As long as you’re wasting time idly surfing the Web, why not send some food to hungry people in a foreign country? You can do it for free at the Hunger Site, an independent service launched on June 1 by an Indiana software programmer disturbed by the fact that some 24,000 people worldwide starve to death every day. The site has since teamed up with the United Nations World Food Program, and has taken in the equivalent of millions of dollars in contributions. Just visit the site, click on the donation button under the map of the world, and a batch of rice, wheat, maize or other staple will be sent out, paid for by the sites corporate sponsors such as Blue Mountain Arts, Sprint and InfoSpace.
—VB
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Oil giant kills domestic partners benefits
Dec. 29
Way back when, the oil companies were enormous monoliths of corporate greed, and gay employees dared not entertain the remotest fantasy that they might be accepted and treated equally by their employers.
Welcome back to the past. Now that Exxon and Mobil have the blessing of the Federal Trade Commssion to merge in an unholy union reminiscent of Standard Oil, the greasy guys in charge have decided to revoke domestic partners benefits from their gay employees, according to the BALTIMORE SUN. Mobil had provided such benefits before the merger; Exxon had not.
That makes ExxonMobil one of the last major oil companies not to provide domestic partners benefits. BP Amoco, Chevron, and Shell do offer such benefits.
—BSB
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Another multimillion-dollar military mistake
Dec. 28
The US military goofed again. A $45 million unmanned spy plane was taking a test flight over the California desert last March when it received an “abort” signal from a Nevada Air Force base, according to the ASSOCIATED PRESS. The plane nose-dived to the desert floor.
The Air Force says the plane was flying so high that it lost its communications link to Edwards Air Force Base in California and instead responded to the next strongest signal. The Nevada base was apparently testing its flight cancellation signal at an inopportune moment. Your tax dollars at work.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/…
—BSB
