Should we all just get high on Marijuana…legally?

August 18th, 2009. By AbiK

Not long ago I had posted about the drug Reglan—the drug that has been associated with Tardive Dyskinesia—and the possibility of using marijuana for medicinal purposes to alleviate some of the symptoms of the disorder. There really isn’t much more than ancedotal evidence to support using marijuana for Tardive Dyskinesia–and regardless, as of late July there were only 13 states that have actually legalized the drug.

Just today, as a follow up, I thought I’d check out Urtak.com—a collaborative surveying site—to see what the pulse is on whether folks think marijuana should indeed be legalized.

The Court of Public Opinion has spoken. Well, at least 276 members of the public have answered the question on marijuana legalization over at Urtak. And if you’ve been following the issue in the media, you may not be totally surprised by the results—it is a fairly polarizing issue.

The results… Read the rest of this entry »

At Risk of a Layoff? Make sure you’re WARNed

August 17th, 2009. By AbiK

When facing an employment layoff, typically there’s a lot of closed door meetings, hush-hush hallway conversations, and if you’ve been involved with a major corporate “restructuring”, there can even be code names. Lots and lots of secrecy. But when it comes time to actually announce mass layoffs, there’s a little thing called the The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act—aka, WARN. The WARN Act is in place to protect workers from covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs (so it does not apply to a sole individual losing his job).

Pleading Ignorance takes a look at the WARN Act this week—it continues to me a timely topic given the economy. So let’s learn some more…

What is the WARN Act for plant closings and mass layoffs?

According to the US Dept. of Labor Employment and Training Administration, the WARN Act:

…offers protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs. This notice must be provided to either affected workers or their representatives (e.g., a labor union); to the State dislocated worker unit; and to the appropriate unit of local government. Read the rest of this entry »

4 Greatest Whistleblower Movies of All-time

August 17th, 2009. By AbiK

You may not agree, but these four movies put the whole concept of whistleblowing and whistleblowers on the map and they brought to life the raw nerve, courage and strength it takes to go up against a major corporation or organization. What’s really great about this list is that each is based on a real-life story. In order of date of release…

1. Serpico.

(1973) Whistleblower: Frank Serpico. The classic Al Pacino. Ok, he had a few other classics as well…Serpico is the story of an undercover cop who’s mostly on the prowl for drug dealers and pushers. Most of his cop buddies are on the take accepting money on the job. Serpico thinks this ain’t right and wants to do something about it. And so he does…

2. Silkwood.

(1983) Whistleblower: Karen Silkwood. Possibly the first movie where we appreciated that Cher could go beyond singing, “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”. Hey, she did play quite a believable lesbian (and I won’t comment on daughter Chas’ breaking news last week). Of course, the presence of Meryl Streep usually doesn’t hurt at the box office. Streep plays Karen Silkwood who single-handly raises a red flag against Kerr-McGee in Oklahoma. It’s a nuclear plant she works at and she a number of folks she works with become contaminated by radiation…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged…You are SO not it

August 14th, 2009. By AbiK

By now you may have seen the news about the site Tagged.com. Wonder what all the fuss is over? Take a look, compliments of my inbox:

Annoying, right? Well, two folks from California have had enough of Tagged.com’s tactics and are suing the company. The lawsuit alleges that Tagged.com duped them into sharing their email contacts and started sending all those contacts misleading ads.

As reported at mediapost.com, the claim states “Tagged harvested millions of email addresses from the email address books of consumers. Then, using these consumers’ email account credentials, Tagged sent unsolicited advertisements to the harvested email addresses, making the messages appear as if they were invitations to join Tagged sent by persons known to the recipients.”

The screen shot above is the exact depiction of what happened to me. Someone sent me a Tagged.com message on Facebook. Voila! I’m now on Tagged.com’s email love list. And as the plaintiffs state, I too do not recall ever signing up for anything and merely clicked to see the “photos” my friend on Facebook said she was “sharing” with me via Tagged.

Chinese Drywall, Foreclosure and…Mosquitoes

August 14th, 2009. By AbiK

A lot of the news lately on the Chinese drywall situation is unfortunately inextricably entangled with the economic downturn. The problem? Foreclosures. Unfortunately for those who’ve found themselves underwater on the value (or lack thereof) of their home, the addition of a Chinese drywall problem only exacerbates things-not only can they no longer afford their homes, but they can’t unload them either given the defective drywall. 

The situation reminded me of an article I had read back in March in National Geographic. The article, “Mosquito Hosts”, focused on some homes in foreclosure in Maricopa County, Arizona—homes that had been vacated and have pools in their yards. 

At issue was that in the absence of being able to afford their homes, the homes had been left unoccupied and the last thing on homeowners’ minds was pool maintenance. So, of course, the resulting green, algae-filled pools sat there effectively putting out an “Open House!” sign for mosquitoes to come on in.  Read the rest of this entry »