If you were to ask my wife if I was a sensitive guy her answer would be a resounding no. In fact aside from a few (several) bad habits I would have to say my lack of sensitivity is one of my character traits that could use some fine tuning. With all of that being said there are a few things that scavenge up some raw emotions. For one, believe it or not I’m a total sap when it comes to chick flicks. Who would have guessed it? Secondly and quite frankly the reason I’m writing this article is my absolute love and affection for animals. Sure I prefer dogs to cats but I have always had special kind of love for animals.

After looking back at a rivalry I started several months ago I decided to raise the same question again, only this time on the JealousBrother blog. As I was working one day in a small town in East Tennessee I noticed a stray dog ravaging the Food Lion (grocery store) parking lot for food. The idea for the rivalry that follows was instantly spurred from my very brief interaction with this poor dog. Every time I see a stray I tend to ask myself multiple questions. Where’s this pets owners? Did they abandon him/her? Should I call the shelter? Will this poor animal end up dead on the side of a road? You get the point.
Who do you have more compassion for, Homeless People or Homeless Animals?

I’ve bumped into a couple of different conversations with people on this very topic and the discussions usually hit altering points of view. The topic I’m referring to is whether you have more compassion/sympathy for a homeless pet or a homeless person. Before you start calling me names and telling me how bad of a person I am I would appreciate at least a minute to explain my point of view.

First and foremost I’m forced to realize that each and every stray animal (excluding those born wild) had an owner at some point and time. Anyone who decides to take the responsibility of pet ownership knows there are a lot of requirements to take adequate care of an animal. There are several scenarios that play through my mind as I imagine how each pet became a stray but the replicating result is pure negligence of a human to put the animal in the situation of being homeless. Whether the animal was dropped off on the side of the road, escaped a back yard by digging under a fence, or was allowed to aimlessly roam the neighborhood with no contained perimeter, it all leads back to negligent owners.

Now that we’ve established a pet becomes homeless due to irresponsible owners we now need to realize animals rely on their masters/owners for nearly every aspect of their well being, including food, shelter, hygiene, etc… Here’s the reality, sure a dog can survive for a period of time on natural instincts but not for long, especially when you’re considering a domesticated animal. So I raise this question. Can an animal get a job to provide shelter and food for itself?

Here’s where a number of you probably won’t like me very much, this is where my lack of sympathy and compassion comes into play. When a person becomes homeless it’s usually due to a choice or decision they made in life. Sure some people make choices that seem responsible at the time but later end up realizing it may have been the wrong decision to make. However, each and every human being has the ability to pick themselves up and start over. For me survival is a must and living a life on the streets isn’t an option. If something horrible happened I could end up on the streets but not for a minute longer than needed. I would get a job at all costs, even if it meant flipping burgers at a fast food joint. I would survive, even if that meant renting a studio apartment or a garage at someone’s house.

Bad things happen to good people but we all can make the choice to keep going, to pick up whatever pieces are intact and begin rebuilding things. Can stray animals say the same thing? No. When people ask me why I choose to donate to charities/organizations that support animals I confidently reply, “I have compassion for them. They can’t choose their owners and certainly can’t fend for themselves.” It’s not my goal to say giving to charities that support homeless shelters is a bad idea; it’s a great thing to do. It’s homeless shelters and other related programs that give some individuals the helping hand they need to get back on their feet and it’s the homeless people who strive to reverse their course in life that I do have compassion for. So whether you contribute to animals or people just follow your heart and do what feels right to you. I welcome your thoughts here on the blog or feel free to express yourself within the rivalry.

As always with JealousBrother.com we welcome differing opinions, views, thoughts, ideas, ideologies, etc… So if you’d like to offer a rebuttal you can leave a comment, request an opportunity to compose a guest post (See our “Guest Authors” page for more details), or start a rivalry on our main site. Remember this is the JealousBrother Blog, JealousBrother.com is a social network that thrives on disagreement.

Vote Now: Express Your Opinion!

Who do you have more compassion for, Homeless People or Homeless Animals?

Anything Can Make a Difference:

Humane Society Donation Page

National Coalition for the Homeless Donation Page

After a wonderful 6 day vacation in California my wife and I headed back to Tennessee but my wife didn’t come home alone, she came home with a rapidly changing fever, body aches, headaches, and nausea. In all honesty “Swine Flu (Type A Novel H1N1)” didn’t even cross my mind. Considering we traveled back to Tennessee from California on two different flights it would be easy to understand contracting some kind of illness from being around so many people but no one thinks it can happen to them.

About two days into a rising fever that floated from 99.6 to 101.4 degrees my wife decided to head to the doctor. Once she made it into the clinic she registered a heart wrenching 103.5 degrees. After some back and forth and somewhere around fourteen phone calls including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the doctor came back and was candidly honest with my wife and mother. Much to his dismay he informed them that there was no sub-type specific test available to detect the swine flu (Novel Influenza Type A (H1N1)) without lengthy laboratory analysis. (My wife was told results would take between 7 – 14 days to get back)

You might be asking so what does this mean? There is no way for physicians to test specifically for the swine flu (Novel Influenza Type A (H1N1)) without a positive culture or RT-PCR performed by an approved laboratory. This means that you’ll be completely better or dead before you can find out whether or not you actually had the swine flu and not some other sub-type of the Type A virus. (Which includes the seasonal flu)

According to the CDC, “At this time, there are only two FDA cleared assays for confirmation of novel influenza A(H1N1) virus infection, including the CDC rRT-PCR Swine Flu Panel assay; however, experimental rRT-PCR assays, not approved or authorized by FDA, may be able to detect novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection.”(source)

The two CDC approved tests are “real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR)” and “laboratory analyzed viral cultures” but the only test physicians can use is the “Rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs)”. I’m not a physician so if you’d like to know the details of each test you’ll need to do some research (See the Links at the bottom of the page) or ask your physician. What is important is what the CDC has to say about each test.

RIDT’s: According to the CDC website, “None of the currently FDA approved RIDTs can distinguish between influenza A virus subtypes (e.g. seasonal influenza A (H3N2) versus seasonal influenza A (H1N1) viruses), and RIDTs cannot provide any information about antiviral drug susceptibility.” (Source)

rRT-PCR Swine Flu Panel: “The rRt-PCR Swine Flu Panel test should be ordered to presumptively diagnose novel influenza A (H1N1) infection only.” (Source)

Further, “A positive test result from the rRt-PCR Swine Flu Panel indicates that the patient is presumptively infected with novel influenza A (H1N1).” (Source)

According to Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary, Presumptive is “expected to develop in a particular direction under normal conditions” (Source)

CDC had the following to say when comparing the RIDT’s (Only test physician can perform) and The rRt-PCR Swine Flu Panel test ,

“These tests differ in their sensitivity and specificity in detecting influenza viruses as well as in their commercial availability, the amount of time needed from specimen collection until results are available, and the tests’ ability to distinguish between different influenza virus types (A versus B) and influenza A subtypes (e.g. novel H1N1 versus seasonal H1N1 versus seasonal H3N2 viruses).” (Source)

I’m left with one VERY important question, What does the CDC consider a confirmed case of Swine Flu?
The CDC uses the following guidelines: A confirmed case of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection is defined as a person with an influenza-like illness with laboratory confirmed novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection by one or more of the following tests:

(Source)
The CDC has this to say about the real-time RT-PCR test, “If reactivity of real-time RT-PCR for influenza A is strong (e.g. Ct <30) it is more suggestive of a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus. Confirmation as novel influenza A (H1N1) virus by real-time RT-PCR was originally performed only at CDC, but at this time may be available in your state public health laboratory." (Source) What I’m left wandering is how something based on suggestion turns conclusive. I couldn’t find any information where the CDC elaborates.

The CDC has this to say about Viral Cultures: “Isolation of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus is diagnostic of infection, but may not yield timely results for clinical management. A negative viral culture does not exclude infection with novel influenza A (H1N1) virus.” Seeing the word “Diagnostic” is a move in the right direction but I am a bit discouraged when they say a negative culture does not exclude an infection. My hopes are this leaves room for human error when collecting the cultures and isn’t proclaiming the culture test itself is flawed.

So what exactly am I getting at? There is no way for a physician or health organization to definitively tell a patient whether they have H1N1, H3N2, or any other Influenza A sub-type (Which includes seasonal flu) when using readily available RIDT’s. The only diagnostic results come from the lengthy process of laboratory analyzed cultures and rRt-PCR swine flu panels.

If you have any information you think I should add or anything you’d like to say feel free to leave a comment.

Will you be Taking the Swine Flu Vaccine when it’s made available?

As always with JealousBrother.com we welcome differing opinions, views, thoughts, ideas, ideologies, etc… So if you’d like to offer a rebuttal you can leave a comment, request an opportunity to compose a guest post (See our “Guest Authors” page for more details), or start a rivalry on our main site. Remember this is the JealousBrother Blog, JealousBrother.com is a social network that thrives on disagreement.
CDC Sources:
1.) http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/rapid_testing.htm
2.) http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/eua/pdf/eua_amendment_swine_healthcare.pdf
3.) http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/eua/testkit.htm
4.) http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/casedef.htm
5.) http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/specimencollection.htm
Merriam-Webster Medical Source:
1.) http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/presumptive

My name is Robert Barr, and I voted for Barack Obama. I voted for President Obama because the Republican Party of today is not representative of the Republican Party I grew up with.

You see, I was a Republican, and I voted for Bush – once. But somewhere along the way the GOP stopped caring about my vote. Maybe because I am a conservative that believes in a strong military but also thinks that a woman has the right to chose, or that there is much to be gained from stem cell research and we should fund it with the full throated support of the U.S. government. Maybe it’s my northeast liberal upbringing, but I could care less if a man wants to marry another man, for we should all know the trials and tribulations of love and marriage.

And I think the GOP knows that they need to be a bit more progressive too, but they also know that that can never happen as long as the face of the party remains that of Rush Limbaugh’s.

Because Limbaugh and his ilk and their never ending rants against anyone who isn’t so far right that they fall over is what has pushed me into the loving arms of the Dems. I mean, it’s easy to say you believe in everything one party believes in right? You don’t have to think, you can just say, hey, I’m a Republican, so I have to think this way.

But to come out and say you are for bombing Iran back into the 12th century but that you also want your daughter to have the right to have an abortion takes some logical, rational thought doesn’t it?

And in the end, it may very well be the wrong way of thinking, and I will be judged by my creator just like you will, and some of us are going to be right, and some of us are going to be wrong.

But I don’t think the likes of Rush Limbaugh should be telling me I am wrong, considering his own checkered past. Which leads me to my question, on the heels of some of Limbaugh’s most controversial statements, I want to know from the Republicans out there, is Limbaugh the voice of the Republican party and does he represent your point of view?

Or, in perfect Jealous Brother parlance, is Rush Limbaugh good for the Republican Party?

About the Author:

Robert Barr is the founder of blabrmouth.com, a political commentary weblog that cuts through the media hype of today’s top political news! He also founded Philabustr.com which covers Philadelphia Business News in the Raw.

Like most people who start out on Twitter I was left with the question, how do I increase the number of followers or more specifically my reach on Twitter? There are a number of ways to increase your following but I haven’t come across any methods as easy as the one I’m about to explain. Increasing your following is completely useless if you don’t have the personality or originality to keep your followers interested in what you have to say.

Before diving much further into this creative little tactic I should explain that I am fairly new to Twitter and I undoubtedly have a lot to learn which I will continue to do on a daily basis through research and trial and error (hopefully less error). Seeing how I am not a Twitter power user and make no claim of knowing all of the in’s and out’s of Twitter I am writing this for those of you who are new to twitter trying to find a way to get your profile started in a positive direction. One thing you’ll learn very quickly is that there are a lot of third party app’s, websites, services that can interact with your Twitter account; with this strategy we are going to take advantage of two of those tools to jump start your Twitter following.

Do you Twollo? That’s a question you need to ask yourself. If the answer is no, It’s time to enter twollo.com into the address bar of your favorite browser to take a peak. Twollo is an auto follow program that will follow a set amount of people who are tweeting about any keyword(s) you enter. You can set the amount of people twollo will auto follow for each keyword. Do you see how this could be useful? Of course you do but don’t get carried away.

When I get those infamous emails from Twitter notifying me of a new follower one of the first things I do is look at is that users following/followers ratio. This isn’t my only determining factor but if their ratio is too far in one direction I usually don’t follow them in return. I have read on a couple of occasions that the following/follower ratio isn’t only significant to the way other people on Twitter view you but also has some form of an impact within a Twitter algorithm. It is important to note that I have never actually seen evidence to support this but the ratio shouldn’t be taken lightly regardless. After discovering Twollo you may be tempted to auto follow thousands of people, don’t do it! Very similar to real life, people don’t like tag-a-longs who offer little or nothing to the conversation. I can guarantee you that you will be a nuisance and of little value to anyone. Read the rest of this entry »

A web hosting control panel is a web based control interface that helps to ease all the admin work on a hosting account. With the control panel you can easily manage domains, email accounts, install software, backup website data, manage website files and a number of other things needed to operate a website. If we were to compare a website to a human being the web hosting would be the physical body and the control panel would be considered the respiratory system. Every human needs to breath to live.

There are many different brands of control panels available; cPanel is the most popular one while vDeck tends to get overlooked. CPanel has been such a dominant force in the market that most people aren’t aware of the existence of other control panels like vDeck. It’s likely cPanel’s popularity that tends to blind people keeping them from judging rationally. No doubt cPanel is a great control panel but vDeck has made up some ground with their latest release, vDeck 3.0.

CPanel has been incorporated independently since 1997 and has been working to provide the best hosting automation tools. The tool functions include the ability to manage PGP keys, crontab tasks, mail and FTP accounts (including mailing lists). However, the reason cPanel has become so successful is due to its user friendly design and interface. Thanks to the simple yet affective design most people can learn their way around cPanel very quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction:

There are numerous articles that cover the process of transferring a Wordpress blog from one server or host to another but I’ve found that most of them left me asking questions after reading them. I am a very visual person and hope the following article and images help you get your Wordpress blog transferred successfully. The following article was compiled from firsthand experience of transferring two Wordpress blogs from a Godaddy hosting account to my own dedicated linux server.

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From hearing that Mint.com had released an iPhone app and opening the app for the first time, I think I had let about 3 seconds pass.

If you’re one of the 500k people who use Mint and also own an iPhone, I suspect you had just about the same reaction. The funny thing is that I only started using Mint about a month ago and I’m completely in love with it. The fact that all I have to do is open the app and I can see all my up to date financial info… is astonishing.

I had written a post a while ago about some concept iPhone apps I’d love to have, and an HSBC app was on that list. My reasoning was that I hate having to spend so long each time I log into my bank account online. I thought with such a flexible platform such as the iPhone, there much be a quicker way. Unfortunately there wasn’t a way to connect directly to my bank account over the iPhone… keyword being “directly”. Mint’s iPhone app allows me to indirectly view real time account information including the available balance, and transation history. So instead of creating a mock-up of what an HSBC iPhone app might look like, I’m going to pump up Mint’s tire here a bit and give them a review.

Read the rest of this entry »

I probably let too much time pass before writing this review since when I set out to do it – this app was in my concept iPhone apps list. Come to find out, it had been in development for… a while to say the least.

I remember sitting at my parents old 386x PC in the morning playing the original Maxis SimCity Classic, setting the speed to high just to get enough cash to buy that airport before I had to leave for school. That original feeling hasn’t really changed (neither has the veil of complexity that is their city development intelligence).

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On behalf of the JealousBrother team, we want to thank everyone who has supported our website. We hope you all had a wonderful 2008 and we wish each and everyone of you the best in 2009. There’s a lot going on in our world today and there will certainly be a lot of things to discuss and debate on JealousBrother. We’ve been busy working on the site and wanted to let you know what we’ve been up to. Thanks for your ongoing support and we look forward to seeing you on the site.

-Ryan Kazinec

• You now have a JealousBrother EGO!
  That’s right, the more you participate the bigger your Ego gets. Just don’t get too cocky.
• It’s now easy to Invite your friends to JealousBrother
  We’ve added a friend invite box to your profile. Just enter your friends email and we’ll let them know you think they should check things out.
• The People page has been redesigned
  The people page has an whole new look that recognizes the users with the biggest Egos and also highlights the ten newest comments added to rivalries.
• There’s now an Upcoming tab on the main page
  Now you can view the newest rivalries that are on there way to the top. Just click on the Upcoming tab.
• You can now label and describe your photos
  Soon you’ll be able to leave comments on photos as well.

1. You can start your own rivalries—In any category, about anything you’d like.
2. You can add music, videos, comment images, and more to your profile by inserting html code into the “About Me” and “ShoutBox” sections of your profile.
3. You can send private messages to your friends as well as public shouts on their profile.
4. Don’t like what someone has to say? You can vote their comments up or down.
5. The search bar at the top of the website will find both people and rivalries that match your search terms.

It is often said that life can change in the blink of an eye. What isn’t said is why, when, and how many times life can change. When I stop and think back a few months, a few years, or even a couple of decades one thing always holds true, I have constantly changed, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. More recently my focus has been directed towards the US economy and what it’s downward spiral means to my wife and I. Looking back as recent as six months ago our perspective on employment was significantly different than it is today. The wounded and vulnerable status of the United States economy has forced employers and employees alike to take desperate measures and begin operating on a defensive front.

The current and probable future state of the U.S. economy isn’t good for either the employer or the employee. Most people are familiar with the real estate terms buyers and sellers markets and to create a simple analogy the U.S. job market has transformed from a workers market to an employer’s market. Just six months ago the average American worker would probably consider experience, education, and skills as a weapon for landing the bigger, better, deal (job). In what seems like a blink of an eye the average American worker is now coveting that same resume’ to increase job security instead of utilizing it for greener pastures to graze.

It’s getting to the point to where anyone who has a job is grateful to be employed as we should be; there are a lot of families up against the ropes due to layoffs and there are even more families out there that are one unfortunate event from being there themselves. Along with the altered perception employees have regarding their jobs comes some obvious side effects. First, employers will see significant increases in job retention rates meaning people are a lot less likely to move from job to job (the employees who aren’t laid off). I would also venture to guess that there will be a large drop in employee complaints about work policies, schedules, environment, etc… in an effort to increase job security. Let’s be realistic, you’re going to have to be willing to put up with a lot more B.S. on the job now because there are herds of people who are willing to fill your position without complaining about it. This may sound like a golden situation for employers but it’s not. They may have more loyalty from their workers with less complaining but there are significantly fewer jobs to fill and a lot less money in consumers’ pockets which will continue to kill company profits.
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