Archive for 2009
Protecting yourself while riding is the first and most important thing, whether you think it’s too hot out, or gear costs too much, or you just don’t feel like it. No excuses are enough not to wear the required things said by ‘Jeff Cobb’ when you ride, see details as described below:
Helmet
A helmet (and optional ear plugs) protects you from hearing loss, or being pelted by debris, insects, rain, hail, and it could one day save your life.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates helmets improve your odds by 37 percent. That is, for every 100 riders killed not wearing one, 37 riders could have lived had they all been wearing helmets.
There are several standards – U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Snell, and some European standards. While the Snell Foundation says its standard is superior, this is open to debate.
Based on several studies, we recommend at least the federally mandated DOT standard. Identified by a label on the back of the helmet, the DOT standard means the manufacturer says it will pass specific tests for impact protection, penetration, staying on your head, and more.
There are “half helmets,” partial coverage, and full face. A full face provides the most protection.
Jacket and pants
Well-designed rider clothing keeps you protected from windburn, sunburn, exhaust burns, and is a comfortable first line of defense.
Some riders wear a motorcycle jacket, but complete the outfit with street pants. Fact is, your legs are very vulnerable so why not protect them just as well?
In a crash, cotton dungarees tear through in less than one second. Shorts, khakis or sweat pants offer negligible safety value. Fashion leather may shred as instantly as cloth. If you choose leather, make sure it’s suitable for motorcycle use.
According to Dana Grindle, owner of Bates Custom Leathers in Signal Hill, Calif., while certain textiles can do a good job, especially when combined with built-in armor, high-tensile cowhide still offers the most abrasion resistance and tear-through strength.
For the heat of summer, manufacturers offer perforated leather or abrasion-resistant mesh. There are also several brands of textile jeans, if you absolutely don’t want the fully kitted look.
Whatever you wear, make sure it’s protective, said Rae Tyson, an experienced rider and NHTSA spokesman.
“Some of the worst crashes I’ve seen have been with people who fell off the motorcycle who were wearing short sleeves, or shorts, or a tank top, etc., and it’s not a pretty sight,” Tyson said, “Last time I checked your body was never designed for that.”
And Grindle concurred, adding motorcycle clothing can cost significant money, but if you crash once, you will not question whether it was worth it.
“Do you know what 20 mph does to your skin,” Grindle asked, “Oh my God, it can take it to the bone.”
This may sound dramatic, but she’s not kidding.
The skin covering your joints – knuckles, elbows, hips, knees, ankles, and shoulders – is especially easy to damage, and a crash can remove it, and even flesh, and healing can take a year or longer.
Built-in armor, or strapped-on armor under your clothing at these points is highly recommended!
Some gear comes with European-standard armor, rated “CE” level I (good), or level 2 (best).
Motorcycle clothing sold in the U.S. is not required to meet any certification, however. So be wary, but understand some premium American manufacturers have crash tested their armor and found it as good as or better than otherwise certified armor.
Boots and gloves
The hands and feet are intricate mechanisms made of many delicate bones. They can be crushed or broken far too easily. Boots should be heavy-duty leather with hard armor around the ankle, and ideally padding too. Leather gloves with long gauntlets should likewise have impact protection on the knuckles and palms, and even wrists.
Talks for a gas pipeline from Bengal to Myanmar via Bangladesh are likely to be revived as Dhaka has renewed its interest.
However, the pipeline is unlikely to figure in the agenda of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her first visit to India next month after being elected with an overwhelming mandate in December 2008, a leading English daily “The Telegraph” said in a recent report.
Telegraph said, during her visit, Hasina is expected to wrest some trade concessions as well as ink a transit deal that will give Bangladesh access to Nepal and Bhutan by road and rail, while opening up the port of Ashuganj for Indian goods meant for the Northeast.
In the project, gas produced by Indian Public Sector Units in Myanmar will be transported to India, and the negotiations will be tri- partite.
After years of stalling on negotiations, the Bangladesh government, which does not enjoy the best of relations with Myanmar, has sent signals of its willingness to talk business - it will allow the pipeline in return for a royalty in hard currency for giving passage, the report further said.
The pipeline could cost India about $600 million, of which 60 per cent would be invested in Bangladesh. The South Asian nation would also earn nearly $100 million as carrier fee every year.
Officials said, the talks, which are still to take off, did not envisage the evacuation of Bangladesh’s gas to India.
“We are very clear that India only wants to evacuate gas from the gas fields in Myanmar through Arakan, Bangladesh and into Bengal to feed industry in eastern and northern India. We have no plans to seek gas from Bangladesh. Rather, Bangladesh could, if it so desires, buy excess gas from our fields.”
Opposition legislators of Bangladesh are against sales to India. In January 2005, energy ministers of the three countries had met in Yangon to discuss the construction of the pipeline, with a total length of 950km, and signed a draft memorandum of understanding.
The pipeline was expected to enter Bangladesh at the Brahmanbaria border and Bengal from Rajshahi.
Officials said, the pipeline could help evacuate gas from the Shwe gasfields as well as from new finds, in which Indian firms participate.
In June, ONGC Videsh Ltd, GAIL (India) Limited and South Korea’s Daewoo had announced the discovery of a huge field in Block A-3, offshore Myanmar.
Here are some important talks about your dropped site, written by Dave Davies, hope it will help you take good decision regarding yoour site.
It’s happened to all of us. You wake up one morning feeling like a million bucks, you stretch and if you’re like me, you notice the eye-rolling as once again your significant other catches you with a toothbrush dangling from your mouth and a laptop or iPhone in front of you while you check rankings and emails. And then it happens - you start your browser with a search phrase already set to display and you notice that your site no longer holds it’s previous position and the move is not in the right direction. We’ve all faced it and the longer you’ve been an SEO or website owner the more times you’ve seen it happen. But still … what do you do? To quote the immortal Douglas Adams, “Don’t panic.”
Believe me - I know how hard it is sometimes. It’s easy for me to say this to clients when I see an engine fluctuating or a site has dropped only a position or two and we’re working to react but it’s a completely different thing when it happens to you and (might I add) a good reminder to SEO’s as to what our clients go through. But I still haven’t answered the question have I? What do you do? What … do … you … do?
There are five basic steps one must take when their site drops (I like to keep things simple and a 5 step check-list is a great way to do that). These steps assume that to start with you had a well-optimized website with good SEO practices followed. If you don’t then the reasons you dropped are pretty clear but if you’ve got a well-optimized site and your site has fallen - then this is for you. You should:
1 - Build Links
It’s very difficult for people to not want to do something proactive when they notice their site drop. I know - I’ve been there. One of the easiest things to do to keep yourself busy while working on the other 4 steps below is to build links. Building good, solid links to your site will never hurt and will only help you out so even if one of the later steps might show you other actions you need to take (or not take) you’ll never go wrong with some solid link building and if nothing else - it’ll make you feel like you’re doing something and stop you from doing other things that might do you more harm than good.
I’m not going to go into all the different types of links you could build or what the anatomy of a good link is. Many articles, forums and blog posts have been written in the past and are easily found online. I’m sure if you monitor a few good SEO forums you’ll find more being written every day. If you can - find articles by Eric Enge. While he doesn’t give it all away (who does?) - you won’t go wrong taking his advice and even seasoned SEO’s are likely to learn a thing or two from reading his work.
2 - Relax For A Couple Days
Before you rush to your favorite site editing tool - relax. Slight tweaks in content are unlikely to make much of a difference (if any) to your rankings. If you’ve got solid, well-optimized content and suddenly your site’s fluctuating - cramming in a few more instances of your targeted phrase will likely do more harm than good.
Now - when I say relax I basically mean, don’t touch your site. There are steps (such as link building) that you can work on including the analytical work noted below. Just don’t go editing all your copy to try to chase some tweak in Google’s algorithm. Relax.
3 & 4 - Analyze The Sites That Have Out-Ranked You (Onsite And Offsite)
One of the best things you can do is to take a look at the sites that are out-ranking you to find out what they’ve done. This will tell you two things: One - are there some good tactics that you’re missing, and Two - are these rankings likely to hold or are they flawed? There are two areas you’ll want to look at and those are the onsite optimization and the backlinks.
When you’re looking at the onsite optimization you need to only briefly look at their keyword densities, H1 and title tags, internal linking structure, number of indexed pages and the amount of content on the page. Remember: I’m assuming that (as you were ranking previously) you have a solidly optimized website with some good SEO practices and content guidelines followed. If you look at these and compare the newly ranking sites with your site and with other sites that have held their positions and dropped you’ll get a feel for whether there are trends. If there are common traits among the sites that have moved up then you may be on to something. Remember the common trends among the sites that have climbed and held and also remember what they have that the sites that have dropped do not. Remember: there may be no common trends or nothing you can find out with this small a sample. Once this step is complete it’s time to move on to backlink analysis.
Backlink analysis is a good practice to undertake every few months regardless of updates but definitely necessary now that you’re dropping. What you need to do now is to analyze the backlinks of the sites that are out-ranking you. Depending on the competition level this can be a brutal task in that it’s not just about numbers. You should use Yahoo!’s link:www.domain.com command and visit many of the sites in your comeptitors backlinks. What you’re trying to do is get a full view of what their links look like. You’ll also want to download SEO Link Analysis (A Firefox extension you’ll find at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7505/). When you’re doing a backlink check it automatically displays the PageRank and anchor text of the backlinks though I’d still HIGHLY recommend visiting a good many of the sites to see what kind of links they are.
Once again you’re going to be looking for the architecture of the backlinks of the sites that are moving up. What tactics they’re using, what their links look like on the page, what anchor text distribution they’ve got. Once again you’re going to compare that with other sites on the rise, your site and other stable sites to see what is common between those that are climbing and holding their grown vs those that have fallen.
Once we’ve collected this data it’s time to act. Collect all the common traits that the climbing and holding sites have and …
5 - Take Action
You’re done waiting around preforming the tedious task of link building. You’ve got your data and you’re ready to launch into action and get some stuff done. But wait (oh no - did he say wait again?) is action really the best thing?
When you’ve pooled your data you need to decide what it means. Let’s take for example a situation where the newly ranking sites have very low word counts and tons of footer links (looks paid to me). Do you REALLY want to follow their lead? The question you need to ask yourself in this case is do the factors that are apparently working RIGHT NOW overall going to provide better or worse results? Is less content more or less likely to results in a satisfied visitor? Do paid footer links help Google deliver quality results over the whole of the Internet? In these cases the answer is easily “no” but your findings might be more subtle such as an extremely disproportionate use of targeted anchor text among the ranking sites or sp@mmy copy with keyword densities at 8 or 10%.
What you’re in a position to do now is figure out a moving-forward strategy. If the common trends among the top and improving sites are bad or sp@mmy then you know the algorithm will correct itself eventually and you shouldn’t chase it. If you need to do something – build some additional links and look for new phrases to rank for on other pages to help stabilize your traffic when individual phrases decline.
If you find that the factors that have created the new results are legitimate and will lead to better results overall you know you need to make some changes to what you’re doing and fortunately – with the research you’ve just done you’ve got a great starting spot in that you can probably get some great resources and tactics from the lists of backlinks and onsite optimization you’ve just collected.
It may take hours or even days to properly perform this research but then – you needed something to do while your rankings are down. It might as well be productive.
Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and vans may be large and may look powerful. However, some studies have shown that these vehicles that show off and boast of their muscles and great stance are much more likely to rollover than smaller cars. In fact, in the United Kingdom, there have been more than 900 people killed each year along with 12,000 pedestrians and cyclists. The number of those who are injured count to much more.
Now, there has been a new innovation for these mentioned vehicles that would surely save more lives and reduce the number of people and passengers injured. This new technology comes in the form of plastic fronts that are energy absorbing. Concept Mouldings, a leading automotive parts supplier which is based in the United Kingdom, has been the brains behind such an innovation.
One of Europe’s leading vehicle design, development, and certification centers, MIRA, tested the creation done by Concept Mouldings. And according to the results, the new energy absorbing plastic fronts really did reduce the risk of head injuries by over 99 per cent during worst case scenarios. This is very important for head injuries are often inflicted on those who crash or bump their heads in the fronts of the vehicles. In fact, children are the main recipients of such serious injuries which could also lead to their deaths. As per injuries to the abdomen, pelvis, and the upper leg, the energy absorbing plastic fronts also did reduce them greatly.
Ian Finney is the managing director of Concept Mouldings and he further explains that, indeed, such plastic fronts have been one of the most exciting innovations in their line of work. In fact, he also adds, ‘Our products can be fitted as an aftermarket product by owners of vehicles. We can start saving lives and serious injuries now rather than waiting for a long term legislative process.’
To further up your safety, Car Parts Rush offers car owners with a complete line of the highest quality GM parts and GM accessories which are also dependable and has been proven to work well.
Author: Joe Ratzkin
Chiropractic is the third largest primary health care profession in the western world and works on the principle that a good spinal alignment and function is necessary for a better health and well being. Chiropractors specialize in the detection, correction and prevention of spinal joint dysfunctions, so called subluxations, and their affects on the nervous system and the body.
The reason Chiropractic is so effective for such are variety of conditions is that your brain and nervous system rely on proper movement for much of its information. We call this proprioception. Due to our modern lifestyles where many of us sit too much and exercise too little our spine absorbs much of this repetitive stress day in day out. As a consequence it becomes less mobile and more susceptible to symptoms (such as pain) developing. The chiropractic adjustment gently restores normal (specific) movement and neurological/brain function as well as facilitating healing around areas of stress. Other strengthening and proprioceptive (global) exercises are often used to compliment your progress.
Chiropractic is a natural, safe and effective treatment for all kinds of health problems ranging from those experienced by the newborn baby to the elderly. There are many different chiropractic techniques, some which involve adjustments by hand or other tools. Most adjustments actually feel good and will rarely cause any pain. Contrary to common belief you do not need a referral to visit a chiropractor.
Essentially, a straight chiropractor will attribute pain and even disease to what is referred to vertebral subluxation or poorly aligned joints of the spine. For example, when a chiropractor manipulates the spine it is to open the flow of energy to the parts connected by the corresponding nerves.
The Palmers taught that spinal manipulations would correct the magnetic vibrations of the nervous system. They even attributed their manipulations to an almost religious experience – allowing the presence of God to flow properly. And it is perhaps due to this rather esoteric theory that chiropractic was shunned by the conventions of traditional medicine.
The Palmers instituted Palmer College of Chiropractic which exists to this day. The College still teaches the original straight theory and techniques of spinal manipulation but it has expanded to add other holistic treatments. While they no longer teach chiropractic as a metaphysical/religious practice per se, they still promote spinal manipulation as a means to open the flow of energy and thus healing, throughout the body.
Unfortunately, many people are brought up believing that if they do not experience any symptoms then they are well and healthy and hence, no need to consult any health practitioners. As the old saying goes “if it is not broken, why fix it?!!!” unfortunately, pain is a very poor indicator to your health. Quite simply, pain is a warning that some part of your body is not working as well as it should, however many health issues take a long time to manifest themselves with pain. The problem is “pain is the last thing to come, the first thing to go”!!! so do not wait until the pain comes, rather have a check up to make sure potentially harmful events to your health are removed in due time. As Chiropractor’s, we look to treat the cause and not just the symptom.
A plane crash kills all 9 people aboard over Hudson River on Saturday, August 8 when a small plane collided with a sightseeing helicopter from the ‘Liberty Helicopter Tours’ carrying Italian tourists.
Another helicopter pilot on the ground at the heliport for Liberty Tours, which operated the doomed sightseeing craft, saw the plane approaching the helicopter and tried to radio an alert to the pilots, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The warning wasn’t heard or didn’t happen in time.
The collision, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg said was “not survivable,” happened just after noon and was seen by thousands of people enjoying a crystal-clear summer day from the New York and New Jersey sides of the river.
“First I saw a piece of something flying through the air. Then I saw the helicopter going down into the water,” said Kelly Owen, a Florida tourist at a Manhattan park. “I thought it was my imagination.”
The two aircraft went down just south of the stretch of river where a US Airways jet landed safely seven months ago. But this time, there was no miracle.
“This is not going to have a happy ending,” Bloomberg said. Hours after the collision, he said he thought it fair to say “this has changed from a rescue to a recovery mission.”
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the collision.
Two bodies were recovered in the water, one floating free and one in the wreckage, and other bodies were spotted in the debris in the river, the mayor said. The crash victims included five Italian tourists and a pilot on the helicopter and the three people on the plane, including a child, Bloomberg said.
Witnesses described seeing a low-flying plane smashing into the helicopter, and then wreckage scattering. One of the plane’s wings was severed by the impact.
Buzz Nahas was walking along the Hoboken, N.J., waterfront when he heard the impact, then looked up to see the plane without one of its wings “fluttering” into the water.
“There was a loud pop, almost like a car backfire,” he said. “The helicopter dropped like a rock.”
The plane, headed for Ocean City, N.J., left Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at 11:54 a.m., the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement. It had landed at the airport 25 minutes earlier with the pilot aboard to pick up two passengers.
The plane had started its journey in Pennsylvania, an official familiar with the plane’s flight path told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Source: Yahoo
Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven astronauts touched down at 10:48 a.m. EDT at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bringing an end to a complex mission to install the final section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory on the International Space Station. All of the STS-127 crew members are doing well after today’s landing.
The 16-day mission showcased the international partnerships involved in the space station effort. Astronauts from five space agencies were on board the orbiting complex. “It was truly an impressive demonstration of international collaboration all throughout this mission,” said Canadian Space Agency Director General of Operations Benoit Marcotte.
Endeavour’s smooth and punctual arrival, after more than two weeks in orbit, set off a steady stream of congratulations and an ecstatic welcoming reception for Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to return from a long space journey. His space station mission lasted 4 1/2 months.
“We certainly miss being there, but there’s no place like home,” said shuttle commander Mark Polansky. He looked thrilled as he shook hands with senior managers and walked around his spaceship. “What a fantastic mission,” he said.
While visiting the space station, Polansky and his crew put on a new addition to Japan’s $1 billion lab, installed fresh batteries, and stockpiled some big spare parts. They accomplished all of their major objectives and were part of the biggest gathering ever in space: Counting the six station residents, the crowd totaled 13.
The shuttle flight lasted 16 days and spanned 6.5 million miles, one of NASA’s longest. It wrapped up a 138-day trip for Wakata, who moved into the space station last March. He swapped places with American Timothy Kopra, who rode up on Endeavour.
Source: Yahoo, Nasa
Singles are underrepresented on cruises, but unless meeting someone
is the sole purpose of your vacation, a cruise can be your best
choice if you keep these things in mind.
The Carnival line is the only cruiseline that offers a “singles” rate. The others offer you, but you have to take a stranger for a roomy,
or pay double. (Did I miss something? Is that a singles rate?)
Some of the cruise lines (Radisson, Costa, Cunard) offer gentleman
dance hosts. If you’re a single male, you travel for pennies and it’s
your “job” to meet and dance with the single women on the ship, 8 pm to
1 am nightly. If you’re female, there are 4-5 men aboard, proficient
in waltz, rumba, jitterbug, cha cha, polka, and congenial conversation
who are “on call” every night to dance with you.
Choose a large table for dining. It will water down the effect of any
uncongenial dining companions. Ask to change tables if you need to. If you like the day activities, take the late seating. If you’re hot for the night-life, take the early seating.
Shore excursions booked through the ship are safe and scheduled, but cost
more. Most ports have cabbies lined up waiting to take you to the same places for less. (We got a 3-hour tour of St. Maarten for $10 pp instead of $50pp.) However, think twice before you hop into a cab alone. Try and hook up with fellow passengers, even dance hosts.
If you can avoid the gambling and liquor, a cruise can be very affordable. Cruise lines make their money off the gambling and liquor. That’s why they can feed you fabulous food 24 hours a day at those low last-minute rates. Sail from a port that doesn’t require airfare, and you can live in luxury for around $80 a day. You couldn’t stay in a hotel and eat steak and lobster for that.
Cruises have been proven to be good for our health. For instance, don’t you think at least 25% of our daily stress comes from car hassles? On a ship there’s no parking problems, traffic jams, or road rage to interfere with your relaxation.
Shopping? Wait till the end of the cruise to shop onboard; they reduce
prices. Check with friends or the ship’s shopping expert on what to buy
where. Each island has its specialities. For instance, braids are $150 in Key West, $75 in Cozumel, and $35 on Grand Cayman.
Prescription drugs are sold cheaply OOT in Cozumel, etc. Bring CASH so you can stock up on Keflex and avoid doctor’s fees. Many of the best bargains require CASH or TRAVELER’S CHECQUES. For other items, get off the beaten track. Stores that pay for space in the port generally charge that privilege back to you.
Check with friends who’ve actually been on these ships to see what your fellow-passengers will be like. Each ship has its own flavor. If you leave from Galveston, expect 90% Texans (scary). If from Port Everglade, more of a mix - North, Northeast, Midwest, Europe. If you travel in late summer, expect lots of kids and teenagers.
Maybe you care less about people, and more about the quality of food. Decide what your priorities are. Then ask someone who’s been on that line. The quality of different amenities varies, and each cruise line has its plusses and minuses.
Most cruise ships have Internet service but it’s expensive and not always available at sea. However, most ports now have Internet cafes which are quite affordable–$5 an hour, for instance, in Cozumel, right on the dock. You can check your email anywhere on www.e-mailanywhere.com. It’s FREE.
One last suggestion. If you like to speak, consider being a presenter
on a cruise ship. As I say in my ebook, “How to Get to Present on a
Cruise,” being an enrichment gives you extra visibility and maneuverability for socializing
, as well as new people to tell about your services.
Bon voyage!
Source: Free Articles by Susan Dunn
At last, the 2nd test victory for Bangladesh, after a long waiting. In the end what was refreshing for the cricket-loving people in the country was that a set of young cricketers under a new leader didn’t succumb to untoward pressure in Kingstown, St. Vincent to bring more trouble for them after their poor showing in the five-day game.
Four years and six months after their first Test win, Bangladesh sealed a historic second victory when they beat West Indies by 95 runs in St Vincent. Bangladesh’s spin twins Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah weaved a tantalising web to consign a weakened West Indies to defeat. The only resistance came from David Bernard, who defied everything thrown at him for 134 balls to remain unbeaten on 52.
The champagne moment arrived at 4.40 pm local time when Shakib, the stand-in captain, nailed last man Tino Best in front with a dipping full toss with only ten overs left in the day. Best put up his bat as if to suggest he had edged it but the finger was up and the Bangladeshi fielders converged in a huddle of joy, soon joined by a limping Mashrafe Mortaza.
It was an enthralling last couple of sessions in a beautiful setting, the Kingstown stadium ringed by the sea. The cricket was almost sub-continental in its elements. Spinners operated with several close-in men prowling near the batsmen waiting for a mistake, and an over-excited chirpy wicketkeeper, Mushfiqur Rahim, applying immense pressure on the batsmen and the umpires with his appeals exclamations. And when the seamers came on, it wasn’t seam but reverse swing on view with the slinging Rubel Hossain and the grunting Shahadat Hossain trying their best to break through.
The plot thickened in the last session, as Bernard found a willing partner in Nikita Miller, suggesting a replay of Cardiff, where England pulled off a great escape on Sunday. But Mohammad Ashraful, who failed in both innings with the bat, stamped his presence on the game by removing Miller, who’d stayed on his back foot to defend stoutly for 54 balls, with one that straightened to get the edge. Mahmudullah returned to trap Ryan Austin and take out Kemar Roach before Shakib sealed the finish.
Until then, Bernard had proved to be a huge headache to the visitors, standing solidly between them and history. His CV describes him as a stylish batsman but today he added grit to the existing grace. Despite the tremendous pressure, he managed to bat with some elegance, using his wrists to ride the turn and bounce on the final-day wicket. While the rest pushed hard at the ball, he played with soft hands and defended confidently.
The contest with Shakib was top-notch, with the bowler shifting angles and trying everything in his arsenal - left-arm breaks, straighter one, arm-ball, round-arm delivery, over and round-the-wicket - to beat a batsman batting in the zone. He moved forward or back, as the length demanded of him, using his wrists to drop the ball down short of the fielders. When the spin noose tightened, he had the courage to play the pressure-relieving strokes like the lofted drives and the cuts. He survived a close lbw shout in the 44th over against Shakib when a ball straightened to hit the pad in front of the stumps but, that blemish apart, he was pretty solid.
However, Shakib and Mahmudullah ensured no other batsmen would deny them a slice of history. Shakib, hailed by the former Australian spinner Kerry O’ Keefe as the “best finger spinner in the world”, turned in a suffocating spell of left-arm spin to relentlessly force the pressure on West Indies. Shakib was slightly slow through the air in the first innings and couldn’t pose too many problems on a slow track. Today, though, he ripped it slightly quicker and immediately looked threatening. He varied his pace, even his angle, by lowering the arm on occasion and, unsurprisingly, was the better of the two spinners, despite finishing with fewer wickets. He occasionally got the ball to straighten and slipped in a few with the arm.
In his first over Shakib harassed Omar Phillips before going past an attempted sweep to trap the batsman. Later, after Darren Sammy and Bernard had added 37 in 11.3 overs, he struck, removing Sammy with a little bit of help from the batsman. Suddenly, against the run of play and just before tea, Sammy jumped out and sliced an ambitious square drive straight to point.
Even when he was not taking wickets, Shakib kept the pressure on and by keeping the batsmen on a leash, allowed Mahmudullah the space to wreak some damage. At one point in the chase the keeper Rahim shouted out to Mahmudullah: “Just keep hitting the right areas; the pitch will take care of the rest”. Mahmudullah did exactly that to pick up three quick wickets after lunch before he returned to take another two in the last session. He increased the pressure with his accuracy and made the batsmen play at every ball. It paid off - and how.
Floyd Reifer, who was tormented by Shakib, showed himself to be a prime lbw candidate. Time and again, that front leg was pressed dangerously across but he managed to stab and jab his way out against Shakib. But Mahmudullah finally broke through with one that landed and straightened to strike that front leg. His next victim was Travis Dowlin, inducing a nervous prod straight to short-leg. Chadwick Walton walked in and started off with a second-ball six but was done in by one that kept low from Mahmudullah and was struck in front of the leg stump.
The slide had started with a moment of madness from the opener Dale Richards who added 20 runs in two overs before he had a brain freeze. He ambled out of the crease after being hit on the pad by Shahadat Hossain, all the while looking anxiously at the umpire for the verdict on the lbw appeal, which went in his favour, but was run out by a direct hit. That allowed Bangladesh the opening and they stormed through.
When the day started, it looked as if Bangladesh were dawdling with the bat and not showing enough urgency to either go for quick runs or leave many overs as possible to bowl out West Indies. However, Darren Sammy took a five-for to bowl them out and that proved a blessing in hindsight as it allowed their spinners enough time to bowl them to a euphoric triumph.
Source: Cricinfo
A link is a form of online communication among two websites. Websites over the internet are interconnected to each other through a complex network of links which make it easy for visitors to browse internet fast and efficiently. Link building is the most important Off-page SEO technique resulting in the better positioning of your website in certain search engine.
Before starting a link building campaign make sure that you are going to acquire short cuts for link building as its injustice to your link building campaign and won’t prove fruitful for the long term. Nicely placed link building campaign is the most rewarding activity among the other SEO activities.
Linking to irrelevant and spammy websites can adversely affect your PR hence diminishing your value in certain search engines. While designing your link building campaign make sure that you are crafting a legal link building campaign as poor ways of link building can get you banned from Google.
Make sure that your link building campaign is not focused on acquiring links form any website you come along. Links from the website opposite your niche are not beneficial in boosting up your ranking.
Make sure that press release distribution is an integral part of your link building campaign as press releases containing a link of your website at their bottom can contribute a lot to your link building campaign.
Try to start directory submission when your website is fully functional and rich with information on a particular topic. A successful link building campaign makes sure to submit your website to the worthy and valued directories. If you are focusing on the forum submission make sure that post on the active and well classified forums.
Before starting a link building campaign make a complete analysis of your keywords and select those keywords as anchor text of the links which you think are the most relevant to the theme and the subject of your website. Select pages with high page rank to place your link as you will get a part of strength of the PR of that particular page. In your link building campaign make sure to not go for site wide links as they are considered inorganic by Google and other search engines. In the beginning, try to concentrate on building links for the home page of your website. Link your home page to the internal pages of your website to indirectly transfer the link building reimbursement to internal pages.
Always try to run a link building campaign with a positive attitude as link building is a long term project it needs your patience to get your website efficiently linked with the other websites.
Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform all over the world. As you become popular in search engine and getting traffic, you may be inviting hackers to test your protection system against them. Hacking can be happened any moment, so you should not wait it to happen and then take action.
When I was checking my Wassup traffic details this morning, I found that 3 suspicious records trying to get access using SQL Injection. Thankfully nothing happened and they got tired trying. However, I searched online for Wordpress protection and got some tips for it. I compiled all the tips and came with the following:
Always Update
Updating Wordpress became very easy now. From Wordpress 2.7+, you can now update your blog with just a click. So don’t feel lazy upgrading your blog – as soon as they release any updated version, try to upgrade your blog. If you are using older version, you can use Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugins and update to the latest version.
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An outbreak of deadly swine flu in Mexico and the United States has raised the specter of a new virus against which much of humanity would have little or no immunity. The outbreak of the new multi-strain swine flu virus transmitted from human to human that has killed more than 160 people in Mexico is a “serious situation” with a “pandemic potential”, the head of the World Health Organization said.
US medical authorities expressed strong concern Friday about an unprecedented multi-strain swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and infected seven people in the United States. “It’s very obvious that we are very concerned. We’ve stood up emergency operation centers,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesman Dave Daigle told AFP.
Swine influenza, also mknown as Swine Flu, or Pig Flu, refers to influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine). Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus.
The 2009 flu outbreak in humans that is widely known as “swine flu” apparently is not solely due to a swine influenza virus. It is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives from one strain of human influenza virus, one strain of avian influenza virus, and two separate strains of swine influenza virus. The origins of this new strain are unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in swine. It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation. The strain in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.
The World Health Organization went on high alert, dispatching top experts to the United States and Mexico amid concern that the new virus could become a global epidemic.
“It’s a virus that mutated from pigs and transmitted to some humans,” Cordova said earlier.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said tests show some of the Mexican victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that affected eight people in Texas and California, who later recovered.
“It’s very obvious that we are very concerned. We’ve set up emergency operation centers,” CDC spokesman Dave Daigle told AFP.
The WHO said Canadian laboratory testing had confirmed 18 cases of swine fever among almost 1,000 Mexicans found to have an influenza-like illness in three regions — of whom 62 died.
“Because there are human cases associated with an animal influenza virus, and because of the geographical spread of multiple community outbreaks, plus the somewhat unusual age groups affected, these events are of high concern,” the Swiss-based body said in a statement.
“The majority of (the Mexican) cases have occurred in otherwise healthy young adults. Influenza normally affects the very young and the very old, but these age groups have not been heavily affected in Mexico,” the WHO said.
Tattoos are a hot topic today. people get tattoos for umpteen motives. A tattoo is a permanent marking made by inserting ink into the layers of skin to change the pigment for decorative or other reasons. Tattoos on humans are a type of decorative body modification, while tattoos on animals are most commonly used for identification or branding.
No one can really convey when the evidence of tattoos began. The oldest known tattoo was identified in 1991. It was located on a mummy known as Oetzi, an Iceman dated to be at least 5300 years old. His tattoos consist of horizontal and vertical lines. There is some debate as to why the tattoos are there.
Prior to finding Oetzi, the Russians excavated bodies that were demonstrated to be over 2400 years of age. These mummies were located in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. Instead of lines, their tattoos are in the category of animals both real and imaginary. various of these tattoos are thought to be decorative only while others appear to be a sign of status rank.
Chinese logo tattoos are rapidly growing in popularity all about the world. In fact, more than six thousand individuals forage for the contend “Chinese Tattoos” on the internet every single day.
But that’s not surprising as Chinese motif tattoos are extremely beautiful and mysterious. Thanks to the movies and eminent culture, most individuals in the west can recognise these Chinese symbols but can’t understand them. So that makes these tattoos a rather exotic form of self expression.
But beyond that, there are other more gender specific reasons for the popularity of these tattoo designs.
Women are attracted to the various subtle meanings and over-arching themes that the Chinese symbols can express, such as hope, freedom and love. Men, on the other hand, are drawn to Chinese emblem tattoos on the grounds that in western populace they’re strongly pertinent with martial arts movies.
The system of Chinese writing began more than 4000 years ago and doesn’t have an alphabet. This is perhaps the biggest difference for non Chinese people to understand. Instead, Chinese writing relies Once a large number of symbols that portray spoken ideas or concepts. Each emblem represents a different spoken word.
In 1710 AD the Kangxi Dictionary was created by imperial decree and contained more than 47,000 symbols. However, since then that number has risen to more than 70,000 symbols to portray the growing number of nuances and meanings in the modern language. But having remarked that, the respectable Chinese person only needs to know around 5,000 of these Chinese symbols to be able to riff through and understand anything that’s written in Chinese.
Can anything be written in Chinese symbols?
Thanks to the sheer number of symbols available, anything can be translated into Chinese. Even the many subtle meanings and nuances can be achieved using a combination of symbols.
Source: Internet
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Camping in a jungle or somewhere else in the nature is a good way to spend your weekend and any vacation. It will become more interesting when you have friends around you. I am also very fond of camping.m That is why I was looking for some tips which may help me pass a very good time. While surfing the net, I stopped in the Jeff Schuman’s post and found it very helpful. Here are the tips that he suggested:
There are several different methods that can be used when cooking while camping including with camp stoves, charcoal, wood fires, foil cooking and more. Depending on what you’re making and how you like it cooked sometimes decides what method you’ll use. There are, however, several camping cooking tips to consider before going out.
1. Freeze Meat
Freezing the meat ahead of time will keep it fresh and keep other foods cool as well.
2. Plan ahead of time
Measuring the right amount of ingredients needed for meals ahead of time and putting them in ziplock bags helps ensure a great meal. Also preparing soups and chili and freezing them makes for quick camping cooking to reheat and eat.
3. Easier cleaning method
To avoid food from sticking to the pans apply oil on the grill. Also, putting liquid soap on the outside of pots and pans before placing them on the fire protects from smoke and fire danger while also providing an easier clean-up.
4. Keeping matches dry
Many camping cookbook recipes require a fire and there is no better way to start a fire then with matches. One method to help keep the matches dry in case it rains is to place matches in wax and then when needed just scrape the wax off and light the match.
5. Cooking hamburgers thoroughly
One camping cookbook secret for cooking hamburgers thoroughly is to place a hole in the center of the hamburger the size of your finger. The hole will fill in during the cooking and the center will cook the same as the outside.
6. Keep food and drinks in separate cooler
Keeping your drinks in a separate cooler from food helps keep foods colder longer avoiding any kind of spoilage.
7. Cooking on or over coals
Camping cooking can be difficult to make sure you don’t overcook or undercook any food. If you cook on or over coals (wood or charcoal), this helps provide a
steadier and even heating for the food. This will allow you to control the food better.
8. Cooking chicken
Camping cookbook secret with chicken is to cook the chicken halfway and then place the sauce of your choice on it. This will prevent the sauce from burning onto the chicken.
9. Water bottles for containers
Keeping water bottles when you’re finished with them are great for camping cooking containers, for instance placing salad dressing, oils, or any other liquid substance.
10. Too much salt?
Adding too much salt when you’re preparing a good camping cooking meal happens to the best of us. You can fix this by peeling a potato and adding the potato, as the potato will absorb the excess salt from the dish.
July 10, 2008, one of the memorable days in my life when I have become a proud owner of an excellent laptop computer. My father bought it for me from Wichita, Kansas, USA. It is from Toshiba Satellite series, the model is A305-S6825. From then on, the laptop has become a part and percel of my life, everyday i spend at least 4/5 hours in using my ever best gift.
About the Laptop
The Toshiba Satellite is designed and developed with some great features, like Face Recognition Webcam and Microphone, FM Tuner, harman/kardon® Stereo Speakers, 500GB of Storage (dual 250GB drives), USB Sleep-and–Charge & eSATA Ports etc and many more. This brilliantly designed device works nice and smoothly.
Product Specification
- Enhanced Intel® Centrino® processor technology with Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor T5550, Intel® GM965 chipset, Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG network connection (802.11a/b/g) and extended battery life capability.
- 3GB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory for multitasking power, expandable to 4GB; 667MHz frontside bus, 2MB L2 cache and 1.83GHz processor speed.
- Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media; supports DVD-RAM; also supports Labelflash direct-disc labels using compatible Labelflash media.
- The next-generation Intel® Core™2 Duo processor is based on the innovative Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, so it runs faster and is more energy-efficient for cooler, quieter operation.
- 15.4″ WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen display with TruBrite technology and 1280 x 800 resolution; native support for 720p content.
- 250GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm).
- Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 128-358MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory; built-in Harman/Kardon speakers; S-video output.
- CD/DVD control buttons, including play, pause, stop, previous track and next track; one-touch Internet button launches your default Web browser.
- Built-in Web cam and microphone make it easy to video chat with friends and family.
- 5-in-1 bridge media adapter supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card.
- i.LINK (IEEE 1394) interface and 4 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer.
- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; 56 Kbps modem.
- Weighs 6 lbs. and measures 1.5″ thin for portable power; lithium-ion battery and AC adapter.
- Fusion case finish with horizon pattern.
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) preinstalled.
In the last, all I can say is that this is really a great laptop which helps me do my job easily. Thanks to my dad a lot who has given me the chance to live a better life with better lifestyle.
Probably, there is no human being in the world who doesn’t have any hobby or interest of his/her own. Some one may love and have a large collection of books, music, and movies or may be sports fanatic or enjoy traveling. Some one may also love gardening or having pets. Doing things we love to do, reduces stress and helps us to temporarily forget our every day problems and troubles, in some cases it may inspire us to find a solution to a problem. But not everyone has a hobby that makes money for him/her except if you love your job.
Earning money with a hobby you love to do could earn you an extra income, with practice and experience it could allow you to quit your day job. That is why many of us today go online to start a business; their reasons are either to supplement their income or to gradually replace their offline income from their job. A great way to start making money online is through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is sharing revenue between an online merchant and one or more affiliates. The affiliate refers new customers to the online merchant and is paid a commission for either the new referral or sales generated. There are several advantages to affiliate marketing, mainly you don’t need to generate or stock an inventory of products, no need to create an online e-store, and you never have to worry about keeping a customer happy, the merchant takes care of it all.
Now, for sure you want to be an affiliate marketer with all the benefits an affiliate could get. But, do you have what it takes to be an affiliate marketer? To properly begin in affiliate marketing, you have to decide what area or areas you’re interested in. What products do you know the most and which products you could do the best job of selling? Once you discover your specialty; perseverance, patience, and determination comes next. These qualities should be possessed in order to be a good affiliate marketer.
A lot of online affiliate marketers become impatient and fail. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses, what things are you good at and what are your abilities and capabilities related to your chosen niche. The most important thing is you have to have a strong desire and will to succeed in affiliate marketing.
To be an affiliate marketer is not an easy task. You have to learn the techniques of marketing your product or service. There are many marketers out there promoting their ways of marketing, one should be cautious in attempting to jump on each technique. To be a successful affiliate marketer, you should learn how to listen and to be taught because in life we need to learn skills to get by.
An affiliate marketer should know how to effectively market their product; an effective marketing technique will get thousands of visitors to view their product which equates to more sales. Creating and publishing your own website will create a bigger chance of making money online faster. Avoiding the same mistakes of other affiliates is advised; many are just in it for a quick buck and fail to build a long term business. It’s important to understand that you’re building a long term business. It is essential to focus on what will makes you several sales each day and not the few dollars you’ll make in one sale.
It is also better to have knowledge on how to upsell your visitors for expensive services. This will distinguish you as an expert to the field which will allow you to sell more products and make more money. There are some people thinks that just by having affiliate links on their website will bring them good profits. It is true that some affiliates do make good money this way, but many still believe that it is more effective to use a strong marketing campaign in order to be successful. Affiliate marketers who treat their online visitors or customers as friends are more successful than those who don’t. Establish a relationship with customers and especially with the visitors to your website. Building a good business relationship with customers will bring that customer back again and again.
You should also be creative. The real key to being successful with affiliate marketing is to develop a good content based website and weave your affiliate links into all your content. Providing your visitors with good, quality, and updated content will keep them coming back to your site. Affiliate marketing can be a long term profitable and successful business.
By Michael Conant
While talking about a real car, should talk about the BMW M3. Refinement is a word that best describes the 2008 BMW M3. Turn on the ignition and the engine is quiet, almost too quiet. Sure it delivers a lot more power than the previous version but it comes in a package that makes for a great daily driver. Push this car hard through a turn and you’ll feel safe knowing where the wheels are going. The car is a beast but unlike your average sports car, it’s a beast with manners. And should you get yourself in trouble, you can mash on the brakes and those massive rotors will get you out of it.
Instead of just raw power, the people at BMW decided to add precision, feedback and response. Approximately 80 percent of the parts in the new M3 are new. Highlights include a carbon fiber roof (a first for a production car), a suspension largely constructed of aluminum, and an aluminum hood/plastic front fenders.
The engine is a V-8 that weighs 33 pounds less than the previous generation’s straight six. It’s also a much higher revving engine. The experience is somewhat similar to the VTEC Honda sports coupe but with a lot more oomph.
The power-plant is constructed from aluminum silicon. In using this method, heavy steel liners can be discarded. The crankshaft weighs in at a feathery 44 pounds. Peak power comes once you hit the 8,000+ RPM range. The designers claim that a high revving engine makes for better control of the rear wheels.
Like its bigger sibling, the M3 can be tuned by the driver. The throttle sensitivity, shock rates, and stability control can be modified from the dashboard.
During a casual test, I found the normal mode to provide the best lap times. Control was neutral and easy to manage even during tight situations. The steering felt a bit disconnected at times. That’s due to a bit of electronic over engineering on the engineers part and the thick design of the steering wheel. There was also a tendency for a bit of understeer when the car was pushed to its limits on during private track time.
During extended testing, the brakes had a tendency to fade even when competition grade pads were installed. The manual transmission felt precise but the shift throws were a bit longer than I’d like.
In everyday use, the new M3 offers practicality. The M3 has great everyday road manners and the trunk space is plenty adequate. An energy recovery system is used to help power the electrics. The power comes from the energy released during braking.
This machine has evolved into something that’s approaching the performance of a 911 class car. It might look mild mannered but it delivers world class results. If you want a car that truly challenges your race driving skills, this is not the car for you. This is the kind of car that gives controlled feedback to the driver and even makes less skilled drivers look good.
But if I had to split hairs, this car doesn’t have the overall refinement of a true 911. The performance numbers are great but the overall driver feedback can feel a bit dead at times. People used to driving a Honda Accord will love this. More experienced drivers will expect a more tactile experience.










































