CAROLINA NATURALLY: Oct 29, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Bankers Expect Rising Bonus Pay to Break Records in Global Poll

Can you believe the unmitigated gall!

In Washington and on Main Street, politicians and voters are railing against Wall Street’s multi- million-dollar pay packages.

In the financial world, most executives expect their bonuses to match or exceed last year’s, with 1 in 10 predicting their best-ever payout.

Full Story

Halloween Candy Demonic!?

More lunacy from the perverts over at the christian Broadcasting Network

To be honest, it's true that many consider Halloween a pagan holiday*, but come on.
It's truly just a excuse for children to go out and get some candy.
Do you realize one of the reasons that the U.S. pushed back DST in the fall until after Halloween?
It's because the candy manufacturers had been lobbying for years over it.

But according to the morons at cBN Halloween candy is cursed by witches

The nutcases at the christian Broadcasting Network posted this nonsense on a website (which they have since removed). But before it was removed the following 'quote' was captured:

“Most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches,” Daniels wrote. “I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery stores. The demons cannot tell the difference.”

You have got to be kidding with this bullshit!?!

*****

* It is the pagan festival of Souwen (aka: Samhain) if one properly celebrates the reason for the holiday. However if you refer to it as Halloween (a bastardized term for the catholic mass on the eve of All Souls Day called All Hallows Eve you are celebrating the christian perversion of the true holiday.

Frozen pizza taste test winners

Check out which cheese pizza took top honors and which variety had the tastiest crust.

Best picks to try

Also:

America's most sleep-deprived states

Odd-hour jobs and economic troubles may be putting this state atop the "most sleepless" list.

Study

Also:

How to land a job with small talk

Building a real rapport with your interviewer can give you a huge advantage.

Conversations to avoid

Also:

Denim sends a message around the world

Leaders including Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy now want to be seen in jeans.

What they signal

Also:

Forecast brightens for Halloween

A cold front that originally had been expected to ruin some trick-or-treaters' fun for Halloween on Saturday night is moving slower than expected.

So forecasters now think it could be late Saturday night before showers and thunderstorms arrive in the Charlotte metro region. And they promise unseasonably mild conditions during the day Saturday.

In fact, several days of temperatures at or above seasonal averages are promised for the area.

After some low clouds and fog Friday, partial sunshine is expected to return in the late morning hours, extending into the afternoon. Highs will approach 70 degrees, forecasters say.

Fans attending high school football games Friday night will experience very mild conditions.

On Saturday, any early fog or clouds are forecast to give way to partly sunny skies. High temperatures are expected to climb into the upper 70s, and it's not beyond the realm of possibility that some places could hit 80 degrees in the afternoon.

By evening, clouds will increase. The showers and storms will arrive Saturday night, then sweep east of the region by Sunday morning. Partial sunshine is forecast to return Sunday afternoon, with highs in the upper 60s.

Question and Answer

Question: How does a man show he's planning for the future?

Answer: He buys two cases of beer instead of one.

Blue Cross asks customers to help defeat health care reform, after sending them an 11% premium increase

Can you say ... OOPS!

Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Carolina thought it might be nifty to spend a lot of money writing its customers and asking them to lobby Democratic Senator Kay Hagen to oppose the health care reform bill. Only problem? Blue Cross had just raised their customers' rates by 11%.

People lost it.

First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition that would be imposed by a government-backed insurance plan. The so-called public option is likely to be considered by Congress in the health-care overhaul debate.

"No matter what you call it, if the federal government intervenes in the private health insurance market, it's a slippery slope to a single-payer system," the BCBS flier read. "Who wants that?"

Plenty of people, it turns out.

Indignant Blue Cross customers have rebelled against the insurer's message, complaining that their premium dollars have funded such a campaign.

They've hit the Internet in a flurry of e-mails to friends and neighbors throughout the state. They've called Hagan's office to voice support for a public option. They've marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards to instead vouch support, then dropped them in the mail -- in at least one case taped to a brick -- to be paid on Blue Cross' dime. Or dimes.

U.S. declares education standards too low

A new report criticizes states for vast differences in performance standards for students.

'We're lying to our children'

Also:

Why certain numbers are lucky or unlucky

Buildings often skip the 13th floor, and a new building jumps from 39 to 60.

Superstitions explained

Also:

Secrets to networking with ease

Building relationships can be the key to landing a new job, so make the most of your interactions.

Don't be a downer

Also:

Post office's moneymaking idea

Facing declining mail volume, the U.S. Postal Service tests a new way to "get well soon."

Story

Also:

Worst recession since 1930s hits end

Key indicators show that the biggest downturn since the Great Depression is over.

How experts can tell

Also:

Obama sees cost of war up close

The president's predawn trip to the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base marks a change from the shrub years.

Story

Also:

Biggest used-car red flags to know

5 biggest used-car red flags to know

Don't ever consider a "pre-owned vehicle" if it's missing service records.

Worst kinds of cars to buy

Also:

Test gauges your racial and gender bias

A popular online psychology test has millions wondering if they are prejudiced.

How it works

Also:

Making $10 million and only 36

These young executives are not just rising stars, they're also big earners.

The highest-paid under 40

Also:

Most Distant Object Found; Light Pierced "Dark Age" Fog

The most distant object yet spied in the universe is the remnant of a star about 13 billion light-years from Earth that sheds new light on the earliest days of the universe.

Full story

Oldest object ever seen in the universe

It took 13 billion years for the light from this violent event to reach Earth.

Glimpse of the 'cosmic dark ages'

Also:

Marker pens, duct tape and cookie dough, it's the Top 10 strangest robber disguises

Last week in America a pair of bumbling burglars were arrested after drawing 'masks' on their faces with magic marker pens.

The Top 10 strangest robber disguises

Police Officer Fired After Writing Mayor's Son A Ticket

Corporal Joshua Rowell, the new guy on the five-man police force for the small town of Stockton, Utah saw car try to avoid a DUI stop that was set up.
Rowell did his job, thinking nothing of it and pulled the suspicious car over.

Full Story

Canadian folk singer dies after coyote attack

Toronto-based folk singer Taylor Mitchell died after coyotes pounced on her during a solo hike in Cape Breton national park on Monday.
She was hospitalized with injuries from multiple bites, and died in critical care yesterday.
Ms. Mitchell was 19 years old.

More: LAT, BBC.
Artist pages: Facebook, and MySpace.

The secret history of swine flu

Six months ago, swine flu emerged as a massive threat to global health.
It seemed to come out of nowhere, but our timeline explains how the origins of the H1N1 pandemic go back more than a century.

Timeline

Chimps mourn

You've all seen National Geographic's instantly iconic photo of grieving chimpanzees at the passing of an elder chimp, but to fully appreciate it you need to read the story behind it.

30 reasons why Fox News is not legit

It really isn't necessary for any even least intelligent person, but we all have a imbecile, goofball, or drunk in the family or at work, and Media Matters did take the trouble to compile this list.

30 reasons why Fox News is not legit.

Bet you didn't know ...

Insurance companies routinely charge women up to 50% more than men.
Because they're women.

NY Times Editorial: A Win for Internet Speech

The sheriff of Cook County, Ill., grabbed headlines earlier this year when he sued Craigslist, the online classified advertising forum, for allowing posts that he said promoted prostitution.

A federal judge in Chicago wisely threw out the suit last week. As Congress has recognized, if an Internet proprietor had to police every posting that a third party put up, the cost would be enormous — and it would likely stifle communications.

Craigslist warns users that offers or solicitations of prostitution are prohibited. Sheriff Thomas Dart (pictured) argued that its “erotic services” section still included numerous listings for paid sexual services, including some using code words. The company made voluntary changes after the suit was filed, including conducting a manual review of the listings. Late last year, before the suit was filed, it started charging for those ads in an effort to appease critics.

Even without these changes, Craigslist was operating entirely within the law. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects “interactive computer services” — ranging from small bloggers to giant Internet service providers — from liability, in most cases, for speech they did not help create.

The legal question before Judge John F. Grady was not a difficult one. Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, whose decisions are binding in Illinois, ruled in a fair-housing case that Craigslist cannot be held liable for its users’ illegal real estate listings. As Judge Grady rightly concluded, the same logic applies to adult listings.

Other law enforcement officials, including several state attorneys general, have attacked Craigslist recently for its adult listings, despite its immunity under the Communications Decency Act.

This is the wrong approach. Sheriff Dart told the court that his office had conducted sting operations using Craigslist that led to numerous arrests on prostitution and related charges. He seemed to think it was an argument against Craigslist, but it actually shows why suits like his are unnecessary.

Health Care Hell in America

Maxed out drug benefit explained

The reason insurance companies will never up your pharmaceutical benefit is that they would like anyone who reaches your $1500 a year prescription benefit level to switch to another insurance carrier. They are hoping to antagonize you into leaving them. Reaching the pharma cap is a good indicator of a person on whom they are less likely to profit. Their ideal customer does not use this benefit (or any benefit, for that matter) at all. Unlike someone who breaks a leg and has big one-year costs, but probably nothing the next year, those with chronic health conditions take meds regularly, and scare the bejesus out of the profiteers.

Zimbabwe welcomes UN human rights expert by arresting him at the airport

That sums up what Robert Mugabe thinks of human rights.

U.N. human rights expert Manfred Nowak was detained at Harare airport on Wednesday by Zimbabwean security agents, even though he said he had been invited by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Austrian academic arrived in Zimbabwe from Johannesburg, a stopover over on his way to Harare, where a power-sharing deal between Tsvangirai and long-time ruler Robert Mugabe is under severe strain.

Living wallpaper that devices can relate to

Electronic wallpaper can act as an interactive "skin", providing an aesthetically pleasing way of controlling a room's devices.

Living wallpaper that devices can relate to

Swine flu: Eight myths that could endanger your life

The second wave is upon us, but even official advice about the 2009 H1N1 pandemic is sometimes wrong.

Swine flu: Eight myths that could endanger your life

Science News

From BBC-Science:

Tuna ban 'justified' by science

Banning trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna is justified by the extent of their decline, scientists advising fisheries regulators suggest.

Casting a net into the future

Closure call for tuna 'disgrace'

The plight of the bluefin

Stellar blast is record-breaker

A huge explosion known as a gamma ray burst is confirmed as the most distant cosmic event seen from Earth.

Denmark in climate deal warning

Denmark warns about the risks to a global climate change deal being done in time, as EU leaders gather for a key summit.

Wiring the world

It is 40 years since the first data was sent across the network that would became the internet

40 years of Unix

Accelerator of the modern age

In pictures

An inventory of species threatened by climate change

Spaceman

Nasa's new rocket flies - but where is it going?

Big beast

Fossil 'sea monster' found on England's south coast

Breathe/On The Run

Pink Floyd from the Dark Side of the Moon

And I Quote

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

~ Mark Twain

He's leading Facebook revolt

Nearly a million and a half angry Facebook users are protesting recent changes to the Web site. The leader of the furious online mob? A smiling eighth-grader from Apex who wears his baseball cap backwards and likes to play FarmVille.

His parents were not aware of this.

“He's doing what on Facebook?” asked Jonathan Woodlief's father when the Observer called their home near Raleigh on Tuesday night. Then David Woodlief and his wife, Claire, got Jonathan, 14, out of bed. He came downstairs and explained just how he happened to become the leader of one of the fastest-growing viral movements online. The group was booming by more than 100 new members a minute on Wednesday.

Adding a twist, Jonathan just happens to be a dead-ringer for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, another social media whiz kid, who is only 11 years older than Jonathan.

Jonathan is the administrator of the Facebook group CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL!!, which has exploded over the past six days in response to unpopular changes the site made to its News Feed feature. The feed now shows only those friends Facebook deems “important” to you.

Maybe innocence helps a cause. Jonathan added a note to the side of the group page that reads:

Lets try and get 10,000,000 people to join! :)

Jonathan did not start the group, but joined it a day after it was started because he dislikes the changes. Poking around on the page, he noticed that the group had no administrator, the person who configures the page, allows posts, and makes rules for the group. Believing in the cause – and perhaps sensing an opportunity – “I clicked a button to make myself the admin, and that was it,” he says. Since then he's been inundated with messages and friend requests from around the world.

“We had no idea,” David Woodlief said after the situation became more clear. “He's a smart kid.”

Gold Futures Slumps As Dollar Climbs

Analysis.

Full Story

Florida man uses weight as a murder defense

A man accused of running up and down a flight of stairs to kill a former son-in-law is offering a novel defense: At 5 feet 8 and 285 pounds, he was just too fat to have pulled it off.

Full Story

Retire with a million in savings

These rules take discipline, but show how you can build up a healthy nest egg.

Not just retirement funds

Also:

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is
Internet Day
and
World Psoriasis Day

Daily Almanac

Today is Thursday, Oct. 29, the 302nd day of 2009.

There are 63 days left in the year.

Today In History October 29

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands
San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Munich, Bayern, Germany
Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador
Surabaya, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
London, England, United Kingdom

as well as Israel, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

There's no disputing it.
You just haven't been yourself lately and it's been going on for some time.
Oddly enough, you're not worried about it.
You really couldn't care less about it, in fact -- or about the reactions of those you're ordinarily quite concerned about.
Congratulations.
This is a major step in the personal growth process.
This calls for a celebration.
Why not ask a complete stranger to join you?

I think I will do just that.

Welcome to ...

Thursday, October 29, 2009

More lunacy from the perverts over at the christian Broadcasting Network

Naturally Friends

Playlist