Justin Germino Ramblings

This man has spent 35 years in prison and was innocent the entire time.

In an article all over the news later last week about James Bain, a man who was convicted when he was 19 years old in Lake Wales, Fla of the rape of a 9 year old boy was cleared by DNA evidence after serving 35 years of his life behind bars. He is the now the longest person in prison who has been cleared by new DNA evidence, but what was more astonishing is his request for DNA testing was denied for several years before they finally approved a look at the evidence.

The fact that this man said on live Television that he has no anger toward his accusers, was not angry with law enforcement or anybody and just happy to get a life back was astonishing. Fortunately Florida is one of the states that compensates falsely accused prisoners, CNN reported that he would likely get $50,000 for each year he wrongfully served in prison, this would be a total of $1,750,000 dollars that he will likely be awarded from the state for the wrongful imprisonment. That plus hopefully he might get a book deal about his plight, maybe a movie deal and pickup some interview money and he might be able to at least have a chance at building a life for himself that was robbed from him.

Truth is, there are wrongful imprisonments, because it is a democratic system and guilt or innocence can be conjured and portrayed by an attorney, and sentence carried out by judge or jury that is presented the information and must make a decision this can happen. The system isn’t perfect, but its the best one we have.

I think there should be compensation in all states where a wrongfully imprisoned person is exonerated, I found out that Arizona does not compensate anyone (though they usually win with lawsuits against the state, city and/or law enforcement agencies at some point).

-Justin Germino

I am normally not a big fan of chocolate and I rarely eat chocolate bars, when I do eat chocolate I prefer dark chocolate that is almost bitter rather than sugary sweet milk chocolate. Recently on a foray to Cost Plus World market, I was looking at some chocolate bars and picked up the Dark Chocolate Triple Berry bar, I could smell the raspberry through the wrapping paper and it smelled so rich I decided to buy it and give it a whirl. Now I have eaten Ghiradelli, Godiva and other gourmet chocolates, but when I tasted this chocolate I couldn’t believe how rich and gritty the flavor was. It was sweet, but also a little bitter and had a grainy texture like crushed raspberry seeds. The berry flavor was completely infused in the chocolate, not a filling like similar types of chocolate bars.

If you have a Cost Plus World market near you and you like Chocolate, I highly recommend giving this bar a try.

-Justin Germino

This is a sponsored guest post written by a Press Release on behalf of PBM Products. Post powered by Sponzai.

GORDONSVILLE, VA., December  2 , 2009—PBM Products, LLC, a leading infant formula company that supplies store-brand infant formulas to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, and other retailers, has received a favorable jury verdict and a $13.5 million damages award in its false advertising lawsuit against Mead Johnson & Co., the operating subsidiary of   Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) (“Mead Johnson”), the makers of the national-brand Enfamil® LIPIL® Infant Formula.  Mead Johnson is 83 percent-owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands.  PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®.  The $13.5 million in damages awarded by the jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the largest damages awards ever for a false advertising case.

“This decision by a jury of the people confirms that Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning.  “Despite Mead Johnson’s scare tactics, parents are assured that PBM’s formula products are as high quality and nutritious as Mead Johnson’s.”

U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer issued his written rulings yesterday following the November 10^th jury verdict. Judge Spencer’s written rulings permanently enjoined Mead Johnson from making any false statements concerning PBM’s infant formula, including the claims Mead Johnson previously made in Enfamil advertising that "It may be tempting to try a less expensive store brand, but only Enfamil LIPIL is clinically proven to improve brain and eye development," and "there are plenty of other ways to save on baby expenses without cutting back on nutrition."  The Court also ordered Mead Johnson to retrieve from the public domain all advertising or promotional materials containing these or any other false claims about PBM’s store brand infant formula.  

The details of the decision and the complaint are posted online in full at:

·      http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/Order_Laches.pdf

·      http://www.pbmproducts.com/docs/PBM_Complaint_MJ_III_LIPIL.pdf

The nutritional supplements under examination in the case are two fats, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), which Mead Johnson calls “LIPIL®” solely for marketing purposes and touts as promoting infant brain and eye development. PBM’s claim focused on Mead Johnson’s direct mailing to more than 1.6 million parents of an alarming blurry picture of a child’s cartoon duck next to a clear picture of the same image which suggested that anything other than the Enfamil LIPIL® blend of ingredients is inferior and will result in poor eye and brain development.  Other parts of the false advertising campaign consist of statements that only Enfamil LIPIL has been proven to confer visual and mental benefits on infants, and store-brand formulas are a “cut-back in nutrition” compared to Enfamil. 

PBM successfully argued that these advertisements were false and misleading especially since PBM store- brand infant formulas have the same nutrients at the same levels as Enfamil.  PBM infant formulas are formulated to contain DHA and ARA, and are sourced from the same supplier in amounts which equal or exceed the DHA and ARA in Mead Johnson’s Enfamil LIPIL®. 

This decision marks the third time PBM Products has sued Mead Johnson for false advertising claims. On the prior occasions Mead Johnson admitted that it made false claims about PBM’s products.  It is also the first false advertising case to focus on the issue of DHA and ARA nutritional ingredients in formula, which were introduced into the market in 2003 and have become a staple in recent years by many brands as key components for infant development.

“This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands,” said Manning.  “This lawsuit also demonstrates our complete commitment to defending our products and the valuable brands of our retail partners.”

“As a parent and supporter of children’s medical research, I take a personal responsibility in assuring our customers that the products we produce are healthy and nutritionally equivalent to brand names like Enfamil® LIPIL®.  It is important, especially now, for parents to know that there are lower priced yet highly nutritious store-brand formulas that will provide the same benefit to their children as any national brand name formula product,” Manning added.   

The U.S. infant formula market is estimated at $3.4 billion and the global market is estimated at $7.9 billion.

All of PBM’s formulas, and for that matter all of U.S. infant formulas, are subject to the exacting standards of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pursuant to the Infant Formula Act of 1980.  This legislation vested FDA with the authority to ensure that all infant formula products sold in the United States provide the necessary levels of identified nutrients required for the growth of healthy babies. For more information, visit this FDA link.

PBM Products was represented by the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.  Partners from the firm’s advertising practice, Harold P. Weinberger and Jonathan M. Wagner in New York, led the team.  

About PBM

PBM is privately owned and based in Gordonsville, VA.  PBM companies specialize in manufacturing, distributing, and marketing consumer food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical products. For more information, visit www.pbmproducts.com.

Enfamil® LIPIL® are registered trademarks of Mead Johnson & Co.

I started three blogs last year and helped my wife convert her company website into a blog which allowed her to not only provide information about her music production company and showcase events, but allowed her to bring music and entertainment news and feature local Arizona musicians on her site as well. Then my wife followed suite and turned her cookbook into an online food blog for the home chef, called The Chef’s Cookbook. This blog has dozens of her original recipes and culinary tips she learned from attending a Le Cordon Bleu culinary school as well as information and tips she picked up in the industry. My wife has a Le Cordon Bleu diploma, an Associates Degree, Food Safety Certification and is highly qualified to run one of the best food blogs on the web.

I am the great benefactor as much of the food photography you will see on The Chef’s Cookbook was photographed by myself just before I devoured plate after delicious plate. My wife doesn’t like to call herself a blogger but now that she runs two blogs and monetizes them just as I do with PayPerPost, PayU2Blog, AdSense and even uses SponsoredTweets and runs 2 twitter accounts one for each blog. She is my blogging prodigy and we just redesigned her cooking blog together to make it even more fresh and visually appealing.

So stop by The Chef’s Cookbook and let my wife know you visited, check out some articles and recipes and you won’t be disappointed if you are looking to cook something new for your family or yourself tonight.

-Justin Germino

The company I work for dropped my previous health insurance carrier that I have been using for the past five years. This is always a little bit of a stress in the home when you have to switch health insurance companies, compare rates, quotes, services, percentages and out of pocket costs and more. We have decided to use a type of plan that I have never participated in previously, this is where the plan pays up to a certain amount and covers 100% of the cost (no copays at all), then when those funds run out you pay until you reach your cap for the year.

I have been covered by HMO’s, EPO’s and PPO’s previously where I have had everything from standard $25 copays, to paying 20% of all costs when going to a doctor, hospital or other medical provider. This is the first time I will be under plan that covers it all until the cap is reached. Of course we tend to only go to the doctor once or twice a year at most, our kids are very healthy and have an average of one doctors visit every twelve months, which this plan is ideal for people who are healthy and don’t need to see doctors or specialists often.

The good news is even if there is lots of doctors visits, there is cap on how much I can pay for the year, and once the cap is reached the plan covers 100% of all else again. The cap itself is not much higher than the cap on an HMO where you pay the 10% of all hospital costs until your cap is reached (you just reach it faster with this type of plan). This all goes into effect starting 1/1/2010.

Here to experimenting with my health insurance.

-Justin Germino

Happiness is a state of mind, and this means that people as individuals have control over whether they are happy or want to be happy. Money doesn’t make people happy by itself, nor does love make people happy. It is the person themselves who finds happiness in love, or happiness in wealth. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, there are people who don’t need money to be happy and others who don’t need love to be happy. Some people are happy playing games, others are happy with their jobs, but we are not measuring the individual things that make us happy but are we happy as people overall.

So ask yourself this, are you happy?

Think about why you are happy, what makes you happy? What culmination of things or experiences inspire or create your happiness, or is it just that you are a happy person overall? Happiness is a state of mind, and people don’t need reasons to be happy. Sure we can find unhappiness in plenty of things like job stress, financial issues, relationship problems and worse. But again individual events and circumstances though they can affect your state of mind cannot change whether you are “generally” happy overall in your life.

If you are not happy overall, and I mean over the past thirty days if you aren’t generally happy for over 50% of them then I would think it is time to re-evaluate your sources of happiness and find out what needs to bring you to feeling better. Contentment is a form of happiness, having no complaints and being content is like a lion who is content to sleep after a long feast, so if you are just content without any direct sources of unpleasantness or unhappiness, then you can consider yourself well, if not overly happy.

When examining what makes you happy or unhappy remember that circumstances can change at anytime, if you have a good job and are unhappy, knowing that others are out of work and in dire financial circumstances can change your perspective of being unhappy with what you currently do. The same can apply by using perspective to analyze your other sources of unhappiness, this is why happiness is a state of mind. One person can be happy in the same situation as another person who is unhappy in that situation. This doesn’t assume any chemical or biological tendency toward depression which could be a psychological, emotional or chemical imbalance, but assumes that all that is needed is a perspective change to help see that there may be happiness without you even realizing it, just by changing your perspective.

-Justin Germino

I am going to see Avatar right after work on Friday night as it looks like one spectacular movie. I can’t wait to see what James Cameron has done, after all he was the director of Aliens which was one of my all time favorite movies. See the HD trailer and let me know if you think this will be a blockbuster or a dud?

The special effects look mind boggling, even if the story of humans invading an alien world are similar to the movie Battle For Terra which was released in early 2009.

-Justin Germino

Now that my six year old and three year old are sharing the same room and sleeping in a bunk bed it takes much longer to get the kids to go to sleep. When our youngest was still in a crib and the oldest sleeping in his own separate room they didn’t have the ability tease, joke or annoy each other while they were tucked in their separate sleeping area’s and bid goodnight. Now they share the same room and will spend the whole first hour talking, whispering, joking and annoying each other. This means my boys who previously were sound asleep by 7:30pm are now up until almost 8:30pm or 9pm and really it is the toddler who keeps the older brother awake.

My three year old has suddenly developed fears of monsters, noises since transitioning to sleeping in his brothers bed last week and we know he is a little anxious and scared to be going through this major life change for him. Hopefully as it becomes more routine and he gets completely used to the fact that now he sleeps in a big boy bed, he will settle down and have an easier time of falling asleep without the fear that monsters are lurking behind closet doors.

What amazes me most about being a parent is how completely different two children can be when they come from the same two parents. They have an array of unique traits and though they play some of the same games together, because they are three years apart and the youngest is still not able to play some of the same things as the six year old, they still manage to find some common ground.

-Justin Germino

I have noticed some terrible patterns on Amazon.com while shopping this holiday season lately and that is they allow their “affiliates” to greatly mark up product prices for sale when inventory is low and the products can’t be found elsewhere. For many products and this is especially true of Children’s toys you can find the Amazon.com price listed as 2-5x higher than the products retail value from the manufacturer or a competing site. Though the product is out of stock at the other stores, an Amazon.com store or subsidiary will have it in stock and sell it for these outrageous rates and prey upon people who are desperate to buy the product.

I expect to see this from eBay where people action and sell times for whatever they want, but this means that Amazon.com is no longer reliable for looking for the best prices on items and this only means that you have to check other sources first. It used to be that Amazon.com almost always carried the best prices on items and they still do on many items, but you just can’t trust their item prices anymore as a result of these recent trends. Amazon.com should deny partner companies from listing product prices higher than say 20% of the retail value of the product, they should do this to help cut down on price gauging.

-Justin Germino

I was not too happy when two days ago I received letters from my Health Insurance company that a laptop was missing from the company property that contained sensitive information for my two kids, my wife and I. The company sent an official letter with an apology and informing us that the risk was low but still could exist and we were provided with 1 year free service to a credit monitoring program. This is the second time in two years that an organization has lost sensitive data and we were provided with a monitoring program access as a result of the company goof up.

When a company does have a security breach or data missing that it cannot account for, it is absolutely the right decision (and required by law depending on the type of company and data) to notify its customers immediately and it is a good step in providing free credit monitoring service as a means to be proactive. I do however think 1 year is not sufficient since the data stolen may be found and used anytime after the missing date, if you were only monitoring your credit for one year and the data was found and used three years later you wouldn’t notice unless you were doing your own credit monitoring (which I highly recommend everyone should do).

This just means I am now under multiple credit monitoring programs as I sign up to each one when issues like this occur and I like to make sure to keep on top of my credit reports.

-Justin Germino