Bond with Paintball

Have you ever played Paintball? I haven't either but I remember playing war games with my friends as a child using water pistols as our weapons and that is virually what Paintball is. Some companies arrange Paintball games for their personel to bond and build their team spirit.

Playing Paintball is great for families too, teaching kids self discipline while they enjoy shooting each other, and you, with paint balls. If you would like to get started in this fun sport then you should visitpaintball gear. They have everything you need including a great range of paintball guns, paintball equipment, paintball markers and much more to get your family and friends out there playing the best war game around.

Old comic Books

Have you thrown out all the kids old comic books? If you have you might want to kick yourself about now. A rare copy of the very first Superman comic is being put up for auction on Friday and bids are expected to soar.

Action Comic#1 was published in June 1938 and is considered by experts to be the worlds most valuable comic book. They have valued it at $126,000.

"It's the Holy Grail of comic books," said comic expert Stephen Fishler (Reuters).

When you consider the person selling the comic bought it in 1950 for 35c when he was only nine years old you would have to wonder why you ever threw those kids comics away. Apparently this was the very first super hero comic book and all the other super hero's followed Superman onto the market.

Perhaps somewhere in the back of a cupboard or in a box in your garage you have a comic book that is worth far more than you ever thought possible.......or did you throw them all away.

Love 'em or Hate 'em

Love them or hate them, The Simpsons has surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest running prime-time television series in the US and will begin it's 21st series in the fall.

I know The Simpsons has a huge following but I am not one of them. My family have decided that this is due to some kind of mysterious and serious disability but I just cannot see what everyone else in my family thinks is so funny about The Simpsons. It seems to me that there are a lot of people like me who don't watch The Simpsons but with it's track record I now have to admit I must be in the minority, otherwise why is it doing so well?

I was surprised to learn that The Simpsons had won 24 Emmy Awards and was the longest running animated series on prime time television in the US. Those of us who don't love The Simpson will just have to accept that we are very much a minority and admit that maybe we are missing something.

Brag A Little

Do you love to make your friends jealous bragging about "Your Stuff"? If you do then here is a brand new innovative networking site you will just love.
You can log on and brag to your hearts content about your blackberry or ipod or wii or whatever.
Go ahead, check it out, and stop upsetting your friends or, better still, be a little sneaky and tell them about the site so they can log on a read about all your great stuff.

Benefits of Circumcision

A few months ago I wrote an article about the health benefits of circumcision. If you would like to read it again go to To Snip Or Not To Snip. Today, on the Afrique en ligne site there is an article entitled Botswana to focus on male circumcision for HIV/AIDS prevention. Botswana has the highest incidence of a HIV in the world and they are focusing on circumcision as a means of preventing new infections.

It has also been found that uncircumcised males are at risk of contracting the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Circumcision, which has been considered as not having any benefit other than cleanliness is now proving to be far more beneficial than was previously thought.

If you would like to read this article go to Afrique en ligne.

Hope For Autistic Children

An article today on the Associated Press web site today gives new hope to parents in the US that they will soon be able to claim for the cost of behaviour therapy for their child with Autism from there medical insurance. This will be a great saving for parents as behavioural therapy is very expensive and according to the article some parents are paying as much as $1000 per week to help their child reach his or her full potential.

It has been proven that children with Autism or Asperger's Syndrome can be helped with intensive therapy and it is only right that parents should be able to claim at least some of that money back from their medical insurance. As the article states, this is discrimination against a group of people who have an illness and it needs to be addressed, not just in the US but in all countries so that all parents can get the help their child needs.

If you would like to read this article in full go to Associated Press

Predatory Pedophile Released

In July I wrote and article called Protect Our Children about my friends grandson who was being cultivated by a paedophile. On Monday I received an email from my friend with a newspaper article about the courts decision on this predator.

A supreme court judge in his infinite wisdom had released this predator. This paedophile had served a term in prison for 22 offences against children and for possession of computer child pornography. He was returned to jail in May this year because he breached his release conditions by speaking to a boy at a party and once again accessing child pornography.

It was the opinion of this wise supreme court judge that nothing more could be done for this serial predator in jail and that the only hope of rehabilitation was in the community under a strict supervision order. And I though judges were supposed to be intelligent.

It is a fact that paedophiles cannot be rehabilitated and will continue to offend whenever they get the chance. There is no way that a persons sexual preferences can be changed so what on earth is this man doing back in our society. Isn't the law there to protect us, especially our children? I would have thought this creeps rehabilitation would have been the least of the judges considerations, that his primary consideration would have been the safety of our children. Obviously I am not as smart as the learned judge.

If you would like to know this mans name so you can safeguard your children then please leave your email address and I will send it to you. He lived in the Brisbane area at the time of his arrest and I don't know where he is now but I'm quite sure it will be near his old home in the Bowen Hills/ fortitude Valley areas.

Memory Skills Made Easy

Is your child falling behind at school? The reason for this may be a poor memory. Help your child improve his memory and watch his grades rise with this excellent program. This program comes with a video and ebook and is fun to use. Want to know more? Go to Memory Skills Made Easy

Access For Disabled

An article in The Vancouver Sun made me realise once again how unenlightened some places are about people with disabilities. The article is about 32 year old, Kent Mcdonald who was born with Cerebral Palsy and in a motorised wheelchair. When Kent visited the museum in Prince Rupert BC he was refused entry because he was in a motorised wheelchair. He was offered a normal wheelchair and told that his carer could wheel him around but he could not take his motorised wheelchair into the museum. Kent is unable to sit up in a normal wheelchair.
The curator of the museum said it was for the safety of other patrons of the museum.

In Australia and the US and I am sure in many other countries, there is legislation which ensures people with disabilities have access to all facilities and are not restricted because of their disability but apparently there is no such law in Canada.

One has to wonder what it takes to convince countries like Canada that people with disabilities have the same interests and needs as the rest of the population and they are entitled to expect to be able to access everything that people who are not disabled simply take for granted.

If you would like to read this article then check it out at The Vancouver Sun and tell me your feelings on the subject.

Take The Bus

I have always believed that Australian drivers were the best in the world and that it was un-Australian to own anything but a Holden. According to the press release below about our Car Driving Habits I could not have been more wrong.

When I take my Holden out of the garage I comfort myself with the fact that only 2500 drivers were surveyed and my age group did not feature highly. What worries me is how many South Australians chatting on their mobiles will I have to avoid on my trip to the shopping centre. Perhaps I should take the bus.

Press Release:

Private Fleet has just completed the most comprehensive survey of its kind ever done in Australia giving a fascinating and sometimes shocking insight into the habits of drivers across the country.

2,500 Australian drivers were surveyed and their responses shed some light on many age old driving questions.

Detailed and comprehensive statistics on controversial topics such as women drivers, Holden vs Ford, city or country, P-Platers and Volvo drivers are all available via our interactive survey.

Being an interactive survey, YOU can choose the information YOU want to see. Always suspected elderly Honda drivers were the slowest on the road? Is it true that South Australian Toyota drivers are more aggressive than NSW country drivers? With something like 10,000 possible combinations to explore, you’ll find the answers to your most detailed suspicions.

The results are often surprising and always revealing – a few extracts follow:

While young (17-25) Toyota drivers are 40% more likely than the average driver to talk on the phone whilst driving, they are about 30% less likely to drink and drive

The best overall statistically reliable segment of drivers are female drives in QLD aged between 41 and 60. The worst drivers are (perhaps unsurprisingly) male P-Platers from NSW

Male drivers are worse drivers in all categories except “Text Messaging Whilst Driving” category which female drivers came out tops.

Summary by Car Type

Overall Holden hold the unenviable title of housing Australia’s worst drivers where as Mazda come out on top as the having the best behaved drivers.

When it comes to talking on the phone (without using a hands-free), VW drivers are the worst offenders with 74% admitting to having committed such an offence whilst only 60% Mazda drivers admit to the same

A surprise when it comes to ‘leadfoots’, with VW taking out the title as 54% admit to exceeding the speed limit by more than 30kmh. The unhurried Hyundai driver reveals just 32% breaking the limit by more than 30km/hr

BMW drivers may be the best behaved when it comes to text messages but they take out the dubious honour of the worst drink drivers with 42% admitting to having driven after drinking 3 or more standard alcoholic drinks. Honda drivers keep it straight with less than 33% admitting the same.

Summary by State

Overall, South Australia is home to the country’s worst drivers whilst Australian Capital Territory drivers are (comparatively) squeaky clean!

With mobile phones, 21% of SA drivers admit to (often or sometimes) talking on the phone whilst driving whilst just 10% of ACT drivers confess to the same. Similarly South Australian send text messages whilst driving at ten times the rate of their ACT counterparts (10% vs 1%).

Speed freaks head for Tasmania where nearly 50% of drivers say that they have exceeded the speed limit by more than 30 km/hr whilst Victorians take their time as only 39% putting their pedal to the metal.