say is especially worthy of listening to, and loves you unconditionally, perpetually ..

..then adopt a dog.

BUT, on the other hand, if you want someone who will never come when you call, ignores you totally when you come home, leaves hair all over the place, walks all over you, runs around all night and only comes home to eat and sleep, and acts as if your entire existence is solely to ensure his happiness ,
.

.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
..then adopt a cat!







Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

Stephen Hawking

I ran acrtoss this today and thought it important enough to pass on to you.

- The Daily Galaxy Top Story of 2009

Stephen Hawking: "The Human Species Has Entered a New Stage of Evolution"

Although It has taken homo sapiens several million years to evolve from the apes, the useful information in our DNA, has probably changed by only a few million bits.

So the rate of biological evolution in humans, Stephen Hawking points out in his Life in the Universe lecture, is about a bit a year.

"By contrast," Hawking says, "there are about 50,000 new books published in the English language each year, containing of the order of a hundred billion bits of information.

Of course, the great majority of this information is garbage, and no use to any form of life. But, even so, the rate at which useful information can be added is millions, if not billions, higher than with DNA."

This means Hawking says that we have entered a new phase of evolution. "At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations. This Darwinian phase, lasted about three and a half billion years, and produced us, beings who developed language, to exchange information."

But what distinguishes us from our cave man ancestors is the knowledge that we have accumulated over the last ten thousand years, and particularly, Hawking points out, over the last three hundred.

"I think it is legitimate to take a broader view, and include externally transmitted information, as well as DNA, in the evolution of the human race," Hawking said.

In the last ten thousand years the human species has been in what Hawking calls, "an external transmission phase," where the internal record of information, handed down to succeeding generations in DNA, has not changed significantly. "But the external record, in books, and other long lasting forms of storage," Hawking says, "has grown enormously.

Some people would use the term, evolution, only for the internally transmitted genetic material, and would object to it being applied to information handed down externally. But I think that is too narrow a view. We are more than just our genes."

The time scale for evolution, in the external transmission period, has collapsed to about 50 years, or less.

Meanwhile, Hawking observes, our human brains "with which we process this information have evolved only on the Darwinian time scale, of hundreds of thousands of years.

This is beginning to cause problems.

In the 18th century, there was said to be a man who had read every book written. But nowadays, if you read one book a day, it would take you about 15,000 years to read through the books in a national Library. By which time, many more books would have been written."

But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls "self designed evolution," in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA. "At first," he continues "these changes will be confined to the repair of genetic defects, like cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy.

These are controlled by single genes, and so are fairly easy to identify, and correct.

Other qualities, such as intelligence, are probably controlled by a large number of genes. It will be much more difficult to find them, and work out the relations between them.

Nevertheless, I am sure that during the next century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence, and instincts like aggression."

If the human race manages to redesign itself, to reduce or eliminate the risk of self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets.

But this will be done, Hawking believes, with intelligent machines based on mechanical and electronic components, rather than macromolecules, which could eventually replace DNA based life, just as DNA may have replaced an earlier form of life.


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

Sunday Morning Funnies

The marriage of an 80 year old man and a 20 year old woman was the talk of the town.

After being married a year, the couple went to the hospital for the birth of their first child.

The attending nurse came out of the delivery room to congratulate the old gentleman and said; 'This is amazing. How do you do it at your age?'

The old man grinned and said, 'You got to keep the old motor running.'

The following year, the couple returned to the hospital for the birth of their second child.

The same nurse was attending the delivery and again went out to congratulate the old gentleman.

She said, 'Sir, you are something else. How do you manage it?'

The old man grinned and said again; 'You gotta keep the old motor running.'

A year later, the couple returned to the hospital for the birth of their third child.

The same nurse was there for this birth also and, after the delivery, she once again approached the old gentleman, smiled, and said, 'Well, you surely are something else!

How do you do it?'

The old man replied, 'It's like I've told you before, you gotta keep the old motor running.'

The nurse, still smiling, patted him on the back and said: 'Well, I guess it's time to change the oil!'

'It's black!'


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

Toronto vs. Chicago

Well the battle is on again about who is bigger, better, nicer, busier, more important etc.

Toronto and Chicago have had a rivalry for the past little while on not only which is the better place to live, but they also compete in just about any category you can think of.

First of all a few facts. The population of the city of Toronto and the city of Chicago are just about dead even, but if you count the surrounding area, then it works out like this.

Chicagoland 8-9 million.

G.T.A. (Greater Toronto Area) 5-6 million

But!

If you included the same amount of stuff that Chicago does, then the G.T.A. could also add Hamilton, Cambridge, Guelph, Kitchener and Waterloo and Maybe even Barrie so you're up to about 7-8 million.

This makes them compete for the third largest metropolitan area after New York and Los Angeles, since we don't really count Mexico now, do we!

The Toronto Stock exchange and the Chicago Mercantile exchange are both #2 financial markets in North America after New York, but for different reasons.

Toronto has long been called 'Hollywood North' but Chicago is catching up fast, especially since Oprah started doing her show from there.

Now the latest bone of contention is the theatre districts.

Toronto has long been considered the third largest theatre town after New York and London, but according to an article in the Globe and Mail, (Canada's National Paper) Chicago has been pouring hundred of millions of dollars into sprucing up and building new theatres all over town, and is challenging Toronto for third place.

But, one more thing!

While people are sort of ambivalent about Chicago......., Toronto is just like New York or London.

Ya either love it......... or hate it!


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Way back in 1970 I was working for rock radio station CKFH in Toronto, when I was laid off due to a downsizing.

With a couple of months severance pay in my pocket, a buddy of mine talked me into going out to Vancouver to live.

I had no idea at the time that we would get involved in the music business to the extent that we did, or that we would book and manage some big names like Heart and others as well as start Mushroom Records.

No sir, the only thing on my mind at the time was my buddy Shelly telling me that there was not really any snow in Vancouver and the most I could expect was one or two light dusting's over the whole winter season.

Well sir, that was good enough for me and I got there just before Christmas...... and sure enough, it was raining.

It was raining a lot!

But.........!

The next day the weather snapped and a cold front blew down from up north and mixed with a huge rain storm coming in from over the Pacific and the moisture turned to wet snow..... and that started coming down.

And down!

By the time it was over there was over four feet of wet snow on the ground and the entire city had to shut down for a week until it all melted.

Naturally I got blamed for bringing the weather with me from Ontario.

Vancouver was like Washington, D.C. no snow plows!

So, if you haven't heard, this article brings back some memories of what it was like some 38 plus years ago this week out in B.C.

(By the way kids, if the politicians in Washington were skeptical about Global Warming before, this will be the clincher for them that there ain't no such thing!)

By JESSICA GRESKO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Mid-Atlantic residents were buried Saturday from a likely record-setting blizzard the president jokingly called "Snowmageddon," and those brave enough tried to clear a path through the wet, heavy mounds of thigh-high snow.

The snow was falling too quickly in the nation's capital for crews to keep up, and officials begged residents to stay home and out of the way so that roads might be cleared in time for everyone to return to work Monday. The usually traffic-snarled roads were mostly barren, and Washington's familiar sites and monuments were covered with nearly 2 feet of snow.

Tihana and Jarrett Blanc had given up on digging, instead taking their dog, Hector, for a walk through northwest Washington during what forecasters said could be the biggest storm for the nation's capital in modern history.

"Our car is stuck. We're not even trying," said Tihana, 36.

The storm toppled trees and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Washington, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The situation was the same in West Virginia, where some 400 National Guard troops were helping with snow removal.

Though the focal point remained the nation's capital, people from Pittsburgh, across Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, New Jersey and West Virginia were dealing with snow being measured in feet instead of inches. It was still snowing Saturday in Philadelphia, virtually shutting down the nation's sixth-largest city.

Walt Gursky, 28, braved the roads to go to the Philadelphia International Auto Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center downtown. The event was a ghost town.

"Last year when I came, there was a line getting in," Gursky said in the normally mobbed facility. "Much more relaxing in here — you can actually see what you want."

Hundreds of car wrecks were reported across the region, though only two deaths were reported — a father and son who died while helping another motorist in Virginia. By Saturday, most people couldn't drive anywhere because their cars and roads were buried.

In Ellicott City, Md., Christine Benkoski said she was trying to dig out from at least 2 feet. As she tried to clear her driveway, she said she uncovered how the storm had transitioned from snow, to ice, then back to snow.

"I feel like an archaeologist," Benkoski said.

"I've been out here for an hour, and my only goal is to get to the street."

And President Barack Obama, a snow veteran from his days in Chicago, didn't have a smooth day. He walked out of the White House mid morning to find the South Lawn, his backyard, looking nearly like an untouched wilderness. Instead of the familiar scenes of manicured lawns and clipped hedges, snow had piled on every shrub and the backyard was almost colorless.

First, there was a small fender bender on the White House south lawn. Then a tree branch, overcome with snow, cracked and fell on a motorcade vehicle with press inside when the president was coming back from a speech at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting in town.

Instead of a presidential limo, Obama rode in a black SUV covered with presidential seals.

Obama thanked Democrats for being "willing to brave a blizzard. Snowmageddon here in D.C."

Noting the president's hometown, DNC chairman Tim Kaine said "It's like an April day in Chicago."

After all that, the White House announced Obama would have no more outings for the day.

Meanwhile, cabin fever had set in for many of the patrons packed inside Bob and Edith's Diner in Arlington, Va.

"I couldn't take being in the house anymore," said Shaela Linn, 29, who walked with a roommate to the 24-hour restaurant about five blocks away. "We had fun, we played beer pong, made a fire, cooked dinner, but you can only take so much being inside."

Airlines canceled flights, churches called off weekend services, and Amtrak and commuter trains ground to a halt. Some people wondered if they would be stuck at home for several days.

At Dulles International Airport, part of a hangar roof collapsed and damaged some of the private jets housed inside, though no one was hurt. A northeast D.C. church also collapsed when a tree fell on it, though no one was inside and no one was hurt.

The snow comes less than two months after a Dec. 19 storm dumped more than 16 inches on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude — let alone two in one season — are rare in the area. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870.

The heaviest on record was 28 inches in January 1922. The biggest snowfall for the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept, when as much as 3 feet fell, which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries.

Despite the onslaught, some ventured outside for a chance to play. Snowballs were flying in normally bustling DuPont Circle, a major Washington thoroughfare. Hundreds of people gathered for a snowball fight with word spreading through Facebook, Twitter and TV commentators.

Meanwhile, here in Ontario, the sun is shinning, it's not too cold, and everyone's thoughts are slowly turning to dreams of spring!

(By the way, the flowers should be starting to bloom out in B.C. about now!)



Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

Toyota executes worker over sticky gas pedal!

After about a week of digging and prodding Toyota Corp. about their sticky accelerator issues, the "Perspective Research Department" has uncovered the cause of the mechanical problems and subsequent recalls experienced by the company....., and what they have done about it.

It seems all the faulty gas pedals in question were manufactured just outside Tokyo in one of Toyota's parts plants, and the final assembly of this item for all the models in question was done on that line by a certain Hyru Kokumono.

Apparently Mr. Kokumono attempted to save a bit of time and make his job performance report better than it was by taking a few short cuts in the final assembly of the pedal hinge and brackets.

This was the direct result of the sticking gas pedals and as a result Toyota, in accordance with both Japanese and Corporate culture, had Mr. Kokumono immediately executed.

This was followed by an apology from the C.E.O. of the Company. (Who the Perspective Research Department has learned also feared that he would have to commit Seppuku, Ritual Suicide, if the one death was not enough to satisfy Toyota customers.)

Meanwhile, while the C.E.O. lays low, Toyota has embarked on a massive public relations campaign in the hopes of saving both their boss and reputation......... while at the same time a quiet but determined search is on for someone to blame for the faulty brake problems with the Toyota Prius.

An announcement and execution date is expected on this matter in the next few days.

Your "hush, hush and on the Q.T." reporter;

Allan W Janssen


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

What's the matter with kids these days!

This requires no explaination.

Just sit back and wonder!






Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !

That Darned Cat

I was going to write about something else today, dear readers, but this came up and caught my attention so I hope you find it interesting too.

The story first broke some time ago but doctors now have a better handle on what's going on with this cat!

When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.

But Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar's abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.

Dosa said he hopes his newly released book, "Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat" will put the cat in a more favorable light as well as providing a book to help people whose loved ones are terminally ill.

"After the New England Journal article you got the feeling that if Oscar is in your bed then you are dead, but you did not really see what is going on for these family members," said Dosa, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

"I wanted to write a book that would go beyond Oscar's peculiarities, to tell why he is important to family members and caregivers who have been with him at the end of a life."

Dosa said Oscar's story is fascinating on many levels.

Oscar was adopted as a kitten from an animal shelter to be raised as a therapy cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, which cares for people with severe dementia and in the final stages of various illnesses.

SIXTH SENSE?

When Oscar was about six months old the staff noticed that he would curl up to sleep with patients who were about to die.

So far he has accurately predicted about 50 deaths.

Dosa recounts one instance when staff were convinced of the imminent death of one patient but Oscar refused to sit with that person, choosing instead to be on the bed of another patient down the hallway. Oscar proved to be right. The person he sat with died first, taking staff on the ward by surprise.

Dosa said there is no scientific evidence to explain Oscar's abilities, but he thinks the cat might be responding to a pheromone or smell that humans simply don't recognize.

Dosa said his main interest was not to delve further into Oscar's abilities but to use Oscar as a vehicle to tell about terminal illness, which is his main area of work.

"There is a lot to tell about what Oscar does, but there is a lot to tell on the human level of what family members go through at the end of life when they are dealing with a loved one in a nursing home or with advanced dementia," he said.

"Perhaps the book is a little more approachable because there is a cat in it. We really know so little about nursing homes, and this tries to get rid of this myth that they are horrid factories where people go to die."

Dosa said the story of Oscar, who is now nearly five years old, initially had sparked a bit more interest in families wanting to send their loved ones to Steere House.

Oscar has even been thanked by families in obituaries for providing some comfort in the final hours of life.

But he said Oscar remains unchanged by the attention, spending most of his days staring out of a window, although he has become a bit friendlier.

"The first time I met Oscar he bit me. We have warmed over the years. We have moved into a better place," said Dosa.

"I don't think Oscar is that unique, but he is in a unique environment. Animals are remarkable in their ability to see things we don't, be it the dog that sniffs out cancer or the fish that predicts earthquakes. Animals know when they are needed."

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)



Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know......!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E! and H E R E! And as a paperback H E R E ! and H E R E !