New Disneyland Rides! (and past one's too)

If you've been to Disneyland before, you know what to expect, but what you may not know is what's new since then. To help you keep up with the changes, we've compiled a list of new rides at Disneyland and California Adventure. 

We know everyone doesn't go to Disneyland as often as we do, so you'll find what's new in the past five years below. 

 

New Disneyland Rides in 2011

• Star Tours converted to 3-D and set in the time period between the two Star Wars trilogies.
• Mickey's Soundsational Parade will premiere in 2011. Get a preview at the Disneyland blog
• New at California Adventure: Ariel's Undersea Adventure.
• Old and New at California Adventure: Goofy's Sky School is an old ride made new. The classic "mad mouse" roller coaster that opened as Mulholland Madness will take on a flying academy theme with Goofy as the instructor. It's inspired by the 1940 cartoon short, “Goofy’s Glider.”  
• Construction for Cars Land at California Adventure continues, visible from many parts of the park, cool your engines for now - it won't be done until 2012. 

New Disneyland Rides in 2010

• Orange Stinger (California Adventure) converted to Silly Symphony Swings
• World of Color at California Adventure, a nighttime water show
• Captain EO starring Michael Jackson returns, replacing Honey I Shrunk the Audience (at least temporarily).

Also in 2010, the Disneyland Hotel started getting a much-needed and extensive renovation. It will proceed floor by floor, reducing capacity - but will be well worth the inconvenience when it's finished. And in late 2010, Paradise Pier installs flat-panel televisions and embarks on an upgrade of their soft goods (bedding, carpet and the like).

More changes are afoot in California Adventure, including an entire new land themed from the Cars movie, but the most exciting are still a couple of years away from completion. Visit the website dedicated to the expansion to find our more.

New Disneyland Rides in 2009

• it's a small world renovated
• Tinkerbelle and Her Fairy Friends character greeting area near Tomorrowland, Disneyland
• New fireworks show, Disneyland
• Cinderella's Castle opens a new walk-through attraction
• California Adventure's Sun Wheel got a new Mickey face and a new name: Mickey's Fun Wheel, but is otherwise unchanged
• The Disney Gallery repoened in the Former Bank of Main Street building
• Space Mountain premeiered a new holiday light show
• Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln (gone since the 50th anniversary in 2005) returns to the Opera House in a newly refurbished version as part of The Disneyland Story

New Disneyland Rides in 2008

• Toy Story Mania!, California Adventure
• House of the Future at Innoventions
• Walk-through attraction at Sleeping Beauty Castle, Disneyland

New Disneyland Rides in 2007

• Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage

New Disneyland Rides in 2006

• Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sully to the Rescue!, California Adventure
• Pirates of the Caribbean refurbished

http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/cadisneyland/a/new_rides.htm

Mahoney Gave L.A. Priest Ample Time To Find New Victims

Despite priest's dark past, he was given ample time to find new victims

Victim's lawyer says 'some of the worst of the abuse took place' in the six months after L.A. Archdiocese officials were warned about the Rev. Fernando Lopez Lopez. With his record, he should never have been hired.

Onetime Catholic priest Fernando Lopez Lopez, right, hugs his attorney, William G. Moore, after Superior Court Judge Ruth Ann Kwan sentenced him to six years and eight months in prison. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / April 22, 2005)

Early in 2001, a young priest arrived in Southern California after being asked to leave his diocese near Rome.

The Rev. Fernando Lopez Lopez first went to the San Bernardino diocese, where a monsignor found it odd that he would show up unannounced, with no letter of explanation from his bishop.

The monsignor checked with church officials in Italy and was told Lopez Lopez had been asked to leave his post. When the monsignor confronted Lopez Lopez with this information, the priest admitted he had been asked to leave because of complaints from parishioners in Tivoli that he was involved in drug activity with young men in the church. There were also reports the priest was "homosexually involved with some of the young men of the youth group." Lopez Lopez denied the allegations and also said the youths in question were over 18.

The monsignor in San Bernardino refused to assign the priest to duties in the diocese and suggested he go back to Italy. Instead, Rev. Lopez Lopez headed farther west and decided to try his luck with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

This time, even as L.A. church officials were trying to stem a spreading sexual abuse scandal, he wasn't met with the same level of suspicion and didn't admit to his past. And for unknown reasons, the same Italian bishop who told San Bernardino that Lopez Lopez had been asked to leave, this time signed a form for the L.A. Archdiocese indicating there were no problems in the priest's past.

Rev. Lopez Lopez got the job and was assigned to St. Thomas the Apostle near Koreatown, where he was routinely in contact with minors. It was there, over the next three years, that he repeatedly molested three teenagers, including two minors. He was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to prison, then deported upon his release to his home country of Colombia.

All this bubbles back up now for two reasons. First, a lawsuit against the priest, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the archdiocese is scheduled to be heard in October. And second, "Dan Rather Reports" aired an investigative piece Tuesday night claiming that Lopez Lopez had an even darker past than was previously known.

Rather reported that according to an Italian court official, Lopez Lopez pleaded guilty in 2000 to "repeated sexual violence on a minor."

If true, it's morally shocking that such a priest would have been allowed to stay in ministry, but not surprising. If anything has been more reprehensible than the decades of sexual abuse by priests, it has been the attempts by the Catholic church to shuffle pedophiles to new parishes and cover up as much of the mess as possible.

So Rev. Lopez Lopez ends up in California, where he seemed to have no trouble finding new victims.

Attorney J. Michael Hennigan, speaking for Mahony and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, argues that his clients did no wrong and said they tried to check on Lopez Lopez's past. But even if you give them a pass for not being as suspicious as the monsignor in San Bernardino, there's another little bombshell in this story.

The San Bernardino monsignor, Gerard Lopez, sent a letter to one of Mahony's key deputies on Jan. 8, 2004, after learning that the same priest he turned away in 2001 had been working in Los Angeles. The monsignor warned L.A.'s vicar of clergy about what he had learned of the priest's background.

But it wasn't until nine weeks after the letter was sent to Los Angeles that Mahony's staff sent a letter to the bishop in Tivoli, asking about Lopez Lopez.

"If your Excellency would be so disposed, may we inquire as to whether there are any issues … that would cast any shadow of doubt upon Father Lopez's priestly integrity and ministry while serving in the Diocese of Tivoli?"

Would his Excellency be so disposed?

Why are church officials so sickeningly polite with each other about the business of children being abused?

How about picking up the phone, instead of sending a letter to Italy, and demanding an immediate explanation?

How about calling the pope?

And how about yanking Lopez Lopez out of the ministry immediately when a warning letter arrives from San Bernardino, until the entire matter is settled?

Hennigan tells me there was nothing to go on but unsubstantiated allegations involving people 18 or over. He said church officials questioned the principal at St. Thomas and also Lopez Lopez, who suggested the monsignor in San Bernardino had misunderstood him regarding what happened in Tivoli. Hennigan also said the church immediately removed Lopez Lopez from ministry when it received an allegation that the priest had molested a kid, and church officials called the police too. That was on July 13, 2004.

The half a year between the arrival of the letter from San Bernardino and the removal of Lopez Lopez is when "some of the worst of the abuse took place," said Vince Finaldi, the attorney who represents the unnamed victim who has sued the church.

When Lopez Lopez was convicted in 2005 of four felony counts of lewd acts with a child and one felony count of sexual battery, among other counts, Cardinal Mahony wrote a letter to the Vatican suggesting it might be a good idea to dismiss him from the priesthood.

Mahony, never shy about polishing his own image, specified in the letter that Lopez Lopez certainly wouldn't have been hired in Los Angeles if Tivoli had mentioned his past. Mahony told the Vatican the church's investigation of Lopez Lopez "began promptly following the initial accusation" of abuse.

Yes, and it took only six months after the letter from San Bernardino to get him away from children.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0629-lopez-mahonynotforgotten-20110628,0,2627312.column?track=rss 

Battle of the Burgers: Our Top 5 favorites

The L.A. Times received nearly 90 entries in their first-ever Battle of the Burgers. Readers voted for their favorites, and they took the top 20 vote getters and went to work in the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.

Battle of the Burgers recipe: Italian caprese sliders

Battle of the Burgers recipe: Mexican cemita burger

Battle of the Burgers recipe: Southwest turkey burger

Battle of the Burgers recipe: German Cuban pork burger

Battle of the Burgers recipe: Red, white and blueberry burger

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-battle-of-the-burger-top-5-sg,0,6555067.storygallery?track=la-hp-market-food-burger-recipes-20110627-sl

Study: The Foods Keeping You From Weight Loss

Potato chips and French fries -- and generally any potato products -- contribute to the biggest weight gain over time, according to a new Harvard study, which researchers say is the first to look at long-term weight gain pegged to specific foods.

The study, conducted over 20 years and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that among more than 100,000 men and women whose weight was evaluated at four-year intervals, the average weight gain over each period was 3.35 pounds. This corresponded with an average weight gain just shy of 17 pounds over 20 years.

The researchers also tracked how much weight specific foods led people to gain over each four-year period. Potato chips were the worst culprit, associated with a weight gain of 1.69 pounds, followed by potatoes in general at 1.28 pounds. (French fries were worse than boiled or mashed potatoes.) This, explained Dr. Dariush Mozzafarian, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and the study's lead author, could be because starches and refined carbohydrates produce bursts in blood glucose and insulin, increasing hunger and thus upping the total amount of food people eat at their next meal.

There were plenty of non-potato culprits, too: Sugary beverages accounted for a one pound weight gain, while alcohol was linked with an average gain of 0.41 pounds over four years. Unprocessed meats accounted for a 0.95-pound uptick in weight, while processed meats were right behind at 0.93 pounds.

"Our findings indicate that small dietary and other lifestyle changes can together make a big difference, for bad or good," Mozzafarian wrote in an email, adding, "For diet ... eat fewer starches and refined foods like potatoes, white bread, low-fiber breakfast cereals, processed meats, sweets and soda."

Instead, the study suggests, opt for healthier options if you want to lose weight.

People who added a daily serving of vegetables lost an average of 0.22 pounds over four years, the researchers found. People who added whole grains lost 0.37 pounds, and those who ate fruits shed almost half a pound. Nuts and yogurt also resulted in weight loss -- all under one pound, but those losses can add up over time.

The authors point out that while these foods contain calories and fat as well, eating them usually causes people to avoid unhealthier, more calorie-dense options -- "displacing" them, in a way -- which ultimately leads to weight loss.

Also, because they have higher fiber content, they may be more satisfying.

"Satiety is a big thing," said Jeannie Moloo, R.D., a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "Consuming these foods [i.e. chips, sweet beverages and meat] could be less satiating and less filling, triggering hunger signals." Moloo praised the study, saying it was important to have finally documented the advice that dietitians and medical practitioners have been giving for years.

Another example of this advice? The fact that being sedentary isn't good for the waistline.

The study showed that changes in physical activity were related to long-term changes in weight, singling out TV watching as an example. Watching an hour of TV per day led to a 0.31 pound weight gain over each four year period -- a finding the authors chocked up to people's tendency to snack while they watch.

Sleep also plays a role: Participants who slept between six and eight hours a night were less likely to gain weight than those who got fewer than six hours or more than eight.

"Be active," Mozzafarian said, "turn off the TV, and get enough sleep."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/worst-foods-weight-loss_n_882962.html?ref=fb&src=sp#s297028&title=Potato_Chips

The Road To Marriage Equality Runs Through New York

The current debate over marriage equality in the New York Legislature is a matter of importance to all, because at its heart it's about finally extending basic rights to those to whom they have been denied.

THEY OBJECT: Paul Kosachiner, far right, and partner Michael Bologna attend a same-sex marriage rally at New York's Capitol building in Albany to protest the state's high court decision banning such unions based on the theory of "inevitable procreation."

The state's Assembly already has approved a measure legalizing same-sex marriage; debate continues in the Senate, where proponents of equality are reportedly one vote short of passage in a chamber with a Republican majority. A vote could come as early as Wednesday, and if the measure passes, New York will become the largest state to have adopted marriage equality through legislation.

New York, in fact, has done the nation a service by taking the legislative route, not only because the final result will have the stamp of collective authority that the exercise of popular sovereignty firmly imparts but also because the give and take of legislative debate — both inside and outside the chamber — clarifies social questions and the breadth of their implications as no other process does. We are now, as we always have been, a people who rely on argument to know our collective mind.

The New York process is proving particularly instructive because the debate in Albany has produced articulate spokesmen for both sides.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is a Roman Catholic, educated in the church's schools and the Jesuits' Fordham University. He nonetheless came to office promising to pursue marriage equality. Last Friday, he called it "a matter of principle, not politics" and said, "This state has a proud tradition and a proud legacy as the progressive capital of the nation … and it's time for New York to lead the way once again."

New York City Archbishop Timothy Dolan has been a consistent public opponent of same-sex marriage. On Sunday, Father's Day, he used his widely read blog to argue that adoption of marriage equality inevitably will infringe on religious freedom, and that it is a radical assertion of governmental will, reminiscent — as he has previously written — of those in totalitarian countries such as North Korea.

"While one searches the Constitution in vain to find any 'right' of two people of the same sex to marry, one immediately locates the right of people of faith not to have intrusive government interfere with the free exercise of religion as the first of the Bill of Rights," he wrote. "One has to wonder why the proponents of this radical redefinition, who claim overwhelming popular support, would not consider, for example, a referendum to determine the people's will on such a drastic departure from traditional values?"

Polls show that 58% of New Yorkers support marriage equality; last month, a Gallup poll found that, over the last year, national support for equality has risen 9 points to 53%.

President Obama, who will attend a $1,250-a-plate "Gala With the Gay Community" in Manhattan on Thursday, endorses "equal protection under the law" for gay and lesbian couples but continues to believe that marriage equality should be worked out on a state-by-state basis. That makes the last-minute legislative negotiations over New York's bill all the more significant because they eportedly center on amending the measure to ensure that religious social service organizations and social organizations are not inadvertently coerced in violation of conscience.

Illinois' adoption of civil partnerships, for example, has provoked a particularly nasty confrontation with adoption agencies run by Catholic Charities. The agencies want to maintain their longstanding policies of not placing children with same-sex or unmarried couples. Because they receive state funds, however, they're now subject to the civil partnership measure's nondiscriminatory provisions.

The issue is now in court, but if it can't be resolved, Catholic Charities may simply go out of the childcare and adoption business. That's no small matter because its agencies care for 20% of Illinois' parentless children. Nationally, Catholic Charities, with 1,700 agencies, is the country's second-largest provider of social services after the federal government.

If a bipartisan majority in the New York Legislature can work out a path to marriage equality that doesn't involve the sort of destructive confrontation occurring in Illinois, the contribution to moral progress and the common good will be inestimable.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten-column-20110622,0,6376698.column

Must Read! Woman Describes Harrowing Rescue From Icy Tunnel

Marcia Rasmussen runs in Sequoia National Park. She was training for an ultra-marathon when the accident occurred.

The hard-packed snow atop Franklin Creek in Sequoia National Park appeared safe, but when Marcia Rasmussen, 51, walked across, it collapsed, plunging her into an icy tunnel with frigid water. For three hours, in freezing temperatures, she clawed at the frozen ceiling, her bare hands going numb and her body giving out before passersby found her.

An experienced hiker, marathon runner and skier, Rasmussen, of Squaw Valley, described last week's ordeal Monday. She said she is still recovering from minor frostbite that has blackened and blistered her hands and left knee, preventing her from training on the park's high-elevation trails. She said she "feels very, very lucky to be alive."

Temperatures were rising toward 80 degrees when Rasmussen left the Farewell Gap trailhead on Wednesday for a day hike to train for an ultra-marathon. She assessed the snowpack and crossed the bridge without incident, but by the time she came back, the 4-foot-thick foundation had weakened. It cracked open, dropping her the into fast flowing, freezing currents below.

"There was no warning," she said. "One second I'm walking on top of snow, then I'm in the water. There was no warning."

Rasmussen trained wilderness search-and-rescue teams in Virginia for 30 years. So she didn't panic as she fell through the 4-foot-thick snow bridge. "It was like being flushed down a toilet," Rasmussen said.

Dragged by the current along the narrow, icy tunnel, she tumbled down a waterfall before finding branches to stop herself. She told herself not to panic. "You don't have time to think," she said. "My only thought was: get out of the water. It's a very fast way to die. There is no swimming in water that cold."

She pulled herself out of the water into a small alcove. But she was still stuck beneath several feet of hardened snowpack, wearing only nylon jogging clothes.

Rasmussen looked for telltale light blue patches in the snow, a sign that it was thin enough to let light through, and began clawing at what turned out to be 2 feet of frozen snow.

"I used to do search and rescue, so the whole time I'm digging, I know what I'm up against," Rasmussen said. "I know how people die in the snow, but there wasn't much I could do."

Spiritual but not religious, Rasmussen said she prayed and "talked to myself a lot, telling myself I had to be smart and think through my options, telling myself to keep digging."

About the time her freezing arms were beginning to give out, she threw her hydration pack out of the hole, which was about 6 inches in diameter. "I hadn't seen anybody on this trail all day, but there's always hope," she said. "And that's exactly what happened."

Stefan Barycki, 26, a photographer from Visalia, noticed the backpack. Barycki said he wasn't alarmed when he examined the pack, thinking that someone had left it behind. When he saw the hole and peered down, he spotted Rasmussen looking back at him.

"It freaked me out someone was down there," Barycki said. "I could see her mouth saying 'Help,' but she couldn't speak and was shaking like crazy."

Barycki screamed for his friend to come over and they enlarged the hole. They hoisted her out, took off their shirts, and wrapped them around her. Rasmussen was incoherent and suffering from hypothermia. She said she remembers very little of the rescue.

After feeding her PowerBars, Barycki left to get water out of his pack on the other side of the snow bridge, when it collapsed under him. He scrambled out, but was shaken and cautious, and remained on the other side, monitoring Rasmussen from a short distance.

By chance, Ed Patrovsky, a retired park ranger and longtime friend of Rasmussen, walked by on her side of the creek, and gave her his sleeping bag and more clothing. The men waited for about two hours until the park's helicopter arrived, as well as a medic and ranger on foot.

Rasmussen says she was able to walk away and didn't need the park's medical assistance or evacuation. She left the park around nightfall, went to pick up her husband from work, which is a 2 1/2-hour drive, came home and slept.

"I am strong and determined," Rasmussen said. "I do well in the outdoors and in extreme situations. I didn't know till the last second if I was going to make it, but I didn't let myself dwell on those thoughts.

"I will be back up there as soon as I can run again," she said.

ashlie.rodriguez@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-snow-rescue-20110621,0,7914855.story?track=rss

Are Women Being 'Dumbed Down'???

'Think' Author Says Celebrity Culture Is Scrambling Women's Brains

Psst -- put down that copy of Us Weekly you're reading, pronto. It may be turning your brain into soup.

In her book "Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World," CBS legal analyst Lisa Bloom says she's sending a wake-up call to women that the more they obsess about pop culture drivel, the less intellectual they'll become. Instead, their distracted minds will just get foggier and fuzzier than ever.

Bloom says she wrote the book for women in particular because they're the ones lured most by celebrity gossip. Men's minds, she says, are also at risk, but they have different addictions -- like porn, for example -- pulling them away from what really matters.

"Think" opens with two startling statistics: Twenty-five percent of young women in the United States say they'd prefer to win the "America's Next Top Model" title over the Nobel Peace Prize, and 23 percent say they'd rather lose their ability to read than their svelte figures.

MyDaily spoke to Bloom, the daughter of high-profile feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, about whether our minds are truly in danger of turning to mush, what we can do to stop the downward spiral, and whether it's all just a vast media-driven conspiracy aimed at numbing us into oblivion.

MyDaily: What specific example of American women's brains turning to mush persuaded you to write this book -- or was it a whole host of things?
Lisa Bloom: There are a lot of examples: the statistic that 25 percent of American women would rather win "America's Top Model" than the Nobel Prize and roughly the same number would rather lose their ability to read than their figures. When I read that, I got very upset, frankly, and I thought, We really have a problem, but maybe I'm overreacting. I did a lot of research and found that I wasn't overreacting. The problem is actually worse than I could have imagined. The tabloid media, not only does it make women less intelligent, but it makes them more narcissistic and self-loathing.

Do you think there's a chance that even though you've written this in the name of feminism, it will come across as sexist? Do you think you could find an opposing set of studies suggesting women are, in fact, getting smarter and more worldly?
For women, it's the best of times and the worst of times. We're kicking ass in education, we're overwhelming the boys. There's no question that we're very smart. I don't say that women are stupid -- far from it. We're blowing away the boys. What I do say is that we've made some strange left turns. That's why I wrote the book. I think it's up to us to turn the tide.

Am I getting less intellectual if I read People magazine or watch "Access Hollywood"? Is it really so bad to care about what Lindsay Lohan is up to?
I think the tabloid industry has a dumbing-down effect on women. The book was written as a wake-up call. It's a question of balance. There's nothing wrong with taking a glance at a gossip magazine, but if all your focus is on celebrities and tabloids, then your life is out of balance and you will only have so much of your free time to learn about your world. The majority of college students I surveyed could name more Kardashians than wars we're in.

Is this a vast, media-driven conspiracy?
I don't really believe in conspiracies as a rule, but what I do say in the book is that it becomes a vicious cycle. When I try to pitch serious stories, they don't want to run them because they tell me that women won't watch. I don't believe that. One of the reasons I wrote this book is to take this directly to women: This is what news directors think of you. We want change. There's always a behind-the-scenes dilemma: Do we cover real news or fluff? It's up to us as consumers to demand better coverage. I don't think the media is off the hook. The media delivers crap to us, and we watch it. It becomes this endless cycle.

Is there any hope for women in the current climate? Isn't it OK if we want to be smart and sexy -- or do we have to choose?
Absolutely. Of course there's hope. We're an intelligent group of women. Women feel they have to dumb themselves down to get an in. They want to have more meaning. They don't want to live this way. I think it's fine to make yourself look nice and wear nice clothes as a matter of self-expression or self-love. It's just a matter of balance. We don't want to go overboard. There are so many messages in our culture about women looking good and very few about using their minds.

You write about your famous mom, but how would you say she inspired you?
My mom always wanted to talk about ideas and issues in the world. I grew up going to picket with her, for unions, gay pride -- learning about the world. She never cared much about how my nails were done or how I wore my hair. She cared about what was in my head. I'm very grateful she raised me that way. She's also fearless, and that's very inspiring.

Are men's minds becoming softer too, or is this just a woman thing?
The same problem exists for men, they just have different distractions -- sports, video games and online porn. That's where they spend huge amounts of time. That's a whole separate book, which may very well be the next one I write.

http://www.mydaily.com/2011/06/17/think-author-celebrity-culture-dumbing-down-women/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl10|sec1_lnk2|71307

Signs To Tell If It's Love Or Just Lust

As a psychiatrist, I've seen how intense sexual attraction is notorious for obliterating common sense and intuition in the most sensible people. Why? Lust is an altered state of consciousness programmed by the primal urge to procreate. The brain in this phase may be much like a brain on drugs. MRI scans illustrate that the area that "lights up" (becomes active) when an addict gets a fix of cocaine is the same area that "lights up" when a person is experiencing the intense lust of physical attraction. Also, in the early stage of a relationship, when the sex hormones are raging, lust is fueled by idealization and projection -- you see what you hope someone will be or need them to be -- rather than seeing the real person, flaws and all.

In my book "GUIDE TO INTUITIVE HEALING" I discuss the difference between lust and love as well as techniques to enhance sexual wellness. Pure lust is based solely on physical attraction and fantasy -- it often dissipates when the "real person" surfaces. It's the stage of wearing rose-colored glasses when he or she "can do no wrong." Being in love doesn't exclude lust. In fact, lust can lead to love. However, real love, not based on idealization or projection, requires time to get to know each other. Here are some signs to watch for to differentiate pure lust from love.

Signs of lust:

• You're totally focused on a person's looks and body.
• You're interested in having sex, but not in having conversations.
• You'd rather keep the relationship on a fantasy level, not discuss real feelings.
• You want to leave soon after sex rather than cuddling or breakfast the next morning.
• You are lovers, but not friends.

Signs of love:

• You want to spend quality time together other than sex.
• You get lost in conversations and forget about the hours passing.
• You want to honestly listen to each other's feelings, make each other happy.
• He or she motivates you to be a better person.
• You want to get to meet his or her family and friends.

Another challenge of sexual attraction is learning to stay centered and listen to your gut in the early stages of being with someone. This isn't easy in the midst of hormones surging, but it's essential to make healthy relationship decisions. Here are some tips to help you keep your presence of mind when you're attracted to someone. This needn't pull the plug on passion, but it'll make you more aware so you don't go looking for trouble.

Four negative gut feelings about relationships:

1. A little voice in your gut says "danger" or "beware."
2. You have a sense of malaise, discomfort or feeling drained after you're together.
3. Your attraction feels destructive or dark.
4. You're uncomfortable with how this person is treating you, but you're afraid that if you mention it, you'll push him or her away.

Over the years, I've spoken at women's prisons and domestic violence centers. My talk, "How Listening to Your Gut Can Prevent Domestic Violence," focuses on showing women how to identify and act on their inner voice. The gut senses a potential for kindness and violence. Many women who'd been in abusive relationships admitted, "My gut initially told me something was wrong -- but I ignored it." The pattern was consistent. They'd say, "I'd meet a man. At first he'd be charming, sexy, sweep me off my feet. The electricity between us was amazing. I'd write off the voice in my gut that said, 'You'd better watch out,' as fear of getting involved. When later the abuse began, I was already hooked." Some gut instincts though, are anything but subtle. On a first date, one woman landed in the hospital with an IV, retching from "psychosomatic" abdominal pain. But did that stop her from seeing the guy? No. From these women we gain a real-world lesson: no matter how irresistibly attractive someone appears, close attention to your gut will enable you to see beneath exteriors.

It's so much nicer to be involved with someone your gut likes. Then you're not always guarding against a basic suspicion or incompatibility. You must also give yourself permission to listen to your gut when it says, "This person is healthy for you. You are going to make each other happy." To be happy, take a risk, but also pay attention to the warning signs I presented. This allows you to wisely go for the fulfilling relationships you deserve.

Judith Orloff MD

Author, 'Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-orloff-md/lust-love-difference_b_876162.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl4|sec3_lnk1|70598

Guard That Password (& Make Sure It’s Encrypted!)

For a pretty strong password, think 10. If your password contains 10 characters, you should be able to sleep well at night — perhaps for 19.24 years. 

That’s how long it would take hackers to try every combination of 10 characters, assuming that the password is encrypted and that the hackers have enough computing power to mount a 100-billion-guesses-a-second effort to break the encryption.

But if your user names and passwords are sitting unencrypted on a server, you may not be able to sleep at all if you start contemplating the potential havoc ahead. 

The hacker group LulzSec, for example, recently said it had gained access to Sony’s servers, where it could get at names, home addresses and passwords for more than one million Sony customers: everything was stored in plain text form. It posted information for more than 37,000 user accounts. 

Sony Pictures issued a statement saying that “we deeply regret and apologize for any inconvenience caused to consumers by this cybercrime.”

Hackers would love to get their hands on a complete collection of all of your passwords, like those held at LastPass, a cloud-based password management service. At the instruction of its customers, LastPass stores user names and passwords on its server as each Web site is visited, then fills in everything automatically on subsequent visits.

LastPass reported last month that it had noticed some odd behavior in its network traffic logs and might have suffered an online break-in. 

I’ve been a customer of LastPass since last year and felt a twinge of concern upon hearing the news. But my nerves were calmed by the enthusiasm of independent security experts who view LastPass’s security model to be exceptionally well designed. LastPass does not store actual passwords, only the encrypted forms. It does not hold the key to decrypting them — only its users hold that. It doesn’t even store the user’s master LastPass password, the one used to gain access to all the others: this, too, is encrypted before it is sent to the cloud and arrives at LastPass. 

Steve Gibson, a security expert and chief executive of the Gibson Research Corporation, a publisher of utility programs for PCs, says he uses LastPass because its service adheres to his dictum that data “should be encrypted before it goes up to the cloud and then decrypted when it returns.”

LastPass, based in Vienna, Va., is a relatively new service, having started in 2008. Joe Siegrist, its chief executive, says that from its inception the company built systems to withstand every kind of imaginable threat, including the possibility “that its own employees cannot be trusted.” 

LastPass does have a possible vulnerability that Mr. Siegrist makes no effort to shy away from: it depends on the user’s selecting a strong master password, one not found in a dictionary in any language.

If LastPass, or any company that stored passwords in encrypted form, were to suffer a data breach, the risk would be that the thieves could apply a brute-force attack at their leisure, offline, methodically trying every possible combination of characters until a match was found. With a physical safe and a combination lock, the thieves would need nearly infinite patience and a nearly infinite life expectancy to work their way through the possibilities.

Computers, however, work at a different speed. 

Mr. Gibson posted a Web page that allows visitors to see how long it would take for a computer to try every possible combination of letters, numbers and special symbols to crack an encrypted password.

Here’s a little quiz: Which is the stronger password? “PrXyc.N54” or “D0g!!!!!!!”?

The first one, with nine characters, is a beaut. Mr. Gibson’s page says that it would take a hacker 2.43 months to go through every nine-character combination offline, at the rate of a hundred billion guesses a second. The second one, however, is 10 characters. That one extra character makes it much, much stronger: it would take 19.24 years at the hundred-billion-guesses-a-second rate. (Security researchers have established the feasibility of achieving these speeds with fairly inexpensive hardware.)

Don’t worry about the apparent resemblance of “D0g,” with a zero in the middle, to the word in the dictionary. That doesn’t matter, “because the attacker is totally blind to the way your passwords look,” Mr. Gibson writes on his Web site. 

“The old expression ‘Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades’ applies here,” he says. “The only thing that an attacker can know is whether a password guess was an exact match or not.”

Mr. Gibson says that as long as the password is not on a list of commonly used passwords and is not found in a dictionary, the most important password factor is length. 

A  SKEPTICAL voice comes from Paul C. Van Oorschot, a professor of computer science at Carleton University in Ottawa. “I believe any system will fail,” he contends. Consequently, he says, “I don’t use a password manager; I write my passwords down on paper, slightly obfuscated.” Even this, however, does not give him enough comfort for some things: he does not have an online banking account because of his concern about hacking risk.

An alternative response to that risk is to use strong passwords, gibberish characters adding up to at least 10 characters. Of course, it is absolutely imperative that Web sites store your password in encrypted form. Always, always, always. 

If Sony had built more secure systems, it would not find itself being mocked in the public square. A new Web site has popped up: HasSonyBeenHackedThisWeek.com.

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.

Is Tracy Morgan Nuts Or Just Plain Stupid?

Equal opportunity offender?

After a tremendous public outcry, Tracy Morgan has apologized for violent, anti-gay jokes he made during a stand-up routine in Nashville on June 3.
But Christy Frank, a Morgan fan who was at the show, tells Us Weekly that the 30 Rock star's rant covered broad territory.


 "I definitely was uncomfortable when he started going off," Frank said. "He was being offensive to a lot of different groups, not just gay people."
During his bit, Morgan  joked that he'd stab his son if he ever said he was gay.

"He also started going off against the anti-bullying campaign - that's a really serious issue," Frank said. "He started going off on anti-bullying campaigns saying they were BS and they needed to stop being chickens about everything. He said [GLBT people] should be able to stand up for themselves."


Many audience members "got up and left," Frank confirmed. "No one was booing him. Everyone was laughing, but you could tell they were uncomfortable."
"It was a little bit nuts. Definitely poor judgment on his part...It was way more offensive and explicit than I was expecting."
In his public apology, Morgan, 42, said, "I'm not a hateful person and don't condone any kind of violence against others...even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context."


But many groups charge that Morgan's apology isn't enough. Says Jody Huckaby, Executive Director of PFLAG Nation: "At a time when bullying and  harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth is at an all-time high – when kids are being assaulted, are dying – to joke about committing violence against a child is outrageous and reprehensible. As a celebrity, Mr. Morgan needs to understand that his words have power."
Adds GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios: "Tracy Morgan must not only apologize, but assure us that this won't happen again and send a clear message to Americans that anti-gay violence is no joke."

GLAAD has offered to arrange meetings between Morgan and families who have lost children to anti-gay violence.
"If Tracy Morgan is sincere, he should take us up on meeting these families who have lost loved ones to the type of violence that he is mocking," Barrios said. "Perhaps by hearing their stories, he will learn that while we all love humor, this is no laughing matter."

http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/witness-tracy-morgans-homophobic-rant-was-nuts-2011106

What Does Gwyneth Have To Say About The Bible???

Gwyneth Paltrow devotes this week's GOOP newsletter to the topic of homosexuality in the Bible, opening with remarks on a former Arkansas school board member who last year encouraged gays to commit suicide and justified his comments with his religious beliefs. Gwyneth writes:

"A few months ago, in the heat of the tragic teen suicides that came about from intolerance of homosexuality, I saw a man on television who was apologizing for wishing death on gays from his facebook page. This member of an Arkansas school board was contrite for the violence in his words, but maintained that his values pertaining to homosexuality would remain, as he felt homosexuality was condemned in the bible. This concept, while foreign to me, is interesting, as it used to justify so much judgement and separation in our society. When my daughter came home from school one day saying that a classmate had two mommies, my response was, "Two mommies? How lucky is she?!" What does it actually say in the bible that will cause some people to be upset by my line of thinking? Happy pride."
Love,
gp

Gwyneth, who practices Kabbalah, follows with writings from several religious thinkers who thoughtfully denounce the use of the Bible to condemn gays. She also allows discriminatory remarks from a conservative Christian because she wanted to "include as many perspectives as possible." This man concludes with "Here, then, are three truths which Jesus affirmed: (1) heterosexual gender is a divine creation; (2) heterosexual marriage is a divine institution; and (3) heterosexual fidelity is the divine intention. A homosexual liaison is a breach of all three of these divine purposes."

Read the whole GOOP here.

25 Manners Every Kid Should Know By Age 9

Your child's rude 'tude isn't always intentional. Sometimes kids just don't realize it's impolite to interrupt, pick their nose, or loudly observe that the lady walking in front of them has a large behind. And in the hustle and bustle of daily life, busy moms and dads don't always have the time to focus on etiquette. But if you reinforce these 25 must-do manners, you'll raise a polite, kind, well-liked child.-

Manner #1

When asking for something, say "Please."

Manner #2

When receiving something, say "Thank you."

Related: Kid-Made Thank You Notes

Manner #3 Do not interrupt grown-ups who are speaking with each other unless there is an emergency. They will notice you and respond when they are finished talking.

Manner #4
If you do need to get somebody's attention right away, the phrase "excuse me" is the most polite way for you to enter the conversation.
Manner #5
When you have any doubt about doing something, ask permission first. It can save you from many hours of grief later.

Manner #6 The world is not interested in what you dislike. Keep negative opinions to yourself, or between you and your friends, and out of earshot of adults.

Manner #7 Do not comment on other people's physical characteristics unless, of course, it's to compliment them, which is always welcome.
Related: Raise Polite Kids

Manner #8 When people ask you how you are, tell them and then ask them how they are.

Manner #9
When you have spent time at your friend's house, remember to thank his or her parents for having you over and for the good time you had.

Manner #10 Knock on closed doors -- and wait to see if there's a response -- before entering.

Manner #11 When you make a phone call, introduce yourself first and then ask if you can speak with the person you are calling.
Manner #12 Be appreciative and say "thank you" for any gift you receive. In the age of e-mail, a handwritten thank-you note can have a powerful effect.

Manner #13 Never use foul language in front of adults. Grown-ups already know all those words, and they find them boring and unpleasant.

Manner #14
Don't call people mean names.

Manner #15 Do not make fun of anyone for any reason. Teasing shows others you are weak, and ganging up on someone else is cruel.

Related: Raise a Compassionate Kid

Manner #16 Even if a play or an assembly is boring, sit through it quietly and pretend that you are interested. The performers and presenters are doing their best.

Manner #17 If you bump into somebody, immediately say "Excuse me."

Manner #18 Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and don't pick your nose in public.
Related: How to Handle Inappropriate Behavior

Manner #19
As you walk through a door, look to see if you can hold it open for someone else.

Manner #20 If you come across a parent, a teacher, or a neighbor working on something, ask if you can help. If they say "yes," do so -- you may learn something new.

Manner #21 When an adult asks you for a favor, do it without grumbling and with a smile.
Related: Use this Table-Setting Map as a Guide

Manner #22 When someone helps you, say "thank you." That person will likely want to help you again. This is especially true with teachers!

Manner #23 Use eating utensils properly. If you are unsure how to do so, ask your parents to teach you or watch what adults do.

Manner #24
Keep a napkin on your lap; use it to wipe your mouth when necessary.

Manner #25
Don't reach for things at the table; ask to have them passed.

See more on teaching manners to your toddlers and preschoolers. 
Originally published in the March 2011 issue of Parents magazine.

How Many Billions Of Galaxies In The Universe???

Our Earth feels like all there is, but we know that it’s just a tiny planet in a vast Solar System. And our Solar System is just one member of a vast Milky Way galaxy with 200 to 400 billion stars. But how many galaxies are there in the entire Universe?

This is a difficult number to know for certain, since we can only see a fraction of the Universe, even with our most powerful instruments. The most current estimates guess that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the Universe, each of which has hundreds of billions of stars. A recent German supercomputer simulation put that number even higher: 500 billion. In other words, there could be a galaxy out there for every star in the Milky Way.

As I mentioned, these numbers are considered rough estimates. In order to create these estimates, astronomers use a powerful telescope, like the Hubble Space Telescope, to deeply study a region of the sky. By gathering light for hundreds of hours, Hubble is able to see more deeply than any Earth-based telescope could ever hope to look. Astronomers count up the number of galaxies in the cone of space that makes up the deep image, and then use this as an average for the rest of the sky. Even though they’re really only observed a tiny fraction of the sky at that depth, they can estimate the rest.

Most of the galaxies in the Universe are probably tiny dwarf galaxies. For example, in our Local Group of galaxies there are only 3 large spiral galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy. The rest are dwarf and irregular galaxies.

We have written many articles about galaxies for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the number of stars in the Milky Way, and here’s another about the number of stars in the whole Universe.

Want more resources on galaxies? Here’s a link to the Messier catalog’s section on Galaxies. And here’s NASA’s World Book on galaxies.

http://www.universetoday.com/30305/how-many-galaxies-in-the-universe/

Winners Of 'Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door'!!!

Kate
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

We must keep fighting for those who do not have a voice, and with the help of PETA, we can and will.

This stunning redheaded photographer, model, and opera singer hails from Tennessee. A proud vegan, wife, and mother, Kate made the switch to a plant-based diet back in 2009 after she saw a news story about a dog who had been abused. She then realized that the only difference between our animal companions and the animals who are killed for food is how we treat them. When she's not busy snapping photos, modeling, singing, or looking after her vegetarian baby girl, she enjoys writing, hiking, and playing video games. This slim and trim beauty also loves working out, and she credits her vegan diet with giving her the ability to curl more than the boys at the gym! She says, "Being vegan has brought out the me I've always wanted to be." Kate, we like the you that you've become!

Jason
Waconia, Minn.

Sexy raw vegan from the suburbs of Minneapolis, MN!

This charming scientist, who studied molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, uses plants as medicine and the kitchen as his laboratory. Three years ago, Jason decided to go vegetarian, and he went vegan one year later after reading The China Study. As a self-proclaimed expert chef, he is accustomed to wowing friends and family with mouthwatering vegan cuisine. In addition to cooking, he enjoys traveling with his wife, practicing yoga, speaking out against the fur industry and puppy mills, and pampering his three adopted animal companions, Roxy, Ziggy, and Truman. Jason attributes his health, fitness, and energy to his vegan diet. According to Jason, "Nothing is sexier than a compassionate individual," and we couldn't agree more.

http://features.peta.org/sexy-veg-2011/Winners.aspx

Whitney Houston's Rep: Emphysema Story Is 'Completely Untrue'

On the heels of sub par and canceled live performances, Whitney Houston now has a much more serious low to battle on her hands. According to a National Enquirer report, doctors informed the singer that she is suffering from early stages of emphysema, which would be an obvious culprit to Houston's poorly received vocal performances as of late."She's developed emphysema -- and her doctors are warning her she'll die a horrible death," a friend of the singer told the Enquirer.

Sound too "horrible" to be true? You guessed right, champ. After staying silent most of the day, Whitney's rep Kristen Foster responded, telling E! News the Enquirer's story is "completely untrue."

According to the sensational story, medical professionals have told Houston, 47, that if she does not completely kick her smoking habit, the disease will take her life. But Houston isn't so keen on ditching the cigs, and the task of weening the 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' singer off of her crutch has fallen to 18-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristin -- who, fresh off a stint in rehab, is recovering from her own substance addictions.

In early April, Houston canceled several of her European tour shows due to a respiratory infection. The tour was initially conceived to promote Houston's 2009 comeback album, 'I Look To You' -- her first album in seven years. We hope that Houston will look to her daughter before she puts herself six feet under.

http://www.popeater.com/2011/06/02/whitney-houston-emphysema/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl2|sec1_lnk2|67829

Review: Disney California Adventure's Little Mermaid Ride

The cute, new $100-million Little Mermaid dark ride is just what Disney California Adventure needed: a D-Ticket attraction geared toward moms with young children.

Ursula's lair scene from Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure at Disney California Adventure.

While neither groundbreaking nor awe-inspiring, Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is the type of audio-animatronic ride sorely lacking at the built-on-the-cheap Anaheim theme park, which is undergoing a $1.1 billion renovation.

In execution, storytelling and quality, Little Mermaid compares favorably with the classic Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan’s Flight attractions found next door at Disneyland.

Although the new attraction is more encompassing and ambitious than California Adventure's Monsters Inc.: Mike & Sulley to the Rescue, it doesn't redefine the dark ride genre like the Anaheim theme park's Toy Story Midway Mania.

With its simple and straightforward narrative, Little Mermaid reminds me of Snow White's Scary Adventures and Pinocchio's Daring Journey at Disneyland – and in time will likely join those classic ranks. But for now, the new ride falls into the category of necessary.

Related: Scene-by-scene preview of Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure

During a preview ride last week, I found Ursula’s lair to be my favorite scene by far, with the 12-foot-wide villainess squishing and bulging as she sang “Poor Unfortunate Souls” with a mix of menace and wit.

From a technical standpoint, I was most impressed with Ariel, considering the amazing amount of animatronics stuffed into her diminutive figure. In the opening grotto scene, Ariel’s mesmerizing animated hair flowed as if it had a life of its own, much like Donald Trump’s pompadour.

I was pleased to see only a limited number of video screens throughout the ride. They were used to add atmosphere and propel storytelling rather than in place of animatronics.

Ultimately, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure felt more like a theme park ride than an all-encompassing journey through the movie. I blame the long and bare transitions between scenes for chopping up the story and breaking the continuity. Along several stretches, riders see only featureless rock-work with sparse outcroppings of seaweed.

Also lacking were the smaller details often discovered on repeat rides – such as the treasures stuffed into Ariel’s grotto or the puckering frogs in the "Kiss the Girl" scene. Hopefully future “plussing” by the folks at Walt Disney Imagineering will fill in some of the blanks.

I found the pace of the clam-shell vehicles to be particularly plodding on preview rides during the attraction’s test-and-adjust phase. Hopefully the speed will pick up when the ride officially opens Friday.

While the new Little Mermaid attraction will likely never be a must-ride for me, it’s  a much-needed addition to California Adventure. What’s sad and disappointing is that it took Disney 10 years to add the kind of traditional dark ride that should have been one of the basic building blocks of the park on opening day.

An identical version of the ride, called Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid, is expected to open in 2013 at the Magic Kingdom in Florida.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-little-mermaid-disney-california-adventure-review-06201101,0,5430289.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29