Thursday, February 24, 2011

Lindsay Lohan Cute Picture Collection | Wallpaper of Lindsay Lohan

==Lindsay Lohan Cute Picture Collection | Wallpaper of Lindsay Lohan==
















































Mini Biography American actress Lindsay Lohan | Mini Biography Pop singer Lindsay Lohan

BanBuzz given here mini Biography of Lindsay Lohan. American actress Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986. Pronounced /ˈloʊ.ən/; Lindsay is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11. Lohan gained further fame between 2003 and 2005 with leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, subsequently appearing in independent films including Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Emilio Estevez's Bobby. Her career was interrupted in 2007 as two driving under the influence (DUI) incidents and three visits to drug rehabilitation facilities led to several lost movie deals. Resuming her career, she guest starred in the TV series Ugly Betty in 2008, starred in the 2009 comedy Labor Pains, and appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete in 2010. Lohan launched a second career in pop music in 2004 with the album Speak and followed up with A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005. She has attracted significant publicity, particularly surrounding her personal life.

Judge says: Lindsay Lohan’s going to the slammer

LOS ANGELES—A judge on Wednesday gave Lindsay Lohan roughly two weeks to decide if she will fight or take a plea deal in a felony grand theft case, but either decision could send the troubled starlet back behind bars.

Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz told Lohan he would sentence her to jail if she accepted a plea deal involving the theft of a $2,500 necklace from an upscale jewelry store.

"If you plead in front of me, if this case is resolved in front of me, you are going to jail," Schwartz said. "Period."

Lohan, 24, has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Rejecting the deal would trigger a hearing during which prosecutors would present some of their evidence to another judge. Schwartz said that judge would sentence Lohan for a probation violation if she determined Lohan should stand trial.

That could mean Lohan is sentenced to jail even before the theft case is tried.

Schwartz has said he thinks the actress violated her probation in a 2007 drunken driving case, and two other judges have warned Lohan she faced a return to jail if she got into trouble again.

That was before police began investigating the "Mean Girls" star last month after the necklace was reported missing from the store in the Venice area of Los Angeles. The necklace was given to detectives by an unidentified Lohan associate before police could serve a search warrant.

Wearing high-waisted white pants and a low-cut black top, Lohan told Schwartz she understood her options. She left the courtroom wearing sunglasses and clutching her mother's hand.

Prosecutors gave Lohan's attorney Shawn Holley a copy of surveillance video from the jewelry store and police reports in the case. The potential evidence will now be reviewed by Lohan and Holley, who must decide how to proceed before the actress returns to court on March 10.

Schwartz told the actress he was treating her like any other defendant and wanted her to know precisely what she was facing.

"I want you to get on with your life," Schwartz said.

He said he doubted Lohan would take the plea deal, which prosecutors declined to discuss after the hearing.

Lohan has lived with the near-constant prospect of returning to jail since May, when she missed a court hearing in the DUI case and a judge revoked her probation. She was sentenced to jail twice and rehab twice last year alone, but her incarcerations have been shortened by jail overcrowding.

Schwartz did not talk in detail about a report he received from probation officials, but said he thought Lohan's release conditions should be modified if she is placed back on probation. He also said Lohan should receive psychological counseling and get a new sobriety sponsor to "to get your life back on track."

Lohan's father, Michael Lohan, agreed with the judge's assessment after the hearing, saying his divorce from his wife had created many of their daughter's problems.

Michael Lohan believes his daughter should fight the theft case.

"I don't see Lindsay as a criminal," he said. "This is all a result of her addiction."

The theft case is not the former star's only legal concern. On Monday, she was cited for driving 59 mph in a 35 mph zone in West Hollywood, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Prosecutors in Riverside County are also considering whether to charge Lohan with misdemeanor battery for an altercation with a rehab worker at a Betty Ford Center facility in December. She received three months of treatment at the facility after failing a drug test last year.

The constant cycle of court appearances has kept Lohan's career stalled. She lost her part in a biopic of porn star Linda Lovelace during her recent rehab stint and has not appeared in any major projects since 2007, when she was arrested twice and charged with drunken driving and cocaine possession.

Source: http://www.boston.com

FOREX-Swiss franc hits record sky-scraping, dollar falls broadly

MARKETS-FOREX (UPDATE 5)

* Swiss franc rises to record high vs dlr at 0.9238

* Mid-East tension fuels safe haven demand, oil prices surge

* Euro rises versus dollar, ECB better placed for oil rise

(Adds quote, detail, updates prices)

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Swiss franc hit a record high against the dollar on Thursday as Middle East tensions stoked further appreciation in crude oil prices and demand for safe haven currencies at the broad expense of the greenback.

Brent crude oil jumped to its highest since August 2008 on concern unrest that has cut more than a quarter of OPEC-member Libya's output could spread to other producers including top exporter Saudi Arabia. [ID:nL3E7DO0SC]

Major banks warned on Thursday OPEC needs to act quickly to arrest the oil price rally, which could get out of control and derail economic recovery should unrest spread beyond Libya to other major oil nations. [ID:nLDE71N0VC]

Worries over Libya, following recent popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, were helping the Swiss franc and to a lesser extent the yen, currencies that traders often buy at a time of uncertainty.

"There is a lot of safe haven demand for the Swiss and the yen but the dollar's downside against these currencies could be limited because for a lasting trend to arise you need U.S. Treasury yields to fall relative to Switzerland and Japan," said Manuel Oliveri, currency strategist at UBS in Zurich.

The two-year yield spread between U.S. and Switzerland was holding around 0.14 on Thursday, well within its recent range. US2YT=RR CH2YT=RR

Against the Swiss franc, the dollar fell to a record low of 0.9238 franc CHF=, its slide having intensified after triggering stop-loss selling below its previous record low of 0.9301 set at the end of last year.

One-month implied dollar/Swiss volatility continued to pick up, trading around 11.70 percent CHF1MO=, but this was still well below levels of around 15 percent seen around the start of the euro zone debt crisis in April 2010.

The euro was down 0.5 percent against the Swiss franc at 1.2762 EURCHF= after sliding to 1.2703, its lowest since Jan. 13. Against the low yielding yen, the single currency shed around 1 percent on the day to trade at 112.17 yen in early Europe before bouncing back to 112.80 in volatile trade.

The euro EUR= rose 0.3 percent against the dollar, gaining support from recent hawkish comments on inflation by European Central Bank officials which raised expectations the ECB will hike interest rates before the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Market players said rising oil prices were leading to increasing concerns over global growth prospects, but inflation was still a major focus which could weigh further on the dollar.

Rough Waters Strand Americans in Libya

Hundreds of Americans seeking to flee the widening chaos in Libya remained stuck in the capital, Tripoli, on Thursday as high seas prevented an evacuation ferry from departing for Malta, an American official said. Because of the rough weather, the ferry probably would not begin the six-hour voyage until Friday.

“The seas are quite bad,” said Elijah J. Waterman, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Malta. “They’re just holding in place right now.”

The United States sent the seagoing ferry — a tourist vessel with flat-screen televisions and a small casino — on Wednesday to transport about 600 people, mostly Americans, after being turned down for permission to land a chartered plane in Tripoli. The passengers would remain on the ferry, which has been secured, and were being provided with food and water, Mr. Waterman said.

The State Department has said several thousand United States citizens, most of them holding dual citizenship, were in Libya when the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi began.

Meanwhile, two Greek ferries sent to help evacuate 4,500 Chinese workers departed from the eastern city of Benghazi on Thursday and headed for the island of Crete despite the churning Mediterranean waters, The Associated Press reported. The Greek government is helping China to evacuate many of its 30,000 workers from Libya.

Whether by plane or bus, ferry or foot, tens of thousands of foreign citizens continued to scramble for a way out of Libya on Thursday as forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi fought to maintain control of a shrinking portion of the oil-rich country.

Turkey appeared to have had the most success so far in spiriting its people out of the country, packing more than 5,000 onto ferries and planes that left over the last several days.

As some nations rushed to coordinate rescues, migrant workers from poorer nations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa — the majority of the work force in Libya, according to an immigration expert — were often fending for themselves, with their home countries unable to organize evacuations. In buses piled high with luggage and in rented cars, many streamed over the borders into Tunisia and Egypt.

Those fleeing the country, as well as those who had not yet found a way out, described scenes of chaos and deprivation. Protesters claimed that the opposition was taking control of cities close to Tripoli, where Colonel Qaddafi has mobilized mercenaries and militiamen to defend his stronghold.

One worker, Suang Upara from Thailand, reported that Libyans had burglarized the place where he was living with other migrants.

“They used knives to threaten us and stole everything from us,” Mr. Upara, 29, said in a phone interview from Benghazi, where more than 200 people were reported to have been killed in a government crackdown.

He said that he was subsisting on one small loaf of bread each day and dirty water filtered through tissue paper.

Chinese reports said that a site run by a Chinese construction company in eastern Libya had been attacked by armed looters who forced nearly 1,000 workers out of their dormitories.

The daunting nature of the evacuation led several nations to turn to others for help. Turkey, which said it had mounted its largest evacuation effort ever, said 21 countries including Russia and the United States had asked for assistance in helping their citizens to leave. Officials in Ankara said that a 27-year-old Turkish worker had been killed in Tripoli, but they gave no details.

Israel, meanwhile, agreed to allow about 300 Palestinians to enter the West Bank from Libya even though they did not have residency documents for the territory. While the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Israel’s offer, he said he had asked for thousands more to be allowed entry, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency, estimates that as many as 1.5 million migrants were working in Libya at the start of the strife, which appears to have led to the deaths of hundreds of people. Many of the migrants went there to work in construction, which had been booming, and in Libya’s rich oil fields.

Fears grew in Europe that countries like Italy would be flooded with needy people fleeing Libya; Italy’s foreign minister spoke of a possible “biblical exodus.”

Though Turkey had rescued thousands of its citizens by Wednesday, about 25,000 were still stranded in Libya. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey would keep ferries running nonstop and was expecting at least some of the ferries it dispatched to Libya to carry medical and food supplies to Libyan civilians.

With scheduled flights overwhelmed by the number of people trying to leave and some airlines canceling service, governments around the world were trying to send ships and chartered aircraft.

Two Italian naval vessels headed to eastern Libyan ports to rescue citizens from cities like Benghazi whose airports were damaged.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy, chief spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said that many migrants from poorer nations were “bunkering down for the moment.”

“Over the past 18 hours,” he said on Wednesday, there were “only four nationals from Guinea who have made it to Tunisia.”

“That’s certainly not representative of the sub-Saharan Africans employed in Libya,” he said. “It’s a trickle.”

On Wednesday, Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, warned lawmakers that as many as 300,000 migrant workers in Libya could seek refuge in Europe, with many ending up in nearby countries, including Italy and Greece.

“We are not asking Europe to distribute the immigrants across its territory, but we are asking for a serious mechanism on how to split the economic and social burden of an immigration wave,” he said. “Europe needs to assume its duties.”

But Mr. Chauzy said those sorts of warnings were premature. For those who cannot flee by air or sea, the major points of exit will continue to be Egypt and Tunisia, he said.

As migrants poured across both borders, Mr. Chauzy said there were reports that African workers desperate to leave but lacking money were trying to reach Libya’s southern border with Niger — a desert trek of more than 1,000 miles.

“It’s pretty awful,” he said, “even in the best of times.”

Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul; Brian Knowlton from Washington; Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem; Poypiti Amatatham from Bangkok; Mona El-Naggar from Cairo; and Rachel Donadio from Rome.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Mid-Atlantic fires force evacuations, outages

(AP) WASHINGTON – Firefighters have contained several blazes in the mid-Atlantic region that forced evacuations, knocked out power and prompted an advisory for some residents to boil their water, officials said Sunday.

No deaths have been reported, though at least four firefighters were treated for minor injuries. Several homes, businesses and other structures in the Washington region were damaged.

Strong winds and dry conditions made the blazes tough to extinguish, with firefighters still working to put out some hotspots Sunday morning.

Six fires in Virginia's Prince William County scorched about 300 acres and led officials to evacuate 60 people from homes. The worst fire was in a neighborhood where a tree had been blown over onto a power line. Some were still without power in the area, though that should be restored Sunday, county officials said in a press release.

Crews used so much water that water pressure fell to dangerous levels, leading officials to issue a boil-water advisory that was still in effect Sunday morning. All the fires in Prince William County were under control by Sunday.

In Maryland's Prince George's County, more than 600 acres burned. Interstate 95 was temporarily shut down in Laurel, Md., when a fire jumped into the highway's median. Officials in Virginia also shut down I-95 for a time Saturday when smoke reduced visibility.

Prince George's fire crews were still working to completely contain two fires. One destroyed 250 acres, 2 homes and several other abandoned homes in Clinton. The other was at a mulch plant in Laurel, where 300 acres burned as winds pushed the flames from pile to pile of mulch.

The high winds, with gusts reaching 55 mph in some areas Saturday, posed problems across the region.

In Washington, strong winds toppled the National Christmas Tree, a Colorado blue spruce that had stood on the Ellipse just south of the White House since 1978. The tree was turned into mulch Saturday afternoon, and a replacement tree has been chosen and will be planted sometime in the spring, said Bill Line, a spokesman for the National Park Service.

Short Biography of Roger Federer

Swiss professional tennis player Roger Federer was born August 08, 1981, in Basel, Switzerland. He is Right-handed (single-handed backhand) Players. He's height 6'1'' (186 cm), weight 187lbs (85 kg), Hair colour Dark brown, Eye colour Brown, Hobbies Sports (golf, soccer, skiing), friends, Playstation, music, playing cards. who held the ATP number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks. As of 9 January 2011, he is ranked World No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

Federer has won a male record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass and hard courts). Many sports analysts, tennis critics, former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.

Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 22 career Grand Slam finals, of which 10 were consecutive appearances, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals over the four and a half years from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, excluding the 2008 Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semi-finals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. In the 2011 Australian Open he reached his 27th consecutive quarter-finals in the grand slam tournaments, equalling the record set by Jimmy Connors. Federer has won a record 5 ATP World Tour Finals (shared with Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras) and 17 ATP Masters Series tournaments. He also won the Olympic Gold Medal in doubles with his compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. He has been year-end top 2 in the rankings, 8 years in a row (2003–2010).

As a result of Federer's successes in tennis, he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record four consecutive years (2005–2008). He is often referred to as The Federer Express or abbreviated to Fed Express, the Swiss Maestro or simply Maestro.

Top Website List of Earning

Many People earn money from internet in the world by using website. The list of the top 30 earning websites in the world, for some of these websites, $50 million in revenue a day is just a typical day, crazy isn’t it? And it was all created in the last 10 or so years! I usually would do a write up about how the list rocks and why you should do it to but I think the figures speak for themselves, enjoy! You Can Also earn money from internet. So, don’t lost the time try to income from internet.

Make A Lot Of Money Online From 30 Websites

Rank Website Founders Annual Revenue Per Second
1 Larry Page and Sergey Brin $21,800,000,000 $691.27
2 Jeff Bezos $19,166,000,000 $607.75
3 Jerry Yang and David Filo $7,200,000,000 $228.31
4 Pierre Omidyar $6,290,000,000 $199.45
5 Nathan Myhrvold. $3,214,000,000 $101.92
6 Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, $2,250,000,000 $71.35
7 Jeff Robbin $1,900,000,000 $60.25
8 Marshal Vace $1,892,000,000 $59.99
9 Jesse Fink $1,884,000,000 $59.74
10 Added Mark Schroeder $1,447,000,000 $45.88
11 Reed Hastings $1,200,000,000 $38.05
12 Terry Jones $1,100,000,000 $34.88
13 Nick Swinmurn $1,000,000,000 $31.71
14 David Litman $1,000,000,000 $31.71
15 Erik Prince $968,000,000 $30.70
16 Jeff Katz $870,000,000 $27.59
17 Robert Brazell $834,000,000 $26.45
18 Tom Anderson $800,000,000 $25.37
19 Niklas Zennstrom $550,841,000 $17.47
20 Zhang Chaoyang $429,000,000 $13.60
21 Robb Brock $400,000,000 $12.68
22 Eric Baker $400,000,000 $12.68
23 Jack Ma $316,000,000 $10.02
24 Mark Zuckerberg $300,000,000 $9.51
25 Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, $300,000,000 $9.51
26 Mark Vadon $295,000,000 $9.35
27 Stephen Kaufer $260,000,000 $8.24
28 Mark Getty $233,200,000 $7.39
29 Garry Itkin $207,000,000 $6.56
30 Henry Jarvis Raymond $175,000,000 $5.55

To our success in 2009

Internet Earn Money: How to make money on your news content website

This article is designed to help journalists learn how to make extra money, or even a full-time wage, by publishing independently online. It is not intended to provide an online revenue model for established news organizations. Heck, they've got business managers. They shouldn't need a wiki to show them what to do.

Content websites typically earn money through one of four ways:

  • Commissions / Affiliate links
  • Advertising networks
  • Selling your own ads
  • Paid content
  • Sponsorships/Grants

Once you have ads on your site, you will want to compute the eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) of revenue that each ad type is earning for you. You calculate eCPM by taking the total amount generated by an ad (or ad type), diving it by the number of pages on which that ad (or ad type) appears, then multiplying by 1,000. Let eCPM data help you decide which advertising type, layout and position work best for you.

Commissions / Affiliate links

Affiliate programs, such as Amazon.com's Associates Program, provided the first ways for early solo and small Web publishers to make a few bucks on their websites. In these programs, an online retailer will pay you, the publisher, a percentage on sales made after customers click through from your website to the retailer's site. Links can include traditional banner ads, search forms and links to individual products.

Because you only earn money when sales are made, affiliate programs will work best for you if your site's readers are consistently looking to make high-priced purchases -- for example, if you run a product review site. If you're interested in affiliate program, browse through merchant directories like Commission Junction and LinkShare to find retailers that offer products that fit your site's topic and audience.

Once registered with a merchant's program, you can create an ad or product link on your site using a snippet of Web code downloaded from the retailer. Some merchants go further and allow you to create virtual storefronts that match the design of your site, but where the retailer still handles all the inventory and commerce. Be careful setting up such arrangements -- unless you want customers coming to you for return and refund questions instead of to the retailer.

You'll want to note what percentage of a sale the retailer pays back to you, as well as the length of time after a sale that you get credit for the purchase. Some retailers limit credit to sales made on the initial click-through, but others will give credit for any sales made within a day or so. Also, some retailers will pay a commission on purchases you personally make after clicking your own links; others may kick you out of the program for doing that. Check a retailer's affiliate agreement and shop around for what you consider the best deal before putting links on your site.

Many publishers have found that links to individual products return more commissions than banner ads going to a retailer's home page. But the additional money those links earn might not be enough to justify the extra time that selecting and maintaining them requires.

Advertising networks

Most news websites earn the bulk of their money through advertising. But you don't need a sales staff to attract advertisers to your site. Ad networks can handle the sale and display of ads on your site. All you need do is drop a few lines of code into your Web pages where you want the ads to appear.

The most popular ad network for independent publishers is Google's AdSense program. AdSense is a "pay per click" (PPC) program, where you earn money each time one of your readers clicks on a Google-served ad. Since you earn money on clicks, rather than completed sales, PPC ad networks can provide a more reliable source of income for sites whose readers are not looking to make a purchase right away. Other notable PPC ad networks include the Yahoo! Publisher Network and Ad Voyager.

Most PPC ads are text, but some PPC networks also sell image and Flash ads. Ads are sold and displayed based on an auction system, where advertisers bid on selected keywords and phrases that appear on network websites. The ad network looks for webpages displaying its ad code, then matches what it determines the content of a webpage to be with the most appropriate keywords and phrases that advertisers have bid upon. The network then automatically weighs several factors in determining which ads to serve on the page, including the value of those bids; advertisers' remaining budgets for those bids; what percentage of readers have clicked on those ads in the past; and, in Google's case, the percentage of those readers who have made a purchase or read a designated number of pages on the advertiser's site.

Google's "Smart Pricing" program will adjust the amount paid to you for each click based on your readers' track record of making a purchase, or viewing a certain number of pages, on that particular advertiser's website. So if your site attracts motivated buyers, you remain in the best position to earn money.

Whatever you do, do not even think about clicking the ads on your site, or encouraging your readers to do the same. All PPC ad networks prohibit click fraud, and will boot from their program any publisher found to be inflating their number of clicks. Even well-intentioned discussion board participants can get a publisher booted from the program by encouraging other readers to click the ads to support the site. Google, for example, has suggested publishers concerned about their readers' conduct add this disclaimer to their site:

"Your postings to this site may not include incentives of any kind for other users to click on ads which are displayed on the site. This includes encouraging other readers to click on the ads or to visit the advertisers' sites, as well as drawing any undue attention to the ads. This activity is strictly prohibited in order to avoid potential inflation of advertiser costs."

If you don't think PPC ad networks will work for you because your site's target audience is defined by demographics, such as geography or a religious or political affiliation -- don't worry. Traditional ad networks such as BlogAds provide an alternative to the PPC networks. BlogAds sells its ads on a more traditional site-targeted model. Advertisers do not bid on keywords or phrases, but instead pay for their ads to be displayed a certain number of times on selected websites or groups of websites. BlogAds has become especially popular on political blogs, where advertisers can buy across a group of liberal or conservative weblogs.

Design to maximize online ad revenue

Since PPC ad networks target their ads primarily by topic, rather than geography or demographics, that makes these networks work better with niche topic websites than with sites that target their readers by geography or other demographics, such as gender, education, income or political affiliation.

For the system to work well for you, the PPC network's spiders must be able to determine a topic for each of your webpages and then must match keywords or phrases that advertisers have bid upon. That means the advantage goes to websites where each page covers a distinct and easily identifiable subject. So if you have a blog that covers a mishmash of topics on a single URL, you won't elicit the targeted ads that lead to high-paying clicks.

If you want to use PPC ad networks, organize your content to limit individual URLs to a specific topic. Break long blogs into individual entries. Archive old posts and stories by subject matter, not just by date and author. Stay active on discussion boards, keeping threads on topic and directing folks to more relevant pages should they stray toward other subjects. Use keywords in headlines, decks and URLs whenever possible. And spell out keywords, phrases and proper names on first reference, rather than using acronyms throughout the piece. (See, old fashioned copy editing rules *can* help you make money!)

Well-organized pages on individual topics also show up better in search engine results, attracting Web surfers curious about a specific keyword, who are more likely to click on a targeted ad. Publishers who create evergreen articles that are likely to attract a high number of links and clicks over time will do best in attracting search engine traffic to their ad-supported webpages. If you publish time-sensitive articles, which are not likely to have a long-enough shelf life to attract significant search engine traffic, consider swapping out or archiving articles on the same topic to a single URL, so that URL can get linked to and picked up in search results.

Where you place ads on a page affects how many of your users see them, and click. According to recent Google research, top performing ad formats include:

  • Large box ads placed in the middle of your main content column;
  • Skyscraper ads placed in a left-side column;
  • Leaderboard ads placed at the top and the bottom of the main content column.
Customize the ads' colors to match the background, type and navigational colors of your site, too, to eliminate "banner blindness" and maximize their visibility to your readers.

Then keep an eye on your ads to make sure that they remain relevant to your site. To a reader, ads -- like anything else on your pages -- are part of the content of your website. If an ad network fails to deliver consistently relevant ads, dump it and try something else. Respect your readers by not bombarding them with irrelevant advertising and they will respect you by continuing to read your site.

Think twice before installing pop-up, pop-under and screen "take-over" ads, too. Many readers steer clear of sites that block their access to the content they're looking for with aggressive advertising. Keep your website a safe haven for these ad-weary readers and you can build its audience over time.

How much traffic do you need?

With advertising, the more readers you have and page views you serve, the more money you can make. But how much traffic do you need to make a living from your website?

To make $36,500 a year, you'd need to earn $100 a day on your site (plus whatever expenses you incur). Let's assume your site is attractive to advertisers and earns $10 in ad revenue for every thousand page views. That would mean you'd need to serve 10,000 page views a day to meet this target. (And more if your site earns less than $10 per thousand page views.)

How can you attract that much traffic? If you are writing one article a day on subjects that will be out of date within 24 hours, it's going to be tough. You'll need to attract nearly 10,000 views each day for that's day article, since few people will bother reading your old, out-of-date work. If you write a fair number of "evergreen" features, which keep attracting page views long after they are written, you'll find the task much easier. If your site naturally deals with "perishable" news content, at least publish each day's new news to the same URL, overwriting or pushing down the old content, so that URL can build the in-bound links and search engine traffic that will help you attract new readers you need each day.

Reader-contributed content can also help you meet your page view goals. Well-managed, thoughtfully organized discussion boards and wikis can add dozens of new content pages a day to your site, with much less effort on your part than writing that many original articles.

Selling your own ads

If you don't want to share your ad revenue with a network, or if your site isn't the type to do well with PPC ads, you might consider selling space directly to advertisers.

First, you will need solid information about your site's visitors. Ultimately, what you are selling to advertisers is access to your readers, so you'd better know how many, and who, they are. A traffic tracking service like Google Analytics can provide accurate trafiic data that filters out hon-human traffic like search engine spiders and automated robots (which can account for up to 90 percent of a site's overall traffic). Make Money also provides reader tracking, along with some crude demographic information about your site's readers.

You should also consider conducting a survey of your readers, to get more detailed information about their demographics and behavior. SurveyMonkey provides easy-to-use tools to set up such surveys.

Once you have advertisers, you will need a system to serve and manage ads, such as OpenAds, as well as system to invoice your advertisers, such as Blinksale or PayPal. (PayPal's invoicing system does not require your advertisers to have a PayPal account, just a credit card.)

Set up a page on your site, linked from the header or footer, that provides data about your site's traffic and visitors, as well as a list of available ad packages. You might also provide a well-designed PDF version of the same data, as decision-makers often prefer "hard copy" versions of this information. (If you need free software to convert Word documents to PDFs, OpenOffice does this with a single mouse click.)

If your advertising page does not generate enough leads to support your site, you'll need to make cold calls to potential advertisers, via e-mail, phone or in person. You'll have the best luck with smaller businesses that do not place ads through agencies, but where the owner makes his or her own ad decisions.

Paid content

Given the variety and depth of information available on the Web, you have to provide truly unique content of high value to specific readers to get those readers to pay for it. The fact that a paid journalist wrote an article for you does not mean it's worth paying for to a reader. Detail-oriented publications such as Consumer Reports and Cook's Illustrated have had success selling the results of their independent testing online. And, of course, porn sites have been earning big bucks from paid content since the Web's earliest days. But general-interest publications, such as the Los Angeles Times, have found that walling off content to paid subscribers has generated less revenue than the company could have earned by selling advertising on freely available pages.

If you are certain that your content is unique and valuable enough that readers would be willing to pay for it, you'll need to select a way to handle payments from your readers. The system could be as easy as asking readers mail you a check in exchange for your putting them on e-mail content distribution list -- a method which offers the advantage of not requiring any advanced Web server security set-up. Or you could restrict access to certain folders on your website to readers whom you assign log-ins after they buy a subscription. Such restrictions are relatively easy to set up on Apache webservers. Payment can be handled manually via postal mail or phone, or automatically through an e-commerce storefront. (Many Web hosting packages include e-commerce storefronts.)

Sponsorships/Grants

Supporting a website through sponsorship or grants requires the least technical skill of these options, but the most interpersonal skills. You'll need to play the role of a salesperson, in addition to journalist and editor, in convincing a individual or organization to give you money to put up your site.

In either case, you'll need to identify individuals, or individuals within organizations, who might be willing to commit their money, or their organization's money, to your site. You'll need to make a written proposal, and often, an in-person pitch, and follow through until you secure your funding. Grants typically require a more structured application process than sponsorships, which can be sold through a formal solicitation or over drinks at the dinner table, depending upon whom you are working with.

The University of Iowa provides some guidance and a collection of links on grant writing in general, including links to many organizations which grant funds to researchers and publishers.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Beauty & the Briefcase dvd

Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff
she Enter to Win Hilary Duff’s ‘Beauty and the Briefcase’ Blu-ray

She appears in Beauty & the Briefcase as Lane Daniels (ABC Family Original Movie)

Here ya go: Hilary Duff shines in this sparkling romantic comedy based on the book Diary of a Working Girl by Daniella Brodsky. Lane, a fashion journalist, gets the assignment of a lifetime when Cosmopolitan magazine hires her to write a story about finding love in the workplace. Posing as a corporate assistant, Lane finds herself torn between the office's eligible men in suits and a dashing stranger (Chris Marmack, The O.C.) who sweeps her off her feet.

Will she find the "magic man" who fulfills her fantasy checklist, or will her story have an ending as unexpected as love itself? The appealing cast includes Michael McMillan (True Blood) and Matt Dallas (Kyle Xy), with Emmy-winner Jaime Pressly (My Name is Earl) and the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde).

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Berlusconi: Sex Scandal Trial 'Offends The Dignity' Of Italy

MILAN — Scandal-plagued Premier Silvio Berlusconi defiantly accused prosecutors Wednesday of trying to topple his government by seeking to put him on trial on charges he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and then tried to cover it up.

The sex scandal has splashed salacious details and allegations of wild parties at Berlusconi's villas across newspaper front pages for weeks and drawn the ire of the Catholic Church.

Though no stranger to legal cases, this is the first judicial action against the three-time premier and media billionaire to impugn his personal conduct, rather than his business dealings. The case raises questions about Berlusconi's ability to govern effectively under mounting legal pressure, and comes at a time when he has been weakened by a fight with an ex-ally.

Prosecutors allege Berlusconi, 74, paid for sex with the Moroccan girl, nicknamed Ruby, who has since turned 18, then used his influence to get her out of police custody when she was detained for the unrelated suspected theft of euro3,000 ($4,103). They allege that he feared her relationship to him would be revealed.

Ruby was released into the custody of a Berlusconi aide, who also is under investigation with two other confidantes.

Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy, but it is if the prostitute is under 18. The age limit was raised from 16 in 2006 during a campaign against underage prostitution by a previous Berlusconi government.

Prosecutors are seeking an immediate trial – a sped-up procedure that would skip the preliminary hearing – because they believe they have sufficient evidence against the premier. The have forwarded a 782-page document to Judge Christina Di Censo to back up their indictment request.

Speaking at a news conference in Rome, Berlusconi said the prosecutors had "offended the dignity of the country" with a smear campaign and groundless allegations.

"It's shameful, really. It's shameful and disgusting," he said of the prosecutors' actions.
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"I wonder who's going to pay for these activities, which, in my humble view, only have a subversive aim," Berlusconi added.

Berlusconi said prosecutors had smeared not just his name but that of Italy. He insisted he has only been at the service of his nation.

Both Ruby and Berlusconi have denied having sexual relations, although she has said Berlusconi gave her euro7,000 ($9,550) on their first meeting.

The child prostitution charge carries a possible sentence of six months to three years; the abuse of influence charge, which experts say is more dangerous for Berlusconi, carries a possible sentence of four to 12 years.

In response to that charge, the premier's supporters say he made the call to Milan police only to avert a diplomatic incident because Berlusconi believed at the time that the girl was the niece of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. His defense maintains the case should be handled not by the Milan prosecutors but by a special tribunal set up to deal with alleged offenses committed by public officials.

"I have intervened as prime minister, because I was worried that there could be an international diplomatic incident," Berlusconi told reporters Wednesday.

Di Censo, the judge, must now decide whether to dismiss the prosecutors' request or go ahead with a trial – which would add to Berlusconi's already substantial legal worries. A decision is expected within two weeks, just as two unrelated trials and one preliminary legal hearing are about to resume in Milan. These corruption trials are resuming after Italy's Constitutional Court watered down a law that had briefly shielded the premier.

Parliament, in which Berlusconi controls a slim majority, tried to derail the investigation by saying Milan prosecutors don't have jurisdiction and rejecting their request to search Berlusconi's properties for evidence. Chief Milan Prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati, however, said the crime was not committed in the exercise of Berlusconi's duties.

"This is not an act that can be ascribed to his office," he told reporters.

He said prosecutors will not seek to use as evidence a handful of wiretaps of phone calls involving Berlusconi, which would require parliamentary approval, saying they ultimately were "not relevant."

Ruby herself is under investigation for allegedly misidentifying herself when she was held by police for pickpocketing, Bruti Liberati told reporters.

Documents now in the hands of the judge include hundreds of pages of wiretaps of conversations among women at Berlusconi's parties that have been previously leaked to the press.

In some purported conversations, Berlusconi's mansion is described as a brothel with topless girls dancing around; the premier himself is described as a "caricature" by one guest and as having gained weight and having become ugly by another. Other published wiretaps have a woman identified as Ruby saying that Berlusconi was willing to pay for her silence.

Polls suggest the damage to Berlusconi – who was last elected in 2008 to a five-year term – has been limited, and his supporters remain as devout as ever in a sign of Italy's political polarization.

"His popularity is down, but not out," said analyst Roberto D'Alimonte, a professor of political science at Rome's LUISS university. "One of the main reasons is a lack of clear alternative. On the other side, there is not a single credible coalition, there is not a single credible leader and not a single credible program."

Berlusconi's supporters insist the case represents an invasion of privacy, and say the prosecutors should direct their energies elsewhere. About 100 Berlusconi supporters demonstrated Wednesday outside the Milan courthouse, waving Italian flags and holding banners that read "Silvio Must Overcome."

"I am here to defend Silvio, who has done so much for us," said Anna Maria Selvia, a retiree in her 70s, denouncing the scandal's raunchy tales.

While this is the first legal case to touch on his private life, it is not the first sex scandal that has engulfed the premier.

In one case, Patrizia D'Addario, a self-described call girl, said she spent the night with Berlusconi when Barack Obama was elected president. She later gave purported tapes of her encounter with Berlusconi to an Italian magazine.

His second wife, Veronica Lario, announced in 2009 she was divorcing him, citing Berlusconi's purported fondness for younger women. Berlusconi has made no apologies for his lifestyle but has denied ever paying for sex.

Berlusconi's legal worries also include several cases that have been recently unfrozen by the Constitutional Court.

He is charged in a tax fraud case relating to his Mediaset media empire, and charged with bribery in another case. Another tax fraud case, but pertaining to more recent events than the ongoing Mediaset trial, will continue with a preliminary hearing next month.

Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing in the many cases involving his media holdings, and has always either been acquitted or seen the statute of limitations expire – something that is considered likely in the two trials under way. He has long contended he is the victim of a political vendetta orchestrated by what he says are left-leaning prosecutors intent on ousting him.

"I'm not worried in the slightest," Berlusconi said of the prostitution case. "I am a wealthy gentleman who can spend the rest of his life building hospitals for children like I've always wanted to."

Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA)

When other cancer hospitals say "there is nothing more we can do," they mean there is nothing more they can do. Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is different. At CTCA, we never give up. And, we strive to give you advanced treatment options—so you can take control of the disease.

CTCA doctors specialize in treating many types of cancer, including complex and advanced stage cases. They work as a team, alongside cancer experts across multiple disciplines. Collectively, your care team helps you fight cancer while also helping to maintain your overall well being.

When you meet with your care team, they listen to you and get to know you as a person. They use state-of-the-art diagnostic tools, including advanced imaging and laboratory tests, to accurately locate and stage the disease. Then together, with you and your caregivers, they find an integrated approach that's right for you.

Your individualized cancer treatment plan includes innovative treatments (e.g., surgery, radiation, chemotherapy), combined with supportive cancer therapies (e.g., nutrition therapy, naturopathic medicine, oncology rehabilitation, mind-body medicine, spiritual support) so you can feel strong in body, mind and spirit.

CTCA's headquarters are located in Schaumburg, Illinois.

CTCA has four hospitals in the United States, with a fifth in the works:

* Midwestern Regional Medical Center in Zion, Illinois
* Southwestern Regional Medical Center in Tulsa
* Eastern Regional Medical Center in Philadelphia
* Western Regional Medical Center in Goodyear, Arizona
* The fifth center will be located in Newnan, Georgia

CTCA also operates an outpatient oncology clinic, Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, located in Seattle.

Julia Hurley Gives Credit To Hooters For Her Professional Success

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A freshman Tennessee legislator credits her success in politics and business to the time she spent working at a restaurant chain known for buxom waitresses in tank tops and short shorts.

Republican state Rep. Julia Hurley, 29, won her November election by knocking off the Democratic incumbent in a conservative district west of Knoxville, but she says it was while working as a "Hooter's Girl" that she began honing her business sense and networking skills.

Hurley writes about it in the latest issue of the restaurant chain's Hooters magazine, and says opponents tried but failed to make her past employment and photos from her modeling career a campaign issue.

"I have taken quite a bit of flack from the public at large during my run for State House in Tennessee for being a Hooters Girl," she said. "But I know that without that time in my life I would not be as strong-willed and eager to become successful."

The link also became a direct benefit to her electoral bid when former regular customers made campaign contribution "without question or hesitation," she said.

The article appears in the magazine's "Orange Pride Spotlight," which features "the success stories of Hooters Girls both past and present." Much of the rest of the magazine is devoted to full-page photos of women posing in bikinis and Hooters uniforms.

Hurley now works as a consultant and entrepreneur. She is a Southern Baptist and a member of the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America.

Her House bid last year was her first run for public office, and she told The Knoxville News Sentinel during the race that her top issues included reducing illiteracy, creating jobs and filling empty retail space in her district. The General Assembly began its full schedule this week, and Hurley has not yet introduced any bills.

Hurley would only give a statement to The Associated Press and declined to answer specific questions about the article.

"I take the honor of serving in this state House more seriously than anything I have in my life," she said. "I identify with every woman who has overcome the odds to realize their dream. My past shapes who I am today."

In the magazine, she writes that her dream of running for office started at an early age.

"As I grew up, there were many factors that made me keep putting off being a representative of the people including the fact that I had a daughter at the young age of 15," she wrote.

Hurley said in the article that she first started working at a Hooters store in Alcoa as a way to help pay for college expenses at Maryville College, and later transferred to another store in Knoxville. She left to work for another restaurant and then a bank before becoming seriously ill and taking six months to recover.

A chance encounter with a former manager led to an offer to return to Hooters.

"I had gained quite a bit of weight by then, but he offered it to me anyway," she said. "He took me under his wing and within the year I had gotten back into physical shape and had become a trainer for that store."

Hurley said working at Hooters primed her for success.

"Hooters gave me the opportunity to belong to a group of women who had also struggled, or were struggling, and I was lucky to have managers that saw each girl's potential and coached us, protected us, and helped shape who we are today," she said.

Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing for Hooters of America LLC, said in a statement that many of the company's 300,000 former employees alumni are "are destined to do great things."

"There is nothing we like more than to hear from these alumni who talk about how working as a Hooters Girl provided them with the life skills and financial resources necessary to succeed," he said.

Republican colleagues in the House say Hurley's background isn't an issue.

"We are a citizen Legislature and we've all taken a different pathway in life to get here," House Republican Caucus Chairwoman Debra Maggart said.

Hurley's article says her Hooters career taught her how overcome obstacles on her way to the state Capitol. "If I could make it at Hooters, I could make it anywhere," she w

Monday, February 7, 2011

Files Missing of Commonwealth Games | CWG Files Missing

Some of the crucial documents which could throw light on Commonwealth Games deals have gone missing with the probe agencies fearing that they could have been destroyed or hidden.

Official sources said that the key files, which contain important information on tendering, budgetary allocation and contract details, are missing from the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) office.

They said that CBI officials have found sufficient evidence of criminal conspiracy by unknown OC officials in tampering with some documents and manipulating information in them.

The sources said that CBI officials have made a list of documents which are untraceable.

The revelation came during a series of searches carried out by a team of 20-30 sleuths at OC office besides its Secretary General Lalit Bhanot's residence last month, they said.