Milt Reynolds: Thinking Out Loud

Phone Scams Good article on local phone scam : http://hermistonherald.com Commonly called the "Grandparent's Scam", or the "It's Me" scam, this fraudulent plea for money is targeting the elderly in our local area . Typically, the victim gets a phone call from someone claiming to be a relative. The "granddaughter" has supposedly been arrested and needs bail money. Of course, it's a lie , and any money sent will be stolen from the compassionate grandparent. Easy to see through? Only the naive fall for it? Think again. These scams are common for one reason: they work . Good scammers have the ability to persuade and convince...otherwise they'd be out of business. The Hermiston Herald article interviewed Umatilla County Sheriff Lt. Gen Diehl . The officer had some good tips: Recognize the scam. - Do some research - Develop a questioning attitude - Be alert to email fraud Get a phone number and contact the caller. If the ca

Be warned. This post is going to be gross. Leave while you can, but if you can stick with it to the end, you'll be stronger. And the original post from Jon Acuff at Stuff Christians Like is even grosser and more effective. Throwing up. Jon's a braver, stronger, humbler man than I. He admits that he struggles with a temptation that is taboo in our society...taboo but overwhelmingly prevalent. After a 500-mile long road trip, horrendously vomiting every 45 minutes from food poisoning, Jon is able to compare how vigorously our bodies reject bad food, with how our minds and emotions play with sin. Thanks, Jon, for the rough, but real reminder. I've found Covenant Eyes a great help on my laptop and iPod, as well as Bsecure , a filtered browser. The comments are worth reading, too.

Redoing your house? Planning for a new child? Smallnotebook.org showcases some simple, inexpensive, but awesomely practical and attractive decor and furniture ideas. Shared Nursery Tour Several key objectives: 1. Accentuate space and emphasize simple and low-cost. 2. Buy second-hand furniture. 3. Small children need small beds. Great article!

I just finished reading a full-page advertisement by Toyota, explaining the recall of some of its vehicles: RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Avalon, Camry, Highlander, Tundra, and Sequoia. "Folksy", informal advertisements made by huge corporations always seem suspect to me. I smile inside and try to translate the simple "facts" of the advertisement into what the corporate suits are really thinking. Here's the actual words of the advertisement, with my translation and comments in parenthesis. (No thanks necessary. I do this as a public service and to drum up traffic for my blog.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tri-City Herald, Sunday, February 7, 2010 Section A, Page 4 There's been a lot of talk (tweets, email, facebook, blogs, rants, cussing, jokes, and threats of liability suits) about the recall. Here are the facts (translation: statements considered benign by our 129 lawyers and legal assistants) for our customers (Ac

Ohm's Law Explained Four essential attributes form the core of electron movement: Power to do work (P) Current Intensity (I) Electromotive force (E) Resistance (R) One way to visualize these attributes is to imagine electrons in copper wire. If one end of the wire has an excess of electrons, the electrons will exert a force, moving toward the end with a lack of electrons. Thus, electricity begins with a certain Electromotive force, a difference in potential that "pushes" electrons in one direction. Electromotive force , however, encounters some difficulty in moving electrons freely in every situation. Some materials resist electron movement more or less than others. This opposition to electromotive force is called Resistance...it actually limits the number of electrons that can be "pushed". The combined effect of resistance upon electromotive force results in a specific number of electrons actually flowing. This flow of current is called Curre