Migrant Mother and Economic Recession

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) said Monday, December 1, 2008, that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy. Direct comparisons to the Great Depression have become more common in recent weeks, given the collapse of the stock market and consumer spending. But those comparisons overlook many key facts. During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate surged to 25% and GDP contracted by 28% between 1930 and 1932, an unthinkable prospect in today’s environment, thanks to a long list of underlying differences between then and now.

For example, the banking system collapsed in its entirety during the Great Depression and the absence of bank deposit insurance at the time caused catastrophic erosion to household wealth and consumption. Today, FDIC insurance (and its recently elevated limit to $250,000) provides a significant cushion; the response of economic policymakers is immeasurably faster and more aggressive now; and the coordinated actions among the major economies today to address the root causes of the current episode are both impressive and totally unprecedented.

While the economy is still in the better shape, than it was during the Great Depression, the nation is definitely going through tough economic times. It is safe to say that the current economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression.

The renewed interest to the Great Depression caused the search item migrant mother to get to the third highest position at the top Google Searches. The immense interest boost made the CNN Article about the icon of the Great Depression: a migrant mother with her children burying their faces in her shoulder.

Migrant Mother

Migrant Mother is the most famous of Dorothea Lange’s photographs, as well as one of the most well-known from the time of the Great Depression between the 1920s and 1940s. At the time the photograph was taken, Lange was working for the California Rural Rehabilitation Administration (RA) and the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Her job was to travel and take pictures to report on the living conditions of migrant workers and their families. In Nipomo, California, in 1936, Dorothea saw the woman in her famous photograph and approached her. The woman, aged thirty-two, was seated with her seven children at a destitute pea pickers camp. The following is an account of the experience in Lange’s own words:

"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, and that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it." (Lange 1960).


After returning home, Lange alerted the editor of a San Francisco newspaper to the plight of the workers at the camp, presenting him with two of her photos. The editor informed federal authorities and published an article that included Lange’s images. As a result, the government rushed a shipment of 20,000 lbs. of food to the camp. The photos’ wider impact included influencing John Steinbeck in the writing of his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

See the rest of the pictures that were taken at the same time (Source)

While there are hard economic times, especially for those who lost their jobs or other income sources in the recession, I would like to cheer you up by presenting a Photoshop parody on the great Migrant Mother picture.

Migrant Mother

How to Stop Junk Mail to your Mailbox

Oh, I am really tired from unwanted paper advertising posters and credit card offers that go directly to paper recycle bin, from spam email cluttering all email addresses, from unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. I guess most people do, since the search item stop junk mail appeared on top of the Google hot searches tomorrow. In this post, we will discuss the ways on how to stop, or at least decrease amount of the paper mail you are getting every day.

There are several companies online, which will offer you assisting hands in helping to reduce the paper waste stream to your house. But, there are some steps that you definitely can do yourselves without spending money.

Stop Junk Mail!

Using Online Assistants

Among online assistants are:

- GreenDimes offers a free basic service, or you can apply the $20 one-time fee for more elaborated assistance. GreenDimes walks you through some easy steps that will reduce unsolicited mail, and also lets you decline catalogs. Each time you receive an unwanted catalog, you go to GreenDimes and type the name of the catalog in. GreenDimes takes care of removing you from that catalog’s mailing list.

- ProQuo is a free junk-mail reduction service. In the future, they intend to make money when consumers opt-in to request offers (like credit card offers); ProQuo will make money from those advertisers. It lets you stop many services with just a couple mouse clicks per service, but for about 50% of the marketers (maybe 10-15 of them) you have to print and send a letter or leave to an external website to complete a form. It’s still better than nothing though, because even if you’re lazy you can opt out of a lot of junk mail with just your mouse for free. Overall, the service is free, easy, and helps you opt out of a wide variety of lists.

- Catalog Choice is a site solely for opting out of catalogs. It doesn’t tackle things like credit card offers, PennySaver, or list brokers, but the site is clean with a really nice user interface.

- 41pounds.org charges $41 for five years of service. The name comes from the fact that they claim to block 41 pounds of junk mail per year for you. Now, they are offering their membership as creative gift.

General Guidelines

Your name, address, and buying habits are a commodity that is regularly sold & traded on the open market. These days, organizations you deal with virtually all sell your name unless you specifically ask them to stop. Here are some general techniques:

* Whenever you donate money, order a product or service, or fill out a warranty card, write in large letters, "Please do not sell my name or address". Most organizations will properly mark your name in the computer.

* Product warranty cards are often used to collection information on your habits and income, for the sole purpose of targeting direct mail. They are not required in most situations - avoid sending them.

* On the telephone, ask "Please mark my account so that my name is not traded or sold to other companies".

* Your credit card company probably sells your name the most often -- keep reading for techniques to stop it.

* "Contests" where you fill in a little entry blank are almost always fishing expeditions for names. If you fill one out at a football game, for example, expect to get a catalog of football merchandise within a few months. Avoid these if you don’t want the mail.

* Select a false middle name or initial for each charity or business you deal with. Keep track of which letter goes with which organization. You can also select a false road designator, "avenue, place, circle, street, highway, parkway, etc." This step can be very revealing. Some guides recommend changing the spelling of your name, but this can lead to duplicate mailings.

Stop Junk Mail!

Stop unwanted paper mail

* Direct Marketing Association

Start by sending a postcard or letter to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 15012-0643 Include your complete name, address, zip code and a request to "activate the preference service". For up to five years, this will stop mail from all member organizations that you have not specifically ordered products from.

The Direct Marketing Association estimates that listing with their mail preference service will stop 75% of all national mailings. They process 50,000 requests a month and requests are kept active for five years. If you fill out the post office change of address form, the DMA will track the new address (you’ll get a few months of mailings to the new address before they catch up to you). It can take up to six months for your request to be fully processed. You can also opt-out online, but they charge $5. The best way is to fill out their online form, then mail them a printout. Note that mail addressed to “resident” or “occupant” cannot be stopped through the DMA.

* OptOutPrescreen

You can also go to OptOutPreScreen.com, which can enable you to remove your name from lists that mortgage, credit card and insurance companies use to mail you offers and solicitations. It’s a centralized website run by the four major credit bureaus in the United States: Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion.

Most businesses check with one or more of these companies before accepting your credit card or granting you credit for a long-term purchase. They are also a huge source of names and addresses for credit card, mortgage and insurance companies that routinely send junk mail to attract new customers and solicit new business. But there’s a way to fight back. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires credit bureaus to delete your name from their rented lists if you make the request.

* First class mail return

Cross out the address and bar code, circle the first class postage and write "refused: return to sender". Drop in any mail box, it will be returned to the sender.

* Bulk mail return

The post office throws away bulk mail it can’t deliver, so returning it does no good. Bulk mail is the hardest to deal with because the USPS actively provides addresses, support and encouragement to mailers. However, if "address correction requested" is written on the label: circle "address correction requested" and treat like first class mail.

* Sexually Oriented Advertising (SOA)

The only help you’ll get from the Post Office in controlling junk mail is for explicit stuff. Fill out USPS forms 1500 if you wish this type of mail to stop. You define what you find to be explicit -- if that’s an automobile parts catalog the post office won’t disagree with you.

* Credit offers

The major credit agencies all sell aggregate credit information any bidder. Direct mail and credit companies generate mail based on demographics including zip code, income band and credit payment patterns. Stopping this is easy, you just need your address, former address within two years, and social security number. One call does it all for agencies Equifax, Trans Union, Experian and Innovis. Dial 1-888-5 OPT OUT (or 1-888-567-8688) 24 hours a day.

You can also contact each company separately.

Write to Trans Union, Trans Union Corporation’s Name Removal Option, P.O. Box 505 Woodlyn PA 19094 (1-888-5OPTOUT or (1-888-567 8688)

Trans Union’s phone system records your opt-out details, which they may share with the following two companies.

Write to Equifax, PO Box 105873, Atlanta GA 30348 Equifax’s brochureware boasts it ability to locate ``hard-to-find consumers’’ and its ``powerful analytical tools that predict consumer behavior such as who is most likely to pay -- and when.’’ Knowledge is power, and knowledge about you is power over you. Privacy advocates objected when Equifax was awarded a privacy seal by BBBOnline.

Write to Experian, Consumer Opt Out, 701 Experian Parkway, Allen, TX 75013 (1-800-353-0809) (formerly a division of TRW, but since 1996 owned, along with Metromail, by Great Universal Stores Plc of Nottingham, UK). Experian seem to have a demanding procedure whereby they deign to let you off their system for two years, unless you fill out one of their forms or call 1-800-353-0809 (option 3), in which case they will abstain from making money selling financial information about you for a whole five years. Note that of all the names sold for pre-approved credit offers, nearly half were produced by Experian.

Write to Innovis, Innovis Consumer Assistance, P.O. Box 725, Columbus, OH 43216-0725 (1-800-540-2505). Note that Innovis doesn’t have to comply with the FCRA laws in the same way the other "big 3" credit agencies do, acting as a sort of final clearinghouse for consumer credit information.


* Catalogs

Most unwanted catalogs distribution is performed through Abacus Catalog Alliance. You can opt-out permanently from their distribution lists, stopping catalog mailings from association members. Email abacusoptout@epsilon.com with your full name and current address. If you changed your address over the past six months, include your previous address as well. You can also write to the following address:Abacus Cooperative Databases, P.O. Box 1478, Broomfield, CO 80038, phone: 303-410-5100

You can also use the following ways of opting-out from the catalogs distribution:

- Call the company’s 800- number and have the label handy.
- Write your instructions on the mailing label and fax it to the company. Mark "ATTN: customer service".
- Tear off the label, write your instructions on it, and enclose in the postage-paid ordering envelope. Mark envelope "ATTN: customer service". This method is the least effective.

* Sweepstakes

Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes: You can get the Clearinghouse to stop clogging your mailbox by contacting customer service at 1-800-645-9242 (8:30 am to 8:30 EST), sending a fax to 1-800-453-0272, mailing to 101 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050, or you can send email to pch@ant.net. PCH will remove any number of names from a specific address, but you have to list each name exactly and insist nicely.

American Family Sweepstakes: Ed McMahon and Dick Clark will stop telling you "You have definitely won 11 million dollars" if you call them at 1-800-237-2400. AFP is a division of Time-Warner.

* Local business & supermarket fliers

All mailings must be identified, by postal regulations. Each lose-leaf bundle of fliers, by postal regulations, must be delivered at the same time as an address card. Locate this address card; the cards usually have an advertisement and a photograph of a missing child. You may need to call directory assistance to get the phone number of the sender. Specific senders are:

- ADVO (Mail comes with pictures of missing children). Call 1-860-285-6100 to get off the list. You may have to send a postcard to "ADVO Consumer Assistance, POB 249, Windsor CT 06095-4176".
- Val-Pak Coupons: click the link and copy your mailing label.
- Carol Wright Call 1-800-67-TARGET to get off the list.
- Opt Out. Send a letter with all the variations of your name and address asking to suppress your name from their lists. They are a large provider of marketing lists. Address: InfoUSA, Attn: Consumer Requests, 1020 E. 1st St., Papillion, NE 68046, phone: 888-633-4402.

Most senders are professional companies which will handle your request politely. "ADVO Mailbox Values" and "Harte Hanks Potpourri" are the most common of these mailers. Your local supermarket’s monthly coupon books may be handled by these companies, so be sure to specify if you want to continue to receive those. Your letter carrier is accustomed to giving each house a bundle, so you may also need to inform him or her of your action separately. The post office is prohibited by law from delivering unaddressed mail, so you should have little trouble convincing the carrier.

* Unwanted phone books

Even though phone books are recycled in many communities, more than 660,000 tons still end up in the trash every year. This waste could be stemmed by first eliminating the delivery of unsolicited or unwanted phone books. Call the numbers below to remove your address from phone book delivery lists:

- DEX: 1-877-243-8339
- Yellow Book: 1-800-929-3556
- Verizon: 1-800-555-4833

* List Brokers

Pooling information effortlessly gleaned from phone books, public records-including real-estate transactions, tax files, and birth certificates-and other sources, these companies prepare and sell mailing lists to all kinds of businesses. Write to each listed below, requesting that your name be removed from all of their mailing and telemarketing lists. Preprinted mailing labels to ease the task are available at http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/junkmail_labels.html

Metromail Corporation
List Maintenance
901 West Bond
Lincoln, Nebraska 68521

R.L. Polk & Co. / Name Deletion File
List Compilation Development
26955 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, Michigan 48034-4716

Database America
Compilation Department
470 Chestnut Ridge Road
Woodcliff, New Jersey 07677

Acxiom U.S.
To request an opt-out form be mailed to you, call 877-774-2094 or complete the request at Acxiom U.S’s website. You will then have to fill out another form and mail it back as well.

And remember that in most cases, we are giving away our information voluntary, signing up for the promotions and sweepstakes, filling the warranty registrations, etc. These breaches should be minimized by keeping the personal information as private as possible.

Stop Junk Mail!

Additional Reading:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/stop-junk-mail/
http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/
http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/junkmail.htm
http://www.junkbusters.com/self.html#mail
http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/deals/stopping-junk-mail-is-easy-and-good-for-the-environment-20747/
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/18530707/

Global Warming: Wake-up Call or Hoax?

How much do you trust your government? How you much do you believe what you read in press or see on TV? What you think about Global Warming? There are completely controversial opinions on Global Warming in the media and Internet. Some call it the reality and wake-up call, other the biggest hoax in the history. What about you?

The problem is that in many general issues, like Global Warming, it is hard for us to make up our mind, since we do not possess objective data, and we do not have required expertise on this data evaluation. All we can - listen, read, and use our common sense for the facts evaluation. But, can you be sure that the facts you read are true? Oh, may be they are true, but just inadequately presented. That means that in some cases, we might lean to the side with loudest arguments.

I remember some discussion in my college. One guy said: “Everybody knows that…” His opponent replied: “Yes, everybody knows, that what you said is not true”.

In terms of Global Warming, I was among those skeptics, who indeed consider this concept as a big fat lie. I should be happy, that I got support from media. There’s a new documentary feature film “Not evil, just wrong” being produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney. It counters the dominant global warming alarmism, particularly Al Gore’s widely distributed film.

From their Website http://noteviljustwrong.com/:
This is the film Al Gore and Hollywood don’t want you to see. Al Gore has just closed two “green funds” after collecting almost three billion dollars and Barack Obama has raised 280 millions to promote his message. We have already raised almost 1 million to make the documentary and want to setup an Obama style grassroots initiative to collect a further 3.5 millions so that those who want to use flawed science to raise our taxes and close our factories are made accountable. Send whatever you can to get the truth to our cinemas, newspapers and schools so that an issue that threatens to damage so many lives finally gets the debate it deserves.

Sounds a bit hysterical to me… Appeal for money diminishes for me the movie credibility, even thou I did not see it yet. No, check the trailer for this documentary. Does not look as factual argumentation... Agree, it is not a movie yet, but that is how authors represent it to the public, so that is how they see their documentary themselves.

Not Evil Just Wrong

No, I am far from being expert in the Global Warming debate. I have, however the system of beliefs on the topic, that can be expressed in the series of claims:

1. People are threat to environment, and if the human operations will not be supervised, the damage might be significant, and even fatal (Atomic Stations Accidents).
   
2. Environment-friendly approach should be leveraged with the modern world needs, but any activities should be reviewed from the environment threat point of view.
   
3. Global Warming is a Hoax. The temperature deviations throughout the history of humankind were natural and were not triggered by the people. What did dinosaurs bad to the environment to be punished by death during Global Cooling?

Anyway, I am glad, that the topic is on the top of the news, dragging people attention (Google Top Searches today). For those, who wants to understand the issue in more details, take a close look on the Global Warming Petition Project, supported by many scientists, pronouncing that the human-caused global warming hypothesis has no scientific validity, and that government action on the basis of this hypothesis would unnecessarily and counterproductively damage both human prosperity and the natural environment of the Earth.

Project claims that 31,072 American scientists have signed this petition, including 9,021 with PhDs. Can it be considered as substantial proof? No way! But that can serve as substantial ground for the doubt to your willingness throwing your tax money on the questionable issue.

Here I find some people discussion on the topic that you might read if you are interesting in seeing different people Global Warming perception: http://aguanomics.com/2008/07/not-evil-just-wrong.html

Pregnant Man and Healthy Baby

Pregnant man search made to the top Google Searches today. No wonder, it is a shocking story, and interest to this story has been sparkled by the announcement that Discovery Channel is shooting the exclusive documentary featuring Thomas Beatie - history’s first pregnant man - and his wife, Nancy, through the final weeks of his pregnancy, the landmark birth of their child and their eventual return home next Tuesday, 9pm ET.

As I was a child one of the circulated urban legends offered an enormous at the time monetary price of 1 million for the first male to give a birth. Will Thomas Beatie be a lucky winner? Probably, not for this prize, but the enormous publicity from the moment Thomas and his wife to the press from April this year should make them wealthy enough to compensate for the certain problems of private life revealed to the curious public.

I am not planning to follow up the story in all details, and you can get the detailed information in the additional reading listing. I will just highlight some interesting details:

First of all, Thomas Beatie is not a medical mystery. He is a female-born, transgender man. He was born with female reproductive organs but partially transitioned via hormones and top surgery keeping everything from the waist below in tact. He no longer has breasts but retained all necessary girl parts, necessary to give a birth to a kid. Beatie has married and he and his wife, Nancy, eventually decided they wanted to have children. Nancy couldn’t get pregnant but Beatie could. So, that is all.

Thomas Beatie - Man Giving a Birth

Among other interesting facts about Thomas Bearie:

• Thomas Beatie, in his former life known as Tracy, was a really pretty girl. In fact, he (she) became a finalist in a Miss Hawaii Teen USA beauty pageant.

Thomas Beatie - Man Giving a Birth

• Now, it is a pretty young man, and it is hard to imagine the former transformations to his personality. He is having a black belt in karate and can bench easily 255 lbs. Hey men! Can you do that?
  
• On June 29 at 8:55 p.m., Beatie made a cultural history as perhaps the first legally transgender male to give birth, bringing into the world a 9 lbs., 5 oz. baby girl named Susan Juliette.

CNN Video Presentation:

Thomas Beatie - Man Giving a Birth

Additional Reading:
http://health.discovery.com/tv/pregnant-man/pregnant-man.html
http://advocate.com/issue_story.asp?id=52664&page=1
http://www.simmobilez.info/pregnant-man-a-stillborn-chance-to-educate-the-public/
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20214360,00.html

Spider Eats Bird? You think it is nonsense?

Photos of a mammoth spider devouring a bird in a Queensland backyard are sweeping email inboxes - and according to experts, they are real.

Several photos of a giant spider eating an unfortunate bird have been posted on Thursday’s (October 23) edition of Australia’s Cairns Post. The photos - which are reported to have been taken this week in Atherton, west of Cairns - show the spider clenching its legs around a lifeless bird trapped in a web. The images first appeared on website forum Ars Technica on October 16.

Bird Eating Spider Buzz

Head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford on NSW central coast, Joel Shakespeare, said the spider was from the species Nephila edulis, better known as the edible golden silk orb-weaver. "Normally they prey on large insects… it’s unusual to see one eating a bird," he told. Mr Shakepeare said he had seen Golden Orb Weaver spiders as big as a human hand but the northern species in tropical areas were known to grow larger. The average body of the female of the species is generally four times (23 mm - less than an inch) the size of the male (6 mm - less than a quarter of an inch), with a leg-span that can extend to that of a man’s hand. The spider eating the bird in the photo is a female. Some golden orb weavers have been found to reach 45 mm (less than two inches).

Bird Eating Spider Buzz

Bird Eating Spider Buzz

Bird Eating Spider Buzz

Queensland Museum identified the bird as a native finch called the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin. The bird, which appears frozen in an angel-like pose, most likely flew into the web and got caught, according to Mr Shakepeare. "It wouldn’t eat the whole bird," he said. But the spider would probably prepare a liquid soup with the finch - as it does with insects - and discard of what it doesn’t need. "It uses its venom to break down the bird for eating and what it leaves is a food parcel," he said.

Greg Czechura from Queensland Museum said cases of the Golden Orb Weaver eating small birds were "well known but rare". "It builds a very strong web," he said. But he said the spider would not have attacked until the bird weakened. "They blunder into [the webs] and their feathers get entangled," he said. "The more they struggle, the more tangled up and exhausted they get and they go into stress."

Associate Professor Ron Atkinson, who created the Find-a-Spider guide for Australian spiders, confirmed that the Golden Orb Weaver spider (Nephila pilipes) was "very efficient at catching insects". “Their venom quickly immobilizes insects, but it is unlikely it is potent enough to have any serious effects on humans, and I have never heard of anyone being bitten by one and certainly not anyone who was made ill as a result of such a biting," he said.

The Golden Orb Weaver spins a strong web high in protein because it depends on it to capture large insects for food, unlike funnel web and wolf spiders that actively hunt their prey. Another species called the bird-eating spider does not actually eat birds. "If a spider gets a bird, it’s a very lucky spider," Mr Czechura said.

Sources:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1137062/spider_eats_bird_photos_all_over_the.html?cat=8
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=652115
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=651337

Have you ever sent email to the wrong person?

The death by email search string at the very bottom of the 100 Google searches list directed me to the topic review that immediately captured my interest. Indeed, is there a way to retrieve back an email sent by mistake? Let it be the method to do that!!!! Pleaseeeee!

 

Harm from Misdirected Email

Nancy Dunetz, who teaches English as a second language in New York City, sat down in the school staff room to check her e-mail. One of the messages in her inbox was from an acquaintance she’d been corresponding with since their 50th high school reunion last year.

But this e-mail last June didn’t contain chummy banter or reminiscences. It simply included a lewd photo of a partly unclothed young man. The file name of the picture was "Mid East Hottie."

"I was shocked!" says Dunetz, 68. She hastily closed the e-mail and tried to erase the image from her mind.

Later that day, the sender e-mailed an apology to her and two dozen others who had received the e-mail. He explained he’d been experimenting with his new computer and was trying to figure out how to add attachments to an e-mail, Dunetz says. In doing so, he attached an image from his desktop and tried to send it to himself. Instead, the e-mail program automatically filled in an entire group from his address book -- something he apparently didn’t realize until after he hit the "send" button.

"I felt terrible for him," Dunetz says. "I could imagine just how mortified he must have been."

With some 55 billion e-mails being sent daily (not including spam), according to e-mail archiving company The Radicati Group, misdirected e-mails have become the online equivalent of a wrong number. They’re unavoidable, annoying -- and often embarrassing.


The ’uh-oh’ e-mail

In a recent online survey conducted by AOL, 32 percent of the 4,000 respondents have at one time or another mistakenly forwarded an e-mail to an unintended recipient. And often, it’s something not so nice.

Karla Comer, an account executive at an ad agency in Greensboro, North Carolina, knows just how embarrassing that can be. In 2004, Comer met a guy at a concert and went out with him a few times, but ultimately realized she wasn’t interested. "He was just awkward and clumsy. And sometimes I’d catch him staring at me, which really creeped me out," she says.

She tried to end the relationship by simply not returning his phone calls. "But then he e-mailed and causally said that he had not heard from me in a while and he hoped everything was fine but just assumed I was busy," says Comer, 31.

"Before I returned his e-mail, I sent the message to a close girlfriend with a blurb about what an idiot I thought he was and that dating him was a bad idea because he had no understanding of social cues."

She thought she sent the "he’s an idiot" e-mail only to her girlfriend.

To her horror, Comer says, the spurned beau replied a few minutes later, calling her some not-so-sweet names and suggesting that she "share THIS e-mail with your friends." "I was speechless," says Comer, who chose to not respond. "But eventually I was able to laugh at it."

When errant e-mails are sent at work, however, there’s often much more at stake than personal. Three years ago, Jamie Diamond, 33, e-mailed his then-boss to ask about a client at the public relations firm where he was working. His boss wrote back, criticizing the client as incompetent and urging Diamond to "go around him if you want to get anything done." , Diamond says, she also sent the e-mail to the client -- oops, make that ex-client.

"One click, and suddenly we’d lost a $5 million account," says Diamond, who is now self-employed as a publicist in Williams, Oregon.


Legal Protection


As you saw, if in some cases, forwarding email message to the wrong person can have unpleasant and confusing consequences, there are cases, when accidental release of the classified information might be disastrous. Law firms are trying to minimize the potential risks by adding the disclaimer to the bottom of every electronic message, something like:

This e-mail (including any attachments) is protected by the United States Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §§2510-2521 and is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. All emails sent by me remain my property. You must obtain written permission to forward in part or whole any message, data contained within, MX and other header information. Doing so without my written permission constitutes an agreement between me, you and the party you forwarded the information to pay me a sum of no less than $5000. This is a legally enforceable contract between me, you, and the party to whom you forwarded the information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, reproduction, modification, or publication of this communication is illegal and prohibited by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, reproduction, modification, or publication of this communication is illegal and prohibited by law. Please delete the message from your computer and destroy any copies. This message is not intended to be relied upon by any person without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. The sender therefore disclaims all responsibility and accepts no liability of any kind that may arise from any person acting, or refraining from acting, upon the contents of the message without having had subsequent written confirmation. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies of this message and any attachments. Thank you. 


But that hardly can reverse the negative consequences of the information release.


Can you turn back time?

Short of erasing someone’s memory, there is no surefire way to retrieve a missent e-mail. Microsoft Outlook has a "recall" function that can erase unread e-mails from the in-box of the recipient -- as long as the recipient is using the same mail client or server as the sender -- as does AOL, but only for messages between AOL users. (Both AOL and CNN are divisions of Time Warner.)

Also, if you’re lucky enough to be on a closed (controlled access) e-mail system at a company or an institution-specifically, one that uses Microsoft Outlook for its mail server-it’s possible to actually recall an e-mail message, as long as it hasn’t been opened. To do that, follow these instructions. But remember: This probably won’t work from your home computer.

* Select View, and then select Folder List.
* Click Sent Items.
* Open the message you want to recall.
* On the Actions menu, click Recall This Message.
* To actually recall the message, click Delete Unread Copies of This Message.
* Click OK. Outlook will attempt to recall the message.

There’s also BigString.com, an e-mail service which lets you tinker with (or even erase) messages that have already been sent by having the sender write e-mails that are created, stored and viewed on a remote server, where they can be edited or revoked at any time; recipients are actually accessing the e-mail on the remote server when they read the message, even though it looks like a regular e-mail.

But old-fashioned vigilance is probably the best way to avert these snafus in the first place. Roger Matus, CEO of e-mail archiving company InBoxer Inc. and keeper of the blog Death By Email, believes the easiest way to avoid these mistakes is to forget that the "reply all" button even exists. "Simply put, there is rarely a real reason to use it," he says. "Often, when you hit it, you end up e-mailing people who were blind carbon copied without realizing."

Matus offers the following tips on avoiding e-mail embarrassment:

* Type out the person’s full name when addressing your e-mail. If you type just the first few letters and let your e-mail program fill out the rest based on your address book, it could easily misroute your message without your realizing it.

* Double-check the addresses of your intended recipients before you hit "send." Do you really want all the people to get this particular message?
* Be sure to notify your company’s legal department if there is any chance that governance, compliance or privacy regulations were violated as a result of something you sent by mistake.
* If you are using Outlook, open the sent message, click actions & "Recall this message".
* Immediately notify the person who received the e-mail that it was a mistake and, if possible, ask them not to read the message -- or at least to delete it right away.
* Use the false excuse to request your recipients to delete the mail received from you. Send another e-mail to everybody who got the problem message. In the subject header, type something like VIRUS ALERT!!! In the body of the e-mail, tell them that you think your system has been infected by a virus and that they should immediately delete any e-mails received from you recently.

Humor

I decided not to leave you on verge of tears on your missent emails in the past, and give some reason for smile as well. So, joke for you:

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack.

The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted. The widow’s son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife 
Subject: I’ve Arrived
Date: October 16, 2005
I know you’re surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I’ve seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
Looking forward to seeing you then!!!!
Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P.S. Sure is freaking hot down here!!!!

Smile!

Sources and Additional Reading:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/20/lw.recovering.email.mistakes/?iref=mpstoryview
http://www.romow.com/internet-blog/sent-emails-to-the-wrong-person-cant-be-taken-back/
http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/ive-sent-an-embarassing-email-to-the-wrong-person/article47488.html

Adult ADHD is Real with Howie Mandel

I was born and raised in the Soviet Union. The kids’ responsibilities, as the future communists, were to study day-and-night. I was always a good student, patient and obedient, and all the teachers like me. But my best friend was completely the opposite. He was sharp, smart, and creative. But he simply could not sit still for 45 minutes, and he could not concentrate on the long and boring home works. Once a week, when he showed his journal with class grades to his dad, he usually got a fair portion of the belt beating. But still nothing could force him to overcome his “laziness” and become a good student.

Now, thirty years later, I know, that he simply could not do, what he was required. He definitely had ADHD as a kid. Unfortunately, the completely wrong educational program and household regular prosecutions did so much harm for his self-confidence, that he could not make it, committing suicide at the age of 17. If only everybody knew at this time, that he is not a “bad” boy, he might get a treatment and attitude, which would definitely save his dignity and his life.

Now, the child ADHD is widely accepted. There are treatments, techniques, and drugs to help the affected kid, and the combination of all the factors help living a normal life. But what about adults? Did you know that the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is not limited by the certain age patients?

In the News:

Emmy nominated Howie Mandel, host of "Deal or No Deal," is raising awareness about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults through the national multimedia public service announcement campaign "Adult ADHD Is Real."

Howie Mandel Backstage Interview

This campaign and its Web site, AdultADHDIsReal.com, have been developed by a coalition of groups dedicated to ADHD education and awareness and made possible by Shire, according to a press release. As an adult living with ADHD, Mandel has been tapped to encourage adults who think they may have ADHD to seek diagnosis and evaluation.

ADHD is Real

"When I was in high school, my impulsivity led me to all kinds of acts and pranks. I had trouble sitting still and could hardly focus or pay attention in class. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I was diagnosed with ADHD," Mandel said in the press release. "I’m involved in the Adult ADHD Is Real campaign because I want adults to know that it’s never too late to seek help for ADHD. I hope that sharing my story encourages people to seek help. I didn’t let ADHD prevent me from achieving my goals and neither should anyone else."

According to the press release, many people may think of ADHD as a childhood disorder, but up to 65 percent of children with the disorder may still exhibit symptoms into adulthood. In U.S. adults, aged 18 - 44, the disorder affects approximately 4.4 percent of this population based on results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative household survey, which used a lay-administered diagnostic interview to access a wide range of DSM-IV disorders.

The multimedia campaign features Mandel in television, radio, and print public service announcements.

Additional Reading:

http://www.amny.com/news/health/ny-hsadhd1018,0,3674554.story
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/howie-mandel-raises-awareness-about/story.aspx?guid=%7B1AF868B2-E633-4471-895F-8C8FC26D3CFE%7D&dist=hppr

UFO Prediction - October 14, 2008

Today is October 13, 2008. Actually, it is almost October 14, 2008 on the US West Coast. At most of the places in the World, the DAY October 14 already became a current date. What is so special about it? Why the search string october 14th ufo came to the tops of the Google Hot Trends? May be, it is nothing, or may be, it is a beginning of a new ERA.

On October 14th, 2008, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will train their eyes to the skies in the hopes of seeing whether or not Australian channeler Blossom Goodchild made good on her prediction: that a massive Extraterrestrial spacecraft and its occupants would visit planet Earth and allow their presence to be known internationally for a minimum of three days.

Goodchild went public with her message from The Federation of Light on August 22-nd of this year, in the form of a simple e-mail sent to 125 of her contacts. The announcement spread quickly (without her knowledge and help for the most part) via You Tube videos as well as blogs and web sites.

Since August, Blossom herself has appeared on several Internet Radio shows and with hosts such as; Mike Quinsey, Lia Ramses (Underworld), Captain Jack (Paranormal Radio), and others to help promote the message. The mainstream media of course, have chosen to leave the topic alone, save for a few local and regional outlets such as; NewsBlaze.com, The Independent Online, The Clanton Advertiser, and Waaytv.com.

Many UFOlogists are quite skeptical on the possible appearance of a large UFO for three days. However, there is no point to argue yes or now, since the due date is around the corner. Wait and see. However, blog dedicated to the predicted UFO appearance http://www.10-14-08.blogspot.com/ claims that people should want the event to happen in order for to happen. Check their video presentation below:

About Blossom Goodchild:

Blossom Goodchild is a professional ‘direct voice’ channelling medium working with spirit and cosmic energies. She has been channelling the Native American Indian Spirit Energy ‘White Cloud’ for seven years now and shares his messages of Unconditional Love by means of personal readings and group meetings.

In addition to her spiritual work Blossom is also a wonderful actress, whose experience includes touring the UK in repertoires and musicals. Since immigrating to Australia in 2001 and settling in Noosa with her husband Goody and son Ritchie, she has firmly established herself as one of the finest actresses on the Sunshine Coast. Blossom has performed the one-woman show ‘Shirley Valentine’ as well as major roles in several David Williamson plays for the Noosa Long Weekend. She took on the challenging roles as the lead in ‘The Gingerbread Lady’ in which she was simply superb. She recently returned to the musical stage in Ian Mackellar’s ‘Now That’s Entertainment’

 

Additional Reading:

http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1008/showtime.html
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1008/no-appearance.html
http://www.blossomgoodchild.com/

$50 Bonus from ShareBuilder

Do you trust your government to give you a sufficient retirement income for all the hard work you’ve done for the country? Neither I am. You need to take care of your retirement age personally as much as you can. I would not want to count on my kids, when I am old. I want to be financially independent up to the very moment to leave this world. It is easier building a safety retirement fund if you start your savings early in your life. I know, that you do not think in your 20^s that you ever get to the old ages, and you have plenty options to burn your money for leisure and pleasure. But think about later just for the moment. It is maybe sad or unfair, but youth will not last forever.

There are multiple ways for the smart investments in the future, and it is good to diversify your efforts. I know, in the current economy status, it is hard to think about investments without disgust. But, somebody is making money even on the down market. Don’t jump in this train without precise investigation. If you do not trust your own personal opinion and insufficient experience, use the full-services broker to get professional advises. However, if yours initial investments funds are not substantial, and the thought of paying premium prices from brokerage advises does not look attractive, you can always use discount online brokers, who do not limit your initial investment funds, and who charges very little for every transaction.

I am using Scottrade for my modest account with their cost of transaction just $7. However, today top Google Searches brought on the surface another broker sharebuilder, looking even more attractive with their $4 transaction fees. I was checking this site couple of years ago, and I did not go for it as I did not find the solid financial backup for financial funds there. However, when company was acquired by the ING Direct unit of Netherlands-based ING Group (NYSE: ING) last November, it got the necessary credibility and assurance. I am personally using ING Direct for savings purposes, and I never had any problems with them.

$50 Bonus from ShareBuilder

Note, that Sharebuilder has numbers of features to protect your money. Many people are wary when it comes to using a credit card online, with all the rumors and threats on the credit card scams and frauds. Sharebuilder does not use a credit card for the funds transactions. Your account there is simply connected to your checking account, and it is easy for you transferring your funds back and forth whenever needed. There is a special validation at place to verify that you are the one making funds transactions.

$50 Bonus from ShareBuilder

Paying $4 transaction fee, you can afford buying stock in very small amounts, making your investment tactics very flexible. Sharebuilder lets you invest $10 at a time if you really want to. If you are a novice investor and do not feel comfortable choosing your own stocks, you can invest in common funds instead. With mutual funds, a fund manager chooses the stocks for you and, as an added bonus, you do not to pay any maintenance fees. You can settle upon from growth stock funds, bond funds, foreign funds, and other types of investment. You can trade manually, whenever you feel like that, or you can establish the automatic flexible investment schedule.

One more thing I really like in this option as you can keep money for investing in the account with no minimum balance requirements and you get a nice interest rate that is significantly higher than your bank offers.

It is almost end of the article, and I still did not mention what I meant by the attractive title, announcing $50 free bonus option. Sharebuilder is offering a $50 signup bonus. To qualify for this bonus, simply enter “CASH50” or “BONUS50” when prompted for your promo code and then make a trade before the end of November 2008. Within 4-6 weeks, they’ll deposit $50 in your account.

Rumors on In-N-Out: True or False?

Couple of days ago, I got the email from one of the all-know-about friends with the following text:

“In and Out will be celebrating 60th anniversary on 22^nd of October which means 2 weeks later we will be able to buy hamburgers for 25 cents, Cheeseburgers 30 cents, Fries 15 cents, and drinks are 10 cents! You lucky Americans had better not forget to mark your calendars for in and out! 60th anniversary of in-n-out will be celebrated in all the stores! So where ever you go prices will be the same! You can eat in and out burgers till you vomit! Man you guys are really lucky, do not forget to wake up early since all the in-n-out stores will be crowded, and I think you better buy extra hamburgers to store them in deep freeze! Hamburgers for 25 cents!!! Yummy yummy!!! In-n-out rocks babe!” with the reference to the blog announcement source.

I deleted the email as I usually do with spam, because I am not a big fan of Fast Food, but today hot search for in and out burger 60th anniversary on Google Hot Trends draw my attention and reminded on the secret menu announcement. To make it short, I will just say that these rumors are not true, they are definitely a hoax and the case belongs to my other blog Best Hoaxes and Pranks. The rumors were so intense online, that In-n-out burgers had to put special announcement on their Web site: You may be aware of a rumor about our menu prices being lowered for our anniversary on October 22nd. This rumor is untrue. We’ve always tried to keep our prices as low as possible in order to give our customers the greatest value. One of the ways we accomplish this is by not discounting and our anniversary is no exception. We’re sorry if this rumor has caused any confusion.

With or without this promotion, undoubtedly, In-n-our Burgers is the best chain for Fast Food Burgers with the highest quality of food. To some Fast Food chains I will never go, even while starving from hunger, to some chains (as McDonald’s) I can go only in the case nothing more available in the neighborhood, but In-n-out is a kind of place that I have no problem with, so it is like a “father-and-son getaway place” to me. What makes them different? What draws lines to their restaurants, while their closest rivals are not so busy? Why their food has a higher quality?

A brief overview:

The first restaurant opened in Baldwin Park, California back in 1948, and is still going strong with locations in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.

Visitors to the area marvel at the tasty burgers and fries that the little restaurants serve, and using the simple plan of giving the customers high-quality burgers, the company has remained a huge success. Specialty items on the menu aren’t visible, but rather exist in "secret" where everyone knows them, but they just don’t appear on the in-store menu. These items include things like there 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 which means 3 or 4 patties as well as 3 or 4 slices of cheese on one burger. I have been told that their web site does explain these extras, as well as a few other tantalizing options like the Flying Dutchman, but I could not find any reference to the mentioned menu items, and their Menu page is probably under construction.

Anyway, you can indeed order the secret menu items anytime, and there is a video proof that the 100 x 100 option is available as well. If you are really hungry.

100x100 In-N-Out Burger

The restaurants have been going strong for almost 60 years, and the estimated revenue of the company was at $216.8 million in 2007 according to the Company profile page. It goes without saying that this is a hugely successful company, and they do it by keeping both their employees and their customers happy. In fact, rather than hiring people at minimum wage, employees in California make a starting wage of $10.00 per hour, which is far better than any of the other fast food restaurants out there. Still privately owned, and proud of it, In-N-Out is one of those places that is so strong from word-of-mouth, that anyone who is a fan of hamburgers and traveling to California has to check it out.

It is not very common that Fast Food Restaurants inspiring poets to right about. But, with In-and-Out is not the case.

Oh In-N-Out Burger, how I love you so.
You fill my belly, you make it grow.
I eat your meat; your juicy tomato,
but to your onions, I must say "no".
A single, a double, a three by three,
I can get it any way, just for me.
Sans buns, animal style,
whatever it is, it makes me smile.
I would eat it in a box, I would eat it with a fox,
I would eat it in a house, I would eat it with a mouse.
I love your food, it fills me with glee
and I even laugh when your special sauce falls on me.
That’s not an innuendo if you must know,
this poem is from the heart, it’s not for show.
But one question I ask, one question if you will
why deny many your goodness; so many the thrill?
Found only on the west, the east is uninformed,
And their loss can only be mourned.
But I celebrate your burgers, I love them indeed,
for I eat them too much, too often with speed.
But now I must go, the poem must end,
for I have burgers to buy and money to spend.


elwafflegrande

Einstein fridge against Global Warming

Albert Einstein is probably most remembered by the public for his General Theory of Relativity, but how many remember his 1930 invention of a refrigerator that used no electricity? The idea was great, it operated without electricity, using ammonia, butane and water. The principle being that water boils at a much lower temperature at high altitudes where air pressure is lower than it does when you’re at sea level, where air pressure is higher.

Malcom McCulloch, an electrical engineer at Oxford University in the U.K., is leading a team in a three year project to produce appliances that can be used in places without electricity. That’s when McCulloch came to the point of rethinking the Einstein’s fridge idea again. The revival of interest to the old-time invention also brought the related search for Einstein refrigerator on the top of the Google Search trends today.

Modern fridges are notoriously damaging to the environment. They work by compressing and expanding man-made greenhouse gases called freons - far more damaging that carbon dioxide - and are being manufactured in increasing numbers. Sales of fridges around the world are rising as demand increases in developing countries.

Malcolm McCulloch’s team has completed a prototype of a type of fridge patented in 1930 by Einstein and his colleague, the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard. It had no moving parts and used only pressurized gases to keep things cold. The design was partly used in the first domestic refrigerators, but the technology was abandoned when more efficient compressors became popular in the 1950s. That meant a switch to using freons.

Einstein and Szilard’s idea avoids the need for freons. It uses ammonia, butane and water and takes advantage of the fact that liquids boil at lower temperatures when the air pressure around them is lower. ’If you go to the top of Mount Everest, water boils at a much lower temperature than it does when you’re at sea level and that’s because the pressure is much lower up there,’ said McCulloch.

At one side is the evaporator, a flask that contains butane. ’If you introduce a new vapor above the butane, the liquid boiling temperature decreases and, as it boils off, it takes energy from the surroundings to do so,’ says McCulloch. ’That’s what makes it cold.’

For technically-savvy readers I am bringing the original patent for review.

Pat 1781541 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Pressurized gas fridges based around Einstein’s design were replaced by freon-compressor fridges partly because Einstein and Szilard’s design was not very efficient. But McCulloch thinks that by tweaking the design and replacing the types of gases used it will be possible to quadruple the efficiency. He also wants to take the idea further. The only energy input needed into the fridge is to heat a pump, and McCulloch has been working on powering this with solar energy. ’No moving parts is a real benefit because it can carry on going without maintenance. This could have real applications in rural areas,’ he said.

McCulloch’s is not the only technology to improve the environmental credentials of fridges. Engineers working at a Cambridge-based start-up company, Camfridge, are using magnetic fields to cool things. ’Our fridge works, from a conceptual point of view, in a similar way [to gas compressor fridges] but instead of using a gas we use a magnetic field and a special metal alloy,’ said managing director Neil Wilson.

’When the magnetic field is next to the alloy, it’s like compressing the gas, and when the magnetic field leaves, it’s like expanding the gas.’ He added: ’This effect can be seen in rubber bands - when you stretch the band it gets hot, and when you let the band contract it gets cold.’

Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said creating greener fridges was hugely important. ’If you look at developing countries, if they’re aspiring to the lifestyles that we lead, they’re going to require more cooling - whether that’s air conditioning, food cooling or freezing. Putting in place the technologies that are both low greenhouse-gas refrigerants and low energy use is critical.’

McCulloch’s fridge is still in its early stages. ’It’s very much a prototype; this is nowhere near commercialized,’ he said. ’Give us another month and we’ll have it working.’

Sources and Additional Reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/21/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange
http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/uspat1781541/www/
http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/22/einstein-refrigerator-making-a-comeback/

Urgently Looking for Bathroom?

How many times have you been out in the city and realized that you need to use a restroom, and... you need it badly. Even worse, when you kid needs to use a restroom, and you have no idea where you can find it in the unfamiliar neighborhood. You finally pull into a nearest gas station with joy only to discover that they don’t have public restrooms. Too much of the frustration…

The problem is real, and carrying the portable bathroom in the car does not sound as a best solution if you got to go. Due the problem worldwide importance, it came today to the top Google Searches list in the shape of mizpee approach. The award-winning MizPee service, developed by Yojo Mobile ( www.yojomobile.com), delivers a list of nearby toilets with their levels of cleanliness, when people enter their current location into their mobile browser. Facility details, including purchase requirements, diaper-changing amenities and handicap accessibility, are also provided. Users who have visited specific restrooms and experienced conditions first-hand can enter their reviews on the www.mizpee.com website.

MizPee meets the needs of urban women and men, mothers of young children; sufferers of Crohn’s or Colitis, or anyone else who needs to find a clean bathroom urgently.

Service operations are free, easy and straightforward. To access Mizpee on your mobile phone, go to www.mizpee.com from your mobile browser. Select your state and city from the pull-down menu, and MizPee will return a list of public toilets in your area. Each listing includes a rating of cleanliness, the distance from your location, business hours, and whether or not you’ll have to buy anything to use the bathroom. Through the MizPee mobile application, users can access the locations while on the go.

If your area is covered by MizPee Services, may be you do not need carrying portable toilet in your car anymore...

Do you really think your confidential images are safe online?

In the modern age of information, people are using Internet resources more and more to communicate each other, sharing their personal images and videos with their friends. Bloggers and chatters are also looking for the best ways to place the videos and images on the third party services for instant hot linking to their posts and messages. That will help to preserve account space and related bandwidth.

Appearing tinypic.com on the top of the Google Hot Trends today just prove the fact that these service, in spite of the existing variety on the offered services on the market.

TinyPic.com is a Video and Image sharing service that allows easily uploading, linking and sharing users’s videos and images. You can select whether to share the files in a private or public form. TinyPic.com is free for everyone and there is no need to open an account so as to take advantage of its features. This service is really easy to use; all you have to do is type in the files’s name and create some tags for it and it is done. Your image or video will appear on the website in a matter of seconds. TinyPic.com offers people the chance of searching for a specific video or image by the newest or the most popular ones.

Comparing with the alternative services as ShareAPic (images) or Flixya (images and video), the ultimate service advantage is an ability to use the service without registration or login to the account. However, while being free, TinyPic does not offer any way of revenue share to its users. So, if you are blogger, focused on monetization of your content, TinyPic will not be a best pick for you. If you do not care on the profits generation, I would definitely recommend a close look on its service offerings. The service is fast and reliable. TinyPic™ owned and operated by Photobucket.com, another free Image and Video Hosting company.

On the list of 25 Free Images Sharing Services for Bloggers, TinyPic is rated 4 of 5.

The regular service review is just a first part of the topic I would want to discuss today. As it is introduced by the developers, there is opportunity to load the pictures and videos on the site with intention to make the files private. And the site indeed does everything possible to keep them private. However, is that really the case?

Nav.Net is a Fusker engine for intelligent image and video search and downloading. It can help unauthorized person to get access to the media files, which were not intended to his eyes. But since the site and the software (actually, there is much more than one offering on the market) are freely available, those how consider their data absolutely private, should be aware that it is not entire truth.

Please review the video with brief fusking tutorial.

Nav.Net - Intelligent Image and Video Utility
NavNet Developers Site: http://navnetapp.com/

Direct downloading link: http://www.ziddu.com/download/2278315/NavNetSetupB35.exe.html

I am neither promoting such kind of activity, nor using it myself. But I also do not store confidential photos online. Please use the software to check how secure your safe storage is.

Can you Vote? How? When? Where? Why?

As you noticed, I am not covering in my blog many topics that stay on top of the US society hot lists, as TV, sports, or elections. I am not truly interesting in these topics of discussion personally, so I do no feel of writing about. But, refusing to promote my personal political views on the upcoming president elections, I do have my strong points, what would be better for this country, backed up by personal experience, available information, and experience in politics back in Europe, where I was extremely politically active and where at one time I was elected as a member of the Central Committee of one of the Political Parties. All the point of this paragraph is to ask everybody to take part in the elections. Does not matter, what you think, remember - your voice is important. Evil comes to the power by the way of democratic elections in some cases, so thinking “it is not my business” or “I can change nothing” might be a small and tiny step to the disaster.

Two related search queries were today on the top of the list: can i vote and canivote.org. They both refer to the Web site http://www.canivote.org. The Web site is maintained by the National Association of Secretaries of State, the nation’s oldest, nonpartisan professional association for public officials. Here you can find all the information required to ensure that your voice will not be lost due to the incomplete or incorrect voting process. Requirements might be different in different States, or even in different counties of the same State. So, if you care, please care enough to make your homework ahead of time.

Your Voice is Important!

General reminder checklist for your convenience:

1. Be sure you are properly registered.

Most States require voters to register in advance of an election (though some allow voters to register on Election Day). Deadlines range from 3 to 30 days before an election. Find out if you are properly registered, confirm your address, obtain a copy of a voter registration form, and learn about registration deadlines in your state ahead of time.

2. Be sure you go to the correct polling place.

Remember that in many states, if you vote at the wrong location, your vote will not be counted.

3. Find out your options for convenient voting.

Many States allow individuals to vote prior to Election Day, either in person or by absentee ballot. Absentee voters typically must request an absentee ballot in advance.

4. Find out if you are required to show ID.

Every state has identification requirements for at least some categories of voters. Be sure that you are carrying proper personal identification with you.

5. Review sample ballots and information about candidates and issues.

If you familiarize yourself with the layout and instructions of the ballot, you can prevent mistakes when you go to vote. Some local election officials will provide you a sample ballot if you request one. Also, know who and what you’re voting for - you can research all candidates and ballot issues by contacting local civic groups or visiting www.canivote.org.

iSearch - a Better Way to Find People Online

isearch made line 20 in the hottest news on Google Trends after recent announcement at the DEMOfall 2008 convention. It was introduced by its parent company Intelius as a brand new and more extensive search directory. When entering the site, iSearch gives you the search options of searching a person’s name and their location. A user can also search Internet screen names to find out more about their Internet buddies, as well as search phone numbers.

With iSearch, by typing in a person’s name and address, they have instant access to everything the Internet has on this person. iSearch may list several people with the same name in the same town or city, but the user will likely eventually get to the person they searched for in the first place.

If someone wants to look for old friends or family members, iSearch is positioning itself as the search tool to use. However, iSearch can only find information that is posted on the Internet, displaying all the web pages with a person’s name in one search entry. Of course, iSearch doesn’t magically pull this information out of thin air. It depends on what your search "target" has disclosed publicly online somewhere. ISearch simply does a thorough scanning of the web and collects and displays all that information in one entry for you.

Intelius’s CEO Naveen Jain explained that the older form of people search (e.g., Googling around, resorting to the White Pages or following people home) just isn’t up to standards in light of the social networking phenomenon.

Can you trust data received from the search? Sometimes... Do you think, the Michael Jackson’s profile below is real?

You can access the Web site and try isearching immediately: http://www.isearch.com/

No registration required!