Last year the obesity rate in America rose in 23 different states, and did not decline in a single state. We have known for a while that American children are having a hard time with their weight, but adult obesity rates are on the rise as well.

Today’s report shows that adult obesity rates are greater than 25% in 31 of the nations states. This is up from 28 states the previous year. For children, it is even worse, with 30% of children between the ages of 10 and 17 being obese in 30 states. We are definitely becoming a fatter nation.

It is pretty easy to understand how it happens. Try to drive 5 minutes from your house and not pass a McDonald’s. Chances are, unless you are living in the woods, you will have a hard time not seeing the golden arches on your drive. American’s work a lot, and for a lot of us, we just dont have time to worry about eating healthy. It is much easier to grab that Big Mac than to go home and put together a healthy meal. We are a fast food nation, and it is catching up with us.

Of course it is unfair to blame it all on McDonalds. There are so many different fast food joints out there, but McDonalds just happens to be the biggest and most widespread across America and the world in general.

It is not a pretty picture, and with more and more fast food restaurants going up every day, it is hard to avoid the trappings of the fast and easy food. Maybe next time you decide to pull into a McDonalds you will think twice about what you are putting in your mouth.

I am not trying to preach… I love a good quarter pounder with cheese myself, but me and my wife are pretty good about staying away from the fast food, typically only eating it while we are on road trips and do not really have many other options. Having said that, I do realize that there is always a better option to fast food… so the next time you need something fast and easy, try to make it to a Subway instead, where you can at least get something that will not weigh you down quite as much as a Big Mac, large fries and super sized cola.

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The state Supreme Court announced today that it was going to force Republican candidate Norm Coleman to concede the race to Franken. The decision to add Al Franken to the Senate is a big win for Democrats. Franken gives the Democrats 60 votes, which is enough to prevent any Republican attempt at delaying legislation, also known as a filibuster.

Definitely a major blow to the Republicans, and another major win for the Democrat party.

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Jackson was 50 years old, and was hoping to rejuvenate his carrer this summer with a comeback tour. The King of Pop was once the biggest thing on this planet, but over the past 10 years he had definitely fallen out of the pop world. The last time Michael Jackson had a serious tour was back in 1997, and he had not released an album since 2001.

Through his musical career, Jackson definitely was on top. He sold more than 750 million albums world wide, and won 13 Grammys for his work.

Despite his amazing musical achievements, his carrer will always be tainted by all the accusations of child abuse that were made against him. In 2005, Jackson was acquitted of child molestation in California, and has rarely made his way into the public eye since.

Michael Jackson was divorced 2 times, and leaves 3 children behind.

Despite all the craziness around his personal life, Jackson was still very famous around the world, especially in Europe. He had scheduled 50 London concerts between July and March… and they all sold out in just a matter of minutes, proving that Michael Jackson was, is, and probably always will be considered the true King of Pop.

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I was a little hesitant on joining the “mac nation” but all my fears turned out to be nothing, and making the transition from PC to Apple has been much smoother than I would have expected.

For me, the learning that was most crucial was learning how to control the computer with hand commands. Using a mouse with only one button was going to be something to overcome, but with a couple little tricks, you will be over that and ready to see just what these popular Apple computers are all about.

After 1 week, I can honestly say that this is my favorite computer I have ever owned. Now I understand why so many Apple users are so die hard about these machines. Everything seems a lot simpler, and more straight forward than on a PC computer.

Still a lot to learn about making the apple switch, but for now things could not be going any better.

Have any tips or tricks you want to share about navigating around on an Apple macbook?Feel free to share!

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The new software should address some of the major problems that iPhone users have had with the popular cell phones. Cut, Copy and Paste will now be available, and you will find that your landscape keypad will be working with programs that they previously did not, such as mail… which will be nice.

It will have MMS ability to send photos and videos, but that will not be available by AT&T until later in the summer.

There should also be come changes to its Bluetooth, and provides Bluetooth Stereo.

I have my iPhone sync’ing right now with the new iPhone version 3.0, and I will see what improvements really stand out for me. What about you? What do you think is the coolest thing with the new iPhone version 3. software?

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The site is quizzle.com and it took me about 3 minutes to have my experian credit score shown to me as well as my full credit report. For free… no credit card or anything needed, its pretty nice. A lot of these credit reporting companies like to lead you to believe you are getting free reports, but get you signed up on monthly protections plans, and all kinds of things you really didn’t need to begin with. This is not one of those deals.

Take the 4 minutes out of your day and check out your credit score, its definitely the easiest way to get a free report.

I hope you enjoy your scores!

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Danny MacAskill rides what is called bike trials, and some of this stuff will simply blow your mind. It is about 5 minutes of some of the most intense biking you will ever see, and is set to a beautiful soundtrack that brings it all together so perfectly. This Danny MacAskill is definitely one to watch!

The music is by a band called Band of Horses and the song is called The Funeral. You can also watch the original version of the video, but in all honesty, this one blows it away.

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It is likely that Phillips was hoping that he would be able to jump overboard and make it to the safety of one of the American war ships that have been keeping watch over the situation.  It has been a pretty tense situation since the failed attempt on Wednesday by the pirates to capture the Maersk Alabama and apparently there have been some additional Somalian pirate ships approaching the lifeboat to help out their countrymen.

At the moment, the Navy has two large vessels in the area, and will try to keep any additional pirate ships from approaching the lifeboat in an attempt to help the pirates escape or even just to help re-supply the pirates in the lifeboat. The Navy hopes that their negotiation position is going to get stronger as supplies start to run out on the lifeboat.

Officials stated that they saw Capt. Phillips on the lifeboat after the escape attempt and that he did appear to be unharmed.

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The guy on the receiving end of the verbal assault was Shane Hurlbut, the director of photography for the Terminator Salvation film. The encounter went on for almost four entire minutes, and Bale used the f-word at least 37 times, and at one point threatened physical harm against Hurblut. It all started when Hurlbut apparently walked on set, and ruined the scene that was being filmed. The reaction was a bit intense, and Hale went so far as to threaten to quit the film if Hurlbut was not removed from the project.

The event apparently occurred just days after the actor was arrested and accused of assaulting his mother and sister in London. Definitely a week that I am sure the actor wishes he could take back.

You can hear the entire verbal assualt online. (just be warned, the language is not pretty!)

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My first impression of the day was in marvel at just how many people packed into the National Mall for President Obama’s inauguration. People all over the country have been wondering just what sort of impact Obama is actually going to have on the nation, and the world in general, and soon Obama is going to have his chance to live up to his promises and quiet his critics, but that is for another day, today was a day for celebration and for us all to enjoy watching history being made.

We often hear the phrase, “you are watching history being made”, but it has never really meant as much to me before as it did today. The election night back in November may have been historic, but today was heads and shoulders above anything I have ever witnessed in my life as Obama became the first black President of a country that not all that long ago was founded in part by slave owners. The inauguration could not have been timed better, coming just one day after the country celebrated the best known, and arguably, most influential leader of America’s civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King.

It was nice to see all the past Presidents that were in attendance, especially Bill Clinton, I always love getting the chace to see old Slick Willy when I can.

I found Obama’s speach pretty good, could have been better, could have been worse. I must admit, it did sort of make me feel a little bad for President Bush as the speach definitely highlighted just how poorly Obama viewed some of the major fundamentals of the Bush Presidency. I must say, I defnintely was as anti-Bush as anyone could have been over the past 6 or 7 years, so I’m not really sure why I started feeling sorry for him… maybe just the sudden realization that he is out of there.

I heard on the radio today that President Bush left office with a 22% approval rating. That is pretty low, and who knows, maybe Bush is right and history will redeem him and we will all look back fondly on the past 8 years when we are older, who knows, but for now, he leaves offices viewed as one of the worst President’s in the history of the country. Definitely not the legacy that he wanted to leave when he undertook this job 8 years ago.

On another night, I felt Aretha Franklin did a fantastic job singing today… and I loved your hat !!

While Barack is starting office with some of the highest expectations of any President ever, his wife, Michelle Obama has some pretty high expectations of her own. The media is already saying that she is the most fashionable First Lady since First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, I dunno, but I sure was less than impressed with her shiny yellow outfit today, but hey, that’s just me.

So, today the country starts a new chapter in its history. It will be nice to see some fresh blood in the white house, and a Presidential family with young children that will be running around the White House lawn. I think Obama will be good for the country, but as we have learned over and over again… there is no way to predict what the future holds in store for us.

For now, let’s all just enjoy the first days of a new dance in Washington

obamas dancing

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