Living In the World, Not on It

RETIREE TAX HEAVENS (AND HELLS), 2009-2010 Federal taxes will be about the same no matter where you live, but state and local tax burdens can vary greatly, especially if you’re retired. Click on any state below to get a full lowdown on tax treatment for retirees. Or select a tax category that interests you, to see which states have the highest and lowest rates. For more, read Tax-Friendly Places to Retire. http://content.kiplinger.com/tools/retiree_map/index.html?map=2#anchor This is some really interesting stuff!

It has been an age since I've looked at my favourite memes. Good thing he's on Facebook! Q1 - Moving: Americans have apparently tamed their wanderlust during the recession. According to the latest data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, only 2.4% of Americans moved from one state to another in 2008, down from 2.5% the previous year. Do you know anyone who recently moved from one state to another? Mmmmm... I don't believe so. But then, why move? New Jersey has its issues, but so do the other 47 contiguous states. Hawaii and Alaska likely don't even enter into the picture - Hawaii is too expensive to live in - they have to import everything except pineapples and Alaska - well, if you need me to tell you why Alaska is not on the top of many people's lists of where they'd like to live, you don't know enough about it. I imagine that moving is an expensive undertaking, so only people who could not find a job anywhere but out of state are moving. Q2 - Vaccine: A ...

Jupiter has been in the southern sky all night of late and will be closest to the Earth next year. This made me post this article. You know how much I love astronomy. "Today we will be learning about the Planet Jupiter. A great sight in the sky these days, Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and fifth from the Sun. It was named after the king of the Roman Gods. Jupiter is approximately 484 million miles from the Sun and takes almost 12 years to complete its orbit around it. Jupiter rotates very fast so its day is only 10 hours long. Due to this fast rotation, the planet is also not entirely spherical; it has a trivial bulge around the middle since the fastest spin occurs at the equator. Because of this, Jupiter has a slight oval profile The planet is so big that you could fit 1,300 Earths inside of it. Jupiter has a total of 49 official moons and 14 unofficial ones that are being considered. Of those 63 moons, there are four that are the most widely known. These four...

OK, ready for this? Seriously, sit down. This is bizarre beyond all imagining. I was watching "Kate & Leopold" on WEHD - I'm guessing that is the Women's channel in High Definition. And let's be honest - Hugh Jackman is not just attractive or good looking, he's a five course meal. And Meg Ryan is cute. But that is not at all the purpose of this post. No. While skipping through the adverts (I luuuuuvvvv my TiVO) something weird showed up. It was an image of eyelashes growing in and getting bushy. If you are like me, you are thinking, "You mean 'eyebrows', don't you?" No. I mean eye lashes . Seriously. And so I actually went back a bit to look at the whole advert. I'm sorry to say that I have now found a whole new low for humanity. While we are a sad case of a country being owned by an industry, this will really underscore how much we are owned. A pharmaceutical manufacturer named Allergan is now making a drug called "Latisse...

with Anu Garg Librarians and booksellers are two of my favorite people. Anyone who loves books so much as to dedicate his life to them can't be all that bad. Unfortunately there are some who feel threatened by certain books and call for them to be banned or destroyed. People have a right to be offended by any book. All they have to do is not buy or borrow it. The problem begins when they try to impose their views on others by trying to ban it. As an antidote to banning, the last week of September is observed in the US as Banned Books Week. To celebrate it, this week we are going to feature five words relating to censorship and mutilation of books. Even though people after whom some of these words are coined have long gone, censorship is still alive. But there's hope. I leave you with this thoughtful letter from a librarian to a patron. comstockery PRONUNCIATION: (KOM-stok-uh-ree, KUM-) MEANING: noun: Overzealous censorship of material considered obscene ETYMOLOGY: After Anthony...

I'm going through a really tough time with my (ha, ha) health. Health is just a generic word, not implying good or bad, but let's face it, there is little to recommend me physically. I'm apparently a genetic disaster and it is hard to know where the main problem turns other things into problems, or if I'm just that physically screwed up. Most people know I have muscular dystrophy (to be specific, I have dystrophia myotonia 2, or PROMM), but they don't realise how debilitating this can be. I smile, put a good face on it and assure people that it can't kill me. For the most part, that is true. It really won't kill me. However, it can and has already put a damper on living. Most of the time I'm okay with it, but sometimes I get very depressed by it. Not suicidal or anything extreme, and who wouldn't get depressed with this? I have a slow-acting Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. Some times it just... gets me down. To give a basic explanation of thi...

LONDON (Reuters) – In a pinstripe suit, silk tie and polished shoes, David Rowe has all the trappings of a successful London city worker, except for one stark difference -- he is wearing a sandwich board that says "JOB WANTED." As he walked down Fleet Stre et, home to legal firms and investment banks, the 24-year-old history graduate showed the human face behind the "lay-offs" and "recession" headlines. "The first 20 paces are the hardest, you feel very conspicuous, but you just steel yourself to get on with it," he said, starting a slow trudge toward the Law Courts before turning toward St Paul's Cathedral. In previous economic downturns it was manufacturing and heavy industry that were worst hit. Now in Britain, and much of the West, white collar jobs have been culled in the financial crisis -- marketing directors on six figure salaries, IT specialists with 20 years experience. That makes it especially hard for young men and women like Rowe...