Cerritos Families

This is unrelated to the “pterodactyl” joke of August-2011, in which a statue of a surfer, in northern San Diego County, was discovered to have become ensnared by a huge model of a pterosaur. The big birds or pterosaurs that flew over the middle of the city of San Diego, on November 4, 2011, at about 8:00 p.m., was no joke to the two men who witnessed the spectacle. One of the flying creatures was following the other one, at only about a hundred feet above the neighborhood around the Holy Cross Cemetery. The wingpsan of the leading pterosaur was estimated at twenty to thirty feet, and it had a long straight tail.

“Big Bird” in San Diego?

The problem with notifying the news media, in this case, was that just three months previously somebody had played a practical joke. A statue in northern San Diego County was found to have a model “pterodactyl” fixed onto the top. This was carried in the news, becoming well-known in the San Diego area. What news reporter would thereafter give serious consideration to a report of two giant pterodactyls flying over the middle of San Diego?

In many cases, using a licensed child care home is less expensive than babysitting or using a child care center (or preschool facility). In addition, a child may need to play with other children, which is not usually an option with babysitting, and a childcare center may have too many children, which can be overwhelming to a child.

Long Beach Child Care

This large family child care home in Long Beach, California, Whitcomb Family Daycare, provides quality care and preschool education to children from families of various countries and cultures. Late in 2010, these children represented three countries in Europe, one in Africa, and the countries of Australia, the Philippines, Mexico, Peru, and Columbia. Most of the children themselves were born in the United States.

Long Beach Child Care Looks to Cerritos

Music exposure might not be unique to this home child care, but a Google search with “‘free piano lessons’ ‘child care’” gives six out of ten (Google page one) results for Whitcomb Family Daycare pages; obviously they have been marketing free piano lessons . . . In addition, they [Jonathan and Gladys Whitcomb] emphasize their recently-started reading program “WORDS,” to help pre-schoolers quickly learn to read complete words as early as age three. “WORDS” involves visual learning: images being combined with the words for those images.

It’s been said that nothing is more expensive than ignorance. Most Americans do not own even one domain, but some of those who do may be ignorant that they are domain name holders. This is where Domain Registry of America comes in [ <-- note this link is to a Wikipedia page about domain name scams].

I do not accuse anybody of illegal or unethical business practices regarding domain registration, but Domain Registry of America is certainly making significant revenues from the ignorance of those of us who have forgotten, or never fully understood, domain registration. I just received a letter from them, offering to take care of this registration for me, involving my dot-com livepterosaur:

As a courtesy to domain name holders we are sending you this notification of the domain name registrations that are due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today to the Domain Registry of America, you can take advantage of our best savings . . .

Careful consideration of the second sentence seems to absolve this company from deceitful marketing, for it notifies us that they are asking us to switch domain registration to them; but how many people read past the first sentence of a letter that looks it is a business bill? How easy it is for us to assume that this involves simply paying our annual fee to renew our dot-com registration (or dot-net, etc)!

I marvel that I did not fall into this trap myself, a few years ago when I was mostly ignorant of what domain name ownership entails. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

By the way, it costs me only $10 a year to renew my registration with BlueHost, while the “savings” offered by Domain Registry of America would have cost me $35 for one year. (No, I have not been paid by BlueHost to promote their web hosting.)

Al-Qaeda terrorism wins hands down in any competition for deciding who attacked New York City and Washington D.C. on September 11, 2001. Much of the speculation is pointless and ill-conceived.

Origin of the Attacks

Some Americans, albeit a relatively small minority, believe that the attacks of September 11, 2011, were not the result of foreign terrorists but the work of persons in American government, a serious charge. That government-origin idea is here addressed.

Q: Why does it look like there was a controlled demolition on one or both towers?

A: What difference does it make? Not everyone thinks it looks that way. What would anyone expect from a fueled airliner colliding with a skyscraper? A balloon pop? The Federal government has no need to destroy thousands of American lives through demolitions; they have the Internal Revenue Service.

Q: What about rumors that residue of explosives was found at the World Trade Center site?

A: What about the 1993 bombing by mostly-foreign-born terrorists: an attack on the basement of the World Trade Center? Who would be the more likely suspects in an attack just eight years later? Foreign-born terrorists win hands down against the U. S. Government, regardless of rumors about residues.

Q: What about the idea that a missile hit the Pentagon, not an airliner?

A: Eyewitnesses said it was an airliner. Nobody saw any missile hit the Pentagon. Case closed.

One of the military failings of Germany during World War II came from common soldiers or sailors failing to guard the security code (of course, Hitler’s order to invade the Soviet Union hastened Germany’s defeat). Now we Americans need to guard our individual codes.

Debit card fraud has been accelerating. That does not mean we all must abandon the use of those cards, but we need to take precautions.

Cover Your Debit Card PIN

Watch out for the person who may be watching you enter you PIN code when you swipe your debit card. If the PIN pad (card reader) has been tampered with, all a crook needs is your PIN code to swipe the money out of your bank account. . . .

Here’s advice for keeping your bank account safe:

1. “Re-PIN your debit card several times a year.” Perhaps that is the least effective way to protect your money, for a crook can get into your bank account within hours of when you swiped your card at a bad PIN-pad card reader; check the next suggestion:
2. Use a credit card instead of a debit card. . . . but some people use a debit card for good reasons.
3. Keep an eye out at gas stations and at ATM’s. That includes covering the PIN pad with one hand while you enter the numbers with the other hand. That may be the best protection.
4. For after-the-fact protection, check your account information regularly, looking for any suspicious withdrawal, and notify your bank immediately when you see fraud.
5. Don’t use your debit card too often. The safest place may be your bank ATM machine, especially if it is inside the bank itself.