January 27, 2012
BG Defender (WoW Plugin for PvP) 1.6.2 now available
From user feedback I added a new feature that allows you to announce the incoming messages in a different language than your default client language.
It is available here on www.curse.com
One issue with the feature is it mixes the actual message with both your local client language and the chosen language. For example, if using the German client but selecting French as the announcement language, it will make the announcement in French, but the node name used in the announcement is still in the local client language, in this case German. The result is a French announcement using a German node name.
This is due to the node name coming from the local client directly.
One woo peddler down, 999 bazillion to go…..
ConsumerAffairs.com reported today that “Central Coast Nutraceuticals has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle federal claims that it used fraudulent marketing, phony claims and bogus endorsements from Oprah Winfrey and Rachael Ray to peddle its acai berry supplements, ‘colon cleansers,’ and other products.”
I applaud the fact that the FTC has stepped in and dealt with the victimization of customers from the business practices used by Central Coast Nutraceuticals and the product claims. It would be nice too if we saw more judgements like this and not ones that rely upon credit card fraud to be noticed. These types of products sadly lead people like Oprah Winfrey and Rachel Ray to believe in this woo and promote it to an audience of uninformed people clinging to a false sense of hope packaged in a snake oil bottle.
Yet just like Howard Camping on May 22nd, 2011, I wager we will not be seeing any retraction, apology or verifiable product truth out of Oprah or Rachel Ray as a follow up to this. You would think that they at least owe an apology to their audience that fell for this scam, otherwise it seems to me that their show was no more than an endorsement for this fraudulent product and company.
A great light has gone out. Christopher Hitchens Dies at 62.
Christopher Hitchens, Who Wrote of War, God, Cancer, Dies at 62 (Bloomberg)
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Christopher Hitchens, the British- born journalist at home in the middle of U.S. political disputes including Bill Clinton’s infidelity, the war in Iraq and the role of organized religion, has died, Vanity Fair magazine said. He was 62.
Hitchens died at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, Vanity Fair reported on its Web site.
His insight and reason will be missed.
Bank of America $5.00 Debit Card Fee. Is it justified?
I have been watching the news on the Bank of America announcement about the $5.00 debit card fee. From all of the news reports I have seen, a basic report has been missed. It quite surprises me that the numerous financial newspapers have absolutely failed to calculate some basic numbers for the announcement to compare the “before” and “after” of what this new fee structure means.
Let me explain.
The Fed capped debit-card swipe fees at 21 cents starting Oct. 1. It will let issuers tack on five basis points, or 0.05 percent, of each transaction, or almost 2 cents based on the average debit purchase of $38, and a conditional 1-cent adjustment for lenders that follow fraud-prevention standards.
Reference: Bloomberg
Okay, that explains the new plan, but how does it compare to the old plan? For that I had to do some digging (perish the thought that a journalist would do this….)
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Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
Making the media circuit today is essentially the statement that:
10% of the US population pays 70% of the taxes and earns 30% of all income
First, I do not know where those numbers come from. Are they based upon analyzing IRS income statement returns filed this past year? I had thought that they were somewhat confidential, so it would surprise me if that is the source of percentages. So where else might they come from?
Origins aside, the discussions in the media make those numbers, 30% and 70%, sound really bad. So bad in fact that the outraged demand is one of fixing the tax system that could allow this to happen.
But what do these 30% and 70% mean? What does it equate to in terms of money in everyone’s pockets?
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BG Defender (WoW Plugin for PvP) 1.6.2 now available
From user feedback I added a new feature that allows you to announce the incoming...