Society/Culture

You might want to sit down for this one. I’m not even sure how my warped mind bounced around such a diverse subject. Let’s start by staying I consider myself to be a fiscal conservative - to a point. To deny one department toilet tissue only to turn around and purchase 20 inch flat screen monitors for yours is not fiscal conservatism; that is flat out selfish. Perhaps bordering, dare I say, wasteful spending.

When I came aross an opinion piece in the WSJ by Piyush Jindal my heart warmed. The puppy dog warm fuzzy feeling continued up to the point I realized he’s a proponent of teaching Intelligent Design with a straight face. Geez, another hopeful super star kicking it old school with the flat earthers of Texas.

Practitioners of the “intelligent design” brand of creationism, much like Molière’s Physician in Spite of Himself, not only belie the true nature of their avocation and motives, but also play fast and loose with a commonly held precept.  They tacitly negate the clear and completely traditional parameters that illuminate the position of chance occurrence in our universe.

Article linkage is forth coming after a quick run down of what many consider an insult to God. Break out the home edition pricing gun and label this Biblical and intellectual heresy. Keeping 16:33 in mind where the toss of a coin or rolling of the dice, pick your game of ‘chance’, which in thumper thinking is said to ultimately rely on Gods providence. Still with me? Good ’cause we’re flipping the wedge in favor of true intelligence and fixin to hand them their asses.

If those crafty creationialist doubt evolution possible due the overwhelming impossibility that random events could spiral into our thumbs placing atop the food chain… breath, are they not themselves claiming God inferior - incapable of fulfilling what the very Bible they claim to follow states within Gods power. They dismiss evolution because random events aren’t powerful enough to create man? To say God sat down, as it were, to specificly design all things. He could not have possibly set these events in motion, through science based equations? This isn’t within his control? Are they suggesting we ignore Proverb 16:33 or that it could not possibly account for the evolution of all things on earth?

I hate to get all Maddow up in this mother fucker, but someone needs to talk me down if you have the God given balls to do so.

ref: WSJ piece by Bobby Jindal
ref: Salon piece by David White

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, means business skip the wizard - DIY.

Part 1

SEO work is not black magic

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. Awaiting Google to hand select then deliver qualified visitors, whatever the sites business model, is relying on luck. Check that ego at the door, time to slip on a pair of comfortable jeans, not Wranglers - seriously, what with their new commercials? Sure as the economic crisis was all but expected that business site, they are all business sites it’s the reason we do this right, will lag unless optimized and re-optimized for Google. Time to get our hands dirty minus the big budget SEO wizards.

What is SEO?

SEO is optimizing your website for seek engines. In selecting meaningful anchor text to internal links, appropriate external “no follow” links, throw in a mixture of meta tags, title to content matching, keywords and content pruning one pleases the Google overlord. Do remember that censoring your thought too much will generally seed a poisonous environment. All will see this as an attempt to hide truths resulting in you holding little to no credibility with stakeholders (advertisers and subscribers).

The ambition of SEO is desination development. Once your subscribers and advertisers buy into the site you reward them with incentives. Steer clear of attempts to censor feedback or comments. We all know hundreds of sites begging bloggers to provide commentary on interactions with companies, nonprofits, blogs or da gubment. Why, just recently such reputation feedback sites *note the plural* were updated to reflect inadequancies observed in a nonprofit.

Devolving into an SEO retard

Remember boys and girls a pissed off seasoned blogger with time and money to spend is the last thing you’ll want breathing down your neck. God forbid you attempt to piss on *insult* those folks. You want to improve and build reputation while expressing a view. It’s too easy to fuck-it-up through postings, reviews and emails which are easily reposted and forwarded. Geez, imagine the distraction of dealing with an automated get the word out campaign a blogger can have up and running in 45 minutes or less. Hear me - it’s much cheaper to check-in that ego.

If you do slip and draw the anger of such a create the last thing recommended is bullying. Bloggers will recognize this as an opportunity to get the word out. One of my revenue sources comes from being a spokesman of sorts for products. We bloggers manipulate opinions for profit both openly and behind the scenes. This industry exists in the shaddows. I know first hand, as a paid member, that scary shit goes down daily.

Rural worker rights

Tomorrow we have a good chance of electing an African American president. The time has come and we as a nation are ready. Unfortunately, not all parts of America are so open. Did you know that racism still exists in North Carolina? It does. Even rural little Washington, NC. I’ve watched this for a few years. At first you question the events and wonder if what you see really is racism. Is it racist to treat one group a certain way and another group differently? To threaten and intimidate a group, any group, is wrong both morally and ethically.

No more. North Carolina employers do have to right to fire an employee if it’s a private company and no valid contract exist at the time. That’s all good and understood, but no longer will I witness an event and not report it. Whether the report is filed with State and Federal Department of Labor, State or Federal Equal Employment Commissions, Local and State Newspapers or through my skills as a webpublisher with over 14 years experience… I’m setting up a Social Networking community for this segment of North Carolina workers so they can talk about it.

The Internet Marketing & Affiliate Marketing training are soon to be put to good use. With my existing online properties I can reach 6-9 thousand workers on any given day. With the Social Networking site, targeted advertising and both black and white’ish hat techniques I can bump this to 15 thousand a day by the end of November. Website number 177 will be a North Carolina workers rights discussion destination.

I’m ready to make history - are you? Let’s call this post number 1 on the subject. Subscribe to my feed to keep updated. http://www.macewan.org/feed, http://www.macewan.net/feed, http://www.macewan.tv/feed.

They were peppered sprayed and shot with the Taser hand gun repeatedly.

You finish filming of Oliver Stone’s movie “W.” now it’s Miller time. A movie which portrays the horrors of America’s worst President in history. One of his greatest screw-ups was the permitting of torture for detainee’s - now the world gets to see it on film. Party time!

Except you’re African American and the party is taking place in Shreveport, La. so be real nice if the police come-a-knocking. Just kidding, they don’t care that you’re a famous actor or what movie you made (or maybe they do); they’ll taser the hell out of you. “Hey, Bobby Joe! Spray ‘em wit the Pepper! Whooya!” Louisiana welcome?!

TMZ reports it got caught on camera phone. Jeffrey Wright on his stomach in the street, repeatedly tased while being peppered sprayed. Oh yeah, they were yelling the “N” word the whole time. The city’s attorney hasn’t decided if he’ll file criminal charges yet. Oh, not against the police, again Mr. Bolin, Mr. Wright and the by-standers that tried interfering with police business. Hrm, business as usual in La.?

OZARK, Mo. — A family from Branson wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65. Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery.
“We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith.
Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before their phone call to 911.
“He looked a little agitated but, other than that, he didn’t look to be falling down drunk or anything like that,” he said.
By the time officers arrived, the teen was off the 30-foot overpass, lying on the shoulder below along U.S. 65, with no good explanation as to how he got there.
“According to the doctors, all injuries are consistent with a fall,” said his aunt, Samantha.
Mace’s dad believes it was just that, a fall, not a jump. The question is why.
“They tested his system. He was clean of drugs and alcohol. We don’t know why unless just being in shock and the whole thing in itself caused him to forget everything,” said Hutchinson.
His aunt says he is undergoing major surgery for a broken back and broken heel. While he was lying on the ground, she wonders why Ozark police used an electric stun gun on him up to 19 times.
“I’m not an officer, but i don’t see the reason for ‘Tasering’ somebody laying there with a broken back. I don’t consider that a threat,”
His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days.
“The ‘Tasering’ increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation.”
“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he’s also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset.
Police say although there are several unanswered questions; the reason for the use of a stun gun is not one of them.
“It’s a big concern for the officers to keep this guy out of traffic, to keep him from getting hurt,” said Rousset.
Mace was still in intensive care on Wednesday night, listed in fair condition. He was scheduled for surgery again on Thursday. The family, along with the Ozark Police Department, hopes someone will see this report and come forward with some information. You can call (417) 699-4789 with information or call the Ozark Police Department.

From my Flickr uploads of Samara Beach

Vacationing in Samara Beach provides you the opportunities to snap tons of wild life pictures. Costa Rican Howler Monkeys, for example, roam freely through the area. Our stay at Las Palmers, we took some footage of the howlers coming down from the mountain and “walking” along the road to Nosara. Just north of the Las Palmers condos, at the foot of the mountain, the family of monkeys followed the unmarked path. Both morning and night around the same time they feed while heading east away from town.

Looking back on our vacation I remember feeling very much the outsider. As you can see from my previous post on Samara’s Howler Monkeys, this is their rain forest. It can be a tad unnerving to suddenly turn around and see a group of monkeys, only a few feet away, silently watching you walk past them. It’s the mix of that knowing look and curiosity written on their faces - especially the eyes - that creeps you out. As if you are being sized up. *Don’t smile as it makes no difference to them.

Digging around led to this page on Samara Beach Costa Rica. Notice how on the eight picture from the bottom you find that you are being watched. The rest of the family is moving along the powerlines occassionly stopping to eat fruit while this one watched the photographer.