Happy New Year

Almost 10 days into '08 and what I year it has been. Politics and the NFL heating, Brittany boiling over, College Basketball picking up stem, and college Football cooling off. There is still hope for the Vikings...oh crap.
I will say that this years College Basketball has been one of the best so far, and conference play just started. I find myself pulling for teams all over the place, depending on Conference and location. Always love Duke, always like Michigan State, Kansas, and love watching Memphis. I alwasy route for the Gophers, pull for the Big Ten when the play teams from other conferences. Always dislike UNC. No matter what. Sorry. It's like the Yankees/Cowboys for me. I JUST CAN'T DO IT! Watch-out for Butler!

Here is a happy article i found on Yahoo.com.
France is health care leader, US comes dead last
Tue Jan 8, 4:45 PM ET
France is tops, and the United States dead last, in providing timely and effective health care to its citizens, according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries.
The study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs measured developed countries' effectiveness at providing timely and effective health care.
The study, entitled "Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis," was written by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It looked at death rates in subjects younger than 75 that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical care.
The researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 percent, the United States saw only a four percent dip.
The non-profit Commonwealth Fund, which financed the study, expressed alarm at the findings.
"It is startling to see the US falling even farther behind on this crucial indicator of health system performance," said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, who noted that "other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less."
The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France, Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Some countries showed dramatic improvement in the periods studied -- 1997 and 1998 and again between 2002 and 2003 -- outpacing the United States, which showed only slight improvement.
White the United States ranked 15th of 19 between 1997-98, by 2002-03 it had fallen to last place.
"It is notable that all countries have improved substantially except the US," said Ellen Nolte, lead author of the study.
Had the United States performed as well as any of the top three industrialized countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths per year, the researchers said.
I don't have a lot to say after that....how do we not need a change!

OK, here is something fun. I have been a fan of David Phelps for a long time and I have been a fan of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. SO here is a win win for me.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: January 13Th - David Phelps will be preforming on the show.