Taking much of the country by surprise, and causing a great number of negative reactions, was when it became publicly-known that then-president Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy not only frequently consulted an astrologer, but based numerous important decisions on astrology, such as Reagan’s chances in the 1976 presidential election, and his eventual choice of George Bush as his vice-president. While governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed into law a new chapter and section of the government code, which granted astrologers the right to practice astrology for compensation. Even more surprising was learning that a number of previous presidents had also followed this practice as well as such famous world-leaders as Winston Churchill.

Celebrities are also known to believe in and follow the paths of astrology when deciding the course of their careers, often being quite outspoken about their beliefs. David Coverdale, of the popular group Whitesnake, has commented that he and his wife rigorously follow astrology; actor Robert Downey, Jr., and singer Britney Spears are also amongst those who consult astrologers on a regular basis. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books series, liberally sprinkles astrological symbolism in her material. “Astrologers to the stars” occasionally become as much in the spotlight of the public eye as the stars who consult them.

If world-renowned politicians and stars in the entertainment industry have been placing so much value on the subject of astrology, is it any wonder that many average Americans are doing likewise? A recent Harris Poll has concluded that at least thirty-one percent of Americans have some degree of belief in astrology nearly half of these being in the twenty-five to twenty-nine-year old age group, with the belief in this practice falling to fourteen percent for those over sixty-five years of age.

The highest percentages of American adults who believe in astrology as being a valid and significant influence in one’s life are women, democrats, and those who have a high school or less education– yet even Benjamin Franklin professed and wrote about his own personal belief in astrology, which illustrates that this subject is by no means limited to any certain categories of individuals, and that its popularity is most definitely not new, as it has long been embraced by well-known, respected people in all fields.

Astrology is described as studying the celestial bodies in relation to their influence on natural events and human experiences. It is called pseudoscience, proven science, superstition, anti-Christian, and a host of other descriptions based primarily on individual viewpoints on the subject. But for celebrities, politicians, world leaders, and a large segment of the population of average citizens alike, it is frequently a very strong influencing factor in people’s lives.

-By: Terry Detty

Terry Detty finds Free Online Dating Service and Church Hill Tennessee Free Online Dating Service [http://www.cupidmixer.com/join_form.php] his passion. In addition to dating, he enjoys reading, walking and biking. His latest interest is a new Bolivar Tennessee Free Online Dating Service [http://www.cupidmixer.com/news.php] he’s been using.

The area surrounding Orlando, Florida is one of the world’s hottest tourist destinations, welcoming almost 50 million visitors per year. Its literally hot too, with a subtropical climate – summer temperatures regularly reach 90

Walden Media, the folks that brought us “The Chronicles of Narnia” in 2006, are pumping out “family friendly” films with a magical slant left and right. Their latest, “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising,” is about a 14 year-old boy who is the only person standing between the forces of light and dark.

Will Stanton and his family are Americans living in England (why, we don’t really know) and they are about to celebrate their first Christmas in the UK. Will is the the seventh son of a seventh son, (which apparently means something, but we’re never told why), and the only person that seems to care about him in the family is his little sister, Gwen. One of his older brothers puts the moves on a girl that Will likes. Two others, (twins), taunt him and hit him in the head with a soccer ball, and his brother in college comes home to visit and takes over Will’s room. Oh yeah, his father, a physics professor, is so wrapped up his work that his children need to almost make appointments to talk to him.

The Stanton family is invited to a Christmas party at a neighboring mansion. While there, Will encounters “The Rider,” the bringer of darkness. He also meets four “old ones,” Will’s guardians, who explain that he is The Seeker, one that must find 6 signs that have been scattered throughout time for 1000 years -the last time that the Rider tried to spread darkness over the earth.

It turns out that Will is the only one that can read some magic book that explains what the signs are made of. He is also the only one, (apart from The Rider), who can sense the signs necessary to release the light that will defeat the darkness. Still with me?

What follows is Will jumping through time to find the signs before The Rider finds them and/or he brings darkness to the world.

“The Seeker” is based on a novel, and I sincerely hope that it was better written than the film. There are numerous plot holes, most of which I cannot mention without spoiling certain elements of the film. But, take my word for it, this movie will leave you shaking your head by the end.

None of the characters are engaging, which means that we really don’t care what happens to them. The Rider appears to be a bit of a Voldemort clone from the “Harry Potter” films, with young Will as Harry. The writers provide very little background for any of the characters which, again, makes it difficult to care about what’s going on.

“The Seeker” gets a “Skip It” review from me.

-By: Marc Bowker

Sideshow Movie Collectibles

Thoughts are amazing aren’t they? Your mind can think of literally thousands of thoughts at any given moment. You have thoughts when you sleep. Your mind is always running, soaking things in like a sponge. While doing this, it takes in things that you want and also some things that you don’t want. Now, those thoughts are in there. It is up to you to control what you think about from that point on. They say that who you are, or in other words, your character is measured by what your everyday average thoughts and actions are. What do you think about all day long, or just occasionally? Are your thoughts productive or a waste of the effort and time it took to come up with it? The easy part about that is…you already know the answer to that question. The hard part is… are you willing to change it? That, my friend, is what you are.

If you continue in idle thoughts, you limit your growth. Unproductive thinking is the root of failure. Napoleon Hill titled his book “Think and grow rich.” I highly doubt he meant idle thinking. Whether or not you grow rich and successful is all dependent on your level of productive thinking. That is directly tied to your desire to think productively. If you have no desire then you will never become successful and rich. So you see it is very simple, but not easy. The secret to all wealth and success is right inside you. You must make a choice to only listen to the productive thoughts in your head, and to discard the rest. You are powerful. You have more potential than what you are performing at. You just have to learn to train your mind and think differently.

I am so inspired by movies. The drama and action wrapped up into a plot….it all just sucks me in. We just watched Harry Potter at the theater. What a movie. I enjoyed the whole thing. For Harry, his struggle through the entire show was in his own mind. He was having trouble discerning who he really was. He had evil and destructive thoughts as well as good and uplifting ones. At the end, he had to make a choice. If he dwelled on the evil thoughts, he would have died. But an outside source helped him realize who he was. It is who you are that you must focus on, not who you are not. You get more of what you think about and focus on. So who are you? Are you someone who dwells on what could have happened or who you used to be, or, are you that person who knows who you are? Catch that vision and run with it! Your life will be full of joy and excitement!

-By: David L Allred

My name is David Allred and I have created my home based business opportunity for those individuals that are constantly driven to something greater. I will teach you how to obtain the lifestyle of prosperity and abundance you are seeking. If you are looking for a vehicle, I will teach you a home based business that can and will transform your life.

In the movie Super Size Me, the star eats at a major fast-food chain for about 30 consecutive days. Within that brief time frame, he picks up over 24.5 pounds and is advised by his doctor to end the documentary immediately or risk his life. He experienced liver damage, sexual dysfunction, and mood swings. It took him 14 months to lose the weight. It is frightening to imagine there are millions of human beings consuming diets that are largely the functional equivalent of what the star of Super Size Me ate during the movie.

The Centers for Disease Control recently ranked obesity second only to smoking as the leading cause of preventable death. The growth in obesity can be tied to the upward trend in the consumption of high-fat foods, sugary foods, candies, and soft drinks. More than 10% of the worlds children are overweight with this figure rising to over 30% in many industrialized countries. For every $1 spent by the World Health Organization (WHO), the food industry spends $500 on promoting processed foods.

The food industry is approaching one trillion dollars in the U.S. With a world advertising budget of over $40 billion dollars, this figure is larger than the gross domestic product of over 70 percent of the world’s countries. Children are the most susceptible to this pervasive flow of imagery designed to influence them. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports increases in chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes amongst the global population. The organization further notes a “probable” or “convincing” link between many of these diseases and the patterns of food consumed.

The WHO cites the negative effects of the following three points: 1) the adverse effects of high intake of energy (calorie) dense, low-nutrient foods; the adverse effects of high-intake of sugar-sweetened beverages; and 3) the adverse effect of heavy marketing of energy-dense foods and fast-food outlets.

These “non-communicable” diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity are considered to be communicated through cultural transmission from parents to children, from corporations to consumers, and from developed to less developed countries. The organization is calling for policies that will protect the world’s children from developing dietary habits that may result in disease and premature death.

There is a greater awareness of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and diet-related cancers than ever before. A greater adoption of the “western” style diet high in fats, sugars, and salt threatens to undermine the health gains of the past century. With mature and developed markets around the world becoming saturated, multinationals are looking to less developed markets such as Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa as ripe opportunities to sell their products.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization the shift from subsistence farming to importation of foods from the industrialized world has led to a shift from diets dominated by grains and vegetables to ones dominated by high fat and sugar in developing countries. Japan presents a case-study for a progressive approach to dealing responsibly with the nutritional needs of school children.

In Japan, school children are prohibited from purchasing food or beverage while traveling either to or from school. The School Lunch Law sets nutritional standards for school lunches. Each school follows a well-balanced, low-fat (fat is limited to 25 to 30% of total calories), low-salt lunch of rice or bread and soup, 2 to 3 side dishes, milk, and desert. Families are provided with a menu each month providing caloric and nutritional breakdown.

Around the world there are aggressive community-based efforts to combat the enormous marketing pressures of multinational food corporations. For example, the Save Harry program has sent almost 30,000 letters to the author of the Harry Potter series attempting to persuade her to abandon her advertising agreement with Coca Cola.

Fight the Obesity Epidemic was established in New Zealand to address the growing challenge there. In New York City, school menus feature low-fat and low-salt menus, and sugary drinks have been replaced by fruit juice and water. The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver, has forced changes in the entire U.K. public school lunch system.

There are efforts to make better choices for our children around the world, but there must be a sustained counter to an industry that is approaching a trillion dollars in annual revenue. It is a huge task, but what’s in the balance is our children’s long-term health prospects. It is worth the fight in my opinion. The star of Super Size Me stopped his experiment, but for millions of poor children this choice simply does not exist.

-By: Michael Imani

Michael Imani, Ph.D. is a diet expert who works with clients to find solutions for weight and life issues. He is the author of The Diet Code: 4 Steps to Permanent Weight Loss. http://www.michaelimanicoaching.com

Model trains are a rewarding hobby for enthusiasts of all ages.

Model trains are generally more realistic than toy trains. Model trains are an ideal way for children to use their imaginations fostering creativity and they are a very interactive hobby, where users can create elaborate model railroad layouts.

Model trains are fun for both young and old–men and women and can give you a lifetime of happiness. Model trains are the main focus of the hobby and building a complete, chronologically accurate layout is the essence of the hobby.

Model trains are built to scale, which means they’re exact replicas of the larger trains they are modeled after.

Model trains are more popular today than ever, largely because aging babyboomers who remember such magic moments have introduced their kids and grandkids to the hobby.

Model Trains are one of the oldest types of toys.

Model trains are sold in standard scales, from the tiny Z scale to large G scale. HO model trains are just some of the most popular out there on the market and these sizes tend to be more readily available than others. HO model trains are literally half of the O scale trains, with H standing for half.

Model railroads including model trains are common hobbies for rail fans when not out watching trains. Although model trains have been a favourite with the masses for years, electric model trains are the only ones that capture the imagination of the young. As with all model trains that we can buy for our collections today, electric model trains are just scale models of the real thing.

Although they were held up as toys a few years ago, electric model trains are back with a bang and are sought after by collectors all over the place. Sales of model trains are picking up steam again thanks to deals linking them to the Harry Potter and The Polar Express movies, along with a new approach to marketing the old-fashioned toys.

Some of the new model trains are controlled by computers using model railroad software and a model railroad interface.

Although we think of models and toys as playthings for children, model trains are also an adult hobby. But usually, model trains are made of plastic and are worth less than antique toy trains.

Involvement in the hobby can range from the possession of a train set to spending many hours and large sums of money on a large and exactingly executed model of a railroad and the scenery through which it passes, called a “layout”.

Model trains are the best way to rekindle these old passions and pass these wonderful traditions on to the next generation.

-By: Tony Harries

Tony Harries

[http://www.jacksworldshop.com/ModelTrainsAuction]