Lee.org

USDirectory.com is a scam.

I went to a local business owner (business initials “K.C”) and she almost got scammed by a company that promised to put her company on the internet, get listed with various search engines and create a web site for her.

US Directory says that they’ll “put you in Directory Internet Yellow Pages, Superpages, Switchboard, MSN, and Area Guides.” and “Create a Promo website”. It’s a scam. First, there is no such thing as “Directory Internet Yellow Pages” or “Area Guides”. Yes, they capitalized them in their letter to her.

The business owner had signed up for their services about 90 days prior to my visit. I went online and checked to see if her rank on various websites had been increased. Nothing. Nada. Niet. Nuffum. The search for USDirectory’s footprint was made easier because they misspelled her company’s name in the letter. While it’s true that she got a listing on USDirectory.com’s website with a little heart next to her company’s name, (spelled incorrectly), there was no sign of her company anywhere else on the internet.

The Dallas, TX Better Business Bureau has an alert about USDirectory.com, saying it’s a scam
http://www.dallas.bbb.org/news_20061115a.html
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Phony Directory Callers Targeting Businesses
Watch out for this scheme against business. The BBB in Fresno reports that businesses there have been receiving calls from USdirectory.com, also known as Directory Billing LLC. The callers say they would like to verify the business’ address and phone number for the Yellow Pages. Then the business receives a notice that their service is activated as a “Preferred Merchant of Directory Billing Internet Yellow Pages,” at a cost of $49.95 a month, bill through the local phone company. The company is based in Boca Raton, FL, and the BBB in West Palm Beach reports USdirectory.com has an unsatisfactory record due to unanswered complaints and a pattern of responding slowly to complaints.

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They had a 90 day money back guarantee that amazingly, they honored when she called and canceled her service.

I listen to podcasts on my way to and from work. I hardly listen to the radio at all any more. Here are the podcasts on my Juice podcast downloader.

I’ve placed a * next to the shows I love the most

• *[RSS] Dr Karl on triple j
• [RSS] Security Now!
• [RSS] NPR: Science Friday
• [RSS] IT Conversations
• [RSS] On The Media
• [RSS] PRI: Whad’Ya Know? - All the News that Isn’t
• [RSS] NPR: Sunday Puzzle
• [RSS] NPR: Health & Science
• [RSS] NPR: 7PM ET News Summary
• [RSS] NPR: Most E-Mailed Stories
• [RSS] NPR: Story of the Day
• [RSS] PRI: To the Best of Our Knowledge
• [RSS] APM: Future Tense
• *[RSS] Best Of Decoder Ring Theatre
• [RSS] Audio Dharma
• [RSS] WGBH Morning Stories
• [RSS] CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks Segmented Show
• [RSS] The Space Show
• [RSS] Diggnation (Mp3)
• *[RSS] Daily Breakfast - The #1 Catholic Podcast - yes, a “catholic podcast” is on my Favs list
• [RSS] The Wizards of Technology -
• [RSS] this WEEK in TECH - MP3 Edition
• [RSS] Distorted View: Daily Comedy Podcast
• [RSS] Reel Reviews Radio
• [RSS] Skepticality: The Official Podcast of Skeptic Maga
• *[RSS] Penn Radio Podcast - discontinued :-(
• [RSS] Mysterious Universe
• [RSS] KATG Backstage
• [RSS] Talking Robots - The Podcast on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
• *[RSS] Phedippidations - I’ve only caught a few shows so far but -wow- it’s inspiring!
• [RSS] PotterCast: The Harry Potter Podcast

I’m starting to listen to more shows on SQPN. Father Roderick really has something going there!

How I play them:

1. download my shows with Juice
2. move 650 mb of .mp3 audio into a folder
3. burn that folder
4. play it on my .mp3 capable car stereo

Here’s a follow up to Where to buy art supplies and Burning Man supplies
Originally from The Jack Rabbit Speaks RESOURCE ISSUE #2 Volume 11, Issue #13 JULY 5, 2007.

Here are more resources for buying art and other supplies for Burning Man.

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Trav’s been talking about this lawyer he’s been interacting with. It’s krazy.

He got BoingBoinged today, bringing down his server (darn it, I was -just- going to mention that he install WP-Cache). The server’s back up and the story is funny. Check it out.

Originally from Jack Rabbit Speaks Volume 11, Issue 11 June 14, 2007

There are several good resources for buying art and other supplies here

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Here is a list of some places you might go to buy various items in and around San Francisco. This is from the Flaming Lotus Girls “Suppliers” list.

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A year ago a friend told me that he liked and enjoyed the science of CSI Miami. I then watched a random episode (CSI Miami 425) and took notes…

CSI Miami 425

The scene opens. Several Hispanic men are relaxing outdoors. A man walks up with a machine gun with a 40 round magazine. He kills everyone with 80 rounds without reloading

While investigating the murders a few minutes later, “Jessop” a Miami police officer working with CSI sees a note sticking out of a partially open door. Without gloves, dusting for prints, photographing the scene or looking carefully at it, he takes the note out of the door, inadvertently setting off a grenade. Some time later, a CSI lady (wearing gloves and being far more careful) investigates the now-dead officer’s body….

Two CSI people talking a minute later, “I see guns [in the victims' hands]. Why didn’t they fight back?”
“It was probably a surprise attack. Besides, [picking up a spent 7.62 mm cartridge] I don’t think a 9 mil would have worked against these.”
Huh? 9mm bullets do a perfectly fine job of killing people, thank you very much.

They found a guy with TNT on his hands at an airport with a fictitious scanner. It sniffed the amient air around the person. Actual machines use a swab from a person or object. (update: such machines are made. I learned something from CSI: Miami)

Horatio interviewed a suspect. Horatio is CSI but only a police officer would interrogate him.

“The marks on the casing were made by a Russian-made Grinkov”
A Grinkov is a Russian Olympic skater, not a rifle.
Though in my search for Russian dancers, I found a very interesting site on rifle forensics (http://www.firearmsid.com)

They tracked the bad guy “Diego” by the GPS in his phone. Horatio needed to call Diego to get a trace and then loses the trace when Diego hangs up. In fact, they didn’t need to keep Diego on the line; they could track him as long as his cell phone is turned on. Here is such a service in England (http://www.world-tracker.com/) A free service like this doesn’t exist in the US but the tech does.

They found shrink wrap that was previously wrapped around a box approximately 2′ x 2′ x 6′. Knowing that it was from a bad guy’s house that was an arms dealer, they made the (obvious(???)) conclusion that it had previously held a hand-held surface-to-air missile. Horatio must be a super-duper genius.

Realizing this, Horatio instantly realized that the only thing the bad guy might do with such a weapon is shoot down the next plane the bad guy spotted taking off from Miami airport. So Horatio jumps in his truck and drives directly to the only obvious spot where a person might shoot down a plane from (???). They confront one another and Horatio saves the day.

I got this compliment about my website recently from a new friend:

I’ve been checking out Lee,org’s site, and it’s quite extensive. That’s one reason it’s taken this long to get this note off. I go to the site, am immediately intrigued/diverted/meander a while, and then run out’a time, or lose focus.

Dear folks at Kelloggs,

My girlfriend and I tried your new Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop Tarts today and we have to say that they didn’t taste the way we thought they should. If anything, the “cookie” tasted like a sugar cookie and not chocolate chip cookie dough. I would have expected a thicker, chewier, more varied filling instead of a smooth, consistent, and slightly slimy (after heating) filling.

We hope you use these suggestions to make the Pop Tart world a better Pop Tart world.

(and it wouldn’t hurt if you maybe sent us some coupons to replace these disappointing Pop Tarts)

Thank you very much

Strega Nona Meets Her Match by Tomie dePaola

Wherein Strega Nona defeats her business competition by sending in a saboteur.

I was researching books that I might give to my niece and I came across this gem.

Strega Nona is a traditional healer in a little town in Calabria. Her friend Strega Amelia is a healer from over the mountain. Strega Amelia comes for a visit and sees what a good business Strega Nona has in the town and decides to compete with her. Strega Amelia says, “I see she still uses the old-fashioned ways too. Hmm, I’ll have to think about this.” Strega Amelia goes home and returns a week later, setting up her shop. She offers modern, effective remedies and “free sweets and coffee with every visit.”

Strega Amelia is an instant hit! After a few weeks, everyone in the town has realized that Strega Amelia supplies better products and services than Strega Nona and Stella Nona’s tired old business has dried up completely.

So what does Strega Nona do? She gets her helper, Big Anthony to infiltrate Strega Amelia’s company. Then, when Amelia is away on business, Big Anthony finds his moment and sabotages Amelia’s corporate image. At the height of his attack, he “forgets” how to operate the headache relieving machine and almost kills the mayor.

Strega Amelia returns the next day only to be run out of town. Strega Nona works her magic one last time and makes sure her fingerprints aren’t on the crime.

And everyone lives happily ever after. (?!?!?!) Yes, it really plays out like that. This book sends a very bad message.

In the next Strega Nona book she gets even with her mean neighbor by framing her for a felony. Then Strega Nona orders a hit on the mayor. Hilarity ensues!