WalletPop Wire
100 million Facebook profiles compiled and made public
An online security consultant has compiled information from the profiles of 100 million Facebook users and published it in a database downloadable and searchable by anyone online.Ron Bowes, who blogs at Skull Security, used information that Facebook users had set to "public" and therefore, was already available to anyone who tried to search for it. The news has generated a lot of attention and alarmed many who use the popular social networking site, which hit 500 million users this summer.
Russian hackers target job-seekers with counterfeit scam
A rogue Russian counterfeiting operation cranked out $9 million worth of fake checks and cashed them using two familiar ruses for duping consumers: posting fake "help wanted" ads to job-search sites, and convincing applicants to act as "money-mules" to bulk-cash bogus checks.Hawaii proposes to give homeless a one-way ticket out of the state
As the economy continues to stumble, homelessness has skyrocketed, leaving many states grappling with an expensive and delicate issue -- what to do with the growing population of people finding refuge in shelters, parks and the streets. Hawaii, where a recent census showed that the homeless population on the island of Oahu skyrocketed by 15% in one year, has come up with a creative yet controversial plan to deal with its homeless problem: ship them to another state. Hawaii's government and many of its residents worry that the homeless encampments dotting its beaches sap precious state resources and scare away tourists -- a source of income that the state desperately relies on. Many support a proposal that the state pay to send some of its homeless population back to where they came from, provided there is someone to take them in. The rationale: Spending $300 for a one-way ticket to the West Coast is far cheaper than the $35,000 per year it costs to provide a homeless person with social services, according to the Associated Press.
Like, yeah! Like buttons help Facebook personalize the web
What do you like? That's the question Facebook and otherwebsites ask, or will soon, every time you visit. In a quest to make it easier to share the things you like with your social network and to know everything you like on the web the Facebook Like button is now showing up on popular websites (like ours!).
The Facebook Like button is similar to the various sharing options which many websites and blogs already use to make it easier for users to share content that they enjoy, or like, with their friends.
You can see examples of this technology in this post where there is a button to share content on Twitter at the top left and many other options at the bottom. You'll also notice that WalletPop now has a Facebook Like button at the bottom of every post that allows you to share the page with your social network with one click.
The return of 'Action Alley'? Walmart welcomes back the clutter
For those of you enjoying Walmart's recently de-cluttered stores, those aisles may soon be getting narrower, once again. The In-Store Marketing Institute cites sources inside Walmart saying that rollbacks are returning to the aisles. Walmart is turning back the clock, telling buyers they have 30 days to get stores looking like they did three years ago. It's being called the "3/30 Mandate" and indicates that Walmart will reintroduce pallets of merchandise displayed as special promotions in the aisles -- or "Action Alley" -- and focusing less on additional rollbacks throughout the store. It's not so much a reduction in the number of rollbacks, but a repositioning of merchandise.
The information comes from anonymous sources but Bill Schover, editorial director of the In-Store Marketing Institute, tells WalletPop he's received calls confirming the news item. Anonymously, of course.
Wine vending machines arrive in States: Sacre bleu!, say the French
Americans can now buy a bottle of wine out of a vending machine as if it were a Coke or a bag of Cheetos. No surprise how that's playing in France, the self-styled wine capital of the world and a place not known for its tolerance of bourgeois enterprise.Well, the French are not only turning their nose up at this experiment in Pennsylvania -- the first in the U.S. -- they are downright concerned. In a villa overlooking the Mediterranean in Nice, Charly Bismuth sipped a Bordeaux that he bought from a human being and pondered the potential damage.
"Wine should be had in moderation and should not be so easily available," Bismuth said in French to WalletPop.
"That's great if you're a vagabond," Sonia PIpernos of Paris added.
In all fairness, what might appear to be tacky is actually Pennsylvania's way of working around its relatively strict liquor laws. Before the machines emerged, Pennsylvanians could buy alcohol only in state stores. The first two wine vending machines have popped up in Harrisburg supermarkets, with expansion to Philadelphia planned in September if all goes well.
Winn Dixie store closing list, is your market on it?
Winn Dixie announced Wed., July 28, that it would close 30 underperforming stores and eliminate an additional 120 jobs at corporate facilities. We now know where those stores are. The locations below are scheduled to close by Sept. 22, 2010. Alabama
Just one store, in Helena, is scheduled to close.
Florida
Winn Dixie's home state will be hardest hit, with 24 locations getting axed. Residents will lose stores in: Boca Raton, Boynton Beach (two stores), Clermont, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Deltona, Ft. Lauderdale, Greenacres, Jacksonville, Lake Worth (three stores), Leesburg, Loxahatchee, Orlando (four stores), Pembroke Pines, Plantation, Poinciana, Sarasota and Titusville.
Georgia
Locations in Bonaire and Dublin will be shuttered.
Louisiana
The gulf state is losing a single store in Marrero.
Mississippi
Two stores in Meridian are going away.
A more detailed list of store numbers and addresses is on the company's website,
How almost half of all taxpayers pay nothing in federal income tax
Congressional leaders have been battling over the soon-to-expire Bush tax cuts for more than a year. Yet, there's still no word on whether Congress will vote to extend the cuts, allow the cuts to expire or work out some compromise package that might do a little of both. At the center of the tax cut debate, is one key problem facing the current economy: Tax revenues are decreasing. With less income available to tax thanks to record levels of unemployed workers, there are only two ways to increase tax revenues -- increase the taxpayer base or raise taxes for the existing taxpayer base.
Raising tax rates is unpopular and unlikely to happen in an important election year and expanding the tax base would be just as unwelcome. That's because an astonishing number of taxpayers currently pay no federal income tax at all. Earlier this year, the Tax Policy Center reported that nearly half -- 45% -- of all households paid no federal income tax for the 2009 tax year.
$200 million price tag on "Ansel Adams" negatives highly questionable
During the 1920's, photographer Ansel Adams was the custodian of a lodge in Yosemite National Park, so it is no surprise that many of his most iconic landscapes were of features such as Half Dome and El Capitan. Now a California man, Rick Norsigian, believes the 65 glass landscape negatives he bought for $45 at a garage sale were taken by Adams. If so, one estimator puts their worth at $200 million.There are a couple of reasons to doubt that this figure is grounded in reality, however. First, there is debate that these are indeed authentic Adams photographs.
Those claiming authenticity cite various pieces of evidence from their team of experts, which included, according to the Wall Street Journal, handwriting analysts, a photographer and an art adviser. None, however, were experts on Adams' work.
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