] Members of the Metal Trades Council at Electric Boat will
] receive $200 checks today for surpassing the company's
] safety goals in 2002. Security officers, who ended the
] year without a single lost workday due to injury, will
] get $150.

Damnit. My union doesn't give out safety bonuses. Why not??? MDA-UAW members (us designers, engineering assistants, and various other office workers) here at EB could have safety issues! Papercuts! Staples! I trip on the lumpy rug outside my office damn near every day! My job is dangerous too!!!! Yet another bonus I don't get.. sigh..

That's right, baby... another bonus that I DON'T GET!!!!!!!!!!!!

] New Jersey doctors are planning a partial work stoppage
] next month to protest soaring malpractice premiums many
] say they can no longer afford.
]
] The doctors plan to stop seeing patients for routine
] checkups, elective surgery and nonessential tests and
] services as of February 3, said Dr. Alan Zaccaria, who is
] organizing the effort in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

It's almost as if every day, I find a new reason to be THRILLED that I left New Jersey.

Some N.J. doctors planning work stoppage

Very interesting, but what's disturbing is the amount of people being born vs. how many are dying.

Worldometers

] It also happens more often to fat patients, simply
] because there is more room inside them to lose equipment,
] according to the study.

That's a really nice way to put it.

Surgeons Leaving Tools In 1,500 Patients A Year

] The vessel was found carrying more than three tons of
] rotting tuna and mackerel in its hold, and had plenty of
] fuel and food.

Ghost ship mystery deepens

] In a demonstration that experts say will forever change
] undersea warfare, the USS Florida became the first
] Ohio-class submarine to launch a cruise missile on
] Tuesday.

Undersea Warfare Takes Another Step

] Resumes with white-sounding first names elicited 50
] percent more responses than ones with black-sounding
] names, according to a study by professors at the
] University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the
] Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I have a "white" first name and a "black" last name. I wonder which was more important to my prospective employers? I'd like to point out that I had a MUCH easier time looking for work in snowy-white southeastern Connecticut than I did in Central Jersey. I wonder if my name had anything to do with it?

Study: It helps to have a 'white' name

] “People will come to see this from all over the world,
] just as they do when visiting other structures of awe,”
] says Brent Blake and John Glassco of Soap Lake, the team
] behind the concept. “Think of the interest this structure
] will have on people. It is an active, mesmerizing,
] vividly colorful and always changing kinetic structure.
] What other theme structures in the world possess such
] features? Visitors will be thrilled to see such a thing
] and will be rewarded by its scale, show of light and
] constantly changing elements."

Riiiiight.

GiantLavaLamp.com - When we build it they will come!

] A 54-year-old truck driver from Shelton, Wash., was
] killed Monday afternoon when a load of plywood slid off a
] forklift and pinned him against his truck at Adm. Harold
] E. Shear State Pier, police said.

Wow. I have to start watching the state pier with my binoculars. Apparently it's a very happening place.

Truck Driver Killed In Accident At State Pier

] "Kobe beef, imported from Japan, comes from cattle raised
] on beer and massaged daily to make the meat soft and
] succulent."

I never understood why people are so willing to spend so much money on this type of thing. You shit it out in a day anyway.

New York's most expensive burger