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POPS50 Ugliest Cars Of All Time According To Business Week Start talking about your favorite car or truck and chances are you will be get a visceral reaction out of many Americans. Where I grew up in the Midwest, for example, saying that Toyota made a better truck than, say, Ford or GM...well, them'z was fightin' words to some. In other parts of the country, the same might be said for debates such as, "Which sports car is the fastest of all time?" We do love our cars. But, then, there are those "ugly ducklings" that should never have made it off the assembly line, and which, sadly, never blossomed into swans. This week, Businessweek assembles a slide show of the 50, all-time ugliest ducklings on four wheels...If you are passionate about autos, or just want a few laughs before heading off to nighty-nighty land, then check out this slide show. Yeesh!
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POPSthe silver swan i want one.if you have never seen this gadget- ya gotta check it out- made in 1773- it works as well now as the day it was made-or so they say
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POPSJapanese Raccons found with Bird Flu What this shows is that the h5n1 virus is present in many different species. It breaks out in a form that is deadly to both animals and people when the host animal is gathered together in large numbers. When chickens, ducks, or geese are factory farmed (thousands raised at same time and housed for egg laying or held for delivery to live markets), the natural system "thinks" the species's population is too large and is exhibitig stress that calls for a "system" response to bring the flock back into balance. The system response to re-create balance is influenza which kills weaker or stressed birds and reestablishes balance. Repeated human intervention causes greater system responses until it may reach pandemic levels.
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POPSTrue Love's Cost of the 12 Days of Christmas: Chirstmas Price Index True Loves to face most expensive Christmas ever as PNC Christmas Price Index jumps 8.1% in 2008. Cost of “The 12 Days of Christmas” Song Items Reflect Consumer Pricing Trends; Interactive Web Site Provides Teachers and Students With Insights on U.S. Economy. Each year, the Christmas Price Index reflects trends in the broader economy. This year, commodities prices, concerns about increased energy and shipping costs, jobs, and a second straight minimum wage increase were major factors in the cost. Swans have always been expensive because they are rare: in 1995 there were only 14,000. French hens are "cheaper" because they are in less demand. Performance artists such as pipers piping or drummers drumming receive higher wages due to their specialized skills - while maids-a-milking are the only unskilled laborers in the index.
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POPSNassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom In December he lectured bankers at Société Générale, France’s second biggest bank. He told them they were sitting on a mountain of risks – a menagerie of black swans. They didn’t believe him. Six weeks later the rogue trader and black swan Jérôme Kerviel landed them with $7.2 billion of losses. As a result, Taleb is now the hottest thinker in the world. He has a $4m advance on his next book. He gives about 30 presentations a year to bankers, economists, traders, even to Nasa, the US Fire Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. But he doesn’t tell them what to do – he doesn’t know. He just tells them how the world is. “I’m not a guru. I’m just describing a problem and saying, ‘You deal with it.’” take a moment and read the article