Tuesday, 29 March 2011

Making Money With Options

Another day, another honking big funding for another online start-up (and yet another broken embargo too!).

It’s like Groundhog Day in Silicon Valley as usual.

Today, Cambridge, Mass.-based HubSpot wins tech’s version of the lottery, grabbing $32 million from Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and also Salesforce.com.

It is unclear what the valuation for HubSpot is now, although it is likely high given it has raised $65 million now.

HubSpot makes marketing software for businesses, who use it to find prospects and generate leads, along with tools to analyze the process. It claims it has “4,000 customers, over 50 percent market share, five million leads managed, and 70 million page views tracked monthly.”

The Series D financing included HubSpot’s existing venture investors–General Catalyst Partners, Matrix Partners, and Scale Venture Partners–and part of it will be used to cash out existing shareholders. In previous rounds, the start-up has raised $33 million.

Here is the official press release:

Sequoia, Google Ventures, and Salesforce.com Invest $32 Million in HubSpot

Marketing Software Company Attracts New Strategic Investors

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – March 8, 2011)–Today, for the first time ever, Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and Salesforce.com all invested together in one company, providing HubSpot with a Series D round of financing through a $32 million investment. HubSpot provides all-in-one marketing software used by over 4,000 businesses to get found by more prospects, convert them into leads and sales, and analyze the entire marketing process.

“The fundamental way that people shop, learn, and buy has changed radically in the last few years. HubSpot helps transform the way businesses market from outbound marketing (cold calls, email blasts, and direct mail) to inbound marketing (Google, blogs, social media, mobile, etc.),” said Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot.

Sequoia Capital has a long history of partnering with founders to help them build long-term, multi-billion dollar companies, including Google, LinkedIn, AdMob, YouTube, Yahoo!, Apple, and Oracle. “We back companies that are transforming their industries,” said Jim Goetz, General Partner at Sequoia Capital. “HubSpot is the emerging category leader in the SaaS marketing sector. Their customer base exceeds that of all the other relevant marketing software companies combined, including Eloqua, Marketo, Genius, and Manticore.”

“Today, every company needs to succeed in search, social, sales, and marketing–I can’t think of a more powerful trifecta than Google, Salesforce.com, and HubSpot. With 4,000 customers, HubSpot is already a clear marketing leader–now, with this new infusion of capital and recognition by Google’s venture arm and Salesforce.com, HubSpot has a great opportunity to separate itself from the pack and become the leading marketing platform in the small and medium business space,” said Brent Leary, co-founder of CRM Essentials.

Google Ventures Partner, Rich Miner (formerly co-founder of Android) said, “We agree with HubSpot’s belief that search engines, social media, and mobile devices have fundamentally changed how businesses should market themselves. We’re thrilled to support their efforts to help thousands of small and medium businesses reach potential customers.”

Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot commented, “We founded the company based on a simple premise: Businesses want an easy-to-use, complete and integrated marketing platform that helps them get more leads and customers. We plan to use this new capital to further invest in this ambitious vision and further our existing lead in the marketing software category.”

A few years ago, the Internet experienced a video revolution. As broadband access expanded and more people began uploading content, video became an expected resource for consumers. Businesses could get more mileage out of television commercials and engage users by linking to video reviews of its products.

A year ago, we saw evidence of small and medium-sized business increasing budgets for video content – to be used both on their homepages and in advertisements. In 2009, 19% of businesses polled were using video (up from 5% in 2008) and I’m willing to bet that number will be much higher in the 2010 report that should come out later this month.

Now, as technology has become more affordable and increasingly mobile, we’re able to experience virtually anything online. As such, local search engines are evolving into master content synthesizers to meet the needs of consumers and advertisers alike – offering video and photos, local advertising deals, user reviews, QR codes, maps and directions, etc.

Consumer expectations of local search engines have never been higher. Users want to see photo and video reviews of a company’s products, read what other people have to say, and even take a virtual tour of your store or restaurant before they visit.

The same is true of small- and medium-sized business owners looking to find a competitive advantage. Local search engines are offering more dynamic content than ever before to users and it’s up to search marketers to help business owners feed that content.

It’s interesting to see how video content has changed since the advent of YouTube. Instead of traditional video advertising, we’re seeing new technology that lets users look around your business from their own home. Soon, we’ll be able to find virtual creations of almost any environment online – and those virtual tours are being integrated with current deals and other advertising promotions to drive traffic to your business.

Recently, a company called EveryScape partnered with Bing and YP to offer digital advertisers a new local search solution – virtual tours. For example, YP360 will let a user step inside a restaurant in Baltimore while they’re still on the train. They can choose a place and even set a reservation, all within the same application on their phone.

Google Earth has gone indoors and local search engines are responsible for bringing this detailed and vivid content to users while keeping it simple and accessible. And the business case for offering this new content to users and advertisers alike is clear as local advertising is expected to grow to $16.1 billion this year, up from $13.7 billion in 2010.

Even more, mobile phone advertising spending is expected to be more than a billion dollars in 2011, up 48% from 2010. Local search engines like YP and Yelp! are seeing over 20 million visitors a month, many of them accessing via mobile phones.

This is a great opportunity for local search engines and advertisers to embrace this new technology and get ahead of the pack. Effective local advertising goes beyond building a social networking presence and listing in directories – you have to make sure your content is engaging. In the online world, the savviest local search marketers who use this technology well will have the most successful campaigns.

I recommend that any business owner or local search marketer read up on the latest digital advertising solutions and consider offering your customers virtual tours of your products or store. To set your business apart, you need to stay current with the best that local search has to offer.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Locals Only

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In February of 2007, 83.24 percent of users visiting TechCrunch did so from a Windows machine. One year later, in February 2008, the stranglehold remained firm at 80.44 percent. In February 2009, the number was at 74.04 percent. Last year, it was 61.59 percent. And this year? The number of people visiting our site from Windows machines dipped to 53.84 percent.

The writing is on the wall.

Look at those numbers again for a second. In four years, Windows share among TechCrunch readers has fallen 30 percentage points. That’s incredible.

The knee-jerk reaction in the comment section will likely be something like “it’s because you guys cover Apple so much”. But the fact of the matter is that Macintosh share, after rising for three of those four years, fell last year as well. It’s the mobile devices — specifically the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices — that are eating away at Windows.

In fact, if the trend over the past four years continues at about the same pace, in two years, devices made by Apple (Macs, iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads) will surpass devices that run Windows as the top visitors to TechCrunch. And depending on how popular the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and OS X Lion are, it could easily happen next year.

Here are the broken down numbers:

Feb 2007

Windows: 83.24%

Mac: 13.59%

Linux: 2.51%

Feb 2008

Windows: 80.44%

Mac: 15.15%

Linux: 2.97%

iPhone: 0.77%

iPod: 0.15%

Feb 2009

Windows: 74.04%

Mac: 20.48%

Linux: 3.01%

iPhone: 1.60%

iPod: 0.28%

Android: 0.09%

Feb 2010

Windows: 61.59%

Mac: 28.62%

iPhone: 4.07%

Linux: 3.49%

Android: 0.87%

iPod: 0.53%

Feb 2011

Windows: 53.84%

Mac: 27.64%

iPhone: 6.72%

iPad: 3.44%

Linux: 3.28%

Android: 3.06%

iPod: 0.62%

While even the last batch of stats shows that Windows still has a nice cushion over number two, Mac, if you add the Apple products put together, it’s a different story.

Feb 2007: 13.59% Apple products

Feb 2008: 16.07% Apple products

Feb 2009: 22.36% Apple products

Feb 2010: 33.22% Apple products

Feb 2011: 38.42% Apple products

In the four year span, Apple has added 25 percentage points to their share among TechCrunch readers. That nearly all of the 30 percentage points that Windows lost in that same span (Android’s growth pretty much fills in the rest).

So it currently stands at Microsoft’s 53.84 percent versus Apple’s 38.42 percent. Again, a big year for iPad, iPhone, and Mac could mean a changing of the guard as soon as next year. But unless something drastic changes, you can be sure that Apple will be dominant among TechCrunch readers in two years.

The latest rumors have Windows 8 showing up sometime in mid/late 2012. But the fact of the matter is that Windows 7, much more widely praised than the disaster that was Vista, hasn’t helped Microsoft buck this trend among our readers. Perhaps they’re only hope of gaining back share at this point is Windows Phone. So far, that hasn’t been going too well. Nokia should help that, but will it be enough to offset the Windows losses?

Humorously, Microsoft’s best hope for not falling to Apple may well be Android. If Google’s platform continues to make gains, it could prolong Apple passing Microsoft.

But again, Apple has iPhone 5, iPad 2, and OS X Lion on the immediate horizon — all within the next few months. And then there’s the very real possibility of another iPad in the fall.

The iPad 2 and iPhone 5 are likely to push the Apple share forward immediately. But don’t sleep on OS X Lion either. The early indications are that Apple has indeed made it much more iOS-like. That means millions of iPad/iPhone/iPod touch owners who have traditionally been PC users, are going to feel a lot more comfortable on a Mac than ever before.

And a new PC-to-Mac data migration system built in to Lion will only help that.

OS X Lion is going to feed off of iOS users, and vice versa. And the Mac ecosystem is going to continue to expand. Just as happened in the browser world with Chrome taking over, a transition is happening among TechCrunch readers in the ecosystem space. The numbers don’t lie. And Microsoft better pray that our readers aren’t leading indicators of overall trends in the space — which is exactly what you have been in the past.

Dirty Percent

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

It’s not hard to make the case that Apple’s new in-app subscription system offers numerous benefits to users, developers, and publishers. But whatever those benefits, they stem from the mere existence of these new subscription APIs. What’s controversial is the size of Apple’s cut: 30 percent.

No one is arguing that Apple shouldn’t get some cut of in-app purchases that go through iTunes. And, if Apple were taking a substantially smaller cut, there would be substantially fewer people objecting to Apple’s rules (that subscription-based publishing apps must use the system; that they can’t link to their external sign-up web page from within the app; and that they must offer in-app subscribers the same prices available outside the app).

The reasonable arguments against Apple’s policies seem to be:

Apple should be taking less, perhaps far less, than 30 percent.

Apple should not require subscription-based apps to use the in-app subscription APIs. If it’s a good deal for publishers, they’ll choose to use the system on their own.

Apple should not require price-matching from subscription offers outside the app. Publishers should be allowed to charge iOS users more money to cover Apple’s cut.

Apple should consider business models that simply can’t afford a 70/30 revenue split.

Let’s consider these in reverse order.

Apple Should Consider Business Models That Can’t Afford a 70/30 Revenue Split

Apple doesn’t give a damn about companies with business models that can’t afford a 70/30 split. Apple’s running a competitive business; competition is cold and hard. And who exactly can’t afford a 70/30 split? Middlemen. It’s not that Apple is opposed to middlemen — it’s that Apple wants to be the middleman. It’s difficult to expect them to be sympathetic to the plights of other middlemen.

Some of these apps and services that are left out might be ones that iOS users enjoy, though. This is the leading argument for how this new policy will in fact hurt users, and, as a result, Apple itself: it’ll drive good apps off the platform. Frequently mentioned examples: Netflix and Kindle. For all we know, though, Netflix may well be fine with this policy. Apple would only get a 30 percent cut of new subscriptions that go through the Netflix iOS app, and that might be a bounty Netflix can live with in exchange for more subscribers. Keep in mind, too, that Netflix and Apple seemingly get along well enough that Netflix is built into the Apple TV system software.

Kindle, and e-book platforms in general, are a different case. For one thing, Kindle doesn’t use subscriptions. Kindle offers purchases. Presumably, given Apple’s rejection of Sony’s e-book platform app last month, Apple is going to insist on the same rules for in-app purchases through apps like Kindle as they do for in-app subscriptions. If so, something’s got to give. The “agency model” through which e-books are sold requires the bookseller to give the publisher 70 percent of the sale price. So if the publisher gets 70 and Apple gets 30, that leaves a big fat nothing for Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, or anyone else selling books through native iOS apps — other than iBooks, of course.

But leaving aside the revenue split, there are technical limitations as well. The existing in-app purchasing system in iOS has a technical limit of 3,500 catalog items. I.e. any single app can offer no more than 3,500 items for in-app purchase. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of Kindle titles.

Something’s got to give here. I don’t know what, but there must be more news on this front coming soon. I don’t believe Apple wants to chase competing e-book platforms off the App Store.

Apple Should Not Require Price Matching

Why not allow developers and publishers to set their own prices for in-app subscriptions? One reason: Apple wants its customers to get the best price — and, to know that they’re getting the best price whenever they buy a subscription through an app. It’s a confidence in the brand thing: with Apple’s rules, users know they’re getting the best price, they know they’ll be able to unsubscribe easily, and they know their privacy is protected.

Credit card companies insist on similar rules: retailers pay a processing fee for every credit card transaction, but the credit card companies insist that these fees not be passed on to the customer. Customers pay the same price as they would if they used cash — which encourages them to use their credit card liberally. (Going further, many charge cards offer cash back on each purchase — they can do this because the cash-back percentage refunded to the customer is less than the transaction processing fee paid by the retailer.)

So the same-price rule is good for the user, and good for Apple. But Matt Drance argues that Apple could dissipate much of this subscription controversy by waiving this rule:

The requirement that IAP content be offered “at the same price
or less than it is offered outside the app,” combined with the
70/30 split, means developers must make less money off of iOS by
definition. They can’t price their IAP content higher to offset
the commission, nor can they price their own retail content lower.

If I am interpreting this correctly, I can’t bring myself to see
it as reasonable. […] I think a great deal of this drama could
go away if Apple dropped section 11.13 while keeping section
11.14: Your prices on your store are your business; just don’t
be a jerk and advertise the difference all over ours.

And I agree with him. Yes, the same-price rule is good for users and for Apple, but waiving this rule wouldn’t be particularly bad for users or for Apple, either — and it would give publishers some freedom to experiment.

I suspect one reason Apple won’t budge is that their competitors — like Amazon — insist on best-price matching.

Apple Should Not Require Apps to Offer In-App Subscriptions

I’m sympathetic to this argument, too. “If you don’t like our terms, don’t use our subscription system.” But it has occurred to me that this entire in-app subscription debate mirrors the debate surrounding the App Store itself back in 2008 — that 30 percent was too large a cut for Apple to take, that it shouldn’t be mandatory, etc. The same way many developers wanted (and still want) a way to sell native iOS apps on their own, outside the App Store, many publishers now want a way to sell subscriptions on their own, outside the App Store.

The fact is, the App Store is an all-or-nothing affair. You play by Apple’s rules or you stick to web apps through Mobile Safari. This alternative is no different for periodical publishers than it was (and remains) for app developers in general. A lot of these demands boil down to a desire for more autonomy for native iOS app developers. Apple has never shown any interest in that.

There’s one striking difference between the subscription controversy today and the App Store controversy in 2008: with subscriptions, Apple is taking away the ability to do something that they previously allowed. There was never a supported way to install native apps for iOS before the App Store. Subscriptions sold outside the App Store, on the other hand, were allowed until last month.

Apple Should Be Taking Less, Possibly Far Less, Than 30 Percent

Another difference between the App Store itself and in-app subscriptions is that with apps, Apple hosts and serves the downloads. Apple covers the bandwidth, even for gargantuan gigabyte-or-larger 99-cent games. The OS handles installation.

With in-app subscriptions (and purchases), however, the app developer is responsible for hosting the content, and for writing the code to download, store, and manage it. So — one reasonable argument goes — given that Apple is doing less for subscription content than it does for apps (or for music and movies purchased through iTunes), Apple should take less of the money.

Taken further, the argument boils down to this: that for in-app subscriptions and purchases, Apple is serving only as a payment processer — and thus, a reasonable fee for transactions would be in the small single digits — 3, 4, maybe 5 percent, say. More or less something along the lines of what PayPal charges.

Apple, I think it’s clear, doesn’t see it this way. Apple sees the entire App Store, along with all native iOS apps, as an upscale, premium software store: owned, controlled, and managed like a physical shopping mall. Brick and mortar retailers don’t settle for a single-digit cut of retail prices; neither does the App Store.

Seth Godin argues that Apple’s 30 percent cut is too big to allow publishers to profit:

Except Apple has announced that they want to tax each subscription
made via the iPad at 30%. Yes, it’s a tax, because what it does is
dramatically decrease the incremental revenue from each
subscriber. An intelligent publisher only has two choices: raise
the price (punishing the reader and further cutting down
readership) or make it free and hope for mass (see my point above
about the infinite newsstand). When you make it free, it’s all
about the ads, and if you don’t reach tens or hundreds of
thousands of subscribers, you’ll fail.

Godin’s logic strikes me as questionable. For one thing, he freely switches between a newsstand metaphor (arguing, perhaps accurately, that the App Store is too large for publishers to gain attention from potential readers in the first place — you won’t read what you never notice) and the economics of subscriptions. But subscribers are the opposite of newsstand readers. Newsstand readers are buying a single copy, often on impulse. Subscribers are readers who are already hooked, and who know what they want. Put another way, the size of Apple’s cut of subscription revenue — whether it were higher or lower — has no bearing on the “attention at the newsstand” problem.

Second, the problem facing traditional publishers today is that circulation is falling. Newsstand sales and subscriptions are falling, under pressure from free-of-charge websites and other forms of digital content. The idea with Apple’s 70-30 revenue split is that developers and publishers can make it up in volume — that people aren’t just somewhat more willing to pay for content through iTunes than other online content stores, they are far more willing. The idea is that Apple has cracked a nut no one else1 has — they’ve created an ecosystem where hundreds of millions of people are willing to pay for digital content. Thus, potentially, publishers won’t just make more money keeping only 70 percent of subscription fees generated through iOS apps than they are now with 96 percent (or whatever they’re left with after payment processing fees) of subscription fees they’re selling on their own — they stand to make a lot more money.

I’m not guaranteeing or even predicting that it’s going to work out that way. I’m just saying that’s Apple’s proposition.

Godin’s assumption is that iOS in-app subscriptions won’t significantly increase the number of subscribers. If he’s right about that, then he’s right that Apple’s 30 percent cut will prove too expensive for publishers. But Apple’s bet is that in-app subscriptions can dramatically increase the number of subscribers. Consider the app landscape. Apple’s 30 percent cut didn’t drive the price of paid apps up — the nature of the App Store drove prices down. It’s a volume game.

The App Store itself proves that Apple might be right. Like with app sales, in-app subscriptions won’t work for every publication. But it could work for many. It really is possible to make it up in volume.

And if a 70-30 split for in-app subscription revenue doesn’t work, the price will come down. That’s how capitalism works. You choose a price and see how it goes. I’ll admit — when the App Store launched in 2008, I thought Apple’s 70-30 split was skewed too heavily in Apple’s favor. Not that it was wrong in any moral sense, but that it was wrong in a purely economic sense: that it might be more than developers would be willing to bear. Apple, clearly, has a better sense about what prices the market will bear than I (and, likely, you) do.

Competition vs. Anti-Competition

One last argument I’ve seen regarding these in-app subscription rules is that it’s further evidence of anti-competitive behavior from Apple. That makes sense only if you consider iOS to be the entire field of play. Apple, though, is competing at a higher level. They’re competing between platforms: iOS vs. Kindle/Amazon vs. Android/Google vs. Microsoft, and in some ways, vs. the free web. Why should publishers make an app rather than just a mobile web site? For happier customers and more money.

Sony has a platform for e-books. Amazon has a platform for e-books. Barnes & Noble has a platform for e-books. Apple has a platform for e-books. But Apple is the only one which allows its competitors to have apps on its devices. And Apple is the anti-competitive one? I’m no lawyer, but if the iTunes Music store hasn’t yet been deemed a monopoly with Apple selling 70+ percent of digital music players, then I doubt the App Store will be deemed a monopoly for a market where Apple has never been — and, according to market share trends, may never be — the top-selling smartphone maker, let alone own a majority of the market, let alone own more than a single-digit sliver of the phone market as a whole. As for ruthless profiteering, consider that Amazon, with their e-book publishing, originally took the fat end of a 70-30 revenue split with authors.

One question I’ve been asked by several DF readers who object to Apple’s new in-app subscription and purchasing policies goes like this: What if Microsoft did this with Windows, and, say, tried to require Apple to pay them 30 percent for every purchase made through iTunes on Windows? To that, I say: good luck with that. Microsoft couldn’t make such a change by fiat. The whole premise of Windows (and other personal computer systems) is that it is open to third-party software. Apple couldn’t just flip a switch and make Mac OS X a controlled app console system like iOS — they had to introduce the Mac App Store as an alternative to traditional software installation. If Microsoft introduced something similar to the Mac App Store for Windows, Apple would simply eschew it. If Microsoft were to mandate an iOS App Store-like total control policy for all Windows software, they’d have a revolt in their user base that would make Vista look like a success.

iOS isn’t and never was an open computer system. It’s a closed, controlled console system — more akin to Playstation or Wii or Xbox than to Mac OS X or Windows. It is, in Apple’s view, a privilege to have a native iOS app.

This is what galls some: Apple is doing this because they can, and no other company is in a position to do it. This is not a fear that in-app subscriptions will fail because Apple’s 30 percent slice is too high, but rather that in-app subscriptions will succeed despite Apple’s (in their minds) egregious profiteering. I.e. that charging what the market will bear is somehow unscrupulous. To the charge that Apple Inc. is a for-profit corporation run by staunch capitalists, I say, “Duh”.

If it works, Apple’s 30-percent take of in-app subscriptions will prove as objectionable in the long run as the App Store itself: not very.

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Recognizing Women's History Month, New Deal 2.0 tells the surprising story of how women became citizens -- and how their economic lives have evolved along with their rights. Allida Black urges action on UN Resolution 1325, which ensures equal citizenship for women across the globe.

The monumental elections of Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), Roza Otunbayeva (Krygyzstan), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), and Prime Minister Julia Gillard (Australia) and the game-changing appointments of Dr. Michelle Bachelet as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNWomen and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State proved that women can govern, run preeminent human rights organizations, set international policy, and place women at the center of diplomacy, development, and peace.

But the question remains -- if women can be president, why can't they be citizens? Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights." Yet it took another twenty years after its signing to get the international conventions on political and civil rights and on economic, social and cultural rights -- and, in the United States, another twenty plus years for Congress to adopt legislation ensuring women's political and economic rights. It took another thirteen years for the United Nations to ratify (without the support of the United States) the Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women. And in 2011, the US House of Representatives and other foreign governing bodies still toy with legislation essential to women's identities, ranging from limiting access to reproductive health services and marriage to crafting sentencing guidelines that treat girls and women as felons and charges those that have abducted and abused them with misdemeanors.

In a 1946 column, written before she joined the UN Commission on Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt urged women to "call on the Governments of the world to encourage women everywhere to take a more conscious part in national and international affairs, and on women to come forward and share in the work of peace and reconstruction as they did in the war and resistance." More than fifty years later, at the dawn of a new century, the UN Security Council -- pressured by a well-organized international women's lobby, Hillary Clinton, and other stateswomen and embarrassed by the rampant use of rape and genital dismemberment as tools of war -- adopted Resolution 1325. It urged "Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict."

Now ten years later, the campaign -- indeed the struggle -- to enforce this resolution rages across the United States as much as it does across Egypt or the Congo or Afghanistan.

It is tempting to construct this resolution narrowly -- to see it as a tool of armistice rather than reconstruction, as a vehicle to protect women rather than empower them. To do so, to paraphrase Albus Dumbledore, would be to do what is easy rather than what is right.

UN1325 is on the front line in the campaign for women's citizenship. It is a battle to ensure that economic, social and cultural rights cannot be divorced from, or considered separately from, political and civil rights. It is the struggle to reclaim democracy promotion away from post-Cold War politics, self-interested development and the campaign against terror and place it at the heart of citizen participation.

Just as important, it is a campaign to ensure women's rights as citizens as much as it is a campaign to force governments to act responsibly to all its citizens. While equality and human dignity have no sex, policy designed without taking stock of gender differences often perpetuates discrimination.

As Eleanor Roosevelt would say, both citizens and governments must "recognize that the goal of full participation in the life and responsibilities of their countries and of the world community is a common objective" and one "which the women of the world should assist one another" in achieving.

This post originally appeared on New Deal 2.0.

Surface Encounters

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ThinkFast: March 4, 2011

The U.S. economy added 192,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate dipped to 8.9 percent. That is the fastest pace of hiring in almost a year, and it is the lowest rate since April 2009.

President Obama called on Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to “step down from power and leave” immediately and said that he would consider a full range of options — including a no-fly zone — to curb violence there. “Muammar Qaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead, and he must leave.” Obama said.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) plans to tackle Social Security and Medicare reform this spring, joining with President Obama to “lessen the political risk.” Despite the fact most Americans view such cuts as “unacceptable,” Boehner insists that “most Americans don’t have a clue” to “how big the problem is.”

Yesterday in a meeting with Vice President Biden, the White House and congressional Democrats “offered to trim an additional $6.5 billion from current spending.” But the GOP set a goal of “cutting agency budgets by $61 billion,” a gap that illustrates “the difficulty the two parties faced in reaching a compromise before the March 18 expiration” of the recently-passed CR.

Despite the GOP’s bashing of the EPA, Republicans “actually like many of the agency’s efforts, particularly bread-and-butter programs aimed at cleaning up drinking water and air pollution in their districts.” President Obama suggests cuts to these programs, putting Republicans in the awkward position of defending the EPA during a hearing on the agency yesterday.

A bipartisan group of 18 Senators sent President Obama a letter yesterday asking him to improve federal foreclosure programs, spurred by record foreclosures but also aggressive action by House Republicans to curtail those programs. A record 2.9 million homes received foreclosure notices last year. The House considered four bills this week that would terminate Obama-initiated foreclosure assistance measures.

And finally: After a home-brewed honey ale was a big hit at its Super Bowl party last month, the White House plans to ramp up production of home brew beers. The honey ale — the first known beer made at the executive mansion in American history — was made with a pound of fresh honey from the White House’s bees, and future brews may even feature hops grown at the White House garden.

For breaking news and updates throughout the day follow ThinkProgress on Facebook and Twitter.

Im having a hard time understanding why people are not demanding that bank of america at the very least BE DISMANTLED.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE PRECISELY DOCUMENTED CASES OF PEOPLE WHO DIDNT EVEN HAVE MORTGAGES AND WERE FORECLOSED ON THAT AMERICANS ARE HAVING A HARD TIME REALIZING IS OUTRIGHT CRIMINAL ACTIVITY? Will it take these sociopaths going to everyones home and saying “we show that we own this property, we are going to take it and sell it for our own profit” for americans to wake up and put an end to this ridiculous lunacy once and for all?

It deserves to be yelled.

If Washington wants a solution, Dissolve the bank and distribute the assets to everyone. Its that simple.

Its a business that has repeatedly perpetrated theft, exploitation, and violation of law. There is no reason that it should be allowed to continue operating. If the shareholders are worried about their “stakes.” Give them the money of dissolved assets and allow them to reinvest it where ever they want.

That will boost the economy.

Give the wee homeowners who were tangled up in barb wire for 5 years enough to rebuild their lives.

Take enough for the government to be able to steady itself and devote the resources to securing this ship in good stewardship like it obviously needs t be.

And be done with it.

Really. Why are we empowering an entity to wreak havoc on us all? Who are these 25,000 or so individuals working in the upper echelons of mega banks and wall street that should be so protected, and sit comfortably on pilfered accounts while the majority struggles to make ends meet?

Enough is enough.

I want my government to do what is right and disable these crooked thieves before it becomes a matter of failure of us all.

bench craft company reviews

Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant | Kyodo News

''We must control the water well so it won't ever go outside'' the complex, said Sakae Muto, vice president of TEPCO, at a news conference. On Monday, TEPCO continued to remove highly radioactive water from inside reactor buildings at ...

How To Install Managing News On Ubuntu | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos ...

How To Install Managing News On Ubuntu. Managing News is an RSS/Atom based news tracker with search, republishing and mapping. This tutorial shows how to install Managing News on an Ubuntu server. ...

Key 2008 Aide Back with Romney - FoxNews.com

Mitt Romney's Free and Strong America PAC announced Monday that his chief domestic adviser in his 2008 presidential bid has returned to join his PAC as policy director, another apparent building block for Romney's likely entry in the ...

Monday, 28 March 2011

SEO Services Vancouver For any Better Marketing Solution

When you begin your personal website there are lots of ways you will have to market it and one of the best ways is to use Search engine optimization Vancouver if you be in that area. The SEO or search engine optimization services would be the top way of getting good traffic to your site and for that reason making more sales.

Now, you need to know that you won't use SEO service if you are not an online business - however, if you don't have an online presence if you are a offline business, then you will not allow it to be very far.

It's a well known fact that if you are planning to really make it in the offline world you must have an online presence. This is something that all people are learning hard way. One thing that you should also know is the fact that it's not as simple as just setting up the website and leaving it to do its things.

You can do this in all types of ways, however these companies usually take advantage of multiple methods to create an ideal marketing technique online. You will be able to employ them to write articles for you, post on forums and blogs, create meta data and meta descriptions, clean up the code, add alt tags to the images and much more.

It is very important that you simply do this because otherwise the company that you have worked so hard for could end up losing all the money. If you have a website you want to create, then you will also use the expertise of a search engine optimization company, which stands for seo company. What this company does is actually go ahead and take best areas of your site, check the code, create keywords and write various articles and documents to ensure that your site is placed near the top of the list for the major search engines like google.

As a result the Search engine optimization company can not only increase your traffic, but also ensure that your site is fully optimized for the search engine spiders that'll be introduced to it. These spiders are used to analyze your site and place it in a few positions determined on certain keywords.

If you want to use the SEO services Vancouver then all you've got to do is find the top companies. It is through these how the SEO gets done effectively and efficiently. With so many SEO companies to choose from you need to be certain the one you're going for is reliable. You should be in a position to ask for a breakdown of what you need, and the company should also be able to let you know know long they've been operating for. This will limit their email list to reveal the top ones.

SEO Services Provided by Different Vancouver Web Companies

The Vancouver SEO company services are very beneficial for business growth because they provide quality services. If you are planning to produce a website for your online business, then you've come to right article when i will be explaining below how Search engine optimization Vancouver company services can increase your website ranking and make it popular.

Before that, you need to know what Seo is. It is not that complicated and i am sure you're going to get a grasp from it after reading my article. The main goal of SEO is to get more traffic aimed at your website and target audience. It is a good decision to choose a Vancouver SEO company that specializes in this kind of work, which means that your website can be listed in search engines.

There isn't any reason for you using a website with no website ranking at all as you won't get any business and profits to outlive. It is a very tough atmosphere available as there are so many internet business people just like you, who desire their share of pie. You have to be aware of the fact that nearly 85% of internet traffic can be got from web-sites.

When a user types inside a keyword or keywords for which he/she really wants to know in various sites, these use crawlers to obtain web-sites with the relevant content and index them based on algorithms. It's not necessary to be worried about the algorithms which these websites use as that is not important.

To look in the first page from the google listing, you will have to hire professionals and experts who can do the needful to maintain your website among the good books during these websites. These professionals can optimize your site content to ensure that your site gets more traffic.

When the traffic gets high, it's a sign that you are getting a service that will get you more revenues. SEO Vancouver company do the following to create your website appear within the first page of search results.

Use keywords which are popularly utilized on search engines on your website content.
Possess a web design for your website which is simple because top sites are allergic to flash and weird designs.
Submit your website to directories.
Submit your site to directory websites.
Postings on blogs and forums with back-links to your websites. This really is considered as an effective way to get more traffic aimed at your website as many online users use blogs and forums.

SEO Vancouver company also perform site diagnostics that is a significant part in online optimization as research and analysis on finding keywords may be the way to begin a SEO campaign. So, be sure you choose the best SEO Vancouver company.

Are you searching for more information regarding SEO Vancouver? Visit http://www.seo4vancouver.com/seo-services.asp today!

What to anticipate Whenever Getting a Roofing Contractors

When it comes time to repair or substitute your roof, it's really a daunting job to locate somebody that is competent to do the job. There are many roofers available, but the types who will perform a congrats for a reasonable cost are not frequently simple to find. If you are in the market for the service provider, use the ideas beneath for meeting with and hiring the right one.

Job interview and Discussion

The majority of roofers provide totally free consultations. This is especially essential, because it provides them a chance to evaluate exactly what your roof needs, also it gives you an opportunity to assess all of them. As with all of businesses, trust your instincts about the individuals you let up onto your roofing. No matter exactly how great the contractor's status or suggestion, he or she should start by showing a person with a company card. If the contractor occurs looking and speaking in an unprofessional manner, chances are that the task he's going to perform may also be unprofessional. This is not to say that you should anticipate contractors to arrive in fits. They is going to be climbing on your roofing, therefore the majority of is going to be dressed in denim jeans and work footwear or even sneakers. If the actual service provider seems to be more interested in speaking upon their cell phone during your roof than he is within evaluating your own roof's needs, that may be another sign that he is not really the main one for the job. For the lawful safety, make sure that the service provider has adequate legal responsibility insurance.

Roofing Assessment

Anticipate that the contractor will be going up on your roofing. Actually, any contractor who does not need to go up on your roof to judge the problem ought to be instantly discounted. Those who're seriously interested in their own work will either create a drawing of your roof's surface and tag trouble spots onto it as they go through their evaluation, or even they'll take photos or video of the surface while they are up there. This is a very essential action, because it allows you to see just what the troubles are as well as know how they'll be fixed.

Estimate

The next phase would be the written estimate. The contractor will require out their loan calculator and are available track of a written estimate. Some contractors will go out to their own truck or even truck and write up the suggestion, while others may crunch the actual amounts for the job in front of you. Once you are given the proposal, make sure that you understand which products is going to be used, just how long the job will require and if there are any extra or hidden expenses that may arise during the repair from the roofing. The contractor will be able to answer all of these questions effortlessly as well as forewarn a person of any additional expenses that could be incurred if the roof's integrity be damaged within.

After you have obtained a few created estimates from roofing contractors, evaluate what every organization or even contractor is willing to offer you for that cost. Do not always low cost the greatest bet, because sometimes the greatest bet will in reality function as the service provider who does the task properly. Also, be wary of prices for bids which are not nearly as expensive others. They might be utilizing substandard items or perhaps be unethical about the possibility of hidden costs. Most importantly, believe in intuition as well as opt for the actual contractor that makes you feel quite comfortable regarding giving more than your hard earned money.

Seven Uyghurs Sentenced to Death

2011-03-23

Critics of the sentences say China has politicized the robberies as acts of terrorism.

AFP

A Uyghur man walks past armed Chinese security forces in Urumqi, July 17, 2009.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered the executions of seven ethnic minority Uyghur men convicted of "violent" crimes, official media said on Wednesday.

The death sentences were handed down by the Supreme People's Court in recent days, according to state media in the regional capital, Urumqi.

The men were accused in connection with three separate attacks late last year in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, according to the news website Urumqi Online.

According to another website, the Xinjiang-based Tianshan news site, Aimaiti Tuheti, Yiming Dawuti, and unnamed "others" killed a security guard at a pedestrian mall as part of a failed Aug. 7 robbery attempt.

In a separate incident on Oct. 12, it said, Nuermaimaiti Aobulikasimu and 11 others broke into a house, bound and killed the couple living in it, and took their possessions.

It said the group also broke into the homes of two brothers, robbed them, and killed six people in a Nov. 11 attack in Kashgar.

The report gave no information about the victims or the schedule for the executions.

Three of the men were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that is normally commuted to life imprisonment in China's judicial system.

They were convicted of deliberate homicide and armed robbery by the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court in the first instance.

'Strike hard' campaign

A Han Chinese resident of Urumqi surnamed Yang said a reference to "terrorism" in official news reports on the case showed that it was being politicized by the authorities, who have launched a series of "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang following deadly ethnic violence in July 2009.

"There is an implied political meaning; that they were somehow engaged in separatist activities or ethnic divisions," said Yang.

Exile Uyghur groups said the trials had been conducted behind closed doors, with scant opportunity for public scrutiny.

"The entire process against these men, from the trial through to the judgment, was opaque," said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.

"There was also very little reasonable evidence to convict them on a legal basis, because all the evidence came from one side of the case," he said.

"We strongly condemn the Chinese government for continuing to pursue their policies of ethnic division," said Raxit.

"We are also strongly opposed to the death penalty in this case."

Earlier cases

Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced four Uyghurs to death for alleged involvement in an Aug. 19 bomb attack in Xinjiang’s western Aksu city.

The World Uyghur Congress pointed to concerns over lack of transparency in those cases too.

The Aksu blast left eight people dead, including two of the bombers, and 15 wounded after a man riding a three-wheeled vehicle threw explosives at a group of uniformed patrolmen. Four Uyghurs were arrested shortly after the attack.

State media characterized the cases as acts of terrorism and unrelated to longstanding ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the region.

Exiled Uyghur dissident Rebiya Kadeer has warned that attacks like those in Aksu will continue to occur until Beijing addresses the underlying source of tension in the region.

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and Xinjiang.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Those frustrations erupted in July 2009 in deadly riots that left nearly 200 people dead, by the Chinese government's tally.

At least 26 people, mostly Uyghurs, were sentenced to death in the aftermath of the riots, many of whom have been executed, according to state media.

China is believed to execute more people each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined, although the government does not publish official figures.

Rights groups say Beijing may execute as many as several thousand prisoners annually.

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

New training scheme

China on Wednesday also announced a training scheme which places ethnic minority graduates from Xinjiang in work elsewhere in China.

Governments of the destination cities will spend 450 million yuan (U.S.$ 69 million) for the program, while Xinjiang will spend 400 million yuan (U.S.$ 61 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The program targets some 60,000 jobless college graduates in Xinjiang, around 80 percent of whom are from ethnic minorities, and 60 percent of whom are women.

However, some commentators see the move as an attempt to assimilate non-Han Chinese into mainstream Chinese culture.

"From the point of view of ethnic minorities, the graduate work scheme is really taking the cream of youth from the minorities and using them to 'further cultural development,'" wrote one ethnic minority user on a popular microblogging service.

"In fact, the culture that is being advanced is Han culture, and this group of young people will have been totally brainwashed," the microblog update said.

An Urumqi resident surnamed Li agreed.

"They have run senior high school schemes like this before during the past few years," he said.

"Whether it's high-schoolers or graduate training programs, these are measures that are aimed at thought control and brainwashing, and the 'Partification' of their education," he said.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Wikileaks and also the Uyghur

through henry upon Dec 20, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Manager, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it had been ever uncertain, information obtained through the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, offers confirmed Chinese federal government worries over it's continued charge of the region this calls Xinjiang, also is known as Eastern Turkestan. The actual leaked out wires through U.S. diplomats demonstrate the actual degree that Chinese language government bodies attempt to persuade governments worldwide to adopt it's position on issues impacting Uyghurs. The cables additionally show the actual United States' issues and views regarding the ongoing repressive steps in the area.

The majority of illuminating associated with Chinese federal government stress are the wires pointing to Chinese language anger, or even the specter associated with Chinese language ire, over the release of Uyghur detainees in Guantánamo to third nations. A December 29, 2008 cable television applies how Chinese Assistant International Reverend Liu Jieyi fulfilled using the Ough.S. Ambassador to The far east in order to voice Beijing's strong competitors of launch to any nation apart from The far east, and that if the Ough.S. did indeed accede to this ask for it would "avoid harm to bilateral relationships and to co-operation ‘in important areas'". Furthermore, a February 2009 cable television explains how the Chinese Ambassador in order to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the actual feasible release of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees because "an unfavorable act towards us" along with a "slap within the face". The U.Utes. government was company within not really releasing the actual detainees in order to China illustrates the actual degree of the politicized character from the Chinese language judicial program. Legitimate issues more than terrorism tend to be easy to understand, however in the actual Ough.Utes. government's observe the detainees would probably face do-it-yourself torture as well as execution if they came back to The far east

Chinese government stress regarding the Uyghur Guantánamo detainees was not just applied to the actual U.Utes. government, but additionally in order to New Zealand along with a number of European government authorities which were considering resettlement. Albania, Germany and Finland, as well as European Union fellow member says all have the symptoms of paid for the impact of Chinese government unhappiness. In the case of Indonesia, which was at first willing to think about two Uyghurs upon solely relief grounds, Uyghur Guantánamo cases were less better than other detainees due to the unwanted effects taking Uyghurs would have on relationships with The far east. A Might 8, 2009 cable applies exactly how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer documented that Germany had knowledgeable China from the Ough.S. request to simply accept some Uighur detainees kept at Guantánamo and had been consequently warned through China associated with ‘a heavy load upon bilateral relations' in the event that Germany were to accept any detainees".

The actual diplomatic wires additionally discuss the unrest in Urumchi, the actual regional capital, within July 2009. The July 13, '09 cable television talking about mass occurrences within China states:

"Ethnic riots such as those who work in Xinjiang July 5-7 as well as in Tibet in March of 08 vary substantially in origin and nature from mass occurrences, XXXXXXXXXXXX stressed to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Each present severe trouble for the actual Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX said, but the Party leadership wouldn't hesitate to open fireplace on Uighurs or even Tibetans when they considered it necessary to restore order. Bulk incidents present a different type of threat, he said, as the leadership is actually ‘afraid' to fire on Han rioters with regard to fear of causing massive public outrage that will turn against the Party."

This is a relaxing opinion, particularly when 1 considers evidence presented in two reports released this season through the Uyghur Individual Rights Task (UHRP) and Amnesty International that detail eyewitness accounts from the use of deadly reside fireplace against Uyghur protestors within July '09. In addition, the observation that fire wouldn't be deployed towards Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for that different strategy used by Chinese language protection causes within Urumchi to Han Chinese language protests in Sept '09. During those protests, then Celebration Assistant, Wang Lequan, tackled demonstrators, that had demanded that he let them know regarding federal government responses in order to protection issues. A similar request to satisfy using the Party Assistant through Uyghur protesters in This summer was not fulfilled.

The broader consequences from the unrest additionally noticed a short dialogue on the impact it would have on Iran-China relationships, and on relations with Sydney after Globe Uyghur Our elected representatives Leader, Microsoft. Rebiya Kadeer, talked at the Nationwide Push Membership within Canberra in July '09. Within the second option situation, china government "privately warn[ed] a major Australian financial institution that vendors the National Press Club to use its influence to bar the Kadeer talk there".

The actual United States' concerns concerning the scenario within the Uyghur region are available via in the cables. In a dialogue on policy direction in Tibet, U.S. authorities explain that it will be impossible for Chinese language frontrunners to consider a softer collection "if they appear like they are doing this under international pressure". The cable dated April Sixteen, 08, one month after the episode of unrest within Tibetan regions, additionally relayed the actual declaration "that household balance continues to be leadership's top priority most of all, which means there will ‘almost surely' be no rest of the current difficult collection on Tibet or perhaps in locations such as Xinjiang." The information contained in the cable additionally sheds gentle on the severe level of sensitivity that the Chinese government sights territorial integrity, and also the possible drip over of unrest through Tibet.

The prospect associated with solutions to tensions within Tibet and Xinjiang arising from civil society tend to be debated inside a February Twenty-four, 2008 cable television. Whilst suggesting that China's economic success will increase its potential to deal with democratic change, the actual cable television also talks about how Chinese language frontrunners see the usefulness associated with "a limited expansion associated with municipal society, including enhancements within the guideline of law and a more powerful role with regard to authorized beliefs, NGOs, non profit organizations and other actors in places which contribute to sociable balance and do not challenge Communist Party guideline." This is a significant change in thinking, that has observed Ough.S. officials market the idea that Chinese economic improvement, as well as economic relations along with China brings in regards to a progressively democratic society; nevertheless, more faith appears to be placed in the grassroots motion than one which begins from the top levels of the Chinese language government. Nevertheless, the actual cable television proves which "[i]n places for example Tibet as well as Xinjiang, the fear associated with separatism results in tight restrictions about the growth of municipal society." This approach is viewed as counter-productive through the official, that shows that the Ough.Utes. government "should continue to express...serious issues more than Beijing's human privileges record and attract China's growing consciousness which higher regard for human rights, religious freedom and also the guideline of law will serve to advertise the very improvement and sociable stability that China seeks in addition to to improve China's worldwide picture." This type of technique would consider considerable diplomatic skills thinking about "China's paranoid fear the Usa secretly encourages regime alter and ‘separatists' within Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The actual wires provide insight into the actual every day company associated with diplomacy that is hardly ever afforded to everyone, and it is fascinating to note the amount of function carried out nowadays upon Uyghur issues. The importance of the role of the United States as a keep track of of Uyghur human rights conditions within private conversations is created clear, as well as contrasts with its tactful open public stance. The staff of the Uyghur Individual Privileges Project is actually comfortable with the pressure china federal government exerts on Uyghur activists; still, the facts of Chinese government pressure on it's alternatives is illustrative of the degree that Chinese authorities attempt to control contradictory narratives. With increased facts to come from Wikileaks, issues more than Uyghurs might not grab the actual headlines, but the wires have get rid of brand new gentle on the documentation of human privileges conditions within the Uyghur region.

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Wikileaks and also the Uyghurs

through henry upon Dec Twenty, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Manager, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it were ever in doubt, info acquired through the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, offers verified Chinese language federal government worries over it's continued charge of the region this calls Xinjiang, which is also known as East Turkestan. The actual leaked cables through Ough.Utes. diplomats demonstrate the actual degree that Chinese government bodies attempt to persuade government authorities worldwide to consider it's stance upon issues impacting Uyghurs. The wires additionally show the actual United States' issues and sights concerning the ongoing repressive steps in the area.

Most illuminating of Chinese language government stress are the cables pointing in order to Chinese anger, or even the specter associated with Chinese ire, within the discharge of Uyghur detainees in Guantánamo to third nations. A December Twenty nine, 08 cable applies how Chinese Helper International Minister Liu Jieyi fulfilled with the U.S. Ambassador in order to The far east to voice Beijing's strong competitors of release in order to any kind of country apart from China, which when the Ough.S. do indeed accede for this ask for it would "avoid harm to bilateral relationships and to co-operation ‘in essential areas'". Furthermore, the February 2009 cable television describes how the Chinese language Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded as the possible release of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees as "an unfriendly act towards us" along with a "slap in the face". That the Ough.S. government was firm within not releasing the detainees to The far east illustrates the actual extent from the politicized character from the Chinese judicial program. Legitimate concerns over terrorism are understandable, however in the actual Ough.S. government's observe the detainees might probably encounter do-it-yourself torture as well as delivery if they returned in order to The far east

Chinese federal government pressure in regard to the actual Uyghur Guantánamo detainees wasn't just applied to the Ough.Utes. federal government, but also in order to Brand new Zealand along with a handful of Western government authorities that were considering resettlement. Albania, Indonesia as well as Finland, in addition to European Union fellow member states just about all appear to have borne the brunt associated with Chinese government disappointment. Regarding Indonesia, that was initially prepared to think about 2 Uyghurs upon solely humanitarian grounds, Uyghur Guantánamo instances were less better than other detainees because of the unwanted effects taking Uyghurs would have upon relations with The far east. The May 8, 2009 cable applies exactly how "German Ambassador Erina Schaefer reported that Germany had informed The far east of the Ough.S. request to simply accept a few Uighur detainees held from Guantánamo and had been subsequently warned by China of ‘a large burden upon bilateral relations' if Germany were to simply accept any detainees".

The diplomatic wires additionally discuss the unrest within Urumchi, the actual local capital, within July 2009. A July 13, 2009 cable television discussing bulk occurrences within The far east states:

"Ethnic riots like those who work in Xinjiang This summer 5-7 as well as in Tibet in March associated with 08 vary substantially in source as well as character from mass incidents, XXXXXXXXXXXX emphasized in order to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Both present serious trouble for the actual Celebration, XXXXXXXXXXXX stated, however the Celebration leadership would not hesitate to open fireplace upon Uighurs or Tibetans when they deemed this essential to recover order. Bulk incidents present a different type of threat, he said, since the leadership is actually ‘afraid' to fireplace on Han rioters for anxiety about causing massive open public outrage that would change from the Party."

This can be a chilling viewpoint, particularly when one considers the evidence offered in two reports released this season by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) as well as Amnesty Worldwide that fine detail eyewitness company accounts of the use of lethal reside fire against Uyghur protestors within This summer '09. In addition, the declaration that fire wouldn't be used against Han Chinese language protestors offers resonances for that various approach taken by Chinese language security forces in Urumchi to Han Chinese language protests in September 2009. Throughout those protests, after that Party Assistant, Wang Lequan, addressed protesters, who had required he let them know about government reactions to security concerns. A similar request to meet with the Celebration Assistant by Uyghur demonstrators in July wasn't fulfilled.

The actual broader consequences of the unrest additionally noticed a brief discussion about the impact it might possess upon Iran-China relations, and on relations along with Australia following World Uyghur Our elected representatives Leader, Microsoft. Rebiya Kadeer, spoke at the Nationwide Press Membership within Canberra in August '09. Within the second option situation, china government "privately warn[ed] a major Australian bank that vendors the nation's Push Club to use it's influence to block a Kadeer speech there".

The United States' issues about the scenario in the Uyghur region are available through within the wires. Inside a dialogue on policy path within Tibet, U.S. authorities explain that it will end up being not possible with regard to Chinese language frontrunners to adopt the softer collection "if they appear like doing this below worldwide pressure". The cable television out dated 04 Sixteen, 08, 30 days after the outbreak of unrest within Tibetan regions, additionally relayed the observation "that household balance continues to be leadership's top priority most of all, meaning there'll ‘almost surely' be absolutely no relaxation from the current hard collection upon Tibet or in locations such as Xinjiang." The info included in the cable television also storage sheds gentle about the extreme sensitivity with which china federal government views territorial ethics, and also the possible drip more than of unrest through Tibet.

The prospect of solutions to tensions in Tibet and Xinjiang arising from municipal culture are discussed inside a February 24, 2008 cable television. Whilst recommending which China's financial success will increase its resistance to democratic change, the cable television also talks about how Chinese language leaders begin to see the usefulness associated with "a limited expansion of municipal culture, such as enhancements within the guideline associated with law along with a stronger role for authorized beliefs, NGOs, non profit organizations and other actors within areas that contribute to social balance and don't problem Communist Party guideline." This is a notable alternation in thinking, which has observed Ough.Utes. officials market the notion which Chinese language economic improvement, and economic relationships along with The far east will bring about a progressively democratic culture; however, more faith appears to be put into the grassroots motion than one that starts from the best levels of the Chinese language federal government. Nevertheless, the actual cable television concludes which "[i]n places such as Tibet as well as Xinjiang, driving a car of separatism leads to tight limitations on the growth of civil society." This method is viewed as counter-productive by the recognized, that suggests that the Ough.S. federal government "should continue to express...serious concerns more than Beijing's individual privileges report as well as appeal to China's growing consciousness which greater respect with regard to individual privileges, religious freedom and the rule of regulation assists to promote the improvement as well as sociable stability which The far east seeks as well as to enhance China's international image." This type of strategy would consider substantial diplomatic skills thinking about "China's weird concern the United States privately encourages regime alter and ‘separatists' within Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang".

The actual cables offer understanding of the daily business of diplomacy that's rarely afforded to the general public, and it is fascinating to notice the quantity of function carried out behind closed doors on Uyghur issues. The importance of the actual part of the United States as a monitor of Uyghur individual privileges conditions in personal conversations is made obvious, as well as contrasts with its sensible public stance. Employees of the Uyghur Individual Rights Task is actually comfortable with pressure the Chinese federal government exerts upon Uyghur activists; still, the facts associated with Chinese government pressure on its counterparts is illustrative of the diploma that Chinese authorities attempt to suppress contradictory stories. With increased facts to come from Wikileaks, concerns over Uyghurs may not get the head lines, however the wires have shed brand new gentle about the documentation of individual rights conditions within the Uyghur region.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Search Engine Optimisation And Article Marketing Will Place You On Page 1

Search engine marketing and marketing with articles are a couple of the most powerful strategies that you can use promoting your website and get the revenue and success that you desire for your web business. Those two things have been around to get a really long time already however they still remain to be really effective. In reality, these have helped many people free themselves from the traditional ways of money-generating options of society.

In this post, I will be showing the ways on how you can properly execute search engine optimization and marketing with articles for the betterment of the small business website. Additionally, I will also be discussing different points that you must look out for when you're using these two internet marketing strategies to market your website and acquire customers. Even though article promotion and Search engine optimisation have been around for a long time already, you need to know that the trends and choices as to how they are performed are continually changing, and that's why you have to keep yourself up to date with this stuff through the help of Search engine optimisation forum sites to enable you to quickly adjust and learn to make your strategies more efficient.

In the past submitting articles to various websites was once so simple the effects they produce for websites was powerful. However, everything has changed a whole lot today. These days submitting the identical article to several websites has stopped being a good idea because engines like google have now changed to some huge extent in the way they rank pages. They no more rank contents which are identical like they accustomed to in the past. This really is among the best examples of changes that occur in web marketing trends. This change has given birth to wide plethora of methods that online marketers are using today. The majority of web marketers now produce articles and publish them in really popular article submission sites and wait for targeted visitors to come to their pages. Perhaps that most reliable Seo strategy that you can use. Aside from being effective, this delivers positive benefits on a regular basis. The only problem with this particular strategy is that the caliber of traffic that you'll get using this won't be that good if you do not do proper keyword research beforehand and rehearse in-links. You first need for attending these two things before you decide to submit your posts so that you won't end up losing considerable amounts of targeted traffic. Which means that you must practice good levels of diligence if you'd like your advertising initiatives to be effective.

In addition to articles, you can also use operating a blog, which can be another really powerful form of online marketing strategy today because it is highly favored by search engines. On this technique, you are able to choose to create a single blog site that specifically targets your chosen market or else you can contribute to other blogs that are called experts within your niche.

Learn effective Vancouver search engine optimization techniques on the Vancouver SEO website.

Roofing Contractors Vancouver WA

There are numerous things to consider when looking for any roofing contractor. Value, experience, and referrals are a few of the things you'll probably be concerned about. Keep reading for even other great ideas.

Finding a Roofers

Before buying roofing contractor, be sure you have a basic idea of the task that you need to have inked. By no means must you be an authority. If you have any Roof Certificate, read it carefully to find the details about your active roof. Unless you have a Roof Certificate, talk about documents agreed upon during shutting to locate your homes Inspection sheet. These documents should give you everything you need to learn about your roof. Just before contacting any roofing contractor, you ought to have a list of requirements and requirements to help you determine exactly who works for your roofer project. Make sure to write down each and every potential roofing contractor's answers along with check them against the other. If there are any inacucuracy, be sure to notice this along with take this into consideration when making a final selection. There are no surefire ways to select a roofing contractor, however , if you take heed to the data provided, your odds of a successful roofing project are generally greatly enhanced.

One of the best methods for finding a roofers is by word of mouth. Try inquiring a friend or relative who has had roofing work completed, and has been satisfied with the task. Get the name of the organization and their contact information. If you have not sure of mouth area referrals, try out first hunting in the mobile phone book and online. A large ad or elegant website is not necessarily an indication of the high quality of work, but tend to be a great tool for measuring just how long and determination they have put into their particular profession. Furthermore, try discovering current worksites and appearance at the roof covering work which is done maybe in the process of becoming finished. Should you be visually pleased, ask the property manager to the name from the roofing contractor and their contact information.

Research

When looking for a new roofing contractors, it's imperative to 1st do your background research. Purchasing in the yellow pages or on the Internet is a suitable place to find a service provider, finding relevant information on these types of businesses will probably be found in many areas. 1st, check with spots like the Bbb, city, express, and county public records, along with local licensing agencies. Ask your roofing contractor if they are a member of any roofing contractor associations. These kind of precautions may mitigate your own risks. Additionally ask them what types of roofing they will specialize in. Additionally ask your own roofing contractor about any extended warranties they offer on the installed roofing. Find out what safety measures they decide to try avoid harm done to the rest of the home by simply workers. Things such as gutters, house siding, and fireplaces are close in proximity and for that reason susceptible to unintentional damages.

Make certain all of this facts are included in your written contract. Find out if you need a roofer permit and/or agreement from your house owners association in advance. These people will let you know who's responsible for acquiring these allows and authorizations. If it is the duty of the roofing contractor, also have this included as part of your contract. When it is your obligation, get said permits and permissions collated using the estimated roofing project and possess it clearly posted or readily available.

Licensing and References

Roofing Companies are not necessary to be licensed in all states. Contact nearby licensing organizations that control general development contractors for any list of demands. Once you have attained the requirements, develop a list of thorough questions to ask your potential roofing contractor. This simple checklist should right away help you to get rid of the qualified from the not qualified roofing installers. Qualified companies should be able to very easily answer questions or tell you that they must do further research prior to giving a definitive reply.

Even if the roofing contractor has all essential licensing, you must ask to see pictures associated with completed covering jobs and also speak to happy clients. Have a list of concerns handy must recent consumers, such as the nature of the work, timeliness, and all round satisfaction. Ensure these are recent clients along with cross reference if possible. In the case of commercial roof covering, make sure that the actual roofing contractor can be bonded. Checking these recommendations is another extra measure of protection to define the list associated with potential covering contractors.

Search engine optimization Through Article marketing

Articles could be a very powerful type of Seo on your company website. Quality written articles have the ability to increase your websites SERP and add quality in your company website. Writing informative keyword rich articles is essential in gaining new backlinks in your business website. Articles can and may be written on topics which are unique in your business or industry. The articles can discuss a multitude of issues and ideas in your industry. Articles that offer people with a resource will always be probably the most popular and most likely types of articles which will lead to backlinks aimed at your web.

Focus your articles on your potential readers or customers. Seo articles should address real questions which are asked by current or best buyers. Each article you write for you personally company includes detailed analysis and Seo keywords that will help associate your website with all the content present in the web site. Focus your articles on up to 3 keywords and don't stray from their website. Consistency is important when writing Seo articles. If you're writing about Vancouver Search engine optimization make sure your carry on and talk about information relevant to the keyword.

Give every one of your Search engine optimization Articles an engaging Title which will encourage people to learn and bookmark your posts. Ideally, the articles you are writing can become as links off their websites that are just like yours. This alone will help improve the power of each one link all of which will aid in increasing your SERP. Make sure to end each article using a keyword anchored link (see Easy Small enterprise Seo). This link will assist you to enhance your rankings on the internet as well as other major search engines for that keyword connected to the link. Submit the articles with a free article directory and Voila! Before you know it, your site could possibly be for the first page of Google.

Appreciate your reading. Can't wait to visit your Search engine optimization articles!

Vancouver Search Engine Optimization Company Aims For Google Places With Total Success

When people type in looking term searching for a business of their local area, they'll find that Google places and Google maps is showing listings of local businesses. It is extremely eminent to allow them to be optimized and for auction on this first page whenever they desire to generate business. Vancouver SEO companies must be educated in this field for their clients.

There seems to be a great deal of new Vancouver SEO companies setting up, simply because the requirement is there. Finding a search engine optimization firm that has the client's welfare at heart could be tedious. The amount of keywords do they optimize for? What are the keywords and the corresponding amount of searches? Do they understand how to optimize for Google places? And the like. Seo may be the business of landing at the very top and Maxim Edge provide there.

"My wife i started our Vancouver Seo agency by accident. We have learned with the school of hard knocks and experimentation how to use the web to showcase any business. We began using the website, then the competition, and then of course building quality back-links to push a web site up in the rankings. It is not pushing a button and watching what goes on type of business. It takes a lot of effort, lots of research and many commitment. We work tirelessly for our clients and that we are very satisfied with a high retention rate." Randy Neale says.

For added information about Michael, a Vancouver Seo agency, please visit their site today at seo4vancouver.com

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Uyghur People from Eastern Turkistan

In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is a least populated province whereas it covers near to a sixth from the nation's area. Having resisted while in hundreds of years the chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old East Turkistan, fell into under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.

Islamic above all, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identity which, in particular, allowed them to preserve a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese invader. Indeed, the Uyghur Empire of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

While in their own historical past, the Uyghur People successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly moving to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., thus starting the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.

Under the influence of the religions which they adopted, Uyghur People taken successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.

The arrival of Islam was a great change since it was supported by the assimilation of the Uyghur land in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Muslim Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used at present.

If their own writing, their language and their religion mark a real difference with the culture of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also differ from their characteristic, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features pointing out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek roots of these men and these women.

For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only 8 million people - a trifle for this specific huge land. Therefore, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 racial minority groups having been well-known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.

This statute allows these people a few privileges in a land where their difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur families escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang.

The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, appears quite illusory. The presence of all natural sources in Xinjiang, and its closeness with nations recognised as very sensitive, highly motivated the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the larger responsibility work opportunities.

In reaction to this true will to assimilate the Uyghur people into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.

Saying more flexibility, but especially the recognition of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in area Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The situations of September 11, 2001, were the perfect occasion for the Chinese government to justify true reprisals: they declared the "Uyghur freedom fighters" as dangerous terrorists linked to Al Quaida because of their Muslim origins and their proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan... However, the terrible repression which followed did not calm down the anger. The Uyghurs population continues today to proudly keep up their identification and their culture , despite the fact that they become a minority on their own land.

To get more detailed information about Uyghur people, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com