Take a closer look at the American service members who have died in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in other related conflicts around the world. Official deaths confirmed by the Pentagon; may be different than numbers that appear in media reports due to delays in Pentagon confirmation and/or inclusion of deaths outside of Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/casualties.htm

The Bill Gates Foundation and Purple States have organized Take America To College – a chance for college students to show the country what the not-so-average student is and what the challenges are to stay in college when you are on your own, or with children, or when you lose your job or your financial aid. 5 students will be chosen to share their lives, 1 will be voted for by the public.

“A parent’s only as good as their dumbest kid. If one wins a Nobel Prize but the other gets robbed by a hooker, you failed.”

thanks @shitmydadsays

What does your name really mean? Where does it come from?

Well, apparently Jacquelyn is just another form of Jacqueline which is the French feminine form of the name Jacques – in English, Jacob. Jacob: in Latin “Iacobus”, Hebrew “Ya’aqov”.

Sweet is an English surname that is quite popular in Europe to this day. Variations include: Sweit, Swete, Sweete, and Sweette. It was supposedly a nickname that later took form as a surname for people they considered “nice” or “sweet”.

Team USA cross-country skier Kris Freeman, who has Type 1 diabetes, says he is living proof that there are no limits to what you can do despite having diabetes. Freeman was diagnosed with the disease 10 years ago and says many people told him what he couldn’t do and he set out to prove them wrong.

Freeman is one of only a few athletes with diabetes to compete in an Olympic sport that requires such endurance, and is considered the second most successful American cross-country skier of all time. Freeman, who wears an Omnipod system, has a busy week. He will be competing in the Men’s 15km Individual Freestyle event on Monday, Feb. 15^th, the Men’s Individual Sprint on Wednesday Feb. 17^th and the Men’s 30km Pursuit on Saturday Feb. 20^th. He will also be competing in the Men’s Team Sprint on Feb 22 and the Men’s 50km Mass Start on Feb. 28.

thank you- via Diabetes News Hound

Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.

Who can understand the viscous language of everyday American commerce and enterprise: the business letter, the interoffice memo, the corporation report, the notice from the bank explaining the latest “simplified” statement? What member of an insurance of medical plan can descipher the brochure that tells him what his costs and benefits are? What father and mother can put together a child’s toy on Christmas Even or any other event from the instructions on the box? Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. The airline pilot who announces that is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation wouldn’t dream of saying that it may rain. The sentence is too simple, there must be something wrong with it.

- zinnser

fortythreethings is a great site that keeps track of your goals and such that you want to do. i’ve been using it for about two years now. it has a new feature that allows you to list your new years resolutions! mine include being nicer and listening to more music.

i came across some old pictures this past week.