Mereja
If there is one characteristic that all of the best-selling portable GPS devices share, it is uniformity. In terms of shape and size, most GPS units look very, very similar, and as discussed in the first part of this two-part portable GPS buying guide, all of these portable GPS units offer very similar functionality.
The portable GPS industry is dominated by two companies: Garmin and TomTom. In fact, of the devices we examined, all but one were produced by Garmin. As such, we’ll analyze Garmin’s offerings first, arranged in descending order by price.
Garmin's top-of-the-line Nuvi 885
The top of the line Garmin GPS unit is the nüvi 885/885T. With a list price approaching $600.00, the 885 can more often be found selling for around $350.00 online.
One of the benefits of paying so much for a GPS device is the fact that the nüvi 885 can recognize speech commands – you can use your voice to move through its menus. It also includes 6 million pre-loaded destinations such as restaurants, movie theatres, national parks and other points of interest. It’s a solid unit, but it’s not our favorite…mostly because of the price.
Garmin's nuvi 755-765-775-785 family are all the same unit, with only minor differences between them.
The next Garmin we looked at is the nüvi 765/765T. Its street price is just under $300.00, and for that amount of money it offers similar features to the 885, minus the speech recognition. The device’s lane guidance feature helps you to more easily find highway exits, and like many Garmin devices it can be transformed into a hands-free speaker for a cell phone thanks to Bluetooth.
The 755-785 family also features multi-point routing, which means you can use your GPS to find the best route to visit more than one destination. Using a built-in FM transmitter, all the units in the 755-785 family can transmit directions through your vehicle’s speaker system. This feature is nice because, sometimes, the volume on the GPS is just a little too low.
If you like the 765 but don’t need Bluetooth connectivity, the nüvi 755 is a nice option that’s less than $250. Moving up from the 765, the nüvi 775 and nüvi 785 include more maps and a slightly upgraded traffic data system. Cool extras, but we think the 765 or 755 are the units to pick from this family.
Our top pick is the Garmin nuvi 260
Our favorite unit on this list is the nüvi 260W (about $140). It’s very basic, but it features a nice big screen, text-to-speech directions, an easy-to-use interface, and good battery life. The nüvi 260 doesn’t have the traffic finder feature (the 260 isn’t even compatible with the feature, but the 255 is compatible with an external adapter), so if you want traffic info then one of the higher-priced units on this list is a better option.
However, as far as “bang for the buck” is concerned, the nüvi 260W is a solid little device that does exactly what you need.
TomTom's GO 720 is a nice mid-range portable GPS with some nice custom mapping options.
The sole TomTom offering to crack this list is the GO 720. Priced at around $220.00, it compares favorably with the mid-range Garmin options in terms of features. It includes an MP3 player, traffic and weather updates through a Bluetooth cellular connection and of course spoken directions. The GO 720 can also connect to an online service called MapShare, which allows for special maps and directions created by other TomTom users to be uploaded into the device.
Bottom Line: If you’re into futuristic options like voice recognition and up-to-date traffic data, a high end unit might be the way to go. Are you a road warriors doing business on the road? The mid-range devices are probably the best option – they’re catered to a business type user with a little bit of tech savvy. Are you looking for a lot of the features of a good GPS without spending a lot? If so, the Garmin 260 is our recommendation.
Whichever GPS device you choose, it’s hard to go wrong choosing one of the units on this list. We found them all to be fun and easy to use, and in our limited “test drive” they all performed nicely.
FTC Disclosure – This was NOT a paid post. However, if you buy a product using one of our links, we get a small percentage of the sale. So if you want to help us out…cool. If not, that’s cool too. See our about page to learn more about how we make money.
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Robin Willer waits in line at an emergency dental clinic in Orange County, Calif. (Karen Tapia/KHN)
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Robin Willer slumps on the metal bench, her sweater drawn up over her swollen cheeks. “The cold hurts it,” she says, pointing gingerly to three broken teeth.
Willer, 56, a banquet waitress who lost her longtime job in June 2008, is waiting in a chilly back alley behind Orange County’s emergency dental clinic. It’s not yet dawn. More people are arriving, by bus, car and on foot. The race is on to win one of the few slots in a dentist’s chair today. Even though the clinic’s doors don’t open until 7:30 a.m., the rush began at 5:30.
“We were all running across the parking lot, trying to get here first,” says Willer, who missed out the day before because she was too far back in line. “At least I’m number two today.”
Just six months ago, Willer could have sought dental care at a wider variety of better-funded and better-staffed dental clinics. And many in line with her would have been at private dentists’ offices, their care covered under Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid. As of July 1, all that changed.
With a nip here and a slash there, California’s budget crisis is now affecting health care for millions of residents, from wealthy Orange County to the struggling city of Oakland. State officials have made tough cuts to health services once deemed vital. Funds for county and community dental clinics were slashed, just when those who lost Medi-Cal funds for private dental care began showing up at their doors. Foot and eye care are also out, along with hearing aids, mental health care and other services long covered under Medi-Cal, but now trimmed by state officials to save $130 million. More than two million people lost the services.
But that’s not all. State funds for such programs as HIV/AIDS testing and home care for the elderly have also been eliminated.
Fraying safety net ‘when it’s needed the most’
It could have been worse: legislators restored funds for nearly one million children in the “Healthy Families” program, after health insurers agreed to be taxed in exchange for continued, lucrative public contracts.
Facing a two-year, $60 billion budget gap, and federally obligated to enroll eligible Medi-Cal applicants, state officials said they had no choice but to trim benefits from the massive program and cut other services. With unemployment at 12.2 percent, a flood of newly impoverished Californians are applying for Medi-Cal, officials say. An additional 300,000 residents enrolled last year, and another 400,000 are expected to sign up this year, which would bring the total in the program to an all-time high of 7.2 million residents.
Some experts say the array of health care services that took decades to knit together is now being unraveled, at the worst possible time. “The fact is that we have a very high unemployment rate right now, we have health insurance provided by employers that wasn’t in great shape even before the recession, and we have people less able to afford their own insurance than ever before,” said Marian Mulkey, senior program officer at the California Health Care Foundation. “And when you take all those developments on the private side of the equation and you line that up against the significant cuts in public programs…you have a safety net is that is fraying just when it is needed most.”
Waiting at the emergency dental clinic. (Karen Tapia/KHN)
Kimberly Belshe, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said the state is enduring a “perfect storm” of converging problems and no easy solutions. “The bottom line is some very difficult reductions were included in the decisions that affect health care,” she said. “At the same time, funding for 7.2 million individuals is remaining in the budget. California continues to provide a fairly comprehensive package of benefits to support the Medi-Cal program.”
But not comprehensive enough for Francine Williams. The 54-year-old Oakland resident is a late-stage diabetic who also has kidney disease and requires dialysis treatment. She works part-time for the Red Cross when she can, earning, at most, $200 a week. Because of her disabilities and low income, she receives both Medi-Cal and Medicare benefits. Like others in the state program, as of July 1 she lost services that were previously covered. By refusing to fund less expensive care now, she argues, far more costly medical problems can develop.
“When you have diabetes, it affects every part of your body, from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet,” she said. Infections can easily develop in her gums, but bi-annual teeth cleanings designed to prevent such infections are no longer covered.
Diabetics are also advised to have their toenails trimmed by a medical professional, because they may not be able to feel a cut, which can lead to serious infection. But Medi-Cal no longer pays for that, either. That worries Williams, who had two toes amputated 10 years ago because of infection from a glass cut she couldn’t feel.
Costing the state money Health care advocates note that budget cuts cost the state huge amounts of federal funds. A prime example: The $130 million California saved by cutting dental care and other Medi-Cal optional services cost them another $130 million in federal matching funds. But state officials say that the federal government has in fact already provided an extra $4 billion, part of its economic stimulus money, and that they’ve asked for another $1 billion.
National health care overhaul legislation could help repair the safety net. Many uninsured Californians could obtain coverage through federal subsidies of private insurance and an expansion of Medi-Cal would include larger numbers of lower-income people. But there’s a potential downside: states may be required to kick in some matching funds for their Medicaid programs.
For now, Californians cope as best they can. The July cuts had immediate impact. During eight days in mid-August, nearly 10,000 people crowded the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles County seeking free dental and other medical care from a nonprofit, mobile hospital clinic. More than 6,300 patients were seen by 3,800 volunteer dentists, gynecologists and other medical personnel. They extracted 2,274 teeth, filled 5,483 cavities, and performed nearly 1,000 mammograms, Pap smears and other vital exams. Thousands more prospective patients were turned away.
Robin Willer (Karen Tapia/KHN)
Robin Willer had lots of company the morning she stood outside the clinic in Orange County. Many were newly unemployed; others had two jobs, trying to make ends meet.
Graduate psychology student Brandon Greenhouse, 27, said he spent days waiting with hundreds of others in line at Long Beach clinics before hearing that Orange County lines might be shorter. He lost a good-paying job with health benefits last fall, and his dentist warned him to have his wisdom teeth removed before his benefits expired. But they weren’t hurting, “and to tell the truth, I’ve always been a little scared of going to the dentist.”
But a few weeks ago, pain began building in his lower jaw. “It’s like desperation at this point,” he said.
Living on a boat Willer listens quietly as many in line share their stories. Dressed in a turtleneck and neat jeans, she would fit in at the country clubs where she used to work. But she has lost her job and her home, and is now living in a few feet of space in the bow end of her ex-husband’s Newport Beach boat.
A few weeks ago, she cracked her teeth biting on hard cereal, and the pain has grown ever since. Living on $1,800-a-month unemployment checks leaves no margin for illness – and not enough money to pay the $1,050 that one dental chain wanted to yank all three teeth. This is her third attempt to see a dentist.
Puffy-faced and feverish from the pain, she says it is “humiliating” to be here. But she has no choice. “I don’t want to be vain, but I can’t afford dentures…How am I going to get a job with holes in my mouth? And employers want you to be up and perky. It’s hard to do when you’re in pain.”
When the door to the Orange County clinic opens at 7:30 a.m., Willer and the others push forward. She receives a clipboard to fill out her information and pays a $15 required fee. A shy smile fills her face. “I think I might make it in today,” she says.
Two hours later, Willer’s back at the boat. She’s nauseous from eating only yogurt and other soft food for days, on top of ibuprofen pills. Her teeth were so painfully infected that even a huge dose of Novocaine couldn’t numb the area. The dentist couldn’t pull her teeth, and gave her a prescription for antibiotics to clear up the infection first.
“The good news is I don’t have to wait in line, I have an appointment for next week,” she says wearily. “The bad news is it’s only for one tooth. They only do one tooth per visit.”
LONDON (Reuters) – European buyout house Permira has entered exclusive talks to buy survival equipment maker Survitec from rival Montagu Private Equity, a source familiar with the process said.
Permira beat off bids from Warburg Pincus and Carlyle Group to get exclusive access to Survitec’s books in the last few days, the source said.
Montagu had been hoping the sale of the Belfast-based manufacturer of life-jackets and life-rafts could fetch about 300 million pounds ($495.6 million).
In July, Reuters LPC reported banks were lining up 150 million pounds in financing for a potential buyer.
Investment bank NM Rothschild has been advising Montagu on options for the business.
Both Permira and Montagu declined to comment.
Montagu is also preparing the sale of second-hand car dealership British Car Auctions, which could net around 600 million pounds, banking sources have said.
The planned disposals come after the firm succeeded in selling sausage casing manufacter Kalle this summer in a 212.5 million euro ($315.6 million) deal that sparked confidence in a gradual return of the leveraged loans market.
Montagu, which also owns waste management firm Biffa [WSAQTB.UL] and electronics retailer Maplin [MPETN.UL], acquired Survitec for 146 million pounds in 2004 from Alchemy.
(Reporting by Simon Meads, Editing by Douwe Miedema and Hans Peters)
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Goss will probably be the first to tell you that he’s not a superstar in the U.S. It says right on his official site that he comes to America an "unknown." But he is hoping to change that. He’s already been headlining shows at Palms in Vegas.
Goss is using social media to help build his career in the United States. He uses Twitter specifically to reach out to fans. He says he likes the immediacy of it. He likes that you can say something and get 100 responses back in 15 minutes. He likes that he can connect with his fans and get so many different perspectives. He’ll ask people about a song or a video, and what they would change about it. He clearly aims to be a crowd pleaser – the perfect type for Vegas.
He has even called upon fans to pick what song they wanted to see released as a single.
"People actually have a voice now," he says. "Propaganda is not as relevant as it was when all you had was propaganda and what you read, you had to believe almost. Now the individual and the common man can have a voice."
Goss believes there are times when "heavy" messages are appropriate with a tool like Twitter, but thinks it is also a way to escape and have some enjoyment. Either way, he likes that there is no middle man, and notes the importance of accountability. I guess Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson did not attend Matt’s session at BlogWorld.
Time will tell if Matt’s efforts in social media will transfer his stardom to the States, but either way, you can tell he’s enjoying trying. What do you think of his approach to Twitter? Share your thoughts.
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We knew Twitter lists were going to be big for Twitter. We knew they were going to greatly increase the usefulness of the service, and for many, even the enjoyment. What we didn’t know, however, was that right out of the box, we would see so many different uses for them, providing a window to the potential that they really do hold not only for Twitter itself, but for any business or individual who uses it. Let’s look at a few of those ways that Twitter lists are being used.
Tell us how you are using Twitter lists. 1. Organization and Noise Reduction
When Twitter first made the announcement that the Lists feature was coming, my first thoughts were about how great that would be to organize the Twitter stream. It has worked out as such. It’s a great way to separate the people you follow into groups.
For example, if I want to keep marketers, news organizations, sports stars, musicians, and my actual real-life friends all separate from one another, I can do that. It’s a great way to reduce the "noise" that has commonly been associated with Twitter. You can look at a custom-made list and simply get tweets related to a certain category. It’s very much like organizing a feed reader into different folders.
2. Changing the News
Mashable’s Pete Cashmore wrote a pretty interesting piece for CNN about how Twitter Lists are already transforming online journalism. Journalists are using friends to filter massive amounts of data through lists. Again, it’s about noise reduction.
Vadim Lavrusik also discusses ways news organizations are using Twitter lists. He looks at how different publishers are creating staff directories, recommending "tweeps" and specific information, using lists for curated real-time steams, and to follow events.
3. Directories
Mike Butcher points out that Simplezesty is creating lists of Twitter users in entire countries. This is a concept that could be taken by anybody to run wild with, particularly with regards to niches. Lists are essentially an organization tool, so anything can be broken down into categories.
Let’s say you are a restaurant critic. You could create separate lists for the best pizza places, the best burger joints, the best bars, the best Mexican restaurants, etc. This could be applied to virtually any industry.
Shameless plug: Of course our own Twellow.com has served a similar purpose and more for quite some time, and it’s already pretty well-established, so you if you’re looking for people to follow by industry, I suggest checking that out.
4. A New Way of Interaction
Look at what the NHL had done. Jennifer Van Grove points to a Tweet from the National Hockey league, which called upon fans to tweet @NHL their favorite team with a specific hashtag. The purpose was to create lists fans by team.
I can see a lot of potential for this type of thing too. I could see such a thing being turned into a game, or being used by businesses for promotions, contests, etc.
5. Popularity Contests and Paid List Spots?
I would have to imagine that people are going to covet spots on certain lists. It’s potentially going to be a great way to get new followers, so people are going to want to appear on the lists of influential Twitterers.
Could this lead to paying for spots on Twitter lists? I’d actually be shocked if this isn’t already going on to be honest. It’s not much different than the old-fashioned paying for a link. Only in this case, Google isn’t there to keep you out of search results, because here you’re trying to be found on Twitter, not Google.
That actually raises some more questions, however, as Google (and Bing) has recently made a deal with Twitter, which will see Tweets make their way to the search engine. We don’t know yet exactly how this will go, and whether or not lists will ever factor into the Google part of things. Could being on more lists be taken as a sign of authority? I’m only speculating.
6. Exploitation and Spam
Inevitably, Twitter Lists will also be exploited and used for spam purposes. It’s on the Internet and it’s a chance to gain exposure. It pretty much stands to reason than spam will follow. Why would this be any different than any other tool? Valleywag thinks Ellen DeGeneres is already engaging in such tactics. That’s an interesting read.
Are Twitter lists going to change how we get our news? How we find information? How we market our businesses? What do you think? Share your thoughts.
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Lincoln Braun writes “I play an online web game. BATracer which is designed to simulate a number of racing series including Formula 1, LeMans, A1 Grand Prix, Ferrari Challenge, and more. This week, however, the owner of the site received a legal notice from Ferrari, ordering a cease & desist from using Ferrari cars. BATracer has somewhere between 2000 and 3000 active users, most of whom arrived at the site because of Formula 1. The letter by Ferrari has really annoyed many of the most passionate fans and they have lost a lot of goodwill.”
It looks like BATracer shut down for a bit before opening up again without Ferraris. Now, Ferrari has a big licensing business, but at some point you have to wonder if legal actions like this make any sense or if there’s a reasonable fair use claim. In the case of team sports simulations, courts have ruled that name and stats are facts — and not covered by intellectual property, so couldn’t you say the same thing for car names and specifications? And while I could potentially see a trademark issue, it’s not as if BATracer is actually “competing” in the same space as Ferrari. I can already hear the excuses about how Ferrari needs to keep its brand special and being seen in such a game might cheapen it — but that’s not the purpose of intellectual property law. Either way, it seems pretty dumb to piss off so many people even if many of them probably can’t afford a Ferrari in real life (probably what the company is betting on). There may be some who can (or who will be able to someday), and pushing them away for no good reason can’t help matters.
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To be clear, I don’t consider myself an expert on Google Wave by any stretch of the imagination, but based on what I have learned about it, these are my responses to frequently asked Google Wave questions. These are just my opinions.
We’d love to hear your opinions about Google Wave. Share them here.
Will Google Wave replace email?
No. It may replace email in the same way that social networks already have. Social networks have not replaced email in general. They have, however replaced it in some cases for some people. For example, friends may send each other a quick note via Facebook message rather than email. However, chances are one of those friends was emailed by Facebook alerting them that they had a new message. For more reasons on why social media (and I include Wave in this) won’t replace email, read this article.
Will Google Wave catch on with the general public?
Obviously, it’s incredibly early to tell if Google Wave will catch on on a massive scale. For that matter, what does "catching on" really mean? Does it mean to the extent of email? To the extent of Facebook? Twitter? There are pretty wide gaps between these. Will it catch on to the extent of RSS? Who knows. If you want my honest opinion, I don’t think it will achieve Facebook-like status. I’m not sure that it will achieve Twitter-like status either, which is just a fraction of what Facebook has.
If Compete’s numbers for the US are any indication, Gmail doesn’t even come close to attracting the unique users that Twitter does anymore. I have a hard time accepting that Google Wave will be bigger than Gmail (though it’s certainly possible).
Will Google Wave catch on in the workplace?
If Google Wave catches on anywhere, I think it could catch on in the workplace. Lots of companies are using Google Apps, and now that Google is marketing that aggressively, that is likely going to increase big time. With the right promotion and integration, I could easily see Google Wave working its way into the mix there. The very collaborative nature of Google Wave caters to work-related use.
At this point, Google Wave is in its very early stages, and over the coming months and probably years, we are going to continue to see improvements and innovations made with it. Will that translate into widespread adoption? I’m not so sure.
I think people are going to have a hard time figuring out why they should be using it. I also think people are getting tired of having more accounts to keep up with (although this would be connected to your Google account).
If Wave brings all of their contacts and socializing into one central hub, it’s going to have some competition. Mozilla is already working on Raindrop, which sounds like a pretty useful tool. There will be others.
On the other hand, it could go the Twitter route, where people will struggle to "get it" for a long time, and slowly start finding uses that suit them. That "ah-ha moment" hasn’t come for everybody that’s used Twitter yet either, but there’s no denying that service has made its mark on popular culture.
I don’t want to sound anti-Wave here. It seems cool and potentially useful. Worst case scenario, it is just another tool that you can use if you want, which may or may not make your life (and work) easier. Best case (for Google at least), it becomes like email (or to a lesser extent Facebook) in the sense that it is practically unavoidable to use because everyone you know uses it and if you don’t you will be out of the loop. At this point, I’m just leaning toward the former. Do you think Google Wave is going to change the world or do you think it’s being over-hyped? Discuss here.
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Think of Halo 3: ODST as a centaur. Or as a gryphon. Or as a mermaid. Or as any other creature that is half an entity and half another. In the case of Halo 3: ODST, it is clearly half Master Chief and half human. Half classic firefights, pitched battles that never let you hold your breath and get the adrenalin pumping, and half quietly sneaking through a dark city, almost afraid to shoot the enemies. Half complex story delivered in interesting ways and half military stereotypes acted out in a flat manner. Half attempt at innovation from Bungie and half need for commercial success on the part of Microsoft. Half exciting experience and half disappointment. Think of Halo 3: ODST as being a game too ambitious to be an add on and too shy to be a full-fledged installment in the franchise.
Make no mistake, after getting into the action, this is a game you can actually play continuously until it is done, finished, complete. Bungie doesn’t make those kinds of mistakes that would render a fan put down the controller and say they’re done because of low quality. But after delivering better and better experiences over the years, the company needed to do something innovative. A quantitative improvement, like the one from Halo 2 to 3, would just not do, they needed to deliver something qualitative. Unfortunately, ODST is just a more contained, sometimes … (read more)
Kevin Pollak, who even if his name doesn’t ring a bell, you’ve likely seen before. He’s a comedian, as well as an actor. He’s played in movies alongside Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Jonn Candy, and others.
Not a moviegoer? He’s also played on his fair share of television shows. You may have seen him on The Drew Carey Show, Shark, Ed, or Entourage. Or maybe you’ve seen him in a comedy club.
Actually, there’s a good chance you’ve seen him on the web, and if not, you will (I guess you have now either way). Pollak has his own online show (Charlie Rose-style) called simply Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show in which he talks with some pretty big-name people. He’s had guests like Kevin Smith, Levar Burton, Eddie Izzard, Lisa Loeb, Kevin Nealon, Seth Macfarlane, Hank Azaria, and others. Are you familiar with Pollak’s work? Comment here.
Here’s a look at the intro from the first episode of Pollak’s show.
Pollak likes the online format for a variety of reasons. He likes that you can get stuff out all over the world instantly. He likes the lack of limitations. You can do a show uncensored, and you can let it run as long as you want. His shows are normally at least an hour long, and sometimes 2 hours or more.
The online format is ideal for inspiring audience participation with the show itself as well. Pollak says he’s had users contribute a theme song, questions for guests, and participate in a "Larry King game" (you’d have to watch the show to understand).
We’re seeing this audience participation with content thing more and more in the online video world. Look at what Paramount’s doing with Mountain Dew, Adobe Flash, and MySpace. They’re marketing with an interactive web series/game.
In another article I talked about using more than just the obvious communities to spread your message. Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show is a good example of how this can happen on its own, particularly with online video in the mix. His videos are not only on his site, but they’re on YouTube, Beet.tv, Blip.tv, Ustream, and other Video sites.
The natural shareability of online video combined with the communication power of social media opens up the doors for a whole lot of opportunity. Pollak has presences on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. He’s even got one on Mahalo. Pollak’s show proves that you can find success online even if you don’t know that much about the Internet. As Kevin says in our interview with him, he’s learning as he goes. It certainly helps that he is already in show business, but if you can provide interesting enough content, people out there will watch it, and they will share it. Best of all, you can reach people all over the world.
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Searching online for used vehicles has become the primary way for consumers to locate used automobiles, according to new a report by J.D. Power and Associates.
The report found the percentage of used-vehicle buyers who rely on the Internet as a way for locating vehicles for sale has increased from 40 percent in 2008 to 46 percent in 2009, equal to the percentage of buyers who visit dealer lots as their main shopping method. In addition, 31 percent of buyers found the vehicle they eventually purchased on the Internet, compared with 28 percent of buyers who found their vehicle by visiting dealerships.
"Internet shopping provides prospective buyers with the opportunity to search through enormous amounts of specific vehicle information without ever leaving home, allowing for a more efficient medium of matching buyers with unique used vehicles in the market," said Arianne Walker, director of marketing and media research at J.D. Power and Associates. "In light of this, dealers should expect the Internet to continue to increase in importance among used-vehicle shoppers and adjust their online presence accordingly."
The report also found that awareness of certified pre-owned (CPO vehicle programs is strong, with more than 60 percent of used-vehicle buyers indicating they intend to purchase certified pre-owned vehicles at the start of their shopping process.
One-half of all buyers of CPO vehicles say they used the Internet to locate used vehicles, while a slightly lower percentage (45%) shopped primarily by driving to dealer lots. The percentage of buyers who visited dealer Web sites specifically for CPO vehicle information has increased considerably to 29 percent in 2009, compared with 19 percent in 2008.
Among used vehicle buyers who use the Internet in their shopping process, third party sites are visited during the shopping process more frequently than other types of sites, including dealer websites. The majority (91%) of buyers say they visited at least one third-party websites during the shopping process.
"Not only has visitation increased for third-party sites, but they also continue to be viewed as the most useful sites during the shopping process," said Walker. "Overall, users rate sites such as AutoTrader, Cars.com, and Edmunds highly for overall usefulness. In addition, certain third-party sites are also well regarded for usefulness in specific areas.
"For example, sites like AutoTrader and eBay Motors are perceived as particularly useful for inventory information, while buyers report that ConsumerReports.org and Edmunds are useful for vehicle appraisals and reviews. Sites such as Kelley Blue Book are perceived as being particularly useful for pricing information."
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WebProNews recently covered a study from Chitika, which found that Facebook was the most valuable social media tool for driving repeat readers to content sites. The study was based on 33 million unique users across Chitika’s publisher network in September. It compared the number of visitors coming from major traffic sources Digg, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter, to the number of times those visitors came back to the referred site. Visitors that went to a site four or more times in one week were considered loyal users. By a wide margin, Facebook led the pack in providing loyal traffic. 20% of all visitors from Facebook visited the site four or more times per week.
Where does your most loyal traffic come from? Facebook or somewhere else? Comment here.
"We’ve received the most clients from Facebook than any other social media website," a reader commented on the article. "Although we’ve received slightly more visitors from Digg and Stumbleupon, the viewers have not converted into customers the same way they had through Facebook."
There has certainly been plenty of talk about how Facebook can drive traffic, but clearly there are still a lot of people struggling with just how to go about doing so.
"Why am I not getting this?" another reader asked. "Blogs I’ve done are boosting my Google, Yahoo, and Bing ratings and getting traffic to my web site, but I’m not getting how Facebok can do this."
Comments like these are not uncommon, and to be fair, this one was made prior to Microsoft’s announcement of a deal with Facebook (Google has been rumored to be in talks with Facebook as well).
But not all traffic has to come from search, although Facebook exposure can certainly contribute to that as well, if nothing else, than simply through promotion leading to links.
When a Facebook user frequently checks for status updates, he/she is likely to see new posts made from Facebook Pages he/she is subscribed to. This means creating a Facebook page can have a great effect on page owners. Making readers aware of the page is key as well. Luckily Facebook has a widget called the Fan box, that you can put on your site, which can lead new visitors directly to your Facebook page.
Facebook has also just updated another important widget – the share button. Now it will provide a live count of shares, as well as analytical information. You can find out how people are sharing and engaging with your content, and gain further insight into how your stuff is doing with the Facebook community (and adjust your strategy accordingly).
Traffic is a common goal, but it is not the only one. Going back to the topic at the beginning of this article, brand loyalty is a big one.
A representative for Stuzo Group, one of Facebook’s exclusive development partners, shared some interesting case studies with us, looking at how they created branded applications and fan pages for brands like Doritos, Budweiser, Smashbox, and Purina.
"When Stuzo works with these brands, the goals that they have most often in creating these promotions is to increase brand loyalty and recognition, boost traffic to their website, and drive sales," the representative said. "These goals all go hand in hand, and explain why Chitika’s study was so valuable; hits to a website are great, but they don’t mean much unless they contribute to brand loyalty and positive recognition of the brand." (emphasis added)
A common theme among the case studies provided by Stuzo is that they all present clear objectives for what they want to accomplish with Facebook. For example, Budweiser’s were:
1. Create brand awareness through a strong fan base and social channel opt-ins
2. Incentivize users to engage with the brand on a regular basis
3. Convert new customers and drive increase in sales
Budweiser went the route of contests and competitions (which are viral by nature). According to the case study, this has resulted in:
– Hundreds of thousands of Unique Pageviews
– Sustained high level of brand engagement by all measurements
– Significant, continued growth in Budweiser’s Social CRM and social channel opt-ins
Budweiser is just one example of a big brand finding success through social media, and through the use of Facebook in particular. As I recently discussed, you can find new and interesting ways to integrate social media into your own plans by looking at some of the brands you use yourself and how they employ different tools. This helps you to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and determine the things that work and the things that don’t. What brands have you seen using social media in interesting ways? Discuss here.
> The Most Loyal Traffic Comes from Facebook
> Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings
> Some Brands Have Good Ideas For Social Media. Do You?
Microsoft is either taking the holiday marketing approach or the Twilight/Vampire trend approach with its latest commercial. The title is Bing: Vampire Decision Engine.
The company uploaded the new commercial to its (Google-owned) YouTube channel. Accompanying the video is a short description:
"When you’re looking for a restaurant that is family friendly, romantic, or maybe something with an otherworldly atmosphere, use Bing’s reviews to stop searching and start deciding."
You also may be seeing this ad on a television near you.
What do you think of the latest Bing commercial? Is it good or does it "suck"? Ah Ah. (That was supposed to be the Count). Share your thoughts here.
> Have You Seen Bing’s Commercials Yet?
> Bing Commercials Infringe on Patent?
> Microsoft Seinfeld Ad Not Exactly a Hit
The development of computers and the Internet not only deliver a variety of facilities in various fields, but also invite various acts of burglary system backed by a variety of motivations. As excerpted in the movie Hackers Outlaws & Angel. Hackers Outlaws & Angles who told about the ins and outs of the legendary hacker, Captain Zap (Ian Murphy). Many differences of opinion about the term pendifinisian hacker, someone said that people who break into and destroy someone else’s system can not be called a hacker, there are also different from that which defines a system capable of breaking into other people could be called a hacker. We do not need to argue things like that, which obviously a hacker is someone who wants to learn and keep learning to deepen their knowledge. Hackers could also be interpreted as the people who tried to break through the access control system by taking advantage of existing security gaps in the system. Activities become a serious threat of information system security.
Like other hackers who have a second name in cyberspace, Ian Murphy, Captain Zap name as its name taken from comic characters in the era of the 80s. Piercing done by changing the hours of AT & T to make the cost of phone bills will be cheaper and disrupt pewaktunya system. Ulahnya result, the system was busy at the time stated is not busy, and then sebaliknya.Ia captured 18 months later. According to Allan while the Brill (Head of Hi-Tech Investigations Kroll Associates) Ian was the first to know the bad things that can be done with a computer. Ian Murphy after undergoing his sentence he was then set up a security consulting firm IAM / Security Data Systems.
According to Wired magazine piracy at AT & T by Captain Zap was the best piracy ever. How not with minimal equipment at the time he was able to break into a big company. Salute to Captain Zap (The Legend of Hacker)
Source : Task MKSI courses Univ. Budi Luhur Salemba
As previously reported, Microsoft has made deals with both Facebook and Twitter, which will see Bing feature updates from both networks in real-time search efforts. To me, this says that social media just became an even bigger part of search engine marketing, particularly with Google also on board with Twitter and rumored to be talking to Facebook.
Bing has already made a beta version of its Twitter search available to users at bing.com/twitter. The most interesting aspect of Bing’s Twitter search is that it offers something plain old Twitter Search (formerly Summize) doesn’t. That is a relevancy factor (or at least an attempted relevancy factor).
Twitter Search only shows you results displayed chronologically, which has really always seemed to be the essence of real-time search to me anyway. But Bing has a "Best Match" option, which attempts to give certain tweets more weight than others.
How do you put relevancy on "real-time" results though? "Real-time" is based on time (obviously). The phrase even has the word "time" in it. A search for "WebProNews" on Bing’s Twitter Search gives me different results for "most recent" and for "best match". I can’t see that the "best match" results are any better than the "most recent" results, however.
The answer is: Bing weighs tweets by follower counts. "If someone has a lot of followers, his/her Tweet may get ranked higher," says Bing. "If a tweet is exactly the same as other Tweets, it will get ranked lower."
Sidenote: A commenter on this article made a point worth mentioning. What if a new Twitter user tweets about something highly relevant or important, but has not gotten many followers yet? That’s something to think about.
This is of course the earliest stage for any kind of algorithm Bing may have in place for its Twitter search feature. The feature is still in beta after all. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft makes more details available for how it ranks tweets moving forward. This could be a whole new nut to crack for SEOs. Consider that Bing results will be taking over for Yahoo if the Microsoft-Yahoo deal goes through (plus there is still Google’s Twitter results to worry about).
I’ll go out on a limb here either way, and suggest that providing good content will be the way to go moving forward. That will bring in followers, and probably do better for your relevancy rankings in the future. That said, defining good content may be considered a little harder at 140 characters or less.
> Social Media Will Not Replace Search
> Don’t Lose Yahoo Traffic By Not Optimizing for Bing
Is ranking in search engines for Twitter results going to be a priority for you? Discuss here.
Bad news people, the Samsung TL225 camera that was released this August? Yeah, it’s pretty much a pile of crap. The front screen is off center, so your pictures look like everyone is staring off to the side, the touchscreen response (the only way to control the camera’s settings) is oddly disconcerting, the shutter lag is excessive, and low light sensitivity is non-existent.
Samsung really wants you to like this camera, as evidenced by the massive media campaign that they’ve been running (smiling monkeys, anyone?) but it seems to have been for naught. Wired reviewed the camera today and they’ve rated this one a 4/10. In addition to the laundry list of problems listed above, the image quality is also poor, much less then you would expect from a 12.2 megapixel camera.
The deal has been in the making for months now, but yesterday Panasonic finally announced a tender offer for Sanyo Electric, paving the way to convert Sanyo into a wholly owned subsidiary as early as the middle of next month.
The tender offer is being supported by Sanyo’s board, and the company’s three main shareholders (all of them are in the finance sector) have agreed to sell their shares to Panasonic. The shares from the companies account for 50.13% of all Sanyo shares.
Both the Sanyo brand and the company’s listing at the Tokyo Stock Exchange remain untouched however. Panasonic says the primary goal of the acquisition was to boost the company’s position in the field of green energy, i.e. by tapping Sanyo’s expertise in batteries and solar panels. One of Sanyo’s biggest hits in the past few years has been their eneloop series of rechargeable batteries and related products.
The new giant will rival Japan’s biggest electronics company, Hitachi, in terms of sales.
(NaturalNews) There are 14 billion hamburgers consumed each year in the United States alone. The people who eat those burgers, though, have little knowledge of what’s actually in them. Current USDA regulations, for example, openly allow beef contaminated with E. coli to be repackaged, cooked and sold as ready-to-eat hamburgers.
This simple fact would shock most consumers if they knew about it. People assume that beef found to be contaminated with E. coli must be thrown out or destroyed (or even recalled), but in reality, it’s often just pressed into hamburger patties, cooked, and sold to consumers. This practice is openly endorsed by the USDA.
But E. coli may not be the worst thing in your burger: USDA regulations also allow chicken feces to be used as feed for cows, meaning your hamburger beef may be made of second-hand chicken poop, recycled through the stomachs of cows.
Chicken poop in your burgers?I remember writing about this two years ago. People sent accusatory hate mails to NaturalNews, saying things like, “Stop making things up and scaring people!” Few people believed that chicken feces was being widely used as cattle feed.
According to the FDA, farmers feed their cattle anywhere from 1 million to 2 million tons of chicken feces each year. This cross-species crap-as-food practice worries critics who are concerned it may lead to increased risk of mad cow disease contaminating beef products. So they want to ban the practice and disallow the feeding of chicken litter to cows.
Believe it or not, McDonald’s has joined the fight seeking to ban the practice, saying “We do not condone the feeding of poultry litter to cattle.” Apparently, even they don’t want their customers looking at a Big Mac and thinking, “Wow, this is made out of second-hand chicken crap.”
CSPI and the Consumers Union have also joined the fight, petitioning the FDA to ban the practice.
Now, you might wonder how chicken feces could pose a mad cow infection risk to cows. And if you’re not already grossed out by what you’ve read so far, you will be when you read the answer to this question: It’s because chickens are fed ground up parts of other animals such as cows, sheep and other animals. Some of that chicken feed spills out and gets swept up as chicken litter, then fed to cows.
So now we have a bizarre experiment in animal feed where dead cows, sheep and other animals are fed to chickens, and then chicken feed spills onto the floor where, combined with chicken poop, it gets swept up and fed to cows. Some of those cows, in turn, may eventually be ground up and fed back to the chickens.
Do you see how this might be a problem?
Do not feed animals to each otherFirst off, in the real world cows are vegetarians. They don’t eat other cows, or chickens, or poop from any creature. Chickens don’t eat cows in the real world, either. If given free range, they live primarily on a diet of bugs and weeds.
But through the magic of horrific factory food production practices in the USA, dead cows are fed to chickens, and chicken poop is fed to cows. This is precisely how mad cow disease could contaminate this unnatural food cycle and end up contaminating U.S. cattle with mad cow prions.
Some say this has already happened, and it’s only a matter of time before mad cow disease starts appearing in the U.S. population. It takes approximately 5 – 7 years after eating an infected burger for mad cow disease to destroy the brain of a consumer, and cooking a burger does not destroy the mad cow disease prions. That means even burgers that are fully cooked and handled according to federal safety standards can infect consumers with mad cow disease, causing their brains to turn to mush within 7 years.
The beef industry doesn’t see a problem with any of this. And that’s why this industry deserves what’s coming: A massive culling of cattle and a complete economic wipeout of cattle ranchers one day after mad cow disease is revealed in U.S. cattle herds. Rather than trying to protect the integrity of their cows, the U.S. beef industry chooses to pretend that there’s nothing wrong with practice of feeding corpses to chickens, and feces to cows. Is there anything too gross, inhumane or horrific for the beef industry to stomach? Seems not.
Remember, too, that the USDA has banned farmers from testing their own cattle for mad cow disease. So instead of allowing cattle ranchers to protect the safety of their herds, the USDA has a policy of covering their eyes and pretending not to see the very real risks that exist. When it comes to infectious disease, this is a sure recipe for disaster.
The perfect storm for mass infectionsIt all adds up to a “perfect storm” for the mass infection of the beef-eating population with mad cow disease. And remember: Cooking meat does not destroy prions, so if the beef supply becomes contaminated with mad cow disease, it’s only a matter of time before humans start to be stricken with the disease.
That takes 5-7 years, as I mentioned previously. It’s important to note because it means there could be a five-year gap between the time mad cow disease is present in the beef supply and the time health authorities start to notice a problem. But by that time, most of the population will have already eaten infected beef, and it will be too late to stop the mass human deaths sure to follow.
Dying from mad cow disease isn’t pretty, painless or quick. It’s ugly. Your brain cells start to turn to mush, slowly shutting down cognitive function little by little like some strange, aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease. First you lose concentration ability, then your speech goes, and eventually all brain function stops altogether. It’s a horrifying way to waste away.
Is the risk of that really worth eating burgers?
Remember: Right now, the practice of feeding chicken feces to cow herds continues. So there is a risk of mad cow disease infection in U.S. beef right now. Very little testing is currently being conducted for mad cow disease, meaning an infection could very easily go undetected for years. Meanwhile, the average hamburger contains beef parts from as many as 1,000 different cows.
Do the math. Unless cattle feeding practices are significantly reformed, eating beef products of any kind — hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks — is like playing Russian Roulette with your brain cells.
Sources for this story include: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-feed31-2009oct31,0,1227725.story
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/coli-concern-tainted-beef-makes-consumers/story?id=8987973
(NaturalNews) The Big Pharma frenzy over H1N1 vaccines has turned into a circus of hilarious medical quackery thanks to the fact that by the time the vaccines are available, most people will have already been exposed to the virus. Hence, most people will have already built up their own H1N1 antibodies, rendering the vaccine not just useless, but downright laughable.
Even with the outlandish rush to get these vaccines approved by the FDA — a hurry that saw the complete abandonment of the principles of “scientific testing” — Big Pharma just couldn’t get these vaccines produced quickly enough to beat the virus itself. Taking a vaccine shot after you’ve already been exposed is medically useless. It’s equivalent to putting on your seat belt after getting into a car wreck.
Even U.S. News and World Report, which is heavily funded by Big Pharma advertising, is now admitting the swine flu outbreak may be over before the vaccines arrive. It reports:
“Richard Wenzel, an H1N1 expert and former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, predicts that the outbreak will last another four to eight weeks before tapering off. In fact, some areas in the South already are seeing a decline in cases. Given that the vaccine will be produced in limited quantities on a rolling basis, most healthy middle-aged adults — who the government recommends should be vaccinated after children, college students, and pregnant women — won’t be getting immunized before the outbreaks peak and wane.” (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/infectious-diseases/2009/09/24/with-rapid-swine-flu-spread-will-h1n1-vaccine-come-too-late.html)
Did you catch the significance of that last sentence? Most people won’t be getting immunized before the outbreak tapers off. And that means the whole reason for getting the vaccine in the first place — to avoid being killed by an exploding pandemic — will soon be rendered pointless. Leave it to western medicine to act all heroic, pretending to be saving people’s lives from a pandemic that’s already on the way out…
Maintaining the illusionOf course, infectious disease reality never got in the way of Big Pharma making a buck, so this inane vaccine push will continue whether people need it or not. All these vaccines have already been ordered and paid for with taxpayer dollars. Delivery is on the way, and there are no refunds. If cities, states and nations don’t use all these vaccines, they’ll look pretty darned stupid for buying them, won’t they?
That’s why health authorities everywhere are determined to use up these vaccines regardless of medical reality. And that means finding enough willing children and adults to be injected. Following that, as the swine flu pandemic fades away (which it was going to do anyway), all the vaccine-pushing health authorities can proclaim, “We did it! We beat the pandemic with the vaccines!”
But the pandemic was burning out on its own, without any intervention at all.
Of course, taking credit for solving problems they didn’t really solve is nothing new to the vaccine industry. To this day, the drug companies credit themselves with eradicating smallpox, measles and yellow fever when, in reality, the historical record shows that it was primarily improvements in hygiene and public infrastructure that caused these once-terrible epidemics to wane.
The transition from open ditches filled with feces to underground public sewage pipes was, all by itself, one of modern civilization’s greatest achievements in terms of reducing infectious disease. Running water, public water treatment systems and sewage processing technologies deserve most of the credit for eradicating infectious disease. Vaccines have relatively little to do with it.
If you let the pharmaceutical industry write the history books, they make it sound like our modern world would have collapsed into a cesspool of disease without their vaccines. It’s fiction, of course, but it’s the kind of fiction that goes over well with a society that maintains an almost fanatical belief in the bizarre mythology of unproven chemical interventions. To this day, there remains absolutely no credible scientific evidence that H1N1 vaccines work at all. Not a single placebo-controlled study has ever been conducted on them!
Speaking of rewriting the history books, Big Pharma will no doubt seek to rewrite the history of the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu, too. Even if the flu fades out just as the vaccines arrive, the vaccine pushers will claim credit for eradicating the pandemic by blurring the factual timelines. They’ll add swine flu to the list of diseases they claim to have eradicated, like the measles.
The real story here is that swine flu never posed a real threat to humanity, and it would have gone away on its own, even without the vaccines. Tens of millions of people have already been exposed and subsequently built their own H1N1 antibodies.
And guess what? Their immune systems did it for free. No needles required. Amazing!
(NaturalNews) Pennsylvania House Bill 492, the Emergency Health Powers Act, was introduced by Rep. Ken Smith (D) on February 18, 2009, as an amendment to The Administrative Code of 1929 which outlines provisions for dealing with public health emergencies. HB 492 contains provisions that, during a health emergency, allow for the public takeover of private property and infrastructure, restriction of free trade, quarantines, mandatory medical treatments, and forced vaccinations.
Similar to the Massachusetts pandemic bills that were passed by both the House and Senate back in October, HB 492 follows suit with a laundry list of unconstitutional mandates not lawfully afforded to the State, even during a pandemic. A final, combined version of the two Massachusetts bills is currently awaiting passage.
Though the Pennsylvania bill has been sitting with the Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee since February, there is a possibility it could move out of committee and be rushed for a vote in the very near future. Because many other states have begun trying to replicate the Massachusetts template for government tyranny during a crisis, it is crucial for the public to stop this bill and others like it before it ever makes it to the Congressional floor.
Contents of HB 492 Section 2523-D furnishes the Governor with the power to mobilize the National Guard for active duty to achieve and enforce the bill’s objectives. Section 2532-D allows for the control of facilities, property, trade, food rationing, commodities distribution and the movement of people during a crises. Section 2542-D authorizes the coercion of persons to submit to medical examinations, testing, and any other medical treatments deemed necessary by the public health authority. The public health authority is not subject to any judicial restraints or accountability and persons refusing to comply with its mandates will face third-degree misdemeanor penalties. Section 2544-D sanctions forced vaccinations if deemed necessary which furnish power to detain, quarantine, and impose third-degree misdemeanor charges for those who refuse to comply. Section 2574-D grants immunity from liability to the state for death or injury to persons and for damage caused to property as a result of enforcing said provisions. It grants the same immunity to private persons, firms, or corporations who cause death, injury, or destruction while acting under the direction of the state in helping to enforce the provisions.
Essentially the bill will allow for the complete takeover of the state during a public health emergency by the Governor, the National Guard, and those from the private sector called upon to assist in the takeover. Aside from the decimation of liberty and free trade, mandatory medical treatments, and forced vaccinations, the state will not be held liable for the death and destruction caused by enforcing its requirements.
Additionally, private persons, parties, groups, corporations, or whoever is accessible and willing can be called upon to enforce these heinous provisions on their fellow citizens with the same protection from liability for the death and destruction caused by enforcement.
Since the White House recently declared a national health emergency on October 24, contingency plans like HB 492 on the state level are becoming chillingly more possible and likely. The idea of martial law being declared during an emergency, whether it is a manufactured pandemic or something else, is no longer baseless fear-mongering but a sordid reality.
It is paramount that concerned citizens actively and forcefully oppose draconian laws such as HB 492 and demand that their elected officials oppose unconstitutional power grabs, especially during crises when those seeking such power prey on the fears of the public.
Sources:
House Bill 492 – The General Assembly of Pennsylvania
Senate, No. 2028 – The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Declaration of a National Emergency with Respect to the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic – The White HouseAbout the authorEthan Huff is a freelance writer and health enthusiast who loves exploring the vast world of natural foods and health, digging deep to get to the truth. He runs an online health publication of his own at http://wholesomeherald.blogspot.com.
(NaturalNews) It seems the financial bailout isn’t the only bailout happening on Wall Street these days. News has now leaked that investment firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup both received preferential H1N1 swine flu vaccines even while local clinics that treat school children had no supply. The uproar is reminding the public just how much special treatment Wall Street banks get — both financially and medically — while everyday people are hung out to dry.
Not only that, but taxpayers got to foot the bill for those H1N1 vaccines handed to Wall Street insiders. It’s yet one more way in which the general public is being screwed over (yet again) by the swine flu vaccine agenda.
There’s one politically incorrect question in all this that’s just begging to be asked, and let’s assume for the moment that H1N1 vaccines actually work to save lives even though they don’t: If a dangerous viral pandemic sweeps through the nation, killing people left and right, are Wall Street investment bankers really the people we want to save first?
Seriously. Doesn’t it seem that school children should get the medicine first and Wall Street insiders should get it last?
The CDC claims that the vaccines sent to these Wall Street companies should have only been given to “high-risk people” who worked there. Sure they were, because we all know that Wall Street companies adhere to the highest standards of ethics, morality and civic responsibility. These people are shining examples of glorious human beings who always do the right thing, even if it requires giving up something for the benefit of someone else, right? And if they were on a sinking Titanic, they’d give up the life boats to the poor women and children, right?
But the real story here isn’t that H1N1 vaccines are now being preferentially given to the rich instead of the school children. The real story is that people are panicking to get their hands on a complete joke of a vaccine — a chemical cocktail that has never been subjected to even a single scientific test proving it actually works. People are lining up, in other words, to attain supply of something that’s totally useless.
The crumbling social fabric of AmericaAt the same time, this fabricated emergency reveals to us the complete lack of ethics in the distribution of these vaccines to the Wall Street rich, even while everyday poor people stand in line waiting for their turn.
It’s yet another powerful commentary on the crumbling social fabric of America — a nation that puts its morally bankrupt money slingers as a higher priority than everyone else. It’s the Wall Streeters who get the trillion-dollar bailouts that the rest of us must someday pay out of our pockets. It’s the Wall Streeters who get preferential treatment by Washington. And it’s the Wall Streeters who are now getting the medicine that should be going to our children.
Of course, the medicine itself is a joke, too, but that’s beside the point: These people THINK the vaccines are valuable, so their decisions on where to send them first reveal their true intentions.
There’s a huge moral lesson in all this, by the way: Even those who get the H1N1 vaccine receive no benefit from it. People whose immune systems adaptively respond to the vaccine by building antibodies are the very people who could have done the same thing automatically in response to influenza exposure. Meanwhile, those with suppressed immune systems that are vulnerable to H1N1 have no ability to adaptively produce H1N1 antibodies anyway. In other words, even if you believe the H1N1 vaccine actually works, it only works on the people who don’t need it!
This is the ultimate comedy. People are desperately fighting over a chemical injection that will help no one. And the only reason they’re so desperate about it is because the hysteria has been entirely fabricated precisely to create irrational demand (http://www.naturalnews.com/027404_hysteria_H1N1_vaccines.html).
Maybe we should send all the vaccines to Wall Street anyway. Let everybody else stand outside, waiting in lines and soaking up a little sunshine so that their bodies create the only thing that will really save them from influenza in the first place: Vitamin D.
Or better yet, We the People should charge Wall Street for these vaccines we paid for. And the price? One trillion dollars.
Robin Willer waits in line at an emergency dental clinic in Orange County, Calif. (Karen Tapia/KHN)
Waiting at the emergency dental clinic. (Karen Tapia/KHN)
Robin Willer (Karen Tapia/KHN)