I NEED TO REMEMBER THESE SITES

Six Hot Reads On The Meltdown - The Daily Beast

2011-03-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

Six Hot Reads On The Meltdown - The Daily Beast

Can We Party like it's 1776 and Just Start Over? Thomas Jefferson's Top 10 Quotes on Money and Banking - Home - The Daily Bail

2011-03-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Can We Party like it's 1776 and Just Start Over? Thomas Jefferson's Top 10 Quotes on Money and Banking - Home - The Daily Bail

How to Avoid Bank Fees While Traveling – Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

2011-03-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

How to Avoid Bank Fees While Traveling – Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

HOW TO AVOID BANK FEES WHILE TRAVELING

By NomadicMatt | Published: January 13, 2011

Banking overseas is more than just putting your card in an ATM. When you travel abroad, you want to avoid paying bank fees, foreign transaction charges, and. get a good exchange rate. In fact, if you are on the road for awhile, you want to have your money work for you. Banking when you travel requires thinking and a bit of planning. Here are some tips and trick I use to reduce the fees bank fees when I travel overseas:

Banking Overseas

The first thing you should do is set up a checking account at a major bank. ALWAYS PICK A MAJOR BANK!Why? Most major banks have partnership agreements with counterparts overseas that allow for free ATM withdrawals. People don’t usually factor banking fees into their trip expenses, but those fees can take a big bite out of your budget. Let’s think about it. If you’re traveling for a year, you will probably take out money from an ATM twice a week. Every time you make a withdrawal, it typically costs $5 USD in fees. That’s $520 USD per year. Even if you only use the ATM half the time, that’s still $260 USD per year. Why give banks money you need for travel? By picking a major bank and using partner ATMs, you can avoid those fees.

Below is a list of major banks that have ATM partnerships where you can avoid fees:

Bank of America (United States)
Barclays (England, Wales, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and certain countries in Africa)
BNP Paribas (France, Ukraine)
China Construction Bank (China)
Deutsche Bank (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal and Italy)
Santander Serfin (Mexico)
Scotiabank (Canada, Caribbean, Peru, Chile and Mexico)
Westpac (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands)
ABSA (South Africa)
UkrSibbank (Ukraine)

Moreover, I recommend that you pick a global bank that has branches around the world. I use HSBC for most of my international banking. (My secondary ATM card is with Bank of America.) HSBC has ATMs all over the world. Using those ATMs means I don’t have to pay those fees. Moreover, they also have ATM agreements with some of the above-mentioned banks. US residents can also get a Capital One money market account with an ATM card. They offer unlimited ATM withdrawals and no foreign transaction fees. Moreover, Charles Schwab (as many readers pointed out) reimburses you for all out of network ATM fees, which means they have no transaction fees, though, as with all banks, you will still pay a conversion fee.

Note: You should also create a second checking account. This is important because you’ll need a backup in case your primary account card gets stolen or lost while you travel.

Making Money with Your Money
Moreover, you want your money to work for you. You have just saved an enormous amount of money for your trip. Don’t let it sit in a checking account where it will collect 0% interest. You have a pile of cash. Do something with it! Even though interest rates on savings and money market accounts are fairly low (1.5%), some extra money is better than none. Here are a few companies that offer good rates for US residents:

Emigrant Direct
E*Trade
ING Direct
VirtualBank
Discover Bank

By putting your money into one of these accounts, you can actually earn money while you travel. How much you earn will depend on how often you take money out and what you start with but I typically make an extra $100 USD per year. It’s not a lot money but it helps.

Note: Australia and New Zealand have high interest rates. If you are a resident of there, take advantage of those rates to make even more money while you travel overseas.

Minimizing the Exchange Rate “Penalty”

You’ll never able to fully avoid the exchange rate unless you somehow use magic to turn your bank account into local currency everywhere you go. However, there are ways to reduce the amount you lose in conversion:

Use a Credit Card – Credit companies get the best rates. Using a credit card will get you an exchange rate closest to what the banks get.

Use an ATM Card – ATM machines offer the best exchange rate after credit cards. They aren’t as good as credit cards since banks take a little more off the top but it’s much better than exchanging cash.

Withdraw A Lot – If the exchange rate has moved in your favor, withdraw more than you need. That way when the exchange rate changes you’ll have scored yourself some extra money. This also helps reduce ATM fees since you won’t be going every few days. You have to be O.K. carrying cash though.

Don’t Change Money at Airports – Never ever exchange money at airports! You will always find awful rates and high fees. If you have to exchange cash, do it in town rather than at the airport. Moreover, NEVER exchange with Travelex. Their rates are worse than anybody else I’ve seen.

Get Travel Rewards

Travel credit cards are crucial to reducing your costs and making your life easier. These credit cards can get you free stuff, cheap flights, and money. There are many travel credit cards out there that offer different kinds of rewards, from general points programs to hotel and airline cards. You probably already use a credit card, so if you like to travel, you should consider getting a travel rewards credit card.

Most travel credit cards offer bonuses of 30,000 points/miles for signing up. I use a Citi AAdvantage card because I belong to their frequent flier program. Buy getting free stuff, you can reduce your overall expenses. A free flight is worth more than the fees you may pay. Cashback can help cover the cost of the fees. I put everything on my card and last year I only spent $300 USD on fees but that was well below the free flight I got to Europe and the nights at the Hilton. In the end, I saved money.

However, Chase, Capital One, and Discover credit cards have no foreign transaction fee when using these cards overseas. If you get one of those cards, you can avoid fees and get rewards.

Below are some sites where you can find good credit cards.

http://www.creditcards.com/airline-miles.php (US)
http://www.creditcardfinder.com.au/travel-rewards-credit-cards (Australia)
http://uk.creditcards.com/travel.php (UK)
http://www.rewardscanada.ca/topcreditcard2009.html (Canada)

Bank fees can add up to some serious money over the course of a long trip. If you want to save money, you need to be proactive when it comes to banking and currency exchanges. I see too many travelers that hit the ATM up all the time without paying attention to the latest exchange rates. You’re on the losing end that way. Be smart and bank smart so you give the banks less and can have more for your trip.

Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Cents

2011-03-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Cents

To translate into plain English, Jeffrey from the Grocery Coupon Guide blog undertook a little experiment last month. In response to a challenge from his sister he “ate well” on just a buck a day, thanks largely to his awesome shopping skills and couponing prowess.

Because I love stories of extreme personal finance, and because I haven’t highlighted one in a long time, I decided to take a closer look; I spent an hour reading about his project. Holy cats! This fellow’s shopping abilities are insane.

If you don’t have time to read the entire series, at least check out day one, in which Jeffrey documents the things he bought to get the project started. He photographed everything he purchased and everyreceipt, and describes exactly how you might be able to find similar discounts. It’s great stuff. (Near the end of his introductory post, he gives a sort of table of contents for the project so that you can jump to the day you want.)

On that first day, he picks up two boxes of instant oatmeal, some cream cheese and some sour cream, ten apples, four boxes of wheat thins, a jar of peanut butter, two cans of pork and beans, a bag of rice, and two packages of tortillas. And he spent just $4.49 for all of this.

Here’s Jeffrey’s list of the ten thing he learned while eating on $1 a day for a month:

Grocery shopping is a game. If you’re willing to learn the rules of the game, you can save big bucks.
You can eat more than junk food on a dollar a day. Yes, more money lets you make healthier choices, but you can still make good choices on a tight budget.
Drugstores can be a great place to get free food. Because it’s so easy to save money playing the drugstore game, you can often score food for free.
If you don’t know what a catalina coupon is, you don’t know about the most powerful discounts available. These coupons, which print at the cash register, can offer tremendous savings.
Generic and store-brand items aren’t as cheap as you’d think. Their regular price may be less, but you’re not going to find coupons and discounts on them like you will on big national brands.
Most people don’t know how to shop to save. They decide what they want and then go to the grocery store to buy those things. To truly save, you need to build your meals around what’s on sale (and what you have coupons for).
It’s possible to donate a lot of food while only eating on a buck a day.
It doesn’t take nearly as much time as you’d imagine. Yes, there’s a learning curve, but once you know what to do, it’s easy.
Finding coupons is the key. The Sunday newspaper inserts are great, but Jeffrey says that the coupons you find in the stores themselves are often even better.
Anyone can do it. And once you learn, you’ll save big bucks every time you shop.

On the final day of his project, Jeffrey summarized his purchases. During the month of May, he spent $27.08 to purchase $597.96 worth of food. And because of the goofy rules he agreed to with his sister, he ended up donating a bunch of stuff to his local food bank. (The last post is entertaining because of the mistake he makes and then corrects; it had me laughing out loud.)

I like that Jeffrey has a realistic attitude about this project. While he thinks that anyone can do the same thing he’s doing, he also recognizes that living on a tight food budget puts you in a precarious position: “The problem with eating on a limited budget, when the unexpected happens…is that you can’t just stop into a fast food joint and grab a bite.”

Jeffrey was so pleased with the challenge that he decided to continue it. For the past week, he’s been chronicling his continued efforts to eat well for less. (Though he’s loosened some of the arbitrary restrictions he agreed to when he was trying to prove a point to his sister.) I think it’s fun that his readers have started to give him tips and suggestions for finding other great bargains, which helps him keep his costs even lower!

Currency Converter and Calculator

2011-03-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

Currency Converter and Calculator

11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad

2011-03-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

11 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is Bad

Millions of Americans are waking up to the fact that the Federal Reserve is bad, but very few of them can coherently explain why this is true. For decades, an unelected, privately-owned central bank has controlled America's currency, run our economy and has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy. It operates in great secrecy, it has never been subjected to a comprehensive audit and yet the actions it takes have an impact on every single American. It is an institution designed to drain wealth from the U.S. government (and ultimately from the American people) and transfer it to the ultra-wealthy. Have you ever wondered why a sovereign nation such as the United States has to borrow United States dollars from anyone? Have you ever wondered why a sovereign nation such as the United States does not even issue its own currency? Have you ever wondered why we allow a group of unelected private bankers to run our economy?

Those are some very important questions. Hopefully what you are about to read will open the eyes of many. The truth is that our financial system is centrally-controlled and centrally-managed by a group of banking oligarchs who have constructed an ever-expanding debt spiral which has been efficiently designed to slowly transfer all wealth into their hands.

The following are 11 reasons why the Federal Reserve is not good for the United States....

1 - The Federal Reserve was created as a way to enslave the U.S. government with debt. The truth is that the U.S. government only goes into debt if it chooses to. Theoretically, one day that U.S. government could simply decide to print as many U.S. dollars as it wants and pay off all government debts. But under the current system that is not allowed. You see, today the U.S. government does not issue any money. The Federal Reserve issues all money. That is why they are called "Federal Reserve notes".

Under the current regime, whenever the U.S. government wants more currency to be created it has to go into more debt.

In a previous article entitled "It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt" I explained how this insidious system works....

If you will pull a dollar bill out and take a look at it, you will notice that it says "Federal Reserve Note" at the top.

It belongs to the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. government cannot simply go out and create new money whenever it wants under our current system.

Instead, it must get it from the Federal Reserve.

So, when the U.S. government needs to borrow more money (which happens a lot these days) it goes over to the Federal Reserve and asks them for some more green pieces of paper called Federal Reserve Notes.

The Federal Reserve swaps these green pieces of paper for pink pieces of paper called U.S. Treasury bonds. The Federal Reserve either sells these U.S. Treasury bonds or they keep the bonds for themselves (which happens a lot these days).

So that is how the U.S. government gets more green pieces of paper called "U.S. dollars" to put into circulation. But by doing so, they get themselves into even more debt which they will owe even more interest on.

So every time the U.S. government does this, the national debt gets even bigger and the interest on that debt gets even bigger.

Now, apologists for the Federal Reserve system are quick to point out that the Federal Reserve does not make much of a profit. Once a "statutory dividend" of 6% is paid to member banks and a capital account surplus is "maintained", the rest of the profits of the Federal Reserve go back to the U.S. Treasury.

Problem solved, right?

Wrong.

The point is not how much of a profit the Federal Reserve makes or does not make.

The point is that the Federal Reserve is a tool for creating U.S. government debt which slowly drains our national wealth and which ends up greatly enriching the global elite.

As of July 1st, the U.S. government had spent $355 billion so far in 2010 on interest payments to the holders of the national debt.

Have you ever wondered who gets all that money?

The truth is that the wealthiest individuals around the globe have been getting very rich for a very long time off of government debt.

2 - The Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air. In a previous article, I noted how this fact comes out in congressional hearings and yet the American people just don't seem to get too upset about it....

During a recent Joint Economic Committee hearing on Capital Hill, U.S. Representative Ron Paul directly confronted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about this 1.3 trillion dollars. As Ron Paul described how this 1.3 trillion was just created out of thin air, all Bernanke could do was nod his head. Why? Because it was the truth.

3- The huge predator megabanks that now dominate the U.S. banking system use the Federal Reserve as a tool to make money. One of the ways they do this is called the U.S. Treasury carry trade. What happens is that the Federal Reserve lends huge amounts of money to the megabanks for next to nothing, and then these megabanks use all that cash to buy U.S. government debt. This little "trick" helped enable four of the biggest U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup) to have a "perfect quarter"with zero days of trading losses during the first quarter of 2010. Wouldn't you like to have a perfect batting average?

4 - The Federal Reserve devalues our currency. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost 96 percent of its purchasing power. The truth is that just a two percent inflation rate will wipe out half of your purchasing power within a single generation. In the chart below, you can clearly see that the beginning of the rapid rise of inflation in the United States coincided with the creation of the Federal Reserve....

5 - The Federal Reserve manipulates the U.S. economy by setting national interest rates. By keeping rates high or low, the Federal Reserve has the power to create economic growth or to destroy it. The have the power to inflate massive bubbles and to pop them. Most Americans give way too much credit and blame to presidents like Bush or Obama for how the economy is doing. The truth is that they really don't have that much control over the economy compared to the Federal Reserve.

6 - The Federal Reserve also controls the national money supply. They can pump trillions into the economy or pull trillions out without being accountable to anyone. This can have disastrous consequences. For example, after the U.S. stock market crash of 1929, the Federal Reserve continued to contract the money supply. Many analysts believe that this was one of the key things that precipitated the Great Depression.

7- The Federal Reserve is not part of the U.S. government. The truth is that the Federal Reserve is about as "federal" as Federal Express is. In defending itself against a Bloomberg request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Reserve objected by declaring that it was "not an agency" of the U.S. government and therefore it was not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. It is kind of funny how Fed officials are always talking about how important their "independence" is, but whenever anyone starts criticizing them for being private they start stressing their ties with the government.

8 - The Federal Reserve has become far, far too powerful. The reality is that those running the Federal Reserve are not elected and yet have an enormous amount of control. In fact, Ron Paul recently told MSNBC that he believes that the Federal Reserve is more powerful than Congress.....

"The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress."

9- The Federal Reserve is dominated by Wall Street and the New York banks. The New York representative is the only permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, while other regional banks rotate in 2 and 3 year intervals. The former head of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, is now U.S. Treasury Secretary. The truth is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been the most important of the regional Fed banks by far, and in turn the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been dominated by Wall Street and the major New York banks.

10- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wants to completely eliminate minimum reserve requirements for banks. Fractional reserve banking has always been a way that the bankers have conned the public, but now Bernanke wants to get rid of the pretense of "reserves" altogether.

It is almost too bizarre to believe, but it is right there in black and white on the Federal Reserve's own website....

The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system.

11 - The Federal Reserve is not accountable to anyone. The Federal Reserve has never undergone a true comprehensive audit since it was created back in 1913. Ron Paul’s proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, which had previously been co-sponsored by 320 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, ultimately failed by a vote of 229-198.

But shouldn't the American people be able to see what is going on inside the Federal Reserve?

Shouldn't we have some way to keep them accountable?

After all, they have an incredible amount of power over us, shouldn't we have at least a little bit of power over them?

Unfortunately, the truth is that they desperately do not want light to be shined on the elaborate "shell game" that they are running.

Have you ever wondered if it was just a coincidence that the personal income tax was implemented just about the same time that the Federal Reserve was created?

Why does the U.S. government have to tax us?

Why can't the U.S. government just print up all the money that it needs?

Well, the way that our Congress spends money that would probably create horrific hyperinflation, but that is the subject for another article.

The point is that the U.S. government should not have to get U.S. dollars from someone else.

If you take a few minutes to stop and think about it, an America where there is no Federal Reserve, no personal income tax and no IRS is not that hard to imagine.

If the U.S. government functioned just fine without all of them at one time, then why couldn't the U.S. government function just fine without all of them now?

The system we have now clearly is not working. The Federal Reserve was supposed to guarantee that our financial system would be perfectly stable, but in reality our financial system has become much more unstable.

It is time for different thinking. It is time for the U.S. government to take back control of our currency and of our economy. It is time to start electing some people with common sense to represent us in Washington

POLYCYTHEMIA VERA RUBRA

2011-03-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

Wonderland wedding
A TAVISTOCK mum who is battling a rare blood disease has enjoyed a fairytale wedding.

Paula Brennan suffers from Polycythemia, a terminal condition which is thickening her blood and has caused tumours to grow in her lungs and womb.

But despite her failing health, the 42-year-old married her sweetheart Ky in February – in a very unique ceremony. The couple enjoyed an Alice in Wonderland themed wedding, with Paula dressed as the Queen of Hearts and Ky as the Mad Hatter.

"I wanted to do something outrageous and this was perfect," said Paula, who added that all 198 guests wore fancy dress to match the theme with daughters Kayleigh, aged 25, and 22-year-old Tanneth donning Cheshire Cat and Alice outfits.

Self confessed eccentric Paula, who met her husband two years ago through a dating website, made the costumes for the wedding, including her own Queen of Hearts gown with sister Tracey also helping to sew the outfits.

And the humanist reverend also got into the fun of the day, dressing as the story's caterpillar character for the wedding, which was held at Tavistock Town Hall on February 12.

The eye catching ceremony was followed by a tea party that Lewis Carroll would have been proud of, complete with authentic Alice cakes and tarts.

"It was the happiest day of my life," said Paula.

"I just wanted to see everyone that had ever mattered in my life, together for one great day."

Paula was diagnosed with the blood disease in November after a couple of years of minor health problems including insomnia and itchy feet.

Polycythemia is an increase in the number of red blood cells and can cause heart failure, haemorrhage and thromboses. The uncommon disease is normally discovered in middle aged people with sufferers complaining of headaches, dizziness, bruising easily or nose bleeds.

After discovering the illness, doctors rushed Paula to hospital, where she endured having 12 pints of blood drained over a week.

"Then they discovered that it had caused tumours to grow in the main organs and it is also affecting my heart as well," she said.

Paula added that she is now undergoing experimental medical treatment in the hope of ridding her body of the tumours.

"There isn't a cure. I could die any day really, I am at the end of the disease.

"But I am not unhappy, this is the happiest I have ever been."

The couple had no presents from wedding guests and instead asked for donations to help them buy a new Chug puppy called Banjo which they are collecting soon.

Money Creation and Deceit - Money Creation and Banking Secrets | Truth-It

2011-03-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

Money Creation and Deceit - Money Creation and Banking Secrets | Truth-It

EXECUTED TODAY.COM

2009-11-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

Executed Today is a blog of history, sociology, biography, criminology, law, and kismet — an unrepresentative but arresting view of the human condition across time and circumstance from the parlous vantage of the scaffold.

So what is it?

Executed Today is a daily chronicle — each day the story of an historical execution that took place on this date, and the story behind it.

Why?

That’s a good question.

Why are you here?

What’s your definition of an “execution”?

The death penalty, as a subset within that vast category of “acts of violence homo sapiens do to their fellows,” blends insensibly into a dozen adjacent territories — murder, assassination, warfare, torture, low crime and high statecraft, even suicide.

If we know for certain that extinguishing life is an essential component of the death penalty, our everyday language nevertheless reflects ambiguity about how. We might speak of crime victims as being “killed execution-style” to evoke a sense of deliberation and even ceremony about the act; conversely, we might derogate the formal and official act of a state organ as a “summary execution” to underscore the absence of an appropriate juridical atmosphere. In situations of war and revolution where the legitimate authority of the state is contested, the water muddies still further.

I do not pretend to have demarcated my focus with a bright line; my standard, readily impeachable, is merely what I know when I see. Having said that, and reserving the right to stray occasionally into the disputed frontier marches, the scope of this blog intends to remain rather narrow: this is not an all-purpose chronicle of human cruelty.

What ax do you have to grind?

This blog is neither pro- nor anti-death penalty in general nor in any particular. Its interest is the perspective on humanity we gain through the window of this human institution.

But the subject invites ideology and fairness here demands the biases of the author. I am, personally, a death penalty opponent.

Nor is this the only bias worth considering. I am a westerner, to begin with — a modern English-speaker whose access to certain stories is limited by the tools at my disposal (this blog has been heavily researched online) and whose appreciation of certain stories’ import may not square with others who know them differently. It is, I hope, understood that the inclusion of any particular story at the expense of any other on any given day does not indicate disdain for the one not posted, even if other editors might have chosen differently. If I’ve chosen poorly, I may yet redeem myself: this blog is not limited to a single year.

The conceit of pinning biographies to calendar execution dates, so apt for the blogging form, likewise imposes a certain bias tending towards the western and the modern where, quite simply, we are more likely to know the dates. And for that matter, the dates that are best-recalled have a tendency themselves to track the exceptional few executions — the greatest heroes and villains, the princes of the realm, the milestones — in preference to more humdrum fare. To more fully tell the story of capital punishment in the face of these distortions, there will be occasional entries with uncertain dates … or dates affiliated with events other than the actual execution … or executions notable for not taking place … or less famous men and women put to death in less famous circumstances. But it is confessedly impossible to array such events in any objectively even-handed fashion.

Last but by no means least, the notion of glimpsing some understanding of the human condition through this peculiar institution is necessarily one doomed at the outset to a disproportionately sanguinary view. Whatever truth one might discern from such a perspective, it — thankfully — could hardly ever stand as the whole Truth.

A word about categories.

The metadata that classifies each post should be interpreted in its least judgmental form — although to be sure, there are some judgments one cannot help making. In general, however, the intent where there is ambiguity is to treat these categories without editorial preference as different windows onto the event, from different points of view afforded both by contemporary standards and by the distance of history. They do not in all cases answer literally to their parent category of journalistic inquiry. They are not necessarily even mutually compatible.

For instance, in the entry of Kevin Barry (profiled 1 November, 2007), both Ireland and England answer to “Where”: both had a stake in the event, although the hanging took place on the island of Ireland. From the Republican standpoint, Barry was a soldier — hence, the use of “Soldiers” and “Wartime Executions”; from the British standpoint, he was a criminal — hence, “Murder”, the formal charge that led to his hanging.

Although any category of this emotional subject is prone to controversy, “Wrongful Executions” merits a few words specifically: this batch is not meant to be a definitive claim from either a moral or legal standpoint, but to identify executions with a significant controversy. It refers to a social understanding (even if a contested one) that an incorrect determination, either legal or factual, informed the execution. The limits of this concept are necessarily fuzzy, but roughly speaking, when looking far backwards in time, it’s also been limited to situations where “wrongfulness” is a distinguishing characteristic of the execution, and where the “wrongfulness” is understood as such by the same cultural milieu that produced the execution. The Salem witch trials were immediately regretted, for instance, but to identify every witch-burning in medieval Europe as a “wrongful execution” seems redundant at best … and a misappropriation of an alien mindset at worst.

ADHERENTS.COM FOR ALL POSSIBLE RELIGIOUS STATISTICS

2009-11-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

Adherents.com is a growing collection of over 43,870 adherent statistics and religious geography citations: references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc. The religions of the world are enumerated here.

Basically, researchers can use this site to answer such questions as "How many Lutherans live in Wisconsin?", "What are the major religions of India?", or "What percentage of the world is Muslim?" We present data from both primary research sources such as government census reports, statistical sampling surveys and organizational reporting, as well as citations from secondary literature which mention adherent statistics.

Famous and influential: Adherents.com also has detailed lists of influential and adherents of over 100 different religious groups (famous Methodists, famous Jews, famous Catholics, famous Zoroastrians, famous Jehovah's Witnesses, famous Theosophists, etc.), and lists of prominent people (actors, politicians, authors, U.S. presidents, artists, musicians, Supreme Court justices, film directors, etc.) classified by religious affiliation. These lists are linked to thousands of detailed religious/spiritual biographies.

YOU-LIFE PHOTO GALLERY

2009-11-22T05:33:00.000-08:00

On this site, very nice photographs can be viewed fast. You can easily copy or save the pic's and the quality is remarkable. Worth a visit for picture browsers who hate restrictions on their viewing pleasure.

SEE STRANGE GUT WRENCHING CHINESE FOODS

2009-11-22T05:19:00.000-08:00

The Food

Maggie asked me about any dietary/cultural/American food restrictions that I might have. I told her that there were none at all and I would like to try all kinds of Chinese food. Maggie took this as a challenge!

The picture below is one of our first meals. Starting from the 1:00 position and working clockwise: A salad - not that much different than an American salad. Then at 4:00 there's Choudoufu. This translates as "Stinky Tofu" but I think a better name would be "cowpie surprise". Basically it looks and smells like something you could find in a cattle field and it tastes just like it smells. In between the choudoufu and the salad is a dish of hot pepper that you can dip the Choudoufu in to take the edge off.

At the 6:00 position is pig lung in hot oil. In the 8:00 position is the internal organs of sparrows. This has a relatively normal kind of taste but with strange shapes and textures. In the 10:00 position is something Maggie described only as "beef". I had some and said that this and the salad are the only things on the table that most Americans eat. Then I ate one of the vegetables with the beef and made a face and Maggie smiled. The Chinese name for the vegetable translates as "Bitter Vegetable". Later we found that the American name is Balsam. I told Maggie that as far as I know, Americans only use Balsam in shampoo.

SITE 1 : RESEARCH - REFERENCE TO THE BIBLE

2009-11-22T04:51:00.000-08:00

The site contains 3087 biblical characters with details such as who were their parents, brothers, sisters, spouses, concubines and children.

The most interesting feature is the Interactive family tree, showing all the relatives of each person in a graphical format.

There is a cross-reference for each person, listing every Bible verse where the person is mentioned by name.

Every person is then further linked to the corresponding verses in the Bible themselves.

You can read the whole King James Version Bible here, highlighting and linking every person's name to his or her detailed information page.

Find any name in the Bible! Type in the name you are looking for, then click on the Search button:Name in the Bible:

What is the purpose of this site?

Shortly after beginning to read the Bible you may have found it difficult to keep track of all the different names. Perhaps you’ve tried to write out how everyone is connected, but even before finishing Genesis, found the list had already become far too long.

Now however Complete Bible Genealogy provides a list of all the names and relationships, which you can use as a reference or as an addition to your Bible studies so you no longer need to worry about who’s who in the Bible.

The secondary purpose of this site is to encourage those who hesitate to read the Bible because of the many names. Our hope is to help people overcome this obstacle and help them to make it easier to start reading God's word.