Starting on October 27, 2010, for-profit companies that sell debt relief services over the telephone may no longer charge a fee before they settle or reduce a customer’s credit card or other unsecured debt. Three other Telemarketing Sales Rule provisions to take effect on September 27, 2010, will: require debt relief companies to make specific disclosures to consumers; prohibit them from making misrepresentations; and extend the Telemarketing Sales Rule to cover calls consumers make to these firms in response to debt relief advertising. The Final Rule covers telemarketers of for-profit debt relief services, including credit counseling, debt settlement, and debt negotiation services. The Final Rule does not cover nonprofit firms, but does cover companies that falsely claim nonprofit status. http://ftc.gov/opa/2010/07/tsr.shtm

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets by Julia Angwin first in a series
The Wall Street Journal conducted a comprehensive study that assesses and analyzes the broad array of cookies and other surveillance technology that companies are deploying on Internet users. It reveals that the tracking of consumers has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a handful of people in the vanguard of the industry.
• The study found that the nation's 50 top websites on average installed 64 pieces of tracking technology onto the computers of visitors, usually with no warning. A dozen sites each installed more than a hundred. The nonprofit Wikipedia installed none.
• Tracking technology is getting smarter and more intrusive. Monitoring used to be limited mainly to "cookie" files that record websites people visit. But the Journal found new tools that scan in real time what people are doing on a Web page, then instantly assess location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions. Some tools surreptitiously re-spawn themselves even after users try to delete them.
• These profiles of individuals, constantly refreshed, are bought and sold on stock-market-like exchanges that have sprung up in the past 18 months. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395073512989404.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The practice of numbering houses began in France in 1463 on the Pont Notre Dame in Paris. The naming of houses is a much older habit. Caves lived in by prehistoric people may have been named--we have done so in our turn now: Long Hole, Swildon's Hole. Many ordinary Romans ate and slept in blocks of buildings enclosed on all sides by city streets and called insulae (islands). The blocks often bore their owner's name. Buckingham Palace has had four other official names and at least one unofficial one. The Maoris of New Zealand had sacred buildings with names like Te Aho Tamariki (a brilliant group of stars) and Puhikai (a small post at the top of which food is kept). House Names Around the World by Joyce C. Miles To be continued

psychopomp (SY-ko-pomp) noun
A guide of souls, one who escorts soul of a newly-deceased to the afterlife.
From Greek psychopompos (conductor of souls), from psycho-, from psyche (breath, spirit, soul) + pompos (conductor, guide). A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Canada geese are probably the most adaptable and tolerant of all native waterfowl. If left undisturbed, they will readily establish nesting territories on any suitable pond, be it located on a farm, backyard, golf course, apartment or condominium complex, or city park. (March through June). DO NOT FEED GEESE. Feeding bread, corn, potato chips, popcorn, and other human food items harms the geese and sets the scene for goose attacks on people. Canada geese are protected under both the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Ohio state law. This protection extends to the geese, goslings, nests, and eggs. Non-lethal scare and hazing tactics, which do not harm the geese, are allowed. These tactics include: pyrotechnics, dogs, barriers, a grid on the pond, laser pointers (at night), distress calls, or grape-flavored repellants such as Flight Control.
If non-lethal tactics have been used in the past, without success, the Ohio Division of Wildlife may issue a lethal permit to allow the landowner to destroy nests, conduct a goose roundup, or shoot geese. These permits can only be used March 1 through August 31. See how to control various types of wildlife at: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Default.aspx?tabid=5674

Q: Does the Bermuda Triangle really exist?
A: The Bermuda Triangle, or Devil's Triangle, is a mythical geographic area off the southeastern coast of the United States. It supposedly has a high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats and aircraft. The Coast Guard does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as a geographic area of specific hazard to ships or planes. In a review of many losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified. -- U.S. Coast Guard. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2010/Aug/JU/ar_JU_080110.asp?d=080110,2010,Aug,01&c=c_13