Well that explains it! 71% of Tweets ignored

By now people reading this blog are probably bored with my kvetching/complaining about Twitter and my missing tweets. Thing is when you have 170 people (presumably people and not pets, one hopes) following you, every tweet counts.

So today I read this interesting piece about Twitter and people's tweets. Seems that approx. 160 million people located presumably all over the planet and who knows maybe behind, use Twitter. Lot'sa tweets, right? However...according to a Wired piece, a mere - wait for it - 71% of tweets are ignored. In other words, we Tweeters who attempt to make a relatively interesting or at least intelligent statement in the 140 character allotment, are ignored!

Syssomos, a Toronto, Canada, media analytics company, scanned 1.2 billion messages(!) sent in August and September, 2009. Not surprising at least to me, anyway, their findings indicated that 7 in every 10 tweets are ignored, completely. Six percent get re-tweeted and 92% of the re-tweets happen in the first hour. This indicates at least to me that if you're going to get re-tweeted, it will be in the first hour.

So taking this all into consideration, 23% get some type of reply but 85% of those that get a reply, et just one reply. Hey - one reply is better than no reply! Furthermore 10.7% get two replies and 1.53% get three replies.

What does this all mean in the scheme of things? It means, to me that when sending out tweets, they won't necessarily be read and what's more, tweeters won't get replies, either. Makes a person wonder why bother sending them out altogether. As a writer it's a means to draw attention to a blog. Still, it makes you think, especially about those five missing Tweeters, who might have re-tweeted me.

Pet Airways - paws-itively a great idea

Many pet owners when planning a trip, worry about what to do with their four-pawed friends. Pet sitting and pet boarding facilities are available but a new type of service is entering the market place. Would you believe - an airline that flies pets exclusively?

The new airline company, Pet Airways working out of Delray Beach, Florida, is aimed exclusively at pet travel. Like their human counterparts, pets get to travel in the main cabin and their owners aren't permitted to join them. What's more, the airline claims to be the first of its kind designed specifically for the safe and comfortable transportation of pets.

Seats normally for human pasengers will be removed to make room for pet carriers. The first departure for cats and dogs is scheduled for July 14 and the carrier will serve 5 U.S. cities including New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.

There is no mention of expansion plans to include other species/pets like gerbils, mice, birds, snakes, etc. etc.

The pawsengers, as the new airline calls them, can be booked in online and are checked in to a Pet Lounge at the airport. Does this mean that there will be catering services that offer bones or a steak before departure? Do you see another $$ lucrative$$ market here?

The pawsengers will get a "potty break" before departure and will be monitored during the flight. Presumably, this will be in the hands of the pet attendant who is on standby to cater to the travellers.

Owners or Pet Parents can follow their travel progress using an online "pet tracker".

The flights will be made in 19-seat turbo-prop planes operated by Suburban Air Freight, which have their seats removed to make space for the pet carriers.

Bah humbug - Brownies banned from singing Christmas carols for pensioners

Some people just don't seem to get the concept of having the Christmas spirit. You reach out and do something nice for people and in turn it makes a person feel good. That's the way it's supposed to work.

The administrators who run the Marlowes Centre in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in (not so) jolly, old England could use a dose of holiday esprit. For nearly 20 years, Brownies and Girl Guides put on a carol concert for pensioners and the disabled at a shopping centre, however their joyous voices will be heard no more since the powers-that-be have deemed they were/are a safety risk. The risk in this case was the area around a 25 foot Christmas tree where the Guides used to sing. The approximately 100 girls were were/are considered a health and safety risk because they could obstruct fire escape routes.

See...lots of people - happy people and shoppers - used to stop and listen to the girls causing what they believe could be a bottleneck.

Bosses at the centre say a Christmas tree positioned outside New Look and new mobile trade stalls have limited the number of performers the centre can host at one time.

Marketing manager Eileen Gannon said, "with changes made to the centre's Christmas decorations and trade units there simply isn't space for a huge number of performers."

"We're disappointed, but our priority has to be the safety of people inside the centre."

The carolling has been taking place for 20 years and now suddenly they've become a risk?

She said the new rules were open to change in the future, as decisions made on decorations in the centre are different each year.

Another centre worker said: 'There were a lot of Brownies last year and they caused absolute chaos.'

What a wonderful example of holiday spirit they have set for the young Brownies! Maybe shoppers could consider showing their holiday spirit in ways that will make their feelings felt - $$$$$.

Some writers make BIG, big money - ask JK Rowling

As writers many of us dream about success and the subsequent riches that we hope - mainly dream - it will bring us. For most of us... Okay. A large portion of us, it remains in the dream stage. Then there's JK Rowling.

You know...she of Harry Potter fame? Would you believe that she makes £5 every second. Think of what this means! Every second the talented writer makes money even if she doesn't make or write one word! As a freelance writer it sometimes takes days to produce one decent piece of writing, not to mention having to shop it around in the hope of receiving compensation. She can, you know... if the mood hits her, write the letter "A" and the pounds roll in.

"What time is it?" she could ask somebody, during a casual conversation or sharing recipes. "Oh my - I just made five pounds... No - make that ten pounds. No - make that fifteen pounds..." You get the idea.

Impressive writer is an under-statement. Collectively, she has sold more than 400 million copies of her books world-wide making her the world's highest-earning author according to Forbes magazine. She made a total of $300 million last year alone.


Here's a list of the Top 10 Best-Paid Authors:

1. JK Rowling - $300m
2. James Patterson - $50m
3. Stephen King - $45m)
4. Tom Clancy - $35m
5. Danielle Steel - $30m
6. John Grisham - $25m
6. Dean Koontz - $25m
8. Ken Follett - $20m
9. Janet Evanovich - $17m
10. Nicholas Sparks - $16m

Source: Forbes magazine

By the way my name is NOT among them. Obviously it's an error (wink-wink).

Read an article on how Rowlings got where she is today here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7626896.stm

There's gold in them thar California hills...again

Price of gas got you bloated? Running a little short of cash? You might consider visiting or even moving to California where there's a new Gold Rush, 160 years after gold fever struck.

It hit a new high of in excess of US$1000 per ounce earlier in the year and some believe there is money to be made from this precious mineral once more.

"You can pay your bills, if you live meagrely," says John Gurney, who gave up his job six months ago to become a full-time gold prospector.

John is standing in a shallow river in Jamestown, California, in the heart of Gold Country: in 1849, the same dream brought hundreds of thousands of people to towns like this.

He is panning for gold: he shovels rocks and dirt from the river bed into a bucket, sifts out the bigger pieces, transfers what's left into a ridged plastic panning bowl, and then, using a light movement back and forth, shakes the bowl, separating the lighter material from the heavier, including gold.

Each 20-minute session usually turns up a few tiny flecks.

"It's not a lot of money," John says, "but it adds up quite a bit... But you never know - you may hit the jackpot sometime."

This is the simplest way of gold prospecting.

The original 49ers - as they've become known - used this technique, as well as mining. Fortunes were made - and lost - in the wild towns that sprang up almost overnight along 200 miles of central California, an area they called the Motherlode.

Tourism is big business in the former gold-mining areas. Places like Jamestown and Columbia - which, in its heyday, nearly became California's state capital - have been mining tourists ever since. But now these ghost towns are stirring again, as more and more amateur prospectors try their luck.

Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7378281.stm

Given the precarious financial situation with people losing homes and no income, perhaps gold fever will strike again.

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