Tuesday, March 29, 2011

personal finance blog

Blogger Andrew Trench recently presented a theory on the threshold of when Internet penetration starts to matter, writing:

Social networks have also been given plenty of credit for the revolution unfolding in Egypt.

So I went and had a look at the numbers over on www.internetworldstats.com to see what they could tell us about these two scenarios. Well, fascinatingly, both Egypt and Tunisia have seen a massive growth in internet users and internet penetration over the last 10 years.

Both have now got internet penetration of over 20% and in Tunisia's case it was as high as 34%.

While it is clearly simplistic to over-state this factor and there must be many more drivers contributing to such a rapid political uprising, it is obviously a factor as evidenced by the Egyptian regime pulling the plug on the country's internet access to try and block the rising tide of revolt.

My back-of-napkin theory is this: that a rapid increase in internet penetration in a repressive regime does play an important role as it provides an unfettered channel of communication allowing disaffected citizens to share views - and more importantly - to rapidly organise and mobilise.

If Egypt and Tunisia are valid case studies, it looks like internet penetration of around 20% is the mark.

Geopolitics & Macroeconomics adds:

Internet penetration: Social networking sites were critical to sustaining the momentum in the recent protests. The internet penetration in Egypt is 16%. In Libya, it is a meagre 5% [1]. The unrest in Libya has thus far remained concentrated in regions that are geographically distant from the seat of ‘real' power (see more on this below). The dependence of momentum on internet communication is far greater in Libya than in Egypt where protests began in Cairo itself.

Taking the conversation to Pakistan, Sabene Saigol writes, on BrandRepublic:

Perhaps one reason for this is that we're still not that used to communicating via the ‘net - maybe we need greater broadband and internet penetration. Personally I think it is more to do with culture - while Pakistani internet users are savvy to using social media to connect with friends, I feel they have not yet ‘crossed over' to seeing SM as a means for professional communications - or even wider social communications that go beyond their immediate circle. Yes, there are no doubt savvy people - both within marketing and tech circles, and outside - however, these people are likely a tiny proportion of the total number of ‘net and social media users.

If you don't know much about Justin Bieber's rise to superstardom, James Parker provides a good primer:

How did he do it? With YouTube, that’s how. Kissed in his cradle by the witch of the Web, Justin was throwing up little promo reels by the time he was 12. Singing a Brian McKnight song into the bathroom mirror. Or sitting on some municipal steps somewhere, busking mightily about the Lord: “You’re my God and my Fa-ther!” he bellows through the legs of passersby, the wooden body of his guitar reverberating with his shouts. ...

Bieber wasn’t from the Disney factory, and he didn’t have a show on Nickelodeon, so the marketing plan was skewed toward his already established constituency in social media: lots of Facebooking and YouTubing and sugary tweets to his millions-strong Twitter army.

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MLB creates new seven-day DL for concussions

Major League Baseball and its players union have announced a new set of protocols for dealing with concussions, including the creation of a new seven-day disabled list for players with the injury.

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Small Business News: Social Media Brand

What is your social media brand? Do you have one? Sure, many small business owners and entreprene...

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Take Two: Donald Trump Releases Official Birth Certificate - The Note

Donald Trump learned the hard way this week that if you're going to call on the president to release his official birth certificate, you'd better do the same. The Note, authored by ABC News' Amy Walter and Michael Falcone, ...

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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.

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.

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Welcome to Facebook
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NYTimes.com's Plan To Charge People Money For Consuming Goods, Services Called Bold Business Move | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
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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.

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Jon Stewart Calls Out NBC News For Not Reporting on GE's $0 Tax ...

On Friday, The New York Times reported that General Electric paid no U.S. federal income tax in 2010, despite earning $14.2 billion in profits. While.

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Take Two: Donald Trump Releases Official Birth Certificate - The Note

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foreclosure homes

We pointed last week to an analysis by Lynn Syzmoniak that showed that foreclosures across a number of different servicers were way down in January 2011 versus the same period in January 2010. This was admittedly a tally in only two Florida counties, but she indicated that a quick look at other counties in Florida showed a similar pattern.

So the question then becomes: is this a Florida only development, due perhaps in part the fact that all the big foreclosure mills in the state are under investigation by the state AG and are imploding (as in losing clients and shedding staff)? Or is this a broader trend due to the robo signing scandal leading judges being more receptive to arguments about chain of title and validity of transfers? Before, the assumption was “bank right, borrower trying to abuse the law to stay in house”. Now more judges, seeing that banks have run roughshod over legal requirements, are prepared to give borrower arguments a hearing. That forces banks to up their game, which in turn may be the real driver for this apparent slowdown in foreclosure actions. If that was the main driver in Florida, we’d expect to see similar patterns in other states.

We are seeing analogous developments, but the drivers appear to be state specific, as judges give adverse rulings on common practices in foreclosure land. Reader wc4d pointed to a report in the Portland Oregonian, that lenders are withdrawing cases because five court decisions have found that lenders that used MERS violated state recording laws.

This is a vivid illustration of a point made in an article on MERS yesterday by Gretchen Morgenson:

MERS was flawed at conception, those critics say. The bankers who midwifed its birth hired Covington & Burling, a prominent Washington law firm, to research their proposal. Covington produced a memo that offered assurances that MERS could operate legally nationwide. No one, however, conducted a state-by-state study of real estate laws.

“They didn’t do the deep homework,” said an official involved in those discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because he has clients involved with MERS. “So as far as anyone can tell their real theory was: ‘If we can get everyone on board, no judge will want to upend something that is reasonable and sensible and would screw up 70 percent of loans.’ ”

As we’ve also noted, recording clerks in single counties in Massachusetts and North Carolina are looking into how to recover recording fees from MERS, but the cost of litigation means they’d need other counties in the same states to join or the state attorney general to take up the matter. By contrast, the Oregon decisions don’t hit small fry MERS; they are a big problem for the banks themselves. As the Oregonian reports:

Sales of hundreds of foreclosed homes in Oregon have been halted or withdrawn in recent weeks after federal judges repeatedly questioned their legality, according to a number of real estate attorneys in the state.

Lenders have withdrawn more than 300 foreclosure sales since February in Deschutes County alone, one of the Oregon area’s hardest hit by the housing collapse. About 130 of those notices were filed in the past week, attorneys say.

Dozens of foreclosure listings by ReconTrust Co., the foreclosure arm of Bank of America Corp., have disappeared from its website, attorneys say…

Since October, federal judges in five separate Oregon cases have halted foreclosures involving MERS, saying its participation caused lenders to violate the state’s recording law. Three of those decisions came last month, the key one in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Eugene.

Attorneys say it’s not clear whether lenders in Oregon will simply start over or head to court to foreclose, steps that could prolong the crisis for months and drive up costs, attorneys say. Some suggest lenders might not have access to the documents they need to comply with state law.

“A lot of us are questioning whether there is a solution,” said David Ambrose, a Portland attorney who represents lenders in mortgage transactions. “It’s pretty amazing. There are a lot of unanswered questions.” ….

In Oregon, lenders can foreclose without going to court. But state law also requires that the loan’s ownership history, or assignments, be recorded with local county governments before proceeding with a nonjudicial foreclosure.

In the Eugene court case, Donald E. McCoy III filed for bankruptcy protection in part to block U.S. Bank from foreclosing on his Central Point home. He then sued the bank and MERS, along with his original lender BNC Mortgage Inc., claiming they had not properly recorded BNC’s subsequent sale of the loan to investors.

Chief Bankruptcy Judge Frank R. Alley III found McCoy’s allegation persuasive and refused to grant the bank’s request for a dismissal.

“Oregon law permits foreclosure without the benefit of judicial proceeding only when the interest of the beneficiary (lender) is clearly documented in a public record,” Alley wrote. “When the public record is lacking, the foreclosing beneficiary must prove its interest in a judicial proceeding.”

This looks like an epic fail for the banks, at least in Oregon. To save maybe $50 on recording fees, they are now going to have to go to court to foreclose. And worse for them will be cases where the records don’t pass muster. Recall that servicers advance principal and interest to investors when borrowers become delinquent. They then reimburse themselves out of the foreclosure proceeds. No foreclosure and they are out a lot of dough.

As Morgenson’s source indicated, the banks brazenly assumed that the courts would simply roll over rather than block the extra-legal imposition of a new system. But there is enough of a semblance of rule of law in the US to undermine all the cost savings and corners-cutting they engaged in. Recall this recent New York decision:

This court does not accept the argument that because MERS may be involved with 50 percent of all residential mortgages in the country, that is reason enough for this court to turn a blind eye to the fact that this process does not comply with the law.

The courts are delivering the banks an unrelenting series of deserved unkind cuts. This is getting to be interesting, and for a change, in a good way.

Disclaimer:
This is a personal web site. It is not a production of Media Matters for America (MMFA). Statements on this site do not represent the views or policies of MMFA. Preferences for electoral candidates posted on this site have not been expressed using any MMFA resources.

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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. ...

How to create a Facebook news feed for a journalist (or anything ...

I've been enjoying The Independent's individual Facebook feeds for journalists, football teams and other 'entities' of their news coverage. So much so that.

Iranian Video Says Mahdi is 'Near' - World - CBN News - Christian ...

New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.

Monday, March 28, 2011

SEO Services Vancouver For any Better Marketing Solution

When you begin your own website there are lots of ways you will have to sell it off and one of the best ways is by using SEO services Vancouver if you be in that area. The SEO or search engine optimization services will be the top way of getting more visitors to your website and therefore making more sales.

Now, you need to know that you won't use SEO service if you're not an internet business - however, if you don't come with an online presence if you are a offline business, then you will not make it very far.

It is a well known proven fact that if you are going to make it within the offline world you need to have an online business. This really is something that all people are learning the hard way. Something that you should also know is that it is not as simple as just setting up the website and leaving it to do its things.

You can do this in most sorts of ways, but these companies usually make use of multiple methods to create the perfect marketing technique online. It is possible to hire them to write articles for you personally, post on forums and blogs, create meta data and meta descriptions, clean up the code, add alt tags to the images plus much more.

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

As a result the Search engine optimization company cannot only improve your traffic, but also make sure that your website is fully optimized for that search engine spiders that will be brought to it. These spiders are used to analyze your website and put it in a few positions determined on certain keywords.

If you want to use the SEO services Vancouver then all you have to do is discover the top companies. It's through these how the SEO gets done effectively and efficiently. Because of so many SEO companies to select from you need to be sure that the one you're going for is reliable. You should be able to ask for a failure of what you want, and also the company should also be able to let you know know long they have been operating for. This will limit the list to reveal the very best ones.

SEO Services Offered by Different Vancouver Web Companies

The Vancouver SEO company services are very beneficial for business growth because they provide quality services. If you're planning to produce a website for the online business, then you have arrived at right article as I is going to be explaining below how Search engine optimisation Vancouver company services can increase your website ranking and make it popular.

Before that, you should know what Search Engine Optimization is. It is not that complicated and i am sure you're going to get a grasp of it reading my article. The main goal of SEO is to have more traffic to 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 could be indexed by search engines.

There is no point in you having a website without any website ranking whatsoever as you won't get any business and profits to outlive. It's a very tough atmosphere out there because there are so many online business people just like you, who desire their share of pie. You must be aware of the truth that nearly 85% of world wide web traffic can be got from web sites.

Whenever a user types inside a keyword or keywords for what he/she really wants to know in different sites, these use crawlers to obtain websites with the relevant content and index them based on algorithms. You don't have to worry about the algorithms which these websites use as that is not important.

To look within the first page of the google listing, you will need to hire professionals and pros who can do the needful to maintain your website among the good books in these websites. These professionals can optimize your website content to ensure that your website gets increased traffic.

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

Use keywords that are popularly used on search engines like google on your website content.
Have a website design for the website that 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 for your websites. This really is considered as a very effective method of getting increased traffic to your website as many internet users use blogs and forums.

SEO Vancouver company also perform site diagnostics that is an important part in online optimization as research and analysis on finding keywords is the method to start a SEO campaign. So, make sure you choose the best SEO Vancouver service 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 Roofers

When the time comes to correct or even substitute your homes roof, it's really a daunting task to locate somebody that is qualified to do the job. There are many roofing contractors available, however the ones who'll perform a congrats for a sensible cost are not often simple to find. If you are in the market for a contractor, make use of the tips below with regard to meeting with and hiring the right one.

Interview and Consultation

The majority of roofers offer free consultation services. This is especially important, because it provides them an opportunity to evaluate exactly what your roof needs, and it gives you an opportunity to evaluate them. As with all of companies, trust your intuition concerning the people a person let up on your roof. No matter exactly how good a contractor's reputation or even recommendation, he or she should begin by showing you having a business greeting card. If a contractor arrives looking as well as speaking within an unprofessional manner, chances are that the job he's going to perform may also be unprofessional. This is not to say that you should anticipate contractors to arrive within suits. They will be hiking in your roof, therefore the majority of is going to be dressed up in jeans as well as work boots or athletic shoes. If the contractor appears to be more interested in speaking upon his cell phone during your homes roof than he's within evaluating your own roof's requirements, which may be an additional sign that he's not the one to do the job. For the lawful protection, make sure that the actual contractor has adequate legal responsibility insurance coverage.

Roofing Evaluation

Anticipate that the service provider is going to be rising in your roofing. Actually, any service provider who does not want to go up on your roofing to judge the problem should be immediately discounted. Those who're seriously interested in their own function may possibly create a sketching of the roof's surface area and mark problem areas onto it because they go through their evaluation, or even they'll take pictures or video from the surface while they're up there. This is an extremely essential action, since it enables you to observe exactly what the troubles are as well as know how they'll be fixed.

Estimate

The next step will be the written estimation. The service provider will require away their calculator and come track of a written estimation. Some contractors goes to their truck or truck as well as write down the proposal, while some will crunch the actual amounts to do the job in front of you. Once you're because of the suggestion, ensure that you comprehend which items is going to be utilized, how long the job will take and when you will find any extra or even hidden expenses that could occur during the repair of the roofing. The contractor should be able to solution all of these questions with ease as well as forewarn you associated with a extra expenses that might be incurred should the roof's integrity be damaged inside.

After you have obtained several created estimates from roofing contractors, evaluate exactly what each company or even service provider is willing to offer you for the cost. Do not necessarily discount the greatest bid, simply because sometimes the greatest bid will actually be the service provider who does the task properly. Additionally, be wary of bids that are not nearly as expensive other people. They may be using substandard products or perhaps be unethical concerning the chance of concealed expenses. Above all, believe in intuition as well as go with the actual contractor who enables you to feel most comfortable regarding handing over 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 the Uyghurs

through holly on December Twenty, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Manager, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it were actually in doubt, information acquired by the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, has confirmed Chinese federal government worries over its continued charge of the region it phone calls Xinjiang, which is also referred to as East Turkestan. The leaked out cables from U.Utes. diplomats demonstrate the actual degree to which Chinese language government bodies make an effort to persuade government authorities globally to adopt its stance upon issues affecting Uyghurs. The actual cables also display the actual U . s . States' issues as well as views regarding the on going repressive steps in the area.

The majority of illuminating of Chinese federal government stress would be the wires directed in order to Chinese language frustration, or the specter of Chinese language ire, within the discharge of Uyghur detainees in Guantánamo to third countries. The December 29, 2008 cable applies exactly how Chinese language Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi fulfilled using the U.S. Ambassador in order to China to voice Beijing's strong competitors of release to any nation other than The far east, and that when the Ough.Utes. do indeed accede for this ask for it might "avoid harm to bilateral relationships and to co-operation ‘in essential areas'". In addition, a February '09 cable explains how the Chinese language Ambassador in order to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded as the actual possible release of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees as "an unfavorable act towards us" and a "slap in the face". The U.S. federal government stood company within not really releasing the actual detainees in order to China demonstrates the extent of the politicized nature of the Chinese judicial program. Genuine concerns over terrorism are easy to understand, however in the Ough.Utes. government's view the detainees would probably encounter do-it-yourself torture and execution if they came back in order to China

Chinese language federal government pressure regarding the actual Uyghur Guantánamo detainees was not only applied to the actual U.Utes. government, but additionally in order to Brand new Zealand and a number of Western government authorities that were thinking about resettlement. Albania, Germany as well as Finland, in addition to Eu member states all have the symptoms of borne the actual impact of Chinese federal government unhappiness. Regarding Indonesia, which was at first prepared to consider 2 Uyghurs on purely humanitarian grounds, Uyghur Guantánamo cases were less better than other detainees due to the negative effects taking Uyghurs would have upon relationships with China. The May Eight, 2009 cable applies how "German Ambassador Erina Schaefer documented that Indonesia had informed The far east from the U.Utes. ask for to simply accept a few Uighur detainees kept at Guantánamo coupled with already been subsequently warned by China associated with ‘a heavy load upon bilateral relations' if Germany had been to accept any kind of detainees".

The diplomatic cables additionally talk about the actual unrest within Urumchi, the regional capital, in July '09. The This summer Thirteen, '09 cable television talking about bulk incidents in The far east says:

"Ethnic riots such as those in Xinjiang July 5-7 and in Tibet within March of 2008 vary markedly in source as well as nature from bulk incidents, XXXXXXXXXXXX emphasized to PolOff [Political Officer] on XXXXXXXXXXXX. Both existing serious trouble for the Celebration, XXXXXXXXXXXX said, however the Celebration management wouldn't wait to open fire on Uighurs or Tibetans if they considered this essential to recover order. Mass incidents pose a different type of risk, he explained, as the leadership is actually ‘afraid' to fire upon Han rioters for anxiety about causing massive public outrage that will change against the Party."

This is a relaxing opinion, especially when one considers evidence presented in two reports released this year through the Uyghur Human Privileges Task (UHRP) and Amnesty International which detail eyewitness accounts of the use of deadly reside fire against Uyghur protestors within July '09. In addition, the actual declaration which fireplace would not be deployed towards Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for that different strategy used through Chinese language protection forces within Urumchi to Han Chinese protests in September '09. During individuals direct orders, after that Celebration Secretary, Wang Lequan, addressed demonstrators, that experienced required he let them know about government reactions in order to security issues. A similar request to satisfy using the Celebration Assistant by Uyghur demonstrators in July wasn't fulfilled.

The actual broader consequences from the unrest also noticed a brief dialogue on the effect it would have on Iran-China relationships, and on relationships with Australia following Globe Uyghur Congress President, Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, spoke at the Nationwide Press Membership in Canberra within July 2009. Within the latter case, the Chinese federal government "privately warn[ed] a major Aussie bank that vendors the nation's Press Membership to make use of its influence to bar the Kadeer talk there".

The United States' concerns concerning the scenario in the Uyghur area also come via within the cables. In a discussion upon plan direction in Tibet, Ough.Utes. officials clarify that it'll be not possible with regard to Chinese language leaders to consider a softer line "if they appear like doing so below international pressure". The cable television dated April Sixteen, 08, 30 days after the outbreak associated with unrest within Tibetan areas, additionally relayed the actual observation "that household balance continues to be leadership's top priority most of all, meaning there'll ‘almost surely' be absolutely no rest of the present hard collection on Tibet or in locations such as Xinjiang." The info contained in the cable television also sheds light on the severe sensitivity that china government views territorial integrity, and the possible drip more than associated with unrest through Tibet.

The chance associated with methods to tensions within Tibet as well as Xinjiang arising from civil society are discussed in a Feb Twenty-four, 2008 cable. Whilst suggesting which China's financial success increases it's potential to deal with democratic change, the actual cable television additionally discusses exactly how Chinese frontrunners see the effectiveness of "a limited expansion associated with municipal culture, such as enhancements within the guideline of law along with a stronger role with regard to approved religions, NGOs, non profit organizations along with other stars in places which contribute to social stability and don't problem Communist Celebration guideline." This can be a notable alternation in thinking, which has observed U.Utes. authorities market the notion that Chinese language financial development, as well as financial relations with The far east brings in regards to a progressively democratic culture; however, more faith seems to be placed in a grassroots motion than one that begins from the best quantity of a Chinese language government. Nonetheless, the actual cable television concludes that "[i]n areas for example Tibet as well as Xinjiang, driving a car of separatism leads to tight limitations on the growth of municipal culture." This approach can be regarded as counter-productive through the recognized, that shows that the actual Ough.Utes. government "should still express...serious issues over Beijing's individual rights report and attract China's growing awareness which higher regard for human privileges, religious independence and also the rule associated with regulation will serve to promote the very improvement and sociable stability that China looks for as well as to enhance China's international image." This type of strategy would consider substantial diplomatic abilities considering "China's paranoid concern the United States secretly promotes routine alter and ‘separatists' in Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The wires offer understanding of the every day company associated with diplomacy that is rarely owned by everyone, which is fascinating to notice the quantity of work done nowadays on Uyghur issues. The importance of the actual part of the us like a monitor associated with Uyghur human rights conditions in private discussions is created clear, and contrasts using its sensible open public position. Employees from the Uyghur Human Rights Project is comfortable with pressure china federal government exerts upon Uyghur activists; still, the details of Chinese federal government pressure on its alternatives is illustrative of the diploma that Chinese authorities attempt to suppress contradictory narratives. With more revelations in the future from Wikileaks, issues over Uyghurs might not grab the headlines, but the cables have shed new gentle about the paperwork of human privileges problems within the Uyghur region.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Wikileaks and the Uyghurs

through holly on December Twenty, This year
Henryk Szadziewski, Supervisor, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it were actually uncertain, info obtained by the whistleblower website, Wikileaks, offers confirmed Chinese federal government worries more than its continued charge of the region it phone calls Xinjiang, which is also known as Eastern Turkestan. The actual leaked cables through Ough.S. diplomats demonstrate the degree to which Chinese language government bodies attempt to persuade government authorities worldwide to adopt its position upon issues impacting Uyghurs. The actual wires additionally display the U . s . States' concerns as well as views concerning the ongoing repressive measures in the region.

The majority of lighting of Chinese language federal government pressure are the cables directed in order to Chinese frustration, or the specter of Chinese language ire, over the discharge of Uyghur detainees in Guantánamo to 3rd nations. A December Twenty nine, 08 cable television applies how Chinese Helper Foreign Reverend Liu Jieyi fulfilled using the U.S. Ambassador to The far east to tone of voice Beijing's powerful competitors associated with release to any country other than China, which when the U.Utes. did indeed accede to this ask for it might "avoid harm to bilateral relations and to co-operation ‘in important areas'". In addition, the February '09 cable explains the way the Chinese language Ambassador in order to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the possible release of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees because "an unfavorable act towards us" and a "slap within the face". The U.S. government was company within not really releasing the detainees to The far east demonstrates the actual extent of the politicized nature of the Chinese language judicial program. Genuine issues over terrorism tend to be easy to understand, however in the U.S. government's observe the detainees would most likely encounter torture as well as execution when they came back in order to China

Chinese government stress regarding the Uyghur Guantánamo detainees wasn't just put on the U.Utes. federal government, but also in order to New Zealand and a number of Western governments that were thinking about resettlement. Albania, Indonesia as well as Finland, as well as Eu fellow member states all have the symptoms of paid for the brunt associated with Chinese federal government disappointment. Regarding Indonesia, that was at first willing to think about 2 Uyghurs upon solely relief reasons, Uyghur Guantánamo instances had been much less better than additional detainees because of the negative effects accepting Uyghurs might have upon relationships with China. The May 8, 2009 cable television applies exactly how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer reported that Indonesia had informed The far east from the U.S. ask for to simply accept some Uighur detainees kept at Guantánamo and had already been consequently cautioned by China associated with ‘a large load on bilateral relations' if Indonesia had been to accept any detainees".

The diplomatic cables additionally discuss the actual unrest within Urumchi, the actual regional funds, in This summer '09. A July Thirteen, 2009 cable television discussing bulk incidents within China says:

"Ethnic riots such as those in Xinjiang July 5-7 as well as in Tibet in 03 associated with 2008 differ markedly in origin and character through bulk incidents, XXXXXXXXXXXX stressed in order to PolOff [Political Officer] upon XXXXXXXXXXXX. Both existing serious trouble for the Celebration, XXXXXXXXXXXX said, but the Party management would not wait to spread out fireplace upon Uighurs or Tibetans if they deemed this necessary to recover order. Mass occurrences present another type of threat, he said, since the leadership is ‘afraid' to fireplace upon Han rioters with regard to anxiety about causing massive open public outrage that would turn against the Party."

This is a relaxing viewpoint, particularly when 1 views the evidence presented by 50 percent reports launched this year by the Uyghur Individual Privileges Project (UHRP) as well as Amnesty International which detail eyewitness company accounts from the use of deadly live fireplace against Uyghur protestors in July 2009. Additionally, the actual declaration that fire would not be deployed against Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for that different approach taken through Chinese security forces within Urumchi to Han Chinese language protests within September 2009. During individuals direct orders, then Celebration Secretary, Wang Lequan, tackled demonstrators, who had demanded he let them know about federal government reactions in order to protection issues. A similar request to satisfy with the Party Secretary by Uyghur demonstrators within July wasn't met.

The broader consequences of the unrest also noticed a short discussion on the impact it might have upon Iran-China relations, as well as on relationships along with Australia following Globe Uyghur Our elected representatives Leader, Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, spoke at the National Push Membership within Canberra in July 2009. Within the latter situation, the Chinese federal government "privately warn[ed] a major Aussie bank which sponsors the nation's Push Membership to use it's influence to block a Kadeer talk there".

The actual United States' concerns concerning the situation in the Uyghur region also come via in the wires. Inside a dialogue on plan direction within Tibet, Ough.S. authorities clarify that it'll end up being not possible with regard to Chinese leaders to adopt the softer line "if they appear like they are doing this below international pressure". The actual cable television out dated 04 Sixteen, 2008, one month after the outbreak of unrest in Tibetan areas, additionally relayed the actual declaration "that domestic balance remains the leadership's main concern above all else, meaning there'll ‘almost surely' be no rest from the present hard collection on Tibet or in locations such as Xinjiang." The information contained in the cable television additionally storage sheds gentle on the extreme level of sensitivity that china government views territorial integrity, and the possible spill over associated with unrest from Tibet.

The chance of solutions to tensions in Tibet as well as Xinjiang as a result of civil culture tend to be debated in a February Twenty-four, 2008 cable television. While recommending that China's economic achievement increases it's potential to deal with democratic reform, the cable television also talks about exactly how Chinese leaders see the effectiveness associated with "a limited growth of municipal culture, including improvements within the rule of law along with a more powerful part with regard to authorized beliefs, NGOs, non profit organizations and other actors within areas that bring about sociable stability and do not challenge Communist Party rule." This can be a notable alternation in thinking, which has observed Ough.Utes. officials market the notion which Chinese economic improvement, as well as economic relationships along with The far east will bring in regards to a steadily democratic society; nevertheless, more belief seems to be put into a grassroots motion compared to one that starts in the best levels of the Chinese language federal government. Nonetheless, the actual cable concludes that "[i]n areas such as Tibet as well as Xinjiang, driving a car of separatism leads to tighter restrictions about the development of civil society." This approach can be regarded as counter-productive by the official, who shows that the U.S. government "should continue to express...serious concerns more than Beijing's individual privileges report as well as attract China's growing awareness that higher respect with regard to individual rights, spiritual independence and the guideline associated with law will serve to advertise the development and social stability which China seeks as well as to enhance China's international picture." This type of technique might take substantial diplomatic skills considering "China's paranoid concern that the United States secretly encourages routine alter as well as ‘separatists' within Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The actual wires provide understanding of the daily company of diplomacy that's rarely afforded to everyone, which is fascinating to note the amount of work done nowadays upon Uyghur problems. The importance of the actual role of the United States like a keep track of of Uyghur individual privileges conditions in private discussions is created clear, and contrasts with its sensible open public position. The staff of the Uyghur Individual Rights Project is actually comfortable with the pressure china federal government puts upon Uyghur activists; nevertheless, the details of Chinese language federal government pressure on its counterparts is actually illustrative of the degree which Chinese authorities make an effort to suppress contradictory narratives. With increased revelations to come through Wikileaks, concerns more than Uyghurs might not grab the headlines, however the wires have shed brand new gentle about the paperwork associated with human rights problems within the Uyghur area.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Search Engine Optimization And Article Marketing Will Place Yourself on The First Page

Seo and article marketing are a couple of the strongest strategies that can be used in promoting your website and get the revenue and success that you desire for your internet business. These two everything has been around to get a really long time already but they still remain to be really effective. In fact, these have helped many people free themselves from the traditional methods for money-generating options of society.

In this post, I will be showing the ways how you are able to properly execute search engine optimization and article marketing for the betterment of the small business website. In addition, I will even be discussing the various points you need to consider if you are using these two website marketing strategies to promote your website and obtain customers. Despite the fact that article promotion and Search engine marketing have been in existence for a long time already, you need to know that the trends and preferences as to how they are done are continually changing, which is why you should keep yourself up to date with these items through the help of Search engine marketing forum sites to enable you to quickly adjust and learn to make your strategies more efficient.

In the past marketing with articles to various websites used to be so simple the effects that they produce for websites was powerful. However, stuff has changed a whole lot today. Nowadays submitting exactly the same article to various websites has stopped being recommended because engines like google have now changed with a huge extent in how they rank pages. They no more rank contents which are identical like they utilized to in the past. This really is the most effective types of changes that occur in internet marketing trends. This change has given birth to wide plethora of methods that web marketers are using today. The majority of internet marketers now produce articles and distribute them in really popular article directories and await targeted visitors to come to their pages. Be thought of as that most reliable Search engine marketing strategy that you can use. Aside from being effective, this provides favorable outcomes regularly. A small problem with this strategy is how the caliber of traffic that you will get using this defintely won't be that good if you do not do proper keyword research beforehand and use in-links. You first need for attending these two things before you submit your posts so that you won't wind up losing large amounts of targeted traffic. Which means that you need to practice good levels of diligence if you want your advertising initiatives to function.

In addition to articles, you can also use writing a blog, which can be another really powerful type of internet marketing strategy today because it is highly popular with the major search engines. On this technique, you are able to choose to create a single web log that specifically targets your chosen market or else you can give rise to other blogs which are labeled as experts in your niche.

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

Roofing Contractors Vancouver British Columbia

There are many things to take into consideration when looking for a new roofing contractor. Price tag, experience, and also referrals are a couple of the things you will probably be concerned about. Keep reading for even more ideas.

Finding a Roofing Contractors

Before buying roofing contractor, be sure you have a basic idea of the project that you need to do. By no means is it necessary to be a professional. If you have any Roof Certification, read it completely to find the specifics of your existing roof. Unless you have a Ceiling Certificate, make reference to documents closed during closing to locate your homes Inspection bed sheet. These documents should give you everything you need to find out about your roof. Prior to contacting the roofing contractor, you ought to have a list of demands and specs to help you determine exactly who is suitable for your covering project. Be sure to write down every single potential roofing contractor's answers along with check these against each other. If there are any inacucuracy, be sure to be aware this and take this into consideration when making a final choice. There are no surefire ways to select a roofing contractor, however , if you take heed to the details provided, your chances of a successful covering project are greatly increased.

One of the best ways of finding a roofers is by word of mouth. Try wondering a friend or relative who may have had roofer work carried out, and has been satisfied with the job. Get the title of the business and his or her contact data. If you have not sure of mouth area referrals, try out first hunting in the telephone book and internet-based. A large ad or elegant website is just not necessarily a sign of the top quality of work, but could be a great tool for measuring just how long and dedication they have used in their particular profession. In addition, try discovering current worksites and search at the covering work that is done or perhaps in the process of becoming finished. In case you are visually impressed, ask the property manager for the name in the roofing contractor as well as their contact information.

Background Research

When looking for any roofing contractors, it is imperative to initial do your own background research. Acquire the best in the phone book or on the Internet is a suitable place to find a service provider, finding pertinent information on these kind of businesses will probably be found in many areas. First, check with areas like the Bbb, city, express, and state public records, and local certification agencies. Inquire your roofer if they are an affiliate of any roofer associations. These types of precautions will mitigate your risks. Additionally ask them what forms of roofing they will specialize in. Additionally ask your own roofing contractor with regards to any extended warranties they offer on the installed homes. Find out what measures they choose to use avoid harm done to other areas of the home by workers. Things such as gutters, siding, and chimneys are near the coast proximity and therefore susceptible to unintentional damages.

Make certain all of this information is included in your written contract. Find out if you need a roofer permit and/or choice from your homeowners association beforehand. These entities will let you know who is responsible for acquiring these permits and permissions. If it is the duty of the roofer, also have the idea included as part of your contract. If it's your duty, get stated permits as well as permissions collated with all the estimated roofing project and still have it obviously posted or even readily available.

Certification and Referrals

Roofing Companies are not needed to be qualified in all declares. Contact local licensing agencies that govern general construction contractors for any list of requirements. Once you have acquired the requirements, develop a list of thorough questions to ask your own potential roofing contractor. This simple record should instantly help you to get rid of the qualified from the dodgy roofing companies. Qualified installers should be able to very easily answer questions or even tell you that they need to do additional research just before giving the definitive answer.

Even if the roofing contractor features all necessary licensing, you need to ask to see pictures involving completed roofing jobs and also speak to pleased clients. Have a very list of questions handy must recent clients, such as the character of the career, timeliness, and general satisfaction. Make certain these are the latest clients as well as cross research if possible. When it comes to commercial roofer, make sure that the roofing contractor will be bonded. Checking these references is another additional measure of security to limit the list involving potential roofer contractors.

Search engine optimization Through Content creation

Articles could be an extremely powerful form of Seo on your company web-site. Quality written articles manage to enhance your websites SERP and add quality to your company website. Writing informative keyword rich articles is important in gaining new backlinks to your business website. Articles can and will be written on topics which might be unique to your business or industry. The articles can discuss a multitude of issues and ideas in your industry. Articles that provide your reader which has a resource are always the most popular and a lot likely forms of articles that may lead to backlinks to your website.

Focus your articles on your own potential readers or customers. Seo articles should address real questions which are asked by current or past clients. Each article you're writing to suit your needs company will include detailed analysis and Search engine optimization keywords that can help associate your internet site with the content seen in the website. Focus your articles on as much as 3 keywords and don't stray from their website. Consistency is essential when writing Seo articles. If you are authoring Vancouver Search engine optimization be sure your always talk about information strongly related the keyword.

Give every one of your Search engine optimization Articles an engaging Title that will encourage people to see and bookmark your articles. Ideally, the articles you're writing find yourself as links using their company websites which are much like yours. This can help raise the power of each link all of which will help increase your SERP. Make sure to end each article having a keyword anchored link (see Easy Small enterprise Search engine optimization). This link will help to improve your rankings on the internet as well as other major engines like google for your keyword coupled to the link. Submit the articles to some free article directory and Voila! In no time, your website might be around the first page of Google.

Thanks for reading. Can't wait to see your Search engine optimization articles!

Vancouver Seo Agency Aims For Google Places With Absolute Success

When individuals type in a search term looking for a business of their local area, they'll find that Google places and Google maps is showing listings of local businesses. It's very eminent for them to be optimized and from this first page whenever they desire to generate business. Vancouver SEO companies need to be educated in this region for their clients.

There seems to be a lot of new Vancouver SEO companies setting up, simply because the requirement is there. Finding a search engine optimization firm which includes the client's interest at heart may be tedious. The amount of keywords do they optimize for? What are the keywords as well as the corresponding search volume? Do they learn how to optimize for Google places? And the like. Seo will be the business of landing at the very top and Maxim Edge can get you there.

"My wife i started our Vancouver Search engine optimization company by accident. We have learned over the school of hard knocks and trial and error how to utilize the web to advertise any business. We began with the website, then the competition, after which of course building quality back-links to push an internet site up inside rankings. It's not pushing a button and watching what are the results type of business. It will take a lot of effort, a great deal of research and lots of commitment. We work tirelessly for our clients and we are very pleased with a high retention rate." Randy Neale says.

For added info on Michael, a Vancouver SEO company, please visit their site today at seo4vancouver.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Portraits of Uyghurs

In the middle of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-western part of China, the province of Xinjiang is a very least populated land while it covers near to a sixth from the nation's territory. Getting resisted during centuries the chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old East Turkistan, fell into within the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghur People and Turkish - speaking System.

Islamic primarily, the Uyghur people have a very good religious identification which, in specific, permitted them to maintain a strong difference in opposition to the Chinese enemy. Without a doubt, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a amazing civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

During their historical past, the Uyghurs successively taken on Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly converting to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., thus beginning the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.

Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken on, the Uyghurs used successively, and sometimes in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own graphic system.

The arrival of Islam was a great change because it was accompanied by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the immense Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used presently.

If their writing, their language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also differ from their characteristic, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A shiny 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 included the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only 8 million inhabitants - a trifle for this specific big region. Therefore, Uyghur people are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been well-known in an official way by the People's Republic of China.

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

The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, seems quite illusory. The presence of all-natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with locations known as sensitive, strongly motivated the government to speed up the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant 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 freedom, but specially the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in area Xinjiang.

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 Uyghur peoples population continues today to proudly keep their identity and their ethnic heritage , even though they become a minority on their own territory.

For further information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Portraits of Uyghurs