Free Republic

Fortune magazine's cover says Zipcar is the best new idea. Zipcar has already persuaded hundreds of thousands of young urbanites to share wheels. Now the movement is going mainstream – and players like Hertz and Ford want in. Watch video and decide...

Former eBay boss Meg Whitman isn't really a California cowgirl, but she plays one on the cover of Fortune magazine. When Whitman, who wants to be California's next governor, did a photo shoot in Half Moon Bay for the lead story in this week's issue, she used a four-legged prop named Brandy. In a note at CNNMoney.com, Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers revealed that it was a rent-a-horse that appeared on the cover and in a picture inside. "The horse on the cover, Brandy, isn't Whitman's, but she does ride in Telluride, Colorado, where she and her neurosurgeon husband,...

Whatever your job title, the ability to make others listen to you, trust you, and act on what you say is critical to your success. Take this quiz, adapted for Fortune by Persuasion IQ author Kurt Mortensen, to see how well you influence others. For the full version, go to www.persuasioniq.com.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama tempered his pledge to substantially raise taxes for high earners with an important proviso: He'd simply restore rates to their levels during the Clinton Administration. The implication was that families in the upper brackets would see their total tax bite go back to the levels of the 1990s, but no higher. Now, it sure looks like Obama is reneging on that promise. The burden will indeed go far higher than in the Clinton years via a technicality -- one that will come as a rude shock even to the taxpayers...

NEW YORK (AP) - When financial panic sweeps Bedford Falls in the 1946 movie "It's a Wonderful Life," the villain, Mr. Potter, moves to snap up the Bailey Savings & Loan, offering a fire-sale price of 50 cents on the dollar. "I may lose a fortune," Potter says with a smirk. The picture's hero, George Bailey, knows better. "He's picking up some bargains," he tells stockholders. That kind of bold opportunism has made capitalists rich for centuries. Now, legions of like-minded bargain-hunters stand ready to do some Potter-style shopping of their own amid the nation's financial crisis. "Vulture" investors, as...

A Moslem cleric, Sheikh Salih al-Fawzan, a senior Islamic preacher, has said that all TV fortune-tellers (which the BBC Monitoring service translates as “sorcerers”) should be executed. Sheikh Salih al-Fawzan is quoted as saying that if these people appearing on many Arabic TV channels prove to be sorcerers, “they will be committing a sin and violating the Holy Book, the Sunnah and the consensus of Muslims”.

Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. But the crisp cookies wrapped around enigmatic sayings have spread around the world. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies. A surprisingly high number of winning tickets in Brazil's national lottery in 2004 were traced to lucky numbers from fortune cookies distributed by a Chinese restaurant chain called Chinatown. But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China. Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the...

NEW YORK - Doctors say they have never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again. Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a Dec. 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother. Somehow, Moreno lived, and doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center announced Thursday that his recovery has been astonishing. He has movement in all his limbs. He is breathing on his own. And on Christmas Day, he opened his mouth and spoke for the...

Norway has more millionaires, measured in US dollars, than any other country in the world in terms of its size.

Stroke of Good Fortune: A wealth of data from petrified lightning Sid Perkins The lumps of glass created when lightning strikes sandy ground can preserve information about ancient climate, new research indicates. BOLT FROM THE BLUE. When lightning strikes the ground, it fuses sand in the soil into tubular masses of glass called fulgurites (top). The gases trapped in bubbles in that glass (bottom) yield clues to ancient soil and atmospheric chemistry and climate. L. Carion/Carion Minerals, Paris; Navarro-González Worldwide, lightning flashes occur about 65 times per second. Each bolt releases as much energy as is stored in a quarter-ton...

Time Inc. abruptly removed Eric Pooley as the managing editor of Fortune magazine yesterday, and named Andrew Serwer, a senior editor at large, to succeed him, becoming the magazine’s third top editor in less than six years. John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., a unit of Time Warner, gave no reason for the change, which was effective immediately, and did not return calls seeking comment. Mr. Serwer said in an interview that Mr. Huey had told him over the weekend that he wanted him to take the helm. “I found out about it a couple of days ago,”...

Red Hat ranks no. 29 on Fortune's 2006 list of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based company saw profits rise at a rate of 143% and revenues grow 47% with a stock return of 46% on average annually over the past three years. ADVERTISEMENT click here Each year, Fortune's ranking of Fastest-Growing Companies provides a snapshot of America's economy, and this year the picture is drenched in oil. Last year 18 energy firms cracked the top 100 - up from four in 2000. Now more than a third of the roster - 34 companies - are in the...

MILWAUKEE - A farm in Wisconsin is quickly becoming hallowed ground for American Indians with the birth of its third white buffalo, an animal considered sacred by many tribes for its potential to bring good fortune and peace. "We took one look at it and I can't repeat what I thought but I thought, 'Here we go again,'" said owner Dave Heider. Thousands of people stopped by Heider's Janesville farm after the birth of the first white buffalo, a female named Miracle who died in 2004 at the age of 10. The second was born in 1996 but died after...

There was an amusing story going around after Nixon's re-election in 1972. As the story goes a New York columnist wondered how Nixon got re-elected as that Columnist had never met anyone that voted for him. This is the same sort of hermetically sealed bubble in which writer for Fortune magazine, Marc Gunther, seems to live. A nether world where everyone he meets is homogeneous, all having the same opinions, influences, and pastimes. In a recent article titled "The extinction of mass culture", Gunther bemoans the loss of what he imagines is a common American culture because of the rise...

Philippines jurist was noted for consulting 3 imaginary dwarfs about cases... A Philippine judge who claimed he could see into the future and admitted consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs has asked for his job back after being sacked by the country’s Supreme Court. “They should not have dismissed me for what I believed,” ... He told investigators that three mystic dwarfs -- Armand, Luis and Angel -- helped him carry out healing sessions during breaks in his chambers.

(FORTUNE Magazine) - It had to happen: Globalization's pressure is turning the screws on even the best U.S. companies, making it tougher than ever for them to treat employees well. The good news is that some companies are doing it anyway. Extraordinary by definition, America's 100 Best Companies to Work for have pushed their employee-pleasing ways further than ever in the past year, blazing a trail for all organizations wanting to thrive in today's economic world. It's obvious why being a great employer is getting so hard. Globalizing everything creates merciless cost pressures no one can avoid. So, yes, Delta...

The Times November 29, 2005 Lonely suicide of the lovelorn millionairess By Andrew Salmon and James Bone Samsung tried to cover up death of heiress who had everything money could buy SHE was young and appeared to have it all. Lee Yoon Hyung, an heiress to the family that controls South Korea’s Samsung Group, certainly had all the money she could ever need to indulge her passion for fast cars and fine art. With a personal fortune estimated at £105 million and degrees from prestigious universities in New York and Seoul, there seemed to be no limit to what she...

Archaeologists find 4,500-year-old fortune-telling instruments www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-23 19:09:12 BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A Chinese archaeologist said Wednesday that a 4,500-year-old jade tortoise and an oblong jade article discovered in east China's Anhui Province were China's earliest fortune-telling instruments found so far. The two jade objects were discovered in an ancient tomb in Lingjiatan Village, Hanshan County, Anhui Province. Gu Fang, an expert with the jadeware research committee under the China Society of Cultural Relics, told Xinhua that the jade tortoise is made up of a back shell and a belly shell. Several holes can be found on the jade...

Susan Lindauer, a former reporter for U.S. News & World Report, whose byline appeared over some 1991 stories about the "Air Sununu" scandal, was arrested and arraigned in federal court in Baltimore on Thursday, charged with various counts related to working for and accepting payments from the Saddam Hussein regime, in violation of working with a terrorist state. In the late 1980s and early 1990s she worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Fortune before jumping to U.S. News in 1990 and then, by 1993, moving into a career as Press Secretary to a series of liberal Democrats: Then Congressmen Peter...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) criticized Forbes magazine on Thursday for the "infamy" of listing him among the world's richest people, with a net worth of $550 million. "Once again, they have committed the infamy of speaking about Castro's fortune, placing me almost above the queen of England," Castro said in a speech to top officials of Cuba's ruling Communist Party, military and police. "Do they think I am (former Zairian President) Mobutu (Sese Seko) or one of the many millionaires, those thieves and plunderers that the empire has suckled and protected?" he said...

NORFOLK..The woman went last year to a fortune teller in a small, white building on East Little Creek Road, out near the amphibious base, between the Soap N Suds and the check cashing joint. The fortune teller had bad news: Negative energy surrounded the woman.A ceremony that cost $200 could remove it though. The woman forked over the money.That was just the start...

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

It's bad enough that the red states elected President Bush and sent the blues into a psychic tailspin. bush wins: upper west side put on suicide watch reads a T-shirt in Manhattan. As students of the federal budget know, the citizens of some states pay more in taxes than they get back from Uncle Sam in grants and benefits. Arnold Schwarzenegger was stunned to learn upon taking office that for every dollar Californians send to Washington, they get back only 77 cents—an imbalance that topped $50 billion in 2003. But a new analysis in The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro...

PARIS/JEDDAH, 16 November 2004 — The Palestinian Authority has approached American investigators to trace bank accounts, stocks, bonds and real estate owned by the late Yasser Arafat and his close relatives and aides, Arab News has learned. Palestinian sources said the firm of financial detectives Scots-Morseby was contacted while the Palestinian leader was fighting for his life at a military hospital west of Paris. According to sources, the decision was taken after Arafat’s wife Suha and his chief financial adviser Muhammad Rashid refused to produce a full report on secret funds held on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Craig Mason,...

French prosecutors are looking into alleged multi-million dollar transfers into the bank accounts of the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Officials have confirmed reports of an inquiry into the financial transactions of Paris-based Suha Arafat. They acted after the Bank of France alerted them to transfers of nine million euros ($11.5m) from Switzerland to two of Mrs Arafat's accounts. Prosecutors say the investigation is at a preliminary stage. It was launched by the Paris public prosecutor last October after the Bank of France reported that nearly $1.27m was being transferred on a regular basis from Switzerland to Mrs Arafat's...

All, I searched using every parameter I could think of, but I can't track down this article that was posted here a couple of days ago. I believe it was either a Fortune or a Forbes article. It specifically compared the debt incurred under Reagan to the growth in the value of the nation's assets. Something like $16 trillion to $33 trillion for only $1 trillion in debt. Or something like that. Anyone have the link? Thanks!

Here is an article on the "science of luck," based on a ten-year study. It provides some very interesting reading. Apparently the author found consistent patterns of behavior between people who would be considered lucky in life and those considered unlucky. Over the years I have interviewed these volunteers, asked them to complete diaries, personality ques-tionnaires, and intelligence tests, and invited them to my laboratory to participate in experiments. The findings have revealed that luck is not a magical ability or the result of random chance. Nor are peo-ple born lucky or unlucky. Instead, although lucky and unlucky people have...

Alleged spy for Iraq gave Lockerbie depositionFormer Democrat congressional aide was at center of CIA controversy Posted: March 12, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Sherrie Gossett© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Former journalist and congressional press secretary Susan Lindauer, who was arrested yesterday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, came to the forefront of politics in 1994 over a controversial meeting she had with an alleged CIA operative based in Syria. That meeting resulted in her giving a deposition in the Lockerbie bombing trial that suggested Libya was innocent of the bombing. The 1994 deposition received...

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA   DON ADAMS, ET AL.,     PLAINTIFFS        v.   TEAMSTERS LOCAL 115, ET AL.,     DEFENDANTS   CIVIL ACTIONNO. 99-CV-4910   MOTION FOR ATTORNEYS FEES AND COSTSON BEHALF OF TEAMSTERS LOCAL 115 Defendant Teamsters Local Union No. 115, by and through its attorneys, Markowitz & Richman, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, hereby moves for an award of attorney's fees and costs, and states in support thereof as follows: Plaintiffs Don and Theresa Adams initiated this civil action pursuant to the Civil Rights statutes of the United States, 42 U.S.C....

LONDON (Reuters) - Black stray cat Tinker got all the cream when an elderly widow left him his own detached house in London and a trust fund to keep him comfortable. Margaret Layne, 89, left the $562,000 house and the $160,000 fund to Tinker after he befriended her, the Times newspaper reported on Tuesday. The childless widow made it clear in her will that Tinker, who has lifelong residency at the house, should not stray again. "If Tinker abandons the property permanently the trustees shall at their discretion be entitled to bring the trust to an end," the will said,...

Fortune of Shah's former wife goes to German state By Irene Zoech in Munich (Filed: 06/04/2003) A £50 million fortune left by the Shah of Iran's second wife to her brother is to be passed to a German state government after he died without making a will and all claimants were found to be impostors. Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiary's bequest will now be devoted to paying for street lighting, rubbish collection and other public amenities in North Rhine Westphalia where her brother, Prince Bijan Esfandiary, lived. Soraya, known as the "sad queen", married the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, in 1951 but...

GAMBLING'S allure has always been the prospect of fast action and easy money. And with the explosion of legalized gaming in Kentucky and Indiana during the past decade and a half, more and more people are being consumed by it. People like Caleb Cooley, a Pikeville, Ky., accountant who stole from clients and served time for theft. And like Phyllis Kruer, a Georgetown, Ind., real-estate agent who committed suicide. A golf club for which she served as board secretary alleged she embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars. While both states have received billions of dollars in gambling revenue that has...