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This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.
What is Airplane Mode?
Airplane Mode is a function available on Firefox OS that allows you to temporarily disable all wireless connections on your device. This is commonly used on airplanes, which often require all cellular connections turned off during flight. It can also be used to save battery on your device, or if you simply want to disable wireless connections with the push of a button.
What can I do while in Airplane Mode?
You may continue to use Firefox OS while in Airplane Mode. You can also turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth while in Airplane Mode as well. Using the wireless connectivity functions during airplane mode will display an error.
How do I enable & disable Airplane Mode?
To enable Airplane Mode, first slide down the notifications bar by tapping and holding at the top of the screen and sliding down.
Once the notifications bar has fully extended down, you can tap on the airplane mode icon to enable it.
Once enabled, you will notice a small, white airplane icon in the status bar at the top of your screen.
When you are ready to disable Airplane Mode, slide down the notifications bar and tap Airplane mode to be off. Your device will then begin to reconnect to wireless networks and should be ready to use in a few moments.
- Slide the notifications bar down from the top of your screen.
- Tap the airplane icon to enable Airplane Mode. The icon will turn blue to indicate that it's active: .
- To turn off Airplane Mode, tap the airplane icon again. It will turn white to indicate that it's off: . Your device will begin to reconnect in a few moments.


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To use those themes you first have meet all the below requirements in a proper manner :
You must be Mozilla Firefox User. After that Install Greasemonkey Script. Remember To Restart Firefox After Downloading This Greasemonkey Script.
Important thing to remember : This theme will be visible to you only. This theme of yours can't be viewed by your friends as this steps are not going to be implemented on your orkut account, but your computer. So, it will change the way orkut looks on your PC. This is fun to have a different orkut theme and enjoy. You can grab as many themes as you want and can use them as your default orkut theme from your greasemonkey options menu. We will be regularly updating these themes and will get new themes added to our blog in regular intervals. So, it will be a wiser idea to subscribe to our posts, so that you will never loose any of your favourite actress themes ;) Now let's move with the themes...
- Install Shilpa Shetty1 Orkut Theme
- Install Shilpa Shetty2 Orkut Theme
- Install Shilpa Shetty3 Orkut Theme
- Install Shilpa Shetty4 Orkut Theme
Other Bollywood Actress Orkut Themes To Download:
Aishwarya Rai ● Amisha Patel ● Amrita Rao ● Anjana Sukhani ● Ayesha Takia ● Bipasha Basu ● Celina Jaitely ● Deepika Padukone ● Diya Mirza ● Esha Deol ● Hansika Motwani ● Kangana Ranaut ● Kareena Kapoor ● Katrina Kaif ● Lara Dutta ● Perizad Zorabian ● Raima Sen ● Rani Mukherjee ● Rimi Sen ● Riya Sen ● Sameera Reddy ● Shamita Shetty ● Shilpa Shetty ● Soha Ali Khan ● Sonam Kapoor ● Sushma Reddy ● Sushmita Sen ● Tanushree Dutta ● Trisha ● Vidya Balan ● Yana Gupta
Labels: Themes

subset: commoncrawl


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5 Tips for Drugstore Makeup Shopping
I hear from many of you who say you enter a drugstore, and you're just overwhelmed by the amount of different products, and you're just not sure how to approach the situation. I totally understand. When I first started buying my first few makeup products, I was very hesitant to branch out... it's really kind of scary at first! But at the same time, I have some viewers who have the opposite issue... they want everything on the shelves! So in this blog I wanted to offer some tips to improve your drugstore experience.
- Don't buy from the first brand you see. As you browse the aisles, you may instantly see something you want, let's say... a great smoky eyeshadow palette. Before you get your heart set on purchasing it, take it with you and compare it to similar items from the other brands. Is there a better deal? A better packaged product? A product with even better shade selection? It may take a little longer, but comparison shopping can be the difference between buying a new favorite product and something that will sit untouched in your makeup drawer.
- Bring a foundation that is a close match. One of my most frequently asked questions is: How do you find the right shade of foundation in the drugstore? Since you can't swatch the colors, I think you need to bring a foundation from home (in the jar/container) that is a close match. If the shade you own isn't quite right, all you need to know is what's wrong with it-- then you can find something slightly lighter, or slightly darker. Finding the right shade is only half the battle- you also need the right formula. This is based on skin-type. If you have oily skin, look for foundations that claim to be "oil free", "shine free" or "matte". If your skin is dry, look for foundations that claim to give a "luminous" look, or have a "moisturizing" or "hydrating" quality. Those are all common buzzwords when it comes to foundation.
- Now and then, try something totally different. Never tried a red lipstick? Or green eyeshadow? Or bronzer? The drugstore is the perfect place to experiment. There are many ultra low-cost brands like N.Y.C., Wet & Wild, or Jordana that have a nice selection of shades... but the products are very inexpensive. If you don't like it, you aren't losing a lot of money, but you have the freedom to experiment and find a potentially awesome product that looks great on you! You won't know if you don't try. So now and then, pick up something you've never tried before!
- Make sure you get your deal. Many drugstores will have "buy one get one free", or "buy one get one half off" deal, or any type of discount on beauty products. No offense to Walgreens or CVS or any type of drugstore (I got nothin' but love for the drugstores!), but now and then, I've gone through the check out and later glanced at my receipt, only to find that I bought 2 instead of getting one free. Or I paid full price when it should've been 75% off. There is nothing wrong with saying, "I'm pretty sure there's a bogo on these"... to the clerk, or just ask if there is indeed still a deal. Sometimes the deals are over and they forget to take the little signs down in the aisles. When you go to Walgreens, you can see on the little screen if the "BOGO" went through when a product is scanned. We sometimes have to be our own watchdog when it comes to these deals.
- Research online and take notes. There is a WEALTH of makeup knowledge on the internet. If you see a commercial on TV and think, "man, that looks cool! But I don't know if I want it"... look up a review online! Not to toot my own horn, but I have dozens and dozens of reviews on drugstore products, and lots of "Shopping List Ideas" videos and hauls and "Emily Awards" that give honest, straightforward info on products. If you see me give something a strong review and it's an item you think you might need, jot it down on a notepad! Also, if people ask me about a product that I haven't reviewed, I'll often refer them to a site called Makeup Alley. There are tons of reviews there, but the site always averages the grade that the products recieve so you can quickly see if a product was great, average, or bad. I'm offering this tip as "drugstore" advice, because there's often nobody there in the makeup aisle to describe a product to you like there is in a department store- so it helps to go to the store prepared.
Hope you enjoyed these tips! Let me know how your next trip to the drugstore goes! Have an awesome day everyone!


text: Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums :: View topic - Online ESL tutoring via Skype Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Online ESL tutoring via Skype Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> English Schools View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message ediemarieJoined: 23 Apr 2011Posts: 3 Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:07 pm Post subject: Online ESL tutoring via Skype Hello! I do online ESL tutoring via Skype. I also do editing/proofreading. If you would like more information email me at [email protected]._________________I am an online ESL Tutor. Feel Free to contact me @ [email protected] Back to top RobertohidakaJoined: 05 Feb 2012Posts: 2Location: Brazil Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:24 am Post subject: Hi, are your native speaker? Hi, I am in Brazil, what is your rate/hour and yourt time available. Thanks_________________English Teachers Wanted email me at: [email protected] Back to top an_angelJoined: 07 Jan 2012Posts: 14 Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:21 am Post subject: learning online on skype or virtual classroom You can learn from my English language trainer. She let's us give out information about her to people who are looking for help. Skype ID dionne.acesquaredtraining.esl Back to top AfraJoined: 10 Jul 2013Posts: 131 Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:30 pm Post subject: Hello, I am from UAE, and want to learn English language under your supervision. Can you please let me know about the criteria to join your class? Online option is best for me, please let me the timings of the classes. .................................... Academic Writing Services | Resume Writing Services Order | 35% Discount | Discount Code: PROMO35 Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> English Schools All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Student Forums----------------ComputersCurrent NewsCultureEnglish SchoolsFamilyFilm and CinemaFoodHealth and FitnessHelp CenterHobbiesHolidaysLearning EnglishLiteratureMaking FriendsMusicOpinionsPetsScienceSportsThe Strange and MysteriousTOEFL and Other English ExamsTravel You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Dave's ESL Cafe is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Banner Advertising | Bookstore / Alta Books | FAQs | Articles | Interview with Dave Copyright © 2018 Dave's ESL Cafe | All Rights Reserved | Contact Dave's ESL Cafe | Site Map Teachers College, Columbia University: Train to Teach English Here or Abroad Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group


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In the Cowichan Valley we are the experts in martial arts education for children, adults and families! We teach a comprehensive character development program that focuses on Confidence, Respect, Focus, Self-Control and Self-Discipline.
Our family orientated school encourages parents to take an active role in their child''s training and development by offering family rates so that the entire family can benefit from the program and have fun together. Island Kung-Fu is positive place to train promoting an atmosphere of respect and self-discipline. It is this environment of our school, without macho or aggressive behavior, that is appealing to so many families.
Our classes are fun and yet challenging to both body and mind. Learning self defence skills that will enable you to defend yourself in almost any situation as well as strengthening your body and increasing flexibility. Whatever your current level of fitness is, we start you from your own level helping you set goals along the way to Black belt.
Our students get the results they were looking for! Whether it was getting in shape, learning self-defence or improving confidence and self-discipline, our school delivers on what we say we do. Students stay at our school because our training programs improve our student's lives!


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On Monday, the Wall Street Journal's "All Things Digital" put a blockade between Apple fans and the longstanding rumor that the iPhone 5 will drop in September. According to the very reliable John Paczkowski, we're all in for "an October surprise." Paczkowski believes the tenth month on the calendar will bring with it the launch of Apple's next-gen iPhone.
Sources with knowledge of the situation say reports claiming AT&T has blacked out employee vacations during the last two weeks of September in preparation for the retail debut of the next iPhone are misinformed.
If you're wondering, despite earlier reports hinting at a significant re-design of the iPhone in the next-gen model, the source conferring with All Things Digital "offered no details" on the devices design. Still, virtually all analysts and supply chain insiders maintain that an A5 processor, Qualcomm dual mode GSM/CDMA baseband, and an eight-megapixel camera are all on tap for the refresh.
Source: All Things Digital


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Worldwide Business with kathy ireland® Discussed Artificial Intelligence in the Legal System with Vista Analytics
Worldwide Business with kathy ireland® discusses artificial intelligence in the legal discovery process with Co-founder and Managing partner of Vista Analytics, Mike Faraci.
Los Angeles, CA – November 21, 2017 — Vista Analytics is a company disrupting the legal industry with the use of machine learning and other advanced analytics. As corporate data grows at 40% each year with corresponding increases in complexity and data types, daunting challenges are being created for corporate counsel. Vista Analytics has developed proprietary technologies that give deeper insights into the data while reducing the time and costs associated with discovery and data analysis. This allows their clients to make more informed decisions much sooner in the process.
Faraci speaks on how corporate litigation has changed in the era of big data:
"The key to our value proposition is to be a true partner with our clients. We want to provide our custom solutions and these incredibly powerful machine-learning algorithms to our clients, who come to us from numerous industries around the globe. By spending time up front, sitting down with them to explore these powerful technologies, it allows us to tailor our engagement, apply the appropriate workflows, and help solve their unique problem. Every matter is different, and our experience tells us that achieving superior results requires expertise and customization that is simply not available in shrink-wrapped solutions."
Machine learning is especially relevant in today's discovery process to eliminate human bias and achieve insights into large data sets. Machine learning analyzes data, with the assistance of defined features to help steer it, and delivers observations that are often unexpected. These observations may take a long time to uncover using traditional searching techniques or perhaps will never come to the surface. This power adds efficiency to the process and provides crucial information earlier in the process to make important strategic decisions.
"The pressures on the legal system are constantly increasing with all of the new technologies available today, and understanding how they can provide key insight into cases is crucial" says JL Haber, Vice President of Programming for Worldwide Business with kathy ireland®. "We are pleased to feature Vista Analytics on the show to highlight how they are redefining industry solutions."
For more information about Vista Analytics, visit vista-analytics.com and tune in to Fox Business Network as sponsored content on Sunday, December 10, 2017 at 5:30pm EST and Bloomberg International at 7:00am GMT, 10:00am D.F. and 3:00pm HKT.
About Worldwide Business with kathy ireland®
Worldwide Business with kathy ireland® is a weekly half-hour show featuring global executives sharing their business insights and framing the opportunities shaping their industries. Hosted by business mogul and one of the world's greatest corporate leaders, Kathy Ireland interviews some of the brightest minds in business today. The show broadcasts on Fox Business Network as part of their sponsored content line up and globally on Bloomberg International. Worldwide Business with kathy ireland® extends beyond the weekly on-air program with digital content delivered on various video platforms and across social media.
Visit www.tvwwb.com for detailed airing schedules or check local listings.
About Vista Analytics
Vista Analytics is harnessing machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the scalability of a cloud-based infrastructure to enhance client satisfaction by reducing costs and timelines, all while providing valuable insights beyond what current technologies provide. Founded by Craig Freeman and Michael Faraci, Vista Analytics has been expanding its team to include world-class talent comprised of Ph.D. level researchers and analysts. The company is located at 1333 H Street, N.W., Suite 600W, Washington, D.C. 20005. Vista Analytics can be reached at (202) 808-2286 or through its website, http://www.vista-analytics.com.


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DURHAM — Timing is everything so the seniors on the University of New Hampshire hockey team got together and picked last Saturday before the Merrimack game to hold a rare players-only meeting.
The Wildcats had dropped a 3-2 decision the previous night for their second straight loss and third in four games.
"We felt like we'd fallen off track a little bit," said captain Connor Hardowa. "We just needed a reminder as a team to remember where we are. We can't be sitting on what we did before Christmas because we really haven't impressed anybody after Christmas."
UNH is 4-4 following the break after losing just two games the first two months of the season.
"The timing was probably the best part of it," sophomore forward Grayson Downing said of the impromptu meeting. "We haven't had the best second half compared to the first. I just think we just needed to regroup and refocus on what needs to be done."
The result was a much-needed, 6-2 win over the Warriors that earned the Wildcats a split of the weekend series.
"It was a just a feeling and the importance of the second game of a weekend series especially after getting pounded on at Merrimack," Hardowa said. "It just felt like the right time and something needed to be said."
It was only the second time this season the Wildcats scored as many as six goals in one game.
"I think it gets everyone on the same page," Downing said of the meeting. "It's a long season and eventually someone's going to stray here and there."
The challenge now is to keep it going. The Wildcats are at Northeastern tonight (7) and host Merrimack on Saturday night (7, WBIN).
Five of UNH's seven games in February are on the road before closing out the regular season with four straight home games.
"February feels like the month when everything turns into playoff hockey," Hardowa said. "It's been building up since Christmas. Everybody is starting to get more competitive."
"You have to go in with that playoff mentality," Downing said, "because if you don't you're not going to win games."
With 11 games remaining in the regular season, the No. 3/4 Wildcats (15-6-2, 10-5-1 Hockey East) are tied for second with Boston University in the league standings, two points behind Boston College.
They have two games in hand on BC and one on BU. Five points separate first place from sixth.
Merrimack (10-10-5, 8-6-2 HE) is looking for home ice while Northeastern (7-12-3, 4-10-3 HE) is fighting for a playoff spot.
"It's clear that everybody's battling for some sort of playoff spot," Hardowa said. "It's pretty obvious teams are picking it up a notch."
Even Maine is back in the playoff picture after sweeping two games from BC last weekend.
"That serves as a pretty good reminder that nobody's safe, especially in this conference," Hardowa said. "It's clear that no matter who you're playing you've got to respect your opponent."
UNH picked up the pace last Saturday against Merrimack. Six players scored goals for the Wildcats and goalie Casey DeSmith returned to form with 35 saves on 37 shots after sitting out Friday night's game.
Saturday's contest also featured the first career goals by freshmen Dan Correale and Collin MacDonald. They came in the final 1:02 of the second period and extended a 2-1 lead to 4-1.
"Obviously we'd like to be more consistent," Hardowa said. "We've taken periods off here and there and that can't happen. We were banging bodies out there and trying to be a hard team to play against, and I think that's what we accomplished."
UNH is 1-0-1 against Northeastern this season and 1-1-0 vs. Merrimack. The Wildcats haven't seen the Huskies since a home-and-home series Oct. 26-27.
UNH rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the first meeting 4-3 on a goal by John Henrion in the final minute.
The rematch at NU's Matthews Arena ended in a scoreless deadlock. Northeastern's Bryan Mountain made 44 saves in the second game and DeSmith finished with 34.
The Huskies are coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to UMass-Lowell last Saturday in which they led 4-1 with 12 minutes left in the third period.
"If you get four points it's a fabulous weekend," said coach Dick Umile. "If you split it's a good weekend. If you don't it's misery."


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PG's Shawn Hammond is On Location in Anaheim, CA, at the 2013 NAMM Show where he visits the Randall booth. In this segment, we get to hear Randall's new Mike Fortin-designed amps built for all spectrums of metal.
For more NAMM '13 video demos or to watch one of Premier Guitar's 1500 other videos online, be sure to visit http://www.premierguitar.com/video


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This week Fallin captures the Broadway premiere of The Other Place, Sharr White's mysterious play about a medical researcher whose health, homelife and workplace are shaken, featuring Laurie Metcalf, reprising her earlier Off-Broadway performance, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Pictured below are (left to right) Laurie Metcalf, Daniel Stern and Zoe Perry.
To purchase prints or original art, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
Ken Fallin began his career as an illustrator by lovingly mimicking the style of the late, legendary Al Hirschfeld for the poster art for Forbidden Broadway. Since that time he has been a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal as well as The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Hollywood Reporter, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune and The New Yorker.
His work has illustrated major ad campaigns for American Express, Showtime and Belvedere Vodka. Most recently, he was nominated for a 2010 Emmy for his animated commercial for CNBC.


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Coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth, a leading United Nations scientist claims. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral.
The claim is made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear this century in what would be "a new first for mankind – the 'extinction' of an entire ecosystem". Its author, Professor Peter Sale, studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney. He currently leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
The predicted decline is mainly down to climate change and ocean acidification, though local activities such as overfishing, pollution and coastal development have also harmed the reefs. The book, Our Dying Planet, published by University of California Press, contains further alarming predictions, such as the prospect that "we risk having no reefs that resemble those of today in as little as 30 or 40 more years".
"We're creating a situation where the organisms that make coral reefs are becoming so compromised by what we're doing that many of them are going to be extinct, and the others are going to be very, very rare," Professor Sale says. "Because of that, they aren't going to be able to do the construction which leads to the phenomenon we call a reef. We've wiped out a lot of species over the years. This will be the first time we've actually eliminated an entire ecosystem."
Coral reefs are important for the immense biodiversity of their ecosystems. They contain a quarter of all marine species, despite covering only 0.1 per cent of the world's oceans by area, and are more diverse even than the rainforests in terms of diversity per acre, or types of different phyla present.
Recent research into coral reefs' highly diverse and unique chemical composition has found many compounds useful to the medical industry, which could be lost if present trends persist. New means of tackling cancer developed from reef ecosystems have been announced in the past few months, including a radical new treatment for leukemia derived from a reef-dwelling sponge. Another possible application of compounds found in coral as a powerful sunblock has also been mooted.
And coral reefs are of considerable economic value to humans, both as abundant fishing resources and – often more lucratively – as tourist destinations. About 850 million people live within 100km of a reef, of which some 275 million are likely to depend on the reef ecosystems for nutrition or livelihood. Fringing reefs can also help to protect low-lying islands and coastal regions from extreme weather, absorbing waves before they reach vulnerable populations.
Carbon emissions generated by human activity, especially our heavy use of fossils fuels, are the biggest cause of the anticipated rapid decline, impacting on coral reefs in two main ways. Climate change increases ocean surface temperatures, which have already risen by 0.67C in the past century. This puts corals under enormous stress and leads to coral bleaching, where the photosynthesising algae on which the reef-building creatures depend for energy disappear. Deprived of these for even a few weeks, the corals die.
On top of this comes ocean acidification. Roughly one-third of the extra carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere is absorbed through the ocean surface, acidifying shallower waters. A more recently recognized problem in tropical reef systems, the imbalance created makes it harder for reef organisms to retrieve the minerals needed to build their carbonaceous skeletons. "If they can't build their skeletons – or they have to put a lot more energy into building them relative to all the other things they need to do, like reproduce – it has a detrimental effect on the coral reefs," says Paul Johnston of the University of Exeter, and founder of the UK's Greenpeace Research Laboratories.
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An important caveat to the book's predictions is that the corals themselves – the tiny organisms largely responsible for creating reefs – may be lucky enough to survive the destruction, if past mass extinction episodes are anything to go by. "Although corals are ancient animals and have been around for hundreds of millions of years, there have been periods of reefs, and periods where there are no reefs," explains Mark Spalding, of the US-based environmental group Nature Conservancy, and the University of Cambridge. "When climatic conditions are right they build these fantastic structures, but when they're not they wait in the wings, in little refuges, as a rather obscure invertebrate."
The gaps between periods in which reefs are present have been long even in geological terms, described in the book as "multimillion-year pauses". And reef disappearance has tended to precede wider mass extinction events, offering an ominous "canary in the environmental coal mine" for the present day, according to the author. "People have been talking about current biodiversity loss as the Holocene mass extinction, meaning that the losses of species that are occurring now are in every way equivalent to the mass extinctions of the past," Professor Sale says. "I think there is every possibility that is what we are seeing."
About 20 per cent of global coral reefs have already been lost in the past few decades. Mass bleaching events leading to widespread coral death are a relatively recent phenomenon; though scientists have been studying coral reefs in earnest since the 1950s, mass bleaching was first observed only in 1983.
Dr Spalding, who witnessed the catastrophic 1998 mass bleaching in the Indian Ocean first-hand, says: "It was a shocking wake-up call for the world of science, and a shocking wake-up for me to be actually there as we watched literally 80 to 90 per cent of all the corals die on the reefs of the Seychelles and other islands in a few weeks." That single event destroyed 16 per cent of the world's coral.
But according to the book's author: "The 1998 bleaching was spectacular because it was so extensive and so conspicuous. But there have been mass bleachings that have been global since then: 2005 was bad; 2010 was bad. The visual appearance is not nearly as severe as it was in 1998, simply because there is less coral around."
These dramatic episodes coincide with unusual weather patterns such as El Niño, but are increasing in severity and frequency due to climate change. As such, tackling global warming is the most urgent solution advocated by the book. "If we can keep CO2 concentrations below 450 parts per million we would be able to save something resembling coral reefs," Professor Sale says. "They wouldn't be the coral reefs of the 1950s or 1960s, but they would be recognizably coral reefs, and they would function as reefs." The current atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is about 390 parts per million, but few experts believe it will remain below 500 for long.
There are signs that local conservation efforts can make a difference. Alex Rogers, professor of conservation biology at Oxford University, says: "We know for certain that corals subject to low levels of stress are much more able to recover. So if you take away pressures like overfishing of coral reefs and pollution, this has profound effects on recovery. But what we're really doing is buying time for many of these ecosystems. If climate change continues at its current rate, they will be done for eventually."
Though not all scientists agree with the precise timescales set out by the book, the crisis is clear. "When you're talking about the destruct-ion of an entire ecosystem within one human generation, there might be some small differences in the details – it is a dramatic image and a dramatic statement," Professor Rogers says. "But the overall message we agree with. People are not taking on board the sheer speed of the changes we're seeing."
'Our Dying Planet' (University of California Press) will be published in North America tomorrow


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Over 700 children from Cardiff schools attended the Biggest Book Show tour at the Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre on 14 March.
Listen to David Melling, Justin Somper, Angie Sage, Daniel Morden and Dan Anthony, introduced by Laura Dockrill by clicking on the YouTube fideo.
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Books from Wales on-line


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Consumer Confidence in Asia-Pacific Continues To Lead Regions, With India Rising For Seventh Straight Quarter
Consumer Confidence in Asia-Pacific Continues To Lead Regions, With India Rising For Seventh Straight Quarter
While consumer confidence declined in 10 of 14 Asia-Pacific markets measured in the second quarter by Nielsen, the region still leads all global regions with an index score of 107. Among the four markets that improved from the previous quarter, the Philippines showed the biggest quarterly country-level confidence increase of seven index points, rising to a score of 122—the country's highest level on record. Confidence also increased one point each in India (131), China (107) and Japan (83) from the first quarter. India's rise marks the seventh straight quarter of confidence increases in the country.
"In India, consumer optimism is at its highest level since 2011, which is positive news, but discretionary spending levels are yet to see a huge transformation," said Piyush Mathur, president, Nielsen India Region. "There are signs of positive growth in consumer spending on consumer packaged goods, indicated by a slight increase in growth from the previous quarters. There has also been a gradual decrease in concerns about job security over the last few quarters along with interest rate cuts, and an increase in intention for home loans—thus enhancing the sentiment on the economy and portraying an optimistic picture for the future."
"In China, consumers' desire to spend is growing, especially in the lower-tier cities and in the rural parts of the country," said Yan Xuan, president, Nielsen Greater China. "Higher income levels and growing e-commerce penetration in these areas in particular represent important steps for increasing domestic consumption. The East China region is leading the country's economic transformation with the highest confidence and spending intention levels and where online, offline, traditional and specialty channels are converging and driving upgraded product choices."
Regionally, Vietnam (104) reported the biggest quarterly decline in confidence of eight points, followed by Australia (89) and Malaysia (89), which dropped six and five points, respectively, from the first quarter.
"The Vietnam retail environment has evolved from one of the fastest growing markets in 2012 to one that's struggling to remain in growth, with sales levels between 2%-3% for most of the last 12 months," said Vaughan Ryan, managing director, Nielsen Vietnam. "For the first time in well over a decade, Vietnam experienced a negative Consumer Price Index in February, and foreign direct investment was down over 20% in the first quarter from last year. Consumers are feeling less optimistic about their immediate future, but they are confident in the longer term, as most expect the economy will improve in the year ahead."
"In Australia, there are multiple factors contributing to consumers' economic confidence declines, and historical movements need to be considered," said Chris Percy, managing director, Nielsen Pacific. "Weak income growth, a slump in the Australian dollar and rising cost of living is leaving more Australians with no spare cash. That being said, seasonality is also a contributor, as the winter months typically deliver below average results, and while the quarter is notably down compared to the start of the year, consumer confidence is up four points compared to the same period last year."
"In the Philippines, an upsurge of revenues from the strong business process outsourcing industry, an upswing in the construction sector, and strong consumption spending levels are fueling growth in the country," said Stuart Jamieson, managing director, Nielsen Philippines. "Fast-moving consumer goods sales were up 9.5% January-April 2015 from last year, with growth across all retail channels. Consumers have more discretionary cash, and they are using it to take vacations with family and friends and dining out."
Other findings include:
- Recessionary sentiment improved in 31 of 60 measured markets from the first quarter
- European consumer confidence increased two points to an index score of 97
- Worries about the economy, job security and health issues are top global concerns
- A closer look at country-level insights within global regions
- Confidence in North America remained optimistic at an index score of 101
For more detail and insight, download Nielsen's Q2 2015 Global Consumer Confidence Report. For a historical look at global consumer confidence by region, country and time period, explore the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Trend Tracker. If you would like more detailed country-level data, it is available for sale in the new Consumer Insights section of the Nielsen Store.
About the Nielsen Global Survey
The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions was conducted May 11-29, 2015 and polled more than 30,000 online consumers in 60 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East/Africa and North America. The sample has quotas based on age and sex for each country based on its Internet users and is weighted to be representative of Internet consumers. It has a margin of error of ±0.6%. This Nielsen survey is based only on the behavior of respondents with online access. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60% Internet penetration or an online population of 10 million for survey inclusion. The China Consumer Confidence Index is compiled from a separate mixed methodology survey among 3,500 respondents in China. The sub-Saharan African countries in this study are compiled from a separate mobile methodology survey among 1,600 respondents in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. The Nielsen Global Survey, which includes the Global Consumer Confidence Index, was established in 2005.


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For the last 10 years, I have been specializing in the areas of digitalization and regulation especially in the financial services sector. In my role, I am responsible to deliver services and solutions to regulatory clients such as banks, insurance companies, central banks and supervisory authorities in the areas of regulatory reporting, regulatory management and regulatory analytics. I deal with regulations such as Basel 3, Solvency 2, IFRSs, Mifid but also implement standards such as XBRL or SDMX. It goes without saying that I am driving the market and product development for BearingPoint's flagship Abacus360 suite.
During my career I, have been working with a number of regulators worldwide such as Deutsche Bundesbank, the European Banking Authority, the European Central Bank, the Polish Central Bank, the SEC in the US, Japan's FSA, the Chinese Ministry of Finance. I am also working with a number of large banks, insurers and listed companies. I have been working in consulting, software development, accounting standard setting and in academia.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck.
Sir David Tweedie


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Would be nice to touch a button in the terminal display to reset the Arduino. Opening and closing the serial window does this already due to the serial port open causing a reset via the DTR signal. What I'm suggesting is that you have a button that will quickly close and reopen the serial port, thereby causing the same reset the boot load process does.
All things considered, I'd rather see the IDE support a user-selectable external terminal emulator. It shouldn't take much more than a signaling standard for shutting it down when a new sketch is uploaded.


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Beautiful Flowers for your Floppy Wedding Hats
Many Spring and Summer Colors Still In Stock!
Pink Shades, Reds, Gray, Off White, Mint, Peach!
All can be Recycled with Color Combos!
Rhinestones can be added to Centers for Sparkly
Bling Effect!
In My Etsy Shop Now Separately or Included with
your Hat Purchase
Thank You for Window Shopping With Me!


text: Top 5 Wedding Accessories from The Bachelor September 19, 2016 Administrator Bachelor, Blog (0) When searching for the perfect bridal accessories, what better source of inspiration than the dramatic, attention-hungry brides of "The Bachelor"? With millions of eyes on them, you know they'll be wearing the best of the best. From glitzy barrettes to romantic tiaras, these TV brides rival with Pinterest when it comes to epic wedding fashion. Anxious for ideas? Check out these top 5 wedding accessories from "The Bachelor". 1.Trista's Statement Necklace A statement necklace is a show-stopping way to give that extra sparkle to your bridal look. Trista nails this trend with her chunky diamond necklace, adding dimension to her elegant yet simple wedding dress. It also makes a tasteful centerpiece for her décolleté! So, when in doubt, blind them with diamonds, keeping all the attention on you. Just make sure your dress is strapless if you're going to wear heavier jewelry to keep the outfit balanced. It's perfectly befitting if you're the type of bride who demands, "all eyes on me!"—truly, a statement necklace is what you're after. Clearly, Trista knows what's up. 2. Catherine's Earrings Whoever said less is more was definitely not a bride. Catherine slammed this saying shut when she wowed us with a stunning pair of drop pearl earrings. Combining classic taste and sensuality, she truly epitomizes the fun of being a bride. If you'd like to rock these type of earrings, you'll need to make sure your dress style is the right shape. These earrings typically go with simpler dresses like a mermaid cut or swan 3. Molly's matching bracelets and barrettes For brides who love glitter, sparkle and the whole shebang, take some cues from Molly. Her silver bracelet compliments her barrettes in a beautiful updo, teaching us that it's never faux pas to be matchy matchy with your accessories. Ultimately, it's your day, so you get a free pass to do whatever you want— without dipping into wacko bride territory… okay, maybe just a bit. 4. Ashley's veil The veil is one of the most underrated bridal accessories, yet still among the most important. Ashley shows us the allure of going for a shorter design, accentuating her dress, which pours dramatically over the ground. The trim on the veil is jazzed up with some sparkle, preventing the look from being too plain. The shorter veil design works well particularly for petite women. It gives you the illusion of height without having to clunk on sky-high heels (even though you're probably dying to wear a pair of bridal Christian Louboutins)—now pause to fantasize… 5. Becca's headpiece With a touch of hippie flair, Becca pays tribute to the flower-weaved halo. It brilliantly adds a pop of color to her dress, while capturing Becca's lively personality. Ultimately, her innovative choice shows that accessorizing should play up your personality, celebrating the true you both inside and out. Becca coordinates her headpiece with her bouquet, unifying the entire look together. It makes the ideal picturesque outfit for a summertime wedding. All these memorable bridal moments offer so many must-have ideas. What are your favorite accessories from the Bachelor? Let us know ladies.


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Behind the seams
Fashion plays a starring role in five trendsetting TV shows
Thank big budget shows such as "Mad Men'' for the vigilant attention to TV wardrobes. But style has always been integral to what we watch, spawning trends along the way, from the good (Leighton Meester's "Gossip Girl'' handbags) to the bad (let's try to forget about Robin Williams's "Mork & Mindy'' rainbow suspenders for a moment, shall we?).
Trendsetting or not, wardrobes can be as critical as brisk dialogue to a character's identity. Jessica Lange's floral dresses are so crucial and creepy on "American Horror Story'' they deserve a mention in the credits.
What's the best-dressed show now? With the exception of "Mad Men'' and "Gossip Girl,'' which have officially been retired to our hall of fame, here are a few contenders for the title.
PBS, Sundays, 9 p.m. (Second season begins Jan. 8)
Emmy Award-winning costume designer Susannah Buxton was faced with a peculiar dilemma when she started creating a wardrobe for the PBS "Masterpiece Theater'' drama (which returns Jan. 8). The clothes of Edwardian England are well documented, and the fashions of the Roaring Twenties have been seared into collective consciousness like a glare from Gloria Swanson. But the period when "Downton'' is set (starting in 1912, and picking up in 1916 for season two) is a forgotten fashion era.
"It's one of those very short periods of time that's overlooked in theater and television,'' Buxton says on the phone from England. "The First World War is overlooked, but it's an extremely interesting time in fashion. It doesn't even have a title. It's just called the Teens, which isn't good.''
Buxton scoured libraries for photos, looking at silhouettes and shapes to guide her designs. Not only does she have the estate's servants to costume, there are the posh residents of Downton.
"You have to try to make the period accessible to a 21st-century audience, but at the same time it needs to reflect the time,'' she says. "We kept the silhouettes strong and simple. The period left the heavy, laced, and corseted pieces behind, which is lovely. It was a dramatic shift in fashion.''
Aside from Maggie Smith's dowager - whose wardrobe is custom made - the ladies of Downton are attired in looser fitting, ankle-dusting frocks. Buxton looks for dresses from the era at flea markets, and tries to salvage what she can from them, in addition to creating new dresses.
"We built a dress around a panel from an Elizabethan dress that we found,'' she says. "But the panel started to disintegrate during the course of filming. The beads were falling off. It was close, but we managed to finish filming.''
NEW GIRL Fox, Tuesdays, 9 p.m.
Boston is partially responsible for Zooey Deschanel's quirky and colorful "New Girl'' ensembles. Debra McGuire, the costume designer, was in Boston working on the Mila Kunis and Mark Walhberg film "Ted,'' and during her spare time she did what any good costumer would do: She hit the stores.
"I did all of my vintage shopping in Boston,'' she says. "I went to Bobby from Boston, I went to Artifaktori. I found a warehouse near Bobby where some guys were storing vintage and tracked down some great things. That's how her look started.''
Her vision for Deschanel's character was cute dresses in quirky fabrics. The goal was to evoke Marlo Thomas's "That Girl'' breezy and bright style. She wanted hemlines and details from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s mixed and barely matched. She pairs short skirts with boots and mates unlikely colors - but always in primary shades.
"I think of Crayola crayons and I think about the earliest, fondest memories we have of putting color together,'' McGuire says. "I understand the pop culture vibe of the show, and for me it was all primary colors.''
A wardrobe veteran from shows such as "Friends,'' McGuire says it's great when you have a meeting of the minds with a show's actors.
"It was fun because when I had my first fitting with [Deschanel], she kind of freaked out that I was totally on the same wavelength as her,'' McGuire says. "With this show, she really is the 'That Girl' of this era.''
PAN AMABC, Sundays, 10 p.m. (Returns Jan. 8)
For "Pan Am'' costume designer Ane Crabtree, Life magazine became a style bible. To get 1963 just right, Crabtree got her hands on nearly every copy from that year.
"We watch films for inspiration,'' Crabtree says. "We look at novels that were being published, or poetry, art work, and music. All of that really goes into each episode's wardrobe. I'm insane that way.''
In addition to capturing New York, she also has to show what was being worn in other countries as the crew makes its foreign flights. Nothing is purchased off-the-rack: Half the dresses are made in the wardrobe department workshop, half are vintage.
For the show, she looks for inspiration from designers such as Oleg Cassini and Balenciaga. Crabtree says the cast has slowly adjusted to the clothing of the era. The actresses are strapped into girdles and men in the cast are slightly uncomfortable in the snug trousers of the era.
And then there's the small matter of the "Mad Men'' comparisons.
"I've never seen 'Mad Men.' I know it sounds crazy, but I don't watch TV,'' she says.'' My father loves it. He says, 'Why can't you work on that 'Mad Men?' ''
REVENGEABC, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.
For the modern and loose retelling of Alexandre Dumas's novel "The Count of Monte Cristo,'' "Revenge'' costume designer Jill Ohanneson needed to come up with a concept of what an angry young woman, fresh out of a juvenile detention hall, would wear in the Hamptons as she exacts revenge upon the monied scoundrels who wronged her father.
For the lead character of Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke (as portrayed by Emily VanCamp), Ohanneson looked to another blonde for inspiration: Grace Kelly.
"We talked about who could be an example for this character,'' she says. "And we came up with Grace Kelly because she's so elegant, yet simple and graceful. Here's this angry, angst-ridden girl coming out of juvie, and we needed to figure out how she might be able to cultivate and emulate serenity so she could go in there and not be fazed by anything.''
To that end, Ohanneson keeps Emily Thorne in white, cream, and tan, with splashes of blue and yellow.
The show's other female lead character, Victoria Grayson (as portrayed by Madeleine Stowe), shows her curves in sexy bandage dresses from Herve Leger. But no matter which designers Ohanneson puts on the actresses, she knows people are watching.
"We have two blogs that we interact with the night of the show,'' she says. "And immediately we get questions from readers who want to know where they can get a particular dress. It's fun for me that people are really watching those details.''
CBS, Sundays, 9 p.m.
Daniel Lawson may have started his research for wardrobe for "The Good Wife'' by looking at the wives of disgraced politicians such as Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner, but he ended up heading in a much more glamorous direction for star Julianna Margulies.
"Women who have been through this kind of thing are not necessarily fashion icons,'' he says. "But at the start we wanted to make her wardrobe more of a politician's wife. Initially she was thrown into a situation of being a working lawyer and not having the money to rework her wardrobe, or to purchase a new wardrobe. So at the start we did a lot of mixing and matching.''
In keeping with her circumstances, Lawson pared down jewelry during the first season and kept design details to a minimum. But in the show's third season, he's able to glamorize Margulies's Alicia Florrick with designer names to reflect the fact that she's made peace with personal relationships in her life.
That means she's now sporting cinched waists, peplums, and pencil skirts with kick pleats.
"She got a promotion at the end of the last season, which means she's spending more money on clothes,'' Lawson says. "So now she's wearing a lot of Akris, Dior, Zac Posen, and Max Mara.''
Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@ globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Muther.


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Invest in France
For more information on setting up in France or read testimonials of American compagnies already conducting business in France, visit The Invest in France Agency's website. The IFA is the national agency responsible for promoting and facilitating international investment in France :
Why Choose France?
1- Competitive and Globalized
International companies choose France because of its strategic position at the heart of Europe, the largest market in the world with 500 million consumers, and because of its membership of the euro zone, which offers the advantages of a single currency in 18 different countries.
With 65 million inhabitants, France is the second-largest consumer market in Europe after Germany and the fifth-largest economy in the world, with a GDP of US $2.613 trillion in 2012.
Nearly 23,500 foreign companies currently have a base in France, employing over 2.3 million people, double the figure only 10 years ago. Foreign companies in France produce 40 percent of French exports and perform more than 20 percent of research and development conducted in France.
France in one of the most attractive countries in Europe for job-creating foreign investment projects. In 2012, 693 new job-creating foreign investment projects were recorded, of which 156 came from U.S. companies.
2- Innovation Comes First
France has 71 innovation clusters in which companies, public-sector educational institutions, and research laboratories work on collaborative projects focusing on market-oriented projects and prototypes. In 2011, the clusters benefitted from a $4.55 billion increase in public funding.
More than 5,700 collaborative R&D projects have been undertaken since 2005.
France's research tax credit covers 30 percent of all R&D costs up to $137 million, (€100 million) and 5 percent above this threshold. In 2013, the eligibility was extended to include innovation spending by SMEs—a 20 percent rate up to $547,000 (€400,000).
In October 2012, France launched "Say Oui to France, Say Oui to Innovation," a campaign to promote French attractiveness for foreign investment and partnerships in France.
3- France is on the Move
Many key factors in the French economy (labor law, tax system, corporate law, innovation and economic immigration) have been subject to major reforms which are helping to improve the business environment.
These reforms have been accompanied by strong support for an enterprise culture, particularly through the introduction of a simplified legal status for the self-employed (auto-entrepreneur status).
Labor law has been made more flexible, allowing employees to work longer hours, giving businesses greater freedom to organize employee working hours and ensuring greater democracy in the workplace.
Tax cuts have been introduced both for individuals – and expatriates in particular whose tax position has been further improved – and for companies, whose new investments are now exempt from local business tax. The removal of this tax on productive investments has applied to new investment flows as well as existing investments as of the beginning of 2010.
France's National Pact for Growth, unveiled in November 2012, provides businesses operating in France with the means to position themselves as competitive on international markets, while also boosting the competitiveness of the French economy. The Pact includes four primary goals:
1) Lower taxes and business costs
2) Access to effective, tailored funding
3) Greater incentives and support for innovation
4) A simpler and more stable regulatory, administrative, and tax environment
A new Public Investment Bank (BPI) was created in 2013, endowed with a $56 billion budget that will be used to improve access to financing for established businesses and to respond to the liquidity needs of small and medium enterprises. (Source: Bpifrance.fr)


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I have my laptop with me, and, of course, the Blue Obelisk Live CD 2 on which the mouse now actually works. Bioclipse 0.9.1 does not work, though; will report that bug later.
My work schedule for the train ride:
- Work on my manuscript
- Integrate Todd Martin's SMILES and QSAR work
- Work on the next CDK News
- Think about InChI creation in Bioclipse, using OpenBabel


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Call us: (702) 476-6603 | Plans and Pricing | Log In
Amateur internet marketers like to compete for the popular keywords in their niche. They look impressive, and the big numbers of monthly searches are tantalizing. I mean, as many would say, "Why go after small keywords when you can "challenge yourself" and tackle the big ones?
Well, I'll tell you why...
While it's nice to rank for "head" keywords or "short tails," we professional SEOs understand that the real money is in the long tails – the millions of more specific keywords that get smaller search volume. The highest-converting keywords are almost always long tails, and in aggregate, there is infinitely more traffic there as well.
Here's how Wikipedia defines long tail keywords:
"These phrases individually are unlikely to account for a great deal of searches, but when taken as a whole, can provide significant targeted traffic that convert well ... the volume of converting traffic these terms can generate by nature of their specificity and relevance is worth investigating. These keywords are very effective because there is little competition for most of these keywords on major search engines."
Now, the long tails are a messy battlefield. They're like a dispersed, guerilla fighting force. As Wikipedia indicated, each individual SERP is relatively easy to conquer because there's little competition out there in the wilderness.
But each keyword only provides a small stream of traffic. So if you're seeking absurd amounts of traffic, you'll need to rank for a LOT of them –- hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands.
Tens of thousands of keywords? How in the world can I manage them all?
We've devoted the last year of our lives to answering this question for good. We knew we would never be able to grow our businesses until we had an SEO solution that could scale effortlessly. A solution that's capable of driving potentially unlimited amounts of traffic to our ever-growing number of businesses.
So we glued our noses to our computer screens for 12 straight months, putting these pieces together: keyword research, on-page and content generation, link building, and rank tracking.
In some ways, we thought it might just be a pipe dream -- that we'd never actually be able to get it done. But one day, the last essential piece finally fit, and we realized that the puzzle was complete.
It's a 100% automated solution, far more so than any other link building system that we know of. That means that once you've set it up (and it's easy to set up), you can leave it going for weeks at a time, silently managing your SEO and making intelligent judgments on your behalf with our proprietary link building algorithm.
We've figured out all the complicated parts so that there's no tricky setup or even oversight required by you!
Make no mistake, if you like to micro-manage your SEO, it won't stop you. It's not like a runaway train. But once you've given the OK for it to work on a large set of keywords, it will REALLY let loose.
Today we proudly present our program Link Emperor, a personal war room for managing your SEO campaigns from start to finish. It is the ultimate keyword research tool, a highly sophisticated link building service, and the SEO equivalent of "GODMODE" in your favorite old school video games!
In this document we're going to explain why it's hands-down the best possible traffic generation system available for businesses like yours, and why we're offering it at a price low enough to have caused a number of our beta testers to tell us that we're "absolutely nuts"...
But despite their best efforts in trying to keep Link Emperor a secret, we'd be delighted to have you join us in crushing the competition. :)
So without further ado (thanks for sticking with us!)...
We went out and formed relationships with 50 of the most popular Link Building Services and combined them all into one fully automated platform.
With Link Emperor, you can simply input your Keywords and Target URLs in one place, and we automatically order link building from literally dozens of distinct, quality, reputable link building services.
As soon as you enter a keyword campaign into Link Emperor, hundreds (or thousands) of backlinks will begin flowing in the very same day.
Because we believe the key to SEO success today is through diversity, we've pre-configured Link Emperor to use as many link building services as possible for each campaign you run.
We're constantly adding more services, but here is a list of just some of the link building service types that are currently included in Link Emperor:
Click here to see the latest list of vendors and services (which changes daily), complete with exact prices for each service type.
And you aren't stuck with our pre-configured allocation. Link Emperor is fully customizable, so you can configure exactly which types of backlinks (And in what proportions) you want flowing to each campaign.
You can also configure tons of other parameters about your link building campaign, including tiered link building pyramids, anchor text randomization, and more.
We spent over 3,000 man-hours and literally hundreds of thousands of dollars building Link Emperor. Our team includes a computer scientist from Harvard, a software engineer from Microsoft, and seven other full time staff members who work continuously on improving our systems.
Because of our world-class team, we are one of the only products that is able to innovate at the "Speed of Google." Whenever any algorithm change is announced, we immediately spring into action and work on adapting Link Emperor to the latest environment.
In fact, we're investing $500,000 this year on Research and Development, and that's in addition to the well over $1,000,000 that we'll be spending on our network of Link Building Vendors.
And despite being hands down the best link building system, Link Emperor is famously easy to use and comes with world-class Telephone, Skype, Live Chat, and E-Mail based support.
You'll be able to get started immediately by using our intuitive wizard-like interface. And if you are looking to do something really advanced, you can consult our training library of over 45 detailed tutorial videos.
Unlike other link building services, Link Emperor starts building links for your campaigns within just minutes. It's very common for our customers to promote a Press Release or a Video and have it rank in Google the very same day.
Our accounts come with instant activation and instant access.
Unlike other services, Link Emperor is fully automated and hosted in the cloud, and there are no extras that you have to buy.
Think about how getting Link Emperor will affect your business.
Now that link building is no longer a tedious task to be managed, but rather a fully automated process that happens while you sleep, you'll have tons of free time. You'll be able to take on new clients or expand your business by entering new niches or new geographic regions.
Or, perhaps, free yourself up to spend more time with family and friends.
We know that Link Emperor can do this for you. Because that's what it's done for us.
Bobby and Kevin, the founders of Link Emperor, have been online marketers since 2008. We've studied SEO intensely and we've learned directly from the biggest names. We've spoken at Affiliate Summit, demonstrated at Pubcon, and have attended just about every major SEO conference we can get into.
We're also members of an elite SEO Mastermind and speak routinely with some of the biggest SEOs on the forums and in industry.
But when it comes to getting results, don't just take our word for it. Check out these recent testimonials:
"...I STILL have my hand up to my mouth to keep my chin from dropping!"
"...hours of my life returned to me..."
"...I am just loving it!!!"
"...easiest to use...by far most effective..."
"...the best customer service in the industry."
Being the best link building service is really just a starting point for us. We've also built tons of valuable bonus features into Link Emperor.
Link Emperor has built in weekly Google Rank Checking for all of your keywords. You can also upgrade to daily rank checking or add Bing rank checking for a small additional cost.
If you've been paying for a rank checking service, Link Emperor will save you the money and the hassle of having to go somewhere else.
Link Emperor also directly integrates with Google Analytics and Clicky. Link Emperor will automatically pull the keywords you're getting traffic for and add them to your keyword list. It will also compare the actual traffic that's coming in for each keyword vs. the expected amount of traffic you should be receiving based upon your current position in the SERPs.
Many professional SEOs claim that digging through Google Analytics is the best keyword research tool out there. Well, Link Emperor does it for you.
If you have clients, Link Emperor will make you look like a superstar. Link Emperor generates beautiful PDF reports weekly or monthly showing SERP Rankings, Link Building Activity, and Analytics data.
They're fully customizable and branded with your brand, so your clients think that the report came straight from you. And on our larger plans, we even let you create usernames/passwords for your clients that let them log in to see real time data.
Link Emperor's Keyword Research feature automatically pulls thousands of keywords in from various sources, based on what your competitors are ranking for. Just enter the URLs of your competitors and Link Emperor will crawl the internet, finding their best keywords.
Once Link Emperor has assembled a list of keywords, it groups them by common prefixes and sorts them into a "tree." When you click on a hyperlinked keyword, it unfolds to reveal the long tails that share those same prefix words.
This is a fantastic tool for entering new niches and designing site architecture based around the keyword trees which represent the real keyword relationships that exist in the wild.
Our On-Page SEO Audit Feature will crawl your pages and check for common SEO errors, such as missing META tags or incorrect canonical URLs.
And our Instant Article Generation features means that you don't need to provide any articles at all in order for us to perform our link building services.
We're also constantly adding new features to Link Emperor to make Professional SEOs more productive. Every week, we post a weekly blog post detailing the newest improvements.
After all that, you're probably wondering what you're going to invest to start using Link Emperor today.
One of our mentors, an 8-figure marketer who was one of the original customers of Link Emperor told us that we'd be absolutely nuts to sell this system for less than $2,000 per month.
And we absolutely agree.
But we're not going to charge you $2,000.
We're not going to charge you $1,000.
We're not going to charge you $500.
We're not even going to charge you $250.
And that includes all of it. You get all our Link Building, Keyword Research, Article Generation, Rank Checking, On-Page Website Audits, and more.
We're comfortable making such an outrageously low offer because we've been in business for a year and a half and we know our numbers. We know that 75% of our revenue comes from customers who upgrade their accounts and use Link Emperor on a larger scale. Because once we start saving people massive amounts of time, they tend to get … addicted.
And because we know that, we're even willing to go one step further, with our ...
We know that a lot of you are already spending your entire budgets on other services. We know that you probably want to give Link Emperor a try for yourself before you go canceling your other services.
So we're offering, for a limited time, a risk-free trial of Link Emperor for just $7 for 7 days.
You'll get full access to Link Emperor and 7 days worth of link building. That's enough to fully launch your first Link Building Campaign.
We're giving you this trial because we want you to see exactly how our link building works. In fact, the $7 that we're charging for this trial offer doesn't even cover our costs of providing that much Link Building. The reason that we do it is because we know that once you've used Link Emperor, you'll be hooked.
And of course, your investment is completely risk free because of our...
If at any time you decide that you're not 100% THRILLED with the service, (even if you just have a tiny little pang of doubt as to whether you're getting a mindblowing value), we'll refund all subscription payments from the last 30 days, without question or hesitation.
It's a continuous 30-day refund policy. And you can always keep the backlinks we've already built!
If you're still with us at this point, it's clear that Link Emperor is for you.
Right below this text, you'll see the link to our order form. I want you to click on the orange "Join Now" button, fill out the form on the next page, get your account activated instantly, and input your keywords and URLs right now.
We'll start your link building campaign within minutes.
Just click the "Join Now" button right here ...
We'll see you on the other side.
Bobby and Kevin
Founders and Proprietors, Link Emperor
P.S. Imagine for a second that for you decide not to invest in Link Emperor. As SEO becomes more complicated due to algorithm change after algorithm change, you'll be spending an increasing amount of time struggling with link building. And you might even lose rankings.
Don't let that happen to you.
And don't say we didn't warn you. We've seen it happen time and time again.
P.P.S. Remember, you're getting a 7-Day Trial of Link Emperor for just $7. After the trial period, your account will renew at the rate of $147/month (unless you upgrade to a larger plan).
There is absolutely no risk because of our 30-day No-Questions-Asked Refund Guarantee. We'll set up your account immediately, you'll get instant access, and we'll start building your backlinks within minutes.


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Dobies Growing Guides
Vegetable Garden Planner
Petunia Plants Frenzy Mixed contains a fantastic blend of colours which will create a stunning display in beds, patio pots, and containers. These truly wonderful petunia plants will spread in unity to create a carpet of flowers. Reaching heights of 23-30cm (9-12") they will be dazzling come rain or shine.
Code: 224591
Code: 224351
Code: 200150
Grow on in a light place at a temperature of 16°C (60°F). For Begonia and impatiens, 18°C (65°F) would be even better to encourage quick establishment. Petunias bloom longer and stronger when old blossoms and seed capsules are snipped off every week or so.
Hardiness:0 degrees
Aftercare - Easy:True
Beds & Borders:True
Grows in Sun or Partial Shade:True
F1 Variety:True
Extra Value Plug Plants - A 7cm pot filled loosely with moist compost is ideal to plant these sturdy young plants into. In each pack you will find a dibber stick. Gently push it through the base hole of each cell and ease the plant and root plug out of the tray, placing it into the centre of the filled pot until the roots of the plug are covered. Firm the compost gently around the base of the plug whilst ensuring the stem and leaves remain above the top layer. Alternatively, plant into trays of compost. A 36x22cm (14x8½") tray will hold up to 24 plants. Grow on in a light place at a temperature of 16°C (60°F). For Begonia and impatiens 18°C (65°F) would be even better to encourage quick establishment. HINT: To reduce the need for weeding once you have planted out your bedding display, you can dig over your planting area a couple of weeks before you intend to plant. As the soil warms this willencourage the weed seeds to germinate and these can be removed before you plant up your display.
Garden Ready Plug Plants - Always ensure that the risk of frost has passed before you plant these into the garden. Should there still be a risk in your area then we suggest that you pot these plants into a 7 to 9cm pot and allow them to develop further somewhere warm and light, before planting, rather than leave them in the growing tray. For planting directly into the garden, ensure that the soil has been dug over and lumps broken down, then plant straight into their flowering position. In areas where the existing soil is poor, incorporate a good handful of compost into each area you are planting. Once planted don't forget to give your plants a drink and protect them from any slugs and snails that may appear.
Ideal for beds and borders, patio pots and containers. Prefers full sun or partial shade.
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text:
1 dead, several missing after oil train derails in Quebec
Photo: AP
LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec -- Provincial police say one person has died after a train carrying crude oil derailed, triggering several explosions and a huge blaze in a town in eastern Quebec.
Police Lieutenant Michel Brunet would not say how many people might be missing after the 73-car train derailed early Saturday in the town of Lac-Megantic (Lack-MAH-Gan-Tic), about 155 miles (250 kilometers) east of Montreal.
Officials say the explosions and fire destroyed a large part of the town's downtown area. Up to 1,000 people were forced from their homes in the town.
Witnesses say the eruptions sent many local residents scrambling through the streets under the intense heat of towering fireballs and a red glow that illuminated the night sky.


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|White Kitten, Quick Gold making for PvP'ers
As part of my continuing series of quick gold making tips for PvP'ers, I'm going to link you back to an old post of mine - Lil Timmy & the White Kitten. In that post, I notice I said the kitten sells for 150 gold each but of course, that was long before Pet Battles were on the horizon & that was also the sale price only on the Alliance side.
I've just checked The Undermine Journal for updated figures & it seems my server is a very special place! The Cat Carrier (White Kitten) is still selling at an average price of 150 gold whereas the EU average is almost 400 gold. Out of curiosity, I also checked the horde side as this kitten is found only from this NPC in Stormwind - my server average on horde side is about 800 gold & across the EU Horde, the average is around 1400 gold!
Now that Pet Battles & the Pet Journal are available in game, it's even easier to transfer this White Kitten between factions - just learn it then log to the character that is going to sell it, enter the Pet Journal & cage the little beastie - hey presto, one free faction transaction without Neutral Auction House costs or risks!
The downside to this cute little kitten though is that it's not one of the rare types of pets. It's too early to tell how the new Battle Pets prices will change but this will always be an attractive pet for pet collectors. I've leveled mine a bit just for fun & have listed it on the Auction House. It's the only Battle Pet listed with some levels on it but with the current Battle Pets category still bugged on the Remote Auction House app & with some of the auction house addons still not working properly, I've not seen even a sniff of interest yet.
This is a great tip for Alliance PvP'ers (and anyone else really but fits well here!) as you can park yourself near the Jewelcrafting Trainer in Stormwind & spam a target macro to find Timmy. In the 2-5 minutes between battlegrounds, you shouldn't get too bored & as his spawn timer is between 1-3 hours, it really is just an off chance that you'll find him but if you think about what you would normally do in those few minutes, then decide whether spamming a target macro is worthwhile.
Now before anyone goes off the deep end & says this is a waste of time or a useless tip - remember! I'm not suggesting you spend hours spamming that macro, I'm not suggesting this is the best way to make gold for everyone, I'm just pointing out one quick little thing that PvP'ers can do to improve their chances of making gold without using up valuable Battleground time :)
Image Credit © *Shanghai*Sparkles* on Flickr under Creative Commons Licence


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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Eager Reader
One simple question.
What one book's release have you most eagerly anticipated?
Maybe it was the finale of a series. Or the next work of your favorite author. Or a premise you find totally captivating.
Discussion to follow in my next post. Right now I simple want to know the title of the book.
37 comments:
- Flavio Q Crunk said...
The new one by Stephen King. Supposed to be a holler back to The Stand.
- July 21, 2009 at 9:35 PM
- Scath said...
I couldn't wait for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Was so glad to finally read it...and to be right about some things, LOL. =)
- July 21, 2009 at 10:07 PM
- Debbie Barr said...
At this very moment that would be "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins, sequel to "The Hunger Games."
And I always try to get my hands on Shannon Hale's books the moment they come out, regardless of genre or whether it's part of a series or not.
- July 21, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. I thought I would literally go insane waiting for the third book in Kleypas' Wallflower series. I was dying to know how the shy heroine would turn the villian into a hero.
- July 21, 2009 at 10:42 PM
- jjdebenedictis said...
Harry Potter 6--although Harry Potter 7 was pretty anticipated too, obviously.
It's just I was more PSYCHO about Harry Potter when the sixth book came out.
- July 21, 2009 at 10:43 PM
- Cloudia said...
Gottaq admit it: my own. Opening the box with the first fresh-printed copies made me light headed!
Otherwise? I read mostly out of print and "found" books; though I enjoyed Brennert's "Molokai" so much that I looked forward to his latest "Honolulu."
Aloha, Travis
Comfort Spiral
- July 21, 2009 at 10:52 PM
- Ello - Ellen Oh said...
I have a whole list on Goodreads of what I'm eagerly waiting on. I read the ARC for Catching Fire but still want the official book this September. And the other big one I want is the sequel to Graceling called Fire! Also Megan Whelan Turner's 4th book in her Attolia series Conspiracy of Kings. Shoot, I'm looking forward to lots of new books!!!
- July 21, 2009 at 11:08 PM
- Teresa said...
Jean Auel's The Stone Shelters. There were like 10 years between books. I thought she had died...
- July 21, 2009 at 11:29 PM
- The Biblio Brat said...
Tie between The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Audrey Niffenegger's new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry.
- July 22, 2009 at 12:14 AM
- Crystal Posey said...
BLOOD GAMES by Iris Johansen. I've been sitting on the edge of my seat since the ending of Quicksand.
- July 22, 2009 at 12:28 AM
- Stephen Parrish said...
Plundered Booty.
- July 22, 2009 at 12:55 AM
- tera said...
The Waters Rising by Sheri Tepper. And Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Dead and Alive.
- July 22, 2009 at 12:55 AM
- the walking man said...
One more run through then off it goes for distribution.
- July 22, 2009 at 3:28 AM
- David Cranmer said...
In His Time: The Life and Legacy of Travis Erwin. (2050)
- July 22, 2009 at 5:43 AM
- MTL said...
The new Dan Brown book coming out in Sept.
- July 22, 2009 at 6:29 AM
- Janna Leadbetter said...
I'd like to read The Time Traveler's Wife. I've seen the movie previews for it, and I'm curious about how the story plays out on paper.
- July 22, 2009 at 6:36 AM
- Corey Wilde said...
The next Joe Pike novel by Robert Crais, titled The First Rule. It isn't due out until 2010. After listening to Crais read excerpts here, the wait may very well kill me.
- July 22, 2009 at 7:25 AM
- Debra She Who Seeks said...
My Fabulous Life and the Truth about Patrick by Spongebob Squarepants.
- July 22, 2009 at 7:55 AM
- Corey Schwartz said...
Hard not to say Harry Potter. But if I had to pick something else, I'd go with World Without End, Ken Follett's epic historical novel which came nearly 20 years after the original, Pillars of the Earth.
- July 22, 2009 at 8:17 AM
- Unknown said...
Lullaby by Chuck P. I had just tore through all of his previous books and was like crap now I have to wait 2 months for the next one to come out. Long two months..lol
- July 22, 2009 at 8:30 AM
- Gary Corby said...
Not counting my own first book, which is cheating, it would have to be Patrick O'Brien's final Aubrey-Maturin novel: Blue at the Mizen.
The one which I'll be anticipating forever is the Flashman in which our hero is blackmailed by Lincoln into fighting in the US Civil War. On both sides. But George MacDonald Fraser died before he could write it.
- July 22, 2009 at 8:45 AM
- Angie Ledbetter said...
Sadly, I can't remember one. :o/
Come read your pal Harvey's interview at my place today if ya get a chance.
- July 22, 2009 at 9:04 AM
- KrisMrsBBradley said...
Showing my geek here, but Harry Potter 7. I could not wait for that book to come out! I read the other 6 books about 3 times in between 6 and 7!
- July 22, 2009 at 9:26 AM
- Unknown said...
Woman's Murder Club, 8th series. I'm sorry, but I love those books. And can I tell you how very excited I was to find out that James Patterson has a NEW Prey book? With Lucas Davenport? If that man were real, oh the things I would .... well, he isn't real, so I'll just dream about him until I die.
- July 22, 2009 at 9:28 AM
- ssas said...
They were already out. But when I picked up then acquaintance's Carol Berg's TRANSFORMATION and read it, I had to run right out and grab the others in the trilogy.
- July 22, 2009 at 10:32 AM
- Monnik said...
The last Harry Potter book is the one I bought on the day of release. I am a library gal... usually read books later than everyone else. :)
- July 22, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Going to sound very ordinary here, but have to say, Brother Odd, or really anything by DK; always looking for the next Sue Grafton, and worried that T is very close to the end of the alphabet; some of the cozy series I read that you'd all laugh at so I won't list them here.
- July 22, 2009 at 10:56 AM
Oh! and The Silver Door, the sequel to The Ruby Key, which the kids loved.
- July 22, 2009 at 10:58 AM
- writtenwyrdd said...
I don't know what the title will be, but I'm awaiting the next book (#4) in the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. There are others, of course. LOTS of others!
- July 22, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Always Janet Evanovich's next Stephanie Plum novel...they're just so much fun.
Used to be Harry Potter. I owned a bookstore when one of them came out...(can't remember which...it was the blue one) and it was so exciting to get them two days before anyone else had them!
I'm with Janna on Time Travelers Wife also.
- July 22, 2009 at 11:32 AM
- Charles Gramlich said...
Number 46 in the Dray Prescot series. I actually don't know what the title is, though.
- July 22, 2009 at 11:32 AM
- sybil law said...
I've never really anticipated any one book coming out. However, I got super excited to find a Mark Helprin book I'd never read, and when I saw A Thousand Splendid Suns (right after its release), I snatched it up right away. Also, new Nelson Demille books make me happy.
- July 22, 2009 at 11:38 AM
- Mary said...
I am eagerly awaiting the release of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I thought I had only to wait until August (a trick of the mind?). Yesterday, I clicked over to Amazon to discover the publication date is 1 October! Drat... Don't know how I will survive.
- July 22, 2009 at 12:41 PM
- Robin Lemke said...
I always eagerly anticipated the new HP's. Another one that I always watched for was the new Elizabeth Peters' mysteries.
- July 22, 2009 at 3:14 PM
- pattinase (abbott) said...
I just never assume the next book will be as good. If I had to pick it would be Jeffrey Eugenides followup to MIDDLESEX. Though that's been on the drawing board for years.
- July 22, 2009 at 4:19 PM
- Barbara Martin said...
The final in The Wheel of Times series by Robert Jordon, written by Brian Sanderson via assorted notes and material.
The final in the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series, whenever that may be. None of the books in the series have been disappointments and I certainly don't think the last will be a bummer.
The Symphony of Ages series by Elizabeth Haydon may never end as she's been writing children's books about the early days of Serendair.
The stand alone series of Agent Pendergast written by thriller experts Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child may never end until the character dies of natural causes. The book of the series I read was "The Book of the Dead". I have yet to delve into "The Wheel of Darkness" as I'm swamped with ARCs. This latter book isn't the last of the series, but I'm certain Preston and Child won't disappoint.
I have dabbled in the Harry Potter series but I'm not itching to get my hands on the rest of the series.
I am looking forward to see what the team of Bob Mayer and Jennifer Crusie have put together as a team. It should be as great as the last two: Agnes and the Hitman, and Don't Look Down.
- July 23, 2009 at 11:45 AM
- Barbara Martin said...
Oh, forgot, the continuing saga of the Piers Anthony Xanthu series. There's something to inspire you, Travis, writing in old age with a series of best sellers behind you.
- July 23, 2009 at 11:54 AM


text:
"The Last Emperor" is returning – finally.
Fedor Emelianenko (31-2 MMA, 1-1 SF) meets Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva (14-2 MMA, 1-1 SF) in the opening round of an eight-man Strikeforce heavyweight tournament scheduled to begin Feb. 12 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J.
In a second quarterfinal fight, former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski (15-8 MMA, 0-2 SF) meets Sergei Kharitonov (16-4 MMA, 0-0 SF).
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) learned of the news from sources close to the fighters who are earmarked for the tournament. Sherdog.com first reported the tournament earlier today.
A third quarterfinal matchup between Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1 MMA, 3-0 SF) and Brett Rogers (11-2 MMA, 2-2 SF) reported as in the works for a March 5 event in Columbus, Ohio, is said to be off, sources said, though Werdum recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio he plans to compete at the spring event.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker declined to comment on the reported fights, though he said an "important announcement" about the tournament is due by Tuesday.
Emelianenko's return marks the apparent end of contentious contract negotiations between Strikeforce, Showtime and M-1 Global, the parent company responsible for managing the Russian heavyweight. This past month, as heavy rumors circled about an Emelianenko vs. Silva matchup at a Strikeforce card set for Jan. 29, officials from Strikeforce and M-1 Global said negotiations still were ongoing and a deal was not finalized.
However, the officials were optimistic that a deal was closer than ever.
"We are really hoping that we can finalize things as soon as possible," M-1 representative Evgeni Kogan then told MMAjunkie.com. "We have been steadily working toward an agreement. And I think we are closer to it now than we have been in the past."
Emelianenko has not competed since he suffered a shocking submission loss to Werdum at "Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum" earlier this year. A rematch between the two appeared to be in the works before Werdum underwent surgery for a damaged elbow and was put on the bench until early next year. Emelianenko previously had flirted with the possibility of retirement, but the loss to Werdum ultimately stoked his competitive fires.
In an August interview with M-1 Global's website, he hinted that a new contract with Strikeforce could last for up to four to six fights, though the terms of Emelianenko's new deal could not be verified.
For more on Strikeforce in New Jersey, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Fedor Emelianenko)


text:
The unemployed Irish graduate who spent the last of his savings on a giant billboard advertising his services has landed not one but two dream jobs.
Marketing graduate Feilim Mac An Iomaire used the advertising hoarding to plead with Irish employers to save him from emigration. And it worked.
The $3,000 he spent to erect the billboard on Dublin's busy Merrion Road was a last resort after he spent eight months looking for any job following his return from a year in Australia.
Now the 26-year-old has his pick of two top marketing jobs in his native city after his innovate campaign resulted in 20 interviews.
"I can't quite believe how my life has turned around. Since I put the billboard up, my phone literally hasn't stopped ringing and I've been to about 20 interviews," said Mac An Iomaire whose Jobless Paddy billboard was taken down on Sunday.
Read more:
'Jobless Paddy' gets swamped with work offers after billboard
Huge response as graduate advertises his services on side of busy highway
"But the best news for me is that I've received two job offers in the past couple of days and they are both marketing roles and exactly the types of jobs I wanted.
"I expect to have something sorted by the end of the week and I can now say for certain that I'll be back working by the end of this month.''
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mac An Iomaire added: "It's certainly the best €2,000 I've ever spent in my life, because had I not done that I doubt I would have even have had an interview at this stage, never mind a couple of job offers."
A graduate of Galway's National University, Mac An Iomaire had been living on jobseeker's allowance after his return from Sydney last August.
Forced to move back in with his parents, he could see no alternative to emigration before he came up with the idea of the billboard in which he faces a number of famous landmarks in Sydney, London and New York with the desperate message 'Save Me From Emigration'.
"I've been very frustrated at being unemployed and being stuck on the sidelines for so long. And as I've said before, I want to stay in this country and be part of its solution, not its problem,'' he added.
"Finally, I now know that I'm going to be working again very soon and I couldn't be happier. I love this country and if I had to leave it again, it would be with a heavy heart. Thankfully, it looks like I'm here to stay."


text:
This kid right here, he's a little bit of alright. Speaking as someone who looks afflicted with some kind of palsy when he tries to wink, this kid is a pretty smooth-ass operator. He follows the camera pan all the way around and just sells it, the whole time. Total confidence, with a care-free attitude.
Nice work, kid.


text:
Arts & Entertainment
Millers are featured performers in "Music of the Masters" concert
- Details
- Category: Arts & Entertainment
- Published on 12 January 2009
Mount Vernon Music Association invites the public to attend "Music of the Masters," a concert featuring the musical compositions of Beethoven and Brahms at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, in The Music Hall. Performing will be Mount Vernon Music Players Steven Harlos, piano, Mark Miller violin, Ute Miller, viola and Carol Harlos, cello.
For more information, see the Jan. 8 edition of the Optic-Herald.


text:
First off, this anime ends horribly. People talk about anime suddenly ending with no resolution. Sometimes they overreact – Deadman Wonderland and Attack on Titan end an arc but keep the big story unfinished. It's frustrating, since the arcs are integral to a bigger story and don't stand on their own. Code Geass, however, simply ends. Worse, it ends on a cliffhanger. I know there's a second season, but you don't separate seasons (Or episodes, or books) for the sake of it. You separate them because they're different stories. This one's unfinished and this is a huge blow.
More news at 11.
At first, it's tempting to view the anime as exploration of Japan under Western influence. World War II wasn't so long ago, and we all heard about how the Japanese are poor victims. This story is false, and bones have a way of digging themselves out. Japan was an aggressor in WWII and responsible for some true horrors. So seeing a story in which they are oppressed can be bizarre – you have to wonder whether in the world of Code Geass they found the bones in Shinjiku. The big Western oppressor this time is the UK, whose main contribution to the world after WWII was Big Beat and Dubstep.
It's not about politics. The Geass is a physical manifestation of power. The creators wisely chose to never talk about how it actually works. There's no D&D-esque magic system behind it, only a few limits to help us understand power better. A Geass is limited, because power comes in different forms. A Geass can also be used once, but can consume you.
Power doesn't just come in isolation. Something drives power. The user wants to achieve something with that power. We hear about how some people just want to feel powerful, but why do they want to feel powerful? Powerful is ability and security. Power cannot be an end. If it is an end, it is only because power is the means to get many ends. Power never stands alone.
Here's your main problem with the anime. Power here stands alone. Excluding Euphie, the story is an ordinary one about oppressed people rising against their overseers, but so what? What does the British empire stand for? What do the Japanese stand for? You cannot just kill the tyrant but have to replace it with something. A person once said that anarchy is a 'tyranny of people with guns'. Since humans are pack animals, leaders come by naturally and can be good for us. Leaders work differently, though even when they seem similar. Both the Nazis and the Japanese did unethical human experiments, but for different ends.
The series is soaked by the theme of power. The position of every character is established quickly, and is an important part of everyone's lives. Notice how Rivalz is obviously inferior to Lelouch, how no woman swoon over him and he's mostly just there. During high school scenes, we follow the most powerful people – the student council whose head is the daughter of the principle. Lelouch is a person who lost his position of power and that's the same story for Jeremiah. Cornelia's and Euphemia's relationship isn't just about protecting the little sister – one is clearly more powerful than the other.
It's a fantastic stage to test what drives power and they squash it. The two sides fighting stand for nothing. Many stories use the typical Hitler-esque tyrant, which is cliched but at least something. Here, the British Empire only protect its own existence without ever answering why it exists in the first place. The Japanese want to free themselves, but they only free themselves into a vague 'equality' thing.
Then again, it's not a story of simple evil vs. simple good. Many scenes show us the Britinnians, their lives and how they're actual human beings. The inclusion of school life comedy is brilliant. It shows us there are people behind the oppressors who might be used to their lives of privilege, but they're still people. When everything falls apart, there's no sadism but empathy towards the upper class.
If the creators can write vibrant scenes about everyday life, why can't they imbue their characters with motives and ideologies? Relationships with the same structure work differently. Both Lelouch and Cornelia protect their little sisters, but Lelouch is the soft warm protector whereas Cornelia is the condescending one. A small character arc involving Jeremiah – a clear villain and an asshole – shows us the pain of falling from a position of power. Even while the series sides with Lelouch, it doesn't shy away from how his power can hurt his enemies.
The 'Grand Purpose' is integral to any piece of art. Everything connects to it, and it makes the flaws more understandable. Without the grand purpose, there is nothing to review. Even shows whose only purpose is to show big boobs have this purpose. Often, average shows swing between two such purpose and commit. Code Geass doesn't even swing between purposes but simply doesn't have one. It goes through the motions, provides good storytelling that leads nowhere.
Credit must go to the designers. The series sports one of the best character design I've seen. As pure beauty few anime match it. In fact, the characters are so beautiful that it feels like a plot point. Everyone radiates sex appeal, but somehow no one has sex with anyone. The overly-slender bodies do contrast with this. They're not just thin but long, but every face is plastic-surgery perfect. Every stare is full of confidence with sensual lips. Even the voice-actors give a sexual smugness to it all. CC and Milly always sound teasing, like they're just about to invite you to their rooms. It's nice, but sometimes bizarre.
It's also fairly expressive. Notice the contrast in design between Lelouch and Suzaku. Suzaku has a softer, cuter look with the curly hair. Lelouch has sharp eyes, black hair that falls in spikes. These designs amplifies their personalities. Rivalz is being stuck with a goofy blue hairdo. The decision to give characters similar but different hair colors is meaningful. Euphy's pink is brighter than Cornelia's purple, just like their personality.
The gigantic robots don't fare so well. The action scenes are a constant thorn in the anime. Although there are emotional moments in those scenes, they take the chess game technique to the extreme. They become more about Lelouch's genius rather than the characters. Imagine JoJo but with giant robots. JoJo was nice, but its storytelling was built for shallow stories driven by excitement. Here, the storytelling always aims for something deeper. If the robots had a cool look to them, then fine. The designers went full lazy and just had gigantic hulks of metal with arms and legs. None of the imagination that fuels the character design (A character who appears for a barely a minute looks better than most anime characters) reaches them.
Contrast this anime with Future Diary. It's another overly ambitious anime with so much going on it couldn't flesh it all out. When Future Diary tackles an idea, it does so with full conviction. It may need more length, but when it's about comedy it's all about comedy. When it's horror, it's all horror. More importantly, Future Diary wasn't about build-up but about arcs. Each arc had its own style. All of the elements in Geass aren't spread evenly but crammed together into one gigantic arc that builds up to a huge climax. There is very little resolution in this anime. Some may enjoy the cliffhangers, the 'what'll happen next?' but that's boring. The most exciting anime are those that are exciting because what's happening, in the present tense. They'll keep you coming back.
Code Geass fails only because what it set out to do is be the best anime ever. It's overall a good show with a dynamic story and a wide cast, each with their own point of view. Although it slips often to cheap thriller mode, the characters' personality dominate it more than conventions. Even if it's not the best anime ever, most creators can't even attempt something this ambitious.


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