For years, you’ve followed our telemarketing reports, and the downloadable block lists. This challenge will be taken over by our good friends at SafeNetting.com.

SafeNetting

. . . . has been reporting spam, scams and various cyber crime since the late 1990s. It’s been a part of the User Group Network at UGNN since the beginning. Through mid 2000s the User Group Network carried a heavy content web site with nearly a quarter million followers … later after a destructive hack, it’s been most active at UGNet News on X (Twitter) and the InfoManager over on Facebook. The mission has always been to distribute news articles and content to computer clubs known as “User Groups, ” mainly Apple user groups.

So, the telemarketing block lists are most appropriately purveyed by SafeNetting. We at DT&G and 60-Seconds do appreciate your support for all these years!

Thanks for reading.

Online since 1985 . . . Showkster | Teachable Moments | DT&G

All of the numbers on our Robocall block lists have been called and validated as being used by telephone scammers, either from their number or spoofing a number that has been disconnected. These are the “caller ID” numbers that called to scam you and me : #2512: #8506, #15, #16, August ’24, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, and the original “Fight Back” post with an innovative “Fax” machine ploy. NOTE : We wave all responsibility for any numbers in this list that are decommissioned, and become working numbers for legitimate telephone subscribers. The Telephone company must assume all responsibility for allowing telemarketers to use an innocent subscriber’s number, or a number that has been decommissioned and then sold to a new customer.

Press enter or click to view image in full size

FAIR USE NOTICE:
This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

Telephone Scam lists moving to SafeNetting! was originally published in 60-Second Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Yes, another month, another letter. S is unique because it’s the only month that begins with an S.

The good news is, DT&G is gathering it’s content into a single online site. So shortly, in the future all of our content will be over on Graphic-Design.com.

So, join us there, and follow us there for all the goodies yet to come.

September is brought to you by the letter S

. . . . go there!

• Join us at Graphic-Design.com
• See DT&G on Facebook
• Follow along with DT&G on X (formerly Twitter)
• I have some good stuff at DT&G on YouTube as well

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

September is brought to you by the letter S was originally published in 60-Second Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Continuing our tradition, we welcome you to the Summer Months June and July . . .

June and Julyare brought to you by the letter J

The letters I and J follow each other in the alphabet and look a lot alike. So it comes as no surprise to discover that our ninth and tenth letters started out as the same character.

The Phoenician ancestor to our present I was a sign called “yodh,” meaning “hand.” The original Phoenician symbol evolved over time into a zigzag shape that was eventually adopted by the Greeks. The Greeks often simplified the symbols they borrowed, and the yodh was no exception. As used by the Greeks, the zigzag became a simple vertical line. The Greeks also changed the name of the letter to “Lota.”

Lota was the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet and, as such, has come to mean “a very small amount.” The word “jot” also derives (via Latin) from the Greek lota, and usually refers to a small note or mark.

Like the G and F, the letter I took its time deciding which sound it represented. The Phoenicians used it as a semivowel, as the ‘y’ in toy. When the I was adopted by the Greeks around 900 B.C., they used the letter to represent the long ‘ee’ vowel sound. Then, in early Latin, the I represented both the vowel ‘I’ and the semivowel ‘y.’

Eventually, somebody must have grown tired of using one letter to represent two wounds, and so na attempt was made to differentiate them by lengthening the I slightly to represent the semivowel. In the 16th century, a lettering artist decided that merely lengthening the the letter was too subtle a change, and added a hook to the bottom of the J.

Both the lowercase I and J have a dot, but there are two competing theories as to which got its dot first. One theory maintains that the J was the first, with the dot added during the 13th century in an attempt to further distinguish J from I. The other theory posits that the I was dotted first (also during the 13th century), and that the dot’s purpose was to help distinguish the I from straight characters like the M, N and U when it appeared near these letters in blocks of text copy.

That’s the Letter ‘J’ for June, July and actually January ! Enjoy, and

…thank you Allan Haley for this historic minute in typography history.

Allan Haley is a long time hero of the Design Center, and his expertise in typography and typographic design is second to none. His clients include Apple, Adobe, Linotype, and Monotype among others. Allan was executive vice president of ITC, and before that was in charge of typographic development at Agfa Monotype. He is highly regarded as an educator, and he is a frequently requested speaker. I met him through the Dynamic Graphics (DGEF) conferences series.

• Take a stroll through the trails of Allan Haley
• Words That Start with the letter J
• Sing along as we stroll along with the letter J

And, please enjoy our “Letter J” poster for the summer months …

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

June and July are brought to you by the letter J was originally published in 60-Second Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Historians tell us that our current M started out as the Egyptian hieroglyph for “Owl.” Over thousands of years, this simple line drawing was further distilled into the hieratic symbol for the ‘em’ sound. Eventually, the great-grandparent of our M looked a bit like a handwritten ‘m’m balance on one tip of the stroke.

THE PHOENICIANS CALLED THE LETTER MEM. It is easy to see that the Phoenician mem is based on the Egyptian hieratic symbol, and that it is the forerunner of the thirteenth letter of our alphabet. The mem looked much like our two-bumped, lowercase ‘m’ with an added tail at the end.

The Greek mu evolved from the Phoenician mem. The Greeks further simplified the letter and, in the process, converted the soft, round shapes into angular strokes.

The Etruscans and the Romans adopted the Greek form, but neither made substantial changes to the shape or the proportions of the character. Sometime in the third or fourth century A.D. the rounded lowercase ‘m’ began to appear, but it was almost lost in the later centuries. In medieval writing, it became common practice to place a stroke over the preceding letter instead of writing the ‘m’ (probably because ‘m’ is one of the more time consuming letters to write).

The Romans also pressed the M and six other letters — I, X, V, L, C, and D — into double duty as their numerals, and gave the M the honor of standing in for the highest value, 1,000!

That’s the Letter ‘M’ for March and May! Enjoy, and

…thank you Allan Haley for this historic minute in typography history.

Allan Haley is a long time hero of the Design Center, and his expertise in typography and typographic design is second to none. His clients include Apple, Adobe, Linotype, and Monotype among others. Allan was executive vice president of ITC, and before that was in charge of typographic development at Agfa Monotype. He is highly regarded as an educator, and he is a frequently requested speaker. I met him through the Dynamic Graphics (DGEF) conferences series.

• Take a stroll through the trails of Allan Haley
• Delightful Words That Start with the letter M

And, please enjoy our “Letter M” poster for the month of May …

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

Do you remember Charlottesville? Medium had bunches of articles about that crazy day. But why did Medium kill all the Charlottesville tags? Could it be they didn’t follow Medium’s ideology?

In 2023, we returned to the subject, when the news media kept hammering and hammering the Charlottesville Lie, to pull our article back up. But Medium said

“This tag doesn't have any articles yet”

… and we watched that warning from one of the very pages that used the tag. Yes, the tags were there. We asked Medium about this blatant omission — especially after finding hoards of leftist tags still alive, and after several inquiries, they finally said “unpopular tags are dropped.” What does that tell you?

• Destroy statues? What does that say about YOU?
• Who destroys statues?

So, now with the news of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the scandal surrounding who was actually behind the Charlottesville debacle do you think the Charlottesville tag will come back? We plan to use it in THIS post.

All of the big tech companies have promised not to censor content. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg sat right there in the Congress oversight committee and said they had stopped and wouldn’t do it again. But they still do — they’ve just changed the methods they use for plausible deniability. Medium, Quora, X, Google and most others also practice it, particularly today with the help of CloudFlare. We don’t know if there is a remedy. Just be aware that it’s happening.

Thanks for reading.

Online since 1985 . . . Showkster | Teachable Moments | DT&G

NOTE: when posting this article, using tag “60 Seconds” it says there are two tags. When using 60-Seconds they say “never used.” Hmmmm. There are several hundred articles here where we’ve used “60-Seconds” … so there you go.

FAIR USE NOTICE:
This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

Is Medium censoring you? Do they cancel your content? was originally published in 60-Second Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We haven’t reported recently, it just seems to get more redundant all the time. But there’s been a huge resurgence of spam and telemarketing crime so we’re posting now.

We have to warn you about a new technique they’re using to get you off of the internet where they can handle you more efficiently. These are called “scare” tactics and frequently deal with subscriptions. There should be a law against people being allowed to call you spoofing a number other than the one they’re using . . . . . here they are :

(803) 234–0500
(805)302 6528
(810)2682195
(833) 310–0985
(865)-416–6846.
+1 (803) 201–0306
+1 808–202–8607
+1–803–200–9296
+12406527325
+12406527325
+12627403898
+12812123910
+13017083191
+13862443690
+14053384040
+15402023240
+15402023250
+15402036124
+15402036127
+15402101275
+15402101275
+15402101279
+15402101279
+15402160764
+15402696372
+15402696372
+15402696430
+15402696430
+15402696461
+15402696461
+15403582647
+15403582647
+15403772028
+15403867831
+15403867831
+15403867843
+15403885260
+15405167986
+15405174244
+15405762087
+15405762087
+15406226873
+15406226873
+15406520025
+15407436265
+15407781209
+15408755931
+15408799352
+15409860870
+15715135281
+15716889806
+17205721320
+18032009296
+18262230334
+18334176449
+18736649256
+19499546805
+19514671697
+19545399728
+19545399728
+19547384312
+19547384312
1–803- 201–2340
1–859- 222–5521
1–859- 396–0553
1–859- 396–0553
1–865–201–4958
1–865–201–4958
2–028–607–1194
8032009296
808 226–6474
808 226–6474
828 203 7207
8775020549
8775020549

You know what to do

Copy the list — paste it into a new contact record on your iPhone or other smart phone. Now click to “BLOCK” those numbers, and give the contact a name you can remember — we number our lists “A_2504” — now we know when a spammer calls us!

Who spammed us?

We also kept a record of who spammed us, and we’ve included that list here for your server black lists. These are not all, because it does no good to blacklist many addresses, and some are legitimate and have been spoofed by the cyber criminals. EMAIL ADDRESSES of people who spammed us . . .

noreply@cloud1-c8125.firebaseapp.com
shyamsagarmahato@comsult.org
admin@corporatefoundationsecure.com
ganeshsahare231@ordweb.org
shyamsagarmahato@comsult.org
joannemendoza24935llc@us-treasuries.org
babarahmadkhan@yahoo.com
camilawebworking@hotmail.com
noreply@antivirus1-bd30e.firebaseapp.com
babarahmadkhan@yahoo.com
georgereyesrvbc@cent-ans-le-metro.org
arsadkhan28046@zzzk.org
noreply@phas002.firebaseapp.com
adminigykcgfr6cws1oa7c77rmvkc2djygo@feedingameric2.onmicrosoft.com
leslee@finebiotic.com
raseddalli640@rootaccount.org
ramasahoo882@zzzo.org
jr4n0aGQRH@datareportal.com
MjS5WWPgdQ@sketchbook.com
7pZadw4yZp@pirlotv.fr
jr4n0aGQRH@datareportal.com
MjS5WWPgdQ@sketchbook.com
7pZadw4yZp@pirlotv.fr
Rijwanwebmanager@hotmail.com
supportofcgp3hyzmqmqwqob2rg@nosjkewqew4.onmicrosoft.com
noreply@phas002.firebaseapp.com
aish@webpristine.com
QjWwnWYq@indianaonline81925.onmicrosoft.com
salyersl56re3@insurstrat.org
adminzraop7vpilkgjitdaji8zwrl0muom8@goodshepherdfoodbank19256.onmicrosoft.com
delgadillo.od114ds@ph-bessie.org
karuppasamy8220488401@pplug.org
mail-westus3azon11022106.outbound.protection.outlook.com
mailto:armandoserrano@finishfiling.help
ramsinghpal1987@mietsoft.org
admino9bn2qhvikjognvvnzq2kder1kejqw@harvardmedical19457.onmicrosoft.com
CandaHaglund2936@hotmail.com
reply@dpirealtywebsites.com
CandaHaglund2936@hotmail.com
Jojhcorer.us01@outlook.com
noreply@projekt-f95fe.firebaseapp.com
apearman@frontier.com
Arpitasahu543@outlook.com
qrafi091@facepainter.org
qrafi091@facepainter.org
festac@gigm.com
mailto:armandoserrano@finishfiling.help
admin@myofice0365.it.com
sadettinyilmaz5454@jpcentral.org
brickmanderek78ac3@dalcorp.org
babulalkumar16061@jammot.org
mr2793464@yakhsaran.org
rajk218667ac3@irgendwie.org
noreply.consumerdialogue@arlafoods.com
contact@jauitj.createsend7.com
francisappservice@outlook.com
radhawebsolutions01@hotmail.com
MohannadROSATO7672@hotmail.com
Jojhcorer.us01@outlook.com
francisappservice@outlook.com
santurr36@pmemail.org
qrafi091@facepainter.org
qrafi091@facepainter.org
dr6598919@ergion.org
jebauman@consolidated.net
adminqvezri6jb7gyhvsrpluw6edxbw06xs@gamersoutreach2.onmicrosoft.com
adminqvezri6jb7gyhvsrpluw6edxbw06xs@gamersoutreach2.onmicrosoft.com
saiidgul2@complaw.org
saiidgul2@complaw.org
mailto:armandoserrano@finishfiling.help
GpbbHMPLYZoWGWFc@israaidusinc73196.onmicrosoft.com
dkIpIlOlcnPuJglg@israaidusinc73196.onmicrosoft.com
mujawaranis54@ebituary.org
stevensamartha41@brooksuk.org
mankhushk580@acsalumni.org
dpXnKQwYiA@atriummedicalcenter64662.onmicrosoft.com
mailto:armandoserrano@finishfiling.help
Ruth.online.marketing@hotmail.com
uibglobal@substack.com
MohannadROSATO7672@hotmail.com
aish@webpristine.com
Daspru.Benin@outlook.com
wofts@tapl.com
neenaguptadl@outlook.com
help@parkwhiz.com
admin6totzromgvn0bma6lcrxzgvvdyn1ha@ridgeviewmedical1.onmicrosoft.com
sumit048430@leadpipes.org
mailto:armandoserrano@finishfiling.help
homedepotcustomercare@mg.homedepot.com
rrsufh@rsanswers.org
bondarshinghbaghel@newrider.org
neveunestor895@motorpolis.org
patemmanuel12@hop1.org
patemmanuel12@hop1.org
pariswimberly328@wnclug.org
mailto:armandoserrano@finishfiling.help
ac@primerelaymail.com
rdughgan@tilhenger.org
kinnavenkararavvenkarava@smartgrrls.org
adminmp2qvzbi2tdmkuyucqzlbcwz3xu4qrwanm1@happycatin.onmicrosoft.com
mailto:lauren@digitalguide.online
kadirovadilbar675@smtma.org
mailto:djouy8zhypdcd8op@lifo4.drapolkat.digital
mailto:ksmqr6zdetkhepxa@lifo3.drapolkat.digital
dilekhuseyin87@securitypchhm.org
katrinaedwards85972@yesatlanta.org
lansley152@daiviet.org
gdidhjjdjdhjdj967@mercymeals.org
katrinaedwards85972@yesatlanta.org
lansley152@daiviet.org
patilshrikant347@z93.org
anjalipundhir22@pliaas.org
qPTDXCLD@ridgeviewmedical65749.onmicrosoft.com
purnimanipa35@openuserstin.org
support@perfectwallcolor.com
xvtx.com@pwrrx.com
Surajmaurya2011@outlook.com
nou255200314@noun.edu.ng
purnimanipa35@openuserstin.org
peTYfIhJ@thestern68784.onmicrosoft.com
mailto:myinfo@sentinellc.sbs
Surajmaurya2011@outlook.com
gitasoren478643688544@gmail.com
armand.faure.eveho@211976394.mailchimpapp.com
us17–510e3711f8-f1fa8349ec@inbound.mailchimpapp.net
sharafatkhan6720@hcasi.org
mehmetmengi7@vapetrip.org
param.dn143@venusden.org
sugarkeche@whahoola.org
param.dn143@venusden.org
admin@primerelaymail.com
wulfftoney529@filewb.org
paulojosecrb@zzvn.org
macnicklin2@zxij.org
Levikumar@outlook.com
Ruth.online.marketing@hotmail.com
registrar-abuse@cloudflare.com
dy484639@tomjturner.org
Levikumar@outlook.com
Ruth.online.marketing@hotmail.com
no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com
anandjadhav7921@sexile.org
supplies@uniliver-nv.com
mcadoor183@cqlfx.org
bossdipakhansda123@chinalte.org
rw557848@reputam.org
bkumaresan2018@taniagreen.org
fracturedheartxox@ospilinks.org
no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com
mailto:admin@jomalifestyle.cam
sales@zhisbughub.com
uvnuxtdpqbxcmu@tjbn.net
amazon@amazon-us.cn
mia@wcoh.com
azadmondal712@allnexor.org
nboudreaux645@scrisoare.org
medisdhobalosi@tabfu.org
moidulislamam549@upliift.org
calendar-notification@google.com
moidulislamam549@upliift.org
bricelouino23@aulayoga.org
juiopdrestuomipdrestuodres36@gmail.com
www99553046@atsiart.org
Ruth.online.marketing@hotmail.com
info@pccenterdesoto.com
azadmondal712@allnexor.org
FFE7353C3F0@namprd22.prod.outlook.com
xhppcts389@hotmail.com
abonnementen@delijn.be
mailto:connect@zapme.chat
Ruth.online.marketing@hotmail.com
cPanel@graphic-design.com
bishanathsutrodhor@geozyme.org
protect@servihoo.com
adusa.william101@ccllpservice.com
prote@servihoo.com
protz@servihoo.com
yauditreyes@flybeing.org

It’s also going to be a good idea to follow SafeNetting.com for updates. Feel free to download this edition’s VCF card file January through March 2602.vcf, end of year 2510.vcf , last month 2509.vcf … 2508.vcf …. and last month’s at VCF card file 2507–08 … and previously 2503.vcf file, and 2504.vcf file, if you use an iPhone. And, perhaps you should share this page to friends and family.

Thanks for reading.

Online since 1985 . . . Showkster | Teachable Moments | DT&G

Robocall block lists: #2512: #8506, #15, #16, August ’24, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, and the original “Fight Back” post with an innovative “Fax” machine ploy. NOTE : We wave all responsibility for any numbers in this list that are decommissioned, and become working numbers for legitimate telephone subscribers. The Telephone company must assume all responsibility for allowing telemarketers to use an innocent subscriber’s number, or a number that has been decommissioned and then sold to a new customer.

FAIR USE NOTICE:
This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

A new year, a new bag of nefarious crooks, hacks and intruders. . . was originally published in 60-Second Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

No one knows why ‘A’ is the first letter of the alphabet. Some think it because this letter represents one of the most common vowel sounds in ancient languages of the western hemisphere. Other sources argue against this theory because there were no vowel sounds in the Phoenician language. (The Phoenician alphabet is generally thought to be the basis of the one we use today.)

No one knows why the ‘A’ looks the way it does, but we can construct a fairly logical chain of events.

Some say the Phoenicians chose the head of an OX to represent the ‘A’ sound. (for the Phoenicians, this was actually a glottal stop). The ox was a common, important animal to the Phoenicians. It was their main power source for heavy work. Oxen plowed the fields, harvested crops and hauled food to the markets. Some sources also claim that the ox was often the main course at meals. A symbol for the ox would have been an important communication tool for the Phoenicians. It somewhat naturally follows that an ox symbol would be the first letter of the alphabet.

The Phoenicians first drew the ox head ‘A’ as a ‘V’ with a crossbar to distinguish the horns from the face. They called this letter “alif,” the Phoenician word for ox. Through the centuries of writing (most of it quickly, with little care for maintaining detail) the alef evolved into a form that looked very different from the original ox head symbol. In fact, by the time it reached the Greeks in about 400 BC, it looked more like our modern ‘K’ than an “A”.

The Greeks further changed the alef. First they rotated it 90 degrees so that it pointed up. Then they made the crossbar a sloping stroke. The Greeks also changed the letter name from alef to alpha. Finally they made the crossbar a horizontal stroke and the letter looked almost as it does today.

The Romans received the Greek alphabet by way of the Etruscan traders of what is now norther Italy. While Romans kept the design, they changed the name of the first letter — this time to “ah.” The sound “ay,” or the name for the ‘A,’ was not common to the Latin language.

The Roman capital letters have endured as the standard of proportion and dignity for almost 2,000 years. They’re also the basis of many of the lowercase designs. ‘A’ is the first letter.

So, remember, each time you write the letter ‘A’ you’re using a symbol for thousands of years old livestock!

That’s the Letter ‘A’ for April and August! Enjoy, and

…thank you Allan Haley for this historic minute in typography history.

Allan Haley is a long time hero of the Design Center, and his expertise in typography and typographic design is second to none. His clients include Apple, Adobe, Linotype, and Monotype among others. Allan was executive vice president of ITC, and before that was in charge of typographic development at Agfa Monotype. He is highly regarded as an educator, and he is a frequently requested speaker. I met him through the Dynamic Graphics (DGEF) conferences series.

• Take a stroll through the trails of Allan Haley
• 497 Positive Words That Start with A
• Sing along as we stroll along with the letter A

And, please enjoy our “Letter A” poster for the month of March …

Or, just click here to make your own LETTER A POSTER

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

Every time there’s something to be said, artist and designer Shepard Fairey applied his craft to protest art — — usually around the time of the U.S. presidential elections.

His art transcends causes and conflicts and becomes its own genera mixing flat color with rigid, hard-edge strokes and shapes.

Fairey is also the artist behind the iconic 2008 Obama “HOPE” poster, and this piece uses his recognizable red, cream, and blue graphic style.

Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, and graphic designer who’ bold graphic style became extraordinarily popular in 2008! So popular in fact that 60,000 Photoshop wannabes around the world had to publish YouTube tutorials on how to do the effect. (Ask me for the link to all the tutorials, Medium doesn’t allow links to YouTube!)

It’s a phenomenon that has found its place in the graphic design field forever!

As always, there are thousands and thousands of incredible graphics to bring you enjoyment and enrichment.

. . . and thanks for reading!

• Enjoy our “Shepard Fairey” Poster, or
• Discover the incredible world of “Shepard Fairey”
• See DT&G on Facebook
• See 60-Seconds site
• 60-Secods on Medium

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

Historians tell us that our current M started out as the Egyptian hieroglyph for “Owl.” Over thousands of years, this simple line drawing was further distilled into the hieratic symbol for the ‘em’ sound. Eventually, the great-grandparent of our M looked a bit like a handwritten ‘m’m balance on one tip of the stroke.

THE PHOENICIANS CALLED THE LETTER MEM.

It is easy to see that the Phoenician mem is based on the Egyptian hieratic symbol, and that it is the forerunner of the thirteenth letter of our alphabet. The mem looked much like our two-bumped, lowercase ‘m’ with an added tail at the end.

The Greek mu evolved from the Phoenician mem. The Greeks further simplified the letter and, in the process, converted the soft, round shapes into angular strokes.

The Etruscans and the Romans adopted the Greek form, but neither made substantial changes to the shape or the proportions of the character. Sometime in the third or fourth century A.D. the rounded lowercase ‘m’ began to appear, but it was almost lost in the later centuries. In medieval writing, it became common practice to place a stroke over the preceding letter instead of writing the ‘m’ (probably because ‘m’ is one of the more time consuming letters to write).

The Romans also pressed the M and six other letters — I, X, V, L, C, and D — into double duty as their numerals, and gave the M the honor of standing in for the highest value, 1,000!

That’s the Letter ‘M’ for March and May! Enjoy, and

…thank you Allan Haley for this historic minute in typography history.

Allan Haley is a long time hero of the Design Center, and his expertise in typography and typographic design is second to none. His clients include Apple, Adobe, Linotype, and Monotype among others. Allan was executive vice president of ITC, and before that was in charge of typographic development at Agfa Monotype. He is highly regarded as an educator, and he is a frequently requested speaker. I met him through the Dynamic Graphics (DGEF) conferences series.

• Take a stroll through the trails of Allan Haley!
• Sing along as we stroll along with the letter M

And, please enjoy our “Letter M” poster for the month of March …

Right-click to view image in full size

Or, just click here if you want to make your own LETTER F POSTER

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

I was reminded of my series of “spam site” articles over the years when a friend posted the link to an article from The Atlantic. He posted it to debunk a meme that had been shared, and I knew immediately “oh gosh, here we go again!” This link violates the hard and fast rules of the internet that has been inarguable for more than 40 years.

What did your phone encounter while showing you the article?

I decided to take the time of analyzing the link he shared. If you’re on Facebook, and someone posts a link to one of those news sites, you should know what’s behind that link.

When we landed on the page, we were presented just 241 words of actual human readable content. (about 1,436 characters) 99.9% of social media readers will think that’s it. They’ll have no idea what’s going on in the background! Follow along . . . .

It’s not about the news or the narrative. It’s all about money.

Most web sites, have only one purpose: generating revenue — money. Their primary goal is to present a headline that compels the most people to click. Atlantic is certainly no exception. Technology has devised an incredible array of tricks specifically to increase the amount of money a seductive headline can generate. It’s not about education or politics, or even TDS, the media has hated every president since James Buchanan! The media learned very early that “if it bleeds, it leads.” They know that raw, powerful, anti-establishment content rings the cash register every second of every day!

When an unsuspecting Facebook user opens that Atlantic web page, they see just a few paragraphs. But their device has to read 21,730 words of coding, (162,149 ascii characters) controlled by 636 individual html tags*. It only took seconds to load on the unsuspecting reader. Immediately upon opening, the page began running one or more of 42 scripts. (A “script” is used to embed or reference actions that the browser must execute in fulfilling the delivery of the page.) The page has 62 different calls to remote JavaScript* pages. The coding of the page runs 94 functions called “data-event-element” functions which are non-standard HTML* custom data attributes used by developers for tracking, analytics, and JavaScript interactions — did you get that? 94 of them!

Trackers? Predators? Actions hidden from view

The encoded page executed 359 ‘http’ calls to Atlantic and 3rd party remote web sites. The code calls Google twice, then Amazon 5 times, but also calls Facebook 7 times and remarkably there are 11 calls to Twitter!

Then, there are mysterious calls to unknown destinations. One of these calls took us to “RubiconProject,” which captures some data then redirects to Magnite, a “durable revenue” site. There are scripts being executed by MediaTradeCraft, another 3rd party monetization service. It was impossible to actually determine how many stalkers or predators there are on this page. We have no idea how much they pay, and how much they cost nor how much they make with the gathered data without a serious deep dive. (Way beyond my pay scale!)

Cookies, cookies and more cookies …

When we arrived on this page our browser was immediately hit with 336 kilobytes* of uploaded cookies*. [The geeks tell us that 336K is capable of containing as many as 344,064 ASCII* characters!]

Bottom line : THEY FOOLED YOU

Our friend had innocently posted the link thinking the article would debunk the meme he was protesting. He didn’t realize its real purpose was generating revenue with a paywall for the Atlantic, and gathering data that could be sold to data brokers. Yes, it was not the article at all… it was intended to gather your info for a “free” look at the article, and/or a $7 per month subscription. Boom.

As it turned out, the article used hearsay and speculation to debunk the meme. So basically it was a ‘fluff’ piece with a clickbait* headline to gather readers.

Now, take a look at the actual LINK our friend pasted into a comment on Facebook :

The actual article was simply

www.theatlantic (dot) com then a (slash) ideas/2026/01/great-crime-decline/685695/. (We broke the link so YOU won’t click it and be attacked!).

But then came the dreaded question mark! Oh boy… the question mark initiated 8 different pieces of data transferred through the link itself to the Atlantic …

1. ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cr
2. &utm_campaign=2025_Content_FullPlacements_Prospecting_Sales_Standard
3. &utm_content=012126_FriendGroupFallacy_NA_NA_NoCTA+-+Copy
4. &utm_term=FullPlacement_Advantage&referral=FB_PAID
5. &utm_id=6754888483877
6. &fbclid=IwY2xjawP8KgdleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQAAAY-HjS4DWJyaWQRMWllQWJ5bExTRm5OUnRhSlhzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEenxosSKmM4PQ5kNAAXS5deIZHoODfVwA_3i6tleqQvt3FwyDY2pONUZ1clfU_aem_HPAkbh6YjWDjKsPpKQ57UA (this one tags you for life)
7. &campaign_id=6754888483877 (this one pays Facebook for the link)
8. &ad_id=6863863331077 (this one identifies the specific “ad” linked — which means they consider this an “ad” and not a link to an article! )

What does all that techno-geek mean? Well, it’s complicated. The ampersand “&” tells the code to “add” the following, and the “UTM” is an urchin-tracking-module*. If you want to dig deeper, just go to Atlantic or basically any of the mainstream media sites, hopefully using Firefox, then right-click and select “View Source”. Have fun.

At the end of the day …

Even if you don’t follow, be reminded of the three cardinal rules of the internet. These were established sometime in the late 1980s with #3 being updated in 1997. We knew at the time that the introduction of “hidden code” and the ability to code-tag graphic files, that all sorts of nefarious actions and applications would soon follow. Then the unquenchable greed of Madison Avenue got involved. Then Wifi and Bluetooth, (1997) came along and the corruption of the connected, digital world expanded exponentially.

In 1983, the Internet’s U.S. military control came to an end. (that’s a whole different story!) On September 30, 1998, the Clinton/Gore administration established ICANN (a California nonprofit) to take over key Internet coordination functions from the U.S. government. (Yet another story.) That new development opened the flood gates so that anyone and everyone in the world could do what ever they desired on the Internet and World Wide Web completely without regulation or responsibility. That was not just the beginning of the incredible glut of bandwidth sucking digital code — but also ushered in the era of cyber crime we see today.

The Three Cardinal Rules:

1. Never put anything on the web (or your device) that you would not want to show up on a million computer screens around the world.
2. Never have an expectation of anything you delete from the web or your device to actually be deleted
3. Always delete any code after the “?” in any internet link (URL*) you intend to post or share.

The moral of this story is

Always THINK before pasting a link

Thanks for reading.

Online since 1985 . . . Showkster | Teachable Moments | DT&G

I did have some help on this one … GROK gave me some leads.

FAIR USE NOTICE:
This web site may make use of copyrighted material. Such material are made available for commentary and educational purposes only. This constitutes a “Fair Use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 106A-117 of the United States Copyright Law.

What or who is lurking behind that link you just posted? was originally published in 60-Second Window on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.