>Very sad news about the miners, because at first it was thought that all 12 were found alive, but in fact only one survived!!!

Louis Braille, the founder of braille language for blind persons, was born on this date in 1809. Here is an excerpt from one website about him:

“Louis Braille was born in town near Paris, France in 1809. As a toddler he used to watch his father make shoes. One day, while his father was not watching, he picked up a sharp pointed tool for making holes in leather called an awl. The awl slipped, piercing his eye and damaging it beyond repair. The other eye became infected and before long Louis Braille was completely blind.
At the age of 10 Louis was sent to a school for blind children in Paris. Children were taught to read and write using a system of raised letters. This system was difficult to use as it was hard to tell the letters apart. One day a soldier called Charles Barbier visited the school. He had developed a system for reading messages in the dark based upon a series of raised dots. Louis Braille realised the potential of this system and developed it so that it could be used for blind people.”

Read more about his story here.

Get more in depth news coverage from this source whose reports are a bit more comprehensive than the mainstream media.

That’s all for now. Happy reading and stay safe. Make sure to stick to your resolutions. We should have a weight loss / dieting post coming up soon…

-The CLC Team

>Independence Air is ceasing operations on Thursday, January 5th, 2006. If you have tickets booked on any Independence flights after this date, please make alternate arrangements as soon as possible.

You may read the letter from the company on its website. The letter is entitled, Today is a Sad Day for Independence Air.

After the announcement was made, airline experts predict airfares to double or even triple in cities served by Independence Air, like Charlotte, NC and Charleston, WV. Speaking of West Virginia, that horrible mining incident has also occurred yesterday where 13 miners are trapped inside a mine, which was issued more than 200 violations in 2005!!! Some people think that they are above accountability, but rest assured, “What goes around, comes around,” as they say. We are hopeful for some good news about this mining incident. What a sad way to start off the New Year. Good luck guys.

Signing off for now,

Staff at CLCLeather.com

>We just read an interesting article from an online marketing / news expert that uses a recent report to compare the online behavior of men and women.

The first part of the article, which is entitled, Men are from Google, Women are from Yahoo, begins like this:

“On the Internet, as in life, men and women have different motivations for doing what they do. According to a recent report from Pew Internet and American Life, women view the Internet as a place to extend, support, and nurture relationships and communities. Men tend to see it as an office, a library, or a playground…”

The report that is referred to in the article, all 54 pages, can be found here. OK people, the report is in PDF format so you can save it to your computer and read it in parts if you wish.

The full article can be found here.

Happy reading and sleep early tonight because for many of you, waking up early to go to work after 10 days of slothfulness can be almost a herculean task!

Best regards from the CLC team.

>We have sent an email to all our existing customers today. There was no hidden marketing scheme behind this email. It was just to wish them and all of you reading this post a very happy, safe, healthy and peaceful New Year.

Let’s all start 2006 on the right foot, by making practical resolutions and trying our best to fulfill them.

Best Regards from the entire CLC Team…

>OK so along with FedEx, UPS, USPS, and DHL rates going up in the first 10 days of January 2006, the FDA has finally issued a deadline for all food companies to upgrade their food labels, effective January 1st, 2006.

The article can be found here.

However, one prominent attorney and Washington DC Lobbyist has issues with the new food labels and explains very clearly on his site. He asserts that since so much money is involved in changing the ingredients to make 0 grams trans fats, the FDA has given leniency to the companies to write 0 grams trans fats as long as the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, which is a significant amount.

Here is an excerpt from his site: [If you want to read the article in its entirety, please go to Mr. Stephen L. Joseph's site.

Under FDA regulations, "if the serving contains less than 0.5 gram [of trans fat], the content, when declared, shall be expressed as zero.”

Suppose you eat one serving of Product A, one serving of Product B, and one serving of Product C. Let’s assume that each product contains 0.4 grams per serving. You have just consumed 1.2 grams of trans fat, despite the fact that each of the labels claims that the products contain zero grams of trans fat per serving! Click here for an article about the less than 0.5 gram rule. So be sure to check the ingredients list. If the words “partially hydrogenated” appear in the ingredients, the product contains trans fat. Also note that if the word “shortening” in the ingredient, the product probably contains partially hydrogenated oil which means that it contains trans fat.

That’s all for today’s post. If we don’t post tomorrow, Have a very happy and healthy New Year, and let’s all try to make practical and few resolutions this year so we can all stick to them!

Best regards from the entire CLC TEAM!

>As mentioned in yesterday’s post about word of the day, we are starting this new series, but it will be weekly. If you want daily word of the day, you can go to google’s personalized homepage and see it daily. Google has time to do this every day, whereas we will be lucky if we keep up with it weekly.

So, today’s word is quite appropriate for those who have already received their bonuses or are overdue for one. If not, you might use it when asking your employers for that extra Holiday add-on for the year:

perquisite PUR-kwuh-zit, noun:

1. A profit or benefit in addition to a salary or wages.2. Broadly: The benefits of a position or office.3. A gratuity or tip for services performed.4. Anything to which someone has or claims the sole right.

So stay tuned for next week’s word of the week.

Until then, we will have daily posts about different pertinent issues. Our New Year’s Sale is also coming up soon, probably on Monday…

Happy New Year to all and Happy Blogging!

>We don’t know how long this link will be up, but we are posting it so everyone can get a look back at the past, learn from it, and not repeat our mistakes in the coming year, 2006. It’s Yahoo’s 2005 Year in Review. Check it out, it’s very refreshing, eye-opening, and needed for reflection.

Good luck with all your New Year’s resolutions! We will also resolve to be consistent with are blog entries, albeit short at times due to other occupations with CLC.

More to come, including word of the day…

>Please feel free to visit our website and give comments. Many new things are planned for 2006 and we hope to be consistent with our blog entries as well.

The new design was published on December 16th, 2005.

Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year.