A company in India recently unveiled the world’s cheapest car–The Tata Nano. The Tata Nano will go on sale next month for just $1,979. Millions of Indians in India currently ride inexpensive motorcycles, so naturally, the Tata Nano will appeal to low income families since it is drastically inexpensive and has five seats.
But this car isn’t your average car at the lowest price in the world, it is an extremely no frills car; drivers will not get air bags, air conditioning, a radio, or power steering. While this is extremely good news for people looking for cheap transportation, environmental activists are worried that the car will be popular, thus adding to car traffic and pollution.
A European version of the Tata Nano will be introduced in 2011 for around $5,700.
Anyone who uses the internet on a regular, or even semi-regular basis knows that the blogosphere and social networking sites have exploded. No matter what channel you get your news from, the anchor will often mention that they had people responding to the subject matter via Facebook and/or Twitter; major publications’ websites have options to connect via Facebook and every single person, organization or company that has a name going for themselves utilize Twitter as a way to connect with their audiences.
Online Marketing 101 will tell you that in order to be successful as a person, organization, or business, you need to open up your online market and to do that, you need to start a blog for your website, ensuring you always have fresh content for your website, and sign up for Twitter to connect with people even further and to spread the word about your brand. Online marketers have and will continue to give their colleagues and friends tips and tricks on how to utilize an online market, but the UK is taking it a step further and teaching young people early on about online marketing by implementing classes on Twitter, Wikipedia, podcasting, and blogging.
While many people are voicing their outrage over this decision for UK schools, I think it’s a pretty good idea. Perhaps I wouldn’t go as far as to teach classes specifically on particular social networking sites, but I would teach young people about the internet, given the technologically-driven world we live in today. When I was in middle school, sixth to eighth grade, my school taught us classes on how to use a computer and in seventh grade, we took a class on typing that was taught on an old-fashioned typewriter. It was because of those classes that I first got introduced to computers and how to work my way around one and also the fact that I can currently type around 80 words per minute. I currently work as a professional web designer and copywriter, so those skills have definitely paid off and I think they will also pay off in this case for UK children taught how important social networking websites and services are.
Any other thoughts? I’m quite interested in hearing from people who don’t think these classes are beneficial at all.
Credit card debt is a factor to consider during a divorce. You aren’t just separating your lives, but your finances as well. If you do this correctly, you can avoid a financial mess and go on with your life. If it is done incorrectly, you could have a financial disaster that ruins your credit and you will pay much more than lawyer fees.
Here are some credit card issues to address if you are going through a divorce:
1. Get a complete picture of your debt. Get a copy of a credit reports from all three agencies for you and your spouse. Make a list of every open credit account and whether it is a joint or individual account. You may be surprised to find active accounts that you didn’t know existed.
2. Close joint accounts. Joint accounts are held by you and your spouse together, and both of you are equally responsible for the debt. The creditor reports account activity to the credit bureau in both of your names. This affects the personal credit score for both individuals.
Each person is responsible for the debt, regardless of how the debt is distributed in the divorce. If an account is left open, your ex-spouse can add more debt, make a late payment, miss a payment, or default, and you will also be held responsible. It will not only be costly for you, it can hurt your credit score and trigger a rate increase for all of your credit accounts.
By law, a creditor can’t close an account because of a change in marital status, but the account can be closed at the request of either spouse. However, a creditor does not have to change a joint account into an individual account. They can require you to reapply for credit on an individual basis. They will treat this as a new application and will either accept or deny your application.
When you close the account, notify the credit card company about the divorce with a certified letter. Ask them to provide a current account statement and tell them that you do not intend to be held liable for any debt accumulated after the date of the written letter. Request that they put the account on inactive status so that no new additional charges may be added and stipulate that once the balance is paid in full, the account is to be closed completely. Follow up with a phone call to your credit card issuer.
If you close an account with an outstanding balance, you still have to pay off the balance. Create a payment plan and make sure that you continue making payments on time so you won’t hurt your credit score and incur the late fees. Monitor your account each month to make sure your ex-spouse is also making the correct payment. Pay off your balance as quickly as possible.
If one spouse is assigned the credit card debt, close the joint account and roll it into a new account in the spouse’s name.
3. Remove names from each other’s accounts. Close all joint accounts and have your name removed from accounts that will continue to be used by your spouse. This will limit your responsibility for new debts from by your spouse (you will still be responsible for old debts incurred up until that point). If your spouse is an authorized users in any of your accounts, revoke the authorization. Send the request by certified mail.
4. Pay off the credit card debt before the divorce is final, even if you have to liquidate marital assets. This will prevent the possibility of future financial problems. If your ex-spouse declares bankruptcy, then the credit card company will turn to you for full payment.
5. After the divorce is finalized, monitor your credit report to see if any errors or problems pop up from the joint credit you had during your marriage.
This is a guest post by Linda of Best Kept Recipes.
From my particular viewpoint that would be God. But the dear people of our great country are looking for someone, anyone in politics to turn to for a crumb of trust. Politics and trust – they do make for strange bedfellows.
It would do politicians well to remember that we elected them to work for us, as in United States. We picked them and voted them into office which was our decision. There is now a greater need to keep a trained eye on their progress as well as their backpedaling. Be grateful for watchdog groups who go the extra mile and dig to uncover what lies beneath; which seems like a never ending frittering of suspicion. What ticks me off is the after-the-fact-digging. If any of our media outlets would do their jobs of researching and reporting these findings before the politicians get into office it wouldn’t seem like we just closed the barn door after the runaway horse. Why aren’t these politicians doing their jobs? In the real world you’d be fired or imprisoned for this web of deceit and clandestine meetings. What is wrong with them? What is wrong with us? Do we all have blinders on? Is that what is called politics as usual?
Forget the left, right and middle. This is the time to tell the truth, to step up to the plate. One state is now hiring a public relations firm to help push this porkulous bill! What? We cannot just look the other way. People need to be accountable for what they say and do. Our president has to focus on our economy and stop gallivanting all over the place partying – he’s campaigning again! I’m the parent of a child with ADHD, I know a Ritalin case when I see one. Maybe they should duct tape him to his Oval Office chair so he can get some work done. Perhaps write or do something that doesn’t require having to be fed and coached with teleprompters.
Step 4 of AA says, “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” These politicians would have ceased this behavior had they done this. But alas, I’m jumping ahead of myself. You cannot get to Step 4 until the first three steps are completed. (Sigh).
Step 1 is: “We admitted we were powerless. . .that our lives had become unmanageable.” Here’s the thing – our lives are becoming unmanageable because of bad behavior, theirs and ours. Because we’ve allowed them to mismanage and power trip the handling of our tax monies and laws. Always remember: we’ve allowed it to happen. The Senate elections of 2010 are not coming soon enough. Don’t even get me started on the 2012 elections – I’m saving that for a future article.
- – – – – – – – – -
Linda is an Administrative Manager by day and a cooking website writer all other times. Check out her all-homemade cooking website, Best Kept Recipes.
Becoming comfortable enough with your partner to introduce some kink into your sex life can take some time. Whether it is your decision or your partner’s, or if you’ve both mutually decided it was time to try something new in the bedroom, this is an exciting, titillating, and completely new time in your sex life… and definitely an experience you will want to enjoy.
The Experimental Kink Set is a perfect set for couples new to kink and any sort of power and sensation play, guaranteed to send your senses through the roof. It includes a padded leather blindfold, adjustable leather cuffs that measure 5-1/2”-7” to fit most people’s wrists, and an ostrich feather that sends amazing tickling sensations over your body.
This set is great for virtually everyone who wants to get a little kinky. The padded leather blindfold is very comfortable so you won’t mind wearing it for an extended amount of time. The strap on the back of the blindfold that holds it in place around your head will slip if you’re moving a lot. The adjustable leather cuffs will fit most people’s wrists and are held together by a clasp, making them comfortable to wear and they are also extremely resistant and will not break easily at all.
I absolutely love the Experimental Kink Set and, as you can tell from my past reviews, I am not a beginner, making this set perfect for all kink and power play, and sensation play levels.
I had no idea that it was already Ultimate Blog Party time, but while blog hopping through my favorite blogs and commenting (something I haven’t been doing very often due to various time constraints that all have to do with how much time my job has been taking away from me and my real life of blogging) I started seeing various party posts and of course, immediately got excited and went on over to 5 Minutes for Mom to pick up my badge and get the party started.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, the 5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party is the event of the year for women bloggers. It is the best event to take part in to get your blog noticed and to discover blogs that I guarantee you will be reading for some time after the Ultimate Blog Party has ended. Woman Tribune participated last year and we found some great finds and had a blast meeting so many other women bloggers. There were over 1500 participants last year and the blog party is growing every year. But blog promotion isn’t the only thing in participating in the blog party for you–There are also prizes. Lots of prizes.
A Little About Me:
My name is Holly, I am a 22 year old professional web designer, freelance writer, and obsessive blogger. I live in a very small, desolate town in Pennsylvania with my boyfriend (who has 2 children from a previous marriage) and our cat.
In addition to creating Woman Tribune, I also created Menstrual Poetry, a feminist/political website, and I also write short films about social issues that are plaguing the lives of women and girls world-wide that not many people like to or are willing to initiate conversation about. I am the definition of a work-a-holic. I am always working on something, whether it be for a my job or for my own projects and while most of my awake hours are spent in front of a computer, I love what I do.
A Gift for You
As a treat to the Ultimate Blog Party party hoppers, we are running our first giveaway ever! We are giving away a freshwater pearl bracelet to 3 lucky winners as part of Cheerios partnering with WomenHeart to promote women’s heart health.
To win the freshwater pearl bracelet go to our giveaway post and leave a comment about what you do to maintain a healthy heart. There are also options for how you can get additional entries. Check it out!
I have my eye on a few Ultimate Blog Party prizes; well more than a few, actually:
At the top of my list is #87–Six piece Insider’s Beauty Collection via Call When You Get There, #55–Strawberry Smash Moisturizer from Farmhouse Fresh via Now What Baby, #20–handmade goat milk soap from Goat Milk Stuff, #14–products from Scentsy
But would be more than happy to receive #83–$25 gift certificate to Eco Store USA via Sweet Serendipity, USC 9–$50 gift certificate to Salon Hive, USC 48–Choice of women’s hat from Jaybird Designs
This giveaway has ended. Winners are announced here.
Coronary heart disease is the number one cause of death in women. This disease is highly preventable, a major controllable factor is high cholesterol, yet a great deal of women have limited access to adequate health care, making it very difficult for them to get regular cholesterol screenings and putting them at an even greater risk for heart disease.
A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive for Cheerios found that more than one-third of adults (approximately 37%) have not had their cholesterol checked within the past year. With the state of our economy crumbling, less and less women are paying attention to their heart health or may not even know that they are at risk for coronary heart disease. If these women were able to get the cholesterol screenings they need, we would see the number of heart disease-related deaths in women drop dramatically.
Now through January 31, 2010, Cheerios is helping women in need through its partnership with WomenHeart. On the inside of every specially marked boxes of Cheerios, a code is printed on the inside. For every code entered at www.cheerioshelpinghearts.com, Cheerios will donate $1, up to $200,000 to raise awareness for heart disease and provide free cholesterol screenings for women in need who could not otherwise afford to receive cholesterol screenings.
Freshwater Pearl Bracelet Giveaway
We are giving away a timeless freshwater pearl bracelet with a heart charm from Charity Charms to 3 lucky winners. Charity Charms donates a portion of the proceeds from its charms to various charities and by wearing the charm bracelet, you can show your dedication to raising awareness of women’s heart health.
To win a freshwater pearl bracelet all you have to do is leave a comment about what you do to maintain a healthy heart.
For additional entries, you can:
• Blog about this giveaway on your blog and comment here with the URL.
• Twitter about this contest and comment here with the URL of your update.
This contest is open to U.S. residents only and ends on March 31, 2009 at 12am EST. 3 winners will be announced April 1, 2009.
Contest Disclaimer
If you run a small business, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have checked out Microsoft Office Live Small Business. Small businesses thrive on the internet; you have a larger target market and the ability to reach more people, faster than ever. As more and more small businesses continue to thrive online, companies are making it easier to become an internet entrepreneur even if you aren’t very “tech-savvy” and one of those companies making the internet less of a mystery and more of a tool that can be easily used by everyone is Microsoft.
Microsoft Office Live Small Business has rolled out some big changes to make customizing your Small Business website even easier.
There is a new custom color selector, giving you more options as far as color selections go for your website, making it easier to match colors in your business logo or other branding elements you have for your business. There is a new custom page zone resizing tool letting you think outside the box when customizing your existing web page layout template. You can now resize individual zones within a template with a simple mouse click and drag and drop action. There are also new custom backgrounds for your website and finally, the ability to add a new PayPal button, making it easy for you to sell products and/or services via your website without having to bother with a full-blown ecommerce solution.
There are even more improvements in the works for Microsoft Office Live Small Business. Microsoft will continue to improve their service for all small business owners who want the ability to easily manage their businesses online.
Cosmetics are hands down, one of the most difficult products to purchase and be completely clear with what you are purchasing. With so many brands and different types of beauty products on the market, women can very much feel like they are grasping in the dark when it comes to trying to pick out the best beauty product for their specific needs.
Many women have turned to the internet to help them make the most educated decisions to aid them in purchasing the most effective beauty products. Because of this, a lot of people have posted reviews of their experiences with products to help other women decipher between the many products on the market now and which products could benefit them the most.
One of the most confusing beauty products to purchase on the market today is cream and what women are most concerned with as they age is wrinkles. Because there are a plethora of different wrinkle creams on the market, Wrinkle Best is a review site specifically for consumer reviews of wrinkle creams and helping other women pick the best cream for their needs.
Wrinkle Best allows consumers to post their real, honest experiences with the different wrinkle creams on the market to aid women in picking the best wrinkle cream. To date, contains more than 20 different brands of creams. The website offers valuable information to help users make an informed choice and one of it’s best attributes is that the website is extremely easy to navigate, making it easy for all women of differing ages, regardless of how “tech-savvy” they happen to be. The reviews contain insightful information and also contain a grade for each review from 1 to 100, giving consumers definitive insight on how well the product works and if it works as well as the label claims.
Wrinkle best also allows other consumers to post their own reviews via a comment section on the website for reviews that have already been written. People posting additional reviews also give the product a series of ratings from 1 to 5 on effectiveness, instant results, guarantee and support, and an overall rating.
If you are looking for honest and in depth reviews on the best wrinkle creams, Wrinkle Best is definitely the review website to check out to help aid you in your decision-making process.
Next week, Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Joe Barton (R-TX) will be reintroducing the legislation to Congress that will help protect women after undergoing procedures to treat breast cancer.
The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act is a critical step needed to end the horrible practice of “drive-through” mastectomies, which forced women to check out of the hospital sometimes only hours after invasive breast cancer surgery.
Make your voice heard and call your Representatives in Congress and urge them to be an original cosponsor of this legislation.
To reach your member of Congress, call the US House of Representatives switchboard at 202.225.3121. To find your Representative, visit the US House of Representatives’ website.
Next Page »
