Saturday, October 1, 2011
Banks to Start Charging Fees To Use Your Debit Card
...as a debit card
Bank of America will start charging debit-card users $5 a month to pay for purchases. The move comes as the cards increasingly replace cash and as banks look for ways to offset the loss of revenue from a new rule that will limit how much they can collect from merchants.
Image Source
Paying to use a debit card was unheard of before this year and is still a novel concept for many consumers. But several banks have recently introduced or started testing debit card fees. That's in addition to the spate of other unwelcome changes checking account customers have seen in the past year. Bank of America will begin charging the fee early next year.
Bank of America's announcement carries added weight because it is the largest U.S. bank by deposits.
The fee will apply to basic accounts, which are marketed toward those with modest balances, and will be in addition to any existing monthly service fees. For example, one such account charges a $12 monthly fee unless customers meet certain conditions, such as maintaining a minimum average balance of $1,500.
Customers will only be charged the fee if they use their debit cards for purchases in any given month, said Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman. Those who only use their cards at ATMs won't have to pay.
The debit card fee is just the latest twist in the rapidly evolving market for checking accounts.
A study by Bankrate.com this week found that just 45 percent of checking accounts are now free with no strings attached, down from 65 percent last year and 76 percent in 2009. Customers can still get free checking in most cases, but only if they meet certain conditions, such as setting up direct deposit.
The study also found that the total.. Continue to the rest of the article..
Source
Bank of America will start charging debit-card users $5 a month to pay for purchases. The move comes as the cards increasingly replace cash and as banks look for ways to offset the loss of revenue from a new rule that will limit how much they can collect from merchants.Image Source
Paying to use a debit card was unheard of before this year and is still a novel concept for many consumers. But several banks have recently introduced or started testing debit card fees. That's in addition to the spate of other unwelcome changes checking account customers have seen in the past year. Bank of America will begin charging the fee early next year.
Bank of America's announcement carries added weight because it is the largest U.S. bank by deposits.
The fee will apply to basic accounts, which are marketed toward those with modest balances, and will be in addition to any existing monthly service fees. For example, one such account charges a $12 monthly fee unless customers meet certain conditions, such as maintaining a minimum average balance of $1,500.
Customers will only be charged the fee if they use their debit cards for purchases in any given month, said Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman. Those who only use their cards at ATMs won't have to pay.
The debit card fee is just the latest twist in the rapidly evolving market for checking accounts.
A study by Bankrate.com this week found that just 45 percent of checking accounts are now free with no strings attached, down from 65 percent last year and 76 percent in 2009. Customers can still get free checking in most cases, but only if they meet certain conditions, such as setting up direct deposit.
The study also found that the total.. Continue to the rest of the article..
Source
When You See It...
Click to enlarge to make it easier..
Via
It looks like a distant mountain on the other side of a lake, but it's actually just a cloud - below which is clear sky. Incredible image!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Mood
Spend all your time waiting for that second chance
for a break that would make it okay
there's always some reason to feel not good enough,
and it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction, oh a beautiful release..
memory seeps from my veins..
let me be empty, oh, and weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight
for a break that would make it okay
there's always some reason to feel not good enough,
and it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction, oh a beautiful release..
memory seeps from my veins..
let me be empty, oh, and weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight
RIP Cliff Burton
Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the American thrash metal band Metallica.
Burton joined the band in 1982 and performed on its debut studio album, Kill 'Em All. He performed on two more Metallica albums, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, both of which met with major commercial and critical success. Burton was known for his "lead bass" approach, in which the bass played a melodic and soloist role, in addition to holding down the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the band.
On September 27, 1986, Burton died when the band's tour bus over-turned in rural southern Sweden. Burton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Metallica on April 4, 2009.
Cliff Burton
Young Girl Catches a Piranha in Texas
msnbc 9/27/2011
Texas is reminding folks that keeping piranhas as pets is a no-no. The warning this week comes after a 5-year-old girl on her first fishing expedition hooked a red-bellied piranha at a lake near Houston.
Lindsay Schutte used a hot dog to lure her unique prize.
"When I took the hook out of the mouth and saw it had pretty big teeth I was concerned, but I'm in Texas so I don't know, there could be fish like that," Christi Schutte, Lindsay's mom and a recent transplant from California, told NBC affiliate KPRC-TV.
But when the fish bit Lindsay's brother, the family decided to notify the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which killed the fish and then froze it for further study.
"An actual piranha is a VERY rare occurrence in the wild — only 2 documented specimens in 30 years — and possessing and releasing live piranhas and dozens of other exotic, harmful or potentially harmful fish species is prohibited by Texas law," the department said in a statement on Monday.
The department emphasized that the Tom Bass Park lake "remains a great place to go fishing and is completely safe to go fishing there."
"We strongly believe that this is an isolated catch," said the department's Dave Terre.
Natives of tropical waters in South America, piranhas are unlikely to be able to survive a Texas winter, the department noted.
The caught specimen was possibly held as a pet by someone who then tried to get rid of it in the lake, Terre said.
The department also noted that a first offense for possessing or releasing outlawed fish in Texas can mean a $500 fine. Repeat offenses can lead to jail time and heftier fines.
Piranhas have a reputation far greater than their size, which typically ranges from 5 to 10 inches. Contrary to movies and popular culture, piranhas don't typically swarm together to gobble up much larger prey in seconds.
Source - (with video report)
Texas is reminding folks that keeping piranhas as pets is a no-no. The warning this week comes after a 5-year-old girl on her first fishing expedition hooked a red-bellied piranha at a lake near Houston.
Lindsay Schutte used a hot dog to lure her unique prize.
"When I took the hook out of the mouth and saw it had pretty big teeth I was concerned, but I'm in Texas so I don't know, there could be fish like that," Christi Schutte, Lindsay's mom and a recent transplant from California, told NBC affiliate KPRC-TV.
But when the fish bit Lindsay's brother, the family decided to notify the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which killed the fish and then froze it for further study.
"An actual piranha is a VERY rare occurrence in the wild — only 2 documented specimens in 30 years — and possessing and releasing live piranhas and dozens of other exotic, harmful or potentially harmful fish species is prohibited by Texas law," the department said in a statement on Monday.
The department emphasized that the Tom Bass Park lake "remains a great place to go fishing and is completely safe to go fishing there."
"We strongly believe that this is an isolated catch," said the department's Dave Terre.
Natives of tropical waters in South America, piranhas are unlikely to be able to survive a Texas winter, the department noted.
The caught specimen was possibly held as a pet by someone who then tried to get rid of it in the lake, Terre said.
The department also noted that a first offense for possessing or releasing outlawed fish in Texas can mean a $500 fine. Repeat offenses can lead to jail time and heftier fines.
Piranhas have a reputation far greater than their size, which typically ranges from 5 to 10 inches. Contrary to movies and popular culture, piranhas don't typically swarm together to gobble up much larger prey in seconds.
Source - (with video report)
Why Music Makes You Happy
My Image
People love music for much the same reason they're drawn to sex, drugs, gambling and delicious food, according to new research. When you listen to tunes that move you, the study found, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical involved in both motivation and addiction.
Even just anticipating the sounds of a composition like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" or Phish's "You Enjoy Myself" can get the feel-good chemical flowing, found the study, which was the first to make a concrete link between dopamine release and musical pleasure.
The findings offer a biological explanation for why music has been such a major part of major emotional events in cultures around the world since the beginning of human history. Through music, the study also offers new insights into how the human pleasure system works.Image Source
"You're following these tunes and anticipating what's going to come next and whether it's going to confirm or surprise you, and all of these little cognitive nuances are what's giving you this amazing pleasure," said Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal. "The reinforcement or reward happens almost entirely because of dopamine."
"This basically explains why music has been around for so long," she added. "The intense pleasure we get from it is actually biologically reinforcing in the brain, and now here's proof for it."
In a previous study, Salimpoor and colleagues linked music-induced pleasure with a surge in intense emotional arousal, including changes in heart rate, pulse, breathing rate and other measurements. Along with these physical changes, people often report feelings of shivers or chills. When that happens during a listening experience, Salimpoor's group and others have found evidence that blood flows to regions in the brain involved in dopamine release.
To solidify the dopamine link, the researchers recruited eight music-lovers, who brought to the lab samples of music that gave them chills of pleasure. Most picks were classical, with some jazz, rock and popular music mixed in, including Led Zeppelin and Dave Matthews Band. The most popular selection was Barb[e]r's Adagio for Strings.
After 15 minutes of listening, scientists injected participants with a radioactive substance that binds to dopamine receptors. With a machine called a PET scanner, the scientists were then able to see if that substance simply circulated through listeners' blood, which would indicate that they had already released a lot of dopamine, and that the dopamine was tying up all available receptors.
Continue to the rest of the article..
Via
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
A Monday Link Dump
Image Source
• The Richest People in America - (via The Daily What)
• How to Make American Cheese - (via The Presurfer)
• Ground Zero Sept.11, 2001 - Sept.11, 2011 in Pictures - (The Big Picture)
• The National Bed Bug Registry -and- How To Choose a Pest Control Company
• The Worst Stadium Seats Around the World - (via Peter From Texas)
• The Texas Drought & Wildfires in Pictures - (The Big Picture)
• Charlie Sheen Awarded Huge Settlement with Warner Bros. - (Yahoo! TV News)
• The Top-51 Degrees for Getting a Job and Making Money - (The Best Degrees)
Sunday, September 25, 2011
But In Case You Forgot - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Prog or not. This DT album is absolutely incredible. Unlike most albums you buy, there is nothing on this one that I'd pass on. You know.. you put one in, and forward to your favorite one(s). Not here. One through six it's amazing - especially 5 & 6. I don't see how anyone couldn't feel something during the combined tracks of "The Best of Times" and "The Count of Tuscany". It's the best 32 minutes of music I have ever heard. Yeah I just said that:
1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. A Rite of Passage
3. Wither
4. The Shattered Fortress
5. The Best of Times
6. The Count of Tuscany
I think about my father every time I listen to "The Best of Times". My idol, Mike Portnoy wrote the song for his father, who had just passed away. I cry with him. I always do. This album is so incredible. The solo on "The Best of Times" is one of the best I've ever heard, and "The Count of Tuscany" is probably the best song DT has ever recorded. No wait.. It is most certainly the best DT song ever recorded.
Prog or not. This DT album is absolutely incredible. Unlike most albums you buy, there is nothing on this one that I'd pass on. You know.. you put one in, and forward to your favorite one(s). Not here. One through six it's amazing - especially 5 & 6. I don't see how anyone couldn't feel something during the combined tracks of "The Best of Times" and "The Count of Tuscany". It's the best 32 minutes of music I have ever heard. Yeah I just said that:
1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. A Rite of Passage
3. Wither
4. The Shattered Fortress
5. The Best of Times
6. The Count of Tuscany
I think about my father every time I listen to "The Best of Times". My idol, Mike Portnoy wrote the song for his father, who had just passed away. I cry with him. I always do. This album is so incredible. The solo on "The Best of Times" is one of the best I've ever heard, and "The Count of Tuscany" is probably the best song DT has ever recorded. No wait.. It is most certainly the best DT song ever recorded.
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