I will echo Gino, great movie that sums up what we need to change within the next 10 years. Please take 20 mins to watch this great video, and yes I downloaded it so that all of my kids can watch it multiple times throughout their lives. www.storyofstuff.com
So yeah, I emailed VISA to complain that my local gas company charges a “convenience fee” to those who pay with a credit card. That really ticks me off. Here’s what VISA had to say:
“Dear Pace McCulloch,
Thank you for contacting us. Visa has certain regulations that all
merchants which accept Visa cards must follow. Visa merchants are not
permitted to:
Establish minimum or maximum transaction amounts, even on sale items.
Submit a Visa sales draft for a dishonored check.
In general, pass on the merchant’s transaction fee to the cardholder as
a Visa “service charge,” “service fee,” or “surcharge,” even on sale
items. A merchant may offer a discount for cash however, the cardholder
must be made aware of this prior to entering into the transaction.
Require a Visa cardholder to sign a sales draft that does not have a
specific amount indicated.
Merchants may not refuse to honor a Visa card simply because the
cardholder refuses a request for supplementary information/ID.
Please contact the disputes area at the financial institution that
issued your card account of any merchant practices that you feel are
inappropriate. Your card issuing bank has access to the appropriate Visa
rules and regulations as well as to the Notification of Customer
Complaint forms which should be used by your bank to document and file
merchant complaints. It is not necessary for your bank to be the
offending merchant’s financial institution in order to file a complaint
for you.
As an alternative, to report merchant practices that you feel are
inappropriate, you may wish to contact the Global Customer Care Services
at 1-800-VISA-911 (1-800-847-2911). Please advise them that you were
referred to file a complaint. The staff will be able to initiate a
complaint form over the phone.
We hope this information proves helpful.
Thank you for writing,
Visa Webmaster”
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that a new rule requiring New York City fast food restaurants to post calorie information on menu boards is effective immediately.
The health code provision, which affects businesses that have at least 15 establishments nationwide, requires that restaurants post caloric information on menus and menu boards in the same font and format used to display the name or price of the menu item.
It’s not a good monday morning when you read the headline, baby bottles banned in Canada, questionable in other countries and there as a picture are the baby bottles in your kitchen cabinets. This article came across the health report:
Canada is moving to get rid of products with a chemical common in plastic baby bottles, the United States is expressing concern over its safety and some retailers are planning to stop selling these items.
Obviously the companies that make them are saying wait, it might not be harmful at the levels that we use… hello! You make baby bottles! You shouldn’t be allowed to use something that is harmful at ANY level! Meanwhile, blessed animal testing concluded:
Relying on the results of animal studies, it expressed concern about possible links between BPA exposure and early puberty and prostate and breast cancer.
Honey, clean out those plastic bottles, we’re switching to glass.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Teenagers with a bedroom television tend to have poorer diet and exercise habits and lower grades in school than those without one, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
While many studies have examined TV viewing habits of young people, researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health said little had been known about the consequences in particular for older adolescents of having a bedroom TV.
They questioned 781 adolescents, ages 15 to 18, in the Minneapolis area in 2003 and 2004. Of them, 62 percent reported having a television in their bedroom.
Not surprisingly, those with a bedroom TV were more apt to watch it a lot, clocking four to five more hours in front of a television per week, the researchers said. Twice as many of the teens with a bedroom TV were classified as heavy TV watchers — at least five hours a day — compared to those without one.
I know I feel this way at work more times than I should.
Wow, congrats Cuba. Anyone know Raul Castro, maybe he should tune into the green articles on McBlog to figure out how to start providing cheap energy via poop, wind or sun. I hope this is the first in a series of good news headlines coming out of Cuba.
Is anyone else as uninspired as I am by the festive decor that accompanies this time of year? I mean, I’m all about celebrating holidays and springtime, don’t get me wrong. But a couple days ago, when I walked into my favorite store (Rodworks) and felt the urge to buy nothing at all, I knew that I was just plain uninspired. I love decorating for Christmas, and even for Halloween/autumn! But right now, I just don’t like bunnies, chickies, eggs, or even four-leaf clovers! Maybe I feel that these items seem too “grannyish”? …Therefore, I have nothing in my home to show for the St. Patrick’s Day and Easter holidays that will be taking place this month. (Weird that Easter is so early this year, too!)
Having said all this, we will be having a small Easter egg hunt for Chase, just for the fun of it. To keep it somewhat religious, included in the eggs will be small pictures of Jesus, temples, the Prophet, etc. I got that idea from the Ensign, and we’ll try it out this year. I figure it’s one more fun way to teach him some good stuff!
So Utah just got this bill passed that is similar to the national do not call list (the one that stops companies from calling during dinner), if you get on the register. This one creates a list of you aren’t allowed to send to these emails/cell phones/pagers/whatever b/c there are kids in the home and they don’t have to be subject to adult ads. So if you no longer want adult content related spam/text ads then sign up on the Utah kid protection registry.