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Brightpoint Establishes Business in Turkey

Brightpoint's innovative services include distribution, channel development, fulfillment, product customization, e-Business solutions, and other outsourced services that integrate seamlessly with its customers. Brightpoint's effective and efficient platform allows its customers to benefit from quickly deployed, flexible, and cost effective solutions. The company has approximately 3,000 employees in more than 25 countries. In 2007, Brightpoint generated revenue of $4.3 billion and net income of $47.4 million. Brightpoint provides distribution and customized services to over 25,000 B2B customers worldwide. Additional information about Brightpoint can be found on its website at www.brightpoint.com or by calling its toll-free Information and Investor Relations line at 877-IIR-CELL (877-447-2355). more

China-Europe Int. Business Sch. launched in Accra

A consortium of International Business Executives is to launch in Accra a school known as the China-Europe International Business School. The Institution, the first of its kind in Africa is already in four other countries, China, Mexico, Argentina and Spain. This came to light when the Business leaders called on President Kufuor at the castle.

They were led by the Executive President of the School in China, Professor Pedro Nuedo. President Kufuor said business, like other fields of endeavour must be taught along scientific lines. He said he was overwhelmed by the news of establishing such an international institution in Ghana.

The President stressed the need for the ambitious youth to get an insight into what makes a good business person. He hoped through that they would be excited enough to venture into the sector. more

Business boss in at Chamber

The Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group has appointed Gary Cranford as business manager for Reading and West Berkshire.

With a background in account management and new business sales, he will be charged with updating Chamber members on the range of services available as part of a membership package.

Mr Cranford, pictured, said: “I am looking forward to introducing myself to Chamber members in the Reading and West Berkshire areas and working alongside them to ensure they fully utilise their membership.

“I am also very keen to work with the Chamber councils and members of the local business community to encourage future growth and success of the Chamber."

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Sales Executive/New Business Development Manager

They specialise in Business Intelligence, Data warehousing, Document Management and Business Performance management in order to provide the best practice implementations, utilising pragmatic and proven approaches and architectures. They now require a New Business Development Manager to drive the E-Billing side of the business forward.

The Role: The role is 100% new business development and will require candidates to deliver a solutions sell. As New Business Development Manager you will promote the company’s services and ensure they are sold inline with the sales strategy. By identifying the key decision makers you will identify new business opportunities by successful cold calling and effective appointment setting. You will follow up on quotations, attend client meetings and support the client in order to ensure their needs are satisfied. more

Latest Free Business Sales Lead News

P&G open to outside ideas, but no kitty Swiffers - Detroit Free Press

Clean Magic Eraser was derived from a household sponge P&G employees spotted in stores in Japan and Olay Regenerist skin cream uses anti-wrinkle technology developed by a small French company. P&G doesn't report sales for the specific products.

Reporting: Panama - American Reporter

PANAMA CITY, Panama, May 3, 2009 -- A ban on sales of alcohol and heightened securities greeted Panamanian voters Sunday as a frantic and factious three-year presidential campaign finally went to the voters. Supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli, 57 ...

Lights out for smokers at bars and restaurants - Greensboro News & Record

GREENSBORO — Danny Forman is looking forward to cleaning the bar at The Blind Tiger now that a new smoking ... Third and subsequent violations can lead to fines of up to $200 per day. Individuals who refuse to comply with the ––request of a ...

Obscure Music Finds An Outlet On The Web - NPR News

Advances in digital technology over the past decade have made it easier and cheaper to distribute music online. But it's fans, not labels, who are taking the lead. December 30, 2009 - Advances in digital technology over the past decade have made it ...

Community Online Calendar - Danville Weekly

An exhibit of Porcelain Art by Eugenia W. Zobel, will be held from 1-6 p.m., until Jan. 28, at Wente Vineyards Estate Winery Gallery, 5565 Tesla Rd., Livermore. The gallery is open during business hours. Visit www.wentevineyards.com. Lynn Shephard ...

Trowel and Glove calendar - Marin Independent Journal

- The Marin Art & Garden Center's Spring Garden Festival is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 2 at 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Ross and includes a plant sale, lectures, a green elephant sale and silent auction, hands-on classes, music, crafts, a silent ...

Smile! You've got cancer - The Guardian

Ehrenreich: 'In the lore of the disease, chemotherapy smoothes and tightens the skin and helps you lose weight, and, when your hair comes back it will be fuller, softer, easier to control, and perhaps a surprising new colour.' Photograph: Stephen ...

Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy Revisited: A Reply to ... - Lewrockwell.com

Likewise, economic policy may possess a moral dimension, but not a single proposition of economic theory involves a moral claim. For example, Frank Knight conceived of capital as a homogeneous unit whose individual processes occurred synchronously ...

Michigan cities try to block medicinal marijuana sales - Detroit News

Medical marijuana is legal in Michigan, but communities across the state are putting up barriers to block entrepreneurs from setting up shop in what critics say is a clear attempt to subvert the law. Cities are taking vastly different approaches to ...

Secrets of the Economist's Trade: First, Purchase a Piggy Bank - Wall Street Journal

Academic economists gather in Atlanta this weekend for their annual meetings, always held the first weekend after New Year's Day. That's not only because it coincides with holidays at most universities. A post-holiday lull in business travel also ...

Open Question: 1. Which of the following was an effect of the growth in mining?

1. Which of the following was an effect of the growth in mining? A. Decreased crime due to the prevalence of law enforcement officers in the new territories. B. The rise of boomtowns in areas where gold, silver, copper, and lead were found. C. Fewer railroad stops in the areas where mines were built. D. Families living in community homes with multiple families, due to a shortage of lumber supplies. 2. All of the following occurred because of the growth of mining except: A. The admission of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana as states B. Creation of vigilante committees to control crime C. A number of towns that went bust after mining resources were gone D. An increase in the price of silver because of its great supply 3. Which of the following greatly spurred the settlement of Colorado, Arizona, and Montana? A. The availability of free land B. The arrival of large numbers of miners C. The growth of the cattle industry D. The presence of peaceful, orderly towns 4. Which city became the second largest in the West due in large part to the mining of gold and silver, which brought railroads to the area? A. Denver B. San Francisco C. Phoenix D. Leadville 5. What industry greatly expanded because of mining growth in the West? A. Textiles B. Communications C. Railroad D. Cotton mills 6. Which of the following was an effect of the growth of ranching? A. Cattle from the East adapted to life on the Great Plains. B. Many people created large private ranches in California on federal land. C. Increased crime with bandits taking large numbers of cattle from ranchers D. Several cattle trails were created by Texas ranchers driving herds north for sale. 7. All of the following resulted from the growth of ranching except: A. Increased sales of longhorn cattle to businesses in the East B. Some Texas longhorn cattle went to ranchers in other parts of the West to increase their herds. C. Boomtowns going bust when people decided to pursue ranching instead of mining D. An increase in investment in the cattle business from people in the eastern United States and Britain. 8. What was one undesired effect of the growth of ranching on ranchers? A. Sheep herders relocated their flocks to the open range for grazing, blocking cattle trails. B. Railroads began to open more stations and create more routes throughout the West. C. Most people moved to the Great Plains to become ranchers when mining wasn’t successful for them. D. Concerns were raised about the environmental impact of the longhorn cattle on open range land. 9. In which of the following ways did ranching change as it grew? A. More eastern-bred cattle were brought to the Great Plains. B. Open range ranching ended and cattle were raised on ranches fenced in by barbed wire. C. The role of the cowboy expanded as more ranchers established their own ranches. D. The price of beef continued to rise as more cattle went to market in the 1880s. 10. One successful approach to farming on the Great Plains was dry farming, in which farmers A. cooperated to build community irrigation ditches. B. dug out depressions to create ponds for irrigation. C. grew crops that could withstand long periods without rain. D. planted seeds deep in the ground. 11. In the 1890s, when a glut of wheat on the world market caused prices to drop, some farmers tried to survive by A. planting corn and other crops. B. forming cooperatives. C. mortgaging their land. D. buying more land on credit. 12. Which of the following was a hardship faced by settlers on the Great Plains? A. Prairie fires B. Flooding C. Too many trees D. Loose soil 13. Which of the following inventions helped farmers on the Great Plains succeed in planting and harvesting their crops? A. Barbed wire B. Threshing machines C. Hydraulic planters D. Haciendas 14. What problems did many early settlers in the Great Plains face? A. Insufficient funds to purchase farming land B. Railroads owned much of the land, making it hard to find a place to settle. C. Difficulty accessing water and lack of trees to build homes D. Unsanitary conditions that spread disease 15. What contributed to the success of the Great Plains farmers throughout the 1870s? A. A great surplus of land to farm B. Supplementing their farm income by selling cattle they kept on their land C. The extinction of the buffalo that once roamed the plains D. Above average rainfall in the area 16. The combination of new technology and successful wheat farming led to the creation of what? A. Cattle ranches B. Bonanza farms C. New mail routes D. Wheat mills 17. Which of the following was a problem Great Plains farmers faced in the late 1880s? A. A severe drought that destroyed crops B. Compet more

Voting Question: help me! i dont need all of the awnswers but any would be helpfuli came late in the semester and am way behind?

1. The ability to acquire food on a regular basis meant that humans (1 point) had less control over their environment. could give up their nomadic way of life and live in settled communities. could use animals as pets. could use fire to cook their food. 2. How did Judaism differ from other religions of ancient times? (1 point) It taught that there was one God for all peoples. It taught that only the priests had access to divine will. It taught that the Hebrew king was part god. It taught that reincarnation led to the end of suffering. 3. In ancient India, the Untouchables were the (1 point) priests, considered sacred beings. warriors, considered invincible in battle. peasants, one-fifth of the population. lowest level of society, not considered human. 4. Filial piety refers to the duty of (1 point) family members to subordinate their needs to the male head. parents to subordinate their needs to their educated children. Hindus to accept their position in the social order. Israelites to follow the Ten Commandments. 5. The emphasis on landscape in Chinese painting reflects the (1 point) Daoist search for balance in nature. interest in showing realistic shapes. loss of lands to the Mongols. medicinal use of plants and herbs. 6. The Greek language and culture spread to Southwest Asia during (1 point) the Age of Pericles. the Classical Age. the Athenian Empire. the Hellenistic Era. 7. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire (1 point) fell to Germanic peoples. went into decline. continued to thrive. conquered the Visigoths. 8. The departure of Muhammad from Makkah for Madinah is called (1 point) Hijrah. Kaaba. Quran. hajj. 9. What served as the basic building blocks of African society? (1 point) feudal contracts lineage groups slaves camel caravans 10. European civilization was formed by Germanic peoples, the Christian church, and the (1 point) legacy of the Muslims. legacy of the Romans. legacy of the Mongols. legacy of the Aryans. 11. All of the following are true of the Black Death EXCEPT (1 point) bubonic plague was the most common form of plague during the Black Death. infested black rats spread the bacterium of the Black Death. Spanish merchants from Madrid brought the plague to Europe from North Africa. the Black Death caused entire villages to simply disappear from history. 12. All of the following are true of the Crusades EXCEPT (1 point) Alexius I asked Europe for military aid against Seljuk Turks. Urban II wanted Europe to liberate the Holy Land from Muslims. Italian port cities prospered from supplying Europeans in Palestine. Crusader kingdoms finally freed Jerusalem in 1187, defeating Saladin. 13. Artists from ______ , in West Africa, produced impressive bronze statues. (1 point) Ghana Benin Great Zimbabwe Songhai 14. Leonardo da Vinci was an excellent example of Renaissance Italy's social ideal because he (1 point) was a politician, and politicians were considered the pinnacle of human achievement. came from a wealthy family and greatly improved his family's status in society. wrote grand romantic poetry and insightful political treatises. was a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, and mathematician. 15. __________ was the first Protestant faith. (1 point) Calvinism Zoroastrianism Christian humanism Lutheranism 16. The __________ movement had a profound effect on education. (1 point) Renaissance humanist liberal vernacular 17. The publication of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1 point) was immediately seen as a threat by local businesses. attacked the abuses in the sale of indulgences, beginning the Protestant Reformation. was largely ignored until decades after Luther's death. became the context for Angelicanism. 18. ___________ went to his grave believing he had discovered a westward passage to Asia, when in fact he had actually discovered the Americas. (1 point) Amerigo Vespucci John Cabot Christopher Columbus Alfonso de Albuquerque 19. The footbinding of Chinese women was (1 point) a way of punishing wives who were bad cooks. considered a status symbol in Qing society. a method used by landowners to keep female slaves from escaping. a custom imported from Europe by Marco Polo. 20. Originally, African slaves were brought to the Americas to supply labor for the (1 point) sugarcane plantations. rubber plantations. molasses industry. tobacco fields. 21. The Moluccas were known to Europeans as the (1 point) Gold Coast. Middle Passage. Spice Islands. West Indies. 22. To Portuguese explorers, the southern coast of West Africa became known as the (1 point) Cape of Good Hope. land of salt. Gold Coast. Burning Land. 23. Who commanded the forces that destroyed the Aztec capital? (1 point) Francisco Pizarro Hernán Cortés Bernal Díaz Vasco Núñez de Balboa 24. What was the name for the jour more

Resolved Question: Current Trends Poll: Do you watch more tv online or on the actual tv?

The link will take you to an interesting article about the future of free online viewing of tv shows, with an emphasis on the impact of the sale, pending government approval, of NBC to Comcast. http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108303/web-tv-divide-is-back-in-focus-with-nbc-sale Just one point to consider is the fact that Comcast, whose main business is charging people to watch tv, will now own a share of Hulu, the leading site to watch tv for free. I've really began watching shows online much more this television season, though I still watch all sports and news on tv. What about you? Any thoughts on this other topic about free online viewing? Thanks. more

Resolved Question: Republicans, if I was running for public office would you consider voting for me?

I am a democrat, but a moderate, not a liberal. Below are issues where i either partially or fully agree with the republicans. Gun Control: While I believe that guns should be kept out of the hands of dangerous criminals, I support the second amendment. Defend your home, go out and hunt, just be safe. I believe it is unnecessarily to tax guns and ammunition on top of the already existing state sales tax. Abortion: More pro life than pro choice. I do not believe that it should be outlawed fully, but believe that after the first few weeks, it should be outlawed due to the fact that the fetus is now conscious and feels the pain of the abortion. At this stage, it should be done only to save the life of the mother. Also, abortion should not be a free service, it should be a service you pay for, unless it is a case of rape, incest, or if the mother would die in child birth. This eliminates abortion as birth control and creates revenue for the government. Affirmative action: Harmful to true equality. Obama is wrong to support it. Military: Raise the salaries of our heroes and increase funding to troops in Afghanistan. Catching Bin Laden is a top priority. This is something I praise Obama for doing. Economy/stimulus money: Should be going specifically to education, tax cuts, pay raises for military personal, and public works projects for green energy jobs. Taxes: I will not now, nor will I ever support trickle down economics, Reaganomics etc. However, I would lower taxes on the wealthy. With trickle down, the working class cannot invest in themselves because they pick up the burden of the top five percent not paying taxes. However, if the rich are taxed at the high rate they are now, it is difficult for these companies to reinvest in new jobs. There can be a balance here. The wealthy would pay on no more than five percent of their income, and by wealthy I mean those making 150'000 plus a year. I would give tax credits to small businesses who offer health benefits to employees, and per employee hired. A low tax rate, combined with cutting wasteful spending will fund the stimulus money and may lead to a budget surplus. Immigration: If they get a visa, work for equal wages in the competitive market, they are welcome in my book. This is the land of opportunity. But, if they hop the fence and take American jobs for half pay, immediate deportation. No amnesty, and increase border patrol funding. An immigrant should not be eligible for workers compensation if they are not legal residents. I consider myself a moderate, blue dog democrat. A JFK democrat and Teddy Roosevelt progressive. I voted for Obama and generally approve of him, but do think there are some things he has done wrong. I can't see myself voting against him in 2012. Again, I am a democrat, just not a liberal. I voted for Bill Richardson in the NH primary. Above are the issues where I either partially or fully agree with the republicans. I support the democrats on all other issues, such as Iraq withdrawal, same sex marriage, health care reform, stem cell research, anti-torture, medicaid and medicare, and welfare (as long as it is temporary for laid off workers and not a way of life) more

Resolved Question: How to make a good cv? Tips please to help improve chances of interview/job..?

Just general tips of making a good cv that will catch an employees attention and gain an interview. I have included bits of my cv please feel free to criticize it and say were i could improve. Much appreciated. A self motivated individual with a good understanding of the business world. I am a keen worker who is able to work on my own initiative who works well with other team members. Proven leadership skills in Young Enterprise and an individual dedicated to high quality standards in all his work. Education and Qualifications Staffordshire University Rainbow Playworld March 2009 - Present At Rainbow Playworld I am usually allocated to the kitchen area where I serve customers and take food orders to customers. I enjoy working at Rainbow Playworld as this is a company was recently opened a few years ago and we as a team can feel the friendship and enthusiasm throughout. Buzzard Valley Vineyard October 2007 – March 2009 In the Buzzard Valley Vineyard I work as a waiter and bar staff, I am often left in sole charge of serving food and providing drinks at the bar. This has allowed me to use my own initiative and I have learned how to manage high demand periods. Game August 2006 – March 2009 My mainly responsible at Game are to cash up, answer telephone calls, answer any customer queries and deal with customer in a satisfying manner. All of my work experiences have involved me working in a team as well as on my own. This involved me being organized, determined to succeed and commitment e.g. ensure sales targets are met. Hobbies and interests Leadership – when studying Young Enterprise I took the role of sales director where I was able to prove my planning skills which lead to my sales team into success. Vehicles - I have interest on vehicles in particular cars and I enjoy maintaining my vehicle components to high standard. Marketing – have an interest in how adverts, movies etc have been made i.e. why that particular location for the film why those cast members. I also have an interest in reading, going to the cinema and traveling. Please note i have removed all personal information i.e. address etc and selected which i believe are most important parts of the CV. Thanks again 2008 - Present HND Business and Management more

Resolved Question: Why Can't Democrats Just Be Honest About Their Desire To Takeover Health Insurance?

A government health insurance plan sounds nice and pretty, but when you consider a little bit of history concerning the government and its regulation of the private insurance market and consider basic economics it's pretty darn clear that as time goes on more and more people will be forced into government run plans. First, the lie that the government wishes to just "compete" with private insurers is complete BOGUS. The federal (and state governments) already heavily regulate the private insurance market. Over the years governments (both state and federal) have required insurers to cover more and more procedures, many which have nothing to do with health thereby forcing customers to shell out more money instead of just simply allowing consumers to customize their plan....you know kinda like how you do with other insurance. Also doctors spend around 30 billion per year (according to CNN) on malpractice insurance. So if we could have some tort reform of some sort to reduce law suit abuse. But the point I REALLY try to make to people is this....Private insurance companies need to at least break even to keep themselves in business. Government does not. Government can afford to operate at a loss because it has an endless supply of tax revenue and the ability to borrow money from sales of bonds or by monetizing the debt with the Federal Reserve. Now ask yourself this....if you were a business of some sort, and you were competing against someone who could afford to operate at a loss indefinitely don't you think you would have a hard time competing against them? They could afford to continually undercut you (at their loss) and eventually put you out of business. So as you can see the government is NOT competing against private insurers in a FREE market because 1) they regulate their competitors already and 2) they can afford to lose as much money as they want since they do not need to make a profit or even break even to stay in business. Now some people would say that as long as they can afford to give people cheap medical care then it shouldn't really matter if they operate at a loss....Well ok, but there is one problem with that and that is supply If the government sets prices artificially low then their will be an increase in demand for those services. The system will not be able to handle everybody in a timely manner which will lead to long waits and rationing. Now to be clear there already is rationing today just as their is rationing of every product and service we buy....the rationing factor is the price. There are ways to lower the price using Free market solutions instead of the heavy coercive hand of government such as: Tax deductions for health savings accounts that can be used towards deductibles or insurance premiums, tort reform, allowing private insurance to compete in a free market unlike what it has endured over the years as increased government regulation has increased the price. I'm starting to ramble, but the main point I wanted to put out for debate is that government is NOT competing against private insurers because it is government that is setting the terms of competition and not the market and also the government can afford to operate at a loss while private insurers can't. Talk about a monopoly! Please if all you can say is a bunch of rude or ignorant things then please don't comment. more

Resolved Question: I can't decide between the Toshiba Satellite L500-ST2521 and this Dell 14 or Dell 15.?

I'm buying a laptop tomorrow tax free weekend, and plan on using it for school. Please help me decide. All I can get for 750. The toshiba comes with three accessories (backpack, 2GB flash drive, Norton 12 months.) It also has a better operating system and battery life, but every thing else is better on the dells. The 14 is a little less upgraded, than the 15, but is lighter. Please help me decide. Thank you. Satellite L500-ST2521 PSLL0UTCM25U Hide/Show ConfigurationAdd Accessories Average build time for customized orders is 8-10 business days. Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T6500 (2.1GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (64-bit version), SP1 Display 16.0" Diagonal Widescreen HD (1366x768) TruBrite® display KeyBoard Color Black Microsoft® Office Software Microsoft® Office Ready with Microsoft Office Professional 2007 60-day Trial Edition Memory 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM (2048MBx2) Hard Disk Drive 400GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial ATA) Optical Drive DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive Battery High Capacity Lithium Ion Battery (12-cell) Standard Limited Warranty 1 Year Standard Limited Warranty Reconfigure Notebook Update SALE! $993.00 1138.00 Instant Savings $747.00 $2232.00 Toshiba 2GB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Retractable Flash Drive PA3708U-1M2W (Product Details) Usually ships within 1-2 weeks Update $12.99 Mail In Rebate $25.98 Toshiba 17" Wide Screen Notebook Backpack PA1366U-1NCS (Product Details) Usually ships in 1-2 business days Update $89.99 Mail In Rebate $179.98 Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009 CD Version (1-Year Protection) 20037600 (Product Details) Usually ships in 1-2 business days Update $59.99 Mail In Rebate $119.98 Dell Inspiron 15 YSTEM COLORJet Blackedit PROCESSORIntel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)edit OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 Bitedit OFFICE SOFTWAREMicrosoft® Works 9edit Dell Recommends Office Home & Student. WARRANTY AND SERVICEClassic Protection: 1 yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Serviceedit HD DISPLAY15.6” High Definition+ (1600x900) LED Display with TrueLife™edit MEMORY4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHzedit HARD DRIVE250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) with Western Digital 320GB USB 2.0 My Passport Essential External Haedit VIDEO CARDIntel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HDedit INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)edit BATTERY OPTIONS9-cell batteryedit WIRELESS CARDSIntel WiFi Link 5100 802.11 Wireless-N Mini Cardedit BLUETOOTHDell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)edit INTEGRATED WEBCAMIntegrated 1.3 MP Webcamedit SOUND OPTIONSHigh Definition Audio 2.0 Inspiron 14. SYSTEM COLORObsidian Blackedit PROCESSORIntel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)edit OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 Bitedit OFFICE SOFTWAREMicrosoft Worksedit Dell Recommends Office Home & Student. WARRANTY AND SERVICE1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Serviceedit HD DISPLAY14.0” High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife™edit MEMORY4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHzedit HARD DRIVE500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)edit INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)edit BATTERY OPTIONS85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)edit WIRELESS CARDSIntelJWiFi Link 5100 802.11agn Half Mini-Cardedit INTEGRATED WEBCAMIntegrated 1.3M Pixel Webcamedit SOUND OPTIONSHigh Definition Audio 2.0 more

Voting Question: What sight can i go to to get free leads for a home based business. with name telephone number and email adres?

I am new in network marketing.Need tips on how to speed up my sales. more

Resolved Question: Where do I Buy leads and sell leads in India online for BPOs and Call Centers?

I found the below details for a site in India.. Anyone has any idea? ----- Leads and Calling date for BPOs, Telemarketing companies & Call centers in India Whether it is a BPO, KPO, Call Center or any telemarketing company, if they are in the business of selling or marketing, they would need good leads to make good sales. Most small BPOs are in the telemarketing business and their biggest hurdle is to get good calling data. Good leads provide great sales and in turn increases their revenue significantly. Call centers and telemarketing companies also look at selling leads that they generate, to multiple vendors as these leads are not exclusive for one client. So every additional client buying their lead is additional money for the call center. Shopaxy is the first and the only site in this world that fills this space for call centers and telemarketing companies worldwide. Shopaxy allows BPOs, KPOs, ITES companies, telemarketing companies and lead vendors to buy, sell and trade their leads online. Everything is transparent and fully automated. Shopaxy provides value by acting as a middle liasoning agent. They ensure that neither party benefits and earns by fraudulent activity. ** Selling Leads via Shopaxy ** If you are a lead broker or call center that generates leads and you wish to sell them to a captive audience of thousands of call centers and lead vendors, then this is the place for you. Selling your leads,at your price, is an easy 3 step process. A Register yourself for free B Upload the leads in the template provided and choose your selling price. C Automatically receive payments whenever someone buys your leads. You earn each time someone buys your lead. Shopaxy.com is free to register. You can also keep a track of leads being bought and sold world over. Visit www.shopaxy.com today to know more. more

Voting Question: I don't know what to do about my mother...?

This is another long one, so bear with me. Long story short, my mother and 13 year old brother are moving back to the east coast to live with my boyfriend and I for a year or so after a hard divorce and some financial trouble. We had originally looked for homes or townhomes for rent for the year, until my mom found a listing for a nice home for sale a few minutes from where we currently live. The house is going for $8580. It was foreclosed and the bank is trying to sell the home, but they can only sell it for what they paid for it. We bid on it at auction, and no one else did. The house is as good as ours. Its too good to turn away; its brand new, in mint shape, and worth (in a good market) a little over $625K. When we told my mom we were going to buy it, she hit me with "well then all 3 of us should be on the deed. I found it, so I want a cut." My head SPUN at that notion. Yes, you found the listing, but we could have done that ourselves. She basically wants a finders fee or at least $100K of the sale if we sell it later on. This would be my first home, as I am only about to be 22 and this is an amazing opportunity to own my own home. My boyfriend will never agree to that, and we both find it ridiculous that she would ask that. She would never leave after her year of recouperation and saving some $$, and then we would have to ask her permission to sell it when we decide to and then give her a third of the sale! For a home she would be living in almost rent free for only a year! This is the home we want to start a family in, and when I told her we were not sure why that made sense, she went nuts on me. She said I better move quickly then, because she would not only buy it out from under us, but then let US pay HER rent to live there. We were supposed to be doing her a favor by letting her move in with us since she is in such a tight situation, and she is turning it to look like she is doing us some huge favor. She is basically doing this out of spite, and we had an explosive argument over it and havent spoken in days. She has always been a manipulative business mind, and our family sees her as a self serving and sometimes irrational, greed driven person. No one supports her demand for a place on the deed, and agree that its absurd for her to basically extort us for money in the end if she does. She is only telling people half of the story, going as far as telling family we ASKED her to live with us instead of her having to admit she needed help and asked to "bunk" up with us. Everyone thinks this is insane, and that ultimately giving it to her the way she wants it will just lead to suffering on my end. I know thats likely true as well. My mom is a good woman with a heart of gold, but is often driven by money or a need to cover her own ass before that of someone else. I know that if she had found the house listing and DIDNT need to move in with us, she would have just been happy and excited to help us find our own home. But since she is in financial hardship and in need of a place, suddenly she deserves a 3rd of the home equity because she found it and will live there for a year. Since she is in the position she is in, she only sees dollar signs. If I convince my s/o to put her on the deed, which he does not want to do, we will have to be attached at the hip financially with her and she will consider it HER home above ours. But if I dont, she is threatening to try to buy it from under us since its an amazing deal, or just staying away from me because I will have "hurt her immensely and decided to be with a man who has a weak moral compass and only thinks of himself and money." Funny, because all SHE is thinking about is HERSELF and money but doesnt understand that he just wants our own home, for us, without having to consult and deal with her about it forever. Its not about selling it to him and I, its just about our OWN home and having the freedom to have it without her looming over us. She has owned homes already, I think its about time she stops trying to cash in and live through me and accept that her poor decisions after her divorce are not mine to deal with. Her financial issues are not mine to deal with, and she should take responsibility for them instead of panicking because we dont want to "cut her in" on our home. Its like, thanks for finding it mom, but why does it have to be your way or no way? She flipped it on me and said if she bought it we could not be on the deed because it would be hers, so why is it not ok the other way around? Is it fair for her to ask to be on the deed to the home, or am I right to feel the way that I do in the sense that I think its ridiculous and extortive? I dont know what to do, and I dont want to force a gap between us. It feels like no matter what we decide, I am still hurting someone or straining someone's life. Help!Yes, she is planning to pay a third of the taxes and half of the actual sale price. But still, that to me does not entitle her to anything because there is no garantee she will keep up with the yearly taxes...She could decide not to, then I would be screwed having her on the deed.Thanks for all of the answers so far, you guys are all right. I just wanted to be sure im not insane thinking that THIS is insane! more

Resolved Question: what's a good way to generate leads for a Point of Sale business?

I have a small Point of Sale business starting up. We are looking for ways to generate sales leads. We have considered using sites like gumtree.com and other free site to list a commission based opportunity. Is there a lead-generation business out there that we can buy the leads from? more

Resolved Question: Is this a crock or what?

Ok at work we had a meeting that was about the downturn in business that is leading the owners to reducing everyone's work week from 40 hours to 35 hours while sales are off as they have been. They owners also divulged that for the time being they are not paying themselves to free up money and cut costs while things are off for the near future. What kind of BS is that? I surely doubt that anyone who founds and runs their own company ever stood to see themselves making even a dime less of personal income in a given quarter they would be laying people off left and right. Personally I think it was some sob story they fabricated to make us sympathize with them.Oh I am, but I am just having a hard time believing they of all people would stop paying themselves. It is their company after all...PiggiePants, do I answer your questions and talk smack at the end of my answer?! Don't you got a young republicans meeting to attend? more

Resolved Question: I am really thinking of applying for this mystery shopper job i wanna know if its legit?

Thank you for your interest in the Mystery Shopper position. Our company conducts surveys and evaluates other companies in order to help them achieve their performance goals. We offer an integrated suite of business solutions that enables corporations to achieve tangible results in the marketplace. We get hired by other companies and act like customers to find out how they are handling their services in relation to their customers. Mystery Shopping is the most accurate and reliable tool a business can use to gather information regarding their actual customer service performance at the moment of truth. This moment of truth is not when the staff is on their best behavior because the boss is around - it is when they interact with customers during their normal daily routines. This is where you, the Mystery Shopper, come in. You pose as an ordinary customer and provide feedback of both factual observations (ex...the floor was free of debris) and your own opinions (ex...I felt that the temperature in the establishment was too cold). Mystery Shoppers must remain anonymous. You must act as a regular customer and be careful not to do anything that would reveal you as a shopper. An inexperienced shopper could tip off the staff to his/her identity by asking for the manager's name for no clear or appropriate reason. If you are going to be bringing someone with you on the shop, make sure you educate them about the process as well. Beware that even whispers can be overheard by employees. If anyone notices you are a shopper, you can bet that word will quickly spread around the establishment and you will get some of the best customer service in town. No company can afford to have a gap between the promise of quality and its actual delivery, that's why leading corporations look to us, the nation's premiere mystery shopping and customer experience measurement company. In order for a business to effectively compete in today's economy, they must be prepared to meet the challenge of increasing sales by: * Retaining existing customers * Acquiring new customers * Creating word-of-mouth advocacy * Improving customer loyalty Once we have a contract to do so, you would be directed to the company or outlet, and you would be given the funds you need to do the job(either purchase merchandise or require services), after which you would write a detailed report of your experience. Examples of details you would forward to us are: 1) How long does it take to get served. 2) Politeness of the attendant. 3) Customer service professionalism. 4) Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they deal with difficult clients. Then we turn the information over to the company executives and they will carry out their own duties in improving their services. Most companies employ our assistance when people complain about their services, or when they feel there is a need for them to improve upon their customer service. Our company partners with you to implement proven mystery shop auditing and surveying strategies that provide critical information about customer experiences. You will be paid a commission of $100 for every duty you carry out, and bonus on your transportation allowance. Your task will be to evaluate and comment on customer service in a wide variety of restaurants, retail stores, casinos, shopping malls, banks and hotels in your area. Qualities of a good Mystery Shopper: * Is 21 years of age or older * Loves to go shopping * Is fair and objective * Is ON TIME * Is very observant and able to focus on details * Is fairly intelligent * Has patience * Is detail oriented * Is practical * Types well * Is trustworthy * Explains well in writing * Is discreet * Loves to learn * Handles deadlines * Has full internet access (at home or at work) Mystery Shopping is fun and exciting but also must be approached very seriously and is definitely not for everyone. If you are interested in applying for consideration as a Mystery Shopper do send in your information: Full Name: Address: City: State: Zip Code: Phone Number: Age: Occupation: As soon as we receive your information we will add you to our database and we will look for locations in your area that needs to be evaluated. Thank you, Ed Barnes ------------------------- Tel: (773) 661 3313 Fax: (773) 496-6789 more

Voting Question: How do I get put of this situation? Business credit cards and personal credit cards behind?

I've been dianosed with bipolar disorder severe level, and anxiety. I cannot work. All I receive is food stamps, $195 a month welfare cash and medical and I receive therapy and am under the care of a psychiatrist and on 3 different meds. I've had a business for 4 years selling self defense products. I quit this business because I didn't know how to keep records or anything. I just took orders and paid my supplier (drop shipper) by credit cards, personal and business credit cards... Well since May of 2004 I've been conducting business and I thought my supplier was 10-99 my income and I never knew I was suppost to file taxes because I'm not knowledgable on businesses or how to handle them... Well I've racked up nearly $100k in credit card debt. $30,000 of it business credit cards.. They are threatening litigation against me. I never made more than $2000 in a year despite my sales volume was $15000 according to my supplier. I've been carried on my parents income taxes as a dependent and I heard that is against the law since they knew I was making money. Now I am trying to file chapter 7 bankruptcy and I cannot put the business cards in or recently opened accounts in... My bipolar caused my misuse of cards since I opened my first of one of those capitalone cards for underage kids which my mom opened in my name and co-signed it and it led into this mess. I've already went in for a free consultation with a bankruptcy lawyer and he said my situtation is very complex because of the business cards and never filed income taxes.. I made no more than $10-12k in profits at most since 2004 -2009 in Jan when business closed which was just a website. No assets, no inventory. I just sold products for a drop ship company from NC called Tbotech. I am at a loss. The bankruptcy lawyer said he would get back in touch with me in 2 weeks. Now its been a month. So I guess that means I cannot file bankruptcy on all the debt because the business cards because of the income tax reasons... But I was carried on my parents income taxes and bipolarism is the cause of mishandling credit cards. What will come of this mess? I am so absent minded I couldn't handle tthe business or maintain the website because my bipolar got the worst it ever got in 2008-2009. I don't know how much more stress I can take because of my whole life and all the daily stress and paranoia I go through. Do you think there is a way I can get out of this mess? I am trying to use my mental problems here as justification to run up credit cards because I really didn't know the consequences before it was too late.. I have poor judgement and act on impulse. I never knew I was bipolar till Jan of 2009 after a legal matter but thats a completely different story which I asked a question on here about. All my credit cards were run up since age 17 but 2008 was the year that they all got ran up when my bipolar kicked in and depression. My dad thinks my "condition" will get me out of this mess. I don't think so. I have no idea what will happen. I own nothing but half of a car that me and my girl friend own and my clothes.. I basically used one credit card to pay the other till they ran out and I sold everything I bought to make the payments already... What will come of this mess?i mistyped, i meant i am not using my mental problems. more

Voting Question: So...Is This How You Play The Game?

Why do people waste their time on Yahoo Answers giving out VALUABLE FREE INFORMATION when others (competition) just come along and for sh**s and giggles, decides to flag the posts to get them deleted? It's common knowledge that online marketers, either 'affiliate marketers' - and/or 'network marketers' use Yahoo Answers as a way to lead readers to their own sales pages, lead capture pages, squeeze pages, blogs, etc.,etc., and hope that unsuspecting readers will go to their website in order to find the 'solution' to their existing money woes. Hell, even some marketers will use Yahoo Answers as a way to promote CPA (cost per action) offers....and yet when someone like myself really goes out of their way to offer legitimate advice, that other marketers 'charge for' in helping someone find a legitimate home business they can start, my answers get deleted. No 3rd party links to any website, web page or blog that is owned by me or any one I know was included in those answers, and yet, each one was deleted. Why? Probably because another marketer saw my response and realized that I was practically giving away the very same information, steps, advice that they charge anywhere from $7 to $97 dollars for and 'flagged' my post. So, with that being said, for every blatant SPAM response I see, I'm going to retaliate in the same fashion, until some type of resolution from Yahoo comes and if not...I'll continue doing what I'm doing! more

Resolved Question: PLease help me with my economics questions multiple choice?

QUESTION 1: In what kind of economy does the government make all the decisions? Answer Correct Socialist Laissez-faire Centrally planned Free enterprise QUESTION 2: What is the function of an economic system? Answer Correct To make sure all people have equal access to goods To produce and distribute goods and services To give all producers the same access to consumers To make sure people are paid for their labor QUESTION 3: When people earn income for supplying land, capital, and entrepreneurship, they receive __________. Answer Correct Wages Compliments Factor payments Product payments QUESTION 4: What does the process of Specialization do for an economy? Answer Correct It eliminates unemployment It makes it more efficient It fosters competition It makes it easier to control QUESTION 5: What is the purpose of competition? Answer Correct To act as a regulating force in the marketplace To cause producers to attempt to put each other out of business To cause buyers to have to be careful about spending their money To act as a motivating force behind the free market QUESTION 6: What incentive do manufacturers have to sell their products? Answer Correct Making profits on sales Pleasing the consumer Putting others out of business Popularity of the product QUESTION 7: The concept of Laissez-Faire states that: Answer Correct There should be a high level of political centralization in an economy. Government ought to provide a "safety-net" for citizens The free-market is self-regulating and self-correcting Government ought to regulate economic activities None of the above QUESTION 8: Why does even a free-market economy need some government intervention? Answer Correct To provide for things that the marketplace does not address To ensure that the government has the freedom to tax as necessary To make sure that the government can fulfill its needs for military personnel So that the government has some control over factor resources QUESTION 9: Government programs that protect people experiencing unfavorable economic conditions. Answer Correct Incentive Safety-net Standard of living Socialism QUESTION 10: Which of the following was a free market philosopher? Answer Correct Karl Marx Adam Smith Vladimir Lenin Friedrich Engles QUESTION 11: ________ is the term given for the doctrine that government generally should not intervene in the marketplace. Answer Correct Self-interest Laissez-faire Collective Safety-net QUESTION 12: How would the Chinese economy be characterized? Answer Correct Free market Centrally planned Mixed, but on the side of centrally planned Mixed, but on the side of free market QUESTION 13: What is the struggle among various producers for the consumer's business called? Answer Correct Socialism Competition Incentive Self-regulation QUESTION 14: Which of the following is NOT a key economic question? Answer Correct What goods and services should be produced? How should these goods and services be produced? Who consumes these goods and services? How should it be ensured that goods and services are paid for? QUESTION 15: All of the following countries / territories have functional free-market economies EXCEPT: Answer Correct Singapore Iran United States Canada QUESTION 16: An economic system that relies on habit, custom, or ritual to decide questions of consumption and production. Answer Correct Traditional Free enterprise Socialism Command QUESTION 17: What is a product market? Answer Correct The market in which payments are received for selling products to consumers The market in which income is received for supplying land, labor, or capital The market in which firms purchase the factors of production from households The market in which households purchase the goods and services that firms produce QUESTION 18: Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a centrally planned economy? Answer Correct The central government owns all land and capital. The central government makes all economic decisions. Each collective or factory sets its own goals. Each person is assigned a job. QUESTION 19: The concept of __________ necessitates choices and priorities in any society. Answer Correct Incentive Scarcity Efficiency None of the above QUESTION 20: In a Free-Market economy, Self-Interest is: Answer Correct A regulating force A motivating force Responsible for providing incentive Leads to specialization more

Resolved Question: Was JFK right at least about one thing?

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." Let's change the topic to something straight that we can all agree on. Legalization of marijuana is something that everyone can agree on. Maybe you support the war in Iraq, Maybe you don't. Maybe you support abortion, Maybe you don't. Maybe you go to church, Maybe you don't. Maybe you like guns, Maybe you don't. One thing we can all agree on regardless of what we think about our nation is that cannabis should be legalized. I am willing to have a serious and respectful conversation with anyone who feels marijuana should not be legalized. There is however 1 condition; your stance must not be predetermined. I will speak if you will listen, I will listen if you will speak. One thing I won't listen to is when you got some wealthy fella up on the internet talking about supporting the prohibition of marijuana and their mind it totally made up. They go off and claim we have no facts, when we do, while they do not state 1 fact themselves. What are my facts? I have learned some facts and I will share them with you if you will listen. * There are certain prescription drugs out there that can kill you. This is no real surprise, everybody knows this. The surprise is that these are drugs that were designed to fight forms of depression. Marijuana fights depression and no one has ever died by using it. * Which leads me to the next fact; the only way to die from marijuana is by taking it with vitamins and certain prescription drugs--they don't all like each other and that is how Bruce Lee died. How can alcohol kill you? Just drinking it can kill you, get behind a wheel when you are drunk and see what happens. * Which leads me to another fact; Alcohol impairs driving, but here is something you probably didn't know, especially if you haven't done any research: marijuana INCREASES MOTOR FUNCTION. I know you people out there think the exact opposite and you are dead wrong. This is why we get so ticked off at you whenever you say we are lazy. The drug doesn't make you lazy, the PERSONALITY of the person makes them lazy. Yes, this is a scientifically proven fact. * Marijuana returns hunger to those who are unable to eat, it fights Alzheimer's, it fights depression & anxiety and overall improves the quality of life just like owning a car does. * Marijuana is not illegal because it is "harmful"--It's not harmful, but that's not the fact. The fact here is that marijuana is illegal because if big business was allowed to use Hemp products, it would be so high quality that it would put other business' out of business; such as Paper. Do I really have to keep going? I am quite sure there is more benefits that I can't think of, or have yet to learn, and if you actually took the time to do some research you wouldn't have me up in your face all the time whenever you ignorantly refuse to do the research and get your facts straight. But the truth is that none of these things matter. Not 1 fact here I have said is any good reason to legalize marijuana. Do you know what the ONLY reason is to legalize marijuana? Because this is the United States; Land of the "Free"; Home of the "Brave". Why some people feel they are in a position of authority to undermine the civil liberties of others is totally beyond me. "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death." "Don't Tread On Me." The way I see it is that this issue isn't a liberal issue. I know a lot of people personally, from various political leans, that support the legalization of marijuana. The ONLY reason it is not legalized is because it would put certain business' out of work. No one wants to see business' be put out of work, no one wants to see a family go without, but I am not willing to sacrifice my liberty for that. I will not sacrifice anything at all to give up 1 right that we have as born Americans. Everything we fight and die for is NOT FOR SALE. LEGALIZE IT. There is only today.nooner: That is why we have to get behind this. We cannot rely on the politicians to do this for us. We must all put our pen's to good use.Rambling? Hardly. Jealous much? Well, you could always go back to school. Who is lazy now? =) It actually is a fact. It was on myth busters. Feel free to look into it yourself but I really don't expect you to get off your lazy butt. more

Resolved Question: Are any of you aware of what is going on and how your lives may soon be effected by Feb. 10, 2009?

Please read this blog as well as visit http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14953 this website has another article that shows the potential threats to crafters, small business', charites, liability to resalers, E-bay sales, and on and on the list goes in some twisted reponse by our legislatures to response to toys with lead in them from China!!!! Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 Earlier this week, news reports began circulating about the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 which would require third-party testing on consumer goods (including apparel) used by children. The purpose of the act is to keep lead-filled products away from children. It is directed at lead-based paint and phthalates (chemicals used to keep plastics pliable) in products that children might chew, suck on, or otherwise ingest. Beginning February 10, 2009 (the date the law goes into effect) clothing retailers and thrift stores will be throwing out children's clothing because they do not meet new federal regulations. This is the Consumer Product Safety Council web page that links to the actual legislation and their legal counsel's interpretation on how the law should be applied http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.HTML According to some reports, testing for lead and phthalates could cost as much as $30,000 per tested sample. We contacted the office of more than one U.S. Representative and were told that the law has been enacted, but the regulations have not yet been released. There is a chance the law would apply only to producers and importers, not retailers (including thrift stores). The law could also affect initial retailers, but not resellers. These are some of the details that are yet to be determined. Since we don't know exactly who will be affected by the new law, and to what extent the law will impact our ministries, here are some things that missions can do: Contact the Consumer Products Safety Commission at 800-638-2772. This is the agency that is writing the regulations. Ask them for a clarification on what types of outlets will be impacted by the regulations. Voice your concern as to how this will impact services for people in need. Call your member of Congress or Senator. Explain how their constituents might be impacted if the product testing is extended to thrift stores and free clothing distribution. Low income families who currently receive free donated clothing, or purchase them at a thrift store, will be forced to pay retail in a tough economic market. Social services to the poor will be reduced as income from clothing sales at the mission thrift store will decline, resulting in the inability to fund much needed assistance. It will cost jobs. Thrift stores provide employment to individuals; lower revenue means cutbacks. It will have a negative environmental impact as tons of serviceable clothing goes into landfills, rather than aiding needy families. The legislation dramatically impacts helping agencies (rescue missions, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Volunteers of America, churches and other community organizations with clothes closets) during a slow economy, when their assistance is most needed by the community. Ask your legislators for help in exempting missions and other non-profits that serve people in need. Write letters to the editor; include the amount of free clothing given to the community and the numbers of families served. Ask for support in seeing that the regulations not impact the most vulnerable members of the community (you may use many of the points from item #2 above). Voice your concern about lead and phthalates, but ask that the new legislation not place additional hardships on the youngest and poorest citizens. Remember that legislation can be changed and improved. Keep the lines of communication open with members of Congress and Senators for input into future laws of this sort. Don't panic, let the legislative process run its course, then be ready to respond when the full details are known. If you want more information regarding the act, these sites have a lot of good information. http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/new-product-safety-regulations-that-affect-all-manufacturers/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/national-bankruptcy-day/ Ronald K. Fox, Executive Director Rochester, NY, United States more

Resolved Question: Can someone with legal experience regarding the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act answer this?

I am a Work-At-Home-Mom. I make custom baby carriers and sell them. Each of my carriers is one-of-a-kind. I buy my fabric from nationally trusted retailers such as JoAnn Fabrics, etc. I do not buy loads of fabric since I make them on an order-by-order basis (so I can customize for my buyer). How is the CPSIA going to affect me in particular? I am not the one importing the fabric or thread. Shouldn't my supplies be tested before I buy them? Also, even if they are tested, I usually only buy fabric remnants instead of whole reels. It would be ridiculous for me to ask for certificates for 1 yard of fabric. I feel like this whole thing is going to put me, and a whole bunch of others like me, out of business. How can I possibly afford to have each and every one of my baby carriers tested for lead? BACKGROUND INFO: Congress passed a law in August 2008 called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This law came about because of the numerous recalls of children's toys in the past two years and specifically the issue of lead in the toys. While I applaud the attempt at making children's products safer, the law as stands, will actually remove many of the products that we have turned to in place of those made in China. As of February 10th, 2009, ALL children's products sold in the United States will need to be certified to be lead free and many products will need additional testing. To be certified, the final product sold needs to have each component on it tested for lead. This sounds wonderful when you think of all of the "Made in China" children's products that are out there and all of the children's items that are mass produced (mostly imported). HOWEVER, think of the handcrafted items sold within the US. Think of any children's item that is a ready made item that has been personalized with a child's name (it would need to be retested because it is the final sold product that needs to be certified). Think of the children's items that are sold at craft shows, garage sales, ebay, consignment shops and fundraisers. As of February 10th, it will be illegal to sell any children's products without certification, no matter when it was produced. Collectible vintage toys and trains? A "banned substance". You will not be able to donate items for charity because they are a "banned substance" since they are not certified. This applies not only to toys, but all products such as books, shoes, clothing, school supplies, sporting equipment, jewelry, etc. that are possibly intended for children 12 and under. more

Resolved Question: 1. The ability to acquire food on a regular basis meant that humans (HELP)?

Resolved Question: Why do we let Greedy Capitalists own our Livelihoods?

Tribune Company files for bankruptcy By Kristina Betinis and Alexander Fangmann 15 December 2008 World Socialist Web Site On Monday, December 8, the Tribune Company, which employs about 16,000 workers, became the first major news company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the current economic downturn. The filing, which threatens the jobs, wages and pensions of thousands of workers, allows the company to stop paying interest on its $12.9 billion in debt and enter into debt restructuring negotiations with its creditors. The bankruptcy filing lists the company’s assets at $7.6 billion The Tribune Company is a media empire comprising the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel, at least 6 other daily newspapers, a cable network, a radio station, 24 television stations, several weekly papers, Chicago Magazine, and numerous websites. It also owns the Chicago Cubs and their stadium, Wrigley Field, which are not listed as part of the bankruptcy filing. At court hearings last Wednesday, the media conglomerate asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to cut employee severance payments and health care benefits. In 1986, the Chicago Tribune smashed a bitter strike by pressmen and other craft unions, replacing 1,000 workers with strikebreakers. Today, the entire conglomerate is mostly non-union. Many media companies are suffering from dwindling advertising revenue, as well as the loss of readers to the Internet. In another recent sign of the downsizing and consolidation of the industry, the Detroit Free Press, owned by Gannett Co, and its partner, the Detroit News, are planning to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days, which are Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The most direct cause of the Tribune Company’s bankruptcy, however, is the company’s staggering level of debt. Several large media companies, including Media General and Gannett, face enormous debt payments and may soon find themselves in a similar situation. Last year’s privatization of the Tribune Company bears the marks of leveraged debt financing characteristic of the recent climate of rampant speculation. In December 2007, billionaire real estate mogul Samuel Zell, nicknamed the “Grave Dancer” for his history of buying distressed or undervalued businesses, completed the transaction to take the Tribune Company private. He was estimated by Forbes in 2008 to be the 68th richest American. Zell, the Tribune Company’s chairman and CEO, pursued a heavily leveraged buyout of the company which was widely characterized as extremely risky and indicative of the irresponsible investments leading up to the recent crisis. The Wall Street Journal reports that “no one thought the buyout of Tribune Co. would work—and it didn’t.” Ruthlessness typifies Zell’s approach. Speaking on the mortgage crisis at the Milken Institute Global Conference in April, Zell was quoted as saying, “This country needs a cleansing. We need to clean out all those people who never should have bought in the first place, and not give them sympathy.” Zell maintained he could make the Tribune Company deal profitable through a combination of asset sales and reorganization to take place under the new management team, which had little or no experience in the newspaper industry. Senior executives knew that bankruptcy would likely be filed soon, in an effort to protect investments. While Zell invested $315m of personal equity, with substantial risk mitigated by tax breaks, debt was piled on to the company in the acquisition process. By the time of its completion, Zell’s deal had saddled the Tribune Company with $11.2 billion in debt. Most of the risk for the Tribune Company’s enormous debt was pushed onto the newly-created Employee Stock Ownership Program, which purchased $250 million worth of newly issued stocks upon being established in 2007. These schemes, promoted by the union bureaucracy to “save” failing companies, while securing the interests of big investors, have produced nothing but disaster for workers. This was the case at United Air Lines, McLouth Steel and other companies where workers lost their pensions, wages and life savings when the so-called worker-owned companies collapsed. The Tribune ESOP, as the majority shareholder, assumed most of the risk for the debts. Those employee shareholders are also at the end of the line of creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Zell admitted it was likely that the employee stock owners could have their holdings wiped out. The Chicago Tribune reported that Tribune Company “will halt all severance payments, deferred compensation and other payments to former employees, who will be required to file a claim with the bankruptcy court.” The executive director of the National Center for Employee Ownership published an analysis of the Tribune Company’s ESOP in 2007 which included the following:The executive director of the National Center for Employee Ownership published an analysis of the Tribune Company’s ESOP in 2007 which included the following: “In the Tribune case, the ESOP will borrow money from the company. Regardless of how the plan acquires stock, company contributions to the trust are tax-deductible, within certain limits. So in this case, the company is able to use the ESOP to borrow money and repay it in pretax dollars, deducting both principal and interest. This is one of the key tax benefits that the many articles on this transaction are referencing.” In this case, as in other cases, an ESOP was established as part of the privatization to provide tax advantages and risk protection to Zell and company, rather than provide security for employees through ownership stakes, which clearly confirms the predatory nature of the Zell acquisition.n the first eight months after the Zell acquisition of the Tribune Company, more than 900 Chicago Tribune jobs were eliminated. Compounding the instability posed by the risky acquisition, the Tribune Company continued to see its advertising revenue fall sharply. In an effort to cut costs, the Chicago Tribune introduced a smaller, reformatted paper in September of this year, composed of fifty percent advertisements and fifty percent graphics-intensive reporting. The cost cuts were achieved by reducing news content and the staff required to produce it, which could be printed on fewer pages. By August 2008, increased layoffs, employee buyouts, and other cost-cutting measures failed to reverse the company’s decline.http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/trib-d15.shtmlJim, Workers everywhere are taking it on the chin through no fault of their own. The capitalist is nothing but a leech on the working class. Capitalism is class warfare. The capitalist gets richer and richer as labor works harder and harder for less and less, as his benefits are slashed and his job "offshored" to cheap labor locations. If you had read this article, Zell's recklessness lies at the foundation of ruin for the employees of Tribune Co. "The ongoing debate over the auto bailout has demonstrated the conspiracy of the automakers, the two big business parties and the UAW against the autoworkers. All insist that workers must pay for a crisis that they did not cause, in order to restore the auto companies to profitability so they can once again be a lucrative source of income for corporate executives and big investors who are responsible for the financial catastrophe." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/auto-d12.shtmlCowboy, Read the posted article! more

Resolved Question: Lemon Law, Defective Products, how should I proceed?

I bought a brand new scooter from a dealership. I liked it after test driving it, and thought it ran great. I bought the scooter for $1300. 5 weeks after owning the scooter, the battery went dead and would not start the scooter. I called the dealer who sold it to me. He said he would be happy to take a look at it. He came out to my house and took the scooter back to his place of business to look at it free of charge. He then called me, stated that the battery was weak, that the warranty does not cover wear and tear items such as the batteries, tires,clutch,etc., and that he would not charge me to put in a new battery as a one time good will jesture to make me happy. He then installed the new battery, checked everything over on the scooter to make sure it was in sound running condition, and returned the scooter to my home. He did not charge me for the battery, or anything else. Three weeks later the scooter was not running right as it would stall or idle improperly. I called the dealer again and complained. He stated that to me that everything was in great condition when he had the scooter the last time to put in a new battery, and asked me what I did to it. He said that he doubts anything is wrong with the scooter, but he would be happy to take a look at it again. I declined to have him look at it again as I was lead to believe I bought a lemon scooter. Another four weeks passed, and the scooter had 160 miles on it. Then, the rear wheel locked up on the scooter and would not move. The scooter would not start as well. I called the dealer again and complained. The dealer asked me what I had done to it, and I said nothing because all I did was ride the scooter around town. He said he would come out immediately to take a look at the scooter. He then came out to my house and took the scooter to his place of business. One day later he called me and said the clutch in the engine of the scooter is totally destroyed, that typically clutches in scooters last at least 1-2 years on average, and that something abusive had to be done to destroy a clutch within such a short period of time. He said that the warranty does not cover the clutch, or the labor to repair or install a new clutch, and that he would have to charge me $100 for parts and labor to install a new clutch in the scooter. I complained back to him that he sold me a lemon, and that I either want a new scooter, or a refund back. He then replied back that all sales are final, with no refunds, or returns, and that I signed the warranty agreement, and the bill of sale that stated all of what he claimed. He also stated that lemon law does not apply to scooters, motorcycles, or mopeds in our state of Pennsylvania. I then threatened to sue him for selling me a lemon scooter, and hung up on him. My question is, do I have a case to sue him for a defective product, lemon law, express warranty, fitnness of merchanibility, or any other legal standpoint? The next day he called me back, and offered to either fix the scooter for $100, or buy back the scooter for $700. I declined both as I feel he should give me all of my money back. He then stated that he is under no obligation to fix the scooter for free, or give me a full refund back, and that he offered to buy back the scooter just because he said he doesn't let his customers hang. What do you think? more

Resolved Question: Question about warranties, and lemon law?

Resolved Question: I sell permission based lists & sales leads.?

There are millions of small businesses whom I believe could use my services, but most of those (that I've dealt with so far) do not have an ad or purchasing budget, and so cannot afford to buy my products. There's also a stigma that goes with being a list broker: every prospective buyer thinks he's about to get taken, or that he will be purchasing a lousy list. Even if he/she does buy the list, they still blame the broker if they cannot close sales opportunities generated from the list. I promise warm leads with verified contact info, not laydown buyers. How can I best connect with experienced marketers, who understand the lead industry, and know what they are buying (and not buying)? Please don't suggest providing free samples, because not only doesn't that not show the quality of the actual list purchase, but it also attracts the worst kind of customers-those who want something for free, and then they never buy anything. (There's a whole scam based on getting free live leads from list brokers and lead generation firms, and never buying anything from them.) PS: I have provided references of satisfied clients, buyer testimonials, and case studies of firms we've worked with, but I still cannot sell enough leads and lead gen. services to earn a living in today's highly competitive and overly-suspicious business environ. All sensible suggestions appreciated- opt net specialist more

Resolved Question: Would you go to a free Gaming Cafe?

I have recently asked for advice about gaming cafes. I seen that many Gaming Cafes ran out of Business within a 3 year time period so I was forced to rethink my business approach. I came up with a plan that many other companies do. I will provide free internet and gaming services to costomers. costomers will have 1 hour to play on any gaming console station or any Gaming PC station free and then if they choose to play again they will have to sign back in and wait until another station is available (by doing that this will allow other people to have their turn on the computer and gaming station) The gaming console stations Will range from PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii each gaming console will included 52" 120 LCD HDTV 5.1 Surround sound 1 controller (second by request at the service desk) and there choice from a large catagory of games to choose from The Gaming PCs will range from Mid-end to High-end The Middle-end PC station will have.... 24" monitor 2.1 speakers with the following specs CASE - Ultra eTorque ULT33180 Mid-Tower ATX Case W/ 2 ThermalTake Smart Blue 120mm LED Case Fan Blue CPU - Intel Pentium D 940 Processor 3.20GHz, 4MB Cache, 800MHz FSB, W/ PowerUp P4 CPU Cooling Fan MotherBoard - Asus P5N-D Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI Hard drive - 2 TB (1x2) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300 bay drive - Sony DRUV200A/BR DVD/CD Drive memory - OCZ Fatal1ty Dual Channel 2048MB PC8500 DDR2 1066MHz Power Supply - PowerUp GEN-6802 800-Watt Power Supply Sound Card - Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card Video Card - GeForce 8800 Ultra Video Card 768MB DDR3 OS - Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 The high-end gamer pc will have a 40" LCD HDTV, logitech z-5500 5.1 surround sound and the pc will have the following specs Case - Lian-Li Aluminum Full Tower Case - Black CPU - Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (Quad core) Processor 3.20GHz, 12MB Cache, 1600MHz FSB CPU Fan - ChillTec Thermal Electric CPU Cooler Motherboard - EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard Hard drive - 4TB (1x4) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive Power supply - Ultra X3 ULT40064 1000-Watt Power Supply Memory Ram - 4GB (2x2) Crucial Ballistix Dual Channel 2048MB PC16000 DDR3 2000Mhz Memory Sound Card - Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Video Card - 2 GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - OC Edition, 1GB GDDR3 OS - Windows Vista ultimate SP1 Games will vary apon the 2 type of PCs (Mid-end and High-end) accessories (pc gaming controllers, steering wheels, memory sticks, ect) can be requested at the service desk.... I plan to also sell Video games, gaming consoles, PC parts, PCs, PC repaire and also offer food for sale. I will hold tournaments every saturday that award prizes to the winner(s)... What do you think of this approach? Will I attract more costomers if I look for a building by school and major highway or to look for a space to rent in a Mall? I would apreciate any comments, suggestions, and advice. Thanks more

Resolved Question: Learning and spreading truth is the best actions?

What do you think about Ted Elden's information here? Do you buy into his teachings? I met him in 2006 and ever since I am determined to help him all I can to help others with truth and more. Is this worth while? It's alot below. Just tell me what you think. Be nice and thanks so much! The Truth will set you Free. Step from deception to a new reality, empower yourself ! I am Ted Elden, Architect ret., Importer, Photographer, Writer, former member of national architectural organizations, importer, national & international sales. In business, I've sold across the US, and to many foreign countries. I've written 1/2 million letters and mailed to millions. I'm good with language, thinking, logic & computers. I'm both scientific & intuitive. Nationally Published & awarded Poet, Photographer, Graduate Colorado Outward Bounds Survival School Carnegie Mellon University, Blair Academy Prep School, I read 300 books as HS Senior year, I acquired 400 books in recent months. I'm reader ! I'm a member of Charleston Rotary and the prestigious Anvil Club with 3 college presidents, professors, lawyers, doctors. I'm easy to reach or visit any time, near Top O Rock, Verizon- Univ. of Charleston. Name, contact, web at bottom. I've published much of my research at www.abodia.com and have tomes more at my studio. I have found important things, that I'd not known in 50 years, The news hides and confuses information. Those with the best information, lead the best lives. Disraeli You too can have a better life, if you get better information. Much I've always feared, I faced. I fortified myself with knowledge, then acted, I moved towards what I feared. As I learned and acted, the fear and danger disappeared. I've researched: 9-11, Income Tax, Suppressed Medical Discoveries, I can give or show you excellent, clear, factual presentations by national professionals with witnesses, evidence, public records, court cases, Congressional Records. The information is startling to behold, but easy to verify. You only need to consider things you have never seen. I work quickly with ideas, and am deeply skilled in verifying information. News is definitely not your best source of information. Local, contemporary news is usually more accurate than national edited news which was adapted for propaganda by the news owners to aid their interests. Large Global Corporations, like military industrial complex, & pharmaceuticals own and control news; TV, books & movies. I speak publicly around the state to students and civic groups, Our Truth Seekers, meets at Top O Rock monthly for 3+ years, first Sundays from 2-4 pm. Many stay late in the evening. Some come from Huntington, Beckley & Wheeling. Anyone may call me in advance to visit my library - 1000s of incredible documents, eBooks, movies. I'm no one, I'm just a bridge to great people and knowledge that most will never see. Most choose to do what is popular, accepted, profitable, personal - helping theirselves, their families, friends & associates. Few have much regard for the community or the future. In America, all is bought & sold, including information. For a high price, important people and institutions have made persuasive presentations about incomplete information. To win an argument or persuade someone, you list items that favor your perspective. You ignore or hide information that favors a different conclusion. We use to have 1,000s of owners of newspapers & TV, but FCC rules have changed. 9 corporations have bought up 95% of main stream media in America. Sony, Disney, AOL/ Time Warner, Viacom, and others. General Electric owns ABC/ NBC. They only repeat information that helps them. They suppress or ignore information that would compromise their profit centers. GE is major player in the military industrial complex. The news teaches hate, war, conflict, to keep us subdued, yielding taxes and freedom to fight distant threats, which the elite create and exaggerate. I thought government & legislators controlled our world. Wrong ! World wide 10,000 or so people, who own the banks, corporations, military industrial complex, pharmaceuticals, news, and the legislators, own the money, most corporations & assets and the main stream media. They are working together for their gain, our loss. They create our world of information & perception, leading us to aid their increase in power and the lessening of our thought, freedom, wealth, health & safety. They are not working for our benefit. To ignore this, hoping that our legislators, courts, President will help us is the great illusion. We have to think, realize what is on going and take positive action, writing letters, meeting & telling others, to Awaken a Sleeping (apathetic - hopeless) America. What every you may have imagined or suspected, I can give or find for you hard evidence. MK Ultra mind control is alive & well, working thru CIA & univer more

Resolved Question: Tell me is Ted Elden worth learning from... Should I learn from him?

I been to his home. He collects and shares lots of information. I was wanting to share it with others because I find his work and understanding of our government amazing. Should I pay close attention to this guy and his work? The Truth will set you Free. Step from deception to a new reality, empower yourself ! www.abodia.com/1/1 13 Sept. 2008 6 pm Gold Dome Lions Club - Shoney's Kanawha City I am Ted Elden, Architect ret., Importer, Photographer, Writer, former member of national architectural organizations, importer, national & international sales. In business, I've sold across the US, and to many foreign countries. I've written 1/2 million letters and mailed to millions. I'm good with language, thinking, logic & computers. I'm both scientific & intuitive. Nationally Published & awarded Poet, Photographer, Graduate Colorado Outward Bounds Survival School Carnegie Mellon University, Blair Academy Prep School, I read 300 books as HS Senior year, I acquired 400 books in recent months. I'm reader ! I'm a member of Charleston Rotary and the prestigious Anvil Club with 3 college presidents, professors, lawyers, doctors. I'm easy to reach or visit any time, near Top O Rock, Verizon- Univ. of Charleston. Name, contact, web at bottom. I've published much of my research at www.abodia.com and have tomes more at my studio. I have found important things, that I'd not known in 50 years, The news hides and confuses information. Those with the best information, lead the best lives. Disraeli You too can have a better life, if you get better information. Much I've always feared, I faced. I fortified myself with knowledge, then acted, I moved towards what I feared. As I learned and acted, the fear and danger disappeared. I've researched: 9-11, Income Tax, Suppressed Medical Discoveries, I can give or show you excellent, clear, factual presentations by national professionals with witnesses, evidence, public records, court cases, Congressional Records. The information is startling to behold, but easy to verify. You only need to consider things you have never seen. I work quickly with ideas, and am deeply skilled in verifying information. News is definitely not your best source of information. Local, contemporary news is usually more accurate than national edited news which was adapted for propaganda by the news owners to aid their interests. Large Global Corporations, like military industrial complex, & pharmaceuticals own and control news; TV, books & movies. I speak publicly around the state to students and civic groups, Our Truth Seekers, meets at Top O Rock monthly for 3+ years, first Sundays from 2-4 pm. Many stay late in the evening. Some come from Huntington, Beckley & Wheeling. Anyone may call me in advance to visit my library - 1000s of incredible documents, eBooks, movies. I'm no one, I'm just a bridge to great people and knowledge that most will never see. Most choose to do what is popular, accepted, profitable, personal - helping theirselves, their families, friends & associates. Few have much regard for the community or the future. In America, all is bought & sold, including information. For a high price, important people and institutions have made persuasive presentations about incomplete information. To win an argument or persuade someone, you list items that favor your perspective. You ignore or hide information that favors a different conclusion. We use to have 1,000s of owners of newspapers & TV, but FCC rules have changed. 9 corporations have bought up 95% of main stream media in America. Sony, Disney, AOL/ Time Warner, Viacom, and others. General Electric owns ABC/ NBC. They only repeat information that helps them. They suppress or ignore information that would compromise their profit centers. GE is major player in the military industrial complex. The news teaches hate, war, conflict, to keep us subdued, yielding taxes and freedom to fight distant threats, which the elite create and exaggerate. I thought government & legislators controlled our world. Wrong ! World wide 10,000 or so people, who own the banks, corporations, military industrial complex, pharmaceuticals, news, and the legislators, own the money, most corporations & assets and the main stream media. They are working together for their gain, our loss. They create our world of information & perception, leading us to aid their increase in power and the lessening of our thought, freedom, wealth, health & safety. They are not working for our benefit. To ignore this, hoping that our legislators, courts, President will help us is the great illusion. We have to think, realize what is on going and take positive action, writing letters, meeting & telling others, to Awaken a Sleeping (apathetic - hopeless) America. What every you may have imagined or suspected, I can give or find for you hard evidence. MK Ultra mind control is alive & well, workin more

Resolved Question: Where is our Entrepreneurial Spirit? Bored with your 9 to 5 job and endless pressure by your boss?

In this society, to be an entrepreneur would probably indicate that you are adventurous enough to want to take charge of your life and experience an unpredictable career. Some of your colleagues, family and friends will support your decision because you could be doing something that they themselves have ever thought of but never dare to try. While others will be cynical about it. Either they find no goal in life that's worth pursuing (reached a stagnant stage in life) or they have gotten their fingers burnt before so as to advise their peeps never to follow their footsteps. Being entrepreneur would mean you are actually stepping out of your comfort zone to deal with the unpredictable. Though you may face higher possibilities of uncertainties, challenges and woes, at the end of the day you might actually find that its all worth it. Its a magical feeling. But what exactly are some woes faced by most entrepreneurs today? 1. Fear of failing Nothing in this world comes free and if they really do, there must be a good reason behind it. Failing is not as hard as picking oneself up again after a failure. Like the law of attraction, the more you are afraid of it, the closer Fear can sense you can creep to you, its amazingly scary. 2. Why Low and Slow Sales? In the business world, everyone is either selling products or services to earn a living. To start a business, entrepreneurs have to understand that it takes time for you to break even follow by profit or loss. Set both long and short term goals and make sure you reflect on them on fixed period of time. I know of some companies which hold weekly internal meetings without fail to revise and reflect on their progress of work. To just sit there and naively believe that sales will improve upon business start-up will definitely become your No. 1 reason to fail. Most important: Believe strongly in what you sell. 3. No Proper work flow When people feed-backed that laziness (aka lack of motivation) is the reason behind their failed venture, I would see it as lack of a systematic organised work flow. It makes an entrepreneur lose track of what he is supposed to do. It would be good to start off with a checklist to ensure both the major and minor roles have been worked out. Doing up a timetable or organiser to plan activities ahead would be another suggestion. People often get lost when comes to prioritising (Everything seems important?) and putting ideas into actions. One will suddenly feel that he has much to do. (So many things, so little time) If you have assistance, learn the beauty of delegation. When you delegate, not only your workload becomes lighter, you are actually training your staff's capability and AQ at the same time. (Just don't forget to reward accordingly) 4. The ''Power'' of being Stubborn Admit it when it's your fault that caused something unpleasant to happen. Go with the flow and your intuition when it comes to certain issues and decision making, not your ego and pride. Being Stubborn during tough times and see your team through can actually be Determination in disguise. However being stubborn in important decision making would probably lead to doom faster. A stubborn person's worst enemy is Angel Flexible & Humble. Of course, there are many more uncountable woes faced by an entrepreneur, some major ones, some minor ones. Most important at the end of day, if you want to venture, be daring and go ahead. Learn and do it at the same time. If you want to plan and research first, by all means. But do not let yourself sink into it without an action plan. No experience will mean no growth in your business. Like Nike's slogan: Just Do it! (You'll know it!) Feel free to share if you felt the above before or more. more

Resolved Question: Why American police entice and entrap poor, desperate people. ?

America produces a lot of greatness, but there are a lot of poor people in America with nobody and little government system to fall back on. So this leads to people becoming desperate. We in Europe have a free health service, housing money and free money to live off. It's not much but it is a stable base from which a person can advance from. As i understand it, people in America don't even get medical attention unless they have insurance, never mind anything else. Upon watching cops last night, i saw the American police driving around in a limo to attract hookers. Then they nicked them. I don't understand how it can be legal to entice and entrap poor, desperate people who have no one or no back up in life from their governments in to committing crimes, then arrest them for it. America prides it's self on liberty and free will, yet the police are exploiting the desperation of the poor. Also, i saw a female police officer masquerading as a hooker charging $7.00. This is not representative as the female officer is better looking and charges less. So this amounts to Un-impartial, Unprofessional, enticement and entrapment. The legal system in the US seems to be a business to us, the best sales rep in the court room seems to win too more

Resolved Question: How can I build my real estate sales business even if I am with a crappy company?

I decided to go with this small company because I wanted the one on one training, their 70/30 split, no desk fees, no other fees of any kind and free marketing that is made on their own computer. Since I did not have over $1000 to start with the other companies, I thought this would be a great fit. Well, now I see that there is no training, they send me a lead from the website every other day and just tell me to call. I have to constantly call to even get put on the website. They forgot to put me on their new brochures, my voicemail is still not set up and they don't even send the checks off for my trend, license or Realtor in a timely fashion. I had to call to remind them. I don't see myself making any money, because I don't know what I am doing. They haven't even helped me with marketing my business or how to deal with clients. Instead of jumping to change brokers, what can I do on my own to build my business and learn the ropes? more

Resolved Question: Who's behind ASDCASHGENERATOR?

ASD Cash Generator is a "profit/revenue- share" type internet advertising company that allows you to generate money by viewing websites. I'm using ASD to advertise 5 of my sites and have received real traffic and leads from it. Each day a paid member views ads, they get a share in the profits of the company paid directly to their accounts until the member pockets 25% more than they spent. At the time of this writing, their current daily interest rate has been averaging about 0.50% - 2% per day, and is primarily based on the total the number of ad package sales for the previous day. The daily rebate rate will vary and is not fixed. All you have to do is view 24 web sites each day for 15 seconds each to receive your daily rebate that equals to about 6 minutes. Who's running the show? The company was founded over a year ago by CEO, Andy Bowdoin. In doing my due diligence and searching over 9 pages of information on Google on him (all positive), I found that he has quite an extraordinary reputation, not only as a career Advertising man, but as a man of exceptional integrity. He has over 40 years experience in sales and marketing, and has had success in everything he's done. He started his sales career working with the Dale Carnegie Courses in the early sixties and later worked with the Napoleon Hill Leadership Program. Andy has trained thousands of sales people during his career and started several companies. He expanded a 60-minute dry cleaning franchise throughout the Southeast and Midwest. He developed a company that sold wireless communication franchises throughout the U.S. and then started a company to market credit card processing for merchants. In 1999, Andy did research and discovered a need for GPS Tracking for fleet vehicles and GPS Tech was created. In 2006, Andy again saw a new opportunity - the need for a new way to deliver advertising to the masses and Ad Surf Daily, Inc. was born. He modified his marketing strategies for the internet and attracted over 5,000 members in 120 days and sold over $1,200,000 in services. He now teaches his ASD members his strategies to help them build their internet businesses. ASD has a physical office located in Quincy Florida, a state of the art online support ticketing system and real telephone support where customer service reps handle all support questions or inquiries. One of the big perks with this program is they have an account with Bank of America where you can make direct deposits. They withstood a rigorous Verification Process (common sense will tell you Bank of America doesn't do business with scams). * Sustainable Payout Structure, NO guarantee of earnings in a set time. * Daily Payouts fluctuate with daily sales - true Profit Sharing, NOT a Ponzi. * Daily sales posted each day with your exact payout percentage. * Zero Cost Membership. * Structured like a REAL business with CEO, Executive Officers, Chief Administrator * Full information on CEO, not some 'anonymous' admin How is the company revenue distributed? The ASD Cash Generator business plan pays 50% of all daily ad buys back to the advertisers, 15% in referral commissions (on two levels) and 25% for expenses and corporate profits. By never paying out more than they take in, ASD will never encounter the cash-flow problems that have plagued other paid-to-surf programs. You'll receive a variable percentage daily of that 50% revenue, for surfing 24 sites daily, until you reach 125% of your ad purchase (25% profit), and then you'll re-cycle. Members in the US are sent 1099s for any net profits (not advertising purchases) earned each year from ASD, but you can write off anything you purchase in advertising packages, and in turn, save money on your taxes! Note: ASD Cash Generator is actually the 3rd get-paid-to-surf type program Andy has created. The first two programs were discontinued last year due to programming script problems. All the previous members had their balances transferred over to the new restructured ASD Cash Generator program or were refunded. ASD Cash Generator launched in July 2007. Speak Spanish? ASD also has a Spanish version of the English ASD website for those wishing to either view Spanish-based websites or know people who would like to earn money surfing a Spanish site. It's set to be available for surfing and advertising in the beginning of February. No sponsoring or recruiting is required, but for those that wish to refer others to ASD, they have a referral program that pays up to a 10% commission from the ad credits purchased that you personally refer, and up to a 5% commission from the ad credits of those referred by your direct referrals for a total of 15% total referral commission paid on 2 levels. What's the maximum number of Ad Packages I can purchase? Twelve thousand (12000). Ad Packages are $1.00 each, so the maximum you can own at any one time is $12,000 USD. ASD requires that you have a product, service, program or opportunity that includes a web site to advertise in order to be an advertiser. Note: If you don't have a website to advertise, you can contact me for one to use. 3 Membership Levels: (Optional monthly subscription) You can join ASD for FREE to advertise your site, or you can upgrade and advertise your business and earn cash-back rebates at the same time. The free membership will always be there and advertisers can get FREE advertising by viewing other web sites on the ASD Cash Generator Web Site. An advertiser can pay a monthly membership fee and reduce cash out fees, increase referral commissions and decrease the number of sites to view on a daily basis. The amount of your monthly membership fee determines the number of times you can cash out each week, the amount of your referral commissions and the number of sites you must view each day to receive your rebates. Monthly Memberships: * $10 per mo. fee = Cashout on Mondays Only and 5% referral commission for 1st level and 3% on 2nd level, * $25 per mo. fee = Cashout on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays and 7% referral commission for 1st level and 4% on 2nd level, * $100 per mo. fee = Exec. VIP Plan, Cashout DAILY and 10% referral commission on 1st level and 5% on 2nd level. Special Promotion through Tuesday, January 22, 2008. If you purchase $500 - $999 in Ad Package purchases, you'll receive 3 month Exec. VIP membership level upgrade. For $1,000- $1,999 in Ad Package purchases, you'll receive 6 months Exec. VIP membership level, and for $2000 or more in Ad Package purchases, you'll receive 1 year Exec. VIP membership level upgrade. Do I have to pay a membership fee? No. If you just want to be a passive member in ASD and receive cash back rebates from your ad purchases, you don't need to pay a monthly membership fee. It's primarily for people who choose to refer other advertisers or want to increase the frequency that they can withdraw their profits. If you don't pay a membership fee and you decide to refer others (optional), you'll be paid a 3% referral commission on all of your personal referrals only. What payment processors are available? Currently Alert Pay, Solid Trust Pay ,direct deposit into Bank of America account, cashier checks and mail in money order. Soon to come will be an International Debit card What happens if I'm unable to view and rate websites on any given day? If you miss a day and you're unable to view and rate ads (for any reason) you don't lose anything, it just freezes and extends the time line until you come back. Personal opinion: From everything I've researched, Andy Bowdoin is a man of integrity who does what he says he's going to do. He has a rock-solid business plan and experience based on verifiable and publicly available information. Everything is very transparent. His business model is a win win for everyone and very lucrative for both passive and active members. Advertisers who simply want to be sure their website get seen, get exactly what they pay for. Entrepreneurs who want a passive way of growing their money, get the ability of doing so for simply viewing ads daily. They get quality prospects visiting their websites which will ultimately turn into sign ups, sales, or more business partners. You can get a 25% bonus on your advertising dollars spent for simply investing 10 minutes per day to view others sites. So if you purchase $1,000 in advertising from ASD, you'll get paid daily until you receive $1,250 back. It doesn't matter if you purchase an ad for $10 or $500... if you do nothing else but view ads, the results are the same and you'll eventually earn 125% of what you spend (25% net profit). If you look at their Alexa traffic ranking in the chart below, you'll see that there's tremendous momentum with this program right now. Here's how to sign up: 1. Click on this link: http://www.asdcashgenerator.com/?ref=20470, read the FAQ and Terms & Conditions, etc., then click on the link right under the top banner that says "Sign-up." To become an Upgraded (paid) advertiser, first click on Signup on the Home Page and become a Free Member. 2. When you join as a free member, you'll be sent a welcome email. Some email carriers such as AOL, Bellsouth, Yahoo and others will treat our emails as spam. Check your Spam folder to see if it ended up there. If you didn't get the email you may want to go to Google and get a free gmail account, otherwise you won't be getting any emails from ASD because they'll be blocked. 3. After you sign up, log in to your back office on the bottom left of the Home Page. Click Login and that will take you to your Account Overview Page. Look to the right of Account Level and you will see (upgrade level) in blue. Click on upgrade level and it'll take you to your Upgrade Account Page. Select your payment processor and insert the dollar amount of ad packages you want to purchase. Ad packages are $1.00 each. If you want $100 of ad packages put 100 in the window. Click upgrade. Your purchase should show up on your Account Overview Page to the right of Current Upgrade Purchase. You can pay by credit card by calling the home office at 850-627-2206. 4. Once your account is funded and you've purchased your ad packages, click on the START SURFING link on the left hand side and do your viewing each day more

Resolved Question: Chapter 1, What do you think?

Chapter 1: I heard Sarah yelling "Hey N'Cole"! I didn't really like Sarah but she was a good friend and who doesn't need a good friend. Summer had just ended and it was time to listen to Sarah ramble on and on about her summer full of romance and passion. This rambling usually only lasted a week or so. That is until someone new showed up. See Sarah is that girl who isn't gorgeous but isn't ugly either. She is very desirable due to her amazing personality. I mean when it comes down to it Sarah isn't so bad and I do like her it's just sometimes I find myself jealous of her and I hate it and end up hating her for it. "N'Cole, N'Cole" "I have the most amazing story to tell you" "Oh here we go again with the stories, Sarah it's always the same story with a different guy, why don't we just save sometime and tell me his name I remember the story"! Oh boy do I remember those stories. Her family goes away for the summer every your and every year it's somewhere new. How do they afford that you ask? Well its simple her dad Frank owns his own business buying people's ideas. My favorite idea he bought was the digital picture frame. Apparently some young teen needed a quick buck and got paid $150 dollars for the rights. It's a shame for the kid since the digital frames run no less than $150 brand new. Luckily for me I got one for free. As for my favorite story Sarah has told me. It all happened the summer they went to Hawaii and she fell in love or so she calls it love. Not with the cute beach guy but the towel boy at her hotel. If I remember correctly she met John or maybe it was Jay, (No it was John) from returning her pool towel. John had some questionable story about getting hit by a car and was thus stuck being a towel boy. Well Sarah being Sarah thought he was cute and agreed to see him while she was there. They met up on the beach way late at night, held hands, and walked all through out the beach. She said "It had been the most romantic thing ever!" Although personally I find water to always make a romantic setting. I don't find a late night Ronde-Vu with the towel boy to be romantic. They didn't work out, her summer flings never did. That was always her choice and a wise choice at that. The thing about this story that made it my favorite was that on her last night at the hotel Mr.Towelboy thought he was going to get lucky. Even though I find Sarah over uses the word love she at least has some morals I can agree with. The "No Sex" policy is one of my favorites. Well not only did he make the mistake of trying to get lucky he tried to do it in a hammock. Apparently getting shoved out of a hammock may lead to a broken arm and in the case of John a broken ego as well. That annoying, leave your ears ringing, bell for class rang. "That's the bell I don't want to be late on the first day see you at lunch N'Cole" Our first year of school here at Broken Ridge High School as freshmen we had all but one class together. Being good friends + having the same class=cheating and too much of each other. So from sophomore year on we chose not to take a class together if possible, not having the same class really made us value out time together more, as for the cheating well sometimes you just have to. I shut my very ugly purple locker, looked down the hall, and began my walk to 1st hour. First period wasn't so bad I really did like the idea of psychology. The things you can discover and recover my only thing is that if your mind doesn't remember it, it must not be that important or maybe you forgot it for a reason. Well my five other classes were boring as usual except my final class English. I just love English it has always been on top of my favorite's list, but this year my teacher made it out like it is going to be my best year of English ever. I am not a big fan of writing and it looks like we are going to be doing a lot of it this year. Mrs. Cromwell my English teacher gave us a list of supplies and five 100 page notebooks was first on that list followed by 1 binder, dividers, pens, pencils and 10 packs of filler paper. With all those supplies I can only see large amounts of essays and papers in my future. All throughout the day I would turn left or turn right and I was always catching someone in a stare and before I could even say “Hi” or even acknowledge them they would turn away. Sarah offered to give me a ride home from school and I gladly accepted seeing how my truck was in the shop and would be there for a while since the accident. Although I don't care too much as to what people think about me, riding a bus full of smelly freshmen guys as a senior just isn't too highly looked upon. One thing you notice when driving through Broken Ridge is that the houses are all very small one to three bedroom one floor homes. The house's may all be small but not one looks the same and you never know what will be in someone's front yard. I vividly remember last year the Brooklyn boys got a hold of Mr. Larks chicken and had tied him up by the foot to a steak in the ground. That chicken squawked uncontrollably and if I remember right they were using it as bait to catch a dinosaur like off of Jurassic Park since they couldn't find a goat. Finally we pulled into my driveway. Sarah love's coming over and I think it's because my house is the one exception to the one story small home usual out here. Now don't get me wrong I love my home but it's not exactly the first thing you think of when you hear five bedroom three bathroom home. The old wooden house could use some paint and our lawn could use some tending but I just keep procrastinating. One thing I do truly love is the big oak tree out front I used to climb to get to my secret spy station. There are still probably melted peach rings on the high branches from me trying to catch them in my mouth but unfortunately they always seemed to go up too high. I was about to shut the door to Sarah's very cute Toyota corolla (?) when she stopped me saying. "Hey do you want to pick up our school stuff tonight"? "Sure thing Sarah" "Alright I'll be back here in a couple of hours when I finish dinner". I shut the door and walked all the way up my driveway listening to the gravel crunch under my feet to the front door. Opening the door to my house and looking in all you can see is out living room to the left with our medium sized T.V. and the mix matched couches. If you look right you can see out kitchen. It isn't in the best shape but it isn't so bad. Since my mom left when I was nine I've had to step up my cooking skills. My dear old dad couldn't melt butter if his life depended on it. I grabbed an apple from the fridge, pretzels from the pantry, and headed up the stairs past the guest room with a bathroom for the guests we never had. I climbed the wretched stairs everyday but occasionally I saved sometime and would just fall down them. My dad was never much of a decorator that was usually my mother's job and when she left she took everything from their room. Leaving my dad with a queen bed, brown bedding, his mom's antique armoire, and a "15 Inch" Television he always leaves on when he sleeps. I tend to be a late night; don't need much sleep kind of girl so I usually turn it off for him. At the end of the hall there are two doors one to your left and one to the right. To the left will lead to what was going to be my brothers or sisters rooms if they ever had anymore children. Fortunately for me that didn't end up happening. Since my mother left my dad gave me free will with the house. I decide to use that freewill to turn these two medium sized rooms into one very large library office combo. Of course I had to take down a wall and let me tell you it’s not as easy as it sounds. You have to do more than take a sledge hammer to a wall. Even though it was harder than I had planned it was worth it. This room is my favorite room and my second favorite place to be. Part of the reason it’s my favorite is for the mere fact that I have spent so many endless hours dedicated to this room. I took down my old spy station and used the planks to build the bookshelves that go from floor to ceiling. Since there wasn't enough wood from my station my dad volunteered to bring me some wood home from work at the wood, rock, and tree store. This if I say so is the best one in State. He also helped me put them together and align them seeing as my eye sight isn't so great. My mother and I were never close and when she left she said "Good-Bye and left." Before she could leave I'd asked her to let me have her books seeing as our love and passion for books was the only thing we had in common. She delightfully left them in my possession saying "Books are people, the lives they lived, and their most interworkings so take care of them as if they were your family and friends. Know that when you look at someone they are just a story waiting to be written.” Those were her last words to me so I guess it comes as no surprise that she left to California to become an author. It's her books that started filling the wraparound bookshelves but it is my books that will complete them. In one corner is a desk with a computer and printer centered on it, a filing cabinet is to the left filled with my elementary paintings, old pictures, and my high school papers. In the center of the room there are two very ugly couches that I reupholstered, a lounge chair I bought from the Broken Ridge community garage sale for $10 dollars. Smack dab in the middle of the seating is a fake fire place I built. It's some big rocks around a cut up tree branch with orange, yellow, and red construction paper cut out to look like flames. I guess you could say I am a pretty resourceful, independent, creative girl with a whole lot of free time. Going through the right door would enter into my room. What a glorious room it is. My room is all about me. The things I love like my pet fish. All ten of my exotic fish make up the 40 gallon tank lining up against one wall. On the other wall is my closet filled with old trophies, random boxes full of meaningless stuff I can't seem to get rid of, and my very small collection of clothes. In the center of the room lays my prized possession the master of all queen waterbeds. Hopping on my bed I rolled over and fell asleep. more

Resolved Question: i need help with these 20 question please Ethics in criminal justice?

1. Which of the following is an element of community policing? A. Maintaining an anonymous relationship with the community B. Focusing on emergency response C. Encouraging citizens to help in preventing and solving crimes D. Moving decision making and discretion upward to office Supervisors 2. Which of the following is an element of the theory of policing as a crime control force? A. Police officers are soldiers in a war against crime. B. Criminals can be basically good people who have gone wrong. C. Police officers aren’t the only experts in society who understand the enemy. D. Police officers must “follow the book” and not exercise their own discretion when on the streets. 3. Which of the following theories holds that each citizen gives up complete liberty in return for societal protection against others? A. Natural law theory C. Police as a public servant theory B. Social contract theory D. Rawls’s theory 4. The formal law enforcement code of ethics promoted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police is what kind of code? A. One that provides principles or guidelines that relate to the value system of the organization B. One that provides mandatory rules of conduct that can serve as the basis of discipline C. An aspirational code that specifies ideal behavior D. A general code that vaguely describes the tenets of professional conduct 5. The formal code of ethics for law enforcement stresses which of the following values? A. Importance of the law C. Egoism B. Police officers’ subculture D. Police officers as crime fighters 6. Which of the following factors drives police actions the most? A. Code of ethics C. Political pressures B. Rule book D. Police subculture 7. Which of the following factors is involved in the disparity between police subcultural values and the code of ethics? A. Feeling victimized C. Lack of cynicism B. Feeling like public servants D. A feeling of social belonging 8. Which of the following actions is consistent with the police subculture? A. Respect for individual rights C. Use of illegal investigation tactics B. Restraint in the use of force D. Always telling the truth 9. Which of the following factors is universally agreed upon as part of a police officer’s domain? A. Discretion B. Public service C. Differential treatment of special groups D. Acceptance of gratuities 10. Which of the following systems of belief justifies the action of an officer who doesn’t issue a ticket to a fellow off-duty officer who was speeding? A. Utilitarianism C. Ethical formalism B. Egoism D. Religion 11. Which of the following is condoned in certain situations by some law enforcement theorists? A. Graft C. Bribes B. Gratuities D. Shakedowns 12. You’re a police officer whose partner forgot to read the Miranda rights to a man suspected of sexually abusing three minors (and almost killing one of them). The suspect has no remorse.You decide not to admit that he didn’t get his Miranda rights because you don’t want to give him a “get-out-of-jail-free card.” Which of the following factors condones this behavior? A. Police subculture B. Formal law enforcement code of ethics C. Ethics of virtue D. Ethical formalism 13. Which of the following is not involved in undercover police officer work? A. Strict enforcement of the code of ethics B. Loss of identity C. Sacrifice of personal integrity D. Observance of or participation in illegal activities 14. Which of the following ethical systems would most likely support the use of informants and deception? A. Ethics of care C. Religious ethics B. Ethical formalism D. Utilitarian ethics 15. Which of the following statements is true about police officer loyalty? A. Many police officers in various departments are slowly losing loyalty to each other because of race and gender diversification in the force. B. The code of silence is mostly a myth. C. Loyalty isn’t extended in a rational way. D. Departmental loyalty is mostly a negative factor because it leads to corruption and cover-ups. 16. Under the ethics of care, an intimate relationship between a police officer and a target of an undercover investigation is A. ethical because the relationship between two people is more important than rights, duties, and laws. B. ethical because trust between two people is more important than the social good. C. unethical because you can’t use a person (through feigned affection, caring) as a means to an end. D. unethical because you can’t betray a trust. 17. Under the utilitarian ethical system, investigative deception is A. ethical because it’s good for the individual police officer. B. ethical because it’s the best means to a positive end, such as busting drug sales, prostitution, and organized-crime activities. C. unethical because it sets a bad precedent. D. unethical because you can’t use a person or the act of lying as a means to an end. 18. Under the egoism ethical system, gratuities are A. unethical because you have to be true to your integrity and morals. B. unethical because you shouldn’t tarnish your reputation. C. ethical because they make you feel good, especially if you feel that the gratuity is deserved. D. ethical because the end result is positive for the entire police department. 19. Which of the following statements is true? A. Under the formal ethical code, police officers can accept gratuities from business owners as long as they follow some specific rules. B. There’s a vast difference between the formal code of ethics and actual police behavior. C. If the department head is ethical, then the whole department is ethical. D. The “blue curtain of silence” has been wiped out in most departments. 20. Which of the following statements is false? A. Loyalty is crucial to a well-run department. B. The formal code of ethics aspires to create the ideal police officer. C. Police discretion is demonstrated through the selection of targeted individuals. D. Police undercover stings, in which cops set up fencing operations to buy stolen goods, can be supported by all ethical systems as long as they’re good for the community. more

Resolved Question: I have't filed income tax in 10 years. I want to come clean. CPA help needed to untangle this?

I am sure I won't solve this here, but I would like to have some leads to get myself organized. I do want to solve this and just want to be a regular citizen with the tax up to date. I will mention the same as another member did: "I KNOW I'M SUPPOSED TO FILE EVEN THOUGH I DON'T OWE, BUT I'VE ALREADY ADMITTED THAT I HAVEN'T SO WE DON'T NEED TO ADDRESS THAT ISSUE. THANK YOU FOR FOCUSING ON THE QUESTION I'M ASKING RATHER THAN TELLING ME SOMETHING I CAN NO LONGER DO ANYTHING ABOUT." It is somewhat complex: 1- I have not filed tax since 1999, although I estimated (at the time) and saved what I thought would be the tax. 2- 1999 to 2001 I started to play "entrepreneur" as everyone was doing when the Internet came about, selling junk on the Internet privately. money was exchanged back and forth without any actual control The IRS sent me a letter to pay taxes not filed for a student loan that I cashed(2001). The total still is unpaid. I am guessing this is because the bank reported to the IRS, yet only the loan was mentioned. 3- I had a job that issued me a W2 form 1999-2001 "self employed" , in 2000 I started paying free lancers to do the work I did, I wanted to keep the job in case the business did not do well, however these free lancers were not regular workers, I never issued any I-90 or anything that would help me to track any of these payments, except the employer being my witness I have only dates amount and first name of the freelancers, no other proof. Unlikely I can track down must of these people All payments were cash. The only ones I was able to track down were unwilling to provide personal information for I-90, yet they only make up 20% of the total. Is this case lost? Do I have to pay tax on what I kept? 4- Mid 2001 I incorporated had a tax payer ID issued by the IRS, that's where the major mass began. I mixed personal banking account, personal phone line and credit card to pay suppliers with business. Although I was able to separate accurately all the personal expenses and even the % that was business versus personal. I am not sure how to separate the business. Since I incorporate the business mid 2001 and I was already playing business man since 1999...I am unsure how to go about it. Do I have to separate them? But I have invested money on equipment prior and after incorporation to be used for business purpose, same for goods bought for sale. 5- From 2000-2001 I had an ex girlfriend taking care of all the paper for me. She was being paid to enter itemize every single item. In the end she took the money but did not do the job, actually the opposite, she only mixed up all the papers (receipt, bank statements etc) into a huge mess stuck in boxes, which took me one month to put in order again. It is not clear if the company made any profit or not, unlikely it did 6- Late 2003 early 2004 a live in girlfriend, took over the function of organizing all the papers, things were going really well, all papers had been organized, everything was being entered to a spreadsheet in the minimum details, till I found out that instead paying the bills she was pocketing the money, overnight she took her things and all the computer files, so months of work went back to the "starting line" again. Without the money to pay the bills the business could not survive, I still tried to save it by taking money from credit cards to cover holes, but eventually I ran out of Credit cards. After all these I could never put myself together again, I started drinking which I had never done, stopped paying all the bills, my credit rating was excellent went below miserable. I did not make any significant money from 2004 - 2007, if I did make any it was cash and way to low, I borrowed money from friends and family which eventually I will have to pay. -----State tax was collected for some of the sales, yet without the information that was stored in the Hard drive of the computer that was stolen by my ex I am unable to have accurate information. Not all sales were taxed as the majority was sent to out of the state. It is useless to ty to track her down as she moved to another country and has been bouncing from country to country, and I know this information was purposely destroyed. I was living in a room and board such a situation, I did not have to pay for living expenses. 7- Is borrowed money considered a taxable income? 8- My mother helped me from 2004-2007, although I am a full grown adult and I was not living with here, am I able to claim I was a dependent during these years? although she did not file me as a dependent. I did make less than $3k a year. This tax mess was never cleared, but this year I took care of the depression and stopped hiding behind alcohol. I am here to face the cosnequences. I am working on the paper work, yet I am not sure how to address these problems. 9 - I know I will need a CPA to straight this out and I am planning to do it. Any CPA out there can guesstimate what this would cost? I will borrow this money to pay an expert. 10- Let's presume that the IRS and the State will negotiate any amount I may have to pay, also the fact I am not employed at the moment, how likely is it that the amount can be negotiated to a realistic value that I can pay? Thank you very much more

Resolved Question: How much should I make as a Internet car sales consultant. (Nissan)?

I just started and have not been in car sales in 10 years and I was just taking up space then. I have been in Real Estate and the Mortgage business since 2002. This internet deal seems like a gold mind. To me it's FREE HOT LEADS AVERAGE 4 PER DAY and you pretty much give every car away. Invoice plus a few hundred bucks ON THE INTERNET. I mean the economy sucks and people are bying Nissans like crazy. Mostly people are changing cars for better fuel economy. You for the most part make your money on volume (Units sold). I actually feel like I'm providing a honest service. Hours suck! O well, ya can't have it all. more

Resolved Question: OBAMA speech in full?

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time. And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren. This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one. Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans. This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well. And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike. I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed. But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam. As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity: “People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.” That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years. I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love. Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias. But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality. The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American. Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students. Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities. A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us. This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them. But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings. And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races. In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time. Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism. Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny. Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change. The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well. For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies. We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change. That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time. This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together. This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit. This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned. I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election. There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta. There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice. Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.” “I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.http://www.drudgereport.com/flashos.htm After read this, how in the world are people still hating on this Man??? There is really no hope for us, if we continue to be sheep, unity should be our mission more

Resolved Question: What is a free way to get good sales leads for selling cars.?

I am fairly new in the car sales business, a few months. Does anyone know of a good way to get free sales leads, or even some that I have to pay for. But I am looking for real leads. Thanks more

Resolved Question: do you know about flu shots?? LITTLE ANGEL2CF?

Skip navigation MSN Home | Mail MoreHotmailMessengerMy MSNMSN DirectoryAir Tickets/TravelAutosCareers & JobsCity GuidesDating & PersonalsElection 2008GamesGreenHealth & FitnessHoroscopesLifestyleMaps & DirectionsMoneyMoviesMusicNewsReal Estate/RentalsShoppingSpacesSportsTech & GadgetsTVWeatherWhite PagesYellow PagesSign Inmsn.comfeaturing Today Show Nightly News Dateline Meet the Press MSNBC TV BREAKING NEWS: East Timor President and Nobel-winner Jose Ramos-Horta wounded in attack HealthCold and flusponsored by Categories U.S. news World news Politics Business Sports Entertainment Health Diet and nutrition Women's health Men's health Kids and parenting Sexual health Mental health Pet health Fitness Aging Cancer Heart health Skin and beauty Health library Tech & science Travel Weather Local news Browse Video Photos Community Disable Fly-outMarketplace Shopping via MSN Shopping Start a business Entrepreneur.com Dating via PerfectMatch.com Homes for Sale via JustListed.com Investments $7 online stock trades Online degrees from Kaplan University Career Center via Monster Autos via MSN Autos Flu vaccine may not provide enough protection Officials question influenza shot as number of U.S. flu cases increase Video Late-peaking flu season predicted Feb. 8: Despite a mild flu season January, the recent spate of flu cases has forced schools to shut down and put nursing homes in lockdown. NBC's Robert Bazelll reports. Nightly News INTERACTIVE Weekly influenza estimates Who’s got the flu state-by-state Related stories What’s this? Still time for your flu shot Flu Cases On The Increase Flu season in full swing Nationwide flu outbreak affecting Massachusetts State health department reporting lower number of flu cases so far Most popular • Most viewed • Top rated • Most e-mailed Bride dies during first dance with husband Clinton's campaign manager steps down Obama takes lead in Maine caucuses FAQ: How does the election system work? Obama wins big in Wash., Nebraska, La. Most viewed on msnbc.com Australia, Japan clash over dead whale photos In a hurry to get your refund? Beware Administration's mercury policy ruled illegal Harry Landis, one of last U.S. WWI vets, dies Key to fusion power may be found in space Most viewed on msnbc.com Bride dies during first dance with husband Clinton's campaign manager steps down 10 years for Army sniper for killing Iraqi civilian Cheers! Stupid beer laws falling off 5 smart sites to put $50 in your pocket — fast Most viewed on msnbc.com updated 6:34 p.m. CT, Fri., Feb. 8, 2008 WASHINGTON - The influenza vaccine given to Americans may not protect as well as expected, U.S. health officials said on Friday as the number of flu cases increased nationwide. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said slightly more than half of the influenza virus strains reported to its surveillance system are not good matches against the strains included in this flu season’s vaccine. The number of states reporting widespread flu activity jumped to 31 this week compared with 11 a week ago, the CDC said. But Dr. Joe Bresee of the CDC’s influenza division said there are no indications this flu season is worse than usual. Story continues below ↓ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Seasonal flu activity was slow to start this year but has increased sharply in recent weeks,” Bresee told reporters. One measure officials use to gauge the severity of the season is the number of flu-related child deaths. Bresee said the CDC has heard of six U.S. children who have died from the flu, a relatively low number compared with recent years. Flu viruses mutate and change all the time, so every year a different vaccine is created as officials predict which particular strains will circulate. The vaccine is designed to protect against three influenza strains — two from Type A, an H1N1 and an H3N2 version, and one for Type B. Bresee said about 30 percent of the overall strains of influenza in the United States may be a Type A strain that emerged in Australia called H3N2 A/Brisbane. It emerged too late to be included in the flu vaccine offered in the United States beginning in September and October. The Type B strain chosen for this year’s vaccine also was not a good match for most of the B virus strains seen in the United States this flu season, Bresee said. “While a less-than-ideal virus match between the viruses in the vaccine and those circulating viruses can reduce vaccine effectiveness, we know from past influenza studies that the vaccine can still protect enough to make illness milder or prevent flu-related complications,” Bresee said. Click for related content Flu season in full swing Flu in U.S., Canada shows drug resistance Under-the-tongue vaccine could help lick the flu Bresee noted that decisions on the composition of the annual vaccine are made about nine months before it is made available to the public in the fall, and it is sometimes hard to know that far in advance which strains will circulate. Flu vaccines take months to make. Bresee also said some resistance is being reported to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, made by Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG and Gilead Sciences Inc of the United States. Of the viruses tested in CDC flu labs, 4.5 percent are resistant to the drug, Bresee said. Influenza kills an estimated 36,000 Americans in an average year, and puts 200,000 into the hospital, the CDC said. Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for restrictions. Rate this story Low High Current rating: 4 by 159 users • View Top Rated stories Print this Email this Blog this IM this MORE FROM COLD AND FLU Flu season in full swing Flu vaccine may not provide enough protectionFlu season in full swingFlu in U.S., Canada shows drug resistanceDrug-resistant flu viruses detected in EuropeCold drugs send 7,000 U.S. children to ERsUnder-the-tongue vaccine could help lick the fluSome ordinary flu strains resist TamifluScientists discover new key to bird flu's spread6 easy ways to sick-proof your winterRegular flu vaccine may help against bird fluCold and flu Section Front Add Cold and flu headlines to your news reader: • More RSS feeds from MSNBC.com Top msnbc.com stories Obama wins big in Wash., Nebraska, La. Gates: NATO's survival at stake Yahoo board to reject Microsoft bid Bush: McCain a 'true conservative' Diary of an insurgent in retreat NBC News highlights Blog: 'American al-Qaida' missing? 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Try it risk free for only $1! greenteadiet.com Get Rid Of Stretch Marks Proven Stretch Mark Formula. Doctor Recommended. Try It Free. StriaeMax.com Eliminate Cellulite 2008 Cellulite Breakthrough. As Seen on Oprah and CNN. CaptivaSkincare.com Resource guide Dating - Get two months free! Search Jobs Get your degree online Find your next car [Enter Label] Free Home Listings Find a business to start $7 trades, no-fee IRAs Find Senior Housing Options [Enter Label] FeaturingToday Nightly News Dateline Meet the Press MSNBC TV Newsweek CategoriesTop stories Local news U.S. World Politics Business Sports Entertainment Health Tech & science Travel Weather AboutAbout us Contact Site map Jobs Terms & conditions Alerts via IM E-mail updates RSS & feeds Mobile headlines Podcasts Widgets © 2008 MicrosoftMSN PrivacyLegalAdvertiseHelp more

Resolved Question: Feeling Pinch, Stores Woo Lagging Shoppers. Evaluate Article?

Lackluster sales in this holiday season have retailers scrambling to wring a few last dollars from procrastinators by slashing prices, extending hours and wooing customers more persistently than last year. The moves show that retailers' strategy during this final weekend before Christmas -- when about 10% of holiday sales are expected to take place -- has become increasingly reliant on the same promotions and marathon hours once unique to the "Black Friday" weekend following Thanksgiving. But the discounts also reveal the pinch stores are in this year as the credit crunch, rising gas prices and winter storms have taken a toll on companies dependent on end-of-year sales. The tough economy has left aisles more empty this year. Total foot traffic at U.S. retail outlets took an 8.9% dive during the second full week of December, compared with the same period last year, according to an estimate from ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which bases its numbers on a formula that involves an electronic count of shoppers in malls and other retail outlets nationwide. A bright spot, however, has been online, where aggressive discounting and cut-rate deals on fast shipping have contributed to a surge in spending. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 16, online shoppers spent $23.5 billion, 19% higher than the corresponding days last year, according to comScore Inc., a Reston, Va., market research firm that tracks Web spending and traffic. Videogames, consoles and accessories are the fastest-growing category, more than doubling from the comparable period last year. Furniture, appliances and equipment ranks second, up 63%, while event tickets and consumer electronics are up 29% and 24%, respectively. Now, a final push is on, both online and in stores. Web retailers continued to hunt for business by cutting shipping charges to seal deals before the pre-Christmas shipping window closes. Shoebuy.com, a Boston-based unit of IAC/InterActive Corp. offered free express shipping until today. Online handbag merchant eBags upgraded purchases made by Wednesday from standard shipping to two-day air-shipping through UPS for no extra cost. Brick-and-mortar stores, meanwhile, retooled their hours for the weekend, hoping to spark their own shopping flurry. J.C. Penney Co. stores are staying open until midnight tonight and Saturday. Select Macy's Inc. stores on the East Coast will stay open nonstop throughout the weekend -- 107 hours straight for one branch in Queens. And New York-based FAO Schwarz made discounts of 25% to 50% on certain toys. Ed Schmults, the chief executive officer at FAO Schwarz, said that while foot traffic was up, business had not been as booming throughout the season as he hoped. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, is predicting just 4% in sales growth for 2007, the smallest growth rate in five years. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, paints an even grimmer picture: He lowered his forecast of 2% retail sales growth to 1.8%, his lowest forecast in nearly 10 years. In the apparel category, men's clothing has showed modest single-digit growth through the first 20 days of the shopping season, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, a unit of MasterCard Advisors, which tracks spending of all types. But women's apparel -- which last year constituted three times the sales of men's -- has been a major disappointment, as shoppers have avoided big purchases. Sales were down 5.7% from the same time last year. Retailers have responded with a flurry of price cuts, but large inventory remains in some stores. One of Gap Inc.'s Old Navy stores in downtown Chicago on Wednesday had piles of festive sweaters marked down to $20 from $36.50. Women's coats still stuffed the racks, despite being already marked down 50%, and its signature "performance fleece," also half off, was stacked eight shelves high. The bad tidings for apparel have left some retailers looking for other items to push. At Banana Republic, also owned by Gap, $64 gift sets of its perfumes, body creams and shower creams were marked down 30%. Gold-boxed gift sets of a new line of bath products at Ann Taylor Stores Corp. stores were discounted to $19.50 from $29. At Limited Brands Inc.'s Victoria's Secret, stores were piled with beauty gift sets, many 40% off. Meanwhile luxury goods are expected to have a good season this year, and retail consultant Frederick Crawford of AlixPartners predicts "pockets of good news" for high-end retail. For brands like Prada and Gucci, he expects to see 5% to 7% growth. According to retail surveys, electronics sales were down 0.5% in the three-week period between Nov. 18 and Dec. 9 compared to a year ago, according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for market watcher NPD Group. He said consumers in recent years have been delaying purchases until closer to Christmas, which may account for the slowdown. Indeed, Angela Smith has waited until the last week to make her purchases. A 39-year-old bank employee in Dallas, Ms. Smith said she is waiting for prices to drop further as well as trying to spend less. For her three nephews, ages 12, 8 and 7, she plans to buy remote-controlled cars, which Wal-Mart Stores Inc. initially priced at $59 and has since dropped to $49. "I am going to swing by this weekend and see if they are going to take it down one more time," says Ms. Smith, who was shopping for a co-worker's present at her local Wal-Mart midweek. Home-furnishings retailers, fighting the weak housing market, are being particularly aggressive with their promotions this year. At Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, Christmas-tree-shaped candles were discounted 50%, and holiday garlands of fake evergreen branches were 30% off. Wrapped gifts such as silver jewelry boxes, also marked down 30%, were stacked high Wednesday afternoon. Home-improvement outfits like Lowe's Cos. Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are destined to be hardest hit, says AlixPartners' Mr. Crawford. "Consumers are absolutely showing us that they will be delaying discretionary purchases" like gear to remodel a kitchen, he said. A boom-bust pattern is typical after Thanksgiving's Black Friday discounts, which encourages a flurry of purchases early but leads to a tapering off in early December, killing shopping momentum. This year the pattern was more pronounced: A double-digit sales surge on Black Friday exceeded retailers' expectations; but come December, throngs of shoppers didn't return. There was one exception, however: online retail. Web merchants have discounted and promoted heavily this season, say industry analysts. Shipping promotions have been particularly popular. Sixty-eight percent of surveyed Web retailers said they are offering express shipping promotions this year, up from 49% last year, according to Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, an online retail trade group and unit of National Retail Federation. As the boom continues, these companies are becoming increasingly creative to draw customers. This year Ice.com, a Montreal-based Internet jeweler, has rolled out new videos to promote products and free overnight shipping. It has experimented with new marketing tricks such as buying front-page ads on Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Yahoo Inc.'s Web sites this week. Ice.com even tried to tap influencers to drive word-of-mouth among blogs, magazine mentions and celebrities. more

Resolved Question: Is it good to drink milk? The text is too long but worthwhile read....?

"MILK" Just the word itself sounds comforting! "How about a nice cup of hot milk?" The last time you heard that question it was from someone who cared for you--and you appreciated their effort. The entire matter of food and especially that of milk is surrounded with emotional and cultural importance. Milk was our very first food. If we were fortunate it was our mother's milk. A loving link, given and taken. It was the only path to survival. If not mother's milk it was cow's milk or soy milk "formula"--rarely it was goat, camel or water buffalo milk. Now, we are a nation of milk drinkers. Nearly all of us. Infants, the young, adolescents, adults and even the aged. We drink dozens or even several hundred gallons a year and add to that many pounds of "dairy products" such as cheese, butter, and yogurt. Can there be anything wrong with this? We see reassuring images of healthy, beautiful people on our television screens and hear messages that assure us that, "Milk is good for your body." Our dieticians insist that: "You've got to have milk, or where will you get your calcium?" School lunches always include milk and nearly every hospital meal will have milk added. And if that isn't enough, our nutritionists told us for years that dairy products make up an "essential food group." Industry spokesmen made sure that colourful charts proclaiming the necessity of milk and other essential nutrients were made available at no cost for schools. Cow's milk became "normal." You may be surprised to learn that most of the human beings that live on planet Earth today do not drink or use cow's milk. Further, most of them can't drink milk because it makes them ill. There are students of human nutrition who are not supportive of milk use for adults. Here is a quotation from the March/April 1991 Utne Reader: If you really want to play it safe, you may decide to join the growing number of Americans who are eliminating dairy products from their diets altogether. Although this sounds radical to those of us weaned on milk and the five basic food groups, it is eminently viable. Indeed, of all the mammals, only humans--and then only a minority, principally Caucasians--continue to drink milk beyond babyhood. Who is right? Why the confusion? Where best to get our answers? Can we trust milk industry spokesmen? Can you trust any industry spokesmen? Are nutritionists up to date or are they simply repeating what their professors learned years ago? What about the new voices urging caution? I believe that there are three reliable sources of information. The first, and probably the best, is a study of nature. The second is to study the history of our own species. Finally we need to look at the world's scientific literature on the subject of milk. Let's look at the scientific literature first. From 1988 to 1993 there were over 2,700 articles dealing with milk recorded in the 'Medicine' archives. Fifteen hundred of theses had milk as the main focus of the article. There is no lack of scientific information on this subject. I reviewed over 500 of the 1,500 articles, discarding articles that dealt exclusively with animals, esoteric research and inconclusive studies. How would I summarize the articles? They were only slightly less than horrifying. First of all, none of the authors spoke of cow's milk as an excellent food, free of side effects and the 'perfect food' as we have been led to believe by the industry. The main focus of the published reports seems to be on intestinal colic, intestinal irritation, intestinal bleeding, anemia, allergic reactions in infants and children as well as infections such as salmonella. More ominous is the fear of viral infection with bovine leukemia virus or an AIDS-like virus as well as concern for childhood diabetes. Contamination of milk by blood and white (pus) cells as well as a variety of chemicals and insecticides was also discussed. Among children the problems were allergy, ear and tonsillar infections, bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding, colic and childhood diabetes. In adults the problems seemed centered more around heart disease and arthritis, allergy, sinusitis, and the more serious questions of leukemia, lymphoma and cancer. I think that an answer can also be found in a consideration of what occurs in nature & what happens with free living mammals and what happens with human groups living in close to a natural state as 'hunter-gatherers'. Our paleolithic ancestors are another crucial and interesting group to study. Here we are limited to speculation and indirect evidences, but the bony remains available for our study are remarkable. There is no doubt whatever that these skeletal remains reflect great strength, muscularity (the size of the muscular insertions show this), and total absence of advanced osteoporosis. And if you feel that these people are not important for us to study, consider that today our genes are programming our bodies in almost exactly the same way as our ancestors of 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. WHAT IS MILK? Milk is a maternal lactating secretion, a short term nutrient for new-borns. Nothing more, nothing less. Invariably, the mother of any mammal will provide her milk for a short period of time immediately after birth. When the time comes for 'weaning', the young offspring is introduced to the proper food for that species of mammal. A familiar example is that of a puppy. The mother nurses the pup for just a few weeks and then rejects the young animal and teaches it to eat solid food. Nursing is provided by nature only for the very youngest of mammals. Of course, it is not possible for animals living in a natural state to continue with the drinking of milk after weaning. IS ALL MILK THE SAME? Then there is the matter of where we get our milk. We have settled on the cow because of its docile nature, its size, and its abundant milk supply. Somehow this choice seems 'normal' and blessed by nature, our culture, and our customs. But is it natural? Is it wise to drink the milk of another species of mammal? Consider for a moment, if it was possible, to drink the milk of a mammal other than a cow, let's say a rat. Or perhaps the milk of a dog would be more to your liking. Possibly some horse milk or cat milk. Do you get the idea? Well, I'm not serious about this, except to suggest that human milk is for human infants, dogs' milk is for pups, cows' milk is for calves, cats' milk is for kittens, and so forth. Clearly, this is the way nature intends it. Just use your own good judgement on this one. Milk is not just milk. The milk of every species of mammal is unique and specifically tailored to the requirements of that animal. For example, cows' milk is very much richer in protein than human milk. Three to four times as much. It has five to seven times the mineral content. However, it is markedly deficient in essential fatty acids when compared to human mothers' milk. Mothers' milk has six to ten times as much of the essential fatty acids, especially linoleic acid. (Incidentally, skimmed cow's milk has no linoleic acid). It simply is not designed for humans. Food is not just food, and milk is not just milk. It is not only the proper amount of food but the proper qualitative composition that is critical for the very best in health and growth. Biochemists and physiologists -and rarely medical doctors - are gradually learning that foods contain the crucial elements that allow a particular species to develop its unique specializations. Clearly, our specialization is for advanced neurological development and delicate neuromuscular control. We do not have much need of massive skeletal growth or huge muscle groups as does a calf. Think of the difference between the demands make on the human hand and the demands on a cow's hoof. Human new-borns specifically need critical material for their brains, spinal cord and nerves. Can mother's milk increase intelligence? It seems that it can. In a remarkable study published in Lancet during 1992 (Vol. 339, p. 261-4), a group of British workers randomly placed premature infants into two groups. One group received a proper formula, the other group received human breast milk. Both fluids were given by stomach tube. These children were followed up for over 10 years. In intelligence testing, the human milk children averaged 10 IQ points higher! Well, why not? Why wouldn't the correct building blocks for the rapidly maturing and growing brain have a positive effect? In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1982) Ralph Holman described an infant who developed profound neurological disease while being nourished by intravenous fluids only. The fluids used contained only linoleic acid - just one of the essential fatty acids. When the other, alpha linoleic acid, was added to the intravenous fluids the neurological disorders cleared. In the same journal five years later Bjerve, Mostad and Thoresen, working in Norway found exactly the same problem in adult patients on long term gastric tube feeding. In 1930 Dr. G.O. Burr in Minnesota working with rats found that linoleic acid deficiencies created a deficiency syndrome. Why is this mentioned? In the early 1960s pediatricians found skin lesions in children fed formulas without the same linoleic acid. Remembering the research, the addition of the acid to the formula cured the problem. Essential fatty acids are just that and cows' milk is markedly deficient in these when compared to human milk. WELL, AT LEAST COW'S MILK IS PURE Or is it? Fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers give 50,000 pounds! How was this accomplished? Drugs, antibiotics, hormones, forced feeding plans and specialized breeding; that's how. The latest high-tech onslaught on the poor cow is bovine growth hormone or BGH. This genetically engineered drug is supposed to stimulate milk production but, according to Monsanto, the hormone's manufacturer, does not affect the milk or meat. There are three other manufacturers: Upjohn, Eli Lilly, and American Cyanamid Company. Obviously, there have been no long-term studies on the hormone's effect on the humans drinking the milk. Other countries have banned BGH because of safety concerns. One of the problems with adding molecules to a milk cows' body is that the molecules usually come out in the milk. I don't know how you feel, but I don't want to experiment with the ingestion of a growth hormone. A related problem is that it causes a marked increase (50 to 70 per cent) in mastitis. This, then, requires antibiotic therapy, and the residues of the antibiotics appear in the milk. It seems that the public is uneasy about this product and in one survey 43 per cent felt that growth hormone treated milk represented a health risk. A vice president for public policy at Monsanto was opposed to labelling for that reason, and because the labelling would create an 'artificial distinction'. The country is awash with milk as it is, we produce more milk than we can consume. Let's not create storage costs and further taxpayer burdens, because the law requires the USDA to buy any surplus of butter, cheese, or non-fat dry milk at a support price set by Congress! In fiscal 1991, the USDA spent $757 million on surplus butter, and one billion dollars a year on average for price supports during the 1980s (Consumer Reports, May 1992: 330-32). Any lactating mammal excretes toxins through her milk. This includes antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals and hormones. Also, all cows' milk contains blood! The inspectors are simply asked to keep it under certain limits. You may be horrified to learn that the USDA allows milk to contain from one to one and a half million white blood cells per millilitre. (That's only 1/30 of an ounce). If you don't already know this, I'm sorry to tell you that another way to describe white cells where they don't belong would be to call them pus cells. To get to the point, is milk pure or is it a chemical, biological, and bacterial cocktail? Finally, will the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protect you? The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) tells us that the FDA and the individual States are failing to protect the public from drug residues in milk. Authorities test for only 4 of the 82 drugs in dairy cows. As you can imagine, the Milk Industry Foundation's spokesman claims it's perfectly safe. Jerome Kozak says, "I still think that milk is the safest product we have." Other, perhaps less biased observers, have found the following: 38% of milk samples in 10 cities were contaminated with sulfa drugs or other antibiotics. (This from the Centre for Science in the Public Interest and The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29, 1989).. A similar study in Washington, DC found a 20 percent contamination rate (Nutrition Action Healthletter, April 1990). What's going on here? When the FDA tested milk, they found few problems. However, they used very lax standards. When they used the same criteria, the FDA data showed 51 percent of the milk samples showed drug traces. Let's focus in on this because itÂ’s critical to our understanding of the apparent discrepancies. The FDA uses a disk-assay method that can detect only 2 of the 30 or so drugs found in milk. Also, the test detects only at the relatively high level. A more powerful test called the 'Charm II test' can detect drugs down to 5 parts per billion. One nasty subject must be discussed. It seems that cows are forever getting infections around the udder that require ointments and antibiotics. An article from France tells us that when a cow receives penicillin, that penicillin appears in the milk for from 4 to 7 milkings. Another study from the University of Nevada, Reno tells of cells in 'mastic milk', milk from cows with infected udders. An elaborate analysis of the cell fragments, employing cell cultures, flow cytometric analysis , and a great deal of high tech stuff. Do you know what the conclusion was? If the cow has mastitis, there is pus in the milk. Sorry, itÂ’s in the study, all concealed with language such as "macrophages containing many vacuoles and phagocytosed particles," etc. IT GETS WORSE Well, at least human mothers' milk is pure! Sorry. A huge study showed that human breast milk in over 14,000 women had contamination by pesticides! Further, it seems that the sources of the pesticides are meat and--you guessed it-- dairy products. Well, why not? These pesticides are concentrated in fat and that's what's in these products. (Of interest, a subgroup of lactating vegetarian mothers had only half the levels of contamination). A recent report showed an increased concentration of pesticides in the breast tissue of women with breast cancer when compared to the tissue of women with fibrocystic disease. Other articles in the standard medical literature describe problems. Just scan these titles: 1.Cow's Milk as a Cause of Infantile Colic Breast-Fed Infants. Lancet 2 (1978): 437 2.Dietary Protein-Induced Colitis in Breast- Fed Infants, J. Pediatr. I01 (1982): 906 3.The Question of the Elimination of Foreign Protein in Women's Milk, J. Immunology 19 (1930): 15 There are many others. There are dozens of studies describing the prompt appearance of cows' milk allergy in children being exclusively breast-fed! The cows' milk allergens simply appear in the mother's milk and are transmitted to the infant. A committee on nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics reported on the use of whole cows' milk in infancy (Pediatrics 1983: 72-253). They were unable to provide any cogent reason why bovine milk should be used before the first birthday yet continued to recommend its use! Doctor Frank Oski from the Upstate Medical Centre Department of Pediatrics, commenting on the recommendation, cited the problems of acute gastrointestinal blood loss in infants, the lack of iron, recurrent abdominal pain, milk- borne infections and contaminants, and said: Why give it at all - then or ever? In the face of uncertainty about many of the potential dangers of whole bovine milk, it would seem prudent to recommend that whole milk not be started until the answers are available. Isn't it time for these uncontrolled experiments on human nutrition to come to an end? In the same issue of Pediatrics he further commented: It is my thesis that whole milk should not be fed to the infant in the first year of life because of its association with iron deficiency anemia (milk is so deficient in iron that an infant would have to drink an impossible 31 quarts a day to get the RDA of 15 mg), acute gastrointiestinal bleeding, and various manifestations of food allergy. I suggest that unmodified whole bovine milk should not be consumed after infancy because of the problems of lactose intolerance, its contribution to the genesis of atherosclerosis, and its possible link to other diseases. In late 1992 Dr. Benjamin Spock, possibly the best known pediatrician in history, shocked the country when he articulated the same thoughts and specified avoidance for the first two years of life. Here is his quotation: I want to pass on the word to parents that cows' milk from the carton has definite faults for some babies. Human milk is the right one for babies. A study comparing the incidence of allergy and colic in the breast-fed infants of omnivorous and vegan mothers would be important. I haven't found such a study; it would be both important and inexpensive. And it will probably never be done. There is simply no academic or economic profit involved. OTHER PROBLEMS Let's just mention the problems of bacterial contamination. Salmonella, E. coli, and staphylococcal infections can be traced to milk. In the old days tuberculosis was a major problem and some folks want to go back to those times by insisting on raw milk on the basis that it's "natural." This is insanity! A study from UCLA showed that over a third of all cases of salmonella infection in California, 1980-1983 were traced to raw milk. That'll be a way to revive good old brucellosis again and I would fear leukemia, too. (More about that later). In England, and Wales where raw milk is still consumed there have been outbreaks of milk-borne diseases. The Journal of the American Medical Association (251: 483, 1984) reported a multi-state series of infections caused by Yersinia enterocolitica in pasteurised whole milk. This is despite safety precautions. All parents dread juvenile diabetes for their children. A Canadian study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Mar. 1990, describes a "...significant positive correlation between consumption of unfermented milk protein and incidence of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in data from various countries. Conversely a possible negative relationship is observed between breast-feeding at age 3 months and diabetes risk.". Another study from Finland found that diabetic children had higher levels of serum antibodies to cowsÂ’ milk (Diabetes Research 7(3): 137-140 March 1988). Here is a quotation from this study: We infer that either the pattern of cows' milk consumption is altered in children who will have insulin dependent diabetes mellitus or, their immunological reactivity to proteins in cows' milk is enhanced, or the permeability of their intestines to cows' milk protein is higher than normal. The April 18, 1992 British Medical Journal has a fascinating study contrasting the difference in incidence of juvenile insulin dependent diabetes in Pakistani children who have migrated to England. The incidence is roughly 10 times greater in the English group compared to children remaining in Pakistan! What caused this highly significant increase? The authors said that "the diet was unchanged in Great Britain." Do you believe that? Do you think that the availability of milk, sugar and fat is the same in Pakistan as it is in England? That a grocery store in England has the same products as food sources in Pakistan? I don't believe that for a minute. Remember, we're not talking here about adult onset, type II diabetes which all workers agree is strongly linked to diet as well as to a genetic predisposition. This study is a major blow to the "it's all in your genes" crowd. Type I diabetes was always considered to be genetic or possibly viral, but now this? So resistant are we to consider diet as causation that the authors of the last article concluded that the cooler climate in England altered viruses and caused the very real increase in diabetes! The first two authors had the same reluctance top admit the obvious. The milk just may have had something to do with the disease. The latest in this remarkable list of reports, a New England Journal of Medicine article (July 30, 1992), also reported in the Los Angeles Times. This study comes from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and from Finnish researchers. In Finland there is "...the world's highest rate of dairy product consumption and the world's highest rate of insulin dependent diabetes. The disease strikes about 40 children out of every 1,000 there contrasted with six to eight per 1,000 in the United States.... Antibodies produced against the milk protein during the first year of life, the researchers speculate, also attack and destroy the pancreas in a so-called auto-immune reaction, producing diabetes in people whose genetic makeup leaves them vulnerable." "...142 Finnish children with newly diagnosed diabetes. They found that every one had at least eight times as many antibodies against the milk protein as did healthy children, clear evidence that the children had a raging auto immune disorder." The team has now expanded the study to 400 children and is starting a trial where 3,000 children will receive no dairy products during the first nine months of life. "The study may take 10 years, but we'll get a definitive answer one way or the other," according to one of the researchers. I would caution them to be certain that the breast feeding mothers use on cows' milk in their diets or the results will be confounded by the transmission of the cows' milk protein in the mother's breast milk.... Now what was the reaction from the diabetes association? This is very interesting! Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, the president of the association says: "It does not mean that children should stop drinking milk or that parents of diabetics should withdraw dairy products. These are rich sources of good protein." (Emphasis added) My God, it's the "good protein" that causes the problem! Do you suspect that the dairy industry may have helped the American Diabetes Association in the past? LEUKEMIA? LYMPHOMA? THIS MAY BE THE WORST--BRACE YOURSELF! I hate to tell you this, but the bovine leukemia virus is found in more than three of five dairy cows in the United States! This involves about 80% of dairy herds. Unfortunately, when the milk is pooled, a very large percentage of all milk produced is contaminated (90 to 95 per cent). Of course the virus is killed in pasteurisation-- if the pasteurisation was done correctly. What if the milk is raw? In a study of randomly collected raw milk samples the bovine leukemia virus was recovered from two-thirds. I sincerely hope that the raw milk dairy herds are carefully monitored when compared to the regular herds. (Science 1981; 213:1014). This is a world-wide problem. One lengthy study from Germany deplored the problem and admitted the impossibility of keeping the virus from infected cows' milk from the rest of the milk. Several European countries, including Germany and Switzerland, have attempted to "cull" the infected cows from their herds. Certainly the United States must be the leader in the fight against leukemic dairy cows, right? Wrong! We are the worst in the world with the former exception of Venezuela according to Virgil Hulse MD, a milk specialist who also has a B.S. in Dairy Manufacturing as well as a Master's degree in Public Health. As mentioned, the leukemia virus is rendered inactive by pasteurisation. Of course. However, there can be Chernobyl like accidents. One of these occurred in the Chicago area in April, 1985. At a modern, large, milk processing plant an accidental "cross connection" between raw and pasteurized milk occurred. A violent salmonella outbreak followed, killing 4 and making an estimated 150,000 ill. Now the question I would pose to the dairy industry people is this: "How can you assure the people who drank this milk that they were not exposed to the ingestion of raw, unkilled, bully active bovine leukemia viruses?" Further, it would be fascinating to know if a "cluster" of leukemia cases blossoms in that area in 1 to 3 decades. There are reports of "leukemia clusters" elsewhere, one of them mentioned in the June 10, 1990 San Francisco Chronicle involving Northern California. What happens to other species of mammals when they are exposed to the bovine leukemia virus? It's a fair question and the answer is not reassuring. Virtually all animals exposed to the virus develop leukemia. This includes sheep, goats, and even primates such as rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees. The route of transmission includes ingestion (both intravenous and intramuscular) and cells present in milk. There are obviously no instances of transfer attempts to human beings, but we know that the virus can infect human cells in vitro. There is evidence of human antibody formation to the bovine leukemia virus; this is disturbing. How did the bovine leukemia virus particles gain access to humans and become antigens? Was it as small, denatured particles? If the bovine leukemia viruses causes human leukemia, we could expect the dairy states with known leukemic herds to have a higher incidence of human leukemia. Is this so? Unfortunately, it seems to be the case! Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin have statistically higher incidence of leukemia than the national average. In Russia and in Sweden, areas with uncontrolled bovine leukemia virus have been linked with increases in human leukemia. I am also told that veterinarians have higher rates of leukemia than the general public. Dairy farmers have significantly elevated leukemia rates. Recent research shows lymphocytes from milk fed to neonatal mammals gains access to bodily tissues by passing directly through the intestinal wall. An optimistic note from the University of Illinois, Ubana from the Department of Animal Sciences shows the importance of one's perspective. Since they are concerned with the economics of milk and not primarily the health aspects, they noted that the production of milk was greater in the cows with the bovine leukemia virus. However when the leukemia produced a persistent and significant lymphocytosis (increased white blood cell count), the production fell off. They suggested "a need to re-evaluate the economic impact of bovine leukemia virus infection on the dairy industry". Does this mean that leukemia is good for profits only if we can keep it under control? You can get the details on this business concern from Proc. Nat. Acad. Sciences, U.S. Feb. 1989. I added emphasis and am insulted that a university department feels that this is an economic and not a human health issue. Do not expect help from the Department of Agriculture or the universities. The money stakes and the political pressures are too great. You're on you own. What does this all mean? We know that virus is capable of producing leukemia in other animals. Is it proven that it can contribute to human leukemia (or lymphoma, a related cancer)? Several articles tackle this one: 1.Epidemiologic Relationships of the Bovine Population and Human Leukemia in Iowa. Am Journal of Epidemiology 112 (1980):80 2.Milk of Dairy Cows Frequently Contains a Leukemogenic Virus. Science 213 (1981): 1014 3.Beware of the Cow. (Editorial) Lancet 2 (1974):30 4.Is Bovine Milk A Health Hazard?. Pediatrics; Suppl. Feeding the Normal Infant. 75:182-186; 1985 In Norway, 1422 individuals were followed for 11 and a half years. Those drinking 2 or more glasses of milk per day had 3.5 times the incidence of cancer of the lymphatic organs. British Med. Journal 61:456-9, March 1990. One of the more thoughtful articles on this subject is from Allan S. Cunningham of Cooperstown, New York. Writing in the Lancet, November 27, 1976 (page 1184), his article is entitled, "Lymphomas and Animal-Protein Consumption". Many people think of milk as Â“liquid meatÂ” and Dr. Cunningham agrees with this. He tracked the beef and dairy consumption in terms of grams per day for a one year period, 1955-1956., in 15 countries . New Zealand, United States and Canada were highest in that order. The lowest was Japan followed by Yugoslavia and France. The difference between the highest and lowest was quite pronounced: 43.8 grams/day for New Zealanders versus 1.5 for Japan. Nearly a 30-fold difference! (Parenthetically, the last 36 years have seen a startling increase in the amount of beef and milk used in Japan and their disease patterns are reflecting this, confirming the lack of 'genetic protection' seen in migration studies. Formerly the increase in frequency of lymphomas in Japanese people was only in those who moved to the USA)! An interesting bit of trivia is to note the memorial built at the Gyokusenji Temple in Shimoda, Japan. This marked the spot where the first cow was killed in Japan for human consumption! The chains around this memorial were a gift from the US Navy. Where do you suppose the Japanese got the idea to eat beef? The year? 1930. Cunningham found a highly significant positive correlation between deaths from lymphomas and beef and dairy ingestion in the 15 countries analysed. A few quotations from his article follow: The average intake of protein in many countries is far in excess of the recommended requirements. Excessive consumption of animal protein may be one co-factor in the causation of lymphomas by acting in the following manner. Ingestion of certain proteins results in the adsorption of antigenic fragments through the gastrointestinal mucous membrane. This results in chronic stimulation of lymphoid tissue to which these fragments gain access "Chronic immunological stimulation causes lymphomas in laboratory animals and is believed to cause lymphoid cancers in men." The gastrointestinal mucous membrane is only a partial barrier to the absorption of food antigens, and circulating antibodies to food protein is commonplace especially potent lymphoid stimulants. Ingestion of cows' milk can produce generalized lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, and profound adenoid hypertrophy. It has been conservatively estimated that more than 100 distinct antigens are released by the normal digestion of cows' milk which evoke production of all antibody classes [This may explain why pasteurized, killed viruses are still antigenic and can still cause disease. Here's more. A large prospective study from Norway was reported in the British Journal of Cancer 61 (3):456-9, March 1990. (Almost 16,000 individuals were followed for 11 and a half years). For most cancers there was no association between the tumour and milk ingestion. However, in lymphoma, there was a strong positive association. If one drank two glasses or more daily (or the equivalent in dairy products), the odds were 3.4 times greater than in persons drinking less than one glass of developing a lymphoma. There are two other cow-related diseases that you should be aware of. At this time they are not known to be spread by the use of dairy products and are not known to involve man. The first is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and the second is the bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV). The first of these diseases, we hope, is confined to England and causes cavities in the animal's brain. Sheep have long been known to suffer from a disease called scrapie. It seems to have been started by the feeding of contaminated sheep parts, especially brains, to the British cows. Now, use your good sense. Do cows seem like carnivores? Should they eat meat? This profit-motivated practice backfired and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease, swept Britain. The disease literally causes dementia in the unfortunate animal and is 100 per cent incurable. To date, over 100,000 cows have been incinerated in England in keeping with British law. Four hundred to 500 cows are reported as infected each month. The British public is concerned and has dropped its beef consumption by 25 per cent, while some 2,000 schools have stopped serving beef to children. Several farmers have developed a fatal disease syndrome that resembles both BSE and CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob- Disease). But the British Veterinary Association says that transmission of BSE to humans is "remote." The USDA agrees that the British epidemic was due to the feeding of cattle with bonemeal or animal protein produced at rendering plants from the carcasses of scrapie-infected sheep. The have prohibited the importation of live cattle and zoo ruminants from Great Britain and claim that the disease does not exist in the United States. However, there may be a problem. "Downer cows" are animals who arrive at auction yards or slaughter houses dead, trampled, lacerated, dehydrated, or too ill from viral or bacterial diseases to walk. Thus they are "down." If they cannot respond to electrical shocks by walking, they are dragged by chains to dumpsters and transported to rendering plants where, if they are not already dead, they are killed. Even a "humane" death is usually denied them. They are then turned into protein food for animals as well as other preparations. Minks that have been fed this protein have developed a fatal encephalopathy that has some resemblance to BSE. Entire colonies of minks have been lost in this manner, particularly in Wisconsin. It is feared that the infective agent is a prion or slow virus possible obtained from the ill "downer cows." The British Medical Journal in an editorial whimsically entitled "How Now Mad Cow?" (BMJ vol. 304, 11 Apr. 1992:929- 30) describes cases of BSE in species not previously known to be affected, such as cats. They admit that produce contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy entered the human food chain in England between 1986 and 1989. They say. "The result of this experiment is awaited." As the incubation period can be up to three decades, wait we must. The immunodeficency virus is seen in cattle in the United States and is more worrisome. Its structure is closely related to that of the human AIDS virus. At this time we do not know if exposure to the raw BIV proteins can cause the sera of humans to become positive for HIV. The extent of the virus among American herds is said to be "widespread". (The USDA refuses to inspect the meat and milk to see if antibodies to this retrovirus is present). It also has no plans to quarantine the infected animals. As in the case of humans with AIDS, there is no cure for BIV in cows. Each day we consume beef and diary products from cows infected with these viruses and no scientific assurance exists that the products are safe. Eating raw beef (as in steak Tartare) strikes me as being very risky, especially after the Seattle E. coli deaths of 1993. A report in the Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research, October 1992, Vol. 56 pp.353-359 and another from the Russian literature, tell of a horrifying development. They report the first detection in human serum of the antibody to a bovine immunodeficiency virus protein. In addition to this disturbing report, is another from Russia telling us of the presence of virus proteins related to the bovine leukemia virus in 5 of 89 women with breast disease (Acta Virologica Feb. 1990 34(1): 19-26). The implications of these developments are unknown at present. However, it is safe to assume that these animal viruses are unlikely to "stay" in the animal kingdom. OTHER CANCERS--DOES IT GET WORSE? Unfortunately it does. Ovarian cancer--a particularly nasty tumour--was associated with milk consumption by workers at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York. Drinking more than one glass of whole milk or equivalent daily gave a woman a 3.1 times risk over non-milk users. They felt that the reduced fat milk products helped reduce the risk. This association has been made repeatedly by numerous investigators. Another important study, this from the Harvard Medical School, analyzed data from 27 countries mainly from the 1970s. Again a significant positive correlation is revealed between ovarian cancer and per capita milk consumption. These investigators feel that the lactose component of milk is the responsible fraction, and the digestion of this is facilitated by the persistence of the ability to digest the lactose (lactose persistence) - a little different emphasis, but the same conclusion. This study was reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology 130 (5): 904-10 Nov. 1989. These articles come from two of the country's leading institutions, not the Rodale Press or Prevention Magazine. Even lung cancer has been associated with milk ingestion? The beverage habits of 569 lung cancer patients and 569 controls again at Roswell Park were studied in the International Journal of Cancer, April 15, 1989. Persons drinking whole milk 3 or more times daily had a 2-fold increase in lung cancer risk when compared to those never drinking whole milk. For many years we have been watching the lung cancer rates for Japanese men who smoke far more than American or European men but who develop fewer lung cancers. Workers in this research area feel that the total fat intake is the difference. There are not many reports studying an association between milk ingestion and prostate cancer. One such report though was of great interest. This is from the Roswell Park Memorial Institute and is found in Cancer 64 (3): 605-12, 1989. They analyzed the diets of 371 prostate cancer patients and comparable control subjects: Men who reported drinking three or more glasses of whole milk daily had a relative risk of 2.49 compared with men who reported never drinking whole milk the weight of the evidence appears to favour the hypothesis that animal fat is related to increased risk of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer diagnosed in US men and is the second leading cause of cancer mortality. WELL, WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? Is there any health reason at all for an adult human to drink cows' milk? It's hard for me to come up with even one good reason other than simple preference. But if you try hard, in my opinion, these would be the best two: milk is a source of calcium and it's a source of amino acids (proteins). Let's look at the calcium first. Why are we concerned at all about calcium? Obviously, we intend it to build strong bones and protect us against osteoporosis. And no doubt about it, milk is loaded with calcium. But is it a good calcium source for humans? I think not. These are the reasons. Excessive amounts of dairy products actually interfere with calcium absorption. Secondly, the excess of protein that the milk provides is a major cause of the osteoporosis problem. Dr. H egsted in England has been writing for years about the geographical distribution of osteoporosis. It seems that the countries with the highest intake of dairy products are invariably the countries with the most osteoporosis. He feels that milk is a cause of osteoporosis. Reasons to be given below. Numerous studies have shown that the level of calcium ingestion and especially calcium supplementation has no effect whatever on the development of osteoporosis. The most important such article appeared recently in the British Journal of Medicine where the long arm of our dairy industry can't reach. Another study in the United States actually showed a worsening in calcium balance in post-menopausal women given three 8-ounce glasses of cows' milk per day. (Am. Journal of Clin. Nutrition, 1985). The effects of hormone, gender, weight bearing on the axial bones, and in particular protein intake, are critically important. Another observation that may be helpful to our analysis is to note the absence of any recorded dietary deficiencies of calcium among people living on a natural diet without milk. For the key to the osteoporosis riddle, donÂ’t look at calcium, look at protein. Consider these two contrasting groups. Eskimos have an exceptionally high protein intake estimated at 25 percent of total calories. They also have a high calcium intake at 2,500 mg/day. Their osteoporosis is among the worst in the world. The other instructive group are the Bantus of South Africa. They have a 12 percent protein diet, mostly p lant protein, and only 200 to 350 mg/day of calcium, about half our women's intake. The women have virtually no osteoporosis despite bearing six or more children and nursing them for prolonged periods! When African women immigrate to the United States, do they develop osteoporosis? The answer is yes, but not quite are much as Caucasian or Asian women. Thus, there is a genetic difference that is modified by diet. To answer the obvious question, "Well, where do you get your calcium?" The answer is: "From exactly the same place the cow gets the calcium, from green things that grow in the ground," mainly from leafy vegetables. After all, elephants and rhinos develop their huge bones (after being weaned) by eating green leafy plants, so do horses. Carnivorous animals also do quite nicely without leafy plants. It seems that all of earth's mammals do well if they live in harmony with their genetic programming and natural food. Only humans living an affluent life style have rampant osteoporosis. If animal references do not convince you, think of the several billion humans on this earth who have never seen cows' milk. Wouldn't you think osteoporosis would be prevalent in this huge group? The dairy people would suggest this but the truth is exactly the opposite. They have far less than that seen in the countries where dairy products are commonly consumed. It is the subject of another paper, but the truly significant determinants of osteoporosis are grossly excessive protein intakes and lack of weight bearing on long bones, both taking place over decades. Hormones play a secondary, but not trivial role in women. Milk is a deterrent to good bone health. THE PROTEIN MYTH Remember when you were a kid and the adults all told you to "make sure you get plenty of good protein". Protein was the nutritional "good guyÂ”" when I was young. And of course milk is fitted right in. As regards protein, milk is indeed a rich source of protein- -"liquid meat," remember? However that isn't necessarily what we need. In actual fact it is a source of difficulty. Nearly all Americans eat too much protein. For this information we rely on the most authoritative source that I am aware of. This is the latest edition (1oth, 1989: 4th printing, Jan. 1992) of the Recommended Dietary Allowances produced by the National Research Council. Of interest, the current editor of this important work is Dr. Richard Havel of the University of California in San Francisco. First to be noted is that the recommended protein has been steadily revised downward in successive editions. The current recommendation is 0.75 g/kilo/day for adults 19 through 51 years. This, of course, is only 45 grams per day for the mythical 60 kilogram adult. You should also know that the WHO estimated the need for protein in adults to by .6g/kilo per day. (All RDA's are calculated with large safety allowances in case you're the type that wants to add some more to "be sure.") You can "get by" on 28 to 30 grams a day if necessary! Now 45 grams a day is a tiny amount of protein. That's an ounce and a half! Consider too, that the protein does not have to be animal protein. Vegetable protein is identical for all practical purposes and has no cholesterol and vastly less saturated fat. (Do not be misled by the antiquated belief that plant proteins must be carefully balanced to avoid deficiencies. This is not a realistic concern.) Therefore virtually all Americans, Canadians, British and European people are in a protein overloaded state. This has serious consequences when maintained over decades. The problems are the already mentioned osteoporosis, atherosclerosis and kidney damage. There is good evidence that certain malignancies, chiefly colon and rectal, are related to excessive meat intake. Barry Brenner, an eminent renal physiologist was the first to fully point out the dangers of excess protein for the kidney tubule. The dangers of the fat and cholesterol are known to all. Finally, you should know that the protein content of human milk is amount the lowest (0.9%) in mammals. IS THAT ALL OF THE TROUBLE? Sorry, there's more. Remember lactose? This is the principal carbohydrate of milk. It seems that nature provides new- borns with the enzymatic equipment to metabolize lactose, but this ability often extinguishes by age 4 or 5 years. What is the problem with lactose or milk sugar? It seems that it is a disaccharide which is too large to be absorbed into the blood stream without first being broken down into monosaccharides, namely galactose and glucose. This requires the presence of an enzyme, lactase plus additional enzymes to break down the galactose into glucose. Let's think about his for a moment. Nature gives us the ability to metabolize lactose for a few years and then shuts off the mechanism. Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something? Clearly all infants must drink milk. The fact that so many adults cannot seems to be related to the tendency for nature to abandon mechanisms that are not needed. At least half of the adult humans on this earth are lactose intolerant. It was not until the relatively recent introduction of dairy herding and the ability to "borrow" milk from another group of mammals that the survival advantage of preserving lactase (the enzyme that allows us to digest lactose) became evident. But why would it be advantageous to drink cows' milk? After all, most of the human beings in the history of the world did. And further, why was it just the white or light skinned humans who retained this knack while the pigmented people tended to lose it? Some students of evolution feel that white skin is a fairly recent innovation, perhaps not more than 20,000 or 30,000 years old. It clearly has to do with the Northward migration of early man to cold and relatively sunless areas when skins and clothing became available. Fair skin allows the production of Vitamin D from sunlight more readily than does dark skin. However, when only the face was exposed to sunlight that area of fair skin was insufficient to provide the vitamin D from sunlight. If dietary and sunlight sources were poorly available, the ability to use the abundant calcium in cows' milk would give a survival advantage to humans who could digest that milk. This seems to be the only logical explanation for fair skinned humans having a high degree of lactose tolerance when compared to dark skinned people. How does this break down? Certain racial groups, namely blacks are up to 90% lactose intolerant as adults. Caucasians are 20 to 40% lactose intolerant. Orientals are midway between the above two groups. Diarrhea, gas and abdominal cramps are the results of substantial milk intake in such persons. Most American Indians cannot tolerate milk. The milk industry admits that lactose intolerance plays intestinal havoc with as many as 50 million Americans. A lactose-intolerance industry has sprung up and had sales of $117 million in 1992 (Time May 17, 1993.) What if you are lactose-intolerant and lust after dairy products? Is all lost? Not at all. It seems that lactose is largely digested by bacteria and you will be able to enjoy your cheese despite lactose intolerance. Yogurt is similar in this respect. Finally, and I could never have dreamed this up, geneticists want to splice genes to alter the composition of milk (Am J Clin Nutr 1993 Suppl 302s). One could quibble and say that milk is totally devoid of fiber content and that its habitual use will predispose to constipation and bowel disorders. The association with anemia and occult intestinal bleeding in infants is known to all physicians. This is chiefly from its lack of iron and its irritating qualities for the intestinal mucosa. The pediatric literature abounds with articles describing irritated intestinal lining, bleeding, increased permeability as well as colic, diarrhea and vomiting in cows'milk-sensitive babies. The anemia gets a double push by loss of blood and iron as well as deficiency of iron in the cows' milk. Milk is also the leading cause of childhood allergy. LOW FAT One additional topic: the matter of "low fat" milk. A common and sincere question is: "Well, low fat milk is OK, isn't it?" The answer to this question is that low fat milk isn't low fat. The term "low fat" is a marketing term used to gull the public. Low fat milk contains from 24 to 33% fat as calories! The 2% figure is also misleading. This refers to weight. They don't tell you that, by weight, the milk is 87% water! "Well, then, kill-joy surely you must approve of non-fat milk!" I hear this quite a bit. (Another constant concern is: "What do you put on your cereal?") True, there is little or no fat, but now you have a relative overburden of protein and lactose. It there is something that we do not need more of it is another simple sugar-lactose, composed of galactose and glucose. Millions of Americans are lactose intolerant to boot, as noted. As for protein, as stated earlier, we live in a society that routinely ingests far more protein than we need. It is a burden for our bodies, especially the kidneys, and a prominent cause of osteoporosis. Concerning the dry cereal issue, I would suggest soy milk, rice milk or almond milk as a healthy substitute. If you're still concerned about calcium, "Westsoy" is formulated to have the same calcium concentration as milk. SUMMARY To my thinking, there is only one valid reason to drink milk or use milk products. That is just because we simply want to. Because we like it and because it has become a part of our culture. Because we have become accustomed to its taste and texture. Because we like the way it slides down our throat. Because our parents did the very best they could for us and provided milk in our earliest training and conditioning. They taught us to like it. And then probably the very best reason is ice cream! I've heard it described "to die for". I had one patient who did exactly that. He had no obvious vices. He didn't smoke or drink, he didnÂ’t eat meat, his diet and lifestyle was nearly a perfectly health promoting one; but he had a passion. You guessed it, he loved rich ice cream. A pint of the richest would be a lean day's ration for him. On many occasions he would eat an entire quart - and yes there were some cookies and other pastries. Good ice cream deserves this after all. He seemed to be in good health despite some expected "middle age spread" when he had a devastating stroke which left him paralyzed, miserable and helpless, and he had additional strokes and d ied several years later never having left a hospital or rehabilitation unit. Was he old? I don't think so. He was in his 50s. So don't drink milk for health. I am convinced on the weight of the scientific evidence that it does not "do a body good." Inclusion of milk will only reduce your diet's nutritional value and safety. Most of the people on this planet live very healthfully without cows' milk. You can too. It will be difficult to change; we've been conditioned since childhood to think of milk as "nature's most perfect food." I'll guarantee you that it will be safe, improve your health and it won't cost anything. What can you lose?es esta pagina link http://notmilk.com/kradjian.htmlThe most important information dissemination my. Not that, but I can make your text too long jajaja. If I write bad is that I am leading a translator jaja more

Resolved Question: how do we promote our website free of charge or just little money?

Michael Xu CEO BA(UK), MA(PRC), MBA(USA) World Bank CPDF CT Visiting Professor Website: www.tranmart.com Translation Expertise for Software Localisation process Website localization teams E-commerce SEO & SEM Flash & Interactive Add: Qingyang district, chengdu city. Sichaun province PRC ICQ#：355649724 QQ: 452914246 Cell (mobile): 0086 13980998073 (7/24) Tel：0086 28 81251506 (7/24) MSN：michaelsxu9999@hotmail.com (9:am to 12:pm Beijing Time) Email：tranmart@126.com Website: www.tranmart.com ______________________________________________________________ Tranmart, as a subsidiary company of Shihua Prosperity Commercial Consulting Limited, is a leading provider of language solutions. Based in Panda’s home town Chengdu, China, we provide translation services for corporate and individual clients internationally. Our translation and interpretation services enable organizations from a wide variety of industry sectors to fully concentrate on developing their own business, while we work on making the communication gap seamless. Our work is driven by your specific translation needs and preferences. We strongly believe that our role in your business is to provide a reliable support network behind the lines, because you battle on the front lines for success. Our clients include multinationals within the environmental, automotive, bio-technology, engineering, IT, oil and pharmaceutical industries. If you are looking for high quality work and exceptional customer service - you have found it! We are here to serve and work with you. And we consider ourselves as your OEM Translation Partner, not just an external translation resource. Shihua Prosperity Commercial Consulting Limited Expertise for software localisation process China and International development teams Local sales Presentation; Scalability and upgradability preserved Shihua Prosperity Commercial Consulting Limited has experience of localisation of software products. Shihua Prosperity Commercial Consulting limited brings the software engineers and translators together to optimize your product for Chinese market. Our International-based software localisation team provides the interface between your developers and our technical teams. The process begins with in-depth analysis of the product and target markets, leading to the identification of elements requiring localisation. Combining our teams with our translators, we will be able to produce successful versions of your systems and applications for the Chinese markets. Shihua Prosperity Commercial Consulting limited builds teams combining the skills of China and international developers, who develop double-byte character capabilities into your existing applications. Every care is taken to ensure that scalability is preserved, and that future upgrades can be localised in the most cost effective way. Once localisation is complete the product undergoes comprehensive QA processes to ensure that it meets the same performance standards as the source product. Website Localisation Teams With the largest internet population in the world - China is outstripping all expectations in its dominance of e-commerce. Shihua Prosperity Commercial Consulting limited offers a variety of services to help our clients develop their optimum online presence for Chinese market. Any company intending to operate in the region requires Chinese language website, while for certain industries a purely web-based presence may be the most cost-effective method of market entry. With our updated information of the latest developments in the field of e-commerce, we are well placed to assist B2B and B2C ventures in creating effective web packages in Chinese market. The process of website localisation to produce a Chinese version draws on the varied capabilities of our translators, copywriters, web designers and developers to build a powerful online presence. These teams are co-ordinated by an account manager who acts as your main point of contact for the project life-cycle, ensuring that you are kept fully updated on progress in all areas. Localisation projects are delivered by our specialist locally based e-commerce and technical teams. While our consultants have demonstrable experience of servicing Western clients, more significant is their experience in delivering solutions to local organisations. E-commerce in China remains the almost exclusive reserve of local companies and the most sophisticated techniques have therefore been developed by their primarily local suppliers. Experience of our teams in China enables us to build powerful e-commerce capabilities for our clients and remain within the relatively stringent regulations currently in place for foreign enterprises. Our in-depth understanding and informed predictions of developments in China enable us to optimize the strategies we develop to take advantage immediately of daily changes to the internet climate in China. more

Resolved Question: I have started laptop business and facing few problems. Please help me out..?

I and my two friends have started laptop business. We deal in new and refurbished laptops of all leading brands. We have bought a rented office. Problem is this every customer who visit us want to see the laptop first before making a purchase. Our supplier is cklose to our office but on request he also arranges the laptop within 40 minutes. We want to stock few laptops but we dont have adequate finance to arrange laptops on display. Our unique features is that we are providing free 1 year onsite warranty and our price is kept low to boost sales also we provide easy finance facilities. Tell us some tips to correct our problem everyone wants to see product first and few want to see the product at there doorstep...Is there any other way to boost sales...Our online marketing skills are excellent due to strong presence on Yahoo Shops and other leading online shops...Please suggest us something good. more

Resolved Question: Are there any home businesses similar to Ameriplan?

I have tried NHD and Ameriplan. I like the concept but both companies have major drawbacks. Are there any companies similar to these that give you the FREE leads and allow you to make unlimited Residual income? I am not looking for 1 time sales, I want residual income from a similar type of company. Thanks! more

Resolved Question: where can i find free sales leads for my business.?

Hello I am looking for a site where i can find free sales leads. I sell Promotional products and I find such sites but they all charge a fee. more

Resolved Question: Have you play : Second Life ? Economy ?

The Coming Second Life Business Cycle By Matthew Beller Posted on 8/2/2007 | Subscribe or Tell Others | Matthew Beller's Second Life avatar, designed to resemble Ludwig von Mises Ludwig von Mises once wrote that an economist "must be conversant with mathematics, physics, biology, history, and jurisprudence, lest he confuse the tasks and the methods of the theory of human action with the tasks and the methods of any of these other branches of knowledge." In modern times, with the increasing popularity of computer-based interactive virtual worlds, it may soon be necessary for economists to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of virtual reality, lest they confuse the tasks and the methods of real-world economics with those that apply to virtual reality. Some economists might dismiss virtual worlds as an application for economics, given that they do not contain any resources that are traditionally considered scarce (lumber, steel, oil, etc.), but a closer inspection reveals that some virtual worlds contain real market economies complete with scarce resources, property rights, entrepreneurship, and exchange. Furthermore, real people underlie the inhabitants of virtual worlds, so we can therefore analyze their economies using Austrian economics and the science of human action. One virtual world that is currently popular is called Second Life. Second Life was created by the San Francisco-based company Linden Research, Inc. and opened in 2003. It is an Internet-based three-dimensional virtual world where its 8 million unique residents can interact with one another.[1] Residents can create virtual clothing, hairdos, houses, airplanes, concert halls, video games, and endless other items by using an infinite supply of "primitives," which are atomistic objects that can be shaped, colored, combined, and programmed to behave in a particular way. Residents can then replicate their creations and sell the copies to one another at whatever price they set. Second Life has attracted attention from Wired Magazine, The Economist, and other media with stories of a burgeoning economy and entrepreneurs earning their sole incomes by selling virtual goods and services. Accordingly, real-world economists and Second Life's residents alike could benefit from a closer look into the actual workings of its economy, and the effects of economic intervention. Second Life's economy could reasonably be compared to that of a small foreign country dependent on tourism. Consumers are inhabitants of the real world who take what are essentially pleasure trips to Second Life, perhaps to meet new people at a dance club, shop for virtual clothing, attend a conference, or gamble at a casino. Like real tourists, consumers exchange their real US dollars for Second Life's currency, the Linden Dollar (L$), typically on a currency exchange run by Linden, called the LindeX. They then use their L$ to purchase goods and services created by other Second Life residents, and if they have extra L$ when they're done, they can sell their L$ for US$ on the LindeX. Linden, essentially representing the state in Second Life's economy, does not generally interfere with economic activity. The Economist reports on Linden founder Philip Rosedale's attitude toward intervention, "Mr. Rosedale prefers to rule Second Life with Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' only. To him that means treating every resident the same, whether it happens to be Toyota or 'an 80-year-old woman from India.' Both will pay the same price for their [virtual land]; what they do with it is up to them." Proponents of private property and non-intervention would certainly laud such a hands-off policy. If Linden's goal is to create a setting for a stable, growing economy that will provide the most satisfaction to the most residents, it must avoid the pitfalls of interventionism that plague real-world economies. As Ludwig von Mises and others have shown, one interventionist policy creates distortions that must be fixed by other interventionist policies, which lead to problems that require further intervention, and so on, until the state controls every aspect of the economy. Unfortunately, despite Mr. Rosedale's free-market rhetoric, a look at Linden's actual practices reveals that it has already started down the path of intervening in the economy. One critical example of Linden's intervention is that it has granted itself the ability to manipulate the single-most important commodity in any economy: money. In the Terms of Service, the L$ is defined as "a limited license right available for purchase or free distribution at Linden Lab's discretion, and is not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab." By defining the L$ in such a way, Linden has granted itself the power of a central bank in managing Second Life's equivalent of a fiat currency. Linden can create as many new L$ as it wants, whenever it wants, and spend them or give them away at its own discretion. Also, because Linden maintains a peg of about L$270=US$1 on the LindeX, it gives the appearance that the L$ is as good as real-world money. Fiat currencies are subject to much criticism, particularly by Austrians. However, they are not criticized because they cause undesirable economic distortions in and of themselves. Rather, they are criticized because, unlike commodity monies such as gold, they can be created from nothing, so are highly susceptible to artificial expansion and manipulation. This expansion, as the Austrian theory of the business cycle shows us, is the source of economic distortions that lead to unsustainable booms, followed by inevitable busts. To establish whether Linden has in fact been manipulating the L$ supply and determine if Second Life is susceptible to bust, we can examine historical economic statistics published by Linden for signs of artificial growth in the L$ supply. The graph below shows Second Life's L$ supply since September of 2005, as well as the two consolidated sources of month-to-month changes in the money supply. Your eye might be drawn to the sudden acceleration in L$ growth at the end of 2006 coincident with a significant increase in LindeX sales (where Linden is creating new L$ and selling them for US$), but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Ignoring the problems with the US$, LindeX sales represent inflows of real wealth into Second Life. When residents purchase L$ on the LindeX using US$ that they have earned in the real world, they are foregoing consumption in the real world in order to spend or invest their newly purchased L$ in Second Life. It is actually the small, perpetual budget deficit that reveals something quite sinister. Unlike L$ sales on the LindeX, they do not reflect a flow of real wealth into Second Life. Instead, they are created by Linden to represent wealth, but no economic production was involved in creating them. These deficits occur when the weekly L$ stipends Linden pays to premium residents exceed its revenues from land rentals and other administrative services it provides to residents. In order to fund the deficits, Linden creates new L$ and injects them into Second Life. In the United States, the Federal Reserve's primary mechanism for increasing the US$ supply involves purchasing debt securities issued by the US Treasury. Linden's process slightly differs in that it creates exactly as many L$ as are needed to make up for its budgetary shortfalls without ever issuing any debt. Every time Linden runs a deficit, the L$ supply instantly increases by an equivalent amount. Linden's monthly budget deficit might appear insignificant in the graph, but in fact Linden has been increasing the money supply by an average of 6% per month this way. Annualized, it is more than doubling it each year. During the past year and a half, Linden created L$876 million through its deficits, which makes up over 33% of today's L$ supply. These figures certainly suggest that Linden has been artificially expanding the L$ supply, but there is one possible argument that would indicate otherwise. Premium members who receive weekly L$ stipends pay Linden US$9.95 per month for that privilege. One could argue that this US$9.95 represents an inflow of real wealth into Second Life to make up for the L$ created through deficits, but this argument is tenuous. These US$ revenues are presumably used by Linden to pay its employees, maintain its servers, and pay other operating and financing costs, with the remaining profit or loss passed on to its shareholders. Unfortunately, as the graph below shows, there have been months when Linden's US$ revenues would not have been enough to cover the new L$ creations. In September of 2005, Linden collected as much as US$98,000[2] from premium members, which is equivalent to about L$26 million at the L$'s current exchange rate. But during that month, it created L$36 million in order to fund its fiscal deficit. That means that even if Linden had not allocated a single US$ to its employees or incurred any real-world costs whatsoever, it still would not have collected enough US$ to match its newly created L$. $25 "Second Life's residents could benefit from a closer look into the actual workings of its economy, and the effects of economic intervention." Given the strong evidence that Linden has unnaturally inflated the L$ supply, Austrian economics tells us that there are a couple of potential outcomes that are likely to occur. In the first, Linden will stop running significant deficits at some point. With less L$ available to spend, residents will demand fewer goods and services, leading to lower prices and reduced profits. Previously profitable enterprises will go out of business and the wealth of many residents will decrease, slowing overall economic activity. The other possibility is that Linden will continue running deficits to the point that a sufficient number of residents and speculators will recognize the L$'s frailty. In what Ludwig von Mises referred to as a "crack-up boom," everyone will scramble to redeem his L$ for "real goods," which, in the case of Second Life, is probably the US$. As more and more people sell their L$ on the LindeX, Linden might choose to maintain its L$270=US$1 peg for some amount of time, but operating under the assumption that it has not maintained 100% US$ reserves, it will eventually run out of US$ or decide to stop selling them, and the L$ will depreciate rapidly. In either outcome, residents will discover that they possess less wealth than they perceived they had during the time leading up to the crash. To summarize, it appears very likely that Second Life will experience at least some form of economic recession. Depending on its severity, it might result in Linden's losing many of its customers. If Linden wants to prevent this from happening and foster a stable, growing economy within Second Life, it should apply the lessons of Austrian economics to its policies: abolish restrictions on content, strengthen the ability of residents to enforce their property rights, and, most important, tie the L$ to a real-world commodity money backed by 100% reserves. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Beller is a former employee of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and currently works for the Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles. Send him mail. Comment on the blog. The Securities and Exchange Commission disclaims responsibility for any private publication or statement of any SEC employee or Commissioner. This article expresses the author's views and does not necessarily reflect those of the Commission, the Commissioners, or other members of the staff. Notes [1] SecondLife.com/ more

Resolved Question: Politicians and their Illusion of Power? Take a look a give your opinion:?

Critics accuse libertarians of reveling in government failures. Yes and No. No one is pleased to see the destruction caused by government policies, whether small scale, as when a tighter regulation causes business failures, or large scale, as when wars destroy life for millions. The kernel of truth to the claim is this: the failure of government illustrates something extremely important about the structure of reality that most people are likely to forget. It comes down to this: statesmen and public officials, no matter how powerful they may be, cannot finally control social outcomes. If I might offer a summary of a point emphasized in all of Mises's works: the structure of society and world affairs generally is shaped by human actions, stemming from imaginative human minds working out individual subjective valuations, and their interactions with the material world, which is governed by laws that are beyond human control. What that means is that you and I cannot on our own, even if we have maximum political power, control all of human society, and especially not its economic side. Let's first consider an example from current popular wisdom about the manufacturing base. Many products that were once made in the US – thinking here of televisions, pianos, firecrackers, plastics, and bicycles--are now made in China. This has caused a great deal of alarm--all unwarranted, so far as sound economics is concerned. But let's say we have the ambition to change this social outcome. Anyone is free to build a bicycle and attempt to market it to willing buyers. Let's say you rent some property, hire the workers, acquire all the necessary capital, and then put your bike on sale. In order to cover your costs and make a profit, you find that you must price your bikes above the going market price. Maybe you can persuade people that you have a special product that is better than the others. Or maybe yours will sit on the floor. Or maybe you will have to lower your price and you will find that your revenue does not cover your costs, and you have to go out of business. No matter what you decide, this much is clear: you are not dictating the outcome. You wanted to build bikes, but it is the consuming public that decides whether it is in our interest to do so. There is nothing you have to say about it. You cannot make people fork over the money. I would venture to suggest that you will ultimately come to the conclusion that you should be doing other things besides attempting to keep up with other businesses that have lower labor and capital costs and hence can make a profit through selling goods at much lower prices. But let's say you decide that you don't want to bow to the realities of the market. Instead you lobby Congress to tax everyone who buys a bike from overseas. The tax is high enough that you can continue to charge exorbitant prices for your bikes. You make a profit. But at what expense? The consumers who buy your bikes have less income left over for other pursuits, whether consumption, saving, or investment. The workers you are employing are being kept from other pursuits as well, and the capital you are consuming is not available for other projects. Ultimately, you have skewed the entire economic system in a way that benefits you at everyone else's expense. Others have found a way to do what you are doing much more efficiently, but because you lobbied and got your way, society is prevented from benefiting from others' innovations. And how long must this distorted system last? That you managed to tax everyone to benefit you does nothing to change the reality that others can do what you are doing more cheaply and better. Do workers really want to be employed in an industry that is something of an artifice? Do consumers really want to pay high prices just so that you can continue to indulge in your bike-making passion? Clearly not. At some point, people will catch on to the racket, and find other ways to go about acquiring bikes. Maybe they will exploit loopholes in the law that allow them to import bike parts. An industry of do-it-yourself bike building becomes a threat to your profits. Or perhaps black markets will take over. Or maybe people will turn away from bikes altogether and starting trying out new forms of informal transportation. Skateboards are fitted with handlebars. Gas-powered scooters develop a peddle-only option. The very definition of a bike comes into question. Increasingly, enforcement will have to become ever more onerous. At some point in this game, we face a choice. We can continue to impose an ever more absurd and preposterous system of regulations and protections just so that you can benefit, or we can bow to reality and let in foreign bikes for consumer purchase. Let's say your tariff lasts a year or even ten years. What will it accomplish? In that time, vast resources are wasted. Consumers of all sorts are exploited. Capital is consumed in economically wasteful ways. People are pushed around and the police powers of the state grow. It does society no good at all. My point is that whatever the fate of the so-called manufacturing base, there is nothing in the long run that can be done to turn it in one direction or another. The fate of manufacturing is in the hands of consumers at large, and subject to the laws of economics which no man can repeal. It is the outcome of human choice. Now, the Bush administration has thought otherwise and imposed a huge range of protections to benefit its supporters and people who the administration hoped would become its supporters. The result has been to skew the world economy, hobble markets, delay inevitable transitions, and impose massive social costs. What this example shows is that governments are not omnipotent. Many try to be, and no government is liberal by nature. But there are limits. Governments bump up against human valuations time and again. Even in the highly rarified event of a despotic government that rules a population unanimously in support of despotism, government still bumps up against the structure of the world, which resists control. Let us consider another example. Let us say that government desires a strong dollar. But it still wants to print dollars and ship them around the world. In this case, there is nothing that government can do to insure the dollar’s strength against depreciation. Nothing. This is due to the laws of economics. All else equal, the value of a currency in terms of goods falls as its quantity increases. Governments that desire otherwise can only shake their fist in anger. The same is true domestically. The government wants economic recovery before a recession has fully run its course. It thereby drops interest rates, spends vast amounts of money to gin up demand, and otherwise encourages as much consumption as possible. These tactics can result in some short-term gains but it doesn't work in the long run. These tactics deplete savings and capital and weaken the foundation for solid future growth. The issue of the price of prescription drugs will be a big one in this coming campaign. The problem is high prices. Popular wisdom has it that this is because of the greed of the medical industry. The truth is that these high prices are partly a result of subsidized demand due to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the restricted supply due to patent laws. In other words, the political class is responsible for the high prices. It's true that the pharmaceutical industry is not complaining. In fact, high prices are precisely what its friends in government want to bring about. They may regret that the poor have to pay the higher prices, but not enough to do anything substantive about it. Prices would plummet today if patents were repealed, free trade (including re-importation) allowed, and subsidized demand ended by the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid. But no one wants to consider that solution, so Congress creates ever more intrusive programs designed to control prices, keeping the prices high enough to satisfy the industry but low enough to reduce the political clamor. The problem is that the government can't have it both ways. It cannot reward its friends with high prices and keep consumers happy at the same time. The current system with its large subsidies is only creating massive new liabilities in programs that cannot be funded in perpetuity without massive tax increases that no one is willing to advocate. Absent tax increases, the only answer is inflation, which taxes us in other ways. One way to think about government is as a rat wandering through a maze with no escape. There is no magic solution to getting around basic economic laws. All lunches must be paid for by someone, prices cannot be both high and low at the same time, and all attempts to coerce generate counter-reactions. In short, there is no alternative universe in which the fantasies of politicians come true. But try telling that to the political class. The last thing they want to hear is that their power is limited, that their will is not a way. They are prone to believe that membership in the political class comes with the privilege of shaping the world to their liking. If you read the social science literature, you find the same error at work on a nearly universal basis. Very rarely does anyone come along and say: great theory but it has nothing to do with reality. You are just playing intellectual games. Socialism was really nothing other than an intellectual game. People from the ancient world to the present conjured up some vision of how they would like the world to work and then advocated a series of measures of how to achieve it. Mises and his generation explained that their vision was fundamentally at odds with reality. In the real world, capital must have price rooted in exchange of private property in order for it to be employed in its highest-valued capacity. It solves nothing to say that everyone should own capital collectively. This was the equivalent of pointing out that the Emperor was wearing no clothes. In some ways, what we do as commentators on economic affairs is to follow this model again and again. The other day, a candidate for president suggested that the answer to our economic woes was more regulation. He had it all figured out in his mind. Immediately, free-market economists from all over the world joined forces to point out that his goal of higher economic productivity could not be achieved this way. It was an unwelcome message but one necessary to deliver regardless. The experience of Iraq has provided myriad examples of the same. The US wants to pump oil. It wants to start factories, stores, and commerce generally. But it refuses to put private owners in charge. As a result, all its military muscle has amounted to very little at great expense. It is a classic example of how governments fail when they try to fight against forces they cannot control. Factories in Iraq that have gone into operation have done so without support of the occupying government. And think of the war generally. At the outset, the visionaries in the Bush administration imagined that Iraq was really a very simple problem to solve. It only needed to be decapitated and the magic dust of the US presence would otherwise create an orderly and prosperous society that would be a model for the region. The reality hit. Crime was unleashed. Feuding political factions clamored for control. Production stopped. Society flew into chaos. This was not because of the absence of the political leadership. It was because of the presence of foreign martial law in a country that was seething in resentment against the US. Time and again, we have seen evidence that the Iraq war only accomplished the opposite of its aims. Its purpose was to find weapons, punish terrorism, and bring order to the region. Instead it has fueled terrorism and brought new levels of disorder to the region. Not having done that, the war is then re-defined in terms that reflect whatever government has done: namely to toss out and capture Saddam, In this sense, the war was like any other government program: bringing about the opposite of its stated intentions and doing so at greater expense. Thus do we see the intersection between foreign and domestic policy. Government is famously ham-handed at home and similarly incompetent abroad. No matter how much government claims that it is master of the universe, it constantly confronts forces beyond its control. In all the talk of the calamity of this war, never forget the broader picture: what an incredible opportunity was squandered after the end of the Cold War. The US had emerged as the universally acknowledged ideological victor in that forty-year struggle. That the Cold War was not actually an ideological struggle so much as a classic standoff between two empires is irrelevant for understanding the implications of this fact: totalitarian communism collapsed while the free economic system of the market remained standing in total triumph. The world was ready for a new period of genuine liberalism, and looking to the US. On the verge of an amazing period of technological advance, we were perfectly situated to lead the way. There had never been a time in US history when George Washington's foreign policy made more sense. A beacon of liberty. Trade with all, belligerence toward none. Commercial engagement with everyone, political engagement with as few as possible. The hand of friendship. Good will. This was the prescription for peace and freedom. It was within our grasp. Our children might have grown up in a world without major political violence. A world of peace and plenty. It could have been. But it was not to be, mainly because George W.'s father decided that he wanted to go down in the history books for doing something big and important. What else but war? The US was now the world's only superpower and itching for some fight somewhere. It's a bit like a playground filled with wimps and one boy with a black belt in karate who never absorbed the lesson in how and where to use his fighting skills. And then there was this oil-drilling dispute between Iraq and Kuwait, and Bush decided to intervene. Twelve years later, the US is still there, causing unrelenting havoc for those poor people. Here at home we are given constant examples of the huge gulf that separates government's perceptions of itself versus the reality. The Bush administration wanted to give the steel industry a boost. The administration established tariffs, which amounts to a tax on all consumers of steel. American manufacturers faced a choice of paying the tax to buy imported steel or paying the higher prices for domestic steel. Those who could do neither had to cut back production and hiring in other areas. Other consumers had to pay higher prices, which diverted income from other pursuits. As for the steel industry itself, the tariffs did nothing to help it achieve greater efficiency, which is the only way to deal with more efficient competitors. They only ended up subsidizing inefficiency. Even then, it wasn't enough. During the period of tariffs, the industry dramatically consolidated in order to become more efficient in other ways. Once faced with the prospect of trade wars, the ultimate cost of protectionism, the Bush administration pulled back and repealed the new tariffs, thereby landing the industry in exactly the same predicament it was in before the tariffs were past. As for commercial society as a whole, it paid dramatically higher steel costs, and faced sporadic shortages, for absolutely no reason. Faced with failure on every front, the Bush administration did the right thing and repealed the tariffs. Not that it was honest about the failure. Instead it claimed its policy worked so well that it could now repeal it. This is like a physician prescribing poison and then changing his mind. He can't but try to put the best spin on it, I suppose. But what a beautiful example of the powerlessness of government this is! The Bush administration wanted to save American industry and only ended up vastly raising the costs of doing all forms of business. More cutbacks are inevitable as steel production shifts to other countries and the US finds its comparative advantage elsewhere. Much legislative energy is poured into helping some groups gain favorable treatment in the workplace. I'm thinking here of the usual litany of victim groups as identified according to race, ability, sex, national origin, religion, and the like. Have these laws actually helped the group in question? The results are mixed at best. If you send people out into the workforce with a high price attached to their heads – and the prospect of a lawsuit is a very high price indeed – you only make employers less likely to hire them. I don’t doubt that some people have been helped by these laws, but they are not the people most in need of help. Today, the disabled, blacks, women, and religious minorities go in search of jobs with a major problem: employers fear them on the margin, and, on the margin, are less likely to hire them relative to others, provided they can get away with it. It is the least qualified among them who pay the highest price. A good test case is disability: it is a documented fact that unemployment among the truly disabled is higher today than it was when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. Because libertarians know in advance that government policies are destructive, we tend to focus our editorial energy on pointing to its destructive effects. But in our zeal to draw attention to issues others ignore, let us not forget the bigger picture. There are always limits to what the government can do, and the government's destruction is always accompanied by examples of great creativity on the part of the market. Even as government dominates the headlines, private entrepreneurs are busy every day working to improve products and services that improve our lives. They do it without taxing us or regulating us, or making us suffer through tedious elections or political debates. They make their products and offer them to us in a way that pleases the consuming public the most. We can choose whether we want them or not. Consider the success of Wal-Mart. If government had set out to create a volume discounter that made a world of material goods and groceries available to the multitude in all countries, it might have tried for a thousand years and not created anything resembling this company. Even the military has relented and now routinely points its employees not to its on-base stores but to Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and others for the best prices. Foreign development aid is another example. It took decades to get the message across, but today finance ministers in the developing world understand that they have far more to gain through integration into the world economy than from development aid and all the restrictive policies that come with it. Today, as Sudha Shenoy points out, the largest resistance to new trade deals comes from the developing world, not because they don't want trade but because they desire trade without the labor and environmental controls the US demands. The same is true in the area of communications. In the last century, governments aspired to control them all: the phones, the mails, the media. Today, we see that government, in practice, controls very little of the communications industry, despite every attempt to hobble private enterprise. In that same vein, a major issue for everyone these days are computer viruses and spam, which threaten to make our chief mode of communication less reliable. Congress passes ineffectual legislation against spam and viruses, while private enterprise has given us dozens of means of winning the battle. Private enterprise creates; government destroys. That is the great economic lesson of our times and all times. Of course there is one way in which government never fails. It can loot. It can gain footholds into society's command centers. It can punish enemies. It can even indoctrinate people in its preferred vision of the world through propaganda. This is the best way to understand the public school system. It doesn't work to educate but it does work to transfer vast sums from the private to the public sector. And here too, we see the power of private enterprise: booster clubs in public schools represent a de facto source of privatization, and the clubs and groups connected to them are the only really successful things going on in public school. We’ll hear much in the coming months about all the wonderful reforms politicians are going to bring us. This is the time when politicians vie for our allegiance by telling all about their ideas and vision for the future. As usual, they will parse their words in ways to maximize the numbers of people who are persuaded and minimize the amount of trouble they get into for inadvertently telling people something they don't want to hear. As an aside, whoever came up with this idea of a mass democracy just wasn't thinking things through very clearly. Nothing runs well by majority vote, to say nothing of the fact that a truly free society shouldn't be "run" at all; it works on its own without would-be masters-and-commanders grasping at the helm. Let me then offer to you my own top ten list of political lies you are told, all designed to make you believe that government should have more power than it already has, so that it can create more of the disasters we are accustomed to: 10. My new program will generate jobs. Truth: only the market generates jobs on net. 9. My education program will reform schools so that they leave no child behind. Truth: the public schools do not work for the same reason no government program can work. They exist outside the market economy. 8. My program will save industry x. Truth: industry must be part of the market or else it is not really industry at all. 7. I won't raise your taxes but I will pass lots of new programs: Truth: all programs must be paid for. 6. As president, I will pursue a humble foreign policy. Truth: nothing in the office of the president encourages humility. 5. This war is humanitarian and winnable. Truth: war is nothing but a government program on a massively destructive scale, and just as error prone. 4. My reform will bring market-based competition. Be on the lookout for this lie, which market partisans are likely to believe. There is only one kind of genuine market, and it is rooted in private property and nothing else. 3. We will secure the nation. Truth: government cannot provide security better than markets, any more than it can provide food or houses better than the market. 2. Government is compassionate. Truth: men who seek power over the lives of others are the coldest, cruelest humans of all. 1. You can't love your country and hate your government. Truth: A person who loves his country loves liberty first. One hundred years from now, the great story of the latter part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century will be the vast improvements in life wrought by technology. Consider the web, the cell phone, the PDA, the affordable laptop computer, advances in medicine, and the spread of prosperity to all corners of the globe. What has government had to do with this? The answer is: nothing contributory. It has worked only to impede progress, and we can only be thankful that it hasn't succeeded. Through all of human history, governments have caused frightening levels of bloodshed and horror, but in the end, what has prevailed is not power but the market economy. Even today governments can only play catch-up. This is because of the reasons that Mises outlined. Government cannot control the human mind, so it cannot, in the long run, control the choices people make. It cannot control economic forces, which are a far more powerful and permanent feature of the world than any government anyway. Governments have a propensity to overreach in so many areas of life that their exercise of power itself leads to their own undoing. The overreach can take many forms: financial, economic, social, and military. In this way, and with enough passion for liberty burning in the hearts of the citizenry, governments can be responsible for their own undoing. It comes about as a result of overestimating the capacity of power and underestimating its limits. I believe this is happening in our time. It may not be obvious when taking the broad view, but when you look at the status of a huge range of government programs and institutions, what you see is a government that is at once enormously powerful and rich, but also fragile and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Events of the last year indicate just how far the government has slipped in its ability to manage the economy, society, culture, and world order. Despite the exalted status of the state today, the vast and sprawling empire called the US government may in fact be less healthy than it ever has been. A few months back, we had a special speaker come to Auburn, probably the most famous man who has visited us since the Country and Western star Alan Jackson was in town. He was Mikhail Gorbachev, a very interesting figure in the history of nations. He came to power with the reputation of a reformer and instituted many reforms that were designed not to give more liberty to the people, but to stop the unraveling of an empire before it was too late. But it was too late. All his talk of perestroika and glasnost couldn't fool the people, who had become convinced that the Soviet machine was something of a hoax. The empire unraveled not because of him, but despite his efforts to save it. When it came time to make the critical decision of whether to try to hold the empire together by more and more force, or not, history had already made the choice for him. The empire dissolved in the blink of an eye. Not too many months later, he was out of a job, not because he was recalled in some formal process, but because the forces of history had run him over. Democratic governments are not immune from the forces of history that overthrew Soviet tyranny. All governments overreach and no government is permanent. So let us fear government but not exaggerate its powers. It can cause enormous damage and it must always be fought. But in this struggle, we are on the right side of history. The power of human choice, aided by the logic of economics and the laws that operate without any bureaucrat's permission, are our source of hope for the future. _______________________________ Llewellyn H. Rockwellhttp://www.mises.org/story/1396 more

Resolved Question: Please check and correct my English!?

Im a Japanese. Would you check my English? It should be as business style as possible. [begining] We have been taking orders more than our producing capacity due to rash demand and it possibly leads to delivery delay of transistor-products. We temporally need at least 60-day lead-time of delivering products from orders to deal with this situation. If you have any questions, please be free to ask our sales representatives for the details. Thank you for your corporation [End] Which is correct, Lead-time of orders or Lead-time of deliverly? more

Resolved Question: Is this a scam? Got an email for this "job" opportunity.?

Would you like to work online from Home/Temporarily and get paid weekly? We are seeking to offer you a Job position with our reputable company, Global Source Fabrics And Textiles. We need someone to work as a Representative/Book keeper in USA,Australia and Asia/Europe.This is in view of our expansion program to USA,Australia and Asia/Europe, where we presently dont haveany office. You don't need to have an Office and this certainly wont disturb any form of work you have going at the moment. Our integrated yarn and fabric manufacturing operations use state-of-the-art textile equipment from the world's leading suppliers. Order processing, production monitoring and process flow are seamlessly integrated through a company-wide computer network. * The average monthly income is about 4000.00 USD. * No form of investments from you. * This job takes only 1-3 hours per day About the job: We have sales representatives all over the world to distribute our products.You know, that it's not easy to start a business in a new market (being the USA,Australia and Asia/Europe). There are hundreds of competitors, close direct contacts between suppliers and customers and other difficulties, which impede our sales promotion.We have decided to deliver the products upfront, it's very risky but it should push up sales on 25 percent.Thus we need to get payments for our products as soon as possible. Unfortunately we are unable to open Bank Accounts in the US,Europe, Asia & Australia without first registering the company name. Presently with the amount of Orders we have, we cannot put them on hold. For fear of loosing the customers out rightly to our competitors.Secondly we cannot cash these payments from the USA/Australia,Asia, and Europe soon enough,as International Cheques take about 14 working days for cash to be made available.We lose about 75,000 USD of net income each month because we have money transfer delays *Hence Your task is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the payment process.You are not involved in any sales. We make direct contact for sales of products. Once orders are received and sorted we deliver the product to a customer (usually through FEDEX).The customer receives and checks the products. After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through bank to bank transfer depending on the amount involved. That is why we have decided to open this new Job position for solving this problem. Your tasks are; 1. Receive payment from Customers 2. Cash Payment at your Bank/Cash point 3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed 4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of our offices as you will be instructed. For example you receive payment of 3000.00 USD you take your income: 300.00 USD Send to us: 2700.00 USD First month you will have 15-20 transactions on 3000.00-4000.00 USD so you may calculate your income.For example 18 transactions on 3500.00 USD gives you 4410.00 USD Plus your basis monthly salary is 1000.00 USD Total: 5410.00 USD per month After establishing a close co-operation with us you'll be able to operate with larger orders and you'll be able to earn more.Our payments will be issued out to you.Deduct your weekly salary and forward the balance to the company via western union money transfer or money gram money transfer We understand it is an unusual and incredible job position. This job takes only 3-7 hours per week. You'll have a lot of free time doing another job, you'll get good income and regular job.But this job is very challenging and you should understand it. We are looking only for a hardworking,reliable and honest worker who will satisfy our requirements and will be a consistent representative. We are glad to offer this job position to you.It seems a little fishy. more

Resolved Question: How do you promote an e commerce site ? Get people to buy and not just browse ??

I really want to be a stay home mom and that means I have to get this business profiting ASAP but have limited funds. Did an Alexa search of related business to get most bang for my ad buck , got an adbrite account , joined google base, auctioning items on Amazon to lead people to my website , and placing free ads on craigs list ( which worked BEST of all for generating visits to my site ) . I need SALES ! I have been up and running 1 week and have 1 sale and 1 one customer hemming and hawing about price on a large ticket item. Help please , I really want to stay home with baby . Not asking to be Bill Gates here just a small emergency income would be nice ! more

Resolved Question: can you understand this???? please help???

Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. (Nasdaq: HAYZ) today reported financial results for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2007. The results were in line with preliminary results announced on March 16, 2007 and with guidance the Company provided to investors in December 2006. For the fiscal year, the automotive and commercial highway wheels and components maker reported sales of $2.06 billion, up 5.1% from sales of $1.96 billion in the prior fiscal year. Earnings from operations were $4.8 million for fiscal 2006, compared with a year earlier loss from operations of $215.2 million, which included $185.5 million of goodwill impairment charges. Capital expenditures for the fiscal year were $80.8 million, down from $95.2 million a year earlier. The foregoing results exclude the suspension components business reported as discontinued operations, which had sales of $230 million, a loss from operations of $46.0 million and capital expenditures of $9.1 million. The Company reported a net loss of $166.9 million for fiscal 2006, compared to a net loss of $457.5 million for fiscal 2005. The Company reported a loss from continuing operations of $120.9 million, compared with a loss from continuing operations of $287.1 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2006 (including the suspension components business) was $188.6 million, up 7.3% from $175.7 million a year earlier. For the full fiscal year, Hayes Lemmerz reported free cash flow of negative $9.1 million, excluding the impact of the Company's securitization program, an improvement of $71.6 million from a year earlier. "Hayes Lemmerz is a much stronger company today than it was five years ago," said Curtis Clawson, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hayes Lemmerz. "We have significantly decreased our dependence on U.S. markets, and continue to grow our international business, especially in Asia. By divesting non-core businesses and focusing on high growth/high return markets, we are continuing to execute our strategic business plan and our drive toward profitability and positive free cash flow. Sales to GM, Ford and Chrysler in the U.S., excluding discontinued operations, now account for only about 18% of global sales. Given the extremely difficult conditions in our marketplace, our results for 2006 are encouraging." As previously announced, as part of its continuing profit-enhancing initiatives, the Company completed the sale of two aluminum suspension components plants in February 2007. "These divestitures further reduce our dependence on the North American automotive market and free us from a very capital-intensive business," said Mr. Clawson. "Our new business wins point the way toward our future. We won over $575 million in annualized sales in 2006, of which 75% is international business," Mr. Clawson said. "We continue to win with Japanese and Korean manufacturers, including Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and Honda, both in the U.S. and internationally. We continue to win new business with our European partners, and in the U.S. markets our new business wins diversify our product mix with more crossover and passenger vehicles," he said. As previously announced, the Company�s board of directors has approved a rights offering for existing shareholders, for up to $180 million of common stock. Proceeds will be used to repurchase the Company�s 10.5% Senior Notes. The offering must be approved by shareholders at a special meeting scheduled for May 4, 2007. "By raising new equity capital and retiring high-cost debt, we are de-leveraging, strengthening our balance sheet and significantly improving free cash flow," Mr. Clawson commented. For the full fiscal year 2007, Hayes Lemmerz expects to achieve sales of about $2.1 billion, Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 to $205 million, positive free cash flow (excluding securitization impact) and capital expenditures of approximately $85 to $90 million. Conference Call Hayes Lemmerz will host a telephone conference call to discuss the Company's full fiscal year 2006 financial results this morning, at 10:00 a.m. (ET). To participate by phone, please dial 10 minutes prior to the call: (888) 295-5935 from the United States and Canada; (706) 758-0212 from outside the United States. Callers should ask to be connected to Hayes Lemmerz earnings conference call, Conference ID # 2107451. The conference call will be accompanied by a slide presentation, which can be accessed through the Company's web site, in the Investor Kit presentations section at http://www.hayes-lemmerz.com/investor_kit/overview/presentations/www-presentations.html. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOW Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. is a world leading global supplier of automotive and commercial highway wheels, brakes and powertrain components. The Company has 30 facilities and approximately 8,500 employees worldwide. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. The Rights Offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the prospectus may be obtained from Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc., 15300 Centennial Drive, Northville, Michigan 48168, (734) 737-5000, Attention: Corporate Secretary. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information EBITDA, a measure used by management to measure operating performance, is defined as earnings from operations plus depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA further adjusted to exclude asset impairment losses and other restructuring charges, reorganization items and other items. Management references these non-GAAP financial measures frequently in its decision making because they provide supplemental information that facilitates internal comparisons to historical operating performance of prior periods and external comparisons to competitors� historical operating performance. Institutional investors generally look to Adjusted EBITDA in measuring performance, among other things. The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA to facilitate quantification of planned business activities and enhance subsequent follow-up with comparisons of actual to planned Adjusted EBITDA. Free cash flow is defined as cash from operating activities minus capital expenditures plus cash from discontinued operations and the sale of assets. Management uses free cash flow to identify the amount of cash available to meet debt amortization requirements, pay dividends to stockholders or make corporate investments. Forward Looking Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to our financial condition and business. All statements other than statements of historical fact made in this press release are forward-looking. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, those statements including the words "expect," "anticipate," "intend," believe," and similar language. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ significantly from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements include, among others: (1) competitive pressure in our industry; (2) fluctuations in the price of steel, aluminum, and other raw materials; (3) changes in general economic conditions; (4) our dependence on the automotive industry (which has historically been cyclical) and on a small number of major customers for the majority of our sales; (5) pricing pressure from automotive industry customers and the potential for re-sourcing of business to lower-cost providers; (6) changes in the financial markets or our debt ratings affecting our financial structure and our cost of capital and borrowed money; (7) the uncertainties inherent in international operations and foreign currency fluctuations; (8) our ability to divest non-core assets and businesses; (9) the risks described in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and our periodic statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission; and (10) our ability to consummate the previously announced rights offering. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Contact: Marika P. Diamond Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. (734) 737-5162 HOME | INVESTOR KIT | PRESS KIT | CAPABILITIES | PRODUCTS | LOCATIONS | ABOUT HAYES Contact Hayes Lemmerz. � 1998-2007 Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Subject to Acceptable Usage Policy more