Company Offers All Employees 15% Raise If They Get Tattoo Of Logo... -

Company Offers All Employees 15% Raise If They Get Tattoo Of Logo... - 


If your company offered you a pay raise to tattoo its logo on your body, would you do it?

A New York City real estate company made the offer and dozens of employees are getting inked.

As CBS 2′s Emily Smith reported Tuesday, a tattoo can be a way to show off your personality. For Rapid Realty employees, it is the fast track to a 15 percent pay raise if you get inked with the company logo.

There are no size or location restrictions. Brooke Koropatnick got hers behind the ear.

“I had a paycheck coming in what was a substantial amount of money different, so it was nice,” she told Smith.

Stephanie Barry got tattooed two weeks ago and, along with it, a permanent pay raise for every real estate transaction.

“I was like, why am I throwing my money away when I could give myself from a $25,000 to $40,000 for the same amount of work?” Barry told Smith.

The credit doesn’t go to Rapid Realty owner Anthony Lolli. He said he got the idea from a loyal employee who wasn’t doing it for money.

“He calls me up, he says ‘Hey Anthony, I’m getting the logo on me.’ I show up at the shop and I’m like ‘this is cool, how can I repay you?’” Lolli said

The concept snowballed. Robert Trezza recently became the 40th employee to do so at Ink Stop Tattoo.

“I think it’s a good opportunity to show commitment to a company that makes going to work fun every day,” Trezza told Smith.

Joseph Tighe has been on the job only a month but has already taken the plunge.

“My wife was a little concerned but I said, you know what, it was the best commitment I could think of,” he told Smith.

Some people said they would not be lining up for a tattoo if they worked at Rapid Realty, regardless of the pay raise.

“Absolutely not,” David Frankel of the Lower East Side told Smith. “It would have to be extraordinary.”

“It’s a scar for life. I have enough of those,” another man told Smith.

Before you do something like this, Smith reported, make sure you know your company policy and have your boss’ stamp of approval.

The Rapid Realty tattoos, which can cost up to $300, are paid for by the company owner. Lolli said he hasn’t gotten inked yet, but plans to eventually.

Read more -

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/04/30/nyc-realtor-offers-employees-pay-raise-for-getting-inked-with-company-logo/

Living in US raises risk of allergies -

Living in US raises risk of allergies - 


Children born outside the United States have a lower risk of asthma, skin and food allergies, and living in the United States for a decade or more may raise the risk of some allergies, said a study Monday.

The research in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that certain environmental exposures could trigger allergies later in life, overcoming the protective effects of microbial exposure in childhood.

The study examined records from 2007-2008 phone surveys of nearly 92,000 people in the United States, where food and skin allergies have been on the rise in recent years.

Allergies reported in the survey included asthma, eczema, hay fever, and food allergies.

"Children born outside the United States had significantly lower prevalence of any allergic diseases (20.3 percent) than those born in the United States (34.5 percent)," said the study led by Jonathan Silverberg of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York.

"However, foreign-born Americans develop increased risk for allergic disease with prolonged residence in the United States," it said.

Children who were born outside the United States but came to live in the United States for longer than 10 years showed "significantly" higher odds of developing eczema or hay fever but not asthma or food allergies, said the research.

"These data indicate that duration of residence in the United States is a previously unrecognized factor in the epidemiology of atopic disease," it said.

"Further, this suggests that foreign-born US residents might be at increased risk for later onset of allergic disease."

Previous research has shown that children who grow up in developing nations tend to have lower rates of allergies, and experts believe this is because they are exposed to more infections and microbes that build up their immune systems.

Allergies are essentially a symptom of a hypersensitive immune system, reacting to substances that should normally be considered harmless.

The JAMA study noted that the United States may not be alone in this phenomenon, since previous studies have found that immigrants in Italy, Israel, and Australia had lower allergy rates than natives.

More research is needed to find out if allergies increase in those countries among immigrants who live there for long periods, said the study.

Read more - 

http://www.france24.com/en/20130429-living-us-raises-risk-allergies

New Website Lets Users Rate Prostitutes... -

New Website Lets Users Rate Prostitutes... - 


People like to read reviews online before buying a car or reserving a hotel room. But one website, www.eccie.net, once based in North Texas, allows users to review the services of local prostitutes.

CBS 11′s I-Team Investigator Mireya Villarreal confirmed with the Texas Attorney General’s office that the website is a factor in a few of their investigations. They wouldn’t expand on what they’re looking for or share if anything on the site is illegal; but just the idea that you can review prostitutes has a lot of people concerned.

Google the words “escort review” and not far from the top is www.eccie.net, a website that’s been around for years, but flourished, while it was based right here in Fort Worth.

Women actually create profiles on this site and customers can post reviews about their services.

“I’m not amazed because I’ve seen worse ads and websites than this,” Jenny Ford, Human Trafficking Expert with ACH Child and Family Services, told us.

Ford’s sole responsibility is to help women and children who’ve been victimized. She says people posting on sites like this often use kinky sex and prostitution as a cover up for sex trafficking.

“It’s happening everywhere. I mean, you can call and get somebody delivered to your house, to your apartment, or to a hotel,” Ford explained.

Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) has Homeland Security Investigators that scour sites like this for potential trafficking cases. And while ICE works closely with police vice units, shutting down the site completely is nearly impossible.

“A lot of these internet websites are reflective of pure prostitution,” David Marwell, ICE Special Agent In Charge, told us. “Some of these websites have actual legitimate ways of means and services that they produce. So having these websites, looking into this aspect of the websites, doesn’t necessarily make the entire website seizable or being able to close it down.”

The website was once operated by KCN Infosys, LLC, a company created by three people living in North Texas. According to the Secretary of State’s website, the company dissolved last September. But information the CBS 11 I-Team uncovered shows KCN Infosys, LLC has ownership of the domain name till March 2014.

State Senator Leticia Van De Putte has been pushing for years for stricter trafficking laws in Texas. She believes sites like this can lead to human or sex trafficking. That’s why she’s filed SB94, a bill that go after the people using them.

“We know the internet is a problem,” Van De Putte said. “But what’s happened with these internet sites is that they’ve become advertising, money making ventures. This is not your prostitute standing on your street corner. This is online solicitation.”

Van De Putte says if law enforcement can connect individual postings with reports of human trafficking or prostitution complaint, then they’ll go after the poster. The overall goal is to decrease the demand for these kinds of sites and, consequently, decrease human and sex trafficking.

Right now, Van De Putte’s bill (SB94) has been voted through the senate and will be discussed in the house over the next few weeks.

For weeks, we’ve tried to get a hold of the current owners of eccie.net. We even talked to a previous owner, but no one ever took ownership of the site.

Read more - 

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/04/29/i-team-website-allows-users-to-rate-prostitutes/

Budweiser unveils beer glass that connects to Facebook -

Budweiser unveils beer glass that connects to Facebook - 



Toasting with new friends just got a futuristic, and slightly creepy, upgrade.  
Budweiser recently unveiled the “Buddy Cup,” a pint glass with a built-in chip that connects to Facebook. The cup automatically connects people on Facebook when they clink glasses with another “Buddy Cup” user, creating a virtual friendship instantly.
The cup’s promotional video shows the glass being tested in Brazil as images of drinkers enjoyably clinking pints flash across the screen.
"So, they just did the same as always: Went out drinking Bud, and making new friends," a male narrator announces in the company's commercial. “Buddy Cup: the more Buds, the more friends.”
Feedback toward the Facebook-integrated glass has been mixed.
Tech blog BetaBeat writes, "In the olden times, clinking your beers together with a stranger was a sign of celebration—a mutual agreement that things were about to get weird. The fact that you’d never have to see them again or explain why you puked down the front of your shirt was a significant part of the appeal. Now, Budweiser is about to destroy that sacred experience with the introduction of the Buddy Cup."

Responses on Twitter highlight the creepy factor in sharing contact details with the clink of a glass.
“This is a bad idea, @Budweiser,” writes ecarlson23. “I don't want my drunk life posted all over facebook.”
Another user writes, “This is so wrong, in so many ways – Budweiser.”
The cup was developed by advertising agency Agencia Africa in partnership with Bolha, a digital innovation studio in Sao Paulo. The idea was to create an interactive relationship between consumers and the product.
“Innovation is in Budweiser's DNA,” Sergio Gordilho, chief creative officer at Agencia Africa, told The Drum. “Its platforms are constantly surprising consumers with the best there is in terms of premium experiences. The ‘Buddy Cup’ is another idea bringing the brand even closer to its consumers and opening new levels of interaction for them.”


Read more: -

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/04/29/budweiser-unveils-beer-glass-that-connects-to-facebook/

Drinking just one 12-ounce soda a day may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests -

Drinking just one 12-ounce soda a day may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests - 



Drinking just one 12-ounce soda a day may increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a new study from Europe suggests.

In the study, people who drank a 12-ounce sugar-sweetened soda daily were 18 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes over a 16-year period compared with those who did not consume soda. And people who drank two sodas daily were 18 percent more likely to have a stroke than those who drank one; those who drank three sodas daily saw the same risk increase compared with those who drank two, and so on.

The results held even after the researchers took into account risk factors for Type 2 diabetes such as age and physical activity levels, body mass index (BMI) and the total daily calorie intake.

The findings agree with earlier studies in the United States, which found daily soda consumption increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 25 percent.

However, the study found only an association, and cannot prove soda consumption causes Type 2 diabetes. It's possible other factors not accounted for by the study influenced the disease risk. In addition, participants answered questions about their diet just once at the study's start, and it's possible they changed their diets over time, the researchers said.

The researchers analyzed information from about 12,000 people who developed Type 2 diabetes between 1991 and 2007, and a randomly selected group of about 15,000 people, most of whom did not develop diabetes. All participants were taking part in a larger study looking into the interaction between diet, environmental factors and the risk of cancer and chronic diseases conducted in eight European countries.

People who drank one or more glasses of sugar-sweetened soda a day were about 30 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who drank less than one glass a month.

Because the link between sugar-sweetened soda and Type 2 diabetes was independent of BMI (an indicator of obesity level) and calorie intake, this finding suggests that other factors, such as the spike in blood sugar people experience when they drink soda, may play a role in the risk, the researchers said.

People who drank diet soda were also at increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes during the study compared with those who drank no soda. However, when the researchers took into account participants' BMI and total energy intake, the increased risk disappeared. This finding suggests that the link between diet soda and diabetes risk was driven by participants' weight: People who are obese, and thus already at risk for Type 2 diabetes, tend to report higher consumption of diet drinks.

Healthy food choices (such as eating plenty of fruits and vegetables), daily exercise and weight loss can help prevent Type 2 diabetes, or slow the progress of the disease in those with prediabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The new study is published today (April 24) in the journal Diabetologia.

Pass it on: Consumption of sugar-sweetened soda is linked to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/can-of-soda-diabetes-a-day-risk_n_3154464.html

Koala chlamydia: The STD threatening an Australian icon -

Koala chlamydia: The STD threatening an Australian icon - 


The koala is unique to Australia and is an important symbol of the country. But numbers are plummeting and the survival of koalas is under threat. One of the reasons is the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia.

One of the most common places to find koalas in Australia these days is in the hospital.

About 50 miles (80km) north of Brisbane, at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, a female koala is under a mild anaesthetic.

"She's quite an old girl - I think she's over 10 years," says veterinary surgeon Amber Gillett.

The koala is called Penny. Gillett puts some ultrasound gel in Penny's pouch and looks at the ultrasound machine.

She's checking her bladder for symptoms of chlamydia.

Outside the clinic are a series of open-air enclosures. These are the "koala wards" - and they are pretty much full all-year round.

Last year, Gillett and her team treated about 300 koalas for chlamydia - and so far, 2013 has been a busy year too.

Read more - 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22207442

Syrian "Incursion" Imminent? Hints From Current US Naval Positions -

Syrian "Incursion" Imminent? Hints From Current US Naval Positions - 


Following the dramatic change in rhetoric from Washington over the past 24 hours regarding Syrian "Weapons of Chemical Destruction", the phrases "Middle East" and "geopolitical risk" are suddenly back in the same sentence on the lips of those sitting around trading desks, leading to a powerful jump in the oil complex where Brent is having its best day in four months, and WTI in give.

Yet the feasibility of an armed conflict with Syria, which Russia has made very clear in the past is a strategic ally in the region aside, is the probability of an incursion truly imminent? For that we go to Stratfor's latest weekly update of US naval assets, which shows that if indeed Obama is planning to do a flyover showing off his Nobel Peace prize above Damascus, there will be a waiting time of at least several weeks as there is nothing in the immediate Syrian offshore vicinity to provide the necessary naval support.

It appears that the 5th Fleet only has CVN-69 Eisenhower in the vicinity of Bahrain, as well as one big deck amphibious ship, the Kearsarge keeping an eye on the Straits of Hormuz. Assuming both ships are tasked to supervise any missions involving Syria that would leave Iran and the Straits of Hormuz unguarded, which is why we doubt this would happen. In fact, it is more likely that CVN 75 and 77, which are currently under way in the Atlantic, will be redirected to the east Mediterranean to provide the necessary air cover should operation "Liberating the Syrian Al-Qaeda funded Rebellion" be a go.

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-25/syrian-incursion-imminent-hints-current-us-naval-positions

Gang leader impregnated 4 and "corrupted" 13 female prison guards while running contraband scheme in jail -

Gang leader impregnated 4 and "corrupted" 13 female prison guards while running contraband scheme in jail - 

A Maryland gang member is accused of running a scheme to smuggle contraband into prison by "corrupting" 13 female prison guards from behind bars, four of whom he impregnated.
A federal indictment says Tavon White has been charged in the plot to smuggle drugs, cell phones and other contraband into the Baltimore jail and other corrections facilities, along with the prison guards, six of his fellow inmates and five others with gang ties who allegedly operated outside the jails.
The indictment also says the ring involved sex between the inmates and guards, which led to four of the officers becoming pregnant by White, the leader of a jailhouse gang called the Black Guerrilla Family. 
White is accused of "corrupting" the female officers through personal and sexual relationships and other bribes and convincing them to join his ring, Fox Baltimore reports. 
MyFoxDC.com reports the ring became increasingly brazen and confident over time, with White quoted as saying: "You understand me? This is my jail. I am dead serious, I make every final call in this jail." 
White was being held at the Baltimore City Detention Center awaiting trial on a charge of attempted murder at the time.
The gang members and the corrections officers have been charged with conspiracy, drug possession and distribution and money laundering.


Read more: - 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/25/gang-leader-impregnates-4-maryland-prison-guards-authorities-say/?test=latestnews

Nose picking: Go ahead and eat it — it could be good for you -

Nose picking: Go ahead and eat it — it could be good for you - 


If you don’t like gross things, this story is snot for you.
An associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan is trying to get more students interested in science by looking at the health benefits of picking your nose and eating it.
Scott Napper says nature pushes us to do different things because it is to our advantage to have certain behaviours, to consume different types of foods.
Napper says mucous traps germs and stops them from getting into our body, but if we consume that mucous, it could help train our immune system by exposing it to the germs.
So he says when children have the urge to pick their nose and eat it, parents shouldn’t get upset.
Napper says he hopes to conduct a study where some type of molecule is inserted in people’s noses and then half the participants pick their nose and eat it and the other half don’t.
“I think the challenge would be getting volunteers to participate in this experiment,” he says with a laugh. “Especially if you didn’t know which group you were going to fall into.”
Napper also says making science more humorous and fun keeps students interested and engaged.
“I don’t try to convert them all to biochemistry. My goal is always if I can teach you one thing that you’re going to tell somebody else about outside the scope of this class, then I’ve prompted you to think a little bit, to question these things and I think with this example, it probably succeeded in that.”
Napper has two young daughters and says the idea of letting them pick their noses, even if in the name of science, didn’t go over well with his wife.
“Yeah, she’s of a different opinion,” he says. “She’s more toward training them to be little ladies.”

Read more - 

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/04/25/nose_picking_go_ahead_and_eat_it_it_could_be_good_for_you.html

America The Fallen: 24 Signs That Our Once Proud Cities Are Turning Into Poverty-Stricken Hellholes -

America The Fallen: 24 Signs That Our Once Proud Cities Are Turning Into Poverty-Stricken Hellholes - 


What is happening to you America?  Once upon a time, the United States was a place where free enterprise thrived and the greatest cities that the world had ever seen sprouted up from coast to coast.  Good jobs were plentiful and a manufacturing boom helped fuel the rise of the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the planet.  Cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore were all teeming with economic activity and the rest of the globe looked on our economic miracle with a mixture of wonder and envy.  But now look at us.  Our once proud cities are being transformed into poverty-stricken hellholes.  Did you know that the city of Detroit once actually had the highest per-capita income in the United States?  Looking at Detroit today, it is hard to imagine that it was once one of the most prosperous cities in the world.  In fact, as you will read about later in this article, tourists now travel to Detroit from all over the globe just to see the ruins of Detroit.  Sadly, the exact same thing that is happening to Detroit is happening to cities all over America.  Detroit is just ahead of the curve.  We are in the midst of a long-term economic collapse that is eating away at us like cancer, and things are going to get a lot worse than this.  So if you still live in a prosperous area of the country, don't laugh at what is happening to others.  What is happening to them will be coming to your area soon enough.

The following are 24 signs that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes...

#1 According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.

#2 At this point, approximately one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.

#3 Back during the housing bubble, an acre of land in downtown Phoenix, Arizona sold for about $90 a square foot.  Today, an acre in downtown Phoenix sells for about $9 a square foot.

#4 The city of Chicago is so strapped for cash that it is planning to close 54 public schools.  It is being estimated that Chicago schools will run a budget deficit of about a billion dollars in 2013.

#5 The city of Baltimore is already facing unfunded liabilities of more than 3.2 billion dollars, but the city government continues to pile up more debt as if it was going out of style.

#6 Today, the murder rate in East St. Louis is 17 times higher than the national average.

#7 According to USA Today, the "share of jobs located in or near a downtown declined in 91 of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas" between 2000 and 2010.

#8 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.

#9 There are more than 85,000 streetlights in Detroit, but thieves have stripped so much copper wiring out of the lights that more than half of them are not working.

#10 The unemployment rate in El Centro, California is 24.2 percent, and the unemployment rate in Yuma, Arizona is an astounding 25.6 percent.

#11 It has been estimated that there are more than 1,000 homeless people living in the massive network of flood tunnels under the city of Las Vegas.

#12 Violent crime in the city of Oakland increased by 23 percent during 2012.

#13 If you can believe it, more than 11,000 homes, cars and businesses were burglarized in Oakland during 2012.  That breaks down to approximately 33 burglaries a day.

#14 As I have written about previously, there are only about 200 police officers assigned to Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit to handle the estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city.

#15 The number of murders in Chicago last year was roughly equivalent to the number of murders in the entire country of Japan during 2012.

#16 The murder rate in Flint, Michigan is higher than the murder rate in Baghdad.

#17 If New Orleans was considered to be a separate nation, it would have the 2nd highest murder rate on the entire planet.

#18 According to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center,  Mexican drug cartels were actively operating in 50 different U.S. cities in 2006.  By 2010, that number had skyrocketed to 1,286.

#19 Back in 2007, the number of New York City residents on food stamps was about 1 million.  It is now being projected that the number of New York City residents on food stamps will pass the 2 million mark this summer.

#20 The number of homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased by a whopping 19 percent over the past year.

#21 As I noted yesterday, approximately one out of every three children in the United States currently lives in a home without a father.

#22 In Miami, 45 percent of the children are living in poverty.

#23 In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of the children are living in poverty.

#24 According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

As I mentioned at the top of this article, the decline of the city of Detroit has become so famous that it has actually become a tourist attraction.  The following is a short excerpt from an article in the New York Times...

But in Detroit, the tours go on, in an unofficial capacity. One afternoon at the ruins of the 3.5-million-square-foot Packard Plant, I ran into a family from Paris. The daughter said she read about the building in Lonely Planet; her father had a camcorder hanging around his neck. Another time, while conducting my own tour for a guest, a group of German college students drove up. When queried as to the appeal of Detroit, one of them gleefully exclaimed, “I came to see the end of the world!”

For much more on the shocking decline of one of America's greatest cities, please see my previous article entitled "Bankrupt, Decaying And Nearly Dead: 24 Facts About The City Of Detroit That Will Shock You".

So are there any areas of the country that are still thriving?

Well, yes, there are a few.  In particular, those areas that are sitting on top of energy resources tend to be doing quite well for now.

One example is Texas.  In recent years people have been absolutely flocking to the state.  There are lots of energy jobs, the cost of living is low and there is no state income tax.

But overall, things are really tough out there.  Over the past decade America has lost millions of good jobs to offshoring, advancements in technology and a declining economy.

Last year, the United States had a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than half a trillion dollars.  Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than 8 trillion dollars since 1975.

All of that money could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.  In turn, taxes would have been paid on all of that income which could have helped keep our cities great.

But instead, our politicians have stood idly by as we have lost tens of thousands of businesses and millions of jobs.  If you can believe it, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities have closed down permanently in the United States since 2001.

We have allowed our economic infrastructure to be absolutely gutted, and so we should not be surprised that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes.

And this is just the beginning.  The next wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching, and when it strikes unemployment in this country will eventually rise to a level that is more than double what it is now.

When that happens, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near our rotting, decaying cities.

Read more -

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/america-the-fallen-24-signs-that-our-once-proud-cities-are-turning-into-poverty-stricken-hellholes