text:
The Conservatives say a 2005 audiotape in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears to confirm that a financial offer was made to MP Chuck Cadman in exchange for his vote against the government is a fake.
The Tories say two expert analysts they hired have confirmed that the audiotape was doctored, specifically by inserting a sound clip that wasn't present in the original version.
I don't know if the tape was "doctored", but all that is relevant, and Moore avoided this fact, was the part where Harper mentioned "financial considerations" unedited, the voice authentic? I know what I heard, and nothing offered today changes that.
That aside, the really intriguing part of Moore's press conference was the timing. People will remember that as soon as this scandal started Conservatives were claiming the tape was doctored. That was THREE months ago, does anyone really believe the Conservatives just received these conclusions from the "experts" today? Please.
Why re-open, what amounts to a dead story? Conservatives will claim it is all part of a simple motivation, clear the PM's good name. I suspect it is something else entirely, because claiming the tape is fake just brings attention back, back to a place that the Conservatives have already argued is resolved. Conservatives already had the RCMP, re-introducing this tape claim doesn't really help Harper politically, or does it?
What I think was really happening today, a pre-emptive strike to scare the Liberals into formally apologizing, so that this legal case doesn't move forward. I see Moore today, as not an attempt to clear the PM, but an attempt to apply pressure on the Liberals, and in so doing, spare the Conservatives a potentially damaging disclosure in court, the prospect of key witnesses under oath. Now that an election is unlikely, it is entirely possible that this court matter will unfold in the quiet months ahead, the Liberals seem quite willing to move forward. Harper's initial threat of legal action, is actually looking less and less attractive, it could well turn out, irrespective of the final outcome, that there will be embarrasing moments for Harper and cronies.
This press conference today just doesn't pass the smell test, it was just odd, particularly the timing. Three months later, the RCMP investigation a dead end, the whole affair completely forgotten in political circles, and yet Moore throws out an allegation of fakery. This assertion means more digestion of the facts, more replaying of said audio, more dicey political coverage. Voluntarily drawing attention to an old issue, doesn't seem consistent with the Harper approach, which is why we must look at today in the wider context of the court action. Putting this tape into question is really about pressuring the Liberals to apologize, or come to some early resolution, that eliminates the chance of Conservatives, coming before a jury, squirming in their seats. There is much more here today than a simple matter of the "doctored" tape. What looked like a show of strenght, is probably more correctly an admission of future fear.


text:
An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, "Dearest Friends," The World Community for Christian Meditation International Newsletter, June 18, 1999.
Deep prayer teaches us what the angel of death teaches. When the meditator meets poverty of spirit, it is like an experience of death.
Poverty means gazing steadily into an emptiness whose meaning at first eludes us. It is the painful awareness that everything we hoped or dreamed would last forever carries a hidden expiration date. Poverty means recognizing that we are not self-sufficient and that we depend upon a reality we cannot name for our very existence.
Our life is changed, threatened and made even more fragile, by that discovery. At first there is the nausea of death, the sick feeling of loss and deprivation which we undergo whenever relationships founder or expectations are disappointed or the faithful proves to be unfaithful. This feeling is followed by the grief of mourning often mixed with anger at God, at life, at the dying or the dead, or at one's own body for failing us. Coloring these feelings there can be the bitterness of guilt or shame at the fact that one is dying and implicated with the terrible, unwelcome, taboo stranger of death. All separation arouses the primal anxiety of betrayal, of being abandoned to the naked forces of nature. But as we wrestle with the terrible angel we find it is not a foe but a friend. A messenger from the God, of life not of death. As our complex reactions to the messenger unfold there are joyful moments of pure soaring in the emptiness of space that is the Spirit. Then we see the emptiness to be fullness of potency, an abundance of life coming to be, a void not to be avoided.
One sees this at times in the eyes of a very sick or dying person. In the depth of their soul they are witnessing the armies of feelings clash and retreat and clash again. Moments come when the eyes are filled with a peace and wisdom that bears a blessing to all who see them. Those you come to console, console you. Those who you thought would be the object of your compassion turn the tables on you and it is you whose burdens of living are lightened by them.
[T]here is way of being with a dying person that avoids th[e] trap [of feeling awkward and useless]. That is simply to be a companion. To be in touch with one's own mortality. To be reminded that we too are dying. To learn from those we are serving. However withdrawn a person may become they will value companionship. To be a true and faithful companion, not withdrawing when you feel withdrawn from, is at the heart of compassion. It is a fruit of being at home with oneself. To companion another is to live out the truth that solitude is not the loneliness one first fears it is. It is the condition of simply being the person God calls us into existence to be: a person who in their deepest nature is loved and capable of returning love.
The art of human accompaniment develops in deep prayer. To meditate with another person is to find an intimacy and spiritual friendship in the silence which is inexplicable at other levels of relationship. Barriers of fear or formality tumble when the work of interior silence is shared. At moments with the dying being truly present to them depends upon overcoming one's own self-consciousness and self-centeredness. Transcending them means seeking that powerlessness in one's self which instinctively one avoids and runs away from. We may like to look at this "poverty of spirit" from a safe distance and make appointments with it for a later date. We like to read about it and hear other people describe it. But everything hinges on when we decide to cross over the checkpoint of poverty in person, from the land of illusion to the kingdom of reality. When we do so we taste the joys of the kingdom of God in this life.
After meditation: an excerpt from KABIR: Ecstatic Poems: Versions by Robert Bly (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004), p. 43.
As long as a human being worries about when he will
die, and what he has that is his, all of his works are zero.
When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead,
then the work of the Teacher is over.
Carla Cooper - email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Selecting your vehicle's make, model, and year allows us to display only parts and items specific to your car's model and year.
Part# CH22191
Be the First to Review
OPGI Price: $69.99
Part Type: (A) Aftermarket product, usually an enhancement product
Years: 1959-1977
Sold As: EACH
These billet aluminum frames are ball-milled. Each plate includes lights for your tags.


text:
The Biggest Show in Golf
When the U.S. Open returns to the Merion Golf Club in the leafy suburbs of Philadelphia this June, the intent of the United States Golf Association will be to determine our country's national champion. There will be 156 players teeing off on Thursday, and God willing on Sunday night one will be left standing, and he might even have enough strength remaining to lift the trophy.
The U.S. Open isn't merely an examination of a player's ability to hit the ball, to pitch it, to chip it or to putt it. Sure, the Open is a test of skill. But even more so, it's a test of will. The USGA is trying to find the player who produces winning shots on a golf course set on a precipice, at the very edge of playability. They are trying to find the player who, with hands shaking, knees knocking and stomach churning, survives the boot camp of this most arduous of all the major championships.
At Merion, as it does at classic courses as Oakmont, Olympic and Bethpage Black, the USGA transforms the bucolic to the brutal, the tranquil to the treacherous, the demanding to the demonic. No other major championship, not the Masters, not the British Open, not the PGA Championship, seeks to get so deeply between the ears of its competitors. Or is it the combatants? The U.S. Open isn't so much a mine field as a mind field. Disaster lurks, deliberately, and the USGA asks two questions: How do you avoid it? If it strikes, how do you deal with it?
"The U.S. Open works your psyche at least a month out, maybe even at the start of the year," says Ray Floyd, the 1986 winner at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. "You start thinking, How am I going to practice for it? Do I have a chance to win on that particular course with the way they set things up? What is my attitude going to be coming in?"
That's a way of saying in so many words that a chief component of the U.S. Open is dread. But let's let Mike Davis, the executive director of the USGA and the man charged with setting up Open courses since 2006, tell you how he defines the Open.
"That's a good basic question," says Davis, whose Open setups have been largely hailed by the game's best players as stern but fair. "Very simply, it is this country's national championship. It started out that way in 1895, and has grown to be a truly international event. It's the only one of our championships which is truly based solely on skill. We don't care if you are male, female, junior, senior, amateur, professional tour player, a club pro or whatever. It's all about an open championship and for those good enough to qualify, then it's a 72-hole event to identify the champion.
"From the very get-go it started out to be a very stern test of golf. One of our goals is that it is a very tough test of golf, that it tests every aspect of the game from your ability to strike the golf ball, your ability to manage your way around the golf course, your ability to make recovery shots, your ability to handle yourself under pressure. "We hope that not only is it tough, but it is a fair test. When a player executes a good shot they are rewarded, if they hit an average shot it's an average result, if they hit a poor shot then there are consequences. So that is how I would describe the U.S. Open."
Since the Open began at the Newport Country Club in 1895, it's been that stern test, and has become a tournament defined in the modern era of the game by courses set up to be firm and fast on the short grass, and ball-swallowing in the long grass. Throw some wind into the mix and the shot-making becomes more about shot-creating. For the U.S. Open, a player's most valuable asset is his head.
As Tom Watson, the 1982 winner at Pebble Beach, said a very long time ago: "It takes courage to win the U.S. Open, more courage than any other tournament."
Each year, more than 8,000 players with a maximum handicap index of 1.4 try to make it through the Open's qualifying process to play against the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy. Former U.S. Open winners and many professional golfers are exempt from qualifying by their world rankings and other result-based classifications, but everyone else starts in local qualifiers and moves up to regional qualifiers where the top finishers earn their way into the Open. But the participants aren't really playing against their fellow golfers, they're playing against the course. And at the U.S. Open they are playing against a course set up to its extreme, equipped with defenses that repel their shots and rattle their brains.
Certainly in the age of television there has been as much talk about the difficulty of an Open course as there has been about the skill of the Open champion. Millions of high handicappers have come to expect the Open courses to humble the world's best players, to make the game as difficult for them as it is for everyone else. And when you put a course on the edge, you are courting disaster, and the U.S. Open has had a few of them.
In 1974 Hale Irwin won the Open at Winged Foot in what was labeled as the "Massacre at Winged Foot." The rough at Winged Foot was long and gnarly, and the sloping greens were brass-knuckle hard and ice-rink fast. Irwin won the first of his three U.S. Open titles there with a seven over par score. Irwin was a consummate Open player who kept the ball in play off the tee, hit the middle of greens and putted sensibly.
"When I got to Winged Foot more than half the field was grumbling and whining about the course," says Irwin. "I thought that maybe 75 percent of those guys were taking themselves right out of contention before the first shot. The Open is a mental giant. I was pretty good about wrestling with that giant."
In 1983 the rough around the greens at Oakmont was so thick that players were reduced to scything the ball into play. "In '83 they had rough so high right next to the greens that if you missed by one yard you were just chopping the ball out," says Floyd. "It took away your short game skills. It was a wedge and a whack. I'm all for difficult conditions, all top players are.
But not to the point that they become unfair. You don't want your skills to be taken away."
In 1998 there was a particularly perplexing situation on the 18th green of the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Tom Meeks, who had succeeded P.J. Boatwright as the Open's setup man, had put the pin for the second round just past the midpoint of the green on the left-hand side, where Boatwright had set it. Meeks knew that it was an edgy pin, but he had his philosophy and was sticking to it. "I don't want to purposefully set a golf hole up to where it's unfair," said Meeks then. "But if I'm going to err, I want to err on the side of too tough rather than not tough enough."
Payne Stewart came to the 18th on Friday as the leader of the tournament when he hit his approach shot eight feet above the hole. He knew that if he did not make that putt for birdie, he would be in trouble. His putt got just past the pin, picked up the slope and rolled 25 feet past, leading to a three-putt green. Tom Lehman struck a wedge that hit near the pin but had just enough backspin to send it meandering back to the front of the green, 50 feet from the pin. He four-putted from there. Kirk Triplett three-putted when his first putt from 30 feet below the hole came right back to where he struck it. Meeks later admitted his regret that he had embarrassed both the players and the USGA for that mistake.
In 2001 at Southern Hills the severely sloping ninth and 18th greens had to be mowed differently than the others and watered frequently because well-struck approach shots and deftly putted balls would not stay close to the hole.
But the defining moment of disaster came at the 2004 Open at the Shinnecock. The course had been playing as expected for the first three days, hard and fast. It was at the edge of playability but still manageable through 54 holes. Then the prevailing southwest wind, which had a bit of humidity to it, gave way to a more northerly, drier wind overnight Saturday into Sunday.
Calamity ensued, exemplified by the death of the green at the par-3 seventh hole. Players couldn't make their tee shots come to rest on the green's mortified surface. It became so bad so early in the round that Davis, who would become the head setup man for the USGA two years later, suspended play at the seventh so that the green could be watered. As he stood holding the flagstick at the back of the green, the New York crowd let him know what they thought about the situation, pelting him with cups and calling out unprintable oaths.
"It was a really difficult situation and one I will never forget," says Davis. "You had good shots that not only were not being rewarded, they were penalized. When we have something like that happen, and it crosses the line, that is not only a tough test but an unfair test and that's definitely not what we want."
When Mark Calcavecchia finished his round that day, he was completely drained and totally frustrated. The field averaged 78.8 shots on Sunday and there were 29 scores in the 80s. Only hit about a third of the greens were hit in regulation.
"Well, at 9:40 the greens were lost," said Calcavecchia, who shot a well-earned 75. "They were dead from the start. It's the USGA's fault. They're trying to throw a little water on them to make it look like they're doing something, but it's not doing any good whatsoever. It's not the first time they've done this, and it won't be the last. And on that note, I need a beer."
Since then the USGA hasn't repeated the mistake, largely thanks to Mike Davis' vigilance. Davis' first setup was the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, where he introduced a concept that he had been thinking about for some time. It had annoyed him that shots just off the fairway in heavy rough could be penalized greater than shots that were way off line but ended up with decent lies where spectators had tromped the grass down. At Winged Foot he employed a graduated rough that got higher the farther away from the edge of the fairway. And he pushed the spectator ropes farther away from play to make sure that the duck hook or snap slice ended up in the appropriate amount of deep spinach. It was a concept applauded by players and used ever since.
This is not to say that all Opens were unfairly set up before Davis' watch. Floyd had never played at Shinnecock Hills before the Open in 1986. Shinnecock had been the site of the second Open in 1896, but its rather remote site and seasonal nature of the small membership had long taken it out of consideration as the Open grew bigger and grew increasingly more important as a revenue source for the USGA. But a deep desire to bring the Open back to its roots would give players their chance to see one of the world's best courses for the very first time.
"In 1986, I'll never forget, I drove out to Shinnecock on Sunday afternoon," says Floyd. "I had never been there before. I played a practice round on Monday morning, had my two boys with me. When I got done I told my [late] wife Maria this golf course is so great that not even the USGA could screw it up. There was absolutely no trickery to it; they just narrowed it up, made it a little firmer. It was perfect."
For Floyd, perfect didn't just mean that the fairways were the right height, that the rough was tough but playable, that the greens were the correct firmness and the balls were rolling at the correct the speed. It meant that his head was clear.
"I always thought I had a chance to win coming in, then I would get there and be livid at the way the course was set up," says Floyd. "My bad attitude cost me chances to win an Open. I should have been able to win one before 1986. But the Open was always getting into my head. That's what it does to players, for better or worse."
Glen Nager, the president of the USGA, thinks that the severity of the Open is what sets it apart from all the other majors and what gives it its mojo. "For the people watching at home on television, the people attending the Open—the consumers of our game—we want to give them a great venue that tests the maximum of physical and mental endurance," says Nager. "We feel that a player needs to handle the course physically, and needs to mentally cope with adversity and pressure. That's what we want our courses to provide and I think fans of the game have come to expect that."
Davis says that it is a fact that fans of the game want the Open to be a horror house ride for the players. And while he was reviled at Shinnecock in 2004, it was the 2011 Open at Congressional Country Club won by Rory McIlroy that evoked the greatest emotional response by fans.
"I can tell you in my time in setting up the U.S. Open the one that was criticized by far the most, and you could take all the other ones and put them all together and multiply by 100 and wouldn't even equal this, is when we had the U.S. Open at Congressional and Rory ran away and it was 16-under [par]," says Davis. "People that follow golf, they didn't like that. Once a year they like the idea of having a really tough test of golf. This was the first time we got hundreds and hundreds of letters criticizing how easy it was. It was absolutely nothing against Congressional, it happened to be very soft, still conditions for four days."
The "Sturm und Drang" of the Open, the drama created by golf's most severe test, usually makes for a good show. No, it's not the back nine at Augusta National on Sunday during the Masters, but it's not supposed to be. The USGA wants its ultimate championship to stand apart. It needs to be exciting in its own way.
"When you say exciting, and I think that what people ultimately like, is when there can be a big variety of scoring on a given hole. You can see the lead change greatly," says Davis. "I am convinced that what makes the Masters so exciting on that back nine is that you can see huge changes on the leaderboard in a very short period of time, so if a U.S. Open is nothing more than pars and bogeys, I can see the point where that becomes a bit monotonous."
The United States Open, apart from determining the national champion, is also the economic engine that drives everything that the USGA does to administer and promote the game. The television revenues, domestic and foreign, along with corporate sponsorship, allow the USGA to do equipment testing, agronomy research, fund state and regional golf associations, fund junior golf programs, run the handicap system and the amateur side of the game.
"If you look at the USGA, conservatively we probably put $80 to $90 million a year back into the game, and we can do that because of what the U.S. Open generates," says Davis.
The economic facts aren't lost on Nager. "The U.S. Open is like a show, some say the biggest show in golf," says Nager. "It is an entertainment product, no question. But we are holding our national championship and trying to find the best golfer. We don't really ask the television people about the venues we go to other than to talk with them about their ability to broadcast from a place. TV wants to broadcast a tournament that provides a strong test of golf and the sort of drama that goes with it. We think we provide them, and all the fans of golf, with that."
Bringing the Open back to Merion—a small, classic course of less than 7,000 yards—in the modern era of the game was difficult to do, but Davis was determined to do it, just as he is determined to take the Open to new sites in the future, including two public courses, 2015 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, and 2017 at Erin Hills in rural Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee (see sidebar, pg. 81). And those two courses were given the nod after the resounding success of the Open at New York State's Bethpage Black course on Long Island in 2002.
You can bet that Merion will be set up on the edge, that it will reach the outer limits that the USGA so much wants to determine its national champion. "We saw at the U.S. Amateur at Merion [in 2005] that during the stroke play qualifying it could stand up to these modern players," says Davis. "Merion, being so small, is a difficult place to conduct the Open outside ropes. But inside the ropes it more than held its own. . . . Whether you like it or not, people have come to think of the Open as a really tough test of golf, and we are sure that Merion will prove to be that."
It might be best to go back to the great amateur Bobby Jones, who won three U.S. Opens (the last at Merion in 1930), to find the definition of the game's most arduous tournament.
"Nobody ever wins a U.S. Open," said Jones. "Everybody else just loses it."
Jeff Williams is a contributing editor for Cigar Aficionado.


text:
As a general contractor, Tony Fedele is no stranger to construction. But when it came to building his own family home last year, Fedele and his wife wanted to do something different and build a timeless house free of any short-lived trends in design.
"When we purchased the property in July 2010 it was a shack on a piece of land that was actually the garage and groundskeepers' quarters of an old mansion," said Fedele, owner of Construction AFCON Inc. "We knew we wanted to create a home with the charm and character of old Colonial style houses and we were excited for the challenge."
Fedele says he has always enjoyed working on older homes, so the prospect of building one with the antique features he coveted was welcomed warmly.
"The workmanship and details put into these century-old homes are incomparably superior to today's standards," he said. "The older designs are simple but everything is real, including the stone, hardwood floors, brass handles, marble counters, and so on and the quality is unmatched."
And so Fedele and his wife did their homework and based the design of their 4,200 square foot home in Dorval on an old English Colonial style. The exterior look they decided on is an antiqued dark red brick with natural stone sills, cream guillotine windows, black doors, copper cupola and weather vane and cream dormers.
"We certainly didn't reinvent the wheel with this design," Fedele said. "However, every component of the house was chosen with a classic style in mind which we hope won't be passé in 10 years and will look charming today and for many decades to come."
In keeping with the exterior of the home, the interior follows the Colonial style with a wide oak staircase, hardwood floors throughout, coffered ceilings, marble checkerboard floors, claw-foot cast iron tub in the master bathroom, custom wood cabinetry and more. The home also has nine-foot ceilings, four bedrooms, six bathrooms and a finished basement.
"One thing I wanted to do was to enhance the common space, meaning I wanted to have a lot of room to walk about in the main area and sort of open everything up," Fedele said. "We achieved this not by creating an open concept, but more of a very wide hallway leading up to a very wide staircase."
The bigger spaces allow for a feeling of openness without the hazards of an open concept home such as noise travelling throughout the house - which is essential when you have kids, Fedele said.
The family room features a coffered ceiling, a fireplace and a grand mantle. Leading away from the family room, towards the kitchen there is a bar area with granite counters.
"It's a very welcoming little area," Fedele said. "It's perfect for when we have guests over."
The bar opens up into the kitchen, which was designed in a very traditional fashion. Being his area of expertise, the custom cabinetry was entirely designed by Fedele and built by his crew. The ivory birch wood cabinets have a chocolate brown glaze over them to give an antique look.
"The island and the hut is where I made it different by having them coloured in dark chocolate brown," Fedele said. "The reason we went so dark is to make the chocolate brown oak hardwood floors less intense against the colour of the main cabinets; the island cabinets are actually darker than the floor so it pulls everything together beautifully."
The granite in the kitchen is a blend of caramel, beige and brown colours and the backsplash is a one-inch by two-inch mosaic Italian marble.
"Every step of the way from the bricks to the curtains we've been trying to respect our initial design approach," Fedele said. "Of course I don't expect this classic style to appeal to everyone but in the past six plus years of renovating and building, I've learned that every project takes on the character of its owners."


text:
Up to [cvs.NetBSD.org] / src / crypto / dist / ssh
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text:
Selecting your vehicle's make, model, and year allows us to display only parts and items specific to your car's model and year.
Part# S240704
Be the First to Review
OPGI Price: $32.99
Part Type: (R) = Authentic reproduction of the original GM product
Years: 1964-1972
Sold As: SET
These factory-correct retainers are stamped from heavy-gauge steel using OEM-correct dimensions for a perfect fit and finish. Each retainer features one rounded edge and one squared edge as well as a pre-drilled hole for bolt-in or weld-in mounting. Hold-downs are sold per each or in a three-piece set.


text:
Building your own pc
Does anyone still do this, if so is there still big savings or as the price leveled out. It's just I'm thinking of building and selling them.
...It's just I'm thinking of building and selling them.
Well, there's LOTS of competition out there, just check out eBay as well as the many, many, small custom PC outfits on the internet.
I haven't built a PC for myself from scratch for years. Last time I was considering it there wasn't much difference between doing it myself and getting something ready built from Scan... So I bought it from Scan...0
I do, so i can choose my own specific parts.0
I have and will continue to do so. Hardly any cost savings anymore and I'd be amazed if you could make a living doing custom builds and selling them. If you are doing it yourself how can you compete with Dell etc who can get volume pricing on parts.
I only do my own because I'm fussy what I have in my machines, but I also kinda enjoy the process plus I enjoy a clean install from a full license that doesn't have any bloatware automatically installed.0
Well yeah, if I add £300 to everyone I make and manage to sell one I've got a free PC out of each build.
An easy task (I've tried this several times over the years) is to price up a build sources the components as cheaply as you can find. Add your £20 thatyou are gonna charge for your expertise. Then check the market against the likes of Dell etc. See if you are in the right ballpark.
Let us know how you get on.0
I haven't done the exercise for myself for awhile and interested so I've had a quick go:
Using CCL computers:
The sell this http://www.cclonline.com/product/75958/NoMfgCode/All-CCL-Desktops/CCL-Alpha-Prime-PC-System/CCL-ALP-IBUD/ at £194.99
Which is made up of the following from their own website:
http://www.cclonline.com/product/76312/SHADE/Cases/CiT-Shade-Micro-ATX-Black-Interior-Mesh-Case/CAS0542/ at £22.78
http://www.cclonline.com/product/66824/BX80623G540/CPUs/Intel-Celeron-G540-2-50-GHz-Dual-Core-Processor/CPU0054/ at £33.95
http://www.cclonline.com/product/75858/GA-H61MA-D2V/Motherboards/Gigabyte-GA-H61MA-D2V-Motherboard/MBD0340/ at £36.77
http://www.cclonline.com/product/36050/VS2GB1333D3/Desktop-Memory/2GB-Corsair-Value-Select-1333MHz-DDR3-Memory-Stick/RAM5946/ at £15.70
http://www.cclonline.com/product/66223/ST500DM002/Hard-Drives/Seagate-Barracuda-500GB-Hard-Drive/HDD1190/ at £40.67
http://www.cclonline.com/product/92980/CCL-DVDRW-BLK-525/Optical-Drives/CCL-Choice-22x-DVD-/-RW-Drive-/CDR0150/ at £13.31.
Which totals £163.18. So it appears they charge £31.81 to build that unit and supply a one year warranty.
No OS, keyboard, mouse or monitor.
If we're conservative and say do one per hour. £31.81 per hour isn't bad. £1272.40 per week if you do 40 in a week.
Fill your boots!
I've already registered and TM'd my trading name. Delly Computers. Prop. Derek Trotter.0
I didn't read the OP properly.
You cant make money from selling PCs any more.0
I missed that they have a wi-fi card in that model:
http://www.cclonline.com/product/44608/TL-WN781ND/Wireless-Adapters/TP-Link-TL-WN781ND-150Mbps-Wireless-Lite-N-PCI-Express-Adapter/NET1476/ at £8.99.
So total now £172.17 leaving £22.82 clear (getting close to your £20 mark OP).
That network card seems to be currently on offer though so normally £4.80 more.
Leaves £18.02 margin. Excluding any overheads + startup costs (price of a Phillips Screwdriver and maybe an anti static strap but you can save on this if you just touch a radiator now and again).0
Anyone want to buy a pc lol:)
For the right price sure! But since I can buy all those parts and build it myself. I'd want you to be cheaper and if not cheaper I need a compelling reason to purchase from you instead of Delly Inc (sounds like a sarnie shop - might have to change name).0
Have a read of this thread:
Same applies. Building a computer is the easy part. Dealing with the person who buys it is the hard part. To make it worthwhile, you either have to have a substantial mark-up per system or sell an awful lot of them.0
Plus the occasional unexpected expense. OEM optical drives come barebones so no sata cables. If the motherboard doesn't come pre-supplied with a couple or more cables. You may need to add in a quid or two.
Your margin is getting tighter and I suspect there are many other overheads you'd stumble across that we just haven't covered in this thread thus far.
You'd probably make more in the long run, washing cars or windows as an enterprise. Also less likely that someone will ring you 11 months later about some work you did cleaning their car or window.
As pointed out in the Home Repair thread. Quite often its not the build (and the initial saleof the PC) that is the issue. £20 margin, thank you very much but its the ball ache of aftersales service where you'll really start to wonder about that 20 knicker.0
It doesn't take much to remove whatever profit you have on a build, a faulty component means you need to swap it out with another one and then RMA it and the travelling to and from the customer plus the time needed to sort it out and a few window lickers wanting to ask you questions can soak up hours of your time and since its a business don't forget the taxman wanting his cut of the profits along with liability insurance etc and its just not worth it unless you can guarantee to be seriously shifting units a week which will mean a small unit rather than just your 2nd bedroom or garage normally0
But lets look at some of the plus sides. If you do home installs for pensioners. They often ply you with as much tea and biscuits as you can drink/eat and you'll have fun explaining what a mouse is.0
the gold room Posts: 811Forum Member
the gold room wrote: »you can, just buy the oem version
Which still won't be as cheap as somewhere like HP can get it0
I've just realised why i thought the OP was only building their own PCs.
Its in the title of the thread!0
Kolin Klingon Posts: 4,296Forum MemberI've always built my own PCs even back when my first one cost me over £1000 to build and I was still saving hundreds! Boy have prices dropped!
I'm currently putting one together as a new HTPC and I'm even building the case! (I'm starting with an old case that fits the motherboard, but have drilled out the rivets and shortened it, rotated drive bays around and riveted it all back together in the size and shape that I want. Outside panelling still to do and then bolt in all the important PC bits.
It's fun when I'm not swearing at it.
Over the years I always seem to have enough bits to put at least 2 PCs together. (Good for backup when the main one doesn't want to do as instructed)0
DeelyBopper wrote: »But lets look at some of the plus sides. If you do home installs for pensioners. They often ply you with as much tea and biscuits as you can drink/eat and you'll have fun explaining what a mouse is.
BIscuits??? Pah. I get a couple of bacon sarnies0


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This article was printed from mlb, originally published .
Read more news at: https://www.mlb.com/tigers/news
Did you know? NLDS Game 1: Reds 5, Giants 2
Johnny Cueto's eight-pitch, one-third of an inning start in Game 1 of the NLDS is the shortest postseason appearance since the Braves' John Thomson lasted one-third of an inning against the Astros in Game 3 of the NLDS in 2004, facing three batters.
Cueto's outing also marks the shortest postseason start in Reds history. The previous record was held by Joey Jay, who lasted two-thirds of an inning and gave up four runs on four hits, including a home run, to the Yankees in Game 5 of the 1961 World Series. The Reds lost the game, 13-5, and the series, 4-1.
Mat Latos, who tossed five innings in St. Louis on Tuesday, pitched on just three days' rest for the first time all season. Saturday also marked Latos' first relief appearance since he pitched for Class A Fort Wayne in the Midwest League in 2009.
This is the second time Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce have homered in the same postseason game. They each hit solo homers off Philadelphia's Roy Oswalt in Game 2 of the NLDS on Oct. 8, 2010. The Reds built a 4-0 lead in that game, but eventually lost, 7-4.
Bruce is 8-for-15 lifetime against Matt Cain with three doubles, a home run and five RBIs.
The Reds are now 48-7 this season when Drew Stubbs scores a run.
Cain has surrendered multiple home runs in a game six times this season, two at AT&T Park. The Giants are 1-5 in those contests.
With his throwing error in the fourth inning, Scott Rolen has committed an error in three consecutive postseason games, dating to 2010, when he committed one in both Games 2 and 3 of the NLDS against the Phillies. Prior to that, Rolen's last postseason error came in Game 1 of the 2006 World Series when he was with the Cardinals.
The Giants had not lost a Division Series opener since 1997.
The only other time a 2-3 playoff format was used in the NLDS from 1995-97, the road team has won the series opener five times. Those teams have won the series four times.


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Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg recently said that cutting the cable cord is a real phenomena.
"Young people are pretty smart. They're not going to pay for something they don't need to," he said. "Over the top is going to be a pretty big issue for cable."
But that's an issue for Verizon (VZ), too, right? Seidenberg's company sells its own version of the cable bundle, via its Fios service, and it has 3.5 million customers. And Seidenberg noted that the TV bundle isn't going away immediately. But it will, he said.
"We take the over the top issue with video very seriously," he said. "I think cable has some life left in its model…but that it is going to get disintermediated over the next several years."
Seidenberg's argument is that over the top is a much bigger deal for cable guys like Comcast (CMCSA), who have an entire business built around the bundle, than it will be for his company, which is a relative newcomer to video. Theoretically, he'll be be able to replace some video subscribers with subs who pay for robust broadband connections. But like it or not, it's going to happen, he says.
"I've seen the movie. If you remain static too long, the technology is going to nibble at you on the edges, and you have to be prepared for it."
For now, sports like ESPN broadcasts of college and pro football games, baseball games, basketball, etc. are about all that is keeping men subscribing. Most cable channels and all broadcast networks are completely oriented towards women. It is not, of course, just Lifetime Network. As pointed out in the post "How Female Oriented is TV?" from data collected by site TVbyTheNumbers.com (an excellent site and well worth your time), last spring in broadcast TV, only the Simpsons, Family Guy, the Cleveland Show, and Chuck were strongly male-skewing, in that order, with Fringe and 24 slightly male skewing. Broadcast TV, and cable, is a vast, female-gay ghetto. Full of "hunky" men who women can "change" and taboo-breaking scenes, etc. that excite the female audience.
But long-term, this gay-female ghetto offers little revenue growth and significant challenges by new technology, as Seidenberg notes. On the broadcast side, audiences continue to erode. Men have largely fled, "Two and a Half Men" is as noted by TVByTheNumbers.com, a female-skewing show. The White female audience is not growing, Blacks are too few in number and mostly too poor (Blacks are 12.5% of the population, and about 60% of them are urban core / ghetto) to be a profitable growth market. [The over-representation of Blacks in commercials is to signal PC adherence to diversity for Liberal White women, which is most White women, and to get Jessie Jackson and Maxine Waters off commercial makers backs, as well as promoting the Platonic "noble lie" about the socio-economic characteristics of Blacks.] Mexicans, as shown consistently by Nielsen (here), with skeptics on this point invited to click the link and see what Hispanics in the US watch.
Meanwhile, cable faces younger audiences (and old) cutting the cable cord and simply relying on Hulu, Redbox, Amazon, Itunes, and so on for entertainment, with local news and such provided by over-the-air broadcasts. Continued recession, and likely decades long wage pressure and limited job growth pretty much guarantee consumers will penny-pinch for decades to come. Older audiences finding "hip and edgy" not cutting the value equation, are likely to cut cable as a discretionary expense no longer justified, as much as younger ones. Indeed, it is likely pressured families as much as "hip/cool young consumers" (the business world has a pathetic need to appear hip and cool) who would seem to be cutting cable first.
Already Verizon and Sprint offer some streaming of games through phones. Flo TV gives live, mobile TV in portable devices, offering "no streaming, no waiting, no buffering." ESPN offers, as does the NFL, limited coverage of games on their website, via streaming video. These are baby steps, akin to the Creative Labs Rio and other early, pre-Ipod MP3 players. Eventually, some company will get this right, offering a cheap phone or player device, with low monthly fees. Making it cheap, convenient, and easy to watch video on a pocket sized device. Clearly this is where music has gone, from expensive, custom hi-fi set ups in the 1970's to now, cheap/tinny MP3 players offering massive convenience at the expense of quality sound. In the modern world, people seem to prefer convenience, over quality.
Cable is extraordinarily vulnerable to this shift, and Comcast's purchase of NBC can be seen as either extraordinarily stupid, or a desire to hedge the exposure (of being dumped as a "dumb pipe" delivering content for cheaper/better alternatives) by getting into the content creation business. If so, that move may yet prove foolish, as NBC has shown no real ability to create and sustain winning content, that appeals to both men and women. "Outsourced" may do OK ratings after the Office, but it does not seem something that would be a winner in the new scale required by a shift to personal video consumption. In that new world, scale matters. Winners would be defined, because of the cheapness inherent in the pricing model (inherited from MP3 downloads and already established by Amazon's video on demand, and Netflix's offerings), by massive popularity. While production costs can be whittled down, there's only so cheap a production can get before audiences tune out. This means a world of low-margin, high volume entertainment. Something Hollywood just can't do. Particularly TV.
FX has tried to rebrand itself as male-oriented. Ads for "Two and a Half Men" (itself female-skewing) stress male-orientation. FX's lineup includes "Sons of Anarchy," "Terriers," "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "the League," "Two and a Half Men" (re-runs), and "Lights Out" (in January, about a boxer). FX has been around since 1994. Recently, MediaLife published a story on FX.
With "The Shield," which begins its final season in September, and "Nip/Tuck," plus movies like "Batman Begins," FX in only a few years has gone from a nondescript network to becoming the closest thing to HBO on basic cable.
"They have some great, great cutting-edge, gritty shows that have become appointment viewing for millions of people," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media.
Another big plus: The diversity of that programming makes FX a top-five network in virtually every demographic advertisers care about, putting it on par with broadcast TV in another important regard.
The other challenge facing FX may prove thornier. The network must deal with the failure of many of its newer series to perform up to the level of "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck." FX will debut one new drama this September but it's also bringing back three of its newer dramas, "Damages," the Glenn Close series, "The Riches," and "Dirt," and none has fulfilled their critical promise in the ratings.
What makes it such a thorny challenge is that FX can't air just any new series. It has to be edgy, pushing the limits, and it also has to be a substantial drama. There just aren't that many scripts that meet those high standards. In a sense, being like HBO, FX shares HBO's programming challenge--one that has hobbled the pay network for several years.
FX's tagline for advertisers is "There is No Box," meaning it's not confined to any demographic group or any particular genre.
That's to say it's an edgy network airing original series and movies that you'd sooner find on pay TV than on cable or broadcast TV.
"The whole strategy of originals, which goes back to 'The Shield,' is to bring people in by providing fare they can't get anywhere else," says Lefkowitz.
FX's target is adults 18-49, but its originals zero in on a variety of demographics. It targets men with the firefighter drama "Rescue Me," women with "Damages," and younger adults with the comedy "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
FX ranks among the top five cable networks in the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 demographics.
Its average primetime audience in February was 1.5 million viewers, up 26 percent from February 2007. Among 18-49s, FX ranked No. 4 behind USA, TBS and TNT with 875,000 viewers, up 28 percent.
FX's appeal to advertisers is its big ratings and broad demographic reach, notably with edgy programs that build loyalty among viewers. It's among the strongest brands on cable.
But the network faces a real challenge in keeping itself fresh with yet more edgy shows that draw viewers, as the "The Shield" has done, without going so edgy and dark that advertisers shy away.
Edgy and hip of course being code-words for female and gay oriented entertainment. Men like action, and adventure. None of which is particularly edgy and hip. Think "Die Hard," or "Star Wars," or even the Star Trek movies. "Death Wish," the Dirty Harry movies, and the current Jason Statham action movies, are not edgy and hip. Nor are they "dark." They're filled with … action. Which is what draws in the male audience. "Damages," "Dirt," and "the Riches" were of course, female skewing (Dirt and the Riches were not renewed).
Meanwhile, the numbers for FX itself are not particularly compelling.
How often does a scripted series hit an all-time ratings high in Season 6? Well, FX's comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia just did it with its sixth season premiere last night. Also breaking series records was the network's comedy The League, which opened its second season behind Sunny. At 10 PM, Sunny delivered 1.83 million adults 18-49 and 1.46 million adults 18-34, up 3% from the previous series demo highs posted by last season's premiere. In the male demographics, the gains from the Season 5 premiere were bigger, 16% in Men 18-34 (1.01 million) and 11% in Men 18-49 (1.24 million), both all-time series highs. The total viewership, 2.21 million, was was off by 1% in Live+same day but is expected to be a series best when Live+7 data is factored in.
Or, translated into English, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" had 1.01 million men watching it and 450,000 women, ages 18-34, and 1.24 million men, and 590,000 women, ages 18-49. Of the core advertising group, this adds up to about 1.83 million (ages 18-49).
Terriers ratings were even worse, about half a million people watching. Comments on TVByTheNumbers.com included:
I dont think Terriers ratings are bad because it's a bad show but because its on a network whos audience isn't really into that type of show. Justified debuted big but then dropped a lot when people saw it was a procedural type show. FX built its brand off adult serialized dramas and i think thats what its audience expects. It would probably be a hit on TNT.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a wide audience available for the 'PI' genre. (Somebody wake the Mike Hammer folks up.) We saw this with Veronica Mars, and other than that show and Angel name the last PI show outside of Magnum that lasted longer than a wasted breath? (Bored to Death , Monk, and Psych aren't true gumshoe shows. They are dramedies.) I could argue that this is the wrong time to launch a new show on cable. What with all the broadcast nets pimping their wares, but who gives a hoot. I think it would've done a lot better with an early summer run. (Y'know when there's little competition.) It's no longer a question of 'if', now it's a question of whether or not the fans get to see all of it before the ax claims another victim.
Terriers, for those who saw it (about half a million people), has some major problems. Only Donal Logue ("Life," "Tao of Steve") is a compelling actor who holds your attention. Co-star Michael Raymond-James does not really register (he played "Tex" on an episode of "Life" and was also on "Tru Blood"). Nor does his character hold much interest, a blue collar crook persuaded by Logue's "Hank Dolworth" to mostly ride the straight and narrow as an unlicensed PI. The female characters remain ciphers, mostly uninteresting. Though its implied the character Britt Pollack (Raymond-James) pulls his hot girlfriend mostly on the basis of his outlaw status, the writing and performance don't indicate raw charisma. While the main description of the show, as two down and out private eyes seeking to slowly adopt responsibility and maturity, has male appeal, that theme seems a turn-off for women. Who prefer men already "hot" (i.e. high status, charisma, dangerous) and merely need their magic guiding hand and uber-sexual appeal to "change him." I.E. make him commit to one women, the female proxy character.
This is not the only "magic formula" and by itself does not guarantee success, but does seem to describe those shows with substantial audiences (nearly all female) absent gross-out, one-liner animated comedies and semi-action/sci-fi dramas, that appeal more to men. Terriers leaves men slightly intrigued, but not enough to stick around, and FX is still, mostly a female-driven audience. Hip and edgy being dead give-aways. The fruitless pining by the lead character for his ex-wife, soon to be married, seems a pointless turn-off for men, who did tune in the next day in far greater numbers (about twice the amount as Terriers total viewers) for "Sunny in Philadelphia," which is basically a more explicit Seinfeld. There seems to be a lack of action-adventure to draw in a male audience, itself a tough sell on cable even on FX (the network being mostly female oriented), and not enough "hunky guy you can change" for women. Add a lack of really compelling writing, particularly in creating compelling supporting characters, and Donal Logue can't carry the show by himself. The lead characters demons (alcoholism and a life of crime, respectively), are interesting to a female audience if the guys are "hot" Alpha males. Not so much when they're blue collar, down and out, scrapping for change. Meanwhile, guys don't see much action, adventure, or the lead characters winning. But the main problem remains lack of compelling characters (and the lack luster performance by the other actors). TV (or, serial entertainment) requires a magnetic, compelling presence by most of the cast. Aside from Logue, that's just not there in Terriers. But the problem is not confined to just one show. FX itself is trapped.
FX's problem is that their audience base is about 1.5 to 2 million viewers, tops. That's not very much. Basically, FX makes its money from carriage fees (what satellite and cable providers get charged for carrying the channel, regardless of who watches). As noted above, that money is under significant pressure from a variety of sources, and is one big shift away, from collapsing like music sales. Nokia right now, is under huge pressure. The company just hired its first non-Finn as CEO. It has no real advantage in the lucrative, high-end smartphone market, being tied to the Symbian OS with significant short-comings, including apps. The way out for a company like Nokia, seeking to challenge Apple or Google in apps, is entertainment content. Some folks at Deadline Hollywood Daily got it.
stevenp is absolutely right. These numbers are nothing to harp about and yet everyone does. It's a calculated decision to tout these numbers for the advertisers and no one else. The issue is most of the scripted shows are mediocre at best and non-scripted is often so cheap, it doesn't matter what numbers they do as long as audience flow is established so a channel can maintain its carriage. Reality at FX is they continue to make shows for very narrow niche audiences and although their success has been spotty, the value of the channel continues to grow due to perception. The question I have is when does cable stop cuming [he means cumulative adding] numbers and own up to its real sampling? If they did, the reality of these kinds of numbers for the cost of the programming should give one pause. But Sunny benefits from a contained budget and a ridiculous guarantee from MRC and ownership for FX productions that makes it impossible not to make and you see it again with The League which I'm sure gets made under the low budget FX model. The bath on Terriers and Justified and Damages and Dirt and The Riches is a much more important thing to look at and gage. But it's irrelevant because the perception of the channel is in place and therefore the overall value of the asset to Newscorp is really all anyone at Fox cares about. So much for quality programming.
This commenter gets it. Cable is not delivering numbers, in proportion to the hype. Indeed, I would suggest that if you added up all the cumulative numbers of both Broadcast and Cable, it would not come close to the TV watching of say, 1968 or even 1975, when there were only three networks, plus spotty PBS, but entertainment was much broader. Emphasis on niche content inevitably drives those not enamored of out of the marketplace. There is a whole mass of under-served groups, particularly men and older audiences, who don't find hip, cool, edgy, and dark entertainment particularly appealing. And don't watch.
The problem is, that Netflix (whose CEO recently insulted Americans by calling them "self-absorbed" and implied they were stupid, on price, regarding his Canadian pilot to sell streaming video at cheaper prices than US plans), and Redbox, and Amazon, and Itunes/Apple, are all spending billions of dollars to carry content that is not making them much money. It is my view that one hungry player, will spend less, by creating their own content, deliberately engineered to be as broad as possible, reaching all four "quadrants" (young/old, male/female), to make themselves a come-from-behind player. Offering a cheap handset/player, priced less than $200 (the disposable income marker these days) and very cheap monthly rates (probably less than $10 a month).
Nokia, or Samsung, or even Motorola could be a player in this. All are under earnings pressure. Verizon, or T-Mobile, or other mobile service providers could use this to get "tie-in" and increase their earnings (by getting people to switch and stay). Obviously, technical issues such as bandwidth, compression, and reliability of service need to be addressed, but they are not insurmountable. The goal is to move video one-way only, and deliver that video onto a fairly small screen (Hi-Def need not be delivered in the first generation). So people can view video pretty much anywhere. Just like listening to an Ipod. Indeed, serialized entertainment, available ONLY through such a service, perhaps downloadable at first, could prompt switchers if the entertainment was broad enough. Men of course, form the majority of technology early adopters, so are a prime target, but women would have to find the entertainment desirable as well, given their robust participation (about half) in the technology consumption marketplace, for organic growth after an initial adoption.
The initial problem, though, is not technology but content. Hollywood has been in its own niche of dark, hip, edgy, and cool (read, female and gay) that its not really capable anymore of making broadly appealing content. Serialized entertainment, like most TV series, are a natural for personal consumption. Because unlike a movie, its not "one and done," audiences want to see lengthy development of characters, situations, and action to enhance their pleasure. If a movie is like a short story, TV is like a series of novels. Where about 17 hours, for the average hour-long drama (about 43 minutes per episode when commercials are subtracted out) that runs 22 full episodes, compared to about 2 hours maximum, allows far greater detail to be presented to the viewer, in action, drama, character development, and simple quirkiness. It is this advantage of time, that at its best, makes television superior to movies. Capable of covering either drama or comedy in far greater depth, and more carefully, than even the most skilled team can deliver in two hours.
Companies like Netflix, or Amazon, or T-Mobile, or Nokia, or Verizon, or Redbox, or Apple, or Samsung, all seeking first-mover advantage to have the complete system, cheap, fast, and good, are stuck in dilemma. They pay a lot for Hollywood content, which just isn't that compelling. Inevitably, one or more of these companies will start creating their own content. By tapping some of the more lean and hungry creative teams, definitely not including the Wachowskis, who are currently making a movie about a gay US soldier and gay Iraqi terrorist plotting to kill Bush. That's Arianna Huffington in the middle. The Wachowskis look like extras from "the Hills Have Eyes," and certainly cannot be accused of even having a remote understanding of what mainstream America finds entertaining. The one sibling as you can see has had the full sex change operation.
Likely to be tapped are those folks who attempted, but failed, in making broad-based entertainment (because TV is now such a female-gay ghetto that men have fled it for good). Rand Ravich and Far Shariat ("Life") come to mind, as the sort of model content creators approached. Folks who know how to run shows, budgets, and make male-appealing stuff that can also have appeal to women. With an offering of non-Hollywood accounting, i.e. full profit sharing on "first dollar revenues" as long as costs are kept down, with perhaps increases in percentages if consumption goes up (i.e. the shows are sold on a per-download basis, or streaming sign up, etc). Creating direct and unmistakable incentives to make the content as popular as possible. Going for people hungry for money, and willing to trade awards, "respect," and critical acclaim to get it. Young Andrew Lloyd Webers, in other words. Folks who will take critical disdain in exchange for making a a lot of money.
It is pretty clear that the current model of cable offers little possibility of change, caught in Hollywood's Hip and Edgy Trap. Which offers critical acclaim, career advancement, and plays to the desire of execs in cable and broadcast to win publicity and coverage, not audiences, for their shows. Since even in broadcast, and definitely in cable, masses of viewers don't translate into revenue. Indeed, broadcast TV is increasingly resembling movies, where a few massively profitable shows (sports, American Idol) and a few thinly profitable shows (cheap reality) subsidize money-losing "prestige" shows.
The new model (not a certainty, but a probability at least) offers canny first-movers the ability to escape the trap, use their own custom-built content, to draw subscribers/customers to a new model. One of mass, not niche appeal.
Which overall, would be good for the country. By having to appeal to male audiences, which are generally more culturally conservative than female-gay ones, the constant drift ever leftward (for example the norming of polygamy) can be arrested, at least for a while. And a common culture, among men and women, offers a way for each to have greater understanding of each other. Something the isolated culture of today provides little support for, and indeed constantly undermines.
It would be ironic indeed, if a great mass of people a short time in the future, watching videos of serial entertainment, alone and individually, on small portable screens, were more connected via mass-appealing media, than the collective viewing of TV today in living rooms and sports bars today. The world of Max Headroom is today, only instead of only Network 23, there are thousand choices, all the same, all very niche. Let us hope for a broader, more unifying tomorrow.


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Suspect in Tonawanda robbery caught in Buffalo
A man suspected of robbing a Town of Tonawanda gas station at gunpoint last weekend was taken into custody today in Buffalo.
Louis Henhawk, 39, who lives in the town, was spotted walking along Hertel Avenue, near Niagara Street, by Buffalo police earlier today, according to Lt. Nicholas A. Bado, a spokesman for the town's police department. Henhawk now is in the town's lockup, awaiting arraignment on charges of robbery, menacing, larceny and criminal possession of a weapon.
A warrant for Henhawk was issued following Saturday's robbery of a Noco gas station on Niagara Falls Boulevard. Investigators said he threatened a clerk with a handgun and fled with approximately $100 in cash.


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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 18, 2009) - On a cold emotional senior day the ETSU women's soccer team picked up a critical 1-0 Atlantic Sun Conference win over league leading Kennesaw State Sunday during the Bucs final home match of the 2009 season.
With the victory the Bucs improve to 5-10-0 overall with a 4-3 mark in A-Sun play, while the Owls fall to 8-6-0, with a 6-3 record in conference competition.
"Before the match Rob (KSU head coach) and I were talking about how anyone in our conference can beat anyone else on any given day," said head coach Heather Henson. "Today our whole team played hard and really didn't give anything to Kennesaw the entire match. As they pushed forward and tried to tie the match all our players were able to stick together and finish strong as one unit."
After both teams tried to find their offensive rhythm early in the first half, junior forward Terri Miller (Cape Coral, Fla.), quickly netted the matches' game-winner off a long pass from sophomore midfielder Genna Petersen (Loveland, Ohio), in the 18th minute.
Kennesaw State continued to pressure the Buc defense throughout the match, however great efforts from senior defenders Kia Kindell (Westerchester, Ohio), Kim Jones (Springfield, Va.) and sophomore defender Jessica Hiltenbrand (Barlett, Tenn.) denided any offensive breakaway for the Owls.
"KSU is one of the top teams in the league and I thought our back defenders, along with our backs, did an excellent job stopping any extra runs that might have came open in the second half," said Henson.
In addition to the great play by the ETSU defense, sophomore keeper Megan Masch (Virginia Beach, Va.), continued her colossal play in net with nine saves, for her fifth shutout of the season.
"Sometimes I don't think we see how great Megan is, because she makes so many difficult saves look easy," Henson said. "All season she has kept our team in matches and today was no different. Megan is the leader of our defense and today she showed this conference how dominate she can be against a quality opponent in Kennesaw State."
Offensively, Miller led the Bucs with four shots, while senior forward Jordan Monty (Mesquite, Texas), had three attempts.
Now sitting with 12 conference points ETSU continues to push for a spot in the A-Sun postseason tournament as it returns to action for a 7:00 p.m., contest this Friday at Florida Gulf Coast.
For more information on the ETSU women's soccer team please visit www.ETSUBucs.com. Also you can follow daily post and updates on the official ETSU women's soccer team Twitter page at www.twitter.com/ETSUSoccer.


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Large Velvet Santa SuitItem: 081-7091
The Professional Suit for the Professional Santa
Look like a professional Santa without mortgaging the North Pole with this rich velvet costume. This suit is ideal for you if you don't want to worry about choosing costume accessories, because this Santa Suit has it all. Plus, the classic quality of this suit will last for years to come.
- Standard size.
- Men's jacket sizes 42-48.
- 52″ waist.
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- Zipper closure Santa jacket with belt loops. The front zipper closure allows Santa to remove his coat with ease.
- Pants with elastic waist and side pockets.
- Matching Santa hat with plush pom-pom and large enough to fit over your wig.
- Naugahyde belt with loop and gilt buckle with prong.
- Naugahyde boot tops with white long-hair pile plush cuffs.
- White nylon gloves.
- Wig & beard sold separately.
- Glasses sold separately.
- Dry Clean only.
Santa Suit costumes from Century Novelty are perfect for any Christmas event. Put on this authentic Santa costume for instant fun at your Christmas party or bring Holiday cheer to the mall as everyone's favorite jolly old elf.


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Team Hopes to Contend for a High Finish in Season's Main Event
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's cross country team will join the other members of the Ancient Eight at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships this Saturday at Princeton. For the Elis, this marks a return to the course upon which they ran their best race of the season two weeks ago. This time, though, the stakes have been raised.
The team's performance at Heps is traditionally considered a gauge of the overall success of the season. Still riding the momentum from their impressive showing at the Princeton Invitational, the Bulldogs are poised to rise to the occasion. The team hopes to replicate the tight grouping that produced their strong result last time at Princeton, when a span of only 11 seconds separated the top five Elis across the line.
Despite what is sure to be a strong field that will include two nationally ranked teams in Princeton (ninth) and Columbia (28th), head cross country coach Paul Harkins is optimistic about his team's chances.
"I expect the guys to come out and run with confidence and a belief that they can compete with anyone," said Harkins. "I know that if they compete with confidence and an expectation to beat some people, they will reach their goal to significantly improve upon where they finished a year ago [in seventh place]."
On paper, that goal looks wholly attainable this weekend. After Princeton and Columbia, the race appears to be a wide-open affair between Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn and Yale.
Yale will be looking to its top performers, seniors Conor Dooney and Sam Lynch, to lead the way, and will be relying on the leadership of senior captain Nathan Richards. Junior Kevin Lunn, who was Yale's first finisher at the Princeton Invitational, will also be in the mix, along with junior Sam Kirtner. Also representing Yale will be sophomore Michael Cunetta, sophomore Ryan Laemel, freshman John McGowan, sophomore Miles Richardson, freshman Jacob Sandry, senior Julian Sheinbaum and junior Matthew Thwaites.
Harkins, currently in his first year at Yale, has been to Heps once before and is excited to return.
"Because of the rivalries and the history, the competing teams focus most of their season around this meet," said Harkins. "It's an amazing cross country experience to be a part of, and I cannot wait to see our guys compete with tremendous heart in front of their fans, family and alumni!"
The men's 8k race is scheduled to begin at 11:00 A.M. Results will be posted here, and will also be available at www.yalebulldogs.com. Ivy League Sports will also be running a live blog feed, available here.
Report by Eian Katz '13, Yale Sports Publicity


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Learn how Accenture helped a major Brazilian retail bank choose between its two existing card processing platforms, reducing processing costs and time to market for innovations.
This major Brazilian bank has a substantial international presence and employs more than 100,000 people.
The bank asked Accenture to help it address inefficiencies resulting from the use of two different card processing platforms.


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Liberty News
Students pile onto buses for Romney rally at Lynchburg airport
Hundreds of Liberty University students boarded buses to a victory rally for Gov. Mitt Romney on Monday at Lynchburg Regional Airport, Romney's second stop on a four-state, six-rally tour on the last day before the presidential election.
Students waited in long lines in front of the Vines Center after Convocation as buses made repeat trips to the airport.
Sophomore Kerianne Roberts tried to get on the bus with her friends, but after seeing the buses return three times and the long line of students still waiting, they decided to drive themselves.
"The fact that Mitt Romney could be our president, as of tomorrow, (and) that we had a chance, being college students, to see our possible future president is really a blessing and something I will not take for granted," she said.
Junior Joshua Novalis said he attended with friends to support his candidate of choice.
"I came out here to support Romney because I've just been kind of fed up with how things have been the last four years, so I'm just excited to see someone who's looking to bring real change to the White House," he said.
Students went straight to the rally site, which was just steps away from Liberty University School of Aeronautics, following an inspirational Convocation message from economist, author, and actor Ben Stein.
"It was cool seeing Ben Stein speak and put forth some of the same values that Romney said in his speech here — it built up well together, just to see a united front against what we see as a threat to the country," Novalis said.
Stein arrived at the rally with Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his family.
More than 4,000 students are expected to turn out at the new voting precinct on Liberty's campus on Tuesday, many of them voting for the first time and most exercising that right in their first presidential election.
Junior Andi Peterson said before attending Monday's rally, she was "not really sure yet" who would get her vote.
"I just kind of wanted to see for myself, hear what he (Romney) thinks and where he stands … being in person and actually seeing that makes more of a difference," she said. "I liked his passion, how he's for real change."
She said the presence of Liberty students at the rally was exciting.
"I'm pretty sure we dominated the place," she said.
Even Romney, in his 22-minute address, called the crowd "pretty darn impressive." He arrived in Lynchburg from Orlando, Fla. It was his second visit to the area this year; he spoke at Liberty's Commencement in May.
Pre-program festivities at Monday's rally included some faces familiar to Liberty. Charles Billingsley, worship leader at Thomas Road Baptist Church, performed some songs, including "The Star-Spangled Banner," and Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Dave Young, dean of the School of Aeronautics, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.


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Municipal Airport
Airport Name: Imphal Airport
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The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs and makes sun and moon shed tears from their eyes." When Shahjahan said this, he was simply praising his own wonderful creation, the Taj Mahal, for its everlasting beauty. The splendour of one of the Seven Wonders of the World still draws thousands of tourists to the city, which is well-connected through a number of regular flights to Agra.
Boasting of majestic monuments, such as the Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Jama Masjid and of course, Taj Mahal, Agra is a city of historical significance. Lying on the banks of Yamuna River, the erstwhile capital of India is also a major industrial town. As the city attracts a sizeable volume of tourists every year, one can easily find Agra flights. The city is well-connected to other Indian cities by the nearby Kheria airport and it is not very difficult to get air tickets to Agra.
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Airport Address
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If the amount of work put in over the summer is any indication, the upcoming Pratt High School football season could be a very good one.
If the amount of work put in over the summer is any indication, the upcoming Pratt High School football season could be a very good one.
The Greenbacks are working hard on the field and in the weight room and have also attended several team camps.
New PHS head coach Jamie Cruce has had his charges working out since the week after school was over. The conditioning program consists of workouts Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 6:15 a.m. to 8 a.m.
In the allotted time, the kids lift weights, perform a variety of agility and movement drills, and do conditioning runs. The weightlifting sessions are highly structured with athletes working in pairs or triads. While one athlete in the group is lifting, the second would be spotting and the third would be doing "functional movements" such as push-ups. The athletes move quickly and in an orderly manner through the various stations.
"We like to keep kids busy," Cruce explained. "We don't want one kid lifting and everyone else lounging or jacking around."
About 30-40 players have been attending the workouts, a number Cruce hopes to see increase in the future as the program builds.
"We expect the kids to make it to about 80% of the conditioning workouts," Cruce mentioned. Recognizing that in a school the size of Pratt, most of the athletes are involved in more than one sport, Cruce gives attendance credit if an athlete misses a conditioning workout because he is attending a sports camp for, say, basketball or wrestling.
This is week 8 of the conditioning program, which is scheduled for 9 weeks. After next week, Coach Cruce will be giving his players time off until practice starts up again August 19 for the fall sports season.
There has been a little bit of what Cruce calls "team install"—introducing the players to basic offensive and defensive schemes. The players had a team camp the first week of summer to prepare for the 2 ½ day Hutchinson football camp the following week. Last Friday, the Greenbacks attended a 1 day camp in Ellinwood, also.
This week is the last week coaches can do "football work" with their players with a limited number of players at any one time, according to KSHSAA rules. There have been only basic offensive and defensive schemes introduced to the players this summer, just enough to allow the Greenbacks to have something to work with at the team camps they have attended.
"They are all working hard," Cruce noted. "I've been very happy with the effort the kids have been putting forth. They have been willing to do everything we've asked of them." Assisting Cruce with the workouts is long-time PHS assistant coach Steve Landry.
It should be a well-conditioned group of Greenbacks who report for fall practices August 19.


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Thu, 01 May 2008 at 4:31 pm
Jude Law is a London Luggage Lad
Say that ten times fast!
Jude Law grabs his luggage and waits for a ride in London, England on Thursday.
Mr. Law has been getting some ribbing lately due to his receding hairline. During his visit to see friend Kayvan Novak filming in South London, people reportedly burst out laughing when he took off his cap. Jude, 35, initially got defensive but then laughed it off in the end. Poor Jude!
More pictures of Jude Law, the London luggage lad after the jump…
Just Jared on Facebook
Photos: Big Pictures/Bauergriffinonline Posted to: Jude Law
Sponsored Links by ZergNet


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Hey all,
My name is Mike, I'm 28 y/o. 6 foot tall, 185lbs. I'm looking for somebody cool that either is starting out like me, or might have a little bit more experience but still wants a kitesurfing partner. I am totally willing to pay some extra $$ or contribute some food and beer if I get some mentoring of course.
Mainly looking for somebody to learn with, or hell, even sharing a training kite is good with me, as it won't be used forever anyway. Might be a good idea to eventually save some money. I've been looking at a 2m Ocean Rodeo for about $200 on CL.
Anyway, after learning a little bit on my own, I will go into some lessons, and I hope to be on the water in a few weeks or so. I'm free every day after 6:30PM and free all weekend as well. I have transportation, and am willing to pick you up or meet wherever. I currently live in Oakland, CA. Hit me up anytime and we'll work something out
- Mike


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Opening Day At 2014 Audi Melges 20 U.S. Nationals Puts Jim Wilson's 'Oleander' In The Lead
21 August 2014
Newport, RI - With a brief on-shore postponement by PRO Bill Canfield and his legion of volunteers from Sail Newport, the deep Audi Melges 20 fleet headed North of the Newport Harbor Bridge to kick off the sixth edition of the U.S. National Championship. With past champions, fleet veterans, and several talented newcomers in attendance, what the fleet lacked in size was quickly made up through talent and tight racing.
Once the breeze settled in at 8 knots from the Southwest, Canfield wasted no time getting a race started. North American Fleet President Rob Wilbur on Cinghiale darted out to a nice lead nailing the right side of the course staving off several hard chargers for the left side. What seemed to be a steady, stable breeze quickly faded as the fleet inverted on the downwind. Wilbur was able to maintain a lead, but Marc Hollerbach on Fu and Drew Friedes on Pacific Yankee made huge gains on the run to get in the hunt. Hollerbach would eventually take the bullet after a fierce battle with Wilbur.
With a slight uptick in pressure for the start of Race Two, Hollerbach was back to the front of the fleet to take the lead at the first mark. On the next upwind however, it was Cesar Gomez Neto on Portobello who hit the left side hard out of the leeward gates to get the attention of the leaders. Hollerbach did a nice job of battling back from the right side and taking advantage of some small shifts at the top of the course to maintain a narrow lead and keep the bullet, followed by Gomez and Wilson's Oleander.
In the best breeze of the day that saw pulses to 10 kts, a clean start saw the fleet fighting for the ability to get to the left side of the course. After a few minutes of racing, those who had struggled to keep their lanes had to bail and give up on the left which ended up paying big. Again, Wilbur started with style and was able to cross the fleet on port tack, however Morgan Kiss on Baciami and Wilson were able to follow closely on Wilbur's tail at the top mark.
After an intense downwind battle, many tight crosses and ducks and a windward mark layline missed by some of the lead boats, Wilson took the bullet in his brand new Audi Melges 20 straight from the factory. "Our team arrived yesterday morning, put the boat together for the first time and were able to set it up and have a great day of racing," said Jim Wilson. Drew Wierda on W nabbed second place followed by Gomez's team on Portobello.
Once back to the dock, Audi Melges 20 teams were treated to cold beer, and a bevy of appetizers put on by the staff at Sail Newport. The Audi Melges 20 fleet hunkered down and relaxed after a challenging, yet fun day on the water. The forecast is similar for Day Two, and with the compact, talented fleet the scores from top to bottom are anything but secure. An additional three races are scheduled. With the completion of race number six, a discard of each teams worst score will go into effect.
As with other Audi Melges 20 events around the world, racing updates will be posted online at the Official Audi Melges 20 Facebook Page. Be sure to also follow the fleet on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Tune in for the latest racing information, results, video interviews, and photos. Race reports, press releases and photos will be available online each day post racing at melges20.com.
TOP FIVE RESULTS (After Three Races)
1.) Jim Wilson/Sam Rogers, Oleander; 5-3-1 = 9
2.) Marc Hollerbach/Jonathan McKee, Fu; 1-1-8 = 10
3.) Drew Weirda/Scott Nixon, W; 6-4-2 = 12
4.) Cesar Gomes Neto/Andre Forseca, Portobello; 13-2-3 = 18
5.) Rob Wilber/Anthony Kotoun, Cinghiale; 2-9-7 = 18
Official Yachtscoring Event Website
View Full Entry List
View Full Crew List
Audi Melges 20 on Facebook
Audi Melges 20 on Twitter
Audi Melges 20 on Instagram
Audi Melges 20 on YouTube
View Full Photo Gallery - JOY


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Starting a blog is pretty simple. Actually getting people to visit it is hard. It's not enough to just create great content and hope they will come…
Because they won't.
Today's successful blogs dig into a deep bag of tricks that include SEO, design and analytics…and then combine these elements into ever more advanced tactics that help them drive traffic to their sites, grow their audience and rank high in the search engines.
Here's a list of ten of those tactics that I've had great success with in the last couple of years to help you increase the traffic to your blog.
Make it easy for people to find your content over the web
One of the latest developments at Google is author markup. This feature allows you to connect all of your content across the web beneath one author/bio profile.
For instance, here's what Danny Sullivan looks like on the search engine results page on a search for "SEO advice":
The image of Danny sets him apart from other SEOs, and if you click on the "by Danny Sullivan" link you land on his Google+ page:
Click on the "More by Danny Sullivan" and you get a Google results page dedicated to his content:
As you can see adding author markup feature to you social identity will improve your chances in search results, increasing click throughs to your content.
Implementing author markup isn't easy, however, unless you check out AJ Kohn's guide on how to implement REL=AUTHOR. This is a great guide that AJ put together with the help of three Google engineers.
Strategically join relevant audience communities
One thing about link building and SEO strategy that gets missed so often is the relationship…actually getting to know people is the bedrock to getting links.
You do this by participating with your audience where they are hanging out. A really great way to make this very strategic is to use Google' doubleclick planner.
Here's how it works. Drop in a relevant web address…
Then copy down the list of sites that it creates:
You can start at the top of that list and start visiting, reading and sharing comments on those sites. In time you will start to create relationships with some of the other readers that will lead to links and traffic.
Doubleclick will also give you an idea of the typical interests of your audience (based upon the web address you enter):
I've found this list great for strategically pursuing other industries that might need my help. It's also a great way to come up with content for guests posts.
As you add value to these different communities, people will start rewarding you with links and traffic. Avoid spamming and dropping self-promotion links…the community will ignore you if you do that.
Use Super-Sized Images, Photos and Illustrations
Last year the 2011 Technorati State of the Blog report stated that 90 percent of bloggers share some type of media on their blogs.
Photos are the most popular:
But when it comes to great blog/site design and attracting links, just sharing any old photo won't do the trick. Besides, why not leverage the excellent resolutions of new monitors by sharing beautiful photos?
This was the very point behind Boston Globe's Big Picture blog. Every day they share some of the best photos on a certain topic. The images are big and bold…filling up at over 990 pixels wide. They are hard to ignore and got the blog picked up by Time as one of 2011's best blogs.
Now that's a great link to have!
Even though it's been less than a year since their last redesign, Fast Company redesigned their blog so they emphasize photos and images on their site.
It's reviving it's readership with these outsized photos, drawing readers and links alike. Some sites like Cabin Porn are even taking it farther by filling the entire screen. This kind of out-sized use of photos leads to new viewers and links.
Think Outside of the Social Media Sharing Box
Facebook, Twitter and Google+ aren't the only social sites that have the power to push traffic to your site. Other niche communities can do the same thing:
The idea is to go through a list of social networking sites, identify the ones that would be relevant to your industry and then systematically add value. As you build up relationships with users of those sites you'll eventually start to gain links and followers.
Working these other social sites will also help you develop content for you blog posts. Watch to see what is gaining popularity in content and discussions and then create posts that address those issues.
By the way, back in December Reddit served over 2 billion page views:
…so you should not ignore that source for an opportunity. See if there is a subreddit you should join.
Join Question-and-Answer Sites
People come to the web looking for answers. That's why sites that specialize in answering questions have become popular…sites like Answers.com, Formspring, Yahoo! Answers and Quora.
The best way to leverage these question-and-answer sites is to try to provide value on discussions that are important, interesting but have not had a lot of answers.
Here's one…the "best SEO strategy."
You can also look for questions that are getting a lot of attention because they are on the site's home page, making the rounds on the social web or ranking well in search engines.
When you answer in a way that provides a substantial solution to a person's problem, providing relevant links and data, you will get the attention of anyone who is in the discussion or joins.
I've also found that you can put links back to your site and not get called a spammer as long as they are significant to the conversation.
Jump into Trending Discussions with Thought Leaders
There are a few sites out there that present a great opportunity for engaging readers on important issues and getting the attention of those thought leaders.
- Search Engine Journal
- SEOmoz
- Ramit Sethi
- Copyblogger
- Social Media Examiner
- Chris Brogan
As you strategically choose these sites and dive into the conversation, you could get some links and traffic as part of the process.
A great example of this was when Rand Fishkin jumped on Fred Wilson's AVC blog to disagree about a post Fred had written about marketing. Fred wrote a follow up the next day with a link back to Rand's post.
You can find the latest buzz and trending conversations by using sites like TechMeme, Topsy, Alltop, MediaGazer and PopURLs. These are quick sites you can scan to find headlines that might be of interest to you.
Design Around These 3 Crucial Elements
A lot of the things I've been discussing up to this point are off-page optimization and link building tactics…so now it s a good time to discuss what your site looks like and how it performs.
You could spend a substantial amount of time involved in all of the above tactics, but if your site is not clean and beautiful, then you may not get the links. So you've got to build great, usable design.
But it also needs to be fast. So, when designing your site and to make the most out of your SEO link building efforts, follow these three tips ruthlessly!
- Build a beautiful web design – We are in a time where sentiment search is growing, so what a user actual thinks and feels about your site will impact rank, links and conversion. Invest in a great design!
- Site speed – This is essential. A slow site will drive traffic away. In fact, Google proved that users are much happier when search is faster. To test this they slowed down their results by as little as 400 milliseconds and reduced the number of searches by half a percent! So, evaluate your site speed.
- Important content above the fold – Research has shown that people do scroll, but more than 80% stay above the fold. Keep the critical stuff in that top 768 pixels.
Use Egobait
One of the neatest ways to measure the success of marketing blogs has been Ad Age's Power 150 List.
This is a list that ranks the top marketing blogs based on a few key KPIs. The genius behind the list is how it drives traffic back to its site, making it a very powerful link bait tool.
In this particular case, the Power 150 is called "ego bait" because it appeals to the ego of those on the list. And if you are on the list, then you have the option of embedding the Power 150 badge on you site, which then…you guessed it…links back to Ad Age.
That's a very powerful SEO traffic driver.
This can work for you by creating a top ten list and then offering a badge for those who make it on to the list. Write to Done's Top Ten Blogs for Writers is a great example.
Crawl and Validate Your Site
By the way, one of your first steps to enhancing your site and using advanced SEO tactics to drive traffic to your site is to determine where your site is by crawling and validating it.
What exactly should you validate? Here's a checklist:
- Accessibility (Section 508 and WAI Standards)
- Dead links
- Feeds
- Multiple browsers
- Multiple devices
Now, more importantly, how do you validate your site? Use these two tools: Crawl Tools by SEOmoz or visit the W3C validation tools. Both of these tools will help you find all the problems that need to be fixed on your site…and the priority…before you start link building.
Repeat the process until you've got a clean site.
Test, Track, Measure and Tweak to Improve Success
No campaign is complete without analytics. So all this SEO and link building work you are pouring into your site can not be improved if you don't measure results.
Here's what you have to do at the minimum:
- Google Analytics – Create an account, embed the tracking code on your site and start collecting data. Do this immediately to create a benchmark before you start any kind of campaign. Understand where you are before you try to grow. That's your simplest measure of success.
- Webmaster Tools – Sign up for both Google and Bing webmaster tools to stay on top of the data that your site is generating. Bing may not deliver the same amount of traffic as Google, but it is sending roughly 30% of search traffic, and is likely to grow. Don't ignore it!
- RSS Feed Analytics – More than likely you will be pushing out content through an RSS feed so make sure you are paying attention to these metrics, too. You can do this with Google Analytics.
- Browser Tests – You'll also want to make sure that your design and the photos that you are sharing on your site are looking good across browsers. This doesn't mean all browsers, but a general rule of thumb is to test on a browser with at least 2% market share. Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari are all safe bets.
- Online Usability – While code analytics are great for tracking online behavior you are still left to interpret the results. With a usability test you can listen to what the user was thinking while they navigated through your site. For $40 a test, usertesting.com will give you a video of the person going through your site and typed comments about issues encountered.
You will never know if you are winning or losing if you don't track your results. Analytics will help you learn from your mistakes, jump on new opportunities and reach your site's fullest potential.
Increasing traffic to your blog is an art that combines more and more advanced techniques…and as you pile up these techniques (and the links!) you will slowly grow your blog and ultimately dominate in your industry.
And by the way, SEO link building is progressive and never-ending, so don't give up if you aren't getting the kind of results you want right away.
What new and advanced SEO tactics have you been using to drive traffic to your blog?
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Seven Deaths Confirmed in Arkansas
Authorities have now confirmed seven deaths in Arkansas after a severe storm
< Syrian Rebel Infighting
Aug 02, 2013 06:45
Category: General News
Category: General News
Temporary Asylum For Snowden In Russia
MOSCOW (AP) — Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer says the National Security Agency leaker has found a place to stay in Russia. Now, he says, Snowden has to figure out what to do with himself. Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum yesterday, allowing him to leave the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for almost six weeks. He's allowed to remain in Russia for at least a year.


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Oftentimes when I am doing research I come across random photos and think to myself, "Surely this building must have been demolished long ago." Such is the case with the Colorado Casket Company photo.
The picture caught my eye because of the name on the building of course! Its straightforwardness is refreshing in light of many of today's bewildering company names.
The Colorado Casket Company was located at 1213 Wazee Street and this picture dates from 1935. In my mind I was thinking the building would have been demolished during the destruction of old Auraria or perhaps as part of the widening of Speer Boulevard.
However, after consulting old maps, I found that Wazee Street corresponds partly with the current path of Auraria Parkway. In fact, when Auraria Parkway went in, part of Wazee went out! I thought of Kacey Fine Furniture at 1201 Auraria and realized that this casket building might actually still be in place.
An lo and behold, although its address is now listed as 1221 Auraria, the building in question remains! For a current view of this building, click here to go to Google maps.
Oh, by the way, the business currently listed at this address is 47 LTD LLC. Do you suppose they manufacture caskets?