More Web Stories For Your Review

I have thought about a whole bunch of new and interesting stories over the last few days.

I thought I should refer them to you to read in case you have missed them.  I trust that you will find them worthwhile to read as well and be happy that you were able to receive them from me. 

HOORAY, CAR FIXED UP 

As you may recall, on Sunday, I wrote the article "Car Troubles" about a potentially, serious situation that Marsha and I discovered on our vehicle on Saturday afternoon. 

If you will remember, I wrote this: 

"I started examining the tire so that I could remove the stone finally. My wife moved the car several times and I did not see anything stuck in the tire. This was not until the last possible movement when the tire would have been completely revolved.  

Ah there it was!  There was something that was plugged into the tire exactly as I expected. However, it was not a stone or a rock.  Rather, it was a NAIL!" 

It was that much of a surprise for me. Accordingly, we arranged for that vehicle to be towed to Performance Ford on late Saturday afternoon to be properly examined and fixed up if it could be done.  We had been told before shipping that there could well be a situation where the tire would have to be completely replaced depending on its damage and not just repaired. Naturally, that increased my worries. 

I contacted the Dealership early Monday morning to make sure that the car had actually been delivered there and to tell whoever was responsible for the vehicle there about my problem and concerns. That was done and they promised to send the vehicle back to me quickly. 

Believe it or not, within a couple of hours everything was fixed properly! It was a relatively minor change that the Dealership was able to do. My vehicle was fine now. 

I am relatively certain that I probably paid more at the Dealership for the repair than I would at a small repair shop. However, I don't care. I knew that the people at Performance Ford were going to do a proper job and very quickly as well. It was well worth the extra few dollars I had to pay to achieve proper care I am certain. 

Thanks to everyone there! 

GOOGLE 

If you want to know who is able to know about you and how extensive that knowledge might be, then take a look at this article and be shocked about it. I found it quite amazing:

"How to find out everything Google knows about you                 

When you use Google, you are making a deal. You get to use services like Gmail, Drive, search, YouTube, and Google Maps for free. 

In exchange, you agree to share information about yourself that Google can share with advertisers so their ads are more effective... 

Google uses a lot of methods to learn about you. There's the stuff you tell Google outright when you sign up for its Gmail or to use your Android phone. This includes your name, phone number, location, and so on. 

But Google also watches you as you scamper around the internet, deducing your interests from your internet searches — what do you search for? click on? — from your use of Google's other services and from other websites you visit." (Julie Bort Tech Insider May 6, 2016)

That story is totally astounding to find out how much information might be stored about you to which others can gain access.  It is also very scary about how much privacy you may now be lacking! The author of the article wrote the following which would give you an idea of what I mean: 

"Google sent me two ENORMOUS 2G files on what it is tracking on me. [That included] Every photo I ever uploaded since 2013, full size." 

Welcome to the world of the Internet my dear friend where quite a lot of information can be learned about you and you probably never knew about it or even what it was! Until now. 

AUTO JOBS 

Let us be serious. Can any member of Windsor's Council be re-elected because they played  a fabulous role to increase jobs in this City? What kind of praise will they demand from voters when the election takes place? If you want to be an opponent of someone on Council, what should you know and then do about it? 

Take a look at what a union person has to say. Unifor 444's President does not seem to be very happy with the City's Mayor and his colleagues on Council: 

"Union President Slams Windsor Mayor Over Auto Jobs 

President Dino Chiodo used the launching of the new Chrysler Pacifica at the Windsor Assembly Plant on Friday, to publicly slam the municipal government for not helping facilitate the retooling of the facility. 

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) invested $2.6-billion into the assembly plant, allowing the company to hire 1,200 new employees for the roll out of the new Pacifica. 

Chiodo says it’s “frustrating” that FCA hasn’t received formal recognition from Mayor Drew Dilkens for bringing over 1,000 jobs to Windsor. He says there would be a “big gaping hole in the City of Windsor” without the assembly plant."  (Kirk Dickinson, BlackburnNews, May 7, 2016) 

At the least, Anne Jarvis in her Star column wrote the following amongst a lot of information which she provided: 

"A significant chunk of our good fortune is thanks to Fiat Chrysler, which spent more than $3.7 billion to design and launch the new Pacifica and retool the Windsor Assembly Plant that builds it. The plant added more than 1,200 new jobs." (Anne Jarvis, Windsor Star, May 8, 2016)

A FOREIGN VIEW OF THE HORRIFIC STORM IN ALBERTA 

It is truly amazing what is happening in Fort McMurray, Alberta. The storm effect is so quick and so powerful. The whole area is at risk of being completely destroyed costing the owners of property there billions of dollars in losses. 

I am truly astounded about what is going on there and how quickly it is happening. Who knows what will really happen once the storm ends whenever that happens. I have always thought about it especially how much homeowners would lose because they had to flee their homes so quickly. The losses just have to be astounding even with whatever insurance people have. 

I read these comments New York Times newspaper from one of their staff who went there: 

"Inside the Fort McMurray Scorch Zone, Signs of Hasty Retreat and Nature’s Cruelty

Tyler Hicks, May 6, 2016   

FORT McMURRAY, Alberta — The houses had literally melted. Hundreds of them. Two-story, plastic-sided homes were down to concrete slabs with stairs leading nowhere. Some iron railings survived, but even they sagged, a stark reminder of just how hot this fire had burned. 

There were no people for blocks as I cruised through the destroyed Beacon Hill neighborhood on Friday morning. The city’s 88,000 residents had been evacuated three days earlier as the walls of flame closed in. An area the size of several football fields looked like a post-apocalyptic movie set. 

Even the usual signs of interrupted life were scarce: Furniture and appliances had burned up, with the hard metal pieces of barbecue grills, some particularly sturdy lawn furniture and the skeletons of curbside mailboxes remaining. 

I arrived inside the scorch zone late Thursday night with a convoy of trucks ferrying diesel fuel, aviation fuel, mobile kitchens and other essentials to the emergency crews fighting the fire, which has already burned 250,000 acres — 390 square miles, an area bigger than Dallas. After a few hours of rough sleep in our rented S.U.V., a colleague from Getty Images and I set out at around 7:30 a.m. in the thick haze to see what the flames had wrought. 

It was clear that the fire had whipped through very quickly, and somewhat erratically. People did not have time to take valuables, and there were clear signs of what I would classify as panicked retreat. On the road leading into town, at least a dozen cars had been abandoned in the median — I imagined people trying to drive across the divided highway, getting stuck and then just climbing into someone else’s car...

I’ve covered the aftermath of natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the earthquake in Pakistan the following year. Those were acts of nature that ended quickly. This is different, because it’s a continuing threat. The fire is still burning out of control, and no one really knows the direction it will take next. 

No one knows, either, when Fort McMurray residents will be allowed into the city to check on their homes, never mind move back." (Tyler Hicks, New York Times, May 6, 2016)