Category: Travel

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Hoaxes Internet Television Travel

Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame

Brazil-Mid-Air-1

Brazil-Mid-Air-2

Last month a B737 had a mid air collision with a Embraer Legacy while cruising at 35,000 feet over South America. The Embraer Legacy, though seriously damaged, with the winglet ripped off, managed to make a landing at a nearby airstrip in the midst of the Amazon jungle. The crew and passengers of the Embraer Legacy had no idea what they had hit. The B737, however, crashed killing all crew and passengers on board.

The two photos attached above were apparently taken by one of the passengers in the B737, after the collision and before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera’s memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first photo there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tailplane and vertical fin of the aircraft. In the second photo one of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.

THIS IS A HOAX !

You may have seen these pictures before. In fact you may have seen them a full two years before the air disaster even occurred in September 2006. You see these pictures are actually video captures from the September 2004 pilot episode of “Lost” on ABC-TV !

Read more about it, and don’t believe everything that you receive within your E-Mail’s Inbox – even if it was sent to you by a trusted co-worker, friend, or relative. Internet hoaxes dupe very intelligent people all the time. If it sounds (or looks) too unbelievable to be true then it probably isn’t true.

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Advertising Annoyances Blogging Driving Food God Home People Politics Television Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You know why you’re here:

1.  Some of the best television programming on-the-air is in the form of 30 and 60 second commercials. You know that it’s a great commercial when you pretty much stop what you’re doing whenever it comes on the tube – no matter how many times you’ve already seen it. I’m thinking about the AT&T GoPhone commercial right now that stars Meat Loaf and Tiffany. (NO – The’re not really married in real-life. That’s not really their son either.)

2.  The sight of a large gathering of people applauding President George W. Bush after a speech is a beautiful sight. The concept of everyone respecting The President Of The United States Of America (whoever it is), and treating him or her like you would want to be treated by any other human being is just plain humane. Unfortunately it’s a concept that millions of Americans just don’t understand.

3.  I think that I totally adore eating Kellogg’s Pop Tarts today just as much as I did as a kid back in the 1970s into the 1980s. I think that if you ask me about them again in another 30 years then the answer will probably be the same.

4.  On the other hand back in the 1970s I did not appreciate Chinese food. In fact I didn’t really enjoy eating it on a regular basis until the mid-1990s. Homestead has no shortage of family-owned Chinese restaurants. Everywhere you look – ‘There’s one !’

5.  Homestead also specializes in family-owned Mexican restaurants, and that’s a delicacy that’s even newer to my personal tastes than Chinese food. One day soon I’m going to have Lunch with this cat at a fine Mexican restaurant near my workplace.

6.  If there are just 3 motorists driving along a somewhat secluded portion of highway in Homestead then those 3 motorists would just have to be myself, the slow-poke directly in front of me that’s driving 33 MPH in a 40 MPH zone, and the tail-gater directly behind me that is so close that I can no longer see his or her vehicle anymore via my rear-view mirror. Throw in an extra-special 4TH vehicle that’s rapidly approaching all 3 of us with its high-beams on, and you’ve got a typical Tuesday morning on North Canal Drive in Homestead !

7.  Incidentally Miami-Dade County’s SW 328TH Street is known as ‘North Canal Drive’ for 7½-miles from Homestead Bayfront Park westward to the city limits of Florida City at SW 172ND Avenue. At that exact point SW 328TH Street is renamed ‘Lucy Street’, and it is the dividing line between Homestead (on the north) and Florida City (on the south). It has been that way since the 1940s. If you’re coming out of the Villages Of Homestead then you are making a turn onto ‘North Canal Drive’ – not ‘Lucy Street’.

8.  I had planned to go to Publix this afternoon after work to buy some much-needed groceries, but then I decided against it on the way home because I have way too many things to do – such as compiling and publishing these ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. It’s all about the sacrifices that I make for you – my loyal and faithful friend of this blog.

9.  I was referred to as ‘Pastor Chris’ a couple of times last week at the Exponential Conference in Orlando. I think it was because in some of the breakout sessions that I attended it was mostly all Pastors (and me). Unlike the Catholic Church Pastors tend to look and dress rather normal – just like you and me.

10.  My fingernails grow so fast. It seems like I just clipped them a few days ago, and now they need clipping again. That’s another 5 minutes out of my busy schedule !

Categories
Blogging Food God Health People Travel

Bedtime Stories

Greetings Friends and Bloggers. This is the Friday night edition of ‘Bedtime Stories’ – inspired by my dear friend of the past 13 months or so – Ms. Venus Diaz – one of the greatest trash-talkers in my Life Group !  (I’ll deal with you on Sunday morning.)

It’s fast approaching 11 PM EDT on a Friday night, and I’m really not sleepy at all. Since I don’t really need to be anywhere early tomorrow morning I’m thinking about a rare session of staying up late tonight and then sleeping in and waking up whenever I feel like it tomorrow morning. That’s actually not a good sign for ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’, but I figure that I got plenty of exercise this past week up in Orlando walking all over the place at the Exponential Conference. Would you believe that I actually lost a couple of pounds this past week despite eating MASSIVE quantities of food ?

Incidentally due to the unexpected MASSIVE popularity of the first two entries of the ‘Exponential Conference Orlando Tossed Salad’ (representing the first two days of the conference) I am adding a special bonus 4TH entry to the series !  The next entry will represent the final day of the conference (this past Thursday), and then I’m posting a ‘leftovers’ edition featuring the top items that didn’t quite make it onto the first three editions. Look for both editions to be posted here on the blog during the day tomorrow (Saturday).

Today (Friday) was the biggest Friday in our history as far as unique hits were concerned, and many of you were brand new to this blog. Let me answer two questions here. ‘Tossed Salad’ is simply the unique brand name that is utilized as an identifier to my Sunday morning summaries of what happened at Life Pointe Church. There’s a certain recognizable structure to the series of ‘Tossed Salad’ blog entries, and that same general format is being utilized to summarize my day-to-day experiences from Exponential ’08.

Well there you go with tonight’s ‘Bedtime Stories’. Be sure to check back with this blog at least a few times during the course of the day tomorrow. I’ve got a whole lot more of ‘Tossed Salad’ to share with you.

Until we hang out again here on the blog have yourself a safe, peaceful, and blessed Friday night with your loved ones. Before you retire for the night open your arms and raise them up high for God. Let Him know that’s He is fully in charge of you. Let Him know that you are fully dependent on Him.

Categories
Driving Hoaxes Internet Travel

Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame

BUYCOTT – BUY ALL of your gas from Citgo.

BOYCOTT – DON’T BUY ANY of your gas from Citgo.

Dueling E-Mails have been in constant circulation over the past couple of years urging you to buy all of your gasoline from Citgo – or urging you to do the complete opposite. There are many different E-Mail variations of both sides of this issue, and in all cases the myriad of reasons given are untrue, exaggerated, or just plain fabricated.

Here’s what we know is true. Citgo is owned by the national oil company of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez is the President of Venezuela. Lots of different oil companies buy their crude oil from Venezuela – including the gas station that you would probably spend your money at in lieu of Citgo – which incidentally has its world headquarters right here in the U.S. – in Houston Texas. Citgo employs some 4,000 people, and they supply some 14,000 independent retailers with gasoline. Boycotting any particular gas station or gas brand only serves to possibly put a tiny economic ding towards the local neighbourhood franchise owner and his or her personal staff of that gas station or gas brand – fellow Americans like you and me – only if you had previously frequented that station or brand on a regular basis. If you don’t want to support the oil companies – both domestic and international – then walk, run, or pedal a bicycle. If you want to buy less gas then drive more responsibly. The fact of the matter is that boycotts (of anything) are virtually irrelevant and produce little to no results – positive or negative. When was the last successful boycott of anything here in the U.S. in our history ?

Read how Snopes explains both sides of this issue.