The PETA Game To Pass The Time
Get a kick out of this… can you be crueler than your mama?
Very fun game to play.
I’m meaner than mama and got 603 points.
Play the full size version and complain on PETA.org.
30 Years Ago Today.
This sick event happened 30 years ago today…
It was the event that introduced the phrase - drinking the Kool-Aid.
The mass suicide was preceded by Congressman Leo Ryan visiting the compound with a news crew to prove all was OK…
His statement “there are people here who believe this the best thing that happened to them their whole life” proved to be deadly wrong.
During Ryan’s visit, a few of the believers asked if they could join the Congressman on his return ride home. The confrontations mounted, with Jones at first saying anyone who wanted to go was free to leave. Jone’s depression grew as the size of the departing contingent swelled.
Ryan and the defectors headed for the local airstrip, but would never get off the ground. Some of Jones’ “security” people opened fire on Ryan, killing him and several others, including an NBC reporter and his camera-man whose camera eerily rolled on, catching it all for history.
900 died and Jim Jones died of a gunshot wound.
One of the unimaginable act that parents committed - 303 children were killed by Jones loyalists using syringes to squirt cyanide down their throats, while the parents sat by, waiting for their turn.
Hopefully we’ve learned to be wary of those that lead - especially when it comes to religious cults.
Moms Gone Mad
Motrin learned a valuable marketing lesson this week - there are two groups you don’t want to make light of - Democrats and Moms.
The video was a new online ad launched over the weekend for the company’s pain reliever Motrin.
The commercial was targeted at mothers who need relief from back pain from carrying — or, as the ad says, wearing — their babies in a sling.
I also hear it’s International Baby Wearing Week… oops.
Here’s the offending ad:
And here are a sampling of the reactions:
Line of the day: “I’m not easily offended”.
The Tax Man Cometh - Thanks eBay
eBay Canada says it will disclose information on its “power sellers” to Canada Revenue Agency this week. The release of data is in response to a ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal last April.
The court ordered eBay to turn over to the tax agency the names and gross sales figures of Canadians who earn at least $1,000 a month from online sales for three straight months.
In a recent letter to affected customers, eBay said it strenuously objects to the federal requests, but it must comply.
At least they warned them.
In 2006, Revenue Canada started looking into whether power sellers had reported all their eBay earnings on their 2004 and 2005 income taxes.
It’s estimated about 32,000 Canadians make all or part of their income selling on eBay.
Meantime, many more Canadians are shopping online, with 2007 sales rising to $12.8 billion, Statistics Canada says.
The Unions Killed The Carmakers
GM, Ford and Chrysler are nearing the end, and it’s not only because they make a product that no one wants.
This GM “bailout” video below captures what is at stake (divide by 10 to understand the Canadian ramifications):
Direct impact:
239,000 employees
775,000 pensioners
2,000,000 relying on them for health benefits.
Suppliers:
$156 Billion in sales
610,000 workers
14,000 Dealers with
740,000 employees
Chapter 11 is the probably the only hope. A bailout, regardless of the size, won’t change the root cause of the problem.
They have to drop the social programs, the unions, and re-invent themselves to be competitive once again.
Or they can throw $50 billion or so at them to stall their death for a little while, and enlarge the impact.
Imagine if your business has to support three people for every employee.
These aren’t carmakers anymore - they’ve become social institutions.
Welcome to the future.
I Keep Telling Myself…
Vancouver is the best place to live.
Old one from Rick Mercer.
The good news is that real estate is going down fast. Now you can get a 400 sq. ft. apartment for under $300K.
And Then I’ll Bring World Peace.
Vancouver’s new Mayor Gregor Robertson will not only head our city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but he also promises to solve an issue that has no one has been able to fix.
“Job No. 1 is calling together an emergency task force on homelessness and working on solutions to getting people off the street into a safe place to live as quickly as possible,” said Robertson, a 44-year-old businessman and former MLA, who won the Mayor contest in a landslide.
“We will bring out brightest minds together and end homelessness in Vancouver,” said Robertson.
You’d think that with an average expenditure if $44K per homeless person, they’d manage to at least get them a room.
The East Hastings area is the fastest growing area of Vancouver… it attracts the homeless from across Canada due to the the quality of drugs and services down there.
Good Luck Greg, you’ll need it.
How To Fix The Global Financial Crisis
You Go Girls…
Tech Tips - How To Get On Google
photo credit: Yodel Anecdotal
I get this question from website owners at least once a week:
“How do I get my site on Google?”
Finally Google has put together an easy guide to what they look for and best practices to follow. All the steps are easy to do.
The interesting thing about this guide is that the basics - that have existed for years -still rule.
You can read their post here, or download the guide directly from this link.
If you have a WordPress blog use this plugin - it does a lot of the tagging for you.
See you on Google.
The Obama List
Found this great list of Obama’s promises from his “Blueprint for Change,” his campaign speeches and advertisements.
It’s worth printing out and putting it away.
Hope and change is going to be a bit harder than he has let on.
Here’s the list from the Investor’s Business Daily site:
Taxes
• Give a tax break to 95% of Americans.
• Restore Clinton-era tax rates on top income earners.
• “If you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime. Not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes. Nothing.”
• Dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes.
• Give American businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they create in the U.S.
• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small business and startup companies.
• Eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000.
• Expand the child and dependent care tax credit.
• Expand the earned income tax credit.
• Create a universal mortgage credit.
• Create a small business health tax credit.
• Provide a $500 “make work pay” tax credit to small businesses.
• Provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate to families.
Energy
• Spend $15 billion a year on renewable sources of energy.
• Eliminate oil imports from the Middle East in 10 years.
• Increase fuel economy standards by 4% a year.
• Weatherize 1 million homes annually.
• Ensure that 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012.
Environment
• Create 5 million green jobs.
• Implement a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Get 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015.
Labor
• Sign a fair pay restoration act, which would overturn the Supreme Court’s pay discrimination ruling.
• Sign into law an employee free choice act — aka card check — to make it easier for unions to organize.
• Make employers offer seven paid sick days per year.
• Increase the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2009.
National security
• Remove troops from Iraq by the summer of 2010.
• Cut spending on unproven missile defense systems.
• No more homeless veterans.
• Stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.
• Finish the fight against Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorists.
Social Security
• Work in a “bipartisan way to preserve Social Security for future generations.”
• Impose a Social Security payroll tax on incomes above $250,000.
• Match 50% of retirement savings up to $1,000 for families earning less than $75,000.
Education
• Demand higher standards and more accountability from our teachers.
Spending
• Go through the budget, line by line, ending programs we don’t need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.
• Slash earmarks.
Health care
• Lower health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.
• Let the uninsured get the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress get.
• Stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
• Spend $10 billion over five years on health care information technology.
Let’s see if he keeps any - I bet he’ll actually make good on less than 15% of the ones that are measurable.
Sunday Speed-Up For Windows Users
photo credit: niallkennedy
If you haven’t visited Lifehacker before, now is a good time to check it out - they have a great article on how to speed up your slow PC. Takes a little knowledge, but if you follow the article you’ll be able to do what they are advising and get that ol’ clunker of yours going again.
It’s the The Complete Guide to Speeding Up Your PC’s Startup… and in 15 minutes you’ll be good to go.
Also, make sure you read the article on common Windows performance myths.
Or, you could sneak out of the house and get on of those great new MacBooks 
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