Goodyear Blimps, U.S. Marines In Toys For Tots Maneuver

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s three blimps in the United States and the United States Marine Corps Reserve will conduct joint maneuvers to benefit the Toys for Tots Foundation at the company’s airship bases in Ohio, Florida and California this weekend. Goodyear and the Marine Corps Reserve will build on the success of the first joint Toys for Tots maneuver conducted in 2010, which saw 1,700 cars drive through the blimp hangar in Ohio to drop off 3,762 toys and collect $2,239. The three Goodyear blimp bases will be open to drive-through traffic only. There is no charge and a donation is not required to drive through and enjoy the scene. Dates and times specific to each location are available at the Goodyear blimps’ website at www.goodyearblimp.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoodyearBlimp, in the notes or events sections, or by calling the nearest blimp base at these locations: Suffield, Ohio 330.796.8151; Pompano Beach, Florida 954.946.8300; and Carson, California 310.327.6565. Founded in 1948, it is the mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program to collect new, unwrapped toys and cash during October, November and December and to distribute these donations as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.

Merry Christmas Or Happy Holidays

A Vistaprint and Zoomerange Online survey found that when selecting cards, consumers rate design and message more important than price. The survey found that 60% will choose a holiday card that says “Merry Christmas,” but 19% will go for one that says “Happy Holidays.” Another 17% said their card will say “Season’s Greeings”

Whistleblowers!

A new poll from Monster.com asked: “Would you reveal company secrets for money?” Surprisingly, 8% of Americans say they already have revealed company secrets for cash. Another 17% said they would, but the majority, 40%, said they wouldn’t reveal company secrets for cash because their company isn’t interesting enough. Another 35% said they would not reveal company secrets because they’d be too worried that they’d get caught.

10 Sexting Codes Parents Should Know

Do you know if your teen’s texting shorthand is just efficient typing or are they sexting right under your nose? The London Free Press posted 10 sexting codes every parent should be able to translate:

1. CD9 – code 9 parents are around
2. P911 – parent alert
3. PIR – parent in room
4. 8 – oral sex (or ate)
5. GYPO – get your pants off
6. GNRN – get naked right now
7. RUH – are you horny
8. CU46 – see you for sex
9. IWSN – I want sex now
10. GNOC – get naked on camera (webcam)”
The online dictionary of acronyms and text shorthand, www.netlingo.com, is one place where you can look up texts if you don’t know what they mean.

Holiday Shopping On The Clock

Nearly half of consumers say the risk of shopping on the clock outweighs the benefits. According to the 2011 ISACA Shopping on the Job Survey, here’s the average time people say their coworkers spend holiday shopping online using work-supplied equipment:

Time:	Percentage:
More than 6 hours	50%
1-2 hours	24%
3-4 hours	22%
None	3%

7 Little-Known Credit Card Perks

Points and cash back are only a fraction of the things your credit card can do for you. Kiplinger.com has listed 7 little-known credit card perks to help you make the most of your fantastic plastic:

Enhance your warranty: Gold and platinum MasterCards, Visa Signature cards and American Express cards all extend the manufacturer’s warranty by up to one year when you use the cards to purchase items. If you lose or break that new laptop or digital camera within 90 days of purchasing it with Citi’s new ThankYou Premier card, Citi will pay to repair or replace it or reimburse you – up to $1,000 per claim. The same is true for purchases made with your American Express card; the $450-per-year Platinum card has a limit of $10,000.

Get the lowest price: If you see an item you purchased with a Citi premium card advertised for less within 60 days, Citi will make up the difference, up to $250. Many gold and platinum MasterCards offer similar protection.

Cover you on the road: If your laptop is stolen from your hotel room, MasterCard will reimburse you if you used a gold or platinum card to pay for the room. Likewise, if your luggage doesn’t arrive when you do, MasterCard will reimburse you for the cost of replacing essential items. Plus, MasterCard will cover the cost to repair or replace damaged luggage. Use your Visa Signature card to buy your airline ticket and you can get reimbursed up to $3,000 for lost or stolen luggage.

Help you avoid checked-baggage fees: Redeem points for an airline ticket with your U.S. Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card and receive a $25 credit toward the checked-bag fee. Gold Delta SkyMiles cards from American Express cover the cost of checked bags (up to $50 per person round-trip) for up to nine people on the same reservation. American Express’s platinum card offers a $200 annual credit for flight-change and baggage fees.

Get free admissions: Bank of America and Merrill Lynch cardholders receive free admission to 150 museums in 85 cities on the first weekend of the month. Participating institutions include New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago’s Art Institute, Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Provide concierge services: The 24-hour service available to Visa Signature and MasterCard World Elite cardholders can help with restaurant reservations, party planning, travel arrangements and getting tickets to sold-out events. Visa cardholders can see what’s available by visiting Visa’s website or by becoming a fan of Visa on Facebook.

Help you get home: Chase customers can call Global Lifeline (the number is on the back of their card) and get help with hotel and airline reservations and medical assistance.

Sniff To Know Someone Better

Want to know someone better? Just take a whiff of the person’s clothes – it could help detect his or her personality traits, a new study suggests. In the Polish study, participants were asked to assess how outgoing, anxious or dominant people were by just taking a whiff of their clothes. In the study, researchers asked raters to sniff white-cotton T-shirts that were worn for three consecutive nights by 100 men and 100 women who had taken personality tests. The raters were then asked to make judgments about the shirt-wearer’s personality based on what they smelled. Though the sniffers didn’t nail it every time, they were able to predict whether the shirt donors were outgoing and extroverted or neurotic and anxious about as accurately as other raters who predicted personality traits after watching a video, researchers said. They said the sniff-testers were particularly accurate when detecting dominance in a member of the opposite sex, suggesting that men and woman are using more than their eyes and ears when choosing a potential mate.

Woman’s Face Catches On Fire During Surgery

What was supposed to be a routine outpatient surgery went horribly wrong during a Tuesday morning procedure when a flash fire seared a woman’s face and neck. Kim Grice, a 29-year-old mother of three, was rushed by helicopter to the University of South Alabama Burn Unit with burns to her face and neck. She was having cysts removed from her head at a medical center in Crestview, Florida, when the blaze suddenly erupted, leaving her with horrific burns to her face and neck. Grice, who was unconscious during the incident, was immediately flown to the hospital in Alabama after local firefighters responded to the flash fire. It was not clear what caused the flames. The hospital is investigating.

Healthy Habits Are Most Contagious Among Similar Friends

Obesity spreads “contagiously” through social networks, a highly publicized 2007 study claimed, and since then, some researchers have been working to use social networks to reverse the nation’s obesity epidemic. Now a new study suggests that may be possible. Researchers at MIT found that by bringing people who had similar traits together into a social network, with the aim of increasing physical fitness, they increased how many people picked up a new activity that could bring about healthy lifestyle changes. Even people who were obese were more likely to pick up the new activity when grouped with other obese people than when grouped with thinner people. Participants paired with others of similar body mass, age, fitness level and diet preferences were three times as likely to adopt healthy behaviors as those matched randomly in an Internet-based study, researchers said.

Church’s Interracial Ban

A Baptist congregation’s vote to ban interracial couples from membership has been declared null and void by a church conference. Members of the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky, had voted to ban interracial couples after Stella Harville came to services with her fiancé, Ticha Chikuni, who is from Zimbabwe. Pastor Stacy Stepp – who said he opposed the policy – asked for help from the Sandy Valley Conference of Free Will Baptists, comprised of more than a dozen member churches. The Conference met on Saturday and declared the interracial ban was invalid.

George McGovern Hospitalized After Fall

Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was being treated at a hospital in South Dakota after falling and hitting his head on the pavement outside a library bearing his name. McGovern’s daughter Ann McGovern said her father was to be treated at a Sioux Falls hospital after being flown by helicopter from Mitchell, S.D., where a live C-SPAN interview was to take place at the Dakota Wesleyan University’s McGovern Library on Friday.

Herman Cain Ends White House Campaign

Former pizza magnate Herman Cain has dropped out of the presidential race after accusations of sexual misconduct overwhelmed his bid to win the Republican nomination as an anti-Washington tax reformer. Cain’s departure set off a competition among other candidates to win over his conservative supporters with voting to start next month in the race to determine the Republicans’ presidential pick for 2012 to oppose President Barack Obama. Cain, a former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive, told followers in his hometown of Atlanta that “false and unproved” sexual accusations had forced him to suspend his White House bid. He said he would endorse another candidate, effectively ending a roller-coaster campaign that saw Cain go from complete outsider to the rising star of Republican conservatives within a few weeks over the autumn. Cain held a Friday night meeting with his wife, Gloria, who has stayed mostly silent as several women accused her husband of sexual harassment and an Atlanta businesswoman said she had carried out a 13-year affair with him.

Muhammad Ali Better After Health Scare

Muhammad Ali is not down for the count, contrary to reports. Rumors swirled Friday about the boxing legend’s health after news articles reported that he had collapsed at his home and was rushed to the hospital. A spokeswoman at the Muhammad Ali Center in the Champ’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, confirmed that “early reports were blown out of proportion.” “While Muhammad Ali was treated for dehydration on November 19th, he is currently at home, well, happy and carrying on with his daily routine,” Jeanie Kahnke said. Internet forums and social networking sites had plenty of well wishes for Ali, who will be 70 in January.

Space Station Astronaut To Answer Video Questions From Public

NASA has announced a unique opportunity to ask the commander of the International Space Station a question about his role on the orbiting outpost. Commander Dan Burbank will answer videotaped questions from the public during a live event tentatively set for January 20th on NASA Television. The video questions must be less than 30 seconds. Submitters should introduce themselves and mention their location. Questions must be posted as responses to a video Burbank recorded on YouTube at http://go.nasa.gov/sDYpzP. Burbank launched to the station on November 13th. He will conduct a variety of science experiments and perform station maintenance during his nearly six-month stay on the outpost. Burbank’s life aboard the station in near-weightlessness requires unique approaches to everyday activities such as eating, sleeping and exercising. Burbank will answer questions during the time available. In addition to airing live on NASA TV, Burbank’s answers will be posted to YouTube. To follow Burbank on Twitter, visit http://twitter.com/AstroCoastie.

Deadly Airline Food Lawsuit

The family of a man who died on board a flight to Miami has sued American Airlines and the company that provided the in-flight meal, alleging that airplane food is what caused the passenger’s death. On May 18th, the man and his wife had flown on American from Barcelona, Spain, to JFK Airport in New York City. During their transfer to the flight to Miami, the lawsuit says he felt “discomfort and pain that included sharp stomach cramps and sudden thirst and other clear outward manifestation of severe physical illness.” The couple boarded the flight to Miami, but when he became unresponsive following a cardiac event, the plane made an emergency landing in Virginia, where the man was pronounced dead. According to the suit, AA and Sky Chefs failed “to properly maintain or prepare the food” and alleges the food become tainted by Clostridium perfringens bacteria, a common cause of foodborne illness, but one that rarely results in fatalities. The man’s wife and daughter have sued for more than $1 million from the two companies.