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So just got home and finished unpacking from the weekend’s trip.  Had some dinner and was just settling down to watch the Cleavland Show when I heard something odd…looked around in the house and couldn’t figure out what made the sound so I didn’t think anything about it.  Just as the Family Guy starts we get a frantic doorbell ringer and open the door to find water pouring in our front door.  Some drunk driver plowed over our mailbox and into the fire hydrant out front….continued on the side walk past two houses and back on the street.  Our entire front yard is flooded, water in the garage, and we have water in the front hall.  Click here for Video

Photos

Here are the pics from this weekend’s trip!

Upper Comal River January 24, 2010

Pics with the new strobe Randy got me  for Christmas.

New pics up on the Underwater Photography page.

New pictures posted from today’s dives at Canyon Lake.  Visibility was really good for Canyon Lake…5-15ft.  Randy and I had a really good time.  This was our first time at Canyon on our own without a guide.  We managed to hit almost all the navigation points without a problem, and didn’t get lost even once.

New rules that go into effect on December 1, 2009 state that “Consumer-generated media” outlets (e.g., bloggers) will now have to disclose if they are being compensated by a manufacturer, advertiser, or service provider when they review an item. So if a blogger gets a laptop from a manufacturer to review and gets to keep it, he or she will have to make that fact public.

From the FTC website:

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

The new guidelines don’t specifically tell bloggers how they need to make the disclosure, but they do lay out the penalties: up to $11,000 per violation with the added possibility of injunctions. The FTC could also order that consumers be reimbursed in cases where a relationship between blogger and advertiser isn’t disclosed and the consumer suffers financial harm because of a review.

For more information see the FTC’s webpage on the decision:

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

We dove the Upper Comal today, put some new photos up on the Underwater Photography page.  Go check them out

We made it home from the funeral for Randy’s grandma on Sunday.  I wish we could have stayed longer, but I didn’t have anymore leave.  Randy’s grandma touched so many lives, mine included.  She treated me like I was one of her own grand kids.  Miss you Nena.

So it’s 4:30am and I’m at SA International Airport waiting for my flight to FL to attend Randy’s grandmothers funeral.  It’s going to be a long day.  Then tomorrow morning I’m getting up at 6am to drive back with Randy.