The Holiday May Be Over, But Denis Leary's Charlie Brown Christmas Spoof Is Still Offensive (VIDEO)


We're not sure what's going on with Denis Leary since "Rescue Me" went off the air earlier this year, but it looks like things have taken a turn for the bizarre.

In a Charlie Brown-esque cartoon posted to his WhoSay account -- "Denis Leary's Merry F#%$in' Christmas" -- Leary throws a few jabs at Tom Cruise and Christianity, then converts Charlie Brown to Islam and promptly makes him a bomb-wielding terrorist who blows up the school Christmas play.

And completely mocks/degrades/offends the religion in the process.

Hmm. Is this Islamophobia? Or is it intended to mock silly misconceptions of Islam?

And, more importantly, WHAT?

Seriously. Watch below.


Denis Leary on WhoSay

(via BuzzFeed)

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America Wants Tim Tebow To Be Its Neighbor


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Tim Tebow has been named America's most desirable celebrity neighbor for 2012 in a survey conducted by Zillow.

It's been a rough few weeks for Tebow — he got killed by the Patriots and Bills, and now ESPN is only talking about him for 23 hours a day.

But he can take solace in knowing that 11% of America think he has all the qualities of a good neighbor — you know, he's quiet and neat and doesn't stomp around like an elephant all night long.

The survey asked ordinary America's which celebs they'd want to live next to. 42% said they wouldn't want to live next to a famous person at all, but Tebow was the the biggest exception with 11% of respondents saying they'd want to be his neighbor.

Nancy Grace got 4%.

Check out the full results from Zillow >>

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/lM5L5ysGkxQ/tim-tebow-neighbor-2011-12

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Wheat Prices Are Nearing Their Two-Month Highs


Wheat futures are scraping $6.49 per bushel today, their highest price since early November, and nearing their highest prices since the collapse of derivatives broker MF Global.

Wheat prices had fell sharply in November, as all the gory details of the firm's collapse were exposed—including as much as $1.2 billion in client money still missing. The firm traded heavily in futures derivatives.

Certainly, many other factors impacted the price of the food commodity.  However, lack of confidence in the futures contract likely raised premiums related counterparty risk.

Analysts have blamed the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's clearing house for poor management of the MF Global collapse, and Reuters reports that grain traders are urging the exchange to do more to protect traders' money.

Even so, the resurgence in wheat could indicate that the steam is finally going out of the MF Global collapse, and confidence is returning to agricultural futures markets.

wheat futures 12-28-11

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No Need to Change That Lightbulb... Until Late Next Year

LightbulbsThe lightbulb is dead... long live the lightbulb! Four years ago, the U.S. Congress, to great fanfare, passed a law aiming to phase out the incandescent lightbulb in favor of longer-lasting, more energy-efficient alternatives. Recently, to even more fanfare, the U.S. Congress changed its mind.

Rather than starting the phase-out on Jan. 1 with a ban on the sale of 100-watt incandescent bulbs, as envisioned in the 2007 law, Congress has instructed government agencies to sit tight till Sept. 30, 2012. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

A Bright Idea?

Whether this is good news or bad news is a matter of opinion. "Pro-lightbulb" folks will never like Washington telling them what to do with their lives -- even (or perhaps, especially) if it's something they'd probably do on their own if there wasn't some politician nagging them about it.

lightbulbOn the other hand, "anti-lightbulb" people will tell you it's silly to spend $0.10 per kilowatt hour on 19th-century lighting technology when we can stretch that dime so much farther along the curlicues of a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL)... or even better, an LED.

Energy Efficiency 101

For anyone not yet aware, these are the two big "improvements" in lighting technology lately. CFLs are basically "lightbulb-size" versions of the buzzing fluorescent tubes that have been the bane of America's cubicle serfs for decades. Thanks to rapidly scaled production, they're not all that much more expensive than incandescents these days -- but they last upward of five years, and they cost much, much less to operate than a conventional incandescent.

LEDs, in contrast, are the next big thing. They last longer than CFLs, cost even less to operate, and don't contain toxic mercury. On the downside, though, production isn't plentiful, and as a result the things cost an arm and a leg to begin with -- perhaps $25 a pop to outfit a standard household light fixture.

As Patrick Martin pointed out here on DailyFinance a couple of months ago, it's this $25 start-up cost that keeps many homeowners from buying into the LED concept. Perversely, though, what the LED industry needs to get prices down is for more people to buy them. This would increase demand, grow the scale of production, and deliver greater efficiencies to the manufacturers as a result. This would in turn enable manufacturers to charge less per bulb... and attract even more buyers, in a true virtuous cycle of price drops.

To date, of course, it's been more of a Catch-22 situation for the LED industry... but perhaps not for long.

How Many Dollars Does It Cost to Change a Lightbulb?

In a recent report on conventional lighting's "heavy users," The Wall Street Journal calculated how LEDs are already beginning to make economic sense to corporate buyers.

Using the example of a Wal-Mart (WMT) or Target (TGT) "big box" store that maintains (and lights) acres of parking lots surrounding it, the Journal paints the following picture: The lights in these lots are generally located on poles 20 or 40 feet off the ground. Changing bulbs at such a height is no easy task, requiring "a bucket truck and an electrician to replace those lamps every two years."

Even if a company is buying the cheapest possible incandescent bulbs for these lights, it's paying through the nose in equipment rental and labor to change them when they go dark. This being the case, it might make sense to pay a bit more up front for a fancy LED light if doing so lets you go a decade or more between changings.

Indeed, according to results just in from a case study conducted at a Wal-Mart in Kansas, it does make cents -- and dollars, too. Comparing the costs of lighting a parking lot with LEDs to lighting the lot with conventional bulbs, the study found that an average Wal-Mart can cut its annual lighting costs by more than 12% by going with the newer technology. The reason: While the bulbs cost much more, the initial installation doesn't. More important, the company spends only about 60% its pre-LED rate on electricity, and reaps a threefold savings on maintenance costs!

What's It Mean to You?

"Good for Wal-Mart," you say. "But what's in it for me?" And I can tell you in one word: scale.

What this study means, in a nutshell, is that already businesses are finding they've reached the tipping point at which it makes sense to spend big bucks buying lots of LED lights. As they begin doing this, manufacturers will increase production, spread production costs among more lights -- and drive the cost of each individual LED light down for everybody. The lightbulb is dead... long live the LED!

Motley Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of, nor is he short, any companies named above, but The Motley Fool owns shares of Wal-Mart Stores, and Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Wal-Mart Stores as well as creating a diagonal call position in Wal-Mart Stores.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/27/no-need-to-change-that-lightbulb-until-late-next-year/

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Reputable Debt Settlement Attorney ? How to Legally Settle Unsecured Debt For Less?

Trustworthy Debt Settlement Lawyer – How to Legally Settle Unsecured Debt For Much less? Due to massive monetary turmoil and instability of credit card debtors to repay their large debts, there is a robust need to employ a trustworthy debt settlement attorney. Reputable debt settlement lawyer enables credit card debtors to discharge their unsecured financial [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/12/25/reputable-debt-settlement-attorney-how-to-legally-settle-unsecured-debt-for-less/

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Starting January, Airlines Will Be Forced To Disclose Their Fees In Advertised Fares


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Thanks to new regulations from the Transportation Department, starting Jan. 24, airlines won't be able to bury their additional fees and taxes in the fine print.

This is a win for consumers who for the past 25 years have had to factor these costs with their airfare separately, particularly when they were glued to their smartphones scouring Facebook and Twitter for deals.

“Requiring all mandatory charges to be included in a single advertised price will help consumers compare airfares and make it easier for them to determine the full cost of their trip,” Bill Mosley, a Transportation Department spokesman, told Times reporter Susan Stellin.

The laudatory move means consumers will be doing less homework to figure out the real cost of all those unbundled fees, including the cost of a carry-on bag, advance seat assignments, checking baggage, pillows, blankets, in-flight entertainment and seat upgrades.

Of course airlines are furious: Stellin rightly notes that Spirit "has built its business around advertising $9 fares, then charging additional fees for checked and carry-on bags, advance seat assignments and now a “passenger usage fee” of up to $17 each way for tickets booked online."

The airline even went so far as to ask the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to block the measure, citing it as a violation of its commercial free speech rights.

But for all of Spirit's objections, one thing remains clear: Consumers are sick of paying out the nose for undisclosed fees and the U.S. government isn't pleased about it.

Earlier this year Spirit was hit with a hefty $50,000 for advertising violations after posting a $9 fare on Twitter, which then required users to click to not one, but two websites to suss out the additional taxes and charges. No wonder it's been dubbed the world's second worst airline.

What do you think, will the Transportation Department's rule benefit consumers?

Now see 10 must-have travel items to save you time and $$$ >

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How Business Loans Can Get Your company Off the Ground

There’s little doubt that you could start a small small business without capital. Many home based small business ideas are planned around minimal set up costs, and many people are proud of having been able to bypass banks and investors to get their small business started. However, a small business financial loan can make all [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/12/25/how-business-loans-can-get-your-company-off-the-ground/

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9 Career Books To Inspire You In 2012


If you’re searching for a gift that will give meaning or some mentoring to a friend or family member, you could enroll them in a webinar or pay for a subscription to a magazine that covers spirituality or alternative approaches to success. Or, you could find a great career book that speaks to their situation and hopes and dreams.   Books open up the world of ideas and offer insights and advice, and they move at the pace of the reader. They come in many formats – e-books and even career comic books like The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink – and thousands of titles. They are available for people just starting out and for those who are moving into senior leadership roles.

With such an array of choices, I decided to consult with some of the best career experts I know and ask them for their top recommendations.  Some of their choice titles are offered up here and the rest of their choices show up on my own blog, WorkingKind.com.

Kate Wendleton, president of the Five O’Clock Club, a job search organization, and author, recommended mostly titles by other Five O’Clock coaches. Among her picks:

  • The Good Person Guidebook: Transforming Your work and Personal Life by Richard C. Bayer, Ph.D. This book by Five O’Clock’s chief operating officer helps you answer two key questions: “What type of person should you be?” and “What should you do given a decision of ethical importance?” Topics include: what makes people happy, how to overcome suffering, whistle blowing, raising children well, a meaningful work life and respecting human dignity.

Margaret Riley Dikel, creator of The Riley Guide, is a former librarian who has compiled career information online since 1995. She suggests:

Phyllis Mufson, a career coach for 25 years, works with people to achieve their “wildest dreams.” She also recommends What Color Is Your Parachute as the “only one book about job searching” especially for the more analytically inclined. Her other choices include:

If these don’t feel like a good fit for the people on your list, try using some of their key interests – entrepreneurship and food or leadership and kindness, for example, when you search on an online book site. Or head to a book review and recommendations site like Goodreads (check out the listopia called “most inspiring nonfiction” or the sections on business, labor or self-help for many more options).

If you really want to make their New Year’s bright, buy them one of the books recommended here or on Goodreads – and then give them a $15 gift card for a bookstore, with instructions to pick another that will inspire or advance their career in 2012.

This post originally appeared on Glassdoor.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/iB4LkG1mqZU/9-career-books-to-inspire-you-in-2012-2011-12

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Is Cerner a Fast Cash Machine?

It takes money to make money. Most investors know that, but with business media so focused on the "how much," very few investors bother to ask, "How fast?"

When judging a company's prospects, how quickly it turns cash outflows into cash inflows can be just as important as how much profit it's booking in the accounting fantasy world we call "earnings." This is one of the first metrics I check when I'm hunting for the market's best stocks. Today, we'll see how it applies to Cerner (Nasdaq: CERN  ) .

Let's break this down
In this series, we measure how swiftly a company turns cash into goods or services and back into cash. We'll use a quick, relatively foolproof tool known as the cash conversion cycle, or CCC for short.

Why does the CCC matter? The less time it takes a firm to convert outgoing cash into incoming cash, the more powerful and flexible its profit engine is. The less money tied up in inventory and accounts receivable, the more available to grow the company, pay investors, or both.

To calculate the cash conversion cycle, add days inventory outstanding to days sales outstanding, then subtract days payable outstanding. Like golf, the lower your score here, the better.

Here's the CCC for Cerner, alongside the comparable figures from a few competitors and peers.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. TTM = trailing 12 months.

For younger, fast-growth companies, the CCC can give you valuable insight into the sustainability of that growth. A company that's taking longer to make cash may need to tap financing to keep its momentum. For older, mature companies, the CCC can tell you how well the company is managed. Firms that begin to lose control of the CCC may be losing their clout with their suppliers (who might be demanding stricter payment terms) and customers (who might be demanding more generous terms). This can sometimes be an important signal of future distress -- one most investors are likely to miss.

While I find peer comparisons useful, I'm most interested in comparing a company's CCC to its prior performance. Here's where I believe all investors need to become trend-watchers. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for an increase in the CCC, but all things being equal, I want to see this number stay steady or move downward over time.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of the seasonality in some businesses, the CCC for the TTM period may not be strictly comparable to the fiscal-year periods shown in the chart. Even the steadiest-looking businesses on an annual basis will experience some quarterly fluctuations in the CCC. To get an understanding of the usual ebb and flow at Cerner, consult the quarterly period chart below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

On a 12-month basis, the trend at Cerner looks less than great. At 38.6 days, it is 16.8 days worse than the five-year average of 21.8 days. The biggest contributor to that degradation was DPO, which worsened 28.6 days when compared to the five-year average.

Considering the numbers on a quarterly basis, the CCC trend at Cerner looks good. At 37.3 days, it is 5.6 days better than the average of the past eight quarters. With quarterly CCC doing better than average and the latest 12-month CCC coming in worse, Cerner gets a mixed review in this cash-conversion checkup.

Though the CCC can take a little work to calculate, it's definitely worth watching every quarter. You'll be better informed about potential problems, and you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

To stay on top of the CCC for your favorite companies, just use the handy links below to add companies to your free watchlist.

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Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/12/27/is-cerner-a-fast-cash-machine.aspx

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