June 23rd, 2008 | Posted in celebrities, humor, news, videos
This weekend I was very saddened to hear that comedic icon George Carlin had passed away. Carlin, was 71 and died of heart failure on Sunday.
As a kid, Carlin was definitely one of my favorite comedians. Maybe it was because my parents didn’t really want us watching his famed HBO specials. Lets face it… he wasn’t exactly known for his political correctness. But, as a kid, there was nothing better than watching an adult on TV saying all the words that were considered no-no’s” for us as children. Yes, I guess it is safe to say that as a kid it was the vulgarity that mostly attracted me to George Carlin’s comedy act.
But as I grew, I started to realize that there was more, much more, to his acts than just the bad words that used to create so much humor for me as a child. He was never afraid to say what was on his mind, and his insight were some of the smartest, well laid out ideas that I have ever seen from a person, much less a stand up comedian.
One of his most favorite routines was that of the “7 words you can’t say on TV”. Following his death, search engines have reported a huge spike in the number of searches for George Carlin’s 7 words you can never say on TV… so if you are one of those looking for this skit… enjoy it here:
So, I for one, will definitely miss Carlin, but the man definitely left a legacy behind him, and his comedy will be around forever for everyone to enjoy
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 14% [?]
May 27th, 2008 | Posted in George Bush, Russia, news, politics
In a new report today, the International Atomic Energy Agency made its most straight forward statement yet over Iran and its nuclear ambitions.
According to the new 9 page report, the Agency stated that Iran has shown a willful lack of cooperation with efforts to inspect the country’s nuclear ambitions. The argument has been going on for some time now, as Iran insists that it is merely looking to improve it’s country energy while the West (especially America) insists that the country is looking to develop weapons of mass destruction with their nuclear endeavors.
The Agency’s report seemed to really be effected by documents that showed that the country’s military had definitely been playing a role in the country’s nuclear program, and that there was evidence that the Iranians have moved into working with explosives, uranium processing and a missile warhead design — activities that it said could be used towards eventually developing nuclear weapons.
Iran, of course, denied the reports and claimed that the documents were forged, which is no surprise coming from the country that has been refusing to let inspectors visit all of their nuclear research sites.
Whether or not you believe that Iran is actually pursuing nuclear weapons is up to you to decide, but the real question is what should the world do to move to prevent the country from getting the weapons that they may or may not be looking to develop? There are really only two options here. The first being to negotiate with the country to try to work out some way to convince Iran that nuclear weapons are not in their best interest. The second method is the one that George Bush has decided to take, which is to refuse to talk to the country at all, and hope that sanctions will prevent it from getting the weapons. Gee, if memory serves me correct, I think that was the same method Bush decided was the right way to go with North Korea too… and we all know how that worked out.
Unlike Bush’s policy (and the same one that McCain has promised to follow if he becomes the next President), there are a handful of large and powerful countries that have decided to have talks with Iran to try to prevent what I believe to be the inevitable entrance of the country into the nuclear power countries.
Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are all looking to hold talks with Iran. Foreign ministers from all of those countries are going to be visiting Iran to try to work out a deal to convince the country to stop moving forward with its nuclear plans.
Which policy is the more effective one? Once again, that decision is yours to make… me personally, I think it’s always better to negotiate before a problem develops instead of waiting for the problem to be in your face, but who really knows. As for Bush, nothing will change his perspective, so at least while he is in office do not expect to read any news about America and Iran sitting down to discuss the problems between the two countries. The only way that will happen any time soon is if America wakes up and elects Barack Obama this November.
What are your thoughts? Should America try to work with Iran before a problem develops, or wait until after and then claim there was nothing we could have done? Maybe I am just missing something very obvious here, but from my point of view I, once again, just can’t seem to figure out what is going through Bush’s mind.
image from Meantoons
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 47% [?]
May 23rd, 2008 | Posted in SEO Tip of Day, blogging, search engines, wordpress
One of the best ways to improve SEO is to make sure that your website gets fully indexed. You can accomplish this by setting up a sitemap that the search engines can use to quickly, and easily find all the content that should be indexed in the search results.
A sitemap is a separate HTML page that you can use to form a directory for your website. Since each page is listed as a hyperlink on the sitemap, it allows the search engines to quickly locate each of your internal pages. This is not only a great way to increase your SEO, but it also can serve as a way to help your visitor find the content that is most relevant to them.
For all you wordpress users out there, you can find a great wordpress plugin to set up your google sitemap on arnebrachhold’s page > GO GET THE PLUGIN. You can see how the plugin is being implemented on this blog by checking out my sitemap that i created with the plugin.
Here is another resource for non wordpress users on building a sitemap.
Once you have built your sitemap, be sure to go to google webmaster tools and inform google of where they can find your sitemap. If you dont have a google webmaster tools account yet, you can set one up here.
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 51% [?]
May 23rd, 2008 | Posted in China, George Bush, Russia, news, politics
The new Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, is currently on his first official foreign trip since taking over the Presidency of Russia, and he is currently in China. In a joint statement, both Medvedev, and Chinese President Hu Jintao, stated that the missile shield defense program that George Bush wants in Europe jeopardizes to undermine and any trust left between the two countries and Washington.
Washington claims that the shield is imperative to national security but China and Russia are afraid that the system could be used against them (and they are probably right). The Bush Administration continues to use the same excuses that it has used for the past 7 years whenever they are questioned about anything, stating that the system is necessary to protect itself from attacks from countries like Iran. Call me ignorant, but maybe they should look at options on how to convince Iran to not acquire nukes instead of ways to defend against them once they have them. But then again, it would weaken American’s position in the world if we were to actually try to communicate with countries that dislike us and work out our problems verbally.
OK, enough about that, I don’t want to get into a rant over Bush politics, let’s get back to the basics here, and what exactly all the fuss is over. The system that Washington wants to put into place would involve a radar base in the Czech Republic and an interceptor missile site in Poland. China and Russia have both been vocal in the past in their disapproval of this plan, but this marks the first time that the two countries have fused their feelings into one statement. Russian and American ties have already become very strained since Bush took office, and this is pushing the two countries even further apart.
Russia and China have both stated that the American plan to deploy this defense system would undermine any efforts that are currently underway at controlling global arms and weakens trust between the countries and America. Arguably these are the three most powerful countries in the world, so to have them teaming up against America brings back memories of the cold war, and no one wants things to return to those days.
In addition to the statement of the missile shield, the two countries also inked a deal in which Russia will begin to build a new nuclear power plant inside of China.
What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think Russia and China are overreacting to Bush’s plans? Or is Bush stepping over the boundaries of trust here?
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 54% [?]
May 21st, 2008 | Posted in blogging, wordpress
If you like to blog, and you use wordpress, then I found a great site today that has a bunch of amazing free wordpress themes that you may or may not have seen before!
If you are at all like me, then you have probably spent (wasted) more hours of your life than you care to admit looking for high quality free wordpress themes. It’s ok though.. you are not alone, all you really have to do is run a google search for “free wordpress themes” and you will see how there are enough sites out there to confuse just about anyone that is looking for good blog themes.
Well, on smashingmagazine they have a nice article that lists 83 free wordpress themes that they consider to be worth checking out. I went down the list rather quickly and saw several that I had seen before, but also ran into a couple of really nice wordpress themes that I had not seen before. Later I will do a more in depth look at what themes they have to offer… but if you are looking to upgrade your wordpress blog with a new theme, then be sure to head over to smashingmagazine and see what you can find… you may find exactly the wordpress theme that you were looking for!
If you do, be sure to come back here and let us know which theme you selected and post a comment linking to your blog so we can all check out you new theme 
Enjoy
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 52% [?]
May 21st, 2008 | Posted in releases, technology
There have been several rumors floating around over the past couple of months over the next generation iPhone, and recently a lot of attention has been placed on the upcoming WWDC Keynote on June 9th.
Well, according to Gizmodo, they have a source that is “very, very close” to the iPhone launch, and they have been informed that the new iPhone 3G will indeed get introduced on June 9, and then be available worldwide immediately following the launch. I hope they are right, as I am planning on moving back to America at the start of June, it will turn out to be perfect timing as I look to buy a new cell phone once I am home.
For more information on just what you can expect from the new iPhones, be sure to check out Engadget, which ran a nice article that laid out what their sources have told them about the second-gen iPhone.
*not intended to portray the 3G phone, just an illustration
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 48% [?]
May 15th, 2008 | Posted in George Bush, environment, oil, politics
While the debate of global warming is still “undecided”, the effects the supposedly liberal imagined global warming are definitely being felt, and now the effects have led to the addition of one more animal to the threatened species list… the polar bear.
As we know, one of the main impacts of global warming can be scientifically shown to be the reduction in polar ice. For now they went a bit short of actually declaring that polar bears were an endangered species, but noted that if the situation continues to accelerate that an endangered listing could be coming in the future. By putting the polar bear on the threatened species list, this marks the first time any animal has recieved protection from global warming.
According to the Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, “this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting. Any real solution requires action by all major economies for it to be effective”. Don’t hold your breath on that happening any time soon. According to some people that are close to the current decision, the decision comes packed with provisions specifically aimed at protecting power plants and other energy-related entities. Should not come as a surprise seeing as how the Bush Administration still refuses to recognize global warming as the biggest problem facing our planet.
Some experts are predicting that at the current rate of ice melt, about two-thirds of all polar bears in America and Canada will vanish by the middle of the century.
So what does this really mean for polar bears now that they are on the threatened list? You would think that the decision would mean that they would be given the protection they needed, but before jumping for joy, head over to jwharrison.com and learn more about the fine print regarding the oil industry.
flickr : oxfam international
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 59% [?]
May 15th, 2008 | Posted in George Bush, politics
It has been a long four months since John Edwards dropped out of the Democratic race, and since his departure both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been hoping to win his valuable endorsement, and the winner is… Barack Obama.
While Clinton is refusing to drop out of the Presidential race, it is pretty much a forgone conclusion that Obama is going to be the next Democratic candidate to take over the White House in this year’s elections. One of the repeating themes out of the Clinton camp has been that in a head to head battle with Republican candidate John McCain that Clinton has a much better chance of uniting the Democratic party behind her than does her counterpart Barack Obama. Obama is definitely hoping that the John Edwards’ endorsement will put those worries to rest.
In a speech yesterday Edwards put forth the following words regarding Obama:
“The Democratic voters in America have made their choice, and so have I” stating that “There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change… and that man is Barack Obama.”
While the writing definitely appears to be on the wall, Clinton is not through fighting just yet. She is riding high off of a landslide victory in West Virginia this week, but with each day that passes it appears that Obama is going to be the man fighting to retake the White House from the Republican party and the rule of George Bush, who will without a doubt leave the position as one of the most unpopular Presidents to ever have enjoyed the position.
It should be an interesting few months heading into the next election, when the American people have to decide if they want to continue on the same path we have been on for the past 8 years under the Republican leadership, or if they want, as Obama has stated, “A different America”.
For me the answer is a simple one, but then again, I thought the same thing 4 years ago, so who knows what the American people will decide this time around, but for now it looks like Obama is going to be champion for the Democratic party this time around. Whether or not he will be able to lead the Democrats back into the White House remains to be seen.
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 58% [?]
May 14th, 2008 | Posted in China
The numbers of victims in China’s massive earthquake continue to rise, and right now the number is being stated to be 14,866, but you can be sure that that number is no where near to being accurate.
Monday’s earthquake in China was a 7.9 magnitude, and is being described as the country’s biggest natural disaster in the last 30 years. While the number of victims is being stated to be 14,866, there are still tens of thousands of people listed as missing.
It’s a sad story over there, and I read a story today over on ABC that discussed how one village was all but wiped out in the earthquake. Workers entered the town of Yingxiu where 10,000 people lived before the earthquake, and out of that 10,000 people, only 2,300 people were able to survive the earthquake.
The more you read, the sadder the situation becomes, as you realize that thousands of people, from babies all the way up to the elderly have been trapped between fallen walls since the china earthquake brought their building to the ground on Monday. Rescue workers report that they are saving some, but the vast majority of people they are finding in the fallen buildings are being found dead.
from ABCnews.com
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 51% [?]
May 6th, 2008 | Posted in SEO Tip of Day, blogging
One of the best ways to start to improve your search engine rankings is by making sure that you always include keywords in your blog title. Search engines just love it when you let them know what you are writing about!
Google in particular really seems to pay a lot of attention to the titles of your blog entries, so if SEO is a concern for you, then make sure that you give the google bot what it is looking to see. A lot of bloggers try to come up with cute, or overly clever titles to their entries, but you would be well advised to avoid this, and just get straight to the point. If you are writing an entry, for example, about using keywords to boost your SEO, then make sure you state that clearly in your title.
Think about your habits when you go searching for something. What are you usually typing into the search engines? Names and things. You are not alone, and research shows that this is pretty universal for internet users, so make sure that you pay attention to this when you are writing your blog posts.
Don’t waste your time writing about George Bush and his politics, and then title your post “One man against the world“. Maybe the title more refelects your thoughts on George Bush, but its not really something that a user will look for. Make sure you are clear about what you going to blog about in your posts.
Make sure you don’t go crazy though and try to stuff 10 or 15 keywords into your title. Keep it simple, and keep it clean, and you will start to see more hits from the search engines.
If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my
my Email feed!
Popularity: 65% [?]
