A very telling video on how Monsanto’s milk ethics, or lack thereof, will wind us up in the soup. here
Virtually All U.S. Doctors Accept Money, Freebies from Drug Companies
Despite efforts to curb the drug reps’ influence over your doctor, the industry is working harder than ever to influence what medicines you are prescribed.here
An interesting article re the attacks on Tom Cruise
An interesting article re the attacks on Tom Cruise more
Security Tips For Your Wallet
A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:
1. Next time you order cheques, have only your initials (instead of your first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your chequebook, they will not know if you sign your cheques with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your cheques.
2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO ID REQUIRED”.
3. When you are writing cheques to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your cheque as it passes through all the cheque processing channels won’t have access to it.
4. Put your work phone number on your cheques instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your Centrelink Number printed on your cheques. You can add it if it is necessary, but if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine Do both sides of each licence, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travelling either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
Unfortunately I, an attorney, have first-hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly mobile phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Dell computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information on-line, and more. But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
3. But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.) Call the three national credit reporting organisations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorise new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend someone handed it in. It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Now, here are some Australian telephone numbers which you might need to contact if your wallet etc has been stolen:
ANZ 1800 033 844
Bankcard Australia (02) 9281 6633
BankWest 131 718
Centrelink Fraud 137 230
Citibank 132 484
Commonwealth 132 221
CUSCAL- MyCard 1300 135 538
GE Capital 1300 369 904
MasterCard Australia (02) 9466 3700
MasterCard International 1800 120 113
Medicare 132 011
Members Equity 1300 654 998
National 132 265
Passport 131 232
Seniors Card 1300 364 758
St George 1800 028 208
Coles/Myer Source 1300 306 397
Travellers’ Cheques 1800 127 477
Virgin 2000 1800 080 000
Visa Card Australia 1800 621 199
Visa Card International 1800 450 346
Westpac 1800 230 144
Woolworths Ezy Banking 137 288
Many people's favourite non-sugar sweetener, Stevia, is now classified as dangerous by the FDA
Many people’s favourite non-sugar sweetener, Stevia, is now classified as dangerous by the FDA, the US Food and Drug Administration more
Global warming swindle
I just viewed a great video on a lecture given by a university professor which provides the cold hard facts (on slides even) on global warming\climate change. The link to it is here http://www.youtube.com/bushvision
New Year's Resolutions for Your Business
Whilest by no means complete, here is a list of things you may find useful. Successful management is simple. You:
1. Deliver a product or service that is needed and wanted,
2. Maintain income greater than outgo,
3. Maintain or reduce expenses relative to income,
4. Increase efficiency.
To increase turnover you:
1. Get more clients,
2. Lose fewer clients,
3. Keep clients longer,
4. Sell more to the client each time they purchase,
5. Sell more often to the same client.
To increase net profit you:
1. Reduce the cost of what you sell,
2. Increase the selling price of what you sell,
3. Reduce your overheads and expenses.
To eliminate wasted effort you ensure all your staff:
1. Know your organisational goals and targets,
2. Are in agreement with them,
3. Are working efficiently on the actions that will attain them,
4. Are not working on actions that will not contribute to them.
To get yourself some time off you:
1. Hire some productive people,
2. Train them to be competent at what you do,
3. Delegate responsibilities to them,
4. Change gears from doing to managing.
I have a suggestion for your New Year’s resolutions list. How about you spend just five minutes on each of the above numbered points? List what you are doing that works and work out what extra you could do to improve your results on that point.
Mobile phones and electromagnetic radiation
I have just posted a new article on my web site that I was privileged to receive from the Australian Democrats. Please take a minute or two to read it. It is a sobering compilation of a great deal of research on the subject. Here…
Petrol Pumping Tips
I thought everyone could benefit from using these tips!
Gas Pumping Tips from someone in the Petroleum pipeline business!!
I’ve been in petroleum pipeline business for about 31 years, currently working for the Kinder-Morgan Pipeline here in San Jose, CA. We deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period from the pipe line; one day it’s diesel, the next day it’s jet fuel and gasoline. We have 34 storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons. Here are some tricks to help you get your money’s worth.
1. Fill up your car or truck in the morning when the temperature is still cool. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground; and the colder the ground, the denser the gasoline. When it gets warmer gasoline expands, so if you’re filling up in the afternoon or in the evening, what should be a gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and temperature of the fuel (gasoline,
diesel, jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products) are significant. Eve ry truckload that we load is temperature-compensated so that the indicated gallonage is actually the amount pumped. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for businesses, but service stations don’t have temperature compensation at their pumps.
2. If a tanker truck is filling the station’s tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up; most likely dirt and sludge in the tank is being stirred up when gas is being delivered, and you might be transferring that dirt from the bottom of their tank into your car’s tank.
3. Fill up when your gas tank is half-full (or half-empty), because the more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it’s warm. (Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating ‘roof’ membrane to act as a barrier between the gas and the atmosphere, thereby minimizing evaporation).
4. If you look at the trigger you’ll see that it has three delivery settings: slow, medium and high. When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to the high setting. You should be pumping at the slow setting, thereby minimizing vapors created while you are pumping. Hoses at the pump are corrugated; the corrugations act as a return path for vapor recovery from gas that already has been metered. If you are pumping at the high
setting, the agitated gasoline contains more vapor, which is being sucked back into the underground tank so you’re getting less gas for your money.
Hope this will help ease your ‘pain at the pump’.
"ICE" Your Mobile!
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than if we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn’t know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this “ICE” (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.
The concept of “ICE” is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name “ICE” ( In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn’t know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialling the number you have stored as “ICE”.
Please forward this.
It won’t take too many “forwards” before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one’s mind at rest. For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc.