As we near the end of 2009, now is the time to look back and reflect on our culture and how our culture has evolved over the past 350 something days. Current Tv’s InfoMania released this video to showcase all of the best-est and worst-est moments over the last year.

A few highlight of the video:

• Sergio’s Top 5 Music picks of the week, this time though, he covers the top 5 songs on ITunes in 2009 and explains to his father what Lady Gaga really means by her “pa pa pa pa poker face”
• Another great segment is Sarah Haskins review some of the best products of 2009. Plus you’ll learn why butts are stupid.

Enjoy and have a good holiday, see ya on the other side!

Technorati Tags: 2009, music, news, video, website, current tv, current tv retrospectacular, current, infomania, retrospective, sergios top picks

The Yes Men Strike again. If you are unfamiliar with the the Yes Men, they are a group of about 300 members who specialize in impersonating large corporations and criminal organizations in hopes of exposing the true nature and crimes committed by these organizations.

This time the Yes Men have impersonated the US Chamber of Commerce. The pretend claim was that the Chamber would be reversing it’s stance against the new climate change bill and would support a carbon tax. Needless to say, the Chamber of Commerce is highly against any regulation of green house gases or any tax associated with pollutants.

The news that the Chamber of Commerce was reversing it’s stance and siding with scientist even made it onto Fox News. This is the video coverage, from DemocracyNow, which shows the Faux News clips and a interview with the impostor.

Multiple members of the US Chamber of Commerce have withdrawn membership based on the fact that the Chamber’s board has decided to not back a climate change bill. This new spoof has put the spotlight on them, but they have yet to back down on their rejection of the bill.

Regardless of your stance on climate change, this at least show how easily major news organizations can be swayed to report false news. Apparently all you need is a suit, tie, and a microphone to make national headlines.

The Yes Men are currently releasing their new movie, The Yes Men Fix the World.

Technorati Tags: yes men, yes men fix the world, democracynow, democracy now, yes men 2009, yes men chamber of commerce, us chamber of commerce, chamber of commerce impersonation, climate change bill

For one day only tomorrow, September 26th 2009, you and a guest can receive free admission to hundreds of museums nationwide. The free admission is not restricted to only Smithsonian museums, but is instead available for countless museums across the county.

I play on visiting the Experience Music Project \ Science Fiction Museum here in Seattle, WA. The museum features the Jimi Hendrix: An Evolution of Sound exhibit, which should be very exciting to see. The EMP is just one of 14 museums to choose from in the Seattle area alone.

Other Great Museums in the Seattle area to choose from are:

• The Museum of Flight
• Seattle Art Museum
• Nordic Heritage Museum
• KidsQuest Children’s Museum
• Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

This is a great opportunity to take your son, daughter, nephew, niece, cousin or just a good friend out for a nice day of fun and learning.

For more information and to download your free admission card you can visit the Smithsonian Museum Day page.

Technorati Tags: smithsonian museum, museum, free admission, free museum admission, emp, experience music project, jimi hendrix exhibit, seattle art museum, museum flight, museum day 2009

If you are unhappy with your current cell phone company, now is the time to speak up. The FCC just recently launched a large investigation into how the cellular industry is charging its customers (us) and how it is competing as a market.

Over the last 10 months, many Verizon Wireless customers have been outraged for being charged out-of-line megabyte usage charges for actions they can’t even verify were them. These mysterious charges started appearing about a year ago and are one of the things the FCC will be looking into as possible violations by the wireless industry.

FCC Chair Genachowski said,

“Many Americans are learning to do more with less. A surprise charge on a monthly bill or a new service that does not perform as advertised can be a major budget-buster, especially as household spending on communications grows ever larger. Today’s notice will help the Commission build a record on ways to ensure that consumers understand what they are signing up for.”

If there is a time when the FCC will actually listen to complaints against the few giants that rule the Wireless Industry, it is now.

If you wish to file a official complaint with the FCC in regards to your cell phone service, you can follow the steps provided below.

1. Visit the FCC Consumer Complaints Page
2. Click the 5th option, “Wireless Telephone”
3. Next, most likely you will want option 4,

   “Billing, Service, Privacy, Number Portability and other issues”

   or Option 3,
   “Deceptive or unlawful advertising or marketing by a communications company (does NOT include Telemarketing)”

4. Select your filling method; online, phone, postal, or fax
5. Fill out the simple form with your information and complaint
6. Optionally: Add this statement, in your complaint, to request that your name be kept private.
   

   In regards to Form 2000B and article 4 of the FCC NOTICE REQUIRED BY THE PRIVACY ACT, I explicitly requests that the FCC withhold my name from public disclosure.

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Recently a good friend of mine brought to my attention the alarming fact that; as we are trying to decrees our energy bills and sustain the quality of our environment, we sometimes forget that doing one of the two, may not coincide with doing the other.

The recent push over the years towards using CFL, aka compact florescent light bulbs, is a push towards reducing energy cost in our home, but is also the cause of widespread mercury contamination. That sounds more like “grey” bulbs, not “green” bulbs.

CFLs Must Be Disposed Of As Hazardous Waste

CFL’s contain a small amount of mercury, as all florescent bulbs always have, but the problem is that these bulbs were never used widespread in homes around the world and were usually used in a industrialized setting. It never dawned on me that these bulbs must be disposed of as hazardous waste.

Even more alarming is the clean up process should one of these bulbs break in your home.

The EPA states:

• you must leave the contaminated area for at least 15 minutes
• after that you should not use a vacuum to clean up the mess
• instead should use a sticky tape, such as duct tape, to remove the spilled chemicals.

That is just a couple of the 19 steps you should follow if you break a compact florescent bulb in your home.

LEDs Should Be The New Standard

The European Union just announced today that they are official phasing out traditional incandescent light bulbs and will replace them with more energy efficient bulbs. In the US we have adopted the CFL option and are currently working on replacing incandescent bulbs with them.

Instead of shipping mercury around the globe, we could easily be working towards implementing LED light bulbs which can reach the same brightness as the other two options as well as be even more energy efficient than CFL light bulbs.

The main problem with bringing LEDs into your home right now is the cost. The average bulb can range from $20 to $50+ which might be hard to justify as “cost saving”, but what it does guarantee is that the next time your child or you breaks a light bulb in your home, you are not stuck dealing with a hazardous waste spill.

What do you think about the effects of using CFL in our home and what do you see as the best solution to reduce energy cost while at the same time be environmentally conscious?

Technorati Tags: cfl, cfl bulbs, led, led light bulbs, led bulbs, compact florescent, compact florescent bulbs, compact fluorescent light, led home light bulbs, led lighting bulbs, replacement led light bulbs, led light bulbs for home, home light bulbs, home bulbs, cost led bulbs, bright led bulbs, mercury

Myspace has teamed up with a few sponsors, such as Toyota, to start a contest for all Myspace Music users where users have a chance to win a exclusive record contract. Sounds great right? Sounds great indeed, but the fine print says otherwise.

By Joining You Are Submitting

Few music contest contestants ever read the fine print or the rules that drive the contest they are joining. This goes for Myspace contests or a tv show such as American Idol. Unfortunately, not only do the contest strip you of your rights, once you actually win the contracts they just take even more rights away.

Here is the first example of the rights you forfeit when you enter this new Myspace Music Contest. Taken from section 5 which states:

In consideration of a Submission being reviewed and evaluated for this Contest, each Entrant hereby grants to the Contest Entities the non-exclusive irrevocable, fully paid, universal license to use, copy, sublicense, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, publish, delete or display such Submission, or any portion thereof, including to the extent applicable (a) any information, biographical data, and material (e.g., the “Creative File”) submitted by Entrant in connection with the Contest; and (b) all video, audio, photographs, text, graphics, statements, any other creative materials, and quotations of or by Entrant and furnished by Entrant as part of this Contest (the “Material”) included in and/or submitted by Entrant in connection with the Contest), in any media now known or hereafter devised including, but not limited to all forms of electronic media, print media and all forms of internet and wireless protocol.

Boom, bam, and your music is no longer your music. Simply by entering your song in the contest, you no longer have exclusive rights to your music.

Myspace can now take your song and:

• Sell it
• Remake it
• Distribute it
• All while paying you nothing

This next excerpt is in regards to your identity\band, also from section 5:

In addition, by participating in the Contest and providing a Submission, each Entrant hereby grants permission (except where prohibited by law) for the Contest Entities to use Entrant’s Submission, name, likeness, voice, quotes, comments, biographical information, photograph and/or image for the purpose of advertising, trade, or promotion without further compensation or consideration in any and all media now known or hereafter developed throughout the universe.

From the date of your submission, you will have given Myspace and Toyota the rights to use your image, name, lyrics and other personal content FOREVER without payment.

Lessons and Reflections on Musicians Rights

The main lessons to take away from contests like this are to read the fine print and know what rights you’re giving away. If you’re comfortable giving away everything you submit in hopes of that small chance of wining, then by all means, take that chance. I, for one, am not going to censor my music and give it away to Toyota for a chance to win a highly restrictive record contract.

Technorati Tags: myspace, myspace music, myspace music contents, myspace toyota contest, rap music contest, music contest, myspace contest, music contracts, musician rights, contest rules

Washington and Oregon have both started free recycling services for computers, monitors and TVs this year and both are having great success with the new service. Finding the locations and hours for these locations is another story though.

This is a complete list of all of the locations in Portland where you can bring your computers, monitors or TVs too. As a note, you may want to call the locations ahead of time in regards too peripherals such as mice, keyboards, and speakers.

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If you haven’t heard already, the Mega Liquidation Club Sale is now Closeout Club Online. We have been covering the topic of these particular liquidationcloseout sales on The State of Affairs for quite some time now.

Our main hope of resolve with this coverage was to convince the people that are running the sale, to change their marketing tactics. The main problems we and others have came across are:

1. Misleading advertisements – They show products in the background of their ads, such as a ipod or Xbox 360, that they do not sell at the events.
2. Some times the ads do not warn you that there is a $5, $8, or $10 per-person entrance fee to the event. On top of that, they do not warn you that parking will be at least $8 dollars for the event.
3. Almost none of products are high quality, most are generic copy’s. I even heard one account of pirated CD’s being sold at the event.
4. Most of the products are priced higher then what you can buy at a general retail store such as Best Buy or Target.

I think the company could reform and become a viable sales model, but as is, their bait and switch tactics are just out of line. As in the past I have said, they don’t care if you buy anything at the event, I believe, they recoup all of their cost solely with the entrance fee.

That means as long as they can keep convincing people to show up, they will make some money.

If you are tired of seeing those ads on tv, the best option is to contact you local station that is airing the ads and request that they are removed for being misleading. That is what happened when attendees complained in San Diego and I don’t think the sale has been back since.

What do you think should happen with Closeout Club Online?

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A while back a friend of mine, we’ll call him Frank for this example, tipped me off to a new scam that was happening at his local Safeway. I take scams very seriously and I always try to shed light on them if there is substantial evidence that it is indeed a scam, so I told my friend to get back to me in a month or two and report his findings.

Well Frank got back to me and not only has the scam continued, it has actually increased at his local Supermarket. From his findings, I can only concluded that this is once again a bait & switch tactic to get consumers to purchase items priced higher than advertised.

How the scam works

At first Frank had though the store was miss-pricing items, which is a natural occurrence with a store with that many items, but after a few weeks he realized that was not the case at all.

At hi-traffic stores, many low price items sell out and are not able to be restocked right away. This leads to empty spaces on shelves next to higher priced items, which is generally seen as unattractive and is usually avoided if possible.

The new tactic at Frank’s store solves that problem with simply “fronting” the higher priced item in place of the lower priced item.

1. Item 1 is sold out
2. Item 2 is spread out and placed in front of item 1′s price tag
3. Item 1 becomes the bait and item 2 becomes the switch

Instead of paying $4 for two items (2 for $4 deal), you end up paying $12 for two items ($6 each)! This is a real example he gave me.

How to avoid the scam

Frank is a meticulous budget shopper. He scrutinizes and reads almost every receipt he gets. This was what helped him uncover the switch.

The best advise I can give to any shopper is too know what you are buying. Don’t simply trust that the item above the price tag, is the item on the tag.

This could be a isolated store that is attempting to boost profits in hopes of getting larger bonuses or pay raises, but my suspicion is that it is happening more often then we think. So please, read your receipts and make sure the item in your cart is the item on the tag.

Is this happening at your local supermarket? If so leave a comment below with the details of your experience.

Technorati Tags: supermarket scam, scams, safeway scam, fraud, bait and switch, fronting items, overcharged supermarket, overcharged, grocery shopping, grocery store, store scam, groceries

A couple weeks before Christmas, Rachel attended the Tacoma Mega Liquidation Sale and was sorely disappointed with the event as a whole. The Mega Liquidation Sale continued it’s way down to San Diego and received so many complaints that the San Diego 6 News affiliate pulled the Mega Liquidation Sale Ads from its broadcast.

Also in recent developments, the city of San Diego convicted Bruno Vic, one of the event’s organizers, with a misdemeanor charge of operating a “close-out” sale without a license.

Now The Mega Liquidation Sale is changing it’s web address to closeoutclubonline.com. Unfortunately, not much else has changed. Without illusion, the products you should expect to see at these events are not name brands. They are low quality, over priced products, and if you see an Xbox 360 or an Ipod in the commercial, do not expect them to be at the event.

Bruno Vic did contact us here at The State of Affairs and stated that if you are unhappy with the event, you can ask for your money back. The San Diego 6 news helped many unhappy customers get their money back when the event came to their town, so if you choose to attend and are unhappy as well, do not hesitate to request your money back.

If you attend the event please leave a comment below with your experiences. Perhaps the quality of the event has changed since past months, but I’m not putting my money on that claim just yet.

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