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California welfare recipients have found that state-issued debit cards make accessing cash easy…in fact, a little too easy. These debit cards are meant to help poor families feed their families; however, an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Times revealed that more than $12,000 in welfare funds were dispensed at strip clubs, and $1.8 million of the funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families were dispensed at casino and poker-room ATMs. Luckily, the state has put an end to this practice.

Who doesn’t want to be more organized? You’re less likely to forget important projects, dates and tasks, which in turn will reduce your stress and wasted energy. But if you think getting (and staying) organized is tough, maybe you just haven’t found the right tool. If so, you should check out WorkFlowy. WorkFlowy makes capturing and organizing your ideas, projects and “to-do” list simple. It’s based around the idea of outlines. Just pick a topic to organize and start typing. The outlining is handled almost automatically through its intuitive interface. You can create outlines within outlines and break up a large project into smaller actionable tasks. It’s great for multi-step processes or even planning your week. Best of all, it’s all online so you can access it from anywhere. All you need to do is create a free account and install Google’s Chrome browser. Since it’s free, you’ve got nothing to lose for giving it a try!

Here are some interesting facts about Social Security and saving for retirement that we thought you would find interesting as you file your taxes this year. “By 2037, all the social security reserves will have been drained and the income flowing into the program will be only enough to pay 75% of the schedule benefits. If that sounds tolerable, consider that two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security as their main source of income. The average annual benefit is $14,000.” – Washington Post “Nearly eight in ten small business owners prior to the recession in 2007 thought they would have enough money to live comfortably when they retire. By 2010, fewer than two in three felt this way.” – Dennis Jacobe, gallup.com “The average life expectancy was only 63 years when Social Security was first created, and there were 40 workers supporting each retiree. We now have about 3.1 workers for each retiree. And by the time I reach my mid-60s, there will be about two workers supporting me – and I don’t think they’re going to want to do that.” – Ken Dychtwald, New York Times “56% of retirees had outstanding debt when they left the workforce, and 96% refused to delay retirement because of the outstanding debt. In addition, 59% had saved less than $50,000 towards retirement.” – Survey, nonprofit CESI Debt Solutions

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before. My idea of housework: Sweep the room with a glance. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes. Junk is something you keep for years then throw away 3 weeks before you need it. By the time you can make ends meet, they’ve moved the ends. Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. Don’t forget Daylight Saving Time Begins Sunday, March 13 th . Spring forward! Be sure to set your clocks an hour ahead when you go to bed.

The Story: A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, and they knew when the game was scheduled to finish, so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It seems they even brought a truck to empty the house of its contents. True Or False? While there are cases in which GPS devices have been used in crimes against their owners, this particular story is a “friend of a friend” e-mail legend according to www.Snopes.com . That said, there is a valuable lesson here: Don’t leave valuables in the car! GPS devices, like cell phones and laptops, are expensive electronic devices that are attractive to thieves. Plus, you should always make it a habit to lock your electronic devices using a strong password (one that contains upper and lowercase letters and numbers).

“To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.” – Farmer’s Almanac “Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded when you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers and nobody thinks of complaining.” – Jef Raskin “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.” – Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled “To err is human – and to blame it on a computer is even more so.” – Robert Orben “If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would cost $100, get a million miles to the gallon and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.” – Robert X. Cringely “Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons” – Popular Mechanics Magazine, 1949

This month’s “Gadget” is not an electronic device. It’s an online tool I’m sure you’ll be interested in checking out. RescueTime is a web application that tracks where you spend your time while working on your PC and then reports how productive you are based on what you consider productive time. Want to know how much time you REALLY spend checking e-mail, watching YouTube videos or on Facebook? RescueTime will tell you. After you’ve let it collect some data, you can go back to the site and tag various activities such as “work” or “fun time” to better track where your time is going every day. You can also set goals for yourself on how much productive versus unproductive time you should be spending every day and get notifications when you aren’t hitting your goals. They offer a free version you can download or a paid version that will track the productivity of your employees or a team of people.

No, that’s not a typo! Stuart Hughes, the British jeweler known for his expensive remakes of popular gadgets, is at it again, this time with a diamond-clad iPhone 4 with a price tag of 5 million pounds, or roughly $8 million US dollars. The handmade bezel contains approximately 500 individual flawless diamonds that total more than 100 carats. There’s 53 additional diamonds in the back and the main navigation button is made of platinum, holding a single cut 7.4 carat pink diamond. Only two of these will ever be made, so don’t worry: if you buy one, the chances of bumping into someone at a party who has the exact same phone are quite slim. However, you might want to invest in a bullet-proof case to protect it!

Science That Makes You Laugh…Or Wonder? Nobel Prizes are awarded for only the most serious scientific achievements; the “Ig Nobel” Prizes, on the other hand, are awarded for the most unusual, although sometimes still legitimate, scientific achievements. The awards are the brainchild of editor and co-founder Marc Abrahams, whose magazine is called “The Annals of Improbably Research,” and whose web site is www.improb.com . Past awards have gone to researchers who: Gave hamsters Viagra and discovered it prevented them from suffering jet lag Looked at sword swallowing and its side affects on the human body Created a “bottomless” bowl of soup which proved Americans eat as long as there is food in front of them, not just until they are full Found that wrinkles in sheets are replicated in human and animal skin Created a device which dropped a net over bank robbers Explored why woodpeckers don’t get headaches Looked into what would happen to clams that were fed Prozac Asked why spaghetti breaks into more than two pieces Queried why birds were not pooping on a statue Levitated a frog, pieces of fruit and a grasshopper

Much like laundry and bills, no matter how much you try to keep up, e-mails just keep piling up in your inbox. E-mail is a critical part of your day-to-day work, so how do you keep it from becoming a distraction while balancing the things you really need to address? Here are 6 tips: Zero your inbox. Do you remember the last time your inbox was empty? Probably never; that’s because it costs nothing to keep an e-mail and therefore you don’t delete items “just in case” you need them at some point. This really causes messages to pile up FAST. Truth be told, you really DON’T need all those e-mails. Make it a goal to “zero” your inbox every week, particularly on a Friday before you leave for home. If you can’t “zero” it, at least get the number down to fewer than a dozen critical messages you absolutely need to work on within the next 2-3 days. Use folders sparingly. Only set up key, strategic folders or you’ll end up with dozens of folders filled with messages in addition to a massive number of messages in your inbox. You might keep one labeled as “storage” for any non-urgent messages that may need to be referenced at a later date. This keeps your inbox free of clutter and helps you more easily find something in an old message when it is needed. Delete first, read the surviving messages later. Many of the e-mails you get probably aren’t even worth reading. Start your day by immediately deleting these emails before you even start to open and read the important ones. Take action immediately. Probably the most helpful way to keep your inbox uncluttered is to take action right away on all messages instead of reading them and then going back to them later when you have time to process the message properly. By taking action right away you avoid wasting time re-reading messages. If it does require a follow up that you don’t have time for, file the message and mark a reminder to follow up. Otherwise forward it, delete it or file it into a folder Slow your roll. Your e-mail can be a constant distraction through your workday, IF you let it! Take control and set aside “e-mail free” time periods throughout the day so you can truly concentrate on projects without interruption. The world won’t stop if you don’t check your email every few minutes, I promise. Install a GOOD spam filter. The vast majority of messages are unwanted spam, some of which contain viruses. But not all spam filters are created equal!