USA

Do You Know …What is Government Shutdown ?

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Know : What is a Government Shutdown?

 

For the Non-US people around the world few may not be aware of what a shutdown of government means and what it does! You are not the only person to have this doubt many has it. A basic stuff here…

us

In U.S. politics, a government shutdown is a situation in which the government stops providing all but “essential” services. Typically, federal services that continue despite a shutdown include the National Weather Service and its parent agencies, medical services at federal facilities, the postal service, armed forces, air traffic management, and corrections (the penal system). A government shutdown is similar to a lockout in the private sector.

 

Effects :

A federal government shutdown causes a large number of civilian federal employees to be furloughed. Military personnel and essential employees are not furloughed, but may not be paid as scheduled.

The exact details of which government functions would stop during a shutdown is determined by the Office of Management and Budget. However, some specific aspects have applied to all shutdowns in the past. Among these is the closure of national parks and passport offices. ”Emergency personnel” continue to be employed, including the military, federal law enforcement agents, doctors and nurses working in federal hospitals, and air traffic controllers. Members of Congress continue to be paid, because their pay cannot be altered except by direct law. Mail delivery is not affected as it is self-funded.

Shutdowns in the past have also affected the Washington, D.C., municipal government, putting a stop to schools and to utilities such as garbage collection.

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List of similar Shutdowns

Year Start date End date Total days Explanation
1976 September 30 October 11 10 Citing out of control spending, President Gerald Ford vetoed a funding bill for the United States Department of Labor and the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), leading to a partial government shutdown. On October 1, the Democratic-controlled Congress overrode Ford’s veto but it took until October 11 for a continuing resolution ending funding gaps for other parts of government to become law.
1977 September 30 October 13 12 The Democratic-controlled House continued to uphold the ban on using Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions, except in cases where the life of the mother was at stake. Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled Senate pressed to loosen the ban to allow abortion funding in the case of rape or incest. A funding gap was created when disagreement over the issue between the houses had become tied to funding for the Departments of Labor and HEW, leading to a partial government shutdown. A temporary agreement was made to restore funding through October 31, 1977, allowing more time for Congress to resolve its dispute.
1977 October 31 November 9 8 The earlier temporary funding agreement expired. President Jimmy Carter signed a second funding agreement to allow for more time for negotiation.
1977 November 30 December 9 8 The second temporary funding agreement expired. The House held firm against against the Senate in its effort to ban Medicaid paying for the abortions of victims of statutory rape. A deal was eventually struck which allowed Medicaid to pay for abortions in cases resulting from rape, incest, or in which the mother’s health is at risk.
1978 September 30 October 18 18 Deeming them wasteful, President Carter vetoed a public works appropriations bill and a defense bill including funding for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Spending for the Department of HEW was also delayed over additional disputes concerning Medicaid funding for abortion.
1979 September 30 October 12 11 Against the opposition of the Senate, the House pushed for a 5.5 percent pay increase for congress members and senior civil servants. The House also sought to restrict federal spending on abortion only to cases where the mother’s life is in danger, while the Senate wanted to maintain funding for abortions in cases of rape and incest.
1981 November 20 November 23 2 President Ronald Reagan pledged that he would veto any spending bill that failed to include at least half of the $8.4 billion in domestic budget cuts that he proposed. Although the Republican controlled Senate passed a bill that met his specifications, the Democratic House insisted on larger cuts to defense than Reagan wanted and for congressional and civil servant pay raises. A compromise bill fell $2 billion short of the cuts Reagan wanted, so Reagan vetoed the bill and shut down the federal government. A temporary bill restored spending through 15 December and gave Congress the time to work out a more lasting deal.
1982 September 30 October 2 1 Congress passed the required spending bills a day late.
1982 December 17 December 21 3 The Democratic controlled House and the Republican controlled Senate wished to fund jobs, but President Reagan vowed to veto any such legislation. The House also opposed plans to fund the MX missile. The shutdown ended after Congress abandoned their jobs plan, but Reagan was forced to yield on funding for both the MX and Pershing II missiles. He also accepted funding for the Legal Services Corporation, which he wanted abolished, in exchange for higher foreign aid to Israel.
1983 November 10 November 14 3 The Democratic controlled House increased education funding, but cut defense and foreign aid spending, which led to a dispute with President Reagan. Eventually, the House reduced their proposed education funding, and also accepted funding for the MX missile. However, the foreign aid and defense cuts remained, and oil and gas leasing was banned in federal wildlife refuges. Abortion was also prohibited for being paid for with government employee health insurance.
1984 September 30 October 3 2 The House wished to link the budget to both a crime-fighting package President Reagan supported and a water projects package he did not. The Senate additionally tied the budget to a civil rights measure designed to overturn Grove City v. Bell. Reagan proposed a compromise where he abandoned his crime package in exchange for Congress dropping theirs. A deal was not struck, and a three-day spending extension was passed instead.
1984 October 3 October 5 1 The three-day spending extension expired, forcing a shutdown. Congress dropped their proposed water and civil rights packages, while President Reagan kept his crime package. Funding for aid to the NicaraguanContras was also passed.
1986 October 16 October 18 1 A dispute over multiple issues between the Democratic controlled House and President Reagan and the Republican Senate forced a shutdown. The Democratic controlled House dropped many of their demands in exchange for a vote on their welfare package, and a concession of the sale of then-government-ownedConrail.
1987 December 18 December 20 1 Democrats, who now controlled both the House and the Senate, opposed funding for the Contras, and wanted the Federal Communications Commission to begin reenforcing the “Fairness Doctrine“. They yielded on the “Fairness Doctrine” in exchange for non-lethal aid to the Contras.
1990 October 5 October 9 4 President George H.W. Bush vowed to veto any continuing resolution that was not paired with a deficit reduction package, and did so when one reached his desk. The House failed to override his veto before a shutdown occurred. Congress then passed a continuing resolution with a deficit reduction package that Bush signed to end the shutdown.
1995 November 13 November 19 5 In the shutdown of 1995 and 1996 President Bill Clinton vetoed a continuing resolution passed by the Republican-controlled Congress. A deal was reached allowing for 75 percent funding for four weeks, and Clinton agreed to a seven-year timetable for a balanced budget.
1995 December 16 January 6, 1996 21 Subsequently the Republicans demanded President Clinton propose a budget with the seven-year timetable using Congressional Budget Office numbers, rather than Clinton’s Office of Management and Budget numbers. However, Clinton refused. Eventually, Congress and Clinton agreed to pass a compromise budget.
2013 October 1 Ongoing Ongoing Due to disagreement regarding inclusion of language delaying the Affordable Care Act, the Government has not passed a funding bill. Negotiations have come to a stop and government shutdown is in progress. See also United States federal government shutdown of 2013.
Courtesy :Wikipedia and latimes.com

source::::: Reblogged From propelsteps in wordpress.com

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Meet Srikanth Srinivasan…America”s Top Indian Judge !!!

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Sri Srinivasan (extreme right) with Gursharan Kaur, his mother Saroja Srinivasan, PM's daughter Upinder Kaur and Srinivasan's sister Srija Srinivasan
Image: Sri Srinivasan (extreme right) with Gursharan Kaur, his mother Saroja Srinivasan, PM’s daughter Upinder Kaur and Srinivasan’s sister Srija Srinivasan

Surrounded by luminaries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s family, and with his hand placed on the Bhagwad Gita, Srikanth Srinivasan was formally sworn in as judge for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.

At 5 pm on Thursday (EST), with his hand placed on the Bhagwad Gita held by his mother Saroja Srinivasan, Srikanth ‘Sri’ Srinivasan, 46, was formally sworn in as the new federal judge in the United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, the second most powerful court in the US after the Supreme Court, by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at the Ceremonial Courtroom on the E Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse.

The Senate had unanimously confirmed Srinivasan in May, making him the first South Asian American circuit court judge in the history of the immigrant experience.

Sri Srinivasan takes oath with his hand placed on Bhagwad Gita beside his mother Saroja Srinivasan

 

NextThe investiture ceremony saw over 500 guests in attendance, including legal luminaries, senior Obama administration officials and family and friends of the Srinivasans like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur and her daughters Amrit Singh, a human rights lawyer, and Upinder Singh, a professor and author — so much so that an overflow room had to be opened.

It was a testament to the great respect, admiration and popularity of Srinivasan, who is already being talked of as a potential Supreme Court nominee the next time a vacancy arises in America’s highest court.

Just before administering the oath, O’Connor, for whom Srinivasan had clerked for years, said, “What a treat this is for all of us.” She predicted he would “be a superb judge on the Court of Appeals and our nation will be enriched.”

Chief Judge Merrick B Garland, who was presiding over the ceremony, then called on “the stars of the show” Srinivasan’s 11-year-old twins Maya and Vikram to assist in the wrapping of the robe on their dad to sustained applause.

In his initial remarks, Srinivasan gave a taste of his signature humour, saying he was humbled by the “honored and distinguished guests and some of my somewhat less honourable friends from my earlier years.”

 

He recalled, “The last time I gave a speech to an audience wearing a robe was at my high school graduation where I was the commencement speaker, and the president said my speech was a rap. It seemed like a very fine idea at the time. I want this occasion to be truly memorable, but not that memorable. Besides I had a really hard time thinking of an appropriate rhyme for the word investiture.”

To laughter, he said, “Candidly, but somewhat curiously, pedicure came to mind.”

He said he quickly dropped that thought: “Rest assured, there will be no more rhyming today.”

Then getting serious, Srinivasan said, “The overriding sensation that I feel today in a sense is of how incredibly fortunate I’ve been so far — and I can’t emphasise that more.”

“This kind of occasion happens and this opportunity came along, thanks to the decision my parents made a long, long time ago,” he said, recalling how his father “came from the humblest of humble beginnings from India.”

He said, “The journey that took him from there to this country and took us all to this occasion is virtually inconceivable. He and my mom, brought me and Srija and Srinija at a very early age in search of the classic immigrant dream — in pursuit of opportunity and happiness… I’d like to think that those aspirations have been, very much been realised.”

He added, “My dad grew to love this country because of the possibilities it gave us and this country loved us immensely back. There is no more sterling confirmation of that than this occasion today — what this occasion signifies and the warmth and kindness in this room.”

Srinivasan thanked all the speakers for their “incredibly touching remarks,” and their “enduring friendship.” All of them had spoken of his brilliant legal acumen and professionalism and laced their remarks with humor, particularly about his obsession and love for the Kansas Jay Hawks basketball team.

Srinivasan was born in Chandigarh, but was raised in Lawrence, Kansas, and attended Lawrence High School where he was an accomplished basketball player.

Among the speakers were Judge J Harvie Wilkinson, III, under whom Srinivasan had first clerked; former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger; former colleague and friend both in the public and private sector Professor Irving L Gornstein; and his sisters Srija and Srinija Srinivasan, who was Yahoo!’s fifth employee in 1995 and vice president and editor-in-chief when she stepped down in 2010.

Both sisters evoked much laughter and emotion speaking of their growing up years and their brother’s love and understanding and unshakable character and his passionate standing up for the underdog.

 

Srija said, “I can say without equivocation or reservation that he’s an awesome big brother. I looked up to him all my life in more than just height. I admire him, I’ve learnt from him and I’ve always looked forward to spending time with him… He is just a tremendously great guy — a guy I am honored and appreciative to have serving our country and furthering the public good.”

Srinija said, “I am his baby sister and his number one groupie,” and spoke of how she was “gunning for perfect attendance,” being there for 24 of his 24 oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

Judge Srinivasan spoke emotionally about his family.

 

My sisters Srija and Srinija, I have relied on your love from an early age and it has sustained me throughout,” he said. “Maya and Vikram, you two give more love and inspiration to me than any parent can rightfully expect from a child. To my mom, you’ve been with all of us at every meaningful step of the way, so it’s especially fitting that you were able to stand with me today to assist me in taking this oath of office.”

He also thanked White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, who read out his Commission and paid tribute to President Barack Obama for nominating him and the US Senate for confirming him. And he told the sizeable number of Indian American guests on hand to witness this historic swearing, ‘I am touched by your efforts and I am humbled by your confidence.’

Then turning to the Prime Minister’s wife, who was seated in the front row, with her two daughters and Saroja Srinivasan, he said, “What a terrific thing that you were able to be here with us today — essentially fresh off the plane from India (the First Lady had landed in Washington earlier that day). That means especially much to us given my late father’s most recent passing and the incredibly close relationship that the Prime Minister and you had with him and my mom.”

He added, “I know today, it’s a very special day to you and your household and so, I want to extend to the Prime Minister, a very happy birthday from all of us.”

 

Srinivasan also thanked Justice O’Connor: “You challenged me from the very first day I met for the interview for my clerkship. You’ve challenged me over the years and you’ve challenged all of us and we are all the better for it.”

He said, “I have worked in two places in the law — the office of ‘O’Melveny & Myers and then in the Solicitor General’s Office after my clerkship years,” serving three terms in the private sector and four terms in the SG’s office, the last as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General.

“Two wonderful institutions with amazingly gifted lawyers and wonderful colleagues infused with inspiring ethics, of decency, integrity and public spiritedness. I can’t think of two more fulfilling places to have worked in.”

He added, “I now have a third home in the law and that’s here in this court. To my colleagues on the DC Circuit, you’ve welcomed me so warmly and so graciously and it’s an incredible privilege to be in your midst. It’s going to be a place I am going to love to come everyday.”

source::::::rediff.com

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Abdul Haji…. A Hero Who Rescued Many @ WestGate Mall in Kenya ….

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Portia Walton is helped to escape by Abdul Haji

Exclusive: American family the Waltons have told how they were rescued from the siege at Nairobi’s Westgate mall by a man who has been hailed a hero. Aislinn Laing reports on the terrifying drama and the iconic picture which bears witness to it.

Faced with a long afternoon trapped in the house with her five children last Saturday, Katherine Walton decided on a quick excursion – a trip to Nairobi’s popular Westgate Mall.

On arriving together, her two teenage boys briefly went ahead with Mrs Walton following with her three daughters including four-year-old Portia.

Four hours later, the family lay pinned to the ground opposite the supermarket where they did their weekly shop as gunmen hurled grenades and sprayed bullets just yards from them.

“We were just going to meet my two older boys in the supermarket when we heard an explosion,” said Mrs Walton, a 38-year-old IT worker from North Carolina who moved to Kenya with her husband Philip and their children two years ago.

“I grabbed the girls and started running. A woman pulled us behind a promotional table opposite. I could see the bullets hitting above the shops and hear the screaming all around us.”

She remembers only fragments of the hours that followed which she spent huddled under the table, but, according to Mr Walton, 39, she saw enough of the attackers to be able to describe several of them in detail afterwards.

Mrs Walton and an Asian lady escape with two of the children

“She heard them talking to people, telling them to stand up followed by gunshots,” he recalled. “The thing that’s troubling her now is she can’t forget the smell of the gunpowder.”

During their ordeal, the couple’s three daughters, aged four, two and 13 months, were shielded and calmed by an injured Kenyan woman and two Indian women who hid with them.

“They were so still and quiet,” Mrs Walton said. “My baby was screaming when there was shooting but between that, she just slept. In one lull in the fighting, my two-year-old and the baby were playing together with my phone. I couldn’t understand how they could be acting like everything was fine.”

Yards away a man with a pistol who was shooting at a heavily armed young jihadi in a bandanna who was taunting him to come closer.

That man was Abdul Haji, the son of a former security minister in the Kenyan government, who had rushed to the mall after getting a text message from his brother who was trapped inside.

Abdul Haji and a fellow police offider in the mall.

We saw a lot of dead people. Very young people, children, old ladies, you cannot imagine,” Mr Haji told the Kenyan television station NTV.

“From what they were doing, you could tell that these were not normal people. The fact that he was making a joke out of this whole thing made me much more angry and determined to engage them, and to shame them.”

Mr Haji said his father taught him to use a gun to protect their cattle from bandits when he was growing up.

Last Saturday, he used his skills to provide fire cover for the Kenyan Red Cross workers and, over a period of three hours, help to evacuate some of the 1,000 people who escaped the mall in the initial stages of a siege that would last three days and leave at least 72 people dead. As he stood with a fellow rescuer crouched outside the Nakumatt supermarket, Mr Haji said he noticed the women hiding under the table.

“Just a few minutes ago we were exchanging fire with the terrorists and these people were right in the middle of it, in the crossfire. We regrouped and we started to strategise on how to get them out of there,” he said.

He asked the women to move towards them but they indicated they had children with them and could not all run together.

Mr Haji said he asked Mrs Walton if one of the older children could be encouraged to run towards him.

Mrs Walton’s oldest daughter Portia emerged and ran across the deserted corridor.

The moment was captured by a Reuters photographer, Goran Tomasevic, in a dramatic image that was beamed around the world.

Mr Walton, who during the siege was 9,000 miles away on a business trip to the United States, said he reacted in disbelief when he first saw the photograph of his daughter striking out alone across the mall. “She’s not normally the kind of girl that would run to a stranger, particularly one with a gun,” he said.

His wife added: “I don’t know how she knew to do it but she did. She did what she was told and she went.”

Seeing the little girl running towards him gave Mr Haji fresh impetus to continue helping people out.

“This little girl is a very brave girl,” he said. “Amid all this chaos around her, she remained calm, she wasn’t crying and she actually managed to run towards men who were holding guns. I was really touched by this and I thought if such a girl can be so brave … it gave us all courage.”

One by one, the Walton family emerged and ran with Mr Haji and other rescuers until they reached the police lines outside the mall.

There, Mrs Walton was reunited with her teenage boys who had been trapped with another family in the basement of the mall but also had escaped.

“As we went out, it was so quiet and we started to get upset because we realised we were almost there,” Mrs Walton said.

“They soothed us, told us we were OK, we were safe and to stay calm. They did a wonderful job.”

Portia Walton is safely reunited with her mother.

 

Looking at the photograph now, Mrs Walton says she can see the fear etched on her daughter’s face. “I was worried about family in America seeing it because we haven’t really shared the whole story with them yet,” she said. “For me, I know the story behind it and that it ends well. I think I owe Mr Haji a hug or two.”

Since he has been identified, many Kenyans have hailed Mr Haji as a hero but he disagrees.

“I think I did what any Kenyan in my situation would have done to save lives, to save other humans regardless of their nationality, religion or creed,” he said.

Portia and her big brother have since been sent back to school in an attempt to establish “a new normal”, Mr Walton said.

“Our two-year-old cries a little bit more and Portia wants to stand a little closer but really they are doing exceptionally well considering,” his wife added.

Mr Walton said there was no question that they would now be leaving Kenya. “There will always be bad people in the world but it’s the comfort of knowing that there are good people that matters,” he said.

“The way this community drew together and responded was just incredible. It’s an honour and a privilege to be able to live among such good people.”

Asked what they would tell their children about the Westgate attack when they grew up, he said: “We will be truthful with them.

“It defies logic that they survived but we’re a family of deep faith and take a lot of comfort from knowing that God protected them.”

 

source::::::The Telegraph UK

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Digital Indians : Meet Ruchi Sanghvi …An Enterprising Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley !!!

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Ruchi Sanghvi

When Ruchi Sanghvi arrived at the Facebook office in California for a job interview in 2005, she found a menu card outside saying: “Looking for engineers.”

The start-up was located above a Chinese restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. It was modest looking place filled with gawky engineers, black sofas, lava lamps, and walls covered with murals and movie posters.

Earlier that year, the computer science engineer from Carnegie Mellon University had fled a job with a bank on Wall Street after three weeks. “I had panicked. I wanted to be in a business that was dependent on my core skills,” she says.

She had flown out to California, interviewed with Oracle and started out there, when a friend had told her about Facebook.

“I didn’t know much about them. I didn’t even know that they had moved to California. I thought they were still in Boston working out of Harvard dorm rooms,” she says wryly.

Scooter culture 

We are sitting in the hip Dropbox office in downtown San Francisco, where Ms Sanghvi, 31, works as a vice-president of operations.

Employees at the online storage firm whizz through corridors on skates and office scooters, some take time off to play pool and video games, and a plush music room is ready for a karaoke contest.

But, for the moment, we are talking about how Ms Sanghvi got the job at Facebook and became its first female engineer.


It is difficult to do exciting things in India. There are a lot of issues and barriers, simple things like a good internet line to the office”

Ruchi Sanghvi

“When I started out in Facebook, it had only 20 people. I saw it grow to a thousand employees and from five million users to over a billion users. I saw it evolve from a service that served college students to one that served the world,” she says.

“It was extremely chaotic, but it was a wonderful experience. I learnt everything there.”

At Facebook, she was part of the team that developed the news feed.

How was it, I asked, being the first female engineer at Facebook?

Ms Sanghvi says she was used to being in a minority: at engineering school, she was one of the five female students in a class of 150.

But at Facebook, she says, she truly came into her own.

“You had to be opinionated, you had to make sure your point of view was heard, you had to ask questions. Sometimes people would tell you were stupid and you’d start all over again,” she says.

“But it was, by and large, a meritocracy. It had one of the best environments for learning.”

Facebook was also where she met her future husband who was the first Indian engineer the company had hired.

I ask her for a story about Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders and chief executive. She frowns, thinks hard, and says she doesn’t quite like talking about Mr Zuckerberg. Then she relents.

It’s a story about how the news feed launch outraged users and nearly killed it.

The journey from employee to entrepreneur was a complex and taxing one for an immigrant like me”

Ruchi Sanghvi

“We had less than 10 million users when news feed arrived. Mark was at a press conference (announcing it) and over a million users began protesting against it,” she says.

Last year, Ms Sanghvi spoke about the time in vivid detail.

“Groups with names like ‘I hate Facebook’ and ‘Ruchi is the devil’ had been formed. People camped outside our office and demonstrated. But we realised the very people who hated it were able to spread the word because of the news feed,” she told a talk.

But Mark Zuckerberg stuck to his guns, Ms Sanghvi tells me.

“Typically in any other company if 10% of your users decide to boycott a product you are obviously going to reverse the changes or do something about it. But Mark was really adamant about his vision about the potential of news feed.”

Mark ZuckerbergMark Zuckerberg ‘was adamant about his vision’ for Facebook, Ms Sanghvi says

When Ms Sanghvi left Facebook in 2010 after an itch to start her own company, the social networking site had more than 1,500 employees and more than 500 million users.

As a young girl growing up in India’s industrial city of Pune, she had dreamt of taking over her family business.

Her father, a second generation businessman, runs a heavy engineering company. Her grandfather ran a stainless steel business. “We are an entrepreneurial family,” she says.

But now, she was in the US, having studied computer science and worked at Facebook. The world beckoned.

So she went ahead and set up her own company, Cove, with her husband in 2010. There, helped by a team of engineers, they made “collaborative software” for communities and networks.

“The journey from employee to entrepreneur was a complex and taxing one for an immigrant like me,” says Ms Sanghvi, who has been lobbying US authorities to ease immigration laws.

“When I started Cove, I spoke to three immigration lawyers who gave me a long checklist of things to do before my company could hire immigrants.”

Diverse roles

Two years later, in February 2012, Cove was bought by the cloud-sharing service Dropbox.

At Dropbox, a six-year-old company with more than 175 million users, Ms Sanghvi has diverse roles. She has led hiring – “only great people can make great products,” she says – and managed marketing and communications.

I ask her if she plans to do anything back home in India.

“I’d love to do something if it was easier to do it. It is difficult to do exciting things in India. There are a lot of issues and barriers, simple things like a good internet line to the office,” she says.

“It doesn’t seem as easy as Silicon Valley where you have an idea you can simply execute it with hard work. But I admire folks who are doing things in India. It requires a lot grit and determination.

“You know I think I have had it pretty easy here in US actually,” she adds, with a laugh. Then she skates away for her next meeting.

source:::: Soutik Biswas  for BBC NEWS :bbc.com

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How an Engineer Earned 1.25 Million Airmiles with Puddings !!!

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Air Miles are awesome, they can be used to score free flights, hotel stays and if you’re really lucky, the scorn and hatred of everyone you come in contact with who has to pay full price when they travel. The king of all virtually free travelers is one David Phillips, a civil engineer who teaches at the University of California, Davis.

David came to the attention of the wider media when he managed to convert about 12,150 cups of Healthy Choice chocolate pudding into over a million Air Miles. Ever since, David and his entire family have been travelling the world for next to nothing.

So how did he do it? Well, first we need to explain the kind of man David Phillips is; he’s the kind of guy who reads every inch of the small print on things. The kind of guy who learned to count cards just so he’d never get ripped off in a casino. In fact, Phillips stated that he could have probably been a pro card player if it wasn’t for the cigarette smoke. Yes, this guy- according to him- could have been a millionaire card player, but he enjoyed fresh air more than the musky stink of success.

His most famous endevour was back in 1999 when he saw that Healthy Choice was having a promotion on their frozen entrées section. The offer was as follows: for every 10 bar codes of their product a person sent in, they’d be awarded 500 Air Miles. However, the company had an early bird stipulation that people who redeemed the offer within the first month of the competition would receive double that, meaning a person could potentially receive 1000 Air Miles for buying just 10 of their entrées.

Upon catching wind of the deal, David scoured his local supermarkets to see which, if any products offered the best potential return. After some legwork, he found what he was looking for- a discount grocery chain that was selling individual chocolate pudding cups for 25 cents each. This meant that for a measly $2.50, he could get 1000 Air Miles.

Realising the amazing return he was potentially able to receive, David set out to hit every store in the chain in one day and buy up every single Healthy Choice pudding they had.

Now, you’re probably thinking a guy walking into several stores and asking to purchase all the Healthy Choice pudding they possessed, even in the back of the store, would arouse suspicion; and if anyone cottoned on to what he was doing, they’d try to get in on it too, because, why wouldn’t they? David apparently had the same concern and while buying the pudding, he told people he was doing it because he was stocking up for Y2K, which was just around the corner.

All in all, David spent just over $3000 on pudding, which may seem like a lot, until you realise the total dollar value of the miles he was set to receive was in excess of $150,000. However, before that, he actually had to send off all of the bar codes.

According to David, his wife got blisters from peeling off hundreds of stickers and his kids and co-workers grew physically sick of the sheer amount of chocolate paste he was forcing on them. Further, it began to look doubtful they’d be able to peel off all the barcodes in time to qualify for the early bird part of the promotion.

This is when David had another idea- why did he need to have his wife and children suffer when he could get others to do the leg work for him?

David approached the local Salvation Army with an offer; if they gave him a bunch of volunteers to peel off all the bar codes on his pudding, he’d donate the pudding to them. But here’s the beautiful part, doing this counted as a considerable charitable donation, which let David claim just over $800 back in tax deductions at the end of they year.

But the benefits of David’s scheme didn’t end there. After sending off the bar codes and getting back his 1,280,000 miles, (he got a few more than just from the pudding because he also bought some soup at 90 cents a can before he realised that was the sucker’s method), he now officially had over a million miles in his frequent flyer accounts, which automatically gave him lifelong access to something called the “American Airlines AAdvantage Gold club” giving him and his family a number of awesome flying related perks for the rest of their lives.

But we haven’t even got to the best part yet. David will likely never run out of Air Miles because he’s still earning miles at about 5 times faster than he’s spending them, despite traveling quite often, thanks to various frequent flyer incentive programs he keeps an eye out for and exploits just like the pudding scheme. Today, he has over 4 million miles in his various accounts and has flown to over 20 countries and taken numerous vacations in the meantime.

In the end, for a one time cost of a little over $3000 (or a little over $2200 if you subtract the tax deduction), and a few other similar deals he’s taken advantage of to bolster his numbers, David never has to pay for a flight in his life ever again. Genius. !!!!

 

source::::Today I Foundout .com

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” US Marine Assaults an African Immigrant and Steals His Lunch ” !!!

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A Harley Biker is riding by the zoo in Washington , DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter addressing the Harley rider says, ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve seen a man do in my whole life.’

The Harley rider replies, ‘Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.’

The reporter says, ‘Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page… So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?’

The biker replies, I’m a U.S. Marine and a Republican

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys the Washington Post to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

…and THAT pretty much sums up the media’s approach to the news these days…

 

source::::input from a friend of mine…

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” Sorry… You are in No Parking Zone ” !!!

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It turns out one Colorado cop has quite the sense of humour.

The Blackhawk was part of the Army National Guard units called in to help rescue stranded victims of the Colorado flood.

He had to park in the street, and he got ticketed for “facing the wrong way” and “parking in a no parking zone.”

We found the image on a Reddit post titled: “Blackhawk pilot must land on a street in Colorado to help in a rescue from the floods; gets this amusing ticket from local police in return.”

The Redditor also posted this image of the helicopter parked in the street and this image, as verification.

But don’t worry, another commenter claiming police experience pointed out that there “no court date” and no “section codes for violations” — so it had to be a practical joke.

Ticket Colorado

 

Ticket Redditq

 

source ::::business insider.com

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How Mrs.S Received $40000 !!!…. A True Story !!!

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This story was told by a Dr. Isaac Krazen, who is a family doctor in New York. This is a story that happened quite some time ago, in Manhattan, to a very rich old lady we shall call – Mrs. S. and how she accidently got $40,000 dollars.
Many know Mrs. S from Manhattan, New York, mostly because she’s rich and lives on the luxurious and well lit Fifth Avenue. From the window of her home once can see central park, and the beautiful lake at its center.
Mrs. S wasn’t interested in buying things. She already had it all. She didn’t want to give anything either, because she already gave more than expected of her. She wasn’t interested in travel because she has done so already and now it tired her. Movies, concerts and the theatre bored her. Relatives and children vexed her and her doctor did not allow her to eat sweets.
Her doctor also ordered her to do a lot of walking, and Mrs. S did as he asked. Each morning she walked for a kilometer and a half. Most people could walk that in 15-20 minutes, but Mrs. S carried the weight of 96 years, and so the walk took about 2 hours, while she was accompanied at all times by her personal chauffeur, in his ironed suit, driving slowly along the track and keeping an eye on her.
People passing by are impressed by her. Many know her. Few are jealous. They’d like to be rich, but also young and healthy. The combination of riches and old age is more thought provoking that envy provoking.
But there’s a problem, Mrs S. needs to pee frequently, and along the route there were no bathrooms. This was just the kind of problem rich people can solve. At the opening of each of the houses in this luxurious street, stands a doorman meticulously dressed and charged with guaranteeing no-one comes in but the tenants. The lobby also has a nice and clean bathroom. Messengers, on behalf of Mrs. S, visited 5 of these buildings, talked to the doormen, and gave them large sums of money to make sure they will always allow the old lady to use the bathrooms.
One spring morning Mrs. S went on her walk. She was up to 79th street when she needed to get to a bathroom. The usual doorman was ill and his replacement did not allow her to enter. Frustrated, she went into a nearby funeral home. As she came in, she was asked if she came to Jeffery Green’s funeral. She did not like to lie but felt she had to to get to that bathroom. She was then handed a guest book to sign her name and address so that the family can sent her a card for coming to pay her respects.
She then proceeded to the bathroom to finally relieve herself.
Two weeks later she got a letter from the law office of Becker & Epstein:
“Dear Mrs. S, we are executing the will of the late Jeffery Green, deceased these two weeks. Mr. Green had no relatives and so he has bequeathed his fortune to those who came to his funeral. Since you were there, you are entitled to a 7th of his fortune, here is a check for $40,000.”
It was a large sum then, but Mrs. S had more, and so she donated it to the hospital where her doctor was working, where it helped to save no few lives.
And that doctor is me.
I guess you have to know where to pee.
 source::::: DR. Isaac Krazen in babamail.com
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ….With a changed Fortune in 2013 !!!

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the sixth richest American in the tech industry.

This time last year, Facebook FB -4.03% CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was languishing. After his company’s disappointing initial public offering in May 2012, the hoodie-wearing executive was worth $9.4 billion, down about $8.1 billion in the three months following Facebook’s debut on the Nasdaq.

A lot has changed in 12 months.

On this year’s Forbes 400, Zuckerberg has a net worth of $19 billion, making him the sixth richest member to hail from the technology industry. One of the biggest dollar gainers this year, Zuckerberg is one of 48 people whose fortunes have derived largely from technology companies. On this year’s rankings of the nation’s richest people, technology is the second-highest represented industry, behind investments, with 98.

Bill Gates remains the king of tech–and everything else–with a net worth of $72 billion. He’s been the nation’s wealthiest individual since 1994, and, after adding $6 billion to his coffers in the last year, recently reclaimed the title of world’s richest from Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim.

Following Gates, the top five richest in tech remains unchanged. Larry Ellison takes second spot –ranked No. 3 on the list with a net worth of $41 billion –followed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos,who added $4 billion to his net worth in the last year, climbing to $27.2 billion. Google cofounders  Larry Page and Sergey Brin rode a strong 12 month rise in Google shares–up 28%–to place fourth and fifth among American tech billionaires.

Steve Ballmer, now worth $18 billion, benefited from the Microsoft stock bump that came after he announced he’d be stepping down as CEO of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. On Aug. 23, the day Ballmer announced he would be departing, Microsoft shares closed up more than 7%. That contributed to the $2.1 billion rise in Ballmer’s net worth over the past year.

Last year’s only woman among tech’s top 10, Laurene Powell Jobs, loses her top 10 perch (though remains on The Forbes 400), despite finding herself $700 million richer. Steve Jobs’ widow and Silicon Valley’s richest woman is replaced this year by Dish Network CEO Charles Ergen, who is up $3.5 billion this year to $12 billion. Dish Network’s stock is up nearly 40% in the last 12 months.

FORBES used stock prices from Aug 23, 2013 to calculate values for The Forbes 400 rankings.

 

source::::Forbes .com

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Elephant Playing With Labrador !!!!

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It’s no surprise that a dog loves playing catch — but an elephant?

Our charming pictures show Bubbles, a rescued orphan elephant, picking up a ball with her trunk to tease Bella the labrador, who can just about reach her pal’s knee.

She dives into a pool of water, but that doesn’t deter the pooch, who tries to get her paws on the ball by climbing onto Bubbles’ back.

 

Bubbles, a 32 year old African elephant, plays in the river with his best friend Bella a 3 year old labrador in Myrtle Beach Safari, South Carolina

Bella and Bubbles enjoy a game of catch in the water reserve at Myrtle Beach Safari

 

Launchpad: Bella springs off Bubbles' trunk to dive into the water at the centre in South Carolina that is home to an array of other animals

 

When it is tossed into the air, Bella leaps off to retrieve it and then swims off, with her playmate in hot pursuit.

‘They just love to romp around together,’ says Bhagavan Antle, director of the wildlife park in California where the two friends live.

Bubbles and her other animal friends are part of a wild life conservation effort called The Rare Species Fund in Southern California.

 

Antle came across the friendly giant as a baby when she weighed 340lbs and was 42in tall.

The trainer describes her as ‘small and helpless for an elephant’ on the animal’s Facebook page, after her parents were killed for their tusks during a 20 year slaughter which ended with the ban on ivory import in 1989.
Bubbles, a rescued orphan elephant, picks up a ball with her trunk to tease Bella the labrador who dives off her back into water as part of their favourite game

 

The pair cool down int he waters at Myrtle Beach Safari where Bubbles was taken as a baby after being flown to the US from Africa

 

Bubbles was among the few orphaned animals that were flown to the US where a handful of facilities awaited their arrival. Most were either killed or discarded due to a lack of housing and care in Africa

Antle describes how meeting Bubbles was ‘love at first site’, adding the centre had thought carefully about adopting an elephant which can live for 60 to 100 years.

Now 30 years old and over 9ft, Bubbles weighs approximately four tons.

Them impressive animal has even found fame on the big screen, starring in Ace Ventura II, Malaika and a Janet Jackson music video.

 Bubbles is now over 9ft and weighs around 4 tons after being taken to the centre as a baby weighing just 340lbs and measuring 42in
Bubbles teases Bella with the ball before the pair take a break from their tiring game

Paws for thought: The two unlikely friends take a breather from their tiring game

 

Bubbles was among the few orphaned elephants that were flown to the US from Africa where a handful of facilities awaited their arrival after their parents had been killed for tusks

 

source::::: mailonline.com uk

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