Blog

Terrelle Pryor had a solid performance in 1 quarter of play.

The Gray squad led by Redshirt Freshman quarterback Kenny Guiton escaped a trap set up by the Scarlet team and managed to pull out a victory in the spring game by a score of 17-14.  The trap was set when Scarlet scored a touchdown with 5 minutes left to take a 14-10 lead and proceeded to recover an onside kick.  A key interception from Nate Oliver gave Gray the ball and the chance to move down the field for the go-ahead score on a 45 yard pass to a suddenly confident looking Taurian Washington from Guiton.

Take note that the stats should be taken with a grain of salt.  For the most part they’re vague recollections and fuzzy math.

As with other Spring Games, the Quarterbacks rotated their playingtime depending on the quarter.  Terrelle Pryor played only the first quarter for Scarlet and sat the rest as Bauserman took over for the rest of the game.  On gray, Guiton played the first quarter and the second half while Justin Siems played the 2^nd.  Pryor had a very good day passing hitting 8/12 for over 100 yards and a touchdown in his one quarter of play.  Particularly impressive was how easy he made it look despite the fact that he wasn’t allowed to run.  Also impressive on the day was Kenny Guiton’s approximately 10/18 for about 170 yards and 2 touchdowns and an interception.  Guiton had a scare late in the game as the Gray squad decided to run up the score rather than kill the clock while holding on to the slim 3 point margin.  One of the Buckeye defenders got a shoulder into Guiton’s right knee and bent it backwards slightly.  Luckily, Kenny managed to walk off the field under his own power and seemed to be ok.  Also worth mentioning was Bauserman’s rough outing, throwing 2 interceptions and 1 touchdown.  For a while he had also had more rushing yards than passing yards, but he managed to make up for that eventually.

Players from the offense that particularly stood out today were:

• Jake Stoneburner – he had several passes thrown his way and made the most of them.
• Taurian Washington – Made a couple of good plays and looked better than he did all last year.  Recall, however, that he often has good spring outings.
• Carlos Hyde had his first few carries in a Buckeye uniform and looked tough to stop.
• Zack Boren was almost impossible to bring down, including a great play where he slipped through an almost sure tackle and tight-rope walked the sidelines for a 20 yard gain.
• Chris Fields – He didn’t find himself open often, but he did make one excellent play to save an interception and turn it into a reception.
• The Offensive Line – None of the big guys in the trenches really got much love today, but the line in general seemed to pass-block fairly well.  The run blocking was ok, but not spectacular though it also seemed like the coaches were focusing more on the pass than the run.  The lack of mention of the line should be taken as a good thing, since they seemed to do their job.

The defense was generally solid all day long and it was tough to distinguish any individual effort as exceptional, however a couple of players had good outings.

• Cameron Heyward looks to be his typical self.  He did have a couple of QB hits and hurries and may have also had a sack on the day.  He may not have seen much playing time during the game.
• Donnie Evege was a blanket in coverage and didn’t have his named called much.  In fact, I only saw one pass thrown to his man all day, a testament to his coverage skills.
• Nate Oliver grabbed that interception to stop an almost certain Scarlet scoring drive and gave Gray enough time to get the ball down the field.  It was a big play exactly when his team needed it most.
• Passing coverage as a whole looked a little flaky all day, but that may have had more to do with the Buckeye receivers than any weakness from the secondary.

The Buckeyes look like they’re going to be pretty solid this season, but don’t take too much away from the Spring Game.  It’s very hard to make any kind of definitive statement about the quality of one unit versus another based on the intermixing of the first teamers with the backups, and even more difficult since the team is playing itself.  That said, there are a lot of things to be excited about, including Terrelle Pryor’s performance against a strong Gray defensive squad.

The big boss will be posting his own recap of the game with quotes and interviews a little later today.  We’ll post the link as soon as he has it up.

The University of Maryland released a study of college students and the Internet yesterday that garnered some headlines, including one from Reuters that talked about how these poor students were “suffering from Internet addiction.” According to the research quoted by the newswire, they showed “symptoms similar to drug and alcohol addictions” when they were forced to give up access to the web and mobile communications such as text messaging. And what were those symptoms? If you read a news release the university issued about the study, one of the main symptoms appears to be that they said things like “Wow, I’m so addicted to the Internet.”

They also reportedly used other terms associated with drug withdrawal, saying they were “frantically craving” the Internet, were “very anxious” or “extremely antsy,” and so on. Does this prove that the Internet causes addiction? Possibly. I think the main thing it proves is that researchers are addicted to comparing social behavior to addiction, and that the only evidence they require is that you say “I’m addicted to (fill in the blank).” It could be the Internet, it could be television, it could be chocolate. One student said being without her phone felt like she was “missing a limb.” I’m surprised the study didn’t conclude that students deprived of the Internet are suddenly losing limbs.

Real addicts usually deny for as long as possible that they are addicted to anything, but apparently the researchers in Maryland didn’t have this problem. And how did they determine that students were addicted to Internet access and text messaging? They forced 200 of them to stop using digital media for 24 hours, and then asked them about the experience, as described here. And it wasn’t just the Internet or cellphones — they had to give up newspapers, car radios and iPods too. And guess what? They missed them. I assume if researchers had prevented the students from talking to their friends or families face-to-face for 24 hours, that would have left them a little twitchy too.

The findings are pretty earth-shattering. Number one: Students “use literal terms of addiction to characterize their dependence on media.” Number two: “Students hate going without media.” Number three: Students “show no significant loyalty to a news program, news personality or even news platform.” Number four: Students who are 18-21 “are constantly texting and on Facebook.” And stunner number five: Students “could live without their TVs and the newspaper, but they can’t survive without their iPods.” There’s plenty more detail if you want to read the whole study.

It’s too bad the research made such a big deal out of the addiction angle, because there is some interesting data — or at least, some interesting comments from students — about their use of social media and technologies such as texting. That’s definitely worthy of more study, particularly by a group calling itself the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (which did the survey). Unfortunately, it’s smothered by all the hyperventilating about addiction.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Okko Pyykko

Filed under: Coupe, China, Geely, Beijing Motor Show

The first time we saw something that could roughly be equated to a sport coupe from Geely was a few years ago at the Detroit Auto Show. That red car had some enormous panel gaps and dubious styling. My, how times change. The star of Geely’s new midrange Gleagle brand (we’re pretty sure it doesn’t come across as oddly in Chinese as it does in English) was the GS coupe.

Similar in size to Scion Tc, the GS is powered by a 1.3-liter turbocharged inline four producing 127 horsepower. It can be paired with either a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed dual clutch unit. If any Chinese automaker is going to make it to the U.S., Geely seems the most likely and its purchase of Volvo could even give it access to a sales network.

Photos by Sam Abuelsamid / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Beijing 2010: Geely Gleagle GS originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

More shots from Perth Zoo’s wonderful orangutan exhibit. Orangutans are all too capable of walking on two legs from time to time, and this penchant for bipedalism allows them to negotiate tricky parts of the canopy. One of the females in Perth Zoo is particualrly fond of ambling around on two legs. These photos of her doing so look for all the world like a human in an orangutan costume…

During last week’s iPhone leak saga, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, reached out to us with a story: The morning of the iPad launch, an engineer showed Woz an iPad for two minutes. For this he was fired. More »

In a wide-ranging interview, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz spoke with NPR’s On the Media about the agency’s role in protecting consumer privacy, fighting back against deceptive marketing practices — and about Leibowitz’s weekend basketball games with Federal Communications Commission chief Julius Genachowski: “Julius has been schooling me on the basketball court for some time. … He’s very crafty.”

Despite tearing his meniscus defending against Genachowski’s on-court “craftiness,” Leibowitz’s focus in the interview, for the most part, wasn’t actually the DC intramurals. In particular, he raised concerns about major consumer issues like net neutrality and internet privacy.

Imagine that you were walking through a shopping mall and there was someone walking behind you taking notes on everywhere you went and sending it off to anyone who was interested for a small fee. That would be very disturbing to most people. To some extent, we see a version of that on the Internet, because information is taken from consumers. For the most part that information is anonymized, which is good … but not every company has great data security, and beyond that, consumers ought to be informed in a clear way about the choices they make.

Full interview below. No word on whether Leibowitz is training for a rematch against Genachowski.

FTC Chairman on Privacy, Net Neutrality and the Future of News [On the Media]

We’re fresh off the Palm Developer Day Keynote and a crazy-good interview – both with Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer of Palm. We’ll have a full write up of the interview on Monday, but we wanted to hit up the big developer news from this morning’s keynote for those who missed the liveblog.

Though Palm’s dynamic duo didn’t say what version number we’re looking at, they did suggest that ‘by fall’ we should see the features they described today. Primarily we’re talking about new APIs and tools for developers – the main new user-facing feature is an updated version of the App Catalog.

After the break, a preview of some of what’s coming in the next version of webOS.

read more

The following Instructional Resource Set focuses on the recognition and mastery of two dimensional geometric shapes at the Kindergarten level.  In its entirety, this comprehensive plan places emphasis specifically on Virginia Standards of Learning  K.11-K12.  With these resources, in addition to lesson plans and activities, children will learn to recognize the four basic geometric shapes (circle, square, rectangle, and triangle) but are also faced with less traditional shapes such as diamonds, hearts, octagons, and ovals.  Children also learn to compare sizes of geometric shapes and positions relative to one another.  The books, websites, and online activities listed below aid in teaching these concepts to students.    

Text Annotations: Children’s Literature 

Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban

Hoban is well known for her wordless, yet instructionally brilliant children’s books and this book is no exception!  If children have never been introduced to one of these unique books, they will be in for a treat as they sit down to this one.  Children can become an author, putting their own words to each page; or, teachers can be the author, taking children which he/ she reads to on a geometric journey.  Each page includes interesting and beautiful urban landscapes, portraits, and still life, thus relaying to children that shapes are all around them, every day, in every way!  Children will have fun studying each page, looking hard to find shapes within each one.  A plethora of circles, stars, triangles, trapezoids and more are embedded within each photograph.  The great thing is that before the book even begins, Hoban provides readers with a key of shapes to look for as they delve into each page.  A shape lesson can begin to take form before the teacher and the students even turn to the first page!

When a Line Bends, A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene

How does a shape even become a shape?  Where many shape books for children never really answer that question, this book serves as a phenomenal introduction to the line being the basis for all shapes.  Perhaps a line is a jump rope laid out straight, or lots of little black ants in a row?  Whatever it is, when it bends, a shape begins!  Through pictures and catchy rhyming verse, the traditional square, circle, triangle, diamond, rectangle, octagon, and oval are presented for children.  Even the less traditional star, heart, and crescent get some attention too!  No matter how popular, every shape has its own verse and double-page spread loaded with visual examples for children to see. This book could be utilized as an enhancement to any geometric shape lesson, or simply a really cute read-aloud with which children will easily fall in love. 

Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Ellen Stoll Walsh, once again, proves she is a master of children’s concept books with this cute companion to her classic concept books, Mouse Paint and Mouse Count.  Here, three quirky little mice are on the run from a big, scary cat!  In their adventure to hide, they discover shapes and work as a team to create larger things out of the smaller geometric figures.  The clever mice are curious as to what they can create with two circles, or a square, or perhaps, even eight triangles?  How about a wagon, or a house, maybe even a cat?!  Children will love to follow the story line of this enticing book, thus permitting them the opportunity to further learn shapes and colors.  Teachers can easily extend this book into a true lesson by using large, cut-out shapes for children to find as the mice do too!        

A Circle Here, A Square There  by David Diehl

Yet another wonderful book to use in the classroom to help children identify shapes as common elements in every day life.  Every page of this book displays the single word for each shape in large, bold print with accompanying pictorial examples beneath. A square is represented by a beautifully wrapped gift, the circle by a delicious scoop of ice cream.  These are just a couple of the book’s very relatable examples for children to see.  Among the book’s other shapes are the heart, oval, diamond, crescent, and even an octagon. 

The Wing on a Flea: A Book about Shapes by Ed Emberley

In this fun rhyming book that serves as a renovated version of the 1961 edition, shapes are presented to children as things they eat, see, or play with in their daily lives.  Children will be completely mesmerized by clean-cut shapes, cheerful colors, varying sizes and the world that is created by combining them all together.  Each shape is taught apart from every other, however, that does not stop the author from utilizing a combination of every shape in all pictures.  All geometric figures are displayed as solid colors on a black background, thus allowing children to see the shapes clearly with no distractions.  “Look and you can see that a wing on a flea is a triangle!”

Web Annotations: Children’s Website

The Story of Shapes presents a furry, quirky animal telling the story of shapes and providing descriptions for each as he draws them on a chalkboard for childre nto see!

The Shape Train asks that children identify the correct shapes in order to get the train to take off from the station.  This can also be done using colors, whereby the child must choose the correct colors to get the train to take off.  For a more advanced activity, the child can choose to mix colors and shapes!

Purpy’s Shapes allows children to have fun with Purpy while finding some his favorite shapes.  Children are first asked to match objects that are seen in every day life to corresponding geometric shapes.  Secondly, they must find a given number of shapes in a presented picture.   If the child succeeds at this task, he/ she is then presented with a kid-friendly explanation of how circles and squares are “squished” to get ovals and rectangles.  Each time a child gets a page correct, he/ she must locate an increased number of shapes in a new picture!

On this site, Kids Online Resources Presents Learning is Fun, children are shown shapes first, then asked to drag their mouse over real-life objects that match the given shape.  Once correct,  the child gets the opportunity to create large, sometimes silly, pictures or objects out of that shape.

With I Spy Shapes children are presented with various scenes, which include several shapes throughout the picture.  Children must locate the shapes and click on them with the mouse as a number ticker keepts track of the shapes found.  The picture is completed and the children are praised when all are successfully located!

Additional Resources

Hummingbird Education Resources: Lesson Plans

From catchy songs to cute in-class crafts, this site offers a comprehensive listing of various ways for teachers to implement and teach the shapes in Kindergarten classrooms.

With Shapes Recognition Practice several downloadable printables, listed from easiest to hardest to aid in differentiated learning, are presented to teachers to utilize in reinforcing the learning of shapes, sizes, and relative positions.

Step by Step Childcare Presenting Shapes

From edible ideas using common shapes to a list of children’s literature, this is a great site for teachers providing multiple methods to enforce the recognition of shapes. 

Google Chrome is probably the only browser which supports searching from the address bar by default. It works simple – you specify a default search engine in the browser settings and type the keywords or phrase in the address bar. The search results show up in a new browser tab which is useful, because you don’t have to open the home page of your favorite search engine again and again.

But if you have the habit of working with multiple tabs,  this feature can get a bit tiring. Whenever you search, the results are shown in a new tab and you have to close or navigate away from the page you were reading.

This is where Inline Google comes in. It’s a nifty little chrome extension which adds pop up functionality for performed searches. The search results are shown in separate pop up windows and you can see the results without leaving the current page you are reading.

To use the extension, hit the “G” icon placed just right of the chrome address bar. This will open a pop up window where you can type your search query:

Hit the “Search” button and the results will be shown in the same window as shown below:

Clicking a search result opens the page in a new browser tab. Currently the extension supports searching web, images, videos and news results.

Techie Buzz Verdict

The Inline Google extension is very simple to use but there aren’t any options which you can tweak. I would want some options being included – loading the search results in the same frame or may be opening the clicked link in the same tab.

Techie Buzz rating: 3.5 (very good).

Don’t miss these Related Posts:

• Capture Screenshots from Google Chrome With WebPage Screenshot Extension
• Manage Google Chrome Tabs the Better Way With TabJump Extension
• QuickSearch Is A Multi-Search Engine Extension For Google Chrome
• Web Developer Extension for Google Chrome
• New: Orkut Extension for Google Chrome

Join Techie Buzz on Your Favorite Social Networking Sites

• Become a Techie Buzz fan on Facebook
• Follow Techie Buzz on Twitter

Ed Rendell, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Fox News on Saturday that the Tea Party movement reflects the anger many Americans feel about the current state of the economy, but dismissed the notion of the Tea Party as a legitimate political movement.

“What’s happening,” Rendell said, “is the mainstream media – I’m not blaming the conservative media – I think the mainstream media has fallen for this… hook, line and sinker.”

Rendell specifically mentioned two recent Tea Party rallies in Washington to illustrate his point – the one held a week before the health care vote, and the other on Tax Day. Rendell said neither attracted more than a couple of thousand people to the National Mall.

“There’s just no clout behind this movement,” Rendell said. “It reflects what people feel, but the actual movement itself has no infrastructure, has no ability to bring a lot of people to key sites at key moments in time. If I organized a rally to have stronger laws to protect puppies, I would get 100,000 people in Washington without breaking a sweat.”

A recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found 17% of the registered voters consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement.

“They identify with the anger,” Rendell said. “I don’t think they identify with the movement. I don’t think the Tea Party has been very successful in fielding their own candidates. I don’t think they’ve been very successful in getting the number of signatures on petitions – we’ll see as we go through.”

Rendell did not question the suggestion that many Democrats identify with the Tea Party.

“There are Democrats who are angry about what’s gone on – they think the government should have done a better job watching Wall Street. Of course there is legitimate anger out there. The Tea Party is representative of a slice of that anger but to say that this is a political movement just doesn’t comport with the facts and the reality.”

(This is a guest post from the author’s blog.)

Compared to virtually all commodities of late, natural gas has been an absolute dog.  Holders of a certain nat gas ETF  have been forced to ask themselves whether or not a stock can trade in negative integers.

The reason for nat gas’s lackluster price action?  The conventional wisdom goes that because of our ability to horizontally drill for shale gas, the supply picture may be damn near unlimited. 

Out of left field comes a major-league contrarian call from Henry Groppe, an 80-something year old Texas-based petroleum industry analyst with a long track record of making big calls.  According to a story at The Globe and Mail, Groppe argues that shale wells are rapidly depleted and that there is, in fact, a major shortage of gas which will become apparent this summer in dramatic fashion.

David Parkinson reports on The Globe Investor site:

No, his analysis (and more than 50 years of experience) tells him that gas inventories are about to get a lot tighter, that new supplies are overstated, and that prices are headed north of $8 by the end of summer.

Why is he so sure he’s got it right and most everyone else has it wrong?

Because, he contends, shale gas – the previously unattainable source of vast gas supplies that has been unlocked by new high-tech horizontal drilling advancements – is not the holy grail it’s been cracked up to be. Not even close.

Groppe explains that horizontally-drilled wells face a huge amount of rapid depletion once tapped, and so the supply that we are all counting on to be there is ephemeral at best.

A double in nat gas prices by summer’s end?  Now that’s a variant, outlying view that grabs my attention.  Especially in light of the fact that Nat Gas E&P stocks have sat out most of this rally.  Hmmm.

Source:

A Contrarian Makes Another Call – This Time Natural Gas (GlobeAndMail)

Join the conversation about this story »

Check out “The Adventures of BeetleCam” (with sample photos of Elephants, Lions, African Buffalos). Very cool.

“And so BeetleCam was conceived; a DSLR camera mounted on top of a four-wheel drive remote control buggy.”

Filed under: Business, Entrepreneurship, Photography, Video

[JURIST] An Oregon jury Friday found the Boy Scouts of America negligent for failing to take actions that would have prevented further sexual abuse by an assistant scoutmaster during the 1980s and ordered the organization to pay $18.5 million in punitive damages to plaintiff Kerry Lewis. Multnomah County Circuit Court jurors concluded that awarding punitive damages was appropriate considering that the Boy Scouts acted in a recklessly indifferent manner in failing to protect child scouts from suspected pedophiles, particularly when the alleged molester had already confessed to molesting 17 children. Jurors were allowed access to highly restricted files known as “perversion files” that the Boy Scouts keep on suspected pedophiles after a judge ordered their release in March. The Lewis case is only the second instance in which a court has ordered the release of the files. The Boy Scouts say they will appeal the verdict.
Last week, the Oregon jury awarded $1.4 million to Lewis in damages for pain and suffering, finding that Boy Scouts of America National Council was 60 percent responsible for the abuse and allocating 15 percent of the liability to the local Cascade Pacific Council and 25 percent to the local sponsoring congregation Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Mormon congregation reached a settlement with Lewis prior to the verdict. Most sexual abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America are settled out of court.

Does your homescreen seem a bit plain? Maybe you just don’t have the real estate for all those widgets? Or perhaps those transitions from page to page are just…well, dull? If one or probably all these sound like you, I might just have something to perk up your Android.

GDE is a home replacement application. It is similar to PandaHome or OpenHome, though from personal experience, GDE has shown the best stability of the three. Along with great stability (which is important since nobody like force closes), it allows for up to 7 homescreens. Each can probably hold every widget you could ever want, and with it’s fast fling option all of them are just a swipe away.

One of GDE’s best points is it’s four unique transitions: Cube, Stretch, Fade, and the latest, Normal Cubed. Cube works like it sounds, changing the whole desktop and wallpaper setup into a spinning cube. Stretch presses the screen while dragging in the next. Fade uses a fade effect to switch screens. And my personal favorite, Normal Cubed, combines the standard Android transition with the Cube creating a pretty cool effect.

GDE has two widgets of it’s own: a conversation widget that comes in 4×3 and 4×4 sizes, and a 4×1 dockbar widget that allows quick access to your favorite apps.

Pluses:

• GDE is only $3.53, which makes it one of the cheaper home applications
• It’s exceedingly stable and offers multiple transitions
• Internal widgets allow quick access to both apps and conversations
• Up to 7 homescreens for all your widgets and apps

Things I’d like for the future:

• Although GDE has plenty of it’s own themes, the ability to use other homescreen application themes would be a welcome feature
• Perhaps a screen selector for those who have plenty of screens active

Bottom line:
GDE is a stable, capable, and customizable home replacement. You can’t get any better for your phone.

Note: This review was submitted by Andre Patterson as part of our app review contest.

Related Posts

• MyBackup Pro: A ROM flashers lifesaver
• Gmote: Turn your phone into a remote for your computer.
• FolderOrganizer: Spring cleaning for that cluttered home screen
• Quick Settings: Manage system settings from anywhere
• Ethereal Dialpad: A music app where you make the music

THERE is a whiff of exuberance around the world economy these days. Financial markets are buoyant, business confidence is rising and global growth seems increasingly robust. In its latest forecasts, released on April 21st, the IMF predicts that global output will grow by 4.2% this year on a purchasing-power basis, a full percentage point more than it foresaw six months ago. Other seers are even more optimistic, predicting growth of more than 4.5%—or close to the average pace of the boom years before the recession. The level of global output is now back to where it was before the downturn. And given the scale of the financial crisis, the recovery is surprisingly brisk. With global business investment accelerating and consumer spending strong, there is growing optimism that the recovery is becoming self-sustaining.

Some of this optimism is justified. Just as financial stress worsened the recession, so healthier financial markets are now reinforcing the recovery. Higher asset prices have propped up consumer spending and narrower corporate bond spreads have eased firms’ borrowing costs. Economic recovery, in turn, has helped ease financial pain. The IMF has reduced its estimate of banks’ total losses from the crisis by $500 billion, to $2.3 trillion, two-thirds of which has already been written off.

The trouble is that the good fortune has not been shared equally.

Continue reading at The Economist >>

Join the conversation about this story »

Hey, um, “Zoran,” if you owe money to Bank of America, can you give them a call because they seem to think you live at reader Kimber’s house and they are just not willing to accept that you don’t. Kimber says they call the house at “all hours of the day, during meal times and weekends” looking for you.

Kimber says:

For the past several months, we have been receiving phone calls from Bank of America. We get calls at all hours of the day, during meal times, and weekends. Sometimes when we pick up, there is no answer, but for the most part, when someone is on the other end of the line, the caller asks for “Zoran”.

I have explained numerous times to Bank of America that no one at this address has ever been a BoA customer, that there is no one at this address named “Zoran”, and that I would like my number to be placed on a do not call list.

Several times, I have been assured that my number was placed on such a list, but the calls continue. Once, my husband answered and was told that the phone numbers are not displayed to the callers, so there is no way that we could have been placed on a list at all.

This morning, after receiving one of the dead line calls, I just received another call looking for this Zoran character. This time, I demanded to be given to a supervisor to deal with the situation. After several minutes on hold, I explained the situation, gave my number…and then the supervisor hung up on me!

I am really at the end of my rope here! Is there anything I can do to get these calls to stop? I’m ready to sue these bozos if necessary.

Are these calls from a debt collection department? If so, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act forbids harassing telephone calls, including to third parties. Not allowed:

Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.

If they’re looking for Zoran, this is the section that covers that behavior.

Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall—

(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;

(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;

(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;

(4) not communicate by post card;

(5) not use any language or symbol on any envelope or in the contents of any communication effected by the mails or telegram that indicates that the debt collector is in the debt collection business or that the communi- cation relates to the collection of a debt; and

(6) after the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with regard to the subject debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name and address, not communicate with any person other than that attorney, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the communication from the debt collector.

So, in short, they are not supposed to keep calling you (provided this is a debt collection attempt), after you tell them you do not have the information they are looking for.

NOLO has a good article about what to do if a debt collector is crossing these lines. In it they say that you can sue such a debt collector in small claims court.

If you’ve been subject to repeated abusive behavior and can document it, consider suing the collection agency. But if the illegal behavior was merely annoying, don’t bother. For example, if the collector called three times in one day but never again, you probably don’t have a case.

To sue the debt collector, you can represent yourself in small claims court or hire a lawyer and go to regular court. (The other side may have to pay your attorneys’ fees and court costs if you win.)

On the other hand if this is just a crazy marketing attempt, you can file a complaint with DoNotCall.gov.

Good luck!

FDCP Act (PDF) [FTC]

Cute ad. [HT Bud]

Filed under: advertising, Business