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Check out my new blog!

http://ouroneandonlyearth.blogspot.com/

Buy Coffee From Your iPhone

Did you know that you can buy coffee with your iPhone now? No, I don't mean there's an ap that will allow coffee to materialize in front of you. I mean you can pay for coffee with your phone. Starbucks announced that it had begun accepting payments from your iPhone or Blackberry with Starbucks mobile card. Which works like a gift card, you can only spend as much money as you put in.

This to me sounds amazing. You don't have to worry about those dang interest rates. But I know that this will be horrible for the economy because it will probably expand into more than just for coffee but for almost everything else that you buy, eliminating credit cards and causing banks to fail. So it's good for the individual, but bad for the group... but I guess that's just how America works.

Source:
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2011/01/buying-coffee-with-a-cell-phone-is-fun-and-a-game-changer.html

Unemployed? Work here!

The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list was released Thursday. The software firm SAS and Boston Consulting Group.

Here are the Top 10 in order:

1. SAS
2. Boston Consulting Group
3. Wegmans Food Markets
4. Google
5. NetApp
6. Zappos.com
7. Camden Property Trust
8. Nugget Market
9. Recreational Equipment (REI)
10. DreamWorks Animation SKG

Some of the benefits you get from SAS is low-cost, high-quality day care, a lavish gym and on-site health care. While Boston Consulting Group tries to avoid lay offs during economic downturns.

If you are unemployed and are looking for a job, now you know that jobs involving computers are the way to go! I feel like this list will only lean more towards computers in the following years until its all about technology. So people start getting you degree in computer programing and such. Those can only help you.

Source:
http://lifeinc.todayshow.com/_news/2011/01/20/5884234-sas-google-among-100-best-companies-to-work-for-

Unemployment Getting Worse

The unemployment jumped from 35,000 to 440,000 on January 8th. Applications had fallen to their lowest level in 2 years. This reflect the number of layouts and also the number of companies not willing to hire. But there are still millions more who are receiving benefits under emergency federal programs.

This is sad and also very confusing. Everyone is trying to tell us that the recession is gonna be over soon but then a second later they're going back on that to tell us that it's worse. I'm just glad that I live in Alexandria, I've never once encountered a homeless man in this town, this town has it good when it comes to crisis like this.

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41054475/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/

Devil Crabs!

Over 40,000 devil crabs died in the UK and were washed up on shore because of the rising temperature. This year was the coldest December Britain has had in 120 years. Because of this the crabs suffered hypothermia and died. There are thousands of crabs and several other sea creatures littering the shores all over Thanet.

This is really sad. I think this mostly has to do with the pollution that’s messing with our climate which means we need to treat our world better. Instead of going to Starbucks and getting a coffee in a disposable container, go to Wal-Mart and buy a reusable container and just have them put your coffee there. Or buy an eco friendly water bottle so you don’t need to buy water in a plastic bottle when you’re thirsty, this is also good for saving money. Most grocery stores sell bags that you can reuse instead of the plastic ones, some even give you discounts if you do this. And carpooling or riding your bike instead of driving everywhere is probably the best one you can do, it’s also really good for your pocket.

Source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344242/40-000-devil-crabs-washed-British-beach-freezing-conditions-hypothermia.html

Rising Minimum Wage

Minimum wage needs to keep up with the rising cost of basic necessities and so it has risen a little in these 7 states; Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. It will be going up between 9-12 cents. Washington having the highest minimum wage at $8.67 an hour. Poverty advocates don't think this should be seen as rising but more as keeping up with rising goods. People are hoping that this will go right back to the economy.

I think that this is going to make inflation rise really fast, because I don't think that the money will go back to the economy like others think, I think that people will put it in there savings for later which will up the prices on goods AGAIN and make minimum wage go up again... it's a vicious cycle. But I'm obviously no expert because I'm in high school.

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40853128/ns/business-us_business/

Whatever Happened to Amelia Earhart?

What happened to Amelia Earhart is such a mystery, but now there might be an answer to this question. There have been some bone fragments found in an island in the South Pacific. It's an island on the course she was traveling over. Along with the three bone fragments they also found old makeup, glass bottles, and shells that had been cut open.

Scientists are going to do a DNA testing to see if this really is her. I'm so hoping that it is. This would be such intense news if it was.

This is super exciting. I play Sims Castaway all the time and in the game it sucks trying to survive on your own, but she actually had to try and do it! If this was her, it's sad to think she wasn't able to get rescued. But it also would add to her awesomeness.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101218/ap_on_re_us/us_search_for_amelia

Perfect Town's First Imperfection

In 1989 Disney's then CEO, Michael Eisner, built the perfect town in Florida, he named it Celebration. People started moved in during 1996. Critics viewed the reminiscent of a quaint New England village as something out of The Truman Show or The Stepford Wife. In the 14 years that Celebration has been a town it has been perfect, it's "the kind of town where people give Christmas gifts to their favorite Starbucks barista, where welcoming wooden rocking chairs sit lakeside on a sidewalk without being stolen, where neighbors tend to get suspicious if they notice you're not around."
Recently though, this town faced it's first homicide. 58 year old Matteo Giovanditto's body was found dead in his apartment in Celebration. Neighbors filed a missing person report when they realized that no one had seen him since the day before Thanksgiving. Police haven't given any further details.

This town sounds super awesome, except for the murder part. I would love to live in a place so neighborly and friendly, but at the same time it would all seem really fake because nothing is perfect. I think that this crime kind of brought the townspeople back to the real world, and unfortunately that's what they needed because they're dreamers.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_death_in_disney_town

Health Care 2010 Issue #3- Safe to eat?

Issue #1: http://arj-robinson.blogspot.com/
Issue #2: http://wysoski.blogspot.com/

Issue #3: In 2006 there was an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in bagged spinach. Feral pigs spread  cow manure to a spinach field. This killed three people and caused over 200 people to get sick.
Consumer advocates have called for new safety regulations and argue that there should only be one agency responsible for ensuring the safety of our food. They urged for more food inspectors to enforce safety mandates. After all this happened sales of bagged leafy foods dropped around 60%, if greater food regulations were to take place the cost of producing fruits and vegetables would increase and the expense would be passed to consumers. The question is if healthcare should cover food poisoning.

I think that the country should offer health care for this group because they are already eating healthy but they get sick doing it. People don't really think to get health care for this because they think that if they're careful about what they eat they wont get sick, but clearly that's not the case.

TURN THIS OFF, RIGHT NOW!

With all the technology out there, multitaskers are multiplying. Scientist think that this is melting our brains! Texting and being on the computer count as multitasking. So is having more than one tab up, which is weird cause a lot of people don't really count this. I'm fairly certain that whoever is reading this has more than one internet tab open. So Turn Off Your Computer before your brain melts!

Whaaa? I thought being able to multitask was a good thing. I guess I shouldn't care too much about multitasking because I'm not good at it, but you, the reader, might be... so watch out!


Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40131182/ns/health-behavior/

News about an octopus

During the world cup there was this octopus named Paul who predicted 8 outcomes of the competition. He later died of natural causes. Now he has a successor, a five month old octopus also named Paul. It's not clear yet if he's as "talented" as the other Paul, but clearly people are hoping he is if they would post this on msnbc.

I'm deathly afraid of the Kraken so anything with tentacles (with the exception of Squidward) scares me. And this is so ridiculous I'm surprised they can call this news. Are you serious?! There are people videotaping murder, 10 year olds getting pregnant, and kids getting landed on by sky divers, how is this mixed in with all of that? I am very disappointed that I found this in "world news" and in "sports news." Just saying...

Source:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/39986180/ns/sports/

Three very disturbed guys

I know a lot of people have already heard about the video circuiting around the Internet about two guys murdering a homeless man while another video taped it. They used a hammer and started bashing his face in, when he wouldn't die they used a screw driver to stab him and take out his intestines out then gouged his eyes out all this happened before the guy died.
After this video was leaked the three were taken to prison and the cops found out that they had done this to over 20 other people. They would pray on weak people who couldn't fight back, and they took pictures and videos of their victims.

I've been thinking about this story all day, I even tried watching the movie but it was too much. As soon as the hammer hit the guys face I looked away, it was too sick. I can't believe someone could actually do this to another person... while laughing! How do you find entertainment in something like this? There's just so many things bothering me about this, I don't know how to write it down and explain it.

Just DON'T watch the video.

Source:
http://www.ohlookaforum.com/sick-vids-f21/dnepropetrovsk-maniacs-ukraine-murder-video-guys-hammer-3guys1hammer-t102.html

10 year old mom

So this 10 year old girl from Spain gave birth to a little girl... Her mother is apparently delighted. They're Gypsies so it's normal for them to marry young, but it's against Romanian laws, that is where they are originally from. Well anyway the baby's daddy is 13, the little girl and the little boy separated and that's why her mom moved her and her baby to Spain. Investigators don't consider this rape so no investigation is going under way.

(this is obviously not the girl cause this is

Jamie Lynn. I just put this here so you

guys would get the idea.)

This sounds super weird... I know that if I got pregnant now my mom would not be "delighted" but to get married at 10?! Well I guess they have different beliefs so it's probably not weird for them. I'm just glad that the little girl is reportedly doing well and is happy. I just feel bad for the dad cause now that he lives in Romania and his daughter was moved to Spain with her mother and grandmother, he wont be able to see her as often, or if he doesn't have a passport, then not at all.

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39989341/ns/world_news-europe/

Wall Street vs. Fed policy decision

Apparently Wall Street will know how much the Fed would like to use to stimulate the economy. The Fed will announce their decision on Wednesday. There was a lot of debate on the size and lengths of programs that they were planing on creating. Treasury prices rose which caused interest rates to go down a little bit. Private employers created 43,000 jobs last month after cutting jobs in September.


This doesn't sound good cause we might end up with inflation... or that's how I'm interpreting it. Since interest rates went down, that's good. Now people wont be in as much debt as they would've and that would probably stimulate the economy cause this will probably give people a little bit more confidence to buy on credit. And unemployment rates will go lower and that will bring us a step closer to becoming a super strong market economy again! YAY!

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39984746/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

Election-day trading ends good!

So I guess the election-day trading was good for the stock market today. The Dow Jone industrial average was near its highest point of the year today. The index is up almost 14% this year. PS I did not vote today cause I am only 17... that is just a fun fact.

I don't know if this will last or if this is going to be just cause of the election. Whatever it is my stocks are up so I'm not complaining, unless it goes down really fast, then I will be mad. Hopefully though it will last so then we can get out of this stinky economy and become really great when it comes to money again.

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39964805/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

AIG Paying back

AIG is repaying $37 billion in bailout money. They're trying to raise enough so they can repay the bailout in full. Its bailout package was $180 billion in aid, but the government received 80% stake in the company as part of the deal. They are trying to raise enough money to pay back by selling its other companies. Like they sold ALICO to MetLife Inc for $16.2 billion. The government will do something to AIG similar to what it did for Citigroup Inc shares.

This makes me feel really confident in them, I think I actually might invest in them at our stock market game. Plus it's good for the Treasury Department because if the stock and other investments stay the same, they would make money which is good for our economy.


Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39946614/ns/business-us_business/

Lady Gaga Speaks Out About Don't Ask Don't Tell

Grammy award winning singer, Lady GaGa spoke about the don't ask don't tell policy in our military this Monday on the eve of a Senate race in Portland, Maine. She came with Military, Air force, and Marine veterans who were discharged because of the policy. She proposed that instead of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to have "If you don't like it, go home."
They were trying to get Republican Senators to vote to repeal  the policy. Senator Susan Collins has already voted to repeal it, but Senator Olympia Snowe is still undecided.

I think that this is a good idea. I don't think that it's right to keep someone from fighting for their country just because of their sexual orientation. Why is there so much hate towards gay people? It just doesn't make sense to me, I understand if someone is turned down to fight if they were sick or unable to perform necessary tasks in the military but gay people aren't sick and they are able.
Repeal Don't ask. Don't tell!

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39269119/ns/politics/

Justin Bieber Throws Water Balloon at a State Trooper

According to msnbc.com, pop star Justin Bieber had been working on his aim and decided to throw water balloons at peoples crotches. He then hit a state trooper below the belt with one and the cop was about to arrest him but his body guard talked him out of it. Bieber then tweeted "Still laughing. GREAT DAY." The state trooper was there to make sure that Bieber fans didn't get out of control and that's the thanks he gets

How super immature. If that was any other teenager they would've totally been arrested, but because hes "Justin Bieber" he was able to get away with it without any consequences. Every action should have some sort of repercussion no matter who you are and what you do, but for some reason they decided not to... I wonder why.

Source:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39096447/ns/today-entertainment/