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RENO, NV, Dec. 29, 2010 /Pressnewswire.org/ -- Today Merkur Investments Corporation announced the launch of Open Talk Magazine—a new online magazine with a fresh new concept. The idea for the magazine came together sometime in March 2010, and finally after months of planning and designing, the online magazine is finally in its soft-launch phase.

What this means is that the magazine is now online for public viewing with minimal features, categories and articles. The plan is to gradually grow out the magazine being that it is planned to be quite large in size and cover unlimited topics and categories.

The vision for Open Talk Magazine is to bring readers something different than most magazines in that its aim is to not be bounded to a specific targeted market, but rather “wide open” to all topics that cover most aspects of human life.

The Magazine is a 100% free, non-subscription based online magazine specifically created for the "people" of the Internet community. It specializes in educating, mentoring, empowering and inspiring others—covering life issues and challenges that we as human beings face or will come to face on a daily basis while living on earth.

Young and old alike will find many helpful, insightful, enlightening, and beneficial topics that they can use to better educate themselves on how to take on something that they are either going through, or will be going through in their lives.

Whether you are male or female; 10 years old or 70 years old; live in New York City or Clarence, Louisiana—Open Talk Magazine strives to include something helpful and beneficial to everybody that falls in the category of "human being" with the mission of helping, improving and changing the world one person at a time.

The magazine’s articles are written through the author's wisdom, experiences, research, education, intellect—as well as common sense; for this allows for “connectedness” between the reader and the article with the purpose of helping, improving and changing his or her life for the better.

Open Talk Magazine covers a broad range of categories, and features unlimited topics of interest. Its current categories include: Love & Relationships, Education & Learning, Life & Living, Health & Nutrition, It’s Political, and Technology—with many more planned to be launched in the coming months ahead.

With such a selfless mission being the driving force behind Open Talk Magazine, it’s going to be quite interesting watching it grow and mature over time; for the magazine is staged to help and benefit millions of people worldwide. Visit Open Talk Magazine (http://www.opentalkmagazine.com) today!

CONTACT:

Merkur Investments Corporation

105 Terminal Way, STE 110
Reno, Nevada 89502

Business Contact:

Larry West
lwest@opentalkmagazine.com



London-based Diageo, LLC, will receive a $250 million distillery plus $2.4 billion in direct cash subsidies in exchange for moving its distillery operations from Puerto Rico to the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands

On behalf of the 750,000 Floridians of Puerto Rican descent, the National Puerto Rican Coalition today praised Florida Senator George LeMieux for urging the Senate Finance Committee to reconsider a pending proposal under which Captain Morgan Rum will receive upwards of $2.7 billion in taxpayer-paid subsidies that Puerto Rico had planned on using to alleviate the effects of unemployment and poverty.

Under the proposal, Captain Morgan's parent corporation, London-based Diageo, LLC, will receive a $250 million distillery plus $2.4 billion in direct cash subsidies in exchange for moving its distillery operations from Puerto Rico to the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The subsidies amount to nearly half of all federal excise taxes paid on the sale of Captain Morgan for the next 30 years.

Currently, those funds are rebated to Puerto Rico, where they are used to fund education, health care and environmental conservation. Under a provision dating back to 1917, the Territories receive a rebate of almost all federal Excise Taxes paid on the sale of rum produced by them as a means of federal assistance.

In a letter today to Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus and Ranking Republican Charles Grassley, Sen. LeMieux asserted that the diversion of funds from Puerto Rico "could result in a significant shift in the assistance the U.S. government provides the Territories."

With nearly half its residents living below the poverty line, if Puerto Rico were a state, it would be the poorest in the union. Its per capita gross domestic product is significantly less than Mississippi's, and unemployment last month was 16.5%, higher than any U.S. state.

LeMieux also asserted that the arrangement could result in "a massive subsidy to one rum producer, creating an unequal playing field in what is now a competitive market."

Puerto Rico's Congressman, Pedro Pierluisi, has introduced legislation to ensure that 90% of all rum excise taxes rebated to the Territories are used to meet the respective Territories' social needs. H.R. 2122 would allow the Territories to provide incentives to the rum companies, but would limit them to 10% of the total excise taxes collected.

A copy of Sen. LeMieux' letter is available at http://www.nprcinc.org/files/LeMieux%20Support%20for%20PR.pdf.

National Puerto Rican Coalition

CONTACT: Anabel Evora, Mike Collins Public Relations, +1-305-479-5718,ANABEL.EVORA@HOTMAIL.COM, for the National Puerto Rican Coalition

Web site: http://www.nprcinc.org/

Did You Know?
  • Distance learning dates back more than 100 years to Europe, Africa, and Asia, where open universities offered external degrees.
  • On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, by David Merlini.
  • In the 2006–07 academic year, 66 percent of the 4,160 2-year and 4-year Title IV degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the nation offered college-level distance education courses.
  • Eduventures, a Massachusetts firm that does studies of educational trends, is now predicting that one out of every 10 college students will be in an online degree program by 2008.
  • The longest was the so-called 100-years war between Britain and France. It actually lasted 116 years, ending in 1453.