Joe Lizura Fired His Home Phone

Mark the day, March 31, 2013 as the first full day without my home phone. I had the opportunity to change my cable provider, which is also my internet provider, which is also my home phone and given the fact that they kept raising my monthly fee - So, I decided to make the change.  So I decided to investigate Time Warner Cable and found that they had special plans with Verizon, who happens to be my Cell Phone provider and now I can combine both of the bills into one.  When I spoke with the sales rep (a good 25 years younger than me) he marveled that I "Still had a home phone" (apparently he's only had a cell phone since he moved away from home).

So I thought to myself, hmm, I haven't used my home phone in about 2 months, maybe even longer!  Now for someone my age who ALWAYS had a home phone, it was a tough decision to essentially fire my home phone . . . but, much like somewhere, somebody had to switch out their horse and buggy for a fancy automobile, I decided to leave the old technology of a home phone in the past.

So here we are 24 hours later and I haven't looked back!  Okay so we'll see how it goes notifying all of my relatives, friends and contacts - that'll probably take me the rest of the year! 

Joe Lizura
follow me on twitter
join me on linkdin
check out the joe lizura official website
www.joelizura.net

Disney Makes A Bad Move

San Diego, Ca March 18, 2013.  Generally Disney is a great company that usually has its finger on the pulse of everything that is good about families, children, entertainment and of course, business. But today's decision to prevent kids under the age of 14 from entering any Disney park without an older person to accompany them is borderline idiotic.  Seriously, it's a virtual impossibility to have every kid escorted by an adult. Unless there is something I am missing about this policy, it seems absurd - according to what I read, Disney will not allow any child under the age of 14 to be unescorted by an oder person in their park.  How's that going to work?  I'm looking forward to seeing exactly how a divorced parent with 3 kids is going to be in 3 places at one time in the park, because I'm quite certain that her 14 year old and 12 year old are not going to want to be on kiddie ride all day with the 5 year old sibling.  Or how about all of those school field trips from the 6th graders?  Let me guess, they'll make an exception there because they won't want to lose the millions of dollars in revenue every year.  Speaking of which, get ready for a tidalwave of season pass holders who won't be renewing because yes, they do drop their kids off at the theme park designed for kids - Helloooo?

All right enough venting, here is a link to the story from USA Today  http://www.usatoday.com/story/dispatches/2013/03/18/disney-world-disneyland-minimum-age-admission/1996111/ 

And the story body: 
Starting this weekend, Disney's U.S. theme parks will ban children under age 14 unless they're accompanied by someone the same age or older.
The new policy, which takes effect March 23, will apply at Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim. Since most youngsters under 14 don't carry government-issued IDs, "the policy will be enforced as guests are entering the park, (with) a visual screening for someone who appears to be younger than 14," said Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown. If the staffer determines that the guest is under 14, a parent or guardian will be notified and required to escort the child in the park, she said.
The policy was not triggered by "any kind of issue or incident," but was intended to "provide a consistent age of admission and address a question we occasionally get from parents," Brown added.
Families with annual passes, some of whom routinely drop their children off at a park for the day, were notified about the policy change in an e-mail last week.

Good luck with this policy.

Joe Lizura
www.joelizura.net
www.allowancemedia.com

A Heart-Melting Story

This has to be one the most amazing and touching stories that I have ever seen.  March 10, 2013.  Here is a story about a reunion between a gorilla and a billionare that will melt your heart.  Here is the link, be sure to watch the video, it's incredible. http://news.yahoo.com/watch-wild-gorilla-reunite-man-saved-him-video-191705855.html

What does a billionaire casino owner have in common with a wild gorilla? That sounds like it could be the opening line of a cheeky joke, but in actuality, what they have in common is a very heartfelt bond.

Damian Aspinall may be a billionaire casino owner, but he's also the founder of The Aspinall Foundation, a conservancy group dedicated to supporting global wildlife. Among its myriad conservancy projects, its most outstanding endeavor may be that it rehabilitates and reintroduces once captive gorillas back into the wild.

For Aspinall, one of those gorillas in particular, a youngster named Kwibi, captured his heart. The conservationist personally raised the animal for several years before setting him free in the Foundation's million-acre reserve in West Africa.
Five years later, Aspinall traveled back to Africa in order to check on Kwibi, who was now a fully-grown adult. The following video shows their touching reunion.

What’s of particular note is that conservationists on the reserve warned Aspinall that Kwibi had previously attacked the last two people who came in contact with him.
Nonetheless, it’s clear that this gorilla viewed his former protector with a higher regard than he had towards other human beings. And more surprising than abstaining from an attack, showed an attachment to him even five years after their last meeting.

 

It's not unheard of for wild animals to form bonds with their protectors. Anna Julia Torres, a well-known animal conservationist in Columbia, often cuddles with the lions she keeps on her nature reserve. But Torres sees her animals daily, while Aspinall hasn't been a presence in Kwibi's life for some time.

The work of the Aspinall Foundation and others like it are crucial to gorillas' survival. These animals remain on the precipice of extinction due to the presence of so many man-made threats, not the least of which is rampant poaching.

Human industry continues to view them as things, commodities to be bought and sold, or simply discarded. But as we continue our destruction of gorilla populations unabated, videos like this one demonstrate that these creatures have their own internal lives—ones which are very much worth honoring and protecting.

Joe Lizura

Google Site Submissions

I found a great site from Google for submitting any web address to Google for search engine optimization.  Here is the link - http://www.googleguide.com/add_url.html  after yout get to the site, just fill in the URL being sure to use the "http" and click submit!  It's that easy - check it out.  I even used it to submit a new site of mine, www.joelizura.net.

Joe Lizura
www.joelizura.net

Taking a Break From Facebook?

It's finally happened, people are spending less time on Facebook.  San Diego, February 7, 2013.  There's a new study out that says people are spending less time on Facebook!  Well, I'm not so sure about that because I have a couple of friends who seem to be taking up the slack for most of the rest o us!  But you know what?  I think it's true.  Remember a few years back when all there really was to do on social networking was to be on facebook?  My kids are prime example, they used to spend most of their time on facebook, but now they have so many other options that just by default they don't spend as much time as they used to on it.  Fortunately facebook is the best at what they do and everyone will stay with facebook . . . as long as they continue to stay the best.

Here's the info on the story link and the actual story.  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/most-facebookers-have-taken-a-break-from-the-site-study-finds/?WT.mc_id=TE-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M291c-ROS-0213-PH&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c=207984

Facebook is the most popular social network in America — roughly two-thirds of adults in the country use it on a regular basis.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t get sick of it.
A new survey by the Pew Research Center‘s Internet and American Life Project, conducted in December, found that 61 percent of current Facebook users admitted that they had voluntarily taken breaks from the site, for as many as several weeks at a time.
The main reasons for their social media sabbaticals were not having enough time to dedicate to pruning their profiles, an overall decrease in their interest in the site, and the general sentiment that Facebook was a major waste of time.

About 4 percent cited privacy and security concerns as contributing to their departure. Although those users eventually resumed their regular activity, another 20 percent of Facebook users admitted to deleting their accounts.

Of course, even as some Facebook users pull back on their daily consumption of the service, the vast majority — 92 percent — of all social network users still maintain a profile on the site. But while more than half said that the site was just as important to them as it was a year ago, only 12 percent said the site’s significance increased over the last year — indicating the makings of a much larger social media burnout across the site.

The survey teases out other interesting insights, including the finding that young users are spending less time overall on the site. The report found that 42 percent of Facebook users from the ages of 18 to 29 said that the average time they spent on the site in a typical day had decreased in the last year. A much smaller portion, 23 percent, of older Facebook users, those over 50, reported a drop in Facebook usage over the same period.

Facebook’s biggest challenge revolves around figuring out how to continue to profit from its rich reservoir of one billion users — and a large part of that involves keeping them entertained and returning to the site on a regular basis. Most recently, the company introduced a tool called Graph Search, a research tool that promises to help its users find answers on everything from travel recommendations to potential jobs and even love connections.

Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, which conducted the survey, described the results as a kind of “social reckoning.”
“These data show that people are trying to make new calibrations in their life to accommodate new social tools,” said Mr. Rainie, in an e-mail. Facebook users are beginning to ask themselves, ” ‘What are my friends doing and thinking and how much does that matter to me?,’ ” he said. “They are adding up the pluses and minuses on a kind of networking balance sheet and they are trying to figure out how much they get out of connectivity vs. how much they put into it.”

Joe Lizura

Etch a Sketch creator passes away

February 2, 2012.  Joe Lizura Blog.  A sad day today as the news came out that the creator of the Etch a Sketch has passed away in France.  Anyone who was a child in the 60s and 70s grew up playing with the Etch a Sketch.  I remember when I was about 5 and I had to spend a week in the hospital, my parents brought me the one toy I couldn't live without - my Etch a Sketch.  Long before we had video games we used our imaginations to create countless sketches on that thing.  I remember playing with that toy like it was yesterday!  I also remember when I finally put it aside for good when my family got it's first video game - the game was Pong.  Rest in peace Mr. Cassagnes.  Here is a link to the story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57567306/inventor-of-etch-a-sketch-dies-in-france-at-86/

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

Fired Up about this story!

January 23, 2013.  Holy cow!  Check out this story!  Let's hope it true, a hybrid car that can run on air?  Check it out:

London, January 23 (ANI): If you have ever grimaced at your never ending petrol bill and dreamed of a car that runs on fresh air, your prayers are about to be answered.

French car giant PSA Peugeot Citroen believes that it can put an air- powered vehicle on the road by 2016, the Daily Mail reported.
Its scientists say it will knock 45 percent off fuel bills for an average motorist, and when driving in towns and cities costs could be slashed by as much as 80 percent because the car will be running on air for four-fifths of the time.
The system works by using a normal internal combustion engine, special hydraulics and an adapted gearbox along with compressed air cylinders that store and release energy. This enables it to run on petrol or air, or a combination of the two.
Air power would be used solely for city use, automatically activated below 43mph and available for '60 to 80 percent of the time in city driving'. By 2020, the cars could be achieving an average of 117 miles a gallon, the company predicts.
The air compression system can re-use all the energy normally lost when slowing down and braking. The motor and a pump are in the engine bay, fed by a compressed air tank underneath the car, running parallel to the exhaust.
The revolutionary new 'Hybrid Air' engine system - the first to combine petrol with compressed air - is a breakthrough for hybrid cars because expensive batteries will no longer be needed.
Cars fitted with Hybrid Air will be about 1,000 pounds cheaper to buy than current hybrid models.
For more than two years, 100 elite scientists and engineers have been working on the air-powered car in top-secret conditions at Peugeot's research and development centre at Velizy, just south of Paris.
Hybrid Air is the centrepiece of Peugeot chief executive Philippe Varin's efforts to restore the fortunes of the historic car maker.
The revolutionary system will be able to be installed on any normal family car without altering its external shape or size or reducing the boot size, provided the spare wheel is not stored there.
From the outside, an air-powered car will look identical to a conventional vehicle. (ANI)

Joe Lizura