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Social Traffic Rush
Chapter 1: Facebook Traffic Rush
Facebook (https://www.Facebook.com) is the king of social media with over 2 billion active users logging on to the platform every single month. People from all over the world go on Facebook to post status updates, read their friends' updates, meet new friends, and more.
As a business owner, you want to capitalize on the sheer number of Facebook users and get them to visit your website. Imagine if you can get even just a very small percentage of Facebook users to land on your website!
You're talking thousands of people reading your content – people who will more than likely share your post if it's something they find super valuable and useful!
Organic Facebook Posts Vs Facebook Ads
There are two ways to promote your content on Facebook: (1) by promoting it organically to your fans and followers, or (2) by promoting it on Facebook Ads.
With the first method, you're not paying any money to Facebook. You're only promoting to your fans and followers. On the surface, this may sound like a great plan.
However, with each algorithm update, Facebook organic reach is ever dwindling. This means that even if you have millions of fans, only a small percentage is going to see your post in their news feeds!
A few years ago, organic reach was extremely good. Every time you posted something on your fan page, a large majority of your followers will see your post. So if you were promoting or selling something, you would essentially get sales without paying for traffic.
However, in recent years, Facebook has been doing its best to go back to its 'social' roots. Instead of showing posts from fan pages, Facebook has been prioritizing updates from people in your circle of friends.
If you've got hundreds of friends, you'll see most of their posts on your news feeds instead of posts from pages you've followed. This is obviously great news for Facebook users themselves, but not so much for business owners who carefully manage and maintain a huge following on Facebook.
So, with the ever-declining numbers of organic social media traffic, many business owners have been forced to turn to Facebook Ads.
Many social media marketers swear by the power of Facebook Ads as it is very cost-effective compared to other advertising options like Google Adwords and other traditional marketing methods.
With Facebook Ads, you no longer need to worry about organic reach. You can simply set up an ad from your Ads Manager account, target the right audience demographic, define your budget and Facebook will take care of the rest for you.
The truth is no other social media or advertising platform can offer the kind of targeting options that Facebook offers. You can target people based on many different factors such as location, interests, hobbies, affiliations, and so much more.
There's even an extremely powerful tool called Facebook Pixel. It's just a snippet of code you add to your website's header section. The pixel is powerful if you know how to use it and read its data correctly.
With the pixel, you can track what your visitors are doing on your website. You'll know if they signed up to your mailing list, or if they bought something in your eCommerce store. With the Facebook remarketing feature, you can retarget people who've visited your site and send them highly targeted offers.
With the lookalike audience feature, you can upload your own customer data, and Facebook will try to look for people who are similar to your own audience. This basically means reaching more of the same people with just a push of a button!
How To Drive Traffic To Your Website Using Facebook Ads
In this section, you're going to be learning a few ways to get people to land on your website simply by signing up for Facebook Ads. Let's begin!
What do you want to achieve?
This is the first step on the list. You have to sort out your goals – do you want to increase your brand awareness? Do you want to get your ads in front of as many people as possible? Do you want people to visit your website? Install your app? Buy from your online store?
Facebook Ads have 3 different campaign objectives – you have to choose the right objective that will match your goals.
For example, if you want people to visit your website, then you may want to choose the Traffic objective. But it's not always the right choice especially if you're targeting people who have yet to hear about your brand. This kind of traffic is called 'cold traffic.' If you want higher engagements on your posts, you're going to have to convert this cold traffic to warm or hot traffic.
For cold traffic, try getting them aware of your brand first. You can choose between Brand Awareness or Reach objectives. You're basically introducing your brand to your target audience, sort of like saying "Hello, I'm here! I exist!"
You can try letting your ad run for a few days while spending a few dollars each day. It's not going to bankrupt you, you just want to test the waters.
When your advert's been viewed by a good number of people, then you may want to create a second advert and this time use another ad objective. You can then target the people who've engaged with your initial, testing-the-waters ad.
Since they've already engaged with you, they're not cold traffic anymore. They're now known as a warm audience – people who've interacted with your brand previously. You're not total strangers anymore.
So, in the second stage of your advert you should remind people of who you are. Remember, people do see tons of content on their news feed. So don't be shy – remind people that they've seen you before!
Also, while planning your goals, you need to map out your strategy. You can't just spend money on Facebook ads without knowing which variables to measure. It's important to know when you need to stop advertising when nothing seems to be working.
Know your target audience
Knowing this information is crucial to succeeding on Facebook, or any other social media platform for that matter. If you're targeting the wrong crowd, then chances are you're not going to get very good engagement rates.
For instance, if you're offering women's hygiene products, there's no sense including men in your target audience, right?
And if you're targeting younger women, say 18-30-year-olds, then you shouldn't include females outside of that age range.
Otherwise, you're just going to be annoying people. When people report or flag your ads to Facebook, you're going to get a low relevancy score.
In the world of Facebook Ads, you want to have the highest relevancy scores possible (9 or 10). This means people are interreacting positively with your advert, so you're probably targeting the right kind of people.
However, even if you do have good relevancy scores, but you're not getting any sales or conversions, then you probably need to work on putting out a better offer in front of your audience.
The thing is, knowing who to target is extremely important. You don't want to be wasting money, you don't want to be annoying Facebook users. Rather, you want to add value. To do that, you're going to need to know first what your audience needs which leads us to our next point.
If you don't already have an existing demographic for your target audience, you can run ads targeted to different groups of people.
Find out which group responds best to your ad. Once you've found the winning demographic, then your job just got a whole lot easier as you'll find out in the next point.
Create highly engaging ads
Knowing your audience and what they want will allow you to create ads that will speak directly to them. If you've got a product or service that addresses your target audience's pain points, then you just may have extremely good conversion rates.
That's the beauty of putting the right offer in front of the right audience – you not only bring value to a lot of people, you also reap plenty of profits in return.
When creating ads, it's best to know what kind of content your audience prefers. If you're targeting older audiences, then you may want to use videos and high-quality graphics to make it easy for them to consume your content.
Put yourself in your audience's shoes, would you want to consume content in video format or would you want to squint your way through a 2,000-word article with size 10 font!
Optimizing your ad design is extremely important too. Facebook users gets a lot of visual stimulation from the photos and videos their friends share with them. You have to stand out too if you want people to notice your ad.
In fact, it's your design that's going to convince people to stop scrolling on their news feeds long enough to scrutinize your graphics and read your title. If it's something that interests them, then they'll likely click and read your entire post on your website.
If you're trying to get people to sign up to your mailing list, then you have to offer them something of value first.
You don't just create an ad on Facebook asking people to sign up for your list. You can't just expect people to give you their email address simply because you asked for it. No, it doesn't work like that.
If you want people to follow your call to action, you're going to have to give them something valuable first, so you'll gain their trust.
When creating your ads, you need to specify where you want your ads to appear. There are quite a number of places where you can place your ads – in people's news feed, the right column, in the audience network, in instant articles, and Instagram.
To determine the most optimal placement for your ads, you're going to have to do a lot of split testing. When testing, you're going to have to isolate variables one at a time, so you know exactly what's working and what's not.
For instance, if you want to know why people aren't engaging with your ads, then you may want to split test by creating a second advert with a different cover image, or a different title, and so on.
Split testing may feel like an unnecessary expenditure, but most Facebook Ads experts suggest split testing your way to success. It's better to know what's going to contribute to your success, and what's going to impede it so you can adjust as necessary.
Is Facebook The Right Platform For Your Business?
Just because Facebook has billions of active users doesn't mean you'll automatically find success on the platform. If you've tried different combinations of ad objectives and ad creatives and nothing seems to be working, then perhaps you're targeting the wrong crowd.
You may feel like you've spent far too much money just to quit cold turkey, but sometimes it's better to cut your losses while you still can.
The good news is Facebook is not the only social media platform on the planet so you can always seek out your target audience somewhere else.
However, for those who've found their audience on Facebook, then know that you've got one of the most powerful social media tools at your fingertips.
Facebook will not only help you drive traffic to your website, but you can literally grow an entire community on the platform.
In addition to publishing content on your brand's fan page, you can also create a Facebook group to make engaging with your audience even easier. This way, you not only establish yourself as an authority, or as a leader in your industry, you also let people know you're ready to help them out when necessary.


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For my French Dinner Party, I knew I needed some authentic tasting French bread. I have a very simple French bread recipe that I tend to fall back on, but for this occasion, I knew I needed something a little more "real." Enter King Arthur Flour – my go-to place for all things bread.
I've looked at their baguette recipe before, but I've always written it off as too complicated, or too time-consuming. But since I was going all-out for the meal anyway, really, what's an extra complicated recipe or two?
It really wasn't as difficult as I expected. There is an exceptionally long rising time (3 hours, plus another 1.5 hours!), but other than that, the recipe was pretty simple. According to KAF, the long rising time is what gives it that traditional French bread flavor. It must have worked because these loaves were incredible.
They don't quite have the classic baguette shape I was going for – I need to work a little on my shaping skills. Disregarding their looks, however, these loaves were perfect. They had a great chewy crust, with a light "holey" interior. I probably could have baked them a little longer, but I was nervous about overbaking them, and, to be truthful, I needed the oven for the boeuf bourguignon.
Mike rated these a 4.75, another very high score (unfortunately he seems to give the more "complicated" recipes higher ratings). Our guests seemed seemed to really enjoy these as well. I've come to the conclusion that these baguettes are worth the work and I'm already planning when I can make them again.
Yield: Yield: Three 16" baguettes.
1/2 cup cool water
1/16 teaspoon active dry yeast or instant yeast
1 cup King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast or instant yeast
1 cup to 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water*
all of the starter
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
*Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.
1) Make the starter by mixing the yeast with the water (no need to do this if you're using instant yeast), then mixing in the flour to make a soft dough. Cover with a damp towel and let rest at room temperature for about 14 hours; overnight works well. The starter should have risen and become bubbly.
2) If you're using active dry yeast, mix it with the water, then combine with the starter, flour, and salt. If you're using instant yeast, there's no need to combine it with the water first. Mix and knead everything together—by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle—till you've made a soft, somewhat smooth dough; it should be cohesive, but the surface will still be a bit rough. Knead for about 5 minutes on speed 2 of a stand mixer
3) Place the dough in a lightly greased medium-size bowl, cover the bowl, and let the dough rise for 3 hours, gently deflating it and turning it over after 1 hour, and then again after 2 hours.
4) Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into three equal pieces.
5) Shape each piece into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let them rest for 15 minutes. This relaxes the gluten to make it easier to work with.
6) Working with one piece of dough at a time, fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel of your hand. Flatten it slightly, and fold and seal again. (step by step pictures can be found here)
7) With the seam-side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the dough into a 15" log. Place the logs seam-side down onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined sheet pan or pans.
8) Cover them with a cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise till they've become very puffy, about 1 1/2 hours.
9) Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450°F; if you're using a baking stone, place it on the lowest rack.
10) Using a very sharp knife held at about a 45° angle, make three 8" vertical slashes in each baguette. Spritz the baguettes heavily with warm water; this will help them develop a crackly-crisp crust.
11) Bake the baguettes until they're a very deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack. Or, for the very crispiest baguettes, turn off the oven, crack it open about 2", and allow the baguettes to cool in the oven.
from King Arthur Flour

subset: commoncrawl


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Pigeon Nets Installation Charges in Bangalore. Birds are beautiful creature by nature. In that, Pigeon is one of the species of Birds. Everyone fond of Pigeon , but on other hand pigeon became irritating creature by dirtying premises. It's very tough task to avoid pigeon at the high huge buildings. Shaan Enterprises have best solution for get rid of birds like pigeons. We are providing services of Pigeon Safety Nets to avoid Pigeon permanently.
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The naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber, is a subterranean rodent which is highly unusual in regards to its social structure, longevity, pain insensitivity and cancer resistance, all of which have made it the subject of a great deal of research in recent years. Yet, much of the basic anatomy of this species remains undocumented. In this peer-reviewed study, researchers describe the morphology of its jaw-closing musculature as revealed by contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography -
- read article


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"First, I'll tell you about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later."
So begins Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard's Ford's latest novel, Canada.
The story is narrated by retired school teacher Dell Parsons as he looks back on the tumult that ensued when his parents — two unlikely criminals — find themselves in a financial bind and haphazardly hold up a small-town bank.
It's part of his job as a writer, Ford says, to set the unexpected into motion.
"I have a theory," he tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Jacki Lyden, "...that someplace at the heart of most compelling stories is something that doesn't make sense."
Dell's parents wind up in jail, leaving him and his twin sister, Berner, to fend for themselves. Berner, the more audacious of the two, runs away to California while Dell is carted across the border to live with a murderous fugitive at a hunting outpost in Canada.
The dramatic turns of Dell Parsons' life are softened by Ford's attention for detail. Parsons' languishing desire to keep bees and master chess lie quietly beneath the harsh realities he faces.
Ford says he spent time in Great Falls, Mont., where the novel opens, and also Saskatchewan in order to better convey the richness of those landscapes to his readers.
"I want to give you a place to reside for a while since you've chosen to sort of leave what you're thinking and come do something with me. I want to make it worth your while," Ford says. "It seems to me that I can do that both pictorially by drawing descriptions which take you someplace, but those descriptions are also made up of what I hope is felicitously chose[n] language and that's a place to reside as well."
Born in Jackson, Miss., Ford was once known as a Southern writer, but now eschews the regional label.
"I haven't scoured Dixie out of my voice," Ford says. "But I don't think that the books that I have written...have really in any way been Southern in character."
Ford has taken readers to New Jersey and France, now on to the vast American prairie and the woods of Canada. Where will he travel next?
"I'd like to cruise on this [book] for a while," Ford says, "but I probably won't."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Power Grip Plus Planer Board Release
A line release is the critical link between the downrigger and the fishing rod. If it does not preform properly you will loose both valuable fishing time and fish. The fishing line is gripped between the soft pads with variable release tension attained by moving the line in or out of the jaws. The line release is attached to either the weight or the cable. Patented "tension adjuster" doubles the holding power.


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Novak Djokovic, the world's No. 1-ranked men's tennis player, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Serbian tennis star released a statement on his diagnosis, saying that he and his wife have both contracted the virus after he organized a series of exhibition matches in southeastern Europe.
The events, called the Adria Tour, have been widely criticized for not maintaining significant social distancing protocols.
The stands were packed with fans, as The Associated Press noted. Tennis.com reported that players were seen mingling without proper social distancing, playing in basketball and soccer games, and visiting a nightclub.
Djokovic was photographed in close contact with tennis player Grigor Dimitrov, who has also tested positive for the virus.
"We organized the tournament at the moment when the virus has weakened, believing that the conditions for hosting the Tour had been met," Djokovic said in his statement. "Unfortunately, the virus is still present, and it is a new reality that we are still learning to cope and live with."
Djokovic, 33, who has won the third-most Grand Slam titles of any male tennis player, has previously voiced concerns about the possibility of restrictions at future tennis events due to the coronavirus.
Earlier this month, he said that some players were "quite negative" about the U.S. Open being heldon its originally planned date without fans, as the AP reported.
He also said in April that another roadblock to him participating in future events could be that he is personally "opposed to vaccination," as Sky News reported at the time.
Djokovic recently held events in Serbia and Croatia. Serbia has seen more than 13,000 confirmed cases and more than 260 deaths due to the coronavirus, while Croatia has seen more than 2,000 confirmed cases and just over 100 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
"I am extremely sorry for each individual case of infection," Djokovic said. "I hope that it will not complicate anyone's heath situation and that everyone will be fine."
He added that he is not currently showing any symptoms.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Herb & Dab
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WARNING: Nicotine is highly addictive. - Health Canada
AVERTISSEMENT: La nicotine crée une forte dépendance. - Santé Canada
You must be at least the Age of Majority to buy and/or use this website.
Government-issued identification is required for delivery and pickup.
Products containing nicotine on this website may be hazardous and addictive.
All products sold by Inspired Vapor Company are intended for use by adult smokers only. Information and statements regarding these products have not been evaluated by Health Canada.
Please be responsible with e-liquid and vape devices. Keep them stored out of reach of children and pets—they can be harmful to them, even in small quantities!
Copyright © 2024 IVC.


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Thursday, August 31, 2006
ZDNet: Microsoft PR exec (UK) doesn't "get" blogging
And just yesterday, Robert pondered whether he was losing his blog power since leaving Microsoft.
(tags: blogging, Scoble, Robert Scoble, Microsoft)
digg story
Trace the rise and fall of baby names
See Abraham make a late century comeback, Watch Ethyl and Myrtle fade, see Shaniqua arrive and vanish with great speed. Lots of info in the FAQ on the data sets and the design choices. Whether you're on the way to naming a baby, or want to see a popularity curve for your own name and those you know, this is a wizard worth seeing.
One potentially confusing design choice is that the scale of the vertical axis changes for each name in order to allow the chart to fill the vertical space. At first glance, all names seem to be equally popular at their peak. The designers use color to denote which names are more popular--below, Michael in deep blue peaks at more than 21,000 per million, whereas Willard peaks at a bit more than 1,100 per million. At its lowest point (in the 1880s at 54th), Michael outranks Willard at its peak (in the 1910s at 83rd). So be careful to pay attention to the elastic scale as you peruse different names.
(tags: Names, Babies, Baby Names, Information Design, Design)
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Paris surges past our Long Tail Video
Maybe it's just the extra publicity kick from Steve Rubel's mention of it when he covered the debut of the new branded channel service from YouTube
(Tags: Paris Hilton, YouTube, Advertising, Steve Rubel, Rubel)
Thursday, August 17, 2006
CBS News to Simulcast Couric on Web and TV
It's Katie bar the door now as networks rush headlong to use IP delivery in hopes of meeting up with the audience who's abandoning TV for the PC.
Last time I watched the Network News, the preponderance of commercials for denture adhesive, pills for incontinence, etc. was a tipoff that their ratings with the young audience demos have fallen and they can't get up. Come to the Internet. It's where the young people hang.
Mickeleh's Take: Just because the kids are on PCs, doesn't necessarily mean that they're gonna click on the network news. Expect Katie and producers to do their best to liven up the joint with format and presentation changes. Maybe CBS needs to hire Amanda Congdon as a co-anchor.
(Ironically, Amanda today is giving the lie to my rant about young demos by highlighting a clip from YouTube featuring what may be the world's oldest vlogger.)
(tags: CBS, Katie Couric, broadband, TV,YouTube,Amanda Congdon,
Brouhaha about blogging (Nick vs. Mike)
Turns out that Nick hit a nerve. Mike Arrington jumped on it and asked if Nick was really Robin Hood or just an A**hole for implying that the whole game is about soliciting links from more popular bloggers, and concluding that Nick's championing of the little guys was just a well-crafted plea for links back to Nick.
And that kicked off a food fight. about the essence of blogging and the nature of the blogosphere. Is it high school? Feudalism? Self-expression? or Conversation. (More homework: read the comments to both Nick's and Mike's posts.)
Who's zoomin' whom here? Is this a real controversy or some elaborately staged pro-wrestling contest? Is this a real battle for the soul of the blogosphere or a cry for attention? Scott Karp gets to the heart of why (some) people blog, Blogging Is the New Novel/Screenplay Writing. Scott also reminds us that rejection has been the fate of the vast majority of all people who write for fame and money long before blogging reared its Hydra heads. (and tails.)
Why do so many bloggers have to graduate from the Monty Python Argument Clinic before posting?
Just remember that, anatomically speaking, the asshole is still way ahead of the long tail. If that's where Nick sits, he's doin' pretty well. There are plenty of much lonelier slots out toward the end of the tail.
That Mike responded with such vehemence–and that so many are blogging about this–suggests that Nick must have hit a nerve. Just sayin'.
The best tech marketers wrap their wares inside a messianic change-the-world ideology. It's always some variant freedom, fulfilment, self-expression–the very top of the Maslow pyramid.
Bloggers are no different. The official ideology of blogging is all Woodstock Nation, Global Village, new media vs. old, Let every voice be heard. Yeah, yeah.
But bloggers are people, too. They're also ruled by other classic motivators. Lusts for power, affiliation, admiration—are lurking in there too.
The blogosphere, by virtue of its exponential growth can't help but be a pyramid scheme. It has to be harder for the late-comers. (Unless, of course, their hearts are pure. And then, like Sir Galahad, Tom Hanks, and Indiana Jones, they'll find the Grail.)
But has there ever been a pyramid built with more chutes and ladders? So many ways to find an audience--if it's an audience you seek. This is as fluid as it gets in human interaction. which makes it easier for newcomers.
For whatever reason, many bloggers find loneliness, frustration, and disappointment. Rather than dismiss them as unworthy, Nick gave them an eloquent voice. So, I paid him with the coin of the realm and linked to him.
Mike asked whether Nick is an a**hole. For that I posted a comment to his site, but offer no link. He doesn't need one.
From each according to his abilities. To each according to his needs.
Mickeleh's Take: It's all good. Blog if you will for whatever reasons move you and whatever reward you seek. If the reward is slow coming, take courage from Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. (Firesign Theatre).(Tags: Nick Carr, blog, blogger, blogging, Mike Arrington)
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Fake Steve Still Funny (if not funnier)
(Tags: Nick Carr, blog, blogger, blogging, Fake Steve)
Om is covering the Comcast story
How old fashioned! Still, I wonder the wisdom of this move, especially since the company is fighting the triple play battle with politically more savvy phone companies. Shouldn't that be the focus? I think this is yet another example of "google envy."Mickeleh's Take: Om is right. Comcast will never topple Yahoo! But they don't have to. Take the long tail view of things. There's money to be made farther down the tail. Comcast may also be betting on the end of net neutrality to give them a performance advantage or a new revenue stream. The cable pipe is still the place where TV networks want to be and that gives Comcast huge leverage for content deals.
With the exception of Yahoo, the portal plays made by all comers have been cash guzzlers. Google for all its reach, or Microsoft for all its might and AOL - all are still a distant second compared to Yahoo, the one true portal.
(Tags: Comcast, broadband, portal, advertising, Om, GigaOM)
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
AdAge: Comcast's ambitious online goals
We've seen the first moves of the program owners are using iTunes, Google video, and their own sitesto route around the walled gardens of the multi-channel providers (e.g. Comcast, DirecTV, Verizon).
We've seen News Corp announce plans to use MySpace as an on demand video store.
Now comes word of broad initiative by Comcast to route around these burgeoning Web aggregators and maximize online video viewing through its own online video walled garden. AdAge has the scoop. Comcast has a lot of pieces already in place
- Audience: they are the country's largest broadband internet provider--and 70% of their customers use the Comcast online portal.
- Content: based on their cable video carriage deals, they have both relationships and leverage to bring high-valued content to the Web
- Infrastructure: By acquiring The Platform earlier this year they have technology for aggregating, managing, and distributing video content in multiple formats
(Tags: Comcast, broadband, portal, advertising)
Verizon's multi-room DVR stirs the pot, but has some big gotchas
On the plus side: the main room gets a two-tuner high-definition DVR with the ability to stream SD recorded content to two additional rooms simultaneously. The other rooms use a standard IPTV set top box. In addition, PC-based music and photos can be streamed to any of the TVs on the system. Verizon will use the advanced capabilities of this system as a competitive advantage to tempt cable customers over to its IPTV offerings. As Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff says, "For the first time, this means that Verizon can compete with cable on features, not just on price." It's not, however, a sustainable advantage. Motorola, who supplies this technology to Verizon is eager to arm the cable industry with identical capabilities.
On the gotcha side: The main unit is HDTV-capable. The client units are not. This means that anything that's recorded on the DVR in high definition can't be streamed out to the other rooms. If you don't have HDTV yet, no problem. But if you do, the system is not as useful as you'd hope. Once people invest in an HDTV display, they vastly prefer HD content over SD.
The Verizon system will force customers to compromise. Do I record the SD version, so I can share it, or the HD version so I can enjoy my delicious new display? The other big gotcha for customers is that the client units don't let you pause, replay, or rewind live TV. DVR users love that function. Will they be happy not to get it at all TVs in what is billed as a multi-room DVR?
We are inevitably marching forward toward a home and portable media vision that was first presented to us in Star Trek TNG. Big screens, hand-helds, desk-tops, (and, of course, the totally immersive holodeck). But we're marching slowly. And nobody has yet delivered an uncompromised whole-home entertainment system.
Mickeleh's Take: Too many gotchas and compromises for a hit product, but it's going to open the category a little wider. Any success will prompt cable and satellite providers to match the Verizon product. TiVo's uphill battle against embedded DVRs gets steeper. There's still room for somebody to get this right. Apple? Moxi?
Disclaimer: I used to work for Digeo, who makes the Moxi multi-room DVR. Moxi has the ability to down-convert HD content so that it can be viewed in another room on an SD set. It also has full trick-mode on live TV in both sets.
(Tags: Verizon, Fios, DVR, Home Media DVR, multi-room DVR, multiroom DVR, IPTV, Cable TV, home networking, Moxi)
Monday, August 14, 2006
Fox TV to sell on demand content on MySpace
According to the Financial Times, MySpace (and other sites) are going to sell movies and TV shows on demand from Fox. The deal for customers is reminiscent of what Apple worked out for music and video on the iTunes store: Download to own, transferrable to portable devices, priced at $19.99 for a movie, $1.99 for a TV show.
Mickeleh's take:
- In general: This is part of an accelerating trend by corporations who control the rights to programs that people want to watch to route around the limits -- and negotiating clout-- of cable TV and satellite distribution. (see Shelly Palmer's Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV for the best 50,000 foot overview)
- Specifically: Don't be surprised that News Corp (parent of Fox, MySpace, and DirecTV) is by-passing DirecTV in this. The lack of a robust VOD capability is a big competitive disadvantage for satellite vs. cable. Here's one way to route around that. Combine these deals with DirecTV's active bidding for wireless spectrum, and a coherent and powerful strategy begins to emerge.
- As the big guys develop increasing presence in internet distribution, it's going to force video podcasts, vlogs, and user-generated content farther and farther down the long tail. (good thing there's plenty of room down there.)
(Tags: News Corp, MySpace, VOD, on demand Cable TV, TechCrunch, DirecTV)
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Shelly Palmer's take on Sony Mylo
Here's the Sony press release. Slated for September launch at $350.
Mickeleh's take: Bye-bye Zune.
Best first peek comes from Gizmodo in this video posted to YouTube"
Gizmodo demo of Sony Mylo
(Tags: Mylo, Zune, Gizmodo)
Saturday, August 12, 2006
The Soapbox is Active now
Nick Carr wonders how big Wikipedia can get
Search on anything in Google these days, and a prominent result is likely to be a Wikipedia article. Carr looks at this trend and wonders whether we'll reach a point where people go directly to Wikipedia first. Is Wikipedia a threat to Google?
A typical Widipedia entry has numerous outside links. How often are they followed?
(tags: wikipedia, Long Tail, Nick Carr)
read more | digg story
Friday, August 11, 2006
Kit for using Nike + sensor with any shoe
Soon it's whatever shoes you want plus Nike plus iPod. Dr. Bott has announced a $10 bit of velcro and neoprene that neatly attaches a Nike+ sensor to any running shoe you favor. (provided it has laces... and most do.) "Available for pre-order." (An odd phrase. Pre-order is what? before you order? It's not available before you order. Quite the opposite. You order it today and they send it to you some time in the future when they start making them. Shouldn't that be called not available yet?)
BTW... I blogged about the Nike plus a while back when I got it. Still use it. Still love it. And I'm ten pounds lighter.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Andy Inhatko: More on Apple's non-announcements
It hasn't gotten a whole lot better. My computer still doesn't know whether I'm around until I tap the keyboard or jiggle the mouse.
Actually, it got a little better in 2003, with Jonas Salling's Clicker. While the main purpose or the clicker was to allow you to use a bluetooth cell phone as a remote control for Mac apps, one cool feature is that as you walked your cell phone out of range, iTunes would pause and then resume playing when you came back.
Hmmm. Take that further. What if you had a pocket device from Apple that used Bluetooth to signal your presence? (say, maybe one of those long-rumored new Apple toys like, maybe a phone, or next gen iPod or ???) What kinds of interractions might be baked in to the new OS?
Andy Inhatko in InfoWorld, speculates on some of the possibilities.
BBC: 16-24 yr. olds drive "radical media shift"
File this with stuff we all knew, but it's nice to have someone go out and measure it from time o time so we can put impressive charts ino pitches.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Nike plus iPod = Wow! Levis plus iPod = Oy!
On the other hand, Engadget reveals how badly another iconic American brand has stumbled in an attempt to embrace the iPod phenom. It's been a long time since Levi's was really cool. The iPod pants ain't gonna help get it back there.
The last cool thing that Levi's did was have Spike Jonze direct their TV ads ten years ago. (Agency: Foote Cone & Belding, S.F. GCD/CW: Chuck McBride)
Levi's commercial by Spike Jonze
BTW... To bring this post full circle: Jonze and McBride also teamed for the amazing "Morning After" Y2K apocalypse spot for Nike. (Wieden + Kennedy was the agency)
(tags: iPod, Nike, Spike Jonze, Chuck McBride)
HuffPo: How to hack a Diebold voting machine
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Apple's OS announcements (and non announcements)
I'll give you Mickeleh's Take on the OS announcements below, but if you want your keynote relatively unfiltered, Ryan Block at Engadget did a fine job posting a richly illustrated report from the Steve Jobs keynote. It's nearly a verbatim transcipt with lots of photos of the of the slides. (Steve always has the world's best slides.) Apple has a streaming QuickTime of the session--but they don't have enough server capacity to meet current demand. So far, I haven't been able to get it to run.
The new HW configs are strong, up to two 3G dual core Intel blah blah blahs. etc. With this announcement, Apple completes it's transition to Intel processors. I expect that a lot of high-end customers have been deferring purchases, waiting for these babies. They will sell almost as fast as they run. (The enclosures look very much like the G5s overall, but they've had major redesign to increase expandability: more ports in front, more drives inside. Actually, they've gone forward to the past: restoring the previous G4 ability to house four internal hard drives and two optical drives.) Plus new Xserve, and lower prices for displays.
The bulk of the keynote was a preview of the next major release of Mac OS X, named for (get ready) a big cat. This time, it's Leopard. (Are they running low on big cat names? Within the Panthera genus, the only one left is Lion. But some of the small cats like are pretty big, like Lynx, and Puma, so we can probably get through the decade before Apple is forced to bid for the Mr. Bigglesworth brand.)
A few bits stand out.
Time Machine looks like Apple finally has done back-up for the rest of us. It is not only painless backup, but it's an infinite undelete. So if you've ever mistakenly thrown away valuable files, or want to revert to some previous version of a file, it's all there. Best visual and motion metaphors for time travel since Irwin Allen's Time Tunnel. (Yes, Microsoft has "previous versions" in Vista. But it's done in Windows style. Feh.)
Mail IMHO is a bunch of tarty features in search of a purpose.
iChat takes video-chat over a new threshold. The videophone has existed in fantasy and science fiction for more than a century, and in technology marketing since 1964. In reality, not so much. Two people staring at each other while they talk--turns out to be much less useful than a telephone. On the phone, we all have Harry Potter's invisibiliy cloak and we love it. (fess up--if only to yourself--what are you actually doing when you talk on the phone?) But now... with desksharing features, photo and presentation features, video-chat becomes more than a telephone, not less. (There's even a version of a feature that was first demo'd in Mad Magazine back in the fifties: phoney picture-phone backdrops.) Now it gets interesting.
Core Animation may be the most dangerous of all the previewed features. It simplifies the process of developing rich, layered animation effects within the Mac environment. Apple used it to support the motion design for Spaces and Time Machine. And now, they're putting this power in the hands of people who may not have quite the same level of design sensibility. Anyone remember Font Abuse?
Spaces is already being tagged as a copy of virtual desktop (versions are built into Windows, Unix, and available for Mac OS X from CodeTek Studios, who can't be too happy to see Spaces.) We'll see. It's all in the details of how it's implemented. Lots of folks who were skeptical about Exposé became fans once they began using it. Good bet that Apple has done this well.
iCal gets slick, rich collaboration features—and interoperability with CalDAV standards (whatever they are), but no mention of interoperability with Exchange.
Jobs announced that he was holding back some of the top secret goodies. Most obvious for its absence was an updated Front Row U-I for ten-foot navigation of media files. Most observers expect Apple to make some very aggressive moves into the portable and home media spaces over the coming year. Although Valleywag got all Valleywaggish over the particulars, Scoble was undoubtedly correct to say that the folks at Apple, "are readying a dizzying amount of new products."
Developers attending WWDC are warned not to blog about any details beyond the keynote.
(Tags: Apple, Mac, WWDC, Jobs)
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Apple's Cheeky Tweaky Banners Zing Vista
On one end:
Mac OS Leopard: Introducing Vista 2.0And on the other end:
Hasta La Vista, Vista(tags: Apple, Vista, Mac, WWDC)
Friday, August 04, 2006
Merc Opposes DOPA (Delete Online Predators Act)
DOPA is yet another bill with a fine Orwellian name like the "Patriot Act." DOPA stands for "Delete Online Predators Act." How can you possibly oppose that? Are you in favor of online preditors? Do you want to put our children at risk? The unassailable name, however, conceals much mischief.
Turns out this bill claims to target predators, but in reality targets technologies that may be used by predators. You know, the way robbers use guns. DOPA would requires schools and libraries to block all websites with social interactions. This from the folks who love to say "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." How many of the sponsors of internet technology restrictions are ready to sign up for tight gun controls if we name the bill SARA (Stop Armed Robbery Act). Well, we know how busy Congress is--they're all up for re-election this year. Maybe they didn't read past the title page of the bill.
House passage of the bill was scarcely covered at all in the mainstream press. You can read more in this post at TechCrunch.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
A question for Long Tail's Chris Anderson
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
How do you like them Apples?
By the way, if you're nostalgic for the old Macs, here's a simulation in Flash of a Mac SE, running System 7. It even includes working applications (MacWrite, MacDraw, Netscape 3, etc.)
Newsvine: Colbert blocked from Wikipedia
If enough people believe something is true, it is true--just like on Wikipedia.By way of compensation, comes a new Colbert-centered wiki, www.wikiality.com.
The news is covered on Newsvine.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Classic trailer for forgotten film: Skidoo
OK, cultural disruption fans, let's take you back to 1968. Then, as now, the Hollywood establishment tried to embrace the new. Back then, we had drugs, we had hippies, we had a sexual revolution. One response was this Otto Preminger movie, surely one of the worst of all times. Another response was electing Nixon president.
Disruption is dangerous. Unexpected consequences abound. Turn the world upside down, and who knows what kind of lint will fall out of its pockets. (Thanks to Woid for the tip.)
Halliwell's Film Guide says of Skidoo:
Abysmal mishmash with top talent abused; clearly intended as satirical farce, but in fact one of the most woebegone movies ever made.Other reviews: Canby in the Times: "for people whose minds need pressing with a heavy, flat object."
Roger Ebert, "the whole dead weight sits there."
The cast is an amazing melange: Groucho, Mickey Rooney, Frankie Avalon, Carol Channing, Fred Clark and many more, including three Batman villains: Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, and Burgess Meredith.
More on Skidoo (with a link to a Torrent download)


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The other day I was talking with a friend (yes, I have friends) about the way communication of ideas has changed. The Internet is the obvious advance, but what used to happen when an important new idea needed to be disseminated? As an example of how things used to be, I told him the story of Bohr's famous train trip.
In 1925, two students at the University of Leiden, Sem Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck, realized that the fourth electron quantum number could be explained if the electron had spin. This was a radical idea (a point particle spinning?), and coming from students was doubly suspect. Physicists throughout Europe were excited yet skeptical. When Bohr was planning a trip from Cophenhagen to Leiden for a conference, it seemed an excellent opportunity to talk to the students to help understand if they were right.
In his book, Inward Bound, Abraham Païs narrates the story as told to him by Bohr twenty years later:
Bohr's train to Leiden made a stop in Hamburg, where he was met by Pauli and Stern who had come to the station to ask him what he thought about spin. Bohr must have said that it was very very interesting (his favorite way of expressing that something was wrong), but he could not see how an electron moving in the electric field of the nucleus could experience the magnetic field necessary for producing fine structure. (As Uhlenbeck said later: 'I must say in retrospect that Sem and I in our euphoria had not really appreciated [this] basic difficulty.') On his arrival in Leiden, Bohr was met at the train by Ehrenfest and Einstein who asked him what he thought about spin. Bohr must have said that it was very very interesting but what about the magnetic field? Ehrenfest replied that Einstein had resolved that. The electron in its rest frame sees a rotating electric field; hence by elementary relativity it also sees a magnetic field. The net result is an effective spin-orbit coupling. Bohr was at once convinced. When told of the factor of two he expressed confidence that this problem would find a natural resolution. He urged Sem and George to write a more detailed note on their work. They did; Bohr added an approving comment.
After Leiden Bohr traveled to Goettingen. There he was met at the station by Heisenberg and Jordan who asked what he thought about spin. Bohr replied that it was a great advance and explained about the spin-orbit coupling. Heisenberg remarked that he had heard this remark before but that he could not remember who made it and when. ... On his way home the train stopped at Berlin where Bohr was met at the station by Pauli, who had made the trip from Hamburg for the sole purpose of asking Bohr what he now thought about spin. Bohr said it was a great advance, to which Pauli replied: 'eine Neue Kopenhagener Irrlehre' (a new Copenhagen heresy). After his return home Bohr wrote to Ehrenfest that he had become 'a prophet of the electron magnet gospel.'
Sneakernet indeed, or perhaps Eisenbahnnet. The idea of the great physicist carrying precious nuggets of wisdom across Europe is romantic and poignant. It also shows how Bohr's insight, and the insight of his brilliant colleagues, did the peer review in real time in two train trips. Bohr, Pauli, Stern, Ehrenfest, Einstein, Heisenberg, Jordan, Pauli: What a peer review it was!
It is one of the greatest oversights of the Nobel committee that Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck were never rewarded. Their colleagues certainly understood the earth-shaking merit of their insight.


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First of all, I apologize for my Englsih and will try to be as clear as possible!
I'm currently having a problem with a Dropdown Check List.
I have, on the left of the search results, a Dropdown Check List which manages the different categories (38) displayed. When selected, a category appears in plain text in a field. When the user selects all 38 categories, they appear in plain text but in line and separated with a comma which makes it unclear and very hard to read.
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Do you have any solutions?


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Everything Looks Like a Nail When You Have A Hammer
Kevin Drum quotes Hugo Dixon on the Greek recovery:
Greece is undergoing an astonishing financial rebound. Two years ago, the country looked like it was set for a messy default and exit from the euro. Now it is on the verge of returning to the bond market with the issue of 2 billion euros of five-year paper.
There are still political risks, and the real economy is only now starting to turn. But the financial recovery is impressive. The 10-year bond yield, which hit 30 percent after the debt restructuring of two years ago, is now 6.2 percent....The changed mood in the markets is mainly down to external factors: the European Central Bank's promise to "do whatever it takes" to save the euro two years ago; and the more recent end of investors' love affair with emerging markets, meaning the liquidity sloshing around the global economy has been hunting for bargains in other places such as Greece.
That said, the centre-right government of Antonis Samaras has surprised observers at home and abroad by its ability to continue with the fiscal and structural reforms started by his predecessors. The most important successes have been reform of the labour market, which has restored Greece's competiveness, and the achievement last year of a "primary" budgetary surplus before interest payments.
Color me suspicious. Both the media and investors fall for this kind of thing all the time -- the dead cat bounce masquerading as a structural improvement. I hope like hell Greece has gotten its act together, but I would not bet my own money on it.
Anyway, that is a bit beside the point. I found Drum's conclusion from all this odd:
If this keeps up—and that's still a big if—it also might be a lesson in the virtue of kicking the can down the road. Back in 2012, lots of commenters, including me, believed that the eurozone had deep structural problems that couldn't be solved by running fire drills every six months or so and then hoping against hope that things would get better. But maybe they will! This probably still wasn't the best way of forging a recovery of the eurozone, but so far, it seems to have worked at least a little better than the pessimists imagined. Maybe sometimes kicking the can is a good idea after all.
For those that are not frequent readers of his, I need to tell you that one of the themes he has been pounding on of late is that the US should not be worried about either its debt levels or inflation -- attempting to rebut the most obvious critiques of his strong support for more deficit spending and monetary stimulus.
I would have thought the obvious moral of this story was that austerity and dismantling all sorts of progressive labor market claptrap led to a recovery far faster than expected**. But since Drum opposes all those steps, his conclusion seems to be simply a return to his frequent theme that debt is A-OK and we shouldn't be worried about addressing it any time soon.
** I don't believe for a moment that Greece has really changed the worst of its structural labor market, regulatory, and taxation issues. This story gets written all the time about countries like, say, Argentina. Sustained incompetence is not really newsworthy, which is likely one reason we get so few African stories. They would all be like "Nigeria still a mess." A false recovery story gives the media two story cycles, one for the false recovery and one for the inevitable sinking back into the pit.


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Plastic or not, it is illegal under nationally unified gun laws to make a gun without a license.
By Richard Matthews,
Image Attribute: A solid, non-working Colt 1911 static model by TaylarRoids is printed on a household printer; is this a digital blueprint? Richard Matthews, Author provided via Conversations
3D printed guns are back in the news after Queensland set a legal precedent for giving Kyle Wirth a six-month suspended sentence for fabricating a number of gun parts.
As presiding Judge Katherine McGuinness acknowledged, Wirth didn't produce an entire gun – it took police to add a few key parts in order for the gun to successfully fire a bullet – but he was "trying to make a gun".
As such, she said "there is a real need to deter and protect the public from such offending".
But if it's illegal to build a gun via conventional means without a license, what's the concern over making guns using 3D printers in particular?
And for those who are either researching the capabilities of 3D printers – a form of additive manufacturing – or using them at home or in their business, it's important to understand the legal boundaries under which they can be used.
3D printed firearms in Australia
3D printed guns currently occupy a gray area in terms of their legality in many jurisdictions around Australia. For example, the South Australian Police released a guide outlining which kinds of imitation firearms are considered legal.
The distinction between a "regulated imitation firearm" and a children's toy is significant, as a South Australian man discovered in 2015. He was charged with a firearms offense after police found a toy gun in a box along with a single shotgun shell.
The judge acquitted him because the gun was clearly a child's cap gun and could not be modified to fire the shell.
However, according to the South Australian Police's guide, the "gun" pictured at the top of this article, although non-functional, is technically neither a "molded imitation firearm" nor is it an "imitation firearm carved from timber, plastic or other material". This means it's unclear how it would be regarded by police or the courts.
New South Wales takes a different approach on the issue. The Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 made it illegal to possess digital files that can be used to manufacture firearms on "3D printers or electronic milling machines".
The act was amended "to create a new offense of possessing digital blueprints", although the definition of a "digital blueprint" is a little ambiguous. As defined, it captures "any type of digital (or electronic) reproduction of a technical drawing of the design of an object". As written, this could even mean a photograph of a technical drawing. But technical drawing files are not always needed for 3D printing.
In 3D printing, drawing files are used to create GCode, a computer control language used to guide the print head and the amount of plastic to extrude. Is GCode a digital reproduction? Even if it is, it does not stop someone 3D printing gun parts in another jurisdiction in Australia or overseas where they're not illegal and then posting it back to NSW.
It was this fear that drove the Queensland Palmer United Party to introduce a bill in 2014 to make 3D printing of firearms illegal. It was rejected by the parliamentary committee and never reintroduced.
When Labor took power in Queensland following the 2015 election, it defended the move and released a statement stating that "Queensland already has legislation dealing with the unlawful manufacture of weapons that carries with it some of the harshest penalties in Australia".
Hence Kyle Wirth was charged in 2015 with manufacturing offensive weapons, including a plastic knuckle duster. He was not charged under any legislation that prevented him from 3D printing parts, as the PUP bill would have outlawed.
Plastic or not, it is illegal under nationally unified gun laws to make a gun without a license. If this is the case, why did NSW feel the need to ban digital blueprints? The answer could come from the future prospects of 3D printing.
Image Attribute: The parts Wirth printed and stored in bags. Supplied: Queensland Police Service
Towards the future
In the next 20 years we will be able to print drugs, metals, and substances at an atomic level – possibly all at home.
Regulation of these things is currently predicated on the idea that producing them typically required expertise and specialized equipment. But that may no be the case for long.
This will mean we need a new unified approach to legislation that specifically speaks to the capabilities of 3D printers and the distribution of the files they use.
New South Wales is the only state that has started outlawing the digital blueprints needed for the additive manufacturing of illegal objects. This is a step in the right direction.
However, we need a classification of digital blueprints. Australian Classification is already responsible for passing judgment on a wide array of media. In the future, we will likely see such an agency extended to cover digital blueprints available or for sale to the public.
About the Author:
Richard Matthews, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Adelaide
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


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Coordinates: 47°N 29°E / 47°N 29°E / 47; 29
Moldova (i/mɒlˈdoʊvə, mɔːl-/ or sometimes UK /ˈmɒldəvə/. Romanian: [molˈdova]), officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova, listen ), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The capital city is Chișinău.
Moldova declared independence on August 27, 1991 as part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The current Constitution of Moldova was adopted in 1994. A strip of Moldovan territory on the east bank of the river Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.
Due to a decrease in industrial and agricultural output following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the service sector has grown to dominate Moldova's economy and currently composes over 60% of the nation's GDP. However, Moldova remains the poorest country in Europe.
Moldova is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. It is a member state of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and aspires to join the European Union.
Moldova was a semimonthly newspaper published in Bârlad, Romania.
Though presented as being independent, the paper was published under the patronage of the "Academia Bârlădeană". The first issue of the newspaper hit the stands on January 2, 1931 and it appeared regularly until December 26, 1931. The following year, No.1-2 was published on March 1, 1932, and No.3 (the newspapers' last) on June 15, 1932.
The editor in chief of the newspaper George Nedelea and its main supporter was George Tutoveanu, at that time prefect of Tutova County. The main concern of the newspaper was the literary activity in the city of Bârlad. Besides George Tutoveanu, its main contributors were G. G. Ursu, Teodor Vlad, George Damaschin, Zoe G. Frasin, Ştefan Cosma, C.V. Slobozeanu, George Pallady, Emil Tudor, Nicolae Costăchescu and Cicerone Mucenic. Political articles were signed, among others by Ion Palodă (Isac Veinfeld), Mihai Lupescu, Marieta Creangă, and Ioan Antoniu.
Moldavia (Romanian: Moldova) is a geographical region situated in north-east of Romania. Also is called Western Moldavia or Romanian Moldavia. As a historical region, and former principality until its union with Wallachia in 1859, Moldavia included at various times in its history the regions of Bessarabia (with the Budjak) and the entire Bukovina; the larger part of the former is nowadays the independent state of Moldova, while the rest of it and the larger, northern part of Bukovina form parts of Ukraine.
The Romanian region itself consists of eight (or seven, sometimes Suceava County - most of it in southern Bukovina - is not included) counties, spanning over 46,173 km2 (17,827 sq mi) (19.5% of Romania's territory). Its total population is 4,011,640 (20% of Romania's population). Most of Moldavia (6 out of 8 counties) is part of the Nord-Est development region, while the two southern counties (Galaţi and Vrancea) are in the Sud-Est development region.


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Certified Fresh On Rotten Tomatoes!
"BOSTON" is the first feature-length documentary film about the world's most legendary running race – the Boston Marathon. The film chronicles the story of the iconic race from its humble origins 120 years ago, starting with only 15 runners, to the present day. The Boston Athletic Association granted exclusive documentary rights to BOSTON producers as well as use of the Association's extensive archive of video, photos and memorabilia. The film showcases many of the most important moments in the history of the oldest annually contested marathon in the world. Evolving from a working man's challenge to welcoming foreign athletes and, eventually, women, Boston is the stage for many firsts paving the way for the modern marathon and mass participatory sports.
BOSTON immerses the viewer into the world of the marathon – the only sport in which an everyday athlete can participate alongside the best in the world – to experience the preparation, competition and camaraderie of the runners and the loyal dedication and support of the spectators. Recounting the history of Boston champions such as Johnny Kelley – who ran the marathon through eight decades; and Stylianos Kyriakides – who won in 1946 to raise money for food, supplies and other relief for his home nation, Greece; and following modern athletes such as Olympic medalist Shalane Flanagan, BOSTON connects the history of the marathon and its runners with the 2014 race in an inspiring telling of heroism, friendship, dedication, and bravery.
Following the tragic events of 2013, BOSTON records the preparations and eventual running of the 118th Boston Marathon one year later when runners and the community gather once again in support of one another for what would be the most meaningful race of all. Runners and spectators join together, "Boston Strong," to overcome the fear of the terrible, exhibiting the best of the human spirit. Accompanied by Jeff Beal's original score and narrated by Boston native Matt Damon, BOSTON imparts an emotional journey into the wondrous kaleidoscope of the marathon, a microcosm of the ability of humans of all ages, genders and races to be unified by a single event.


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The events of the past seven years have yielded a definitive judgment on the strategy that the Bush administration conceived in the wake of 9/11 to wage its so-called Global War on Terror. That strategy has failed, massively and irrevocably. To acknowledge that failure is to confront an urgent national priority: to scrap the Bush approach in favour of a new national security strategy that is realistic and sustainable - a task that, alas, neither of the presidential candidates seems able to recognize or willing to take up. On 30 September 2001, President Bush received from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a memorandum outlining US objectives in the War on Terror. Drafted by Rumsfeld's chief strategist Douglas Feith, the memo declared expansively: "If the war does not significantly change the world's political map, the US will not achieve its aim." That aim, as Feith explained in a subsequent missive to his boss, was to "transform the Middle East and the broader world of Islam generally." Rumsfeld and Feith were co-religionists: Along with other senior Bush administration officials, they worshipped in the Church of the Indispensable Nation, a small but intensely devout Washington-based sect formed in the immediate wake of the Cold War. Members of this church shared an exalted appreciation for the efficacy of American power, especially hard power. The strategy of transformation emerged as a direct expression of their faith. The members of this church were also united by an equally exalted estimation of their own abilities. Lucky the nation to be blessed with such savvy and sophisticated public servants in its hour of need! The goal of transforming the Islamic world was nothing if not bold. It implied far-reaching political, economic, social, and even cultural adjustments. At a press conference on 18 September 2001, Rumsfeld spoke bluntly of the need to "change the way that they live." Rumsfeld didn't specify who "they" were. He didn't have to. His listeners understood without being told: "They" were Muslims inhabiting a vast arc of territory that stretched from Morocco in the west all the way to the Moro territories of the Southern Philippines in the east. Yet boldly conceived action, if successfully executed, offered the prospect of solving a host of problems. Once pacified (or "liberated"), the Middle East would cease to breed or harbour anti-American terrorists. Post-9/11 fears about weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of evil-doers could abate. Local regimes, notorious for being venal, oppressive, and inept, might finally get serious about cleaning up their acts. Liberal values, including rights for women, would flourish. A part of the world perpetually dogged by violence would enjoy a measure of stability, with stability promising not so incidentally to facilitate exploitation of the region's oil reserves. There was even the possibility of enhancing the security of Israel. Like a powerful antibiotic, the Bush administration's strategy of transformation promised to clean out not simply a single infection but several; or to switch metaphors, a strategy of transformation meant running the table. When it came to implementation, the imperative of the moment was to think big. Just days after 9/11, Rumsfeld was charging his subordinates to devise a plan of action that had "three, four, five moves behind it." By December 2001, the Pentagon had persuaded itself that the first move - into Afghanistan - had met success. The Bush administration wasted little time in pocketing its ostensible victory. Attention quickly shifted to the second move, seen by insiders as holding the key to ultimate success: Iraq. Fix Iraq and moves three, four, and five promised to come easily. Writing in the Weekly Standard, William Kristol and Robert Kagan got it exactly right: "The president's vision will, in the coming months, either be launched successfully in Iraq, or it will die in Iraq." The point cannot be emphasized too strongly: Saddam Hussein's (nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction and his (imaginary) ties to Al Qaeda never constituted the real reason for invading Iraq - any more than the imperative of defending Russian "peacekeepers" in South Ossetia explains the Kremlin's decision to invade Georgia. Iraq merely offered a convenient place from which to launch a much larger and infinitely more ambitious project. "After Hussein is removed," enthused Hudson Institute analyst Max Singer, "there will be an earthquake through the region." Success in Iraq promised to endow the United States with hitherto unprecedented leverage. Once the United States had made an example of Saddam Hussein, as the influential neo-conservative Richard Perle put it, dealing with other ne'er-do-wells would become simple: "We could deliver a short message, a two-word message: 'You're next.'" Faced with the prospect of sharing Saddam's fate, Syrians, Iranians, Sudanese, and other recalcitrant regimes would see submission as the wiser course - so Perle and others believed. Members of the administration tried to imbue this strategic vision with a softer ideological gloss. "For 60 years," Condoleezza Rice explained to a group of students in Cairo, "my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East - and we achieved neither." No more. "Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people." The world's Muslims needed to know that the motives behind the US incursion into Iraq and its actions elsewhere in the region were (or had, at least, suddenly become) entirely benign. Who knows? Rice may even have believed the words she spoke. In either case - whether the strategy of transformation aimed at dominion or democratization - today, seven years after it was conceived, we can assess exactly what it has produced. The answer is clear: next to nothing, apart from squandering vast resources and exacerbating the slide toward debt and dependency that poses a greater strategic threat to the United States than Osama bin Laden ever did. In point of fact, hardly had the Pentagon commenced its second move, its invasion of Iraq, when the entire strategy began to unravel. In Iraq, President Bush's vision of regional transformation did die, much as Kagan and Kristol had feared. No amount of CPR credited to the so-called surge will revive it. Even if tomorrow Iraq were to achieve stability and become a responsible member of the international community, no sensible person could suggest that Operation Iraqi Freedom provides a model to apply elsewhere. Senator John McCain says that he'll keep US combat troops in Iraq for as long as it takes. Yet even he does not propose "solving" any problems posed by Syria or Iran (much less Pakistan) by employing the methods that the Bush administration used to "solve" the problem posed by Iraq. The Bush Doctrine of preventive war may remain nominally on the books. But, as a practical matter, it is defunct. The United States will not change the world's political map in the ways top administration officials once dreamed of. There will be no earthquake that shakes up the Middle East - unless the growing clout of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas in recent years qualifies as that earthquake. Given the Pentagon's existing commitments, there will be no threats of "you're next" either - at least none that will worry our adversaries, as the Russians have neatly demonstrated. Nor will there be a wave of democratic reform - even Rice has ceased her prattling on that score. Islam will remain stubbornly resistant to change, except on terms of its own choosing. We will not change the way "they" live. In a book that he co-authored during the run-up to the invasion, Kristol confidently declared, "The mission begins in Baghdad, but it does not end there." In fact, the Bush administration's strategy of transformation has ended. It has failed miserably. The sooner we face up to that failure, the sooner we can get about repairing the damage. Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University and author of the bestselling "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism." Courtesy TomDispatch.com
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PayvandNews – A combination of circumstances has increased the risk that armed conflict will break out between the United States and Iran. Such a war is no certainty, but the chance that one will occur is greater today than it has been in years. Some of the relevant circumstances, such as the first two mentioned below, have been around in some form for a substantial amount of time, while others are more recent.
By Paul Pillar (source: LobeLog)
Anti-Iranism in American discourse
The vocabulary has become so repetitive and widely used that it rolls off tongues automatically: Iran is a "theocratic autocracy" and the "largest state sponsor of terrorism" that engages in "nefarious," "malign," and "destabilizing" behavior as part of its "drive for regional hegemony," etc. The verbiage has become a substitute for thought and for any careful examination of exactly what Iran is and is not doing and how it does and does not affect U.S. interests. Such a commonly accepted mantra means that anyone making a focused attempt to stir up trouble with Iran starts with a built-in advantage in mustering public and political support.
The lobby pushing hostility against Iran
There indeed have been, and still are, focused attempts to stir up trouble. Politically potent interests have their own narrow reasons to keep U.S.-Iranian relations bad and to keep Iran isolated. Foremost among those interests is the right-wing government of Israel, for which Iran as chief bete noire serves to cripple a competitor for regional influence, to explain all regional trouble in terms that do not relate to Israel, to distract attention from matters (especially the occupation of Palestinian territory) the Israeli government would rather not discuss, and to keep the United States wedded to Israel as supposedly its only reliable regional partner.
Given the obvious impact of the Israeli government's preferences on American politics, this factor weighs greatly on the current administration's policies toward Iran. Donald Trump has tilted heavily to those Israeli preferences, as reflected in his appointments and in his rhetoric since midway through the presidential campaign. Trump still aspires to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, which would require sharp breaks with the Netanyahu government's current course. But that might make aggressiveness and confrontation with Iran seem all the more necessary, as a form of compensation to Netanyahu while pressing him for concessions toward the Palestinians.
Anti-Obamaism and the nuclear agreement
The preceding factor was one of two major reasons for opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the multilateral agreement that severely restricts Iran's nuclear program and closes any possible path to a nuclear weapon. The other major, and very partisan, reason was that the accord was probably Barack Obama's biggest single achievement in foreign policy. Trump, who scathingly denounced the accord during the campaign and whose administration only grudgingly acknowledges that Iran is complying with its obligations under the agreement, still shows a strong inclination to do the opposite of whatever Obama did. Now that the Republican effort to undo Obama's signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has run aground on the realities of health care, the urge may be stronger than ever to undo Obama's signature foreign policy achievement. If it can be undone not through direct U.S. renunciation but as a casualty of some other confrontation with Iran, then so much the better from Trump's point of view.
Weak voices of restraint in the administration
There are press reports of debate within the Trump administration on aspects of policy toward Iran, and real debate is much better than policy made through wee-hours tweets. But it is doubtful whether the sober reasons why armed conflict with Iran would be folly are getting adequate attention. This is not only a matter of the dominance of non-sober voices, such as that of self-declared Leninist destroyer-of-worlds Stephen Bannon, who demonstrated his clout with Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement. The problem also is that visceral anti-Iranism infects even some of those looked to as adults in the room, most notably Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
Respectability given to regime change
Another of the adults, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that regime change is part of U.S. policy on Iran. This comment resurrects a malevolent concept that amply deserves a place on the trash heap of U.S. foreign policy history, especially given the disastrous results under the previous two administrations of regime change in Iraq and Libya. The concept is no more suitable to Iran, where there is not some political movement in our own image that is just waiting to be freed from the yoke of theocratic autocrats through a new revolution.
Those with other reasons for promoting hostility toward Iran also have been promoting the regime change idea. Shortly after the inauguration, for example, the Sheldon Adelson-funded Foundation for Defense of Democracies was pushing a paper at the National Security Council centered on regime change. The specific notion usually being pushed is that forms of subversion short of armed conflict would do the job, but the fantasy outcome of a new and attractive regime in Tehran can easily become an objective of military operations initiated, or ostensibly initiated, for other reasons. Meanwhile, the rhetoric of regime change adds to tension and distrust between Tehran and Washington that make destabilizing incidents increasingly likely.
Mission creep in Syria
The crushing of the so-called Islamic State's caliphate is close enough to completion that the difficult and deferred question of what becomes of its diminishing territory in Syria now must be faced directly. Much commentary on this question in the United States is advocating what amounts to a significant expansion of U.S. objectives in Syria by confronting the Damascus regime and its Russian and Iranian backers. U.S. actions on the ground and in the air already have moved in this direction. Incidents have included shooting down Iranian drones and a manned Syrian aircraft, as well as U.S. attacks on what were described as "Iranian-supported" militias.
It is remarkable how much the mission in Syria already has creeped and evolved. As Josh Wood puts it, "Over the course of his short tenure, Mr. Trump and his administration went from talking about potentially partnering with Damascus and Moscow against [Islamic State], to appearing absolutely disinterested in the civil war, to bombing Syrian government targets." The evolution of objectives in the next five months could be just as rapid as in the last five. Given Iran's significant role in Syria, and the expanding U.S. role there, Syria is one of the places most likely to spark direct warfare between the United States and Iran.
Displacement from Russia
Incidents with the Syrian regime's other major backer, Russia, certainly are worth worrying about along with incidents involving Iran. But some of the very reasons for special worry about direct armed conflict with Russia-a nuclear-armed ex-superpower-are also reasons to expect special restraint, along lines similar to what the United States and the USSR displayed throughout the Cold War. Moreover, under the Trump administration, Russia does not play the sort of automatic, take-for-granted-as-an-adversary role that Iran plays. We have yet to fathom the full reasons for Trump's more qualified and even benign posture toward Russia, but there clearly are such reasons. If the administration needs to strike at one of the beasts involved in the Syrian war, that beast will be Iran, even though Russian support probably has been at least as important as Iranian support in shoring up the Assad regime.
Delegation to the military
Trump's practice of delegating to the Pentagon major decisions, even of a more strategic than tactical nature involving deployment or use of military forces, could in some circumstances be an encouragement of restraint, given the disinclination of experienced military officers to be thrust into new conflicts in which the United States is not already involved. But the United States is already involved in places such as Syria and the Persian Gulf where confrontation with the Iranians is possible, and with such involvement the military bias is in the direction of doing more rather than doing less. The bias is toward being more aggressive to accomplish presumed objectives and especially to protect American forces. At least one U.S. attack so far in Syria has been justified in terms of protection of U.S. forces. Military decisions taken for military reasons may spark an expanded conflict.
Heightened bellicosity in Arabia
The tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran is especially high right now, and most of the initiative for making it so has come from the Saudi side. The ascent to power of the Saudi king's inexperienced son, Mohammed bin Salman, has something to do with this. The young crown prince has talked about how "we will work so the battle is there, in Iran." He has used the relatively minor link between a Yemeni group and Iran as the excuse for prosecuting a war that has turned Yemen into a humanitarian disaster. His most recent destabilizing move has been the fracturing of the Gulf Cooperation Council for the sake of bashing Qatar, one of whose listed offenses is to have more-or-less normal, peaceful relations with Iran. The potential for the United States being dragged into an escalation of this mess is significant, especially given Trump's inclination so far to go all in with the Saudis.
Brinksmanship in the Persian Gulf
Even without the added recklessness of young princes, the Gulf is the other most likely place, besides Syria, for an incident involving U.S. and Iranian forces to escalate out of control. The U.S. forward presence in what the Iranians regard as their maritime backyard is more than matched by the sometimes reckless and unsafe maneuvers by small craft of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The recent fatal collision of a U.S. Navy destroyer with a merchant ship in Japanese waters shows what can happen in crowded sea lanes even when there is no international conflict or animosity involved. Imagine something similar happening in the Persian Gulf amid the current hostility in U.S.-Iranian relations, with no apparent interest by the Trump administration in restoring a diplomatic channel for defusing incidents.
The nature of the person in the White House
In his congressional testimony, James Comey mentioned "the nature of the person" as a reason for meticulously documenting his conversations with President Trump. He meant that Trump is a serial liar. The first five months of Trump's administration is sufficient to see that the lying extends not just to individual falsehoods but to large segments of his policies. On domestic and economic policy, the populism he voiced and that won him decisive votes last year has been revealed to be fraudulent, with health care being only one of the indications of this.
There is no reason to suppose that what Trump has said about foreign and security policy, including vote-winning rhetoric about aversion to more foreign wars, is any less fraudulent. With the rhetoric being next to meaningless, other aspects of the nature of the person will be influential, including Trump's impetuosity, his dwelling on the immediate at the expense of longer-term consequences, and his insatiable appetite for personal approbation at the expanse of broader national interests. None of these qualities augurs well for avoiding conflagration with Iran.
Diversion from difficulty
These personal qualities of Trump make him a prime candidate to turn to the time-honored tactic of using foreign conflict to divert attention from domestic troubles and to win rally-round-the-flag popular support. His current support, according to the latest poll on the subject, continues to fall.
Consequences of War
Armed conflict with Iran would be an enormously negative event for U.S. interests on several grounds, beginning with whatever expenditure of American blood and treasure was involved. Other consequences would include giving a gift to the most hardline elements in Iranian politics, possibly leading to renunciation of the nuclear agreement and the opening of a path to an Iranian nuclear weapon. There would be collateral damage to U.S. good will and relations with many others, beyond some hardliners in other places who would welcome the spilling of American blood as long as it was done in the service of attacking Iran. One can hope that that there will be enough thinking about such consequences to prevent such an armed conflict from coming to pass.
But war is a possibility, with a likelihood that is somewhere above trivial levels. It is an uncertainty. Also uncertain is the extent to which any conflict that did break out would be fully intended, as distinct from an unintended consequence of aggressive and confrontational policies and postures.
Citizens and members of Congress need to be fully aware of the possibilities and the associated dangers. They should be alert to any new signs that the United States may be headed toward such a war, and they should ask the toughest of questions every step of the way as to whether this path is in U.S. interests.
About the author:
Paul R. Pillar is Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University and an Associate Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy. He retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community. His senior positions included National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, Deputy Chief of the DCI Counterterrorist Center, and Executive Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence. He is a Vietnam War veteran and a retired officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. Dr. Pillar's degrees are from Dartmouth College, Oxford University, and Princeton University. His books include Negotiating Peace (1983), Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy (2001), Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy (2011), and Why America Misunderstands the World (2016).
… Payvand News – 06/29/17 … —


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Exhibit Design Resource: TheGameStore.com
For a recent exhibit project, I needed to prototype a set of "spinners" (the rotating arrow devices found in a million board games.) I could have mickey moused something out of laminated cardstock or Sintra, but instead I ordered a set of DIY plastic spinner arrows from TheGameStore.com.
Why buy something (albeit a cheap something) instead of just mocking it up with duct tape and string? Two reasons: 1) I wasn't going to be around to "babysit" the temporary prototype to make "wear and tear" repairs on the fly for the client, and 2) The pieces I bought from the "Game Parts" section of GameStore's website can ultimately be used in the final version of the exhibit component. I love making good stuff cheap!
Have fun nosing around The GameStore.com website. I'm sure tucked in amongst the dice, timers, and spinners you'll find something useful for your next project!
Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.
P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like movies!)


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Tag Archives: Foil Hat Racing
ECTA Wilmington, Ohio July 2012
Successful trip to ECTA, the new facility in Ohio. Chuck and I ran Edgar faster than it's ever been in a mile. We found some tuning points that will give us even some more speed! The Wilmington facility is a … Continue reading
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Tagged Bikes Built Better, ECTA, Foil Hat Racing, Land Speed Racing, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Racing
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So-Called " Ground Zero Mosque "
Revealing article: So this was all a well fabricated controversy launched by an anti-Muslim, hate group....which actually started the hate campaign-false 'Mosque at Ground Zero' misnomer and all...2 YEARS AGO (!)....but for some reason our 'great' media decided to make it a huge controversy NOW.
Just another example of
PATHETIC media manipulation.
Article by: Ahmed Rehab
Chicago Tribune-The Seeker
Americans have a right to assemble and worship freely in this country, period. It's not only a founding principle of this nation, but a main justification for its founding. It is why many white Christians flooded to this country in the first place.
Those opposed to American Muslims practicing their right to build a religious and cultural center on their private property near Ground Zero and in concordance with all laws and regulations reluctantly concede that they have no legal grounds to challenge it. So they argue instead that the Muslims should voluntarily forgo their right out of sensitivity for the sacredness of that site.
This is a particularly disingenuous line.
If it is about sensitivity for the sacred, then why aren't those same people opposing the deli, bar, coffee shop, and offices, or strip club for that matter, that are open for business in that same sacred vicinity?
What is particularly indecent or insensitive about American Muslims building a house of peace, community, and worship that doesn't apply to the New York Dolls gentlemen club?
Let's be blunt: it is only indecent and insensitive if you buy into the canard that American Muslims are somehow collectively guilty for 9/11. That is the coded message at the heart of opposition to the center. It is a message we reject on its face.
American Muslims bear no collective guilt. We have nothing to apologize for and everything to be proud of, including our loyalty and hard-earned livelihoods. We are not guest citizens, we are not second-rate citizens; we reject marginalization and require no validation. We are equal citizens living and worshipping in our country.
We are part and parcel of the diversity of America including the diversity of the 3,000 people who died on 9/11. We are part of the diversity of the hundreds who were injured and those who were first respondents to Ground Zero. We are part of the diversity of the millions who grieved and still grieve. When "they" attacked "us," we were attacked. We are part of the "us" not the "they."
The whole brouhaha about the "Mosque at Ground Zero" is frankly bogus. It has little to do with sacred ground, or sensitive hearts. It does however have everything to do with the exploitation of the sacred and the sensitive for the furtherance of the sacrilegious and the insensitive: the phenomenon of Muslim-bashing that is ravaging our nation today./p>
The Cordoba House, now Park51, is an old story. In fact, it was reported on in the New York Times and other mainstream media as far back as two years ago. Why the frenzy now?
That's not all: Muslims have been worshipping at Mosque Manhattan a few blocks away from Ground Zero, long before Ground Zero was Ground Zero; in fact, since 1970, before the twin towers were the twin towers.
So again, why the sudden frenzy?
Failure to ask "why" is a collective indictment of the media establishment (with a few notable exceptions). Just as the media shirked its responsibilities in questioning the Bush administration on the justifications for the war in Iraq, now too it fails to properly investigate, scrutinize, and report the origins of this controversy. Here is what it failed to tell you:
The"Ground Zero Mosque" fiasco is a fabricated controversy that traces its origins to a couple of long-time anti-Muslim goons from the annals of the hate blogosphere by the names of Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller as a flagship campaign of their newly founded organization, Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA). SIOA is part of an emerging phenomenon of astroturf anti-Muslim organizations that seek to project any public expression of Muslim life in this country as tantamount to a stealth "Islamization of America." (Except it's not so stealth since everyone and their mother is talking about it).
It was SIOA that first coined the misnomer "Mosque at Ground Zero," purposely twisting the reality that the proposed Muslim cultural center near Ground Zero is neither a Mosque nor at Ground Zero. It was the SIOA that sought to redefine Imam Rauf as a radical Imam even though he was heralded by the Bush administration, the FBI and others as a moderate voice of reason. It was the SIOA and its partners that ruthlessly sought to stoke the fears and suspicions of otherwise good, unsuspecting Americans. (Read rest of article)
Truth + Knowledge =