It is reported that pop singer Michael Jackson has suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken to a local hospital by paramedics. TMZ reported that the legendary singer, 50, went into cardiac arrest and had to receive CPR in the ambulance. Joe Jackson, his father, told multiple news sources that his son is not doing well. When people suffer from cardiac arrest, their heart and breathing stop. Most people don’t end up surviving this type of event and it usually results in the person dying.

Michael Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest today and is possibly dead, unconfirmed reports are saying.

Paramedics responded to a 911 call at around 12:26 p.m. PDT, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was reportedly not breathing at the time of their arrival. CPR was initiated by paramedics and Jackson was transported to a local hospital. Police have also been called to the hospital in order to secure the area from crowds of fans and media that have begun showing up.

Jackson, the youngest brother in Motown’s legendary Jackson 5, earned the name ‘King of Pop’ as a solo act in the 1980s, when he became one of the best-selling musicians in the world, particularly for the hit album “Thriller.”

His star power has faded considerably since then, partly because of allegations of child molestation.

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In this latest debacle for Microsoft and the Internet Explorer browser, not only is IE 7 exposing your system, but all versions down to 5.5 are at risk. Even if you think you have the latest security patch and Service Pack, you still aren’t safe. Here is what the problem is with this latest security exposure.

Microsoft says it has detected attacks against IE 7.0 but said the “underlying vulnerability” was present in all versions of the browser. Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified.

“In this case, hackers found the hole before Microsoft did,” said Rick Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro. “This is never a good thing.”

As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since the vulnerability was discovered, he said.

“What we’ve seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it’s inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals,” he said. “It’s just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs.”

Expedient patching or switching are essential. Security pros fear that the attack will soon spread beyond the theft of gaming passwords and into more criminal arenas, as the malicious code can be placed on any website and can be adapted to steal any password stored or entered using the browser.

So, how do you fix this problem? Set your IE Security settings to “High”, change over to a limited access user account, or the simplest method, try another browser for the time being.

I know, some people are die hard “I’ll never try another browser because they suck” people, my wife is, but since I switched to Firefox over 3 years ago, I have NOT had any issue like those that keep popping up for Microsoft and Internet Explorer.

Every single user of an Internet-connected Windows computer NEEDS the sort of information contained in The Hacker’s Nightmare™. Yet, up until now, only IT experts had this knowledge. Now this essential information is yours — in a language you can understand and in a format you can easily implement for yourself.

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With so many people looking at ways to save money these days, if you own a timeshare, you can sell or rent out your timeshare to generate the cash you need. This will allow you to not have to worry about the timeshare maintenance fees that you are probably paying out. If you are like me, you don’t have much time anyways to do anything with it.

A lot of people are also looking to just rent a timeshare. Why? Well, most of them are in great resort locations. You would think that the winter months are a bad time to do anything with a time share, much less sell or rent it. You might want to think again.

During the winter months many people are looking to rent a time share because they want to go to a resort. Lots of people are looking into Colorado timeshares or time share resorts in ski areas. There are also quite a few people that are looking into timeshares in warmer climates to get away from the snow.

Florida timeshares are really popular in the winter months. If you have a time share in Florida right now, you can really do well selling it or renting it. Even though there are lots of them already in Florida, the demand seems to surge during the winter months, especially for tourists from outside the United States.

The popularity of timeshares really suffered in the past due to outrageous maintenance fees and other high costs. However, time shares are really gaining in popularity these days because of the flexibility that have been built into the systems. The Mariott group timeshares, for example, allow you to trade in your location for points that you can then use on other timeshare resorts that they have worldwide. The neat part is if you have a timeshare in Las Vegas, then you could “sell” it for points and book a trip to Italy.

Well, if you are looking to sell a timeshare, buy a timeshare, or even just rent a timeshare these days, you really need to visit this site. This is a no cost, no obligation site that will help you find the best deals no matter if you are wanting to sell, buy or rent. Trust me, don’t waste your time trolling the internet to find the best deal or wade through the various sites trying to figure it out on your own.

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People have two choices in life when faced with adversity. You can run and hide and be an absolutely miserable person, or you can stand and accept the facts that you are handed and make the best of it.

Grab your Kleenex box and watch this.

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Legendary film star and philanthropist Paul Newman, whose brilliant blue eyes, good looks and talent made him one of Hollywood’s top actors over six decades, has died, a spokesman said on Saturday. He was 83 and had been battling cancer.

Following are some facts about Newman:

Paul Newman was nominated for Academy Awards for acting in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “The Hustler,” “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Absence of Malice,” “The Verdict,” “Nobody’s Fool” and “The Road to Perdition,” as well best film for directing wife Joanne Woodward in “Rachel, Rachel.” He won as best actor for “The Color of Money” in 1986.

In a business where public scandal and bad-boy behavior are the rule rather than the exception, Paul Newman is as much a hero offscreen as on. A blue-eyed matinee idol whose career has successfully spanned five decades, he is also a prominent social activist, a major proponent of actors’ creative rights, and a noted philanthropist. Born January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, OH, Newman served in World War II prior to attending Kenyon College on an athletic scholarship; when an injury ended his sports career, he turned to drama, joining a summer stock company in Wisconsin.

After relocating to Illinois in 1947, he married actress Jacqueline Witte, and following the death of his father took over the family’s sporting-goods store. Newman quickly grew restless, however, and after selling his interest in the store to his brother, he enrolled at the Yale School of Drama.

Married since 1958 to a fellow Oscar winner, the actress Joanne Woodward, Newman had one of Hollywood’s rare enduring marriages. Asked for the secret, Newman said he had no reason to roam: “I have steak at home. Why should I go out for a hamburger?”

Newman had a reputation for practical jokes and reportedly once cut director George Roy Hill’s desk in half with a chainsaw and put 300 chicks into director Robert Altman’s trailer.

Turning 80 in 2005, Newman nonetheless remained a presence in Hollywood. That year, audiences could see him on the small-screen in the critically-acclaimed HBO miniseries Empire Falls, for which he won a Golden Globe, and the following year, he lent his voice to the Pixar animated film Cars.

Despite his movement away from Hollywood, Newman has remained a prominent public figure through his extensive charitable work; he created the Scott Newman Foundation after the drug-related death of his son and later marketed a series of gourmet foodstuffs under the umbrella name Newman’s Own, with all profits going to support his project for children suffering from cancer.

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My wife started selling Usborne Books last year as she was wanting to get out of the house and make some extra money without getting a job that set her schedule for her. She had heard of Usborne Books several years prior to that but we were busy with our family and the timing just wasn’t right.

When she signed up we didn’t know it would go the way it would go. You see, I had been in a direct sells company before and it died and crashed, hard. While I knew this company had been around for almost 20 years, I was a little skeptical, but I knew that my wife wanted to do something outside of the home, something she could call her own. So I agreed and off she went.

She came alive! I don’t want to say that my wife found her passion, but in a way she did. The books are wonderful and our daughters loved reading them. Tricia, my wife, was doing really well with selling Usborne Books and building her team. We were getting free books and she was really happy.

The more I found out about Usborne Books, the more I was in full support of Tricia and the company. Why? Well, the company has been around for over 20 years. EDC Publishing, the parent company of Usborne Books at Home, is completely debt free, which you can’t say that about many companies these days. They are adding new titles to their impressive catalog of over 1,500 children’s books all the time.

When I say children’s books, I mean books for all ages. They have books from infants to adults. One of the best sellers for infants is a product called “Your Baby Can Read!” and it sells really well, and it works! They also have books for homeschoolers, science, math and history buffs and lots more.

Anyways, the one key thing that I really feel that Usborne Books is worth looking into as a home based business opportunity is because they value family. This is a hard attribute to find these days. Randall White, the president of Usborne, feels that family is first. This is why they don’t believe in yearly fees for you to maintain your status as an Usborne Consultant. There are also no minimums or monthly quotas that you have to meet. Why? If you need to take a month or several months off to spend time with your family, they you can take time off from Usborne and not worry about it. When you are ready, you just start promoting the books again and you are working at your own pace!

Usborne Books feel so strongly about literacy and promoting literacy that they have a literacy grant program called “Literacy for a Lifetime”. This amazing program is a 50% matching program for grants money. If your company or business has $1,000 as an example, Usborne Books will provide $500 in free books once you qualify for the program and are signed up.

Anyways, enough of my ramblings. Seriously, if you, or someone you know, is looking to make some extra money or just have kids that love books, you should consider Usborne Books and the opportunity they can provide.

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Edwards told ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter but said that he didn’t love her. He said he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn’t the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

A former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.

Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, and Edwards denied it.

“The story is false,” he told reporters. “It’s completely untrue, ridiculous.”

The Enquirer carried another story last month, stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child’s birth. Edwards called it “tabloid trash,” but he generally avoided reporters’ inquiries, as did his former top aides.

In the interview, scheduled to air on ABC News’ “Nightline,” Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hotel last month.

Most mainstream news organizations refrained from reporting the story, but newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., recounted the Enquirer’s allegations in prominent articles on Thursday.

Edwards acknowledged the affair on Friday afternoon, traditionally a slow-news period even when the Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies are not preoccupying millions of Americans.

Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party’s nod even after announcing that his wife, Elizabeth, had a deadly form of cancer.

He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Barack Obama. The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

David Bonior, Edwards’ campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said Friday he was disappointed and angry after hearing about Edwards’ confession.

“Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he’s let him down,” said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. “They’ve been betrayed by his action.”

Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards’ future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: “You can’t lie in politics and expect to have people’s confidence.”

In 2006, Edwards’ political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.

The payments from Edwards’ One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.

Midline provided “Website/Internet services,” according to reports that Edwards’ PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Midline’s work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as he prepares for an appearance on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and travels in Uganda in 2006.

Edwards’ PAC followed the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.

At the time Hunter was compiling the videos in 2006, Edwards was preparing a run for president.

Episode One of the four videos captures a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.

“I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues — yes, me a Democrat using that word — the great moral issues that face our country,” Edwards tells the crowd. “If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can’t wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it.”

The sound track for the six-minute video is the song “True Reflections” which begins with these words: “When you look into a mirror, do you like what’s looking at you? Now that you’ve seen your true reflections, what on earth are you gonna do?”

The video entitled “Plane Truths,” opens with Edwards relaxing in his seat on the plane, telling the unseen woman that “I actually walked the country to see who I am, who I really am, but I don’t know what the result of that will be.

Edwards adds: “But for me personally, I’d rather be successful or unsuccessful based on who I really am, not based on some plastic Ken doll that you put up in front of audiences, that’s not me, you know?”

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And with that said, who did the votes tally up for tonight? Was it Melissa Lawson or Gabe Garcia? Who won the lucrative music contract?

The official votes were cast tonight and I don’t think many people were surprised by the winner of Nashville Star.

Melissa Lawson is the new Nashville Star! The married mother of 5 has amazed the judges and crowds throughout the competition this year.

Congratulations Melissa!

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The crane, capable of lifting 800,000 pounds, fell over at a LyondellBasell refinery in southeast Houston. The casualties were in the area of the crane, but officials still weren’t certain whether they were on the crane or under it, said John Roecker, the company’s vice president for refining.

“It’s a very sad day for us at the refinery,” Roecker said during a news conference outside the complex gates.

Three of the injured were treated and released at the scene, said Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria. Two severely injured workers were taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center hospital and another injured worker was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The crane, whose exact dimensions were not immediately available, belonged to Deep South Crane & Rigging. It was delivered in pieces and assembled at the refinery about a month ago. It was brought in to remove large drums from inside a coking unit whose roof had been cut off to allow the crane access, Roecker said.

The crane was not scheduled to do any work Friday. Roecker said, however, that the crane’s engine was idling after it hit the ground.

Traumatic experience

Roecker said he’d seen the crane lift 800,000 pounds during a test run last week, and described it as the nation’s largest mobile crane.

“This is a traumatic experience for all of us. We have to focus on the safety and health of our employees,” Roecker said.

About 1,500 contract workers are employed at the refinery, he said.

Mattie Graham stood with her husband, Deep South worker Horace Graham, at the plant near the scene of the accident.

“I’m thinking about their families. He could have been there today,” she said, gesturing to her husband.

Largest in the world

The Houston refinery is one of the world’s largest for processing high-sulfer crude oil. The facility itself covers about 700 acres along the Houston Ship Channel at the city limits of Houston and Pasadena.

Lyondell Chemical, a U.S. company, and the Dutch firm Basell were rivals until they announced a $12.1 billion deal last July to create one of the world’s largest chemical companies.

East Texas Crane Academy president Joe Bob Williams, whose company has certified crane operators for Lyondell, said it’s unusual for such cranes to fail because of the number of people involved in their maintenance.

“It’s really odd for these cranes to have any issues because there are so many eyes looking in,” Williams said.

There has been a rash of recent crane collapses in the last few years. The most recent crane collapse occurred in May in New York City. That collapse killed two workers and damaged several buildings.

There has been an increase in the scrutiny that crane companies endure during setup and operation of their cranes to avoid this type of incident. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be searching for answers in what caused this incident, along with several other state and federal agencies.

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Since I started this blog in 2007, the original intent was to use it for my web design business and write about design topics, accessible blogging and search engine optimization techniques. However, since that time I have started several other blogs and sites that deal with those topics. My main site deals with Niche Marketing and Blogging for Beginners, so if you are interested, head on over and check it out. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for it as well to keep up to date!

I have decided to not focus so much on any one particular topic with this site so I am going to make this site more of a general “What interests me” type of blog. I also will continue to experiment with some things on this site, so if you see something strange come across it, like my post about Who did the Bachelorette Pick, you will know what and why. I got over 1,000 hits from that post within 2 days, so sometimes you can pick a good and hot topic!

So, I hope that you will stick around, if not I can understand. This is one of the tough decisions that I have made as this site is a personally branded site. Not that I would sell it anyways, but who would want a site with my name? Unless there is another ejcross out there someplace.

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