Drews Sign It Pty Ltd - Food For Thought

This month we finished our sign contract for the 40 new Murrays buses in their fleet. Those readers living in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne should keep an eye out for them. In both 50 and 59 seat configurations and featuring leather seats, LED lighting and an exceptional ride, the introduction of these buses are yet another example of the importance Murrays places on their passengers comfort.

Murrays, as Australia's premium Bus, Coach and Limousine operators, designed these buses from the ground up, with features that will enhance the travelling experience for passengers using their services.

As a company, Murrays take great pride in the maintenance and appearance of their vehicles, and we are honoured that they chose Drew's Sign It to help maintain the high standards set when it comes to their corporate look.

We also thank 'My Fitness Studio' at Springwood on Brisbane's southside for entrusting us to transpose their concepts onto their three shop windows in One Way Vision (OWV).

The whole concept worked very well, and is a credit to the vision of Josh, the owner, and Hunni promotions, in getting the design right.

OWV is becoming increasingly popular now, and as a result, prices are falling with the introduction of several new 'players' in the OWV materials becoming available. Not all brands of OWV is applicable to all applications, but if you'd like to discuss the concept, please feel free to give us a call.

I'd also like to remind you again that we now take account payments online via Paypals dedicated and secure site. You can check it out here

A reminder too that you can also hook up with me via Linkedin

Finally, I'd like to advise that we'll be closing for our yearly holidays on the 10th of September, for two weeks. Can you please make a note of that in your diary?

Resting can kill you

or.... leisure time is a dangerous activity

RELAXING at home can have deadly consequences for women who sit for more than six hours a day during their leisure time, regardless of how much they exercise, scientists say.

A new study from American Cancer Society researchers found that women in particular who sat for longer than six hours a day during their leisure time -- engaged in activities such as watching television, surfing the internet and reading -- had higher death rates.

And it did not matter how much daily exercise they did, the risk remained virtually unchanged.

Several studies have already shown there is a link between long sitting times and obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and unhealthy diets.

But the latest study - which surveyed 123,216 people for 13 years - found a link between the amount of time people spent sitting and their death rates.

It found that the more leisure time people spent sitting, the higher the risk of death, particularly for women.

Women who said they sat for more than six hours a day during their leisure hours were found to be 37 percent more likely to die during the period of the study, than those who sat for less than three hours a day.

Men who sat for more than six hours were 18 percent more likely to die than those who sat for less than three.

The results remained virtually unchanged when physical activity was factored in.

However, lack of exercise combined with long sitting times was a killer combination.

Women who sat more and were less physically active were 94 percent more likely to die compared with those who sat the least and were the most active. For men the figure was 48 percent.

Alpa Patel, who led the team of researchers, said long sitting times were shown to have important metabolic consequences influencing things such as cholesterol and resting blood pressure, which were biomarkers of obesity and cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.

The study concluded that public health messages needed to encourage people to reduce the time they spent sitting as well as promoting them to exercise.

"Because a sizable fraction of the population spends much of their time sitting, it is beneficial to encourage sedentary individuals to stand up and walk around as well as to reach optimal levels of physical activity," Mr Patel said

I pity the husband that suggest his wife is 'resting' too much though.

(source: news.com.au)

You're Kidding, right?

or ...something else for parents to worry about.

According to a study of 8500 teenagers for the Department of Education in the UK, it is estimated that one in six teenage girls in Britain has been pregnant by the age of 18.

More alarming is that forty-six per cent of the pregnant teens decided to keep their baby, while 36 per cent had abortions,

More than eight out of ten said they were sexually active and almost one in five of those teens admitted they had been pregnant at least once by the age of 18.

Almost eight in 10 had been expecting a baby on one occasion, 18 per cent had been pregnant twice, and three per cent had been pregnant at least three times.

Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rates in western Europe - even though they are at a 20-year low - and last year there were more than 39,000 abortions in girls aged between 15 and 19 in England and Wales.

Sexual health organisations say that at a time of deep public spending cuts, the figures should act as a stark reminder not to tighten the purse strings for sexual health services.

Sadly, with the present trends in morality, I can't see it getting better anytime soon.

(source: AP)

Buzz Lightyear lives..

or...this guy is starting to scare me

Steve Bolton, a 26-year-old mechanic from West Bromwich in the UK considers himself to be the world's biggest 'Toy Story' fan, so has officially changed his name to Buzz Lightyear.

Such was his love for the first two movies, he decided to do something special for the launch of 'Toy Story 3', so he contacted the UK Deed Poll Service and paid for the name change.

He can legally have "Buzz Lightyear" on his passport, credit cards and drivers licence.. or should that be pilots licence?

Buzz said about his decision: "I'm a massive fan of 'Toy Story', they are my favourite films and I've always thought Buzz would be the ultimate action hero - if he wasn't a toy.

"But it's a great name, a great film and my girlfriend is going to love telling people she's going out with Buzz Lightyear.

"Her and my mates have told me before that I've got a cheesy grin and chin like Buzz, so perhaps it's a fitting name change.

"I hope kids will ask me for my autograph. It's going to feel great signing my name Buzz Lightyear and introducing myself to people at parties."

Buzz is not the first film fanatic to change his name to a movie character.

A 'Twilight'-obsessed couple from north Wales changed their names by deed poll from Bev and Steve Hart to Bella and Edward Cullen, after the movies' romantic leads, while Skegness-based charity worker Stephen O'Rourke changed his name to John Rambo after watching the Sylvester Stallone movies.

Several things concern me about this story - His girlfriend is going to love telling people she's dating Buzz Lightyear? He has the same chin and cheesy grin? I assume he has the same plastic personality. He wants to be able to sign kid's autographs and introducing himself at parties?

Is he for real?

I have one word for Buzz: Psychiatrist!

(Source: Yahoo)

Sobbering News on Scams

The Amy Bruce hoax email...

A New Zealand couple say they could have made a fortune from a hoax email that has circulated the world and prompted people to send them money.

They have been offered thousands of dollars, trips overseas, free accommodation and bombarded with generous people from all over the world, along with endless support for a non-existent 7-year-old who is said to have cancer.

But they just want it to stop.

The saga started a year ago when the Whakatane couple, who don't want to be named, received an email about a girl named Amy Bruce. According to the email, she is a Whakatane girl with a large tumour on her brain and has severe lung cancer.

The email encourages recipients to forward the message to as many people as possible, saying the Make A Wish Foundation will donate 7c for every time the message is sent on.

The husband told the local paper "I got this email just after my wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer and I admit it hit a nerve. In hindsight it's quite obvious the email is a hoax - I mean how would the Make A Wish Foundation even know how many times it had been forwarded"

Two weeks after forwarding the message, the couple received a phone call from the Make A Wish Foundation telling them the organisation had never agreed to donate money. They learned their name and contact details had been put at the bottom of the email.

After a bit of detective work they found out the hoax had been circulating the world for the past five years and since July last year with their names, address and home and cellphone numbers at the bottom.

They said "In the four years before our name came to be on the email, there is a real possibility somebody has made a lot of money from this hoax. The response has been absolutely astounding. People who think Amy is our daughter or granddaughter have just opened their wallets and their hearts. We've had cheques for $1000, $500 and $100 sent to our home, calls asking for our bank account details so money can be deposited, offers of free accommodation in Queenstown and Australia, and suggestions of herbal remedies to cure the cancer. We've had offers from groups, bands and artists who want to fundraise for us"

One call came from a man in Asia who didn't speak English very well and simply asked the couple how much money they needed for Amy.

Returning the money has not been an easy task for the couple as many envelopes did not have a return address.

The wife said "We've had to search the white pages in an attempt to locate some of the people who sent money. Then we ring and explain the email is a hoax and most ask us to rip the cheques up. They are extremely grateful and admit they would never have known otherwise if the cheque had been banked"

Even now, 12 months on, the calls come in daily.

"I don't answer my cell phone if I don't know the number - just yesterday I got four phone calls from people wanting to help" she said

All of their answerphones now have a message explaining the email is a hoax and both have a pre-emptive text reply set up saying the same thing. They have also called internet providers and asked if the email can be filtered somehow.

The wife went on to say "The worst part about it all, and what makes me really sad, is that in genuine cases most people would be skeptical about giving after this - I know I would be"

A spokesperson from Make A Wish Foundation confirmed the Whakatane couple had been contacted and the foundation was confident they were not involved in the hoax.

The spokesperson said "We are in the process of upgrading our website and we aim to list all of the hoax emails and scams the foundation has been incorrectly linked to"

[Source: Daily Post, NZ]

Her own airbag?

myFOXhouston.com published a story this week on a Plastic surgeon who says he has developed the "ideal breasts" for women.

Dr Gary Horndeski, a former aspiring electrical engineer, who studied maths in college and has an intense interest in physics, says he has employed engineering techniques to develop his procedure.

The procedure is described as a "reduction, lift and implant all in one".

"I want to build the ideal breast," Dr Horndeski told "So what is the ideal breast?"

Dr Horndeski said he was able to make a cone out of a patient's own breast tissue.

"I'm also able to position the cone in the chest wall wherever I want," he said.

"In addition to that, I have a technique that involves using straps, so I make basically an internal push-up bra."

By creating an incision under the fold of the breast, the technique also eliminates visible vertical scarring.

For Dr Horndeski, the four-hour procedure is the result of 10 years of mathematical analysis of the female breast.

"There are probably not many plastic surgeons who are really engineering oriented," he said.

"I was probably a size 38 triple D ... or bigger," said Jana Reed, whose large breasts used to make it hard to sleep and caused continual pain in her back, neck and head, before she had the procedure five years ago.

"It took me a long time to have it done because the technique that was used back then, which is standard textbook reduction - I didn't like the results," she said.

"The results were very unattractive, left lots of scarring and they didn't lift the breasts into the position where they are high - and that's what attracted me to what Dr Horndeski is doing ... it's been this long, and they're still exactly where they were."

I may be confused here, and I'm sure any woman that feels the need to have a surgical procedure like this is probably more interested than most readers, but I keep coming back to one question that I can't seem to answer.

The question?

At what point did an aspiring electrical engineer, with an intense interest in Physics and math, decide that plastic surgery was the career for him?

I hope this edition gave you more food for thought anyway.

Until next month, keep smiling and take care,

Sincerely,

Shane Drew