HAHA: Credit Card Hackers Strike More Than 1,000 Wendy’s Restaurants

NEW YORK (CBS / AP) — Wendy’s said hackers were able to steal customers’ credit and debit card information at 1,025 of its U.S. restaurants, far more than it originally thought.

The hamburger chain said Thursday hackers were able to obtain card numbers, names, expiration dates and codes on the card, beginning in late fall. Some customers’ cards were used to make fraudulent purchases at other stores.

Wendy’s Co. urged customers to check their accounts for any fraudulent purchases.

The Dublin, Ohio, company first announced it was investigating a possible hack in January. In May, it said malware was found in fewer than 300 restaurants. About a month later, it said two types of malware were found and the number of restaurants affected was “considerably higher.”

There are more than 5,700 Wendy’s restaurants in the U.S.

The U.S. Is a World Leader in Car Crash Deaths

(usnews.com) - Public health experts often cite reduced car crash deaths as one of the most successful examples of how common-sense laws can dramatically reduce injuries and deaths. Through strategies like enforcing seat belt usage and drunken driving laws, the U.S. from 2000 to 2013 reduced its rate of crash deaths by 31 percent. Some who herald such an achievement even use it as an example of how similar approaches could be applied to curb gun violence.

But it turns out the U.S. isn't doing as well as it could be when it comes to crash deaths – or certainly not as well as many of its counterparts. In fact, the U.S. had the worst rate of crash deaths in 2013 per 100,000 people when compared with 19 other high-income countries, according to a Vital Signs report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 32,000 people in the U.S. died in car crashes that year – the latest covered by the report – and an additional 2 million people were injured.

These deaths continue to occur because of alcohol-impaired driving, speeding, and failing to use seat belts, car seats or booster seats. According to the report, about half of drivers or passengers who died in crashes in the U.S. in 2013 were not wearing a seat belt.

Causes of car crash deaths in the U.S.
Erin Sauber-Schatz, a transportation safety team lead with the CDC and an author of the report, said in a call with reporters Wednesday that distracted driving – which includes texting while driving – contributes to about 10 percent of fatal accidents and 18 percent of injury accidents.

To assemble its report, the CDC analyzed data compiled by the World Health Organization and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Study authors admitted that it's difficult to quantify all the reasons for differences between countries, noting that the U.S. has a significantly higher population than the countries it was being compared to, as well as a greater dependence on cars. But they partially adjusted for these differences by controlling for population size, miles traveled and number of registered vehicles.

The researchers found that the U.S. had both the most motor vehicle crash deaths per 100,000 people and per 10,000 registered vehicles. Other than the U.S., countries included in the study were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. scored so poorly in part because so many drivers and passengers still do not buckle up. Among countries for which seat belt use data were available, the U.S. ranked 18 out of 20 for front-seat use – at 87 percent – and 13 out of 18 for seat belt use among backseat passengers.

On average, 94 percent of people in the studied high-income countries wore seat belts while in the front seat. France had the highest adherence to front seat belt use, at 99 percent, and Austria had the lowest – just shy of the U.S. – at 86 percent.

Authors of the CDC report noted that countries differ in auto safety enforcement actions. For instance, in some U.S. states, a seat belt is only required if you are sitting in the front of an automobile.

Alcohol use also contributed to the mortality rates, with the U.S. tied for the second-highest percentage of deaths involving alcohol-impaired driving among 19 countries evaluated. (FullText)

Is Cannabis Part of an Alzheimer’s Cure?

(leafly.com) - Scientists at the Salk Institute labs in San Diego have published preliminary evidence that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other compounds found in cannabis can remove amyloid beta, the toxic protein most commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Officials at the Salk Institute cautioned that the results, published in the June issue of the journalAging and Mechanisms of Disease, shouldn’t be taken as a sign that cannabis is a panacea for Alzheimer’s. The studies were conducted in neurons grown in a laboratory, and may eventually offer insight into the role inflammation plays in the disease. The Salk Institute’s work could end up providing clues about developing novel therapeutics for the disorder.

“Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer’s,” said David Schubert, the study’s senior author, “we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that leads to memory loss and can seriously impair a person’s ability to carry out daily tasks. According to the National Institutes of Health, it affects more than 5 million Americans, is the nation’s most common cause of dementia, and is a leading cause of death. Alarmingly, the incidence of Alzheimer’s is expected to triple during the next 50 years. (FullText)

Why is July 4 US Independence Day?

(TodayIFoundOut) - While it is often said that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, this isn’t actually correct. In fact, nobody signed it on the 4th. This is contradictory to Thomas Jefferson’s, John Adams’, and Benjamin Franklin’s account of events. On top of their accounts, the public congressional record of events back their story. So how do we know it didn’t happen this way?

To begin with, the Secret Journals of Congress that were eventually made public in 1821 paint a different story. They contain an entry stating, on August 2nd: “The declaration of independence being engrossed & compared at the table was signed by the Members.”

Now if this was the only evidence, one might lean towards a typo in the journal and believing the aforementioned three individuals and public congressional record. However, one of the other signers of the declaration, Thomas McKean, denied the July 4th signing date and backed it up by illustrating a glaring flaw in Jefferson’s, Adams’, and Franklin’s argument- namely, that most of the signers were not members of congress on July 4th and thus wouldn’t have been there to sign it. As McKean said in 1796: “No person signed it on that day nor for many days after.”

Further evidence comes from the interesting fact that the parchment version of the Declaration of Independence that is on display and kept in the United States National Archives wasn’t actually written until July 19th; this being a copy of the approved text that was announced to the world on July 4th, with about 150-200 copies being made on paper and distributed on that date (26 of which are still around today, thus pre-dating what is now generally thought of by most as the “original”).

This little tidbit also came from the Secret Journals of Congress which has an entry on July 19th stating: “Resolved that the Declaration passed on the 4th be fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and stile of ‘The unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of America’ & that the same when engrossed be signed by every member of Congress.”

So, in the end, this signed document probably would have been copied by Timothy Matlack, Jefferson’s clerk, rather than penned by Jefferson himself, and certainly couldn’t have been signed on July 4th.

It’s also interesting to note that John Adams thought that July 2nd, not July 4th, would be celebrated in the future in the United States. On July 3, 1776, in a letter to his wife, Abigail, Adams noted:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

So why did he think July 2nd would be Independence Day and how did July 4th end up getting the nod instead? Because July 2nd is when the Second Continental Congress voted to approved a resolution of independence. Although nobody voted on or signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, that was the date the Declaration was announced to the world, and why it was ultimately chosen as Independence Day.

What if every worker received minimum wage?

Here is the thought question for today:

   Via marshallbrain.com - What if every worker in the United States got paid minimum wage for the work they do?
It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. Whether you are working in McDonald's mopping the floor or you are the CEO of McDonald's. Whether you deliver the mail for the President or you are the President of the United States. No matter who you are, you make $5.15 an hour for the work you do, and everyone's total income is capped at $11,000 per year. What would happen if we did that?
The reason why we might choose to do that is because the wages of most workers are headed in that direction anyway. Corporations all over the nation have been pushing worker wages down to the minimum wage level:

We all know about the burger places. They have created a burger assembly line where millions of restaurant workers now make minimum wage.

In the 1990s, HMOs started pushing the wages paid to physicians downward for the first time ever. Minimum wage can't be far away for doctors.

Southwest Airlines built a new discount travel model by paying pilots and flight attendants less than industry norms for the work they do. Now the whole industry is following Southwest's lead because they have no choice if they want to compete. Wages across the airline industry are falling. Once that becomes the norm, someone else will come along to beat Southwest and cut wages again. Many commuter airline pilots make near minimum wage already. It's just a matter of time before everyone in the airline industry is making minimum wage.

Wal-Mart took away business from the small town downtown and hired all those store owners for minimum wage.

Wages everywhere are under pressure and headed toward minimum wage anyway. Why don't we simply short circuit the process and take everyone down to minimum wage now, in one fell swoop? It would be a lot less painful that way. And let's include CEOs, executives and politicians in the process. If a major corporation cannot afford to pay a clerk more than minimum wage because of pressure from competitors, then there is certainly no way the same corporation can afford to pay the CEO and other executives $10 million a year. The practicalities and realities of our business environment should apply to every part of the business, not just to one segment of the workers. Everyone, from the CEO on down, should make minimum wage to maximize the corporation's competitiveness.
No one is spared: The president of the United States, all the politicians and bureaucrats, CEOs and executives, business owners, lawyers, doctors and dentists… everyone. If you get a paycheck, you get minimum wage. No exceptions.

What would happen if we did that?

Perhaps most importantly, it would save the economy a lot of money. According to the New York Times Almanac, businesses hire 105 million people per year and pay them just over $3 trillion per year (the figure does not include government employees), for an average wage of roughly $30,000 per year. At $5.15 an hour and 40 hours a week, all 105 million of these employees would start making a uniform $10,700 per year at minimum wage. By doing that, the $3 trillion figure would fall to $1 trillion. The economy would save $2 trillion every year. The drop in prices would be spectacular, because $2 trillion represents $20,000 per U.S. household. Something that costs $10 today might see its price drop to $4.00 or less. Even though we would all be making minimum wage, that wage would buy far more in the economy than it does today. Everyone in the country would be able to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle.

What would happen to highly paid people like TV/movie stars, corporate executives, sports stars, radio personalities and so on? Their salaries would go from millions of dollars a year to $10,700 a year. Would it be a catastrophe? No. In all likelihood, absolutely nothing would happen. Is Rush Limbaugh going to give up his soapbox if he got paid less? Probably not. I imagine he likes the fame and influence his show gives him. He is going nowhere. Are Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brockaw going to quit? Probably not. They like the fame too. The stars of popular TV shows? No… they cannot get into the best restaurants, have adoring fans or get Emmy awards unless they appear on their shows.

But if they do quit, it is not a problem. Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show, and we got Jay Leno. It was not a catastrophe. If Dave Letterman leaves Late Night because he does not like the pay, we'd get another host. It would be OK. There are thousands and thousands of people who would love to have Dave's, Rush's or Jay's jobs.

Would CEOs leave? Maybe. But if they are good CEOs, they love what they are doing building companies and leading people. If they don't want to do it unless they get paid $15 million a year, that probably tells us something about them. We probably don't want them leading a company anyway if they are only in it for the money. If we replace them with people who actually care about the job and the company, we would all be better off. We could have completely avoided Enron, Worldcom, etc. and the resulting stock market collapse if we had had good, honest people filling the CEO roles in those companies.

As you start to think about this new minimum wage reality, you begin to realize something. Most people -- especially the ones who are highly paid today -- would stay in their current jobs. The perks of fame and power would keep them there. So here's the question: Why isn't supply and demand governing the pay of CEOs, TV celebrities, sports stars and supermodels, driving their wages down just like everyone else? (Full Text)

After Brexit, U.S. Congressman Promotes #Amexit from UN

The USA is a failed state

- As the pro-national sovereignty movement continues to surge in Europe following the historic British “Brexit” vote to exit the European Union, a growing push for a United States “Amexit” from the United Nations and other international institutions is gaining steam. After the Brexit, Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie (shown being sworn in), a leading constitutionalist, pointed to his support for the American Sovereignty Restoration Act and asked if it is now “Time for #amexit?” Yes, he says. Conservative commentator Sarah Palin also called for a U.S. withdrawal from the UN following Brexit, saying Americans should take a lesson from the British on restoring independence and stopping "special-interest globalists." Former Congressman Ron Paul, meanwhile, the author of the original legislation to get the United States out of the UN, called for getting out of NATO and the “various phony 'free trade' agreements” that benefit the elite but harm everyone else. And the movement to restore self-government is only growing.

Czech President Calls for Referendum on EU, NATO Membership

(Bloomberg) Czech President Milos Zeman called for a referendum on the country’s membership in the European Union and NATO, adding to concern that more European countries will copy Britain’s Brexit vote even as he said he supported remaining in both blocs.

The Czech Republic benefits as an EU member because it receives more funds than it contributes, while NATO provides security guarantees in fighting international terrorism, Zeman said on public Czech Radio on Friday. Still, he said he would do everything in his power to initiate a referendum “so people can express themselves.” The government rejected the president’s suggestion.

“I disagree with those who support leaving the EU,” Zeman said. “But I’ll do everything I can to make a referendum happen.”

Often at odds with official government policy, the president has angered EU leaders by openly criticizing the bloc’s economic sanctions against Russia. He has publicly supported Vladimir Putin, strengthened Czech ties with China and derided the bloc’s leadership as “totally incompetent.” He has also alienated many European allies with his hard-line stance against refugees, whom he has repeatedly and publicly linked to terrorism.

Because Zeman’s role is largely ceremonial, and he has no power to call a referendum, he is commenting only to shape public opinion, according to Jan Outly, a political scientist at the Metropolitan University in Prague. The country doesn’t have a law allowing such a ballot, so any attempt to hold one would be a long process, he said.

“This is just one of many public announcements Mr. Zeman makes to make himself visible in the media,” Outly said by phone. “He has absolutely no authority to make it happen.”

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s administration considers membership in the EU and and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization guarantees of stability and security, according to a statement that it e-mailed after Zeman’s comments.

“The government isn’t considering taking any steps that could in any way question our memberships and the long-term direction of the Czech Republic’s foreign policy, and therefore it doesn’t expect any referendums,” the government said. (FullStory)

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Related (Reuters) Czech government rejects president's call for referendum on EU, NATO