Strings of Hope

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The Strings of Hope Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to caring for pediatric burn patients. We provide financial assistance to support the treatment and activities of these children during their hospital recovery. We also hope to educate the public about this life changing injury by providing a great wealth of burn information. Our funds are generated primarily through charitable racquet stringing. Our tennis stringers donate their time and skills to local tennis clubs to string tennis racquets using donated string and equipment. This allows one-hundred percent of the normal stringing profits to be donated to child burn victims through the Strings of Hope Foundation.

For more information and to donate, please visit our main site: Strings of Hope Foundation
For the latest news and updates, please visit our blog: Strings of Hope Blog

My friend Johnny and I started the Strings of Hope Foundation during our Junior Year of college at the University of Wisconsin. We both volunteer in the hospital. I volunteer in the Family Practice unit and Johnny in the Burn Unit. While we both see cases of miraculous recovery, there are many horrible cases that pass through the University of Wisconsin Hospital on a daily basis. Some of the most scaring, literally, are the children that are rushed to the hospital with severe burns. Unlike the majority of the hospital’s patients, burn victims were perfectly healthy until the moment of the incident. This makes it all the more traumatic for the parents and, of course, the children. There are numerous charities to support pediatric medical concerns. While these all support great causes, the financial support for specifically pediatric burn care was severly lacking. For example, the pediatric burn victims at the UW Hospital currently have to borrow toys from Pediatrics because the only toys available for them are outdated. And did you know that burns are the leading cause of accidental death for children under the age of 4 years old [source]? As you can hopefully see, burns are a terrible life alerting event. Johnny and I started Strings of Hope to try and provide financial care for pediatric burn patients and to educate the public about the severity of burns. We are excited about the prospect for doing both! Please visit our site to learn more. Thank you!!

Weird News: Ski jumpers leap into trees

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CANOE — CNEWS – Weird News: Ski jumpers leap into trees

Last year’s champion, Eldar Heide, won gold with a jump that included a graceful landing about two metres up the trunk of a small birch.

“Tree-Ski-Jumping” is the latest thing in Norway. Check out a picture here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050304/483/osl10603041724

Mullah Nasruddin

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Slashdot | Good Joke

One day the Mullah went into an inn as he felt a little hungry. However, he found at once the food there was too expensive for him. He was just about to leave when the innkeeper came up to him.
“Do you think you can leave without paying?” said the innkeeper.
“Why should I pay since I haven’t eaten anything here?” asked Nasruddin.
“Then why did you come in?”
“I found your food smelt good,but it was too expensive for me!”
“Well, now that you’ve enjoyed smelling my food, it is the same as enjoying the food itself, so you have to pay.”
“The mullah frowned at the innkeeper’s words, then smiled and took out his purse, jingling the coins in it:
“Do you hear the sound of my money?”
“Yes,I do.” the innkeeper said in excitement.
“Then we have concluded business!” cried Nasruddin, “That sound is the same as enjoying the money itself!”

WI governor proposes state sales tax on downloads

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WI governor proposes state sales tax on downloads

Ahh yes, just what we need…more taxes!!

Gov. Jim Doyle wants you to pay Wisconsin’s 5% sales tax whenever you pay to download a song, book, movie or piece of art.
50816Student Protest

UW-Madison students stage a hunger strike to protest planned tuition increases

Photo/Michael Sears

Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison sit on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda in Madison on Monday while staging a hunger strike this week to protest planned tuition increases in the UW System.
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A little-noticed provision of the Democratic governor’s proposed state budget would extend the sales tax to those Internet transactions, officials said Monday. There would be no Internet sales tax police, however, because compliance would be on the honor system.

It’s a matter of equity, said state Revenue Secretary Mike Morgan, defending Doyle’s goal of having consumers voluntarily pay the sales tax on “intangible” items they buy and download from the Internet. Buyers would have to pay the 5% sales tax if they purchased those items at any Wisconsin store.

Source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar05/307622.asp

New York Public Library Digital Image Collection Online

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According to the NY Times, the NYPL Digital Library now grants free and open access to images from their collection online, viewable for all to see.

Are bloggers allowed to use these photos on their blog (with proper credit) for free? Corante thinks that we will be able to use the photos. I hope he’s right.

Fossett Breaks Nonstop Solo Flight Record

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SALINA, Kan. – Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett on Thursday became the first person to fly around the world solo without stopping or refueling, safely touching down in his custom-built plane 67 hours after taking off. … The project was financed by Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson, a longtime friend and fellow adventurer.

Source: Yahoo News

For information about the plane or the mission in general and for some cool pictures please visit: http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com

Custom-Built Plane

Chicago’s new Millennium Park

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Can a public place be copyrighted? In Chicago it supposedly can…

The Reader recounts the experience of photojournalist Warren Wimmer’s attempts to photograph Anish Kapoor’s sculpture, Cloud Gate (more commonly known as “the Bean”). When Wimmer set up his tripod and camera to shoot the sculpture, security guards stopped him, demanding that they show him a permit. Wimmer protested, replying that it’s absurd that one needs to pay for a permit to photograph public art in a city-owned park.


Cloud Gate

More Flickr photos of “the Bean.”
Flickr photos of Millennium Park

Monk Super Glues Eyes Shut

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February 22, 2005
Bangkok: An elderly Thai monk accidentally glued his eye shut when he mistook a tube of super glue for eyedrops, media reports said yesterday.

Monk Prapatworakhun, 81, who is now undergoing treatment at Angthong Hospital, 110km from the capital, said he accidently took the super glue from his temple’s drug cabinet while looking for eye drops to relieve a severe eye itch last Thursday.

“I squeezed out several drops on the floor and saw a clear liquid, so I put four drops into each eye,” Prapatworakhun told The Nation newspaper from his hospital bed.
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“In about a minute, my eyes felt cold and then sealed closed,” said the monk.

Eye specialists at the hospital said the monk was undergoing treatment to remove the glue from his eyes, adding they would have to wait until he could reopen them before they could determine the extent of damage.

February 23, 2005
Bangkok: Thai doctors have restored the sight of an elderly Buddhist monk who accidentally glued his eyes shut when he mistook a tube of super glue for eyedrops.

Doctors at Angthong Hospital restored sight in the right eye of 81-year-old monk, Prapatworakhun.
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Doctor Banjob Nimitpornsukho said they had used an acetone solvent. A similar operation would be performed on the left eye. – Sapa-DPA

This is funny, but I’m glad to see that his vision was restored.

Tennis on a Helipad in Dubai

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Source: ATPtennis.com
Looking over the edge

Dubai, UAE: World No. 1 Roger Federer and former No. 1 Andre Agassi took tennis to new heights on Tuesday, ascending nearly 700 feet (over 320 meters) to play a friendly match on the helipad at the luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

“This was an absolutely amazing experience,” Agassi said. “When you first get over how high you are and start playing it’s an absolute joy and it was a great time. I had no issues with the height as long as I didn’t have to bungee jump off the side.”

The hotel’s grass helipad, which is situated 692 feet (211 meters) high covers a surface area of 1,361 square feet (415 sq meters), was converted into a tennis court for the two players. Standing 1,053 feet (321 meters) high on a man-made island, the majestic Burj Al Arab is one of the most recognizable hotels in the world.

“The view is absolutely amazing here and it was very different when I was asked to do this as I didn’t know what to expect,” Federer said. “I have been in Dubai many times and have stayed at Burj Al Arab before, but this was an absolute treat. To play tennis with Andre on top of such an amazing hotel and overlooking the whole of Dubai was absolutely spectacular.”

Both players are in town for the ATP’s Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open, a USD $1 million International Series Gold event. Federer is the reigning champion of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open and is making his third appearance in the tournament while Agassi is playing an ATP tournament in the Middle East for the first time.

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Image Headline Plugin for WordPress

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Like the new titles? It is the result of a sweet plugin made over at Coldforged. I’m having some problems with the anti-aliased soft shadows, but that seems to be more of a problem with my hosting than the plugin. Integration with WordPress 1.5 is outstanding. Should I want to switch fonts I would just upload the new font, select it in the headline admin menu, and, voila, the titles are now displayed with the new font.

The owner of Coldforged actually helped me set it up and was very nice. The support that he provided was top-notch.

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