Health Care Bill

Benefits to consumers

• The bill starts to take affect 6 months after it is signed
• Insurance companies will no longer be able to cancel enrollees because of their sickness
• Insurance companies cannot put a cap on the policies payout
• Children can stay on parent's policy until their 26th birthday
• Small companies(less than 25 employees) and average wage less than $50k will be eligible for tax credits to cover upto 35% of insurance premiums.
• Insurance companies would be barred from denying coverage because they have a pre existing condition.

How money is raised

• New taxes on insurers, drug companies, medical device makers and wealthy individuals.
• 3.8% tax on unearned income for individuals earning 200K or families earning 250K starting in 2013
• Starting 2013, health insurance is mandatory. The fine starts at $95/annum or 1% of income.
• By 2016, the fine would be $695/year or 2.5% of income whichever is higher.

How it is subsidized

• Poor : A family of 4 earning upto $30K/year would be eligible for Medicaid
• 30K to 88K : Would pay no more than 3% of its income for insurance premium. The rest is subsidized by the govt.

Annual Credit Score

Credit Score can be accessed from http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ once a year.


Free credit report.
 
This is provides FICO score from all the 3 agencies.

China and US

• To begin with, it holds more than $1 trillion in U.S. assets, mainly in U.S. Treasuries. No other country or entity in the world could absorb those assets if China wanted to sell them, and with China's currency value pegged to the dollar, any massive sale would lead to a steep decline in the Chinese currency and economy. China's holding of U.S. debt is leverage only in a theoretical world where it could dump its U.S. assets or stop buying more.
• What's more, even a hobbled America is the world's largest economy and the most significant market for Chinese goods. In 2009, a supposedly bad year, Chinese exports to the U.S. were approximately $300 billion, about the same as in 2007. That is a vast source of income for China — and one that no other part of the world can provide.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1960606,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0ezNz1HQq

Haiti

• Haiti is one of the Caribbean countries
• It is third lagest after Cuba and Dominican Republic
• It shares the island with Dominican Republic
• It is one of the poorest and corrupt countries in the world.

Regular vs light beer

• Light beers have less calories. Some of it is from the lower carbs.
• But, alcohol is also 7 calories/gram, whereas carbs are 4. So, to reduce calories quicker, the producers of light beer remove alcohol.
• You usually get 4.2% in a light, and 5.0% in a regular. Some of the ultra lights (amstel light) are 3.5%.
• On average, beers are 6.0% This is from all beers on ratebeer.com. If you go with a microbrew, you should expect 6-7%. Contrast that with 3.5-4.2%....
• http://www.beer100.com/beercalories.htm

All about crude

This is the chronological history of inventions that shaped life before crude.

• Coal was the predominant fuel till 1850s
• Steam Engine was invnted in 1712
• In US, oil was first drilled in Pennsylvania in 1850. Oil is a mix of lot of hydrocarbons each having a different boling point. When heated the methane, gasoline, diesel, coke start evaporating and this is how they are refined.
• At this time, only Diesel was used and the rest thrown. Rockfeller made a lot of fortune in the sales of Diesel.
• In 1879, Thomas Alva Edison invented electric bulb and it reduced the demand for Kerosene.
• In 1860 bcycle was invented. By 1893 a gas comsuming automobile was ready.

Beer vs Ale

Kinds of Beer(based on temperature of fermentation)

• Lager  - Ferments at lower temperatures, 64-70 degrees F
• Ale - Ferments at higher temperatures, 64-70 degrees F