Between 2002 and 2003, the number of breast implants for girls younger than 18 nearly tripled, from 3,872 to 11,326

- from "Teen Trend: Breast Enhancement No Biggie" at ABC News

Naturally, there are times that plastic surgery is needed for those under 18; there are valid medical reasons that a young person might require plastic surgery. This was the case with Stephanie Kuleba who lost her life after suffering complications from anesthesia during breast augmentation surgery. Though only 18 years-old, Stephanie suffered from asymmetrical breasts and an inverted areola; conditions that caused her suffering from more than just self-esteem issues.

Stephanie's death has brought to light the new trend of young people getting plastic surgery for non-medical reasons. It's an idea that is so commonplace that many parents offer paid-for plastic surgery to their young daughters as birthday or graduation gifts.

Doctors Agree to Some Procedures
Stephanie's death has brought to light the new trend of young people getting plastic surgery for non-medical reasons. It's an idea that is so commonplace that many parents offer paid-for plastic surgery to their young daughters as birthday or graduation gifts.

It's hard to fathom doctors agreeing to perform such procedures on still-developing young women on no more than the mercurial moods of youth. Bombarded as young women are today with plastic perfection and the need to look like a cookie-cutter Barbie clone to "fit in", it's no wonder so many young girls feel the need to so drastically alter their appearance. Yet should we be encouraging this behavior?

Though a young woman may feel a desperate desire to feel attractive, most that decided to wait until they were older to undergo such procedures often changed their mind. Psychologist consultant Eileen Bradbury counsels young women opting for plastic surgery before they take the leap. She says:

Adolescents often believe they are lot more mature then they actually are. As they lack insight into the difficulties that they might have in the future, they tend to be very black and white.

Adolescents have always been self-conscious. It's just that in the past people have had to wait a longer time, and I would imagine as time passes people drop out along the way. I've had people say to me, 'I thought about having it done, but then when I grew up, I changed my mind.

- from "Teen Trend: Breast Enhancement No Biggie" at ABC News

However, some consultants - such as Ellen - and psychiatrists do decide that certain teens are good candidates for the surgeries. If a teen shows themselves to be mature-minded and to have fully thought out the consequences and risks of their decision, many doctors will agree to operate on them.

A Disturbing Trend
It's disturbing to think that our upcoming generation is so very quick to turn to the knife and undergo the risks of surgery to change their natural appearance. If this keeps up, the world will be over-populated with a sea of Barbie and Ken clones in the next fifty years; a mass of perfectly plastic people without any of the beautiful and unique characteristics that make us different and special.

I would like to see more corporations and media mavens focusing on positive self- and body-image rather than glorifying stick-thin and unhealthy celebs. The message we are sending out to our youth is "if you don't look like this, you aren't attractive - in fact, you're nobody".

Everyone remembers the awkward years of puberty and just beyond, and the agonizing over your looks and trying to fit in and be attractive. It's a difficult time for anyone - but how much more so must it be for today's young teens and adults who are faced with an ideal that is impossible for anyone to live up to. The people they look up to and want to emulate are almost not real - in movies and in glossy magazines they are polished and airbrushed to godlike perfection. In an attempt to look like these painted perfect people, young people are losing their own identities as they wallow in low self-esteem and-often-self-loathing.

How else can one explain the rise in not only plastic surgery among our youth, but in eating disorders, self-injury, and other harmful traits that show a severe and detrimental self-loathing. Young people today do not only have low self-esteem, many of them hate the bodies they were born into. They will actively and determinedly seek to starve, injure, or undergo the risks of surgery simply to "look" better so that they will "feel' better about themselves.

Yet when the bad body image is there to start with, all the dieting, plastic surgery, and new clothes in the world can't make someone feel better. It has to start inside.

Positive Change is Needed
Instead of giving these girl's plastic surgery as a gift, these parents should be encouraging their children to be proud of themselves and their unique traits - to love themselves just as they are. Telling them to go out and use surgery to fix whatever Nature has blessed (or even cursed) them with teaches them no coping skills and it is not an effective way to learn how to face challenges and acceptance of life's difficulties.

This rising trend disturbs me just as much as the continuing rise of self-harm and eating disorders in today's youth. Until the mass media makes a conscious decision to stop peddling plastic perfection and questionable role models like they do to our youth, nothing will change. Instead of giving these impressionable minds someone to focus on and worship, teach them to love themselves and see their own uniqueness as amazing. I want to tell them all, "Yes, Miley Cyrus is amazing - but so are you." Until they realize this, nothing will change.
Published at Hubpages

Everyone has heard of the Ouija board, but few know its true origins or the history behind it and similar divination devices.

Some say the concept of the Ouija goes back thousands of centuries, while others claim it is simply an evil creation of Satan.

Here, we'll take a look at where the Ouija board comes from, a little bit of its history, and go about shedding some light on some of the myths and fears surrounding the elusive board.

The History of Divination
The word "divination" comes from the Latin divinare, which means "to be inspired by a god".

The concept of "divining" information using tools, omens, or spirits has been around since the beginning of time. Early man often looked to the stars and patterns in nature for clues as to the future, and countless early tribes and cultures had specific individuals - shamans, witch doctors, oracles, soothsayers, wise women, etc. - who performed the art and magic of prophecy for their people.

With the onset of mainstream Christianity during the Age of Exploration - from the early 15th century to the late 17th century - divination, now deemed a damnable sin, was swept underground. When practiced at all, it was done in private or secrecy.The interest in divination, in the form of the Ouija board and other, similar tools, was reborn in the morbidly curious Victorian era after Spiritualism took hold and gained immense popularity.

Though often a parlor game or done for frightening fun, the Victorians - whose lives were often in constant contact with death - were intrigued by the idea of being able to contact the dead, or perhaps reconnect with lost loved ones.

The maker of the Ouija board picked up on this "new craze", and the famous and "mysterious" oracle board was born.

The History of the Ouija Board
The Spiritualism religion was all the rage in the United States between the 1840s and 1920s. The premise behind the faith was the belief in a spirit world - one loosely connected to our own - that all of us go to after death. Spiritualists believed in the ability to contact the spirits of the dead and receive information, even hints as to the future, by using divination.

Spiritualists often engaged the help of a medium to make contact or attempted to divine the information from the spirits themselves. It was into this interesting time, in May of1890, when three men filed a patent for the then well-known "planchette" and "talking board".

Up until this time, most people made their own Ouija-board-like devices; trial and error had led to the development of the letter board and planchette we know today. It is doubtful any of the men - Elijah J. Bond, Charles W. Kennard, and William H. A. Maupin - actually invented any of the items or concepts of the Ouija board; they were, however, the first to patent them.

Kennard named their new novelty "Ouija", claiming the board had told him this was the Egyptian word for "luck" (it isn't).

When William Fuld took over Kennard's company in 1892, he reinvented the history of the board. He claimed he had come up with the name "ouija", which was a combination of the French and German words for "yes" - "oui" and "ja" respectively.

In 1966, Fuld's family sold the popular board and all rights to Parker Brothers.

So Does It Really Work?
Though the game was thought by the superstitious and morbidly-curious people of the Victorian-era to be able to contact spirits, such claims have never, of course, been proven. The game is mostly played by young children at slumber parties and is rarely used by authentic fortune-tellers or mediums.

Whether the board can actually contact the spirit world is up for speculation, and self-exploration. Most people still view the Ouija Board as no more than an interesting parlor game. Others are positive of its being a doorway to the other side, while others firmly believe the board is evil and the work of Satan.

It's really something that's up to the individual - after trying the board for themselves - to decide.

In the end, though, not truly knowing is part of Ouija's allure.

Published at Hubpages

The wealthy, Broadway maven Smith, twenty-five years his wife's senior, has opted to enact a clause in their prenuptial agreement stating he can "evict" his wife from their home after thirty days if there are grounds for divorce. Tricia Smith claims no such grounds exist. She insists her husband of nine years has-without explanation or warning-decided to kick her out of their ritzy nine-room Park Avenue apartment in New York with no help or money.

There's always more to the story and key elements appear to be missing from this one. Surely there is a reason that Mr. Smith is not only divorcing his wife but kicking her out without so much as a "thank you, here's the tip". In the video Tricia claimed she had never been unfaithful, but cried about her husband leaving her to foot $80,000 in debt on her own. Perhaps it wasn't infidelity that angered Mr. Smith, but his wife's obvious penchant for spending his hard-earned money?

It's interesting to think that Tricia Smith, living in her posh socialite bubble, honestly believes the people of the world-who have to earn their money by working rather than marrying wealthy old men-really would be sympathetic to her gold digging cries of injustice. She claims, in an interview I saw with her, that-to her-this is a matter "of life and death" and the video was made in sheer desperation for the sake of her own survival. She states, repeatedly, that she will be left with "nothing".

This is hard to believe. Even if Tricia is divorced and not given a dime hereafter from her ex-husband's considerable coffers, it is ridiculous to believe that the woman will have nothing at all to live off of or call her own. "Nothing", in Tricia's world, isn't the Ramen Noodles-til-next-paycheck "nothing" of the average person's reality; it's the idea of living less than the means she has become accustomed to. Tricia's "nothing" amounts to living somewhere under the $1,000,000/year bracket yet-*gasp!*-above the $60,000/year bracket. Will she struggle and suffer? Likely her new and less-rich lifestyle will take some getting used to; will she be spending this Christmas warming her hands over a free meal at a local soup kitchen before heading back to her cardboard box? Sources point to no.

In a world where people-indeed, children-are starving to death every single day, it's hard to feel even a little bit of empathy for someone shedding tears over having to live "a little less rich". Most of us who have to work-and work hard-to simply make our way, with little left over for luxuries or even to save, have a hard time feeling sorry for a woman who is bemoaning the fact that she isn't getting a chunk of money she didn't earn in the first place.

Tricia seems to believe that marriage to an old, sexless crone is deserving of some pay and compensation; paychecks for the time she's put in, paid in full, and severance pay, thank you very much. And, oh!, the horrid things the "poor vulnerable Tricia" (as the yellow text on her video claims she is) has had to endure! She gleefully regales the camera, and Mr. Smith's poor assistant, with his lack of desire to copulate with her and her later discovery of his stash of "Viagra, con-doms, and porn tapes". She claims she was "an 'effin idiot" for believing that he could not have sex-as he told her-due to his high-blood pressure" and states the couple have never consummated the marriage.

Which leads me to one part of the video that bothered me more than the lunatic rantings of a googly-eyed nut; was putting the assistant on the spot like that really necessary? Tricia calls the woman up-in the middle of a work day, mind you-and starts blathering on about she and her husband's sexless marriage. She then decides to tell this young woman about his stash of "Viagra, con-doms, and porn tapes" and insists the assistant go and ask him-right now-what she should do with his con-doms. You know, because every assistant gets paid enough money to put up with crazy phone calls during work from her boss's wife. That was so uncalled for and shows you just how much Tricia really cares about anyone but herself - in other words, not at all.

Tricia claims, in the interview I saw, that she was "nice" with the video and simply told of her plight. I don't call showing a photo of your stepdaughter to the world and calling her a "bad, bad, bad person" very "nice"; but maybe that's just me. I also don't call harassing your husband's staff while they're trying to do their jobs very "nice" either; but again, maybe that's just me. I sure don't believe airing your family's personal and private affairs for the world to see is very "nice"; but...well you get the idea.

When it comes down to it, Tricia is just another self-absorbed, whiny, spoiled, rich, trophy wife who believes she's getting shunted out of money she feels is well-deserved and hard-earned. When she felt no other avenue was left open to her, she decided to air her and her husband's private affairs to the world at large - throwing a pouty, teary-eyed temper tantrum while showing off all that she would be losing; all the while expecting us to feel sorry for her and someone to step up and rescue her from the "mean, bad husband".

What she fails to realize is that from outside of the small, elite world that she exists in, the majority of us don't truly care about her or her "life and death situation". There are people in the world with real needs and who are experiencing true suffering. In light of that, it's hard to feel anything but disdain for someone like Tricia Walsh Smith; a woman who wants very much for doing very little and is upset she can't get it.

Published at Helium

So how do you cope with these feelings that continue to bubble to the surface, making you feel like you'll implode if you don't deal with them somehow? Here I will share you with my method of calming the inner rage and allowing yourself to vent freely - get it all off your chest - without having to damage your relationship or make yourself look bad.

Write It Down
Perhaps you've heard this advice before, but you have ever actually followed it? Sitting down with pen and paper and letting your emotions just flow onto the page can be incredibly cathartic!

You don't need to even have an aptitude for writing or a good grasp of grammar - no one is going to read this but you. In fact, when writing try not to worry about things like making sense, sentence structure, and spelling; these things will only hinder your thoughts from flowing freely.

It may sound too simple to work. You may feel your problems or upset are too big to be helped by writing them down, but I promise you - if you try it, you will feel better.

The Key to Success
The key to making this work is not just spewing your thoughts onto a random piece of paper (though that is, also, effective). What you must do is imagine you are writing a letter to the person that has upset you.

Write this letter as if you have every intention of handing it over to the person that has wronged you; in your mind, imagine them reading it and seeing your point of view and understanding how they hurt you. Say whatever you want to say to this person - about this incident or any other times they have hurt you. Don't hold back - be as harsh, cruel, or angry as you want to be.

Even if the letter is nothing more than a page full of angry curses rather than an explanation of your feelings, that's fine. Write whatever you feel. There are no rules.

I call these Letters To Never Be Delivered, and they have helped me every time I have had a need to write one. Getting it all off my chest was extremely theraputic and, afterwards, I felt refreshed, cleansed, and at much more peace.

Sometimes I keep the letters, and other times - to really put an end to the hurt and pain - I burn them. I have a notebook full of these that I wrote to an ex-boyfriend after an extremely painful breakup of a long-term relationship that I plan to put into a book someday to help others going through their own difficult splits.

Do what works for you and the situation.

Why It Works
Sometimes all we need is to vent - to get the feelings crowding our mind out into the open where we can step back and more effectively analyze them. The act of writing them down is a tangible way of dealing with those emotions and facing them head-on.

The beauty of Letters To Never Be Delivered is that you help yourself through a difficult situation without burning bridges, saying things you might regret, or confronting someone you shouldn't confront (like the boss!). You deal with your inner pain on your own without dragging others into it and without making yourself look bad or bringing negative energy to yourself. It's an effective way to get past something without striking out and possibly making things worse.

Actively tackling your problem, rather than sitting and walloing in it, also helps you feel better.

Go give it a try - what have you got to lose? - and you will feel better, empowered, and more at peace once you are done. Remember, too, that harboring the anger, pain, frustration, and resentment hurts you - not the other person.

I also want to leave you with these wise words...Resentment is like taking poison, and expecting the other person to die (author unknown).

Published at Hubpages

Virus Protection:
In the vast lawlessness of cyberspace and with the number of new viruses being sent out every day you should never be online without up-to-date virus protection software.

First, make sure you have virus protection software; I can't tell you the number of people whose computers we've had to bring back from a virus-ridden death because the owner's thought they had virus protection. If Norton or something similar came with your pc (personal computer) and you haven't paid a yearly rate to keep it running, then you do not have virus protection on your system! Norton & McAfee are not free virus protection programs; if you've never sent them a cent then they are not protecting your pc, regardless of whether or not the programs are downloaded to your computer. You may have gotten a "trial run" when you first purchased your pc, but this runs out and if you don't renew/create a membership with them and send money then you are no longer protected.

Once you are sure you have anti-virus protection, or have gotten some for your system, make sure your virus definitions are up-to-date for your virus protection software. Make sure to always keep this updated; most anti-virus programs will allow you to setup automatic updates so you don't even have to worry about it.

You should also run periodic virus scans on your pc. I have my computer set to run a complete virus scan every Tuesday morning at 2am, the least likely time for me to be on it. You should do at least a weekly scan for viruses; monthly at the most.

Clean-up:
You do maintenance on your car, why not on your computer? Run Disk Cleanup, Disk Check & Defrag on your system at least once a month. This keeps the computer clean and running smoothly.

This is essential for keeping your pc running and in the best shape possible. Folders such as "Cache", "Temp" and "Temporary Internet Files" fill up quickly and eventually begin to take up valuable room in your system which can slow down performance. It is recommended that you clean these out often using Disk Cleanup.

Spy/adware:
A lot of people don't realize the amount of malicious software that is downloaded to their computer while they idly surf the web. 99% of the personal computers that are brought to me to fix are running slow or not-at-all because there are literally hundreds of spyware and adware running in the background. You can pick these up going to just about any site, even seemingly harmless ones.

These programs can and will download to your computer without your permission and will run in the background at all times; causing your computer's processes to lag and overall performance to decline. These programs are generally used to track where you surf and what you do so that they know what kind of pop-ads to send you. Some are more dangerous though and can track pertinent information that you enter into private websites (banks, online stores, etc.). It is possible that these trackers can get a hold of your credit card and bank account info this way.

If you get online (and who doesn't?), run a spyware-removal program at least once a week! You can find a number of these free online; you should not have to pay for a decent spyware-removal program. They are imperative to have and I do not advise going online without at least one on your system.

Stay Away From:
A lot of people enjoy downloading cutesy, animated screensavers and simple, time-crunching games off of the Internet.

My best advice? Don't. I've had entire computers crash after downloading a seemingly innocent holiday screensaver. While some screensavers are from legit companies, and some games are safe (those from Yahoo!, Pogo, GameZone, etc.), the vast majority of those found from "click here" banners or other dubious means are not. These programs are simply full of ad/spyware that you are willfully downloading into your computer.

A lot of these programs appear innocent, and some even come up as legitimate spyware removal programs themselves when, in fact, they are anything but. Do not download anything from the Internet unless you are 100% certain of its validity and reputation. A good rule of thumb is to never download anything advertised on a pop-up ad.

Also be sure to stay away from gambling and pornographic websites; these sites are usually rife with spyware that will download invisibly to your computer.

I've had entire computers crash after downloading these types of things or going to questionable sites - including screensavers, rebate programs, daily horoscopes or weather bugs. That right there should tell you that this is not something you want installed on your computer; it's not worth it to get a silly screensaver or game you'll only play twice.

Email:
I cannot stress this enough - do not open an attachment in email if you are not expecting one. Even if you know the sender, if the attachment looks in any way odd, don't open it. Shoot an email to the sender and ask if they sent you something before opening; the little bit you'll have to wait for a response is better than the hours you're going to spend fixing your now virus-ridden computer, trust me.

An old scam online that some people still aren't aware of is called "phishing" and scammers use email to perpetuate it. If you get a supposed email from some large banking or credit institution or other business asking for your account information, do not give it.

If you have reason to believe it might be legitimate take the time to contact the institution via phone or email and verify the email. A good rule of thumb to remember is that companies will never ask for your account information via email. However, if you still believe the email is legitimate and you are worried about your account being closed or flagged, contact the company in question before giving your information. If you are wrong, you have just given your personal information to a scammer and your identity will be stolen.

It is also wise to be selective in the emails you choose to forward to friends, family, and co-workers. A large number of forwarded emails are actually hoaxes, scams, and some are even part of "email farming" schemes (getting a list of valid email addresses to send spam email to). By forwarding them on you are unwittingly contributing to the problem. Anything that asks you to "forward to x amount of people" should generally be deleted and not forwarded.

If you feel you "must" forward a particular email, make sure to "clean it up" before sending. Delete all of the previously forwarded email addresses listed and all of the superfluous ">>>>" marks. Take the original piece and cut/paste it into a fresh email from only you. This helps to eliminate the "farming" aspect of such emails.

A Clean Computer Runs Better:
Remember, your computer is a piece of equipment that needs care and general upkeep just like any other equipment or appliance you may own.

I like to joke that the computer is not a "self-cleaning oven". Being online is going to generate a lot of problems and malware that you do not want on your system. If you do not surf safely and responsibly, and periodically clean malicious software out of your computer, it won't work well for very long.

Overall, it is imperative to:

• Always make sure you are running virus protection software and have at least one, good spyware removal tool on your system - make sure to keep these both updated.
• Do periodic system clean-ups & maintenance, and do not install questionable material from pop-up ads and gimmicky websites.
• Be selective in your surfing, downloading, and installing. Think before putting something on your computer that may be harmful.
• Use caution when dealing with email. If you have doubts about anything, delete it.
• Stay abreast of the latest scams/viruses circulating on the Internet. As a member of the online community, you should always know what dangers are out there. The best protection is to be well-informed of what is going on in the World Wide Web.

Published at Helium

All of the young starlets they idolize are flawless - they have professionals styling their clothes, hair, and makeup on a daily basis, someone to choose the most hip wardrobe for them, and, when in magazines, a graphic artist to airbrush them to god-like perfection. This is what our young people want to emulate; an impossible image to live up to for the average person.

Perfection or Death
I suppose the thing that upsets me the most about all of this are the things people will put themselves through to attain this perceived "perfection". Women, and men, are starving themselves and killing themselves just to be "beautiful".

If we could get people to put as much energy into making their insides "beautiful" as they do their outsides, maybe we wouldn't have this problem. If our society focused more on the magnificence of Inner Self rather than Outer Image, perhaps we might not have lost so many good people in their pursuit of bodily perfection.

People have died from these diseases - these thoughts of not being good enough - of wanting to be something they felt they were not. People are still dying.

The Horrifying Facts
These are the facts:

The mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated at 0.56 percent per year, or approximately 5.6 percent per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population. The most common causes of death are complications of the disorder, such as cardiac arrest or electrolyte imbalance, and suicide. - From NIMH: Facts About Eating Disorders...

Emphasis mine. Twelve times more young females are dying to anorexia than any other cause. It's time to stand up. It's time to make a change. It's time to save others before they suffer the same fate.

No, we can't stop all people from suffering eating disorders. There are other factors that play into these diseases than just low self-image. But maybe we can lower the numbers - maybe we can save some who, otherwise, might not have gone down that path.

Learning to love yourself - inside and out - is a powerful, life-affirming tool. We must continue to learn it and live it. And aas long as people are dying never realizing the true beauty they possessed, we must continue to teach it.

Published at Hubpages

A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver study by the Social Science Research Network says that:

We used a high-fidelity driving simulator to compare the performance of cell-phone drivers with drivers who were legally intoxicated from ethanol. When drivers were conversing on either a hand-held or hands-free cell-phone, their braking reactions were delayed and they were involved in more traffic accidents than when they were not conversing on the cell phone. By contrast, when drivers were legally intoxicated they exhibited a more aggressive driving style, following closer to the vehicle immediately in front of them and applying more force while braking. When controlling for driving conditions and time on task, cell-phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. The results have implications for legislation addressing driver distraction caused by cell phone conversations.

So, as I've said before, if drunk drivers are dangerous and therefore it is illegal to drive drunk - then WHY is it legal to drive and talk when it is PROVEN to be as or more dangerous?

ConsumerReports.org says that:

The suspicion about cell phones and cars caught fire exactly five years ago, with a study published in February 1997 in "The New England Journal of Medicine." That study, conducted in Toronto, Ontario, looked at 699 drivers who owned cell phones and had been in collisions. It concluded that when a phone was used while driving, the risk of a collision was between 3 and 6.5 times higher than when a phone was not used. It also concluded that the relative risk was similar to that of driving with a blood-alcohol level at the legal limit, and that cell phones that allowed hands-free operation offered no safety advantage." -in Cell Phones and Driver Distraction 2/02

BankRate.com's Guide to Insurance states:

The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis reported in December 2002 that cell phone use could be faulted in 6 percent of the auto accidents in the United States each year." -in Cell Phone Chatter Can Cause Accidents

Why haven't other states followed New York's glowing example and made talking on a cell phone and driving illegal? If it's as dangerous as being intoxicated and behind the wheel, HOW can this still be something people are getting away with?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even these studies and articles, to prove that cell phone users who are gabbing while driving are seriously impaired. If you're over the age of 17 and drive a vehicle then you have seen with your very own eyes the ineptitude of these drivers. You've seen them swerving, you've been behind them when they start slowing down or suddenly slam on their brakes. You might have seen them almost hit someone or run a light. I know I have.

The fact remains that a vehicle is a potentially lethal machine and should be operated with respect, and the utmost attention. Would you have half an ear glued to the phone and operate a miter saw? Replace an electrical outlet? Work on the roof?

Let's look at this way - if you're a die-hard talker who thinks it is perfectly okay to gab and drive, answer me these two questions:

1. Would you want your child's bus driver talking on a cell phone while driving your kid to school? Why not?
2. Would you want the pilot of the plane you're riding in talking on a cell phone while he's piloting the plane? Why not?

Talking on a cell phone and driving should be illegal. Period. There isn't anything else to say on the matter.

Published at Helium

It's very frustrating to get these emails and see that, previously, they've been forwarded to, sometimes, hundreds of people. It takes me less than a minute to check Snopes or even TrendMicro Hoax Encyclopedia and see that the email is completely bogus.

Out of the over one hundred people that received this last hoax (the Life is Beautiful.pps hoax), which I could see from all of the left-over forwarded addresses, not one had the good sense to check the validity of this claim before sending it out to everyone in their address book.

It is amazing how many emails are sent out this way. Simply because it appears on the computer, no matter how far-fetched it might sound, people send it along. Chain letters, years-old missing children reports, and virus hoaxes are just a few examples.

The problem is that there is potential for danger here in the form of virus hoaxes getting people to mess up their systems, phishing scammers hunting for potential victims, or spammers using the mass-forwards to harvest email addresses.

Spam & Email Harvesting
You wouldn't believe the number of random, pointless, ridiculous, and all-out irritating emails I get. The spam stuff is bad enough, but when it's just people fowarding every email that graces their own Inbox, it can make you want to pull your hair out.

I have learned, through eight years of work in the I.T.-field, that the reason the majority of these emails go around is for the purpose of "email farming".

For example, let's say I have a message (a joke, maybe) and I forward it to Jack, Tom, Jill, Harry and Habib. Jack sends it to 14 people. Tom sends it 2, Harry sends it 45 and Habib doesn't send it to anyone because his modem dies.

Already my email has been circulated to 61 people who are also forwarding it to their friends, family, and online pals. You can see how a message in your Inbox can already have been forwarded to hundreds of people.

Now let's say I'm a spammer who is farming for emails - in other words, looking for email addresses that I can send my spam to. From this one "joke" email that I sent out, I am going to get back hundreds of email addresses that I can now send spam to - which, if you don't know, is a multi-million dollar a year industry.

So, when I get the joke, love-God, chain letter, lost child, free shopping spree, Bill Gates-money-giveaway, hoax, etc. emails that are obviously concocted so gullible souls will send them on to everyone they know, I - sometimes quite literally - want to pull my hair out.

Some Examples
Getting a bit tongue-in-cheek here, let me give you a few examples of these types of emails - seemingly innocuous yet that can be created and used to harvest email addresses.

While the below examples may seem glaringly obvious as hoaxes and fakes when explained, remember that when they appear in someone's Inbox, they - and maybe you, too - often forward them without a doubt or concern.

Why is this? Studies have shown that we trust computers - almost implicitly. There is some strange link between our brains and what appears on a computer screen that makes us more apt to readily accept and believe what we see there - as opposed to seeing the same information elsewhere and our normal logic kicking in.

In my line of work, I have seen countless people - normally intelligent, logical, and well-grounded persons - fall for and believe in some of the most ridiculous emails imaginable; forwarding them out to everyone in their address book without even considering the need to check out and verify the information contained therein.

Here a few such email-types explained...

First, there are the ones that say Bill Gates or some other lucrative figure is sending a certain amount of money to everyone that forwards their message on.

If you really stopped and thought about it, you would know this is completely unlikely, and rather ridiculous. Yet, for some reason, and as I have said, if people see it on the computer screen, they believe it.

There are also the ones with a silly poem or limerick about friends & love, asking you to pass it on to everyone to remind them how much you love them.

Again, email farming at its worst. This is also effective with "God" ones - "If you love God you'll forward this to as many people as you can!" It sounds silly, but it works. I'd guess that 98% of people that get such things do, indeed, forward them to mass amounts of people.

There are the ones that tell a joke with no punch line - telling you that if you send it to umpteen number of people and hit certain keys on your keyboard, the punch line or some beloved cartoon character will dance across the screen on your monitor. This ploy is also disguised as saying some department store is offering coupons for preposterous dollar amounts - and forwarding to blank number of people and hitting certain keys will make the coupon appear on your screen.

People don't realize, or seem to forget, that it is impossible for sending an email to make anything appear on your computer or your screen. So that one works well, too - especially if the email's instructions say you must forward the email to see the punchline or mystery 'toon. People, thinking they'll get something good or funny, start forwarding the email to everyone they know.

There are more, of course, and spammers get more creative every day to try and dupe the public and garner more email addresses. The key is to always be vigilant with your Inbox and not to forward every single thing that lands there. If something seems too good to be true, it likely is.

Published at Hubpages

I don't know what's worse anymore - the false stories that no one bothered to check out before sending to all 102 people in their address book, the spam, scams, viruses, and Nigerian 419's, or the absolutely retarded, stupid shit people pass on because they think it's "cute" or "funny" - when it's anything but.

Who has time to sit and read "moving" emails about God, friends you ignore, and missing children who are no longer missing? Who wants to sit and sift through pictures of old comic strips, cute puppies & kittens, or hunky men? What sane person has a hankering to watch corny, over-done and supposedly funny videos sent to them by imbecilic pals?

Not me!

I get enough junk from people I don't know - I surely don't need my address bookers sending me superfluous crap. If you feel the same, read on and share with me in the insanity and mind-numbing insanity of the "Chain Letter Email Curse"...

The Curse Begins
I recently received a chain letter at work - it was one of those with gruesome stories of people who had died for ignoring the chain letter and for not passing it on.

I hate these things! As a wise woman once said, it's akin to threatening (thanks, Mom). You're basically threatening the people you send this to -

Hi Friend - I read this horrible thing, I passed it on so I could live, and now I'm putting you in this precarious life & death situation.

It reminds me of the movie The Ring!

Naturally, then, I was aggravated by the one I got at work, but I ignored the ominous threats and hit DELETE.

Then it happened. I came to be haunted by the Chain Letter Curse!

It was true! I experienced a run of bad luck after deleting the email - in the guise of ten more stupid people forwarding the same asinine chain letter to me in hopes of saving their pathetic lives!!

Just lovely. Then, the final straw - someone I didn't even know sent it to me! They apparently had gotten my name off the list of forwards from someone that sent it to them. Just making sure they don't die a horrible, gruesome death, right? How can we fault them? Because they're a bunch of friggin' idiots!! You WILL NOT get hit by a drunk driver while leaving a masquerade ball like "Katie Robbenson" - the fiancee that just proposed to you will not get turned into pulp by an 18-wheeler just because you did not forward a STUPID email! Did I even need to say that?!

The Ultimate Chain Letter
The point of the rant is that reading this tripe brought to mind a hilarious chain letter that went around in email awhile back that made fun of threatening and stupid chain letters.

I surely appreciated the humor - and needing to see it again to rid me of the aggravation of the recent ones I've received - I went in search of it. And here, in all its silly glory, a sentiment shared by us all:

The Ultimate Chain Letter
Author Unknown

Hello, my name is Basmati Kasaar. I am suffering from rare and deadly diseases, poor scores on final exams, extreme virginity, fear of being kidnapped and executed by anal electrocution, and guilt for not forwarding out 50 billion frigging chain letters sent to me by people who actually believe that if you send them on, then that poor 6 year old girl in Arkansas with a breast on her forehead will be able to raise enough money to have it removed before her redneck parents sell her off to the travelling freak show.

Do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give you and everyone you send "his" email to $1000? How stupid are you? Ooooh, lookyhere! If I scroll down this page and make a wish, I'll get laid by every Playboy model in the magazine! What a bunch of crap. So Basically, this message is a big STUFF YOU to all the people out there who have nothing better to do than to send me stupid chain mail forwards.

. Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my apartment and sodomize me in my sleep for not continuing the chain which was started 5 A.D. and was brought to this country by midget pilgrims on the Mayflower and if it makes it to the year 2000, it'll be in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest continuous streak of blatant stupidity.

Screw them.

If you're going to forward something, at least send me something mildly amusing. I've seen all the "send this to 50 of your closest friends, and this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a nickel from some omniscient being" forwards about 90 times. I don't bloody care. Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually contributing to by sending out forwards. Chances are it's your own unpopularity.

THE FOUR BASIC TYPES OF CHAIN LETTERS:

Chain Letter Type 1

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Make a wish!!!

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No, really, go on and make one!!!

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Oh please, they'll never go out with you!!!

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Wish something else!!!

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Not that, you pervert!!

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Is your finger getting tired yet?

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STOP!!!!

Wasn't that fun?

Hope you made a great wish

Now, to make you feel guilty, here's what I'll do. First of all, if you don't send this to 5096 people in the next 5 seconds, you will be raped by a mad goat and thrown off a high building into a pile of manure. It's true! Because, THIS letter isn't like all of those fake ones, THIS one is TRUE!!

Really!!! Here's how it goes:

Send this to 1 person: One person will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.

Send this to 2-5 people: 2-5 people will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.

Send this to 5-10 people: 5-10 people will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter, and may form a plot on your life.

Send this to 10-20 people: 10-20 people will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter and will napalm your house.

Thanks!!! Good Luck!!!

Chain Letter Type 2

Hello, and thank you for reading this letter. You see, there is a starving little boy in Baklaliviatatlaglooshen who has no arms, no legs, no parents, and no goats. This little boy's life could be saved, because for every time you pass this on, a dollar will be donated to the Little Starving Legless Armless Goatless Boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen Fund. Oh, and remember, we have absolutley no way of counting the emails sent and this is all a complete load of crap. So go on, reach out. Send this to 5 people in the next 47 seconds. Oh, and a reminder - if you accidentally send this to 4 or 6 people, you will die instantly. Thanks again!!

Chain Letter Type 3

Hi there!! This chain letter has been in existence since 1897. This is absolutely incredible because there was no email then and probably not as many sad pricks with nothing better to do. So this is how it works:

Pass this on to 15,067 people in the next 7 minutes or something horrible will happen to you like:

Bizarre Horror Story #1

Miranda Pinsley was walking home from school on Saturday. She had recently recieved this letter and ignored it. She then tripped in a crack in the sidewalk, fell into the sewer, was gushed down a drainpipe in a flood of poopie, and went flying out over a waterfall. Not only did she smell nasty, she died. This Could Happen To You!!!

Bizarre Horror Story #2

Dexter Bip, a 13 year old boy, got a chain letter in his mail and ignored it. Later that day, he was hit by a car and so was his boyfriend (hey, some people swing that way). They both died and went to hell and were cursed to eat adorable kittens every day for eternity. This Could Happen To You Too!!!

Remember, you could end up just like Pinsley and Bip. Just send this letter to all of your loser friends, and everything will be okay.

Chain Letter Type 4

As if you care, here is a poem that I wrote. Send it to every one of your friends.

Friends

A friend is someone who is always at your side,

A friend is someone who likes you even though you stink of shit, and your breath smells like you've been eating catfood,

A friend is someone who likes you even though you're as ugly as a hat full of arseholes,

A friend is someone who cleans up for you after you've soiled yourself,

A friend is someone who stays with you all night while you cry about your sad, sad life,

A friend is someone who pretends they like you when they really think you should be raped by mad goats, then thrown to vicious dogs,

A friend is someone who scrubs your toilet, vacuums and then gets the cheque and leaves and doesn't speak much English... - no, sorry that's the cleaning lady,

A friend is not someone who sends you chain letters because he wants his wish of being rich to come true.

Now pass this on! If you don't, you'll never have sex ever again.

The point being?

If you get some chain letter that's threatening to leave you shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it. If it's funny, send it on.

Don't piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper in Botswana with no teeth, who's been tied to a dead elephant for 27 years, whose only saviour is the 5 cents per letter he'll receive if you forward this mail, otherwise you'll end up like Miranda. Right?

Now forward this to everyone you know otherwise you'll find all your knickers missing tomorrow morning.

The Curse Revisited
A few months after I was first struck with the curse, it reared its ugly head once more. Under the cloak of darkness it stole into my Inbox like a thief in the night - to rob me of my precious life if I did not heed it's warning.

Today, I'm more convinced now than ever of the Chain Letter Curse. It IS true - you WILL have bad luck if you don't send this thing on. I know because I KEEP GETTING THE DAMN THING SENT TO ME - and what worse luck is there? As many times as I've gotten it and deleted it, I or my lover should have been killed numerous times.

The thing that cracks me up about this one is the subject line: 'Read this alone'. Why? So my friends standing behind me reading along can't humiliate me into NOT hitting the Forward button? What kind of friends would they be anyway? Don't they know that you'll DIE if you don't forward this thing out to 2347 people in 7 seconds??!

The second best thing about these chain letters are the people that send it and write things such as, "I don't really believe in this stuff, but, better safe than sorry." Are you kidding me?

I got one like this the other day - it stated if I didn't re-send the email out to umpteen number of people in a set amount of time, I would have bad sex for the rest of my life. The person who sent it wrote, "I know this probably isn't true, but just in case...". "Probably", eh?

I'd bet my life that the probability of not forwarding an email causing you to have awful sex is nil. Maybe you're having bad sex because no one you know will have anything to do with you because you keep sending them stupid chain letter emails? It's a thought.

The concept of threatening people and scaring them into forwarding your stupid email to the largest amount of people possible astounds me. Maybe it shouldn't - we are talking about the human race here.

Speaking of stupid emails, (and while I'm on a roll) another one that I love getting is the email that tells you half a story or joke, then states that you have to forward the email to 599 people and then hit the CTRL key (or F2 or Shift + Alt - it varies) and the rest of said story or joke will magically appear on your screen. I've seen a great many variations on this one - send it to 900,876,475 people and a coupon to some major store will appear on your screen, send it to 1 person and Mickey Mouse will dance across your screen, so on and so forth.

People, just for the record, it is impossible for a forwarded email to cause anything to come up on your computer screen. I don't care if you hit Tab + F5 + Shift + T for all eternity; it isn't going to happen.

I got one of these at work a few weeks ago, and went ahead and added my own ending - and sent it back to everyone that sent it to me. It got quite a laugh.

I guess I'll end this with a message for all of those small minds out there:

Listen up, kiddies...this is important and could save your friendships (because if you keep sending those emails, you won't have any friends anymore).

1. Not forwarding an email cannot cause you, or anyone you love, to have bad luck, bad sex, a broken computer, or to die. I promise that you will wake up tomorrow morning in the same state of health as you went to bed the night before if you hit the Delete key rather than the Forward one.
2. Forwarding an email is not going to make Rocky & Bullwinkle dance across the screen, materialize a $100 coupon to Dillard's, or solve the riddle of which came first (the chicken or the egg?). It really doesn't matter how many people you send it to, or which keys you hit. It can't happen. It's as improbable as someone walking on water. So, unless you're Jesus, just delete this one.
3. The people who originally sent these out are pathetic wastes of human flesh who just want lots of people to read their crappy poems and Hallmark-ish "remember-your-friends" sentiments. Perhaps they are disgruntled employees who were fired from Hallmark. Whatever the case, you shouldn't need an email to remind you to love your friends and be thankful for them. Feel sorry for the person that has to threaten people to get their work read, and don't allow their free world-wide exposure to continue. Hit Delete.

I think that just about covers it. As always, I feel as if I'm saying things that shouldn't need to be said. Yet, obviously, it does.

Published at Squidoo

Does that mean I think people should be able to get money for what long-since dead people did to their long-since dead ancestors?

Absolutely not.

Let's look at this in another light. You mean to tell me that you are so devastated by what happened to people, blood relatives or not, that you never knew and probably know nothing about, you think you should get money for what they suffered - from people that had nothing to do with what the caused pain?

So, by your reckoning, since I am a witch, I should be able to go and sue the residents of Salem, Massachusetts for burning my forbearer's? By your reasoning, since I am Cajun, I and my family should all be able to sue England for exiling my people from present-day Canada in the 1750's - tearing apart families and sending more than half, in their quest for new homes, to their deaths?

No.

Personally, I feel that people who want money for something that didn't happen to them don't honestly care about the rights of blacks, the horrible mark on humanity that was slavery, or the thousands that suffered during that time because of it. All these greedy individuals care about is MONEY. If they really cared about what happened, then they would actively be doing something to show it; perhaps by fighting for black rights or standing up for what they believed in.  Suing someone does not make a statement for a cause; other than to show the cause is nothing more than making some greedy person rich. Their cause is self and self-gain. I am appalled to see people taking the pain and humiliation that so many suffered and trying to use it to further their bank account.

Almost everyone in America has ancestors that were persecuted. America was started by people escaping persecution; it is the melting pot it is today because so many peoples from so many lands have come here to escape that very thing. Who is to say one plight is worse than the next - that the horrors wrought on any of our ancestors were more than those around us? The fact is, it doesn't matter. No one has any right to any compensation for what others, long-since dead, have suffered. None. All of our ancestors, at one time or another, coming from more primitive and barbaric times, have suffered horrible atrocities. This is fact...and history. And it is nothing more than a tool to learn from, and a marker of how we have advanced.

No one owes today's blacks anything for what slaves - their ancestors - suffered. Indeed, modern-day, restitution-clamoring blacks make a mockery of their ancestors' true suffering with these ignorant claims. If those ancestors were alive today, I've no doubt they'd be ashamed; ashamed that their own blood were slaves still to a different master...slaves to the almighty dollar.

Published at Helium