The Yahoo "Quercus Trees" group is good. If you remember Guy, from a few years back on here, he and many other oak experts are regulars. The "magnolia" Yahoo group is fairly good if you are into magnolias. All or most all of the who's who in the magnolia world are on there. I used to belong to a few different Yahoo conifer groups. They were all just a complete waste. I think I still have one (just haven't got around to canceling it), but got rid of the rest. I think they went wrong by trying to spread the group out into about four different groups by expertise. In the long run, they all just seemed to eventually flop. There are many, many other plant related Yahoo groups, but I think those are all the ones I belong to that are about trees.

Update: Since Safari seemed to not make a difference (after the two times it did), I forgot about my intention to use only it for Twitter. Was away for a while. Came back and sent out some tweets. None showed up in the addressee's timeline. At this point out of 35 or so tweets exactly two had shown up. Just today I realized I was using Firefox. Tried Safari. Tweets are showing up now!

magdalena, no it isn't a breaking in problem. This noise should not be there at all. Dang, now that Mtn pointed out your horns I'll never be able to "unsee" them! The dealer just called and the engineer/expert has arrived and will be working on the car shortly. Mtn, this manufacturer currently falls right in the area you described, poor customer satisfaction, but they can barely keep up with demand, so not much incentive to change their ways. I knew this going into it. I thought I might get a bad sensor or electrical malfunction, specially with all the tech found in today's cars, but something that they can easily diagnose and fix. Never thought it would be a rattle that they had no clue how to silence. arcy, I think those of us who lived life before social media can see both the positive and negative. I don't want to participate in it, but do benefit sometimes from the information that others put out there. I might still sign up to some of these sites, to share the details for the next person that might have the same rare problem. Everyone please cross your fingers that I get good news later this afternoon!

Here's how it might work for me, with an example. Flint has/had a serious problem with their public water supply corroding pipes and releasing lead, when they switched water sources, (perhaps you have heard). Being a scientist and one who is highly interested in water quality issues, I found the local reporting sketchy, and confusing. So I had to search out other sources, which I could find online--in depth reports and position papers from the EPA, local health agencies, U of M researchers, and other reporters who either blogged or later in depth pieces in national and local news outlets. Just heard a blip about a report the other day, about the fact that aging lead pipes corroding are a nation wide problem, a lot in older, urban areas. Here's an example of an article. In that article, there are lots and lots of other sources cited, which you can then go to for further information. NPR is the source of origin, but in the article are tips for many other places to follow up for further details.Where are lead water pipes in Michigan Another example, HC's e-mail scandal. I read an in-depth article on the FBI report on her e-mails in the New York Times. Still wanted more info. so one simple google led me to the FBI's Web site and I found their release of their report on their entire investigation, which I then read. Went to a few other articles on various lawyers opinions on the legality or illegality of her actions. Worked for the feds a couple of times, and had to go through FOIA training for my e-mail so I was familiar with the issues too, through real-life experience. Also did my masters thesis on using the Internet so had some basic background knowledge and a piqued interest in subjects relating to Internet use.