Savings on your cell phone bills

Here's an easy way to save money on your cell phone.

If your plan has a "calling circle" or some other such way that you can designate certain callers for unlimited calling, here's a number to add: 800-GOOG-411. (800-466-4411)

GOOG-411 is one of the Google corporation's recent innovations. Call this number, and you speak the name of the business (and the city and state where the business is located) and you get connected.

There's no charge from Google. And if you designate GOOG-411 as one of your free numbers, there's no charge from your cell company. What's more, this is really good for when you're on the road, and aren't able to look up a number. Or when you don't have the number.

It's really easy, really good, and using this plan, can even be free.

Long distance

A friend wrote, asking if I had a Skype account.

I've got one, but no computer cam.

We used Skype a lot when our daughter did study abroad in Italy last year. Skype is incredible.

I still think it funny when I remember long distance calls when I was a kid. I remember how someone who was called long distance was raced to the phone with great urgency. But it was a realistic race: phone rates were horrendously high.

Contrast that with last night, when -- 11:30 p.m. -- I got a call. Caller ID indicated not-US, and it turned out to be a woman I'd seen professionally last year. She was calling to get the name of the guy who did some work on our kitchen 6 years ago. (We had had a conversation about home repairs, and she was asking for her mother-in-law, who lives nearby). But she in turn was calling me from Taiwan, where she and her husbands are short-term missionaries. And the 5 minute call probably cost her -- if I'm guessing from calling card rates I've seen -- maybe 10 or 15 cents.

It's one of those funny things I'd love to be able to go back in time -- say, to 1972! -- and tell people how someone would call from half-way around the world -- it was mid-day Monday there -- to find out a name for a home repair guy. And, even better, how friends and families and lovers all keep in close contact using very inexpensive phone services.

Despite all the crud that goes on, life often gets better. When bad things happen, remember these. And be thankful.

The US government, and charges of election fraud

Americans like to brag about our love of democracy -- until democracy brings results we don't like.

That happened in 2006 when Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections. The so-called "quartet" (the US, Russia, the EU, and the UN) promptly invoked sanctions again the Palestinian National Authority, in an effort to overthrow the democratically elected Hamas government.

Now it's happened again.

Iran held elections for president, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won. Apparently by a landslide. And since Ahmadinejad was not the one anointed by the US government, the Obama administration promptly denounced the election, and called it into question.

In other words, democracy's swell -- as long as supposedly sovereign voters in other countries kowtow to US demands, and cast votes in accord with US government desires.

The shocking thing is that the US has had 2 questionable presidential elections in just the last 10 years.

Fraud, intimidation, and questionable results in the 2000 election are widely known. There are also many who question the outcome of the 2004 election.

In other words, before the Obama administration's poodle, Hillary Clinton, sets about condemning other countries' votes, we need to get our own house in order. And seeking to overturn legitimate elections in other countries because a current US government doesn't like the outcome is, well, about as far from "democracy" as we can get.

Working for the future

"Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead."

Tom Peters
Author

The Key Vitamin for Bone Health that Most People Don't Know About

"Vitamin K is often referred to as the 'forgotten vitamin' because it is continually overshadowed by more well known nutrients. Yet, this fat-soluble vitamin is absolutely essential to build strong bones, as it serves as the biological "glue" that helps plug the calcium into your bone matrix."

What Surprising Exercise Cuts Your Cancer Risk by 40 Percent?

"Men with stronger muscles from regular weight training are up to 40 percent less likely to die from cancer, according to new research.

The findings suggest that muscular strength is as important as staying slim and eating healthy when it comes to protecting your body against deadly tumors."

Ben Gurion On The Foundations Of The Jewish State

"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."

~ David Ben Gurion quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99.

Magnesium Benefits Your Blood Pressure

"Magnesium may reduce blood pressure in people with high blood pressure, according to new findings. The study adds to data from epidemiological studies that have reported more magnesium, potassium and calcium may reduce your risk of hypertension."

New Model Of Cancer Development: Vitamin D is the Key

"Researchers studying the preventive effects of vitamin D on cancer have proposed a new model of cancer development that hinges on a loss of cancer cells' ability to stick together. The model, dubbed DINOMIT, differs from the older model of cancer development, which suggests genetic mutations as the earliest driving forces behind cancer."

The 20 Cancer Symptoms Women Are Most Likely to Ignore

"Don't rely on routine tests alone to protect you from cancer. It's just as important to listen to your body and notice anything that's different, odd, or unexplainable. Here are some signs that are commonly overlooked."

Go Out and Play!

"Everyone knows that play is important for kids. Play teaches them coordination, adult roles, social interaction, and basic problem-solving skills. But somehow, many people have fallen prey to the idea that play is only important for kids."

Trying once more

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time."

Thomas Edison
1847-1931, Inventor and Entrepreneur

God's mercy

"So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."

Romans 9.16

The best you have

"Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
1855-1919, Poet and Journalist

Courage

"In every success story, you find someone who has made a courageous decision."

Peter F. Drucker
Management Consultant and Author

Is Natural Medicine One of Your Freedoms?

"As of May 20, police around the country were on the lookout for a Minnesota mother who fled with her cancer-stricken 13 year old son rather than consent to chemotherapy.

Colleen Hauser had told a judge that she wished to treat her son's cancer with natural healing methods advocated by an American Indian religious group known as the Nemenhah Band.

Daniel has Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer. But the teen and his parents rejected chemo after a single treatment, with the boy's mother saying that putting toxic substances in the body violates the family's religious convictions.

The Hauser family had been ordered to appear before a judge for a hearing to consider chemo. But mother and son failed to show, and a warrant was issued for the mother's arrest."

Slash Incidence of Infant Eczema and Allergy by 58%

"Daily supplements of probiotic foods may reduce the risk of eczema in children by 58 percent, according to a new study.

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is one of the first signs of allergy during the early days of life and is said to be due to delayed development of the immune system. It affects between 10 percent to 20 percent of all infants."

The best job

"The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses."

Napoleon Hill
1883-1970

Turmeric May Help Prevent Alzheimer’s

"Turmeric, which is called the spice of life in ancient Indian lore, might help fight Alzheimer’s, according to initial stages of a study.

The spice is an integral ingredient in curry, and tests on laboratory rats have provided evidence that curry helps prevent dementia."

Common Irregular Heartbeats are Completely Normalized by Taurine and Arginine

"(NaturalNews) Irregular heartbeats, technically known as cardiac arrhythmias, put more than 850,000 people in the hospital every year in the U.S. That number is expected to increase as the population ages. Many others are treated on an outpatient basis for frightening erratic heartbeats that can feel like the heart is doing flutters and flip-flops. Drugs are often prescribed but don't always work, and patients are started down a path that can end up with heart surgery. The good news is that recent research has identified two natural, easily obtained substances that can restore heartbeats to normal."