Survey: We?d Rather Buy New Stuff From Familiar Brands Than New Stuff From Those Other Guys

We love what we love, and according to a new survey of digital consumers, we’re not about to switch it up just because a new brand shows up on the block. It isn’t just Americans who feel the affection for their favorite brands, but 60% of people around the world would rather buy new products from familiar companies than switch, … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/01/22/survey-wed-rather-buy-new-stuff-from-familiar-brands-than-new-stuff-from-those-other-guys/

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Why Mackerel Has Been Taken Off The Ethical 'Fish To Eat' List

mackerel fishThe North-east Atlantic mackerel fishery has joined the three quarters of worldwide stocks that are either declining or being fished beyond a sustainable level

Only yesterday, it seems, mackerel was the fish to gulp down without a twinge of guilt, good both for your pump and for the planet. Doctors recommended its oily flesh, rich in omega-3, to ward off heart disease. Environmentalists and celebrity chefs trumpeted its eco-friendliness. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched a campaign in 2010 to persuade people to switch to it from overfished cod. The sustainable superfood was also cheap and tasty – and made up Scotland’s most valuable catch. What was there not to like?

Today, its sustainable image, at least, lies shattered, and its £205 million annual value to British fishermen is in jeopardy. The Marine Conservation Society has taken the species off its ethical “fish to eat” list because the catch is now “far in excess of what has been scientifically recommended”. And Fearnley-Whittingstall, while insisting that the supply had been robust enough to support his campaign, called the fish’s plight “a farce rapidly becoming a tragedy”.

In other words, north-east Atlantic mackerel fishery has now joined the three quarters of worldwide stocks that are either declining or being fished beyond a sustainable level. In European waters, blighted by the disastrous Common Fisheries Policy, the toll is even worse, with more than 80 per cent of fisheries over-exploited.

In fact, the crisis has long been brewing – and, in retrospect, fisheries campaigners seem to have been over-sanguine. It began more than four years ago, when Iceland started increasing its landings of the fish, unilaterally upping its quota from 2,000 tonnes in 2008 to 146,000 tonnes last year. The Faroe Islands followed suit, raising their own quota sixfold to 150,000 tons. They did so because for some reason (climate change has been blamed) mackerel have been moving northwards. There are now plenty of them in those warming waters, so the locals insist they have every right to harvest them.

The trouble is that when the vastly increased Icelandic and Faroese takes are added to what other countries are legally catching, some 900,000 tonnes of mackerel are being landed a year from a fishery that can only stand to yield 500,000 tonnes. That cannot go on for long without disaster – there is an awful precedent in the North Sea, where the fishery which yielded a one million ton take in the Sixties has since shrunk by 99 per cent – and Britain, which holds more than half the EU quota, stands to suffer most.

Negotiations have so far failed, and, in the absence of agreement, the EU and Norway last week cut their quotas by 15 per cent to try to relieve the pressure. And two weeks ago, Richard Benyon, the fisheries minister, told Parliament that EU trade sanctions against Iceland and the Faroes were now “on the table”.

These could be in operation by the summer, when new quotas are due to be set, directed at imports of mackerel and fishmeal to feed farmed salmon. But – as the former Daily Telegraph writer turned fisheries campaigner, Charles Clover, points out – a “mackerel war” might backfire, since much of the Icelandic and Faroese catch is landed, and processed, in Britain.

Last March the Marine Stewardship Council, which certifies fisheries, suspended its seal of approval for north-east Atlantic mackerel, and later last year Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and the Co-op all boycotted it. So its downgrading on the “fish to eat” list – the Marine Conservation Society says it should now be only consumed “occasionally” – has long been on its way.

The saga is just one episode in an astonishing depletion of the once-rich fisheries around our shores. Prof Callum Roberts, of the University of York, has calculated that as late as 1889 British waters held up to 15 times as many cod, haddock and halibut as today. The devastation long preceded the Common Fisheries Policy, but it has made things worse: more than two thirds of the quotas it set over the past 25 years have exceeded official scientific advice. A minister once told me that the meetings in Brussels were like “Buffalo Bill and Wyatt Earp arguing over who should shoot the last buffalo”.

To its credit, the Government, led by Mr Benyon, has tried to change this. Largely because of its pressure, serious reform seems finally to be under way, with EU ministers and a European parliamentary committee last year agreeing to ban the grossly wasteful practice of “discarding”, dead or dying, nearly one in every 10 fish caught, while the MEPs also voted to stop the setting of quotas above scientific recommendations. But there is still a long way to go.

In the meantime the Marine Conservation Society suggests eating herring and sardine instead of mackerel; it also gives the green light to whiting from the Celtic Sea, coley from the North Sea and Dover sole from the English Channel.

Bon appétit.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/EqHy49-xs4c/why-mackerel-has-been-taken-off-the-ethical-fish-to-eat-list-2013-1

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Should You Consolidate Debt With 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers?

Consolidation Loans For People with Bad Credit With the new CARD act, a lot of card companies started to change their business models which helped in making zero percent credit card balance transfers a very rare commodity according to the wall street journal. But there are still a few and when properly executed, they can [...]

The post Should You Consolidate Debt With 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers? appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/28/should-you-consolidate-debt-with-0-balance-transfer-credit-card-offers/

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Govt Insured Program For Senior Home owners

Reverse mortgages are an progressively preferred way for seniors to dwell off the equity from their residences and cease creating mortgage payments. This government application for seniors is assisting them give a method to combat the slowing financial system. This federal government application was developed from the Division of Housing and concrete Advancement (HUD) in [...]

The post Govt Insured Program For Senior Home owners appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/27/govt-insured-program-for-senior-home-owners/

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A Million Bucks In Scholarships ? That?s Not Me Kidding around!

Surety securities are not a great investment connect, somewhat they’re a 3 get together (principal, obligee, and certainty) assure. We are going to readily illustration (using mortgage brokers) to make it easier to be aware of. Their state (obligee) the large financial company is functioning in necessitates that a certainty connect be recorded so that [...]

The post A Million Bucks In Scholarships – That’s Not Me Kidding around! appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/26/a-million-bucks-in-scholarships-thats-not-me-kidding-around/

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The Best Moment From Barack And Michelle Obama Surprising A White House Tour

Barack and Michelle Obama surprised a White House tour group today as they greeted and shook hands with every single person on the tour.

One young man by the name of Trevor asked the president for a special request, though. "Can I ask for a fist bump?" asked Trevor.

Without hesitation, the president obliged.beige tbi

obama-fist-bump.gif

Note: President Obama finishes his fist bumps with an explosion.

Bo, the First Dog of the United States, was also with the Obamas. Here's Barack telling his canine companion to sit:

obama-tells-bo-to-sit.gif

SEE ALSO: 50 Adorable Photos Of Michelle And Barack Obama

SEE ALSO: The 10 Best 'Bro Biden' Moments

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/f7ZfS0nQbT0/obama-surprises-white-house-tour-fist-bump-2013-1

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U-Verse Outage Hits Some AT&T Customers In Southern States

Since yesterday afternoon, some people in various parts of the southeastern U.S. — and as far west as Texas — have been without AT&T U-Verse service.

It’s unclear exactly how widespread the outage is, but one Consumerist reader says the AT&T rep she spoke to said there were customers in 18 states without service.

While most of the complaints we’ve … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/01/22/u-verse-outage-hits-some-att-customers-in-southern-states/

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This Insanely Complicated Chart Shows Just How Tough It Is For Lawyers To Leave The Office

rob pollak

Figuring out when to leave work shouldn't be a Herculean task.

You either talk to your boss, or leave when you've completed all your work for the day.

But apparently that isn't the case in BigLaw.

Rob Pollak, a former associate at an unnamed firm, created a pretty intricate flow chart showing the questions lawyers need to ask at the end of the day just to determine whether or not they can leave the office.

lawyer leaving work flow chart

Charts like these, and the crazed life they represent, are why former attorneys like Kelly Newsome leave the industry to pursue totally non-related careers.

"I remember working on a deal, I was corporate attorney," Newsome said in an interview with Bloomberg Law. "And I was working on a deal very tired, came home one night, and uh, it was really one morning, took a shower, washed my face, everything, put my make up back on, put my clothes back on, did my hair and laid down on the bed very still because I knew I that would be too tired to do it the next day. And at that point I thought 'probably not normal.'"

Newsom ultimately opened a yoga studio.

(h/t Above The Law for the chart).

DON'T MISS: Lifetime's Casey Anthony Movie Made The Prosecutor Look Like An Idiot >

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/dY58ru7Zxp8/biglaw-firm-behavior-flow-chart-2013-1

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Japanese Yen Sinks, Then Rallies After Bank Of Japan Announcement

Just under an hour ago, The Bank of Japan announced it would adopt a 2 percent inflation target.  It also announced it would pursue open-ended asset purchases starting in January 2014.

While all of this is pretty aggressive, it appears that it was largely priced into the markets.

The Japanese yen sunk after the announcement, but has since come back and is now up against the dollar.

Here's an intraday chart of the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen via Bloomberg.

yen

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/Ki8U-P6j-wc/japanese-yen-rallies-2013-1

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