The Ultimate Guide To The Universe

Driving can differ widely by location...

2013-07-05T12:13:00.001-07:00

Patent-related wars are the latest fad

2012-09-12T11:56:00.001-07:00

As if the legal system wasn't a complete mess already you can add the patent office to the list of incompetent departments that is spinning out of control. Just take a look at the mobile patent law suits infographic compiled by Reuters and keep in mind that this is just a tip of the iceberg...

As someone who has worked for a number of technology companies and has been through a few patent infringement law suits I can tell you that not all patents out there are legitimate and there are a bunch of companies out there whose sole business purpose is to sue each other over these crappy patents. Some of the technical patents I came across were so broad that they encompassed a large portion of the internet which is so commonly used that it belongs in the public domain - I can only imagine that whoever approved this was technically inept. Imagine if someone patented use of water and air today and suddenly we were all in violation.

Now the image above is just a subset of the mobile industry but when you consider every patent out there you can imagine how things can get real messy and real fast. Patent office gets paid to approve crappy patents, predatory companies sue each other over this crap, scummy lawyers get paid off and someone along the way makes a bunch of money while hardworking people are sucking on their thumbs. Another day, more bullshit - this is business as usual.

Image courtesy of Reuters

Beer? Anyone?

2012-01-28T02:40:00.000-08:00

Spending too much time on the web? You are not alone...

2012-01-26T10:50:00.000-08:00

US budget explained in simple to understand terms

2011-12-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

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

Which butt are you?

2011-12-01T15:52:00.000-08:00

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

Earth population reaches 7 billion

2011-11-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

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

[USA Today]

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

2011-11-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

Scores of fed up customers are ditching big banks

2011-11-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

[CNN]

A record high 50% of Americans support legalization of marijuana

2011-10-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

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

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

[Gallup]

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

2011-10-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

[Yahoo Finance]

Fight corporations by mailing their unsolicited offers back to them!

2011-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

2011-10-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

[Yahoo News]

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

2011-10-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

Memorable quotes from 'The Corporation':

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

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

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

[IMDb]

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

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

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

[CNN Money]

64% of Americans watch online videos at work!

2011-09-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

[Image courtesy of WISTIA]

1 in 6 Americans live in poverty according to Census Bureau

2011-09-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

[read the full report at The New York Times]

Perhaps Global Warming is not just a myth!

2011-09-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

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

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

[Yahoo News]

Developers, designers, and managers in a secret corporate war

2011-08-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

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

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

Your world just got hacked!

2011-08-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

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

[Yahoo]

Million dollar fender bender in Monte Carlo and lots of stereotypes

2011-07-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

Crowds love it when reach people do really stupid things

[Yahoo]

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

2011-07-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

Need I say more?

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

[Washington Post]

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

2011-07-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Yahoo]

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

Apparently, Sex Sells

2011-07-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

cleavage! Cleavage! CLEAVAGE!

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011-07-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Fanatic Farmer Creates Harry Potter Corn Maze

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

[@ Yahoo]

Americans still don't know how to drive

2011-06-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

No comment...

[Yahoo]