Alternative taxi service
Competition is a good thing, right? It most often drives down prices and increases product quality and customer service. So if you need to get around – New York, Chicago, Milan, or Hong Kong – maybe forget hailing a cab from an often-slushy curb and scrabbling for cash or coins to pay. Call your own personal driver to take you where you need to go. Uber Taxi operates round the globe while Lyft concentrates on those moving around the United States.
The idea is ride sharing, a new phenomenon that allows people to charge a small fee to fill up the empty seats in their car by exploiting GPS, SmartPhone and Social Networking technologies. Imagine. No more sidewalk struggles to determine who gets to ride first. No more being toured around the city in roundabout maneuvers to increase taxi fees and waste your valuable time.
Here's how the unregulated taxi service, currently giving licensed cab drivers a run for their money, makes it easy for you. According to Uber:
Open the app (assuming you have a smart phone) and enter your destination in the 'Where to' box. Once you confirm your pickup and destination addresses are correct, select 'TAXI' at the bottom of your screen. Then, tap 'Confirm TAXI'.
Once you've been matched, you'll see your driver's picture and vehicle details and can track their arrival on the map.
Got that? You choose your driver. The next step in the process is just as convenient. When your personal taxi arrives, hop in. Thanks to GPS, ride share drivers already know the "fastest" way to get there. So do you, since a tracking service is available. That doesn't preclude you insisting on a leisurely drive by the park if that's what you choose, and that's the point. Customer service is paramount. Payment is prearranged so you can just up and leave the Uber taxi when the ride is over.
But what about those poor souls who don't have a smart phone? Or drivers for that matter? Can't customers hail a customer-first cab the old-fashioned way? Are people who live in smaller towns stuck with paying a hefty cab fare or walking?
Not in Colon, Michigan. Enter Amish "Uber."
CNN reports, "About 150 miles southwest of Detroit, Michigan lies small-town Colon. Known as the 'magic capital of the world,' Colon's population hovers around 1,200 people – certainly not sizeable enough to justify the existence of a ride-sharing service such as Uber."
But one enterprising local, Timothy Hochstedler, with the aid of his horse and buggy, has answered the need for customer-driven taxi servicing.
Check. It. Out. The video below tells it all:
Uber has yet to respond to Hocksteter's using the "Uber" name to taxi riders where they want to go for a flat $5.00 fee. But, hey, if Uber is really customer-driven, wouldn't they want folks in small towns to have similar access to rides made to order?
Close your doors and windows, people
A Boulder, Colorado woman got a shock last Thursday with an uninvited guest: a large furred one with a full complement of lithe muscle, whiskers and killer instinct to boot. All because her doors and windows weren't shut.
Boulder Police tweeted, "Last night, a mountain lion entered a home on Marine St through a screen door, No people were injured but a house cat was killed. Please keep ground level doors and windows closed and locked at night and when you are not home. (This is also good advice for bears and burglars.)"
Ya think?
Serious business, folks. The wildcat was stuck inside the home, having wandered up to the second floor to gape out the window at police until, after an hour's coaxing, the animal finally departed. Authorities fired dummy rounds at the cat to scare it out of the area and yet, with the cat's having visited this house once, there's zero guarantee it won't meander back.
While nobody was harmed at the Boulder home, the family's cat was killed. So while the mountain lion may have been scared away, it got a definite taste of blood that may have whet its appetite for seeking out what goodies people's homes have to offer in future.
Check out the video below:
But lest you think this unlawful entry is an isolated incident think again. In Ashland, Oregon only a month ago, another woman, Lauren Taylor welcomed a visitor that slept in her living room for six hours.
Take a gander at the footage below:
Got that? Ms. Taylor used her mastery of "energy" to encourage the animal to leave. To tell the wildcat that it was loved.
No disrespect intended, but close your doors, people. One can't help but get the impression that the Ashland incident may have been orchestrated. Maybe not. But with a pond out back and doors left open, Taylor's knowing all about cat energy and how to handle them seemed someone preordained, considering it was all captured on film.
But either way (regardless of animal energies), appetites – even those of people intent on following foolish practices – are real. Thankfully there was no human bloodshed in these close encounters. This time.
Sea horses – shy and beautiful creatures, best kept in their own environment!
Sea horses are odd and fascinating creatures. Check out how humans are helping them to thrive in Grecian seas in the video below:
Now, that's the way it's done, not cutting a canal from the ocean to your swimming pool.