On this date in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean. Of course he had no idea where he really was because, well, it was 1520. Global positioning via satellite was nearly 500 years into the future. So, Ferdinand relied on the stars.
Little did he know that just under five centuries after his first glimpse of the Pacific I would be using my GPS to see how many minutes I live from Trader Joe's. Ha! I'll bet he didn't even live near a Trader Joe's.
Wanna buy a GPS? Ferdinand's namesake is not the only one out there - I recommend the Garmin. Unlike many of the competitors, Garmin goes the extra mile (no pun intended) and dumps you off on the correct side of the street. That way you won't get to your destination, only to be mowed down by someone while you cross the street to enjoy your soiree.
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October 31 - On this date in 1926, magician extraordinaire Harry Houdini died in Detroit, Michigan. He had been punched in the stomach by a young man twelve days earlier, after bragging about the strength of his abdominal muscles. That blow evidently ruptured his appendix, and he died from peritonitis.
Ironically, on this anniversary of Houdini's death, eBay is killing off the eBay Blogs. At eBay Live! 2006, as eBay first began flailing around trying to renew interest in the site, they introduced "blogs" for members. You could have an "eBay blog" to discuss...well, let eBay explain:
Use your eBay Blog for fun or business. Share your thoughts on interesting items you’ve stumbled across on eBay, pick out some tips and tricks you’ve got for other eBay members, or even just talk about the weather. To help make your blog personal, you can customise the appearance with a variety of templates or you can use HTML and stylesheets to create your own look.
If you’re a seller, a blog can be a useful way of interacting with potential buyers and talking about your products.
Blogs are raw. They should reflect the open, free thoughts of the blogger. Bloggers talk about whatever they feel like discussing that day. When they find an interesting article, or website, they link to it for the benefit of their readers. If they find a product they like to use, they can show their readers where they found it. eBay blogs were a little more restrictive, especially with regard to links. Oh you could post links, as long as they went to:
- Any page on eBay or an eBay property including PayPal, Half.com and StubHub.
- Photos of the item for sale, as long as the page displaying the photos does not offer, or link to, a site that offers a product or service for sale off eBay.
- Embedded videos within a listing, as long as the content and format comply with all eBay policies for videos.
- Third-party solutions and services directly related to the particular listing.
So eBay blogs actually were there to promote eBay - not really for the benefit of the Community. They weren't really blogs in the strict sense. They were more like a useless organ. Kind of like an appendix. Which brings us back to Houdini and his peritonitis.
Houdini's useless appendix caused his death twelve days after that smart-alec student punched him in the abdomen. He died at age 52 on Halloween - which people find all spooky and scary. In fact, Houdini didn't believe in spiritism and mediums. He did tricks, but not with witchcraft. He did believe there could be an afterlife. He made a pact with his wife and friends that whoever died first would try to contact the remaining living friends. Houdini's wife announced that the experiment had been a failure though, as he did not contact her before her death in 1943.
Failures - that brings us back to eBay blogs - I could keep this up all day...
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