This email making the rounds again...and its Mostly FALSE

Federal Benefit Payments

I just read this again today in my email...BUT its not true go figure.

Check www.snopes.com before getting tricked into sending out lies in email.

Claim:   Item criticizes various aspects of the Social Security security system.

MOSTLY FALSE

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, March 2012]

SOCIAL SECURITY NOW CALLED 'FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENT'/ENTITLEMENT

Have you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a "federal benefit payment"?

I'll be part of the one percent, to forward this, our government gets away with way too much in all areas of our lives, while they live lavishly on their grossly overpaid incomes! KEEP passing THIS AROUND UNTIL EVERY ONE HAS READ IT.....

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THIS CALCULATION IS THEY FORGOT TO FIGURE IN THE PEOPLE WHO DIED BEFORE THEY COLLECTED THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY!!!! WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO?????????????

This was sent to me, I am forwarding it because it does touch a nerve in me.

This is another example of what Rick Perry called "TREASON in high places"!!! Get angry and pass this on!

Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.

If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the government pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.

If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65)and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.

Entitlement my butt, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!

Congressional benefits — free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?

We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless.

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey . And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.

Sad isn't it?

99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.

I'm one of the 1% — I Just Did.

 

Origins:   It's true that Social Security retirement payments are classified as "federal benefit payments," but that's about the only bit of information the author of this item got right — and even at that he errs in mistakenly assuming this terminology to be new and in misconstruing what it means.

The word "benefits" has been applied to Social Security retirement payments since the Social Security program was enacted in the 1930s. The terminology is also not unique to Social Security, as the phrase "federal benefit payments" applies to a broad class of payments made to (or on behalf of) individuals under federal government programs — everything from Social Security Disability Insurance to Medicare to  farm subsidies are considered "federal benefit payments." The fact that workers themselves contribute much of the money that goes into the Social Security retirement fund doesn't affect its classification as a benefit.

Likewise, the word "entitlement" has long been the standard terminology for payments made under government programs that guarantee and provide benefits to particular groups. Persons who have demonstrated their eligibility to claim such payments are entitled (i.e., "qualified for by right according to law") to receive them. The usage has nothing to do with pejorative connotations associated with the word (e.g., "a sense of entitlement") which are often applied to denote people expecting or demanding something they do not merit.

As for the calculations about savings detailed in the latter half of the above-quoted example, they're far off the mark for a number of reasons:

• Assuming the aggregate Social Security contributions for any individual to be equal to 15% of his lifetime income is a flawed approach, because the required levels of Social Security contributions have varied across time, and Social Security contributions from individuals and employers combined have never "totaled 15% of your income before taxes." The current contribution level is 12.4%, and historically the contribution rates have been significantly less. (Many people confuse Federal Insurance Contributions Act [FICA] payments, which are currently assessed at a 15.3% rate, with Social Security, but they are not the same thing. FICA payments include both Social Security and Medicare taxes.)


• Assuming the Social Security contributions for any individual to be equal to a percentage of his average lifetime income is a flawed approach, because Social Security contributions have a yearly cap (i.e., contributors never pay more than a specified maximum amount, no matter how much money they make in a given year). A person who earned $80,000 in 2001 would have paid just as much into Social Security as a person who made $750,000 in 2001, so assuming that the Social Security contributions for each equalled 12.4% of their income that year would produce a grossly inflated figure in the latter case.


• The dollar figures provided are a mish-mash that take neither past nor future conditions into account. It's wrong to assume that Social Security contributions equal "15% of your income before taxes" because (as already noted), Social Security contribution levels have varied across time, they have never been as high as 15%, and there's no guarantee of what they will be in the future. It's wrong to assume that a typical current retiree (i.e., someone who started his working life 40+ years ago) earned an average of $30,000 per year across his lifetime, as the median household income in the U.S. didn't even reach that level until 1993. And it's wrong to assume that a current wage earner could safely see a 5% return on his money if it weren't paid into Social Security, as the average interest rates for savings accounts and certificates of deposit have been well below that figure (typically under 1% or 2%) for several years now.

Additionally, the statement that "our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks, while our government pours hundreds of billions of $$$$$$'s to foreign countries" reflects a common but grossly inaccurate perception of how the federal government spends taxpayer monies. In fact, the bulk of the federal budget (by far) goes towards providing for retirees and low-income households: 20% of the budget pays for Social Security, 21% pays for health insurance programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP), and another 13% pays for financial safety net programs. By contrast, only about 1% of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid.

Finally, although the anonymous author of this piece uses the term "Social Security insurance," he doesn't seem to understand that's exactly what Social Security is. Social Security isn't a savings plan or an investment scheme; it's an Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program intended to ensure that Americans are guaranteed a minimum monthly payment in their non-working years. As with all insurance programs, some people will eventually receive less than they paid in, and others will receive more.

Last updated:   11 February 2013

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/benefit.asp#AQMt4AjvcWQI3QtW.99

Obamacare, a small number of people lose their current insurance but they end up with alternative, typically stronger coverage.

Under the Republican plan, by contrast, people losing employer insurance would end up in the dysfunctional, non-reformed individual market—the one full of confusing, junk policies that might not cover basic services like maternity or mental health or have huge gaps in coverage. And the people losing Medicaid? They would end up with … nothing at all.
The real issue here isn’t simply Republican opportunism and hypocrisy—although, please, let’s not ignore that either. The real issue is about the true trade-offs of policy. Both sides offer them. With Obamacare, a small number of people lose their current insurance but they end up with alternative, typically stronger coverage. Under the plans Republicans have endorsed, a larger number of people would lose their current insurance, as people migrated to a more volatile and less secure marketplace. Under Obamacare, the number of Americans without health insurance at all will come down, eventually by 30 or 40 million. Under most of the Republican plans, the number of Americans without insurance would rise.

Source

Texas Abortion Restrictions Declared Unconstitutional By Federal Judge

Rick Perry Strategy Foiled Again

A federal judge has determined that new Texas abortion restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution, a ruling that keeps open — at least for now — dozens of abortion clinics that were set to halt operations Tuesday had the law taken effect.

AUSTIN, Texas -- AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has determined that new Texas abortion restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution, a ruling that keeps open — at least for now — dozens of abortion clinics that were set to halt operations Tuesday had the law taken effect.

In a decision released Monday that the state is certain to appeal, District Judge Lee Yeakel wrote that the regulations requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital creates an undue obstacle to women seeking an abortion.

"The admitting-privileges provision of House Bill 2 does not bear a rational relationship to the legitimate right of the state in preserving and promoting fetal life or a woman's health and, in any event, places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus and is thus an undue burden to her," he wrote.

While Yeakel found that the state could regulate how a doctor prescribes an abortion-inducing pill, he said the law did not allow for a doctor to adjust treatment taken in order to best protect the health of the woman taking it. Therefore he blocked the provision requiring doctors to follow U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol for the pills in all instances.

Source

Honest Ed's has been sold...

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, October 28, 2013 6:08AM EDT 
Last Updated Monday, October 28, 2013 6:21AM EDT

TORONTO -- Media reports say the site of the iconic Toronto discount store Honest Ed's has been sold to a Vancouver-based luxury developer.

The buyer is Westbank Properties, which built the Shangri-La hotels in Toronto and Vancouver.

David Mirvish, who confirmed the sale Sunday night, says the deal will close later this year.

He is the current owner of the property and son of the late Edwin (Honest Ed) Mirvish, who founded the store on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets in 1948.

David Mirvish told the Toronto Star that Westbank will rent the site and surrounding properties back to him for the next two to three years, while it decides what to do with the 1.8-hectare parcel.

The financial details of the sale were not disclosed, but the Star says when Mirvish began looking for a buyer in July, the reported asking price was $100 million.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/toronto-s-honest-ed-s-sold-to-vancouver-developer-1.1516230#ixzz2j11NibvN

ROBERT B. REICH says..."biggest problem is the decline of the middle class"

"Our biggest problem is the decline of the middle class and increasing ranks of the poor, while almost all the economic gains go to the top." 
Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Beyond Outrage'

(chairman of Mr. Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. and former labor secretary, endorsed Mr. Obama)             Mr. Reich, 64, is one of several prominent liberal economists who despair of what they say is this president’s political caution, and his unwillingness to duel with an emboldened Republican Party. )

Conservative Republicans have lost their fight over the shutdown and debt ceiling, and they probably won't get major spending cuts in upcoming negotiations over the budget.

But they're winning the big one: How the nation understands our biggest domestic problem.

They say the biggest problem is the size of government and the budget deficit.

In fact our biggest problem is the decline of the middle class and increasing ranks of the poor, while almost all the economic gains go to the top.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that only 148,000 jobs were created in September -- way down from the average of 207,000 new jobs a month in the first quarter of the year.

Many Americans have stopped looking for work. The official unemployment rate of 7.2 percent reflects only those who are still looking. If the same percentage of Americans were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, today's unemployment rate would be 10.8 percent.

Meanwhile, 95 percent of the economic gains since the recovery began in 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent. The real median household income continues to drop, and the number of Americans in poverty continues to rise.

So what's Washington doing about this? Nothing. Instead, it's back to debating how to cut the federal budget deficit.

The deficit shouldn't even be an issue because it's now almost down to the same share of the economy as it's averaged over the last thirty years.

The triumph of right-wing Republicanism extends further. Failure to reach a budget agreement will restart the so-called "sequester" -- automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that were passed in 2011 as a result of Congress's last failure to agree on a budget.

These automatic cuts get tighter and tighter, year by year -- squeezing almost everything the federal government does except for Social Security and Medicare. While about half the cuts come out of the defense budget, much of the rest come out of programs designed to help Americans in need: extended unemployment benefits; supplemental nutrition for women, infants and children; educational funding for schools in poor communities; Head Start; special education for students with learning disabilities; child-care subsidies for working families; heating assistance for poor families. The list goes on.

The biggest debate in Washington over the next few months will be whether to whack the federal budget deficit by cutting future entitlement spending and closing some tax loopholes, or go back to the sequester. Some choice.

The real triumph of the right has come in shaping the national conversation around the size of government and the budget deficit -- thereby diverting attention from what's really going on: the increasing concentration of the nation's income and wealth at the very top, while most Americans fall further and further behind.

Continuing cuts in the budget deficit -- through the sequester or a deficit agreement -- will only worsen this by reducing total demand for goods and services and by eliminating programs that hard-pressed Americans depend on.

The President and Democrats should re-frame the national conversation around widening inequality. They could start by demanding an increase in the minimum wage and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit. (The President doesn't' even have to wait for Congress to act. He can raise the minimum wage for government contractors through an executive order.)

Framing the central issue around jobs and inequality would make clear why it's necessary to raise taxes on the wealthy and close tax loopholes (such as "carried interest," which enables hedge-fund and private-equity managers to treat their taxable income as capital gains).

It would explain why we need to invest more in education -- including early-childhood as well as affordable higher education.

This framework would even make the Affordable Care Act more understandable - as a means for helping working families whose jobs are paying less or disappearing altogether, and therefore in constant danger of losing health insurance.

The central issue of our time is the reality of widening inequality of income and wealth. Everything else -- the government shutdown, the fight over the debt ceiling, the continuing negotiations over the budget deficit -- is a dangerous distraction. The Right's success in generating this distraction is its greatest, and most insidious, triumph.

ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His film, "Inequality for All," will be out in September. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. Watch the trailer for his new film,Inequality for All:

Problem Rogers Explorer 8642 HD PVR Randomly loses audio fluctuations driving you nuts- read this!

These are the type of problems that numerous people are experiencing incluing the writer>

Explorer 8642 HD PVR and it randomly loses audio.  Just like in your case, if I turn my TV off and on, the sound comes back.  Here's what I've done to try to resolve this problem:

- hard reboot (unplugged terminal for 5 minutes)

- factory reset

- changed audio settings from variable to fixed * from narrow to normal

- tried different HDMI cables

- tried different HDMI ports on TV

None of this has worked.  I'm going to swap the HDMI cable with a component cable to see if that makes a difference.  At first I thought the terminal was defective but since the sound comes back after I power off and then power on the TV, I'm wondering if the problem is poor signal strength as someone else mentioned in this thread.

 If you're able to figure out what the problem is please let us know and I'll do the same.

Source

The writer has found a solution: 

Receiver Software Configuration

It appears that the receiver must be configured to use optical audio while using HDMI for video.

This resolved my audio fluctuation problem I hope it solves yours.

My equipment 

1. Sony str dn840 , 
2. Sharp Aquos 52 inch, 
3. Next Box 3.0 PVR model 9865 (6-20-2013)

Steps:

1. HDMI cable from back of PVR to Sony HDMI input
2. Optical cable back of PVR to input (assignable input on Sony)
3. Open Sony software change settings as below
4. Change input settings to optical (from PVR) 

Pope Francis temporarily expels ‘luxury bishop’ from German diocese after $42M home reno

VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis temporarily expelled a German bishop from his diocese on Wednesday because of a scandal over a 31-million-euro project to build a new residence complex, but refused calls to remove him permanently.

The Vatican didn't say how long Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst would spend away from the diocese of Limburg and gave no information on where he would go or what he would do. It said he was leaving pending the outcome of a church commission investigation into the expenditures and his role in the affair.

Limburg's vicar general, the Rev. Wolfgang Roesch, who had been due to take up his duties on Jan. 1, will instead start work immediately and will run the diocese during Tebartz-van Elst's absence, the Vatican said.

At the centre of the controversy is the 31-million-euro ($42 million) price tag for the construction of a new bishop's residence complex and related renovations. Tebartz-van Elst has defended the expenditures, saying the bill was actually for 10 projects and that there were additional costs because of regulations on buildings under historical protection.

Read Full Article At Source

GOP Majority Potentially Vulnerable

Just over 80 percent disapprove of the shutdown, a Washington Post/ABC poll finds, and wide majorities say it has damaged the United States' economy, its image abroad, and the morale of federal employees. Even more -- 87 percent -- say it's indicative of broader problems in Washington...

Congressional approval is at a miserable 12 percent in the Post/ABC poll, its lowest point in 39 years. More Americans disapprove than approve of their own representative for the first time in at least 24 years. In a USA Today/Princeton Survey Research Associates poll, 47 percent of Americans say Congress would be improved if every member were voted out, while just 4 percent think it would be worse...

In the Post/ABC poll, 48 percent of registered voters said they would prefer to vote for a Democratic House candidate, while 40 percent would vote for a Republican, although those numbers are unchanged from a May survey.

Source

"What an exciting message they proclaimed--"Millions now living will never die!" Brother Rutherford had given a discourse on this subject in 1918.

"As we have heretofore stated, the great jubilee cycle is due to begin in 1925. At that time the earthly phase of the kingdom shall be recognized." Millions Now Living Will Never Die p.89

"Hence these faithful men may be expected on earth within the next few years." The Harp of God p.340

Largely unknown by most Jehovah's Witnesses today, this was the focus of the Watchtower preaching work between 1918 and 1925. Reading the brief mention of this booklet in theProclaimers book, one could be mistaken for thinking 1925 was of little relevance in the history of Jehovah's Witnesses; yet this was the defining prophecy of Rutherford's leadership. "Millions Now Living Will Never Die!" introduced Rutherford's prediction that the earthly resurrection was to begin in 1925, starting with the faithful men of old, men such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

"The year 1926 would therefore begin about October first, 1925. We should, therefore, expect shortly after 1925 to see the awakening of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Melchisedec, Job, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, John the Baptist, and others mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. ... No doubt many boys and girls who read this book will live to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, and those other men of old come forth in the glory of their better resurrection, of perfect in mind and body. It will not take long for Christ to appoint them to their post of honor and authority as his earthly representatives. The world and all the present conveniences will seen strange to them at first, but they will soon become accustomed to the new methods. They may have some amusing experiences at first; for they never saw telephones, radios, automobiles, electric lights, aeroplanes, steam engines, and many other things so familiar to us." The Way to Paradise (1924) pp.224,226

http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/1925.php 

How To Take Profit Out Of Drugs...Uruguay's drug czar says the country plans to sell legal marijuana for $1 per gram,

29 grams = 1 ounce and in Canada weed is $250-300.00 per ounce

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's drug czar says the country plans to sell legal marijuana for $1 per gram, though he's given higher figures in the past.

A law already passed in the lower house of Congress and expected to pass in the Senate later this year would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers.

The El Pais newspaper reported Sunday that drug chief Julio Calzada says marijuana sales should start in the second half of 2014 at a price of $1.

He says the idea isn't to make money, but to wrench the market away from illegal dealers. Calzada said in August that the price would be around $2.5 per gram.

Sales are for locals only.

The pope, a bishop, and the scandal of wealth The Bling Bishop called to Vatican meeting

The controversy surrounding the “Bling Bishop,” Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst, has become a test case for how Pope Francis intends to handle scandal—not the scandal of sexual impropriety, but the scandal of wealth.

We’re used to bishops being summoned to the Vatican to defend their orthodoxy or to be reminded of their vows of obedience.

But we’re not used to bishops being summoned to Rome to defend their financial management and to be reminded of their vows of humility.

Pope Francis wants a poorer, humbler church.

Evidently he means to enforce it.

The controversy surrounding the “Bling Bishop,” Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst, has become a test case for how Pope Francis intends to handle scandal—not the scandal of sexual impropriety, but the scandal of wealth.

Bishop Tebartz van Elst has reportedly spent millions of Euros on his residence in the German city of Limburg.  The bathroom itself reportedly cost €15,000.  As if this weren’t enough, Bishop Tebartz van Elst is being accused of twice lying under oath.  Evidently, the good bishop flew business class to India for a social development project but denied it and sued the newspaper Der Spiegel when it published a tell-all-account. Petitions were circulated demanding his resignation—all the while the bishop has pleaded innocence: “people who know me know that I do not need a pompous lifestyle.”  

Now he’s going to the Vatican to explain himself further.

It was unclear whether Bishop Tebartz van Elst was actually summoned or he went of his own accord. Reports, however, did make it clear that he traveled by a “budget airline.”  He will meet with the head the Catholic Bishops Conference of Germany

No meeting with Pope Francis is scheduled.  But the pontiff will most certainly make his presence felt.

Unlike Benedict XVI or John Paul II, who reserved their heaviest criticism for modern secularism, Pope Francis has condemned global capitalism in the strongest terms—particularly how its temptations hollow out the Catholic church from within. Pope Francis has condemned the slave wages paid in the garment industry and he has also condemned priests driving new cars.  While one example might seem serious and the other trite, they are both linked in the pope’s religious vision:  while human beings are deprived of their basic economic rights, it is not just unseemly for priests to live in luxury—it is a scandal.

The traditional Catholic definition of scandal is severe and uncompromising:  scandal is an innately evil act that leads others to sin. In this case, it would seem that the issue is not just luxury as selfish appropriation and misuse of material goods, but also the message that it appears to send:  the joy of the priesthood is the pomp and authority of the office.

This particular kind of scandal is one that is found throughout the Catholic world.

I am presently living and teaching in Sri Lanka, a country with a significant and quite influential Catholic minority. Here Pope Francis is seen as liberator. But he is not seen as a liberator in a conventional socio-political sense.  He’s not called “Pope Fidel” or “The Successor of Che.”

Instead, Francis is seen as a pope who is seeking to liberate Catholicism from its own pretensions.

Among Catholic laity and seminarians I have met, the watchword now is “humility”—it is the standard by which the clergy and hierarchy are judged.  In my experience in South Asia, there are more than a few bishops who lead ostentatious lifestyles that would surely provoke the envy their brother bishops, like Tebartz van Elst, who themselves are ensconced in the comforts of what we like to call the “first world.”

How Pope Francis deals with Bishop Tebartz van Elst will tell us much about how this still new pontiff will shape the Catholic hierarchy of the future.  I do not think Pope Francis will be enforcing humility and poverty among bishops by applying particular forms of ecclesiastic sanction like forced resignation.  Instead, this pope seeks to lead with gentleness and mercy–and by example.

But balancing discipline and mercy is a difficult task.  And this pope likes simplicity. So maybe one Christian way of dealing with the scandal of wealth is through an ethic of sharing. In this case, Bishop Tebartz van Elst might open his palatial residence to the public—not just to the homeless, but to any one who needs a bathroom break.

Mathew N. Schmalz is a professor at  The College of the Holy Cross. 

SOURCE

Customs caught a man hiding 25 parrot eggs in his underwear

Swiss customs caught a man hiding 25 parrot eggs in his underwear, leading them to uncover a smuggling operation of rare bird eggs worth 65,000 Swiss francs ($71,800).

Having just arrived from Sao Paulo, the man caught the attention of officials with his awkward gait and was apprehended, Beat Eugster of the Zurich customs office said.

“He was wearing very wide trousers, and because he was walking so strangely the agents decided to stop him,” Eugster said by telephone today. “The agents thought he might have been carrying drugs.”

Source

iPhone Scan a Cheque = Deposit Direct To Your Bank...Yup Thats Right - Deposit Anywhere!

Banking on the go is about to get a little easier.

Westminster Savings has become the first financial institution in Canada  to roll out a service that lets its clients deposit cheques to their accounts using their smartphones or other mobile devices.

While ING Direct Canada is pilot testing mobile phone cheque deposits and other Canadian banks are expected to offer similar services soon, Westminster Savings’ April 17 launch marks the first time such a service will be offered to all customers of a Canadian financial institution.

The new service, dubbed “Deposit Anywhere,” will be included with Westminster Savings’ mobile banking app downloadable through Apple’s app store, making it available for customers who have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

While consumers in the United States have been able to deposit cheques via their mobile devices for a number of years, it has only been made possible in Canada with changes made last year by the Canadian Payments Association, the not-for-profit organization that operates and maintains the system of clearing and settlement of payments for Canada’s financial institutions.

http://www.depositanywhere.ca/

Source

Carrie Loses It In Coffee Shop

Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory, Hoax Or The Real Deal?

Note several of the following images are copyright, and are used here under "fair use", as non-profit, educational, and critical usage.

"Chemtrails" redirects here. For the Beck song, see Chemtrails (song).

Defoliant spray run, part of Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War by UC-123B Provider aircraft.

A high-flying jet leaving a condensation trail (contrail)

The chemtrail conspiracy theory posits that some trails left by aircraft are chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for purposes undisclosed to the general public and directed by various government officials.^[1] This theory is not accepted by the scientific community, which states that they are just normal contrails, as there is no scientific evidence supporting the chemtrail theory.

Because of the popularity of the conspiracy theory, official agencies have received thousands of complaints from people who have demanded an explanation.^[1][2] The existence of chemtrails has been repeatedly denied by scientists and government officials around the world, who say the trails are normal contrails.^[3]

The term chemtrail is a combination of the words "chemical" and "trail," just as contrail is a contraction of "condensation trail." The term does not refer to other forms of aerial spraying such as agricultural spraying ('crop dusting'), cloud seeding, skywriting, or aerial firefighting.^[4] The term specifically refers to aerial trails allegedly caused by the systematic high-altitude release of chemical substances not found in ordinary contrails, resulting in the appearance of characteristic sky tracks. Supporters of this conspiracy theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be for solar radiation management, psychological manipulation, human population control,^[1] weather modification,^[2] or biological or chemical warfare, and that these trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems.^[5][6]

http://www.metabunk.org/threads/debunked-chemtrail-plane-interior-ballast-barrels.661/

Gold mining destroying Rain Forests - tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.

"It was the wing cameras -- those simple HD wing cameras -- that grabbed everybody's attention," Asner, a professor at the California-based Carnegie Institution for Science, told the Huffington Post.

They revealed vast tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.

"A lot of poor folks from up in the Andes have migrated down to partake in a very classic-style gold rush," Asner explained. "It's totally illegal. It's totally unplanned. It's totally informal.

Dr. Gregory Asner didn't need hyper-spectral imaging to tell him something was very wrong with Earth's mightiest rain forest.

In fact, none of the super-sensory techno-gadgetry aboard his research plane -- dubbed the Carnegie Airborne Observatory -- would tell a more horrifying tale than a basic pair of wing-mounted cameras.

"It was the wing cameras -- those simple HD wing cameras -- that grabbed everybody's attention," Asner, a professor at the California-based Carnegie Institution for Science, told the Huffington Post.

They revealed vast tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.

"A lot of poor folks from up in the Andes have migrated down to partake in a very classic-style gold rush," Asner explained. "It's totally illegal. It's totally unplanned. It's totally informal.

"It's somewhere between 300 per cent and 500 per cent higher than the government thought was going on. There might be 50,000 of these miners now."

And, as their operations rake claws across the Amazon, the toll not only on the land but the people who have long called it home has become impossible to ignore.

"It is amazing to see the gold mining expand so rapidly," Asner noted. "I've been on the ground, covertly, in the mines, and it is horrendous for the people who are working and living there, but they don't care because gold is so valuable currently."

Indeed, the Amazon may be the most vital victim of the 2008 financial crisis. Amid the bailouts, collapse of financial institutions and market panic of that dismal year, the price of gold skyrocketed.

Asner estimates before the crisis, the Amazon was studded with some 2,100 hectares of goldmines.

And after gold prices surged?

"The rate went up from 2,100 to 6,500 -- and it has gone up since then."

Rich man, poor mankind.

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