News to share around the water cooler

The United States’ largest organization dedicated to advocating for our nation’s disabled veterans and their families and survivors, the Disabled American Veterans, is asking Americans of all walks of life to join in the “Virtual March on Washington to Protect Veterans’ Compensation and Benefits” this Wednesday on the social networking site Facebook.

With thousands of virtual marchers already registered, veterans and their family members will be encouraged by DAV to record and publicly post a personal video message, explaining what their compensation and benefits mean to them.

The virtual march will take place primarily on Facebook at http://facebook.com/The.DAV, but the tools to participate will also be available at www.dav.org and on Twitter, using the hashtag.March4Vets.

The virtual march formally begins Wednesday at 8 a.m., but participants do not need to log on at any specific time as the “march” will take place over the entire day and night.

 

California mussels: First warming casualty?

 

The iconic California mussel could be among the first casualties of oceans made more acidic by global warming, a new study of the coastal shellfish shows.

Scientists who grew mussel larvae in a bath of acidified water thought to match expected changes in ocean chemistry report thinner, weaker shells and smaller bodies in a newly published study.

“We’re interested in the California mussel because it is an ecologically critical species, familiar to many of us who live along the West Coast,” said Brian Gaylord, evolution and ecology professor at the University of California, Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory.

But increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that climate scientists attribute to human activity are already showing signs of working their way into the oceans.

 

National gas prices jump 9 cents in past 2 weeks

 

The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped nearly nine cents in the past two weeks.

That’s according to the Lundberg Survey of fuel prices, released Sunday, which puts the price of a gallon of regular at $3.70.

Of the cities surveyed, Tucson, Ariz., had the nation’s lowest average price for gas at $3.28. Chicago had the highest at $4.07.

In Erie, the price at most pumps is $3.69, but a few stations near the intersection of Peach Street and Interstate 90 are charging $3.59 a gallon.

– from staff and wire reports

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Be careful with social networking

The world is changing. Just the other day, I watched the movie of how Facebook started. Facebook, Twitter and many other social networking sites are easy distractions both at home and on the job. In the last few years, employees in many industries have been fired for communication errors.

We all need to be cognizant of what can get us in a heap of trouble. Here are a few examples of employees who have been fired for expressing themselves on these sites:

» A teenager on her first day of work posted, “First day at work. Oh my God. So dull. All I do is shred and scan paper.” Her boss friended her, saw what she posted and she no longer had a job. Why keep someone who is so unhappy with the job?

The teen should have kept her negative thoughts to herself.

» An employee called in sick and posted “sick day” on her page. She was on the computer all day. Her boss, who felt she was well enough to sit in front of her work computer if she could sit in front of her home computer, fired her. Personally, I think that’s unfair.

» A nursing home employee loved the patients she worked with. She took photos with them and posted them on her Facebook page, which violated the nursing home’s privacy policy and HIPAA.

She was fired. In this case, she just wasn’t thinking. If the nursing home had known, and if each patient or their family member had signed a consent form, then perhaps she would have been OK.

» A professor at a college in Pennsylvania asked, “Does anyone know where I can find a hit man? It’s been that kind of day.”

She was just kidding; however, the college felt it was inappropriate after the various school shootings.

Just one little wrong statement will get you fired.

» A person who worked at two jobs posted something like, “Ugh, here I go to this (expletive) place. Wish I could go home.” They weren’t fired, but reprimanded.

» I know three people who posted photos of them drinking at an Ocean City bar and dancing with people in a suggestive manner.

They posted a comment that said, “We play hooky tomorrow!” The next day the three hooky players were contacted by their boss and asked to play hooky forever.

The list goes on and on. The bottom line is that we all need to watch what we say.

In this world, where everything is recorded online, don’t be seen as a gossip or troublemaker. And keep your opinions to yourself.

Bonnie Burke is a co-owner of Shore Staffing Inc., a temporary and permanent staffing firm on Delmarva. Send questions to bburke@shorestaffing.com, reach her at 410-957-2800 or visit www.shorestaffing.com.

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