Divorce insurance - no, really - divorce insurance

Splitting the blankets? You may wish you had divorce insurance.

SafeGuard Guaranty, an insurance start-up based in North Carolina, recently released what it’s billing as the world's first divorce insurance product.

The casualty insurance will provide financial assistance in the form of cash to cover the costs of a divorce, such as legal proceedings or setting up a new apartment or house.

You can't buy the insurance and then collect if you divorce right away. The policy must mature first.

To help people determine whether they need the insurance, the company has a Divorce Cost Calculator and a Divorce Probability Calculator on its website.

No mention if it provides marriage counseling.

I'd caution anyone from marrying a person planning to buy this insurance.

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Windblown umbrella catching rain - photo

A New Yorker continues to use his umbrella, even after the wind turned it inside out, as he walks down Liberty Street.

How much water will an inverted umbrella hold?

Witches in Romania win first round in tax fight

Lawmakers in the ruling Democratic Liberal Party of Romania drafted a law that would require witches and fortune tellers to produce receipts for their income.

Not only that, they would be held liable for wrong predictions. This is a measure by the government to increase revenue.

Romania's Senate, however, voted down the proposal. It appears the lawmakers were frightened of being cursed by the witches and fortune tellers.

The report suggests the lawmakers were afraid of being turned into toads.

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Tax receipt for business related wishes

British tax agency wants all paychecks to go to them first

From a CNBC report at the link below:

The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

The proposal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.

Maybe there is good reason for the British government to be paranoid about citizens paying their proper taxes.

Taxes have been high in the UK for years and many Brits have made a game of what they call "fiddling the taxman."

There is a song titled, Lester Fiddled the Taxman. You can even get the tune to the song as a ringtone for your mobile phone.

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Will employers someday be required to send employee payrolls to the IRS for tax deduction in this country?

After all the radical changes in the last eighteen months, don't bet that it won't.

If it does happen here there will be a sudden increase in the underground (non-taxable) economy.

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Report House may adjourn end of this week

From a report at the link below:

House leaders are considering adjourning as early as the end of this week, which would give lawmakers five and a half weeks to campaign before the Nov. 2 election but could also leave them exposed to allegations that they didn't finish their work in Washington.

The House hasn’t adjourned before Sept. 30 in an election year since 1960.

More here.

Transporting ballots in Afghanistan

A donkey transports ballot boxes to villages unreachable by vehicles in the Panjshir province of Afghanistan.

The war-torn nation held parliamentary elections September 18.

Crackdown on gambling in China

A worker arranges confiscated video machines before destroying them in Jinan, Shandong province.

Chinese police destroyed about 600 video game machines used for gambling as part of its anti-gambling operations

How to break in a new car

A Popular Mechanics report at the link below tells how to break in a new car. From the report:

It's a thing of beauty: a brand new car, shiny and crisp. It makes you want to spend the whole evening walking around it. Pretty soon, the neighbors wander over to congratulate you—and to render advice.

The advice is varied. Some say no more than 30 miles per hour for the first 1,000 miles. Others say drive it fast if you want it to be fast.

Others recommend synthetic oil, or nitrogen in the tires, or a mouse-milk oil additive, guaranteed to double fuel economy.

I have always followed the owners manual instructions when breaking in a new car but I don't remember the details - we haven't had a new car in over 20 years.

The last of our eight new cars was a 1989 Pontiac that ended up in a Kansas junkyard less than two years after it left the showroom. No, it didn't fall apart. It was demolished while parked on a street in Abilene, Kansas. No one was hurt but the rear third of the car was unrecognizable.

We knew a man who had a very unorthodox method of breaking in a new car. He bought a new Plymouth every year and after 2,000 miles he changed the oil and replaced the oil filter with Kotex and never changed the oil again. When the year was up the car would have about 12,000 miles since the one and only oil change.

Needless to say he didn't read that in the break-in instructions of his owner's manual.

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About the White House dog Bo…

"No no, not there Bo! She still has her gloves on from cleaning up the last mess!"

Bank in Maxine Waters controversy got $12 million bailout

A report at the link below is titled, Bank at center of Waters controversy got $12 million bailout despite reviews.

Maxine Waters (pictured) is a Democrat Congresswoman from California. From the report:

A community bank at the center of an ethics investigation that has ensnared Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) received a $12 million bailout even though Treasury Department officials knew it had a record of failing to serve its community’s lending needs.

Waters is accused of intervening to help OneUnited secure a meeting with Treasury officials, even though her husband owned stock in the bank and previously served on its board. After a months-long investigation, the House ethics committee charged Waters with three counts of violating House ethics rules.

More here.

Trash TV has arrived in Canada - literally

A report at the link below is titled: Garbage truck cameras give new meaning to trash TV.

Officials in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley plan to use camera-equipped garbage trucks to film what gets dumped in order to make sure people are recycling properly.

The cameras will be able to record what is thrown out so city staff will have proof of bad behavior.

More here.

Voter anger will change the game

Voter anger will change the Obama - Pelosi game

Montana gets September snow

A snow in north central Montana had some people checking their calendar to see if it is still, in fact, summer.

While snow in September is not unusual at higher elevations and in Glacier National Park, many lower elevations also received a dusting, with some areas reporting several inches of snow by mid-day on Friday.

The photo, however was taken in Babb, Montana - elevation 4,560.

At that elevation, snow this early in September is indeed a surprise.

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Doro and her baby sea lion at Berlin Zoo

California sea lion Doro nuzzles her two-month-old baby Gina at the Berlin Zoo

The Cathedrals quartet sing "Wonderful Grace Of Jesus" (acapella)

Mild memory loss not part of normal aging

From a report at the link below:

"The very early mild cognitive changes once thought to be normal aging are really the first signs of progressive dementia, in particular Alzheimer's disease." said Robert S.Wilson, PhD, neuropsychologist at Rush University Medical Center. "The pathology in the brain related to Alzheimer's and other dementias has a much greater impact on memory function in old age than we previously recognized."

This means I'm in trouble because I've had mild memory loss for several years.

I have often told Valeta that I believe in the hereafter. I walk into the next room and then wonder what I am here after.

Link to the memory loss report here.

Signs promoting stimulus cost taxpayers $9 Million

At a minimum, taxpayers have spent $9.1 million as of July 2010 on signs advertising the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus law.

But the cost is probably much higher since the six government agencies that spent stimulus dollars relied largely on sampling to get an estimate of how much money was spent on posting signs near Recovery Act projects.

Most of the signs read, “Putting America to Work,” and they include the ARRA emblem along with the Recovery.gov Web address.


While the Obama administration contends the signs provide transparency, Republicans believe the signs amount to taxpayer-subsidized propaganda.

Either way it was $9,000,000.00 that could have been spent in a more meaningful way.

More here.

Drunk airline pilot arrested minutes before takeoff

An intoxicated pilot was arrested at Amsterdam's Schipol airport just minutes before his airliner carrying 196 passengers was due to take-off.

Aviation authorities boarded a plane after a tip-off from a crew member.

The pilot, identified only as a 52-year-old from Woodbury, New Jersey was taken into custody in the cockpit of his plane.

Link

Instant fabric - spray on shirt in a can

A shirt made of this instant fabric fits so snugly it looks as if it has been sprayed on to the body. Actually, that's how the shirt is made.

Photos and a video at the link below show it's done.

A couple of questions come to mind:

1) If the model in the photo, found at the link below, had a lot of hair on his chest, would the shirt be as easy to remove the first time?

2) Would a skin-tight shirt stretch if the owner gained a few pounds?

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