Prayers answered!

  Sorry I'm a day late on this, but Reno got hit with a storm yesterday afternoon and it took over an hour to make the 15 minute trip home. Then, after dinner we were both tired and went to sleep - Anne lay down in bed for a nap and I at my computer!   The news from the scan & examination is that the tumor has shrunk even more! It's now 1cm in size and the oncologist thinks it may be a good idea to do more radiation. So, he's going to meet with her radiation oncologist before deciding what will happen next. Although, he did say that they (the two doctors) will be doing a biopsy wherein Anne would be under anesthesia.   Anne would like to just remove the cervix, tumor and all, so as to be done with it. But, Dr. Lim is the expert and she'll do whatever he thinks is best. After all, he's been right so far. What he doesn't know is the power that comes from beyond at the direction of you, our dear family and friends, which is magnifying the healing process to such an amazing degree!   Thank you; bless you; God keep you, Don and Anne  

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

Prayer request

  Anne is having her PeT scan Thursday morning at 8:30am (Pacific). This will reveal how (hopefully) minimal the surgery might be. We'd really appreciate it if you could pause for just a moment and send her a prayer, healing thought or just some positive energy.   Thank you! Don and Anne     ---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

The very last text

If this doesn't break your heart, you don't have one...

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

See more at www.youtube.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jx5e

What did you expect? Rubber buiscuits???

Stop deluding yourselves. Criminals are smart, too. Believing otherwise leaves you wide open for attack. Get smart and cover your assets!

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

McAfee: Smartphones, Apple top 2011 crime targets

Security firm McAfee expects malicious activity in 2011 to target smartphones, geolocation services like Foursquare, URL shorteners, and Apple products across the board, according to a new report released Tuesday.

"We've seen significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bulls-eye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most," Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs, said in a release announcing the report's debut. These platforms and services have become very popular in a short amount of time, and we're already seeing a significant increase in vulnerabilities, attacks and data loss."

In other words, the security infrastructure surrounding hot new services and devices, and more importantly public awareness of potential threats that people may face when using them, may not be up to par with better-established technologies. Take URL shorteners, for example: Since it's so easy to mask longer URLs with them and yet Twitter users have grown accustomed to clicking them without much thought, McAfee expects that they will continue to be targets for spam, scammers, and viruses.

Social networks will remain hotbeds of malicious attacks, McAfee predicted, but geolocation services like Foursquare and Facebook Places will see new prominence. "In just a few clicks, cybercriminals can see in real time who is tweeting, where they are located, what they are saying, what their interests are, and what operating systems and applications they are using," the release Tuesday explained. "This wealth of personal information on individuals enables cybercriminals to craft a targeted attack." Read more at news.cnet.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jto1

Take it back, Texas

Not really... just take it back to your grocer

Amplify’d from www.cnn.com

Salmonella found in U.S., Canada prompts cilantro, parsley recall

(CNN) -- A Texas produce distributor has recalled nearly 7,000 cases of cilantro and curly parsley after samples in Quebec, Canada, and Michigan tested positive for salmonella, the company said Monday.

The latest recall comes days after dozens of people fell sick after consuming bacteria-tainted alfalfa sprouts in an apparently unrelated situation. Read more at www.cnn.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jqla

Catch up time

  We''re in kind of a "holding pattern" these days. Anne finished her radiation and hasn't had anything going on regarding her cancer for a couple of weeks now. She does visit the physical therapist twice a week for her back pan and it's been helping a lot.   Last Saturday we took Justus, Heather and the boys to Red Robin for lunch. We'd had a late breakfast, so she and I ate light. Anne had a chicken salad and I ordered the French onion soup with a side salad.   Then we took them to see the movie Yogi Bear. It was just as funny as I remember the cartoons; perhaps more so. The combination of live acting with modern computer generated graphics really brought Yogi and Boo-boo to life. The boys laughed throughout the movie and had a great time.

  Monday, while Anne napped, I snuck out and ran across town to a store where I'd ordered Anne's big Christmas present. After closing the deal on that I arranged for them to deliver it (since it won't fit in my car) and then scooted back home.

  Tuesday I set up Netflix on the Wii (only 7.99/mo) and watched a couple of videos. If you're interested in folk lore I can recommend Jim Henson's The Storyteller. It's a series of tales from various countries, as you can imagine, but not the same ones that everybody has heard. Also, the only "muppet" I've seen is the storyteller's dog; the rest is live acting.

  Yesterday Anne woke up with some bad pain in her lower back. (something that I can identify with!) We talked about how old our mattress is and how neither it nor the previous one had made it past their warranty periods. In fact, we've been through three of them since moving into our home 16 years ago! And these were top of the line mattresses...

  So, the decision was made to replace it. Checking with Consumer Reports we found that the best mattresses were Tempur-pedic (%60 buy again), but they were very expensive. More acceptable prices were for Original Mattress Factory (%52), Denver Mattress (%43), and Serta (%31).

  Next we looked up the highest rated stores: The Original Mattress Factory and Sleep Train were both Eastern enterprises, but Mattress Discounters had a local store fairly close to us. Looking up their web site we found that they carried the Serta and Tempur-pedic lines.

  So, we jumped in our cars and went to see them. Arriving at the store, we looked at the Serta and then went straight to the Tempur-pedic displays. Chad, our salesman, was very helpful and encouraged us to try any and all of their beds, mentioning how he couldn't believe that some people will buy one without even laying on it first. This is where you're going to spend 1/3 of your life!

  Well, after discussing the differences in construction with him between the various brands (did you know that the Sleep Number units have a %50 failure rate?) we narrowed it down to the Tempur-pedic. Although these units are the most expensive beds made, they also have a 20 year warranty! That speaks well of the quality and explains why customers are most likely to re-purchase them.

  We take delivery this afternoon. I'll send a full "review" after we actually spend a few nights sleeping on it. By the way, Chad says that when most of his customers buy a second one it's for the guest bed, instead of for themselves and putting their old set in the guest room like other mattresses!

  Bless you and yours with the spirit of love and sharing,

Don and Anne

 

 

PS

What if Jesus was born in today's tech world?

 

 

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

Carities with the highest admin cost

Unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous people out there. Fortunately, there are people who are willing to point the finger at them!

Amplify’d from www.mainstreet.com

A favorite saying in business is that you have to spend money to make money. Charitable organizations, on the other hand, have to spend money to give money, and it turns out that some are woefully inefficient at channeling donations to the people they're supposed to help.

Whether it be rent on prime office space, generous pay and benefits for the board of directors, or the high fixed costs of running a summer camp, overhead like this reduces the impact of a charity no matter how that money is being spent. Donor beware… Read more at www.mainstreet.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jb6e

Desperate breast-feeding moms reveal secrets - CNN.com

URL:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/23/breastfeeding.secr...

I remember my mother, who taught breast-feeding after she retired, talking about some of these issues. I remember how she'd say it was the most beautiful and loving thing a mother can do for her baby and with many, many benifits to both of them. But mostly I remember re-counting how she once told a class that "it comes in such cute containers!" and they all had a good laugh. She was a true "people person" and taught me real compassion.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jaz5

Real time translations!

This thing is FAST and it goes "backwards", too! Crazy!

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

Introducing Word Lens

See more at www.youtube.com

 

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If you missed it

A total lunar eclipse on the winter solstice will not happen again until 2094

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

Winter Solstice - Total Lunar Eclipse 2010 - TIME-LAPSE

See more at www.youtube.com

 

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YEAH! It's about time someone locked up this monster!

Congratulations to Florida for having the cajones to take him down. it's unbelieveable that people like this are allowed to hide behind the freedom of speech. When what you're talking about endangers others, you've crossed that line and the repurcussions should be swift.

Please, Florida, keep him for as long as you want!

Amplify’d from www.cnn.com

Man who wrote 'how-to' for pedophiles arrested

"You cannot engage or depict children in a harmful relationship," said Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd as he described the Florida obscenity statute that officials used to charge Phillip Greaves with distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in harmful conduct.

The self-published author was arrested in Pueblo, Colorado, on a Florida felony warrant after undercover detectives in Polk County purchased and received a copy of the book through the mail. He will have to be extradited to Florida to face charges. Read more at www.cnn.com

 

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Just how easy is it?

I line of code and a single click!

Amplify’d from www.readwriteweb.com

Facebook Makes Big New Move to Capture More User Data

Facebook today unveiled an incredibly simple new service that will allow any website owner to hand over user registration for their site to Facebook, undoubtedly something countless independent sites have considered since seeing the disaster that resulted from the hacking of Gawker's user account info earlier this month.

I'm not here to criticize Gawker. On the contrary, I'd like to thank them for illustrating in broad, bold relief the dirty truth about website passwords: we're all better off without them. If you'd like to see a future web free of Gawker style password compromises -- stop trusting every random internet site with a unique username and password! Demand that they allow you to use your internet driver's license -- that is, your existing Twitter, Facebook, Google, or OpenID credentials -- to log into their website.

That's exactly what the new Facebook Registration tool will make it easy for websites to do. In some cases, with a single line of code. Read more at www.readwriteweb.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ikkh

Hide your face!

It was only a matter of time before this happened. So many people unconcerned about their privacy that now we have this! You will be horrified within the next couple of years to see news stories about stalkers, pedophiles, and all manner of "well intentioned" people using this information in ways that you never dreamed of.

Check your security settings NOW and make sure that you're not sharing your pics and that you're being warned whenever someone else does.

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

Facial recognition comes to Facebook photo tags

Taking yet another step in the ongoing process of upgrading its photo-sharing service, Facebook announced today that it will soon enable facial-recognition technology--meaning that when members upload photographs and are encouraged to "tag" their friends, they will be able to choose from a list of suggestions.

Thanks to its treasure trove of user photos that have already been tagged, not to mention personal profile photos, Facebook has built up a huge base of data for gauging exactly who's in what photo. There are now 100 million photo uploads per day, according to Facebook, and 100 million "tags" each day as well. Tagging is also a hallmark of Facebook's photo product, which was otherwise bare-bones, difficult to use, and lagged behind competitors at its launch. Being able to annotate each photo with friends' names was largely what propelled Facebook Photos forward.

Of course, there will be someone out there who cries foul with regard to how Facebook handles users' personal information or wonders whether this is a sign that Facebook knows too much about us all. Cox explained that there will be an opt-out for the new feature so that if a member does not want to show up in his or her friends' tagging suggestions, they won't. Read more at news.cnet.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ihgt

Tales2Go

http://www.tales2go.com/schoolpromo/

Calling all teachers and educators! Tales2Go is a service which streams children's audiobooks on-demand to iOS devices. From now until January 15, 2011, you can sign up for a free six-month Tales2Go subscription for your school or educational program.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ifaz

It's about time!

This will make my life so much easier...

Amplify’d from mashable.com

Google Launches Site for Teaching Tech to Your Parents

Ever go home for the holidays, and find your parents asking you to help them out with “techie tasks” like uploading photos to the Internet?

You’re not alone. A bunch of folks over at Google find themselves in this situation nearly every time they visit their families around this time of year. That’s why they’ve launched TeachParentsTech.org, a “tech support care package” that’s meant to help kids teach parents about computer basics.

According to a Google blog post, the site allows users to select more than 50 basic how-to videos they could send to parents — or frankly, anyone else who might need a little tech help. The videos cover topics from copying and pasting to sharing large files. The recipient will receive a message from the sender, along with a link to the selected videos. Read more at mashable.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ibhc

Auto-Shopping

  This just in! A reader writes in to a security newsletter I get:  

I have a story to relate. Recently I was reading my Email (I have Gmail and use Google Chrome for my browser). Anyway, I got an Email that had a link to Facebook with the name that I thought was a friend of mine. Well, when I clicked on the link, all of a sudden my browser started acting "wonky". The print got large, I later found out the zoom had been set to 125%, and my mouse had trouble tracking. When I went shopping, unbeknownst to me, a couple of days later, my browser "saved" my credit card number and security code. It went shopping on its own, while I wasn't home, but had left on my computer. The virus, when I found it, was called Adware.ShopMe something or other (I don't have the full name), but what was weird the virus was only resident in memory and not on my hard drive, which I don't understand.

I won't go into the whole clean-up story, but the virus only did about $30 worth of damage, before which I am grateful. So I can affirm your admonition. "Be careful when you click on those links." -JR

 

  Forewarned is fore armed! Think before you click!!!

 

 

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

What to say/not say

Depression is serious stuff. If you know someone who suffers from depression, you should read this: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20393228,00.html?pkw=outbrain-ha

 

---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

10 car buying mistakes

This a good MSN article for anyone considering a car purchase now or in the future. Great tips to keep things on your side!

Amplify’d from editorial.autos.msn.com

10 Common Car-Buying Mistakes

Walking onto a car lot can feel like a train wreck in slow motion: At every turn you get a little more derailed, until finally you're off the tracks entirely and the dealership has what it wants: your entire bank account.

Part of the problem is the sheer number of variables involved in negotiating the sale: the price, the options, the financing, the monthly payment, maybe a trade-in. You should methodically research and consider every conceivable scenario before setting foot on a dealer's lot. Otherwise, dealers will do everything they can to tilt the transaction in their favor. Read more at editorial.autos.msn.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/hyic

Holding pattern

  Since finishing up her round of radiation treatments, Anne has had some time off. She's been to see a couple of "regular" doctors (boy, I never thought I'd have THAT paradigm shift) and is doing some physical therapy.   Other than that, she's just enjoying the break from being poked, prodded (sorry, "palpated". LOL), irratiated, infused, etc.. She'll check Skype at some point during her day and, perhaps, do some online holiday shopping.   I'm counting down the days to my Christmas vacation (the week of the 20th) and the day that Santa arrives! My new guitar arrived the other day, but she won't let me see it. "It's a Christmas present" she says. That's fine, because I love surprises and she knows the anticipation will make it that much sweeter.   I only hope that she's as happy with her gift. But, I've still got eighteen days of shopping available to me! Hahaha... (or should that be Hohoho...?) *wink*   May the spirit of the season grab you by the heart strings, Don and Anne     ---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

We need more of this!

The world is such a small place these days. Technology has interconnected nations and peoples to such an extent that our lives interweave on a daily basis. Adults may think nothing of it, but the culture shock a child feels can stop them in their tracks. That's when they turn to the experts in their world. Parents! Remembering that children learn with they live, it's important for thier future success that they not only hear, but see how to properly handle these interactions with consideration and understanding.

Amplify’d from www.babble.com

How to explain other cultures to kids

During a recent stroll around our local children’s zoo, my four-year-old son came to a halt. He stared at the family in front of us. “Mommy … what’s that woman … what’s she wearing?” He stood stock still, brazenly pointing at a woman dressed in a full burka.

As you might imagine, I was mortified. I figured I had two choices. I could stop right there and answer his question, completely objectifying the woman, or I could try to pretend he was pointing at the emus, whisk him off to the next exhibit and put off explaining until I figured out how.

But how do you explain to kids about cultures that aren’t your own? It can be really uncomfortable, especially right in front of a member of the culture in question. Read more at www.babble.com

 

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Wake up call

When are the global warming deniers going admit they're wrong? Most of them are in a position to help, or even do something directly, to slow or reverse this trend! Too bad it doesn't cost them money. That would get their attention...

Amplify’d from www.cnn.com

Oceans failing the acid test, U.N. says

(CNN) -- The chemistry of the world's oceans is changing at a rate not seen for 65 million years, with far-reaching implications for marine biodiversity and food security, according to a new United Nations study released Thursday.

"Environmental Consequences of Ocean Acidification," published by the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP)," warns that some sea organisms including coral and shellfish will find it increasingly difficult to survive, as acidification shrinks the minerals needed to form their skeletons.

Lead author of the report Carol Turley, from the UK's Plymouth Marine Laboratory said in a statement: "We are seeing an overall negative impact from ocean acidification directly on organisms and on some key ecosystems that help provide food for billions. We need to start thinking about the risk to food security." Read more at www.cnn.com

 

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Finally!

  We received some great news about Anne today: the tumor is now only 2x2 cm! It started out oblong at over 7cm and, then, the chemo took it down to 3cm. The latest shrinkage is thanks to the radiation therapy she'd been receiving.   Anne will be having another PeT scan the end of the month and then surgery will be scheduled for January. Keep them prayers, thoughts and well wishes coming. You're performing a miracle in the here and now and Anne is walking proof of that!   Love and hugs and smiles by the miles for you, Don and Anne     ---
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody.
  - Don Peer ( o)==#

Posted via email from Don Peer

I knew that

This is why friendly people are smarter than "loners".

Amplify’d from io9.com

Why dogs have bigger brains than cats

Being sociable has its advantages, including giving you - or at least your species - a bigger brain. Across more than 500 mammal species, animals that lived in social groups had bigger brains than those that lived by themselves. Read more at io9.com

 

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Big Fat Fiasco

URL:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exi7O1li_wA&NR=1&feature...

Humor with a backing of science. More than just thought provoking... this guy actually scared me! What if he's right? With all of the studies he cites, it's very possible we've all been had. Even more frightening is the question of what profits corporate America is making at the cost of our health!

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/gzuh