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POPSI agree but... I'm mixed on this one. I agree most banks are a bit deceptive with their overdraft practices. They automatically sign you up for the overdraft service that they charge an insane amount for, but make you read the fine fine print to get the details. Banks should make this service "opt-in" only - people would have to officially agree to it and sign a contract for it. Otherwise, they just decline purchases. That said however, people should be more careful about knowing how much money they have and spending accordingly. Many banks now even offer balance tracking on a Web-enabled phone, in addition to online, so you should be able to know what you have. I have a strong feeling - outside of mistakes of bloopers here and there (like the one presented in this article - ridiculous the bank wouldn't post the money into the account) - most people that get hit with these I imagine are getting hit because they're not paying attention to their money.
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POPSPolitical Correctness Is Going Overbaord
People in this country have gotten way too focused on being politically correct. It seems like everyone is on the lookout for something someone has done that could potentially be taken as insensitive of a particular individual or group. I have a sister who is mentally retarded and am gay so the word "retard" and dealing with stereotypes is nothing new to me. I have to say, taking offense to something like this should completely revolve around context. If I were out with my sister and someone started pointing, laughing, and calling her a retard, OBVIOUSLY I'd have a problem with it. Same as if someone came up to me and started pointing, calling me a faggot. A satirical movie or a show like Will and Grace displaying stereotypes is nothing to get offended about. It's a movie. If you think it perpetuates stereotypes, you're also probably someone who feels movies and TV should be educating your children on life. We need to get over ourselves and not be so uptight about these t
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POPSWhy Should We Trust Them With More of our Money? It's become pretty obvious to anyone paying attention, that state and federal governments are not good at managing money. We have a huge federal deficit, many states are facing huge deficits, and some large cities are even going bankrupt. Why would we even consider raising taxes to give government even more of our money to mis-manage? All they'll do is pass more ridiculous legislation that spends our money even more unwisely. Instead, let's focus on cutting government spending. Or an even more radical idea, let's run our governments like a business, led be real business executives instead of politicians. I'm tired of seeing a large portion of my paycheck get flushed down the drain because our state and federal governments don't know a thing about how to spend it wisely.
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POPSIf You Use an Electronic Toll Pay System, READ THIS Great article about the use of EZPass, FastTrak, or any other system you use to electronically pay road/bridge tolls when you go through the toll both. Apparently they can easily be hacked and your account compromised. Best bet they say is to keep it in the Mylar pouch it comes in, but most people I've seen have it stuck to their windshield permanently. If that's you, apparently there's also a device you can buy that deactivates it and prevents access to information until you flip the switch. Read the article for more details.
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POPSGreat Tips But Here's Another I couldn't agree more with this article. I was definitely in the couple's shoes until getting some good advice. Another way to quickly build up a reserve fund, especially if you own a home and it's early in the year - deposit your entire tax refund into your safety net account. Resist the urge to splurge and you could have your net built up very quickly.
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POPSGreat Idea - Now Make it Even Better This bike, despite its cost, looks like a pretty great idea. It's much lower scale than getting a moped or scooter, but still provides power to get you around. Now if they really wanted to make this a great bike, they'd set it up so that if you pedal instead of using the motor, your pedaling charges the batery. Maybe that'll come in the next version?
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POPSYou're Not Getting Your Old Dog Back This story highlights what I think is one of the more common misconceptions about cloning. It sounds like the woman in this article feels like she's getting her old dog Booger back. While it's true she's getting an exact genetic replica of Booger, he could end up being very different than the original. Much of Boogers personality and capabilities were the result not only of his genetic make-up, but of his life experience. There's no way to exactly duplicate that experience, so it's very likely the cloned Boogers will be somewhat if not very different than the original. This could be true for some of his physical characteristics as well, as some of them are influenced by life's experiences. While I believe cloning can hold great promise, people need to realize it can't be used to bring a dead loved one back to life.
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POPSOrganized Religion Preaches Love but Practices Unacceptance This article is a good example of the negatives of organized religion. While many of them preach love, kindness, and peace, in practice they do nothing but reinforce nonacceptance of anyone or anything that does not conform to the religion's teachings and standards. I understand the psychological role or organized religion in our society, but I continue to stand by the belief that organized religion has been the cause of the great majority of the major wars, conflicts, and hatred in our history. Starting with the crusades and going up through to the terrorism we see in the world today. Religions reinforce that anyone or anything outside of their teachings are "wrong" and that those who don't "believe" are not worthy and should be punished. I firmly believe we won't have world peace until organized religion becomes a thing of the past.
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POPSWhat Do You Expect When You Give Your Kids Fast Food This study should have been a big DUH to most parents out there. The majority of the "restaurants" in this study were fast food chains. What do you expect from fast food? Whether it says "kids meal" or not, if it's at a fast food place, it's very likely not going to be healthy and nutritious. In these places, "kids meals" are often just marketing ploys based on popular kids shows or toys. They're not nutritionally balanced to truly be healthy for a child. Raising kids is a huge challenge, and with parents often working in addition to raising kids, they often need to find fast options to make things work. But you have to realize if you're getting fast food, it's not going to be healthy for your child.
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POPSWhat a Great Idea This idea makes total sense! People use a ton of energy at gyms using the various cardio machines. Why not convert that into energy that can be used by the gym. Or even better, why not find a way to hook the gyms up to the grid to be able to drive power to it? I think there's a ton of potential here!
4
POPSC'mon McCain - Do You Really Think They'll Share the Wealth McCain's plans for spurring economic growth are wishful thinking. Sure, lowering taxes on businesses will leave them with more money. But do you really think businesses are going to share that extra money by paying their people more? C'mon now, if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you. It'll be the same way it is now - the leaders/CxOs of companies will just continue to take in more and more while wage growth for workers stays where it is.
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POPSI Can't Believe I Agree with "Big Business" So I have to say, I agree with Sprint on this one - not the consumers. While those 2-year service agreements annoy me too, they do allow me to buy cheap phones and always have the latest gadgets, which I love. If they aren't allowed to lock us into 2-year contracts, they're going to stop subsidizing phones and will raise the prices on their services, which I don't think any of us wants either. As a compromise, why not require them to offer options. If you sign a 2-year contract, they'll offer you subsidized phone and service pricing. If you don't want to be locked into a contract, you can do that, but you'll pay more for your phones and service. That way, those of us who are ok with dealing with 2 year contracts to keep our prices low can do so, while those of us that don't mind paying more to keep their options open can do so as well. To me it's a win-win.
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POPSGreat Effort, But Keep it Real IBM I'm very happy to see IBM trying to make its new data center more environmentally friendly and applaud them for doing so. But c'mon now, the stats about taking 5,800 cars off the road and reducing 31,799 tons of carbon dioxide are completely misleading. If you're building a new data center, your putting more servers into commission, which is using more energy and releasing more carbon dioxide - period. What they're basically saying is they're going to add 10,000 cars to the roads, but instead of adding 10,000 SUVs or full-size sedans, they're adding 10,000 Toyota Prius cars. In other words, they're reducing their emissions compared to if they would have created a less efficient data center. Again I completely applaud their effort. They would have built the data center anyway, and the fact they're making if efficient is great. But keep it real with your press about it.
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POPSLet the Hackers Hack Away I completely agree with the hackers' side of the story. Criminals will continue to pick locks and break security, whether hackers make how to do it public or not. The difference is by them making it public, we as consumers can better protect ourselves, and the companies that make the security products are required to continue making their products more secure. Both are wins for us as consumers. The only reason in my opinion, that security companies don't want people to make public how to break into their products, is because it costs them a lot of money to replace these products free of charge, and to continue spending on R&D. Why not hire hackers to try and get them to break into your products during the research phase?
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POPSJust Tell Me How Much it Costs I have to say I understand why Delta needs to increase its fees - fuel costs have made it difficult for airlines to stay in business. As a consumer however, all of these fees are confusing. I'd rather have them just increase the fare to compensate for higher fuel costs. Or on their website, add these factors into their search criteria so I can see what my total cost would be based on all of the factors. Right now it's confusing, and as much as they put disclaimers out there, people will continue to get surprised at the airport with these extra fees.
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POPSGreat Message, But Be Careful with the Wording The statistics presented in this article are startling, especially the comparisons of the number of black people in the US with HIV, with those in some of the hardest hit countries in Africa. However, I have to disagree with Phill Wilson when he says "AIDS in America today is a black disease." Just as saying HIV is a gay disease, saying HIV is a "black disease" sends the wrong message. It makes people who aren't black (or gay) feel like HIV doesn't apply to them. HIV can hit anyone, and all it takes are some precautionary measures to significantly reduce your risk of catching it. While the statistics about black people with HIV/AIDS is alarming, we need to focus on HIV education and prevention for all ages, races, genders, and sexual orientations in this country.
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POPSDon't Do Like Steven - Get Some Help I think a lot of people feel like Steven - they don't see a sleep disorder as something they can/need to get help with. It just becomes a way of life. As someone who suffers from both sleep onset and sleep maintenance insomnia, I can say you need to make changes and get some help. I've found Ambien works well for those bad nights, but herbal substances (i.e. melatonin) can be very helpful as well. The tips provided in this article are great also - I've done them and they've definitely helped. One of the biggest things for me to realize, is that this is a chronic condition, not something that a pill will "cure." You need to make lifestyle changes and manage it regularly to get real results. Your doctor can help - use it!
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POPSNow This is a Little More Palatable I've spoken out a lot about government bail outs, but reading this article puts me a little more at ease. One of my biggest concerns is that tax payers were bailing out banks and consumers who made bad decisions with their money. This isn't fair to those of us who chose our mortgages more wisely. It looks like as part of the program, the financial gain or benefits people receive with the bail outs must be re-paid, at least partially at some point, through profits from the eventual sale of their home. Now the big question will be to see what the FHA plans to do with those profits when they do come in.
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POPSSpeculators Chase the Money not Make the Money I have a couple concerns about this story. One, even though it's a very small incident that had a negligible impact on the markets, I have a feeling politicians are going to use it as an example to introduce laws prohibiting or reducing oil trading. This despite the fact that there's even more research out there that says trading has not artificially inflated prices. It's supply and demand people - demand is greatly increasing, while supply is staying flat - of course prices are going to skyrocket. Second, it uses the correlation between the increase in oil price and the amount of money going into oil futures. Yet another basic market principle people - investors are going to chase hot items. Oil starts to go up, people anticipate it continuing to go up due to supply/demand issues, investors invest in it to hopefully make a profit. Finally, don't forget the dollar - people use oil as a hedge against inflation, which his been going up due in part to the weakening dollar.
0
POPSDo Your Homework People I don't get this one either. If you're with a mortgage broker and they're offering you a rate of 7.5% on an ARM, why would you just accept it and not reach out to other banks or brokers for better offers? If you went to a car dealership looking for a car and they offered it to you for more than MSRP, would you just say "ok, I guess I have to pay it?" Or would you say "thanks for the offer, I'm going to shop around and see if I can find a better one?" If you'd just take the offer you didn't like, I'm sure there's plenty of salespeople out there who'd love to meet you.
0
POPSBeating a Dead Horse I've commented on this topic many times over the past months, so why not give it one more go. There are two groups responsible for the mortgage mess - the individuals who took out exotic mortgages on houses they couldn't afford, and the financial institutions who sold them those mortgages. I understand we can't let the system fail, but I see no reason why my tax dollars have to go towards helping bail these two groups out. They made terrible decisions. All a bill like this does is reinforce stupid behavior, because if we fail, the government will bail us out. If you had your home re-possessed, it's because you couldn't afford it in the first place. If a financial institution is going down because of all the write-downs they've had to take on bad mortgages, it's because their leadership authorized bad decisions. Are there some exceptions to the above - sure there are. But those aren't the situations that this bill is addressing.
1
POPSWhy is it Only About Race and Only About Whites? To me, this article represents just how ingrained not just racism, but bigotry is in our society. The article focuses mostly on white people, but white people aren't the only ones who are racist. True in America's history, it was white people who enslaved blacks. But today, it's not only about black and white. Yes, some Caucasian-Americans are still racist. However, we can't neglect the fact that some African-Americans are racist, some Latino-Americans are racist, some Asian-Americans are racist. What's the commonality in all of these? "American." And it's not just about race. There are many people in our society (and not just in this country) that are discriminatory against people who are different from them, whether it be religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc. Is racism a problem - yes. But we need to focus on the bigger problem, which is that people in America have become far to afraid of and discriminatory against people who are different from them.
0
POPSSan Jose Leading the Way I'm very proud to see San Jose leading the way on this effort, being the first major city to implement electric car charging stations. Because not everyone has easy access to power outlets in their homes - especially people who live in apartment complexes - this type of system will help make electric cars more of a reality.
1
POPSIf An Oil Man is Saying It... It has to make you think just how out of touch our government is with reality, when a "big oil" tycoon is telling Congress we need to invest more in alternative energy to ween ourselves off of foreign oil. Maybe Bush will listen to one of his own. Or maybe that's putting too much of an assumption on Bush being intelligent, which is a BIG assumption.
0
POPSWhy Does The Government Keep Protecting People from Their Stupidity These credit rules are just the latest in a long line of our government feeling the need to protect consumers from their own ignorance and stupidity. I'll be the first to admit credit card rules and fees are difficult to understand. But consumers should be smart enough to know this, and not get in situations where they spent more than they can afford on their cards and end up paying these fees. Pay your bills on time and late fees aren't an issue. Don't charge more than you can afford to pay back at the end of the month and finance charges aren't an issue. There's no need for additional government legislation around this. If the gov really wants to spend our taxpayer money wisely, spend it on education programs to teach people how to be smart with their money.
0
POPSWhy Am I Being Punished for Being Responsible I understand there's a crisis in the financial sector, and we can't let financial institutions go under due to poor decisions around mortgages. But when I read about legislation that will put borrowers who took out exotic mortgages on houses they couldn't afford, into more affordable loans with a reduced principle, it makes me mad. I was responsible when I got my mortgage. I did my homework, got into a fixed loan on a house I knew I could afford. Could I have done an ARM and gotten a bigger house - sure, but I was responsible and only got into what I could afford. Now, people who weren't responsible are having their mortgages reduced and their rates permanently lowered. Why isn't this available to me? If this is the plan, I say require people to pay back the reduction in principal and interest from any money they make when they sell their house. Otherwise you're just reinforcing bad behavior knowing the gov will save you if you make a stupid decision.
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POPSNas Keeps it Real I like what Nas had to say in this article. I think people in today's society get so caught up on words and images, they lose site of the intent and the realities behind what those words represent. For example, "nigger." People spend so much time focusing on the word. If it's said by a politician, in a movie, in a song, etc. They lose site of the real issue - that there's still racism and inequality in this country. People should focus more on the realities and the intent, than trying to find every little phrase that might be said somewhere by someone in a public setting that could potentially be interpreted by some people as potentially being somewhat derogatory.
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POPSYet Another Reason for Alternative Energy It amazes me when Bush talks about how committed he is to national security - with middle east countries being the biggest targets - but does nothing to reduce our reliance on oil. Bush continues to rely on countries he considers part of his "axis of evil" when he does nothing to further research into alternative domestic energy sources. His answer - let's try to drill for more oil here while maintaining a military presence in the middle east that's costing this country billions and ultimately trillions of dollars. No dumb ass, if you invested even a tiny portion of what you've spent on "securing" Iraq, on a domestic alternative energy policy, we wouldn't be in the economic trouble we're in today.
1
POPSListen to the Governator Environmental and energy policies are two things I tend to agree on with Schwarzenegger. Drilling for more oil will do nothing to lower current or even near-term energy prices. That's because finding new oil sources is not the issue. Demand far outpacing oil supply is the issue. We need to find new energy sources - not more oil. Any extra oil to be found would get soaked up by the market immediately, doing little if nothing to oil and energy prices. Finding alternate, large-scale sources of energy is the only thing that will keep prices in check, let alone save the environment.
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POPSLowering Interest Rates Would Be A BIG Mistake Everyone knows the economy is in trouble right now, but not raising, and even lowering interest rates would be a BIG mistake. Because of inflation, people are spending more and more of their budgets on basic necessities like food, fuel, clothes, etc. While lowering interest rates might keep mortgages more accessible and affordable, if inflation keeps rising, even if mortgages are down to 5% people won't be able to afford them, because all of their money will be going to their basic necessities. We need to curb inflation so that people can still afford to live in general, before we start worrying about keeping big ticket items like houses more affordable. And as far as banks go, isn't a free-market system supposed to allow some institutions that aren't performing or are making bad decisions fail? By continuing to bail some of these banks out that were making horrible decisions, you're just reinforcing bad behavior.
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POPSAnother Reason Why Bush and the Republicans Must Go Being a "big oil" man himself, of course President Bush's answer to soaring oil prices is to drill for more oil. The reality is, while this MIGHT provide some very minor, very short-term relief, it will do nothing to address the real issue. The amount of oil on this planet can not support the world's energy needs as we continue to grow. Instead of drilling more, we need to invest in making alternative, renewable sources of energy more feasible and readily available. Only then will we be able to address the energy crisis. We've got the sun, wind, algae, and many other resources that are almost infinite, but we choose to continue focusing on oil that has a very finite supply. I'll never understand it.
0
POPSRacial In-sensitivity or Over-sensitivity? This is an example of how overly-sensitive and conservative American society has become. It seems like people are always on the look-out for what could possibly be interpreted as a potential negative connotation against a particular race, color, religion, etc. Could you interpret this character's features as mocking black people - sure. But it's a cartoon character - they are often over-exaggerated to make them more engaging. The story of the cartoon means no disrespect, but because some racial leaders interpret it as offensive, it's being removed from stores. I think we go overboard more often than not in these types of situations. Is the cartoon saying black people are bad - no. Does the character exaggerate some physical characteristics black people tend to have - it looks like it. But why is that offensive?
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POPSWhy We Need a Domestic Energy Policy Instead of spending so much money and wasting so many innocent lives getting involved in military efforts in the middle east, to keep the supply of oil open, why don't we focus more of our resources on being energy independent. Hmmm - let me see, if my options for securing energy resources are: A) Using military force to get involved in battles with unstable leaders and militant religious groups in the middle east to secure access to oil. B) Invest in research and development of alternative energy sources we can control within our own borders. I can't see why anyone would choose option A. Oh wait, our president is heavily tied to big oil companies that are buying their way to influence our government policies. Spend our money and lives on energy independence, not securing the middle east!
1
POPSCandidates' Approaches to Energy I'm glad to see both candidates very focused on energy policy - it's something this country has been lacking for a very long time. I have to agree with Obama on this one, with one big caveat. That he doesn't earmark the money brought in for more wasteful government spending. No public interest programs, or doing colleagues favors by funding their efforts. Use that money to reduce our deficit, fund research into alternative energy, and give the rest back to the taxpayers. I'm a democrat, but one of the things I can't stand about many democrats is government spending. Let's reduce the amount of government programs and give more of that money back to taxpayers.
0
POPSSave a Little Gas Great article with some great tips. The biggest one - DRIVE SLOWER. I have to admit I started doing this and I'm absolutely amazed at how much gas I'm saving. I log one 50-60 mile trip each weekend plus about 10 miles each weekday back and forth to work. With that driving, I'd have to fill up about once a week or week and a half. What did I change? - I set my cruise control to just below 65 MPH when on the freeway. - I go much easier on the accelerator when starting out. - When coming to a stop sign, traffic light, or exit ramp, instead of hitting the gas until I get close and then immediately breaking, I just coast. - Same with pulling into my garage, parking lots, etc. I used to drive pretty aggressively, always flooring it out of a stop to get around people, and driving pretty fast. Now, with these changes, I'm filling up every 2 weeks with the same amount of driving. It's been huge!
1
POPSIt's So Simple But People Won't Do It People talk a lot about wanting to save energy, lower oil/gas prices, and be more environmentally friendly, but most of it is just that - talk. People want to appear like they want to make a difference because it's become socially unacceptable to appear not to care. But when it comes to taking action, if it impacts people's current lifestyle in any way - even the smallest bit - most people won't do it. Consider driving 60-65 MPH on the freeway instead of 75-80, and going slower on the accelerator. If everyone did this, the savings would be HUGE - but of course people feel they have to get where they're going 30 seconds sooner and need to show of the power of their engines, so they won't do it.
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POPSThank God for Genetics Man, you don't know how happy this article made me. If all else fails, I NEED my chocolate supply to be sustained. I'd gladly get on this project to help make sure I never run out of chocolate!
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POPSCalifornia Leads the Way Again It's amazing how much of a leader and innovator California is when it comes to many things, but particularly government regulation and environmental issues. I'm happy to see this moving forward - I think we'll be able to set an example and act as a proof of concept for the rest of the country.
0
POPSOne Area I Actually Favor McCain I'm all about Obama in the upcoming election, but one area where I think he could take some pointers from McCain is on taxes and government spending. I'm in full agreement with McCain that the answer to our current deficit isn't necessarily raising taxes, but significantly reducing wasteful government spending. I think if Obama focused more on this than what new taxes he needs to raise, it'd be much more effective. We already have a lot of our money taken away, and the Federal government has shown time and time again that they're not good at managing our money, so take it away from them. That said however, Obama still gets my vote - not even close.
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POPSGet Me a Milkshake Wow I have to say I love this approach. It's a great way to get people to see why their rules are a bit ridiculous and to see they really can and should be doing something else.
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