By Mark Craig

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees?

It’s the MVP choice with no wrong answer. A two-headed coin. Loaded dice locked on a Lucky Seven in the hands of either shooter.

Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers?

Might as well be pepperoni or sausage. Tap or bottle.

Rodgers throws for five touchdowns as the Packers improve to 14-1 one night. Brees breaks Dan Marino’s 27-year-old record for passing yards in a season while the Saints win their seventh game in a row and clinch the NFC South the next night.

Both nights, the entire football world watched in prime time. Both times, anyone without a quarterback would have taken either one and not complained that they didn’t get what was… Read more

Occupy Wall Street Protester's Home

Many would have us believe that the Occupy Wall Street crowd represent the poor, the downtrodden, the disenfranchised who are are protesting the stinginess of the rich. They are expecting the government to put limits on the salaries of wealthy executives and tax the rich to give to the poor. But a look behind the scenes brings into question the motives of many of the protestors. Given the opulent lifestyle of many of the protesters it would appear they are protesting themselves. The Daily Caller did an investigation and came up with the following facts.

Many “Occupy Wall Street” protesters arrested in New York City reside in more luxurious homes than some of their rhetoric might suggest, a Daily Caller investigation has found.

For each of the 984 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in New York City between September 18 and October 15, police collected and filed an information sheet recording the arrestee’s name, age, sex, criminal charge, home address and — in most cases — race. The Daily Caller has obtained all of this information from a source in the New York City government.

Among addresses for which information is available, single-family homes listed on those police intake forms have a median value of $305,000 — a far higher number than the $185,400 median value of owner-occupied housing units in the United States.

Some of the homes where “Occupy” arrestees reside, viewed through Google Maps and the Multiple Listing Service real estate database, are the definition of opulence.

Amanda Knox Court Appearance (REUTERS/Giorgio Benvenuti)

The Amanda Knox verdict of not guilty determined by appeals court. After hours of deliberation, an Italian appeals court has ruled to overturn Amanda Knox’s conviction for murder, allowing Knox to leave prison and return to the United States. The teary eyed Knox was immediately escorted out of the courtroom.

During the reading of the verdict, the court stated there was not sufficient evidence to uphold a murder conviction. Unlike American jurisprudence, where only points of contention can be heard, the Italian Prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, was allowed to retry the entire case. He had asked that Knox’s 26 year sentence be increased to a life sentence.

The defense sought an independent investigation of the evidence which the court then ordered. The two experts heading the investigation found that police conducting the initial investigation had made glaring errors in evidence-collecting. They also reported that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the attribution of DNA traces that were found both on the knife blade and on Meredith Kercher’s bra clasp. That evidence had not been collected from the crime scene until 46 days after the murder.

The court did uphold Knox’s previous conviction for slander, that carried a three year sentence. Knox has already spent four years in jail which made her eligible for immediate release

Hurricane Irene Path

The American Red Cross is getting ready for a full East Coast response to Hurricane Irene. Burt Hankins of Jacksonville is one of hundreds of volunteers from around the country who will leave today for North Carolina as the Red Cross gears up for Hurricane Irene when it reaches landfall. Hankins is bringing supplies and a vehicle to provide food and assistance to those in need. Hankins helped tornado-devastated Alabama earlier this year, hurricane-hit Texas in 2009 and hurricane-damaged Alabama in 2005.

Disaster volunteers Frank Kominowski, of Martinsville, Indiana,  and Patty Knox, of Whiteland, Indiana, will drive their ERV to a staging area. Meanwhile, shelters are being prepped, and workers and supplies are being moved into place.

Irene is the first significant hurricane threat to the United States in several years and emergency officials estimate it could cause widespread damage along much of the Eastern Seaboard. The storm has reached Category 4 levels as it approaches land. It could hit New York by Sunday night.

Growing Tomatoes

Now that the growing season is underway you may be well on your way to producing award-winning tomatoes. However, there are some pitfalls you can easily avoid when coming down the home stretch. Here are a few things you can do to maintain a high quality tomato crop right up until the end.

1.     Proper fertilizing is important. Use an organic tomato fertilizer for best results. Otherwise use a low nitrogen fertilizer for best results.

2.     Remove bottom leaves. When growing tomatoes it is important to remove bottom leaves to improve air circulation and prevent molds and mildew from attacking the plant.

3.     Remove the sucker stems. Sucker stems grow in the crotch between the main stem and branch. They do not produce tomatoes and will use energy that could be better used for growing tomatoes.

4. Remove some of the blossoms. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but if there are too many blossoms the fruit will be smaller as the energy needed to grow them will be spread out over many more tomatoes. By limiting the number of tomatoes on a plant each tomato will grow larger and more luscious.

5.     Water regularly and deeply. Tomatoes are tropical in nature needing warm temperatures and plenty of water. Keeping the watering even will help prevent blossom end rot.

To learn the secrets of growing really amazing tomatoes check out the Master Gardeners Guide Now That’s What I Call a Tomato!

Position for Cat Stretch Exercise

Now that spring is here it is time to enjoy the out doors once again. Unfortunately, the exuberance of being free from winter’s grip can lead to lower back pain as we overextend our limitations.

Frank Jackson of Rockford, Il likes to keep a beautiful yard. “I can’t wait until the snow disappears to get out and clean up the mess left by winter,” Frank says. “But, when that first warm day comes I forget how long it’s been since I last did so much physical activity. It doesn’t take long for my muscles to remind me though,” he adds.

Many, like Frank, experience the subsequent aches and pains of overindulging in yard work. Raking, cleaning up debris, carrying away brush and removing dead plants can all lead to stress and strain causing low back pain.

Doctors have categorized simple back pain into three phases:

1. Acute Inflammation characterized by muscle spasm, stiffness, agonizing pain on movement.

2. Sub-acute inflammation showing improved movement with low back stiffness, a dull aching pain, with occasional sharp stabs on movement.

3. Resolution where pain has disappeared but there is still stiffness and some of the underlying restrictions which caused the problem remain.

Doctors used to recommend bed rest, but recent studies have shown the benefit of mild activity and low back pain exercises, along with pain medications and hot or cold packs to relieve mild back pain. These result in loosening up tight muscles, ligaments and tendons, thus reducing the inflammation and pain more quickly.

Simple, low impact exercises can be performed by almost anyone. In addition, they can be done on a regular basis to keep your back loose and fit for spring activities.

To see a video demonstration of a few low back pain exercises you can easily learn visit http://lowbackpainexercises.net.

Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen is on the talking circuit defending his right to be different. Having made a whirlwind tour of  the “Today” show, “20/20,” Howard Stern, Piers Morgan’s CNN talker and a half a dozen other outlets, he is now taking to the social media to get his message across. After all, if politicians are seeing the value in facebook and twitter why not the highest paid actor on TV?

So when Sheen opened his twitter account it was no surprise that he racked up hundreds of thousands of followers in his first 24 hours. But how does anyone really know if it’s Charlie or some other Sheen wannabe? Beside the fact that the @charliesheen account is verified, his bio confirms that it’s Chuck himself. “Born Small… Now Huge… Winning… Bring it..! (unemployed winner…),” it reads, repeating the championship “winning!” that has become Sheen’s catchphrase. That’s Sheen for you, always the winner, at least in his own mind.

Among those joining the Sheen love fest was Diddy, who tweeted to Sheen, “get dressed my man … sending the driver!” Other famous followers include Minka Kelly, George Lopez, Nicky Hilton, Will Arnett and boxer Floyd Mayweather, who wrote, “My man! RT @FloydMayweather Everyone needs to follow @charliesheen right now. #tigerblood.”

Space Shuttle Discovery

The final launch of the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EST today.  As a sort of grand finale, NASA is showing the whole thing — from soup to nuts — online today. Go to their web site, NASA TV, and you can get a look-see at what it takes to get a space shuttle off the ground.

There will be launch commentary all afternoon. It may prove to be somewhat confusing because it’s literally a live stream of what the folks at NASA are doing, and if you’re not a rocket scientist you could get lost along the way. However, a kindly narrator will jump in once in a while to keep you on track.

Going along for the ride is R2, a waist-up portion of a humanoid robot – a prototype “robonaut” that to assist astronauts with repairs both inside and outside the space station.

According to Ron Diftler, robonaut project manager at the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, fully half of the replaceable components on the ISS can only be swapped out by humans in spacesuits. Preparations for spacewalks are time-consuming, and outside the air lock the work is downright dangerous.

“Our goal with robonaut is to build a robot that approaches the dexterity of a spacesuited astronaut,” Mr. Diftler says. “Once we do that, that robot has multiple roles.” Sometimes, one crew member is just floating around holding something for another, Diftler explained. “Robots will do that and never get bored or … complain.”

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday morning (February 23) with the possibility of facing jail time. The celebrity was offered a plea deal related to her alleged theft of a $2,500 necklace on January 22.

The actress faces a grand theft charge for allegedly walking away with the necklace from a jewelry store last month. Lohan has indicated it was all a mistake, that she thought she was allowed to borrow the necklace. Her attorney has also claimed it was worth much less than $2,500, which could drop the case from a felony to a misdemeanor.

A tough-talking Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz told the actress Wednesday that the only way he would accept a plea bargain in her felony theft case is if she goes to jail.

“One of the things about me is that I treat everybody the same,” Schwartz said. “What I look to in sentencing is, ‘What is the prior record?’ In this particular case, there has been so much speculation in the press [that] I’m just going to tell you a couple of things: If you plead in front of me, you are going to jail. There might be an issue about the amount of time, but if the case settles here, you will be going to jail.”

Lohan posted bond before leaving the court.

Apple iPad

Apple has sent invitations to a press-only event on March 2nd where it will likely reveal its next iPad. Apple will hold the event in San Francisco, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, starting at 10 a.m. PT. The company last hosted a product launch at the center in September 2010, when it debuted the revamped Apple TV.

As is Apple’s habit, no information about the content of the show was revealed, but analysts expect the unveiling of the iPad 2 to be a major part of the event. Part of the speculation involves an image sent with the invitation which shows an iOS calendar icon with the date March 2. The calendar is peeling away to show an iPad screen in the background, confirming that the event will indeed be about the iPad.

Most speculation on changes to the iPad have centered on the addition of one or more cameras to the tablet, which would let users run Apple’s FaceTime video calling software. Teardowns of the original model released in 2010 revealed that Apple left room inside the iPad for a front-facing camera.

While the iPad 2 will undoubtedly steal the show, there will most likely be other Apple products on the table as well. Apple has said almost nothing, for instance, about Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, since it previewed the next edition of its operating system last October. Others have speculated that MacBook Pro notebooks may be part of the show as well.

It is certain that many will be closely watching the event to see what the latest and greatest computer toy will bring.