Perhaps the best reason to heed former Secretary of State Colin Powell now is because no one did before in a Bush administration that has taken multiple wrong turns in its war in Iraq. Powell, author of the Pottery Barn principle - "You break it, you own it" - has turned out to be something of a reluctant prophet on Iraq. Powell also is author of the Powell Doctrine, which says that America should only ... [full story]

George Bush is at the end of a line at a department store returns window; he is carrying a large, damaged, smoldering box labeled 'Iraq War.' [full story]

Daily, the hard-luck hard-drive tales trickle in to San Diego PC Help. Often, the computers had been giving warning signals, making strange noises, clicking and whining. And finally, the hard drives stopped altogether, putting all their files out of reach. "We get 10 or 11 a week," said Jeremy Frank, a service coordinator for the repair business. "In many cases, we're able to recover some or all of the data. But in about four cases ... [full story]

IBM and Intel Corporation have joined in an initiative aimed at improving how IT managers select, deploy and measure virtualized server solutions for enterprise data centers. Virtualization technology, such as VMware Infrastructure, on Intel-based servers is becoming widely used in production environments and is increasing capturing mid-tier application workloads. “As mid-sized and large enterprise IT organizations strive to cash in on the cost savings of data center consolidation through server virtualization, hosting applications on larger, ... [full story]

If you noticed any gaps in your china or silver service when setting your holiday table this year - or maybe you accidentally created a gap or two by dropping a dish or feeding a fork to the garbage disposal - you'll be glad to know that replacing those items is easier than ever.   NEED A MATCH? - Stop serving holiday meals with mismatched china, silver or glassware; matching services can restore incomplete sets, even ... [full story]

With the bitter cold combined with a lack of electricity, many in Washington and Oregon have struggled to stay warm this past week. Vent-free gas appliances, however, provide heat even when power is lost because of severe weather or emergency situations. "In an emergency situation or power outage, people can rely on vent-free gas appliances to provide a safe, reliable and easy to use heating source," said Sue Walker, chairman of the Vent-Free Gas Products ... [full story]

“Dignified” might not always equal healthy. Sit­ting straight up­right strains the back un­nec­es­sar­ily, caus­ing po­ten­tially chron­ic pain prob­lems over the long run, a new study has found.The sci­en­tists pre­sented the find­ings Nov. 27 in Chi­ca­go at the an­nu­al meet­ing of the Ra­di­o­log­i­cal So­ci­e­ty of North Amer­i­ca.   Sit­ting at 135 de­grees rath­er than 90 de­grees could im­prove back health, re­search­ers say. “A 135-degree body-thigh sit­ting pos­ture was dem­on­strat­ed to be the best bio­me­ch­a­n­i­cal sit­ting po­si­tion, as ... [full story]

New Vaccine Puts the Pox on Shingles for Adult Sufferers of the Painful Infection PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The new vaccine for adult shingles is now available free of charge to Medicare members of FamilyCare. Known as Zostavax, the vaccine is used in adults age 60 and older and reduces the incidence of shingles by half and pain and discomfort by nearly two-thirds according to Merck research. "This vaccine helps prevent an illness ... [full story]

It may sound like a recurring theme, but medical research shows that sleep is essential to both physical and mental health, especially among the elderly. That point was driven home in a November report from the International Longevity Center-USA, which is affiliated with the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. "The prevalence of sleep-related problems increases with age," said Dr. Harrison Bloom, co-author of the study report and senior associate with the center. ... [full story]

Tapping the region may prove important in rehabilitation Watch and learn. Experience says it works, but how? University of Oregon researchers have seen the light, by imaging the brain, while test subjects watched films of others building objects with Tinker Toys. As detailed in the Dec. 20 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), found that when a person watches someone else perform a task with the intention of ... [full story]