We receive too many unsolicited paper mail ads in
our mailbox and it contributes to landfill pollution. Below are
a few ways to opt out of the paper mess. Some take from a few
days to a few weeks to opt out, but be patient and your mail box
glut should diminish. In addition, you can check my blog for a
few more of my opt out ideas LINK.
Catalogue and publishing companies share consumer information
via Abacus. Send an email to its parent company at optout@epsilon.com. Put
“remove” in the subject line and your name and address in the
body of the email. Be sure to include your name as it appears on
the bulk mail you receive. If your middle initial is on there,
use it. If your name is misspelled, include that.
Here are a few more opt-out pages:
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Credit card and insurance offers 5 years opt out, if you use
online form or permanent if you wish to use paper to mail in
your signature. It is endorsed by Equifax, Innovis, Xperion, and
TransUnion.: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
It is best to save photographs as JPG or JPEG
- for altered colors, gradients and textures. JPEG stands for
Joint Photographic Experts Group that created the standard. JPG
loses a bit of clarity each time it is copied, due to compression.
Graphics and screenshots are best saved as PNG. PNG
stands for Portable Network Graphics, which is a bitmap image
format that uses lossless data compression. If it has
pointed lines, clearly unconnected areas of flat colors and text,
PNG is best. File compression for a PNG is lossless, which keeps
all of the data contained in the file, within the file, during the
process. Lossless compression is necessary when you have images
that are still in the editing process. PNGs are often used if size
is not a concern and the picture is complicated because a PNG file
holds additional information than a JPG.
Basic Rule: JPG for Photos, PNG for Graphics.
If an employee of Google dies, the
company mandates that the employees’ spouse receives half the
former employees’ salary for the next ten years as well as stock
benefits. If the employee has any children, they will each receive
$1,000 per month until they turn 19.
In addition to street view cars, images have also been captured by
attaching a camera to individual people, a tricycle, and even a
camel. The camel cam was attached to a ten year old dromedary
named Raffia, who captured images across the Liwa desert in the
United Arab Emirates.
Happiness is a fire
that cleanses our souls.
Today is the day to
come clean and celebrate a Happy Friday!
Coffee is a spice that brings rich, deep, and
earthy flavors to food. You will mostly find it on red meats and
desserts to add an espresso-like taste.
Coffee can be added to a marinade for roast meat, braising
liquid for beef short ribs, barbecue sauce for grilled chicken,
a sauce for fried eggs, or a pancake topper. You can even mix it
with your favorite spices to create a dry rub for burgers,
spice-crusted pork, or lamb.
Coffee is a secret ingredient in some of the very best chocolate
cakes and desserts. When used in a small amount, coffee enhances
the chocolate.
Coffee rub: One rounded tablespoon freshly ground coffee two
teaspoons (packed) golden brown sugar 1.5 teaspoons freshly
ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon
dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon
coffee rub on top side of each burger.
Old coffee grounds end up in a landfill, so it is better to use
them in your garden and compost pile. Using coffee grounds in
your garden also helps to add nitrogen to your compost pile. You
can throw the grounds into your compost pile, or they can be
used as a fertilizer. Using grounds as a fertilizer adds an
organic material to your soil, which improves drainage, water
retention, and aeration in the soil. Coffee grounds can even
repel slugs and snails in the garden. Worms love coffee grounds
and worms are great for your garden soil.
Make-Goods are ads which were paid for, but not
used. For instance, a company paid millions to run an ad during a TV
show, with the promise that it would reach 8 million people with each
airing. A few weeks into the season, ratings could be down, and
the ad is only seen by 6 million people. The network owes 2
million ad impressions to the buyer. Make-goods or spot audience
deficiency units are run in something other than the original program
that was purchased.
Upfronts are buying TV
ad time for reach, not for response. Networks offer premium
inventory, and brands buy it with the guarantee that their ads
will reach a certain number of eyeballs. Companies get access to network ad
inventory time at discounted rates. The buys lack flexibility
that makes it almost impossible to make in-flight changes to
campaigns. This commitment, which for some brands is 90% of
their annual TV budget, is probably the last bastion of old TV
ad buying.
During the past season
NFL games, the delivery of “make goods” grew to 23% of the units
due to lower ratings.
Robert Leroy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy, was the leader of
the Wild Bunch Gang. His last name, Cassidy was a tribute to his
friend and mentor Mike Cassidy who taught him how to shoot.
Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, known as The Sundance Kid was an outlaw
and member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch Gang who committed one
of the longest strings of successful train and bank robberies in
history. He got his nickname for getting caught stealing horses
in Sundance, Wyoming.
AT&T and DISH own the top streaming services
that offer live streaming of cable TV networks. They reported
1.5 million video losses, but were padded by the gains of
DirecTV Now and Sling TV.
After digging through the 2017 earnings reports of the top six
traditional pay-TV subscribers I discovered the following.
During 2017 Comcast dropped 186,000 residential video
subscribers, Charter lost 292,000 subscribers, AT&T lost
554,000 Direct TV satellite subscribers and 622,000 U-Verse
subscribers, DISH dropped 1,140,000 video customers, Verizon
Fios lost 75,000 video subscribers, and Altice which owns
Optimum, Cablevision and Suddenlink lost 129,000 video subs.
That totals nearly 3 million video subscriber losses for the top
six providers in one year. These companies make up roughly 85%
to 90% of the pay-TV market, so there are likely more losses for
privately held providers like Cox and others.
Sling TV added 711,000 subscribers during 2017 and DirecTV Now
added 888,000 customers to its service. With these two streaming
services picking up 1.6 million customers in 2017 it is evident
that traditional set-top box TV is quickly becoming a thing of
the past.
Reported 1st quarter 2018 video subscriber losses were much
heavier than expected. Charter reported a loss of 122,000.
Comcast also reported a loss of 92,000 to start the year.
AT&T lost 188,000 satellite customers; however, AT&T’s
DirecTV Now streaming service added 312,000 subscribers.
Even if you have cable TV, an indoor or outdoor antenna is a
cheap one-time investment to supplement your viewing. Also,
antenna TV has a much better picture quality than cable and is a
handy backup for those times when cable or internet stop
working.
Incidentally, according to Parks Associates, about twenty
percent of US homes with broadband internet used an antenna
during 2017, a thirty six percent rise.
According to the Guinness Book of World
Records, Christie is “the best-selling novelist of all time.”
Her novels have allegedly sold more than two billion copies so
far, and is eclipsed only by William Shakespeare and the Bible.
She is the most
translated author in the world, with her novels translated into
103 languages.
Her best-selling book
"And Then There Were None" has sold over 100 million copies,
making it the best-selling mystery novel of all time. (also a
great movie)
A bicameral legislature divides the
legislators into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses.
An example of bicameral is the United States Congress which has
the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Bipartisan is sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship. It is a
political situation, especially in the context of a two-party
system, for countries such as the United States and other
western countries, in which opposing political parties find
common ground through compromise.
Led Zeppelin was a legendary British rock band
who dominated the music scene in the 70s with heavy,
guitar-driven sounds. The phrase "lead balloon" is a commonly
used idiom to describe an ill-conceived idea, or one whose
failure is both predictable and inevitable.
The name allegedly
arose when Keith Moon, after being invited to drum for the band,
suggested that the idea would go over like a "lead zeppelin."
Moon evidently modified the common phrase to exaggerate its
humor. Jimmy Page liked the phrase so much; he took it for the
band's name. The decision to misspell it was made because they
thought Americans who were not as familiar with the original
phrase would mispronounce the word as "leed."
The
cloaks worn on Game of Thrones are actually IKEA rugs that have
been cut, roughed up, and have leather straps added.
A great smile is hidden in every person; some just never look for
it.
I find smiles
everywhere, especially on a Happy Friday!
Some good news about pills for a change. For our safety, drug
companies coat some pills with an emetic coating, so that if a
patient, accidentally or otherwise overdoses, the coating will
induce vomiting before the overdose can take effect and
potentially kill the patient.
Another coating is also
used for some chemotherapy medications that will have the
opposite effect and prohibit nausea and vomiting induced by
cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In addition, an
injection of Ondansetron Hydrochloride is sometimes given for
the prevention of post-operative nausea and vomiting.