From: Sachi Kittur [mailto:xxxxxx@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:22 AM
To: all-canada@yahoo-inc.com
Subject: AMEX corporate cards and Taxi Chits

Use of Taxi Chits:

In addition to our recent halt of pre-paid transportation services, please note that effective immediately, we will no longer be using taxi chits. These changes will allow us to institute better controls as we try to streamline our approvals and tracking of corporate expenditures. We ask that all employees simply expense any business related transportation expenses as per our expense policy guidelines. Taxi chits will now reside with HR so if you have any extra-ordinary circumstances that justify their use (ie. client visit etc), please come and see HR.

Corporate AMEX cards:

Keeping in line with our goal of ensuring better cost controls across our business, we have decided to significantly reduce the use of our AMEX corporate cards. Effective immediately, ALL employees (with the exception of senior management team or newcomers that don't have any credit history ) that currently have a corporate card will no longer be eligible to use these and will be asked to return these cards into HR over the next 2 week period. For those of you that are impacted, a reminder that you will be responsible for clearing up any outstanding balances so please ensure that any expenses owing are submitted into AP immediately. If there are any extra-ordinary circumstances that warrant access to a corporate card for frequent business expenditures, please speak to HR/Finance and we will work out an alternate arrangement.

Thanks in advance for your support and cooperation.

Best regards,

Sachi

Sachi Kittur I Senior HR Manager I Yahoo Canada I 207 Queens Quay West Suite 801 Toronto M5J 1A7 416.687.xxxx M: 416.500.xxxx IM: xxxx

Playing on an early meme about home computers, Alan Alda shows how an Atari will make your kid a better typist than you. Oh, and it plays games too.

Apple flaunts its Y2K-proof products with a sad monologue from 2001's HAL 9000.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion teaches you how to get the color you want from your I-can't-decide girlfriend. Sexist? Not as much as the talk about Sarah Palin at Whole Foods this morning.

A clever Web page ad for Apple that ties two ad spots on the page together. John Hodgman's PC guy undermines the ads a bit by making me feel sympathetic for him.

Seinfeld's pointless but funny Superman ad for American Express's product warranty feature was probably what convinced Microsoft he could do the same for Windows. If the writers of the Microsoft/Seinfeld ad had created a similarly out-of-character character for Bill Gates, it might've worked.

This is the exceptionally clean, crisp handwriting of a person who thinks matters through and then expresses herself brightly without impulsive emotions muddying up her judgments.

There are several prominent hooks at the beginning of letters. This writer wants to acquire things ~ not simply treasure but power, adoration, applause, even immortality. There are also many tenacity hooks at the end of letters. What this writer earns will not easily be taken away from her.

She is without excessive preconceptions and prejudices and the open loops in her "e"s indicate that she open-mindedly allows new ideas to engage her thinking processes.

The "m"s and "n"s are rounded and indicate a methodical and logical way of reaching conclusions. Method and logic can be slow work, but they don't slow this writer down because of her good intuition (signaled by unconnected spaces between letters within words). Intuition (sometimes called "gut" thinking) allows her thoughts to leap over the stepping stones of logic and arrive at trusted conclusions. Intuition speeds up thinking and allows slower-minded people to compete with the more naturally swift minded. The writer is also analytical (v-shaped) formations in "m"s and "n"s). She hunts and finds her own information and then pulls data together, examines and evaluates the ideas, and then makes up her own mind.

Her goals are in the middle-practical range (the t bars are crossed about midway on the t stem). She's not reaching for the moon. She goes for what she can get without stretching too much. Her drive is strong enough (assertive t bars) to get her through.

The "p" forms have bottom loops: She must be physically active and on the move. Enforced routine deskwork would soon send her to a loony bin.

The inflated "d" loops indicate sensitivity to criticism that's not constructive. She cares about what is thought and said about her, and malicious comments hurt her even when she may not let on.

The left-side loops in certain "a"s signal a slight case of self-deceit. She may not always be frank with herself and tends to rationalize away unpleasantness. Therefore, she may at times be less than frank with others.

Full lower loops on "y" forms signal a good imagination. However, she may stop short of making her dreams materialize in reality.

She will take the initiative and take action on her own without being told (breakaway strokes within words or at the end of certain words).

She is very good with details (closely dotted "i"s) and won't forget or neglect the small stuff.

The writer is relatively comfortable in crowds, but she enjoys her own company even better. This writer is the kind of person with whom intelligent people wish to become friends.

Earlier: Tina Fey Keeps Perspective By Cleaning Up Baby Poop
The Future Of Female Comedies May Sit Squarely On Tina Fey's Shoulders

Bring on the endorsements indeed.

UPDATE: Consumerist.com says that AmEx's project is getting hijacked by Proctor and Gamble, who entered a project of their own for this $5 million contest. The "Children's Safe Drinking Water" project would be enacted by UNICEF, and guess what corporation sells water purification systems.