Google Earth

I installed Google Earth on my new computer the other day. That's the program that uses satellite images to show a residence or business in a city. I can zero in on my home and see it from above. Why is it of interest? Because in case we had another big hurricane and an evacuation, I could check on the condition of my home from any computer anywhere to how my house fared in the storm. This can be reassuring to an evacuee, relieve worry and precipitate planning for the future.
When I evacuated preceding the arrival Hurricane Katrina misinformation was rampant as to which homes flooded and which didn't. For example, Jane's grandmother told me, "My friend looked on google and saw that your house was flooded 'a little'." I knew that was unlikely and probably misinformation gleaned innocently. Perhaps the friend was looking at the wrong property or was confused, for I knew it unlikely that my home flooded. When I returned home after the storm to find a dry house it confirmed my suspicions. If there is a next time for evacuation I am now familiar with the program and will be able to access the satellite view of my home myself during and after the storm to see the condition.
Google Earth also allows an aerial view of the neighborhood and city, a plus in determining when I should return to my home after a storm. If the area looks devastated it would be unwise to return to it until there are basic services like electrical, water, and phone lines. My understanding is that the photos are updated regularly after a major event like a hurricane changes the view below the satellite, making it especially useful in hurricane evacuations.
Have you noticed that Coke has started selling a diet drink fortified with vitamins and minerals, Diet Coke Plus? What a clever marketing hook that is! Not since cereal makers started putting vitamin fortifications in their sugary, nutritionally empty cereal has anyone so tried to transform a flavored sugar water formulation soft drink into "health food". But consumers are naive and will probably rush to buy it just as they fall all over themselves to buy bottled water and those vitamin fortified cereals.
According to advertisements, each can of Diet Coke Plus provides "15% of the daily value for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 10% for zinc and magnesium." In fact, the second main ingredient in diet coke plus is epsom salt, what people sit in to heal sores on the body. I have no understanding why epsom salts is on the drink. But basically, Diet Coke Plus is a typical diet drink with Splenda in place of the sugar, and injected with vitamins and minerals.
Soft drink sales have been in decline for years here because the corn syrup used in them is so fattening. Parents worry about their kids becoming too heavy from drinking them and the fact that other more nutritious drinks, like milk, are pushed aside in favor of soft drinks.
Pepsi also is introducing one of those drinks, called Tava. The two drinks will be promoted as "sparkling beverages" rather than soft drinks in order to disassociate the new products with typical sugary soda pop, and to create a snooty image of superiority like those bottled waters have. The companies are not calling them soft drinks because people are turning away from sugary sodas. So if the taste of the new vitamin/mineral fortified soft drinks is the same as the taste of other diet drinks with Splenda, I think consumers will substitute Coke Plus and Tava for the now very popular diet sodas. The great irony here is that almost all Americans do not need vitamin and mineral fortifications in their drinks. They are already ingesting a full compliment of them. So when they drink those vitamin and mineral concoctions they will simply pee them into their toilet as the body eliminates the excess it doesn't need.
Haha, sort of like what you do with my E mails................