If you haven’t heard about this new, hybrid, staph infection that is going around you need to be aware. Apparently this germ has become resistant to many antibiotics and leads to a very serious infection. So serious that it may kill more people than HIV/AIDS.

The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated.

This little germ is no joke. It can cause a variety of different problems and is spread by casual contact. That is what is scary to me because you know how common a handshake is at work and you don’t know if the hand you just shaked is clean or what it just touched. Howie Mandel, of Deal or No Deal fame, has it right…he doen’t shake hands. He just daps everyone up or gives them a pound. I think I’m going to give my boss a pound tomorrow at work.

MRSA, which is spread by casual contact, rapidly turns minor abscesses and other skin infections into serious health problems, including painful, disfiguring “necrotizing” abscesses that eat away tissue. The infections can often still be treated by lancing and draining sores and quickly administering other antibiotics, such as bactrim. But in some cases the microbe gets into the lungs, causing unusually serious pneumonia, or spreads into bone, vital organs and the bloodstream, triggering life-threatening complications. Those patients must be hospitalized and given intensive care, including intravenous antibiotics such as vancomycin.

This hasn’t really been talked about in the articles I’ve seen but it is really hitting the black community hard (2/3 of the cases). Something like this is just awareness and passing the word. It is not anything to get hysterical about but the word needs to be spread.

In the new study, Fridkin and his colleagues analyzed data collected in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Tennessee, identifying 5,287 cases of invasive MRSA infection and 988 deaths in 2005. The researchers calculated that MRSA was striking 31.8 out of every 100,000 Americans, which translates to 94,360 cases and 18,650 deaths nationwide. In comparison, complications from the AIDS virus killed about 12,500 Americans in 2005.

Article link

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I have been running web2freedom for about 3 months or so. Originally www.web2freedom.net was a hosting company a few years back. The domain was dormant for a good while and then I purchased it off of ebay. Since there was a history for the domain, you can check the back links, it has a page rank of 3. So, when I made the decision to start a blog the domain name seemed like a good choice. I actually love the name, web2freedom, and I’m glad I bought it (think I paid $8 and it was registered for a year and a half).

But, I have been shocked by the amount of spam in the comments. Everyday I get an email telling me to moderate comments and then they are all spam. I think I have had about 15 legit comments and about 50 or so from spam (that I just delete). The problem is that is growing everyday. So, just wanted to know if this is happening to anyone else with a blog?

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I was listening to the Jim Rome radio show a few days ago at lunch and he had Tony Dungy on for an interview. I have never been a “fan” of the Bucs or Colts but I do like him. Dungy has always been a coach that preached high character, both from himself and of his players, and he has always seemed like the kind of coach that you wanted to play for or your kids to play for.

But he touched on many different topics such as the Colts (of course), his relationship with current and former players, his book…a very basic interview. Then Rome asked him about Dononvan McNabb’s comments during an HBO interview about black quarterbacks being scrutinized harder than white quarterbacks (McNabb’s comments taken from Bloomberg article):

“There are not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra,’…
(About white Quarterbacks Payton Manning and Carson Palmer)“Let me start by saying, I love those guys. But they don’t get criticized as much as we do. They don’t,”

I have had mixed emotions about those comments because all NFL players are heavily scrutinized (except Brett Favre for some reason) and it is a win only mentality from fans, owners, and the media. Also, there are so many black QB’s that it isn’t as big a deal as say 25 or 30 years ago. Tony Dungy’s comments in the interview seemed to make the same connection that everyone in the league is under tremendous amounts of pressure and similar scrutiny.

But, without being asked by Jim Rome, he brought up Ty Willingham and how Notre Dame got rid of him after 3 seasons and now you have Charlie Weis, in his third year, having the worst season in Notre Dame history at 1-6. Willingham was fired after seasons of 10-3, 5-7, and 6-6…which besides his first year is nothing great. The problem was that he was fired after only 3 years. This is almost unheard of in college football.

If we went back in the time machine to 2004/2005, actually just google ‘Ty Willingham Notre Dame Fired’ and you can see a bunch of articles, you would read articles talking about how he was fired for being a bad coach and blowout losses. “It has noting to do with him being black it is about him as a coach”…”He is taking ND in the wrong direction”. So were is the outcry for Charlie Weis’ head?

In most situations the truth is somewhere in the middle. Did Ty Willingham being fired have something to do with him being black? I don’t know, but it is hard to say no. Did it have to do with Urban Meyer? I think Notre Dame thought they would land the current Florida coach but he passed on the job. In fact many coaches passed on the ND gig. Charlie Weis came out of nowhere to get the job with about as much college head coaching experience as me…NONE! You have a coach that seems out of his league, had a really good season with another coaches players, and the program sure doesn’t look like it is going in the right direction.

I liked what Dungy said about this whole situation during the interview (and I am paraphrasing because I don’t have a transcript)…”Everyone is waiting to see how Notre Dame is going to handle this. Maybe they learned from Ty Williingham?”. I say maybe they are just showing their true colors and will treat coaches differently because it sure feels like they are handling it a lot different than before. Too bad that is not a good thing.

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I pulled it off last week…

It is hard to get everything right just picking 5 games agaist the spread in college football. Equally hard to get everything wrong. Well I pulled off the impossible and went 0-5 last week after going 4-1 the week before. So, overall I’m 11-14 on the year. I’m going to take last week as a moral victory…the same kind of victories Charlie Weis is putting on his resume at Notre Dame. Hey, if he can get a big contract off of it maybe someone will drop one on me too.

Picks - Week of the Underdog

1. Missouri @ Oklahoma (-10.5)

I was impressed when I got a chance to watch Missouri last week. One of their tightends, Martin Rucker, is looking like the next big one at that position and of course QB Chase Daniel really showed the world about himself against Nebraska. I don’t think they can beat Oklahoma but they will make it a game… Missouri + 10.5

2. Louisville @ Cincinnati (-10.0)

Now, who could have called this at the beginning of the year…Louisville rolls into Ohio a 10 point dog to Cincinnati. Just more fodder for why there should be a playoff system in college football. But, I am hoping that Louisville can bounce back somewhat because the offense is there… Louisivlle +10

3. Auburn @ Arkansas (-3.0)

I would have thought that Auburn would be favored in this game. I like their defense right now and the offense isn’t turning the ball over. If Brandon Cox would have played this way at the beginning of the year they would be undefeated. Auburn wins outright…
Auburn +3.0

4. Washington @ Arizona St. (-11.0)

Washington has been competitive in every one of their games (well…kinda against Ohio St.), going 1-2 against ranked opponents, and Arizona St has looked great but they haven’t beat a ranked team. I think Ty Willingham keeps his team close… Washington +11.0

5. UCF @ South Florida (-11.5)

After all South Florida has done this year this could be on upset alert this week. I think both defenses will be prepared because they run similar offenses. I see a close one in Tampa… UCF +11.5

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Hillary Clinton has a new plan out to give a $1000 tax to every household making under $60k/yr. This is a dollar for dollar tax credit that would go to anyone contributing to a universal “American Retirement Account”, which would be sometype of 401(k). The credit would range from $500-$1000 depending on household income upto $100k. If you make more than that…I guess you get no love.

The idea to pay for the plan is to raise taxes on estates over $7 million.

Instead, she said, her plan for what she called “American Retirement Accounts” will provide “universal access to a generous 401(k) for all Americans.”

She outlined a program in which the government would provide a “matching refundable tax credit — dollar for dollar — for the first $1,000 of savings done by every married couple making up to $60,000 a year.”

Families with incomes of up to $100,000 would receive a smaller tax break to spur them to contribute to a personal 401(k).

“This means tens of millions of middle-class families will get matching tax cuts of up to $500 and $1,000 to help them build a nest egg for retirement,” said a fact sheet distributed by the campaign.

OK. Cool. I’ll take a tax credit…except what about the folks who make over $100k/yr. I’m not saying where I fall (less than 60, 60-100, or more than 100) but that is a pretty low cutoff. $100k is not rich by any means anymore, in fact that is just middle class.

When I first read the headline I thought this was a good idea but now I’m not feeling it at all because you are cutting out so many folks who could actually use the tax credit. My thing is just make sure when I’m 59 1/2 I can get this social security that comes out of my check every other week. Republican or Democrat…I just want to know that will be there because I could be putting that in my own stock account (FYI…if you don’t know about GNK you better learn baby!!! I got in 11/16/06 and I’m up over 140%)

At a cost of $20 billion-$25 billion a year, the plan is Clinton’s largest domestic proposal other than her plan for universal health insurance. The Republican National Committee criticized her level of spending

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I just want to say thanks to all the people that have taken the time to read my blog and welcome those who have registered. Starting a blog has been exciting and very therapeutic. I get to express my opinions, talk about anything, and share content that I think is worth while. But, we are going to be expanding shortly.

Also, I want to welcome new authors/contributors Trade_Guru and DavidW. We are going to be doing some big things with fantasy football and finance.

But, a pretty popular blog called thepisstakers.com does a Sunday contest where they review the blog of the last 10 people that visited. I was one of those 10 this week…check it out (link). I didn’t appreciate being called a music filesharer though because I haven’t downloaded something off of kazaa or limewire in years.

Posted by kdub under Posts worth wasting 2 minutes on | 1 Comment »

Come here to get help? Hell no! Come here to be amoungst your people. New Blog coming to Web2Freedom! Should you trade him, cut him or start him? Get your answers from people who have WON numerous championships. Not from lames whose advice make you lose games.

Posted by Trade_Guru under fantasy football & Sports Related | 3 Comments »

They are really struggling at Playboy if their magazine is featuring the ex-mistress of Barry Bonds, who has no other talent except being his ex-mistress. Kim Bell is making her rounds with the different media outlets promoting her “spread” coming out and talking about Barry. But, she is not adding any new information. Everything she is saying on her little media blitz sounds exactly the same as the allegations she has made over the last few years. Bell already said she thinks Bonds used steriods, that Barry promised to buy her house, and that he was verbally abusive. I shouldn’t say everything is old news…she now says he has erectile dysfunction.

I don’t know if what she is saying is true or not but what I do know is true is that she has already written a book, claims he owes her $150k for a house he was paying the note on, and now is posing in Playboy. Ughh. No comment because I don’t want to waste anymore brainpower on this.

Article Link

Throughout the interview Bell repeats that she is not a gold digger. “I had a great job,” she says. “I had my own stuff. I come from humble beginnings. I didn’t wear designer clothes. I wasn’t a dress-up kind of girl.”

Article Link

The relationship ended acrimoniously with Kimberly claiming Bonds owed her $150,000 for a house she says he promised to purchase for her. In response, Bonds’ attorney says she should not be believed because she is extorting and blackmailing Bonds. Bell denies those allegations and says that in his battle with her, Bonds has even tried to deny knowing her even though she has proven otherwise.

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If you haven’t noticed there is a market for “ugly” people in ads and television. They are actors and models and need representation…so, welcome to the ugly modeling agency.

A unique modelling agency in London shows that you don’t need good looks in order to be a star.

The Ugly Modelling Agency specialises in weird and wonderful characters with faces only a mother could love.

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If I didn’t already have enough reasons to stop using peer-2-peer downloading programs…this may be another. A Minnesota women must pay over $9k per song that she was sharing to “family and friends”.

A woman in Minnesota must face the music after jury found her liable for sharing illegally downloaded songs.

The Recording Industry of America wins its first copyright protection trial.

Posted by kdub under Current Headlines & Posts worth wasting 2 minutes on | 3 Comments »