Mar 20, 2010

Profound Thoughts Book 5

Topics include Love, Marriage, Children, and the Sexes.

Profound Thoughts Book 5                                                            

Mar 19, 2010

Spring 2010

Spring officially begins March 21. Whoopie!

Spring is here,
The grass is ris.
I wonder where the birdies is?
They say the birds is on the wing,
But that's absurd.
I thought the wings was on the bird.

New iPhone Application

The 319-bed Hospital of Central Connecticut has launched a free iPhone application that will tell you how long the wait is at both of its emergency rooms. It will also give you directions, in case you are already in the car.

Web Wills

A new service called My Webwill launched a new web based service last December. The Swedish Internet site offers to manage email and social networking accounts after death. My Webwill is testing in Sweden and the United States and plans to go live in Britain and Germany this year and more countries in later.

Users can set up a digital will with directions on what should happen to their email and social network accounts after they die. Currently, a Facebook profile, for example, can remain active long after its creator has passed away.

Some services, such as Legacy Locker Inc., Deathswitch, and Slightly Morbid, will send posthumous emails to friends and family.  My Webwill will enter accounts and manage them according to a person's last wishes.

The basic service is free and includes the deactivation of 10 Internet accounts and the option to send up to five prepared e-mails written by you. A premium service paid service offers more detailed management of social networking profiles as well as unlimited posthumous e-mails and account deactivations. It offers customers a range of services, including posting prepared messages, changing profile pictures or updating status bars. Users can also pre-write emails that will be passed on to designated receivers such as friends or family.

In Sweden and Germany, My Webwill is automatically notified of a death by national authorities. In other countries clients will need to choose one or two  people who notify My Webwill about the death and send a death certificate for the deceased.

Currently families have much difficulty shutting down sites and emails. For instance, Facebook's current policy is to move a deceased person's profile into a "Memorial State," removing contact information, status updates and group memberships once a death has been confirmed. The profile itself usually remains and confirmed friends can still find them through the search tool and write on the person's wall. This whole business may sound morbid, but it makes sense as we spend more and more time online.

Obscura Day March 20, 2010

It is an  international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places in cities and towns all over the world. You can see and experience such things as musical rocks, a worry bead museum, a European pyramid, unusual cemeteries, a hash museum, a 19th century landfill, a gasometer town,  a giant lemon, and many more unusual and wonderful things.






The folks behind Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica are putting it on. Here is the LINK   Go on, get up, get out of the house and see something truly amazing.

Words

You may choose your word like a connoisseur,
And polish it up with art,
But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays,
Is the word that comes from the heart.

Spelling

The headline says it all. Hmmm!

Beer for Blood

Cascade Regional Blood Services in Tacoma, Washington is offering donors a free pint of beer every time they give blood. They are hoping the scheme might encourage more people to donate. Donors must be over 21 and are given a coupon entitling them a free pint when they donate blood.

It appears to be having the desired effect with the blood center saying the scheme has worked so well that it is being expanded. Maybe next year they should try bacon for blood. Ha.

Daylight Savings Time

My brother has one of those clocks that only shows the days of the week. He set it ahead for daylight Savings time and lost a whole day.