Tips and Tactics of Paid Search Webinar

Free Search Marketing Now Webinar
Beat the Rising Cost of Paid Search: Tips and Tactics
Thursday, February 17
1 PM EST
Speakers: David Szetela, Clix Marketing and Rob Cooley, OptiMine

Explore the recent upward trends in the cost of PPC advertising. Discover solutions to make PPC campaigns more efficient.

PPC expert David Szetela will cover what to look for in your PPC campaign to improve profitability, and what steps to take as a result. Following David’s presentation we’ll hear from Rob Cooley of Optimine, who will share his company’s experience with improving results in paid search campaigns

Predicting World Events With Social Media.

Last century, people would say, "It's the power of the press," with press being newspapers. From Watergate to Love Canal, the newspaper reporter would track the story down or provide a safe haven for a whistle blower.

In the recent uprising in Eqypt and other Middle East countries, it was the power of social media that played a key role in letting others in Eqypt and the world know what was happening. The Eqypt page on Facebook was a place many people visited. With one window open to a translating program, we followed the progress of the revolution. If we looked, would we have predicted the uprisings in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya? Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee think so.

MediaPost Publications U.S. Intel Chiefs Used Social Media to Track Middle East Revolts 02/18/2011

Social media's utility as a monitoring and surveillance tool was confirmed this week -- with some acrimony -- during hearings held by the Senate Intelligence Committee to address perceived shortcomings in U.S. intelligence gathering in the Middle East. Led by Chairwoman Diane Feinstein, committee members specifically grilled national intelligence director James Clapper and CIA director Leon Panetta (among others) about their use of social media for monitoring the situation in Egypt and elsewhere.

Clapper and Panetta defended their inactions by citing the volume of the social media accounts, which currently includes 600 million Facebook accounts, 190 million Twitter accounts, and many thousands of hours of video on YouTube.

Herbal colon cleansing agents.

Herbal colon cleansers remedies are more sought after than traditional solutions. Alternate medicines are catching up the fascination of all of us mainly because of no side effects.

Food habit that has witnessed a big change over the last 50 years is the sole reason for the necessity to cleanse our colon of toxins, parasites and bacteria that cause irregular bowel activities.

In our food, we include various herbs that act as powerful colon cleansers. Gingelli oil, the best toxin remover is our basic cooking oil. It helps in the production of bile and prevents gas formation. A gas free stomach means healthy bowel movements.

Aloe Vera is another colon-cleaning herb, which is now found as a major ingredient in many colon cleansers. 

Several review sites rate colon cleansers based on the number of herbal content they contain. It is a good sign for permanent solution.

How hot is too hot?

I've lived in some pretty extreme climates over the past 8 years. 

Although England was relatively mild and Vancouver was damp and drizzly, Ottawa was downright frigid in winter and high in the humidity stakes over the short summer months.

This week, Sydney became one of the hottest places on earth, according to the national and international weather forecasts, with a sweltering seven day heatwave that smashed records as the city endured a week of temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (and averaging 40 degrees plus). Tuesday peaked at more than 45 degrees at midday in some areas of the city, whilst on Saturday night the temperature hovered around 30 degrees. 

A typical daily temperature reading in the car this week

Uncomfortably hot throughout the week, 'locals' resorted to using umbrellas to protect themselves from the blistering rays of the Aussie sun, air conditioners worked overtime in offices across Sydney, and sleep deprivation became the norm as residents twisted and turned in their beds, unpleasantly overheated and soaked in sweat.

My past four years of summers in Sydney have generally ranged from fairly warm to stinking hot, and I've come to see myself as someone who relishes this extraordinarily extreme environment. In fact, prior to this week's heatwave, it occurred to me that I might even be growing immune to the kind of intense weather found here in Australia or, at the other end of the temperature spectrum, overseas in Canada.

Whilst I might once have sat through an English heatwave and whinged about the third day of 25 degree temps and the endless summer sun, I now bask in a much hotter, lengthier summer season and smile when I hear similar complaints from friends and family back in Blighty. I now live in a country where the summer is hardcore, where the potential for heat exhaustion and over-exposure is a given, and where forgetting to 'slip, slop, slap' can be the difference between an enjoyable day out at the beach or a night spent in the local hospital's burns unit.

Red sky at night, shepherds' delighting in tomorrow's heat


Yet for all my supposed immunity to, and tolerance of, these long, hot Australian summers, this week proved to be a bit of a wake-up call. As we bunkered down in our house on a daily basis with the air conditioning cranked up to the maximum but with little effect and blinds drawn tightly to a close, my little vegetable patch all but died in the garden and any grass we had burned to a crisp. Poor Milo didn't move from the cold slate tiles in the hallway and we only braved the hot winds and humid air when absolutely necessary. The feeling of breathing in hot, scalding air with the sun practically burning skin upon contact was a thing of nightmares. We could do nothing but hide away from the heat in our shrunken little world, as I acknowledged that maybe I wasn't quite so immune to these 'extremes' after all.


Average February heat across Australia


The most extreme experience of the week took the form of a new fun run on the Northern Beaches starting at a surely cooler and more comfortable time of 6.45am. As the starter's gun went off, I found myself running the hilly and exposed 7km course in temperatures in excess of 30 degrees. I witnessed runners overcome by the heat collapse at the side of the road with St John's Ambulance staff in attendance and the only thought running through my head was how to determine the point at which I should get off the shadeless road and out of the sun's unforgiving path.

As I finished the race to the sound of the event organiser announcing that the day's conditions were "perfect summer weather for a fun run", it dawned on me that the morning heat had entirely humbled me. If someone was to ask how hot is too hot, the answer would almost certainly be today.


A cool and very welcome southerly wind eventually blew through the region on Sunday plunging the temperature from a fiery 32 degrees to a more pleasant 18 degrees in one afternoon. Upon announcing details of the excessively high temperatures, to my amusement both friends and family from the UK and Canada all told me how they would rather be in Sydney enjoying the 45 degree heat rather than in the cold northern hemisphere winter. It occurred to me how it must be impossible to fully comprehend and understand the impact of this week's heatwave from afar if never having lived here or experienced the fury of an Australian summer before.

And that's what this was...  an experience, albeit an extreme one. As with all the experiences we've had on this journey of ours, we sit back and appreciate the uniqueness of the moment. And I'll continue to enjoy these 'moments' as long as they remain just that, because the problem is that now I've lived in extreme heat and extreme cold, my tolerance of these 'extremes' is all but used up.

So I have a good idea. In the future I'd prefer a little less of both and a bit more balance between the two.






The battle to protect Canada's Pacific coast

The battle to protect Canada's Pacific coast

 

On this journey of ours, we left Canada's west coast almost 6 years ago.  Although we now call Australia home, British Columbia will always hold a very special place in our hearts. In fact, we'll be returning there in March 2011 for a much-needed vacation and BC fix.

I was recently made aware of a battle underway in the area. A battle to protect the breathtaking coast of the Pacific North West from a potentially terrible blight on this land.

The Great Bear Rainforest, on BC's north and central Pacific coast, is the last great untouched region of Canadian wilderness and is one of the largest intact tracts of temperate rainforest left in the world. Representing one quarter of the world's remaining coastal temperate rainforest, the Great Bear Rainforest stretches along the mainland coast of BC to the Alaska border, covering an area the size of Switzerland.



The Rainforest takes its name from the grizzly bears, black bears and Kermode (Spirit) bears that live there and has one of the highest concentrations of coastal grizzly bear populations on North America's west coast. An ecological treasure, it is also home to large numbers of humpback whales, wild salmon, wolves, deer, northern goshawks and mountain goats.

This truly spectacular place is now threatened by a proposal from a Canadian company, Enbridge, which plans to bring an oil pipeline and supertankers to this fragile coast. Enbridge is hoping to put in place an extensive operation that will allow the pumping of more than half a million barrels of unrefined bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands, over the Rockies, and through the heartland of BC every single day.



This oil will cross a thousand pristine rivers and streams along the way, eventually arriving in the Port of Kitimat deep in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. From Kitimat, enormous supertankers will attempt to navigate the rough, treacherous and extremely narrow waterways of the BC coast, en route to Asia and the United States.

 


This unfathomable project has been dubbed the Northern Gateway Pipeline and organisations such as PacificWild and the Sierra Club of BC are most concerned for the following key reasons:

1. It would facilitate the expansion of the Tar Sands, hooking emerging Asian economies on the world's dirtiest oil.
2. The risks from the pipeline to the natural environment.
3. The danger of introducing significant oil supertanker traffic for the first time to this part of the BC coast.

It's not hard to see how this magnificent rainforest is now threatened by the developments proposed by Enbridge - and not necessarily opposed by the various levels of Canadian government. This incredible environment is at risk and I, for one, am keen to raise awareness of the issue and hopefully contribute to the protection of this West Canadian coast and stop Enbridge building this pipeline.

In my relatively short time in Australia, I've already seen how a coal-carrying transport ship crossing the Great Barrier Reef can easily cause an environmental nightmare after the ship ran aground, leaking oil on the Reef and facing the distinct possibility of breaking apart.

I'd therefore encourage you to watch the video below to learn more about the potential and irreversible disasters facing the region if this project goes ahead. The video is approximately 17 minutes long and is well worth watching, if not just to see the spectacular scenery of this part of the BC coast. You can also click on the link below if you'd prefer to watch the video directly on You Tube or alternatively go to the website of PacificWild or the Sierra Club of BC for more information on supporting this worthy cause.

British Columbia really is one of the best places on earth. We should try to keep it that way.

Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada's Pacific Coast

نشر الرسالة

 

Predicting World Events With Social Media

Predicting World Events With Social Media

Last century, people would say, "It's the power of the press," with press being newspapers. From Watergate to Love Canal, the newspaper reporter would track the story down or provide a safe haven for a whistle blower.

In the recent uprising in Eqypt and other Middle East countries, it was the power of social media that played a key role in letting others in Eqypt and the world know what was happening. The Eqypt page on Facebook was a place many people visited. With one window open to a translating program, we followed the progress of the revolution. If we looked, would we have predicted the uprisings in Bahrain, Yemen and Libya? Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee think so.

MediaPost Publications U.S. Intel Chiefs Used Social Media to Track Middle East Revolts 02/18/2011

Social media's utility as a monitoring and surveillance tool was confirmed this week -- with some acrimony -- during hearings held by the Senate Intelligence Committee to address perceived shortcomings in U.S. intelligence gathering in the Middle East. Led by Chairwoman Diane Feinstein, committee members specifically grilled national intelligence director James Clapper and CIA director Leon Panetta (among others) about their use of social media for monitoring the situation in Egypt and elsewhere.

Clapper and Panetta defended their inactions by citing the volume of the social media accounts, which currently includes 600 million Facebook accounts, 190 million Twitter accounts, and many thousands of hours of video on YouTube.

---

Maybe the government needs to hire some social media marketers to show them how to use social media effectively. Better still, hire some interns to tracks trends on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Give some poor college graduates employment so they can pay off their financial aid loans.

All kidding aside, I think NSA knows what to do, they just did not do it. Over two years ago, the NSA successfully monitored all the private communications of Americans abroad, including humanitarian workers and U.S. service-members. The NSA even intentionally directed its surveillance powers at well-established humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. For more information, from October, 2008 on Endangered Spaces blog.

The super vaccine that protects you from all types of flu for LIFE

The super vaccine that protects you from all types of flu for LIFE

A super-vaccine that could give permanent protection against all forms of flu is being developed by British doctors. The once-in-a-lifetime vaccine could do away with the need for an annual jab, according to researchers at Oxford University. At present, the current jab has to be given every winter to match different circulating strains.