Visible phone menu system

You dial a phone number anywhere today and you get the dreaded menu; Dell, IBM, Blue Cross Blue Shield and AIG all use them, where the poor user is forced to wade through 3 or 4 levels of menus just to get to the right choice.  Don't get me started if that choice goes to voicemail...

Idea - have the menu sent over the phone line, so if the phone you call from has a display, you can see the menu and read in your native language too.  Plus, companies REALLY focused on customer support, could provide an option to reach the operator on the 1st menu.

Nothing like calling to discuss your DirecTV bill or mis-applied credit on your VISA card, only to wait over 3 minutes to finally hear that the average wait time is 7 minutes.

Visual phone menu, that's my idea for the day.  Do you have one?

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5 New Planets found in our galaxy

I am totally convinced humans are not the only living beings in the universe because it would just be naive to think in an infinite universe we are the only ones.  What do you think?

Still, it is very cool to see that new planets are being found so close to home with similar distances to their stars, so as to make water available for life to be a possibility.  Today's article in CNN has the full story - Kepler space telescope spots five Earth-sized planets in our galaxy

Frozen Water Pipe Catcher

Yesterday my water pipe in the kitchen froze and no one would have no, but for the side comment from my daughter, Mollie, who said, "oh yeah, it's weird that the cold water didn't work."

If not for that one passing comment, I may never have learned about the potential catastrophe before it happened.  As it turned out the electrical tape I rushed to buy would not work anyway, because it was 6' long and my [visible] water pipe was only 6" long.  We have an overhang and on the back of the house about 18" that makes our main level 3 feet wider than the basement and it seems the pipe and the rest of the space in that overhang are completely uninsulated - a whole 'nuther' discussion for another time.

So, with a 2" x 4" hole cut out around the pipe in the bottom of the cabinet, I could feel how cold the pipe was and downstairs the pipe was completely covered with spray foam insulation - a project I had just finished 2 months ago - thankfully.  A 1600 watt hair dryer and 10 minutes was all it took to change the water drop every 5 seconds, to every 3 seconds, then 2 and 1 second intervals, until finally a fully working water supply to the sink.

My Idea: 
   Temperature sensors that attach wirelessly to water pipes throughout the house every 2 - 4 feet and register with the thermostat where a sudden change can be alerted and either updated or acted on to prevent frozen water pipes.
  Another usage for these sensors would be to catch insulation deficiencies and more importantly to help with fire detection and the ability to be monitored remotely with a default action to call someone in case you are not home at the time.