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When someone uses your name or personal information, such as your credit card number, driver's license number, Social Security number, telephone number, or other account numbers, without your permission, you become a victim of identity theft.
Thieves steal your personal information and use it to open credit accounts, bank accounts, telephone service accounts, and make major purchases in your name. These criminals use your sensitive information to take over existing accounts, or open new accounts. Their criminal activities can result in damage to your credit rating and denials to credit and job offers.
Protecting Your Identity
While there are no guarantees that your identity will never be stolen or compromised, there are several steps you can take to minimize the risks.
Here are a few of them:
- Before you discard your personal information that you no longer need, such as credit card receipts, billing statements, and pre-approved credit card offers, shred them using, at best, a diagonal-cut shredder.
- Create unique passwords and personal identification numbers (PINS) and avoid using easily available information such as mother's maiden name, date of birth, or last four digits of your Social Security number.
- Do not give your Social Security number to people or companies that you do not know.
- Guard your mail from theft. Promptly remove your incoming mail from your mailbox and place outgoing mail in locked collection boxes at your local Post Office.
- As an extra measure of security, install a lock on your mailbox, even if mail theft is not an identified problem in your neighborhood.
- Before disclosing personal information, even to people you know where you shop or do business, insist on knowing the reason(s) your personal information is required and how it will be used.
Thieves can do much damage with what they remove from your mailbox.
Criminals are increasingly creative in the methods they use to get their hands or eyes on your personal information, and ultimately, your money. Here are some of the low-tech techniques they employ:
- Dumpster Diving, one of the easiest ways for them to appropriate your personal information.
- Mail Theft from unsecured residential mailboxes. According to statistics, mail theft most often takes place at unprotected and easily accessible mailboxes in public places.
- Shoulder surfing takes place when a thief watches or listens literally over your shoulder as you enter your PIN into an ATM machine. They may even follow you home or your place of work to gather additional information about you.
Data transferred across the Internet can be intercepted during its journey.
- Phishing and Pharming: While phishing is a scam in which consumers are tricked into entering their personal information via a bogus email and website form, pharming occurs where hackers steal personal information from numerous people simultaneously through something known as "domain spoofing". They take over a DNS server and redirect user information to a new website that they use to gather, collect, "pharm" illegal information.
- Skimming: Thieves quickly and temporarily steal a credit card and run it through a skimmer, a credit card reader that has been reprogrammed to steal information off the card.
Make education about the scams, schemes, and frauds criminals use to steal your identity your priority in view of the rising occurrence of this multi-million-dollar-problem. With education comes prevention. Here are some prevention tips to help reduce the risks:
- Safeguard your personal information. Never take simple things for granted.
- Carry with you only the information you need. Always keep your personal information and documents in a safe and secured place of your choosing.
- Order and review a copy of your credit report at least once a year.
- Shred documents containing your sensitive information before discarding them.
Known as The Master Blog Builder, Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, helps small business owners and non-profit organizations improve their customer relationship marketing. Often he comes across cases that are red flags calling identity thieves to come in. Hence, he started the "Protecting Your Identity" blog. Contact him at www.MasterBlogBuilder.com for more information.
By: Mark Boardman
In April and May of 1997 the Red River, bordering North Dakota and Minnesota flooded across the Red River valley causing $3.5 Billion worth of damage, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters ever.
The winter of 1996-97 was particularly harsh in the area with a succession of winter storms piling up massive amounts of snow over the large floodplain. Two of the worst-hit towns were Fargo and Grand Forks which had a record amount of 117 inches and 98.6 inches of snowfall on the two towns respectively over the winter.
The Red River flows north into Lake Winnipeg and as it flows north the temperatures get colder. This causes a problem with ice jamming, where the river freezes and the waters flowing from further south begin to back up against the ice dam. This is a frequent concern for the local community and in an effort to prevent ice jamming sand was dumped on the icy river to help melt the ice and increase the flow.
Flood warnings were put out for the region as early as February and the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted a 49-foot crest at Grand Forks. This peak prediction was not updated until April 14th which was just 4 days before the start of the flood. There were some complaints that the NWS could have made earlier and better crest predictions, but what isn't in doubt is the efforts the residents of Grand Forks and Fargo made in trying to save their towns.
The community built up dykes with sandbags and clay to a height of 52 feet, which was 3 feet above the NWS prediction. Students were even excused classes to help in the efforts. With the 52 feet barriers to the river in place, the residents thought they would be spared. Alas, the sudden thaw of this brutally harsh winter's snowfall over such a large floodplain was more than the residents could have imagined. In Grand Forks, the waters peeked at 54 feet and completely overwhelmed the town. The flooding began on April 18th and town after town along the Red River became inundated with floodwaters well above previous records.
The topography of the Red River valley is very wide, and very flat, leaving nothing to bar the way of the floodwaters once they had broken through their banks. As a result, the floods reached up to 3 miles inland (imagine being flooded by a river 3 miles away!) The waters in Grand Forks, at 54 feet, were now 26 feet above the usual flood stage. A massive evacuation of the residents (75% of a population of 52,000) had taken place and this was repeated in all the towns affected by the flood. This evacuation helped with the remarkable statistic that not a single death occurred as a result of the flood despite its massive scale. Also, a large fire ignited in Grand Forks engulfing 11 buildings, including 60 apartments.
The floodwaters eventually began to subside on 23rd April but took a long while to completely recede. The cleanup operation was on a massive scale. 20,000 volunteers flew in to help the beleaguered residents who had to throw away virtually all of their possessions. Slowly but surely the area returned to normal but those who lived through it will never forget the spring flood of 1997 and will be hoping the next great flood won't be in their lifetime.
Article Source:
https://articlebiz.com/article/202242-the-flood-of-the-centuryhttps://articlebiz.com/article/202242-the-flood-of-the-century
By: Mark Boardman
In April and May of 1997 the Red River, bordering North Dakota and Minnesota flooded across the Red River valley causing $3.5 Billion worth of damage, making it one of the most expens...
In 1960, a quadruple murder occurred in a small rural Kansas town. The murder of the well-liked Clutter family devastated the tiny community of Holcomb, Kansas. But it was not until a curious pair of eyes spied the crime report in the New York Times that the case gained nationwide notoriety. Outgoing novelist and playwright Truman Capote spent six years of his life exhaustively researching this then-obscure case and turning it into a novel called In Cold Blood. With the help of his dear friend Harper Lee, he explored even the most minute details of a gruesome four-victim homicide in the sleepy town. Capote arrived in the town early enough that he was able to record the chronicle of the events - the investigation, arrests, and subsequent trial - while they occurred in real life.
The crime itself was a robbery gone terribly awry. Two ex-convicts, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith traveled several hundred miles to the house of the Clutter family because Hickock's prison cellmate had implied the family was extremely wealthy. In actuality, the agriculturally based family was not poor but did not have a safe full of cash as the cellmate had claimed. Panicking, empty-handed, and afraid of being arrested for attempted robbery, Hickock and Smith tied up the family of four and shot them to death at point-blank range. They escaped to Mexico but ultimately were apprehended, tried, and convicted. Capote read a small blurb about the crime in a side column of the New York Times and was immediately taken with it.
Capote packed his things, picked up Harper Lee, and went down to Kansas. He interviewed nearly all the members of the town - curiously without taking notes, claiming a memory with "99% accuracy." He made the story of the murders into a narrative and it was picked up by a publisher. His book was a roaring success. Newspapers raved about Capote's seamless weaving of factual narrative with engaging prose. This book jump-started the true crime genre, which, prior to In Cold Blood, had not really existed. The wildly popular book was made into an equally successful film. The film was notable for the accuracy with which it portrayed the city in which the murders took place. Director Richard Brooks went so far as to use real jurors from the actual trial to play themselves in the trial scene. Actor Robert Blake who portrayed killer Perry Smith famously went on to kill his own wife in real life, several decades later.
The entire process caused Capote a large amount of grief and anxiety and was hugely emotionally draining for him. He had become very close to one of the murderers, Perry Smith, with whom he believed he had many similarities. Both, for example, had alcoholic mothers. After they had been sentenced to death, Capote kept up an extensive and frequent postal correspondence with both of them. He was wracked with guilt after failing, out of fear and trepidation, to attend their execution. After their deaths, he became a terrible alcoholic, and never fully recovered from the whole experience. Capote became very prestigious in the publishing industry, but the price he paid was his mental health.
Article source:
https://articlebiz.com/article/1051344516-in-cold-blood-the-original-true-crimehttps://articlebiz.com/article/1051344516-in-cold-blood-the-original-true-crime
In 1960, a quadruple murder occurred in a small rural Kansas town. The murder of the well-liked Clutter family devastated the tiny community of Holcomb, Kansas. But it was not until a...
Solar panels aren't new. The technology has been around for quite a long time. As all of us are well aware, burning fossil fuels to produce energy isn't doing the natural world much good and increasingly brings us into contact with politically unstable states. And so now could be the moment to perform your bit for your country and fit solar panels to generate electricity!
An electric solar panel uses photovoltaic or PV cells to turn the Sun's energy into electricity. The electricity can then run our lights and devices. A PV panel is constructed from crystalline silicon. Photons from the sun strike the silicon and electricity is generated using the photovoltaic effect.
I can really only think of 2 reasons for installing electric solar panels. This first one is economic and the other one is environmental. Some people install them for environmental reasons. But unless you're Prince Charles or James Lovelock, the majority of us will require a sound economic reason to trigger us in making the investment. Eventually, you may find that having solar panels fitted into your home might well increase it's value. The very next owners will certainly be saving money on their electricity bills.
So, we come to some of the benefits you may enjoy if you decide to put in and use electric solar panels. You can lower your electric bills by around 40% even in the UK.
Solar energy is environmentally friendly. It does not discharge any pollutants including carbon dioxide. Sleep better at night, smug in the warm glow that the contribution to the planet has afforded you. Theoretically, you can actually make some money from your panels by selling excess electricity back to the grid. The power companies are legally obliged to purchase this electricity at an inflated rate. Usually around 18p per KW. You are able to store extra energy in batteries and use them during rainy days or when needed.
Solar panels, correctly installed, will last for over 30 years. Of course, you can find a few things to consider. The solar panels are relatively heavy. You will want to make sure that your roof is robust enough to carry their weight. It is best to consult a construction specialist for proper structural assessment of your roof. You will want to ensure that you have a clear line of sight to the sun. i.e. no buildings, trees, or any structure will block the sunlight going to the panels. This is to capture the highest possible amount of sunlight to generate more electricity. Visit your local planning authority to check if you need permission to install electric solar panels.
The price of putting in an electric solar system differs and depends largely on their size. A typical 2.2 KW solar panel system is priced at about £12,000. The cost of electric solar panel systems per KW range from £4,000 to £8,000. The costs per KW will decrease as the system size increases. Generally speaking, you should see a return on your investment in around 10 years. So, maybe now it's the right time to think about installing some electric solar panels.
Solar panels aren't new. The technology has been around for quite a long time. As all of us are well aware, burning fossil fuels to produce energy isn't doing the natural world mu...
Three hundred miles off the Argentina coast in the South Atlantic lay the Falkland Islands, also known to the Argentines as Islas Malvinas. It consists of two main islands, East and West Falklands which lie 300 miles east of the Argentina coast. There are about 200 smaller islands that form a total land area of approximately 4,700 square miles. The only town and capital is Port Stanley.
The English navigator John Davis may have been the first person to sight the Falklands. However, the Argentine version states that "Spanish seamen" were the first without giving further details. Some also say that Ferdinand Magellan was the first to see the islands on his voyage around the world. Another claim is based on one of Magellan's ships deserting the expedition and going back to Spain. While it is true that there was such a ship, there are no original documents to prove the actual sighting of the islands.
The government of the Falkland Islands administers the British dependent territories of South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, and the Shag and Clerke rocks, lying from 700 to 2,000 miles (1,100 to 3,200 km) to the east and southeast of the Falklands.
Argentina has claimed the islands since the early 19th century. Britain had occupied and administered the islands since 1833 and had consistently rejected Argentina's claims. Just like any other conflicts in our world history, claiming and ruling a certain territory initiated war between the Argentines and the British forces. Ownership of the islands has always been a hotly contested issue between the two governments. On April 2nd of 1982, the war began, with thousands of Argentine troops landing on the Falklands.
The British captured about 10,000 Argentine prisoners, all of whom were afterward released. Argentina's defeat severely discredited the military government and led to the restoration of civilian rule in that country in 1983.
After more than 20 years, a shocking revelation unfolds. Research claims that a high number of veterans have taken their own lives since the South Atlantic conflict ended, both from the Argentine and the British troops. The suicide figure was almost half of the number of soldiers who died during the conflict.
There were also allegations that the people in command of the military forces of both countries tried to ignore the issue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which leaves many sufferers emotionally scarred and unable to work. Some veterans have claimed that their condition was not diagnosed or treated while they were still serving. They added that they were never warned about the effects on their enlistment or discharge from the forces. They were also not given any presentations or debriefings to prepare them for possible effects.
There seems to be a general pattern for war veterans suffering PTSD. They experience recurring nightmares and flashbacks followed by recourse to heavy drinking or drugs then crime. A lot of war veterans ended up in prison often for violence and some of them killed themselves in their cells. While many veterans have been suffering from PTSD, others have simply been unable to cope with the reality of life outside the forces. Many have become caught up in alcoholism, drug abuse, homelessness, depression, and relationship break-up. PTSD has indeed turned these war veterans towards the path of self-destruction.
The Falklands Conflict was one of the few major naval campaigns to have occurred since the end of the Second World War. As such, the conflict illustrated the vulnerability of surface ships to anti-ship missiles and reaffirmed the effectiveness of aircraft in naval warfare. However, the Falklands War also illustrated the vulnerability of people, especially of war veterans. Even if the war has ended, it has left an imprint that will forever be within their lives.
The Falklands war cost England 255 men, six ships, and more than 1.6 billion pounds. The war lasted 74 days, with 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders killed. The Falklands campaign was considered a great victory for the United Kingdom. The British may have overpowered the Argentines, but both of them suffered the consequences of the atrocity of war and continuously agonizing from it.
Three hundred miles off the Argentina coast in the South Atlantic lay the Falkland Islands, also known to the Argentines as Islas Malvinas. It consists of two main islands, East and We...