As discussing on WPIX Channel 11 in NYC today, there are 130,000 registered e-jurors. Virtual jurors get paid approx $5 to $10 per verdict depending on the complexity of the case. Cases are assigned by county, so the more lawyers in your area using a service like eJury, the more cases available to you. This is cash you can't count on, but it's interesting work if & when it comes your way.

Behind this is a shift in pre-trial research with virtual juries becoming one of the newest tools. They're helping lawyers develop their courtroom presentations and make strategic decisions around selecting jurors and calculating settlements . Makes perfect sense to tap into collective intelligence.

After registering on the site & accepting an "oath," eJurors are assigned cases. The facts of each case are presented online, along with any visuals (i.e. diagrams, video, etc.) or other relevant information. eJurors read the "Plaintiff's" and "Defendants" perspectives and ultimately answer a series of "Jury Questions," designed to gauge how the case may play out in court.

The company tells me approx. 90% of the cases are "Civil," such as product liability, medical malpractice, personal injury, auto collisions, employment claims, family law (divorce & custody issues), civil rights & business litigation. Only 10% are "criminal" cases such as capital murder, sexual assault. Either way, your inner Judge-Judy should be well satisfied.

www.ejury.com//

We were back talking cars this weekend ... It was really nice to to catch up in-person with the extremely talented Clayton Morris. You're hard-pressed not to like the guy .... www.ClaytonMorris.com. We compared iPhone habits & got Rich Reichmuth to admit he's a blackberry addict.

When was there, Rich hid Courtney Friel's shoe ... Hey, you've got to humor yourself off-camera ...:)

The Web is a vast resource for genealogy information and tracing one's roots online is on of the Internet's fastest-growing categories. But because there is so much information out there, you not only have to know where to search, but how to search. Here are some tips to help get the ball rolling ... Starting could be a neat Mother's Day project. I really admire people who take this on ...

Start your search offline.
Databases on the major genealogy websites are enormous - we're talking millions of records - so just plugging in a first and last name isn't going to cut it. By first gathering all the information you can offline, you'll be better equipped to take advantage of online resources. Once you know the basics - first and last names, approximate birth/death and birth place, marriages, plus any knowledge of military service - you're online search will be much easier.

Interview relatives.
Interview living family members for full names, birth dates, birth towns, marriages and occupations. Ask about military service (75% of Americans have ancestors who served in the Armed Forces and a lot of those records are searchable online). Also, take a trip into the attic and collect as many family records as you can. Family Bibles often have births, deaths and marriages recorded in them. Old photographs, letters and obituaries also reveal clues about previous generations.

Go local.
A trip to your local library, courthouse or historical society can yield for more background information. Look up your ancestors and check for deeds, probate, voting and marriage records, etc.

Time to hit the Web
The desire to dig up genealogy information has spawned more than 250,000 genealogy websites. Start with a site that offers access to Census records. Census records can give you a wealth of information such as birth places, military service, education, professions, property/personal property owned, etc.

Ancestry.com is the big player in the space. If you're looking for one-stop-shopping, this is it. The site has been around for 10 years and has over 23,000 searchable databases, with information on 5 billion names. It's relatively user friendly. The site recently completed the digitizing of U.S. Census records from 1790 - 1930. Copying the material took a team of experts and workers a combined 6.6 million hours of labor. (A census of the population has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. Personal information is kept sealed for 72 years after each census, which will explain why Ancestry.com's database ends at 1930).

Start your search by going from known to unknown.
Always start with yourself and work backward, generation by generation. That helps to ensure accurate results. If you search for an ancestor but can't find direction connections between generations (birth certificates, census documents, etc.) you can't be sure you have the right person.

Tracing your roots takes time.
You might go twenty or thirty minutes and all you find are a couple death certificates. Be patient. Time is by far the biggest investment in researching your family tree. It can be a big undertaking, so don't expect to have your family tree over and done with in an afternoon. Really what it ends up being for many is a hobby; something you do in your spare time.

Things get harder if you have a common last name.
If you have a name like "Smith," "Johnson" or "Lewis" :) ... You're going to have to do a lot of cross-checking to make sure the information you're uncovering is relevant. There's two kinds of information, government source information (Social Security Death Index, military records, census, etc.) and there's the community information (things people have posted, stories that have been passed down). You want to cross-check that with something you know to be true. So if someone tells a story about a great-aunt in Ohio , you have a Social Security number that says they were born in Ohio , maybe that's a match.

Float your family tree (connect with distant relatives).

The real value of sites like Ancestry.com is in the networking you can do with people who have similar profiles. Sharing can be critical when you hit roadblocks or sticking points. Ancestry.com has feature to automatically connect a user's family tree to others worldwide if it finds common relatives with another subscriber. This brings about a social-networking component to genealogy. You're connecting online with close and distant relatives, you're sharing your family tree, maybe old photos and documents you've scanned in, etc.

Factoring in cost.
It can start to add up, but again, time is the biggest investment. Community content, like message boards are usually free – these are usually postings that say things like, "I know this person was related to this person, but I'm trying to figure out where he fits in here, can anyone help." But when you start getting into specific records that have been posted and digitized online (Census, marriage, death records), there are fees involved.

Most pay sites offer a free trial and then subscription fees start at about $15 a month. You get a break if you pay annually. You may also run into some up-selling. Ancestry.com offers upgraded services like the Family Tree Maker Software or a higher-level membership that lets you search databases overseas.

Free options online.

RootsWeb.com is free and good place to learn or get your feet wet. It offers hints and tips on how to research family history ... what you can expect to find in particular documents, how to search old newspapers, etc. It can help you get more mileage out of the pay sites.

Explore immigration history for free.
For most people, your ancestors had to arrive in the at some point. EllisIsland.org provides free information for more than 25 million passengers that entered the United States through Ellis Island and the Port of New York from 1892-1924.

If you're stuck, ask Cyndi.

CyndisList is a free portal with approx. 260,000 genealogy links, the bulk of which are cross-indexed and categorized. The site is also big with those who are stuck and looking for new avenues of research. And yes there really is a Cyndi. It was created by Cyndi Howell, of Washington state, who started the ongoing project during a maternity leave from work in 1996.

This kind of DNA testing is also being used to confirm ethnic heritage, though the degree to which your geographic roots can be specified is a matter of debate.

The test kits are priced starting at about $100 and sell for as much as $800. The more you spend the more detailed results you get. Be sure to read the fine print on these sites, so you know exactly what you're getting and you have your expectations in check.

Facial recognition tools.
www.myheritage.com

The site is called MyHeritage.com and while the site enables users to search across hundreds of genealogy databases at once, the feature that gets the most attention is its ability to research family history through face-recognition technology.

The idea is to upload old family photos of people you can't identify. Then, let MyHeritage.com try to recognize these people. If another MyHeritage user also contributed a photo with one of your mystery people, it will make the facial connection and you can get in contact with each other.

It clusters faces based on attributes like bone structure and the unique characteristics of the person's eyes.

Don't delete your own history.
Don't delete your own history. Oral history makes up such a big part of how we track our history. And these days, everything is by e-mail. So all of those e-mails that talk about what your family is doing this year, consider saving those. Maybe start a digital diary, put them on a disk. Or, at a minimum, print them and keep them in the attic, because, you know, our grandchildren aren't going to be able to go upstairs to the attic and read deleted e-mails. So make a point of saving them.

Genealogy gifts for the budding genealogist.
Family Tree Maker Software and books from Ancestry.com can help you build and manage your family tree on the computer. Prices range between $40-100.

RedEnvelope.com – niche for family tree-themed gifts on the web, like the Couples Ginko Genealogy Tree Frames pictured below.

redenvelope.com

We played ALL-things Wii ALL weekend at my sister's house. From tennis, to bowling to Guitar Hero it was NON-Stop action with an audience (we're a big family).

Looking ahead, here's what we'll all probably be playing when the holidays come around ... Can almost see my sister mastering her center of gravity with the new Wii Fit available now in Europe and on the ground here in the U.S. on May 19.

Soon you'll be able to start doing muscle workouts, yoga poses and balance games, like ski racing and jumps. Check out this downhill run & blocked shots on soccer goal. Total Score! The winner: Nintendo!

There's some talk on message boards re: what mats you do & don't need + what is & isn't included bundled Wii offers. Those can be tricky. Sometimes significantly cheaper, but only if you need/want everything included. If you're a gamer, you might actually find some of the things listed in this article remotely doable: 10 EASY WAYS TO GET MORE FROM YOUR WII

Having seen the demand in my sister's living room & remembering the trouble Santa went to for Guitar Hero this year, am getting in on this early & pre-order. The trick will be resisting breaking them out on a rainy day ...

RELATED: This parody is kind of a riot. And, of course, the Internet wouldn't be complete without a baby laughing video. This little guy's giggle is contagious!:)

SEGMENT TWO: IS YOUR CHILD A CYBER-BULLY? OR BEING CYBER-BULLIED?

But, man, would love to say I did & really want to commend all of you who did ... Including colleagues & neighbors;) In the old days, you got a photo. Now, there's streaming video. Check it out, HERE.

Got this email from MapMyFitness.com. Am really grateful someone brought this site to my attention as the Spring fitness season gets underway ... Start selecting events, HERE. Note to self: If you don't run, you have nothing to map!

MapMyFitness would like to offer its congratulations to all of our members who competed in the Boston Marathon (view course map) yesterday!

MapMyFitness wants to encourage Boston Marathon runners and runners of any races to post their race stories in our new MapMyFitness Stories Page. The stories page allows MapMyFitness members to submit stories of their favorite routes, fitness achievements, training experiences, inspirational moments, etc. to share with other members. MapMyFitness will award the authors of its favorite stories $100 for the rights to re-use their submissions in its future online and print publications.

Submit Your Story to MapMyFitness today!

Thanks for being loyal members and congratulations, again, to all of our runners in the Boston and all the other races this past weekend!

Sincerely,
The MapMyFitness Team

Going green is a huge trend & can't watch TV, listen to the radio or get through an interview on either without it coming up. Not to date self, but remember when Nickelodeon launched ground-breaking Earth Day efforts. To their credit, seems they were ahead of their time. Now, everyone & everything is well represented online.

See: Earth Day 2008.


Browse over to GreenDaily.com for tips like: Five ways to start going green if you already haven't: Bring your own bag to the grocery store, unplug appliances when you're not using them and lots more.

There are also a regular features on Celebrity "ecoists" like Ted Danson:

It was particularly quiet around the TODAY SHOW this weekend because all of the roads were blocked off near St Patrick's Cathedral where the Pope was giving mass. The weather was glorious, just as it was in DC. Divine intervention perhaps & just wonderful to see. Back to business ... We didn't get nearly as much information as I had hoped across in the on-air segment re: online resources when it comes to car buying. A couple of clicks really can save you thousands of dollars. The article prepared for MSNBC.com is loaded with info & here's even more ....

Too much to do and not enough time to get it all done? Silly question. Here's a few sites to help you take back your life, or at least some of your time. They're all free and try to get you a little closer to having your own personal assistant & who wouldn't want one of those ...

· Jott: As the name suggests, Jott lets you easily send reminders to yourself or to friends. Just call Jott and it turns your voice into written email and texts when you speak your messages. Perfect for when you're away from your computer or a pad of paper and need a reminder. If you can't keep up with the Blackberry addict or teen in your life who types a million miles an hour, this might be good work-around. It could also be smart way to avoid texting while driving. Nearly 90% of Americans Support Ban on "DWT"

· Pinger: For times when you just want to leave a voice mail and not get caught up in a lengthy phone conversation there's Pinger. Just call Pinger, leave a voice mail message for a friend and your friend gets a text on their phone alerting them to the new voice mail. We tested this product when it first launched. It's pretty neat if you want to get the same phone message to a lot of people at once. You record it once (just as you would any voicemail), but you can send it to multiple numbers. They also suggest using it when the tone of a text need to be crystal clear. Lord knows a lot of arguements between couples stem from simple misunderstandings about what "OK" really meant and what time "PM" starts & ends.

· Remember The Milk: Remember The Milk lets you set up to-do lists you can update online or via email from a cell phone. Friends or family can add to your list too. RTM even keeps you on top of your lists with email, text message and even IM reminders through AIM. I haven't gone down the notes & alerts path yet, but some people are really big on it.

Campbell Brown & I once tested something similar www.ohdon'tforget.com -- LIVE on TODAY SHOW ... You could tell it was LIVE, cause -- well -- it didn't exactly go as planned. We couldn't get the reminders to stop ringing on-air! The producers in the control room thought it was a riot. I was a wreck.

Right now, the yellow "pad" on my iPhone is calling my name. If I had my whole TO DO list it will surely explode. What's your trick? We'll be doing TV & Radio stories on this topic in coming weeks, so let us know by COMMENTING below. Thanks!

As discussing on CNN Headline News & stations across the country this morning, Delta Airlines has a new In-flight safety video and it's .... well, ..... different. Different enough to turn a safety video into a marketing vehicle. Same script, different treatment & it took off after being posted on the airline's corporate blog.

The airline employed the "American Idol" strategy winnowing down 1,000 potential candidates to front the video to one flight-attendant -- a 33-year-old Atlanta woman named Katherine Lee. She's now going by "Deltalina," a combination of the airline's name and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie. She's a real Delta employee and reportedly flattered by the comparison & loving the spotlight.

The video is slated to air on approximately 400 Delta flights & is already a hit online prompting tons of media coverage & at least one marriage proposal.

FOXNews.com - Delta's Red-Headed Flight Attendant a Hit on YouTube in Airline's Safety Video - Local News | News Articles | N..

We continue to expand into more & more local networks ... including CH. 13 KLBK CBS Lubbock, TX. Feel free to get in on our ever-growing TV & Radio roster ... We'll fit it as many/much as we can ... THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST:) Really appreciate & am open to any/all story ideas. Comment! R

Gotta admit, this was news to me ... it's called peer to peer lending -- People turning to perfect strangers vs banks for loans on a site called Prosper.com. Thousands of people are looking for loans and thousands of individuals are willing and able to serve as lenders. Often they lend small amounts to many different people, spreading the risk. Here's a terrific local news with Laura Rillos explaining how the site works. We're researching it further for a Rachael Ray segment being taped next week. Let me know what you think of the concept. I think it's intriguing & a real sign of the times ...