ShowMeBlog

Google Will Give You Money to give up your privacy

“In the midst of outcry over the changes in Google's privacy policy, the search giant has announced that it will start paying some users to share their search history as part of a new project dubbed Screenwise.

Search Engine Land reports that people who sign up to be on the Screenwise panel will receive a $5 credit on Amazon for installing a browser extension that allows all of the data from their Chrome browsing to be collected. Participants will get an additional $5 for every three months of participation up to one year.Fine print on the Screenwise landing page states that after a year the terms of payment could change.

Google was vague about what details the members of its "panel" would share. "As a panelist, you'll add a browser extension that will share with Google the sites you visit and how you use them," Google said…”      The Huffington Post

FrackNation vs GasLand

  Fracking is big in Texas.  I saw the documentary GasLand and that is about the first time that I learned about fracking.  I had seen some stories about problems here in Texas with fracking and with the corporations refusing to tell about the stuff they were pumping into the ground.  There was also reports of it being done next to schools and parks.  So little pipes were sticking up from the ground and no one knew there were even there.
  But I learned a lot from the GasLand documentary.  Now I am not a Republican so I don’t take anything I see as fact until I hear other points of view and do some research on my own.

  I guess the right and the fracking people are going to put out their own documentary called FrackNation soon.

David Beckham H&M Underwear Commercial

  I am not a sports fan.  I am not a fan of David Beckham.  I also do not want to see anyone with a tattoo.  Well a small one someplace is OK but none on the face.  I also do not want to see someone with them showing all over their arms etc.  That is just me.  I know a lot of you will not agree with me.  It is your body deface it if you want.  I just do not want to look at it. 

 

  It looks like CNN’s Roland Martin is in trouble with gay and gay groups.  He was watching the Super Bowl and tweeting about everything and commented on the Beckham video and how gay guys were commenting about the “steamy” Super Bowl commercial. 

  If corporations would not use people with a lot of tattoos that would help put an end to me and others having to see shit like this on TV.
  Just let the word go out that if you got a lot of tattoos or even one on your face you will not be working in TV, movies or even on the radio. 
  I know it is not going to happen.  I have lived to long.

 

The American Dream : American Airlines Bankruptcy

  The Star-Telegram has an interesting story on the American Airlines Bankruptcy. 

 

“When AMR Corp. announced its plan Wednesday to terminate all four of its employee pension plans, it joined a long line of U.S. employers that have abandoned what was long seen as a birthright of American workers.

In 1980, 84 percent of Americans working for large or midsize private employers were eligible for a traditional pension, known as a defined benefit plan because it promises to pay a specific benefit based on earnings and years of service. By 2010, that was down to 30 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a not-for-profit research organization in Washington, D.C…”

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/01/3705574/amr-wants-to-terminate-all-four.html#storylink=cpy

 

  Back when I was young…  A long long time ago… I worked as a welder for a corporation (Hess Trucks).  We made trucks that carried beer, soft drinks and stuff like that.  It was sometime in the 60s I think.  It was a union job of course.  We were UAW members.  The pay was good.  I enjoyed the work.  I did take off my hard hat one time when I was welding under a truck and the workers on top were pounding with sledgehammers and a c-clamp came loose and came down and hit me in the head.  Yes, that is how I became a Democrat.  Hit in the head by a hammer.
  I was in my early 20s then.  The company hired in about five guys and they looked old to me. Very old men.  They all came to work at the same time and all had worked at another company before.  The company they had worked at went out of business.  All of these old guys had been a year or two from retirement age and they all had worked for the company most if not all of their lives.  They lost their company pensions.  They ended up with zero for all those years of work.  They would, of course, get Social Security.

  I remember thinking at the time that it was not right that a person could work for a company and then have them just cancel the pension and say get lost. 
  It looks like after all these years this sort of thing is still happening.
  Thank God for Social Security.
  But we need government regulation in this area and in a lot of areas.  That is one of the reasons for government.

Collection calls on Sunday?

  Maybe I should have transferred over my Skype number to my new Charter Phone service.  I went with a new number.  I been getting one or two calls a day.  They appear to be from creditors trying to collect money.  I think a female by the name of Smith had this number.
  It is funny she is getting calls from creditors trying to collect money and from services that are offering to help with people that have money problems.
  One call from a collection service came today and it was a recorded message.  I did not know that collection people could call you on Sunday.  Also is it legal for them to do recorded messages.  Plus the message made it clear that it was a collection service.  It seems that would not be legal. 
  I hate phone calls.

  In a couple of days I will have my new phones.  They are Panasonic KX-TG6512B coreless phones. 
  I did not think I would need one of the features but I guess now I will be using it.   It allows you to block unwanted calls.  You put in the number and then when a call comes from that number they always get a busy signal.
  One of the  callers the other day calling for the woman Smith was a live call.  He was offering a service to help people in debt.  So I told him that I just got the number the other day and there was no smith here.  He just hung up in my ear right away.  He must work on commission.  He should have said he was sorry and he would take me off the list or something.

   I hate people that do phone sales.  My daughter Hilary did that sort of work for years.  She was excellent at it.  She worked some places and they could not believe how good she was at the job.  You got to have something inside you that lets you do that sort of work.  I do not have what it takes.
   I feels sorry for people that do that sort of phone work.  It is hard work. 
   I did the other day put my new phone number on the national do not call list.
   You know you can collect money if those people call and do not follow the rules.  But there are so many loop holes in the rules.  I think bill collectors can call you even if you are on the do not call list.
   
    It is to bad when you get a “new” phone number that you have to deal with the number having been used by someone that had problems.   I guess there is no way to get around it.  It seems like there should be some system to “clear” the number.  When it is no longer used by someone that company that had it could send out a no longer notice and then the company that takes the number should have to hold the number for x amount of time.
    I guess there are reasons that would not work.
   
   Right now I got a “new” phone number and I think I am going to have to deal with calls from bill collectors for someone named Smith.

National Do Not Call Registry

  My new phone number is getting two calls per day.  AT&T wanting to sell me satellite TV service.  Some sort of credit card service and other calls.

  I just signed it up with the National Do Not Call Registry. 

 

“FILE A COMPLAINT

1. You may file a complaint if you received an unwanted call after your number was on the National Registry for 31 days.
2. You may also file a complaint if you received a call that used a recorded message instead of a live person (whether or not your number was on the Registry).
   *Reminder: Even if your number is registered, charities, political organizations, and telephone surveyors may continue to call you. Companies with which you do business may also continue to call, unless you have asked them to stop calling you. If you have asked them to stop calling, please keep a record of the date you made the request and include that information in the comment section of any complaint you submit against that company. Click Here for more information about the companies that may continue to call the numbers on the Registry.
   Debt collectors may also continue to call you whether your number is on the Registry or not. If you have a complaint about a debt collector, please Click Here to file your complaint. For more information about your rights regarding debt collectors Click Here.

Click on Privacy and Security to learn how the information you provide is used…”

Kiva loans

  I just made two Kiva loans this month.  One was to the Nueva Esperanza Group (Paraguay) and the other was a woman in the Ukraine. 
  I recommend Kiva – www.kiva.org 

 

“Kiva Microfunds (commonly known by its domain name, Kiva.org) is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries around the world and in the United States, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students.^[2] It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization^[3] headquartered in San Francisco, supported by loans and donations from its users and through partnerships with businesses and other institutions.^[4] Kiva itself does not charge any interest; the loans made by Kiva members are passed interest-free to the independent field partner servicing each loan. These interest rates are disclosed and are discussed in the relevant section on the Kiva website and in this article below…”

Living high on the hog

  I got my SSA-1099 and I got last year from Social Security $13,866.00 for the year.  I am part of the 99% for sure.
  It is hard for someone like me to believe that Republicans want to cut Social Security so that people that make over a million a year can pay less tax.  But the Republicans do.
 
  The thousand dollars a month I get pays the rent on this apartment and pays for food and a few other things.  OK OK I have Internet service and cable TV.  I am not wealthy.  I do not drink or smoke. I think I should be allowed to have cable.

  The Koch Brothers and the Republicans for some reason think it would be better for me and the United States if I was homeless.  They seem to think that some church would feed me.  I am not sure where I would sleep.  But I guess they would say I could get access to the Internet at a library.
  I just do not understand how that would be better for the United States.  How is it going to better for the United States to have your mother and father and your grandfather and grandmother living and dying on the streets of the cities of United States?

  Now as I have said many times here …. Social Security is not welfare. 
But Republicans call it welfare.  It is called often “middle-class welfare” by Republicans. 

  
  Also another thing…. I never collected unemployment in my life but it needs to be said… Again here … Unemployment payments are not welfare.   It is insurance.  When you work your employer pays a small amount of money into an unemployment fund for you.  It is insurance.
  Just as I paid into Social Security all my life I also worked and paid into unemployment insurance.  I never collected from that fund.  
  Republicans act like they know all about business and money matters but they seem pretty dumb on these issues.

  The way the Republicans think is that if you have a house or a car and you have insurance on them.  You pay each month the insurance payment.  Then if your house burns down or you have a car accident according to the way they think the money you would get from the insurance company is welfare.

  I have a statement from Social Security that shows how much I paid into Social Security each year for all the years that I worked.  
  Do not be stupid … Do not let the Republicans lie to you.

MegaUpload Shut Down

  I checked out MegaUpload a year or two ago for some reason.  I think I had a large file that I wanted to send to someone and it would not fit via eMail.  So I used MegaUpload.  So I looked around their sites. 
  I saw that you could download movies.  Some of the movies were just out in the theaters right then.  But everything I saw about how the site operated sent warnings to me.  They had the feel of not being honest and being a hacker site.  I felt that you could not use their site for long without getting a virus or something worst on your computer.  I never went back to them.   I forgot about them.

  Well they got taken off line and all of their sites were taken off line.

  “Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 that ran a one-click hosting online service of the same name, along with its sister services. The site was shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on January 19, 2012 during an investigation into alleged copyright infringement,[3][2][4][5] leading to what activist group Anonymous calls "the single largest Internet attack in its history"…”

   

  Well yesterday Russ came into my room and was upset and mad.  I said what is wrong and he said they shut down MegaUpload.  I did not know he knew about the site or used them.

  Here is Boogie2988 from YouTube  and what he has to say about the MegaUpload shut down.

 

  I think MegaUpload needed to be taken down.  I know Russ will not agree with me and I know that many of you will not agree with me.  I could tell from a very little bit of time looking at MegaUpload that they were dirty.  In fact after I looked at their site I made a special point to do a complete virus scan.  I never make a special effort to run it I let it do it in the background.  But after looking at that site I ran it special.

Romney gives cash to struggling supporter

“Sumter, South Carolina (CNN) – Mitt Romney gave a handful of cash Saturday to a woman who had told him she was struggling financially after an event in Sumter, South Carolina.

An aide said the GOP candidate gave the supporter "what he had on him" - about $50 or $60…”

 

    This just feels wrong for some reason.  I may be wrong on this.  There is something about it that makes me feel a bit sick. 
    I wish he could have done it without anyone knowing about it.  But she may have been the one telling everyone about it.  I do not know.
   But still it just seems not right for some reason.  Some people are commenting that it is vote buying.  I do not think that is the case. 
   The article says that she has been helping at is campaign office.  It seems like this could have been taken care of at the office and in private.
   I am not sure if what brothers me is that a man that is super rich hands out $60.00 or not.
   I am super poor.  From about the middle of the month to the end of the month I have just about zero money.  Sometimes a homeless person will stop me around here and I will give the person often $2.00 or at the most $5.00 and when I do it I slip it to them.  I fold it over and try and not let anyone see me doing it.  Now as poor as I am if I give someone $2.00 that is a hell of a lot more than Mitt Romney that is worth as much as $264 million dollars. 

  I am glad the woman got help.  Her lights were turned off and she got them turned back on.
  I can not see attacking Mitt Romney for giving a poor woman $60.00 but I can not see patting him on the back.

  When I was working I always gave my fair share to the United Way.  Most of them, maybe all the time, I gave my fair share plus.  One year it was my job to go around to the guys in the security department. 
  I went to the director of security.  He made very good money AND he got a big military pension that was tax free.  Plus his wife made more than he did.  She had a very good job.  Well he made out a check for $100.00 and gave it to me.  Sounds like a lot of money but I was giving more than that giving my “fair share.” 

  What do you think about Mitt Romney and this story?   I do not think it is vote buying.
  Does it make you uneasy also?  I can not put my finger on just what it is.  Like I said.. I may be just totally wrong on this story.