One Sec Tech

SOURCE: Consumer Reports

Last year shoppers spent $405 billion at Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. But according to a new study by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, they might be better off if they switch stores.

For all the talk about Walmart’s low prices, 30,666 subscribers we surveyed said the prices at 10 other retailers, including JCPenney, Sears, Dillard’s, and Meijer, were at least as good. And bigger wasn’t necessarily better when it came to the overall shopping experience. Almost three-quarters of respondents who shopped at Walmart found at least one problem to complain about, and half had two or more complaints about the store or its staff.

Walmart and Kmart scored notably lower than the other chains, but Costco stood tall. In addition to citing the warehouse club’s rock-bottom prices, survey respondents praised its bang for the buck: It was the only store judged much better than average for value. In our surveys over the years, Costco has earned high marks as a source of a surprisingly large selection of goods, including mattresses, electronics, small appliances, groceries, and books. In recent years, the chain’s Kirkland Signature products have often performed well in our tests.

Customers shop Costco for everything from funny t-shirts to Halogen light bulbs but they must pay an annual membership fee of about $50 to take advantage of the store’s low prices.

“Costco surprises consumers with great products and brands at exceptional prices,” says Will Ander, senior partner in McMillanDoolittle, a retail-consulting firm in Chicago. “They don’t promise to have everything, but they do offer a true treasure hunt where everyone seems to find that exceptional item at an unbelievable price. Most customers will give you great satisfaction marks if you exceed their expectations, and Costco is light-years ahead of the other discount competitors in that respect.”

Among our other findings:

• Four chains earned outstanding scores for merchandise quality: Costco (watches and jewelry, personal-care items, hardware, home décor, kitchenware, electronic entertainment such as music and DVDs, and sporting goods and toys), Dillard’s (men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing; personal-care items; home décor; and kitchenware), Macy’s (home décor and personal-care items), and Sears (hardware).
• Target’s “cheap chic” goods didn’t wow everyone. Despite its high-profile partnerships with fashionistas Cynthia Vincent, Eugenia Kim, and Zac Posen, survey respondents judged the quality of Target’s women’s clothing and watches and jewelry below average, and the store’s kitchenware, home décor, and men’s and children’s apparel average.
• When it came to service, Dillard’s stood out from the pack. According to Jack Abelson, president of Jack Abelson & Associates, a retail-consulting firm in Leawood, Kan., service is deteriorating industry-wide because of retailers’ fixation on low prices. “The trouble today,” Abelson says, “is that the staff is not trained to be anything but glorified cashiers and security guards.” Shoppers at Kmart, Walmart, and Sam’s Club (Walmart’s warehouse club spin-off) were more likely than others to complain about the staff.
• In addition to a lack of sales help, the most prevalent problems were that desired items were out of stock and that checkouts were jammed. In fact, 29 percent of shoppers we surveyed complained about long lines. The problems were much worse than average at Kmart, Walmart, and Meijer, a Midwestern chain of superstores.

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MY TAKE: I’m not a big shopper. Crowds get to me, and it doesn’t matter whether I’m buying crazy T shirts for my son, trying to find those wickless candles everyone is raving about at my work, or simply looking for outdoor light bulbs. It seems places like Costco might be low on prices but they are high on congestion. I buy a lot of things online and often will go to smaller mom and pop shops during the middle of the day. Sure, I’m probably paying a few pennies more for those candles but at least I can buy them in peace.

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As Seen on TV from Time Life

As one of the most respected vendors in the realm of as seen on TV products with decades of experience creating specialty books and entertainment items, Time Life is the publisher of a number of different made for DVD series like The World at War and Vietnam: An American History and is the publisher of CD sets like the extremely popular Malt Shop Memories, the inspirational I Can Only Imagine Platinum, and The Ultimate Oldies but Goodies Collection. As one of the most recognized brands in the world, Time Life is the perfect way to get your favorite songs and videos delivered right to your doorstep.

Source: LiveScience

Prescription pain reliever abuse is soaring in the United States, according to to a new report released from health officials who call the abuse “alarming.”

Visits to hospital emergency departments involving nonmedical use of prescription narcotic pain relievers more than doubled between 2004 and 2008, according to a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The abuse of prescription drugs is our nation’s fastest-growing drug problem. And this new study shows it is a problem that affects men and women, people under 21, and those over 21,” said Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske.

Three prescription opioid pain relievers were most frequently involved in hospital emergency department visits related to nonmedical use from 2004 to 2008:

• Oxycodone products: Up 152 percent (well more than doubling), to 105,214.
• Hydrocodone products: Up 123 percent, to 89,051.
• Methadone products: Up 73 percent, to 63,629.

“These alarming findings provide one more example of how the misuse of prescription pain relievers is impacting lives and our health care system,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. “This public health threat requires an all-out effort to raise awareness of the public about proper use, storage, and disposal of these powerful drugs.”

In some cases a wrongful death attorney, for exmple, have been called in to represent the manufacturers of these meds.  In other cases a Texas personal injury attorney has, too, in instances where victims of accidents become addicted to prescription drugs and sue the manufacturer.

The trends reflect in part dramatic increases in the rate at which these drugs are prescribed in the United States, according to a CDC statement. And this is not the first study to reveal the trend.

A separate study found abuse of certain prescription drugs nearly doubled from 2000 to 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Some health officials are calling the rise in the misuse of prescription drugs an epidemic.

“We urgently need to take action,” CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said this week. “Emergency department visits involving nonmedical use of these prescription drugs are now as common as emergency department visits for use of illicit drugs. These prescription medicines help many people, but we need to be sure they are used properly and safely.”

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My Take: There are so many ways to day to override the medial system and get what ever it is you need to take the pain away, real or imagined. Doctors can prescribe virtually anything they want for you but more importantly they are almost obliged to do it. They have to protect themselves from lawsuits on the one hand, and they also often receive kickbacks for prescribing certain means of treatment, and we’re not talking about recommending the E cig for would-be cancer victims, or sports supplements for people with other issues. We all know buying the electronic cigarette cartridge or taking sports nutrition supplements aren’t going to get you where you want to go if you are inclined to want to mask pain for reasons other than which the pain pills were prescribed in the first place.

Job Search

Mortgages Sorted

Louisville KY low rate mortgage loans are apparently easier than ever to get. But, as is the case with mortgages in just about every other state, qualifying for a low-interest Louisville Kentucky mortgage is going to require you to show proof of income and solid credit worthiness. Gone are the days of the wink and a handshake loan approval process. 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESSBiologists tracking jaguars in the Guatemalan are using an unusual lure: Calvin Klein cologne Obsession for Men. .

Biologists Rony Garcia and Jose Moreira from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Jaguar Conservation Program say they use hidden cameras as a primary source for observing and tracking jaguars in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve.

But they also rely on Obsession for Men, a cologne known for its complex scent, to help lure then research and hopefully ultimately preserve jaguars in the Central American country.

“The method we are using to study the jaguars here in Guatemala is a non-invasive method which is based on photographing the individuals by using camera traps,” Moreira told Reuters Television.

“It has been very useful using Obsession (for Men) to get the jaguars in front of these camera traps … and that allows us to estimate with greater confidence the genders and the numbers that live in each studied site.”

Making Scents
It’s not clear whether the big cats would be interested in the smell of typical aromatherapy gift sets or rose smelling soaps. Natural beauty products don’t seem to be the key to getting their attention, only the expensive men’s cologne seems to do the trick.

The discovery that Obsession for Men acted as a magnet for jaguars was the result of an experiment by the WCS’s Bronx Zoo in New York.

The WCS was looking for ways to get cheetahs in front of camera traps, and, after several years of testing with different fragrances, found spraying the musky Obsession For Men near the heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras drew the cats for longer than other scents.

They also tried out about 23 other fragrances but Obsession for Men kept the cats’ attention for longest with Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps coming second.

The practice made its way down to Guatemala, where Garcia and Moreira said they have been recording similar success in the wild since 2007, allowing them to track jaguars and even record their mating rituals.

Garcia said the results will be invaluable to conservation efforts.

“These camera traps help us to identify how many jaguars are living in this area … (and) helps us to have control over the population and lets us say to the government, to the public, that Laguna del Tigre still deserves conservation,” he said.

The WCS said it tentatively plans to expand the use of the cologne in programs in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in coming years.

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MY TAKE: I’m interested in this because I am planning a trip to Guatemala’s bio reserve one day. I have done this in Australia and came back with little more than a couple of T shirts to remember it by. This time, I intend to do better than those Australian souvenirs: I want to get close the big cats and do research alongside these guys, anything to help preserve them. Jaguars are so rare and yet play such an integral part in the country’s history and folklore, and to see that they are being cared for and that people are working to protect them makes me happy.

By the way, thinking of adding some cool decorative glass doors to your home?  If so, you might want to make sure your exterior wood doors are properly sealed so that they do not peel or warp in cool damp wether.

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OTHER RESOURCE

Source: New York Times

Three years ago Ben Huh visited a blog devoted to silly cat pictures — and saw vast potential.

Mr. Huh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, first became aware of I Can Has Cheezburger which pairs photos of cats with quirky captions, after it linked to his own pet blog. His site immediately crumbled under the resulting wave of visitors.

Sensing an Internet phenomenon, Mr. Huh solicited financing from investors and forked over $10,000 of his own savings to buy the Web site from the two Hawaiian bloggers who started it.

“It was a white-knuckle decision,” he said. “I knew that the first site was funny, but could we duplicate that success?”

Mr. Huh has since found that the appetite for oddball Internet humor is insatiable.

Traffic to the Cheezburger blog has ballooned over the last three years, encouraging Mr. Huh to expand his unlikely Web empire to include 53 sites, all fueled by submissions from readers. In May, what is now known as the Cheezburger Network attracted a record 16 million unique visitors, according to the Web analytics firm Quantcast.

A more recent success for the company is a site called Fail Blog, which chronicles disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video. The network’s smaller sites include Daily Squee, with pictures of cute animals, and There I Fixed It, for photos of bad repair jobs.

Mr. Huh said his company, which makes most of its money from Web advertising, has been profitable since Day 1.

“Then again, it was just me and Emily in the beginning,” he said referring to his wife, who also works at the company. Cheezburger now has more than 40 employees and has not sought additional investment.

As the company has grown, so have the opportunities to make money, said Todd Sawicki, the company’s chief revenue officer.

“Only 1 percent of what gets submitted goes on the Web site,” he said. “The rest we can turn into T-shirts, books and other content that the audience loves.”

This year alone, Mr. Sawicki said, the company will generate a seven-figure sum from advertising, licensing fees and merchandise sales.

The company has published five books based on its blogs, one of which, a collection of the cats-with-misspelled-captions images known as Lolcats, hovered on the New York Times list of miscellaneous paperback best sellers for 13 weeks. Three more books are in production, along with a line of greeting cards and desktop calendars.

One secret to the company’s success is the way it taps into the Internet zeitgeist. It seeks clues to what is funny right now by monitoring the Web for themes bubbling up on community forums, blogs and video sites. Then it spins off new sites devoted to the latest online humor fads.

“Cheezburger figures out what’s starting to get popular and then harvests the humor from the chaff,” said Kenyatta Cheese, one of the creators of a popular Web video series called “Know Your Meme” that documents viral online phenomena, known as memes. “Things like Lolcats and Fail are easy to make, easy to spread and hit on an emotional level that crosses a lot of traditional boundaries.”

Most of the material the company posts is created by readers, who can Photoshop a funny caption onto an image or remix a popular video in minutes and submit it to one of the Cheezburger sites for consideration. The company says that each day it receives more than 18,000 submissions from readers.

Joe Olk, 28, is one of two dozen staff members who spend their days deliberating over exactly what makes something laugh-out-loud worthy.

Skimming through images on a computer monitor in the company’s spacious office in downtown Seattle, Mr. Olk paused over one photograph of a neon sign advertising services described as “Internet Massage.” “Now that is just weird,” he says with a snicker. “But also funny.” And with a click, it is posted online.

Employees do not check to see whether the person submitting content actually owns it before they put it on a company site, but they will remove it if they receive a complaint after the fact. The company says that before it puts an image into a book or calendar, it does seek permission from its creator, who might receive a free book or T-shirt.

Submissions that are funny but don’t fit into any of the current blog themes can inspire new blogs. For example, after noticing an influx of photos featuring comically bad knock-off toys and other products, the company decided there were enough to warrant a new site, which is slated to be introduced in the next week or two.

The tricky part, said Kiki Kane, 36, who oversees new site development for the network, is gauging whether an Internet trend has legs. She aims to introduce a new blog every week.

“We’re constantly monitoring the Web for new memes,” she said. “Those bits of cultural shorthand, inside jokes that you get right away just by seeing a visual image.”

Not every new site is a hit. One called Pandaganda, which collected images of pandas looking comically evil and sinister, fizzled after a few weeks, so Mr. Huh pulled the plug. “We kill about 20 percent of all the sites we start,” he said.

The idea of quickly tailoring a blog network to satisfy the fickle tastes of a Web-savvy audience, generating new sites to capitalize on a viral sensation and dropping the ones that don’t catch on, is what convinced Geoff Entress, a noted angel investor in the Seattle area, to help Mr. Huh purchase the original company.

“Being flexible and able to change as the environment changes is a huge asset to a consumer Web site,” said Mr. Entress, who has backed more than 35 local start-ups, including an online community for booklovers called Shelfari that was eventually bought by Amazon.

“The risk wasn’t that people wouldn’t like the product,” he said. “We already had the numbers showing they did. The risk was whether or not we could prove this was more than a fad.”

If the wacky cats are a fad, they are one that has had surprising staying power, as shown by a recent Cheezburger happy-hour event at Safeco Field before a Seattle Mariners game.

More than 1,000 fans turned up to listen to cat-themed songs blasted over the loudspeakers, snack on miniature cheeseburgers, slurp from plastic cups of beer and pose for pictures with Mr. Huh.

Tess Mattos, a 41-year-old knitting instructor who traveled up from Portland, Ore., for the event, said she had been a fan of the network’s flagship site for three years.

“It’s just a good, simple break from real life,” she said, adjusting the pair of sequined cat ears she was wearing. “It’s clever, but not mean-spirited.”

“People think we’re weird,” she quipped. “But have you seen the fans of ‘Twilight?’ ”

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My Take: Look, I’ve seen people blog on and on about everything from the ads on poll pads at the Lakers/Celtics playoff games to how to hire and fire an MD home cleaning company. Why wouldn’t funny cat photos garner attention? In this day and age, I think we need more laughter and nothing is funnier than cats doing silly things in photos, and what cats do them as pets.

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Other Resources

Cyclone Technology

It is also known as cyclonic separation. It is a method of removing particulates from an air, gas or water stream, without the use of filters, through vortex separation. Dyson vacuum cleaners utilize rotational effects and gravity to separate mixtures of solids and fluids. A high speed rotating airflow is established within a cylindrical or conical container called a cyclone. Air flows in a spiral pattern, beginning at the top of the cyclone and ending at the bottom end before exiting the cyclone in a straight stream through the center of the cyclone and out the top. Unfortunately, Haan steamers have yet to figure out how to utilize technology.

Source: Associated PressMickey Mouse fans make it clear: don’t mess with his image.

Warren Spector, creative director of Disney Interactive Studios’ Junction Point, said the beloved international icon won’t transform into a snarling rat as originally planned for the game when players make mischievous choices, such as pilfering treasures from a store or erasing characters with thinner. Instead, Mickey will take on a smudgy look if he’s naughty.

“We’re not going to change Mickey’s image so much,” said Spector.

During a recent demonstration of the latest iteration of the upcoming Wii game that will be on display at this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Spector said the decision to scrap the malevolent-looking Mickey was made following negative feedback during focus testing of the game, which features Mickey trekking through a cartoon wasteland.

“People don’t like it when you mess with Mickey,” said Spector. “We did a focus test that was really eye opening for me. There was a biker dude saying, ‘Oh, I’d never play a Mickey Mouse game,’ and then we showed him images of a changed Mickey. I was sitting there thinking, ‘You’re gonna love what we do,’ but he said, ‘No! Don’t mess with my childhood.’”

“Epic Mickey” is set in a virtual world of wayward renditions of Disney locales, such as Adventureland and Skull Rock. Throughout the game, players will be faced with moral dilemmas about whether to help other characters. For example, should Mickey persuade a lovelorn pirate to give a bouquet of flowers or an ice cream cone to a lactose intolerant Henrietta Cow?

“Mickey constantly gets himself into trouble, not just in this game but in his films as well,” said Spector.

After “Epic Mickey” appeared on the cover of Game Informer magazine last fall, several fans were outraged over Mickey’s makeover. Others were later miffed that images of the game did not resemble the concept art. Spector said the images and art were never intended to show the final version of the game and that it was part of the “normal creative process.”

PS3 downloads and WII games online have become somewhat controversial, with many parents concerned that too much violence and distortion are being offered as entertainment.

“Sometimes you go too far to find out where too far is,” he said.

Spector insisted that Mickey will maintain his traditional retro ensemble — yellow shoes, red shorts — throughout the game but will be surrounded by levitating little guardians that will glow a different color whether players employ more paint or thinner. He also teased there are a “cloud of possibilities” that will lead to multiple endings of “Epic Mickey.”

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My Take: I’m a purist when it comes to Disney, and Mickey is certainly no exception. I’ll go for luau costumes and even get into some Playstation 3 fighting games provided they aren’t too dark. But when it comes Mickey I would rather see him just as he looked when I was a kid and he was a favorite pick for kids’ Halloween costumes. He’s an icon of a happier, gentler time and I prefer to keep him in my mind as such.

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Protection Plus

Security guard services in Roseville, California are easy to obtain. If you run a small business and would like to hire a Sacramento unarmed security guard or one that is closer to your area, you should always insist on a complete background check before putting some one in the position.   You can also rest assured that there are plenty of vehicle lock out tools available, should lock your keys in your car. And, AAA has a team of qualified lockpicks on its team.

SOURCE: L.A. Times

Highway 9 at the east entrance to Zion National Park in Utah will be closed this summer and officials are warning visitors to make alternate plans for entering the park.

The reconstruction of a 9½-mile section will close the road and tunnel through the Checkerboard Mesa and some other areas from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Controlled traffic will be allowed before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays, the park said.

The closure does not affect most of Zion’s attractions, which are in the park’s main canyon. But even when the road is open, stopping for, say,  a hike or a picnic will not be permitted, except on weekends.

The closure will also affect travel to and from some of the region’s national parks and monuments.

Alternate routes will add considerable distance and travel time between Zion and Bryce Canyon; the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument; and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Some nearby lodging and dining options along Utah 9 east of the park and in Mt. Carmel Junction and Kanab will be accessible only by a substantial detour during the daytime closure.

The closures and delays are expected to last until Oct. 28. For details, check the park’s website or call  (435) 772-3256.

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MY TAKE: I’m sure there’s more than construction to worry about when it comes to summer travel. The price at the pump and the crippled economy have a lot of people opting for model train sets and DVDs over family trips to national parks. In fact, to build a model train takes less time than it does in some cases to even get through the entrance to a park, let alone what it takes to get there.

You also have to have the right gear, which isn’t cheap. I’m not saying you need to go out and buy expensive Carhartt clothing and fancy equipment. But Carhartt clothing aside, you do need to be prepared, and that costs money.

By the way did you know that if you hasseled needlessly by a collections firm you can hire harassment attorneys for help?  There are FDCPA attorneys who can help you avoid unecessary harassment and sometimes even help you settle your debt.

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Homes Below

Want to expand your home but not up? Go down, by hiring one of the best basement remodeling Colorado companies. Denver Colorado basement remodeling is a popular choice for homeowners who don’t have land to build out but need an extra room for work, a kid’s bedroom or perhaps an entertainment room.

SOURCE: TIMEShania Twain is legally single again, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t taken.

Even as her divorce from Robert “Mutt” Lange was quietly being finalized in Switzerland, Twain, 44, was looking like a woman in love at the Swiss Red Cross Ball on May 29. Dancing the night away with Frédéric Thiébaud (the other woman’s ex-husband), 40, “she was radiantly happy,” says a source close to her.

“Her happiness certainly shone through,” says her friend Stéphane Lagonico, an ambassador for the Swiss Red Cross, who organized the ball. “They are a great addition to each other’s lives.”

With the divorce final this week, according to documents filed in Switzerland, Twain is moving on with her life. She’s prepping to shoot “Why Not? With Shania Twain,” her series on the Oprah Winfrey Network, amid speculation that “American Idol” is courting her to be a judge after her successful stint as a mentor this season.

And Thiébaud is firmly at her side through all of it. “Shania and Fred are a couple that fit together,” says a friend. Adds the source close to her: “Things are getting really serious with Fred.”

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MY TAKE: This is one divorce case any Denver alimony attorney would have certainly loved to have gotten their hands on. Twain may not be exactly Carrie Underwood when it comes to current country pop sensations, but she banked a ton of money working under direction of her former husband and it’s impossible not to think of ever one of the Englewood CO divorce lawyers salivating over how much this divorce settlement was worth.

New York emplyment discrimination lawyers team would be called in.  But an NYC discrimination lawyer costs a bundle and someitmes it’s best to just walk away.

But all that aside, the singer looks great. She’s healthy and looks like she’s been doing Pilates exercises since she was 18. At 44 she gives Pilates instruction or whatever her secret is for looking so good, a lot of positive star power.

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Other Resources

Source: Associated PressNeed a hand tracking your racking?

All of the major airlines except Continental have slapped expiration dates on their frequent flier miles, generally one to two years. Activity on the accounts — like flights or credit card awards — will prevent expiration. But even frequent travelers can be surprised when miles expire on an airline they don’t often fly.

Some airlines, including Delta, show mileage expiration when you log into your frequent flier account on its website. Some don’t. So staying on top of all the relevant dates can be challenging.

The advantage of using software or a third-party website is that you can monitor multiple rewards accounts at one time. A few will send you an alert if your miles are close to expiring. And most let you track hotel and rental car rewards programs, too, all in one place.

The biggest and oldest of the sites is MileageManager. It has about 120,000 members, according to Randy Petersen, who runs parent company Frequent Flyer Services as well as InsideFlyer magazine.

Petersen said one advantage of having multiple accounts in one place is that after your trip, it’s easier to make sure you got credit for all of your spending. If you took a trip to Dallas, he said, “you will see your flight, your hotel — ‘hey, where’s my car rental?’”

Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find on some of the more popular mile-tracking sites. All three will also track car rental and hotel programs. However, not every site tracks every provider’s program, so check to make sure the programs you use the most are available on the site:

• mileBlaster. Costs $6.99 per year. Available on the Web, as a widget for Windows or Mac computers, or as an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch and Nokia phones. You’ll have to pay twice if you want to use it on your phone as well as at http://www.mileblaster.com. The service includes e-mail alerts that your miles will soon expire, and some versions allow tracking of accounts for multiple users. A status bar shows your progress toward your next award ticket on each airline.

• MileageManager. Costs $14.95 per year. Available at http://www.mileagemanager.com as well as travel organization website Tripit.com. (Expiration alerts at Tripit are part of the “pro” version, which costs $69 per year.) You can specify how far in advance you want to be notified about expiring miles. MileageManager requires separate accounts for each family member, so the bill could run up for someone who wants to manage several accounts. (The company says it’s looking at the possibility of multi-user accounts in the future.) The service will also monitor a flight you’re interested in and notify you if an award seat becomes available.

• Traxo. Free. This one is the newest of the bunch. Traxo aims to let travelers see both the balances in their loyalty programs, as well as information on upcoming trips. It also says it will notify you that you didn’t get credit on a recent trip, as well as notify you that there is a mileage promotion for a trip you just booked.

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My Take:

Great idea! We don’t all have the money to travel on several airlines a year so we need help tracking our miles. I’m surprised that, with today’s technological “miracles,” it’s taken this long for this plan to surface. Every business owner who travels frequently will benefit from the program, and they can save money on flights and use it for upgrading vital technology features for their company.

By the way: a couple of things every business ought to have managed, either in house or outsourced, is a good colocation company and the best seo service you can find. You can use a colocation company for your offsite data storage and Web site management, but it’s recommended that to get the best level of SEO service possible, work with a local vendor who knows your market well.

By the way: You can hire an SEO company in Vermont even if you run an  upper Nyack real estate company.  You can also hire a data storage or coloation company in Florida if you own a Piermont real estate firm.  The drawback is that you do not have the advantage of a local office.

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Other Resources

Security for Business

If you run a small business, chances are you know little if anything about the value of managed security services . You probably have someone handling your intrusion detection system and collocation services. But if you are just starting out and need to learn all about what these services are about and why you need them, click here.

Dental Defense

Chantilly VA dental services are not all alike. For the best South Riding dentist or one in the VA area, check here. Ask out referrals and get the facts before you agree to pay for dental work.

Source: AFP

A mere 62 years after he won it, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge has presented an Olympic gold medal to a Belgian cyclist.

Eugene Van Roosbroeck, 82, and his two team-mates - 81-year-old Lode Wouters and the late Leon De Lathouwer - were blissfully unaware they had won the team cycle race at the 1948 Olympics in London.

The trio simply got on the bus after the 194 kilometres ride while the judges sorted out who had won the medals.

The award is enough to send them off packing for fishing Key West style or the Greek Isles.

“It was complete chaos after the race - there was no ceremony or stage to collect the medals,” Van Roosbroeck recounted.

“Lode Wouters finished third, Leon De Lathouwer was fourth and I was ninth.

“With these results we were first in the team standings but that was a result that they drew up only after many calculations.

“After the event we jumped on the double decker bus back to the barracks that served as the Olympic Village.

“A day later I was back in Belgium.”

Van Roosbroeck said that the trio weren’t even aware that medals were awarded for the event, which was officially started by the then Princess Elizabeth, now Elizabeth II.

“It was only afterwards that we heard we were the best team. None of us thought that there was a medal awarded for the team event.

“The honour was enough for us.”

While Van Roosbroeck, who pursued his claim for him and his team-mates to be awarded the gold medal after reading about a sailor from the 1960 Olympics who received replica medals after his originals were lost in a fire, has received his medal, Wouters will be awarded his later as he was too sick to attend the ceremony.

Van Roosbreck, who along with his team-mates had to even hand back their Belgian team sweaters after the Games were over in an era when the Olympics were strictly amateur, was just relieved to have the medal in his hands at last.

“Better late than never,” he said.

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My Take: Hard to believe the OOC couldn’t track this poor guy down sooner. Maybe if he’d been spokesman for cereal, NIKE shoes, or True Religion jeans he’d have received the medal a long time ago. Then again, Mek denim or NIKE were not even ideas yet were they? 

I also doubt that these guys would be doing and Key West Florida sport fishing at their age, but then again, you never know.

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Source: ReutersBank of America Corp, one of the nation’s largest employers, is being sued for failing to pay overtime and other wages by some workers.

The lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, consolidates 12 lawsuits filed on behalf of employees in California, Florida, Kansas, Texas and Washington.

It seeks nationwide class-action status on behalf of employees at Bank of America retail branches and call centers over the past three years.

The suit has nothing to do with B of A’s federal program aimed to help it eliminate credit debt.  In fact, the federal debt settlement program is for the institutions’ to handle their debt loads and recoup losses from the real estate crash.

George Hanson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the case could eventually cover more than 180,000 workers, based on information provided by the bank. That could lead to a recovery in the “hundreds of millions” of dollars, assuming a typical employee was deprived of $1,000 to $2,000 in pay, he said.

According to the 44-page complaint, the largest U.S. bank by assets requires employees to work in excess of eight hours a day or 40 hours a week, yet fails to pay them both for overtime and for all straight time worked.

Other industries?
It’s no secret that many industries, from house cleaning DC services to gardening shops, fail to pay their workers, many of whom are immigrants or non-English-speaking workers. But this suit is significant because it targets one of the leading banks and comes on the heels of significant financial reforms in Washington.

The complaint also accuses Bank of America of requiring employees to work during unpaid breaks, failing to provide meal and rest breaks, and failing to timely pay terminated employees for earned wages and accrued vacation time.

“Bank of America enjoys millions of dollars in ill-gained profits at the expense of its hourly employees,” violating either the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or various state labor laws, the complaint said.

Shirley Norton, a Bank of America spokeswoman, said the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank would defend against the lawsuit, and had comprehensive policies and training to ensure compliance with all federal and state wage and hour laws.

Bank of America as of March 31 employed 283,914 people worldwide, and operated 5,939 U.S. branches.

The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in April had directed that the 12 original cases be combined.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status, a halt to the alleged illegal conduct, compensatory and punitive damages and other remedies.

The case is In re: Bank of America Wage and Hour Employment Practices Litigation, U.S. District Court, District of Kansas, No. 10-md-2138.

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My Take: It doesn’t matter to me that B of A is being sued. I am ecstatic when I hear a big bank is being called on the carpet, or a big company for that matter, and I don’t care if they make DUO refills for the smokeless cigarette. In fact, they can be the leading electronic cigarette maker in the world or they can provide the best cleaning services Fairfax Virginia has to offer, it doesn’t matter. If they are breaking the law and taking advantage of workers in the process, I say prosecute them to the fullest.

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