Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalMarch 1st is Employee Appreciation Day
So enjoy as best you can today!
A 
to all the hardworking folks out there!
Why Americans Are Cutting Coupons Out of Their Lives
Nearly half (46%) of consumers who redeemed fewer coupons said they did so mainly because there were fewer coupons worth redeeming. While the total number of coupons has remained steady, the number of coupons that shoppers actually feel are valuable enough to use is on the decline.
Coupons are available nowadays for everything from clothing to restaurant meals. Still, for obvious reasons, consumers tend to be most likely to use coupons on household essentials—namely, groceries. And guess what? The number of coupons for food decreased by 6.5% last year, according to NCH. At the same time, there was an increase in coupons for goods that consumers are less likely to need on a weekly basis (various “non-food categories” like deodorants and cough remedies), or even be tempted to buy, including more coupons for new products featuring brands that shoppers haven’t heard of.
http://news.yahoo.com/why-americans-cutting-coupons-lives-130040807--finance.html
March 1, 1893 – Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
Tesla's theories on the possibility of the transmission by radio waves go back as far as lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
March 1, 1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service,
Founded in 1980, six years after the birth of Dungeons & Dragons, and before the height of role-playing games, SJG created several role-playing and strategy games with science fiction themes. SJG borrowed and expanded upon ideas pioneered by strategy game companies such as Metagaming Concepts, Avalon Hill and TSR. Despite these similarities, SJG had a unique feel all their own and became popular with their releases. SJG's early titles were all microgames initially sold in 4×7 inch ziploc bags, and later in the similarly sized Pocket Box.[2] Games such as Ogre, Car Wars, and G.E.V (an Ogre spin-off) were popular during SJG's early years.
Today SJG publishes games of numerous varieties (card games, board games, strategy games) and genres (fantasy, sci-fi, gothic horror); they also publish the book Principia Discordia, the sacred text of the Discordian religion.
On March 1, 1990, SJG's offices in Austin, Texas were raided by the U.S. Secret Service. The manuscript for GURPS Cyberpunk was confiscated although this was merely coincidence and not the actual purpose of the raid at all. The raid is often thought to have been related to Operation Sundevil, a nationwide investigation of computer crime; however, Sundevil was based in Arizona and the Steve Jackson Raid was coordinated out of Chicago. More than three years later, a federal court awarded damages of $50,000 and attorneys' fees of $250,000 (amounts in USD) to SJ Games, ruling that the raid had been carelessly executed, illegal, and completely unjustified. Cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling discussed the affair in his non-fiction book The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. The case also helped to prompt the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as spawning a new game, Hacker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games
Nebraska admitted as 37th State March 1, 1867
Nebraska (i/nəˈbræskə/) is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. Its state capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River.
The state is crossed by many historic trails, but it was the California Gold Rush that first brought large numbers here. Nebraska became a state in 1867.
There are wide variations between winter and summer temperatures, and violent thunderstorms and tornadoes are common. The state is characterized by treeless prairie, ideal for cattle-grazing, and it is a major producer of beef, as well as pork, corn, and soybeans. Nebraska is overwhelmingly rural, as the 9th least-densely populated state of the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska
Ohio admitted as 17th State March 1, 1803
The name "Ohio" originated from Iroquois word ohi-yo’, meaning "great river" or "large creek".[16][17][18][19] The state, originally partitioned from the Northwest Territory, was admitted to the Union as the 17th state (and the first under the Northwest Ordinance) on March 1, 1803.[8][20] Although there are conflicting narratives regarding the origin of the nickname, Ohio is historically known as the "Buckeye State" (relating to the Ohio buckeye tree) and Ohioans are also known as "Buckeyes".[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio
Mo. Supreme Court Considering The Link Between Benefits And Marriage
Should certain state benefits be limited only to married couples, even though that could discriminate against gays and lesbians in Missouri?
That's one of the questions the Missouri Supreme Court will be considering after hearing arguments today in the case of Kelly Glossip, whose partner, Cpl. Dennis Englehard, was killed in the line of duty as a state trooper.
Glossip sued in 2010 after he was denied Englehard's survivor benefits. Under Missouri law, only married couples are eligible for those benefits, and only a man and a woman can legally get married.
In arguing to eliminate the link between marriage and benefits, Glossip's attorney, Maurice Graham, emphasized the financial burdens Glossip and Englehard shared over the course of a 15-year relationship.
http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/post/mo-supreme-court-considering-link-between-benefits-and-marriage
Shipping Woes Ease On Mississippi River
What a difference just a few weeks makes.
Earlier this year shippers feared that the worst drought in decades would slam the brakes on the billion dollar barge shipping industry, but recent heavy rains and snow have raised water levels on the drought starved Mississippi River.
Even though shippers are back to carrying normal loads, American Waterways Operators spokeswoman Ann McCulluh says the industry remains anxious about the future.
“You can bet that we will be watching the forecast, watching the water levels very carefully,” McCulluh said.
http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/post/shipping-woes-ease-mississippi-river
An alternative to the rusty boneyard: Is it possible to recycle the behemoths of transport?
How do you recycle planes, trains and space shuttles? We live in a throwaway society: we want new cars, new computers, new clothes. Like us, airlines and shipping companies want huge new pieces of kit. Often their purchases are justified on environmental grounds – new ships and planes are more energy efficient.
Boeing boasts that its Dreamliner "uses 20 per cent less fuel than today's similarly sized airplanes". But once you buy a new plane, train or ship, you need to get rid of the old one. The murky world of scrap, salvage and recycling is where many monster-sized machines end up when their working days are over.
Sometimes it's an ignominious end – off to rot in the searing desert sun or to be cannibalised by ill-equipped workers on a Bangladeshi beach.
This hidden domain of waste and want is deliberately kept out of sight. It's troubling.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/an-alternative-to-the-rusty-boneyard-is-it-possible-to-recycle-the-behemoths-of-transport-8454623.html
When It Comes to E-Waste, Be Afraid—Be Very Afraid
For every new laptop or next generation iPhone released, there are a slew of redundant old devices that wind up auctioned on eBay or donated to local charities. While some discarded electronics can be reused once or twice, eventually every product reaches the end of its lifespan, becoming electronic waste—or e-waste.
The rapidly growing inventory of outdated electronics fuels a growing e-waste recycling industry. Around 20 to 50 metric tons of this stuff is generated worldwide each year. Most of the developed world’s discarded devices wind up in Africa, China or India, where they are broken down to recover valuable materials. Most of this so-called recycling is largely unregulated and informal, and potentially serves as a major source of environmental contamination and a hazard to human health.
While we would like to think that recycling our old electronics is a socially and environmentally responsible action, the ultimate fate of e-waste and its impacts are not clear.
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston, a panel of experts discussed what’s being done and what more is needed in order to better understand and regulate e-waste around the world.
http://news.yahoo.com/comes-e-waste-afraid-very-afraid-233112725.html
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