I know it's been a while but the makeover of the Dooferbook site is nearing completion. I brought it live so I could fine tune a few of the new features and make sure everything's up and running A-OK before I send out the PR's. Feel free to browse the site but realize a few of the sections are under construction and may not work or look so great. No biggie, it'll all be done soon!

[Note: This article was written by Taylor Darden, a non-member of the site who contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked that we publish his article concerning veterans getting boned by the feds. Thanks Taylor!]

With awareness for the inability of the government to provide support for veterans involving health care, there have been a number of issues involving veterans at hand throughout the early stages of 2011. One of the major issues involves the fact that the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act has yet to be pushed through Congress. Even with a signature from Barack Obama last June and an estimated deadline of January 2011, the support and structure program designed for veterans and their caregivers is still nowhere to be found. With more and more pilots being sent over in air strikes, it’s unfortunate that many who’ve already served are unable to get the proper support they need. 

If the act were to go through, it would provide post-2001 veterans who need caregivers with a support program designed to benefit them fully. These care givers would be included in a program designed to further educate them on caring for veterans, as well as providing stipends for expenses involving lodging and other health services. Unfortunately neither Congress nor the President has been able to get this program off the ground and even with a start up, the program is still missing any type of support system that includes older veterans who have served before the year 2001. 

There are a number of reasons in which many veterans, both older and younger, are in need of caregivers these days. This includes a pallet of different types of health risks and illnesses relating back to military service. A number of older veterans have contracted diseases such as mental health problems, Hodgkin’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and even mesothelioma. Camp Lejeune in North Carolina has been home unknown water contamination for over 30 years. Once the water was finally found to be contaminated, health problems around the base were found to be in direct connection with consumption of the water. This included instances of Hodgkin’s disease, as well as cases of Parkinson’s disease. Care givers are often a necessity for patients dealing with both of these diseases. 

Asbestos was a type of mineral fiber used throughout the last century in a number of different military bases and shipyards. Unfortunately with its continued use, it was found to be in direct correlation with cases of mesothelioma.  Use of the material halted once the connection was found. Mesothelioma life expectancy is usually very low, sometimes only a year; therefore halting its use was a major issue. For many of the veterans with mesothelioma today, a care giver is a necessity for their well being. The support allows them to fight this deadly disease the best they can. 

These are only two examples of the many health risks that veterans in the US are facing as a direct result of their military service. In the future, it’s important that the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act not only be pushed through in 2011, but also that it be examined to expand and include older veterans in the support program.

The Dooferbook received this email from some casting director of a new reality show. Any of you hardcore badasses lookin' for your 15 minutes should give her a call!

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This is an enquiry e-mail via http://www.dooferbook.com/ from: Lauren Kalb < This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >

Hello, 

My name is Lauren Kalb and I'm an LA-based casting director, currently casting a new Action/Adventure competition show called "The Assailant" for The Discovery Channel.  I am hoping you will be able to help spread the word to your network of contacts.  WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR: Highly specialized former military, special forces and/or law enforcement agents who are mentally and physically fit. In each episode, four contestants will have to re-enact actual missions that were executed by elite branches of the military - IDF, Spetsnaz, MI-6, Delta Force, Recon Marines, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, etc.

You can find our press release here:
http://www.metalflowersmedia.com/assailant-press-release/

Please feel free to pass on to anyone and everyone (age 18+) as we are looking to cast a number of episodes. Also, feel free to take a look at our website www.metalflowersmedia.com so you can become familiar with our slate. We've proudly cast THE COLONY, BULLRUN, PITCHMEN, DUEL, AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS and the upcoming INFRASTRUCTURE VIGILANTE. Anyone who is interested can email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call me at +1 (505) 552-2780.

Thanks so much!
Lauren

One of the big reasons it's been so quiet around here at the Dooferbook is Stumble Upon, a powerful internet search engine that serves up random sites based on categories you choose. There is a whole community of Stumblers out there who collectively recommend best-of-the-web type sites, offering high doses of virtual Zoloft to cure your 'I've reached the end of the internet' blues. Stumble Upon works flawlessly with a simple adware/spyware-free integrated toolbar that you can download here.

How cool is it? A recent stumble through the food/cooking category served up this awesome display of porcine goodness:

 To help defray out-of-pocket expenses for the site, we've signed up  a few sponsors and are now running banner ads. I'm not here to sell you anything, but if  any of the products appeal to you, click on the links and the site will receive a small percentage of the sale. Occasionally there's some really good deals  (Newegg is the best run electronics store on the web), and anything left over after costs are met will be donated to the Disabled American Veterans organization.

I am also in the process of building  Facebook integration with the Dooferbook. Facebook is the largest social network out there and tying in with the Facebook API should help with our traffic count and make it easy to keep your information and profile current on both sites. For now, the only thing up and running is the "Facebook Share" function (right side above your mailbox) which allows you to post a link to Dooferbook articles on your Facebook profile. A popup box will appear allowing you to sign into your Facebook account and select how you'd like to share the link.

Clicking Facebook Share from the homepage will send a link to the Dooferbook homepage; if you want to send a specific article over there make sure you click on the article title to pull up the unique URL of the page, then click on the 'Share' button.

I also put in a Twitter plugin for those of you who are into posting 'tweets'. Clicking on the 'Tweets' button in an article will bring up a login page for Twitter and allow you to share the article with all your fans. Next on the agenda is getting Facebook Comments up and running. Have a good weekend!

I've added a couple of more 'community oriented' features to the site which you can access on member profile pages. The Guestbook tab is a way to drop someone a public message that will become part of his profile. The Wall tab is similar to what you might find on other social networking sites and allows people to post links, images and videos to your profile using BB Code. (If you don't like what someone puts on either of these tabs,  you can always delete them.) These two new add-ons compliment the existing PMS (private messaging system) and hopefully you'll find them useful.

The underlying purpose of Dooferbook is to reconnect old friends and squadron mates, although most of the traffic we get here is from non-registered guests who are here to simply read Dooferbook entries. So far this year we've had visitors from over 60 countries ( which prompted the new translation module on the home page) and average close to 1,000 hits a day. Not huge, but considering we are non-profit,  don't accept advertising and barely out of beta, not too shabby.

BTW, please feel free to use the Invite function (top menu) to send invitations to your buds who are not yet members!

 -- Webmaster out...

And yes, breathalyzers are still unjammable...

Ok, feature this: You're out with the boys on a Friday night or even New Year's Eve. Despite your solemn promises to your wife to regulate your alcohol intake and switch to water hours before the party ends, you find yourself completely hammer-headed at 3:30 am with nowhere to sleep and no way to get home. You'd take a cab but you don't want to leave your vintage Gremlin in the city and have to leach a ride from a friend the next day to retrieve it. So, who ya gonna call? Zingo!

Founded by a couple of Univ. of Georgia grads, Zingo is a company that offers designated driver services with a twist. Unlike a traditional taxi service, Zingo sends a driver out on a collapsible scooter to your place of inebriation. He collects your keys,  folds and stows his scooter in your trunk, and drives you home in your own car. Cost? A small pickup fee and $3 per mile. Right now they only offer the service in Tampa, but there is a blurb on their site for investors looking to open up Zingo service in their home city. Zingo gets two big thumbs up from the staff at Dooferbook for one of the most clever alcohol-related business ideas ever!

http://www.zingotampa.com/

If you think the economy sucks here, take a look the latest addition to Zimbabwe's currency, the $500,000,000 note. Yep, that's 5x10^8 - or 5 millions times larger than a C-note,  currently the largest bill in circulation in the US.

The Federal Reserve of Zimbabwe introduced the bill yesterday along with a $200m note; this just after the release of $10m, $50m and $100m notes last week. The FRZ says says the new notes should pave way for the increase in withdrawal limits to $500 million a week. So just how much is $500m in Zimbabwe? About 8 lousy bucks US! You'd need only 12.5 billion of these to pay Dr. Evil's ransom!

   Speaking of the economy, check out this sobering little gadget:

Well, after two days of some serious geekdom - migrating SQL databases, messing with Photoshop, rechecking code, etc., the Dooferbook has a new look. The objective was to make the site as bloat-free as possible, and I've decided to focus on the things that people used most; namely, the blog and community features.

In short, here's what's changed:

I stripped many of the functions that weren't being used - the forums, event planning and other stuff that you probably won't miss. If the site ever gets bigger and there is a demand for it, I can always add them back in.

Another casualty was the Douche or Not section. The component I was using (basically a 'Hot or Not" clone) will not function with the new underlying code so until I find a decent gallery component that functions similarly it will be on the back burner.

The Groups component was retained but it is buggy. I left it up so I can run tests as the code improves. I see a bright future for Groups once the site begins to grow.

The Invite function has been replaced and should work a lot better than the old one. By all means, use it!

One more thing. The goal is to get the site W3C/Web 2.0 compliant with full up SEF and SEO. From time to time you may find the links return 404 errors. If this happens, refresh your browser with the key to clear previously cached items that may no longer be where you your browser thinks they are!

Here's a couple of 'blasts from the pasts' I came across that are a poignant reminder of the change this country has gone through in the last half century. From where we now seem to be headed, I say bring back those days!

The Camels ad to the left ran from 1946-1952 in major magazines throughout the country. How did RJ Reynolds know that doctors really prefer Camels? Easy, they used to pass out free cartons at medical conventions and then asked the doctors what their favorite smoke was. Brilliant!

 

The clip below is from "Duck and Cover", a short film commisioned by the Federal Civil Defence Administration and shown to millions of school children in the '50's. Enjoy!

There's a whole bunch of stuff out in cyberspace that

I'll forgo editorial comment and let you draw your own conclusions...

A while back I told you about a 'secret' ringtone that kids were using to run the end around on adult supervision while texting each other in school. We try to keep you up on the latest stuff here at Dooferbook, so along those same lines comes the newest rave in ringtone mania, the "condom" ringtone.  In order to promote safe sex in India, the Indian government produced a TV commercial featuring a guy with a cell phone that produced a ringtone known as "Condom-a-Cappella", a catchy little ditty sung by what sounds like an Indian barbershop quartet. I've made it available for download in mp3 format here should you decide you'd like to make a statement on your own cell phone...

 ... dedicated to the principle of "A Fighter Pilot is always right."

 On Monday, newspapers across the country heralded the "largest political gathering" of the primary race when 75,000 'supporters' of Barack Hussein Obama crammed into a riverside park in Portland, Oregon to show their support. They offered this photo as evidence of Obama's 'rock star like personna'.

What they didn't mention was the fact that on this rare sunny and warm day in Oregon, a free concert by hometown band The Decembrists preceded the event. I've never been much a fan of this band, who named themselves after an 1825 Russian revolt and plays the Soviet National Anthem to open their shows. While Musicians and celebrities melding with politicians is nothing new, the fact that the media ran this story with scant mention of the real reason most of the crowd was present bears witness to their infatuation with the one-term Senator who most likely will be the Democratic nominee. Some decided to leave the Decembrists completely out of their reportage. From the New York Times:

"Senator Barack Obama drew the largest crowd of his campaign so far on Sunday, addressing an estimated 75,000 people who had gathered here on the banks of the Willamette River." 

Beware The Fourth Estate...

Nope, not me, but if I keep eating it might be...

Ed.Note: Yes, the claims in this video have been 'Snoped', and they are not ALL true as listed. I went with it because 1) the '10% rule' , or why let the facts get in the way of a good story and 2) this guy is so fat. loud and obnoxious that I had to share him with everyone.

 I came across an article that singled out this book about "non-traditional" families as the American Library Association's most objectional book on the shelves. Similar to everyone's sentimental favorite of 1989, Heather has Two Mommies", this pageturner follows the adventures of two gay male penguins who hatch out an egg from a hetro-penguin couple (Tango), and live happily ever after in homo-penguin bliss.

 Now to be fair, there are other books that turn up every year on the ALA's list   -- the 'overtly racist' Huck Finn is a favorite, as is "Catcher in the Rye"  -- and I'm a strong believer in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. So why do I personally find this book so objectionable? Simple -- penguins are not gay. Look around at nature and you'll see lots of animals who'd make a better fit for such a themed book. Afghan hounds might be a good place to start, or even llamas; how about just a gay guy?  But a penguin?

The South Park guys rule! Unlike any other production studio, they decided to make all of their epidsodes available free online. Now you can watch all the classics on your computer wherever and whenever you want -- the total antithesis  of those assholes over at the RIAA who spend their time suing grandmothers for illegally downloaded music. (Picture is from Season 10 lampooning Al Gore and his environmental crap)

Link to South Park Studios

Why didn't they pick Spike to play 'Captain' for the opening lines as "Deltalino?"

It's a sad day when a Delta Safety Video is a top viewed video on You Tube...

 Interesting Human Body Facts That You Cannot Live Without

(Courtesy of Rock)

The average man's penis is three times the length of his thumb. [ed.note: the thumb in the photo belongs to me]

    -The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm.

    -A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball

    - It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your  stomach.

  -One human hair can support 3 kg (6 lb).

    - Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.

    -The attachment of human muscles to skin is what causes dimples.

    - A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.

    - If the average male never shaved, his beard would be 13 feet long
    when he died.

    - Men with hairless chests are more likely to get cirrhosis of the
    liver than men with hair

    -There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.

    - Side by side, 2000 cells from the human body could cover about one
    square inch.

    - Women blink twice as often as men.

    -The average person's skin weighs twice as much as the brain.

    - When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils dilate. .
    . . ..they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate!

    - It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out
    than it did to gain it.

    -Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren't.

    -Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing
    still.

    - If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.

    -The average woman is five inches shorter than the average man.
     
     
    

    Checked the length of your thumb didn't you ?

 I remember an old South Park episode where the boys went to a band competition that was to be nationally televised. Their entire objective was to hit an exact note on their instruments at the same time, a note which would supposedly cause anyone who was listening to immediately shit their pants. Unfortunately, no such note exists in the real world, but here's something my son told me about that I found interesting and falls along the same lines.

Seems that kids these days have figured out a way around the "No Cell Phones Allowed" rule at school. By setting a ringtone in the high frequency range - a frequency which is inaudible to adults - they can text away all day at school, impervious to any repercussions.

My son says he hears these tones throughout the day, and says it is actually a pretty annoying sound. So annoying, that Securitek, Ltd, a security company in the UK,  has packaged a high frequency generator as a deterrent to teenagers. According to their website, the device offers a solution to "the eternal bane of shopkeepers and Mall owners around the world, who are troubled by small crowds of anti-social teenagers who have nothing better to do than loiter outside their shops and stores deterring older customers who want to go into the shops to purchase goods."

I downloaded this so-called "Mosquito Ringtone" and have to admit it is extremely difficult for me to hear even with the volume cranked up to max on amplified speakers. I have to give a bit of a hand to the kids who figured this out; it's good to see they're using technology in devious ways, kind of like the way we did when we used to refill the parents' vodka bottle with H2O...

 If you want to check it out for yourself, click the link below: