If you have ever wanted to own a MacBook but can’t bring yourself to drop the kind of money Apple wants for its notebooks, here is your chance to own a Mac OS X machine on the very cheap. This will likely be a very short chance too, Apple will beat the HP out of this company with a hammer … Continue reading
Yuneec is known for high-end drones with features like 4K and collision avoidance, but is going straight for Joe Consumer with its latest model. The Breeze is a $500 compact drone with five flight modes and an on-board 4K camera, making it ideal for…
The extradition case for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can be streamed on YouTube, a New Zealand court has ruled. The German internet entrepreneur — now living in Auckland, the nation’s largest city — and three of his former colleagues began a six-…
As a student, we all know how nerve-racking exams can be, so if there is a chance an exam could be delayed or postponed, which in turn gives us more time to study (or try to study), that can only be a good thing, right? However it seems that one teenager in Sri Lanka decided to take things into his own hands.
According to reports, the 17-year old teen was arrested after he got caught hacking into President Maithripala Sirisena’s official website. He had hacked the website and posted a message on it, calling for the postponement of A-level examinations. According to the police, “We traced the hack to his home in Kadugannawa. The website was crippled over the weekend after the attack.”
The teen had hacked the website and removed the home page and replaced it with his message, asking the president to either postpone the exams or to step down. Apparently he and the group calling themselves the Sri Lankan Youth weren’t too happy about the exam dates which would clash with Sinhala and Tamil New Year.
Unfortunately it looks like neither will be happening as the teen was arrested and is currently in custody. If found guilty, he will be fined around $2,000 and could also find himself spending up to 3 years in jail. Talk about desperate measures!
Sri Lankan Teen Hacks President’s Website To Get Exams Delayed , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
As promised, Blizzard has launched the latest expansion of World of Warcraft: Legion, and it is now live. Gamers who have pre-ordered the game can check it out by firing up the Battle.net launcher, but do note that because the expansion is pretty fresh, don’t be surprised if you’re suddenly facing massive queues trying to get in.
Also don’t be surprised if there are some bugs that crop up here and there, or if there is a bit of lag as that usually happens with every expansion, but hopefully Legion will prove to be smoother than before. For those unfamiliar, Legion is the latest expansion for World of Warcraft and we are once again revisiting the Burning Legion’s invasion.
The expansion will introduce a bunch of new features to the game, such as artifact weapons that will hopefully make grinding for weapon drops less tedious and less RNG. We are also introduced to the new Demon Hunter class that has been playable for about a couple of weeks for those who pre-ordered the game.
Gone are the garrisons which many players did not seem to appreciate so much. Instead we are looking at class order halls which will hopefully right the wrong of garrisons in Warlords of Draenor. There will of course be new raids and new instances and new PVP zones that players can check out. If you haven’t purchased the game yet, head on over to Blizzard’s website for the details.
World Of Warcraft: Legion Is Now Live , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
While we have started seeing some OEMs adopt the dual lens setup, Samsung has yet to officially hop on board the bandwagon, but if the rumors are to be believed, that will change in 2017. According to the latest rumors, word on the street is that with the Galaxy S8, Samsung will finally introduce dual-lens cameras to its smartphones.
The rumor claims that the Galaxy S8 will pack a rear-facing camera with a 13+12MP combo. The handset is also rumored to pack a new 8MP front-facing camera, as well as an iris scanner, which is a new feature that Samsung introduced with the Galaxy Note 7. We guess these features shouldn’t really come as a surprise because like we said, OEMs are starting to warm up to the idea of dual cameras.
Let’s not forget that Samsung is also probably trying to put themselves on an even playing field with Apple, who is also rumored to include dual cameras on its iPhone 7 this year, so obviously Samsung won’t want to be the only company left out of the fun. The iris scanner is also an obvious inclusion, but whether or not it will be the same tech behind the Note 7, or if it will be an upgraded scanner remains to be seen.
Either way we’re still pretty far off from the Galaxy S8 being announced, so best to take it with a grain of salt for now.
Galaxy S8 To Come With Dual-Cameras, Iris Scanner, New Selfie Sensor , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Navigating the issues that come up when giving your adult kids money isn’t easy. Do you give? Do you say no? “So much depends on the circumstances,” says Ron Lieber, the “Your Money” columnist for The New York Times and author of The Opposite of Spoiled, a guide to teach kids life lessons though money. The biggest question is: “Are you giving money away that could put yourself in a situation later, when you will have to go to your child with your hat in your hand?” he says. If so, you might want to rethink your choices.
Here, how to recognize when you should and should not be giving money. Reconsider giving if:
1. You’re not saving enough for retirement. “If you don’t have enough money secured that you can comfortably live out your retirement, you shouldn’t be giving money away,” says money expert Mary Hunt, who heads the website Debt-Proof Living. “You can’t allow your heart to override your brain, you need to take care of your retirement first.” Even if you don’t have all the money saved, at this point in time you should have a retirement plan in place and contribute to it regularly. “Many grandparents take a relatively casual attitude about this,” says Lieber. “They make the presumption that they will help out now and the kids will help them out later, but they never talk to the kids about it.” If you’re counting on your kids supporting you later but they haven’t been planning for it, that could be a problem. To figure out how much you should be saving for retirement, click here.
2. You don’t have an emergency fund. Hunt and other financial experts suggest having a contingency or emergency fund in case you lose your job or other financial issues arise and you need cash. If you don’t have an emergency fund to help take care of yourself, you shouldn’t be giving money to others. The fund should have $10,000 or at least the amount needed to cover three to six months of expenses, says Hunt. If you don’t have an emergency fund, try saving $1,000 or one month’s worth of expenses, then build from there. But, cautions Hunt, if you’ve got debt, such as loans and credit card bills, start with the $1,000 and pay off the debt first, then start putting more into the emergency fund.
3. Your kids are ungrateful. They don’t need to sing your praises all the time, but if you give your kids money, they should at least say a heartfelt “thank you.” “This is also where grandparents have a wonderful opportunity to help teach grandkids to be grateful for things like their home and their family and food,” says Hunt. “If something becomes an entitlement over gratitude, take a step back and close the wallet tight.”
4. Your kids are taking advantage. Are your kids truly in need or relying on you? “As parents, we have a responsibility to take care of our children and financially support them until they are 18, or even longer now because of the cost of education,” says Hunt. “But beyond that we need to move into a role of encouragers rather than enablers.” In other words, is there a dependency issue where your kids are sitting back and just expecting money? “Are your kids permanently relying on you, not paying the cost of things they should be able to pay?” says Lieber. “Are they working as hard as they can, or not really?” Before you give any more money, ask yourself these questions. What you don’t want is to get into an endless cycle of paying for their lifestyle. “Sometimes helping hurts,” says Hunt. “By giving, sometimes you are stopping them from being self-sufficient.”
5. You’re concerned where the money is going. Is the money you’re giving going to leisure activities? Vacations? Things you think are unnecessary? If you’re not happy with how the money is being spent, maybe you should consider taking a step back. If you’re concerned, one option is to write a check instead of giving cash and specifically pay for things you deem reasonable like school tuition or the electric bill.
In all of these situations above, what you don’t want to do is create bad feelings. The most graceful way to bow out of giving money? Say something like “’We’ve done a reassessment of our finances and we’re not saving as much as we should be to be 100 percent prudent, so we’re not going to be able to give you money for the foreseeable future’” says Lieber. “That way you’re not lying, you’re not passing judgement, and you’re doing something smart for yourself.”
If you do choose to give your kids money, Hunt points out there are three smart ways to give:
Also from Grandparents.com:
6 Ways To Get Help Paying Your Medical Bills
How Couples Can Manage Money When Income Fluctuates
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We all understand the importance of creating a retirement plan and saving to ensure that we will have enough to live on once we stop working. But how can you accurately plan when you don’t know how long you will live? How can you make sure that your retirement savings will not run out?
Longevity Risk
Longevity risk is simply the risk of living longer than expected. The average life expectancy for males is 84, and for females, 86. But one in four will live past the age of 90 and one in 10 will live past 95. Based on these numbers, your retirement could easily last 30 years instead of 20. Those 10 years could make or break you financially, so it is crucial that you plan for longevity risk and make necessary adjustments.
As we all know, there’s no way to predict how long you will live, and this makes planning complicated. Retirees need to secure an adequate stream of income for an unpredictable length of time. If you plan to live to age 82, and it turns out you live to 92 how are you going to make your money last the additional 10 years?
How to Plan for the Unknown
Wise planning starts with a realistic expectation of life expectancy using life expectancy tables, as well as considering personal and family health history. Because it would be much worse to outlive your money than the other way around, it’s also essential to factor in five-10 extra years to your number so that you will be covered through to the end of your life. This also adds a hedge for unexpected medical expenses, long-term care, and inflation.
The longer the planning horizon, the more resources will be required for retirement. The most obvious way of lowering the risk of outliving your money can be accomplished by saving more before you retire.
There are also a variety of investment strategies and products that can provide you with a steady stream of income through your retirement years, such as annuities. Delaying Social Security claims, as well as finding creative ways to earn income longer can also add years to your retirement savings.
Don’t let the unexpected nature of life expectancy worry you. Make the time to speak with a qualified financial advisor to create a retirement plan that will provide for you throughout your retirement, regardless of how long that lasts.
Does your current retirement plan factor in your longevity risk?
This article was originally published on RichLifeAdvisors.com
Photo Credit: Graphic Stock
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
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Would you like to lose wrinkles, sagging skin, and restore 20 years of agility and energy with one simple shot? Of course, it’s safe, painless, and soon-to-be FDA approved.
Okay, I’ll admit I’m intrigued. And yes, I guess that means I’m vain. But I don’t consider that a women’s issue. Believe me, there are a lot of men who are vainer than me.
Weight is probably a women’s issue, in that we only want to be skinny to impress other women or ourselves. For men it’s their hair.
Anyway, I am a sucker for those come hither ads that appeal to my vanity. “Lose 5 Pounds of Fat Around the Waist without Dieting or Exercising” … read more …
“The Truth about Aging Skin and What to Do About It” … read more …
Of course, I have read more and more and more — only to find out that for a price they will tell you how. And I’ve done it more than once, spending a good half hour lost in this kind of nonsense.
It’s embarrassing because it usually happens when my husband has sent me an interesting editorial about Donald Trump and campaign madness or some news about fracking. Suddenly an ad pops up and I’m off. My husband finds me 45 minutes later down the rabbit hole. I think by age 67 I should be over this, and sometimes I feel like I have reached a new level of acceptance. But then I find myself succumbing once again.
Recently, I actually went to see a cosmetic surgeon (a woman) to ask about leg lifts and arm lifts. I was hoping there was a way to pull your skin up over your arms and then hide the stitches under the armpits. And legs, maybe sewed up neatly under your falling ass. Leg lift, arm lift — it just sounded reasonable and easy, like pulling on a snug pair of tights. But alas, it’s not like that. There is a trade-off. Yes, your legs will be tighter but they will be riddled with scars. The arms she thought she could improve. The doctor started pulling my skin up and shoving it under my armpit and then grabbing another mass of loose flab from another part of my arm and tried to shove it there as well. She said she could do it. And they would be better, but not perfect. She looked at my legs and suggested I just forget about them. Use creams and oils and they will be fine, she advised.
I admit that even though I took it as a compliment, I was disappointed. In my desperation I asked what she thought of human growth hormones (HGH). HGH is supposedly the very thing our cells had when we were young but that disappear as we age. These hormones are responsible for elasticity, collagen production, cell growth and melanin. Hey, if we can get our HGH back, I figure, it could slow down or shut off the aging process. I have been searching for an endocrinologist to administer an injection to me.
So when I asked her about HGH, it suddenly seemed as if I had stumbled onto the motherlode of longevity research. It turns out the doctor’s brother is a research scientist who has been working on an injectable serum made from your own platelets. Researchers were using it on patients with trigeminal neuralgia when they noticed that after the first shot the patient lost wrinkles, his skin seemed tighter and his white hair darkened.
The doctor looked like the cat who swallowed the canary. She didn’t want to show how excited she was. “My brother doesn’t want to jump the gun. However, early results seem pretty amazing. I’m not going to be giving the shots for another four to six months. And while I can’t say “THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!” I can say it’s pretty exciting.”
Of course, I completely believed her. I’m hooked!
I’ll keep you posted. If you go to our website you can follow the updates.
alldownhillfromhere.tv
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU antitrust regulators ordered Apple on Tuesday to pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in taxes plus interest to the Irish government after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid.
The massive sum, 40 times bigger than the previous known demand by the European Commission to a company in such a case, could be reduced, the EU executive said in a statement, if other countries sought more tax themselves from the U.S. tech giant.
Apple, which with Ireland said it will appeal the decision, paid tax rates on European profits on sales of its iPhone and other devices and services of between just 0.005 percent in 2014 and 1 percent in 2003, the Commission said.
“Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years,” said Competition Commission Margrethe Vestager, whose crackdown on mainly U.S. multinationals has angered Washington which accuses Brussels of protectionism.
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. and hamburger group McDonald’s Corp face probes over taxes in Luxembourg, while coffee chain Starbucks Corp has been ordered to pay up to 30 million euros ($33 million) to the Dutch state.
A bill of 300 million euros this year for Swedish engineer Atlas Copco AB to pay Belgian tax is the current known record. Other companies ordered to pay back taxes in Belgium, many of them European, have not disclosed figures.
For Apple, whose earnings of $18 billion last year were the biggest ever reported by a corporation, finding several billion dollars should not be an insurmountable problem. The 13 billion euros represents about 6 percent of the firm’s cash pile.
As of June, Apple reported it had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $231.5 billion, of which 92.8 percent, or $214.9 billion, were held in foreign subsidiaries. It paid $2.67 billion in taxes during its latest quarter at an effective tax rate of 25.5 percent, leaving it with net income of $7.8 billion according to company filings.
The European Commission in 2014 accused Ireland of dodging international tax rules by letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars from tax collectors in return for maintaining jobs. Apple and Ireland rejected the accusation.
“I disagree profoundly with the Commission,” Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said in a statement. “The decision leaves me with no choice but to seek cabinet approval to appeal.
“This is necessary to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation.”
Ireland also said the disputed tax system used in the Apple case no longer applied and that the decision had no effect on Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate or on any other company with operations in the country.
Apple said in a statement it was confident of winning an appeal.
“The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process. The Commission’s case is not about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government collects the money. It will have a profound and harmful effect on investment and job creation in Europe.”
When it opened the Apple investigation in 2014, the Commission told the Irish government that tax rulings it agreed in 1991 and 2007 with the company amounted to state aid and might have broken EU laws.
The Commission said the rulings were “reverse engineered” to ensure Apple had a minimal Irish bill and that minutes of meetings between Apple representatives and Irish tax officials showed the company’s tax treatment had been “motivated by employment considerations.”
Apple employs 5,500, or about a quarter of its Europe-based staff, in the Irish city of Cork, where it is the largest private sector employer. It has said it paid Ireland’s 12.5 percent rate on all the income that it generates in the country.
Ireland’s low corporate tax rate has been a cornerstone of economic policy for 20 years, drawing investors from multinational companies whose staff account for almost one in 10 workers in Ireland.
Some opposition Irish lawmakers have urged Dublin to collect whatever tax the Commission orders it to. But the main opposition party Fianna Fail, whose support the minority administration relies on to pass laws, said it would support an appeal based on reassurances it had been given by the government.
The U.S. Treasury Department published a white paper last week that said the EU executive’s tax investigations departed from international taxation norms and would have an outsized impact on U.S. companies. The Commission said it treated all companies equally.
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