American Idol Contestant Falls of the Stage

The new season of American Idol has started. We are already in Hollywood week and the first show of Hollywood week ended with a shocker! One contestant falls off the stage in a serious fall.

16-year-old Simone Black from Rancho Cucumango, CA who came to the show with her dad, who is her mentor and stage dad sang “Sitting on the dock of Bay.” She did a very good job at it and I think she has a good chance of making thr top 10 this year. The judges asked why she performed this song and she said “She wanted to reach out to an older audience.” Randy replied in a surprise “Are you saying that we are old?”… Simone repliaed “No..” but then it apeared that she was getting dizzy and walked towards the front of teh stage and fell off. Her head hit the ground! The judges were up on their feet in a surprise. The show staff called for a medic. The first show pf Hollywood week ends here, with teh audiance having to wait one more day to see what happens to Simone.

On the next days show, Simone is shown getting up a few mninutes later and someone giving her a soda. Her dad walks her out so they can go to a hospital. Turns out she was dehydrated and did not have enough water and food. Doctor told her that she needs to drink a lot of water and eat.

AT&T and T-Mobile USA: No Deal

AT&T put $39 billion on the line to acquire T-Mobile USA, but the communications giant has officially dropped its offer. The deal faced stiff opposition from government regulators in the form of the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. The regulators voiced loudly their concerns about the deal’s potential to stymie a “competitive wireless industry” and spell even steeper fees for users of the technology.

AT&T rebutted such concerns by saying that the “AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage,” and that in “the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.” The spectrum shortage mentioned is a short supply of wireless airwaves. The Department of Justice was going after the deal’s demise by arguing that it violated antitrust laws.

In the New York Times, the Justice Department’s deputy attorney general, James Cole, expressed his view on the deal’s end:

This result is a victory for the millions of Americans who use mobile wireless telecommunications services. A significant competitor remains in the marketplace and consumers will benefit from a quick resolution of this matter without the unnecessary expense of taxpayer money and government resources.

Article Submitted by Jim from Moba Project.

Ryan Gosling Robbed of “Sexiest Man of the Year” Title?

When People Magazine uncovered the face of Bradley Cooper as its 2011 choice for “The Sexiest Man Alive,” people took to the streets. It wasn’t that they detested Cooper, it was that Ryan Gosling had been egregiously subbed and “robbed” of the title. Gosling supporters met one another at People’s headquarters in New York City. To boost their own moral and stamina, they chanted: “One, two, three, four/ Bradley Cooper is a bore/ Five, six, seven eight/Ryan Gosling’s super great.”

Apparently, almost 2,000 people have signed on to a Change.org petition demanding that the actor who made hearts melt in 2004’s The Notebook be given a cover. The snub and reaction has received a lot of publicity because 2011 was a breakout year for Gosling. He starred in the summer hit Crazy, Stupid, Love. and in two critically acclaimed fall films: Drive and Ides of March.

George Clooney starred with Gosling in the last film, and he teased the press with the following remarks: “He [Gosling] really wants it. He’s been saying the whole time we were on the set of ‘Ides,’ he was like, ‘How did you pull that off?’” Clooney continued, “So I called up Brad Pitt and we worked with him for weeks on the walk, we told him how to train, everything.”

Article Submitted by Andrew from My Cherry Pop.

Is SEO really hard to do?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has always been about three things: Content, Site Architecture, and Inbound Links. If you’re doing those things right, chances are, you’re going to rank well for the terms that you’re shooting for within your content; if you’re missing something from these three, then you’re probably not where you want to be.

And believe it or not, if you’re doing things correct to start with, all those changes that Google does, really don’t effect you. Both the Panda and Penguin updates aren’t really “new” things… they’re really busting people for stuff they shouldn’t ever have been doing in the first place, which is basically trying to cheat by using crap content and cheap links.

SEO, if you think about, really isn’t something you should sweat separately. If you have a website, even if Google didn’t exist, you would want to create great content for your users to read, you would want to make sure you site was built properly so that users could use it easily, and you would want to have links to your site so other people could find your site. These are all things you should be doing anyway, even if SEO wasn’t a thing.

The hard part with SEO is figuring out what not to do, as many bad links and bad content strategies can actually hurt your rankings. So basically it comes down to your knowledge and if you really have educated yourself before you try to do your own SEO. After that, the other hard part would be to make the time to do all that is necessary as it will be a time consuming process. So if you do not have the time then the only option you have is to hire someone.

I do not provide SEO services and only do it for my own sites. But, if you are looking for a reputable SEO provider, I highly recommend Submit Express, who I have worked with back in the day.  Just don’t hire someone that tries to fog you in with the mystery and make sure they tell you exactly what they would do for you for what they would charge you.  Good luck.

First Lady Michelle Obama to Attend Marine Ball With a U.S. Serviceman

Perhaps inspired by the success had by Cpl. Kelsey De Santis and Sgt. Scott Moore, who respectively, got Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis to be their dates for their military balls, Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Leeks decided to make a similar request to First Lady Michelle Obama. There was, however, one big difference: Cpl. Aaron Leeks asked the First Lady in person; De Santis and Moore made their request through YouTube. The First Lady accepted, but did say she would need to speak with her husband about it. It’s more than likely that President Obama will not prevent the Princeton and Harvard scholar that is his beautiful wife from attending.

The three exchanges demonstrate the way social media has altered the tone and texture of public and private discourse. Aaron Leeks may not have thought it appropriate to ask Michelle Obama to his 2012 Marine Ball had not De Santis and Moore asked out the two actors through YouTube videos. Moreover, if the well-publicized invitations, acceptances, and gala celebrations had not received the attention and approbation they were festooned with, the FLOTUS may not have thought accepting immediately to be within protocol and within social norms.

Sgt. Moore’s addressed this invitation to Mila Kunis: “Hey Mila, it’s Sgt. Moore, but you can call me Scotty. I just want to take a moment out of my day to invite you to the Marine Corps Ball with yours truly. Take a second to think about it and get back to me. All right, bye now.”

Low-Tech and High-Tech Education in Silicon Valley and Beyond

This fall, the New York Times ran a story about a prestigiously “low-tech” school in Los Altos, California, that was impossibly populated by the offspring of the Silicon Valley heavy hitters. According the article’s author, Matt Richtel, Apple, Google, Yahoo, eBay, and Hewlett-Packard are all represented among the student body’s parents. The institution being discussed is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula.

The cornerstone of the school’s approach to education is “physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks.” In the elementary-grade classrooms, computers and screens are banned, and engagement with the technological staples at home is discouraged. Advocates of such teaching methods argue that computers can have adverse effects on “creative thinking, movement, human interaction, and attention spans.”

If you haven’t been in a public elementary school lately, you may be surprised to learn about the tools that are being used to engage students, and also to boost their test scores. Instead of chalkboards, a la Waldorf, more mainstream schools have been experimenting with futuristic-looking touch screens. There at least a feature that would be more easily expected at a University instead of a third-grade classroom. Policymakers who push for more technology in the classroom cite the gulf in technological access among their students that must be bridged in the school setting to even the playing field. Seems like both philosophies could complement one another.

Article Submitted by Nick from Articles 2 Know.

Lisbeth Salander’s Expected Impact on Fashion

Will you be going out to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? Everyone is expecting you to. Especially since the film is more than likely to have long-lasting reverberations in the cultural Zeitgeist of the first half of this still-new decade: Part One of the internationally famous trilogy opens this week and, periodically, over the next few years, a new one will be making its debut. If you think blockbuster trilogies amount to very little, perhaps you could try recalling the vampire fad we’re still in the middle of thanks to the Twilight book and film series.

Rooney Mara is in the lead role and her co-protagonist is Craig Daniel of Bond-fame. Anticipate the title’s “Girl,” Lisbeth Salander, to make a big impact on fashion. Yes, her look is a little over the top with the bleached eyebrows and severe bowl cut, but many a designer, to say nothing of the regular fashion devotees found on the street, will be taking a cue from her dark and modern wardrobe. It proposes a striking contrast to the conservative and purposefully decorous throwback fashion that has ruled the runways, and the wardrobes of both men and women, as of late.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the second film adaptation of Steig Larsson’s posthumously published best-selling novels. David Fincher, who last directed The Social Network is at the helm of this production.

Article Submitted by Mark from Gelco Net.