Is your local bank offering poor interest rate percentages on savings accounts? Do you need the security of FDIC insured savings? Read on to learn how to research and obtain a new Savings Accounts using the Internet.
Step1
Tune in to the financial talk show hosts using the websites below on your computer, or your local radio stations. They often will give you the best reliability picture of online savings accounts and their interest rates. You can find a lot of useful info on WaMu website.
Step2
Use a search engine such as Google to find online banks quickly. Click the links below to research the more well-known institutions.
Step3
When you arrive at the banking websites, they generally have a link that states current APR or interest rate they offer. This will vary over time and could potentially change overnight. Have in mind your goals for the money you will invest.
Step4
Shop around on at least two of the websites for the highest interest rates as well as benefits or perks they offer. Choose one that has been around for a few years and has a sound reputation. You could ask your business associates if they have heard of the bank as well. Check out the minimum age, often times they do not have children's bank accounts.
Step5
Do not forget to check the weekly newspaper business section for the latest interest rates and special offers just to compare with what you have found online.
Step6
When you do decide, you should be able to complete most of the sign up process by phone, Internet or by postal mail.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
How to Earn More Interest With an Online Savings Account
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Weird facts: Wind scatters hundreds of bills as man leaves bank, but good Samaritans rush in to help
weird facts
TORRANCE, Calif. (AP)A dozen bystanders rushed in to help a 70-year-old man after he stumbled leaving a Southern California bank, causing thousands of dollars to scatter in the wind.
Ludwig Geier says hundreds of bills were "gone in no time," flying through the air and littering the First National Bank's parking lot in Torrance on Monday.
Almost immediately, about a dozen bystanders rushed in to help. The machine shop owner says about 96 percent of the money was found.
Geier says he's going to pray for those good Samaritans, adding, "If I could get them together, I'd buy them dinner and drinks."
[Via - Newsday.Com]
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Saturday, July 19, 2008
Cops arrest woman in alleged restaurant rat scheme | weird facts
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weird facts
APPLETON, Wis. - Appleton police have arrested a woman for allegedly bringing a rat into an upscale restaurant, claiming it was in her meal and then seeking $500,000 to keep quiet.
Sgt. Neal Rabas said the 41-year-old Appleton woman started a claim with Secura Insurance, saying she went to a doctor and had medical expenses.
Rabas said insurance investigators were suspicious so they contacted police.
Bob Doller, co-owner of The Seasons in Grand Chute, said rumors of the incident had negatively affected the business but they had to keep quiet while police investigated.
[Via - Yahoo!News]
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Commission Cracks Down On Bully Doctors | Weird Facts
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weird facts
CHICAGO -- Bullying doctors can make nurses afraid to question their performance, resulting in medical errors, according to a hospital group that announced new requirements for cracking down on intimidating behavior.
Outbursts and condescending language threaten patient safety and increase the cost of care, according to a safety alert issued Wednesday by the Joint Commission, an independent organization that accredits most of the nation's hospitals.
Hospitals will be required by next year to have codes of conduct and processes for dealing with inappropriate behavior by staff, said the group's president, Dr. Mark Chassin. Hospitals without such systems risk losing their accreditation, he said. Powerful doctors mean money for hospitals because they choose where to admit their patients, but they "should not be left off the hook," said Dr. Peter Angood, vice president of the group, which is based in suburban Chicago.
Grena Porto, a nurse involved in the group's efforts, said nurses need to be "appropriately assertive" and feel safe enough to ask a doctor, "Are you sure we're supposed to operate on the right leg, rather than the left?"
Nurses, pharmacists and hospital administrators also can be culprits, but it's the doctors who bully nurses that are the most significant for patient safety, said Dr. Alan Rosenstein, a researcher on the topic.
He applauded the group's action. Rosenstein, medical director of VHA West Coast, an alliance of nonprofit hospitals, surveyed 1,500 hospital employees for a 2005 study published in the American Journal of Nursing, and received comments like these: --"Most nurses are afraid to call Dr. X when they need to, and frequently won't call. Their patient's medical safety is always in jeopardy because of this." --"I have caught myself in the middle of mislabeling specimens after confrontations that have been upsetting." Another survey in 2003 by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices found that 40 percent of health providers said they had kept quiet rather than question a known bully.
Hospitals have pecking orders and are stressful work environments, but "there's a right way and a wrong way to manage that stress," Chassin said.
[Via - KiroTV.Com]
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Man sells soul for $3,800 ... to a pizza joint | Weird Facts
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weird facts
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand man has sold his soul to hell -- Hell Pizza, that is.
The New Zealand pizza chain said Thursday it had struck a deal with Walter Scott, 24, to buy a deed to his soul, shortly after an online auction site that initially agreed to the sale withdrew it from the Internet because of complaints it was in bad taste.
Scott offered his soul on the TradeMe site on Wednesday, saying he had not found it to be much use.
"I can't see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I'm going to palm it off to the highest bidder," Scott, 24, said on the sale site.
The auction attracted more than 32,000 hits and more than 100 bids before it was taken down.
TradeMe business manager Michael O'Donnell said the company had received an "overwhelming number of complaints from the TradeMe community."
"A lot of people felt it was offensive even though we thought it was there for good fun," he told The Associated Press. "So the compliance team pulled it."
He said the auction had also attracted many bogus bids -- while the last bid on the site was listed as $3,799, the last genuine bid was $456.
Rachael Allison, head of marketing for Hell Pizza, which has outlets across New Zealand and trades on a naughty image, said the company contacted Scott shortly after the auction was removed and offered him $3,800.
"The soul belongs to Hell, there is simply no better place for it," Allison told The Associated Press. "He was pretty delighted."
O'Donnell had said on Wednesday that Scott's auction complied with TradeMe's rules because a physical object -- the deed of ownership -- would change hands.
In 2001, 20-year-old U.S. university student Adam Burtle tried to sell his soul on eBay, but the auction was pulled after the company ruling that something tangible needed to be exchanged for a viable sale.
Allison said she would fly to Scott's home town of Wanganui on North Island Friday "to pick up the soul -- or at least the deed of ownership."
The deed would be hung on a wall at the company's headquarters in the northern city of Auckland and an image of it posted on the company's Web site.
"We'd love to get his soul in the virtual world -- to keep it immortal," she said.
[Via - CNN]
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Five Things You Did Not Know About Google - weird facts
1- Google spends $72 million a year on employee meals
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weird facts - Seventy-two million dollars a year -- that works out to about $7,530 per Googler (a term Google uses to identify employees). While the exact details vary depending on location (the Google empire spans the globe), employees at Google's California headquarters, aptly entitled the Googleplex, are welcome to at least two free meals a day from 11 different gourmet cafeterias. As if that weren’t enough, another thing you didn’t know about Google is that in addition to the cafeterias, Google offers numerous snack bars that are chock-full of healthy morsels to munch on.
And that's certainly not all. Is your car in a bit of a rut? Not to worry; Google offers on-site car washes and oil changes. The list of perks for working at Google is never-ending, making it no surprise that it's considered the No. 1 place to work, offering: on-site haircuts, full athletic facilities, massage therapists, language classes, drop-off dry cleaning, day cares, and on-site doctors, just to name a few. Oh, and if your dog is stuck at home and feeling a little lonely, just bring him to work -- Google doesn't mind.
2- Google was originally called BackRub
Like many other booming internet companies, Google has an interesting upbringing, one that is marked by a lowly beginning. Google began as a research project in January 1996 by cofounder Larry Page, a 24-year-old Ph.D. student at Standford University. Page was soon joined by 23-year-old Sergey Brin, another Ph.D. student, forming a duo that seemed destined for failure. According to Google's own corporate information, Brin and Page argued about every single topic they discussed. This incessant arguing, however, may have been what spurred the duo to rethink web-searching and develop a novel strategy that ranked websites according to the number of backlinks (i.e., according to the number of web pages that linked back to a web page being searched), and not based on the number of times a specific search term appeared on a given web page, as was the norm.
Because of this unique strategy, another thing you didn't know about Google is that Page and Brin nicknamed the search engine BackRub. Thankfully, in 1998, Brin and Page dropped the sexually suggestive nickname, and came up with “Google,” a term originating from a common misspelling of the word "googol," which refers to 10100.
The word “google” has become so common, it was entered into numerous dictionaries in 2006, referring to the act of using the Google search engine to retrieve information via the internet.
3- Google loses $110 million a year through "I'm Feeling Lucky"
There's not much to see on Google's main search page, and perhaps simplicity is one of the keys to Google's success. When searching Google, you are given two options: “Google Search” or “I'm Feeling Lucky.” By clicking the former, you are given that familiar list of search results; by clicking the latter, however, you are automatically redirected to the first search result, bypassing the search engine’s results page.
Besides the fun factor, the idea behind the “I'm Feeling Lucky” feature is to provide the user with instant connection to the precise page they are searching for, thus saving them time that would normally be spent perusing endless search results. Sounds harmless enough, right? Not so fast. Because “I'm Feeling Lucky” bypasses all advertising, it is estimated that Google loses about $110 million per year in advertising-generated revenue. So why in the world would any Fortune 500 company not patch such a gaping leak? "It's possible to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. I think what's delightful about 'I'm Feeling Lucky' is that it reminds you there are real people here," Google Executive Marissa Mayer told Valleywag, an online tech-blog.
4- Google has a sense of humor
Google also offers full language support for Pig Latin, Klingon and even Elmer Fudd. Anyone else still feeling lucky? Try typing, “French military victories” and clicking “I'm Feeling Lucky.” Behold the result.
Some might remember the “miserable failure” fiasco when one typed those words and clicked “I'm Feeling Lucky,” and they were instantly connected to a biography of President George W. Bush on the White House website. Now, before you jump to conclusions, this trick -- which no longer works -- was carried out by members of the online community through the art of “Google bombing.” Google bombing works because of Google's backlink search strategy.
5- Google scans your e-mails
Nothing in life is perfect -- or without controversy -- and Google is no exception. Google scans your e-mails (at Gmail) through a process called “content extraction.” All incoming and outgoing e-mail is scanned for specific keywords to target advertising to the user. The process has brewed quite a storm of controversy, but Google has yet to back down on its stance.
Google has remained similarly headstrong about other criticisms; in an attempt to remain partisan to local governments, Google removes or does not include information from its services in compliance with local laws. Perhaps the most striking example of this is Google's adherence to the internet censorship policies of China (at Google.cn) so as not to bring up search results supporting the independence movement of Tibet and Taiwan, or any other information perceived to be harmful to the People's Republic of China.
Google Street has further been cited for breaching personal privacy. The service provides high-resolution street-view photos from around the world and has, on numerous occasions, caught people committing questionable acts. Moving from street to satellite, Google Earth has also come under fire from several Indian state governments about the security risks posed by the details from Google Earth's satellite imaging. When all is said and done, there are a lot of criticisms about Google and these few examples merely scratch the surface.
Searched
Um, Google does the searching -- anytime, and every time, you search for something on the internet.
Interest
It's hard to think of another search engine ever supplanting our beloved Google, but it's anyone's guess as to how the internet will work in the future. Maybe you'll just have to think of something and it will appear. Who knows? Try Googling it.
[Via - AskMen.Com]
Saturday, June 21, 2008
How to Choose a Health Insurance Plan
These days, landing in the hospital for even a few days can decimate your savings account. That's why it's extremely important to consider the cost, the benefits, and the extent to which your family's health needs are met when choosing insurance. Research the various plans that are available, and determine how specifically tailored they are to your family's health needs and financial abilities, to decide on a plan that is best suited to your lifestyle.
Take this company as an example: Kaiser Health Plan .
Step1
Sign on with the health insurance provided by your employer: It is likely to be the cheapest option you can find. Your employer's carrier may have more than one option for you to choose from (HMO, preferred). If you're self-employed or if your company doesn't offer insurance, you'll have to search for your own insurance.
Step2
Assess your needs, taking into account your current use of health care and your medical expenses for the near future, and decide what services are most important to you and your family. Ask about dependents' coverage. Factor in how much you can afford to spend on monthly premiums and co-payments. If you're single and healthy, your health plan needs will be very different from those of a family with three young children.
Step3
Compare benefits and coverage of key items like monthly premiums, deductibles, co-payments, co-insurance rates, costs for seeing out-of-network providers, preventive care, physical exams, immunizations and the like. Other services that are of interest to your family could include fertility services, mental health coverage, nursing care and long-term care.
Step4
Ask lots of questions: Are your current providers part of this plan? Do you need referrals for specialist visits? How easy is it to change doctors? What hospitals and facilities can you use as part of the plan? What are the procedures for having emergency room treatment approved?
Step5
Find out if benefits are limited for preexisting conditions, or if you have to wait for a period of time before you're fully covered. Some plans may completely exclude coverage of preexisting conditions.
Step6
Research whether there is a fair appeals process available if the company denies treatment, and if these appeals are reviewed by an external, independent agency. Is there a high turnover rate among doctors in the plan? Check if the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA.org) accredits the plan; the Pacific Business Group on Health (HealthScope.org) also offers information on health plans.
Step7
Pick a plan that best matches your needs and priorities based on thorough research. Read all materials and call the health plan representative or conduct Internet research to get any information you are missing. Discuss pre-existing conditions and flexspending plans before making a decision.
Step8
Investigate long-term care insurance. The rising cost of health care and elderly care can demolish your savings if you are incapacitated for long. The best time to buy it is when you hit your 40s.
