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Introducing Cambodia

By David Elliott in General, Travel 9 Comments


SE Asia is a part of the world that most of us dream of visiting at some time in our lives, but we often never actually get around to organising it. It seems too far off and it’s often easier to settle for the usual break closer to home. But with flights so frequent and cheap these days it’s a great time to break the old mould and try escaping to a totally different destination like Cambodia, for instance.

Cambodia has borders with Vietnam, Thailand and Laos and is divided into 20 separate provinces, with mountain ranges to the north, west and south. The great Mekong River meanders lazily through the country and the climate is tropical monsoon and highly humid. The monsoons lash Cambodia between June and October, with the cooler dry season from November to March. (more…)

9 Comments on Introducing Cambodia

Mayan Doomsday Prophecy

By Natasha in General, Travel 2 Comments


How many of you know about the real Mayan calendar? You know the one that shows that we are all going to be swallowed up by the earth, that dinosaurs are gonna come back, and aliens are going to abduct us all? Yeah, I didn’t think so. But that is what people are doing to the Mayan calendar. They are making it into something that it is absolutely not.

The Mayan people were a vastly intelligent people, who studied the stars, mathematics, created their own written language, and built amazing cities. They lived in what is now present day Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. They lived their lives and did normal things like trading, farming, and creating their cities. They were not prophets, or theorists, or fortune tellers. They could not see the future. The Mayas not see that we are all going to experience an apocalypse on December 21, 2012. It is said that they died out, that they abandon their cities and disappeared. In reality this is only half the truth.

History & Today’s Reality – Doomsday is a Myth

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2 Comments on Mayan Doomsday Prophecy

The 10 Most Exclusive Credit Cards

By Natasha in General 1 Comment


Even in a marketplace that is flooded with credit cards that attempt to appeal to all levels of consumers there are still a small amount of incredibly exclusive programs. These are prestigious credit cards that have membership requirements that cannot be met by a large portion of the world. They also carry high membership fees and have extravagant perks that go beyond what many people with a traditional credit card are used to. Most of us may not have the luxury of acquiring one of these cards, but whether it’s a prestigious or a traditional card we still have to make the right choice when getting a new card.

JP Morgan Palladium Card

This credit card is actually made from the valuable mineral palladium and the precious metal gold and cost over $1000 to produce. Members can only apply when invited by JP Morgan based on other holdings with the company. Many of the details about this card are unknown but it is estimated that cardholders must have over $25 million in assets registered with the company. Members have access to a private jet.

Citi Chairman Card (more…)

1 Comment on The 10 Most Exclusive Credit Cards

SpeedLA Dating Doesn’t Like Feedback – Boots SpeedNY Client for Offering One

By Bes Zain in General 4 Comments


Hitch was a great movie. It showed Will Smith as a relationship expert who made people do the right things to make other people fall in love with them.

There is a famous scene in Hitch where Will Smith is arguing with Eva Mendes at a Speed Dating service in New York.

Speed Dating is where you sit on a table with a random stranger and talk to them only for a few moments.

Once the time is up, you get up and move on to the next table where another stranger will then talk with you.

In the event, you receive a scorecard. After each table date, you write down the person’s name and whether you you want to go on a date afterwards. You do this while you’re switching tables.

People who choose each other get to meet again, for a much longer time.

Well, Speed Dating exists in real life too, and today we have a story worthy of a movie.

One of our The Reasoner readers in New York recently attended the SpeedNY Dating events, which is the same exact thing showed in the movie Hitch. SpeedNY Dating and other similar sub-branches are the siblings or co-brands of the larger SpeedLA Dating.

The reader attended such events, found out that the scorecard used at such events was creating confusion for the attendees, and offered a great suggestion to SpeedLA Dating to improve such scorecards.

The response our reader got was unexpected.

SpeedLA Dating booted our reader from their SpeedNY Dating events list.

Read on to see the entire e-mail transcripts of what went down, and how the SpeedLA employees treat people who offer great positive feedback.

SpeedLA Dating Needs No Feedback!

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4 Comments on SpeedLA Dating Doesn’t Like Feedback – Boots SpeedNY Client for Offering One

Sweat: The Big Picture

By Bes Zain in General 29 Comments


Whatever you do, online or offline, your body basically dictates how you feel doing it.

Your body’s condition also strongly influences how well you do things, online or offline.

Too tired while playing a game? You won’t enjoy the game as much. Too sleepy while watching a movie? You’re not going to remember or understand the movie that much. In physical pain while working? Well, your work is probably going to get affected.

Body not feeling fresh? Your thoughts through the day will also not be as exciting.

Like many other things, your body sweat (ewww!) also dictates how you feel and how well you do in both online and offline things.

Lucky for you, studies have been done to help you figure out how much you sweat, why you sweat and what you can do to avoid sweating.

Sweat: The Big Picture

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29 Comments on Sweat: The Big Picture

10 Stupid Things Starbucks Customers Do

By Bes Zain in General 40 Comments


You probably drink coffee or most probably know someone who drinks coffee at least every day. And chances are at least one of such people drinks at Starbucks. The world’s largest coffee retailer also attracts the world’s most premium-type class of citizens who walk into Starbucks daily to proudly use Starbucks lingo to order even the simplest of drinks. These customers walk in and order coffee like it was an order of all variety of events in one’s life. People customize their drink down to the boiling temperature that they would like to taste. This is Starbucks. This is exactly why people consider Starbucks coffee a premium lifestyle instead of a coffee choice.

Like any other business, Starbucks also gets many different kinds of customers. Walk into any Starbucks and you may notice rich people, poor people trying to act rich, poor people trying to feel rich, strange people wearing jackets in summer, people bringing their dogs inside when they clearly know dogs are not allowed, people running into Starbucks before meetings or yoga classes just to try and get some coffee within 30 seconds, people who stay at Starbucks all day to pass their daily life or to try and get free internet. Many famous Starbucks locations even have the homeless people staying inside for warmth and a place to sit at, while also sipping coffee and taking showers inside the restrooms using only water from the sink. Starbucks has it all, and it still manages to keep a very classy brand image alive and thriving. (more…)

40 Comments on 10 Stupid Things Starbucks Customers Do

Meineke A/C Check Coupon is a Scam

By Bes Zain in General 6 Comments


On May 24th, 2011 Katie went to the Meineke in Concord. She had a coupon for $10 A/C inspection which when making and confirming the appointment over the phone Meineke told her would work. This is what Katie said about her experience today.

I entered meineke around 8:52am and no one was in the building. They were all outside working on cars. I could only see two men working on the cars. They seemed to be short staffed. Within minutes I saw there were four or more people in the building so they weren’t short staffed, but just ignoring customers. One of the workers walks in and say “no one in here?” Well duh no one is in here besides me! He goes outside and talks to a man that I can hear say “I’m busy right now.” Basically I was going to have to wait. So I had a seat.

About five minutes later the man that said he was busy walks in and finishes up the paper work for another gentleman who was waiting for his oil change to be done. He is very friendly with that male customer, but as soon as he turned to me, he was anything but friendly. He motioned me to come over like an angry school principal motioning to come over. I explained I had an appt at 9 for an A/C check with a $10 dollar coupon. He asked for my name, address and number. The phone rang at that moment and he answered it. While on the phone, he took my keys and then started walking outside.

Meineke Scam - charging you more via coupons

Meineke Scam - charging you more via coupons

My car driver window regulator is not working and thus my window can only roll down and not back up. As he was exiting, I tried telling him to not roll down my drivers side window as the window will get jammed then. He didn’t acknowledge or react to that at all. I waited a bit and then went outside after him to tell him again. This time he did acknowledge it in such an obvious angry nod that I knew he had heard me the first time.

Once he starts working on the car I wait and wait for over an hour. Finally the other man checking my car comes in and tells me they need me to pay $110 to have it inspected more as they can’t figure out what the problem is. He also tells me I will get half of that back if they do any repairs after that inspection. They say the power to the air compressor is not working so they can’t inspect more. I’m thinking isn’t that what I’m paying you for, with the coupon, to inspect my a/c in my vehicle? Hell no am I paying you more money. They say there is nothing they can do without the extra charge as they have to inspect it more. I tell them I have other things to do and that I will make an appointment later. I paid the $10, they gave the keys back and I walked out of Meineke $10 dollars poorer and with no answer to my broken A/C.

Very rude and unfriendly staff, and in the end Meineke didn’t solve my problem.

6 Comments on Meineke A/C Check Coupon is a Scam

Thank God Osama is Dead. Too Bad Terrorism isn’t!

By Bes Zain in General 24 Comments


Yes everyone. Osama is finally dead. The FBI Ten Most Wanted section now finally has a “Deceased” sign on it. Google reports that online searches for “Bin Laden” increased by a million percent [ 1,000,000% ]. People have been looking into it a lot.

Rumors have also started everywhere. Some say he was killed by the local forces. Others say he was killed in ways that cannot be logical. Some even say he may be alive. If only everyone had a website, rumors could be linked to. What no one is talking about, however, is that even with Osama’s death, terrorism did not come to a screeching halt. Terrorism continues. Extremist groups are even more upset now.

Osama is dead! Thank you Obama!

Osama is dead! Thank you Obama!

What did killing Osama accomplish? Sure, he deserved to be stopped, but did we actually hit a nail in the bigger terrorist maps, or did we just take out a key man in an extremist organization out of revenge without doing anything else to make sure that terrorism dies?

Osama is dead! Terrorism is here still!

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24 Comments on Thank God Osama is Dead. Too Bad Terrorism isn’t!

Do You Think Four Loko Alcoholic Energy Drink Should Be Banned?

By Bes Zain in General 42 Comments


For an increasing number of people, energy drinks are as essential as coffee and water every day. I actually end up at Starbucks almost every other day around 3:30am, ending up observing people wanting to have their daily fix of the drug. Four Loko, up until November of 2010, was one of the few unique alcoholic drinks that actually contained a mix of caffeine, caffeine, taurine and guarana, with caffeine and guarana being two very strong ingredients that actually make you hyper and become more alert in the beginning while consuming alcohol. Because of being so hyper, you actually could not figure out whether or not you were really intoxicated. It was kind of a Starbucks for alcoholics.

So why all the negative publicity surrounding Four Loko? Well, it seems that while Four Loko did give you an energy boost for the first 5 minutes or so, it crashed you later much harder than almost any legal energy drink on the market. And if you drink Four Loko on a regular basis, you just might find yourself being checked into an alcohol recovery or rehab facility sooner than you think.

        Four Loko Drinks
    Source: Guide to Online Schools

The attached infographics explains a bit in detail why the original Four Loko contains so much alcohol that you may be harming yourself or getting more drunk drinking a single Four Loko than over a dozen strong beer cans. It’s interesting how even though Four Loko was the #4 best selling alcoholic brand at American 7-Eleven stores, it has gained more bad publicity than the other 3 top brands. Can you think of what the other top 3 brands are? The bad publicity itself may have been the cause of the Four Loko’s popularity, since people wanting to get hyper or more active, while consuming alcohol, will definitely flock to a brand that even the government says may be illegally pushing the limit between the safe inclusion limits of alcohol and energy elements.

FDA bans mixing caffeine and alcohol in commercial drinks

Unfortunately, the FDA in November of 2010 banned any combination of caffeine with alcohol and Four Loko was one of the 4 brands that was ordered to stop using caffeine altogether. The result? Sales of the new Four Loko have been extremely poor. Interestingly enough, the sales of old Four Loko’s by individuals have skyrocketed and doubled in price. Who knew the FDA would actually create a black market gold rush for such a hyper drink?

In the end, the only way to decide the fate of this drink may be to try it out yourself. Go ahead, drink a Loko and think about it. Do you think alcoholic energy drinks should be banned? How do you like Four Loko?

Share your comments and answers in your comment below. Thanks! You can drink a Loko while commenting, by the way. I just got back from Starbucks. As usual, I did not get anything.

42 Comments on Do You Think Four Loko Alcoholic Energy Drink Should Be Banned?

24 Hour Bucket List To End 2010

By Bes Zain in General 34 Comments


A bucket list is basically a way for people to think of things to do before they die a horrible death. Or even a peacefully non-horrible death.

2011 is upon us, and 2010 is already history for many people in the world! What do you think of 2010? What are your plans for 2011? Well, one thing to do to migrate your life from 2010 onto 2011, whether or not if that is how you see life, is to do some things to mark the end of 2010. You know, the same way you leave a small tip or nothing for a bad waiter to leave a mark to end your encounter with some crappy waiter, you can leave a good, bad or strange mark for 2010 before you start thinking 2011.

2010 Bucket List - what will you do?

2010 Bucket List - what will you do?

So I thought of a quick list of 24 things you can do, or should do, to prepare for the end of 2010 today. No time to waste! Pick some and get on it! Actually and physically try them! Then share the results!

24 Things to Do in the last 24 hours of 2010

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34 Comments on 24 Hour Bucket List To End 2010
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