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

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www.Joelizura.com

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