By Matt Brownell
Daily Finance

This guy should probably look into a new line of work.

A viral video making the rounds this week shows an air-freight handler at Guangzhou Airport in China loading up a cargo plane in the most careless way possible. Over the course of the four-minute video, the handler tosses parcels in the general direction of a conveyor belt, with only about half of the boxes reaching their intended target and the rest tumbling to the tarmac.

The video was first posted by Australian YouTube user Mark Bridgman a year ago, but it's gone viral this week.

It's not entirely clear what's happening here. This isn't a simple case of an overworked employee rushing to finish his work as quickly as possible -- if anything, his careless approach is going to make things take even longer, as he has to retrieve all the packages that fall onto the tarmac. Has he always been this bad at his job, or has the drudgery gotten to him? Is he just having a bad day? Is he drunk?

By Bruce Watson
Daily Finance

Makeup can be dangerous.

Looking at the rows of toners and powders, lipsticks and rouges packing the corner drug store, cosmetics seem innocent enough. But under the bright colors and attractive packaging, the sex appeal and huge advertising budgets, dangers lurk -- industrial solvents and carcinogens, deadly metals and petroleum distillates. And even beyond the health dangers, there are environmental worries -- concerns about where these ingredients come from and what their extraction does to the Earth.

On the other hand, it wasn't always this way. Sure, the ancient Romans sometimes mixed lead with their cosmetics, and 19th century Americans occasionally killed whales to get the raw ingredients for their perfumes. But, on the whole, cosmetics and skincare have gotten a lot less friendly over the past few decades.

Luckily, many of the classic cosmetics and skincare products your grandmother used are still going strong today. Here are nine of our favorite brands that are gentle on your wallet and will leave your skin and hair feeling great.

By Ken Ilungas, Special to The Motley Fool

On the first night I tried to sleep in my van, I was lying in my sleeping bag sprawled out on the backseat, parked in a mostly empty Walmart parking lot. I'd wake up every 15 minutes because I was nervous that the security guard driving past my van would knock on my door and make me leave.

My new home had 60 square feet and four wheels. While most people would consider living in a van an embarrassment, a low point, or even a "rock bottom," it would -- though I didn't realize it then -- turn out to be the greatest financial decision I'd ever made.

No one would end up waking me up in the Walmart lot, and, over the next two years, almost all of my other fears would prove to be entirely unfounded.

Debt-free; Dirt Poor

In January 2009, when I'd decided to move into the van, I was nearly broke. I had just $4,000 in the bank and no possessions other than a laptop, camera, cellphone and a suitcase full of clothes and a backpack full of camping gear.

I had next to nothing because I'd just finished paying off my $32,000 undergraduate school debt. Still, after two-and-a-half years of working, I wanted nothing more than to go back to school and get my master's degree in liberal studies at Duke University. But how could I afford tuition and not go back into debt?

My answer: a $1,500 '94 Ford Econoline.

I'd cook in it, sleep in it, study in it, and live in it. I'd do whatever it would take not to go into debt again.


A Nation of Potential Van Dwellers

I'm not the only student in America struggling with the high cost of education.

Currently, there are over 36 million debtors saddled with more than $1 trillion in student debt. In 2011, two-thirds of graduating students left with an average $26,600 in debt.

But the problem isn't always tuition. The enormous cost of room and board -- averaging $8,500 a year for students living on campus -- can set students back just as much. For freshmen at Duke University, which would be my graduate school, the cheapest dorm option is $5,464 an academic year. The cheapest meal plan is $5,540 an academic year, or $27 a day.

By living in a van, I figured, I could reduce (if not entirely do away with) many of the costs that are drowning students in seas of red ink. And if I picked an affordable graduate program, then, well, maybe I could leave school with a debt-free degree.

Amazingly, it worked. This is how I did it:

By Caroline Bennett
Daily Finance

Salacious shopping sprees, supersized bar tabs and parties that run well into seven-figure territory dominate the celeb gossip headlines. But not all of Hollywood's elite burn through money like it's going out of style.

There are some stars who have excellent financial track records, and you don't have to have a celebrity-sized paycheck to follow their lead. From saving money to making smart investments, these actresses are great role models for financial advice that anyone can use. Here's how they do it.

By M. Joy Hayes, PhD
Daily Finance

Think Facebook (FB) executives are overpaid? Join the club.

A close review of Facebook's 2013 proxy voting results suggests that most average outside shareholders are unhappy with Facebook's executive compensation system.

Unfortunately, there's nothing they can do about it.

Investors: You've Been Out-Classed

Facebook's current capital structure essentially gives insiders total control over matters brought to shareholders for a vote., because Facebook has two classes of stock -- a dual-class voting structure.

Clearly the best way to use aluminum foil is to fashion it into a cone-shaped hat to block aliens or the "Government" from reading your thoughts. However, aluminum foil has other uses -- even beyond cooking.

Here are a few ways to transform a cheap and durable kitchen staple into a marvel of home economy.




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By Erik Sherman
AOL Jobs

Better-paying jobs need better skills. Rather than plunking down thousands of dollars for, say, a degree in computer science, what if you could learn much of what you needed in 20 hours? What if you could stay ahead of the competition by learning every new gadget, software and technical skill in just 20 hours?
Author Josh Kaufman, right, says it is possible, and that he taught himself how to code -- as well as windsurf, play the ukulele and many other things -- in less than 20 hours each.

"A 14-year-old could learn to do this," says Kaufman, who chronicled his experiences in his best-seller, The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything ... Fast. "Once you get into it, it's really not as difficult as it seems."

Writer Malcolm Gladwell has famously said it takes 10,000 hours of practice to fully master a skill. But Kaufman cites research showing that most skill improvement happens early on when you go from incapable to "developing the capacity to perform." In his experience, that can happen in 20 hours.

By Eamon Murphy
Daily Finance

The money (left) and control/neutral (right) pictures used to "prime" participants in one study of how money influences moral outcomes. The mere thought of money can trigger a subconscious mindset that predisposes people towards unethical actions, according to recent research by professors at Harvard and the University of Utah.

Earlier work suggested that subtle exposure to money can influence behavior and decisions in self-centered ways, making people in studies more likely to choose an individual activity over a group one, for instance. This new research set out to to determine how such exposure might impact "morally relevant outcomes," in light of money's enormous importance to society in general and business organizations in particular.

By Matt Brownell
Daily Finance

In April, a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than a thousand people. The factory had been making apparel for numerous American fashion brands and retailers.

In the wake of the tragedy, Walmart (WMT) -- which had previously sourced clothes from the factory -- touted its commitment to worker safety by releasing an extensive list of factories it had stopped doing business with out of safety concerns. But a ProPublica report released last week found that at least two of those factories were still making clothes sold in Walmart stores.

In one case, the company told ProPublica that it had simply accepted clothing shipments that had already been produced. The other factory was making clothes for Fruit of the Loom that were subsequently sold in Walmart stores, and the company says that there was confusion about which company's standards should apply.

I'm sorry to tell you this waitstaff, but a lot of people hate tipping.

It's confusing, with people inevitably hemming and hawing over how much to tip and how much is fair, it's awkward, as it's not like you have to, and it's extremely random. How much is enough? How much is too much? Why do some service industries expect to be tipped in some areas, while it's perfectly acceptable not to even think of tipping others in different parts of the same industry?

After all, we're expected to tip the baggage handler at a hotel, but not the person at the front desk. Plus, some people believe that tipping is downright discriminatory, since data shows that blondes are tipped more than brunettes and black customers actually do tip less than white customers, which has caused discriminatory blowback for black customers by the restaurant industry.

Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, of Freakonomics fame, recently tackled this issue in their newest podcast.