It does not matter whether we are for or against the war in Iraq, most of us have the utmost respect for the soldiers of all branches of the services who are serving over there and anywhere for that matter.

They are not doing their job, they are doing the job they are ordered to do and do it the best they can with the means they have, and I could go on for a long time on that subject, but now is not the time.

Today, I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR and the subject was the book “Final Salute” with an interview of the reporter who wrote it and one of the Marine officers who delivers the final news to the families of fallen Marines.

For a lot of people, that will not mean much. It turns out we have a good friend who served over 20 years in the Corp and through him we learn a lot more than most about the relationship between Marines, ex Marines and the Corps and I can tell you, it is very moving.

This interview took a whole different dimension and maybe, just maybe, this interview will take a different dimension for you too.

Never leave a Marine behind. The tradition began in 1775, and continues today via officers like Marine Colonel Steve Beck, whose job it is to notify the families of the loss of a loved one in Iraq.

Beck's mission, called "casualty notification," is one for which he received no training. It begins with a knock at the door, and continues through the funeral and beyond. It involves standing watch over the caskets of the fallen, comforting those left behind and, at times, choking down his own tears.

Journalist Jim Sheeler followed Beck for a year, writing about the experience in a Pulitzer Prize-winning Rocky Mountain News series. Sheeler's new book, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives, is a continuation of the series.

Every door is different.

Some are ornately hand-carved hardwood; some are hollow tin. Some are protected by elaborate security systems, some by flapping screens. The doors are all that stand between a family and the message.

For Major Steve Beck it starts with a knock, or a ring of the doorbell — a simple act, really, with the power to shatter a soul.

Marines are trained to kill. They are known for their blank stare and an allegiance to their unofficial motto, "No greater friend, no worse enemy." Since 2003, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan intensified, Marines such as Major Beck found themselves catapulted into a duty they never trained for — a mission without weapons.

As a Marine the forty year-old had already won accolades as the most accomplished marksman of his class. He later earned two master's degrees in a quest to become a leader on the battlefield. He had hoped to deploy during the Persian Gulf War but was still in training when the conflict ended. He then trained and led Marines in preparations for conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command in Twenty-nine Palms, California. During the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he served as a recruiter for the war he ached to join. During the initial invasion of Iraq, he was finishing his term at the Air Command and Staff College, hoping to transfer quickly to a deploying unit. Instead, he was sent to Colorado, where he once again trained Marine reservists for war, expecting he would soon join them.

He found himself faced with an assignment that starts with a long walk to a stranger's porch and an outstretched hand sheathed in a soft white glove. It continues with a promise steeped in the history of the Corps that most people associate only with the battlefield: Never leave a Marine behind.

In combat, men have taken bullets while retrieving their comrades' bodies, knowing that the dead Marine would have done the same for them. It is a tradition instilled in boot camp, where Marines are ingrained with 230 years of history and the sacrifices of tens of thousands of lives.

For Major Beck — and thousands of men and women throughout the world tasked with notification duty — it is a promise that holds long after the dead return home.

Ask a Marine. Even the "grunts" on the front lines say they would rather be in the danger zone in Iraq than having to stand on that porch. From the beginning, Major Beck decided, if he was going to have to do it, he would do it his way, the way he would want it done if he were the one in the casket.

Over the next two years and through several notifications, Beck made a point of learning each dead Marine's name and nickname. He touched the toys they grew up with and read the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. Sometimes he returned home to his own family and cried in the dark.

When he first donned the Marine uniform, Steve Beck had never heard the term casualty assistance calls officer. He certainly never expected to serve as one.

As it turned out, it would become the most important mission of his life.

Here is the link to the interview

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90065224#share
 

Right now, 23-year-old Laura Brown has at least six lip glosses on her. They’re in her backpack, her purse, her pocket, her makeup bag — and just in case, she keeps a couple of spares at her desk and in her bathroom.

Brown, who lives in College Station, Texas, assumes she takes very good care of her lips. She spends enough money on them, anyway. (A tube of her go-to brand, Mac, can cost as much as $20.) And she’s always gooping something on her lips. That’s got to be enough of a barrier between her skin and the sun. Right?

But some dermatologists say that slathering on shiny lip glosses can actually increase your risk of developing skin cancer. Of course, wearing any lip product without SPF doesn’t exactly shield the thin skin from sun damage. But the slick, shiny nature of the gloss could be making the sun’s UV rays hit harder, some experts say.

“These lip glosses can make more of the light rays penetrate directly through the skin instead of getting reflected off of the skin’s surface,” says Dr. Christine Brown, a dermatologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. (You're covered, however, if you wear lip gloss with SPF.)

At worst, say some dermatologists, the resulting sun damage can lead to potentially fatal forms of skin cancer. An estimated 3,500 new cases of skin cancer of the lips are diagnosed each year, and 90 percent of those cancers are squamous cell carcinoma. While that form of cancer isn't usually particularly serious, it can be more aggressive on the lips than on other parts of the skin. If left untreated, it can cause disfigurement, and in very few cases, it can spread to other organs and become deadly.

But the less serious effects may grab a lip gloss junkie’s attention more quickly: All that sun exposure could be slowly building gross, non-cancerous disfigurements on your lips. One such effect is actinic keratosis, a small, scaly patch of skin that can morph into a wart-like bump if left untreated. Sun exposure can also cause small brown spots that look like freckles on the lips. The spots are noncancerous but could cause people to whisper, "Hey, you've got food on your lips."

Sun damage can also cause premature aging, making the already thin skin on your lips even thinner, which can lead to rips and tears. Ultraviolet light zaps skin of much of its elasticity, leaving the skin lax. That lack of elasticity can prevent the upper and lower lips from lining up properly, which can cause pools of saliva to collect at the corners of the mouth.

It's the moisture in lip gloss that's to blame, says Dr. Bruce Robinson, a Manhattan dermatologist. Your lips are equipped with a protective outer layer, but the hydration of a lip gloss "kind of smooshes that down," Robinson says. Once that outer layer is effectively squashed, it's easier for UV rays to penetrate deeper into the skin.

"Instead of having to travel through that thicker layer, it's more condensed," Robinson says. "So the UV rays reach are reaching deeper layers of epidermis and dermis because you don't have this forcefield."

Sun's laser focus on lips

Apart from the extra hydration, the “super shine” and “ultra shine” of the glosses could be damaging as well.

“Take a magnifying glass and put it over your lips,” Robinson says. When you apply lip gloss and go out in the sun, “that’s essentially what you’re doing.”

But no studies have confirmed the lip gloss-skin cancer link, and not all dermatologists agree that it poses a risk.

“The only way I could see it is if you’re thinking you’re protected, and you stay out in the sun longer, that may increase your risk,” says Robin Ashinoff, a dermatologist in Hackensack, N.J.

That's what happened to Sherry Duplar, a fair-skinned, horseback-riding redhead who spends as much time as possible outdoors. She always applied lip balm or gloss, and figured that was enough.

“I didn’t realize, back then, that our lips were so susceptible,” says Duplar, who’s 59 and lives in Mesquite, Texas.

But about 12 years ago, Duplar’s lips were cracked and chapped, and constantly peeling, and nothing she did would heal them. She’d developed actinic cheilitis, a precancerous condition that's sometimes known as "farmer's lip" or "sailor's lip." It often leads to squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.

Since then, she’s had three laser treatments, to deconstruct the affected skin cells. The treatments which leave her lips raw, swelled up and oozing, for as many as three weeks. “It was nasty,” Duplar says.

Now she slathers on lip balm boasting 50 SPF before she goes out in the sun, which makes her dermatologist, the lip gloss-bashing Brown, much happier. Brown wishes women would abandon their lip glosses for lip balm with an SPF of at least 30. But for those who balk at tossing all their lip gloss, Robinson offers a compromise: find a lip gloss infused with SPF, which also protects the lips from ultraviolet light.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24190829/

Two Choices

What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?"

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. "I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.  Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. 

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball .. the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay"

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!"

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

"That day", said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world".

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the "appropriate" ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the "natural order of things" So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day.

http://gadeyne-us.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6B2F24E27EA35E14!2328.entry

Mark your calendar for National River Cleanup Week! The event takes place June 2-10 and helps to protect and preserve the rivers so many Subaru customers avidly enjoy.

National River Cleanup Week also raises public awareness of the magnitude of trash accumulating in our nation's waterways. Over the years, more than 500,000 volunteers have participated in over 4,500 cleanups across the country, covering more than 100,000 miles of waterways.

Volunteer to participate or better yet, organize a cleanup event in your community. You'll get innovative and easy-to-use tools to organize and recruit volunteers, as well as free trash bags and contests with great river themed prizes.

Subaru of America, Inc. will provide both vehicles and financial support to aid this year's cleanup efforts.

Register a cleanup >   http://www.americanrivers.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AR7_NationalRiverCleanup
Volunteer to participate >   http://www.americanrivers.org/site/GetTogether?gettogether=event_list&page=event_list&cal_activity_id=1040&cal_campaign_id/

How Long Litter Lasts

Orange peel  2-5 weeks
Paper bag  1 month
Cigarette butt  up to 5 years
Leather shoe  45 years
Plastic bottle  430 years
Aluminum can  200-500 years
Disposable diaper  550 years
Glass bottle  approx. 1 million years
Styrofoam container  1 million years

Source: American Rivers

In a modern equivalent of flashing your headlights to warn other motorists of police speed traps, you can now warn fellow drivers with a cell phone or personal digital assistant about speed traps, red-light cameras and other threats to ticket-free driving.

And as you approach a known threat, you'll get an audio alert on your mobile device.

The developer of Trapster, Pete Tenereillo, said the system, which requires punching in a few keys such as "pound-1" to submit information to Trapster's database, should comply with laws banning talking on cell phones.

Tenereillo insisted he isn't encouraging motorists to break the law or drive dangerously, saying drivers who speed are bound to do so anyway.

And he said police officials he's talked to haven't complained about the service because it inevitably encourages drivers to slow down. (The International Association of Chiefs of Police did not respond to requests for comment.)

The free service can automatically detect location using mobile devices' GPS capabilities or tap their Wi-Fi and get location from a database run by Skyhook Wireless. (Skyhook sends trucks up and down streets to scan for home wireless routers or commercial hotspots and record the unique identifying code and location of each.)

Information about red-light cameras and where police tend to operate speed traps is kept in Trapster's database indefinitely. Information about active speed traps is kept for an hour, with the idea that officers may move on.

Users can choose the types of cameras or traps for which they want alerts.

To discourage pranksters and law-enforcement officials from flooding the system with bogus locations, users can rate others on the accuracy of their contributions, and those getting better ratings will carry more weight. Trapster can be used with about 10 different wireless platforms, including Nokia Corp.'s smart phones, devices using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile and BlackBerry units from Research In Motion Ltd.

http://www.trapster.com

Help your friends, send them the link to this information    http://gadeyne-us.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6B2F24E27EA35E14!2325.entry

You know that Sharper Image gift card you got for Christmas? Right now, it's worthless. And other gift cards in your wallet could lose their value, too.

As more retailers file for bankruptcy or go out of business, more than $75 million in gift cards are at risk of becoming worthless pieces of plastic this year.

"If I knew this was going to happen, I would have used them right away," said Jon Tapper, a public relations executive from Boston who received two Sharper Image cards as business gifts just a few weeks ago. Their total face value is $50.

"I love gift cards, but now this makes me think twice."

The Sharper Image announced late last month that it was suspending the acceptance of gift cards, at least temporarily. It urged shoppers to check the company Web site later this month for an update. That is typical of businesses that reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which treats gift cards as a loan to the company, not as cash.

For many shoppers, it's a harsh lesson about the risks of gift cards. Consumers spent an estimated $26.3 billion in gift cards at retailers alone last holiday season, compared with $24.8 billion in 2006 and $18.48 billion in 2005, according to the National Retail Federation.

C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, says "you will see a lot of frustration among customers. You basically stole (money) out of the customers' pocket. They will never forgive you."

The number of retail bankruptcies or liquidations this year is expected to reach the highest levels since the 1991 recession.

Brian Riley, senior analyst at The Tower Group, estimates that shoppers could lose more than $75 million just from stores and restaurant closings in 2008.

Tower Group's figure doesn't include mom-and-pop services like the local nail salon. Riley said such small operations, which are most vulnerable to economic downturns, pose the biggest risks to gift card holders.

The gift-card problem provides more ammunition to consumer-advocacy groups that have lashed out against expiration dates and burdensome fees imposed if cards are not used within a certain time frame. More than 20 states have passed regulations loosening restrictions on the use of gift cards.

"Consumers need to buy gift cards with their eyes wide open," said Jack Gillis, a spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America.

Bankrupt businesses also face the risk that card holders left in the cold could defect to other stores just when struggling merchants need their customers the most.

Even if bankrupt retailers want to honor the gift cards, they may not be able to, according to Howard Kleinberg, director of the bankruptcy practice at Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein.

Either they can't afford it or their creditors' committee or the bankruptcy court may not allow it. Gift cards amount to debt, and therefore holders are not necessarily going to get paid, Kleinberg said.

Sharper Image officials did not immediately return phone calls but a customer-service representative told a reporter that shoppers would eventually be able to use the gift cards. She declined to say when.

Gift card holders fall in the class of unsecured creditors, which is "low in the pecking order," Kleinberg said. Those at the top of the list are secured creditors -- with debts backed by assets such as real estate or accounts receivable.

Of course, if a company is purchased through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, the new buyer could honor gift cards.

That appears to be the case with Fortunoff, the jewelry and home furnishings chain that agreed last month to sell to an affiliate of NRDC Equity Partners LLC, which owns Lord & Taylor department stores and plans to expand the Fortunoff chain. A Fortunoff spokeswoman said the company is honoring gift cards.

Riley, of The Tower Group, estimated that the retailer did about $32 million in business last year from gift cards.

Sharper Image's rival, Merrimack, New Hampshire-based Brookstone Inc., is capitalizing on the situation. It announced last week that it would exchange Sharper Image gift cards for 25 percent off any purchase.

"We thought it would be a great way of acquiring new customers," said Brookstone spokesman Robert Padgett. "We are here for the long haul, and thought it would be good to let them know."

Ricki Gard, a manager of the Saks Fifth Avenue's Premier salon in New York, said it has been able to attract new clients from high-end spa Georgette Klinger, which abruptly closed its locations around the country a week before Christmas, leaving gift card holders in a lurch.

The Saks salon, leased to an outside company, has been offering 30 percent discounts on first-time services for Georgette Klinger gift card holders, though that was little comfort to many who had thousands of dollars stored on their prepaid cards.

Carol Ann Razza, a Long Beach, New York, resident and Georgette Klinger customer for 18 years, lost several hundred dollars when the salon closed its doors.

"You really feel like you were robbed," said Razza, who had a prepaid credit stored on the spa's computer.

Experts say shoppers should never assume that if a retailer files for bankruptcy but remains in business, that their gift cards will be redeemable. Sharper Image, for example, plans to close 90 of its 184 stores soon after selling their inventory.

On the other hand, aggressive store closings can give some consumers the impression that the company is gone for good, and their gift cards are worthless.

Lonnie Miller thought her $50 gift card from KB Toys Inc. wasn't valid. The Wayne, New Jersey, resident thought the toy retailer went out of business after watching a few stores in her area shut down. Upon learning that KB toys is in still business, she said she will use her card online.

As for her $25 Fortunoff card -- a gift from her aunt -- she went out Friday to spend it immediately.

"With the uncertainty today, I didn't want my aunt's gift to be only a card," Miller said.

Twenty-two years ago, a woman walking along a beach in Texas was appalled at the amount of trash she saw. She felt compelled to do something and organized a beach clean-up. In two hours, 2,800 people picked up 124 tons of trash. Since that first cleanup in 1986, over 6 million people have removed some 116 million pounds of trash through Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). From this humble beginning we learn one person can make a difference.

Recently, Ocean Conservancy released a report of the data from our 2007 Coastal Cleanup. The report is a global snapshot of the harmful impacts of ocean trash, which pollutes our water, and kills more than one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles each year through ingestion and entanglement.

But the good news is that hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are starting a sea change by joining together to clean up the ocean. Trash doesn’t fall from the sky. It falls from people’s hands. With the ICC, everyone has the opportunity to make a difference, not just on one day but all year long

Tuesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day and a perfect time to start your own personal sea change. Please sign our pledge to keep trash out of the oceans. >>

Together, we can start a sea change. Vikki N. Spruill
President and CEO
Ocean Conservancy

Tips to ensure the TSA doesn't steal your stuff at the airport

Passengers come forth with tales of airport theft; agency vows

The TSA seem to stand for  Taking Something Always

That’s what TSA means to airline passengers like Edward Fleiss, a sales manager from Huntington, N.Y. When screeners inspected his wife’s carry-on bag at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport recently, he claims her designer eyeglasses were swiped.

“Great sleight of hand,” he says. “We didn’t even know they were gone until we got to Los Angeles.”

Letters to the Transportation Security Administration — that’s what TSA actually stands for, in case you were wondering — were met with a form response. “Dear traveler, thank you, but no reimbursement on a $500 pair of glasses,” he recalls.

Thieving TSA? You might be forgiven for thinking so.

Since it was created in 2001, the agency has fired about 200 employees accused of stealing. Although the TSA has taken steps to discourage these government workers from helping themselves to our personal effects — including background checks on new hires, video cameras in screening areas and rules forbidding backpacks or lunchboxes at checkpoints — more and more passengers like Fleiss are coming forward to say they’ve been ripped off by the very people who are supposed to protect them.

It doesn’t help that hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines. Here’s one from a Miami TV station, where 1,500 items have been reported stolen at the airport since 2003. Here’s someone who had his engagement ring filched by screeners in Los Angeles. Here’s another one involving a 12-year-old’s heartbreaking loss of $265 in birthday money.

You don’t need a travel columnist to tell you this agency has a problem. The evidence speaks for itself.

But here’s what you might not know. The stealing isn’t as random as the TSA may want you to believe. Fleiss visited an optometrist for a replacement pair of glasses, and learned that since the TSA was created seven years ago, he’d seen a “marked increase” in patients requesting receipts for insurance claims relating to security-related thefts. “He said there is a huge market for stolen designer eyewear frames in the New York area,” he added. “You put it together.”

One aviation insider I spoke with believes stealing is a systemic problem the federal agency is unable to control, particularly at problem airports like New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. Not all of the screening areas in U.S. airports are under surveillance, and the TSA’s rules have a big loophole that shifts liability for stolen baggage claims to the airline when luggage is delayed, he told me. In other words, there’s little incentive for the stealing to stop. “It’s the 800-pound gorilla no one wants to discuss at TSA,” he says.

I contacted the TSA to get its side of the story. Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman, sent me an e-mail to say the agency is concerned about theft. “TSA aggressively investigates all allegations of misconduct,” she wrote. “When infractions are discovered, it moves swiftly to end the federal careers of offenders.” She added that travelers with questions should visit the TSA’s Web site for claim information.

I’ve got a better idea. Why not make sure your valuables aren’t taken in the first place? Here are five tips:

Don’t try to beat the system
If you think you can avoid a TSA theft by steering clear of LaGuardia or Philadelphia, think again. Reader David Cumpston had a $50 bottle of cologne stolen from his bag in San Francisco. They lifted a box of Montecristo cigars out of P.J. Zornosa’s bag in Florida. “Hope someone enjoyed them,” he grumbles. And Jeanne Rose lost one shoe — a brand-new Merrick clog — in Atlanta. Why just one shoe? Who knows? Point is, you can’t predict where a TSA thief might strike next.

TSA-approved locks are useless, so don’t even bother
Anyone can access your luggage after you’ve checked it. Anyone. Don’t believe me? Here’s how to break into a bag without the benefit of a TSA master key. Besides, the TSA likes to confiscate the locks after they’re done rummaging through your belongings, according to readers like Paula Craig. “Sometimes, I get the Dear Paula, we have been through your luggage letter — and sometimes not,” she says. “It’s maddening.”

Don’t pack anything valuable in your checked in luggage
That’s not just a bad idea because a TSA agent or an airline baggage handler might take something; it’s also a terrible idea because if an airline loses it, you probably won’t be reimbursed for it. Joe Zinno, a retiree from Seattle, slipped his digital camera in his luggage, from which he believes a TSA officer removed it on a recent trip. He contacted the agency to make a claim, and after “a very long time” it responded with a form letter. “They said there would be no compensation,” he recalls. Airlines don’t cover electronics in checked luggage, either.

Better yet, leave all of your valuables at home
Packing your valuables in carry-on luggage is no guarantee the TSA — or the airline — won’t be able to get to it. For example, you might have to gate-check your carry-on if there’s no room in the overhead bin on the plane. Or, like Fleiss, an agent could pull a fast one at the passenger screening area. Cheryl Wahlheim, an information systems manager from Boulder, Colo., had jewelry stolen out of her bag by what she suspects was a TSA employee. Making a claim proved impossible. “They sent me a form letter and basically I had to present them with a document containing pictures of all the stolen jewelry, receipts for all the jewelry and the current cost of the jewelry,” she says. “Since most of the things were gifts given to me over the years, I had no receipts and no pictures.”

If you can’t live without it, carry it on your person
Items like wedding rings, cash and other valuables should be carried through the checkpoint, wherever possible. Mauranna Sherman of Lynchburg, Va., wishes her husband had kept a close eye on his medication when he passed through the TSA screening area a few years ago. “When we reached our hotel several hours later, it wasn’t in his bag,” she says. “We had to call our house sitter, who used her own money to deliver it to our family in Texas the next day. What a hassle.”

Bottom line: if you want to see your valuables again, don’t let a TSA agent near them.

There’s one final myth about TSA thefts that needs to be busted, and it involves the claims process. In speaking with airline passengers who claim the TSA took their property, I hear about the same frustrating conclusion almost every time. In the end, they were denied compensation.

Well, the end isn’t really the end. You can appeal your case to  the TSA. Its ombudsman can be reached at TSA.Ombudsman@dhs.gov.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24187702/

At many colleges, professors are asked to give a “last lecture.” In this talk, they ruminate on what matters most to them. As they speak, audiences mull the same question: What wisdom would you impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?

Last year, I agreed to give a last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University, where I’m a professor in the computer science department. A few weeks later, I learned that I had only months to live—I was dying of pancreatic cancer.
I knew I could cancel. I have three young children, I’m married to Jai, the woman of my dreams, and there were so many things to be done. But by speaking, I knew I could put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe. Here’s what I want to share.

Always Have Fun

Before I spoke, Carnegie Mellon’s president, Jared Cohon, said to me, “Please tell them about having fun, because that’s what I’ll remember you for.”
I came to an early realization. Each of us must make a decision, best captured in A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh characters. Am I a fun-loving Tigger or a sad-sack Eeyore? It’s clear where I stand.
For my last Halloween, Jai, our kids and I dressed up as the Incredibles. I put a photo of us on my website and explained that chemo had not affected my superpowers. I got smiling e-mails in response.
I won’t let go of the Tigger in me. Someone asked what I want on my tombstone. I said: “Randy Pausch: He Lived 30 Years After a Terminal Diagnosis.” I could pack a lot of fun into 30 years. If that’s not to be, I’ll pack fun into the time I have.

Dream Big

I was 8 in the summer of 1969, when men first walked on the moon. I was at camp, and we campers were brought to the main house to watch the moment on TV. But the astronauts were taking a while, and it was late. The counselors sent us to our tents to sleep, and we missed the first walk.
I was peeved. I thought: “My species has gotten off our planet and is in a new world for the first time, and you people think bedtime matters?”
When I got home, my dad gave me a photo that he’d taken of our TV set the second Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. We still have that photo.
Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids’ dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.

Ask for What You Want

On a trip to Disney World, my dad and I were at the monorail with my son Dylan, then 4. Dylan wanted to sit in the nose-cone with the driver, and my father thought it would be a kick too.
“Too bad they don’t let regular people sit there,” Dad said.
 “Actually, I’ve learned there’s a trick to getting to sit up front,” I said. “Do you want to see it?”
I walked over to the attendant and said: “Excuse me. Could we please sit in the front car?”
“Certainly,” the attendant said. He led us to the nose-cone. It was one of the only times I ever saw my dad flabbergasted. “I said there was a trick,” I told him. “I didn’t say it was a hard trick.”
Now I’ve gotten even better at “just asking.” As we all know, it can take days to get medical results. Waiting is not how I want to spend my time, so I ask: “What’s the fastest I can get these results?”
“Oh,” they often respond, “we might be able to have them for you within an hour.”
Ask. More often than you’d suspect, the answer you’ll get is, “Sure.”

Dare To Take a Risk

In a virtual-reality course I taught, I encouraged students to attempt hard things and not worry about failing. At the end of the semester, I presented a stuffed penguin—“The First Penguin Award”—to the team that took the biggest gamble while not meeting its goals. The award came from the idea that when penguins jump in water that might have predators, well, one of them’s got to be the first penguin. In essence, it was a prize for “glorious failure.”
Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted. And it can be the most valuable thing you have to offer.

Look for the Best In Everybody

I got this advice from Jon Snoddy, my hero at Disney Imagineering. “If you wait long enough,” he said, “people will surprise and impress you.” When you’re frustrated with people, when you’re angry, it may be because you haven’t given them enough time. Jon warned that this took great patience, even years. “In the end,” he said, “people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out.”

Make Time for What Matters

When Jai and I went on our honeymoon, we wanted to be left alone. Since my boss demanded a way for people to reach me, I recorded this greeting:
“Hi, this is Randy. I waited until I was 39 to get married, so my wife and I are going away for a month. I hope you don’t have a problem with that, but my boss does. Apparently, I have to be reachable.” I then gave the names of Jai’s parents and the city where they lived. “If you call directory assistance, you can get their phone number. And then, if you can convince my in-laws that your emergency merits interrupting their only daughter’s honeymoon, they have our number.” We didn’t get any calls.
Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think.

Let Kids Be Themselves

Because I’ve been so vocal about my childhood dreams, people have asked me about the dreams I have for my own kids. As a professor, I’ve seen how disruptive it can be for parents to have specific dreams for their children. My job is to help my kids foster a joy for life and develop the tools to fulfill their own wishes. My wishes for them are very exact and, given that I won’t be there, I want to be clear: Kids, don’t try to figure out what I wanted you to become. I want you to become what you want to become. And I want you to feel as if I am there with you, whatever path you choose.

Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems run most personal computers around the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.

Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.

No matter how hard Microsoft works to persuade people to embrace Vista, some just can't be wowed. They complain about Vista's hefty hardware requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows.

For them, the impending disappearance of XP computers from retailers, and the phased withdrawal of technical support in coming years, is causing a minor panic.

Take, for instance, Galen Gruman. A longtime technology journalist, Gruman is more accustomed to writing about trends than starting them.

But after talking to Windows users for months, he realized his distaste for Vista and strong attachment to XP were widespread.

"It sort of hit us that, wait a minute, XP will be gone as of June 30. What are we going to do?" he said. "If no one does something, it's going to be gone."

So Gruman started a Save XP Web petition, gathering since January more than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments, mostly from die-hard XP users who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.

On the petition site's comments section, some users proclaimed they will downgrade from Vista to XP—an option available in the past to businesses, but now open for the first time to consumers who buy Vista Ultimate or Business editions—if they need to buy a new computer after XP goes off the market.

Others used the comments section to rail against the very idea that Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move. Many threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines.

Microsoft already extended the XP deadline once, but it shows no signs it will do so again. The company has declined to meet with Gruman to consider the petition. Microsoft is aware of the petition, it said in a statement to The Associated Press, and "will continue to be guided by feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs."

Gruman said he'd keep pressing for a meeting.

"They really believe if they just close their eyes, people will have no choice," he said.

In fact, most people who get a new computer will end up with Vista. In 2008, 94 percent of new Windows machines for consumers worldwide will run Vista, forecasts industry research group IDC. For businesses, about 75 percent of new PCs will have Vista. (That figure takes into account companies that choose to downgrade to XP.)

Although Microsoft may not budge on selling new copies of XP, it may have to extend support for it.

Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60 percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide will still run XP. Microsoft plans to end full support—including warranty claims and free help with problems—in April 2009. The company will continue providing a more limited level of service until April 2014.

Gillen said efforts like Gruman's grass-roots petition may not influence the software maker, but business customers' demands should carry more clout.

"You really can't make 69 percent of your installed base unhappy with you," he said.

Some companies—such as Wells Manufacturing Co. in Woodstock, Ill.—are crossing their fingers that he's right. The company, which melts scrap steel and casts iron bars, has 200 PCs that run Windows 2000 or XP. (Windows 2000 is no longer sold on PCs. Mainstream support has ended, but limited support is available through the middle of 2010.)

Wells usually replaces 50 of its PCs every 18 months. In the most recent round of purchases, Chief Information Officer Lou Peterhans said, the company stuck with XP because several of its applications don't run well on Vista.

"There is no strong reason to go to Vista, other than eventually losing support for XP," he said. Peterhans added that the company isn't planning to bring in Vista computers for 18 months to two years. If Microsoft keeps to its current timetable, its next operating system, code-named Windows 7, will be on the market by then.

Save XP Petition: http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/

The following is an excerpt from the July 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine. This was written for male supervisors of women in the work force during World War II.

"Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees: There's no longer any question whether transit companies should hire women for jobs formerly held by men. The draft and manpower shortage has settled that point. The important things now are to select the most efficient women available and how to use them to the best advantage.

Here are eleven helpful tips on the subject from Western Properties:

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It's always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in operator's uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy."

Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?

Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why can't they make the whole plane out of the same substance that little indestructible black box is?

If a person with multiple personalities threatens suicide, is that considered a hostage situation?

So what's the speed of dark?

How come abbreviated is such a long word?

Since light travels faster than sound, isn't that why some people appear bright until you hear them speak?

Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?

If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the OTHERS here for?

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops On my desk, I have a work station..

If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?

If quitters never win, and winners never quit, what fool came up with, "Quit while you're ahead"?

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?

Should women put pictures of missing husbands on beer cans?

Why do people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older ... they were cramming for their finals!

Clones are people two.

If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?

If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

I went for a walk last night and my kids asked me how long I'd be gone. I said, "The whole time."

After eating, do amphibians need to wait an hour before getting OUT of the water?

If you're sending someone some Styrofoam, what do you pack it in?

I just got skylights put in my place. The people who live above me are furious.

Why do they sterilize needles for lethal injections?

Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

Isn't Disney World a people trap operated by a mouse?

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it's death throes? He has a new book, and here are some excerpts.
Lee Iacocca Says:

"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.

But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course"

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned "Titanic". I'll give you a sound bite: "Throw all the bums out!"

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom -poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the " America " my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.

I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

The Biggest "C" is Crisis !

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of a Mess So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask:
"Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan.

Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "The Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.

The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.
What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break.
Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope I believe in America . In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the "Great Depression", "World War II", the "Korean War", the "Kennedy Assassination", the "Vietnam War", the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this:

"You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action.

Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to "Action" for people who, like me, believe in America It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had "enough."

Make a "real contribution" by sending this to everyone you know and care about......our future is at stake!

This past weekend we had an opportunity to sail on a classic yacht, a 28ft ketch designed by Francis Herreshoff, one of the sons of the Famous Nathanael Herreshoff nicknamed the wizard of Bristol.  Nathanael designed and built the famous American J class, the ancestors of today’s America’s Cup boats.  The J boats were huge, majestic boats, cathedrals of sails.

Northstar is a little bit more modest with her 28ft (34ft with the bowsprit), but she is a classic, designed in 1924, she comes from a prestigious linage of famous boats.  She is built out of wood ( as the sign says in the cabin, “if boats were supposed to be made out of plastic, God would have put plastic trees on earth”)

Some may remember a blog I wrote a few months ago, it was right around New Year, about an amazingly inspirational man, and I do not use these terms lightly.  Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching computer science.  He worked on some of the most amazing virtual reality projects and inspired generations of students.

Randy Pausch was diagnosed with one of the most unforgiving form of cancer pancreatic cancer and given a few months to live.

He decided to stop teaching to spend these last months with his wife and young children.  Before doing so, he gave was is now known as “The last lecture”.  One of the most inspiring speech I have ever listened to and one of the most inspirational person I have ever come across.

On April 6 he will be featured in the Parade Magazine insert in your Sunday newspapers and on April 9, he will be interviewed by Diane Sawyer on a special on ABC

Here is a video of “The Last Lecture” and a preview of the interview with Diane Sawyer.

After you watch, I am sure you will agree that it was time well spent.  I was so impressed that I bought the DVD, it’s $7.00 shipping included if I can remember, I would have paid a lot more, it’s a DVD I will keep and listen to again and again.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4480607

Please pass the word around, it's a lecture your friends and family will thank you.

Here is the link 

http://gadeyne-us.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6B2F24E27EA35E14!2143.entry

The exact date you receive a stimulus check will depend largely on the last two digits of your Social Security number.

More than 130 million stimulus payments will be sent out starting May 2, on a staggered schedule based on the last two digits of taxpayers' Social Security numbers, the Internal Revenue Service said Monday. On jointly filed returns, the mailing schedule will be based on the first Social Security number listed, the IRS said.

For taxpayers who file by April 15 and get their tax refund deposited directly into a bank or other financial account, the IRS will send stimulus payments from May 2 through May 16. For taxpayers who file by April 15 but don't choose direct deposit, the IRS will mail checks from May 16 through July 11 (see detailed schedule below).

Procrastinators, take note: For stimulus payments to be part of this delivery schedule, the IRS said tax returns must be "processed" by April 15 -- not "filed." That implies that a later timetable may apply to taxpayers who mail their return on or close to April 15, leaving little time for the return to be processed by that date.

If you expect a tax refund and choose to direct-deposit it into two or three separate accounts, the IRS will send your stimulus check in the mail. (To have your refund sent to more than one account requires you fill out Form 8888. See this IRS page for more information.)

If you owe taxes and are sending a payment to the IRS with your return, you can still have your stimulus payment deposited directly into a bank or other account, the IRS said. Simply fill out the appropriate section on your return related to direct deposit, detailing your account information. See this IRS page for FAQs on stimulus payments.

If you do owe taxes, be sure to fill out your return and send payment as usual. That is, don't try deducting your expected stimulus payment from your tax bill. If you don't pay your tax bill by April 15, you likely will owe interest and penalties, said Anthony Burke, an IRS spokesman.

However, if you have a past-due federal or state income tax bill or some other type of past-due federal debt such as student loans or child support, your stimulus payment likely will be reduced by what you owe.

Mailing schedule

This is the stimulus payment schedule for tax returns processed by April 15, the IRS said:

There may be exceptions, the IRS warned. "A small percentage of tax returns will require additional time to process and to compute a stimulus payment amount. For these returns, stimulus payments may not be issued in accordance with the schedule above, even if the tax return was processed by April 15," the IRS said in it its press release Monday.

"We have some returns that require a second look, that require us to pull them out of the processing for some reason or another," said Anthony Burke, an IRS spokesman, in a telephone interview. "It may not be that there's anything wrong with the return," he said.

The "vast majority of people" will receive their stimulus payment according to the posted schedule, Burke said, "but it's a big system, a lot of returns go through our pipeline" so some returns may not go exactly according to schedule.

Also, the IRS said there's a new online calculator taxpayers can use to figure how much their stimulus payment will be. You'll need to have a completed 2007 tax return on hand to use the calculator.

You can skip the mouth-to-mouth breathing and just press on the chest to save a life.

In a major change, the American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR — rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives — works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults.

Experts hope bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing.

"You only have to do two things. Call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person's chest," said Dr. Michael Sayre, an emergency medicine professor at Ohio State University who headed the committee that made the recommendation.

Hands-only CPR calls for uninterrupted chest presses — 100 a minute — until paramedics take over or an automated external defibrillator is available to restore a normal heart rhythm.

This action should be taken only for adults who unexpectedly collapse, stop breathing and are unresponsive. The odds are that the person is having cardiac arrest — the heart suddenly stops — which can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems. In such a case, the victim still has ample air in the lungs and blood and compressions keep blood flowing to the brain, heart and other organs.

A child who collapses is more likely to primarily have breathing problems — and in that case, mouth-to-mouth breathing should be used. That also applies to adults who suffer lack of oxygen from a near-drowning, drug overdose, or carbon monoxide poisoning. In these cases, people need mouth-to-mouth to get air into their lungs and bloodstream.

But in either case, "Something is better than nothing," Sayre said.

The CPR guidelines had been inching toward compression-only. The last update, in 2005, put more emphasis on chest pushes by alternating 30 presses with two quick breaths; those "unable or unwilling" to do the breaths could do presses alone.

Now the heart association has given equal standing to hands-only CPR. Those who have been trained in traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation can still opt to use it.

Sayre said the association took the unusual step of making the changes now — the next update wasn't due until 2010 — because three studies last year showed hands-only was as good as traditional CPR. Hands-only will be added to CPR training.

An estimated 310,000 Americans die each year of cardiac arrest. Only about 6% of those who are stricken outside a hospital survive, although rates vary by location. People who quickly get hands-only CPR while awaiting medical treatment have double or triple the chance of surviving. But less than a third of victims get this essential help.

Dr. Gordon Ewy, who's been pushing for hands-only CPR for 15 years, said he was "dancing in the streets" over the heart association's change even though he doesn't think it goes far enough. Ewy (pronounced AY-vee) is director of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, where the compression-only technique was pioneered.

Ewy said there's no point to giving early breaths in the case of sudden cardiac arrest, and it takes too long to stop compressions to give two breaths — 16 seconds for the average person. He noted that victims often gasp periodically anyway, drawing in a little air on their own.

Anonymous surveys show that people are reluctant to do mouth-to-mouth, Ewy said, partly because of fear of infections.