What's the deal with this?

San Diego, ca December 31, 2012.  Wow, this is an interesting story, and not one I'm all that excited about.  Being taken advantage of because of my IP address is something I started noticing a few months ago, when I would search for something on "Google" and then with the next click I would get tons of advertisements and banner ads for the word I searched. 

For example, I remember searching for rums of Puerto Rico, and then within minutes, I was being bombarded with ads from resorts, airlines etc, that all were in Puerto Rico. 

Now, in this article, the location of the computer is determining what price you'll pay - yikes!  Here's the story, check it out: 

Why would Staples.com offer a stapler at $15.79 to one online customer but advertise the same stapler at $14.29 to another who lives just miles away? It appears that customers who live close to a brick-and-mortar store operated by a Staples competitor are presented with a lower price online, The Wall Street Journal reports.


The Journal has done a marvelous job explaining how our online activities -- including how we connect to the Internet and what we look at -- are used by companies to target ads at us. For instance, it reported last summer that Orbitz was showing rooms in higher-priced hotels to Mac users because they're inclined to spend more than PC users on accommodations.



In the latest report, the Journal says Staples.com appears to change online prices based on what it believes your proximity is to its own and major competitors' stores, as indicated by your computer's "address."



The Journal did exhaustive testing of online prices displayed to customers of Staples.com across the U.S. It said:

"In the Journal's tests, ZIP codes whose center was farther than 20 miles from a Staples competitor saw higher prices 67% of the time. By contrast, ZIP codes within 20 miles of a rival saw the high price least often, only 12% of the time.

"Staples.com showed higher prices most often -- 86% of the time -- when the ZIP code actually had a brick-and-mortar Staples store in it, but was also far from a competitor's store."

Not only that, but the Journal's study showed that those who live in higher-income areas are most often being shown the lower price. The Journal explained:

"In what appears to be an unintended side effect of Staples' pricing methods -- likely a function of retail competition with its rivals -- the Journal's testing also showed that areas that tended to see the discounted prices had a higher average income than areas that tended to see higher prices."
 

Here is a link to the story:  http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/article.aspx?post=13c1e966-0339-4cf2-b3bb-1d93cb3c7398

Top Stories of 2012

December 30, 2012.  With only 2 days left until the new year, it's time to take a look back and see the top stories of the past year.  Here is a link to the MSN article with video:
http://news.msn.com/year-in-review/2012-top-stories

I'm getting less fond of Asteroids

Joe Lizura San Diego, December 27, 2012.  I must say that I am becomming increasingly less fond of all those cute asteroids zipping around the universe - you know, the ones that trashed the Moon's surface? 

It used to be that we never knew they were zipping by us, but now with the amazing telescopes we have, it seems that every a few weeks we learn about another near miss.  I must say that I can't be the only one who thinks that one day the Asteroid article won't say "near miss ahead" .... but thankfully this one does! 

A new study confirms that a huge asteroid will pass harmlessly by Earth in 28 years.
New observations of the asteroid 2011 AG5 now give astronomers complete confidence that the 460–foot-wide (140-meter-wide) space rock won't hit Earth in the year 2040. When it was discovered last year, scientists said that 2011 AG5 had a 1-in-500 chance of impact with our planet.

Astronomers solidified the asteroid's harmless status during an observation campaign in October, using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The finding added more support to a NASA study that came to a similar conclusion in June based on months of observations of asteroid 2011 AG5.

 

The researchers behind the latest study say the asteroid shouldn't get any closer than 550,000 miles (890,000 kilometers) — about twice the distance between Earth and the moon.
"These were extremely difficult observations of a very faint object," the University of Hawaii's Richard Wainscoat, a member of the team of researchers monitoring 2011 AG5, said in a statement. "We were surprised by how easily the Gemini telescope was able to recover such a faint asteroid so low in the sky."
Just because it is a large asteroid doesn't mean it's easy to see, scientists said. Researchers used the Gemini North to photograph the asteroid three times in October.

NASA astronomers and other scientists regularly monitor the sky for asteroids that could pose a potential impact threat to Earth. About 9,000 such near-Earth asteroids have been discovered to date, though up to a million or more could exist, NASA scientists say.

Nearly 95 percent of the largest near-Earth asteroids, those larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in size, have been identified, NASA scientists say. The space agency's Asteroid Watch program to monitor nearby space rocks is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Here is a link to the story:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50300434/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/good-news-confirmed-asteroid-wont-hit-earth/?ocid=ansmsnbc11

Now back to my regularly scheduled food shopping ...

Joe Lizura
www.Joelizura.com
www.linkedin.com/in/joelizura

A very nice story

December 18, 2012.  I'm very proud of my Daughter's high school- Poway High because they had a really great event for Special Olympics.  I also know they tried very hard to get Justin Beiber to come to the event, but he must have already been booked!  Here's the story from the Pomerado News.

http://www.pomeradonews.com/2012/12/18/minus-justin-bieber-the-games-go-on/

It would take more than a wet field, a chilly day and a lack of Justin Bieber to dampen the spirits of these athletes.

 

Over 80 special needs athletes from Poway High School, Rancho Bernardo High School, Del Norte High School, Westview High School and Mt. Carmel High School, as well as Mira Mesa High School, came together Dec. 14 to celebrate their achievements in everything from the tennis throw to soccer in the Special Olympics School Games 2012, hosted at Poway High School.
“It was about sportsmanship and teamwork, and how character counts,” said Sue Buhler, special education teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School, who brought her two classes of 20 students to compete in the Special Olympics. “We had a lot of fun.”
Erin Nixon, a critical needs teacher at Poway High School, organized the event after her students went to the Special Olympics in Mira Mesa last year. While Nixon said organizing the logistics of holding an inter-school competition at Poway High was “a lot of work,” she said it was worth it. Now that the groundwork is in place, Nixon said, it will be easier to set everything up next year.
“It was so fun,” said Andrea Esparza, a Poway High School senior, who is in Nixon’s critical needs class and competed with her classmates on a soccer team. Esparza and her teammates won second place. “Soccer is my favorite sport, so I wanted to do it [over a different event],” she said. Nixon said the students used their physical education class to practice for the event for a month ahead of time. “We practiced a lot,” said Esparza.
Esparza and her classmates had previously filmed a music video with an academic tutor asking Justin Bieber to come to the Special Olympics. While the day was Bieber-less, Esparza said it didn’t matter. “The video was so fun to make. Everybody saw it, the whole world,” she said. She’s not far off, as their YouTube video was nearing 350,000 hits as of press time (those curious can check out “The Bieber Project” on YouTube).
The athletes even had their own fans, as many Poway High School students came out onto the field to watch the events, some with homemade posters cheering on friends who were competing. Though the day was gray and cold, the rain had luckily stopped that morning, leaving the Special Olympics free to continue outside on the track and football field, rather than having to be moved into the gym.
After a morning of individual and group events, the athletes all received awards in a ribbon ceremony, and were then treated to a lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers provided by the Hamburger Factory.
The excitement still hasn’t worn off for the victorious student athletes of the Poway Unified School District. Buhler said her students were still excitedly talking about the event on Monday, and some even came to school still wearing their award ribbons. “They did a great job of it at Poway,” said Buhler. “It was a fun time for everyone.”

      

       

       

   

Joe Lizura's favorite thing - lower gas prices!

December 12, 2012.  I saw the headline on the CNN website this morning "Gas Prices Crash" and it brought a huge smile to my face!  For those of you (especially my relatives) who are not from California, just a couple of months ago, we were pay close to $5.00 dollars a gallon (and at many stations in the state it was over that) because of an odd occurance of two refineries being shut down and high oil prices all at the same time.  So in particular, here in San Diego, gas was around $4.85 a gallon and now just 3 months later, the price is $3.45 in my area - a very nice surprise and a very welcome as well.  In about 2 days I'll be driving out to Arizona to pick up my daughter from college and their gas will be even cheaper at about $3.15 a gallon (they don't have the fees for California additives).

So, just in the nick of time for holiday travel, a true gift for everyone - cheaper gas a the pump!  Merry Christmas!

Here is a link to the story below:  http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/09/travel/gas-prices/index.html

CNN) -- Gas prices have plummeted 46 cents a gallon over the past two months, according to a survey released Sunday.

"This has been a true price crash," said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.38, down nearly a dime over the past three weeks, Lundberg said.

"This crash began back when refining problems around the country were being fixed, one after the other, at the same time that our seasonal gasoline demand was shrinking," she said.

Crude oil prices have also dropped after having risen steadily.

Prices at the pump should drop even more in the coming days, as refiners cut how much they're charging distributors and retailers, Lundberg said.

The national average is about 8 cents higher than the average a year ago.

The survey tallies prices at thousands of gas stations nationwide.

Long Island, New York, had the highest average in the latest survey, at $3.85. The lowest average was in Memphis, Tennessee, at $3.04.

Joe Lizura

Joe Lizura Linkedin

Joe Lizura Twitter

www.Joelizura.com

www.Allowancemedia.com

Television Promotion

Hostess and the last bag of powdered doughnuts

San Diego, November 18, 2012.  I wasn't sure whether to be happy today or sad, and here's why.  Everyone who knows me knows that I love everything that the Hostess company makes - especially those powdered doughnuts, the twinkes, zingers, chocolate frosted cakes with cream filling . . . hmmm, pretty much everything they make.  So for the last few days I've been sad about the fact that the company would be going out of business.

Then today when I went to the foodstore to do the weekly foodshopping - there the were - the very last bag of powdered doughuts on the Hostess shelf (right next to the sign that said they would no longer be carrying the items because the company was going out of business) so with mixed emotions, I bought the last bag that the Vons store would ever be carrying - and then I ate most of them on the way home - just like nothing ever happened!  But I do know that there won't be any more unless the company can figure out a way to save my sweet tooth!

Here is the story about the company going out of business>  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/16/hostess-brands-to-liquidate-lay-off-18500-after-crippling-union-fight/

A small union's stubbornness in contract talks with Hostess is being blamed for the shutdown of one of America's snack food icons, the loss of 18,500 jobs just before the holiday season and much-needed tax revenue from hundreds of plants and shops across the country.

The privately-held company had reached a deal with the Teamsters, but a smaller union representing bakery workers refused to agree to concessions, prompting the mass layoffs and closing down of hundreds of plants, bakeries and delivery routes. That prompted harsh words from both the company and from Teamsters officials.

"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn said in a statement. "Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders."

The company said it will continue to ship out its well-known products until inventory runs out.

The national strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) that began last week decimated the 82-year-old company’s ability to produce and deliver products at roughly 12 of its 33 plants. The company announced earlier in the week that the ax would fall on Friday if the strikers didn’t get back to work, but the union didn’t blink. BCTGM President Frank Hurt said Thursday that the crisis was the "result of nearly a decade of financial and operational mismanagement" and charged management was scapegoating workers to allow the Wall Street investors who own Hostess to sell.

Calls seeking comment from Hurt were not returned early Friday.

Marty Zimmerman, secretary-treasurer for BCTGM Local 85, told Fox40 from a Sacramento picket line early Friday that workers had been at “wits end” with Hostess brass.

“Well, the mindset is we’re standing strong, absolutely,” Zimmerman told the station. “I mean, they’ve taken our pensions away, we’ve had seven CEOs in the last 10 years; this company has been so mismanaged. Really, we’re at our wits end and enough is enough”

The Irving, Texas-based company had already reached an agreement on pay and benefit cuts with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. On Thursday, Teamsters officials blasted the smaller union for not seeking a “solution” in the process or to engage in negotiations.

“The BCTGM chose a different path, as is their prerogative, to not substantively look for a solution or engage in the process,” the statement read. “BCTGM members were told there were better solutions than the final offer, although Judge Drain stated in his decision in bankruptcy court that no such solutions exist. Without complete information, BCTGM members voted by voice votes in union halls. The BCTGM reported that over 90 percent rejected the final offer and three of its units ratified the final offer.”

In a letter to employees posted on the company’s website, Rayburn said all employees would eventually lose their jobs, some sooner than others.

"Many people have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands," Rayburn’s letter read. “As you know, for many months the Company has been working with our unions, lenders and other stakeholders to reach a consensual resolution to legacy costs and labor contracts. Despite everyone’s considerable efforts to move Hostess out of its restructuring, when we began implementing the Company’s last, best and final offer, the Bakers Union chose to stage a crippling strike.”

Because the company is privately held, its financials were not available. But has struggled for several years, with some blaming America’s increasing appetite for healthier fare. The company sought concessions from employees, but instead got a costly strike that further crippled it, according to officials, who told a federal bankruptcy court it would lose up to $9.5 million from Nov. 9 to Nov. 19 in lost sales and increased costs. The company has cancelled all orders in process and said any baked goods currently in transit would be returned to shippers.

“These losses and other factors, including increased vendor payment terms contraction, have resulted in a significant weakening of the debtors’ cash position and, if continued, would soon result in the debtors completely running out of cash,” the filing read.

Hostess will now sell its popular brands like Ding Dongs, Ho Ho’s and Sno Balls, along with the closure of 565 distribution centers, 570 bakery outlet stores and roughly 5,550 delivery routes.

Lenders have agreed to allow Hostess to continue to access $75 million in financing put in place at the start of the bankruptcy cases to fund the sale and wind-down process, subject to U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval.

BCTGM workers began striking at some Hostess production facilities without notifying Teamsters officials on Nov. 9, the Teamsters said.

“This unannounced action put Teamster members in the difficult position of facing picket lines without knowing their right to honor such a line without being disciplined,” the statement continued.

- So all I can say is that I hope they sell off the secret recepies so that we can all enjoy American's favorite snacks!

Joe Lizura
Joe Lizura Linkedin
Joe Lizura Twitter
www.joelizura.com

"Frankenstorm"

October 28, 2012.  Joe Lizura wishing the best for New Jersey and New York.  Well it was bound to happen sooner or later, a possible direct hit by an enormous and powerful storm to the most densely populated region of the U.S..  They've had a lot of notice, let's hope everyone is following directions and being safe, including my family in New Jersey. 

Here is the latest on Hurricane Sandy. 

[UPDATED: 2:30 p.m. ET]

"Superstorm." "The Perfect Storm." "Frankenstorm."

Whatever you want to call it, the East Coast is bracing for Hurricane Sandy, a "rare hybrid storm" that is expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge to the mid-Atlantic coast, Long Island Sound and New York harbor, forecasters say, with winds expected to be at or near hurricane force when it makes landfall sometime on Monday.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the Category 1 hurricane was centered about 260 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and 395 miles south of New York City early Sunday, carrying maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and moving northeast at 10 mph.

[Slideshow: Latest photos from Hurricane Sandy]

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the immediate, mandatory evacuation for low-lying coastal areas, including Coney Island, the Rockaways, Brighton Beach, Red Hook and some parts of lower Manhattan.

"If you don't evacuate, you're not just putting your own life at risk," Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference Sunday. "You're endangering first responders who may have to rescue you."

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's message was a bit more blunt. "Don't be stupid," Christie said Sunday afternoon.

Earlier, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the suspension of all MTA service--including subways, buses, Long Island Railroad and Metro North--beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday. New York City Public Schools will be closed on Monday, the mayor said. City offices and the New York Stock Exchange, however, will be open for business.

Sandy is expected to continue on a parallel path along the mid-Atlantic coast later Sunday before making a sharp turn toward the northwest on Monday--with the Jersey Shore and New York City in its projected path.

But the path is not necessarily the problem.
"Don't get fixated on a particular track," the Associated Press said. "Wherever it hits, the rare behemoth storm inexorably gathering in the eastern U.S. will afflict a third of the country with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow."

(Weather.com)

A tropical storm warning has been issued between Cape Fear to Duck, N.C., while hurricane watches and high-wind warnings are in effect from the Carolinas to New England. The hurricane-force winds extend 175 miles from the epicenter of the storm, while tropical storm-force winds extend 520 miles--making Sandy one of the biggest storms to ever hit the East Coast.

"We're looking at impact of greater than 50 to 60 million people," Louis Uccellini, head of environmental prediction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Associated Press.

"The size of this alone, affecting a heavily populated area, is going to be history making," Jeff Masters wrote on the Weather Underground blog.

"I can be as cynical as anyone," Christie said on Saturday. "But when the storm comes, if it's as bad as they're predicting, you're going to wish you weren't as cynical as you otherwise might have been."
Meanwhile, emergency evacuations were being mulled by state officials in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and even Maine.

"This is not a coastal threat alone," said Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said during a media briefing early Sunday. "This is a very large area."

Forecasters also fear the combination of storm surge, high tide and heavy rain--between 3 and 12 inches in some areas--could be life-threatening for coastal residents.

According to the National Hurricane Center summary, coastal water levels could rise anywhere between 1 and 12 feet from North Carolina to Cape Cod, depending on the timing of the "peak surge." A surge of 6 to 11 feet is forecast for Long Island Sound and Raritan Bay, including New York Harbor.

The storm surge in New York Harbor during Hurricane Irene in September 2011, forecasters noted, was four feet.

I'm wishing the best for my family! 

Joe Lizura
www.joelizura.com
www.linkedin.com/in/joelizura
www.twitter.com/joelizura

Thank Goodness For Near Misses - Joe Lizura

Yikes!  Thank goodness for this being a near miss, yet another astroid is going to be zipping between the Earth and the Moon.  I can't possibly be the only one who worries that one of these days it won't be a "near miss".  The worst part about it, is the fact that before we got all the fancy telescopes, we never knew that the astroids were coming this close, but now that we can spot them fairly easily it make me a little uneasy!  Here is the link and the story, now party on. . .

http://news.yahoo.com/house-size-asteroid-comes-closer-earth-moon-friday-151703970.html

House-Size Asteroid Comes Closer to Earth Than the Moon Friday: Watch Live

  

• Enlarge Photo Astrophysicist Giancula Masi of …
• Enlarge Photo On Oct. 12, 2012, at 05:17 UT, …
• Enlarge Photo This plot shows the orbit of Near-Earth …

A newfound asteroid the size of a house will fly closer to Earth than the moon on Friday (Oct. 12), but poses no danger of impacting our planet, NASA says.

The space rock, called asteroid 2012 TC4, is about 56 feet wide (17 meters) and will come within 59,000 miles (95,000 kilometers) of Earth at its closest point when it zips harmlessly by on Friday. That's about one-fourth the distance to the moon.

But you don't have to wait to see live views of the interloping space rock: There are two live webcasts of the asteroid today (Oct. 11). The Virtual Telescope Project and Slooh Space Camera, two groups that offer live telescope views of space via the Internet, will be providing the asteroid imagery.

The Virtual Telescope Project in Italy run by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi will provide a live telescope view of asteroid 2014 TC4 starting at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) via the project's WebTV. You can access the webcast here: http://www.astrowebtv.org.

Masi has already recorded several videos of asteroid 2012 TC4, and will provide live commentary during the webcast. He said the public is often attracted to asteroid flybys because of their connection with asteroid impacts on Earth. But there is scientific value behind them as well.

"Asteroids are very intriguing bodies, strongly connected with the origin of our solar system," Masi told SPACE.com in an email. "When an asteroid approaches our planet, we have good chances to study them better, especially small ones."

The Slooh Space Camera views of asteroid 2012 TC4 will be webcast later today at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT) and will be available here: http://www.slooh.com.

"One of our missions at Slooh is to provide the public with free, live coverage of amazing celestial events," said Slooh President Patrick Paolucci in a statement. "We will be tracking asteroid 2012 TC4 live from our observatory located on the Canary Islands - off the coast of West Africa."

Paolucci will provide commentary during the webcast and will be joined with Slooh's outreach coordinator Paul Cox and astronomer Bob Berman, a columnist for Astronomy Magazine. The webcast can be watched via computer or mobile device, Slooh officials said.
It may even be possible for seasoned amateur astronomers to see asteroid 2012 TC4 using a small telescope.

According to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors night sky events, the asteroid "will be close enough to photograph through backyard telescopes as it brightens to approximately 14th magnitude." Magnitude is a scale used by astronomers to measure the brightness of objects in the night sky. The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object.

NASA has reportedly been observing the asteroid 2012 TC4 with radar to better determine its orbit since its discovery on Oct. 4.

Asteroid 2012 TC4 is one of two asteroids to pass Earth inside the moon's orbit this week. On Sunday (Oct. 7), an even larger space rock — the 100-foot-wide (32-meter) asteroid 2012 TV —passed Earth at a range of 158,000 miles (255,000 km), or about 0.7 times the distance from Earth to the moon. The moon is on average about 238,000 miles (383,000 km) from Earth.

NASA and astronomers regularly monitor the skies for near-Earth asteroids because of the potential threat a large asteroid strike could pose to our planet. NASA's Asteroid Watch program is based at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"We get passes between Earth-moon fairly frequently actually, although usually smaller space rocks," Asteroid Watch scientists wrote this week on Twitter while discussing asteroid 2012 TV.

If you snap a photo of asteroid 2012 TC4 crossing the night sky on Friday, Oct. 12, and would like to share it with SPACE.com, send images, comments and location info to managing editor Tariq Malik at: tmalik@space.com.

Sooooo . . . don't know about you, but I'm going to follow the old adage that "what you don't see can't hurt you" and probably not watch live.  Ha!  Take that solar system!

Joe lizura
joe lizura twitter
joe lizura linkedin

What people are thinking in 2012

October 11, 2012.  I woke up and ran across this article and I'm not passing any judgement, but it's just interesting to read about what people are thinking, and this article certainly fits the bill for "interesting".  Check it out, here is the link and the article is below:
http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-9-000-old-earth-really-looked-183713845.html

U.S. House Rep. Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, doesn't believe in evolution, the Big Bang theory, or the teachings of embryology. In fact, in a Sept. 27 talk at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Ga., the member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, who is also a medical doctor, called those areas of science "lies straight from the pit of hell."

But Broun also advanced his own theory of life on Earth.

"You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth," he said. "I don't believe that the Earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says."

[7 Theories on the Origin of Life]

Broun's creationist viewpoint stands in opposition to what scientific research reveals about the age of the planet. In fact, Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago — and humanity is rather lucky not to be seeing the planet on its 9,000th birthday. Earth was formed by the colliding and coming together of massive space objects called planetesimals, said Richard Carlson, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institution who has studied some of Earth's oldest rocks. The force of the impacts would have melted rock, leaving Earth molten for hundreds of thousands of years, Carlson told LiveScience. 

"Nine thousand years after the last giant impact — there likely were several big impacts during the growth of the planet — the surface of Earth, to a considerable depth, likely was molten rock," he said.

Creationist beliefs
Broun is far from the only believer in a literal, or Biblical, creation. According to a Gallup poll conducted in June, 46 percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years, a creationist belief. Only 15 percent said they believed in evolution without God's hand, while 32 percent said they believed in evolution guided by God.

That survey did not ask adults how old they believed Earth to be, but estimates based on literal interpretation of the Bible normally range from 6,000 to 8,000 years. (It's not clear why Broun believes in a 9,000-year-old Earth.)

The most popular 6,000-year-old figure comes from James Ussher, a 16th-century Irish clergyman. Ussher, whose position as Archbishop of Armagh made him head of the church in Ireland, published two works in the 1650s using genealogies from the Bible to date the creation of the world to Oct. 23, 4004 B.C.

 [Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]

Other estimates differ based on the use of different Bible translations and whether biblical scholars take the Bible's six-day creation period literally or assume the "days" to be longer periods of time.

What the science says
Scientists, on the other hand, have reached a surprisingly precise answer as to the age when Earth and the rest of the solar system began to solidify: between 4.567 and 4.568 billion years — the equivalent of knowing a person's birthday within two days, Carlson said.
This age range is calculated using isotopes, or variants of chemical elements. For the purposes of dating the solar system, researchers use lead and uranium isotopes. They measure the ratios of different types of isotopes from Earth and from meteorites. Because these objects all formed from the same pool of cosmic dust and gas during the birth of the solar system, the measurements enable researchers to determine how long ago the objects separated from that common pool.

As it turns out, these numbers mesh quite nicely with the ages of the oldest rocks known on Earth, which would have formed after the planet stabilized and cooled. The best estimate for the age of the oldest rocks on Earth, found near Hudson Bay in Quebec, is 4.4 billion years, according to Carlson. (The date is somewhat controversial, with some scientists believing 3.8 billion years is a closer date for those rocks.) Meanwhile, the oldest mineral grains found on Earth, zircons from Western Australia, date back 4.36 billion years.

The cooling and solidifying of the planet likely happened quickly on a geologic time scale, on the order of hundreds of thousands to a million years, Carlson said. But Adam and Eve wouldn't have found Earth hospitable for a very long time. Even at 2.5 billion years of age, the planet had a flip-flopping atmosphere that periodically looked like something you'd see on one of Saturn's moons today.

The first evidence for life on Earth may be Australian stromatolites, fossilized bacterial mats that date back 3.5 billion years. More certain fossils peg life's arrival to 2.7 billion years ago. Modern humans, by contrast, didn't show up until 200,000 years ago.

~ Again, I'm not passing any judgements on anybody's thoughts, I just find it interesting to read them.

Joe Lizura, San Diego, CA

Oh No! Danny Devito and Rhea Perlman Split!

Los Angeles, CA, October 8, 2012.  The day for Joe Lizura is not quite as bright as it was a few hours ago, because I just found out that two of my favorite actors of all time are calling it quits - not from acting, but from each other.  Danny Davito and Rhea Perlman are divorcing.  I must say that if two people were honestly ever made for each other it would be these two and very few people could argue that.  Their love of laughter, love of creating entertainment and their love of their children made them the perfect pair.

I wish them luck and hope they remain friends forever.  Here is a link to the story from eonline.

http://www.eonline.com/news/352179/danny-devito-and-rhea-perlman-split

Here is the actual story

One of Hollywood's seemingly inseparable couples is calling it quits.
Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman have announced they have separated after more than 30 years of marriage, the Always Sunny in Philadelphia star's rep tells E! News.
The twosome first got to know each other when both were coming up in the TV world, and were already a couple when Perlman landed one of her first notable roles as Zena, the girlfriend of DeVito's character Louis DePalma on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077089/Taxi, before she shot to fame as sarcastic waitress Carla Tortelli on Cheers.
Danny DeVito acts drunk on morning TV again
The diminutive pair tied the knot back on Jan. 28, 1982, after living together for 11 years. They have three children, 29-year-old Lucy, 27-year-old Grace and 25-year-old Jacob.
A rep for Perlman was unavailable for comment.

So it's a little bit of a sad day for me.  Hope the two find peace.

Joe Lizura Blog
Joe Lizura official site
Linkedin
Twitter

Surprising Six-Figure Jobs

October 8, 2012.  Everybody is looking for a great way to earn a living, and here's an article that shows how enterprising people can be.  The article is originally from CNN and here is the link and the story:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/surprising-six-figure-jobs.html

Clearing trees. Performing magic tricks. Pet sitting. Repairing other people's credit. These people are earning $100,000 or more.

Reads minds, does magic tricks

Courtesy: Wayne Hoffman

Name: Wayne Hoffman
Pay: $135,000
Age: 30

It all started as a hobby, when I got a magic set for Christmas as a kid. At college, I studied psychology. And that's when I started getting interested in mentalism, which is geared toward mind-reading.

Times were rough at first and I had to bust my butt to get jobs, but now I have to turn away business, and I can take off time whenever I want.

Companies hire me to do entertainment for them, I'm also hired to work at trade shows, where companies set up a booth and I incorporate their sales message into my magic. I do college campus tours twice a year. I perform at theaters, and I do cruise ships, where I get flown out to an exotic location and perform magic on the ship -- I've been to Tahiti, Bora Bora, Hawaii, Venice and Japan.

On the low end, I make $4,000 and it can go anywhere up to $30,000 for one show. I never thought I would be making this kind of money.

[Hoffman said his annual income ranges anywhere from $100,000 to $325,000 a year depending on the number of jobs he books].

Sells recycled ink cartridges

Courtesy: Lauren ElwardName: Lauren Elward
Pay: $165,500
Age: 33

I was an English teacher, and the copy machine at school was always breaking so I would make copies at home.

I had 125 kids a day. I can't count how many times I was running out to Staples getting more ink cartridges -- and it was all coming out of my pocket.

I looked online and there are companies out there [that recycle cartridges], but it wasn't a flooded market. So [my husband and I] invested about $1,000 and found some inexpensive guy from Europe to make a website for us.

We developed a relationship with a company that takes cartridges that have already been used, and recycles them, so they ship them out to our customers.

Our cartridges range from $10 to $30 -- if you were in the store you'd be paying $25 to $50 -- and toner [from our website, CastleInk.com] for the big copy machines can be hundreds of dollars cheaper.

I'm making quadruple what I made teaching. At one point, we were getting so many sales a day we couldn't believe how much money we were making.

People were like, 'where are you getting this money to redo your whole backyard?' It's definitely nice to have, especially for a cushion for the kids. I'm putting a lot into savings for them.

Voice actor for TV commercials

Courtesy: Jonathan LockwoodName: Jonathan Lockwood
Pay: $127,000
Age: 46

I got into radio when I was very young, at 17. I was a deejay, and recording commercials [for local businesses] was part of my job.

As I moved from station to station, I found there wasn't a lot of money. So I started doing TV commercials. And when I was 32, I finally left my last radio station to work out of my home studio [recording TV commercials].

I do a lot of commercials for national furniture retailers. I announce the big sales. I just did an infomercial for eDiets where I introduce people who had success on eDiets. I do car dealers and laser vision correction doctors. I did a voice-over for an animated medical documentary. I'm doing the on-hold system for [a bank], so while people are on hold, they're listening to me talking about the various things the bank is offering.

I probably send out a total of 25 invoices a month. To do a 30-second commercial in a local market could be $100 to $250 per commercial, depending on the size, and [bigger jobs] can be $500 per spot.

[What I like most is] that I'm in shorts and t-shirts every day in my home, that going to work every day involves stepping into one of my bedrooms, that it doesn't take very long. It would really surprise me if I'm working more than 18 or 20 hours a week.

Listen to Jonathan's voice here: http://www.voices.com/people/jonathanlockwood

Runs a tree-clearing business

Courtesy: Josh SkolnickName: Josh Skolnick
Pay: $250,000
Age: 29

When I was 10 or 11 years old I had my own little business pushing a lawn mower for people, and I continued with landscaping through middle school and high school. [By 2005, I had my own] mulch business. I had about 385 residential clients.

[One day], someone called and said they had a dead elm near their pool that no one would come cut down and remove. So I went out and [hired a contractor for the day to] cut down the tree. While I was out there, all the neighbors saw what I was doing and started asking me to cut down their trees, too.

After that, I started a tree service and sold my mulching business soon after.

Since starting [Monster Tree Service] in 2008, we've had over 10,000 customers. The first year in business we did well over $1 million in sales, and once we were three years in, we launched a franchise business.

I didn't go to college. But at 29 years old, I look at friends who just graduated medical school or are getting law degrees, still living at home with their parents, and I've got houses and millions of dollars worth of equipment.

Run luxury hotels for dogs

Courtesy: Steven and Jason ParkerName: Steven and Jason Parker
Pay: $150,000-plus (each)
Age: 28 and 25

Steven: When we were kids we would always ask our parents for a dog for our birthdays and holidays. When I was 14 and Jason was 12, we said 'what if we start a dog-sitting business to show our parents we're responsible enough to take care of a dog?'

We [took care of 50 dogs] and went back to our parents, and they said 'it's not that we don't believe you have the responsibility, it's that we don't like dogs.'

But we loved what we were doing anyway. So we opened [a luxury dog hotel] in 2005 and it was an immediate success.

Jason: [To set ourselves apart, we have] cage-free rooms and suites, outdoor window views, and plasma TVs playing "Animal Planet."

Steven: In 2010, we started franchising, and we [just] sold our sixth franchise. We plan to open 100 stores within the next three to five years.

It's the American dream. We're first-generation Americans and came from humble beginnings, and we're just getting started. We want to be the Donald Trump of the pet care industry.

We like to have fun, too. Jason bought a Maserati. We took our mother to Hawaii for her wedding anniversary and to her hometown in Italy.

Cleans up credit reports

Courtesy: Kevin and Sherry FosterName: Kevin Foster
Pay: $103,000
Age: 53

About five years ago, I went to go purchase a car, and the salesman said [no one would finance my loan]. Then he told me I had a 460 credit score. He said I needed to find someone to help me get my credit cleaned up. I called a [credit repair] company and enrolled.

It turned out there was another guy who lived in my same town with a very similar Social Security number, so his bad credit had gotten merged onto my credit report. [Once the credit repair company was done], my score went from a 460 to a 780.

[Three years later], I started going to national conferences that are like boot camps for credit repair and I learned how to legally and ethically launch my own company [TRW Credit Services].

I live in a small town and know every car dealership, every bank, so I started making phone calls to every person I knew at these places and told them my story. I said, 'send me all your bad customers and I'll clean them up.'

My total out of pocket was under $1,000 to launch my business out of a spare bedroom in our house.

~ What a wonderful story!  It's a great example of how people can be successful when they enjoy what they are doing.

Joe Lizura

www.joelizura.com

joe lizura on twitter

joe lizura on linkedin

Facebook Hits The One Billion Mark!

Los Angeles, October 4, 2012.  This is the most amazing story - facebook has reached one billion users per month, and what's more, they add up to 219 billion photos!  Here is the story from ABC News this morning:

A big milestone for the world's largest social network. Facebook says it now has more than one billion users each month. The announcement was made this morning in a status posting by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "If you are reading this thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you," he said with a hint of humor. "Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life." Facebook says its one billion users have been responsible for 1.13 trillion "likes," 219 billion photos and 17 billion location check-ins.

Those are astonishing numbers, to think that 1/6 of the world's population are now interconnected on a social site and 219 billion photos have been uploaded - now that's something to marvel at.

Joe Lizura
www.joelizura.com
www.linkedin.com/in/joelizura
www.twitter.com/joelizura
www.allowancemedia.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3190462/

The Electoral College

Joe Lizura on set for a Starbucks fundraiser

9/29/12.  My daughter asked me the other day about how the electoral college worked and why there was one.  Today I saw a nice explainer piece on Yahoo, so I thought I'd share it:

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND HOW IT WORKS

Presidents are elected not by national popular vote but by an 18th century constitutional compromise called the Electoral College.

HOW IT FORMED

When framers were drafting the U.S. Constitution, there were two competing ideas on how to elect the president. One group said Congress should do it; the other said it should be a national vote of eligible citizens. There also were disputes over how much slaves should count in representation in Congress and over how power would be distributed between small and large states. The compromise became part of the second article of the Constitution, although the words "Electoral College" are not included. The electors pick the president and vice president.

VOTE TOTALS

Each state gets one electoral vote for each of its representatives in the House and Senate. The District of Columbia gets three votes. All told, there are 538 votes in the Electoral College. A candidate must have at least 270 to win. Except for Maine and Nebraska, states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state. In Maine and Nebraska, votes are apportioned by congressional districts. So in 2008, even though John McCain won Nebraska's statewide popular vote, Barack Obama won the 2nd Congressional District and earned one of the state's five electoral votes.

HOW IT WORKS

Each state's electors will meet on Dec. 17 in their home states and cast their votes for president and vice president. Congress will meet on Jan. 6, 2013, to conduct an official tally of the electoral votes. Vice President Joe Biden will preside and declare the winner.

PROBLEM AREAS

If no candidate gets at least 270 electoral votes, the election goes to the newly elected House of Representatives. Each state delegation in the House gets one vote, and a candidate must win a majority of the states to be elected president. This happened in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but four candidates split the electoral votes and no one received a majority. The race went to the House and John Quincy Adams, who came in second, was chosen as president. Three other times, candidates won the Electoral College even though they lost the popular vote — in 1876, 1888 and 2000.

This doesn't answer all the questions, so I'd also suggest going to Wikipedia and reading more as well, and that link is here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_college

It's good to read and appreciate how our political system works - remembering that our system is actually a Republic for of governement - from the Pledge of Allegence:  "And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation ....."

Joe Lizura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_lizura
www.joelizura.com

Beach Boys not having "Good Vibrations"

Mike Love - Beach Boys

San Diego, September 27, 2012.  Okay, so yesterday I was surprised and saddened by the loss of Andy Williams, and today when I wake up I am dazed and confused about how the Beach Boys can fire themselves.  Alright, so they aren't exactly firing themselves, but one member of the Beach Boys is firing the other members of the Beach Boys, which will no doubt create TWO Beach Boys groups tourning as the original "Beach Boys" -- sound confusing?  Well here is the article from Spin magazine (on-line version) and a link to the story as well.  All I can say is don't penalize the fans because you guys are getting all grumpy with each other!

From Spin:

Mike Love refuses to tour with Brian Wilson, et al.

Mike Love apparently surprised his fellow Beach Boys co-founders Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, plus guitarist David Marks, when he announced on Sunday that all three were fired from the band. After the Boys wrap two London stops on their current 50th anniversary tour, Love will carry on with his own lineup. He cited greed, essentially, as the reason.

"You've got to be careful not to get overexposed," said Love in a statement issued the day the band's Grammy Museum exhibit opened. "There are promoters who are interested [in the o.g. lineup], but they've said, 'Give it a rest for a year.' The Eagles found out the hard way when they went out for a second year and wound up selling tickets for $5."

Love can do this because he has owned the Beach Boys name since 1998, after a series of hard-fought legal battles following the death of Carl Wilson that same year. Since then, Love has toured with his own version of the Beach Boys, featuring longtime member Bruce Johnston and a backing band including Love's son, Christian.

"I'm disappointed and can't understand why he doesn't want to tour with Al, David, and me," said Wilson, Love's cousin and the group's defining singer-songwriter. to CNN. "We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys."

As Rolling Stone reports, Jardine has gone as far as to petition his Facebook followers for signatures beneath a letter that reads:

"To Mike Love. In order to preserve the validity of 'The Beach Boys' as a whole, and not as a 'money saving, stripped down version' that only contains one original member, and one member that joined in 1965, we ask you to reinstate the three other members to the touring group for your final years performing. It's the right thing to do, and it's what the fans want!"
With the number of signees at 2,700 and growing, it'd seem that Jardine is right about what the fans want. And yet, Love insists, in the most codger-y voice we can muster up in our minds, that "the 50th Reunion Tour was designed to be a set tour with a beginning and an end to mark a special 50-year milestone for the band." Well, harrumph to you too, sir.

Lets see what happens,  Joe Lizura
www.joelizura.com
Joe Lizura linkedin
Joe Lizura twitter
Joe Lizura IMDB

Andy Williams R.I.P.

Joe Lizura San Diego, California. September 26, 2012.  Well, it's late in the day here and before I go to bed I wanted to share a few thoughts about the passing of Andy Williams.  It's been sad lately with the number of very talented actors, singers, songwriters and comedians passing away - It's almost as though the "old guard" of entertainment, whom we usually forever remember as young, are slowly leaving us with memories that will never take the place of the real thing. 

Andy Williams is someone whom I always admired and respected as a very talented singer, actor and performer.  His musical work was second to none with 18 gold records and countless television episodes and specials.  I can remember very clearly the sounds of Andy Williams playing on my parents record player even though I was just a little boy. 

His Christmas specials and albums were wonderful and two of my favorite songs - Moon River and The Theme From "Love Story" will always be remembered as though I was still a youngster.  Yes, it was a bit of a sad day for me knowing that the world lost such a talented man.


Here is big part of the story from the San Francisco Chronicle that mentions just a few of his accomplishments:

With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

The singer known for his easy-listening style and his wholesome, middle-America appeal was the antithesis of the counterculture that gave rise to rock 'n' roll.

"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," he once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred - not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."

Mr. Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and clean-cut demeanor helped him outlast many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas television specials and becoming closely associated with the holiday standard "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

Mr. Williams, who continued to perform into his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo., announced in November that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.

The 84-year-old entertainer died Tuesday night at his Branson home, his Los Angeles publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.

He became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."

But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Mr. Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy nominations.

Mr. Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy Awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.

Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.

"The Andy Williams Show," which lasted through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams performing his stable of hits and bantering with guest stars.

He was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927. In his memoir, Mr. Williams remembered himself as a shy boy who concealed his insecurity "behind a veneer of cheek and self-confidence."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Andy-Williams-Moon-River-singer-dies-3897683.php#ixzz27eJZiCSl

 

- Yes, we lost a good one today, but we get to keep the memories.  R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

 

Joe Lizura

Joe Lizura on Linkedin

Joe Lizura on Twitter

wikipedia for joe lizura

www.joelizura.com

www.allowancemedia.com