Some credit cards are more of a curse than a benefit. High interest rates, annual and other random fees, terrible customer service can all be negatives. Buyers must beware in the form of carefully reading the fine print of their contracts, lest they get costly surprises later.
Yet some cards offer perks that make being a card member worthwhile. Lifehacker asked readers to nominate credit cards that have the reward programs most beneficial to members. A top five list was compiled from the nominees.
Number five on the list is the Costco True Earnings American Express card. This card benefits Costco members with two percent cash back on all Costco purchases, up to $4000 per year. Other perks include two percent cash back on travel purchases, three percent on gas purchases and one percent on all other purchases. There is no annual fee for Costco members, 15.24 percent variable APR after a six-month, zero percent APR introductory period, extended warranty protection, 90-day purchase protection and fraud protection.
Check out numbers four through one on Lifehacker's best rewards card list here. Via Unique Daily.
Lisa Marcus's Blog Posts
Most people are aware of key facts about Ludwig van Beethoven, such as his gradually going deaf while still composing masterpieces. This Mental Floss article digs deeper, featuring nineteen lesser known facts about the brilliant composer.
For example, Beethoven's father was more than a little bit of a "stage parent." On the contrary, he seems downright cruel. Recognizing that young Ludwig was musically talented, his father became intent on proving he was a prodigy on the level of Mozart, who was fourteen years older and already well known.
Unlike Mozart, who took to instruments and practice more naturally, Beethoven's father forced him to play at all hours. Neighbors of the Beethoven family remembered Ludwig as a child, standing on a bench to reach the keyboard and crying as his father prodded him to continue playing. That puts many of his intense and foreboding pieces in a new light!
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Pictured above is an infographic of the most stolen cars in the United States in 2013. This annual report is published by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. At the top of the list is the Honda Accord, with 53,995 stolen. My car, the Nissan Altima, is at the bottom of the list, with 8,892 stolen. Is your car on the list? Have you ever had an experience with car theft? I've been lucky enough to escape that particular misfortune. Follow this link to download the full NICB report or to see the breakdown by individual states.
Image: funny-people
Previously, we've featured photos taken at precisely the right moment. This collection focuses exclusively on dogs. Canine companions are present for the good and bad times in the lives of their humans. Their constant companionship means they are in our photographs as well, whether we plan it that way or not. Sometimes their appearances in the frame result in comedy, as seen here. Take a look at other examples of wonderful canine photobombs at this link.
Image: undonk2013
Image: Pam
Image: zokstersomething
Image: looseleashes.com
Image: Flickr user Ondablv
The Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno (Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno) in Genoa, Italy, which opened in 1851, is known worldwide for its fantastic sculpture. One of the largest cemeteries in Europe, its origin is associated with Napoleon's 1804 Edict of St. Cloud, which became law in Italy in 1806. The edict ruled that every burial was to be conducted outside of city walls, and burial monuments had to be the same size and were granted by committee. A portion of the hillside of Staglieno was originally chosen for the location of the cemetery due to its sparse population and acceptability within the rules of the edict.
As the cemetery grew, English, Jewish and Protestant sections were added. Among the notable names buried there is the wife of Oscar Wilde, Constance Lloyd. Frequent visitors included Mark Twain and Friedrich Nietzsche.
See more photos of the extraordinary sculptures in the The Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno here.
Image: Flickr User Ondablv
Image: Flickr user Ondably
Image: Flickr user Latente
Image: Flickr user ijulian
The Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan welcomed two fennec fox kits after a fifteen-year wait for a birth of the species. Fennec fox couple Penny and Louis de Fennec, both four years old, spent the 50-day gestation period of their offspring burrowing tunnels in their enclosure. The tunnels were an addition to their home to accomodate the new kits.
Mother Penny was aggressive during the gestation and after the birth of her kits, an instinctive measure of protection. Penny hid her babies in the newly dug burrows soon after they were born. Their keepers kept their enclosure private at that time, in order for the mama and papa to have bonding time with their kits. Currently, keepers are slowly introducing them to their loving public.
Fennec foxes are native to the Sahara in Northern Africa as well as Northern Saudi Arabia. Their large ears not only cool the fox by losing excess heat, but they also enable them to hear predators from a great distance. The fennec fox is a nocturnal animal, escaping the heat during the day as it rests in its burrow. The life span of the species is approximately ten years. Via Zooborns.
Images Credit: Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan
This bird in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park isn't welcoming the throngs of visitors that the park receives daily. To show her displeasure, she proceeds to dive bomb those people who dare to walk past her nest. Where's Alfred Hitchcock when you need him? Via 22 Words.
At this point we've seen about all we can take of people responding to the ice bucket challenge in support of the ALS Association. Perhaps Dave Grohl and the other Foo Fighters anticipated this, and projected the terror inward, resulting in this horror film parody. Dave, go to your closet and ask to be forgiven! Via Viral Viral Videos.
Australian farmer Brian Harrington becomes a water fowl couturier once a year during the "Pied Piper Duck Show" in Sydney. Harrington has participated in the event, a part of the Sydney Royal Easter Show, for thirty years. His dolled up ducks bring in an average of a million visitors annually. Via Lost At E Minor.
If you're keeping score, we have one cat peacefully sleeping on a watermelon. Another cat who, when awakened, needs an exorcism. Now here is this Vizla named Oscar, who is awakened by an alarm clock and discovers his inner wolf. Animals: in some ways, they are so like us. Via Laughing Squid.
Game designer and illustrator Marija Tiurina gives lives -- sixty-three of them to be exact --to the traditional deadly sins. But instead of humans, cats are the creatures that embody them. The artist explains her thought process:
"Deadly sins are quite symbolic and interesting. But Google search shows you only boring fantasy art, and pretty much the same style of drawings is repeat on every page of search results. I thought that the topic deserves another chance."
See Tiurina's version of the three remaining deadly sins plus one "bonus sin" here.
If anyone is entertaining the thought of waking this cat in order to have access to the length of their bed, they had better place a call to an exorcist first. Via Tastefully Offensive
"During that summer--
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was--
Watermelons ruled."
--John Tobias
This kitty named TyaTora, a resident of Japan, is shown here attempting to nap the day away. If she reflected on her pillow, her reflection might be, "round pillows, while cool, are hard to nap on at length." Via Tastefully Offensive
This two million dollar pool that holds 360,000 gallons of water was built by a Springville, Utah man who says the thought behind it was that he wanted to practice scuba diving. In addition to multiple waterfalls, a water slide and a grotto, the structure houses a hidden kitchen, changing room and bathroom with shower. Via Twisted Sifter.
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This Alltime10s video serves up examples of ridiculous calls people have made to emergency services. That is, aside from the idiots who dial 911 when Facebook is down. Whether these people are mentally deficient enough to think their situations are emergencies or they called emergency services for attention, the waste of time and resources spent answering such calls is actually no laughing matter.