Dec 31, 2008
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Dec 6, 2008
Safe Toys
I learned that the toy guitar I used to illustrate noisy toys in the story above had been souped up. It's called bending a circuit. Hackers take toy electronics and alter them to make distinctive sounds. There are musical groups--including one in Madison--that use these devices.
One of the things that hackers may do is drill a hole in the toy and then stick a finger inside to alter the sound. Obviously, this could be trouble if the device is plugged into the wall.
Click here, and you can check out circuit benders--one actually uses his son to alter a guitar's sound.
Nov 30, 2008
Nov 28, 2008
Nov 27, 2008
Nov 21, 2008
Zillow's Home Values/Sales Report By State/City
Zillow.com You can also see a photo of your house and neighborhood here.
Nov 17, 2008
Nov 14, 2008
Nov 13, 2008
Nov 7, 2008
Suggestions On Fighting Fake Check Scams
In recent weeks, consumer protection has warned consumers about the Publishers Clearinghouse scams which involve fake checks. MSNBC Consumer Reporter Herb Weisbaum recently wrote about this scam and had some interesting observations about MoneyGrams and banks:
There are plenty of warning signs this prize notice is a scam. The most obvious one: You are required to send money. No legitimate contest ever requires you to buy something or pay any money.
Then there’s the check that comes with the award notice letter. It always has the name of some unrelated company on it – such as a funeral home in North Dakota or a collision shop in California – not Publishers Clearinghouse. Why? The bad guys steal the names and account numbers of real companies to put on their fake checks so they won’t bounce as soon as you deposit them.
And then there’s the strange instruction you get about wiring the money. You’re told not to mention that you’ve won the contest. You’re supposed to say you’re sending money to a friend or relative. That should make warning sirens go off.
Willard Hart, director of fraud at MoneyGram International says this is done to fake out their agents who will question the transaction if you say you’ve won a contest or lottery. “What the bad guys are trying to do is give their victims a set answer to keep the transaction going,” he explains.
Trying to attack the problem
Consumer groups, businesses and government regulators have formed a task force on fake checks. Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America chairs this task force.
I asked her if she believes the banking industry should do more to protect their customers from these fake check scams. Her response: “Banks clearly need to do more.”
Grant has high praise for West Suburban Bank in the Chicago area. It reduced this check fraud by 85 percent in one year by instituting a simple policy. Every customer who deposits a check for $1,000 or more or withdraws $1,000 or more gets a flyer about fake check scams. “It’s simple and effective,” Grant says.
Entire article
Nov 2, 2008
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Oct 11, 2008
TV Viewers Cut Cable's Cord; Here's What They're Watching Online Instead
Wall Street Journal
In addition to some latest network shows, classics like the Bob Newhart show are on line, too.
Oct 3, 2008
Rats and Mice Can Destroy Household Furnishings Stored in Mini Warehouses
The above story about rats and mice ruining household furnishings and memorabilia is just one of a number of interesting animal tales I’ve heard lately. 
For example, a lonely young friend of mine going through a divorce often sits in front of his computer late at night eating bag after bag of Doritos with the crumbs tumbling down the shirt covering his ample stomach. Recently, my friend discovered he had company…a mouse. Every time my friend uses his computer late at night, the mouse shows up to provide company and share junk food.
Cellphone photos by Glen Loyd III
Recently my son, Glen III, had a beautiful red fox approach him while he was parked near the quarry in Columbus. Glen noticed that the fox was staring at him like a hungry dog…so my son started sharing part of his lunch with him—a bagel and two bear claw pastries. In the photos, you can see Glen’s bear claw pastry in the fox’s mouth. After awhile, the red fox went away and came back with another hungry fox which looked like a brother or sister. A colleague thinks the two may be new offspring who haven’t fully developed hunting skills. They often explore together. The red fox is usually very good at avoiding man--his enemy--and is found in rural areas bordering towns. Usually they eat rodents, insects, fruit and plants.
Shortly after his experience with the foxes, Glen glanced out the window of his home on the Rock River in Janesville and saw both a majestic eagle in the sky and a tiny humming bird at the feeder.
Sep 28, 2008
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News about the news business
21stNews.com is about the future of journalism and the news business. Former WLUK-TV(Green Bay)and CNN reporter Grant Perry is editor and the founder of this site which provides "information and insight that will empower news professionals to create sustainable businesses and quality journalism."
Sep 12, 2008
Sex, drugs and youth gangs in WI and a judge who looks for the best in everyone
Officer Joe Wagner of the Dane County Sheriff's Office says there are gangs in virtually all Dane County Communities and many other Wisconsin communities. (TRIAD Crime Prevention & Safety Expo in Madison, WI)
Despite his experience as a criminal prosecutor for domestic violence, violent felonies, sexual assaults and elderly abuse, Judge William Hanrahan of Dane County Juvenile Court still looks for the best in everyone. He looks back to one of his first days as a prosecutor in Milwaukee.
Sep 7, 2008
Sep 6, 2008
Consumer Reports Rates TV Converter Boxes
Consumer Reports has just updated its ratings of the set top boxes you will need for old analog TVs starting February 17, 2009. Based on comments posted by real owners of these boxes on other websites, the Channel Master CM-7000 and Zenith's new DTT901 (at Circuit City) are most preferred.
Sep 4, 2008
280,954 mobile phones now on WI No Call List
The Wisconsin No Call list effective October 1, 2008 has 1,421,484 numbers.
There were 280,954 mobile telephone numbers added to the No Call list between June 5, 2008 and August 31, 2008.
On one day, August 11, 2008, there were 38,400 mobile numbers added to the list.
Sep 1, 2008
Aug 30, 2008
Aug 29, 2008
Qustionable Cellulite Treatments
Wall Street Journal
"There's nothing that has been shown in any objective way to create improvement for cellulite," says Robert A. Weiss, president-elect of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery.
Aug 23, 2008
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Aug 16, 2008
First Case Of Fatal Horse Virus Hits State
WISC-TV
"A major concern is that this particular virus also infects humans," said state veterinarian Robert Ehlenfeldt. "It doesn't transmit from horses to people, but could be transmitted to people by the mosquito bite."
Aug 15, 2008
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Jul 31, 2008
We all need to fight cyber crime
Interesting essay on history of internet, development of cyber criminals, and suggested regulation.
Jul 29, 2008
Jul 27, 2008
Cereal in packages shrinks while price and box appearance remain the same
Also see name brands Vs. store brands taste test with kids (video accompanies print story).
Jul 20, 2008
How would your car protect your family in a crash?
Want to see how well your car will protect you in a crash? Check out these Consumer Reports videos.
Jul 18, 2008
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Views from brother journalist Mark Twain
Jul 6, 2008
Enjoy the views from Mark Twain, a brother journalist
Jul 4, 2008
Jun 29, 2008
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Scams and Frauds
On June 17th, I was interviewed about scams and frauds by Stacy Forster of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the Wisconsin Eye.
Jun 14, 2008
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May 31, 2008
May 28, 2008
If there are toddlers nearby, be especially careful backing out of drive ways.
Right after WISC-TV in Madison warned about toddlers being killed and injured by cars when drivers are backing out of drive ways, it happened again in Wisconsin. A 15-month-old girl was killed Thursday (May 29)in Rock County. Last Sunday, a 13-month-old girl was killed in a Whitewater church parking lot.
May 23, 2008
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Don't get stuck with a disposable HDTV
Fasten your safety belt if you bought one of those better buys and it needs repair.
Kicking the tires on Chrysler's new gas gimmick
Wall Street Journal
Let's Refuel America is a terrific marketing maneuver by Chrysler. But consumers need to check it out carefully before signing up.
May 8, 2008
Can a steamer replace your iron?
I think this article maybe directed to the older generation because from what I observe wrinkled clothing is in with many young people.
May 4, 2008
Pictures of these scary looking dustmites are sometimes shown to consumers by questionable vacuum cleaner salespeople trying to sell machines priced a thousand dollars higher than most good vacuums.
The latest medical information on dust mites suggests that vacuums don't help: Getting rid of dust mites—worthwhile?
By the way, some salespeople have also used AIDS to frighten people into buying vacuums. When AIDS became a known problem, consumers were told that the vacuums were air filtration systems that would protect families from the disease!
May 3, 2008
Green Bay area woman nicked by Nigerians
And here is Dateline video of another Wisconsin victim and a Dateline sting of the Nigerian scammers.
Want to work at home stuffing envelopes?
When I started as a Consumer Protection reporter in 1971 the stuffing envelopes scam dotted almost every newspaper classified ad section--because the scam worked like a chain letter. Instead of receiving envelopes to stuff when you sent in your money you got instructions on how to make money putting the same rip-off ad into other newspapers.
Thirty-seven years later, the envelope stuffing scam is still going fairly strong. Fact is there have never been any envelopes to stuff at home. Every last one of those ads is meant to deceive and steal money.
Here is the latest prosecution.
Speeding Up Safety
With the government slow to act and consumers quick to mobilize, companies have learned to take swift action on potentially dangerous products. Washington Post
Apr 26, 2008
They are coming! When salespeople knock on your door.
Clarification: Investments are exempt from the three-day right to cancel.
Have you seen those colon cleaning TV infomercials? Here is a second opinion:
...Some approaches to "detoxification" are based on notions that, as a result of intestinal stasis, intestinal contents putrefy, and toxins are formed and absorbed, which causes chronic poisoning of the body. This "autointoxication" theory was popular around the turn of the century but was abandoned by the scientific community during the 1930s. No such "toxins" have ever been found, and careful observations have shown that individuals in good health can vary greatly in bowel habits. Quacks may also suggest that fecal material collects on the lining of the intestine and causes trouble unless removed by laxatives, colonic irrigation, special diets, and/or various herbs or food supplements that "cleanse" the body. The falsity of this notion is obvious to doctors who perform intestinal surgery or peer within the large intestine with a diagnostic instrument. Fecal material does not adhere to the intestinal lining...
Apr 25, 2008
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Apr 2, 2008
NCAA cheap seats? Take an oxygen bottle.
This story is dated because it's about the Badgers in the NCAA's playoffs in Detroit. But it is worth a look just to see the creativity used by Reporter Mark Lovicot of WISC-TV in Madison to demonstrate questionable ticket sales.
Apr 1, 2008
Consumer Protection in the digital age
At some time in our lives, we, or someone close to us, will experience a questionable consumer transaction.
Mar 29, 2008
Plastic to pay taxes?
We are being encouraged to pay our taxes with plastic for "rewards" back. Should you take the bait?
Mar 22, 2008
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Mar 5, 2008
See the Grand Canyon flooded for beach restoration and read how this process endangered rafters in 2005
Here is my personal story about what happened when the feds flooded the Canyon for a similar restoration attempt in 2005:
Facing my 65th birthday, I was perplexed. I had been striving for retirement for many years and now, when I could retire comfortably, I couldn’t let go of my career. I was having too much fun.
After deciding to stay on for another five years or so, I began experiencing a letdown. I had worked for more than forty years and now I was just going to keep on working?
Adventure offer
Then—three days before my birthday—a friend on the verge of early retirement told me he was lifting weights to get in shape for a private whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. I admired my friend (and still do) for having this kind of adventure in his life and told him so.
Later, he sent me this email: “No promises here, but if you want to stay on a backup list for this year’s trip, let me know. Perfect conditioning is not a must, but you would have to be in condition to descend 5,000 vertical feet over a nine-mile route.”
I told him I was interested, and began walking six miles a day instead of my normal three—just in case.
The day before my 65th birthday, my friend told me there was an opening for the second half of the trip. I said I would think it over and give him an answer the next day.
I woke up after 1.00 a.m. and realized I was now 65. It just seemed so old…older than I felt. I decided to go rafting.
Research Reveals
I was bragging about the trip now, telling just about everyone I knew. Instead of turning 65 and having people inquiring about my retirement plans, they were asking me about my adventure.
But checking recent news releases from the Canyon, I was shocked to learn that multiple deaths occur there every year. For example, rafters drown, runners die of heat exhaustion, teenagers fall over the rim, campers get struck by lightning…And climbers fall to their death on Bright Angel, the trail I would be taking down to the river.
I had to sign a waiver acknowledging that I was participating in a risky adventure and would hold no one liable if I was injured or killed.
Adventure Ho
I met up with a group of the rafters in Phoenix and we drove to the Grand Canyon by car. They were nice church-going professional men, but that night some were drinking to excess and slurring their words--despite the potentially dangerous trip we were about to make the next day.
It was 28 degrees the following morning and Bright Angel Trail was icy, muddy, narrow and straight down the Canyon if you stepped off it. Suddenly I was having second thoughts as:
A fear of heights kicked in;
I realized you can die doing what I was about to do;
My new friends were drinking too much; and
I had just learned that the federal government was going to be flooding the river while we were rafting!
So I changed my mind and didn’t make the climb down.
Before I made that decision, I’d been troubled about what I’d gotten myself into. As soon as I said I wasn’t going, I instantly felt better. And I laughed at myself for taking on too much adventure.
After saying good bye to my companions, I waited around and watched climbers coming up Bright Angel after completing the first half of the trip.
They trudged wearily over the rim, one by one, after a five-hour climb. Most wanted a drink at the hotel bar to toast their great accomplishment. A rafter in his early thirties told me he had been so drunk in the Canyon that, “I couldn’t remember my name.” Another man in his late fifties told me privately that, while he would remember the beauty of the Canyon for the rest of his life, he didn’t condone the excessive drinking. The rafters hauled whiskey, gin, wine and at least sixty cases of beer, enough for each to have a six pack a day.
Back in the Canyon, a tragedy was about to take place. The feds released a flood from Glen Canyon Dam for more than four days. It was an experiment to restore sand to the Colorado’s beaches and it created peril for my rafting friends. The river rose more than seven feet in some places and generated faster currents than normal. Beaches and camps disappeared under water. Hurtling downriver, the rafters had nowhere to land and dodged dangerous logs and driftwood ripped from the shoreline.
Unfortunately, a fireman from Phoenix who was rafting with another group drowned. His friends abandoned their rafts at Phantom Ranch and headed for the funeral.
Downriver, where there were not trails out of the Canyon, my friends had to scramble for high ground, where they were forced to stay for three days.
The rafts were too heavy to lift so day and night the crews floated, dragged, and pushed them to a shoreline that rose higher and higher. Then, as the water receded, the crews struggled to move the rafts to the river, hoping not to get stranded on land.
The rafters were not prepared for the flood because a river ranger told them it probably wasn’t going to happen and had no advice if it did.
When I got home to Madison I was so relieved to have bailed out , I was ready to accept ribbing about Glen’s Great Adventure. It didn’t come.
I’m sixty-eight now, still working--and not signing any more risk waivers!