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Chicken Gas Chambers For Humanity

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

If nobody wants to be reminded that their chicken was slaughtered before arriving in the supermarket, then how can chicken producers advertise their new “humane” slaughtering process?

  • Your typical chicken arrives at the slaughterhouse on a truck. It’s plucked from its cage and hung upside-down with its legs shackled to a rail that takes it first to an electrical stunner, and then to a machine that slits its throat and bleeds it to death.
  • But electrical stunners aren’t perfect, and the ethics of hanging already-stressed live chickens upside-down for the last minutes of their lives are sketchy. So some producers are starting to use a gas-based alternative to the electrical stunner.
  • You can call it “controlled atmosphere stunning,” “sedation stunning,” or “slow induction anesthesia,” but the new method uses a carbon dioxide gas chamber to knock the birds out before they’re slaughtered, vastly reducing the stress, pain, and suffering that come with traditional methods.

Facts & Figures

  • Bell & Evans, one of the companies using the new gas-stunning method, “processes” 200,000 chickens a week.
  • Tyson Foods, which uses electrical stunners, slaughters more than 1 million chickens per week.
  • Companies in Britain and Nebraska that already use “controlled atmosphere stunning” tend not to advertise this fact on their product packaging.

Best Quote

“People don’t want to know too much. It’s hard to sell humane killing as a concept.” – Marc Cooper, Senior Scientific Manager in the Farm Animals Department of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, London

The Haunted House Gets A Spooky Modern Makeover

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Looking for a thrill this Halloween? There’s a haunted house for everyone, including evangelical Christians. But a new style in New York City is catering to adults… with strong stomachs.

  • Today’s haunted houses are more complicated and sometimes much more shocking than productions of the past. The NYC Halloween Haunted House is only open to audiences 18 and older.
  • It’s more expensive to put on a large production in NYC, but the city has the advantage of a huge community of theater pros. They bring modern and impressive acting, costumes, makeup, and set design to the old haunted house.
  • Many of the new shows use creepy, psychologically troubling plot lines to set up the scares. But in the end, it’s usually all about the man jumping out from behind the curtain. Boo!

Facts & Figures

  • In “NYC Halloween Haunted House,” an actress playing a mental patient removes one of each participants’ shoes.
  • In “Nightmare: Superstitions,” in NYC’s NoHo neighborhood, participants somehow travel through huge rooms and tiny tunnels in the course of their visit.
  • Haunted houses around the country generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Starbucks Fishes For Customers With Free Stuff

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Would you like a free e-book with that grande caramel macchiato?

  • In an effort to boost profits, Starbucks is trying a new promotion with partner Yahoo! to bring free e-books, movies, online news subscriptions, and mp3s to customers using its free wifi.
  • The online freebies will only be accessible through Starbucks wifi networks, meaning customers will have to return to a shop to pick up where they left off with their books and movies. Alternately, they can purchase the product from the provider, which gives Starbucks a portion of the profit.
  • To make the program happen, the company has partnered with The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Apple, Patch, Zagat, HarperCollins, Penguin Group, and SnagFilms.

Facts & Figures

  • Starbucks made its wifi free to everybody this July.
  • Users logged in to Starbucks wifi over 30 million times in September.

Best Quote

“Users across the Internet are moving more into this ‘snackable behavior’ to begin with.” – Burke Culligan, Vice President of Product Management at Yahoo!

UK Tackles National Debt By Taking An Axe To The Budget

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

It’s bold, it’s risky, it’s the 2011 United Kingdom budget!

  • Britain has been hit as hard as the rest of the world by the global economic crisis. Now it’s following the lead of some other European nations by tightening the tap of government spending.
  • The spending plan, unveiled today by Britain’s top finance minister, represents the deepest reduction in public spending since WWII. It’s a much more serious spending reduction than any other Western nations have attempted so far.
  • Groups opposed to the plan say it is too severe and will interfere with employment and stunt growth. But the budget deficit facing British lawmakers is too big to ignore.

Facts & Figures

  • Britain’s deficit is 11.5% of its economy. The U.S. deficit is 10.7%, and the German deficit is 5.4%.
  • The plan involves significant cuts to welfare, public sector jobs, and local government budgets. The retirement age will also be raised from 65 to 66 four years earlier than planned.
  • The average reduction of each government department’s budget will be around 19%

Best Quote

“We have had to make choices, choices in the things we support. We have taken our country back from the brink of bankruptcy.” – George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer

They Wanted The World To Change, So They Did It Themselves

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Ever been frustrated by how slow things are to change, when people are suffering right now? If you’re anything like the latest crop of social entrepreneurs, you may be able to turn your frustration into something much more meaningful.

  • Today’s social entrepreneurs are taking on the world’s problems a bit at a time. Their successes show that it’s not necessarily the biggest, wealthiest organizations who make the small incremental changes that matter.
  • These individuals tend to identify specific problems and then do whatever they can to meet the need. One invented microfinance. Another is focused on making menstrual supplies available where a woman’s period causes her to miss school and work. And another pressures U.S. companies to stop buying from African warlords, effectively funding terrorism and horrific violence directed at women in Congo.
  • They’re often naive at the beginning, expecting too much and consulting with local people too little. And success is never assured. But the rewards are real – both for entrepreneurs and the relatively small number of people whose lives they are changing.

Facts & Figures

  • DoSomething.org provided $100,000 to help 23-year-old Maggie Doyne build a school in Nepal.
  • Lisa Shannon carried 45,000 pennies to Intel’s headquarters, offering to pay the extra penny it would cost Intel to source their materials outside of Congo and avoid 45,000 more violent deaths at the hands of warlords.
  • $300 sends a Nepalese child to Maggie Doyne’s school, with health and dental care included.

Best Quote

“If your own children were born orphans in Nepal, you wouldn’t wait for the U.N. or the government to do something about it while they were hungry and cold and breaking rocks by the side of a riverbed.” – Maggie Doyne

Holiday Airfares Rebounding From 2009

Monday, October 18th, 2010

The airline industry hasn’t had it easy in many, many years. But now that things are starting to look up in the economy, airlines are happily finding themselves with more paying customers paying more for their tickets.

  • The airline industry is finally recovering from the blows dealt by 9/11 and the global economic crisis… which means higher ticket prices for everyone.
  • This holiday season – the biggest travel season of the year – customers can expect to see fare increases of 7% to 18% over last year’s prices.
  • Because many travelers have been avoiding flying to save money, recent optimism about the economy is catapulting them back into airports. At the same time, airlines haven’t increased the number of routes or planes in their fleets.

Facts & Figures

  • The airline industry lost $58 billion between 2001 and 2009.
  • For the first time in 10 years, 86.3% of all available seats were filled on major airlines in June.
  • An estimated 41 million Americans will fly this November and December.

Best Quote

“It’s all about supply and demand. When people want to travel, it’s going to be more expensive.” – Tim Smith, Spokesman for American Airlines

Rising Income Inequality Hurts Everyone

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Research shows that inequality is bad in any number of circumstances. So why are we so reluctant to look at the effects of excessive wage inequality in the U.S.?

  • Unlike economists throughout history, modern economists seem unwilling to address the negative effects of rising income inequality. There is no convincing evidence that shows it supports economic or individual success in America, but experts in this case avoid making value judgments when it comes to money.
  • Studies show that money can buy happiness – up to a point. But because of hugely inflated wages for the extremely wealthy, Americans become trapped in a cycle: their peers spend ever-increasing amounts of money on their lifestyles simply because they can, and everyone who can afford it follows suit.
  • This cycle trickles down from class to class in “expenditure cascades,” until soon enough everyone feels the psychological distress of never having enough. This distress results in higher divorce rates, longer commutes, and voters who are less interested in spending on public services like road rehabilitation.

Facts & Figures

  • In 1976, 8.9% of the country’s income went to the top 1% of earners.
  • In 2007, 23.5% of the country’s income went to the top 1%.
  • Between 1976 and 2007, the average hourly wage went down by more than 7%.

China Is The Biggest Buyer Of U.S. Treasury Bonds

Monday, October 18th, 2010

When you hear about the U.S. budget deficit, do you think about bond holders in China? Maybe you should…

  • For the second month in a row, the Chinese government is the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury bonds – bonds issued and backed by the U.S. government.
  • A report called TIC (“Treasury International Capital”) tracks sales of American securities to foreign buyers. It’s one way of seeing how easily the U.S. government can attract foreign investors when it needs to raise cash.
  • In the rank of foreign holders of U.S. Treasury bonds, Japan comes in right behind China.

Facts & Figures

  • China’s Treasury bond holdings total $868.4 billion.
  • Japan’s holdings total $836.6 billion.
  • In August, private foreign investors bought $85.5 billion in Treasurys. In July they purchased $21.4 billion.

Ban On Deepwater Drilling Lifted

Friday, October 15th, 2010

The ban is lifted, but it’s not business as usual for deepwater oil drillers...

  • President Obama halted deepwater drilling after a BP oil rig exploded and started dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico this summer. Now the ban is being lifted, but the oil industry will be forced to comply with new, stricter regulations before they’ll be issued permits to drill.
  • According to the oil industry, the main problem isn’t increased oversight or costs related to the new regulations – that they expected. Instead, they’re concerned that without knowing the new rules in advance, they won’t be able to plan for the profitable reopening of their drilling operations.
  • Environmentalists are worried that the ban is being lifted too soon, without proper study of what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The new rules are okay, they say, but not nearly thorough enough.

Best Quote

“The truth is, there will always be risks associated with deep-water drilling.” – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

No Increase In Social Security Benefits For 2011

Friday, October 15th, 2010

No cost-of-living increase, no COLA.

  • In 1975, a system was set up to automatically increase Social Security benefits so that recipients (elderly and disabled Americans) could keep up with the cost-of-living increases brought about by inflation.
  • At the end of 2010, the Social Security Administration decided to cancel automatic cost of living adjustment (COLA) because the inflation rate (usually around 3%) was too low to justify it. Now the SSA has decided to cancel the increase for 2011 as well.
  • Despite low the inflation rate, many Social Security recipients have lost money on their retirement investments and the value of their homes.

Facts & Figures

  • Social Security provides benefits for 58.7 million Americans.
  • In 2009, the COLA reached a 27-year high of 5.8%.
  • The average monthly Social Security check is $1,072.

Best Quote

“We’re a little bit upset because our bills are going up and our Social Security isn’t.” – Betty Dizik, 83, Retired Tax Preparer and Social Worker

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