From the Inside Out

The presidential election is over, but don’t fear, you can still cast your vote for an important election. A global competition for the New 7 Wonders of Nature is now underway, and you can help make the choice. The list of 261 nominees from 222 countries include some of the most famous mountain peaks, lakes, and other attractions, such as the Great Barrier Reef, Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls.

Over a billion people are expected to join in Internet voting that will nominate 77 semifinalists for the top natural wonders, which will share in the glory already enjoyed by the seven man-made wonders chosen 18 months ago.

Around 100 million people voted in the selection of the seven man-made wonders. The winners were the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt; the Colosseum, Italy; the Great Wall of China; the Taj Mahal, India; Petra, Jordan; Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil; Machu Picchu, Peru; and the Pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico.

Voting for the New Wonders of Nature semifinalists is now open and will continue through July 7, 2009. If you’d like to participate, click here.

Imagine this…it’s a warm Summer day. The birds are singing, the sun is shining and burgers are being cooked on the grill. The scent makes you hungry; you can’t wait to sink your teeth into that delicious flame-grilled masterpiece. Closing your eyes, you breathe in and savor the smell. You dream of capturing that moment forever — if only you could bottle that heavenly scent.

Well, now you can. The long wait is finally over!

Burger King introduced a new body spray this week called Flame. Men across the country can now smell like their favorite burger (look out Axe body spray — you’ve got some serious competition).

If you are still searching for the perfect Christmas gift, look no further. It’s the ideal gift for the man who has everything. According to Burger King, “The WHOPPER sandwich is America’s Favorite burger. FLAME by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”

Ah, what more could you want?

Flame sells for $3.99 online. For more info, visit the promo website (www.firemeetsdesire.com), order a bottle and then you can smell like a Whopper too!

If you participate in multiple social media communities (i.e MySpace, Facebook, Orkut), you know how much of a hassle it is to keep up with all of them. You must log-in to each site, manage separate friends lists, comments, updates, etc. It’s time consuming and annoying.

What if one site could manage all of your communities? That’s what Power.com attempts to do, and I must say they are doing a great job. I’ve been using their site all week, and I love it. It aggregates my separate communities together into one site making it easy to keep things up-to-date. For the first time, I don’t have to jump from site to site to synchronize or view content, messages and friends across Facebook and MySpace.

How Does It Work?
It’s quite simple. You login using your Facebook or MySpace id/password and then register all of your social networks. Your Power start page shows all of your friends, messages, and content — from all your social networks, instant messengers, and email accounts — in one place. Updates, pictures of friends, messages that you’d see on Facebook show up next to ones you have on MySpace, etc. Communities, birthdays, any social network features you choose, are all arranged by people — not by website — on your Power.com start page.

Once you log on to Power.com, you are automatically logged on everywhere that matters to you. You go from Power.com to your page on any one of your social networks with one click. Another click brings you to your page on another social network. One click also brings you back to Power.com, where you can simultaneously update the content of all your social pages. For example, you can browse for your latest photos or videos, pick the ones your want, and — click — make the pictures appear on any or all of your personal pages at the same time.

Messaging is especially nimble with Power.com: all your friends and messages from all sites show up in one place. You can write one message and just choose recipients, without regard to what social network or messaging provider actually reaches each friend. Power sorts it out and sends the message off to each friend via the appropriate system. If any one friend has multiple ways to exchange messages, Power lets the user choose which one to use.

Today, Power.com now supports users on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, MSN Messenger, Orkut, and YouTube. In the near future, Power will support them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Skype and other email and communication accounts.

Power.com is the world’s leading Social Inter-Networking company in the world with 5 million registered users.

Check it out by clicking here.

Have you ever had a bad experience with a law enforcement officer and wished that there was a place to provide feedback? Perhaps you had a pleasant experience and would like to applaud the officer for his/her service and professionalism. If so, check out RateMyCop.com.

RateMyCop.com lets you rank police officers based on three criteria: Professionalism, Fairness and Satisfaction. You can also post written comments to share stories about your interactions with law enforcement officers.

The site lists the names of all of the cops on the payroll at hundreds of police departments nationwide. You can browse the rankings and read real feedback written by citizens. In addition, it offers forums where you can ask police officers questions, discuss officers in the news, and provide praise and raves.

The next time you have an encounter with a police officer, you can hop online and rate your cop’s performance. Just remember to rate responsibly. Don’t offer unfair ratings simply because you got a ticket.

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times by now, but we witnessed a historic moment as the people of the United States elected their first African American President tonight. It demonstrates how far our country has come since the early days of the civil rights movements led by Martin Luther King in the 1960s.

I am proud to live in a country that can move beyond racial discrimination — a country that can judge people by their beliefs, capabilities, and experience rather than the color of their skin. However, I am not proud of the country’s decision to elect Barack Obama. His political and moral beliefs are in direct opposition to my own. For example, I want to be responsible for taking care of myself, acquiring healthcare, and planning for my own retirement. I don’t want the government to do it for me and mandate how it’s done. I don’t want to live in a socialistic country that redistributes wealth to those who are unwilling to work. There should be fairness and equality for everyone regardless of how much they earn; the so-called “wealthy” should not be penalized for their success, dedication and hard work. We need less government involvement in our lives and fewer taxes — and don’t even get me started on the moral issues at stake.

Unfortunately, the lots have been cast, and we’re stuck with Barack for the next four years. I just hope he doesn’t do too much damage before we can replace him in 2012. Please keep our country and its new leaders in your prayers. They have major issues to tackle (economy, war on terror, foreign relations, to name a few), and they will need God’s guidance to make the right decisions.

Truth is not determined by majority vote. ~Doug Gwyn

We have plenty of confidence in this country, but we are a little short of good men to place our confidence in. ~Will Rogers