Someone saved my life today ... Was it Google?

When I first got my new e-mail address, I found it slightly creepy that Google "knows" what's in my e-mail. I'm OK with ads appearing on the sides of my e-mails as a rule, but they've usually been harmless: "Buy 99 stickers, get 99 free, only $20 a month" or something equally odd that makes me wonder how much time that Web guy had on his hands to create THAT money-maker of a site.

Anyhow. I digress.

I don't have much to hide (Oh, OK, you got me, I'm addicted to those "pass this on to 15 of your friends in 5 minutes or less!!!" and "SEND THIS TO ALL THE WOMEN IN YOUR LIFE" e-mails ...); but that's not the point.

If the carbon monoxide level in my house suddenly skyrockets and I'm dead (suddenly -- remember), in the middle of an e-mail to my soon-to-be sister-in-law about my bridesmaid's dress size, not only will the EMS responders know what size I wear, but also that, somewhere in her original message, she joked about strippers. But she said NO strippers! You guys. Seriously. Why those ads. Why?

Worse ... My cousin was in a plane crash (not funny) last weekend (no one was hurt or killed) and my aunt sent out an e-mail detailing what they called my cousin's Bruce Willis-like action adventure on the runway.

Google, being the smart little bugger that it is, recommended this:
Hurricane Emergency Preparedness »
Emergency Preparedness Conference »

Because you can never be too ready, here in Wisconsin. Hurricane season is JUST AROUND THE CORNER.

This is the stuff Al Gore was dreaming of when he invented the Internet. Saving lives from hurricanes in Wisconsin.