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SEO is a huge subject and only a part of the overall Internet marketing jigsaw, if done correctly it can be one of the most cost effective and successful ways of generating huge volumes of traffic to your (or your clients) websites. Below are 10 Awesome SEO tips.
1) Get reading.
There are literally 100's of SEO agencies and Freelancers in the UK alone, each will have their own individual experiences with SEO. Most of them will also have a blog. One of the best ways to begin understanding SEO is to start by reading these blogs and articles. SEOMoz (one of the larger agencies) have put together a fantastic beginners guide to search engine optimisation, I would highly recommend that you give this a read.
2) Learn to code.
It surprises me how many people in the SEO industry are poor "coders". I have worked with (and managed) some SEO's Who simply have no XHTML/CSS skills at all and would rely on a web designer to do the physical changes to websites required with SEO.
The internet and the search engines for that matter are driven by website coding, in my opinion in order to become a good search marketer you need to be able to write XHTML/CSS. This will give you a far greater understanding of what is required and make your job a lot easier.
3) Practice & Monitor Results
You won't become a guru over night, all SEO activity must be practiced, you can gain a great understanding by reading, but to truly understand the industry you need to put in hours of practice. When I first started learning I would buy a few "test domains" on which I would create a simple website and practice different techniques.
Practicing is fine but you need to be able to learn from what you have done, monitoring results is essential in the learning process. I would strongly advise the use of Google Analytics and a rankings tool such as CuteRank, monitoring site traffic and rankings changes will give you a good indication of what you are doing either in a positive or negative manner.
4) Test Test Test.
Following on from practicing, a good SEO will continually test new methods and techniques. Testing over and over again will help broaden your skill set and experiences, try out the techniques other people have told you about or you have read on the Internet.
The key to learning is testing and experimenting, SEO is a fast paced industry there are always new techniques and theories being spoken about. Test these out for yourself and drawn your own conclusions.
5) Don't believe all you read.
As I said before, there are literally 100's of SEO's. If you believed everything you read you will quickly find that there is a lot of contradictory advice.
Some of the articles you read may be out of date so pay attention to the publishing date. As a rule I would suggest reading articles which are no more than 6 months old, as I have previously stated search engine optimisation is a fast paced world.
Find the big players in the industry and pay attention to what they say, but ultimately test their theories don't just take their word for it!
6) Not all SEO projects are the same.
Remember the not all projects are the same, some of the bigger agencies are dealing with large clients who have huge marketing budgets. This will allow for a wider scope of search marketing activity. Some of the advice given by the larger agencies is not sustainable for smaller marketing budgets and smaller clients.
The majority of "real world SEO clients" are smaller companies with a limited budget, you may be reading about some high end marketing techniques that are simply not right for your client. Be careful how you spend your time, look for techniques which will be the most rewarding. Be careful not to over step the mark and do things which Google and the other search engines will not like.
This point is a difficult one to get right, if you don't see results for your client quickly using their smaller budget you may well lose them as a client. Yet if you use techniques which are on the more shady side you may damage and even destroy their websites chances of ranking, ultimately losing them as a client and even ending up with legal action.
Be Careful!
7) Join a community.
Joining a community where you can bounce ideas and share knowledge is a great way to become a good SEO. You might be able to find local networking groups of Internet professionals who meet regularly (usually over a cold beer or two). These have proven useful to me for gaining knowledge and building a network of professionals I can call upon for help with projects.
There are also plenty of groups on social media sites like FaceBook and LinkedIn, these two in particular have some great communities you can get involved with.
A word of warning however, there are some groups which will not tolerate "newbies" and in my early experiences these groups can be counter productive. Certain people online are highly opinionated claiming that they know everything about SEO, They simply do not!
Choose your online community carefully, you want to be seen to have a voice and also be surrounded by helpful people willing to help develop your skills.
8) Learn to write.
Writing and content production are possibly two of the most important aspects of becoming a good SEO consultant. Being able to write good engaging content for use both on-site (within your websites) or for article marketing and guest blogging is essential for modern SEO.
There are certain techniques you can use when producing content, each of them will involve a level of research or experience. If you are writing about a subject you know well then the process of creating content should be fairly easy. It is more difficult to produce engaging content about a subject you know very little about.
Planning is the key to producing great content, and the old saying "content is king" still applies. You will hear this saying over and over again and often it gets over used, but believe me if you pay attention to it you will see the benefits and rewards that great content will bring.
9) Use professional tools.
In order to become a professional builder or electrician you will need certain tools to do the job correctly and efficiently. Our industry is no different, there are many tools available for the professional SEO to choose from, all will essentially do the same job for you but vary in price and quality.
Tools are used to make the following SEO processes easier.
- Keyword analysis and research
- Competitor analysis
- Rankings reports
- Backlink building and outreach
- Traffic reporting and analysis
There are two professional tool sets I have had experience with, the first is SEOMoz pro tools and the second is Raven Tools. Both are fantastic and very similarly priced.
Google Analytics & Webmaster atolls are also essential and free so if you don't already have an account I would sign up now!
10) SEO isn't just about rankings.
You can be forgiven for thinking that SEO is all about rankings and getting to the top spot in the search results. To a certain degree this can be true however the more advanced SEO consultants know there is more to it that purely rankings.
It is about traffic!
Ranking highly for certain terms is one way to produce this traffic, referral traffic is another important factor. Part of our job is to build this referral traffic (traffic from other websites not just search engines), monitoring referrals in GA and continually working on building this is a great method many SEO's overlook.
There is another great technique called "Targetting the Longtail" another term you will hear over and over again. Longtail traffic in its simplest form is website traffic coming via niche keywords (usually 3 word phrases or more).
For example if you have a eCommerce website selling shoes your primary keywords would be "shoes" " online shoe store" etc… Longtail variants of these could be "red stiletto shoes" or "brown furry shoes" or "online shoe store based in the UK".
Finding these longtail search terms is easy! Simply analyse your traffic reports in Google Analytics and look at your "search queries" report in webmaster tools. These two reports show you what your site visitors are typing into the search engines in order to find your site.
If your site is new and there is very little data to analyse you can also find Longtail terms by looking through the suggested keywords in tools like Google Keywords Tool or WordTracker. The SEO pro tools (SEOMoz & Raven) will also help you discover these longtail keywords.


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The Sunday Intertitle: Cave Art
"In order to launch a product, a good enough publicity idea."
From QUANDO LE DONNE PERSERO LA CODA — WHEN WOMEN LOST THEIR TAILS, a sequel to the popular, dumb, wildly unfunny Italian stone-age sex comedy QUANDO LE DONNE AVEVANO LA CODA, or WHEN WOMEN HAD TAILS.
Both movies are spectacularly stupid, devoid of wit, and waste a vaguely promising comedy idea, done rather better by Buster Keaton in THREE AGES (which is one of his least interesting films). The fact that the films, directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile, use rock-carved intertitles, sets up a promising expectation that they might do without dialogue. Italian audiences love slapstick, and cavemen often communicate in grunts in the movies, so this seems like an interesting exercise for the filmmakers to undertake. But they don't undertake it. All they undertake is curvaceous German import Senta Berger in a fur bikini, surrounded by a lot of hideous Italians in fright wigs, in a big ugly artificial Flintstones set, where the boulders actually cast shadows on the sky.
CAVEMAN, which I was always perversely curious to see, is a lot more ambitious. The cavemen grunt in this one, using a primitive language created by Anthony Burgess farted out by writers Carl Gottlieb and Rudy De Luca, which should clear the way for visual gags to drive the plot. Unfortunately, there are (almost) no gags worthy of the name and (actually) no plot. Ringo Starr plays the hero, which would be funnier if he DID speak English. Ringo is only really funny when he attempts verbal acting. Future Mrs Starr and former Bond girl Barbara Bach plays the sex interest. A very cute young Shelley Long plays the love interest, Dennis Quaid is the best friend (so young!), and it's all very wretched indeed, apart from the dinosaurs.
How wretched? A major "comedy" moment involves Ringo drugging Barbara with knock-out fruit so he can rape her in her sleep. And she's meant to be the bad one (she gets dropped in dinosaur poo at the end). Of course, Ringo fails to get his drumstick in her, so we can all laugh, can't we? Er, no.
(The Italian one has Senta Berger subjected to unsophisticated caveman mating techniques too, until a more sensitive, modern caveman turns up who teaches her the kama sutra, or something. Naturally, he becomes the enemy of the other troglodytes. Either way, both movies exude an authentically stone-age sensibility.)
But the dinosaurs! Jim Danforth and Dave Allen, of EQUINOX fame, created some beautiful goofy monsters for this, which give by far the best performances and get all the laughs. And they actually manage to have charm, when surrounded by this putrid film. Actually, maybe the job of the movie is to make them look good. At the climax, Ringo rides atop a saurian, and the animated Ringo doll gives a much better perf than the real Richard Starkey. The best shots are the ones where the top half of the real Ringo has been matted onto the bottom half of the doll straddling the dino's back. The stop-motion ass and legs are infinitely more nuanced and expressive than the live-action torso, arms and head.
EQUINOX is a movie so bad, with monster effects so good, that somebody has helpfully posted all the monstery bits on YouTube. Somebody should do the same with CAVEMAN.
The device of mixing live-action and stop-motion, with little animated people interacting with the big beasts, and match-cuts between miniature and real actors, all seems to date back to Keaton, who has brief but beautiful dino action in THREE AGES. His inspiration was Winsor McCay, who had interacted with a hand-drawn brontosaurus in GERTIE THE DINOSAUR way back in 1914. That seemed an impossibly long time ago even in 1923: Keaton's collaborators told him he not only knew his film history, but his prehistory.
McCay, a brilliant cartoonist for the Hearst press, used to exhibit this film in the music halls, speaking to Gertie, anticipating the action in the cartoon so she would seem to obey his instructions. At the climax he would step behind the screen as Gertie lifts an animated McCay onto her back… all of which utterly trumps the seventies and eighties fantasy-farce of Campanile and Gottlieb, as far as I'm concerned.
Wait! Maybe I'm being unfair? Maybe these filmmakers, Campanile and Gottlieb both, are trying to make films the way actual neanderthals would? Such films would be concerned only with eating, fucking and shitting, and would avoid any kind of intelligence or originality in favour of wallowing in universally understood cultural effluent. Abandoning all efforts at aestheticism, they would crudely fashion their cro-magnon movies out of animal hides, bark, and bits of flint, projecting them by firelight on the cavern wall using a projector made of tusks and dung.
No, I can't see it. Cave art is way more beautiful than these movies.
(Note: Gottlieb is co-writer of THE JERK, which is a funny film, in which he also plays the small part of Iron-Balls McGinty. De Luca worked on some lesser Mel Brooks flicks, including HIGH ANXIETY, which is a funny film. But any writing team needs to avoid self-satisfaction, with each writer spurring the other on to greater heights. My impression: that didn't happen with CAVEMAN.)
18 Responses to "The Sunday Intertitle: Cave Art"
For someone of my generation, the exposure to dinosaurs began with JURASSIC PARK. The effects of that first film hold up pretty well where they combined early CGI with robot models.
I don't think THE THREE AGES is a weak film at all. It's better than COLLEGE or BATTLING BUTLER and Keaton has a lot of fun in making fun of gender roles. I especially love how after Caveman Keaton has defeated his alpha male opponent, he then drags his girl by her hair and there's this close-up to the girl who gives a dreamy blissful expression. The joke being that Keaton's caveman isn't that kind of alpha ma,e but still takes on that role. Keaton based the cross-cutting of the three timelines as a joke on Griffith's INTOLERANCE. 20s Keaton was quite cinephillic as SHERLOCK, JR. makes clear. THE CAMERAMAN seems influenced by a number of 20s avant-garde films and it anticipates Vertov's MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA made concurrently.
Caveman is an absolute gem. Ringo is amazing in it. A peerless cmic performance. And the dinosaurs are fabulous.
Good to hear such a flattering assessment.
I actually sculpted the Ringo puppet, and animated him atop the lizard for most shots (Pete Kleinow animated the shots where he turned round and flicked the Dennis Quaid puppet—which I also sculpted—off his tail. I am not sure if Pete or Dave Allen animated the "split Ringo" shots). Ringo is now rotting happily away on my shelf—the puppet, that is. Not sure about the original's current location or condition.
I also animated the T-Rex crotch-rubbing sequence (the verisimilitude of which owes to many years of careful research) up till the shot where he runs off (Dave animated that one). Also the "stoned" T-Rex (which I played with [I hope] funnier drunk pantomime, from the shot of him leaning off the cliff through his fall and settle at the end—again, careful research was vital here).
Both the lizard and T-Rex were sculpted by the peerless Jim Danforth.
Nice that these long hours of toil handed you guys some laughs.
"TUMAC SPEAR!!"……I just can't seem to get it up for Caveman pictures,altho I do recall like that 80s film Iceman quite a bit,tho it was in modern times….maybe Teenage Cavemen :o))
Jim prepped the effects and left with what I felt was a wholly justified dispute with the producers. Animation was by Kleinow, Allen, me, and Laine Liska…sorry to say that those Laine, Dave, and Pete are no longer with us. But Jim is, devoting his time to painting, a producer-free pastime.
For the record, Jim always wanted the dinos to be comical, both in appearance and performance, from what I remember. As a sculptor/animator, I was left out of the political maneuverings and confess to a general ignorance thereof.
Interview? Sure, you bet.
Shame we couldn't hook up when I was in the UK… even went through Edinburgh on the way to Pitlochry, which is a long and pointless story.
But an interview could be set up via Skype at some point, when the whims of our respective schedules synchronize.
Well, a Skype call can be more entertainingly digressive, as the temptation to waffle is dampened somewhat by all that keyboard-pounding.
Interview by email allows one to be more articulate, despite any evidence to the contrary my posts to your column might provide.
Both would be a good idea. How about Skype first, ask questions later?
Could any of these caveman 'comedies' possibly be as hilarious as ONE MILLION YEARS BC (Raquel Welch in false eyelashes and fur bikini vs. some Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs) or, better still, PREHISTORIC WOMEN (Martine Beswicke as the spectacularly evil Queen Kari)? Some genres are actually funnier when they're played straight.
CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT. Is that the one with two near-naked men fighting a duel with whips? Strange I should remember that…

subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Allergy free diet update
Daniel's skin is looking great! It cleared up around the one-week mark and has only continued to improve.
Just today I can begin to notice his little nose not being snotty, and he seems to cough less. But when he does cough he still sounds a little congested.
I haven't seen the poop results I am looking for, but it's still early.
As far as the concerns I had for myself:
Yes, I miss cheese and all things dairy. And peanut butter. I miss peanut butter more than I thought I would!
Yes, I get hungry often. But I snack often, too, so I don't think I've lost any weight. I've eaten a lot of chips & salsa, bean dip (made my own), and hummus (made my own of that, too). I'm on my second batch of granola. :)
The only 'cheats' have been a little bit of mayo (made with eggs) and tonight I floured my meat before I fried it. I'm so certain dairy is the culprit I didn't see those cheats as a big deal. The biggest hurdle was our monthly fellowship meal at church Sunday.
Breakfast hasn't been as hard as I thought. I did eat beans one day, because I was going out and didn't want to be snacking and hungry later. The other days I've been eating (instant) oatmeal. I discovered cooking it with a tablespoon or so of pumpkin helps make it nice and creamy. :) I prefer making my own oatmeal instead of using instant but since I'm already making the boys breakfast every morning it's so much easier to just use the instant.
For a chocolate fix I discovered that chocolate syrup (the kind for ice cream and chocolate milk) is dairy free. Not bad poured over bananas with a spoon. :)
But even better than that was a recipe for dairy free fudge I had saved! Woohoo! Mine didn't set up, but I didn't really care. It was chocolate!
And every mama needs chocolate, right?
3 comments:
- Betsy said...
Do a search for hazelnut butter and there are a lot of recipes for home made nut butters other than peanut butter, of course you probably already knew this, just sayin'. Also have seen a jar of Nutella (sp.) on the grocery shelves, has chocolate and some kind of nut, not sure whats in it.
- February 28, 2013 at 11:04 AM
- Cindy said...
I don't know if mamas need chocolate but it seems as if every soul needs chocolate. You can do an amazingly lot with cocoa powder also dairy free. Put some in your oatmeal with soy milk. Tastes good! I always carry food around with me because I cannot eat most places. Always carry an apple with you. ;) Everyone is a food expert because everyone has to eat.
- February 28, 2013 at 2:19 PM
- Arkansas Grandma said...
Thanks for the update. Darn ole dairy products. Good job, glad he is feeling better. (Love love love the picture) My sweet grandkids.
- February 28, 2013 at 5:13 PM


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365 Plumbing Limited based in Desborough is an approved plumbing contractor under the Severn Trent WaterMark scheme, qualified to City and Guilds and NVQ 2 standards, is also registered with Age Concern and vetted by Trading Standards to be approved to undertake work on behalf of Age Concern referrals.
Approved plumbers/contractors can be authorised by either the local water supplier, the Water Industry Scheme (WIAPS) or by an organisation recognised by the Government (IOP/APHC/SNIPEF).
The WaterMark approved plumber/contractor scheme is run and administered by Severn Trent Water. WaterMark members have to demonstrate they have been suitably trained, passed a water regulations assessment on their knowledge and application of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 and have public liability insurance.


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Monday, 09 October 2017 20:15
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: British woman jailed in Iran faces new charges
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Iran dumps chess champ who won't wear hijab, now she's on US team
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Iran: Arrest of human rights defender seeking truth about disappeared family members
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'Humiliating': Iranian women excluded as Syrian women watch World Cup qualifier in stadium
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Iran's 'ugly teacher' guidelines ban applicants with acne, moles or bad teeth
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Tortured by 'Moderates'
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LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star center fielder Matt Kemp said he will undergo surgery Friday to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
The recovery time will be anywhere from four weeks to four months, Kemp said, depending on what doctors find during the procedure.
"They'll cut it open and see what's going on inside of there," Kemp said. "Hopefully, they just clean it up. If they need to do more, they'll do more, but I won't know anything until I wake up."
Kemp injured his shoulder smacking into the outfield wall against the Rockies in Colorado on Aug. 28. Before the injury, he was batting .337 with a .584 slugging percentage. After it, he batted .218 with a .427 slugging percentage.
Kemp said he was planning to play on Team USA in the World Baseball Classic next spring, but won't now.
"I think we can throw that out the window," Kemp said.
Kemp finished second to Ryan Braun in MVP balloting in 2011, when he batted .324 and led the league in home runs and RBIs. He missed 51 games earlier in the season with hamstring injuries, but never went on the disabled list for the shoulder injury.
Kemp finished the season on Wednesday night in an 0-for-10 slump. He batted .303 with 23 home runs and 69 RBIs.
The Dodgers had better news regarding ace Clayton Kershaw, saying the left-hander won't require surgery for a hip injury that caused him to miss two starts in September.
Kershaw finished the season 14-9 with a major league-best 2.53 ERA. He got the win in the Dodgers' 5-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night.


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The entire Payfac in a Box™ team has been busy as new software developer partners are coming on board, batch onboarding their book of merchants, and starting to see their residual revenue flow in. But we did catch up with Ben Kauder, the architect of the solution, for a little Q&A session for this week's blog while he and our Chief Revenue Office, Vaden Landers, are on the road along the West coast. Here's the recap of what questions ISVs are asking, what they are excited about, and more.
Topics: payments software integration, payfac in a box, payfac automation, software solution, payfac integration, software developer
Now that the holiday rush is over and you're back at work focused on improving your business and operations we have some ideas to help you save time, money and improve customer retention by upgrading how your customers pay. Giving your payments infrastructure a tune-up is a surefire way to spark a productive and profitable new year.
Topics: singular payments, ebpp, payments software integration, akimbo card, ACH, hosted payment page, new terminal
The payments space is complex; there are so many routes to set up electronic payments acceptance it could make your head spin. And the end-all goal is automation while maintaining control and security. Everyone is looking for a way to fully sync the payments cycle from swiping or keying in a card to recording the transaction in a bookkeeping system to shooting out a receipt to the customer. Therefore, creating a fully automated and easy payments life cycle.
Topics: electronic bill presentment, electronic bill payment, integrate payments APIs, bill presentment and payment, payments software integration, integrate payments into software, payments automation, payment integration
Free money. That's what everyone is dreaming of right? The ability to add a revenue stream to their business without any extra hassle, expense or risk. Well, the easiest way for ISVs or software developers to do just that is by integrating a payments platform like our Payfac in a Box™ solution. Not only can merchants process electronic payments through the solution but you can use our APIs from the Singular BillPAY side of the platform to also integrate their bill presentment and payment operations from customers into it, therefore saving them time and money on no longer mailing invoices or chasing down past due accounts. It's a major win-win for you, the software company and your merchant users. And of course, the best part of the software platform is that they get a revenue share on all the transactions processed! We make payments software integrations easy. Read on to learn more.
Topics: electronic bill presentment, electronic bill payment, bill presentment and payment, singular billpay, payments software integration, payfac in a box, integrate payments into software, payfac, payment faciliator, e-invoicing, add a revenue stream
We are constantly innovating here at Singular Payments, striving to meet all our merchant and software channel partners' needs with electronic payments software integrations that make life easier. Payfac in a Box™ is one such innovation. We think of it like Stripe but for Practice Management and enterprise software systems. Our Payfac in a Box™ solution delivers a full suite of API calls, by transaction type in each language, so developers can easily cut and paste the code segments needed to incorporate all the payments features software users need and want. We recently blogged about some of the many benefits of payments software integrations – read that post here.
Topics: ebpp, payments software integration, payments integration, payfac in a box, integrate payments into software, like stripe, batch on-boarding, payfac
This month we're focused on ways you can save and we've realized many of our merchants don't realize we handle EVERYTHING electronic payments related. This means we service not only your desktop terminal but also your Pay Now button on your website, your ACH needs to accept payments directly from checking/savings accounts, recurring billing, collect outstanding balances through our BillPAY service, gift cards that you can customize for your business or pre-paid gift cards as incentives for your employees and more! Similar to how you utilize multiple lines of insurance with the same provider to access a deeper discount, we provide the same benefits under our flat rate umbrella when you utilize more than one of our electronic payments services.
Topics: credit card payments, recurring billing, ebpp, bill presentment and payment, payments software integration, virtual terminal, payments integration, gift cards
Singular Payments focuses on delivering our flat rate payment processing solution direct to merchants and integrating into software with custom solutions. There are many benefits for the software users and vendors to integrate payments into the solution. Not only does processing payments with a custom flat rate inside the software solution add convenience and speed for users, but it also adds a new revenue stream for the software vendors that can add up. And with the high costs of development, this can be a huge help.
Topics: credit card processing, singular payments, payments integrations, software integration, integrate payments APIs, bill presentment and payment, singular billpay, integrating payment processing into software, payments software integration


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Safe from Harm by Stephanie Jaye Evans
Berkley Prime Crime
Pub Date: March 5, 2013
When Bear Wells and his wife comply with their daughter Jo's texted request – a simple, two-word message imploring them to "come home" – they don't expect to find her alone in their darkened house, cradling the dead body of her estranged friend Phoebe.
To hear Jo tell it, she arrived home to find the lifeless girl on the floor of her bedroom. But as devastated as Jo is, she doesn't seem to be telling her parents – or the police – the whole truth. Phoebe didn't leave a note, and at any rate, suicide wasn't her style. But if Phoebe didn't kill herself, who did kill her – and why? And how did she end up dead inside the Wells' locked and empty abode?
Elegantly plotted and exquisitely written, Safe From Harm is the second in Stephanie Jaye Evans' Sugar Land Mystery series. It's the first thing by Evans that I've read, but the prologue alone was enough to earn her a spot on my list of must-read authors. Safe From Harm is a devastating tale of jealousy, greed, vengeance, and betrayal, and the havoc these sins can wreak when they're unleashed on an unsuspecting suburban town.
Evans' character work is nothing short of fabulous. There's not a single wasted word or detail to be found; actions, attire, dialogue – all are designed to develop and inform. And while this book has some truly brutal moments, there's also a lot of humor and heart to be found, as well, together with some shockingly insightful discussions about faith.
Evans' crowning achievement, though, may be the way she chose to structure her tale. Safe From Harm is similar to Donna Tartt's The Secret History in that the first two-thirds or so are essentially a murder mystery told in reverse. Unlike The Secret History, though, when you start Safe From Harm, you're not at all sure how Phoebe's seemingly obvious suicide could possibly be a murder. You know how the story ends (or, at least, you think you do) – how everything ultimately comes crashing down; the only mystery in the mind of the reader is what brought Evans' characters to this awful moment.
But then, over the course of the tale, little inconsistencies are revealed. Things that make you question everything you thought you knew about Phoebe's death. Maybe they're nothing. Or just maybe they add up to something truly terrible…
Katrina Niidas Holm


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From creating audio books for children with vision loss in India and providing tech tutorials to the elderly in Stuttgart and Bratislava to assembling hygiene kits for children in need in Canada, Lenovo's inaugural Global Week of Service gave employees around the world a chance to give back to the cities where they live, work and play.
From March 31 to April 7, more than 2,000 Lenovo and Motorola employees volunteered a total of 10,000 hours of direct community service in 25 countries, including Brazil, France, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the U.S. Many of the projects were inspired by Lenovo's social responsibility focus areas – education and the environment – but local leaders were also able to identify projects that addressed their community's most critical needs.
Overall, 30 service projects were organized, positively impacting thousands of individuals on all six inhabited continents.
Local Snapshots: Two Communities, One Goal
In two cities on opposite sides of the equator, Lenovo and Motorola employees worked to help improve educational and rehabilitation facilities, ultimately impacting the hundreds of children and adults who enter through those doors every day.
In Chicago, Illinois, Motorola employees spent the week teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) topics and improving school facilities in the West Englewood neighborhood, positively benefiting 1,215 children at three centers:
- At Earle STEM Academy and Charley H. Wacker Elementary School, volunteers led a "Read-with-Me" activity, provided guidance during a STEM-themed craft project and renovated the school's media room.
- At Nicholson Technology Academy, volunteers helped remodel the computer lab, constructed bookshelves and discovery tables and ran a science fun fair.
In addition to the one-on-one time spent with students, volunteers also created STEM-themed murals and donated Lenovo tablets for the schools' use to continue to motivate students' interests.
In Jaguariuna, Brazil, 100-plus employees helped refurbish the grounds at an equine therapy center called Centro de Equoterapia de Jaguariuna, which uses the movement and nature of horses to help rehabilitate people with disabilities. Volunteers mended and painted the fences, painted the barns and performed other general construction tasks.
Giving Back in 2017 and Beyond
The week of service is just one way Lenovo is demonstrating its commitment to doing things differently. In 2018, the company hopes to increase volunteers and communities impacted during its second annual Global Week of Service in order to bring positive outcomes to cities and citizens around the world. The Motorola Mobility Foundation, Lenovo Community Relations and Lenovo United will again organize the event.


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Gift items inspired by kitchen show good taste
Embrace the art of dining with a pasta pot ($290, www.alessi.com) by designer Patrick Jouin and Alain Ducasse, the chef with more Michelin stars than the Milky Way. Add your special something and presto-chango ... The spaghetti necklace and earrings ($730 and $145, www.sfmoma.org) designed by Judyta Jankowski in sterling silver, oxidized sterling silver and sterling silver with a patina finish look just as sharp as the deeply etched suminagashi ink patterned powdered-steel blades forged by Master Smith Azai-san with octagonal Wa handles ($358 and $164, Bernal Cutlery, 331 Cortland St., (415) 902-6531). The resulting meal may need only salt and pepper rooted in shimmering radishes ($60 the pair, www.gumps.com). The groves at Sonoma County's Beltane Ranch ( www.beltaneranch.com) provided olives for transformation into oil at the nearby Olive Press ( www.olivepress.com).


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- Wheel thrown ceramic cup set. This cup is perfect for any beverage like tea, coffee etc.
- Dimension : Height – 3.5 inch, Rim Diameter – 4 inch
- 100% handmade. All products are individually handmade. The shapes, sizes and glaze appearance may vary slightly, adding to their individuality.
- Food safe, microwave safe and dishwasher safe. However, hand wash with sponge is recommended for longevity of the product.


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IBM October 29 1929 Stock Market Performance
Although IBM was incorporated in the state of New York on June 16, 1911 as the Computing- Tabulating- Recording Company (C-T-R), its origins can be traced back to developments at the close of the 19th century. For example, the first dial recorder was invented by Dr. Alexander Dey in 1888, and Dey's business became one of the building blocks of C-T-R.
Similarly, the Bundy Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1889 as the first time recording company in the world, and it, too, later became a key component of C-T-R.
The International Time Recording Company (ITR) was formed in 1900 and the Computing Scale Company of America was incorporated in 1901 – and these two businesses were two of the three chief components of C-T-R a decade later. ITR itself acquired other companies, such as the Dey Time Register Company, during this period, broadening the time recording equipment product line.
When the diversified businesses of C-T-R proved difficult to manage, the former number two executive at the National Cash Register Company, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. joined the company as general manager in 1914 at 40 years old.
Watson boosted company spirit with employee sports teams, family outings and a company band. He preached a positive outlook, and his favorite slogan, "THINK," became a mantra for C-T-R's employees. Within 11 months of joining C-T-R, Watson became its president.
In 1921, the company acquired the business of the Ticketograph Company of Chicago, and certain patents and other property of the Peirce Accounting Machine Company.
The growth and extension of C-T-R's activities made the old name of the company too limited, and, on February 14, 1924, C-T-R's name was formally changed to International Business Machines Corporation.
IBM did not initially go public (IPO) as the company we know today. It was formed by a merger of three companies in 1911 under the name Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation which was listed on the NYSE in 1916 and changed its name to IBM in 1924.
International Business Machines was a hot young tech company in the late 1920's — a Google of its era. It was trading in 1927 at $54 per share, and at its peak in 1929, it was more than four times that — over $216 per share. It wasn't until 1932 when IBM found a bottom of $9.125 per share.
IBM was a NYSE component when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. If you held just 1 share of IBM back in 1924 when it changed its name, you would currently own 3,460 shares and it would be worth $539,379.40 adjusted for stock splits as of March 18, 2011, earning $8,996.00 in dividends per year.
Monday, Nov. 18, 1929, Thomas Watson called his top executives into the boardroom at headquarters. They came gladly, anxious to hear anything from Watson. He had disappeared (from meetings) after the stock market crash 20 days earlier.
They had built their lives and finances on IBM stock, which so far had almost exclusively gone up. As it hit new highs in the summer of 1929, some executives used their holdings as collateral for margin loans to buy other stocks. But now, the value of their IBM holdings had been cut in half, and the share price kept falling.
Watson told the group. "I have now opened up on the IBM company with a vengeance, and I want all of you to get your heads up and tails over the dashboard," he said. "We have a big job to do, a hard job to do, and the only way is thinking and working constructively, and we must start it immediately."
He put the situation on the table. IBM's business was going to dip, Watson admitted. Every U.S. business was about to experience, as he put it, "a temporary slowing up." But IBM would not sit still and await its fate. "We are not going to wait for something to happen — we are going to make something happen," Watson said.
Watson's actions backed up his words. He made two dangerous decisions. One, he would keep the factories running and lay off no one. Two, he would increase spending on research and development, even as companies around the world slashed their R&D budgets.
Watson would keep the factories building machines and parts, stockpiling the products in warehouses. In fact, between 1929 and 1932, he increased IBM's production capacity by one-third.
Watson's greatest risk was running out of time. If IBM's revenue dropped off or flattened because of the Depression, the company would still have enough money to keep operating for two years, maybe three.
Watson's logic led him to make what looked to outsiders like another insane wager. On Jan. 12, 1932, during the worst of the Depression, Watson announced that IBM would spend $1 million — nearly 6% of IBM's total annual revenue — to build one of the first corporate research labs. The colonial-style brick structure in Endicott, N.Y., would house all of IBM's inventors and engineers. Watson played up the symbolism. He would create instead of destroy, despite the economic plague.
Watson nearly ruined the company, but in the end, it shot IBM past competitors and looked like a brilliant strategy. The decisions came within a sliver of ruining the company. The IBM Depression gamble paid off. CEO's today face many of the same challenges that IBM's Thomas Watson Sr. did in the Depression. What did he do? He expanded.
On Aug. 14, 1935, (President Franklin) Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. No single flourish of a pen had ever created such a gigantic information processing problem. To make the system work, every business had to track every employee's hours, wages, and the amount that must be paid to Social Security.
Overnight, demand for accounting machines soared. Every business that had them needed more. An officer of the store chain Woolworth's told IBM that keeping records for Social Security was going to cost the company $250,000 a year. Businesses that didn't have machines wanted them. The government needed them by the boatload.
Only one company could meet the demand: IBM. It had warehouses full of machines and parts and accessories, and it could immediately make more because its factories were up and running, fine tuned and fully staffed. Moreover, IBM had been funding research and introducing new products, so it had better, faster, more reliable machines than Remington Rand or any other company. IBM won the contract to do all of the New Deal's accounting — the biggest project to date to automate the government. Maybe Watson's relationship with FDR helped, but what other company could the government have turned to? IBM was the only real choice.
This period of time became IBM's slingshot. Revenue jumped from $19 million in 1934 to $31 million in 1937. It would climb unabated for the next 45 years. From that moment until the 1980s, IBM would utterly dominate the data processing industry — a record of leadership unmatched by any industrial company in history.
Watson was asked years later if he had anticipated the Social Security Act. Watson said he hadn't. Of course, the act was debated and written about well before it was passed. But Watson said he had no idea it would impose such a record-keeping burden on business and the government. No one did — otherwise, Congress would never have passed the act. Watson did not foresee that the act, combined with IBM's readiness, would not only save IBM, but propel it toward tremendous growth.
Tags: Boardroom, C-T-R, CEO, Computing Scale Company of America, Dividends, Era, Executives, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Google, Great Depression, Headquarters, IBM, IBM Inventors, International Business Machines, International Time Recording Company, IPO, ITR, Margin Loans, New Deal, October 29 1929, R&D, Social Security, Social Security Act, Stock Splits, THINK, Thomas J. Watson, Ticketograph Company of Chicago, Woolworth


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Can Coffee Roasting be Harmful?Tuesday, June 30th, 2015
When it comes to the various jobs that are out there for the average individual, some choose to work as coffee roasters and to spend their time preparing one of the best beverages out there. There are some who will work at the job of roasting coffee beans and preparing them for consumers. Dondero wonders […]Read More..>>


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More games
The rest of the jokes in today's Penny Arcade.
I've been following this comic for years, and recently linked this important document posted by one of its creators.
The answer is always more art; the corollary to that is the answer is never less art. If you start to think that less art is the answer, start over. That's not the side you want to be on. The problem isn't that people create or enjoy offensive work. The problem is that so many people believe that culture is something other people create, the sole domain of some anonymized other, so they never put their hat in the ring. That even with a computer in your pocket connected to an instantaneous global network, no-one can hear you. When you believe that, really believe it, the devil dances in hell.
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Press Release
Monday February 20 2017
Welsh Government urged to delay introducing new business rates
An urgent call has gone out for the Welsh Government to hold back on introducing business rate increases in April.
The call comes from Neil Hamilton, Leader of UKIP Group in the Assembly and AM for Mid & West Wales after the Welsh Government announced further details of a £10m scheme to help firms cope with the changes to their business rates.
The Welsh Government revealed in December that the money would be available from April, and would help businesses whose rates are rising due to a re-evaluation of their premises.
Neil Hamilton has criticised the scheme and called for a delay on introducing the new rate increases to allow more time to examine the situation in further detail.
He said:
"It is all very well for the Welsh Government to provide extra money for a transitional relief scheme, but it would be far better to delay introducing the rate increases, which threaten to destroy small businesses in the parts of Wales which are worst affected.
"Over the past few weeks I have visited many medium and small business owners in towns across Mid & West Wales to discuss the impact of the proposed business rate increases being imposed by the Welsh Government.
"I was horrified to hear of some of the percentage increases which are being imposed and which threaten to destroy swathes of small shops, restaurants and other concerns. It is all very well to set up an appeal procedure, but the money has to be found in the meantime.
"A small business could well be forced to close before the cumbersome appeals process, which could take months or years, is completed. A rebate is not much use when one has gone bust.
"The whole system of business rates is archaic, grossly unfair and has long since outlived its purpose. Businesses should be taxed on profit and not on some notional rental value which takes no account of ability of pay. Business rates will be the death knell of the high street as we know it, while Internet sales, exempt from the tax, will continue to soar.
"In particular, the system takes no account whatever of businesses which rely heavily on seasonal trade. Many seaside and tourist towns may be booming from April to October but struggle to keep afloat in the winter months.
"I repeat my call to Welsh Government not to enforce the new rate in April and allow more time to examine the situation in detail, in particular the impact on small businesses in Mid & West Wales."


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Archive for the 'Readers' Category
Survivor – Release
December 20, 2014 | Leave a Comment
It's been a while in the making but finally Survivor is here. Survivor is book one in The Nova Chronicles and is a gritty sci-fi adventure. It could be described as "Tomb Raider in Space". When everyone runs, who will stand? Nova is a new recruit to the Jagged Maw: an elite bounty hunter guild. During […]
The Hordes of Anarchy – Release
October 7, 2014 | Leave a Comment
The third and final book in The Lost Child Saga is here – The Hordes of Anarchy. The Final Battle has Begun The fate of the world hangs in the balance The die has been cast and the cards have been dealt, war is unavoidable. The battlelines are drawn. But what happens when a bigger […]
The Last Man on Mars – Short Story
September 10, 2014 | Leave a Comment
Hello readers 🙂 Today I'm pleased to share a sci-fi short story I wrote recently. And don't forget… if you sign up to my mailing list before the 23rd of September you'll get Book One of the Nova Chronicles for FREE! Enjoy! The Last Man on Mars Randor stood, his entire body rigid, one […]
Sarah (Michael Cairns) – Short Story
July 16, 2014 | Leave a Comment
Last year I had the pleasure of hosting a zombie short story from Michael Cairns. This year I'm happy to host another fantastic zombie tale of horror from Michael: SARAH by Michael Cairns Sarah doesn't much care for alcohol. She tried it a few times in her teens and ended every evening with her […]
Get Excited…
May 20, 2014 | Leave a Comment
That's right ladies and gents… it's not long until the release of Book 1 of the Nova Chronicles… a fast-paced, action-packed, science-fiction adventure. Enjoy a look at the cover… And imagine the adventure within… You can get book 1 FOR FREE if you sign up to be a bounty hunter (<<< to your left), just […]
Shift – Book Review
April 7, 2014 | Leave a Comment
Shift is the second book in Hugh Howey's phenomenal success story, following Wool. Just like the first book Shift is a fantastic read. There is so much drama, intrigue, thrill and teetering on the edge of collapse that I was on the edge of my seat. Shift is interesting in that the events […]
Wool – Book Review
April 7, 2014 | Leave a Comment
I'm sure almost everyone has heard about the epic indie success story which is Hugh Howey and his book Wool. I must admit that at first I was a little skeptical… Wool… What does Wool mean? What is it about? … but after learning it's a post-apocalyptic type novel I decided I had […]
Steel Gods of the Arena
February 2, 2014 | 2 Comments
A little while ago I introduced my new character Nova. She's a butt-kicking, future-living, bounty hunter… and she's back. Please enjoy the following short story and let me know what you think. If you like what you see you can sign up to become a Bounty Hunter (left of the screen) and receive Nova's […]
Brand New Cover Reveal
December 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment
I've been thinking that The Herald of Darkness cover just doesn't do it justice. So this weekend I sat down and did a complete redesign, here is the result: Compared to the original: What […]
The Nightlife: New York – Book Review
November 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment
The Nightlife: New York is a romance/erotica/vampire novel with a great storyline. I don't usually enjoy romance novels but the vampire action of this one had me turning the pages. The editing and formatting were professional and the book was easy to read. The novel is basically the story of a young man […]
5 Ways to Ruin your Book for Female Readers
November 22, 2013 | 2 Comments
I'm female and I read, and I see these things sooo often it makes me want to break things. Come on people, let's break away from Hollywood stereotypes. Ok, if you're writing a romance novel which is meant for women who only want to be saved, get married and have hundreds of babies, that's fine. […]
Klarity – Book Review
November 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Last week I reviewed another of C.J. Anderson's book's; Dawn of Djesus Undead. Anderson is kindly giving away three of his books at the moment, and I took full advantage of the offer. Klarity is a science fiction novella based around the development of a new drug which cures Alzheimer's and autism as […]
Dawn of Djesus Undead – Book Review
November 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Dawn of Djesus Undead is the story of God gone mad. A rabid killer Jesus is on the lose sending natural disasters and plagues to Earth. Even the angels are not safe as the bounds of God's fury know no bounds. Overall the concept of this book is fantastic; a God with human […]
Dr Who: The Sontaran Games – Book Review
November 2, 2013 | Leave a Comment
So you love Doctor Who. You've watched every episode (several times) and now you're eagerly awaiting the 50th Anniversary special. But what do you do in the meantime? There's a complete Doctor Who drought! Well, if you're like me you turn to other platforms, in this case; books. Little did I know that […]
Pippa Jay – Author Interview
October 25, 2013 | 2 Comments
Are you an aspiring science fiction author? Are you fan of Dr Who and science fiction? Do you enjoy a little bit of romance thrown into your novels? Then Pippa Jay is just the author for you. Pippa, tell us a little bit about yourself: My name is Pippa Jay, author of science fiction with […]
Murder Has Consequences – Book Review
October 19, 2013 | 2 Comments
I literally had goosebumps the entire way through this book. I read the first one in the series a few months ago and absolutely loved it (see a review of Murder Takes Time here), but I have to say, this was even better. Giammatteo has an incredible talent for weaving in mystery and […]
How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse
October 12, 2013 | 5 Comments
We've all thought it; what would I do if the zombie apocalypse happened right now. There are memes flooding social media; e.g. what would your weapon be if you only had time to grab one thing from your desk? The world has definitely fallen into another zombie craze, with Walking Dead and World War […]
Science Fiction Which Became Science Fact
September 18, 2013 | 2 Comments
Today in When Science Fiction Becomes Reality I have a fun list to share; major science fiction technologies which have since been created. That is, how our world now is the 'science fiction' setting of past decades. 1. Jules Verne predicted the moon landing in incredible detail (including the weightlessness of the astronauts) 100 years […]
The Eden Project – Book Review
September 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Last week I had the pleasure of reading The Eden Project, a science fiction novel which I found quite enjoyable. The premise is that something has happened to Earth, sending the human race hurtling towards extinction. In an effort to prevent this a group of forward thinking scientists have set up 'the dome'. […]
Memory Deletion and Black Holes
September 11, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This week in When Science Fiction Becomes Reality there are two great discoveries I want to share. Memory Removal– Scientists have been able to remove selected memories from mice and rats. So the possibility of 'brain wipes' isn't that far off at all. (Although of course this study was done for the medical benefits to […]
Breakthrough Breakdown
September 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Today in When Science Fiction Becomes Reality I'm not going to break down just one incredible story for you; today I'm giving you a whole list! Researcher's grow teeth from urine – Not many sci-fi applications, but still pretty cool! http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/07/31/3814782.htm Mars is phosphate rich – Mars has more of the essential building […]
The Body in the Library – Book Review
August 31, 2013 | Leave a Comment
So I'm currently drafting a murder mystery as the second installment of my up and coming sci-fi series (read a snippet of book 1 here) and thought I'd better do some reading in the genre. Where better to start than with Agatha Christie herself? So after trawling through blogs and reviews I […]
The Herald of Darkness – Release
August 27, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Here it is ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for… Today The Herald of Darkness was officially released for your enjoyment. So, don't waste another second, head over to Amazon and grab your copy now! I am the one who walks the night, I am the heart that sees no light, I […]
Indie Interview – Giacomo Giammatteo
August 24, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Today's interview can also be read at http://masqueradecrew.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/indie-interview-with-giacomo-giammatteo.html#more Meet a mystery master; Giacomo Giammatteo, a.k.a. Jim and hear what he has to say about his writing style and the advice he has for new authors. I have had the pleasure of reading one of Jim's books; Murder Takes Time (review here) and thoroughly enjoyed it, so […]
Fantasy Author Interview- Mia Darien
August 24, 2013 | 1 Comment
Today I have the pleasure of talking to Mia Darien, author of the Adelheid series. She is a rising indie author who isn't afraid to write what she enjoys. She is also keen to talk to her readers and has some good advice for authors. Dear Mia thank you very much for joining me. […]
Running's Easy When You Don't Feel Pain (Michael Cairns) – Short Story
August 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Today I'm lucky to be hosting Michael Cairns as part of his blog tour. Chocoholic Michael Cairns is a writer and author of the real-world epic fantasy trilogy, The Assembly and science fiction adventure series, A Game of War. A musician, father and school teacher, when not writing he can be found behind his drum […]
Sci-fi Sneak Peak- Nova #1
August 3, 2013 | 6 Comments
Hello readers. Today I have a very special treat to brighten up your weekends; a taste test of my novel-in-progress. It is a bit of a change from fantasy into sci-fi and I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions- I always welcome constructive feedback. And, if you like […]
Oracle of Delphi- Book Review
July 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment
What a fantastic take on a very old legend! At first I didn't know what to expect from this book but after the first chapter I was completely sucked in as Greek gods and demi-gods started their power plays. I found the way in which old legends and characters are brought back to […]
Cephrael's Hand – Book Review
July 14, 2013 | Leave a Comment
"All things are composed of patterns…" And within the pattern of the realm of Alorin, three strands must cross. What a story! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Melissa McPhail, it had everything you would want or expect from an epic fantasy novel. Be warned though, it's long- massive in fact (which of […]
The Herald of Darkness- Book Launch
July 7, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Come one, come all to celebrate the launch of the 2nd book in The Lost Child Saga: The Herald of Darkness. Details are below and all are welcome. Copies of The Herald of Darkness will be available for purchase. Be prepared for nibbles, a sneak preview and celebration. When: 3.30pm 28th August Where: Eddie […]
5 Newest Fantasy/Sci-fi Titles- July
July 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Here for your enjoyment are the five newest and top-rated books in fantasy and sci-fi. Have you read them? What did you think? They all sound fantastic, but I haven't ready any of them! Does anyone have any suggestions? View these books now by clicking on the cover images. A Lost Witch – Debora […]
Vaccines Strike Again
July 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment
In this week's When Science Fiction Becomes Reality, we're discussing a topic which has become quite controversial over the last few years. Vaccines. There has been a massive push in recent years against vaccines and this has led to an abominable increase in the rates of infectious diseases, including whooping cough. In-fact in the last […]
Indie Interview – David Allen Kimmel
June 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Today I am lucky to have David Allen Kimmel, author of Rockin' Across the Galaxy, for an Indie Interview. Earlier this year I reviewed David's book Rockin' Across the Galaxy (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and now I'm excited to hear his thoughts on writing. He has some great advice for authors and a fantastic sense […]
Echolocation- Map a Room Instantaneously
June 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This week in When Science Fiction Becomes Reality I want to highlight a very cool piece of technology which is just starting to come into its own… echolocation. This incredible science uses echoes and sounds to measure the dimensions of a room (kind of like sonar). More of the science is described here, but I […]
The Herald of Darkness- Revealed!
June 17, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Here it is ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for… The Herald of Darkness- Revealed! I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a few more weeks for the release, but in the meantime here's the cover and the blurb to wet your appetite: I am the one who walks the night, […]
Cloak of Invisibility – So Many Choices
June 12, 2013 | Leave a Comment
All fantasy and sci-fi fans have dreamt of being invisible. I know when I was young and asked what super power I want, it had to be invisibility. Well, in this week's When Science Fiction Becomes Reality I'm discussing the many ways in which invisibility has become a reality. There are now so many avenues […]
5 Newest Fantasy/Sci-fi Titles
June 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Here for your enjoyment are the five newest and top-rated books in fantasy and sci-fi. Have you read them? What did you think? Personally I can't wait to get back into the Riftwar Saga! Deeply Odd- Dean Koonts 4.5 Stars The sixth Odd Thomas thriller from the master storyteller. Our reluctant hero is drawn once […]
Mind Controlled Legs
June 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment
So, a few weeks ago I spoke about an incredible, mind-controlled robotic arm. This week in When Science Fiction Becomes Reality, I'm taking it a step further with MindWalker. This incredible invention consists of a frame and robotic parts which move in response to brain impulses. The frame is designed to be used by people […]
The Herald of Darkness- Map
June 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Hello everyone, today I would like to reveal to you the map for The Herald of Darkness, Book Two of The Lost Child Saga, which will be released later this year. This map is an expansion of that shown in The Fallen Star, and encompasses the new lands described in the second novel. Have a […]
The Invincible Mould
May 29, 2013 | Leave a Comment
If you thought Superman was tough, wait till you hear about this mould! In this week's When Science Fiction Becomes Reality, I'm looking at an amazing mould which has been collected from Sverdrup Pass, Canada. This mould has been trapped under a glacier for over 400 years and yet plant it in some fertilizer and […]
Bacterial Calculator
May 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment
So a calculator made out of E. coli cells might not be the most classiest thing you've ever heard of but that's what we're disucussing in this weeks When Science Fiction Becomes Reality. So what is this bacterial calculator? Well some clever scientists over at MIT have decided to scrap the idea of converting bacterial […]
Fry- Book Review
May 19, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Fry by Lorna Dounaeva gave me goose-bumps. I'll admit, I don't often read thrillers but I am so glad I picked this one up. At first I had no idea what the story was about but then the book sucked me right in. The twists in the story had me glued to the […]
Murder Takes Time- Book Review
April 25, 2013 | 2 Comments
Looking over my shoulder I can't help but wonder if I'd notice if someone was watching me. Would I take note of the car parked across the street, or the man sitting in the diner? Probably not. These are the thoughts that have been going through my head since I finished reading Murder […]
Collapse- Book Review
April 8, 2013 | Leave a Comment
America has been crippled by the Second Great Depression, Obamaville in Central Park is full to bursting and the Iranian Empire has eyes set on Europe, this is Collapse by Richard Stephenson. It is an apocalyptic fiction novel which is just a little too non-fiction for comfort. You watch the world crumble through […]
Doctor Who- Old vs. New
April 1, 2013 | Leave a Comment
So today I have a question for all of you lovely readers- how does 'classic' Doctor Who compare to 'new' Doctor Who? I'll admit I only jumped on the Whovian band wagon for the new Who, when Christopher Eccleston took on the role. But I fell in love with it! Who wouldn't love an alien […]
The Herald of Darkness- Competition
March 27, 2013 | 3 Comments
The Herald of Darkness is the second book of The Lost Child Saga which kicked off last year with The Fallen Star. The Herald of Darkness is growing into an epic story where a whole cast of new characters are introduced. I know there are already lots of people eager to get their hands on […]
Dragon Age Tabletop Game
March 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment
So, as a fantasy lover and enjoyer of online RPGs I have for quite some time been keen to get into tabletop/pen and paper role playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. Unfortunately I never found the time or the playing companions to give it a go, and then I saw this: http://youtu.be/Y-61i3R5y9Y Half an […]
The Dark Tower- Book Review
March 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment
Every so often a book comes along that sucks you in so much that it becomes a part of your life. You start putting reading that book ahead of other, normal things- like sleeping. You start to see the characters in your everyday life and wonder what they would do in your place. […]
The Herald of Darkness- First Sneak Peak
March 13, 2013 | 2 Comments
Well ladies and gents, it's been almost a year since the release of The Fallen Star and I have been busy! I'm sure some of you just can't wait to get your hands on the sequel; The Herald of Darkness. This next installment will take you into the heart of an army as it prepares […]
Once Upon A Castle- Book Review
March 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment
In this children's book Alan S. Blood tells the story of two young children in the time of war. They are taken from their home to live with an aunt in the country. From there they experience the excitement of farm life and some mysterious encounters. I have to say, this book has […]


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Social Media
Topsy "Tops" Google for Real-Time Search
With the closing of Google's Relatime search feature, Topsy.com is about to become the leader in social search. Google's contract with Twitter expired over the Fourth of July weekend but Google says they are going to integrate the feature into Google+. The contract gave Google access to Twitter's live "firehose" of public tweets. Microsoft's search…
Read the full article


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Good Morning!
It's been awhile since I have posted on here. I have been busy and not crafting as much as I would like too. I'm very excited to be apart of the Unity Blog Hop!
I had alot of fun crafting with Winter Wishes Stamp Set.
I love how my paper went great with the stamp set. I was disappointed that it was rainy out and I couldn't get a picture outside. I hope to get a better one later and replace it.
Don't forgot to stop by and leave a comment for everyone on the hop!! One lucky will win a Stamp of the Week. Good luck!!
Here is a complete list of the hop in case you are just starting.
Thanks for stopping by :)


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Basement Ceiling Tiles
The Basement Doctor suggests adding a drop or suspended ceiling in a finished basement. These type of ceilings not only provide excellent sound barriers, they also add beauty and complete a very finished look.
A drop ceiling hangs on steel wires attached from the basement ceiling joists. A drop ceiling consists of a lightweight steel grid that supports ceiling tiles and light fixtures. This type of ceiling offers important advantages in a finished basement, and The Basement Doctor's ceiling tiles are made specifically for use in a basement.
Installation time and costs will vary based on project size, customized options, and the location of the project. Installation wait times of multiple months are possible depending on these options.
The Basement Doctor's ceiling tile system is a great solution for any basement ceiling. Our ceiling tiles are made specifically for finished basements. Our ceiling tiles are made out of an inorganic mineral fiber composition rather than from wood fibers. Our 2' by 2' by 3/4" basement ceiling tiles are water resistant and have a 30-year warranty against mold and mildew. There is simply no better basement ceiling system - if there was, we'd carry it. We install two distinctive styles for basement ceilings, linen and prestige.
Linen ceiling tiles are our brightest, richest looking tiles. With an attractive, sophisticated look, their bright design helps to make your whole basement look larger, cleaner, and well-lit! These tiles are ideal for brightening a family room, home office, or home theater.
The Prestige tile is a recessed ceiling tile that is specially textured to be forgiving of marks and dings. With its more economical pricing, it's a solid choice for a game room, children's play room, home gym, or creative space. The Prestige and Linen basement ceiling tiles are a perfect companion to our basement floor tiles, and our insulated Magic Wall System. The ceiling, flooring, and wall systems from The Basement Doctor™ can turn your basement into a place you'll enjoy for years.
The benefits of The Basement Doctor's ceiling tiles are:
- Fast, hassle free, and clean installation
- Compatible with all recessed lighting systems
- A sound barrier for your finished basement
- Full access to all electrical, ductwork and home cabling systems
- Simple access to all plumbing and sewer pipes for any repairs
- A quick turn tile replacement is available should a tile become damaged
- Beautiful, finished look, and a very durable product


text: Full Service Movers Today get ahead to publish few safety norms followed by moving, packing and storage professional during moving days, FSM (Full service movers) arrange training program for professional to teach new techniques emerged in field of services. In the course of training days FSM provide information of followed rules and regulation, information about followed safety tips, and information about emerged new techniques in field of moving, storage and packing. Follow Standing Order For successful process of moving FSM first priority to follow standing orders and move ahead of wrap up things such as packing belonging, loading trucks and during driving on the way toward stopping place. FSM research and development team gifted with talent professional who take care of things goes in systematic way. Tie Up with Time Frame FSM tie up his services with duration, to slash west cost, probability of moving belonging damage and accidental damage for moving process, full service movers follow time frame of services and get success in cycle of moving up reside place of moving. FSM team of research and development tabulate things and driven it in real time. Some More etiquette


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BROTHERS, ROBERT LEE, JR. (1908–1979). Robert Lee Brothers, Jr., the "Poet of Peach Creek," son of Robert Lee and Alma (Kokernot) Brothers, was born on December 29, 1908, at Big Hill, on the old Kokernot ranch in Gonzales County, Texas. He graduated from Gonzales High School and studied one year at Baylor University. When his father died the following June (1929), he returned to the land he had inherited to become a cattleman. Though his roots were in the cattle business, he published three books of poetry and won many poetry awards. His first collection, Democracy of Dust, was published in 1947. The themes in this and subsequent works revolve around ranching, the outdoors, and human nature. His second book, The Hidden Harp (1952), won the Texas Institute of Letters award for 1953. His poem "Requiem for a Foundling" won the Reynolds Lyric Award in Virginia. Among the other awards Brothers received was a special citation given during the semicentennial of The Lyric in 1970 to "poets...who have diligently served the cause of traditional poetry throughout the years." Mabel Major describes his work as "distinguished by precision of phrase and by a keen ironic insight into human character." He was an active member of the Poetry Society of Texas and served as a judge for many poetry contests. Brothers was born a Southern Baptist and a Southern Democrat. Though he never fitted the fundamentalist mold, much of his poetry is deeply spiritual. In the last ten or fifteen years of his life he developed an affinity for the Republican party. He was politically active on the local and county level, where he registered the poor to vote as a part of a campaign to remove corrupt local politicians from office. He was married briefly to Julia Cobb, then divorced. In June 1936 he married Docia Azilea Barfield, an old sweetheart he had known since she was sixteen; they had two daughters. Docia died on October 4, 1955. Brothers died of a heart attack on Mothers' Day, May 13, 1979, at his home in Gonzales.
Mabel Major et al., Southwest Heritage: A Literary History with Bibliography (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1938; 3d ed. 1972). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.William E. Bard, "ADAMS, WALTER R.," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fad08), accessed March 19, 2015. Uploaded on June 9, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.


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Rockin'S Grapevine Lake
Twin Coves Marina
Rockin' S Bar & Grill is your neighborhood grill and bar, located at the Twin Coves Marina on beautiful Grapevine Lake. Our lakefront restaurant features great food in a fun environment, perfect for gatherings with your family, friends, and colleagues.
Our Hours
Fall Hours
Sunday 11am – 9pm
Closed Monday – Wednesday
Thursday 11am – 10pm
Friday & Saturday 11am – 11pm (till midnight on live music nights)


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Your sinuses aren't the only thing impacted by the burst of springtime pollen. The moment pollen coats the surface of your car it starts working to erode the finish. How does pollen affect your car, and what can you do to ward off the springtime pollen blues?
Pollen On Your Car's Exterior
We sometimes think with winter a memory, we are free to leave our cars on the driveway. But the exterior can be impacted even worse by pollen than by snow.
Pollen coats the outside of your car and may leave a sticky, dirty mess to clean up. The buildup will deteriorate the car's paint job, potentially leading to chips, and eventually rust.
Pollen also coats the windshield making a challenge for wipers to clear. This will impact your visibility while driving. Make sure the wiper fluid is topped up and functioning properly, in order to keep the wipers working optimally.
Save Your Paint by Removing Pollen
The detail pros at Detailed Image encourage you to wash your car frequently during high pollen season. However, there are right ways to wash a car.
They recommend removing the pollen as soon as possible. Pollen may seem like granular dust, but it is designed to cling to bees and flowers. This means it also clings to the pores of the paint can damage it, and advance oxidation.
To help prevent this buildup, it's important to wash your car using soapy water and light agitation. Soap will deactivate the pollen.
Also be sure to dry it. You can also use a wax coating to help protect the paint, but only after a soapy wash.
If your vehicle's surface paint is already too far gone, call us. We will get started the right way in removing paint and surface build up from your car.


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Michael Vick, Nick Foles are 'even' at start of QB competition
- Eagles coach Chip Kelly says QBs focused on learning system%2C not starting job
Chip Kelly has been adamant in saying Michael Vick doesn't have an advantage over Nick Foles because Vick can run.
After the first practice of minicamp Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles coach reiterated that statement and said no one is atop the Eagles' depth chart at quarterback right now.
"It's even. They both took reps with the 1s, so the depth chart for us, it's not a big deal," Kelly told news reporters. "I don't look over there and say, 'The 1s are in, how come he's in?' We talked about it as a staff. We just want guys to get reps.
"So the depth chart, it's more of like a seating chart than it is a depth chart."
Vick was seated at the head of the class for the first snap of 7-on-7 passing drills, according to Kelly. The first snap of full-team drills belonged to Foles. Even perceived third-stringer Dennis Dixon got reps with the "starters."
EAGLES GM:QB expectations 'out of whack'
The intrigue over which quarterback has the lead is due in part to how much the winner will determine the team's offensive scheme. When he was first hired, Kelly indicated Vick and Foles could both run a similar offense as they compete this spring. Kelly later said he'd have to tailor the offense depending on whether it's speedy Vick or traditional-pocket-passing Foles under center.
On Monday, the Eagles released veteran Trent Edwards, who isn't the fleetest of foot. It seemed a decision that he wouldn't fit into any version of Kelly's offense.
Not true, apparently. Kelly said Edwards wanted to see if he could latch on elsewhere and the team obliged by granting him his release.
"You're reading way too much into that, if I could jump ahead of you on your question," Kelly said when asked if Edwards' release indicated he was looking for a fast quarterback. "The best quarterbacks are the best quarterbacks. We'll find a way no matter who our quarterbacks are, to put a game plan in where they can be successful.
He continued, "I think people are putting too much into, 'Does this guy run? Does this guy not run?' We've had guys at Oregon that have run a lot, we've had other guys at Oregon ... Darren Thomas took us to a national championship in the Rose Bowl and rushed for 200 yards during that 14-game season.
"Sometimes there's a misconception of what I'm looking for in a quarterback. I'm looking for a quarterback that can help us score points and win games. So if we've got to throw it 50 times, we'll throw it 50 times."
If they throw it 50 times in a game this season, that surely means Foles has won the job. Vick likely will run the option much more often than Foles, who ran for 42 yards in seven games last season.
For the next four months-plus, those two will go at it to determine who will take the first snap of the season and, perhaps in turn, what kind of play it will be.
"Those guys love competition. That's why they're in that position," Kelly said. "And they know it. Our guys really understand. Everybody knows where they stand, and that's a big thing for us. There's not a lot of gray area."
Kelly added of the April depth chart in general: "That whole concept of who ran with the 1s and who didn't run with the 1s, I don't think they put a little thing over their bed and say, 'Hey, I ran with the 1s today.' It really doesn't matter.
"It's, 'When I was in there, did I know what I was doing? Did I understand my assignment? Did I use the proper technique and did I execute?' "


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Helpful research paper writing tutorials
Writing a great research paper comes with some practice. The more time you devote to understanding and practicing the elements, as well as the more time you give yourself to work on a research paper, the more likely you will be to handing in writing worthy of the best grades. Writing a good conclusion, for instance, is essential because it's the last impression your audience will have of your work. Here are some tips for writing a good conclusion for a research paper:
Unlike the rest of the paragraphs in your paper, which will start with a good topic sentence, your conclusion won't be introducing a new topic for discussion nor indicate the insertion of a new piece of evidence. The start of your conclusion should indicate just that: you've reached the end and you're about to briefly review your argument and why it works.
Immediately, after you start your conclusion with a clean and simple sentence indicating the end, you should immediately restate your thesis statement or central argument. It's been a long read for your reader and, hopefully, you've kept them intrigued with great writing, but you always want to remind them what your argument is. Don't simply copy and paste; come up with a different way to express the same idea you presented at the beginning.
The middle part of your conclusion should be reserved for reminding your reader of your main arguments and supporting evidence. Again don't simply rewrite but restate in different words. Additionally, show your reader how your arguments and evidence work together to prove your central argument by synthesizing your ideas. Don't assume your reader will automatically understand this. Without insulting your reader let them know what you have accomplished.
While all of these tips deal with what should go into a good conclusion paragraph, this one tip of what not to include is just as important. Don't introduce new evidence. All of your evidence should have been brought up in the body paragraphs. If you do have new evidence you absolutely need to bring up then you should consider revising your research paper so that the evidence appears in the body paragraphs.
The last tip can be tricky but is very importation. Leaving your audience with a lasting impression can be accomplished in the final two sentences of your conclusion by employing one of several tricks. You should consider asking a though-provoking question or give your audience a call to action. Whatever you choose make sure it relates to your paper and gives a sense of closure to your work.
Copyright (c) 2017 bpiresearch.com. All rights reserved. Get an A+ for your next college midterm project with our help.


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I absolutely love doing a little shopping at Christmastime in the small New England towns! It truly is a Norman Rockwell experience! Some of my favorite town centers to explore are: Portsmouth, Peterborough, or Hanover in New Hampshire, and Concord and Newburyport in Massachusetts. With most of our Christmas preparations complete, we have a little time for fun and frolicking! So, today, Colette and I headed off to Newburyport, while the guys went off on their own to complete their Christmas shopping.
The town center of Newburyport is graced by several old, steepled churches, this being the largest of the three.
The surrounding shops are in old brick buildings, with all the storefronts decorated for Christmas. The brick sidewalks were heaped with snow, which was rapidly melting in the balmy (40-50 degree) weather.
Naturally, we explored every bakery! This one smelled soooo good inside!
I thought this table setting, displayed in the Stonewall Kitchen store, was so beautiful…in a unconventional Christmas way. I love the mix of taupes, browns, and steely blues to create a tranquil lodge-like table setting.
My favorite shop that we visited was this one!
It was stocked with: Hunter boots, teas, umbrellas, Aero bars (yum!), wool blankets of amazing quality, and Emma Bridgewater pottery. One of our favorites of the Emma Bridgewater pieces was this fox mug in the front window display.
Mostly, we did window shopping. But I did come home with an assortment of three chocolate sauces from Stonewall Kitchen, and plans for them on New Year's Day. Yum!


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Hi! I'm Lauren.
I'm healthy lifestyle expert, health coach, fitness model, lifestyle entrepreneur, network marketer, bikini competitor, and athlete – and I am committed to living an abundantly kickass, epic life.
And I'm obsessed with helping others do the same – helping people elevate their health AND live their most amazing lives.
As a fitness coach, I help go-getter women crush their fitness goals. Yep, I'm lookin' at YOU, badass boss babe hustling on building that empire. You CAN have a banging bod and tons of natural energy while taking over the world.
As a business mentor, I help ambitious people become health and fitness influencers and entrepreneurs. Oh yeah, I'm talking to YOU, fitness freak killin' it in the gym and inspiring others on their health journey. Wanna turn that passion for health and wellness into a profitable side hustle? Let's make it happen.
As seen in…


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With mobile payments, security teams must move quickly
As employees make payments on their mobile devices, the security team must act quickly to ensure corporate assets remain secure.
For many years, security managers have adapted as users wanted and needed access to new technologies. The next new technology security managers will need to embrace could well be mobile payments. Employees may begin to ask if they can make payments on their mobile devices -- the same devices that access corporate information.
The bottom line is to show you are considering embracing this technology, rather than having to control it after widespread adoption.
Mobile payment technology will require additional security implementations. Established security procedures, such as the corporate risk assessment process, will still need to be followed, but enabling mobile payments by employees will require new policies, adaptations of current security tools, and possibly the purchase of new security technologies that are just now being developed.
Mobile payment systems
Mobile payment systems are systems that enable a user to pay out and receive agreed amounts of money using their mobile device, such as their smartphone. Mobile payment systems are often classified into two broad categories:
- Payment systems that utilize a mobile network to initiate or authorise a transaction;
- Contactless systems that use a mobile phone in lieu of a traditional credit card.
When a mobile payment system is installed on a mobile phone, it raises the value of that device to attackers. Previously, mobile phones were targeted for their resale value or, in the case of smartphones, for the data stored on them. But with a mobile payment system installed, online payment details are added to the data on the device, which could give it a much higher value to a hacker than any other item the individual carries -- perhaps even more than their wallet.
Best practices for enabling mobile payments
As employees begin considering making mobile payments, security professionals should undertake a risk assessment of mobile payment systems. Here are some tips, based on my own experience, about the best way to handle mobile payments, both before and after the risk assessment process.
- Consider embracing mobile payment systems from the outset. Some mobile payment systems are going to end up on the mobile phone estate somehow. Get involved now by announcing you will provide detailed information about mobile payments in the near future. The bottom line is to show you are considering embracing this technology, rather than having to control it after widespread adoption.
- Evaluate different mobile payment systems and the risks associated with each, and determine which is best for your organisation. In some cases, this may mean determining which system is not the worst for your organisation.
- Promote dialogue with users who are already using mobile payments and find out their preferences, or what they would like to do with mobile payments.
Once user preferences have been noted and a mobile payment system has been selected, provide users with a roadmap -- and do it soon. Otherwise, some users will find their own solutions faster than you would like, as happened with the entry of the iPad brought in by executives who then told the IT department to find a way to make iPads work on the corporate network.
More on mobile device
security controls
Three tools to manage mobile device security threats
Pros and cons of touch gesture recognition authentication
Securing mobile payment data on devices
Because mobile devices with mobile payment systems have especially high value to hackers, a full range of security controls should be implemented on these devices. The technical controls for mobile devices are straight forward since they are led by advances in control development. However, most new smart devices sold today do not have root access. This means, for example, you will likely need to gain root access before you can install controls such as a firewall.
Another vital control that should be implemented on mobile devices is encryption. The point to remember here is it is far easier to recover data from most non-hard disk technologies (like memory sticks, memory cards and flash drives used in smart devices) than on a smartphone. The only way to reduce the likelihood of data recovery is not to rely on the built-in software device wipe functionality, but to encrypt the data and then wipe the device.
In summary, the technical controls to utilise on mobile devices that may be making mobile payments are:
- an antimalware product;
- an encryption system;
- a host-based firewall (if your security policies allow rooting the devices), and
- a mobile device management (MDM) system.
There are two other useful technical controls that are not yet mature enough to use, but are worth exploring for devices supporting mobile payments. First, dual SIM card devices may offer a safer way of storing payment data. The personal SIM card could simply be removed when necessary. Second, virtualisation on mobile devices could allow the virtualised business operating system to be deleted without disrupting the personal operating system, its apps and its data. Both of these technologies are likely to become viable options in the next 12 to 18 months.
About the author:
Sarb Sembhi, CISSP-ISSAP, GCIH, GAWN, is the director of consulting services at Incoming Thought. His is a past President of the London Chapter of ISACA, and the founder of its Security Advisory Group, and current Chair of the Europe and Africa Region Government & Regulatory Authority Sub-Committee.


text: Reiki Can Support Fempreneurs in their Fabulousness When Elaine Slatter and I began talking about my writing an article about transformational energy and how it can support the Fempreneur in her fabulousness, I wasn't expecting the opportunity to be a guest blogger. After all, our own connection is fairly new, […] Reiki 101 for Fabulous Fempreneurs29 Aug, 2016 in Inspiration / Social Media tagged fempreneurs / inspiration for women entrepreneurs / inspirational thoughts. women entrepreneurs / raiki 101 / reiki / relaxation using Reiki by Elaine Slatter