Money Making

Surface Encounters

Barry Bonds trial: Giambi brothers due to testify

Major leaguers Jason and Jeremy Giambi were expected to testify Tuesday as Barry Bonds' perjury trial resumed.

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Japan Nuke Accident Seen From Seattle - Science <b>News</b>

Clues to events at crippled plant found in traces of radiation reaching Pacific Northwest.

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Donald Trump Will Win <b>News</b> Cycles With Birtherism [UPDATED]

The big 2012 news today is, naturally, pure malarkey from Donald Trump, who has inexplicably decided to base his reality-teevee campaign solely on birtherism. Here's Politico's Andy Barr:

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Editor’s Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday introduced the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco, taking even more momentum away from its competitors.

I’ve had a lot of people in the last 24 hours tell me that the iPad 2 isn’t as revolutionary as the first generation device. Yes, that’s true. But not every device a company releases has to be or can be revolutionary.

Apple has released three revolutionary products in the last decade alone: iPod, iPhone and iPad. I really can’t think of any products from Apple’s competitors that fit in the revolutionary category in that same time period.

People also said that Apple wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs of the iPad 2. Again, that’s true, but there’s a good reason for that—nobody cares.

Well, some people care. Those of us who are geeks care about specs. However, have you ever noticed that when you sit with your non-geek friends and start listing off specs their eyes glaze over and they rest their chin in their hand.

That’s because they couldn’t care less.

The iPad 2 is no slouch either. It lost one-third of the thickness of the previous generation, and therefore it is one-third less than the size of the iPad competitors too. It also has new technologies like a gyro built-in that will launch another round of cool apps.

Yesterday’s iPad 2 announcement wasn’t about the geeks—it was about all the other people who will buy an iPad. What those people want to know is “what can I do with it?”

If it fits into their lifestyle, most people are good with that. Apple showed many ways how the iPad 2 can fit into your lifestyle.

From the very beginning, Apple was very smart with how it marketed the iPad. The first thing it did was get the device into businesses and promote the fact that it could be used to get work done. And it was quite successful with that.

In an analyst call in October 2010, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the iPad was already being used in 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies. That was four months ago and the iPad has grown since then, so we can only imagine where that number is now.

This strategy allowed Apple to do two things. If it came out with the iPad and pushed the gaming capabilities of the device, the business world would have looked at it as a toy. That would have certainly meant slower adoption. It also allowed them to work on some consumer software, two of which we saw yesterday.

In addition to the iPad 2, Jobs also unveiled iMovie and GarageBand for the iPad. This is what people want to know about—what can I do with the iPad that’s exciting and new.

Obviously, creating movies and being able to edit and share them with friends and family is a very popular thing to do these days. iMovie makes that easy.

Creating music, whether a novice or pro is also a cool thing to do. GarageBand is a great app to get that done and you can move your projects to your Mac and continue working on them.

It’s not just about the hardware. Apple delivers the whole experience that nobody else can. Jobs said yesterday that there are 65,000 apps on its App Store specifically designed for the iPad. That’s a lot of things you can do.

If you think Apple’s competitors are jumping for joy because the iPad 2 isn’t revolutionary, I believe you are wrong. I think they’re scared. Yesterday, they figured out Apple’s strategy too, but a little too late.

Titles from major book publisher Random House will now appear in Apple’s iBooks store. The news was one of many talking points covered earlier today at Apple’s media event. Random House had previously been the only major publisher not represented in Apple’s popular iOS book store, as it was not willing to grant Apple the 30% cut taken on titles sold through iBooks. The addition of Random House is a major coup for Apple as it looks to compete with the likes of Amazon’s Kindle bookstore and other popular offerings. Hit the break for Apple’s full press release.

Random House, Inc. Makes Entire US Catalog of 17,000 ebooks Available on Apple’s iBookstore

iBookstore Now Features More than 2,500 Publishers, Including All Six Major Trade Publishers

SAN FRANCISCO—March 2, 2011—Apple® today announced that Random House, Inc., the largest trade book publisher in the US, has made its full catalog of 17,000 ebooks available on Apple’s iBookstore℠, including bestsellers by Stieg Larsson, John Grisham, Dan Brown, Danielle Steel, Laura Hillenbrand, Cormac McCarthy, Lee Child and many more of the world’s preeminent authors. Starting today, customers can pre-order upcoming releases from Random House including Lisa Gardner’s “Love You More,” Suze Orman’s “The Money Class” and Jean Auel’s “The Land of Painted Caves.” With the addition of Random House, the iBookstore now offers ebooks from all six major trade publishers and thousands of independent publishers.

“We are delighted that Apple’s iBookstore now will be carrying Random House’s US ebooks for the first time,” said Markus Dohle, Random House’s Chairman and CEO. “And we look forward to bringing our 17,000 ebooks to Apple customers.”

“We’re thrilled to offer Random House on the iBookstore,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “iBookstore customers have already downloaded more than 100 million books in less than one year, and we think they’ll love being able to choose from Random House’s incredible selection of titles to enjoy on their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.”

iBookstore customers can choose from a wide selection of illustrated and video-enhanced books that look incredible on iPad™, including Jay-Z’s memoir “Decoded” and Bing West’s “The Wrong War”; bestselling children’s series such as Magic Tree House and Junie B. Jones; and cookbooks by Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, and the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Random House, Inc. comprises more than 80 adult and children’s US publishing imprints including Alfred A. Knopf, Doubleday, Crown, Pantheon Books, Vintage, Ballantine and Bantam.

The iBookstore, included in Apple’s free iBooks® app, is the best way to browse, buy and read books on your iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch®. iBookstore offers ebooks from more than 2,500 publishers in more than 20 categories, including Mysteries & Thrillers, Biographies & Memoirs, Cookbooks, Children’s & Teen, Humor, Romance, Business and Travel.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Tags: announcement, Apple, books, e-books, e-reader, ebooks, eReader, Event, iBooks, Random House


Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

In our second installment of The Business of Blogging, we speak to the uber-talented Tommy Ton, founder of Jak & Jil and streetstyle photographer for Style.com and GQ.com

PARIS, France — “It was the summer of 1997 and I was 13 years old,” recalls Tommy Ton, now 27, describing the moment when a self-professed comic book nerd from the suburbs of Toronto first became interested in fashion. “My sister asked me to record Fashion Television and all of a sudden Tom Ford comes on and talks about women, and his idea of sex. He was so eloquent in his choice of words. It was love at first sight.”

From that moment, Mr. Ton embarked on what has been described as a something of a fairytale, becoming the world’s most influential street style fashion photographer today. But achieving such success is rarely that simple — or easy.

More than just a skilled photographer with a good eye and encyclopedic knowledge of fashion, Ton has proven himself to be a savvy digital operator with a potent mixture of ambition, work ethic and strategic thinking that has enabled him to discover and hone in on his special talent. His humility throughout it all has endeared him not only to the stylish women he has made famous, but also to fellow fashion bloggers and his growing list of paying clients.

Yes, Tommy Ton is building a business, and he’s proud of it.

At first, Mr. Ton says he simply became infatuated with fashion. “I’d bike to the library, tear out ad campaigns, and make collages of Gucci and Versace,” he explains over dinner during Paris Fashion Week. At age 15, he interned with the Toronto designer Wayne Clark and then in the women’s accessories department of Holt Renfrew, Canada’s leading luxury department store.

From the beginning, Ton has been a fervent but charming networker, not afraid to approach and build relationships with the industry’s top players. “I made an effort so Barbara Atkin knew who I was,” he says, referring to the Holt Renfrew’s highly-respected fashion director. This ultimately landed him a gig in the store’s buying office, furthering his understanding of the fashion business, but still not quite sating his fashion appetite.

“I was there in the Summer of 2004 when web magazines first started popping up,” he says. Ton started taking classes in digital photography and met with friends who did graphic design, before deciding to start Jak & Jil, which was initially conceived in 2005 as a lifestyle website focused on the product and people in Toronto.

“Then my guardian angel came along,” says Ton, referring to Lynda Latner, proprietor of vintagecouture.com. “She hired me because she saw my site and thought I could help her.”

In 2007 when Latner offered to send Ton to Europe to attend the shows in London and Paris, he had his first opportunity to experiment with street photography during fashion week, a trend which was just beginning to take off due to the pioneering work of Scott Schuman and Garance Doré.

“My first show in Paris was Balmain. I had no idea what Balmain was at the time, or what it was going to be, but all the girls were in that that show, like Daria, Irina, and Anja, and they played the Cure on the soundtrack. As soon as that show was done, it was raining outside…and I was dancing in the rain. I just felt so uplifted. I could not believe what fashion could do for you,” recalls Ton nostalgically. “To have that moment in Paris, at your very first show…it was magical.”

Using his “Canadian connections,” Ton also managed to get into Chanel, YSL, Dries van Noten and Rick Owens that first season. But in all the excitement, Ton says he didn’t know who or what to shoot. “I just shot what I thought was visually amazing. I didn’t know who Emmanuelle Alt was, or Kate Lanphear or even Anna Dello Russo.”

Almost immediately after this first trip, the Canadian fashion media took note of Ton’s photography, beginning with Flare magazine editor Lisa Tant. “Because of that trip, I got a page in Flare which gave me a validated reason to go back,” he says.

By 2008 Ton was already seeking a way to stand out from the growing hordes of photographers outside the shows who were mostly aping Schuman’s photographic style. “I thought, ‘I’m so tired of taking head-to-toe shots. No one can touch Scott at those photos — he is the king.’ I wanted my photos to stand out. That’s when I stated taking the candid shots.”

Ton’s landscape-style images focused in on the little details that caught his well-trained fashion eye — a towering Louboutin stiletto here, a pop of colour there on his favourite subjects as they walked into the shows. He rarely asked them to pose. Ton was developing a photographic style that that has now become instantly recognisable as his own, capturing the raw energy and excitement of fashion week. Fellow blogger Tavi Gevinson later remarked, “You always know what a Tommy Ton photograph looks like.”

He re-purposed Jak and Jil into a blog, and started posting two or three of his new style of photographs each day. This caught the attention of influential bloggers like Susanna Lau of Style Bubble and Rumi Neely of Fashion Toast, who helped to spread the word.

Two and half months later, Ton received an email from the head of marketing at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, asking him to shoot their Spring/Summer 2009 campaign.

“I said yes, but I didn’t even know what my worth was,” says Ton. “After talking to my business friends in the industry, I threw a figure at Lane Crawford. It was a bit too much, but we negotiated, and I was proud of myself because I was able to get an amount that I was satisfied with and which they were willing to pay.”

With his reputation spreading, Ton’s confidence began to grow. “During the Fall/Winter 2009 season, people started to know who I was. Scott [Schuman] actually knew my work. I was officially blogging and shooting for Lane Crawford at the same time. That was the season I knew what I was doing, and I knew what I wanted to shoot. It was the beginning of something.”

Another important shift came the following season in Milan, when Ton was seated in Dolce & Gabbana’s front row, alongside Doré, Schuman and Bryanboy, an image that was plastered in the fashion media around the world, signalling the arrival of fashion bloggers. “That was a huge moment. It was all due to Anna Dello Russo. She was the one who told Domenico and Stefano: ‘These are the people who are changing things.’”

From then on, the front row tickets came in fast and furious. Everyone wanted Ton to shoot at their shows, knowing his images would be seen by thousands of fashion enthusiasts and influencers around the world. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and others came calling. “They were emailing to buy photos,” he says.

Ton went from ultimate fashion outsider to insider almost overnight.

But the real turning point came a few weeks earlier when Style.com’s editor-in-chief Dirk Standen asked Ton to step into the formidable shoes of Scott Schuman, whose own photography career had gone stratospheric, in no small part due to the platform given to him by Style.com. Schuman had decided to leave Style.com to focus on other projects, and Ton now had the most high-profile streetstyle photography gig in the business.

“Being associated with Style.com is a huge deal for me. It’s what everyone looks at every day. People go to Style.com like you brush your teeth in the morning. It’s something you just do,” enthuses Ton.

By now, the time had come for Ton to seek professional representation. An introduction to elite agency The Collective Shift—which also represents top fashion photographers Inez and Vinoodh and super-stylist Melanie Ward—instantly felt like the right fit. Ton also signed on Trunk Archive to act as his image licensing agency, removing the burden of negotiating image rights and contracts on his own and dramatically increasing what he could earn from selling his images to the likes of American Vogue, Elle UK, and Vogue Nippon.

“Before, I was underselling myself, getting about $50-100 per image.” Today, Ton reports that he can earn from as little as $100 up to $2000. “The the thing I’ve learned is that you have to really consider whether it’s a one page image or a ½ page image or ¼ page image. It’s a really big deal when it’s one image over two pages in Grazia for example, whereas if it’s ⅛ of a page in Vogue, it is much less. I’m lucky to have Trunk Archive to deal with all that now.”

But image licensing only makes up about 30 percent of the revenue he earns. The remaining 70 percent comes from a variety of projects, including his gigs for Style.com, GQ.com, but also for retailers and brands such as Topshop, Selfridges, Sergio Rossi and Saks 5th Avenue.

Ton says he has made an intentional decision not to have advertising on his site. “It’s an association with your brand. I didn’t want my blog to be associated with any type of branding,” he explains.

But would he ever take pay for editorial placement on Jak & Jil itself? “Yes,” he says matter-of-factly. “But that requires a discussion between my agent, my client and me. The thing about the development of the Tommy Ton brand and the Jak & Jil brand is that everything is strategically selected and carefully monitored. We have to see potential growth in it, and understand what’s in it for us.”

When pressed on the criteria he uses for this kind of paid content, so as not to alienate his audience, he pauses to think. “It’s definitely gut instinct. It just has to be of the moment and relevant for the time.” His readers shouldn’t be able to tell the difference, he says, because the images he creates would be the kind he would post anyway. The standards are the same, and the images are just as powerful.

All the same, Tommy Ton also realizes this is his moment and it may not last forever. “I don’t even know if I will be able to earn the money I do now in a few years. I don’t know if I will be relevant or not. I am just lucky that people want to associate with me and their brand right now.”

And what about all that competition from the hundreds of streetstyle bloggers outside the shows? “You always have to stay on top of your game, and the only way to do that now is to have exclusive content,” he asserts. Recently, Ton has been invited to shoot behind-the-scenes at the Proenza Schouler studio and the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

“I’m not making any money from it, but it gives me access no one else would have. I take a lot of pride in that. I am so, so happy I am invited to do these things,” he says, recalling that 13 year old kid watching Tom Ford on TV back in Toronto. “In some ways I still feel like an outsider, even though I am acknowledged by these designers. I am still in awe of what is going on.”

Imran Amed is founder and editor of The Business of Fashion

The Business of Blogging is a new series on the rarely discussed business side of fashion blogging. Previous articles are listed below:

Susie Bubble

It looks like women have caught up with men in numbers in the workplace. For the first time in history, women in the USA now outnumber men in the workforce, and there are now more women in supervisory positions than there are males. The question is whether they will handle the downside of working any better than men.

According to an article by Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell, Ph.D., titled The 21st Century Workplace -- Are Women the New Men?, the economic downturn has hit men harder. They held nearly 80 percent of jobs that have been lost during what is now being called the "mancession." Will women now inherit the stress, pressure, exhaustion, burn out and heart attacks commonly associated with male leaders in business?

Some predict that this new female-dominated workplace will mean a softening of the corporate culture, with more benevolent leaders. Others foresee just the opposite. Ella says many women don't want to be seen as "soft" -- and others simply aren't. No one would call Carly Fiorina, the head of Hewlett Packard from 1999 to 2005, a wilting lily. According to her memoir, Tough Choices, she was sometimes referred to as Chainsaw Carly.

All of this is especially relevant on the entrepreneurial side, since statistics show that women are starting businesses at more than twice the rate of their male counterparts. Some would argue that the growing success rate of women entrepreneurs shows that they are resourceful, and better able to succeed, despite the odds.

While I'm sure we will continue to see progress on the female side, I predict that they will struggle with the same major challenges faced today by men. These include:

1. Funding your dream. Raising money is hard, whether you are counting on friends, investors, or banks. I rarely see women at angel investment groups, either asking for money, or offering to fund new ventures. Men seem more focused on this one.




2. Need for increased confidence and mindset skills. Many women and men are paralyzed by perfection, plagued by pessimism, and the need to satisfy others, rather than themselves. We need more women leaders.




3. Motivation to succeed. Every entrepreneur needs to love what they do, and believe so strongly in their product or service that they can weather the tough times. On this one, it's easy to spot the ones with passion, from either gender.




4. Manage time and priorities. Women, often more than men, try to do too much. It's hard to balance the continual demands of the business, personal relationships, and home life. Every entrepreneur needs to prioritize the important tasks ahead of urgent tasks.




5. Never stop learning. After you start your business, the learning really begins. True entrepreneurs look at failures as their best learning experiences. Networking, and using your network is the next most important element of learning.

I don't see any challenges which are so gender specific that they can't be overcome by any entrepreneur. Yet I don't think women should be convinced that the battle for equality is almost over. There is still the question of why there are so few women in high places, and why the average income for women in business is about 68% of men's income.

What I am hoping is that women will not just be the new men, and suffer from the same maladies and limitations. I'll be looking for women to create the "new business culture" that every worker wants -- better role definitions, more effective and productive leadership, and better work-life balance. That would make women entrepreneurs the new women, rather than the new men!

Surface Encounters

Radioactive trench water not confirmed to have overflowed: agency <b>...</b>

Radioactive water that has been filling up underground trenches connected to the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has not been confirmed to have overflowed, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency ...

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autosport.com - NASCAR <b>News</b>: Raikkonen to compete in NASCAR

Former Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will make a surprising move to NASCAR this year, the Finn joining the series with a new team.

Surface Encounters

Making Money on Line

How is Elop going to address this by
using Windows OS? He has to do more than just charge more, he has
to produce better product at competitive prices, which keep getting
lower. Elop will have to license the Widows OS, which is an
expense, one that he would bear to nowhere near the same extent if
he used Android. I feel he mistakenly looks at this as Google
commoditizing the Android platform, in lieu of the more reasonable
perspective of Google commoditizing the entire portable computer
space.

Well, the answer has arrived. Microsoft is buying Xx% of Nokia for paying Nokia over $1 billion to product Windows Phone 7 hardware.
Nearly all of this money is undoubtedly going into R&D and
marketing. Nokia and Microsoft (their new defacto owners) invariably see
Google as the pre-eminent trheat and are pulling out all of the stops
to nullify said threat. This also answers the question of how Elop, the
Nokia CEO will be able to deal with the reduced margins of having to
buy OS licenses while competing with vendors who get Android for free –
Microsoft is not only footing the bill, but investing in the business
as well. You see, the drop in Nokia’s share price is highly unwarranted
and their is visible synergy in this deal. Nokia gets to remove the
costs of OS R&D from its line times, sunk costs that have apparently
had negative incremental returns as they have had their asses handed to
them by Apple and most definitely Google – who knocked them off of
their number one market share perch in just over a year.

Microsoft gets the economic benefits of an existing hardware platform
that happens to have the number one marketshare metric in the world,
and gets it for just over a billion dollars. This is a win-win
situation. The question is,  will it win againt Google. Both companies
will still fail if they don’t execute on Google-time, who has compressed
development cycle years into months – literally!

From the Bloomberg article linked above:

Shrinking Margins (yeah, you’ve hear thist from me often enough)

Espoo, Finland-based Nokia needs to cut
costs to keep operating margins from narrowing further, after they
shrank to 4.9 percent last year from 19 percent a decade earlier. For
2011 and 2012, Nokia may cut its budget for research and development in
devices and services by about a third from last year’s spending of about
3 billion euros, said Sami Sarkamies, a Helsinki-based analyst with
Nordea Bank.

Microsoft spokeswoman Melissa Havel
declined to comment on the specifics of the agreement. Laurie Armstrong,
a spokeswoman for Nokia, said the final contract hasn’t been signed and
the company will share further details when they are complete.

Nokia’s royalty payments will help
Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft make a profit on the accord even
after the payments to Nokia, one person said. Some of the payment to
Nokia would be made before the company starts selling the phones,
meaning Microsoft bears some upfront cost in the partnership.

…

Microsoft shareholders want the company
to salvage its mobile-software business while also reining in costs. The
company doesn’t break out results for its mobile-software unit, and
instead groups them with the profitable Xbox video-game business, making it difficult to evaluate the financial performance of phone software.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer
has come under pressure from investors and his own board to improve
sales of mobile software after the company lost market share to Google
and Apple. Microsoft stock has declined 7.8 percent so far this year.

The agreement for the more than
billion-dollar payment was part of a campaign by Microsoft to keep Nokia
from choosing Google’s Android operating system, one of the people
said. Nokia also opted for Microsoft because Windows Phone software,
which is newer than Android and has a smaller number of handsets for
sale, gives Nokia a better chance to stand out, one of the people said.

The agreement also has Microsoft paying Nokia for the right to use its patent portfolio, one of the people said.

As part of the deal, Microsoft will use
Nokia’s Navteq mapping products for functions such as geolocation
services and selling local advertising and coupons tied to a user’s
position. If successful, that also could generate additional revenue for
Nokia, which will share in the sales. The two companies will also
divide revenue from services like search and advertising, Microsoft
President Andy Lees said last month.

I’ve been warning my subscribers about margin compression in this
space, and its about to get much uglier – to the extreme benefit of
consumers of personal and enterprise tech. Previous (and prescient)
posts from last year on this topic…

• Don’t Count Microsoft Out of the Ultra-Mobile Computing Wars Just Yet
• After Getting a Glimpse of the New Windows Phone 7 Functionality, RIMM is Looking More Like a Short Play
• As
  I Warned in June, DO NOT DISCOUNT Microsoft in This Mobile Computing
  War! Their Marketing Campaign is PURE GENIUS! and it Appears as if
  the Phone Ain’t Bad Either
• Apple on the Margin
• How
  Google is Looking to Cut Apple’s Margin and How the
  Sell Side of Wall Street Will Enable This Without
  Sheeple Investor’s Having a Clue

Monetizing the Mobile Computing Race

We have a pretty firm idea of who is in the pole position as of now,
but that position is both risky and volatile, not to mention medium to
long term in nature – see Navigating BoomBustBlog Subscription Material To Find The Google Valuation Drilldown.

A more risk averse strategy is to go long on the component vendors
who supply those battling for pole position. Last week we released the
document Long candidate #1 – Hardware: The Mobile Computing Wars
to subscribers that outlined who our number one pick was after an
initial scan. This is not necessarily the absolute final say on the
matter since we have yet to perform a full forensic analysis, but the
company does look good in comparison to over 120 peers. Non-subscribers
should reference The Potential Equity Investments Most Likely To Prosper From the Google/Apple/Microsoft Mobile Computing Battle.

I am releasing the draft of the full shortlist of prospective long
candidates as of now (17 pages, 5 companies) to subscribers. Please be
aware that is a draft document and work in progress, but it is quite
informative nonetheless.  See Mobile Computing Vendor Long List Note WIP. Those who wish to subscribe should click here.

Click here to read up on all of Reggie Middleton’s Mobile Computing War opinion, analysis, and research.

As a possible deal with Newser falls apart, the online news pioneer ramps up its cultural coverage. The result: an ailing stock price, but traffic’s on the rise.

Kerry Lauerman remembers the time, a decade ago, when he was Salon’s Washington bureau chief and the website had a budget three times larger than it subsists on today.   

Now the Washington bureau is toast. “We’re leaner and meaner and we work a lot smarter,” says Lauerman, who took over in November as editor in chief.   

Salon made its name as a politically aggressive, staunchly liberal online operation. But in recent months I’ve noticed a very different kind of story often leading the site. There was “Men: The New Romantics,” and “Literature’s Gender Gap.” There was “My Husband, the Convicted Murderer” and “My Son, The Pink Boy.” Not to mention “Grammys’ Most Memorable Red-Carpet Outfits” and “The Hardest Part About Quitting Drinking? Dating.”   

So is there a personality transplant going on?    

“The identity of Salon is as a political site,” Lauerman says, “but our entertainment coverage has always done pretty well.” Beyond politics, he says, “we are emphasizing everything else more. We’ve staffed up in entertainment. We listen to our readers.”   

And are these stories about movies and marriages and sex designed to attract more advertising?   

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a consideration.”   

Given Salon’s precarious financial state, it’s obviously a major consideration. The struggling site quietly put itself up for sale in recent months, and talks with Newser.com, an aggregation site founded by Michael Wolff, collapsed Monday. The New York Times Dealbook blog reported that Salon board members grew concerned that they might be selling for too low a price after AOL paid $315 million to buy The Huffington Post.  

The publicly traded company reported a loss of $4.8 million in fiscal 2010, with two investors making up the gap through loans. Salon’s stock is trading for a dime, down from $1.30 in the summer of 2008.   

“It’s not an easy space to make money in if you’re trying to do quality content,” says CEO Richard Gingras, who provided the original seed money for Salon’s launch. “We have beefed up the investment in culture and lifestyle… It is about growing the audience.”   

The first duty of any website is survival, and most of the news business—from old-line newspapers and magazines to newer operations such as The Daily Beast—is grappling with how to turn a profit online. The overhauling of Salon’s editorial mix comes as its center of gravity has shifted from San Francisco, where it was born 15 years ago, to Midtown Manhattan. Founding editor David Talbot and Joan Walsh, who stepped down last year, ran the place from the Bay Area; Lauerman, 41, is the first editor to be based, with most of the staff, in New York.

“It’s not an easy space to make money in if you’re trying to do quality content,” says CEO Richard Gingras, who provided the original seed money for Salon’s launch. “We have beefed up the investment in culture and lifestyle… It is about growing the audience.”

Walsh, who had tapped Lauerman as her deputy, was part of the new direction before returning to reporting and a book project. “Our news team is as good as it’s ever been,” she says. “But the political cycle ebbs and flows, and people get more or less interested depending on whether it’s election season and what the crazy story of the week is… We’ve probably gotten deeper into the cultural realm.”   

bench craft company reviews

<b>News</b> FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny Pictures

epic fail photos - news fail. ... Fox News… not impressed… Reply � letitbito says: March 28, 2011 at 8:19 pm. like it. Reply. Jordan says: March 28, 2011 at 8:35 pm. Chuck Norris is scoring with your mother, you should be thankful. ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: Creative Marketing Secrets

Marketing for your small business can be part art/part science. But however you would describe it, it is the key to both getting new customers and keeping the.

Out This Week – 01/04/2011 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Out This Week – 01/04/2011. ... Latest Videos. Shift 2 trailer gears up for launch [5] 25 March, 2011. Latest News. Shift 2: Unleashed delayed by a week [16]. Shift 2: Unleashed nets Pagani Huayra [19] ...

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When you begin your own website there are lots of ways you will have to sell it off and one the best way is by using Search engine optimization Vancouver if you be in that area. The SEO or search engine optimization services would be the top method of getting good visitors to your site and therefore making more sales.

 

Now, you need to know that you won't use SEO service if you're not an internet business - but then again, if you don't have an online presence if you are a offline business, then you'll not allow it to be very far.

 

It's a popular fact that if you are planning to really make it within the offline world you need to have an online presence. This really is something that all people are learning hard way. One thing that you ought to also know is that it's not as easy as just setting up the website and leaving it to do its things.

 

This can be done in all types of ways, but these companies usually make use of multiple techniques to create an ideal marketing technique online. It is possible to hire these phones write articles for you personally, post on forums and blogs, create meta data and meta descriptions, cleanup the code, add alt tags to the images plus much more.

 

It is crucial that you simply do this because otherwise the company you have worked so hard for could wind up losing all the money. When you have a website you want to produce, then you will also employ the services of an SEO company, which means seo company. What the corporation does is basically take the best parts of your website, look into the code, create keywords and write various articles and documents to ensure your website is placed close to the top of the list for that major search engines.

By doing this the Search engine optimization company can not only improve your traffic, but additionally make sure that your site is fully optimized for the internet search engine spiders that will be introduced to it. These spiders are used to analyze your site and place it in a few positions determined on certain keywords.

 

If you wish to use the Search engine optimization Vancouver then all you've got to do is find the top companies. It is through these how the SEO gets done effectively and efficiently. Because of so many SEO companies to select from you have to be certain the main one you're going for is reliable. You should be in a position to ask for a failure of what you need, and also the company should also have the ability to tell you know long they've been operating for. This will narrow down their email list to reveal the very best ones.

 

SEO Services Offered by Different Vancouver Web Companies

The Vancouver SEO company services are extremely good for business growth as they provide quality services. If you're planning to create a website for the internet business, then you have arrived at right article when i is going to be explaining below how SEO Vancouver company services can improve your website ranking making it popular.

Before that, you need to know what Search Engine Optimization is. It's not that complicated and i am sure you will get a grasp from it reading my article. The primary goal of SEO is to have increased traffic aimed at your website and target audience. It is a good decision to choose a Vancouver SEO company that are experts in this kind of work, so that your website can be indexed by search engines like google.

There is no reason for you having a website without any website ranking whatsoever as you won't get any business and profits to outlive. It is a very tough atmosphere available because there are so many internet business people just like you, who desire their share of pie. You have to be aware of the truth that nearly 85% of world-wide-web traffic can be got from websites.

Whenever a user types in a keyword or keywords for what he/she really wants to know in various sites, these use crawlers to obtain websites using the relevant content and index them according to algorithms. It's not necessary to worry about the algorithms which these sites use as that is not important.

To appear in the first page from the google listing, you will need to hire professionals and pros who can perform the needful to maintain your website one of the good books in these websites. These professionals can optimize your site content to ensure your website gets increased traffic.

Once the traffic gets high, it is a sign that you are obtaining a service which will get you more revenues. SEO Vancouver company do the next to make your site appear within the first page of search engine results.

Use keywords which are popularly utilized on search engines like google in your website content.
Have a web design for the website that is simple because top sites are allergic to flash and weird designs.
Submit your site to directories.
Submit your site to directory websites.
Postings on blogs and forums with back-links to your websites. This is regarded as a very effective way to get increased traffic to your website as numerous internet users use blogs and forums.

SEO Vancouver company also perform site diagnostics which is a significant part in online optimization as research and analysis on finding keywords may be the method to begin a SEO campaign. So, make sure you select the right SEO Vancouver service company.

Are you looking for more information regarding SEO Vancouver? Visit http://www.seo4vancouver.com/seo-services.asp today!

 

What to Expect Whenever Getting a Roofing Contractor

When the time comes to repair or replace your roof, it's really a daunting task to locate someone who is actually competent for the job. There are lots of roofers out there, but the types who'll do a congrats for a sensible price aren't frequently easy to find. If you're in the market for the contractor, make use of the tips beneath with regard to meeting with and hiring the correct one.

Interview as well as Discussion

Most roofing companies offer totally free consultation services. This is particularly essential, since it gives them an opportunity to evaluate exactly what your homes roof requirements, also it provides you with a chance to evaluate them. As with all of businesses, believe in intuition about the individuals you let upward onto your roofing. No issue how great a contractor's reputation or even suggestion, he should start by showing a person with a company card. If a service provider occurs searching and speaking within an less than professional manner, chances are that the job he is going to do will also be less than professional. This isn't to say that you ought to expect contractors to arrive within suits. They will be hiking on your roofing, therefore most is going to be dressed in denim jeans and work footwear or even athletic shoes. If the actual contractor seems to be interested in speaking upon his mobile phone while on your roof than he's within analyzing your roof's needs, which may be an additional indication that he's not the main one for the job. For the lawful protection, be certain that the actual contractor offers adequate liability insurance coverage.

Roofing Evaluation

Expect the service provider will be going up in your roof. Actually, any kind of contractor who does not need to go up in your roof to judge the problem should be instantly reduced. Those who're serious about their own function will either make a sketching of your roof's surface and mark problem areas onto it as they undergo their evaluation, or they will consider pictures or video from the surface area while they are up there. This is an extremely important step, because it allows you to see exactly what the troubles are and know how they'll be fixed.

Estimate

The next phase will be the created estimation. The contractor will take out their calculator and come up with a written estimate. Some contractors goes out to their truck or even truck as well as write up the actual suggestion, while others will crisis the actual numbers for the job prior to you. Once you're given the proposal, make sure that you understand which items will be utilized, just how long the task will take and if you will find any extra or even concealed expenses that could occur during the restore of the roofing. The contractor should be able to solution many of these questions effortlessly as well as forewarn you associated with a extra expenses that could be sustained should the roof's integrity end up being broken inside.

Once you have received several written estimations from roofing contractors, assess exactly what each company or even service provider would like to offer you for that price. Do not always low cost the greatest bid, because sometimes the greatest bet will in reality be the contractor who does the job properly. Additionally, be wary of bids which are significantly less than other people. They may be utilizing substandard items or be unethical concerning the possibility of hidden costs. Most importantly, believe in intuition and go with the service provider that makes you feel quite comfy about giving more than your hard earned money.

 

Seven Uyghurs Sentenced to Death

2011-03-23

Critics of the sentences say China has politicized the robberies as acts of terrorism.

 

AFP

A Uyghur man walks past armed Chinese security forces in Urumqi, July 17, 2009.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered the executions of seven ethnic minority Uyghur men convicted of "violent" crimes, official media said on Wednesday.

 

The death sentences were handed down by the Supreme People's Court in recent days, according to state media in the regional capital, Urumqi.

 

The men were accused in connection with three separate attacks late last year in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, according to the news website Urumqi Online.

 

According to another website, the Xinjiang-based Tianshan news site, Aimaiti Tuheti, Yiming Dawuti, and unnamed "others" killed a security guard at a pedestrian mall as part of a failed Aug. 7 robbery attempt.

 

In a separate incident on Oct. 12, it said, Nuermaimaiti Aobulikasimu and 11 others broke into a house, bound and killed the couple living in it, and took their possessions.

 

It said the group also broke into the homes of two brothers, robbed them, and killed six people in a Nov. 11 attack in Kashgar.

 

The report gave no information about the victims or the schedule for the executions.

 

Three of the men were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that is normally commuted to life imprisonment in China's judicial system.

 

They were convicted of deliberate homicide and armed robbery by the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court in the first instance.

 

'Strike hard' campaign

 

A Han Chinese resident of Urumqi surnamed Yang said a reference to "terrorism" in official news reports on the case showed that it was being politicized by the authorities, who have launched a series of "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang following deadly ethnic violence in July 2009.

 

"There is an implied political meaning; that they were somehow engaged in separatist activities or ethnic divisions," said Yang.

 

Exile Uyghur groups said the trials had been conducted behind closed doors, with scant opportunity for public scrutiny.

 

"The entire process against these men, from the trial through to the judgment, was opaque," said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.

 

"There was also very little reasonable evidence to convict them on a legal basis, because all the evidence came from one side of the case," he said.

 

"We strongly condemn the Chinese government for continuing to pursue their policies of ethnic division," said Raxit.

 

"We are also strongly opposed to the death penalty in this case."

 

Earlier cases

 

Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced four Uyghurs to death for alleged involvement in an Aug. 19 bomb attack in Xinjiang’s western Aksu city.

 

The World Uyghur Congress pointed to concerns over lack of transparency in those cases too.

 

The Aksu blast left eight people dead, including two of the bombers, and 15 wounded after a man riding a three-wheeled vehicle threw explosives at a group of uniformed patrolmen. Four Uyghurs were arrested shortly after the attack.

 

State media characterized the cases as acts of terrorism and unrelated to longstanding ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the region.

 

Exiled Uyghur dissident Rebiya Kadeer has warned that attacks like those in Aksu will continue to occur until Beijing addresses the underlying source of tension in the region.

 

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and Xinjiang.

 

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

 

Those frustrations erupted in July 2009 in deadly riots that left nearly 200 people dead, by the Chinese government's tally.

 

At least 26 people, mostly Uyghurs, were sentenced to death in the aftermath of the riots, many of whom have been executed, according to state media.

 

China is believed to execute more people each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined, although the government does not publish official figures.

 

Rights groups say Beijing may execute as many as several thousand prisoners annually.

 

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

 

New training scheme

 

China on Wednesday also announced a training scheme which places ethnic minority graduates from Xinjiang in work elsewhere in China.

 

Governments of the destination cities will spend 450 million yuan (U.S.$ 69 million) for the program, while Xinjiang will spend 400 million yuan (U.S.$ 61 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

 

The program targets some 60,000 jobless college graduates in Xinjiang, around 80 percent of whom are from ethnic minorities, and 60 percent of whom are women.

 

However, some commentators see the move as an attempt to assimilate non-Han Chinese into mainstream Chinese culture.

 

"From the point of view of ethnic minorities, the graduate work scheme is really taking the cream of youth from the minorities and using them to 'further cultural development,'" wrote one ethnic minority user on a popular microblogging service.

 

"In fact, the culture that is being advanced is Han culture, and this group of young people will have been totally brainwashed," the microblog update said.

 

An Urumqi resident surnamed Li agreed.

 

"They have run senior high school schemes like this before during the past few years," he said.

 

"Whether it's high-schoolers or graduate training programs, these are measures that are aimed at thought control and brainwashing, and the 'Partification' of their education," he said.

 

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

 

Wikileaks and the Uyghur

through henry upon December Twenty, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Manager, Uyghur Human Rights Project

If it had been ever in doubt, info obtained through the whistleblower website, Wikileaks, has verified Chinese government fears over its continued control of the location this phone calls Xinjiang, which is also known as Eastern Turkestan. The leaked wires through U.S. diplomats demonstrate the actual degree that Chinese government bodies attempt to convince governments worldwide to consider its stance upon problems affecting Uyghurs. The wires additionally display the actual U . s . States' concerns and sights regarding the ongoing repressive steps in the region.

The majority of illuminating of Chinese federal government stress would be the cables directed in order to Chinese language anger, or the specter of Chinese language ire, within the discharge of Uyghur detainees within Guantánamo to 3rd nations. The December Twenty nine, 2008 cable television relates how Chinese language Assistant Foreign Reverend Liu Jieyi fulfilled using the U.Utes. Ambassador to China to voice Beijing's powerful competitors of launch in order to any nation other than China, and that if the U.S. do indeed accede for this ask for it would "avoid harm to bilateral relationships and also to co-operation ‘in essential areas'". In addition, the Feb 2009 cable describes the way the Chinese language Ambassador in order to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the actual feasible discharge of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees because "an unfriendly act towards us" along with a "slap in the face". The Ough.Utes. federal government was firm in not really liberating the detainees to China demonstrates the extent from the politicized character of the Chinese judicial system. Genuine concerns over terrorism are easy to understand, however in the actual U.S. government's view the detainees would probably encounter do-it-yourself torture and execution when they came back in order to China

Chinese government pressure in regard to the actual Uyghur Guantánamo detainees was not just put on the U.S. government, but also to Brand new Zealand and a number of Western governments that were considering resettlement. Albania, Indonesia and Finland, in addition to European Union fellow member says all have the symptoms of borne the actual brunt of Chinese language federal government disappointment. Regarding Indonesia, which was initially prepared to consider two Uyghurs upon purely relief grounds, Uyghur Guantánamo instances had been less better than additional detainees because of the negative effects taking Uyghurs would have upon relations along with The far east. A Might 8, '09 cable television relates exactly how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer documented which Indonesia had knowledgeable The far east of the Ough.Utes. request to accept some Uighur detainees held at Guantánamo and had already been consequently cautioned by The far east of ‘a large load upon bilateral relations' if Indonesia were to simply accept any detainees".

The actual diplomatic cables additionally talk about the actual unrest within Urumchi, the local funds, in This summer 2009. The This summer Thirteen, '09 cable discussing bulk occurrences within The far east says:

"Ethnic riots such as those who work in Xinjiang July 5-7 and in Tibet within 03 associated with 08 differ markedly in source and nature from mass occurrences, XXXXXXXXXXXX emphasized in order to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Each existing serious trouble for the Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX stated, but the Party management wouldn't wait to spread out fire on Uighurs or even Tibetans when they considered it necessary to restore purchase. Bulk occurrences pose a different type of risk, he explained, since the leadership is ‘afraid' to fireplace upon Han rioters for anxiety about causing huge public outrage that would turn against the Party."

This is a chilling viewpoint, especially when 1 views evidence offered by 50 percent reports released this season by the Uyghur Individual Rights Task (UHRP) and Amnesty Worldwide that detail eyewitness accounts from the use of lethal live fireplace against Uyghur protestors within July 2009. In addition, the observation that fire would not be deployed against Han Chinese language protestors offers resonances for that different approach used through Chinese protection forces in Urumchi to Han Chinese language direct orders in September 2009. Throughout individuals direct orders, after that Celebration Assistant, Wang Lequan, addressed protesters, who experienced demanded that he let them know regarding federal government reactions in order to protection issues. An identical request to satisfy with the Celebration Secretary by Uyghur protesters within This summer was not met.

The actual wider repercussions from the unrest additionally saw a brief dialogue about the impact it would possess on Iran-China relations, as well as on relations along with Australia after World Uyghur Our elected representatives President, Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, talked at the Nationwide Push Club in Canberra within July 2009. In the latter situation, china federal government "privately warn[ed] a major Aussie financial institution that sponsors the National Press Club to make use of it's impact to block a Kadeer speech there".

The U . s . States' issues about the scenario within the Uyghur region are available through in the cables. In a discussion upon plan direction within Tibet, Ough.Utes. officials clarify that it will end up being impossible with regard to Chinese language leaders to consider the softer line "if they look like doing so under international pressure". The cable out dated April 16, 2008, one month after the episode of unrest in Tibetan regions, additionally relayed the observation "that domestic balance remains the leadership's main concern most of all, meaning there'll ‘almost surely' be absolutely no rest from the current hard collection upon Tibet or in locations like Xinjiang." The information included in the cable also storage sheds light about the extreme sensitivity that china federal government views territorial ethics, and the feasible drip more than of unrest from Tibet.

The prospect of solutions to stress within Tibet and Xinjiang as a result of municipal culture tend to be debated inside a February 24, 2008 cable. Whilst recommending that China's economic achievement will increase its potential to deal with democratic reform, the cable additionally talks about exactly how Chinese language frontrunners see the usefulness of "a restricted expansion associated with civil culture, such as enhancements in the rule of law along with a more powerful part for approved beliefs, NGOs, non profit organizations and other actors within areas that contribute to social balance and do not challenge Communist Party rule." This is a notable change in considering, which has observed Ough.Utes. authorities market the idea that Chinese language economic development, and financial relations with China will bring about a steadily democratic culture; nevertheless, more belief seems to be placed in the grassroots movement than one that begins in the top quantity of a Chinese federal government. Nonetheless, the cable concludes that "[i]n places for example Tibet and Xinjiang, driving a car associated with separatism results in tighter restrictions on the development of municipal society." This method is viewed as counter-productive by the recognized, that shows that the U.Utes. federal government "should still express...serious issues over Beijing's human privileges report as well as attract China's developing consciousness that greater regard with regard to human rights, spiritual freedom and the guideline associated with regulation assists to promote the improvement as well as sociable stability that The far east looks for in addition to to improve China's international picture." This type of strategy might consider substantial diplomatic skills thinking about "China's paranoid concern that the United States privately encourages routine alter and ‘separatists' within Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang".

The actual wires provide insight into the actual every day company of diplomacy that is rarely afforded to everyone, and it is fascinating to notice the quantity of work done behind closed doors on Uyghur issues. The importance of the actual role of the us like a monitor associated with Uyghur individual privileges problems within private discussions is made clear, as well as contrasts with its tactful public position. The staff of the Uyghur Individual Privileges Project is well aware of pressure the Chinese government puts on Uyghur activists; still, the facts associated with Chinese language federal government pressure on it's alternatives is actually illustrative from the diploma that Chinese language officials make an effort to suppress contrary narratives. With increased revelations to come from Wikileaks, issues more than Uyghurs might not get the actual head lines, however the cables possess shed new light about the paperwork associated with individual rights conditions within the Uyghur region.

 

Wikileaks and the Uyghur

by holly upon Dec Twenty, This year
Henryk Szadziewski, Supervisor, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it were ever uncertain, information obtained through the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, has verified Chinese federal government fears more than its ongoing charge of the location this phone calls Xinjiang, which is also referred to as Eastern Turkestan. The leaked cables through U.Utes. diplomats demonstrate the actual extent to which Chinese language authorities attempt to convince governments globally to adopt it's position on issues affecting Uyghurs. The cables also display the actual U . s . States' issues as well as sights concerning the on going repressive measures in the region.

The majority of illuminating of Chinese language government pressure are the wires pointing in order to Chinese language anger, or the specter associated with Chinese ire, within the release of Uyghur detainees in Guantánamo to third nations. The December Twenty nine, 08 cable relates exactly how Chinese language Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi fulfilled with the U.S. Ambassador to China to tone of voice Beijing's strong opposition of release in order to any kind of country other than The far east, which when the Ough.S. do indeed accede for this ask for it might "avoid harm to bilateral relationships and also to co-operation ‘in essential areas'". Furthermore, the Feb 2009 cable explains how the Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the feasible discharge of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees as "an unfavorable act toward us" and a "slap within the face". That the U.S. government stood company in not really releasing the detainees to China illustrates the actual degree from the politicized character from the Chinese judicial program. Genuine concerns over terrorism are easy to understand, but in the actual U.S. government's view the detainees might most likely encounter torture as well as execution when they returned to The far east

Chinese federal government stress in regard to the actual Uyghur Guantánamo detainees wasn't only applied to the Ough.S. government, but also in order to Brand new Zealand and a handful of Western governments which were thinking about resettlement. Albania, Germany and Finland, as well as European Union fellow member states just about all appear to have borne the actual brunt of Chinese federal government unhappiness. Regarding Germany, which was at first prepared to consider 2 Uyghurs upon solely humanitarian grounds, Uyghur Guantánamo cases were less preferable to other detainees due to the unwanted effects accepting Uyghurs would have on relations with China. The May 8, 2009 cable relates how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer documented that Indonesia had knowledgeable China of the U.Utes. request to simply accept some Uighur detainees kept from Guantánamo coupled with already been subsequently cautioned by China associated with ‘a heavy burden upon bilateral relations' if Indonesia had been to accept any detainees".

The actual diplomatic wires additionally talk about the actual unrest in Urumchi, the actual local funds, in July 2009. The This summer Thirteen, '09 cable television talking about mass occurrences within China states:

"Ethnic riots such as those who work in Xinjiang This summer 5-7 and in Tibet in March of 08 differ markedly within origin as well as character through mass incidents, XXXXXXXXXXXX stressed to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Both present severe trouble for the Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX said, but the Celebration leadership wouldn't hesitate to spread out fire on Uighurs or Tibetans if they deemed this essential to restore purchase. Mass incidents present a different type of threat, he explained, since the leadership is actually ‘afraid' to fireplace upon Han rioters for fear of causing huge open public outrage that will turn against the Party."

This can be a chilling opinion, particularly when 1 considers the evidence presented by 50 percent reports launched this year by the Uyghur Individual Privileges Project (UHRP) as well as Amnesty Worldwide that detail eyewitness company accounts from the use of lethal live fire towards Uyghur protestors within July '09. Additionally, the observation which fireplace wouldn't be deployed against Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for the different approach used by Chinese security causes within Urumchi to Han Chinese protests within September '09. Throughout individuals protests, after that Celebration Secretary, Wang Lequan, addressed protesters, who experienced required he let them know regarding federal government reactions in order to security concerns. An identical request to meet using the Party Secretary by Uyghur demonstrators in This summer wasn't met.

The wider consequences from the unrest also saw a brief dialogue on the effect it might have on Iran-China relationships, and on relations with Australia following Globe Uyghur Congress President, Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, spoke in the National Press Membership in Canberra in August '09. In the latter situation, the Chinese government "privately warn[ed] a major Aussie financial institution which vendors the nation's Press Club to use it's impact to block the Kadeer talk there".

The actual United States' concerns concerning the situation within the Uyghur area are available through in the wires. Inside a discussion on policy path within Tibet, Ough.Utes. authorities clarify that it will be not possible for Chinese language frontrunners to adopt a softer line "if they appear like doing so below worldwide pressure". The cable out dated 04 16, 2008, 30 days following the episode associated with unrest in Tibetan regions, additionally relayed the declaration "that household stability continues to be leadership's main concern most of all, meaning there'll ‘almost surely' end up being absolutely no rest of the current difficult collection upon Tibet or perhaps in places such as Xinjiang." The information contained in the cable also sheds light about the extreme level of sensitivity with which the Chinese federal government sights territorial integrity, and also the possible spill more than of unrest through Tibet.

The chance of solutions to tensions in Tibet and Xinjiang arising from municipal society are debated in a February 24, 2008 cable television. While recommending which China's financial achievement increases it's potential to deal with democratic change, the actual cable also talks about exactly how Chinese language leaders see the effectiveness of "a limited expansion of civil culture, including enhancements within the rule of law along with a stronger part with regard to authorized beliefs, NGOs, non profit organizations along with other actors in places that contribute to sociable balance and don't challenge Communist Celebration rule." This can be a notable change in thinking, that has observed Ough.Utes. officials promote the notion that Chinese economic improvement, as well as economic relations with The far east brings in regards to a steadily democratic society; however, much more belief appears to be placed in the grassroots motion compared to one that starts in the top levels of the Chinese federal government. Nonetheless, the cable concludes that "[i]n places such as Tibet as well as Xinjiang, the fear associated with separatism results in tight limitations on the development of municipal society." This approach is viewed as counter-productive through the official, who shows that the Ough.S. government "should continue to express...serious concerns more than Beijing's human rights report and appeal to China's developing awareness which greater regard with regard to individual privileges, religious freedom and also the rule of law will serve to promote the very improvement and sociable balance which China looks for in addition to to improve China's international image." Such a strategy might consider considerable diplomatic abilities considering "China's paranoid fear the Usa privately encourages regime alter as well as ‘separatists' within Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The actual wires provide insight into the daily business associated with diplomacy that's hardly ever owned by everyone, which is interesting to note the quantity of work done nowadays upon Uyghur problems. The importance of the part of the United States like a monitor associated with Uyghur individual rights conditions within private conversations is made obvious, and contrasts with its sensible open public stance. Employees from the Uyghur Human Rights Project is actually well aware of pressure china federal government exerts on Uyghur activists; still, the details associated with Chinese government stress upon its alternatives is illustrative from the diploma that Chinese authorities make an effort to suppress contradictory narratives. With more facts to come through Wikileaks, concerns more than Uyghurs may not grab the actual headlines, however the cables possess shed brand new gentle on the paperwork of individual rights conditions in the Uyghur region.

 

Search Engine Marketing And Article Marketing Will Place You On Page 1

Search engine optimization and marketing with articles are two of the most powerful strategies which you can use in promoting your website and get the revenue and success that you need for your web business. Both of these things have been around for a really while already however they still remain to be really effective. In fact, these have helped a lot of people free themselves from your traditional ways of money-generating options of society.

In the following paragraphs, I will be showing the ways how you are able to properly execute search engine optimization and article marketing for the betterment of the business web site. Furthermore, I will also be discussing different points you need to look out for when you are using these two online marketing strategies to market your website and get customers. Even though article promotion and Search engine marketing have been in existence for a long time already, you have to know that the trends and choices concerning how they are done are continually changing, and that's why you should remain up to date with these items through the help of Search engine optimization forum sites to be able to quickly adjust and discover ways to make your strategies far better.

In the past article marketing to various web sites was once so simple yet the effects they produce for websites was powerful. However, everything has changed a whole lot today. These days submitting the identical article to several websites is no longer advisable because engines like google have now changed to some huge extent in the manner they rank pages. They no longer rank contents that are identical like they utilized to in the past. This really is the most effective examples of changes that happens to web marketing trends. This change has given birth to wide plethora of methods that online marketers are using today. The majority of internet marketers now produce articles and submit them in really popular article directory sites and watch for targeted traffic to come to their pages. Be thought of as that most reliable Seo strategy that you can use. Aside from being effective, this also delivers positive benefits on a regular basis. The only problem using this technique is how the caliber of traffic that you'll get using this will not be so good unless you do proper keyphrase research beforehand and use in-links. You need for carrying on these two things prior to deciding to submit your posts so that you won't end up losing huge amounts of targeted traffic. This means that you have to practice good amounts of diligence if you would like your advertising initiatives to work.

Aside from articles, you can also use writing a blog, which can be another really powerful type of internet marketing strategy today because it's highly well-liked by search engines. Within this technique, it is possible to choose to develop a single web log that specifically targets your selected market or you can give rise to other weblogs that are labeled as experts inside your niche.

Learn effective Vancouver search engine optimization techniques in the Vancouver SEO website.

Roofing Contractors Vancouver British Columbia

There are numerous things to take into consideration when looking for a new roofing contractor. Cost, experience, as well as referrals are a few of the things you'll probably be concerned about. Read on for even other great ideas.

• Finding a Roofers

Before searching for a roofing contractor, be sure you have a standard idea of the job that you need to did. By no means is it necessary to be an authority. If you have a new Roof Qualification, read it carefully to find the information regarding your existing roof. If you do not have a Top Certificate, reference documents authorized during closing to locate your homes Inspection bed sheet. These documents should provide you with everything you need to know about your roof. Just before contacting a roofing contractor, you should have a list of specifications and requirements to help you make a decision exactly who is suitable for your roofer project. Be sure to write down every single potential roofer contractor's answers and also check all of them against each other. If you will find any discrepancies, be sure to notice this and also take this into consideration when coming up with a final choice. There are no guaranteed ways to select a roofing contractor, but when you take heed to the details provided, your odds of a successful roofer project tend to be greatly superior.

One of the best ways of finding a roofing contractor is by word of mouth. Try asking a friend or relative who has had covering work performed, and has been satisfied with the task. Get the name of the organization and their contact information. If you have not sure of oral cavity referrals, try first seeking in the mobile phone book and online. A large advertising or extravagant website is not necessarily a sign of the top quality of work, but sometimes be a great tool pertaining to measuring just how long and determination they have put in their respected profession. Additionally, try discovering current worksites and search at the roof covering work that is done or perhaps the process of staying finished. In case you are visually pleased, ask the property manager to the name in the roofing contractor and their get in touch with information.

• Background Research

When looking for any roofing contractors, it can be imperative to initial do your own background research. Acquire the best in the phonebook or on the web is a suitable spot to find a service provider, finding essential information on these kinds of businesses will probably be found in other areas. Initial, check with places like the Better Business Bureau, city, express, and county public records, and also local accreditation agencies. Request your roofing contractor if they are an associate of any roofer associations. These precautions will mitigate your risks. Also ask them what types of roofing they will specialize in. Furthermore ask your roofing contractor regarding any extended warranties they offer on his or her installed roofing. Find out what precautions they choose to use avoid destruction done to other areas of the home by workers. Items such as gutters, exterior siding, and fireplaces are close in proximity and for that reason susceptible to random damages.

Make sure all of this information is included in your published contract. Check if you need a roofing permit and/or authorization from your homeowners association in advance. These entities will let you know that's responsible for obtaining these allows and authorizations. If it is the obligation of the roofer, also have it included in your contract. If it is your accountability, get explained permits as well as permissions collated with the estimated covering project and have it clearly posted or readily available.

• Certification and Referrals

Roofing Companies are not needed to be certified in all claims. Contact neighborhood licensing agencies that control general construction contractors for any list of specifications. Once you have received the requirements, build a list of thorough questions to ask the potential roofer. This simple checklist should immediately help you to get rid of the qualified from the untrained roofing building contractors. Qualified installers should be able to very easily answer questions as well as tell you that they have to do more research just before giving a new definitive response.

Even if the roofing contractor provides all essential licensing, you must ask to see pictures of completed roofer jobs along with speak to satisfied clients. Have a very list of questions handy to inquire about recent consumers, such as the dynamics of the career, timeliness, and overall satisfaction. Be sure these are latest clients as well as cross research if possible. When it comes to commercial covering, make sure that your roofing contractor can be bonded. Checking out these recommendations is another added measure of security to limit the list of potential covering contractors.

Seo Through Article Writing

Articles may be an extremely powerful type of Seo on your company websites. Quality written articles have the ability to enhance your websites SERP and add quality for a company website. Writing informative keyword rich articles is important in gaining new backlinks for your business website. Articles can and may be written on topics which might be unique for a business or industry. The articles can discuss numerous issues and ideas inside your industry. Articles that supply people which has a resource will always be the most popular and many likely types of articles which will result in backlinks aimed at your web.

Focus your articles on your own potential readers or customers. Search engine optimization articles should address real questions that are asked by current or previous customers. Each article you write for you company should include detailed analysis and Seo keywords that can help associate your web site while using content seen in the site. Focus your posts on approximately 3 keywords , nor stray from them. Consistency is essential when writing Seo articles. In case you are covering Vancouver Search engine optimization ensure your continue to write about information strongly related the keyword.

Give every one of your Search engine optimization Articles an engaging Title that may persuade folks to read and bookmark your posts. Ideally, the articles you are writing can be as links off their websites which are much like yours. This alone can help boost the power of each and every link and will assist your SERP. Make sure you end each article having a keyword anchored link (see Easy Small enterprise Seo). This link will raise your rankings in Google and other major search engines like google to the keyword coupled to the link. Submit the articles to a submitted article directory and Voila! Before very long, your web site might be for the first page of Google.

Appreciate your reading. Can't wait to visit your Search engine optimization articles!

Vancouver Seo Company Aims For Google Places With Total Achievement

When individuals type in searching term hunting for a business of their local area, they are going to find that Google places and Google maps is showing listings of local businesses. It is extremely eminent so they can be optimized and from this first page whenever they desire to generate business. Vancouver SEO companies have to be educated of this type for their clients.

There seems to be a large amount of new Vancouver SEO companies establishing, simply because the importance is there. Finding an SEO firm which has the client's welfare at heart could be tedious. What number of keywords will they optimize for? Do you know the keywords and the corresponding search volume? Do they learn how to optimize for Google places? Etc. Search engine optimisation may be the business of landing towards the top and Maxim Edge will get you there.

"My wife and I started our Vancouver Seo agency by accident. We've learned from the school of hard knocks and experimentation how to make use of the web to promote any business. We began using the website, then a competition, after which of course building quality back-links to push a website up within the rankings. It isn't pushing a control button and watching what happens type of business. It will require a lot of effort, plenty of research and plenty of commitment. We work hard for our clients so we are very pleased with a high retention rate." Randy Neale says.

For really information about Michael, a Vancouver SEO company, please visit their website today at seo4vancouver.com

Portraits of Uyghurs

In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is the least populated province whereas it covers close to a sixth with the nation's territory. Getting resisted during hundreds of years the chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Turkistan, fell under the Chinese Han domination in 1949. From then, its population is mostly Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.

Islamic especially, the Uyghur people have a solid religious identification which, in particular, enabled them to maintain a strong difference towards the Chinese enemy. Certainly, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

During their own history, the Uyghurs successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore opening the way to the Islamization of the complete Central Asia.

Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken, Uyghur People used successively, and at times in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.

The entrance of Islam was a great change because it was accompanied by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Muslim Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used these days.

If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also are different from their aspect, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A shiny skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features pointing out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek origins of these men and these women.

For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only eight million population - a trifle for this kind of great land. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been known in an official way by China.

This law will allow them a few privileges in a land exactly where their difference is very often repressed. Thus, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is recognized as the second official language in Xinjiang.

The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, seems quite illusory. The presence of all-natural resources in Xinjiang, and its closeness with locations well-known as very sensitive, strongly encouraged the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the larger responsibility jobs.

In reaction to this true will to assimilate the Uyghur people into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.

Saying more freedom, but in particular the recognition of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in area Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The situations of September 11, 2001, were the perfect occasion for the Chinese government to justify true reprisals: they declared the "Uyghur freedom fighters" as dangerous terrorists linked to Al Quaida because of their Muslim origins and their proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan... However, the terrible repression which followed did not calm down the anger. The Uyghur population continues today to proudly hold their identity and their ethnic heritage , though they become a minority on their own land.

To get more detailed information and facts about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com

ation|Web optimization|Website seo|Seo optimization|Seo optimisation} Expert consultancy - Getting Ahead Using SEO

When it comes to success, among the mot important things is planning far ahead of time. Similar to in other things, preparation is the key. Whenever you prepare with determination you would be able to get before competition, during the world of web business. Web sites today want to do their utmost to get ahead of competition because of their targeted key phrases through meticulous planning. Search engine optimisation is the better tool which you can use in order to achieve your goals and fortunately, the Search engine optimization expert advice and tips that were discussed here could make things easier for you.

Search engine optimization is essential today

One of many reasons why lots of people today are trying to find Search engine optimisation expert advice is because it really is one of the few strategies that often work today online. Search engine optimisation can be be extremely effective in terms of getting a higher site ranking on search engines like google, increasing the amount of visitors on-page and enhancing the level of profits and sales. Although most people and worthwhile Search engine optimization expert would explain how it is a lengthy and complicated process, Search engine optimization is a skill that may be learned. If you employ the assistance of an expert or if you utilize tricks used by experts for their own sites, it would be easier for you to understand the theory and apply it to your own site.

Taking a search engine optimization course

Several businessmen and internet based website owners today take Website seo certification from experts today mainly because it turns out to be quite of great help for them. There are several short certification courses on Seo currently available which can show you the basic concepts and still provide you a grip on the subject. These trainings are often given by those people who are experts within the field. Through training, these experts share their knowledge with all the course participants, guide them the essential processes for better optimization of sites which will help the crooks to promote their business. These courses can educate them keyphrase research so that they would be able to select the greatest keyword and obtain a better chance to rate higher on the search engines.

Search engine optimizing training could be very helpful

Through Seo training you will be able to learn several concepts and tips like placing keywords inside right invest the content of sites. Another topic that is often tackled by such courses is linking strategy since it will also allow you to rank higher. These Seo trainings and courses could be taken either online or even in the traditional format in classrooms, based on your own time and preferences. It is possible to help your website and enjoy better traffic and profits using the concepts which might be taught by these courses by an Seo expert.

The author is fulltime Seo Expert, you are able to know more about him and services they provide on their website http://www.seo4vancouver.com/.