| Spending detox worth every penny saved
I loved blogging daily at MiamiHerald.com/business (The Frugalista Files) about my experience in spending detox. There were ups (realizing that I had leftover cash after paying both my rent and light bill in a single pay period) and downs (staying home Valentine's Day with no plans). But over all, this has been one of the best experiences of my life. After doing the no-buy month, I realized that I spent way too much and, more importantly, I could change my situation. Like me, many young consumers have a spending problem. According to cardtrak.com, the average credit-card debt per household with a card is $9,659. Many college students graduate with an average of $20,000 in student loan debt. I have both a credit card balance and a student loan to pay off. I want them gone, sooner rather than later.
Credit card industry tries to hook young people
All major banking institutions pay big money to colleges and universities for on-campus recruiting rights, offering students low initial interest rates and/or other sweetheart deals if they accept a credit card. The rest of us get solicitations through our phone or the mails.Seductive sales campaigns focus on high school graduates and for all kinds of items that TV, movies or society has told them they want, need, should have because they deserve it and others have, so why don't they? Car dealers offer "one-time sales events" to first-time wage earners, high-end electronic stores give 90-day-same-as-cash deals and guarantee that no one will be turned down, furniture showrooms offer newlyweds "no payments 'til next year," cell phones, Internet providers, cable companies, satellite dish outfits all make it sound as if you can't have a decent life without their help.All this has given birth to an additional parasite - the debt-consolidation, paycheck-cashing, payday-loan, instant-refinancing-of-your-car (and you get to keep your car - 'til they come to take it away) industry.Public schools teach kids how to drive, play sports, fit a condom, take birth control pills, find an abortionist or fill out a job application at McDonald's.
Chicago as a 'Grey' area?
I come back there all the time," says Rhimes, a former resident of University Park and a 1987 graduate of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights (also my alma mater; our time there overlapped for one year, but we didn't know each other.). Chicago's loss was a gain for Seattle, where Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and four other interns are struggling through a grueling internship at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital. Though the show has its soapy elements - Grey is in a tangled relationship with one of her superiors, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) - "Grey's Anatomy" is actually a refreshing oasis of intriguing, nuanced characters. In particular, "Grey's" offers a compelling range of female characters in a TV season in which many of the women on hour-long dramas are lawyers, crime fighters of some kind or crime victims.
9News Report: Storing Personal Data Online
A new Internet company is gaining national attention for charging people to store their personal information online. But in a time when hackers are stealing people's identities, is it a good idea to store your personal information in cyber space? 9News anchor Bernard Watson is On Your Side with a look at a new website and whether you can trust it.
Reported by: Bernard Watson
Photographed by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
It sounds like a good idea. A place to store your e-mail passwords, social security number, bank account numbers just about anything. Then when you pass on, your loved ones are given access to the information and instructions on what to do. YouDeparted.com says it's totally safe and just what we all need.
Alan King hoping to find Cheltenham Festival aces among powerful hand
So complete is Cheltenham's trials day on Saturday that any one of four races would showcase a regular card. Few trainers will be as involved as Alan King, whose six runners all have designs on championship events at the Festival in March. Indeed, the Barbury Castle trainer expects to be double-handed in three races in an effort to discover the worth of some lightly raced horses. Itsa Legend, a fine third at last year's Festival, will almost certainly join Blazing Bailey in the Byrne Group Cleeve Hurdle over three miles. "It's a very hot race," King said. "I was very impressed with Inglis Drever at Newbury last time - perhaps our best hope is if that horse is snowed in at home." Also in the mix is Wichita Lineman, who mastered Itsa Legend in March but could not cope with Blazing Bailey at the course last month.
Chehalis man accused of lying to get flood aid
CHEHALIS, Wash. - A Chehalis man accused of lying to flood relief workers has been arrested and jailed, accused of pretending to be a flood victim and accepting relief aid. The Lewis County Sheriff's Office says 42-year-old Ted Cherry was arrested Thursday after his stories were questioned by United Way workers. Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said Cherry admitted to having lied to the workers.Cherry had walked into the United Way Relief Center, caked in mud and crying, claiming his 20-acre farm had been destroyed in the storm. Cherry said he lost everything, including his animals and an antique grand piano, and said he was contemplating suicide. That's when no less than five volunteers stopped in their tracks to help. United Way gave the man clothing and cash cards for groceries and gas.
Power Shirt: Nanotechnology In Clothing Could Harvest Energy From Body ...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2008) Nanotechnology researchers are developing the perfect complement to the power tie: a "power shirt" able to generate electricity to power small electronic devices for soldiers in the field, hikers and others whose physical motion could be harnessed and converted to electrical energy. .
Managing Technology Lights! Camera! Sales!
A host of small businesses are trying this new twist on Web promotion, sending short films to Google Inc.'s YouTube and other popular video sites, advertising everything from root beer to blenders to bullet-resistant backpacks. For one thing, it's hard to beat the price: It costs nothing to put something on a video-sharing site, unlike buying television time or a regular Internet ad. And the videos let companies use a creative and personal touch that wouldn't work in traditional ads. "It's so different than the message-driven approach to marketing that most kinds of advertising is," says David Meerman Scott, author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR." "You don't have to talk about your product per se. You can just have fun with it." But that leaves some big questions for companies that want to try their hand at videos.
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