shocktimes.blogspot.com: September 2007

Bush Readies Veto Pen As Senate Passes Children's Health Bill

The stage is set for one of the most significant domestic policy showdowns of the Bush presidency.

The Senate on Thursday night cleared a massive children's health insurance bill by a veto-proof margin,
67-29, but House approval earlier this week of the same bill was not enough for a veto override, leaving President Bush with the upper hand for now.

Eighteen Republicans in the Senate, some of whom have been Bush allies for years, voted for the $35 billion increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Senate GOP defectors joined 45 House Republicans who voted for the bill.

For Democrats and the growing group of Republicans backing the bill, the expansion of SCHIP is an important moment in American health care policy because it would cover four million more uninsured children, on top of the 6.6 million already receiving benefits. The program was actually an innovation of the Republican Congress in 1997, but Democrats have sought to expand SCHIP to cover even more uninsured children whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

Despite the bipartisan support, conservatives still have enough votes to prevail in sustaining the veto. President Bush and GOP congressional leaders see the expansion to more middle income families as a step toward government run health insurance for everyone.

Continue reading

The Phil Spector Trial

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
Phil Spector avoided a lengthy jail sentence … for now. By the final score of 10-2, guilty votes almost convicted Spector for the murder of Lana Clarkson, but thankfully for Phil, a unanimous decision could not be reached, so we’re back to square one. Three of the twelve jurors spoke to the media following the mistrial, including the jury foreman, who only made a brief statement to explain what went down during the twelve-day deliberations. All three men said they think Spector is guilty, and noted the two non-guilty votes stemmed from jurors who felt there wasn’t enough reasonable doubt to prove that Lana Clarkson didn’t commit suicide that night in Spector’s mansion. An in-depth psychological report on Clarkson would have helped sway the two renegade jury members, said their fellow juror.

The same juror lambasted Team Spector for putting on a “fake” defense that created scientific theories, paid for high-priced witnesses, and even employed the forensic scientist husband of one of its lawyers. He also criticized the defense for character-assassinating Lana Clarkson. In fact, the juror was pretty unable to mask his disappointment that two of his peers allowed Spector to slip away. As for the prosecution, strip away all female witnesses that claimed Spector pointed a gun at them and the missing evidence, and it’s still evident that Spector was the murderer, the juror remarked. Both jurors, however, said that if the charge was manslaughter, and not second degree murder, that Spector might be wearing an orange jumpsuit in San Quentin by now. Manslaughter is the key word as the prosecution seeks to rebound from this mistrial.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Judge Fidler will meet with the prosecution and defense sometime next week to discuss how the State of California will proceed. District Attorney spokeswoman Sandy Gibbons made it abundantly clear that Spector will face a retrial “immediately.” For the time being, both sides will likely cue up their TiVos, study the hours and hours of Court TV trial footage, and figure out what they need to do to win. So while Spector might have been donning his party wig last night as he celebrated in his faux-mansion, he better make sure all his flamboyant suits are pressed and cleaned, as the curtain will rise on Act Two of this trial in the near future.

Via : rollingstone.com

Harry's girlfriend opts for student accommodation at Leeds

When in Rome, do as the Romans do - the dictum seems to have some influence on Prince Harry's mega-rich girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

The 21-year-old Zimbabwean blonde, who recently moved to Britain to study law at Leeds University, has moved into a dingy dig like most students in the country instead of opting to splash out on a luxury flat.

Davy, the daughter of a millionaire safari boss in South Africa, is sharing the accommodation in the city's Hyde Park area, costing 55 pounds every week, with three of her mates, 'The Sun' reported on Wednesday.

Her decision to opt for a student accommodation followed media reports that the girlfriend of Harry's brother Prince William was having a flutter over their love affair.

According to British tabloid the 'News of the World', Kate Middleton fears that if she becomes a member of the Royal Family in future, she would not be able to match up to the expectations of snotty courtiers.

"She and Wills love each other dearly but Kate has just woken up to what the next few years could have in store. She is suddenly realising the enormity of what could lie ahead if she walks down the aisle with William."

"It's one thing having an on-off relationship with Wills, it's quite another thing becoming Queen," one of Kate's close pals was quoted as saying."

"Kate is just from a very normal middle-class family who have done exceptionally well for themselves. They don't live on a huge estate or have titles before their names," the tabloid quoted another unnamed friend as saying."

source : www.dnaindia.com

Romancing With Life will be realising...

The autobiography of legendary Bollywood actor, director and producer Dev Anand, "Romancing with Life" will be released tomorrow by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.

Published by Penguins, Anand's account will be released on the occasion of his birthday which he coincidentally shares with Singh, in the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Ex-top INDIAN bureaucrat held for corruption

The CBI arrested on Tuesday former Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief secretary Akhand Pratap Singh for misusing his office.

“He was nabbed while trying to flee a farmhouse in south Delhi,” an officer of the agency said. The CBI had registered a case against the top bureaucrat, who is said to be close to former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh, in March 2005 for possessing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The agency had information that Singh had accumulated wealth worth Rs300 crore by the time he retired in 2003, and raided his houses in Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow.

“Singh has 84 immovable assets and over 100 bank accounts. It took us almost two years to get details of his assets and establish how he had misused his office to gather wealth illegally,” the CBI official said, adding, “Most of his immovable properties are in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Lucknow and Nainital.”

Interestingly, a report of 10 most corrupt bureaucrats by the IAS cadre in UP four years ago had listed Singh among the top three. “We were forced to arrest him because he had stopped cooperating in the probe and had also begun threatening witnesses,” said the officer, adding that Singh was also charged with forging documents in the name of his father, wife, children and friends to accumulate wealth.

“While opening a bank account, he had forged the signatures of his father and friend. Both of these men had died a long time ago,” the officer said.

He said Singh purchased illegal property in the name of three firms floated by him.

Via ; DNA

Bollinger Stuns Ahmadinejad With Blunt Rebuke

President Lee Bollinger of Columbia, in a dramatic speech broadcast around the globe yesterday from Morningside Heights, delivered an oratorical haymaker to President Ahmadinejad, attacking his record on human rights, Israel, and terrorism in remarks that will likely overshadow anything the Iranian might say during his diplomatic rounds in America.

In systematic fashion, Mr. Bollinger, who was being closely watched in New York and beyond because of criticism that he had blundered by inviting Mr. Ahmadinejad in the first place, rebuked the Iranian president for calling for the destruction of Israel, for funding terrorism, for fighting a proxy war against America within the borders of Iraq, for persecuting women and homosexuals, and for flaunting the international community in the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Continue Story

Microsoft: Halo 3 to 'shatter entertainment sales records'

The Redmond, Wash.-based computer giant (Nasdaq: MSFT) said it had received more than 1.5 million pre-orders for the game and called it the fastest-selling pre-ordered video game in history. The game will be released in 37 countries and will be available in 17 languages.

The game, created by Microsoft's Bungie Studios subsidiary, will be released in three versions -- standard edition for $60, limited edition for $70 and "legendary" edition for $130.

The game goes on sale at midnight at 10,000 retailers. Gala celebrations are planned in New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

Source

Twenty20 Final Sharukh Khan India vs Pakistan

Final world Twenty20 India v Pakistan at Johannesburg - Sep 24, 2007 Sharukh watching twenty20.

Microsoft ready to buy share of Facebook

The phenomenally popular social networking website Facebook was at the centre of ownership speculation following reports last night that Microsoft was poised to buy a 5% stake, valuing the site at as much as $10bn (£5bn).

Such is Facebook's success that the deal could make its founder Mark Zuckerberg, 23, one of Silicon Valley's wealthiest men according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources close to the negotiations.

If accurate, the valuation would amount to $238 for each of the 42 million people who have profiles on Facebook - a site which provides an easy forum for people to stay in touch with friends by exchanging photos, messages, electronic "gifts" and tips.

Mr Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout who conceived the site in his college dormitory, is keen to raise money to give Facebook sufficient firepower to make acquisitions in computer infrastructure and to expand the site's workforce. If the talks are successful, Microsoft could pay between $300m and $500m for a chunk of shares.

It is not the first time Facebook has been the target of interest from the technology industry's established players. Yahoo! tried to buy it for $1bn last year and Google has expressed interest in investing.

Film star joins Burma protest monks

Thousands of Buddhist monks have gathered at Rangoon's Shwedagon pagoda for a protest march.

The monks said it would be their largest march since launching protests a week ago in a battle of wills against Burma's military government.

The monks invited the public to join the rally, and top local movie actor Kyaw Thu offered the clerics alms at the landmark in the first public support by local celebrities to the country's biggest anti-government protests in two decades.

Diplomats and analysts, meanwhile, said Burma's military rulers are showing unexpected restraint in cracking down on the protests because of pressure from the country's key trading partner, China.

At least 3,000 monks turned up at the Shwedagon, a historical centre for political movements as well as the country's most sacred religious shrine, to launch their seventh day of marches.

Columbia students protest visit

Emotions ran high at Columbia University on Monday, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke on campus - to the disgust of many but with the approval of others.

Protesters yell at people passing through the 116th street entrance of Columbia University in New York City Monday, September 24. 2007 as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the campus.
Photo: AP

In front of the school's gates on Broadway in northern Manhattan, Stephen Gruber, 51, held up his Columbia diploma along with a sign reading: "Diploma for sale - 50 cents."

"My father is a graduate of this school, and he passed away. I am going to return his degree posthumously. They have diminished the value of my [own] diploma, which is why I have it on sale for 50 cents," Gruber said.

Colin Felsman, 20, a currently enrolled student, said the visit was a great opportunity, adding: "He's the president of Iran, not the president of the world. Columbia University is acting in solidarity with the two-thirds of Iranians under the age of 30 who lack the ability to confront President Ahmadinejad."

INDIA WON TWENTY 20 WORLD CUP.

India do it again.

India won by 5 wickets against Pakistan in world's first Twenty 20 World Cup Tournament right now.

Fox strikes deal for free shows on iTunes

With NBC and ABC both making free downloads of their shows available this week, Fox jumped on the trend with free downloads of new shows available on iTunes.

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that Fox and Apple have reached an agreement to offer free downloads of the shows Fox is trying to promote this sweeps season: that is, the ones people aren't watching as much as they'd like. No Simpsons or Family Guy clips are among the five shows currently available for free on the iTunes Store. But episodes of shows sure to be forgotten in the sands of time, like Back To You, Til' Death and K-Ville, are currently available for free at the iTunes Store.

It's a strange time to be in the television business, as new strategies for reaching fickle television viewers are being trotted out. NBC decided it was done with Apple's iTunes Store earlier this year, and is now planning to offer shows like Heroes on its own Web site. ABC is putting shows like Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty on AOL Video.

Mattel says sorry to China about toy recalls

In a surprising move, U.S. toy manufacturer Mattel apologized to China on Friday, taking responsibility for recent toy recalls and admitting they were due to "design flaws."

The Chinese manufacturers of the toys were not to blame for the massive recalls, a senior Mattel executive said during talks in Beijing.

"The vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers," Debrowski said at a meeting in the office of Li Changjiang, chief of China's product quality assurance agency.

Continue Story

La., Miss. Dodge Tropical Weather

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A tropical depression came ashore in the Florida panhandle Friday, sparing coastal Louisiana and Mississippi the first serious brush with tropical weather since two hurricanes laid waste to the area in 2005.

Forecasters downgraded the threat when the storm system moved ashore near Fort Walton Beach in the panhandle. They said the depression maintained the same intensity as it made landfall.

``We expect it to move over land and weaken,'' said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The weather service discontinued tropical storm warnings that had stretched from Apalachicola, Fla., to the mouth of the Mississippi River, including metropolitan New Orleans.

``Everybody's dodging (the proverbial bullet) right now,'' said Bob Wagner, a weather service meteorologist in Slidell, La.

Still, officials remained wary of the dangers strong gusts of wind could pose in areas rebuilding since hurricanes Katrina and Rita killed more than 1,600 people more than two years ago. Thousands of residents still live in trailers issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Officials had taken precautions, opening shelters and issuing sandbags.

MIT Coed With Fake Bomb 'Art' Arrested

BOSTON (AP) — Troopers arrested an MIT student at gunpoint Friday after she walked into Logan International Airport wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweatshirt. Authorities call it a fake bomb; she called it art.

Star Simpson's attorney said the charges against her were an overreaction, but authorities expressed amazement that someone would wear such a device eight months after a similar scare in Boston, and six years after two of the jets hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks took off from Logan.

"I'm shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport," said State Police Maj. Scott Pare, the airport's commanding officer.

The terminal was not evacuated and flights were not affected, airport officials said.

Simpson, 19, of Lahaina, Hawaii, has expertise in electronics and even received a Congressional citation for her work in robotics, according to her lawyer.

She wore the white circuit board on her chest over a black hooded sweatshirt, Pare said at a news conference. The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, and Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said.

Two phrases that looked hand-drawn — "Socket to me" and "Course VI" — were written on the back of Simpson's sweatshirt, which authorities displayed to the media. Course VI appears to refer to MIT's major of electrical engineering and computer science.

"She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day," Pare said. "She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it."

There was a career fair at the university on Thursday, according to the university's Web site.

Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device. A not guilty plea was entered for her and she was released on $750 bail.

During the hearing, Simpson smiled as she entered wearing a T-shirt and sandals. After she posted bail, she left in a taxi with a man who identified himself as her boyfriend, but neither would answer more questions from reporters.

Prosecutor Wayne Margolis had requested $5,000 bail, saying Simpson showed a total disregard for airport security concerns.

Ross Schreiber, who was appointed to represent Simpson, said she was not a risk to flee, cooperated with authorities and was a good student with no prior convictions. He said they would fight the charges.

"I would characterize it as almost being paranoid at this point," he said of authorities' response.

He said she had gone to the airport to meet her boyfriend. "She was there for legitimate purposes," Schreiber said.

Simpson was arrested about 8 a.m. outside Terminal C, home to United Airlines, Jet Blue and other carriers.

A Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson — wearing the device — approached to ask about an incoming flight, Pare said. Simpson then walked outside, and the staffer notified a nearby trooper.

The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted her at a traffic island in front of the terminal.

"She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device," Pare said. "Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force."

He added, "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

Pare said Simpson had taken a subway to the airport, but he was not sure if she had the device on at that time.

Boston was the focus of a security scare Jan. 31 when dozens of battery-powered devices that featured a character making an obscene gesture with a finger were discovered in various locations. Bomb squads were deployed and some transportation links were closed temporarily. They turned out to be a promotion for the Cartoon Network. Two men were charged in that incident, but prosecutors dropped the charges after they apologized and performed community service.

Simpson was a member of MIT's swimming and diving team in 2006, according to the team's Web site.

She is the secretary of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Electrical Research Society, her lawyer said. She is a graduate of the Hawaii Preparatory Academy, a private boarding school, has won school prizes for chemistry and leadership and had received a Congressional citation for her work in robotics, Schreiber said.

MIT issued a statement saying the school is cooperating with authorities. The statement said: "As reported to us by authorities, Ms. Simpson's actions were reckless and understandably created alarm at the airport."

Pare praised the booth attendant and said the incident is a reminder of the terrorism threat confronting the civil aviation system.

"In this day and age, the threat continues to be there," he said.

Source : Associated Press by By GLEN JOHNSON

India's Yuvraj Singh hitting Six 6's in a row at Durban

Heres how it went down:

Unsurprisingly, that's also the fastest Twenty20 fifty - it came up from 12 balls.
Three fours, six sixes.
18.6 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, and he has, Yuvraj leans back and smacks that over wide mid-on ... it was the maximum from the moment it left that bat and the crowd were roaring as it flew
Broad looks like a man who knows he is about to be mauled again ...
Broad looks quizzical ... and miserable. Can he ... can Yuvraj do it ...
18.5 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, down on one knee and larruped over midwicket, that one was more nine iron, it went into the night sky and dropped with a thud in the jubilant crowd ...
England have a team meeting. Shuffling deckchairs on the Jolly Roger though ...
18.4 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, Shiver me timbers!: Broad goes round the wicket, bowls a filthy wide full toss and Yuvraj steers it over backward point and it clears the rope again
18.3 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, he's hitting them everywhere, he steps to leg and smashes the ball over extra cover and it keeps on travelling ... the fireworks start on top of the scoreboard ... they've been going off in the middle for some time
18.2 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, now that really is sweet, no more than a dismissive flick off his legs, swatting a fly, and the ball arcs deep into the crowd beyond backward square leg
The dodgy TV measurement says that's 111 yards ... but as it landed outside the ground how the whatsists do they know? They guess, that's how.
18.1 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, that's out the ground, super shot over cow corner and it just kept going up

Yuvraj Singh hit 6 Sixes in 6 Ball against England

Yuvraj singh hit six sixes in six ball i.e 36 runs per over against England right now (18th September) this is stunning and i think unbeatable 20 20 cricket record, my heartiest congratulation to Indian cricket team.

Free Essential Tools for Blogger Blogs

So you have decide to create your first blog on Blogger. It has a simple and fine interface that takes care of many things for you. This is my suggestion to you for your first free essential must haves for your blog.

1. Feedburner - It generates an smart feed compatible with all feed readers for free like my feed. It allows you to put easy subscribe buttons for XML, Add to yahoo, Add to Newsgator, Add to MSN etc. Read about how their single feed policy can benefit you.

It can give you a cool feed count chicklet button to show how many readers are using your feed to read your blog. It also gives you a headline animator which you can attach to your blog to display the recent 5 posts in a nice animated fashion. You can get an authentic Creative Common license, get a browser friendly RSS feed, Splice photos and links and more…

2. Haloscan - Trackback is an essential component of blogging these days. Unfortunately Blogger does not have trackback. Haloscan provides you with a seamless way to integrate free trackback in your blog by adding a small code. You can also integrate their comments component if you like to replace the Blogger comments. Read about Haloscan or Blogger comments.

The benefits are that you can edit Haloscan comments, and open them in a pop up and keep them separate from your post (Blogger allows you to only delete comments and not edit them, also on the post page all comments will show whether you like it or not).

The main disadvantage is it will not email you these comments (like Blogger) for free and it is difficult to track where these comments were made. Another major benefit is that it allows you to send pings and trackback to other sites when you mention about them in your posts.

3. Imageshack - Dont you want to fill your blog with images without hassles of registration. Imageshack provides an excellent interface to take care of your free image hosting needs. Maybe it is this the fastest way to host an image on the web. Allows lots of image format, hotlinking, transloading from other sites. Its a good idea to register to keep track of all your images in one place. It is much convenient than the proposed Hello and Picassa options…

Update: Blogger enabled hosting of images on its own webspace making it easier to host images in your posts. But you cannot manage or edit / delete your blogger images in any way

4. Technorati - Create and add a technorati profile. It allows you to claim your blog in this huge blogosphere. It allows you to put an excellent technorati search on your blog. The best part is that whenever someone mentions or links to any page of your blog, technorati knows and a search for your blog on technorati shows exactly how many sites link to which pages of your blog and when they were added with a small description. See why you need a technorati account.

5 - Sitemeter - Just takes 5 minutes to get a free tracker which gives you realtime site traffic statistics to check the quantity and quality of your site traffic with detailed referrer and geographic data. I have checked out several other tracking sites, but this one seems the best. Although you need to keep a counter visible (as a logo, visitor counter) and the statistics can be made private too.

StatCounter gives much more detailed statistics and the counter is totally invisible and free totally till you start getting large traffic, when you need to pay. But the disadvantage is that both of these track the last 100 visitors only, while another free service Extreme Tracking tracks them all… but you statistics cannot be made private. More options I like are Google Analytics for deep traffic statistical analysis and it is hidden too.

6. Feedblitz - It quickly allows your blog visitors to subscribe by email to your new posts. They just have to enter their email. You decide which page opens after they press Subscribe. A quick confirmatory email to them and they get 1 email daily with all your new posts. You can decide if you want to send the full post or short posts with defined number of characters. Very good to keep your subscribers informed of new posts. It allows them to unsubscribe easily also. Example for our blog.

7. My Blog Log - Tracks outgoing links to let you know where your traffic is going. The free limited version data is not in much detail, yet provides a good idea. You can also add a Top 5 Our Links module to your web site. Now they have a MyBlogLog community to get some extra site traffic too.

8 AudioBlogger- Audioblogger allows free unlimited audio posts from any phone to your Blogger blog. You call the number (Currently a US phone number), record a post, then your blog is updated with an audioblogger icon and a link to your recorded audio.

9. w.bloggar - It is a Post and Template editor, with several features and resources that the browser based blog editors do not offer. It enables users to have only one interface to several accounts hosted on several different sites, using different publishing systems. Helps to manage multiple blogs on Blogger very effectively.

10 Blogger Mobile - opens a new concept of Moblogging i.e. blogging by your mobile phone. When you send text or photos from your mobile device to go@blogger.com they’re automatically posted to your new blog page.

11. Blogexplosion - helps you get confirmed traffic to your blog. The principle is simple, you visit other peoples blogs and they visit yours. For every 2 blogs you visit, one visitor comes to you. This is very good if you are new blogger and have hardly any traffic. Definitely try the Rent a Blog advertising swap service.

12. Pingoat - Pinging lets dozens of blogging services know you’ve updated your site and increases traffic to your blog. Just enter your blog name and blog home page, check the blogging services you want to ping, just click ‘Submit Pings’ and in one click it pings all of them. Pingoat offers a wide variety of such services and is fast too. See many more one click pinging services.

13. Creative Commons - It offers a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. They have built upon the “all rights reserved” of traditional copyright to create a voluntary “some rights reserved” copyright. They are nonprofit and all tools are free and useful to highlight the way in which you want others to use you content.

14. Google Adsense and Search - When you take all effort to write for a blog, why not optimize it to make some money. Let users search for good posts in your blog. And now it even helps to monetize you feeds.

Claiming Your Blog in Technorati

According to Technorati data there are over 175,000 new blogs every day. Technorati is the leader in tracking the activity of blogs on the “World Live Web”. Currently they are tracking 60 million blogs. There is roughly 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.
So why should you claim your blog at Technorati? Because, it could mean more traffic to your blog. As a member of Technorati your blog will be indexed and updated automatically making it easy for readers to find you. Technorati also makes it easy for you to search, discover and organize other blogs.

Claiming your blog establishes that you are its owner, and allows you to use Technorati Service to help increase your blog’s visibility.

Claiming your blog is very simple. Click on the claim your blog button on the homepage. This will direct you to sign up for an account. After you have signed up you will be directed on how to claim your blog. They give you three different ways to can claim your blog.

Quick Claim

It’s quick! Just enter the username and password for your blog. This information will only be used to verify that you own the blog, and it won’t be shared or stored.

Post Claim

Just write a new post in your blog that includes a special link to your Technorati Profile to get the ball rolling. You can always delete the post later. In addition to claiming your blog, you’ll be able to customize a widget for your blog to feature a “search this blog” box, a “blogs that link here” link, or profile information.

Embedded Claim

To use Embedded Claim you will need to be able to edit your blog homepage HTML or template.

After you choose one of these three ways to claim your blog you will be directed to configuration page. This is where you will include your blog description, tags and copy the javascript to be embedded in your blogs template. That’s it. It’s easy, it free and it could mean more traffic to your blog.

Quick Tricks for Google Reader Power Users

I already told you many times I switched to Google Reader. There was not much convincing required and I can vouch easily that I read three times more feeds now in one third the time since I use Google Reader. So I thought I would tell you how I use Google Reader productively.

Here is the smart way I use to read feeds, primarily by using keyboard shortcuts. Probably you do it anyway. But it should be useful for new Google readers…

1. Increase vertical screen reading area - Press F11 and the browser goes full screen to remove unnecessary toolbars and menus. Lots of space is increased on top and bottom of the browser to increase vertical reading area.

2. Increase horizontal reading area - Remove the Google Reader sidebar to gather even more reading space. Press U and behold as articles now fill the screen. Now lesser scrolling and a higher chance you can read the whole article in one go. Of course you could combine that with a high resolution screen, larger monitor to fit in even longer articles.

3. Switch to Read All Items - This the classical River of news approach. Press GA. I do not need to click each feed and check out their articles. Instead I see all of them one after the other as fast as I can. I keep the default setting “Sort by newest” so I can quickly keep going from latest to older articles I want to read. In settings, set your starting page to All Items, you can get started right away.

4. Switch to Expanded View - I like to quickly glance through all the articles text. Press 1. If you need to see the headlines only for even quicker overview - Press 2.

5. Start Browsing fast - Now I want to quickly skip from one article to another till I reach an article I like to read further into. There are 3 ways to do this. In expanded view - You can skip from article to article - Press J to go forward, press K to go back. Alternatively you might want to skip from one screen view to another instead of one article to another - Press Space key to go forward, Shift+Space to go back. In listed view - Use N to go forward and P to go back.

In the settings I have opted to mark items as read when I scroll past them in expanded view. very useful. I have also selected to “only list updated” subscriptions in the sidebar, which removes clutter in the sidebar as blogs are read. This is another great feature that works automatically. I feel limited by the pause every 20 posts…I hope Google can fix this.

6. Star it, Share it, Tag it, Read it - After I reach an article I would like to refer later, there are 5 things I can do (In listed view I need to expand it first - press O). Now I can either star it for future reference - Press S (much like gmail, later you can see all starred items together). Or I can share it with others on a link blog - Press Shift+S, like the Robert Scoble link blog (which I recommended earlier). Or I can tag it - press T, add tags to organize your selections for further review. Or I can open it a new Firefox tab and read the full article - Press V (if it is a partial feed, or I just like the blog view, or I intend to comment). Or mark as unread - Press M (may need it sometimes).

7. Refresh - After you have pressed J enough times, you might just find that there are no more new items to read. So Press R and refresh the new items. Google Reader might have caught up more new items by now.

8. Check your Starred Items - Press GS to visit your starred items list. Your entire effort of the reading session is now consolidated in your starred items. Maybe you want to read these articles in details, or blog about them. As you skip through them, Press S to unstar them, or Shift+S to unshare them.

15 Best Toolbars for Your Web Browser

A toolbar sits on your web browser and enables quick access to many useful functions making online surfing easier. Here is a list of popular toolbars for your web browser.

Most Popular toolbars

* Google Toolbar- Search with Google from any web page, block annoying pop-ups and automatically fill out forms are just few of the popular features. Check spellings, Autolink and see the pagerank. Quick access to all major Google services.
* Yahoo Toolbar - allows searching the web with pop-up blocker. Anti-Spy Window Spyware protection. Quick access to Yahoo services and add fresh content to My Yahoo! easily to name a few features. And now with tabbed browsing in IE.
* Windows Live Toolbar - tabbed browsing in IE, form filler, pop up blocker, mutiple search options, self updating and feed detector.
* MSN Toolbar - Browse smarter with tabs and switch between Web sites within the same Internet Explorer window . Search the Web and easily locate documents, e-mail messages etc. Fill out online forms and one click Access to MSN services.
* Alexa Toolbar - a free search and navigation companion that accompanies you as you surf, providing useful information about the sites you visit including traffic information and contact info. Find related links for each page and share opinions.
* Stumble Upon - Lets you browse, review and share great webpages while meeting new people. Vote sites you like and read reviews about them. Firefox requires an extension instead of the .exe file in IE.

Pro Wrestling: Then and Now

Ever wonder what your favorite old classic wrestlers look like today? Well congrats now is your chance. Please enjoy :)

Featuring (in order): Ultimate Warrior, Sunny, Demolition, Jake the Snake Roberts, Ariel, Dusty Rhodes, Mr Fuji, Sting, Marlena, Virgil, Hulk Hogan, Red Rooster, Luna Vachon, The Rock, Hillbilly Jim, Tito Santana, and Macho Man

Freakin rediculous

Dubai newspaper hurts all Americans. Dubai newspaper print ad on 9/11 tragedy like this.

shocktimes.blogspot.com