US budget explained in simple to understand terms

Now, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that something does not add up here. Honestly, would you run your household budget like that?

Which butt are you?

And remember there is no right or wrong answer to this...

Earth population reaches 7 billion

According to the United Nations the Earth population has reached 7 billion and counting. Based on the latest projections this number is expected to hit 8 billion by 2025 and a whooping 9.3 billion by 2050.

[USA Today]

How much money does it take to be in the top 1%?

Scores of fed up customers are ditching big banks

The nationwide "Move Your Money" and "Bank Transfer Day" are this Saturday, November 5. Since Bank of America and other big banks announced new debit card fees thousands of disgruntled customers across the nation started dumping their bank accounts in favor of not-for-profit community banks and credit unions which tend to have fewer and smaller fees. According to the Credit Union National Association over 650,000 new members have joined various credit unions in the last month alone and more than 4 out of 5 new credit union customers have stated the reason for the move being new bank fees and the "Bank Transfer Day". So far this amounts to a staggering $4.5 billion in new savings accounts that the big banks are not going to get their hands on. The Independent Community Bankers of America said they have seen an equally staggering increase of new inquiries and new customers. And all of this is happening even before the actual "Bank Transfer Day". With thousands more who have pledged to leave their big banks this Saturday we could see these numbers skyrocket by the end of the week. Imagine the possibilities...

In the meantime the Occupy Wall Street movement is holding its own "Dump Your Bank Day" on Tuesday, November 8. So it seems pretty likely that even more people will join this wave of defiance. Even though big banks decided not to introduce the new debit card fees after all the experts in the banking industry agree that more fees and higher existing fees will be rolling out soon as banks will need to look for other creative ways to make up for lost revenue. This may in turn push even more customers away. Is the commercial banking industry, as we know it today, heading for a speedy demise?

Here is what a few of our fellow citizens had to say about the whole situation, which really drives the point home:

"They take your deposits and use them to buy politicians to de-regulate, give them immunity, interest-free loans and bailouts. Then they turn around and charge you fees to make them even richer."

"Take your money to a credit union or a community bank that will use your money in your community and not to pervert the rule of law and fill their own pockets."

[CNN]

A record high 50% of Americans support legalization of marijuana

An all time record HIGH number of Americans now support legalization of marijuana according to the latest research from Gallup. The number of those in favor has now reached a respectable 50% or half of the population. This is up from 46% last year. Currently only 16 states allow medial use even though feds still consider any such use illegal. There appears to be a general trend - young and more open minded/Liberal people tend to be in favor. However, we expect this support to grow over time as the younger generations phase out the more conservative older folks.

To recap the main points:
- marijuana is the most commonly abused drug in US after alcohol and tobacco
- 50% now favor legalization compared to 46% last year
- Liberals are twice more likely to support than Conservatives
- Democrats and independents more likely to favor than Republicans
- 62% approval for ages 18 to 29
- last year 70% supported legalization for medical use
- only 31% over 65 are in favor
- more men than women are in support
- some states have decriminalized MJ while others made it legal for medical use only
- former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders supports lagalization
- 46% still think it should be illegal

[Gallup]

Haves and Have-Nots: statistics confirm growing disparity between the working classes

As the Occupy Wall Street movement embarks on its "Millionaire's March" to protest New York state's 2% millionaire tax set to expire at the end of 2011 here are a few enlightening facts about the wealthiest 1% of Americans:

- top 1% owns 40% of the national wealth (25 years ago they owned 33%)
- bottom 80% owns only 7% of national wealth
- top 1% takes home 24% of national income (in 1976 they took home only 9%)
- top 1% own half of all US stocks, bonds and mutual funds
- bottom 50% only own 0.5% of US stocks, bonds and mutual funds
- top 1% only have 5% of the national personal debt
- bottom 90% have a whooping 73% of the national debt
- top 1% take home a greater portion of national income than they ever have since 1920s

Now take a wild guess who does all the hard work for the 1% and who is underpaid and overworked?

[Yahoo Finance]

Fight corporations by mailing their unsolicited offers back to them!

Want to help Occupy Wall Street protesters in their fight against corporate greed? Here is how you can contribute today!

MAIL THEM BACK! That's right folks. Take those Credit Card offers along with all the other junk and spam mail that corporations flood our homes with and send them right back to them.

Here is what doing this will accomplish:
- make corporations pay for postage (put more of their junk into those envelopes to weight them down and increase postage costs)
- make corporations pay for processing your returned mail offers (this puts more hard working Americans to work)
- creates more work and jobs for hard working Post Office employees (paid for by the corporations)
- re-distributes some of the corporate wealth back to the taxpayers
- lets them know exactly how you feel about their unsolicited SPAM (which is actually illegal, but somehow does not apply to them)
- will one day put a stop to this unnecessary SPAM (and save our trees and the environment)

If we all do it - we can wear them down and bring about some very needed changes. Eventually they will have to stop wasting our trees and destroying our environment on useless unsolicited mail. Join the fight - it is your constitutional right as a taxpayer and an obligation as a voter.

Another day, another oil spill, when will we learn?

Oct. 5 on Astrolabe Reef, 14 miles from Tauranga Harbour on New Zealand's North Island

Another ship crashed on October 5th this time atop the Astrolabe Reef 14 miles off the cost of Tauranga Harbour on New Zealand's North Island. Luckily this is a cargo ship and not an oil tanker but the impact on the environment and New Zealand's coast line can already be felt as local volunteers start the laborious and costly cleanup.

Here is the scoop:
- 11 of 1,368 containers on board contain hazardous substances and may very likely end up in the ocean
- it is still not clear why the ship crashed into the well-charted reef in calm weather
- so far light oiling of pristine Tauranga beaches has been observed
- the oiling of the beaches is expected to increase as more oil washes ashore in the coming days
- initial estimates suggest that 200-300 metric tons of heavy fuel oil have spilled so far
- this is New Zealand's biggest maritime environmental disaster to date
- officials believe the ship has 1,700 metric tons of oil and 200 metric tons of diesel on board
- the ship has developed a huge crack in the hull and is in the process of breaking up
- the full environmental impact is still unknown
- 200 oiled birds had been found dead
- 41 oiled birds were treated at the wildlife emergency center
- locals have witnessed dead fish washing ashore
- captain could face a fine of up to 10,000 New Zealand dollars ($7,800 US) and 12 months in prison
- the captain's name has not been disclosed for fear of personal retaliation
- the ship belongs to Greece-based Costamare Inc.

[Yahoo News]

This is why Occupy Wall Street protesters are unhappy...

Still confused why Occupy Wall Street protesters are unhappy and what it is that they want? No worries this informative documentary should answer all your questions...

In short, people are fed up with the corporate America and the way most corporations have been conducting business. There is nothing wrong with making money responsibly in a way that makes this world a safer and better place for everyone, but this is hardly the case today. With their single focus been that of profiteering at any cost there is very little regard left for the environment or the people. Hiding behind hordes of scummy corporate lawyers most corporations have cut corners and engaged in unlawful activities in the name of profit alone. 'The Corporation' dwells into many different aspects of the corporate world and is perhaps one of the most important documentaries of our time. This should really be a part of the standard curriculum material taught in every school.

This is the one documentary that corporations like Nike, Monsanto, Bayer and many others do not want you to see! It is also a must see for any self-respecting citizen that likes to think on his own.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Wall Street is also a corporation that has one and only one goal in mind - to turn up a profit!



Memorable quotes from 'The Corporation':

Noam Chomsky: "Corporations were given the rights of immortal persons. But then special kinds of persons, persons who had no moral conscience. These are a special kind of persons, which are designed by law, to be concerned only for their stockholders. And not, say, what are sometimes called their stakeholders, like the community or the work force or whatever."

Michael Moore: "I believe the mistake that a lot of people make when they think about corporations, is they think you know, corporations are like us. They think they have feelings, they have politics, they have belief systems, they really only have one thing, the bottom line - how to make as much money as they can in any given quarter. That's it."

Dr. Robert Hare: "One of the questions that comes up periodically is to what extent could a corporation be considered to be psychopathic. And if we look at a corporation as a legal person, that it may not be that difficult to actually draw the transition between psychopathy in the individual to psychopathy in the corporation. We could go through the characteristics that define this disorder, one by one, to how they might apply to corporations. They would have all the characteristics, and, in fact, in many respects, the corporation of that sort is the proto-typical of a psychopath."

[IMDb]



If this is any indication of the Corporations's true intentions here is what the Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan had to say in defense of the new $5 monthly fee on debit card use:

"I have an inherent duty as a CEO of a publicly owned company to get a return for my shareholders" ... "they'll understand what we're doing - understand we have a right to make a profit."

What a feeble attempt to force people into a Credit Card trap! Here is how everyone can cast their vote on this issue - switch to a different bank that does not charge these fees.

[CNN Money]

64% of Americans watch online videos at work!

[Image courtesy of WISTIA]

1 in 6 Americans live in poverty according to Census Bureau

Points to take away from the latest Census Bureau report:
- poverty level highest since 1993
- another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in 2010
- a total of 46.2 million people are in poverty in the US (15.1% of the country)
- highest number in the 52 years that the Census Bureau has been tracking poverty
- for a family of 4 the poverty line was at $22,113 in 2010 (that's about $5k per person per year!)
- in 2010 the middle class median household income declined by 2.3% (to $49,400) as compared to 2009
- middle class income is now 7% less then it was in 1999 (when it was $53,252)
- we are well below where incomes were in the late 1990s
- median annual income for a full-time male worker in 2010 ($47,715) was less then it was in 1973 ($49,065) when adjusted for inflation
- young household members were affected the most
- for ages 15-24 the median income dropped 9%
- 45.3% of people ages 25-34 are living in poverty
- increasing numbers of Americans are doubling up in households with their friends and relatives; this is especially true for ages 25-34
- those without college degrees have been hit particularly hard
[This information is current as of September 2011]


Conclusions:
- rapidly growing and expanding lower class
- just as rapidly shrinking middle class
- the rich get richer (aka Congress)
- we are not out of the woods yet
- you can forget about economic recovery as its not happening any time soon
- young less educated adult males are not able to support their children or form families because they are jobless
- crime has been on the rise across the nation
- let's face it - no one has any idea how to fix the economy or this country's deficit - and even if they did there are plenty of people at the top that would not let this happen


Anybody else have any illusions about an economic recovery???


[read the full report at The New York Times]

Perhaps Global Warming is not just a myth!

Huge chunk of the Petermann Glacier broke off of Greenland in 2010 and have mostly melted away while stunning scientists by the shear size of the event. The chunk of ice that melted was 4 times the size of Manhattan. Apparently nothing of this scale has ever happened in Greenland as far back as the recorded history. Scientists are worried that another chunk 2 times the size of Manhattan is going to be next. Scientists estimate that Greenland's ice sheet is melting at a staggering rate of 400 billion tons per year. And in the 10 year span between 2000 and 2010 nearly 600 square miles of ice have melted.

So when should we start worrying? Who knows, but sooner might be better then later or before it is too late. With this much fresh water getting dumped into the oceans who knows when we might hit the critical desalinization point or what it will do to the ocean currents and consequently our weather. Check out the movie The Day After Tomorrow to find out what happens next.

[Yahoo News]

Developers, designers, and managers in a secret corporate war

This is funny because it is so very true...

Those of us that work in a corporate environment in one of these roles know too well about this ongoing covert war.

Your world just got hacked!

Computer security firm McAfee released a report in which it claims that hackers have spent the last 5+ years hacking into over 70 government, nonprofit and corporate entities and stealing obscene amounts of sensitive data. United Nations and International Olympic Committee are just the two organizations that came under attack. Most of the victims are located in the United States with a few others in Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and elsewhere in the world. The report did not dwell into any details but suggested that these attacks could be coming from a single nation.

[Yahoo]

Million dollar fender bender in Monte Carlo and lots of stereotypes

Monte Carlo - Place du Casino - site of exotic car pileup

An exotic car pileup in Monte Carlo caused by non-other but three blonde women while driving topless(the car not the women) in a jelly-bean blue Bentley Azure. Blonde? Women? Car pileup? No fu***** way!

The victims:
Bentley Azure ($363,000)
Mercedes-Benz S-Class ($91,000)
Ferrari F430 ($186,000)
Aston Martin Rapide ($228,000)
Porsche 911 ($77,000)
Total price tag: $945,000

Crowds love it when reach people do really stupid things

[Yahoo]

Bush spender, Obama saver - which one would you rather have?

Need I say more?

One thing this diagram fails to depict is the fact that most Obama's changes are timed and will expire in a few years while most Bush's policy changes have no expiration date and can go on indefinitely. This means that as time goes by this gap will only widen.

[Washington Post]

Fake it fake it until you make it - fake Apple stores on the rise in China

Fake Apple Store in downtown Kunming, in southwest China's Yunnan province, Thursday, July 21, 2011

Yes, the Chinese have done it again! As if fake software, DVDs, cars and just about every other consumer product was not enough this time around we can add a fake Apple Store to the ever growing list of fake products to come out of this ambitious country.

While the unsuspecting employee might be real the store he works for is not...

iPad imitation so ugly that even Steve Jobs could not love it!

As Kevin Kline from The Pink Panther would say: "Fake Apple employee is from China. Fake Apple Store is from China. The Chinese are from China! It may be too early to say for certain, but I think the Chinese are faking Apples."

I would image Apple's legal team is boarding the first flight to China as we speak. Steve Jobs, the next move is yours!

[Yahoo]

Update:
After further investigation Chinese government found another 22 fake Apple stores in the city of Kunming. Wow this just keeps getting better and better. Simply amazing!

Apparently, Sex Sells

Take a look around, there is SEX, S-E-X, everywhere!  And why?  Because as we all probably already know, sex sells, sad but true.  The modern America romantic world view is rumps and twins in your faces everyday, all day, on television and most of all, in advertisement.  Next time your out and about and find yourself pitching a tent, don't think why, just look up and take a look at your nearest billboard.

Oooh ~ let me just sunbath my cleavage in this really awkward position

Threesome with overly chiseled abs and one guy who is questionably heterosexual

cleavage! Cleavage! CLEAVAGE!

Another threesome, but this time lemme just put my leg like this to insinuate...
something

Just bend and spread your legs like this- very erotic, yes, very erotic.

Wow, I really hope there are no kids at that playground.

I'm not quite sure why this girl needs to have her shirt off? 
And why her arm is awkwardly pulled in like that.

If your sexy and hip you're going to lay around like this with your man
wearing True Religion

Wizardry in the fields - wizard farmer pays tribute to Harry Potter

Fanatic Farmer Creates Harry Potter Corn Maze

Apparently farmers these days have way too much time on their hands... and farming is no longer their top priority - they would rather be wizards! Hey here is a thought: maybe they should use the corn maze in the next Harry Potter movie...so that everybody can get lost in it and end the series on that!?

[@ Yahoo]

Americans still don't know how to drive

Bad driving in America... care to go for a swim?

A recent study conducted by an insurance company revealed that more than 1 out of 5 Americans (that's ~36.9 million) are not fit to drive and would fail a driving test today. Now that is scary!

Here is a quick summary of what the study revealed:
- 85% of surveyed drivers did not know what to do when approaching a solid yellow light
- only 1 in 4 knew safe following distance
- avoid young people, women and drivers from Northeast
- 27% of women failed the test
- 13.6% of mailes failed the test
- the worst place to drive is in Washington, D.C.
- the best place to drive is in Wyoming
- drivers from Midwest did the best
- drivers from Northeast did the worst
- elderly, between the ages of 60-65 had the highest average score of 80.3%

I find it ironic that a car nation such as ours would even have this problem. After all didn't we create the car culture? Didn't we invent the concept of a drive-through? Proportionally we have more people driving in this country than anywhere else in the world and we still don't know how to drive? Shouldn't we then be more or less the best drivers? This is weird! Our children start driving at an early age. Many teenagers drive their own cars to school. Most people spend some amount of time in their cars on a daily basis while going to and from work and we still don't get it?

She's been driving since the age of 15 - and still looks proud of herself!

No comment...

[Yahoo]

Against gay marriage? Just remember straight people make gay babies!

This is so TRUE - straight people make gay babies!

Finally after much unnecessary deliberation the state of New York legalized gay marriage! And its about time. This is yet another rightful victory for the gay community which has been the cause of much celebration across the nation. The fact that this even had to come to a court hearing is insulting. Those of you who are against gay marriage should hold a 'come to Jesus meeting' and re-evaluate your moral convictions as well as your definition of what a 'good' person means. After all isn't that what the Bible teaches - love your neighbor as you would love yourself? And yes that teaching still applies even if your neighbor is gay or a lesbian.

I think its pretty clear what the gay people are fighting for here but what are their opponents trying to push? And why is it any of their business anyway? Here is a simple rule of thumb that everyone should adhere to in order to make this world a better place: "mind your own business and don't stick your long nose where it does not belong!" I have been hearing some really poor and sorry excuses from the so called 'good christians' as to why gay marriage should not be legalized and honestly there is not a single excuse that anyone can come up with that can justify taking away someone's freedom and choice. You should always put yourself in their shoes. How would you like to be told what religion you can believe in and when?


Lets just take a look at some of the lame excuses that people have come up with:

- Marriage originated from religion and it is against the teachings of the church!
  Sure, whatever, it might have originated there but this is the 21st century and we have come a long way and our definition of marriage has evolved as well. Also, just to remind everyone, the Constitution of the United States clearly states that there is a complete 'separation of church and state' - google it if you don't believe me. Also, in case you just awoke from a very very long sleep the state has its own legal definition of what marriage is and it has absolutely nothing to do with church or religion. Also, a lot of people around the world these days skip the antiquated ancient rituals and get simply married in court.

- It is just morally wrong!
  You are entitled to your own believes but you have no right to push it onto others as this violates their basic constitutional freedoms of religion, sex and speech. This is the same constitution that allows people to pursue whatever religious believes they hold. If you deny people the freedom of sexual expression that will also make it ok to attack religious freedoms.

- This is not how nature intended it!
  Perhaps you should watch more nature and animal shows instead of soap operas and reality tv. Animals exhibit plenty of gay behavior in nature.

- I am homophobic!
  A lot of men are. I am no exception but that does not stop me from doing the right thing and from respecting personal freedoms of others.

- It's dangerous for health and causes AIDS!
  It is no more dangerous then christian sex. There are many ways to contract STDs this is just another one of them. Contrary to popular belief gay people did not introduce AIDS. Instead AIDS was introduced into the gay community in the early days as an attempt to put an end to the movement. Instead the plan backfired and AIDS spread worldwide affecting all communities. I guess what comes around goes around.


And those of you that are still not convinced that it is ok and perfectly acceptable to be different in sexual orientation don't worry a day will come when your child or a close family member will come out of the closet and then you will have to face the music and to learn acceptance and open mindedness one way or another. Karma has a way of catching up to people and you are no different and won't be spared - feel free to pray all you want!

Microsoft's Bing still sucks!

Microsoft Bing URL Submission page

Ok, I am not exactly sure where to beging because Microsoft sucks at just about everything they do these days except the BSOD(blue screen of death) - which I think they might have actually pioneered. Anyways, I wanted to register the URL of my new website with Bing and so I went to the Bing URL Submission page to do just that. This is not the first URL I have submitted to search engines for indexing so I did not expect to run into any difficulties. Boy was I wrong! The 'captcha' would not let that happen. After trying to get past the captcha for about 20 minutes my frustration mounted to dangerous levels and I gave up on Bing - that's right f*** Bing! I mean c'mon this is the basics after all. If I can't easily submit my URL for indexing how in the world is Microsoft supposed to provide and accurate and up-to-date search of the web when it's missing a bunch of content? The reason Google is dominating the search is because they are on top of this shit unlike both Microsoft and Yahoo who take weeks to index a new site once submitted to them. After studying Bing's URL submission page I noticed just how poorly it was put together. First of all the last sentence of the first paragraph is missing a period. That's right, this kind of sloppiness does not look professional nor does it instill trust into users. Second, nowhere on this page does it mention whether 'captcha' is case sensitive or not. I mean for someone who is having a hard time getting past the damn captcha this is a critical piece of information when it comes to answering the very personal question of: "Am I being retarded or is Microsoft f***ing up?" Well naturally I tried it all: camel case, lowercase, uppercase - to no avail.

Captcha - camel case

Captcha - all lowercase

Captcha - all uppercase

USPS Jedi mind tricks

R2-D2s come in different shapes and sizes...

USPS Jedi Master mail box masquerading as R2-D2

This is what R2-D2 actually looks like

Yet another R2-D2 wannabe

Humans packed like sardines...

Humans packed like sardines inside a semi (x-ray)

Sardines in a can

Cat wearing a helmet

World's largest rabbit...love from first sight!

WHOA NOW THAT'S A RABBIT ALRIGHT!!! Look at those big feet! The second I saw those feet I wanted to go - tickle, tickle, tickle...

Watch out new Joker on the block!

Notice the uncanny resemblance to the Joker...

Also instead of Skinnygirl it should have probably said Scarrygirl, which would be more politically correct.