The August 2009 Consumer Price Index – the main indication of inflation – has a surprise. It’s one that may mean no raises next year if you receive social security, invest in TIPS or if your income is somehow tied to the CPI. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) apparently decided those Cash for Clunkers checks decreased the price of new vehicles. With an estimated 700,000 cars bought under the program, that’s a lot of money not being counted as what Americans spent on cars.
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September 9, 2009
Even if you are not one of the millions expected to catch swine flu, a member of your family or a friend may. If you’re called on to help care for them, as I was my daughter and granddaughter, here are some helpful hints and guidelines you’ll want to read. September 8, 2009
Even if you do everything possible to avoid getting swine flu, you may still find yourself feeling, as my daughter described it, as if you had been hit by a truck. Here are some things you can do if you begin feeling the symptoms of this pandemic flu. September 7, 2009
In the first two weeks of classes at Washington State University, about 10% of students came down with swine flu. For most people, swine flu means three to five days of discomfort. But for some groups of people, it can be very serious and lead to a stay in the hospital or even death. Who are these high-risk patients? Even if you’re not in a high risk group, how can you prepare in case the pandemic gets as bad as some think it will be – affecting up to half the population and putting millions into hospitals? September 4, 2009
Late on a Tuesday afternoon in June, I received an e-mail saying a granddaughter had tested positive for swine flu and that her mother, my pregnant daughter, was also ill. Hearing the words ’swine flu’ in the same breath with the name of two family members caused a pang of anxiety and concern – perhaps even a bit of fear. This is the story of my journey into the “belly of the beast” in the hours and days following that e-mail. As the media frenzy again suggests an impending crisis, perhaps some of what I learned may benefit you and your family. August 28, 2009
A new study by Angus Deaton (Princeton University) uses Gallup World Poll data from 146 countries to analyze the relationship between being religious and one’s health. He concludes that religious people – especially men – are healthier than those who are not religious. In fact, there are some “startling differences in health outcomes and health behaviors by religiosity.” August 25, 2009
Learn to use e-mail (and other technology) far more sparingly and with far less dependency. Don’t and you risk losing control of your life, emotional and physical burnout, workplace meltdowns, and unhappiness. That’s the argument John Freeman makes in his new book, The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox (to be published in October by Scribner). Here are some his thoughts as expressed in a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Not So Fast”. August 19, 2009
Rumor has it that Congress will pass a temporary one-year extension of the estate tax before the end of the year. This would continue the estate tax at a 45% maximum rate and a $3.5 million exemption. Otherwise, the tax will be ‘repealed’ in 2010 and then, in 2011, revert to a maximum 55% rate and $1 million exemption. August 18, 2009
Melinda Beck, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has a good summary of ‘advanced directives’ – those documents that give direction to family and medical professionals who “may have to decide whether you would want to be kept alive artificially, what level of disability you’d be willing to live with and how to let you die if you had no hope of recovery.” August 17, 2009
A Texas federal court’s ruling last week that forbids Microsoft from selling new copies of Word 2003 and Word 2007 will have little impact on you and me. Technically the order restricts Microsoft from selling (or supporting) any “any infringing and Future Word Products that have the capability of opening a .XML, .DOCX or .DOCM file (”an XML file”) containing custom XML.” It is the “custom XML” language that makes the ruling unimportant for most people. August 7, 2009
Greg Shultz, in the 10 Things blog on Techrepublic.com, shares how you can use your USB flash drive to do a whole lot more than just move data around. Flash drives big enough to handle any of these tasks are cheap enough that you’ve got to wonder how you lived without them – especially when you see all the things you can do with them. August 6, 2009
Social networking posts and photos can come back to haunt you in a job search. Litigation or criminal investigations can result in a subpoena that gives others full access to your computer – letting the world see incriminating or embarrassing details from your past. Once information shows up on the internet it is almost impossible to get rid of it. Can you make information ’self-destruct’ on schedule? That’s the promise of Vanish, a free web-based system created by a research team at the University of Washington. August 3, 2009
This is a question President Obama was asked in an AARP town hall meeting last week. A Congressional website refutes claims that health care reform will start “us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia”. What’s the truth? This article will help you sort through the facts to find it. July 30, 2009
Google Voice will shake up how you use phones. You get a free virtual phone number and calls to that number ring on up to 6 phones at the same time. Free long distance calls in the continental U.S. and lot of other free goodies. It is only available by invitation. Sign up to get on the list. I got an invitation about a week after signing up. July 28, 2009
This week we had all 13 grandchildren (and a few of their parents) over for Sunday dinner. The oldest is just over eleven and the youngest 3 months. After dinner, while the adults finished preparing dessert, we sent the kids outside to play. On a whim I suggested we try an experiment. The results surprised us all. Anyone with kids has heard “It’s not fair!” – and the unconvincing parental rejoinder of “Life’s not fair” – more times than anyone cares to count. Children seem to catch on, at a very early age, to a very American idea –life should be fundamentally ‘fair’. To a child, this means they should be allowed to stay up as late as a sibling who just happens to be several years older – and it’s unfair when they cannot. Or it means “I should get the same size brownie as everyone else” – which is the subject of the test I proposed. |
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