Sweet Tea made the correct way

I was reading a blog authored by a woman, Elena Redmond, that I turn to once in a while and enjoy reading and found was so excited to find the recipe to the correct way to make Sweet Tea, I heard about this recipe on T.V. a few months back but could not remember it to save me soul. So I was certainly tickled to find it today.

To read the blog’s post on this subject, try this site at Elenaredmond.com

5 Ways Advertising is Regulated in the U.S.

To the average consumer, it might not seem like there is any regulation in the advertising industry. Consumers are constantly bombarded with ads and messages, and it seems like there is no end and no limit. However, despite what it feels like, the advertising industry is actually pretty highly regulated. Here are some interesting examples of just how ads and advertising are regulated in the United States today.

Five Ways U.S. Advertising is Regulated

In the United States, advertising is regulated most thoroughly by the Federal Trade Commission, the governing body overseeing advertisement (among other things). Although there may be other regulations imposed by states or local government bodies, the highest authority for the regulation of advertising in the U.S. is the Federal trade Commission, or FTC. Some examples of the work performed by this body, and the results of some of their labors, are as follows:

  1. The United States most highly regulates advertising in two categories. The first of this is in false advertising. Simply put deceptive, misleading, or false advertisements are illegal, but in reality the practice, prevention, and control of the practice is a very complex issue.
  2. The second most highly regulated are of advertising in the United States in in the advertising of health-related ads. Similar care is taken in the advertisement of products relating to health and the claims that these advertisers make, although again the issue is not as cut-and-dried as it might seem to be, as there are many evolving definitions of what constitutes “health” advertisement and what category of classification products fall into.
  3. A close competitor to these two is the regulation of advertisement for tobacco and tobacco-related products. Advertising for tobacco products has been banned in the US on TV and radio since the 1970’s; regulations have recently been expanded to include sponsorship of many forms of cultural and sporting events.
  4. The FTC has worked hard to restrict abuses by telemarketers, enacting laws governing practices such as Pay-per-call and Telemarketing Sales Rules, giving birth to such consumer protections as the national “Do Not Call” list.
  5. More and more, the development and revelation of privacy policies and truthful disclosures has become a way of life in the U.S., thanks to regulations requiring such disclosures. We often see these in the form of annual privacy policies form businesses, and the “fine print” either printed or stated in ads.

One of the biggest ways advertisers are regulated in the U.S., although not a direct rule or law, is through consumer information and education by groups like the FTC. The attitude of the FTC is that prevention is the most effective weapon against abuses and consumer exploitation, and so one of their tasks is to continually make consumers aware of their rights and the way advertising is regulated in the U.S. The FTC maintains a through websites and system of complaint resolution which is easily accessible to consumers at www.ftc.gov/index.shtml.

Maryellen Ward is very knowledgeable when it comes to advertising programs.

Too Much Spam Going On Here

Lately I have been getting way too much spam here on my blog. Each day I log in and I usually find more than 30 spammed comments. That might not sound like much to you but I’m certainly not used to it. I’m not sure what to do about it. Might have to talk with my brother (the family computer geek) and see if he can give me any tips. I’m still learning all that is involved with WordPress and my blog, but I’m enjoying the ride!

Helping Out Family

I promised my mother that I would do some research for her on some of the Undermount Sinks that I can find on the Internet. She still is a little gun shy when it comes to the Internet, besides sending her emails out to friends and family, so she turns to me on occasion to assist her for things that she is interested in. I don’t mind really, she has been having a really rough time of it since my dad passed away 3 years ago, anything I can do to make things easier for her is good with me.

I’m going to find her the perfect Undermount Sink and my kid brother will install it for her. I had no idea of the variety of sinks that are available these days. In looking around I have fallen in love with the glass sinks that I’ve seen lately and I’ve bookmarked a couple of sites that have the ones that really float my boat for when I get into the remodeling mode for my own place. So far mrdirectint.com

Getting better at bar trivia

Guest post written by Anna Bishop

When I first moved in with my roommates after college, we didn’t really have a whole lot in common. I guess maybe it was beacause we all only had mutual friends or mutual friends of mutual friends. But since then we’ve found something that unites us, bar trivia.

After a long day at work in the middle of the week, there’s nothing more that I love than totally beating a bunch of strangers with my knowledge of useless trivia. But I like to find different bar trivia places to go to each week. I was online looking up some of the better trivia places in Chicago when I ran across some info on Chicago wireless internet providers. After I looked through it some, I shwoed it to my roommates and we changed over our home internet service to it.

I think that our bar trivia skills are getting even better. It just so happens works that we all have a different area of expertise, so we know the answers to a whole bunch of the answers. If anything, it’s ecnomical because we win free drinks when we win!

It’s Always All About The Money

I’m glad that I was sent a link to a web site that explains the risks of day trading. I have been hearing a lot about online trading, but it has all been good and positive things about it and not one word of caution about it at all. Not that I have any money to do any investing with at this point and time. But one day I hope the economy will let up and we can start enjoying life the way we used to before our government screwed it all up for us.

If you want to read about the risks of day trading you can go to daytradingcenter.net and read about it there as I did.

Money Saving Tips On Prescription Eye Glasses

I just got back from getting my annual eye exam and now I armed with a prescription and searching for a cheap pair of prescription eyeglasses. My eye doctor told me that Ican get good quality prescription eyeglasses online at ZenniOptical.com so I’m going to take his advice and take a look and see if I can find a pair that I like there.

I’ve actually heard about Zenni Optical before. I saw a clip online not too long ago about a book that was recently written by the money expert Clark Howard, who spends his time finding ways to save money and passing those tips along to consumers. I remember that one of his hot picks on that clip was Zenni Optical and their massive selection of eye wear available for online shoppers. And since my eye doctor seems to think that Zenni Optical is OK, who am I to argue?

With money being so tight still for so many of us we can all use money saving tips. I think that I will take a look and see if I can find the book by Clark Howard that I saw on that clip. Maybe they have a copy of it at the library that I can check out for free for a couple of weeks.

Martha and Conan in the Potting Shed

My sister loves finding, watching and sharing videos off of YouTube.com. This video with Conan O’Brien and Martha Stewart is totally off the wall, not something that you would expect to see Ms. Martha involved in, Conan on the other hand, who knows what will be coming out of his mouth!

Looking For Father’s Day Deals

I can’t help buy wonder what the Internet will be like in the next 5 or 10 years. I just can’t imagine it doing and offering any more than it all ready does, but I’m sure that there are many things in the works for us to see and use in the future. We have all ready become so dependent on our computers for just about everything we do these days, I can’t imagine life without it.

With Father’s Day coming up, we have all ready figured out what to get our Dad, but now we are working on finding something for our Grandfather, who is a recent widow and isn’t in the best of health these days. We have to find something for him that he will be able to use and to enjoy. Grandpa always enjoyed fishing, but hasn’t done much of it these past couple of years, so we are thinking about finding him a nice new fishing pole as a gift.

I found a great new site that can find deals at Savings.com. It’s a pretty cool site that you can ask, answer and save on. You submit your question, mine being “Where can I find good quality fishing poles at discount prices” then you provide them with your email address and then you sit back and wait for the answers to come straight to your email. Pretty easy right? I’ll let you know how it pans out over the next day or two.

A New Atomic Watch For Father’s Day

I am surprised to find that people are still buying and wearing wrist watches these days, since most people are turning to their cell phones, their Black Berries and all of the other types of technology that we all rely on every day. My father is a perfect example of someone that still wears a watch and he is asking for a new one for Father’s Day which is coming up next month. My mother has all ready purchased a gift for him, something that she picked up several months ago for him that she stuck away to use for Father’s Day. So my mother has asked us kids to pitch in a find him one of the Atomic Watches that he has been eyeballing for some time now which is cool with us since we never know what to get him, so this will make it easier for us all.

It is up to me to find the perfect watch for him so of course I’ve turned to the Internet to do the job for me. I think I’ve found one that he will appreciate and wear. It’s a Casio GW9100-1 Men’s Atomic Solar G-Shock Gulf Man Black Digital Back that usually sells for $220 and is on sale for $155 that I found at bluedail.com. I’ve sent the link to my brother and sister to make sure they are happy with my selection before I actually order it. I can’t imagine either one of them having an issue with it and if they do I will let them know that they are more than welcome to find one that they think would be better and I’ll back down from it, no problem. But I think this will do just fine and I’m anxious to go ahead and get started on getting my order in although we have plenty of time. Good thing bluedial.com has free 2 day shipping if we get too close to the deadline before making a final decision.