Category: Society
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Digital printers let counterfeiters operate with ease
originally published in ConsumerAffairs Last October, the Federal Reserve started shipping the first batches of its new, improved and hopefully difficult-to-counterfeit $100 bill. At the time, it was understood that this was directed primarily at international counterfeiters, since the American $100 bill is one of the most common counterfeit notes on the worldwide market. By…
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Woman loses $150,000 in online dating scam
originally published in ConsumerAffairs You already know to be wary whenever you go online, so you don’t fall prey to the various types of scammers, thieves, con artists, hackers, malware-writers and other threats that proliferate on the Internet. And if you’re looking for love in an online dating site you must be extra-careful, because looking…
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Public Service?
originally published in the Hartford Advocate The DMV hates your phone voice (no offense). We tried reaching them on the phone and were sent on a great Mario-Brothers-like adventure. So you’d better try to talk to them in person instead. By Jennifer Abel An online search for Web pages containing the phrases “Department of Motor…
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Face Crimes
originally published in the Hartford Advocate Let’s play “Name That Background Noise,” where the Advocate lists the sounds of a given location and you guess where it is. Ready? Here goes: “Take off your jacket and shoes. I’m confiscating your shampoo because it’s in a four-ounce bottle and any bottle bigger than three ounces is…
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The richest person in history (plus or minus a few billion)
Originally published in ConsumerAffairs An old proverb says that “The rich man has his ice in the summer, and the poor man gets his in the winter.” Of course, that proverb predates the Industrial Revolution, discovery of electricity and invention of refrigeration, not to mention the other technological and economic reasons why, in early 21st-century…
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Manscaping
originally published in the Hartford Advocate Manscaping The complete body hairlessness of Brazilian waxing may be coming to a regular guy near you By Jennifer Abel “Deep in the Brazilian jungle, where the sun never shines through the dense undergrowth onto the dark forest floor, bulldozers are clear-cutting the rain forest.” That’s the family-friendly way…