Como vai faithful XT readers and welcome to all our new subscribers this month. 

Everyone is understandably feeling sad as we contemplate the realities of war, so for some comic relief I thought I'd talk about trivial problems that I face from day to day.

I regard myself as a bit of a gadget man and I've welcomed the age of automation with enthusiasm and interest. However a few days ago I realized that I'm quickly being overtaken by the digital revolution.

24/7 I'm being subjected to an array of multiple beeps and tones as all my labor saving gadgets communicate their little messages to me. It starts with alarm clock beeps telling me it's time to get out of bed. The microwave beeps to tell me breakfast  is ready, more beeps tell me I've left the refrigerator door open too long, the security system beeps to tell me all is secure, the smoke alarm tells me it needs a new battery, my mobile phone beeps to assure me it needs recharging, the car beeps to tell me my seat belt is not fastened etc. etc.

I admit it, the old-fashioned analogue phone bells were fairly nerve jangling but the single octave chirping of "Mission Impossible" or "William Tell Overture" on a nearby mobile telephone don't do much to soothe my anxiety either ..

I hope future gadget designers will build in more melodious tunes to alert me to various things. They apparently have yet to discover musical chords.

Beep beep! .. Was that someone at the front door ? .. or was it the bread maker .?
Turned out to be the smoke alarm -  the toaster
didn't warn me that my toast was about to catch fire.

Our exciting country of the month is Brazil !

Ate mais tarde until next month.

Dr John K. Flynn B.D.Sc.
The Xerostar Times Editor 
Caring for Creative People
..

AguasAlone togetherAmorBegin the BeguineBesame muchoBrazilBrazil 2CarnivalDepoisdoDesafinadoDreamEl GauchoThe girl from IpanemaTico TicoSampa

Find out how to set up your computer for maximum
enjoyment of MIDI music. Click Here
.

Many of the prices on Pillstore.com have been 
lowered significantly! Here are a few examples:

90 Phentermine 37.5mg lowered $69!!
60 Phentermine 37.5mg lowered $46!!
30 Phentermine 37.5 mg lowered $30!!
90 Didrex 50mg lowered $40!!
90 Meridia 10mg lowered $100!

- Lowered pricing is here! As much as $100 off!
- Phendimetrazine and Tramadol have been added!

Check out NewPillstore.com Click Here
...

Our friend Ellen Ullman, whose wonderful new novel "The Bug" will be out in May, has written for Harper's and been a commentator for National Public Radio. The following passage is excerpted from her 1997 memoir "Close to the Machine": 
      "Living a virtual life is an art. Like all arts, virtuality is neither consistent nor reliable. It takes a certain firmness of will, and a measure of inspiration, to get up each and every day and make up your existence from scratch. As every artist knows, every writer and homebound mother, if you are not careful, your days--without boundaries as it is--can leak away. Sunday can find all your efforts puddle around you, everything underway, nothing accomplished. 
       "But the virtual life of techno-business requires something even more than inspiration. What is mandatory is that you present to the world the appearance of actual existence. You must seem to be a company in the usual sense of the world, with an office full of humming enterprise. Nothing is stranger than sitting in dirty sweatpants and picking up the ringing phone to say 'Ellen Ullman speaking' in a mature, efficient voice. It is as if I have projected myself into another universe, where I am dressed in a blazer and slacks and my hair is washed, some place completely discontinuous with the universe I inhabit in sweats. While I speak on the phone--to a client, a CEO--I am aware that I have thrown my voice correctly, that they have seen me as I wished to be seen: a clever, enterprising woman in a cool, brick-walled loft. To hang up then is almost painful. Click. I return to myself: creature swimming alone in puddles of time." 
From Ellen Ullman's "Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents"

Buy the book at Amazon.com. Click Here
..

We're pleased to see how many people come back to download this free MIDI eBook again and again.  We think it's a beautiful story and the music is timeless. Take a fantasy trip and read this enchanting tale soon. We hope it'll inspire you to write your very own MIDI eBook.

To read all about it. Click  Here

Don't forget to check out all of our unique books 
Click  Here
 ...

For hundreds of years, Brazil has symbolized the great escape into a primordial, tropical paradise, igniting the Western imagination like no other South American country.

From the mad passion of Carnival to the immensity of the dark Amazon, Brazil is a country of mythic proportions. All the while, the people of Brazil delight visitors with their energy, fantasy and joy.

Full country name: República Federativa do Brasil
Area: 8,514,215 sq km (3,286,487 sq mi) 
Population: 175 million
Capital city: Brasília
People: 55% European descent, 38% mulatto, 6% African descent (according to the 1980 census). In reality, these figures are skewed by whiteness being equated with social stature in Brazil.
Language: Portuguese
Religion: 70% Roman Catholic; also a significant proportion who either belong to various cults or practice Indian animism 
Government: Federal republic
President: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

GDP: US$650 billion
GDP per head: US$4060
Inflation: 8% (1999)
Major industries:Textiles, shoes, chemicals, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel, motor vehicles and parts, arms, soya beans, orange juice, beef, chicken, coffee, sugar
Major trading partners: EU, Central and South America, Asia, USA
 

To find out more please Click Here
Courtesy of Lonely Planet.com

Click on the map to enlarge
.

Mother's Tune is a spiritual journey through the answers of life and the mystery of death.
Timothy Jukus' story has a setting and a style that's reminiscent of Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer".
However the story soon develops into a deeply thought provoking adventure of the mind.
This is a true MIDI-eBook that contains music and sound effects which make it an entertaining read.. 

Check out the sales page! Click Here

Great interactive and visual fun for everyone - and there's usually a big money competition on too.
There is so much to do at this web site, it will keep you and the kids busy all weekend.

You can go there now - just Click Here
..

A web site where you will find a huge choice of ezines covering every interest.

Please rate the XT at Cumuli.com Click Here
.

Sometimes, rarely, an organization arises of such excellence that it's efforts enhance the lives of thousands for generations. The National Geographic Society is just such an organization, and both the magazine and the Web site are the tip of an iceberg of contributions to exploration and discovery. The Web site is full of interesting articles and photographs - always a pleasure to visit. 

To view the web site please Click Here 

So often, a well chosen background brings a Web site alive. If you design Web sites, and are tired of searching for the exact background image or left-side bar that you want, you can now create your own seamless backgrounds with this excellent software. No complicated techniques to learn. Everything is a button click or simple slider adjustment. 2.82MB. Windows 95/98/2000/Me.

For more info please Click Here
..

This futuristic, stunningly beautiful yet challenging game is now available for Windows (not 95) and will give many hours of enjoyment. Windows XP/Me/NT4/2000/98 10.2MB.  Free Demo.
Click Here
 

To finish reading this article Click Here
..

"Look what I did honey!" 
by Mike Litrel M.D.
I usually ask the father to cut the umbilical cord when he's at the delivery. It's not that I need the help. Rather, cutting the cord is an important symbolic event. An expectant woman becomes a mother, a family is born, hope wonderfully fulfilled. 
But there's another reason to involve the father. Fathers can be pretty useless at times like this. Women understand this sad fact but for the most part keep it secret from us men. A man's ego is a fragile thing. We've convinced ourselves we're strong and smart and in command. But as we bear witness to the awesome struggle of a woman's labor, even the most dim-witted of us begin to suspect something is up. The moment the baby is born and new life is miraculously brought forth, we begin to understand the errors of our thinking. It's a life-changing experience -­ the realization of the true beauty of the mothers of our children.  We are humbled.
But we men don't handle being humbled very well. We confuse humility with humiliation. A new mother's life is difficult enough without having her husband's damaged ego to nurse as well as her baby. With this in mind, I've found it useful to distract the husband with an accomplishment of his own so the mother's postpartum course is not unduly burdened. 
So, he gets to cut the cord. 
Cutting the cord is technically less difficult than cutting coupons out of the Sunday paper. Most men realize this, and although very well satisfied with their small contribution, keep their self-congratulations to a minimum: "Sweetheart, with you carrying the baby for nine months, and all those painful contractions and pushing, and me cutting the cord so well, I think we both did a pretty good job." 
Yet the occasional father takes it to the extreme. "Look what I did, honey!" He looks to his wife, exhausted from her labor and blood loss, for approval. "Did you see me? I just cut the cord! By myself!" Chest swelled with pride and beer belly drooping over his belt, this is the kind of man who walks around for the next couple of decades completely self-satisfied with the thought "that thing would still be attached to you if it wasn't for me." 
Some husbands, on the other hand, are appropriately appreciative. 
One of these appreciative husbands came to my office with his wife every visit. They had already tried for several years without success to conceive and suffered tremendously from a sense of failure and loss of hope. They submitted to the usual battery of tests in the painstaking task of attempting to time the miracle of conception. After several months with no success, I was going to send them to see Dr. Lisa Hasty. Lisa is a nationally recognized reproductive endocrinologist who specializes in In Vitro Fertilization. 
But then out of the blue my patient conceived. 
Throughout the next nine months, her husband was an unfailing source of support and encouragement. On the day of the delivery he was beside his wife, holding her hand, from the moment of her first contraction. "You are so beautiful!" he told her. "You are doing so well!" Throughout her long labor he rubbed her back, he hugged her, he got her sips of water. And again and again he repeated his mantra ­- "you are so beautiful, you are doing so well." 
Finally the baby emerged. The father's hand trembled as he cut the cord, and when I placed the baby on the mother's abdomen, he began to weep uncontrollably. I watched as he hugged his wife and newborn daughter, and at that moment, as the family began their new story, all the self-doubts and suffering of the past seemed to evaporate in an instant into an indescribable joy. It shone from their faces through their tears. And the room could hardly contain it. 
"You are both so beautiful," he told his family, his voice cracking. 
Their past trials hadn't darkened their happiness, but like a piercing light, had made their happiness more clear. Unlike the quick snip of a cord, with its illusion of accomplishment, the suffering they had borne for so long had opened their eyes, so they could see their child for the miracle she was. 
I think this is true for all of us. The burden of pain that accompanies us throughout our lives can sometimes be life's most mysterious gift as well. It strengthens our vision, so we can recognize the miracle of joy that often waits for us, just on the other side of despair. 

Mike Litrel, M.D., is an Ob/Gyn who practices in the Atlanta area and holds a position as Clinical Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine. He and his wife Ann have two sons and live in Woodstock, Georgia.

Courtesy of NewsScan Daily. To subscribe: Send a message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line
..

Green background with a large yellow diamond in the center bearing a blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars (one for each state and the Federal District) arranged in the same pattern as the night sky over Brazil; the globe has a white equatorial band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress) 

Visit a charming web site dedicated to education
with more information about the flag  Click Here
..

Fingerprint Door Locks
Fingerprint door lock can be opened with the touch of a user's fingertip without any risk of it being stolen or copied like cards...

Inquire now Email: tradehyundai@yahoo.co.kr 
..

The Portuguese were the first European settlers to arrive in the area, led by adventurous Pedro Cabral, who began the colonial period in 1500. The Portuguese reportedly found native Indians numbering around seven million. Most tribes were peripatetic, with only limited agriculture and temporary dwellings, although villages often had as many as 5000 inhabitants. Cultural life appears to have been richly developed, although both tribal warfare and cannibalism were ubiquitous. The few remaining traces of Brazil's Indian tribes reveal little of their lifestyle, unlike the evidence from other Andean tribes. Today, fewer than 200,000 of Brazil's indigenous people survive, most of whom inhabit the jungle areas.

Other Portuguese explorers followed Cabral, in search of valuable goods for European trade but also for unsettled land and the opportunity to escape poverty in Portugal itself.   The only item of value they discovered was the pau do brasil (brazil wood tree) from which they created red dye. Unlike the colonizing philosophy of the Spanish, the Portuguese in Brazil were much less focused at first on conquering, controlling, and developing the country. Most were impoverished sailors, who were far more interested in profitable trade and subsistence agriculture than in territorial expansion. The country's interior remained unexplored.

Nonetheless, sugar soon came to Brazil, and with it came imported slaves.  To a degree unequaled in most of the American colonies, the Portuguese settlers frequently intermarried with both the Indians and the African slaves, and there were also mixed marriages between the Africans and Indians. As a result, Brazil's population is intermingled to a degree that is unseen elsewhere. Most Brazilians possess some combination of European, African, Amerindian, Asian, and Middle Eastern lineage, and this multiplicity of cultural legacies is a notable feature of current Brazilian culture.

The move to open the country's interior coincided with the discovery in the 1690s of gold in the south-central part of the country. The country's gold deposits didn't pan out, however, and by the close of the 18th century the country's focus had returned to the coastal agricultural regions. In 1807, as Napoleon Bonaparte closed in on Portugal's capital city of Lisbon, the Prince Regent shipped himself off to Brazil. Once there, Dom Joao established the colony as the capital of his empire. By 1821 things in Europe had cooled down sufficiently that Dom Joao could return  to Lisbon, and  he left his son Dom Pedro I in charge of Brazil. When the king attempted the following year to return Brazil to subordinate status as a colony, Dom Pedro flourished his sword and declared the country's independence from Portugal (and his own independence from his father).

In the 19th century coffee took the place of sugar as Brazil's most important product. The boom in coffee production brought a wave of almost one million European immigrants, mostly Italians, and also brought about the Brazilian republic. In 1889, the wealthy coffee magnates backed a military coup, the emperor fled, and Brazil was no more an imperial country. The coffee planters virtually owned the country and the government for the next thirty years, until the worldwide depression evaporated coffee demand. For the next half century Brazil struggled with governmental instability, military coups, and a fragile economy. In 1989, the country enjoyed its first democratic election in almost three decades. Unfortunately, the Brazilians made the mistake of electing Fernando Collor de Mello. Mello's corruption did nothing to help the economy, but his peaceful removal from office indicated at least that the country's political and governmental structures are stable.

Brazil has the sixth largest population in the world--about 148 million people--which has doubled in the past 30 years. Because of its size,  there are only 15 people per sq. km, concentrated mainly along the coast and in the major cities, where two-thirds of the people now live: over 19 million in greater Sao Paulo and 10 million in greater Rio.

The immigrant Portuguese language was greatly influenced by the numerous Indian and African dialects they encountered, but it remains the dominant language in Brazil today. In fact, the Brazilian dialect has become the dominant influence in the development of the Portuguese language, for the simple reason that Brazil has 15 times the population of Portugal and a much more dynamic linguistic environment. 

 To find out more Click Here.
..

Don't miss the surprising, exciting, fascinating conclusions in Part 3  - Vladimir uncovers the  results he has obtained from years of research. 

He shows us pictures generated from data that is hidden in the calendar!  Startling Images!

His discovery is of great significance to scientists and historians alike.
Vladimir Pakhomov is a professional mathematician, artist and writer. Over many years he has undertaken an exhaustive study of the Calendar in all its forms. 
He reveals in this book how he discovered important messages left by ancient civilizations, encrypted in the Calendar. 

A true MIDI-eBook with loads of beautiful illustrations plus selected audio files!
This eBook is a masterpiece!

You can buy it now at MIDI-eBooks.com!

By the way, you can buy the complete eBook comprising 3 parts, or just Part 3 on its own (if you already have Parts 1 & 2).

For more info: Please Click Here
...