21st Century America

Real Music on NBC's Sing Off December 2010 Season 2

2010-12-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

This season's Sing Off features hard working dedicated groups of good people that have real talent from the 1960s all the way to today's On the Rocks from Oregon University.

A favorite on Sing Off, Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town bring their professionalism and poise to doo-wap and street corner harmonies. They will bring back memories and provide good music for you today. See them tonight on NBC at 8 PM and see them on Facebook anytime.

Committed is a Gospel group that performed pop music for the first time on Sing Off and brought the house down as they stunned the judges. Hallelujah!

These are my favorites above - who are your favorites?

Finally! - Good music and great people together in one show. Rock on!

YouSayToo Bloggers Community

North Korea Attacks Yeonpyeong-Myeon South Korea as Promised - Why USA is Not Immune

2010-11-27T08:29:00.000-08:00

North Korea Attacks Yeonpyeong-Myeon South Korea as Promised - Why USA is Not Immune

On November 27, NPR called the 3-mile-long Yeonpyeong island "charred and desolate", with photographic images of localized housing damage to match their description. The town hall and only healthcare center were severely damaged, the military base taking large damage as well.

Aside from the military installation just about 7 miles from North Korean territory, Yeonpyeong is historically a small fishing village know for high quality crab capture, civilian population estimates to be between 1,200 and 1,700 in 2010. Residents fled the island community by ferry over the course of two days to take up residence in a bath house in Incheon, South Korea.

Apparently, the conflict and irregularly occurring military attacks at Yeonpyeong Island have endured for 60 years, North Korea insisting that it owns the waters surrounding the island. In an eerie event, news media state that 60 buildings went aflame during the latest attack in November 2010 - one for each year of the conflict. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-Young resigned after the 2010 attack. The Yellow Sea where the charred island floats remained a point of contention for North and South Korea and China.

Access the link for full story, discussion, and updates.

Native American Migration from Russia to Iceland

2010-11-24T07:57:00.000-08:00

Native American Migration from Russia to Iceland:

"Eskimo (Inuit) Nation at the Top of the World.

One human migration theory holds that the Thules on the west coast of Greenland became the Inuit that live across the northern parts of the North American Continent. This would seem to mean that the Thules traveled from Greenland around the Arctic Circle clockwise and ended in Iceland. While certain evidence links the Thules to the Inuit, none yet links them to the Koreans; whereas Inuit peoples are genetically related to some degree to all other circumpolar/subpolar peoples, including northern Asians. I think the People of the North must be the originals - not of all mankind perhaps, but of the North of the Eastern Hemisphere, where they have commanded the Arctic Circle genetically. Read more on this history that some groups of people are denying, becuase they do not want to be linked. Fascinating."

Hilarious Halloween and Family Alternatives - All Safe and Awesome

2010-10-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

For Harvest Festival and Neewollah – even Halloween, remember to use these great safe and fun celebration party ideas and costumes.

“It Really Doesn’t Matter, When You’re the Mad Hatter!” -

You won’t be sorry if you view these tremendously funny videos. It does not matter if you have a mask or not with these costumes. Don’t miss the Mad Hatter Rap!

Never Enough Elvis -

Costumes, gifts, decorations, all for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

Safe Halloween Fun in Central Ohio -

Fantastic parties and museum-sponsored participation events – tours, walks, camps, haunted stories, a haunted mansion with separate nights for kids and adults…Even the Statehouse fills up with spooky events and parties.

Don’t Walk the Street for Treats -

There’s plenty of fun things to do that are free in your local community. You have not imagined what is available, but these activities involve singles, families, even pets.

Multicolor Leaves and Multiculturalism

2010-10-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

I was just writing a, by turns, humorous and dramatic article about multicolored leaves reflecting the multicultural diversity found in the topics of Holidays and Celebrations, Gender and Relationships, and Religions and Philosophy. Suddenly, an interesting article appeared on Facebook.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced during October 2010 that multiculturalism failed in Germany. Many Chrstians see the concept of Multiculturalism as a high holy element Secularism and Humanism.

Yet many media personalities, government leaders, and social services wonderpeople like the idea and promote it. People from opposite cultures can get along. After all, the US was known as the great Melting Pot in the 1800s and 1900s. Today it is a pepper pot.

Multiculturalism seems the result of “cultural relativism” that asserts that all cultures are equal. Fine. Cultural relativism may breed situational relativism - one crime is not worse than another. Not fine. Raping an infant is much worse than stealking a candy bar. Regardless -

If all cultures and all ideas and thus, all religions are valid under a "relativity" that Einstein did not envision; then why so much commotion and effort to suppress Christianity in America?
Read more about Multiculturalism gone awry at

The Christian Post - PC Run Amok

Back to Reichenbach!

2010-06-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Horror, crime, and the supernatural in one novel -- The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls is a plain black book featuring a black and gray cartoon representation of two men falling over a cliff into the depths of a wide waterfall. This is the very falls over which Professor Moriarity and Sherlock Holmes fought to their supposed deaths in what Arthur Conan Doyle expected to be his last Holmes episode.

Yet, both men lived to pursue the hunt for one another to a new ending.

In this round, RPG designer J. Robert King fills another of his 20+ novels with a rollicking good tale. He brings back Hodges's protagonist, Thomas Carnacki, the Ghost Hunter. King places Carnacki at he start of his career, drifting through Switzerland in search of a living. Rather than that, Thomas meets Ann Moriarity, genius daughter of Professor James Moriarity, an amnesic Sherlock Holmes drenched in a river, Dr. John H. Watson in search of Moriarity's assorted henchmen, another House, MD, living skeletons, and red mists that also seem alive - with evil. Jack the Ripper is another important celebrity in this book, along with a Paris Ripper. Curiously, the real Moriarity is a sympathetic character until Jack the Ripper stalks his beautiful genius wife. He even has an endearing sense of humor.

J. Robert King has enjoyed crime and tales of the supernatural in Hodges' work and added Carnacki and buckets of mysterious blood with Holmes after his supposed death. Eventually, Sherlock wanders across the globe until he is ready to take up residence once again on Baker Street; and Carnacki might be going with him. We hope for many sequels.

This book's Carnacki is a sharp mind, as well as a strong adversary in the newspapers, taunting various Rippers with goading articles and reports. Any fan of mysteries and horror, especially Late Victorian Era works, is in for a treat at Reichenbach Falls.

A full review: The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls

I follow author J. Robert King and his writing group on Twitter and you can also:

On Twitter: @jrobertking

Web Site: http://www.jrobertking.com
A very well-crafted website - you'll find a the RPG and novel works of Mr. King and the Twitter addresses for all his companies and writing groups. Brilliant!

SUMMER LITERARY CELEBRATION

2010-06-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Summer 2010

50th Anniversary: To Kill A Mockingbird

People who differ from the center of a misapplied Bell Curve are the mockingbirds for Haper Lee in her monumental pulitzer prize winning To Kill A Mockingbird, celebrating its 50th Anniversary all summer in 2010:

Mockingbirds: people with mental health issues, geniuses, feminists, a black man in the Depression Era South. In the book, the mockingbird is also the bystander mentality, not wanting to rock the boat. The group repeated the chant of the larger community for safety’s sake. Status quo, mediocrity…

People that mind their own business and do no harm are attacked in America by people that don’t have enough to do. These are the innocents like the book’s characters Arthur (Boo) Radley and Tom Robinson.

Click the link to find out more about the Summer 2010 theatrical performances and celebrity readings of To Kill A Mockingbird.

World Cup FIFA 2010 Good Eats

2010-06-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

South Africa is twice the six of Texasand offers soccer venues for the FIFA 2010 World Cup in 9 venerable cities that include Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban. The event is 30 days long and bigger than the Olympics. Controversy in the use of blast horns and advertisers' colors add even more excitement and fun to the venues. South Africa will never forget the 2010 World Cup.

World Cup FIFA 2010 Good Eats

South Africa is also well known for recipes shared with us by friends and colleagues. Below are recipes that have been shared from South Africa since the 1960s. A bit about food from South Africa's nearest neighbor, Botswana, follows, along with some information about the FIFA World Cup 2010. Enjoy all of it, please.

Snack Cracker Recipes and History

2010-04-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

Snack Cracker Recipes and History:

Recently, America has been criticized as nation of opulent folks eating expensive Triscuit snack crackers, after controversial South Park Cartoon episodes made fun of Muhammed. I agree that Tricuits are too expensive, but the whole country cannot eat them - we can't afford them!

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew Nation fled Pharaoh's army during their Exodus and could not take the time for their bread dough to rise. They baked it without yeast and made crackers that have for 6,000 years been Matzoh. How old is the invention of the cracker?

Whenever the first person thought of grinding something for flour - grains, acorns, even bones - and mixing it with water to place on a flat rock over a fire, we invented the cracker. After centuries, sailors began making crackers of flour and water to take onlong ocean travels. For a complete history and some good recipes, acces the link at the top of the article.

Top 10 Hot Jobs in Fast Growing Lee's Summit

2010-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Hot Jobs in Fast Growing Lee's Summit:

Lee's Summit, Missouri is the fastest growing city in state, with over 26,000 job openings available and listed at the end of April 2010. The large shopping mall called Summit Fair received a large Simulus Fund loan, finished construction in 2009 and opened with several stores, including Macy's and Penney's. Dozens of other shops are open or opening and hiring is open. Most other jobs are involved in Sales, Finance, Healthcare, and Dining/Food Service.

The local Downtown Master Plan is ongoing, carried out by City leaders, the Chamber of Commerce, an aggressive economic development company, and a Downtown Association, all working with businesses, workforce pros, and universities to being more jobs to job seekers. This was all highlighted in 2010 by BusinessWeek,a Bloomberg publication.

At least 50% of Downtown Lee's Summit residents moved there within the last 10 years, resulting in the fast growth. The city is located just 20 miles southeast of Kansas City as well, with additional business and popular attractions. Access the link above for more info, job listings, and illustrations.

What to Do About Pica - A Game Plan

2010-04-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

What to Do About Pica - A Game Plan:

Pica Eating Disorder can be a passing fancy in toddlers or a deadly addiction and anything in between those points. Thus, we need to use a common sense approach to look at pica and ask for help from the approriate professionals.

Complications:

1) Pica has caused constipation (aso a sign of sexual abuse in some children), intestinal cramps, pain, bowel obstructions, inflammation, gastrointestinal perforations, and infection produced by ingested parasites (can be fatal).
2) MALNUTRITION - Amylophagia can cause weight gain in the presence of malnutrition, a confounding phenomenon - the starch provides calories without nutrients. Amylophagia during pregnancy can look like gestational diabetes and must be considered in the differential diagnosis. Compulsive ice eating can decrease the absorption of nutrients by stomach and intestines and cause malnutrition.
3) Eating lead-based paint or mercury-content paper can result in poisoning.

For a commonsense Game Plan to help you or your loved ones, incuding all the details, access the link above and follow it step by step.

Why Do Women Have All the Luck?

2010-04-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Why Do Women Have All the Luck?:

A reader writes in:

"Why is it that women on average live 10 years longer than men and yet men are expected to work for longer, giving them less retirement fun time before they die?”(sic)

Reader, your question implies that:
1. Men work a greater number of years on average than women,
2. Women live 10 years longer on average than men,
3. Men have fewer years total available to them for enjoyment,
4. Men enjoy fewer years than women of happiness in retirement before death ,
5. Women enjoy an unfair advantage of longer lifespan and less work than do men,
6. Men should not have to work so long,
7. Women should be punished, not given a natural advantage,
8. Someone should be able to fix this.

The original premise is erroneous and the answer will hopefully stop spam sellers. Click the link for the counterpunch.

Top 15 Hot Job Titles in Urbandale

2010-04-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Top 15 Hot Job Titles in Urbandale: "Urbandale is residential, but aggressive business development occurred as well, especially with the advent of industrial parks along highways I-35 and I-80. However, the city is green-minded and growing more sustainable by choice and plan.

Green space is abundant in parks and trails leading to Des Moines. Money Magazine named Urbandale among its 100 Best Places to Live several times since 2005. BusinessWeek had forecast trouble for Urbandale in the Recession of 2008-9, but changed its collective mind to rate it the Fastest Growing City in Iowa in 2010. And 1000s of jobs are open now.

Announcing: The Hubnuggets 'Strip'!

2010-04-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Read this short 3-story arc and graphic novel of the continuing parodies of the United HubPages of Planets' Good Ship Huppertise.

Our Intro:

These are the voyages of the Good Ship Hubbertise. Its Mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new content and new writers; to boldly go where only spam has gone before.

This episode finds us recently saved from extinction by a mad ships' computer, the HUB 9000, which forced the Hubbertise crew to watch old B movies under oxygen deprivation. With help from a jackalope and a few humans, the new ship's engineer and the science officer parlayed the event into a better ending for us all.

See the 3-Episode Arc here:

2010 A HubNugget Oddyssey
HubNuggets Corps of Engineers
Announcing: The Hubnuggets 'Strip'!

Learn How to Promote Online - Easy 60 Day Challenge

2010-04-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

contentHubPages content, graphics, and article community is home to a wide range of information and entertainment. A core group of writers join Hub Challenges and encourage new writers to join as a means of making friends and driving more traffic via group efforts. They have a lot of fun and learn aspects of the world and life unimagined before.

30 Hubs in 30 Days is an ongoing project in which, instead of hit-and-miss production, we set out during a 30-day period to create one new Hub daily that is unique and good to read. Even poetry is gaining quality and readership, so poets or those that would like to be can contribute as well. A new Challenge is the 60 Day Challenge - but not 60 Hubs. We write 30 Hubs in 30 Days and spend some time daily over the next 30 days to promote them sinlgy and with help from other Hubbers. We all post a 60-Day Log article that lists tips and recommendations.

It's free to join HubPages, but if you cannot join, come over and watch us and pick up some tips anyway. If you do join, you might become a Weekly HubNugget Winner with your work sent to 70,000+ readers!

A Fine Romance

2010-01-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is coming up in about a month and some people are becoming tired of attempting to think up ways of celebrating the day. Others would simply like to chuck the whole event and go hide somewhere, like some of the stars of these entertaining romantic comedies on British television --

Dame Judi Dench and Sir Geoffrey Palmer are hilarious in several years of As Time Goes By and its reunion movie. Before than, Dame Judi starred with her own husband Michael Williams in A Fine Romance about the romantically challenged.

This might be the year to celebrate Valentine's Day differently, with a funny yet heartwarming film that will remind you that we are all human. See more wil some video clips and a whole episode at:

A FINE ROMANCE

Film Review: Leap Year (2010)

2010-01-09T14:32:00.000-08:00

Leap Year, starring Amy Adams and Mathew Goode, is an engaging family film with some bite and surprise to it. The whole family can enjoy it together, but the language and the sheer oceans of alcohol consumed in it might lever the rating up to PG-13 from PG.

I liked the fact that the whole audience seemed to be laughing out loud quite often during the showing, and so was I. The film also has an uplifting moral without being preachy.

The plot is hilarious - a young professional woman livign with her boyfirned for 4 years (we never see a love scene between them, however) is disappointed in not receiving an engagement ring for Valentine's Day and flies to Ireland after him to propse on Leap Day, February 29. The weather and transportation are all dead set against her doing this and each delay is more humorous than the last.

My pastor states that all delays are from God and in this film, maybe they are just so. Whomever they may be from, He has a sense of humor. Irish legends and misquoted superstitions add a layer of hilarity to the already slapstick proceedings. By the time a viewer leaves the film, he feels pretty happy, Recession or no.

I will say that I noticed something about the audience in the matinee slot I saw the picture. This was that it seemed to be one of the most obese audiences I have seen in the MidWest. Being good at calculations, I found that 75% of the audience was in the obese category at least, that about half of these were women, with an overlapping half of the 75% (men and women) having to be over 150 pounds overweight. Though few children were in attendance, one eight-year-old girl caught my eye, because she was over 25+ pounds overweight already.

What's happened to the MidWest during the Recession of 2008 - 2009 or '10? It seems to have gained more weight, and not all form the Holiday Fortnight or 12-day. This cannot be good for for their health and will give the new Healthcare Plan from Washington a run for its money in the near future.

The Best Philippine Christmas Dishes

2009-12-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a wonderfully active season in the Philippines that really begins back in September every year. Don't miss the Christmas stars and these receipes for a delicious Christmas Eve and Christmas Day feast!

The Best Philippine Christmas Dishes

Careers in the Way Out West - and East

2009-12-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

Did you ever play Cowboys and Indians as a child and long for a job as a cowboy or cowgirl later on? Those types of jobs really exist in America, Canada, Mexico, South America, and even Australia. Cowhands, ranch hands, ranch managers and others work all across the USA, even on the East. Some training is involved and a college degree can help you land one of these jobs.

Read about the life and requirements for becoming a cowgirl or cowboy, along with some information and videos of the yearly National Cowboy Poet Gathering --

Cowboys, Rodeos, and Trail Drive Training

Stay At Home Parents Can Earn a Living Wage

2009-12-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

Some comments and pundits believe that stay-at-home parents have no chance of finding a job when they are ready to return to work. This not true if you know how to prepare ahead of time and make those stay-at-home years count for yourself and your community as well as for your kids and family.

If you're a stay-at-home, you might find yourself a new job for Christmas! See the link:

A Stay At Home Parent Is a CEO

Top 15 High Demand Jobs in Auburn AL

2009-12-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

JOBS IN AUBURN-OPELIKA AREA:

Top 15 High Demand Jobs in Auburn AL

Fastest Growing Jobs for High School Graduates

2009-12-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

High School and College Seniors need to be making plans for their next career move right after the Christmas and school break holidays. This material will help --

Fastest Growing Jobs for High School Graduates

Pharmaceutical Companies and American Health

2009-12-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Would you submit to a mandatory injection required by the US or State Government?
Would you enforce mandatory vaccinations as a healthcare professional?
Read the research about possible links of government with major drug companies and some suggestions for improvement –

Pharmaceutical Companies and American Health

Orangy Roughy Puttanesca and Pasta

2009-12-13T12:50:00.000-08:00

Traditional Neopolitan and Sicilian Pasta and Sauce with Fish.

Orangy Roughy Puttanesca and Pasta

How to Avoid the Top 10 Interview Mistakes

2009-12-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

How to Avoid the Top 10 Interview Mistakes:

"Whether or not we are in an economic recession as a nation and experiencing increasing Unemployment Rates in many states, the following 10 negative attributes will lengthen your own recession by losing you job after job in the interviewing process."