Hybrid Advanced Technology

Fidel Castro's socialist scientific labs and world class manufacturing facilities have achieved a breakthrough in
automotive design:

A few of the advantages stressed by Cuban engineers are:

• No fossil fuels required
• No air pollution (... well, almost none)
• No air conditioning needed
• Guaranteed to dazzle your girlfriend

Perhaps you can think of more advantages to this transportation breakthrough.

Government is Sleep While President ...........

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, 'What is Politics?' Dad says, 'Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I am the head of the family, so call me The President.

Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government. We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People.

The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future. Now think about that and see if it makes sense.

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parent's room and finds his mother asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyho le and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to his father, 'Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.' The father says, 'Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.

' The little boy replies, 'The President is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit.

Mediating Elder-Care Disputes.

It's hard enough for families to navigate the complicated and emotionally charged decisions related to elder care when everyone gets along.
Throw in a family with tensions or outright hostility and it's no wonder that disagreements sometimes end up in court, an expensive proposition that can easily magnify divisions. Another way to handle these problems is growing in popularity: mediation.

A mediator is sometimes brought in at the order of a judge seeking to settle a dispute without taking it to a jury. But elder-care practitioners are urging more families to take the step voluntarily, especially in disputes over how to handle guardianship for family members who can no longer care for themselves.

Mark Dennen's family was embroiled in nearly two years of litigation centering around guardianship for his father, then 92 years old, when a judge ordered the case sent to mediation.

"Everybody brings in all this emotional baggage and the mediator helps bring things into focus," Mr. Dennen says. "It's designed to get to a solution." The mediation brought the legal battle to an end just months before Mr. Dennen's father passed way.

Agreement Is the Aim -
The basic idea behind mediation is that a dispute is resolved through an agreement among the parties, instead of a resolution mandated by a judge or negotiated by attorneys. The role of the mediator -- usually an attorney or someone with a background in social work -- is to facilitate communication and informed decision making.

The cost of mediation varies around the country. In big metropolitan areas, it can easily cost $300 to $500 an hour, although it's possible to find dispute resolution centers that are significantly less expensive.

Robert Rhudy, a former legal-aid attorney turned mediator, has championed the use of the practice to resolve elder-care disputes in Maryland. "In mediation, everybody who is affected by the situation has an opportunity, in a neutral and confidential setting, to tell their story," he says. Whenever possible, that includes the elderly family member.

Defusing Tensions -
The mediator can help ease communications among family members for whom the elder-care dispute may reopen decades-old wounds.
"Things like 'Mom always liked you better' and brothers and sisters who haven't gotten along since they were three years old come to the fore," says Mr. Rhudy.

Common candidates for mediation are disagreements between family members who live far away and a sibling who lives closer to the elder and may have a different assessment of that person's needs.
Sometimes the disputes are between children and elderly family members who have their own view of where they should be living and who should be caring for them.

Mediation can be used to settle disagreements over living arrangements, how finances should be handled, who should be granted power of attorney, and even visitation rights among squabbling siblings. Agreements often specify the kinds of information, especially financial and medical updates, that will be provided to family members who live far away.

The personal nature of these disputes is what makes mediation helpful, says Forrest Mosten, a Los Angeles attorney who has been a mediator for nearly three decades. "The remedies that a court offers are very limited...but in mediation, an apology may end the dispute."

Mediation also allows for informal or even interim solutions, Mr. Mosten says. "You can try things out and see how they work," he says. For example, instead of immediately pursuing a formal guardianship, one child could become a co-signer on a bank account. "If that works, then you don't have to go any further."

There are some times when mediation alone isn't sufficient, says Nina Weiss, an attorney and mediator in Princeton, N.J. If a guardianship is in order, for instance, that must be ordered by the court system.

The mediation process for elder-care decisions can -- and most say, should -- bring in experts such as social workers, estate-planning specialists and health-care professionals who would typically be called upon as part of a court case. "The courts will recognize the same issues....It's just that you avoid the expense" of litigation, says Joseph Mahon, an estate-planning attorney in New Jersey (who isn't also a mediator).

Finding a Mediator -
One challenge facing families looking for mediation help is that there is no formal licensing or credentialing for elder-care mediators, notes James Bergman, a co-director at the Center for Social Gerontology, an Ann Arbor, Mich., nonprofit group that has been a longtime advocate of elder mediation.

"Anyone can hang a shingle out and say they're an elder mediator," he says.
But there are plenty of experienced mediators, so it's largely a matter of tracking down those with experience in the area and, importantly, a mediator the parties feel comfortable with.

One place to start are local nonprofit mediation groups, such as the Montgomery County Mediation Center in Eagleville, Pa., which can generally be located online. There are also state organizations, such as the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators.

Some states have lists of mediators officially approved by their courts. And online, the Association for Conflict Resolution offers the public the ability to find mediators from among its members at acrnet.org.

Also online, Mediate.com and EldercareMediators.com offer names of mediators (who pay small fees to be listed).

Write to Tom Lauricella at tom.lauricella@wsj.com

It's All In A Days Work

Stem Cell Transplant May Improve Survival Among Elderly

CancerConsultants.com - News 3/11/2008


A recent study reveals that elderly patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) may benefit from autologous stem cell transplant. Results from the study, conducted at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, were recently published in Annals of Oncology.


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Don't Ever Give up

This Is Bloody War!

By R. SCOTT MOXLEY

Twice, she sneaked into the kitchen in the middle of the night and moved all of his food and utensils to another room.

He locked her out of the house when she left to walk her precious young Maltese, Mandy.

She draped sheets over furniture, piled boxes at his bedroom door and, in a handwritten note, declared the living room a storage area not to be used.

He aimed a floodlight at her bedroom door.

She insisted they divide the house in boundaries reminiscent of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

He drilled screws to seal 13 of her kitchen cabinets and drawers.

She called the police to claim he’d shaken his fists in her face and threatened to kill her.

He hid the key to a storage unit containing her furniture.

She hired a locksmith to open the security lock he’d installed on his bedroom door.

He followed her around the house with a tape recorder and a camera.

She yanked on his T-shirt.

He placed light bulbs underneath sofa pillows.

This wasn’t a young couple’s spat. It happened, in fact, at Leisure World in retirement-rich Laguna Woods. For two platonic friends—Rubalee Bookout, 80, and Ove Nielsen, 72—this domestic hell, as colorfully recorded in court documents and testimony.

Abridged >>

3 Ladies in a Sauna -

THREE WOMEN, TWO YOUNGER, AND ONE SENIOR CITIZEN, WERE SITTING NAKED IN A SAUNA. SUDDENLY THERE WAS A BEEPING SOUND. THE YOUNG WOMAN PRESSED HER FOREARM AND THE BEEP STOPPED. THE OTHERS LOOKED AT HER QUESTIONINGLY. 'THAT WAS MY PAGER,' SHE SAID. I HAVE A MICROCHIP UNDER THE SKIN OF MY ARM.

A FEW MINUTES LATER, A PHONE RANG. THE SECOND YOUNG WOMAN LIFTED HER PALM TO HER EAR. WHEN SHE FINISHED, SHE EXPLAINED, 'THAT WAS MY MOBILE PHONE. I HAVE A MICROCHIP IN MY HAND.'

THE OLDER WOMAN FELT VERY LOW -TECH. NOT TO BE OUT DONE, SHE DECIDED SHE HAD TO DO SOMETHING JUST AS IMPRESSIVE. SHE STEPPED OUT OF THE SAUNA AND WENT TO THE BATHROOM. SHE RETURNED WITH A PIECE OF TOILET PAPER HANGING FROM HER REAR END.

THE OTHERS RAISED THEIR EYEBROWS AND STARED AT HER.

THE OLDER WOMAN FINALLY SAID.........WELL, WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT....I'M GETTING A FAX!!

Polygamy and Elder Abuse-Warning Signs-

By Ray Fernandez

Western Culture Encourages Polygamy by Paying Welfare Benefits for Separate Wives By TOM GODFREY

and how Muslim men in polygamous marriages -- some with a harem of wives -- are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses.

A lot of our most vocal liberal media and spokepersons think that it is great that the United States in the name of multiculturalism is embracing and protecting the practice of other cultures while the Elder Abuse Protection Laws Languish in Congress and Elder Abuse reaches Epidemic Proportions.

A Muslim man is permitted to have up to four spouses.The average recipient with a child can receive about $1,500 monthly, city officials said.

"This is a law and there's nothing wrong with it.""Canada is a very liberal-minded country," Ali said. "Canada is way ahead of Britain in this respect."He said Britain recently began permitting husbands to collect benefits for each of their wives and we wondered ? The Unites States is a very liberal country what is happening here? We wondered and did a little research.

Myra Morton approached her sleeping husband on the morning of August 5, 2007, with pain in her heart and a gun in her hand. Once the smoke had cleared at the couple’s upscale home just outside Philadelphia, a man would lie dead, a family secret would be exposed, and a spotlight would shine on the emergent phenomenon of Islamic polygamy in the Western world.

Just like the government looks the other way with Elder Abuse Cases, Cases like Dr. Vernon Sinn, Dr. Robert Sarhan, Dr. A.J. Fernandez or his wife Clara G. Fernandez and too many to mention all here , as recent evidence indicates that the people in charge tend to look the other way as the conjugal mores of seventh-century Arabia — and the problems that travel with them — take root in our backyards as well.

The prevalence of polygamy among Muslims living in the West remains a matter of debate. Here is a sampling of what has been reported: As many as thirty thousand Muslim families in France include more than one wife. There are fifteen thousand in Italy and several thousand in Great Britain. Estimates for the United States typically run into the tens of thousands. Even Australia has been forced to crack down on Muslim men looking to meet potential second wives via the internet.

Individual cases often come to light unexpectedly through high-impact media events such as the Morton saga. Another example is the tragic Bronx house fire that killed ten people on March 7, 2007. Moussa Magassa, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mali who lost five of his children in the blaze, was discovered to have two wives living a floor apart. A subsequent investigation by the New York Times found polygamy to be an open secret in his immigrant community, with agencies that serve it adhering to a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Concern about Islamic polygamy has naturally been dismissed in some quarters as cultural imperialism. Duke University professor Miriam Cooke argues that “polygamy can be liberating and empowering.” As Kay Hymowitz explains in City Journal.

Many find the introduction of polygamy to be a liberating step forward in the civil rights movement parallelled only and a natural progression to the legalization of same sex marriages in many states.

The mixed message sent by government bureaucrats regarding this practice in indicative of multicultural nonchalance.

The push to normalize polygamy along with the victimization of elders and the removal of their civil rights when they become incapacitated under the guise of "protection" is another step closer toward the long slippery slope that we are so blissfully steaming head on with wanton disregard.

The Price of Abusing an Elder; "Not even some Lawyers are Immune!"

Judge to Lawyer: "Get a Shovel, Get Job"!

AUBURN, Maine — A former lawyer convicted of stealing from clients has been told by a judge to get a job, even if it means shoveling snow off roofs.

John Frankenfield appeared before a judge in Auburn after being accused of violating a condition of probation.

The judge told him to report back next month with a plan for paying back $219,000 in court-ordered restitution.

So far, Frankenfield has paid back just $50.

Justice Thomas Delahanty II took Frankenfield to task Wednesday.

Delahanty told him to get a job and noted "there are a lot of roofs out there to be shoveled."!

Frankenfield served about two years in prison after being convicted of skimming assets from his grandfather's estate.

He also pleaded guilty to stealing $55,000 from clients.

Red for Cancer, Green for Normal

(IsraelNN.com) It's simple. In the new cancer test kit developed by Zetiq Technologies, if the cells in a tissue test stain green, they are normal. If they stain red they are cancerous. Dr. Adi Elkeles, CEO of Zetiq, called the test "a very simple discrimination that can be analyzed even by a layman."

"There is a huge need for simple tools that can screen and diagnose all types of cancer," he added. "Early detection can make all the difference between life and death. Hundreds of millions of people will need this technology. It offers a major breakthrough in the field of cancer diagnostics."

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Fair Use

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.

It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. It is based on free speech rights provided by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.The term "fair use" is unique to the United States; a similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions.

Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.United States trademark law also incorporates a "fair use" defense, which also stems from the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution.

"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections § 106 and § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright…”

"God Bless the Idealists Where Ever They Appear."

Irene A. Masiello / author: PARADISE COSTS--A Victim's Daughter Fights Back Against Elder Abuse...the first pro-active, grassroots REALITY WRITING book urging Americans to help STOP ELDER ABUSE NOW / Elder Advocate & Member of the Elder Justice Coalition / Founder: Starlight Network News / Certified: Holistic Counselor, Stress Management Consultant & Adult Educator / NYC-based magazine columnist authoring a holistically based, spiritual self-help & personal empowerment column since 1998

Alone

Reflections of shattered memories

that are long gone in the lapse of time we call

Eternity

Alone

We spend each golden moment silently awaiting for that which must come.

Alone

We are friends even thou I am

Alone

I learn to use each moment and to be

Alone

by Ray Fernandez

Daily Yoga Meditation Shown to Improve Memory, May Prevent Alzheimer?s

Semi Lotus Position

Older participants not only gained better memory but their brains worked better.

Your memory getting faulty? Cognitive ability not what it used to be?
New research with older people finds stopping other activity for a daily meditation session can improve your thinking and your memory. The leader of the study thinks these daily 12-minute Yoga sessions may even prevent Alzheimers disease.

"This exciting study confirms what we have been observing in clinical practice for many years, that meditation is one of the most effective tools to address memory loss," said Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., president and medical director of the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, the non-profit organization which sponsored the study.

"For the first time, we are seeing scientific evidence that meditation enables the brain to actually strengthen itself, and battle the processes working to weaken it," said Newberg.
"If this kind of meditation is helping patients with memory loss," he continued, "we are encouraged by the prospects that daily practice may even prevent neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's."

Practiced by millions of individuals to reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration, and even lower blood pressure, meditation is among the most commonly used alternative therapies in the world.

Read it all at SeniorJournal.Com >>