5 Personal Finance Tips You Don't Always Hear About

We have all read about the usual personal finance tips being offered by the writers of the personal finance blogs around the internet and from the experts on television. They usually end up meshing somewhere along the line with information that includes the importance of setting a budget, tracking your spending, and establishing an emergency fund. While that advice is all valuable and true, there are some other things you should be doing that will keep you financially strong.
5 Personal Finance Tips You Don't Always Hear About

English manners cost Titanic lives

Many British victims of the Titanic disaster in 1912 may have sunk with the ship because of their gentlemanly behaviour, according to Swiss and Australian researchers.
English manners cost Titanic lives

Avoid Getting Fleeced at Liquidation Sales

They're going out of business! It's a liquidation sale! The prices will be crazy marked down, right? Not necessarily. Read on to avoid getting ripped off by liquidators.
Avoid Getting Fleeced at Liquidation Sales

One more reason to enjoy that cup of coffee

The New York Times reported recently on a new study that suggests coffee may help prevent Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The study, published in the January 2009 Journal of Alzheimer's Disease is observational, and a researcher is quoted in the Times as saying, “We have no evidence that for people who are not drinking coffee, taking up drinking will have a protective effect.”
One more reason to enjoy that cup of coffee

What Would You Do With Five Years?

What would you do if you were told you had five years left to live? I prefer to use this rather than Steve Job’s single day, because most of us, with a day or week left, would spend them seeing family and saying goodbyes.

But five years is different. Five years is long enough to accomplish almost any goal you might have, however ambitious. And you wouldn’t want to spend five years partying hedonistically, or eating your favourite meal every night.
What Would You Do With Five Years?

Hungry snake discovers you are what you eat

A New South Wales man has had an interesting encounter with not one but two snakes, and he has the photos to prove it.
Hungry snake discovers you are what you eat

New Year's Resolutions: Avoid Common New Year's Resolution Mistakes

At this point you're three weeks into your New Year's resolutions. Many people fail to make it out of January with their resolutions unbroken, avoid some of the common pitfalls with these tips.
New Year's Resolutions: Avoid Common New Year's Resolution Mistakes

Detecting Googlebombs

A Googlebomb is a prank where a group of people on the web try to push someone else’s site to rank for a query that it didn’t intend to (and normally wouldn’t want to) rank for. Typically these queries tend to be unusual phrases such as “talentless hack” that don’t really have any existing strong results.
Detecting Googlebombs

How to Teach Kids About Money

As kids grow, they tend to become more thoughtful about money, and it's a process to teach them how to save more, shop wisely and earn money through small jobs. The current economic troubles provide a fitting time to school our kids on personal finance, according to Eric Tyson, author of Personal Finance for Dummies. If you're feeling guilty because you can't buy your child that video game system he desperately wants for Christmas, or you're asking him to choose between playing recreation basketball or taking karate lessons this winter, Eric Tyson has one word for you. Don't. In fact, he says, now is the perfect time to teach your kids some valuable financial lessons and learn that budgeting is how the world really works.
How to Teach Kids About Money

How Travel Veterans Pack For a Trip

One of the more nerve-wracking moments a traveler can ever experience is waiting for a checked bag after an airline flight, knowing that prescription medicine or a valuable piece of electronic gear has been out of your control for hours.
How Travel Veterans Pack For a Trip

Use Your Camera Phone to Document Suitcase Contents

Nobody likes dealing with lost luggage; snapping photos of your packed suitcase before you zip up can diminish the hassle and ensure you get back everything you packed.
Use Your Camera Phone to Document Suitcase Contents

Windows 7 Codec Package

Not everyone is a friend of so called codec packages which basically consist of a collection of audio and video codecs that get batch installed on a computer system. The main point of criticism is that a lot of useless - in other words never used - codecs are installed on the system along with some that are used regularly. The user loses some hard drive space at best or will experience compatibility problems at worst.
Windows 7 Codec Package

Things my father taught me

David L. McDonald
born 1936-passed 2008
precious father
beloved husband
A right good fellow.
Things my father taught me

How to Stop Accumulating Books

Sometimes you’ll get a new book, glance through a few chapters while sitting on the can, put it on the coffee table for later indulgence, and get back to whatever you were doing. You don’t have time to actually read your new book yet. You've got a lot of work to do, and you're already part way through a couple other ones, so it’ll have to wait. But then a strange thing happens: Over the next couple weeks, you've done it again. You've bought another must-have book, and the last book, the one that was waiting for you on the coffee table, has silently migrated to your bookshelf, without ever getting read. You're a book hoarder. How do you stop the insanity?
How to Stop Accumulating Books

Why we procrastinate and how to stop

It's a new year and many of us have started thinking about various resolutions: updating that resume, cleaning out the attic, starting that exercise routine. But the sad reality is that most of us will not follow through on these commitments, not because we're insincere, but because tomorrow is always a better time to get going. Procrastination is a curse, and a costly one.
Why we procrastinate and how to stop

Tracking US Airways Flight 1549

Tracking US Airways Flight 1549 - Interactive Graphic from NY Times.
Tracking US Airways Flight 1549

Five "Healthy Snacks" that Aren't

Many of us are reaching for the nearest healthy snack as part of our eat-better-in-'09 resolutions, but as Newsweek points out, those veggie crisps are often no better than your classic bag of Doritos.
Five "Healthy Snacks" that Aren't

Crib netting tragedy: Bare cribs are safest

The strangulation death last month of a 2-year-old from Massachusetts, which was caused when he got tangled in netting that was placed over the top of a portable crib while traveling with his parents in Maine, is a tragic reminder that the safest crib is a bare one.
Crib netting tragedy: Bare cribs are safest

A New Googlebomb: Cheerful Achievement

The googlebomb “miserable failure" for a long time linked to US president Bush’s page on WhiteHouse.gov (a googlebomb happens when a group of people get together, coordinating themselves to link to a certain page using a certain agreed-upon phrase, often for humorous or political purposes). Now, there’s a new googlebomb.
A New Googlebomb: Cheerful Achievement

Breaking a Mirror

These days the accidental breaking of a small mirror (like the hand-held or self-standing kinds typically used when applying cosmetics or shaving) usually produces no more thought in most people than "I have to get a new mirror." The breaking a large wall-mounted or floor mirror, however, may still often elicit the exclamation, "Uh-oh, that's seven years of bad luck."
Breaking a Mirror

Six Words You Should Drop from Your Resume

Whether you're polishing your resume because you've been laid off or you just like to be prepared, weblog Squawkfox suggests six words you should banish from your curriculum vitae.
Six Words You Should Drop from Your Resume

Nine Tips to Keep Yourself Exercising, from a Former Couch Potato

One of the most commonly made, and most frequently broken, New Year’s resolutions is the resolution to exercise more. People who exercise are healthier, more energetic, think more clearly, sleep better, have delayed onset of dementia...the list goes on.
Nine Tips to Keep Yourself Exercising, from a Former Couch Potato

Are You Rationalizing Your Decisions?

Are you rationalizing your decisions? Let me answer that for you real quick. Yes, you are.
Are You Rationalizing Your Decisions?

Enable Hotmail POP3 In All Countries

Microsoft has announced a change to the Hotmail email provider service that they offer. The feature to access Hotmail accounts using a POP3 connection will be gradually enabled for all Hotmail accounts. Gradually meaning that only users from some countries like Germany, Italy or the United Kingdom are currently able to connect to Hotmail via POP3 while others have to wait until Microsoft enables POP3 access for their countries as well.
Enable Hotmail POP3 In All Countries

The Oddest English Spellings, Part 12 Or, One, Two, Buckle Your Shoe

Two and shoe rhyme. Why then are they spelled so differently? Those who ask such questions believe that rhyme and reason go together.
The Oddest English Spellings, Part 12 Or, One, Two, Buckle Your Shoe

Surviving a Plane Crash

New York City witnessed the seemingly impossible last week, when US Airways flight 1549 ditched into the icy Hudson river so gently that all 155 passengers walked away unharmed. Those merely witnessing the event, might be all the more frightened now, having not known (before) that birds flying into engines can cause such profound disaster.
Surviving a Plane Crash

How to Chop Onions Without Tears

Why do onions make you cry, and how can you prevent it from happening? Onions are made up of a tunic of outer leaves (the brown layer), scales (the white firm juicy edible part), and the basal plate (often called the "hairy part" or the "root").
How to Chop Onions Without Tears

Today is the Most Depressing Day of the Year -- Not.

Apparently, according to a mathematical formula devised by Cliff Arnall, today is the most depressing day of 2009. Arnall’s formula considers factors like people’s failure to keep up their new year’s resolutions, the weather, post-holidays blues (no more fun, lots of bills), and the date falling on a Monday.
Today is the Most Depressing Day of the Year -- Not

How to Find Your True Priorities

On January 1st, many people make resolutions for the new year, such as to go to the gym every day. You can’t help noticing that gyms suddenly become much more crowded. But by February 1st, most people have abandoned their resolutions. Gyms become empty.
How to Find Your True Priorities

How to Start Speaking at Events

You might first ask yourself what your goal might be. Are you speaking to further establish yourself and your company as thought leaders? Are you trying to pitch some amazing product?
How to Start Speaking at Events

15 Ways To Manage Risk In Your Financial Life

We all want to optimize our returns yet many of us forget that by doing so, we may be taking a lot more risk than we should. By managing our risks, we are better equipped with addressing unpredictable scenarios that can wreak havoc with our finances. Risk isn't a bad thing, just as long as it's controlled or "calculated".
15 Ways To Manage Risk In Your Financial Life

New Thinking on How to Protect the Heart

Many measures are probably familiar: not smoking, controlling cholesterol and blood pressure, exercising regularly and staying at a healthy weight. But some newer suggestions may surprise you.
New Thinking on How to Protect the Heart

Teens post health risks online

Have you taken a look at your teenage son or daughter's social networking site profile recently?
Teens post health risks online

Our world may be a giant hologram

DRIVING through the countryside south of Hanover, it would be easy to miss the GEO600 experiment. From the outside, it doesn't look much: in the corner of a field stands an assortment of boxy temporary buildings, from which two long trenches emerge, at a right angle to each other, covered with corrugated iron. Underneath the metal sheets, however, lies a detector that stretches for 600 metres.
Our world may be a giant hologram

Blu-ray Owners: You Should Get Your Eyes Examined

Tell a Blu-ray fan who's sunk hundreds or thousands of dollars into the technology that you can't really see the added picture quality offered by the hi-def format, and they'll probably respond the difference (to them) is so obvious only the willfully blind can't see it.
Blu-ray Owners: You Should Get Your Eyes Examined

How to Prevent Your Ears from Popping

For most people, traveling by air causes uncomfortable, sometimes painful ear popping. This can also happen when climbing to or descending from a high altitude, or when diving underwater. If you travel with kids, ear popping can make the trip all the more frustrating. So here's the scoop on ear popping - what causes it, and how you can prevent it.
How to Prevent Your Ears from Popping

Start Your Day By Eating a Frog

“Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” -Mark Twain
Start Your Day By Eating a Frog

Learn How to Be a Teen in 1950

A look at Coronet Films, which were shown in great regularity in American schools in the 1940s and ’50s, shows a completely different world of instructional videos for teens. Teens in the ’50s were taught how to say no to a goodnight kiss, not how to say no to a hit off a bong.
Learn How to Be a Teen in 1950

Six Tips For Boosting Your Sense of Self-Respect

Maybe you’ve lost your job. Maybe you didn’t get the promotion you were hoping for. Maybe your sweetheart broke up with you. People say “Don’t take it personally” and “Don’t let it get to you,” but that’s very hard to do.
Six Tips For Boosting Your Sense of Self-Respect

GPS Burglary

Warning cautions that thieves take GPS devices from cars parked at public events to locate homes to burgle.
GPS Burglary

Why does my voice sound so different when it is recorded and played back?

Sound can reach the inner ear by way of two separate paths.
Why does my voice sound so different when it is recorded and played back?

17 Uncommon Uses for Cotton Swabs

In the field of cleaning ears, no household item is relied upon more than cotton swabs. The swabs, tipped with cotton sheets, are built to remove earwax and dirt, which results in better hearing. You probably have a constantly renewed stock in your bathroom, given their usefulness. Reliable as the accessory is, cleaning ears is only one of its many functions. You might be surprised with the amount of things you can do with such a simple item.
17 Uncommon Uses for Cotton Swabs

Four Tech Products that Save You Time and Money

Feeling frazzled with newly incorporated frugality strategies? Last couple of DIY projects and bulk shopping runs send you over the edge into loony land? Here are four products we use to streamline logistics and re-channel stress into productivity.
Four Tech Products that Save You Time and Money

Do Aussie Workers Need To Take More Holidays?

When you encounter a headline like 'Aussies working world's longest hours', you're likely to pay attention -- especially if, like me, you've just come off a week with several 14-hour workdays. However, it turns out that what's actually being discussed is the unwillingness of Australians to take holidays.
Do Aussie Workers Need To Take More Holidays?

How To Burn Disk Images

It is surprising that many users who have downloaded the Windows 7 Beta release are having difficulties burning it on DVD. This article is supposed to act as a guideline for all of your disk burning activities.
How To Burn Disk Images

Composting Bins: Benefits, Rules, & How to Make Your Own

For a few years, I had been eyeing composting bins for the backyard. I was excited at the thought of turning things that we might normally put into the trash or the garbage disposal into beautiful, rich soil for our garden. I was, however, not excited about the price tags that I was seeing for even the most simple of composting bins.
Composting Bins: Benefits, Rules, & How to Make Your Own

Man takes 26 years to solve Rubik’s Cube

It has taken most of his life – but, after 26 years, builder Graham Parker has finally solved the puzzle of the Rubik's Cube.
Man takes 26 years to solve Rubik’s Cube

Blackstump Australia Issue 2 - January 11, 2009

This weeks latest new family friendly sites from The Black Stump.
Blackstump Australia Issue 2 - January 11, 2009

Keep Passwords Safe on a Public Computer with KYPS

You have to be cautious when using a public computer. Some of them have keylogger software installed that captures your usernames and passwords when you enter them. If you log into your bank’s website that could be a big problem!
Keep Passwords Safe on a Public Computer with KYPS

10 Overlooked Functions of Email

The age, when people used pen and paper to write letters, is over. At the turn of the century, almost everyone rely on the email for high-speed communication. You can use your account to converse or even strike business deals with anyone who has an active email address, regardless of distance. This is a clear advantage, given the amount of information conveyed in a few minutes. Remarkably, the list of things you can do with your email do not end there. More functions are waiting to be discovered if you look close enough.
10 Overlooked Functions of Email