• There are many many others that the FDA wants to put on the sides of packs of cigarettes, and some are amazingly depressing. The problem with these labels is that the design of many of these looks downright amateurish, like they just got a bunch of random stock photos to use. Would a marketing campaign make more sense? We sense a meme coming on. source

• $2 billion in profits for GM in the third quarter alone (*golf clap*)

Three reasons why this is good news:

• one It’s shaping up to be their first profitable year since 2004 – long before we heard anything about auto industry bailouts.
• two Most of the profits came from North America, where the company has been fairly weak in recent years. (Too many SUVs.)
• three GM has an IPO coming very soon, and a solid performance like this bodes well for their return to stocks. source

• 4,500 number of people stuck on a Carnival cruise ship off the coast of Mexico  after the engines were damaged in a fire
• two number of tugboats pulling the damaged cruise ship to shore (at a somewhat speedy four miles an hour)
• 100’s number of cans of Spam passengers of the ship now have after the Coast Guard dropped off some supplies source

• no Newly elected governors in multiple Midwest states want to cancel in-progress high-speed rail projects they say their states can’t afford.
• but … However, these newly minted Republican leaders want to keep the money already set aside for these projects to help fix the roads.
• no Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the states either have to keep the projects going or forfeit the money entirely. It’s war, guys. source

• » Our take: Why is it that the first thing GOP leaders look to cut are public-works projects with potential long-term implications? The two projects in question here – a high-speed link between Milwaukee and Chicago and another between four of Ohio’s largest cities – would have a long-term positive effect on the state economies. Yet canceling them halfway through is a great idea. Have these guys even looked at the rising popularity of the Acela trains in the Northeast Corridor? Or how much these would help commuters? Milwaukee to Chicago, for example, is a very common Amtrak trip, and faster trains would make it easier for people who want to skip the traffic to make the trek. It’s not always about slimming down now, but planning for tomorrow.