20 Tips From Grandma That Will Make You More Successful

By Carina Sitkus  |  Business Insider  |  November 25, 2014

Grandma is wise, and sometimes you just need to listen to her advice to feel a little bit better about yourself and your life.

For today, I will be your grandma since your real one likely isn't blogging.

Grandma says:

1. Always keep a carton of orange juice in the fridge. Nothing is better for quenching your thirst or fending off a tickle in your throat before it becomes a full-blown cold.

2. Rest. It can wait, whatever “it” is.

3. Don’t hit the snooze button. You will feel sh---- all day. Just wake up. Yes, grandmas say “sh-----.”

4. Get rid of things you don’t use. When your space is clean, your mind is clear.

5. Work out. Or at least take a walk everyday if you can. There is nothing better for your mental health.

6. Don’t stop when you have momentum. Ernest Hemingway famously stopped writing as soon as he knew what would happen next in his stories. Don’t do that. You’re not Ernest Hemingway. Get done what you can now. Take advantage of the movement. Tomorrow you may just want to sit in bed, eat Doritos, or make a cat video.

The Unifying Leader

By David Brooks  |  New York Times  |  November 24, 2014

Over the past two weeks, President Obama and Republicans in Congress have taken their conflicts to another level. I’m not here to apportion blame, but it would be nice if, in the future, we evaluated presidential candidates on the basis of whether they are skilled at the art of collaboration.

When you look at other sectors of society, you see leaders who are geniuses at this. You can spot the collaborative leader because he’s rejected the heroic, solitary model of leadership. He doesn’t try to dominate his organization as its all-seeing visionary, leading idea generator and controlling intelligence.

Instead, he sees himself as a stage setter, as a person who makes it possible for the creativity in his organization to play itself out. The collaborative leader lessens the power distance between himself and everybody else. He believes that problems are too complex for one brain, but if he can create the right context and nudge a group process along, the team will come up with solutions.

Collaborative political leaders would look very different than the ones we’re used to. In the first place, they would do what they could to create a culture of cooperation, not competition. They’d evoke our shared national consciousness more than our partisan consciousness. They’d take the political people out of the policy meetings. Except in high campaign season, they’d reduce the moronically partisan tit-for-tat, which is the pointless fare of daily press briefings.

Second, a collaborative president would draw up what Jeffrey Walker, vice chairman of the MDG Health Alliance and co-author of “The Generosity Network,” calls Key Influencer Maps. This leader would acknowledge that we live in a system in which a proliferating number of groups have veto power over legislation. He would gather influencers into informal policy-making teams as each initiative was executed.

Dollar-Cost Averaging: The Easiest Way to Invest More Safely and Cheaply

By Matthew Frankel  |  The Motley Fool  |  November 19, 2014

Dollar-cost averaging is essentially an investment strategy that allows you to build your portfolio over time by purchasing a set dollar amount in stocks at regular intervals, rather than purchasing your holdings all at once at a single price. That way, you'll buy more when the stock is cheap and less when it is expensive.

Over the long run, dollar-cost averaging works in your favor by lowering per-share cost of your investments, which can make a big difference in your returns.

For example, let's say I have $3,000 to invest, and I want to buy a certain stock that's trading for $25 per share. Instead of buying $3,000 worth of shares immediately, I invest $1,000 per month for three months.

My first $1,000 is invested when the share price is $25, so I buy 40 shares. If the share price drops to $20 the following month, my next $1,000 buys 50 more shares. If the stock has a great month after that and rises to $30, I only buy another 33 shares for my last $1,000. At the end of the process I own 123 shares of the company.

Here is the most important point: Even though the stock traded for an average price of $25 during the three months ($20, $25, and $30), my average cost per share is just $24.33, as I bought the most shares at the lower prices.

Obama’s flip-flop on using executive action on illegal immigration

By Glenn Kessler  |  The Washington Post  |  November 18, 2014

“Well, actually, my position hasn’t changed.”

–President Obama, news conference at conclusion of G20 summit, Brisbane, Australia, Nov. 16, 2014

Politicians generally hate to say they have changed their minds about something. With President Obama poised to take executive action to address immigration, perhaps as early as this week, he was challenged by a reporter to explain why he believed he could take this action now, after years of saying his hands were tied. The president responded with a Pinocchio-laden straw man, saying that the questions had a distinct focus: “their interest was in me, through executive action, duplicating the legislation that was stalled in Congress.”

But as we shall see, the questions actually specifically addressed the sorts of actions that he is contemplating now.

There is precedence for such a shift. In 2011, the president said he could not take action to help “dreamers’—immigrants aged 30 and younger whose parents had brought them to this country when they were children– from being deported. But then in 2012, he halted deportations and allowed them to apply for temporary work permits.

Univision Town Hall, March 28, 2011: ‘The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws.’

Question: Mr. President, my question will be as follows: With an executive order, could you be able to stop deportations of the students? And if that’s so, that links to another of the questions that we have received through univision.com. We have received hundreds, thousand, all related to immigration and the students. Kay Tomar  through Univision.com told us — I’m reading — “What if at least you grant temporary protective status, TPS, to undocumented students? If the answer is yes, when? And if no, why not?”

With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed — and I know that everybody here at Bell is studying hard so you know that we’ve got three branches of government. Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws.

Obama: Well, first of all, temporary protective status historically has been used for special circumstances where you have immigrants to this country who are fleeing persecution in their countries, or there is some emergency situation in their native land that required them to come to the United States. So it would not be appropriate to use that just for a particular group that came here primarily, for example, because they were looking for economic opportunity.

There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President.

The Net Neutrality Debate Explained

By Andrew Lumby  |  The Fiscal Times  |  November 16, 2014

The term “net neutrality” has been posted, Tweeted, Facebooked, blogged, and discussed in almost every possible news outlet. Yet if you were to ask a random set of people on the street what exactly the term means, you’d likely get a cobbled-together explanation obscured by murky metaphors.
Part of the reason for this, as is the case with lots of jargon (like “Quantitative Easing”), is its technicality, which makes it difficult to describe in your average news segment without resorting to clumsy metaphor. But the main reason is just the fact that it’s so damn boring.

I mean, look, I love technology, from its glitzy consumer-focused virtual storefronts to its seedy underbelly of weirdos and hackers. And yet, somehow, whenever I read something that mentions things like “paid prioritization” and “Title II legislation,” my eyes can’t help but go all glassy. Even when some of my tech-ier friends try to discuss it with me, it’s a topic that’s always underlined with a brand of dramatic we’re-all-doomed cynicism that I find nauseating.

“These monopolistic cable companies will literally destroy the Internet,” they’ll say, their eyes brimming with fear and paranoia. Then later, erupting in anger, they’ll slam a fist on their coffee table — laden with Coca-Coca cans, their new Apple iPhone, and a bag of Doritos — and proclaim: “Everyone’s bought and sold. I can’t stand corporations being involved in everything I do!”

But I digress. Let me stick with trying to iron out the details of net neutrality, for both my edification and yours:

What Is Net Neutrality Anyway?
Net neutrality is, at its core, the concept that every piece of information on the public Internet should be as accessible as any other. More specifically, it means that the access to this information should not be in any way stifled by your Internet service provider (ISP). This includes “bandwidth throttling,” the practice of slowing down content delivery, which several broadband providers have done in the past with cloud-based providers such as Netflix.

AT&T ends tracking of customers by "supercookie"

By Elizabeth Weiss  |  USA Today  |  November 15, 2014


AT&T has ended a controversial program that used hidden "super cookies" to track smart phone users as they surfed the web.

The program added a hidden and undeletable tracking number into all the Web traffic on a users' cell phone.

The news site ProPublic reported Friday that AT&T had ended the practice.

Verizon Wireless, the country's largest mobile firm, said Friday it still uses this type of tracking. There has been no evidence that Sprint and T-Mobile have used such codes.

Verizon, AT&T tracking their users with ‘supercookies’

By Craig Timberg  |  Washington Post  |  November 3, 2014

Verizon and AT&T have been quietly tracking the Internet activity of more than 100 million cellular customers with what critics have dubbed “supercookies” — markers so powerful that it’s difficult for even savvy users to escape them.

The technology has allowed the companies to monitor which sites their customers visit, cataloging their tastes and interests. Consumers cannot erase these supercookies or evade them by using browser settings, such as the “private” or “incognito” modes that are popular among users wary of corporate or government surveillance.

Verizon and AT&T say they have taken steps to alert their customers to the tracking and to protect customer privacy as the companies develop programs intended to help advertisers hone their pitches based on individual Internet behavior. But as word has spread about the supercookies in recent days, privacy advocates have reacted with alarm, saying the tracking could expose user Internet behavior to a wide range of outsiders — including intelligence services — and may also violate federal telecommunications and wiretapping laws.

One civil liberties group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says it has raised its concerns with the Federal Communications Commission and is contemplating formal legal action to block Verizon. AT&T’s program is not as advanced and, according to the company, is still in testing.

Welcome Back to America, Mr. President

By Robert Charles  |  American Thinker  |  November 12, 2014

So, the Republicans win big across the United States – regaining control of the U.S. Senate, adding seats in the U.S. House, capturing new governorships, preserving old ones, and winning countless (or at least uncounted) dog-catcher posts. Why? Because the nation finally realized (as many polls confirm) that “the country is on the wrong track,” and properly blamed the first uncompromisingly liberal president from leading us down this dead-end alley.

Now comes President Obama’s November 5th press conference. Members of both parties, and even the White House Press Corps, scratch their heads. As if living in some alternate universe, the president seems to run away from the referendum on himself, rejecting the national repudiation as a misunderstanding, indicating his message never got out, blaming everyone except himself.

More than this, he remains locked on the failed track that brought him -- and us -- to this bizarre impasse in national policy -- instead of recognizing that Americans do not want higher taxes, a weak defense, more federal control over their lives, higher healthcare premiums and reduced coverage, and lack of accountability from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Internal Revenue Service, from the State Department to the Pentagon, from the NSA to the DOJ to the EPA, he just plowed on as if no one had corrected him.

Instead of recognizing the public’s revulsion from high-handed executive orders, open borders and the cheapening of American residency and citizenship, indifference to drug crime and racial division, he doubled, then tripled down. His press conference and all utterances since have made him seem not just tone deaf, but pathologically deaf. So much so that, far from expecting compromise, many officials in and out of government, along with Americans from across the country, party lines, and professions, wonder what is going on.

ObamaCare Lies and Democracy

By Jonathan S. Tobin  |  Commentary Magazine  |  November 11, 2014

In a video that has gone viral over the last few days, one of the principal architects of ObamaCare confessed at an academic conference that the law was drafted in such a manner as to deliberately deceive both the Congressional Budget Office and the American people. MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber tried to walk back his October 2013 remarks in a softball interview with Ronan Farrow on MSNBC this afternoon yet there’s no denying that his embarrassing moment of candor in which he said the bill passed because of a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” will influence the ongoing debate about the law. But while the mainstream media has spent the years since the misnamed Affordable Care Act passed mocking its conservative opponents, this ought to be a moment when Americans take stock of the corrosive impact on our democracy of the cynicism to which the president and his congressional allies sank during the campaign for his signature health-care legislation.

In a sense, Gruber’s statement doesn’t exactly break new ground. After all, if then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could say that ObamaCare had to be passed before its contents could be understood, it’s not much of a revelation if one of its designers fesses up about the deceptions involved in the project and the breathtaking cynicism of its Democratic backers. Like the president’s repeated lies about consumers being able to keep their existing health insurance and doctors if they liked them, Gruber’s confession makes it clear that deception was at the heart of the debate on a law that overturned a key sector of the American economy.

The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses For Professionals

By Maggie Zhang  |  Business Insider  |  July 8, 2014

Want to gain an edge in your working life? Learning new skills online doesn't cost you anything but time.

Based on data from online education platform Coursera, we compiled a list of the 12 most popular, free online classes for working professionals.

Here they are, ranked by popularity:

1. Wesleyan University's "Social Psychology"

Coursera's most popular course offers an introduction to classic and contemporary social psychology, covering topics such as decision making, persuasion, group behavior, personal attraction, and factors that promote health and well-being.

Starts July 14

2. University of Maryland's "Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems"

This is an introduction to the design and implementation of applications for handheld systems, such as smartphones and tablets, running the Android platform. It is part of a larger sequence of specialization courses called Mobile Cloud Computing with Android.

Starts September 26

3. Duke University's "Think Again: How to Reason and Argue"

This course will teach you how to reason well. You will learn how to understand and assess arguments by other people and how to construct persuasive arguments of your own.

Starts August 25

These 3 Charts Show The Amazing Power Of Compound Interest

By Libby Kane  |  Business Insider  |  July 8, 2014

One of the biggest financial advantages out there is something anyone can access by opening a simple retirement account: compound interest.

Retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and Roth IRAs aren't just savings accounts — they're actively invested, and therefore have the potential to make the most of this benefit.

As Business Insider's Sam Ro explains, "Compound interest occurs when the interest that accrues to an amount of money in turn accrues interest itself."

So why is that so important?

The charts below will show you the incredible impact compound interest has on your savings and why starting to save in your 20s is one of the best things you can do.

25 Things You Should Do Before You Die

By Richard Feloni  |  Business Insider  |  July 11, 2014

It can be easy to get caught up in the routine of life, doing whatever it takes to get from one point to the next, without doing much that's exciting or enriching.

Some Quora users offer a few ideas to break the routine in their responses to the thread: "What is something every person should experience at least once in a lifetime?" 

The responses range from trying an extreme sport to discovering something life-changing about yourself.

We've summarized some of the best answers below. 

1. Live somewhere vastly different from your hometown.

Living in an unfamiliar setting among people with a different worldview from yours can help you become more self-reliant. —Deepthi Amarasuriya

2. Go out of your way to help a stranger.

Put in time and effort to help someone you have "absolutely no social, moral, or legal obligation to help," and don't expect anything in return. —Kent Fung

3. Learn how to appreciate being alone.

Avoid feeling lonely on your own by truly becoming comfortable with yourself. —Barbara Rose

4. Travel without being a tourist.

Go on a trip without feeling the need to take nonstop photos of the biggest tourist attractions. Instead of being a "tourist," be a "traveler" and try to get an idea of how the locals live. —Arya Raje

Obamacare Architect, Jonathan Gruber, Admits To Deceiving Americans To Pass Law

By Vanessa Righeimer  |  OpposingViews.com  |  November 10, 2014

What does it take to convince a nation to pass a law such as the Affordable Care Act? According to MIT health economist and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of an American voter.”

In a 2013 clip that has been recently brought into focus, Gruber speaks candidly on Obamacare and the role he played. An expert in making predictions on how new laws will play out, specifically in healthcare, Gruber was contacted by the White House in 2008 when it was in need of a consultant, according to the New York Times. It is then that Gruber was able to tell them that, based off his research, they would have to require everyone to buy insurance in order for health care reform to work.

In the recording posted by American Commitment, Gruber emphasizes the importance of a lack of transparency, commenting: “If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. OK, so it’s written to do that. In terms of risk-rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed.”

Gruber's comments blatantly make it known that law makers feared that voters would not pass the bill if they knew their money would be going towards other patients and not directly and positively impacting themselves. Because of this fear, they left out key details, which might have swayed the votes.

Obamacare has statistically been shown not to be favored amongst most Americans, and this recent clip might have added an even more negative opinion of the Affordable Care Act. According to a report released in September by the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, 47 percent of Americans viewed Obamacare unfavorably. In light of this new information, it will be interesting to see how the Democrats will react, especially leading up to the 2016 election.

10 Financial Terms Every Investor Should Know

By Geoff Williams  |  U.S. News & World Report  |  September 5, 2014

For a novice, it can be intimidating to invest money. There's the anxiety that comes with taking risks and knowing you may not get all of your money back. But arguably, what's even more intimidating is the investing jargon. There are a lot of buzzwords financial advisors and veteran investors use, like expense ratio and asset allocation, that are important for average investors to understand, yet the language can be a barrier.

So if you'd like to invest but feel like you're visiting another country where your money may not be welcome, maybe you just need to learn the language first. This isn't a comprehensive list by any means, but understanding these terms may make you feel more confident about investing.

Asset allocation. This is just a fancy phrase for your investment strategy. There are three general categories where you're going to put your money: cash, bonds and stocks, says Kemberley Washington, an accounting professor at Dillard University in New Orleans and a certified public accountant. "Cash," she says, "is the least risky and would provide the least amount of return … Bonds are generally riskier than cash but less risky than stocks."

Cash. Since Washington brought it up, let's define cash. It's money – you know that – but if a financial advisor suggests you move some of your portfolio into cash, Washington says he or she is probably referring to certificates of deposit, also known as CDs, Treasury bills or money market accounts.

90-year-old among first charged under Fort Lauderdale's strict rules against feeding homeless

By FoxNews.com  |  November 4, 2014

Fort Lauderdale police say Arnold Abbott violated a new city law, but the 90-year-old homeless advocate says his only crime was to “love thy neighbor.”

Abbott was charged Sunday along with two local pastors with violating the city’s new ordinance that effectively bans giving out food in public. He faces 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, and he intends to get cited again Wednesday night, when he sets out to feed some of the Florida city’s estimated 10,000 homeless on a public beach.

“I know that I will be arrested again, and I am prepared for that,” Abbott said by phone from his office at Love Thy Neighbor, Inc., a nonprofit he established in honor of his wife, Maureen, after her death in a car accident 23 years ago. “I am my brother’s keeper, and what they are doing is just heartless.”