June 2003

Soap-Operas online

An interesting article that first explains how technology is in place for tomorrows entertainment and the media moguls staking out their territory:

SoapCity just concluded a two-month test-marketing campaign in St. Louis and Indianapolis, featuring billboards and ads wrapped around coffee cups in certain company cafeterias. The cities were selected, Talbot said, because they had high broadband penetration - and high soap-opera ratings.

"The Young and the Restless" is twice as popular with St. Louis viewers as those nationwide, he said, making it the best market for the show. Indianapolis is tops for "As the World Turns."

"These shows started in newsprint as serials, then went to radio. And they kind of built the backbone of TV. Now, we're using (soap operas) to build TV viewership on computers," he said.

Weather 101

Intellicast.com has a great section on site called Dr Dewpoint. Its set up like a university class schedule, with different curriculums for learning the basics of weather. Here is the class on clouds and another one on safety during lightening storms. This article on all the rain in the Northeast is what got me started.

If you feel your hair stand on end, you are in immediate danger of being struck. You should quickly drop to a crouching position bending forward, keeping your feet close together with your hands on your knees. You should try to be as low to the ground as possible, but with as little of your body touching the ground.

People struck by lightning carry no residual electrical charge. However, lightning often has a temporary paralyzing effect. Even though a person appears dead, he or she may be resuscitated. If a victim is not breathing immediately, call for emergency medical services, then start mouth to mouth resuscitation. If a person is not breathing and there is no pulse, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) must be administered. (Note: Mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR should only be administered by properly trained individuals.)

First Names

This is one of the most thorough sites I have found on the entymology and history of first names. Categorized by either countries or first letter of names. The main page of behindthename.com

AGNES   f   English, German, Dutch, Scandinavian
Pronounced: AG-nes
Derived from the Greek adjective hagnos meaning "chaste". Saint Agnes was a virgin martyred under Roman emperor Diocletian. The name became associated with Latin agnus "lamb", resulting in the saint's frequent depiction with a lamb by her side.

ROSALIND   f   English
Pronounced: ROZ-a-lind
Means "soft horse", derived from the Germanic elements hros "horse" and linde "soft, tender". This name was brought to England by the Normans. It was subsequently influenced by the Latin phrase rosa linda "beautiful rose". This is the name of the heroine in Shakespeare's comedy 'As You Like It'.

Junk Mail

Junkbusters.com is one of the most comprehensive collections of information about junk messages and how to stop them.

Most people like some but not all of the commercial mail they get. They are happy to receive the right offer in the right way. But they resent having to deal with grossly inappropriate solicitations, particularly the second or third time. It's the waste of resources that we are trying to stop, especially the waste of people's time spent handling these messages, which they feel powerless to stop.

Site covers spam, telemarketers, banner and web adds, etc. This page is a sitemap and subject guide. Two preventive suggestions are linked to: Guidescope (free community-based Web navigation service) and Internet Junkbuster Proxy (gets rid of stuff you don't want while surfing the Web, such as banner ads and cookies).

Here is an article from a different site entitled "Death to Spam". Although a year old, it covers some about researching spam generator web addresses and congressional laws against spam.

One of the most frequently mentioned ostensible laws pertaining to spam is bill s.1618. You'll probably find references to it in spam, such as:

This is an "Unsolicited Commercial Email", not "Spam".
This message is sent in compliance with the new e-mail bill:
SECTION 301. Per Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S. 1618

This message complies with the United States Federal requirements
that allow the sending of commercial email.

This notification is, of course, wholly bogus. Bill s.1618 did pass the United States senate, but it died in conference and never became law. Notifications like this one are clearly intended to add legitimacy to spam, and to frighten its recipients into believing that its authors had a right to send it. You can safely ignore them.

A third site on spam, from the FTC. On the resources page you can click a link to file a complaint.

While the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, your complaint helps us investigate fraud, and can lead to law enforcement action. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Chocolate

Here is a site all about chocolate. Link will start you off with some history.

The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink.

Later, the Spanish conquistadors brought the seeds back home to Spain, where new recipes were created. Eventually, and the drink’s popularity spread throughout Europe. Since then, new technologies and innovations have changed the texture and taste of chocolate, but it still remains one of the world’s favorite flavors.

Ice Hotel

Yes, how would you like to sleep in a room that is -20° celcius. Not being able to lock your hotel room when you sleep, since there is no door to your bedroom. Where invited artists decorate each suite which are all unique and where all works of art melt in the springtime as does all of Icehotel. Where 300 tons of ice is harvested each march and april from the Thornes River and stored in the Icehotel Art Museum (gigantic freezer). Icehotel is located in the village of Jukkasjärvi, Sweeden. The Ice Bar, as it is called, is tucked into a corner of Stockholm's Nordic Sea Hotel. The walls outside are of glass, but inside the place is "constructed entirely of ice, from the infrastructure -- walls, ceilings, tables, bars -- to the accoutrements: Drinks arrive in glasses made of ice," and "ice sculptures are the only decor." It is attracting trendies with its "atmospherics and a perversely appealing physical discomfort." Below is taken from an article:

Long, arched snow corridors punctuated with ice-carved art make way to 15 ice suites and 32 ice sleeping rooms, an ice movie theater, ice gallery room, ice café, ice chapel (wedding services and baptisms available) and, of course, ice bar. Surrounded by spectacular sculptures lit with fiber optics, one meets cheerful adventurers from around the world gazing in wonder at, say, an ice-carved sauna scene – or a themed hotel suite based on a hunting scenario. Truly, it gives you goosebumps.

Trudging down snowy walkways we mingled with South Africans, Germans, French, Swedes, Norwegians, Dutch, Danes, New Zealanders, Japanese – all anticipating a night under a frozen roof.