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Adam Lambert still not gay enough for People

2009-06-08T18:52:39Z

Adam Lambert has been photographed holding hands with his boyfriend Drake LaBry, but that's not enough evidence for some members of the media, who will undoubtedly be shocked when he comes out in Rolling Stone soon. People magazine did two stories in which they refer to Drake--who was frequently in the live audience during American Idol--as Adam's "pal" and "friend" because straight men in America hold hands with their friends. (Maybe they should, like men do in India, but they don't.) First, People pathetically reports that Adam "has been stepping out with a friend" and says "LaBry and Lambert have been pals for years," and then gives five vaguely interesting facts about Drake--yet still refuses to acknowledge once that the only reason any of this is interesting is because Drake's clearly in a relationship with Adam. In the other, Kris Allen talks about Adam's boyfriend and the magazine writes, "Allen calls Lambert and LaBry's friendship a 'cool combination,' because they're so different."

Kris Allen Calls Adam Lambert & Drake LaBry a 'Cool Combination' and 5 Things to Know About Adam Lambert's Pal Drake LaBry [People]

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Mac Hacks: 17 AppleScripts To Make Your Life Easier

2009-05-22T12:28:18Z

If you are an experienced professional, chances are you have a good set of tools and a work process that you repeat on a daily basis to handle your work. That’s good; it’s how you become more productive, and become an expert. But with repetitive processes come repetitive mechanical work. Whether it’s opening a file in Photoshop to change the format or adding an iCal to-do item based on an email you received, these little tasks can be streamlined. That’s the purpose of AppleScripts.

AppleScript is a scripting language developed by Apple to help people automate their work processes on the Mac operating system. It accomplishes this by exposing every element of the system’s applications as an object in an extremely simple, English-like language. AppleScript is to the Mac OS as JavaScript is to browsers.

Quite a few AppleScripts are available on the Web, ready for you to use, so you don’t even need to look at their code. This article presents you with 17 of the most useful ones.

If you’re interested in learning this language, here are some good resources to get started:

Official AppleScript Website
Apple’s page on AppleScript.
AppleScript Language Guide
Apple’s in-depth guide to AppleScript.
MacScripter
The greatest AppleScript forum.
Learning AppleScript
Macworld’s article on the fundamentals of writing AppleScripts.
AppleScript Users
AppleScript Mailing List.

First, Where To Put Your AppleScripts

After you download a script, you have to know where to put it to start using it. For this purpose, let’s say that there are three different kinds of AppleScripts, each of which is used for a different purpose.

Simple Scripts

You put these scripts in a special folder and call them when you need them. You can invoke them just by double clicking on them, but calling them contextually is a lot more effective. Using the Script Menu is one way to achieve this.

To activate the Script Menu, first open the AppleScript Utility app in the /Applications/AppleScript folder and check “Show Script Menu in menu bar.”

The Script Menu will show a list of AppleScripts that come with Mac OS X, plus your application-specific scripts. To add a script to an application, simply put it in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/<NAME_OF_THE_APPLICATION>. If that folder doesn’t exist, you can create it.

For example, if you had a Safari AppleScript, you’d put it in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Safari. From then on, if you clicked the Script Menu when Safari was active, your script would appear at the top of the list for you to use.

Droplets

Droplets are AppleScripts that live in the Finder’s toolbar. To use it, all you need to do is drop a file or folder into it. This is very useful for when a script affects a file or the contents of a folder, because all you have to do is drop the target of the action onto the script’s icon.

To “install” a Droplet, first save it in a folder of your choosing: ~/Library/Scripts/Droplets is a good place. Then just drag the script to the Finder’s toolbar.

Folder Actions

Folder Actions are AppleScripts that are “attached” to a folder. They are executed every time you perform an action with that folder. Folder Actions can get triggered every time you add a file to a folder, remove a file, modify its items, etc. The behavior depends on how the script works, but you can imagine how useful that would be.

To add a Folder Action to a folder, right-click it to bring up the contextual menu, and click Attach a Folder Action. The default location for Folder Action scripts is /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts, but if you want to keep all your custom-installed scripts in one place, ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Actions is a good place to keep them.

Multimedia Processing

1. ConvertImage

This is a great example of how Droplets are useful. Just drop an image file into ConvertImage, and you will be prompted to choose from a list of file formats. Pick a format, and it saves it in the same folder as your original file.

ConvertImage
Type: Droplet
Requirements: OS X 10.4+, Image Events

2. QuickTime to Photoshop

Exports QuickTime frames directly to Photoshop. All you have to do is pause a video at the frame that you want to export, and then invoke the script. If Photoshop is closed, the script will activate it for you. After it imports the frame, it will ask you if you want another frame from the QuickTime file.

QuickTime to Photoshop
Type: Simple Script
Requirements: Adobe Photoshop CS4

3. iPhoto to Photoshop

This opens the currently selected iPhoto image in Photoshop. It is a simple automation leap that gets you where you want without intervening steps.

iPhoto to Photoshop
Type: Simple Script
Requirements: Adobe Photoshop CS4

4. Rampage

Drop an image file or a folder with image files in Rampage, and you get a text file with a lot of information about the file(s): size, resolution, color mode, ICC Profiles and more. It also reports warnings and errors about the file(s). The script currently supports TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG and JPG image formats.

Rampage
Type: Droplet
Requirements: None

5. SWF Extractor

This extract SWF files from Flash projectors (Windows or Mac executables) that are dropped into it.

SWF Extractor
Type: Droplet
Requirements: None

Safari Tools

6. Safari Web Site Validator

Safari Web Site Validator gets the HTML or XHTML from the current active Safari tab and sends the code to the W3C Markup Validation Service in a separate window. It then asks if you want to validate the page’s CSS file as well.

Safari Web Site Validator
Type: Simple Scripts
Requirements: OS X 10.4.4+

7. Tiny URL

Despite its name, the Tiny URL script doesn’t use the TinyUrl application. It’s based on another URL shortening service called Metamark. It goes to the currently active Safari tab and puts the shortened URL directly in your clipboard.

Tiny URL
Type: Simple Scripts
Requirements: None

8. Safari Cleannup

This automates the deletion of Safari icons and cache and plist files. Getting rid of these extraneous files can boost Safari’s performance.

Safari Cleannup
Type: Simple Scripts
Requirements: None

9. Scour Web Page

This script scans the current Web page in Safari looking for MP3, AAC and PDF media files. If it finds multiple files, it prompts you to select the ones you want to keep, and then downloads them and adds them to your iTunes media library.

Scour Web Page
Type: Simple Scripts
Requirements: None

Mail And iCal

10. Fuhgeddaboutit

In Sopranos-speak, fuhgeddaboutit means “forget about it.” Indeed, one of the purposes of GTD is to free your brain from having to keep track of everything. Just relax, forget about it now and be confident that you’ll remember when you need to.

This script make that possible by making iCal To-Do items from an Apple Mail email. Just invoke the script with the email you want, and it will create an iCal item with a due time set relative to the email’s arrival.

Fuhgeddaboutit
Type: Simple Scripts
Requirements: None

11. Send Attachment Droplet

Just drop a file into this Droplet, and it will make a new Mail email with the file as an attachment and the subject set to the file’s name. If the Mail app is closed, the script will open it for you.

Send Attatchment Droplet
Type: Droplet
Requirements: None

12. Remove iCal Duplicates

When you sync and share many calendars in iCal, you often end up with a lot of duplicates. This simple script helps you remove those. But once you ask it to delete duplicates, there’s no undoing. So, be sure to back up your calendar first.

Remove iCal Duplicates
Type: Simple Script
Requirements: None

13. iCalculate

Invoke this script, create an iCal calendar item and start date, and it will generate a text file reporting how many hours you have worked on the project. It even calculates the total cost of the project, based on the hourly rate your specify. Especially suited to freelancers.

iCalculate
Type: Simple Script
Requirements: None

Finder Utilities

14. Pack’em

Pack’em takes one or more items from Finder, packs them with tar, compresses them with either bzip2 or gzip and saves the compressed archive in the same folder as the original items. A great companion to the Send Attachment Droplet. With these two AppleScripts, you can compress and email a set of files or folders directly from Finder.

Pack’em
Type: Simple Script
Requirements: None

15. Rename Files

Just drop a folder into this Droplet, and it will give you a lot of options to batch process its contents. You can rename the files according to names specified in a particular text file or change the files individually. Either way accomplishes your task much faster than by changing every file name independently.

Rename Files
Type: Droplet
Requirements: None

16. Websafe Name

If you develop websites, you are probably accustomed to giving your files Web-friendly names. But there are times when you have to upload a whole set of files sent to you by a client, or upload things that you weren’t expecting to use. Websafe Name is very useful for this kind of task. You don’t even need to look through the list of files; just drop them into this script, and it will rename them to something Web-friendly.

Websafe Name
Type: Droplet
Requirements: None

17. Tagger

The “folder” is a computer interface paradigm that is a very powerful way to organize files. But it’s neither the only paradigm nor the best solution for all scenarios. Many sub-folders nested deep is a sign that a folder structure may not be appropriate. Another great paradigm, coming straight from the Web, is “tagging.” You keep all your files flat in a common location, but group them by tags so that you can retrieve or filter them by tags. It so happens that the Mac OS X has very good support for this. You can use Spotlight Comments to tag files and Smart Folders to dynamically retrieve them. All you need now is an easy way to do this, and this Folder Action does exactly that.

To use Tagger, attach it to a folder. Then, every time you add a file to that folder via Finder, the script will prompt you to tag that file. It also automatically creates Smart Folders for all of your defined tags.

Tagger
Type: Folder Action
Requirements: None

Further Resources

If you like the scripts above, you may also be interested in the following articles and related resources:

ScriptBuilders
A forum in which script authors post their scripts.
Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes
A huge collection of AppleScripts for iTunes.
Macs in Chemistry
AppleScripts aimed at scientists.
Studio Log
Scripts and discussion on how to make them.
AppleScripts on Github
A search list of AppleScripts hosted on Github

Should Smashing Magazine publish more Mac-related posts?

Please let us know in the poll below and in the comments to this post!

Should Smashing Magazine publish more Mac-related posts?(online surveys)

About the Author

Diogo Terror is a Web developer doing PHP work when the sun is up and Ruby on Rails when it gets dark. In between, he writes about Macs and posts random thoughts on Twitter.

(al)

Online Recipe Search Engine Food.com Is The Kayak.com For Recipes

2009-05-01T14:31:03Z

Finding the perfect recipe for a dish can be an arduous and time-consuming task, especially if you want to do a search of multiple recipe sites like Epicurious, Gourmet, and the Food Network for the recipe that best fits your needs. Scripps Network, parent company of the Food Network, has soft launched the beta version of its vast recipe search site Food.com in an effort to solve the problem that most cooks face when they sit down at their computers to find a recipe. Food.com basically searches every reputable recipe site, including Food and Wine, Gourmet, the Food Network, Epicurious, Cooking Light, Martha Stewart, Chow.com and more, and gives you a comprehensive list of possible recipes.

The site provides requisite information from the original site (photos, ingredients, prep time, serving info) but it also lets you filter choices by types of meal, type of cuisine, main ingredient, cooking technique, publication, prep time and diet. It makes searching for recipes similar to searching for flights on Kayak.com. In order to see the full recipe, you are taken to the site where the recipe is originally hosted. The other feature which is worth noting is the ability to drag a recipe that you like into an “online recipe box.” Food.com also allows you to download a toolbar that allows you to drag recipes from all over the Web into your recipe box. And Food.com saves all of your recent searches and activity in a recipe stream. Another cool feature is the ability to upload a recipe and then share it with Food.com’s database.

I did a search for Chicken Marsala on Food.com, Food Network, Epicurious, and Foodista (a Wikipedia for recipes) and Food.com gave me the highest number of choices in recipes, from a variety of sources, and easily allowed me to narrow my search down through its detailed filters. Food.com came up with 368 results, Food Network showed 53 results, Epicurious showed 37 results and Foodista showed 2 results (although, to be fair, Foodista attempts to present the one best recipe)

With the breadth and capabilities of its search capacity and its innovative interface, Food.com is sure to gain a following as a centralized place to not only find recipes but also to store them. One feature that I thought was missing was the ability to filter recipes by chef, which is something that Food Network allows you to do. Epicurious creates a shopping list for the items in the recipes in your recipe box, which is another useful tool when planning a meal. Food.com is currently in beta, so I assume that Scripps will add more features down the line but for an initial trial, the site appears to be a strong addition to the online recipe search space.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

The Secrets of Financial Freedom: An Interview with the Millionaire Next Door

2009-04-30T12:00:49Z

Today is the last day of Financial Literacy Month. To tie everything together, I thought it would be fun to share an interview my real millionaire next door, a man we’ll call John. He used the basic tenets of money management to build wealth and to retire early. Here’s how I described John when I first wrote about him last year:

John is a 71-year-old retired shop teacher who lives in a modest ranch house on half an acre, the same house he’s had for over forty years. He has an old barn filled with salvaged lumber, outdated appliances, and who knows what else. When he’s around, he drives a junkie 25-year-old station wagon. But most of the time, he’s not around.

He spends his winters in New Zealand helping friends on a dairy farm. His summers are spent fishing in Alaska. For a couple of months each year, he’s home, puttering in the yard. Year-round, he rents his house to boarders. He leads a very active retirement.

John’s story was popular with Get Rich Slowly readers, and many of you asked me to interview him. I had to wait for him to return from New Zealand, but earlier this month, the opportunity finally presented itself. John agreed to sit down for a chat.

“I want to take you to lunch at the Chinese place up the street,” I told him.

“What the hell for?” he asked.

“Just to be nice,” I said. “To thank you for taking the time to speak with me.”

“I don’t need that,” he said. “Save your money. Let’s just sit at your dinner table.” And so we did.

In the beginning
Before John left for New Zealand just after Christmas, I mentioned the idea of an interview. He liked the notion, so on his flight home at the end of March, he made some notes about his financial philosophy. “These are my secrets to financial freedom,” he told me, showing me what he had jotted on the back of an envelope. “This is what I did to get where I am today.”

“I’m ready,” I said. I had a yellow legal pad and a Bic pen. I motioned for him to continue.

“It was interesting to do this,” John said. “It’s really the story of your web site. The real secret is to spend less than you earn. I don’t care how much you earn, you spend less than you earn.”

I laughed. “My readers aren’t going to like that,” I said. “There’s a vocal group that complains that personal finance writers are always preaching ’spend less than you earn’.”

“It’s not funny,” John said. “Because that’s the secret. They don’t have to like it, they just have to do it.”

“Right,” I said. “There are no magic bullets. There are no special shortcuts. Now, before we get started, can you tell us a little bit about your background?”

“Well, I’m retired,” John said. “I’m 72 years old. I spent twenty years as a shop teacher at a junior high school. I retired at 58. Before that, I did other things. I worked as a carpenter for eight years, and I spent six or seven years working in the juvenile court system.”

“Did you have good financial habits growing up?” I asked.

“Yeah, I really did. My family had a lot of money. We owned a big hardware store. But I saw money wasn’t the key to happiness. There were other families that were happier that had far less. But I’m grateful for having grown up with a solid financial background.”

On frugality
“What advice do you have for people who want to spend less?” I asked.

“Well, I made this list,” John said, pointing to his old envelope. “I listed all of the things I do. First of all, people should learn what a kilowatt hour is. A kilowatt hour is a thousand watts burned for an hour. All of these appliances left on standby draw power. And don’t leave your lights on.” John gave me a look.

I was sheepish. The lights were on in the bathroom and the kitchen, but we were sitting in the dining room. I got up to turn them off while he continued speaking.

“Learn to figure your own power bill and know why it is what it is. People should learn about electrical use. That’s a drain on your monthly budget. Every penny saved on electricity is a penny you can use for something else.”

“No smoking or alcohol consumption,” he continued. “This has nothing to do with morals and health — okay, maybe health — it’s all about the money. I see people with a cigarette in their mouth, and I think, ‘That’s 25 cents!’” I laughed.

“Don’t have a credit card without autopay. And if you have a credit card, you should benefit from it. I use a credit card for everything I can, but I get things back from that.”

“Like air miles?” I asked.

“Exactly,” John said. “Air miles or a cash rebate. And I have my bank automatically pay the bill every month.”

“Next is food,” he said. “I think people’s eating habits are hell-bent on spending money.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I offered to take you to lunch while we talked.”

“I know, but I don’t need that gesture. I appreciate it, but that’s money that could be spent on other things. Like your new car!”

“You don’t have to spend a lot on food,” John continued. “When I go to the grocery store — which is rarely — I don’t know how anyone could afford to feed a family on that stuff. It seems outrageously expensive. People need to learn to cook from raw ingredients.”

“But where do you get the raw ingredients?” I asked.

“From the farmers market! Or Costco! You don’t need the little individual servings. That’s crazy. You have to be creative. Part of the problem is that you need to buy a freezer. Or look,” he said, waving his hand at Kris’ seedlings. “Over there are your tomato starts. Those cost you what? 50 cents? You’ll get 50 dollars of fruit from those! Plus I buy what I can in bulk.”

“Eating in-season food is important. It’s less expensive and it’s better quality. I also like this eating close to home thing. That’s neat.”

“Kris makes her own granola,” I offered.

“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly. But nobody advertises that. Nobody advertises ‘make your own granola’. Again, it makes sense to own a freezer. The electrical use of a freezer is pretty tiny. That’d be an interesting article for you, J.D. How much electricity does a freezer use versus how much you save by buying in bulk? People don’t understand about electrical use. They have a foggy notion about it.”

“Yeah, I have this device called a Kill-a-Watt,” I said. “It measures electricity use. But I’ve never checked our freezer.”

“Here’s another thing,” John said. “It’s okay to buy used. There’s nobody advertising to be thrifty. There’s nobody advertising to go to Goodwill. That’s not where the profit is. People have to get permission to buy used from somewhere else, because they’re not going to get it from advertising. I buy all sorts of stuff used, but especially cars. I bought my minivan off Craigslist.”

“How did that work?” I asked.

“It worked great,” John said.

“I bought my Mini Cooper used,” I said, “but I didn’t do it as well as I could have. I didn’t take it to a mechanic, for example.”

“I took my car to two mechanics. I wanted to be sure.”

He rattled off a few more tips. “Do your own home repairs. Use the library more — movies and books, and it’s totally free. I think that’s great. Remember: A dollar spent will never produce dividends. Money spent is gone and will never earn you anything.”

On investing
“That’s a good transition,” I said. “Let’s talk about your approach to investing.”

“I advise people to look for good investments. Take some time to do research. And think outside the box. I just re-opened my account with Reliable Credit. They offer 4%, which keeps up with inflation.” Reliable Credit is a nearby consumer finance company. But it’s not a bank. They take deposits from people like John and they loan them to high-risk clients. They do a lot of used car loans.

“The thing that worries me about Reliable Credit is that they’re not insured. There’s no FDIC insurance,” I said.

“Doesn’t bother me,” John said. “I’m not putting a whole lot in there. It’s just part of my money.”

“What would happen if you lost it all?”

“Not a big deal. I own my home. I have a guaranteed pension. I have no debt. That’s the key. Because I’ve done these other things, I can afford to take some risk. A lot of people can’t.”

“What about your other investments?” I asked.

“If you’re going to do stocks, diversify your stock holdings,” John said. “But for me, no-load mutual funds are the only way to go. To give anybody 3-4% of your money off the top is insane. It used to be I wasn’t aware how much I was paying. Once I figured it out, I thought, ‘Shit, I can make these mistakes myself. Why should I pay anybody to do it for me?’”

“I invested in small-cap funds at Columbia here in Portland. What a great move that was. Those did very well. I tracked their growth in the newspaper. Every week I drew a graph. I plotted the weekly high and the low and where it closed. I had to keep making new pages for my records because it was growing so much. I didn’t mind,” he said, laughing. “Back in the olden days, if I wasn’t getting 20% a year, I looked someplace else. But I can’t hold that up as an example — although it may happen again if things get turned around, once this economy corrects itself.”

“Does this economy worry you?” I asked.

“No. I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t need the income. I’m debt-free. If I was retired and had a mortgage or other debt, or if I had health problems, it would worry me. To my mind, even if you invest and it goes to hell, it’s still better than nothing. The odds of that are pretty slim, though, especially if you diversify.”

“What are your financial goals?” I asked.

“I used to say that when I reached $100,000 I would have arrived. But I got there so fast, I just kept going. Some people plan for retirement, but I didn’t plan. I did go to investment workshops — free workshops — that were put on for the teachers, and I learned from them. You’d be surprised at how few people showed up to them. Nobody cared.”

“When did you start to save?” I asked.

“It must have been 30 or 35 years ago,” John said. “And I’m glad I did. I think there are people who still don’t take advantage of tax-advantaged savings and investments accounts. I did this as soon as I could. I was amazed at how many teachers didn’t take advantage of this. That’s crazy.”

On choosing a lifestyle
John looked back down at his list. “Here’s another thing,” he said. “Volunteer to help others. I really think that’s an important personal lifestyle choice. It feels good to me. I used to do scouting. I had a Boy Scout troop for fifteen years.”

“You know, scouting was important for me when I was a boy,” I said. “I think it can be a great experience.”

“Sure it can,” John said. “When I was growing up, a lot of people shared things with me. It feels good to be in a place to be able to share myself now.”

“What kind of things do you share?”

“Well you know I rent the house, but it’s basically at cost. I don’t charge much at all. I host guests on my boat [in Alaska] at no charge. I do my work in New Zealand. Earlier today I picked up some sheet metal. I went and bought some scrap sheet metal and I took it in to Franklin High School. I took it to their metal shop. They can really make use of that.”

“What do you splurge on?” I asked. I’ve seen the things John owns. They’re very functional. He doesn’t have a lot that I would consider “fun”.

“Some people would say that buying a boat is a splurge,” he said. “But I bought that boat right. I bought it for less than market value. I’ve taken care of it. I’ll get a lot more use out of it.”

“I guess I could eliminate a couple thousand dollars airfare getting to New Zealand and back, but I spend very little money when I get there. If I spend a couple hundred dollars in New Zealand, I’d be surprised.”

“How do you keep your costs so low there?”

“I work on farms. I’m part of Willing Workers on Organic Farms. You travel to someplace and do work on their farms for them. They provide room and board. Sometimes they take you to do local stuff. This year I got to see sheepdog trials. That was fun. Anyhow, I do carpentry work. I build stuff and fix things. There are four farms I go to, about three weeks at a time, and I do what needs done.”

He paused for a moment and smiled. “But Alaska is just for fun.”

“How long have you been doing this now?”

“I’ve been doing this for about fifteen years, ever since I was retired. Back when I was 58.”

Reader questions
We’d come to the end of John’s list, but we weren’t finished yet. “I told some of my readers that I was going to interview you,” I said. “They sent in some questions. Would you be willing to answer them?”

“Sure. Of course.”

“Annie Blue wants to know how money affects your daily happiness.”

“Well,” he said. “I can buy whatever I want. Not need, but want. I just don’t want very much. I always have $100 in my pocket, but I don’t piss it away. I don’t stop for coffee. I seldom eat out.”

“I understand why people buy things,” he said, “I like to buy things, too. There’s a certain satisfaction in looking at the things you’ve accumulated. It’s like an affirmation that you’re doing things right. So you surround yourself with things that make you think you’re doing well — but they’re not necessary. That’s one of the advantages of being older. People just leave you alone to do what you want.”

“Next,” I said, “Suburban Dollar wants to know what advice you’d give to a 30-year-old.”

“Spend less than you earn. This is true whether you’re on welfare or a millionaire. And remember: wealth is created by investing money, not by working longer and harder.”

“Here’s another thing,” he said. “Remember that when you’re raising kids and stuff, that’s really hard. The demands on your money are so great. But you’ve got to be willing to say no. So much money is pissed away to keep kids happy.” (John has grown children. He’s speaking from experience.)

“Here’s a final question from Bill in Detroit,” I said. “He wants to know if outer wealth causes inner wealth. Or is it the other way around? Or are they completely disconnected?”

“There’s a lot of personal power from personal spending,” John said. “If I’m feeling down in the dumps, going out and buying something gives me a lift. But I’m aware of that. I’m aware of how it makes me feel and it helps me to not do it.”

“I think it all has to do with how you feel about yourself,” John said. “I learned long ago that it was okay to spend less than I earned. It wasn’t going to kill me. And I learned that by doing so, I felt really good about myself. I still do. I’m happy. I feel really comfortable.”

I thanked John for answering my questions, and we walked out to look at the vegetable garden. He admired our onions and peas and asparagus. We discussed whether it was time to rototill. At last, we shook hands and said our farewells. I was headed to California in the morning, and he was off to Alaska. He’ll be there until about the time his grapes are ready to harvest in September. I’ll miss him while he’s gone. But if I’m lucky, I just might get to spend a week with him on his boat this summer, catching a glimpse of what early retirement is like.

---
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Ecuador: Express Kidnappings Plague Guayaquil

2009-04-30T05:13:42Z

Express kidnappings by taxi drivers working with accomplices have become a significant problem in Guayaquil. In such incidents, the victims are threatened, usually with guns, then held captive as the taxi drives them from ATM to ATM to empty their bank accounts. The crimes have occurred in upscale areas such as Urdesa, outside the San Marino Mall and at the Malecon 2000, a boardwalk and tourist area in downtown Guayaquil. In one of several recent incidents, three U.S. citizens where robbed in a taxi when leaving Malecon 2000. If using taxis in Guayaquil, the best policy is to call a radio-dispatched taxi rather than hailing one on the street, but if catching a cab on the street cannot be avoided, write down the vehicle’s license number before entering and avoid riding with any driver who offers to take you to clubs or bars you have not asked to go to. Another good idea is to send a text message with the taxi’s make, model, and license number to a friend before entering.

Real World Cancun house, cast revealed; swine flu shutdown rumor "100% untrue"

2009-04-29T03:54:21Z

Production on The Real World Cancun in Mexico has not shut down because of swine flu, which has impacted MTV stars Heidi and Spencer. But the cast is back in the United States having completed production, according to messages on at least two of their MySpace pages, as both the cast members and their Cancun home have been revealed.

The swine flu shut-down reports came on the always-credible sites Radar Online and Perez Hilton. Citing zero sources (who has time to do reporting when you're drawing on photographs?), Perez said "has been shut down in the wake of the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico" on April 17, while Radar pulled their story that said it "learned exclusively that production on The Real World: Cancun has been shut down, and its seven young cast members have been removed from the Mexican coastal city--all for fear of deadly Swine Flu." As part of a later story, Radar modified the claim, saying "that MTV reality staple The Real World wrapped the filming on their 22nd season on April 17 in Cancun."

But production company Bunim-Murray has denied that via its Twitter account, posting twice: first that "@PerezHilton swine flu may be the new susan boyle, but your RW Cancun post is as false as her teeth" and later that "reports from #perezhilton about #RW Cancun shutting down due to swine flu are 100% untrue!"

Meanwhile, Vevmo has pictures and names of the eight--the show is apparently sticking with the larger group--cast members: Ayiiia Elizarraras (a model), Bronne Bruzgo, Christian "CJ" Koegel, Emilee Fitzpatrick, Jasmine Reynaud, Jonna Mannion (who may have appeared on Discovery's Endurance), Joey Rozmus, and Derek Chavez. Vevmo also has links to their MySpace pages, several of which both confirm they were cast and have returned to the states, although others are now marked as private.

Finally, Jaunted reported that the cast lived in the ME Cancun hotel "in some of the hotel's Level Suites which includes the Passion Suite and its bed on a terrace." That's a familiar location to those who saw The Real World Hollywood, as the cast vacationed there. When the location was announced, we learned that the cast would work for travel web site StudentCity.com--or, you know, doing whatever pretend work they do between drunken orgies on the beach.

Real World: Cancun Shut Down For Swine Flu [Perez Hilton] Exclusive: Swine Flu Shuts Down Real World Cancun and Swine Flu Hits Hollywood [Radar Online] The Real World Cancun Complete Cast [Vevmo]

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‘Snoop Dogg TV’: The Reason They Made The Internet

2009-04-10T23:11:25Z

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Skype for iPhone to Be Released as Early as Next Week

2009-03-26T17:00:17Z

Exclusive Heads up: A few months ago, I asked Skype CEO Josh Silverman when was he going to launch the iPhone version of the P2P voice and IM service that has now been downloaded more than 405 million times. He smiled and said, “Stay tuned.” And so we did.

A tipster — a very reliable one — tells me that Skype is almost ready to launch that iPhone version, perhaps as soon as next week. CTIA Wireless, a large mobile industry trade event, kicks off in Las Vegas next Wednesday, so perhaps the announcement will be made there. I am working on getting more details, as well as screenshots of the service.

The biggest clue about Skype’s pending iPhone launch came when iSkoot decided to move on from its Skype-centric strategy. The company had been offering a client that allowed cell phone users to use Skype services. Skype already offers a Windows Mobile version of its client.

As I’ve said before, Skype will have to turn to mobile to keep its growth intact. In recent months, many services, among them Truphone and Nimbuzz, started supporting Skype in their communication clients. However, a standalone Skype client would get a lot of traction among the Skype faithful. In the meantime, I think Skype is slowly flexing its muscles and swatting away little VoIP players with some of its recent moves.

Suicide Bomber Caught On Tape

2009-03-11T18:54:38Z

Photo: AP

As grotesque as it is mesmerizing, this image shows a Sri Lankan suicide bomber a fraction after the explosive detonates.

From the Telegraph article:

The attack appeared to target six government ministers attending the community event, including the country’s oil and telecommunications ministers. Unconfirmed reports put the toll higher with claims more than 15 had died.

The ministers injured in yesterday’s explosion were part of a large crowd of Muslims celebrating Mawlid, the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, in Akuressa, a town on the southern tip of Sri Lanka.

A military spokesman said: “definitely it’s LTTE (Tamil Tigers).”

Everyday seems to carry with it the news of another attack, another bomb, somewhere in the world. Violence perpetrated to further an agenda, even a score, or simply to cause chaos.

When I hear of these acts, I can’t help but think of Carl Sagan’s words in the short film, Pale Blue Dot. He says:

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light..

Read the full transcript here.

iPhone 3.0 MMS, tethering rumored; Sirius XM iPhone app enroute

2009-03-12T23:55:00Z

Apple's just confirmed iPhone 3.0 firmware is already rumored to add MMS picture messaging and data tethering. Also, Sirius XM has said it plans to give its radio subscribers an iPhone app, and Maine is negotiating a major deal to lease 100,000 MacBooks for its schools.

March Madness comes to the iPhone

2009-03-14T14:00:00Z

Filed under: Video, iPhone, iPod touch

The NCAA and CBS Sports have teamed up to stream the upcoming Men's College Basketball Championship tournament for free online at NCAA March Madness on Demand. You can watch the "high quality" videos online for free, but even more interesting is a nifty $4.99 iPhone / iPod touch app (iTunes link) which allows you to watch every game from the first round to the National Championship. Unfortunately, this will only work over WiFi and not 3G. Nonetheless, if you've a big college hoops fan this looks like a must-have app.

CBS Sports NCAA March Madness On Demand is $4.99 from the iTunes Store.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

TUAW March Madness comes to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brack-Attack in New York?

2009-01-12T02:57:00Z

Looks as if our old friend, ex-wolfpack basketball player Andrew Brackman, is finally going to get to don the pinstripes! This article from Yankees.com talks about Brackman's road to recovery and how he is now sitting in the 94-97mph range with his fastball. Are we looking at a rotation of CC, Burnett, Wang, Chamberlain, BRACKMAN? ...Probably not, as the Yankees are just going to see how he can compete in the spring and continue to bring him along slow. Either way he's going to spring training with big boys! Check out the full article here:

Brackman Nearing Yankees Debut

Can’t Wait To See Scarlett Johansson in The Spirit

2008-12-23T18:00:53Z

I have no idea what The Spirit is about, but if Scarlett Johansson looks half as hot as Jessica Alba did in Sin City, the I will have got my money’s worth. Since Scarlett plays a femme fatale secretary for the main villain, sadly I doubt there will be a cowgirl stripper scene for this role.

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Interview: Steve And Vali Discuss The Tomfoolerly Of The Ridiculous Race

2008-12-04T05:52:10Z

Illustrations by Tim TomKinson

26,000 miles. 1 globe. No airplanes. 2 guys publish a book on the most ridiculous race…ever.

With another installment of the addictive Emmy award-winning The Amazing Race barreling towards its conclusion, TV watchers will soon be left with an extra hour to kill on Sunday nights.

To fill the void left by Phil Keoghan, Jerry Bruckheimer, and those yellow and red route markers, we recommend Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran’s The Ridiculous Race.

Published earlier this year, The Ridiculous Race is a dual-narrative of two best friends racing each other around the globe.

The prize? A bottle of Scotch. The catch? No airplanes.

Final destination aside, Steve and Vali prove that it’s really all about the journey.

And their background in television writing (Steve is currently on American Dad’s writing staff and Vali works for My Name is Earl) makes their Race a truly ridiculous—and ridiculously amazing—book to read.

BNT recently chatted with Hollywood’s intrepid travelers, who discussed everything from airplanes versus jetpacks to Madonna to Pico Iyer.

BNT: Did either/both of you travel a lot growing up or harbor any wanderlust? Who were your travel influences for this trip?

Steve chokes Vali for handcuffing him at the start of the race.

SH: Yes, I’ve had horrible, incurable wanderlust all my life. I remember once talking my dad into driving me to Albany once just so I could have a look at it.

We had a long, silent ride home.

VC: While I was growing up, my family made frequent trips to India to visit relatives. My father would stay for as long as his job’s vacation policy would allow (usually two or three weeks) and my mother, sister, and I would stay for the entirety of our summer vacation from school.

Since this didn’t overlap with the summer vacations of my cousins (their break was shorter and came in spring if I remember correctly), I spent much of my time in India reading books. I can’t remember a single one of them.

To answer the second part of your question, my main travel influence for this trip is the same as the main overall influence in my life: Madonna.

What led to the development of The Ridiculous Race? Was it always a book idea or did it originally come out of the age old question “What do we do during hiatus?”

SH: The idea definitely came first - the idea of racing around the world. The “book” aspect was more just a way of getting someone to pay us to do it.

Had we known how hard it was to write a book, we probably just would’ve forgotten about it and gone to San Diego.

VC: I came up with the idea by myself with no help from anyone. And no booze was involved. Whatever anyone else (Steve) says is textbook poppycock.

You made the trips in the summer of 2007, just a few months before the WGA strike. Did the knowledge that a strike may happen impact your trip at all–or did the strike itself impact your writing of The Ridiculous Race?

VC: To be honest, none of the TV writers I knew really thought the strike was going to happen until the week before it actually did happen. We are notoriously bad at predicting the future, especially our own.

Without the strike, we never would’ve finished the manuscript on time—we might’ve been the only writers in LA who were happy about it.

So the strike didn’t impact the trip, but it did impact the writing. I, for one, would have never been able to finish writing the book in time for our publication date if I had still been working full time at My Name is Earl in November and December of 2007.

The on-time publication of the Ridiculous Race was one benefit of the strike that the press repeatedly refused to report on.

SH: Without the strike, we never would’ve finished the manuscript on time—we were way, way behind when the studios and the WGA colluded to give us an unscheduled vacation.

We might’ve been the only writers in LA who were happy about it. Not that writing in any way took away from my nonstop effort to bring labor justice to Hollywood.

There’s an obvious connection to CBS’s Amazing Race while diverting heavily from the Bruckheimer concept (no planes, a bottle of Scotch for the winner, no Road Blocks). Do you think you could beat TAR teams given the chance?

Vali riding a Segway in Paris

VC: I’ve actually never seen an entire episode of the Amazing Race. What I’ve seen seems like less of a travel show and more of a which-camera-crew-aided-team-can-make-it-to-the-airport first.

Since I’m habitually late to the airport, I seriously doubt I could beat any of the TAR teams.

SH: Part of our pitch for the book was pointing out that as soon as you have cameras, you’ve changed the situation, and taken a lot of the fun out. One lanky guy alone in the Mongolian wilderness is a lot different than a heavily insured guy and a camera crew out in the Mongolian wilderness.

I’d argue that the first situation makes for much better comedy, but admittedly it’s pretty hard to make a TV show without cameras. Former Amazing Race champion BJ Averell was in college with me; I would not wish to compete against him in a contest of antics.

I think if Vali and I were on The Amazing Race, we’d spend most our time playing pranks on our cameraman.

While traveling under the clock, did you feel you got to truly “experience” the places you visited? Where would you like to go back and explore some more?

SH: Oh, I think 3 days is more than enough time to fully experience China. I had the place figured out after about six hours.

I am only joking of course! Part of the fun of this book was trying to consume as much “experience” as possible, a challenge which very nearly caused me to die of exhaustion.

I’m sure it was annoying to many of the people whose paths I crossed, too:

Steve: AHH, I NEED TO EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING ABOUT LIFE ON A CARGO SHIP! Help me have EXPERIENCE!
Sailor: Uh, I just work here man. I’m changing the ballast water.
Steve: CHANGING THE BALLAST WATER! EXPERIENCE!!!
Sailor: Maybe you should go take a nap.

VC: I definitely did not get to truly experience the places I visited. Early on in the race, when I was in Mexico I realized that I was wasting this wonderful opportunity to see the world because I was going too fast.

So I slowed things down a little bit. But even then, I never spent as much time as I wanted in a single place. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to go back to every place I visited during the Ridiculous Race.

However if I had to pick a favorite region, it would be the Middle East. It’s the place I’ve read so much about, but actually knew so little about.

My night accidentally spent in Palestine, with a bunch of basketball players, watching army flares and floating in the Dead Sea will always be one of the most memorable nights of my life.

What did you take into consideration when picking the points on your race? How did you navigate the no-planes policy?

Steve and Vali meet halfway around the world to
have lunch with a polar bear

*SPOILER ALERT*

VC: I ignored the no planes policy and picked the points on the globe I thought would be the most interesting to visit. It was actually pretty difficult to choose because I wanted to go everywhere.

The one place I really wish I had gone, but didn’t, was the region where Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina meet. It’s sort of an un-ruled no-man’s-land.

I really wanted to buy some arms there that I could use to frame Steve and get him arrested by the F.B.I. Instead I drank beers in Rio.

SH: Well, this was very easy for me - my route is the best way to get around the world fastest if you’re not using airplanes.

And, because I’m very clever, and I figured Vali was too lazy to have figured this out, I casually suggested I go west, so I could

gain an hour every day, and
get on a ship in sensible English-speaking Long Beach as opposed to insane Shanghai.

But the key to any round the world race is the Trans-Siberian Railroad - you can cover a quarter of the earth’s surface while sitting in your PJs eating Snickers and reading Tom Clancy.

Since finishing, a friend of mine pointed out that I could’ve gone to South America and boarded a boat that rounded Antarctica, thus crossing every degree of longitude and thus making me the winner. But that might not have been as fun.

Speaking of no-planes, Vali, what made you decide to break down and go via air? Steve, did you have any clue he was flying while on your trip?

VC: I had been thinking about flying for a while, the notion of spending three weeks on freighters didn’t really appeal to me. I tried to circumvent this no-planes rule by purchasing a jet pack in Mexico, but it didn’t meet my personal safety standards.

I assumed Vali would do something stupid. And he’d been talking about this jetpack inventor for years, so I figured that might factor in.

Also, practically speaking, I wanted Steve and me to be having adventures in different places. I didn’t think anyone wanted to read two accounts of how mind-breakingly boring crossing the Pacific on a freighter is.

SH: I assumed Vali would do something stupid. And he’d been talking about this jetpack inventor for years, so I figured that might factor in.

I did think he’d at least make an honest effort—I was terrified this book would contain two long descriptions of the Queen Mary, since that was the fastest way to cross the Atlantic.

Finally, will there be any upcoming races or travelogues? Should Pico Iyer be quaking in his boots?

VC: I am currently in training to break the land speed record (currently 763 mph) without using any machines. I’m almost ready for the attempt. All I have left to do is select a pair of running sneakers.

SH: I hereby challenge Pico Iyer and HIS friend, the Dalai Lama, to a race across Africa by bicycle!

BNT anxiously awaits Pico’s response.

Buy the Ridiculous Race on Amazon here. Also, check out a review by Nerd’s Eye View.

What do you think of Steve and Vali’s Ridiculous Race? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Cool WordPress Plugins Released In October

2008-11-05T07:41:59Z

Better late than never but here is a list of plugins that were released during the month of October that caught my eye. It amazes me each time I do a post like this to see the amount of creativity that takes place on a monthly basis to either improve upon WordPress or to add functionality to it that didn't exist before. Quite a few examples can be found within this list.

WP Blurb - Limit posts, pages, categories or your custom text. Limit the number of characters to what you like. You are calling the plugin function from your theme.

TDW Combobox Links - Display links in a combobox.

bbPress Live - bbPress Live allows you to pull data from a bbPress 1.0 forum using the new XML-RPC publishing API in bbPress.

Xavin’s Review Ratings - Xavin’s Review Ratings is a Wordpress plugin that adds a shortcode tag [xrr rating="4/5"] that displays a rating in one of several formats.

HeadSpace2 - HeadSpace is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks.

CommentLuv - Appends a titled link using AJAX to the authors last blog post on their comment giving back some love to the people that join your discussion.

Lazyest Gallery - Lazyest Gallery is an integrated image gallery with automatic thumb and slide creation

Business Directory for WordPress - Business Directory for Wordpress is an easy way to host a free directory page for your readers, affiliates, advertisers, community or club members. Invite them to submit a simple advertisement listing for themselves on your blog

WP Double Opt-In List Management - This WordPress email list management plugin allows the visitors of your blog subscribe to your mailing list using a double opt-in method. The signup form (Email, Name and other fields) is placed on the WordPress blog sidebar. After a user fills in the form and clicks “Subscribe”, WP double opt-in plugin sends an email with the subscription confirmation link to the user.

FV Community News - Allow your visitors to add articles to the sidebar or anywhere else. Complete with moderation panel and a settings page, you can sit back while you have full control about the look and articles that being posted.

Update URLs - When you move WordPress to a new domain or directory, the permalinks are not updated. This plugin updates all permalinks. In addition, it also gives the user the option to update any links within posts and pages.

FTP Plugin for WP Database Backup Plugin - This plugin adds a fourth way to save the database backup files of the WP Database Backup plugin. With the standard WP Database Backup plugin you can save the database tables of your weblog a file. This backup file can stored on the server of your weblog, send to an email account or saved (manually) to your local hard disk.

Wp2BB - Wp2BB integrates your WordPress blog and your phpBB forum. It automatically creates new topics in the forum for every new post in your blog.

ZdMultilang - ZdMultilang is a Multilingual plugin for Wordpress allowing you to blog in more than one language. You can define multiple languages and translate posts/tags/categories using the interface that will be added to your blog’s administration panel.

Event Calendar 3 - Manage future events as an online calendar. Display upcoming events in a dynamic calendar, on a listings page, or as a list in the sidebar.

DasboardZone - Displays statistics about your posts and post frequency on the WordPress Dashboard

Lightbox Plus - Lightbox Plus is a plugin that implements Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar. Lightbox Plus is used to create overlay display images on the webpage and to automatically add the correct overlay links to images. Lightbox Plus captures the image title for display using a fairly robust regex to capture most character that may appear as part of the title.

Stumble! - Stumble! for WordPress extends WordPress to support a “random article” feature, similar to StumbleUpon’s StumbleThru and Wikipedia’s (Mediawiki’s) ran.

FeatPlug - Featplug is a plugin that can mine your WordPress (or any other Blog/CMS/Forum software’s) posts and generates “featured content” section

Results Count - Results-Count is a very simple plugin that does exactly what it says on the tin & will count the number of posts that result from operations in Wordpress such as a search, viewing a category, or viewing a monthly archive etc.

Highlight Comments - Highlight Comments allows you to highlight comments, which are worth reading. It can highlight your own comments as well and is fully customizable.

Lifestream - Lifestream displays your social feeds and photos much like you would see it on many of the social networking sites.

Backlinks - A simple function to show blog posts linking back to any article, similar to Google Backlinks

WP Hide Dashboard - WP Hide Dashboard is a simple plugin that removes the dashboard link and prevents dashboard access to users assigned to the Subscriber role. This is useful if you want to allow your subscribers to edit their own profiles, but don’t want them wandering around the rest of your WordPress admin section.

J Post Slider - Show your post in fancy jQuery box, rotating images, with show-up text box with post description.

login required - Permit access to your blog only to the logged in users

MobilePress - MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes. The plugin also allows specific themes for specific devices / mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera Mini, Windows CE Mobile and other generic handset browsers.

WP-Donators - Wp-Donators provides a smart donation function to autoleave the sponsor information in a container after payment. People can donate and submit name/URL or TextLink ad. The information of the latest donors are displayed in the cloud.

Landing sites - When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, the plugin is showing them related posts to their search on your blog.

Slayer’s Custom Widgets - This plugin will make your widgetized sidebars so flexible that you will almost think that your running a more advanced CMS system and not WordPress.

Contact Form 7 - Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.

Side Content - It enables you to define a set of widgets which are effectively placeholders. Each one is empty until you assign content to it when editing a page. This enables you to extend the content of the page into the sidebar.

MyADManager - Manages 125×125 ADs. Automatic activation and deactivation of ads. Ads can be bought directly, accepts payments via Paypal.

SocioFluid - SocioFluid is a Social Bookmarking Plugin, displaying small icons, which grows when the mouse is moved over, similar to mac effect.

Moderator - Moderator is a WordPress Plugin and associated desktop application, built using Adobe AIR, that allows you to view and moderate comments from your desktop.

eShop - An accessible Paypal Shopping Cart plugin.

New User Approve - New User Approve is a Wordpress plugin that allows a blog administrator to approve a user before they are able to access and login to the blog.

WP Unique Article Header Image - Allows you to add/associate unique header image with each single post/page.So you can spice your blog to have a unique header image per post/page.

WordPress Link Directory - A link directory plugin for WordPress which allows other webmasters to add their link to your site. It can check for reciprocal links and even check the Pagerank of the other site and accept or refuse the link based on criteria you specify

List compiled via the WordPress Plugin Release posts on WeblogToolscollection.com

The Internet Marketer's Handbook

2008-10-15T16:51:52Z

Posted by Danny Dover

This month marks the end of my first year at SEOmoz. I have spent literally hundreds of hours learning and trying to perfect my SEO and marketing skills. Although, I still have a ways to go to catch up with my expert co-workers, I have made a lot of progress. I credit this to the people I have relied on and the many tools that have helped me along the way.

The following is a compilation of the posts, articles, videos and tools that have served as fundamental stepping stones for my internet marketing education. They are the resources I find myself coming back to on a constant basis.

I divided this handbook into six sections:

Link Building
Keyword Research
Content Creation
On-Page Optimization
Crawling and Indexing Issues
Social Media Marketing

Each section is also split into Tools and Learning Resources. Hopefully all of you find this as useful as I have!

Here is the link: The Internet Marketing Handbook

Samples

A sample of some of the tools I find most useful for content creation

A sample of some of the best blog posts, articles and videos related to content creation

Please feel free to share your opinions and expertise in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. I am open to adding or removing items in the handbook if something of higher caliber is brought to my attention. As always, feel free to e-mail me or send me a private message if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. If that's not your style, feel free to contact me on Twitter and/or Linkedin. Thanks!

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How to Get Rich

2008-10-04T16:24:23Z

Thats what so many want. Right ? I’m certainly not going to lie and say it is not a whole lot better having lots of money. I had a whole lot of fun and loved my life when I was eating mustard and ketchup sandwiches and sleeping on the floor of a 3 bedroom apartment that housed me and 5 buddies.

I have a whole lot more fun now. It doesn’t suck to be rich.

The question everyone wants answered, is how to get there. There are ways to get there. But there is not a template that works every time for everyone. It works sometimes. Getting there requires being ready when opportunity presents itself.

IMHO, change and uncertainty create opportunity. Times like we are facing now, with complete financial uncertainty are perfect times to start on the road to getting ahead financially.

First, here is WHAT NOT TO DO:

There are no shortcuts. NONE. With all of this craziness in the stock and financial markets, there will be scams popping up left and right. The less money you have, the more likely someone will come at you with some scheme . The schemes will guarantee returns, use multi level marketing, or be something crazy that is now “backed by the US Government”. Please ignore them. Always remember this. If a deal is a great deal, they aren’t going to share it with you.

I dont broadcast my great deals. I keep them all to myself. The 2nd thing to remember is that if the person selling the deal was so smart, they would be rich beyond rich rather than trolling the streets looking to turn you into a sucker. There are no shortcuts.

So what should you do to get rich ?

Save your money. Save as much money as you possibly can. Every penny you can. Instead of coffee, drink water. Instead of going to McDonalds, eat Mac and Cheese. Cut up your credit cards. If you use a credit card, you dont want to be rich. The first step to getting rich, requires discipline. If you really want to be rich, you need to find the discipline, can you ?

If you can, you will quickly find that the greatest rate of return you will earn is on your own personal spending. Being a smart shopper is the first step to getting rich. Yeah you have to give things up and that doesn’t work for everyone, particularly if you have a family. That is reality. But whatever you can save, save it. As much as you possibly can. Then put it in 6 month CDs in the bank.

The first step to getting rich is having cash available. You arent saving for retirement. You are saving for the moment you need cash. Buy and hold is a suckers game for you. This market is a perfect example. Right at the very moment when cash creates unbelievable opportunity, those who followed the buy and hold strategy have no cash. they cant or wont sell into markets this low, that kills the entire point of buy and hold. Those who have put their money in CDs sleep well at night and definitely have more money today than they did yesterday. And because they are smart, disciplined shoppers, their personal rate of inflation is within their means. Cash is king for those wanting to get rich

The 2nd rule for getting rich is getting smart. Investing your time in yourself and becoming knowledgeable about the business of something you really love to do

It doesn’t matter what it is. Whatever your hobbies, interests, passions are. Find the one you love the best and GET A JOB in the business that supports it.

It could be as a clerk, a salesperson, whatever you can find. You have to start learning the business somewhere. Instead of paying to go to school somewhere, you are getting paid to learn. It may not be the perfect job, but there is no perfect path to getting rich.

Before or after work and on weekends, every single day, read everything there is to read about the business. Go to trade shows, read the trade magazines, spend a lot of time talking to the people you do business with about their business and the people they buy from.

This is not a short term project. We aren’t talking days. We aren’t talking months. We are talking years. Lots of years and maybe decades. I didn’t say this was a get rich quick scheme. This is a get rich path

Now you wait for times of uncertainty and change in your business. The time will come. It may come quickly, it may take years and years. But it will come. The nature of our country’s business infrastructure is that it is destined to be boom and bust. Booms are when the smart people sell. Busts are when rich people started on their path to wealth.

You will know when that time is here for you because you will know your business inside and out. You will be ready because you will have been saving up for this moment in time

With all the change and uncertainty in the financial markets, there are people right now making more money than they ever dreamed of. They are the ones who have been living the real estate market and the financing behind it and understanding what actually what was going on. They re the one who understood the complexities of the credit markets. When everyone was following the crowd, they kept on saving their money and avoiding the temptation of groupthink.

Boom and busts happen to every industry. The question is whether you have the discipline to be ready when it happens for you ?

If you do, you will find out what it feels like to get lucky.

For more on how to get lucky, here is some additional reading for you

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Bankaholic.com Wordpress Blog Sells for $15m

2008-10-02T10:25:15Z

BankRate.com has acquired the bankaholic.com blog for $15 million according to recent reports.

Financial info site BankRate is expanding its financial product listings, as it’s acquiring Bankaholic, which provides info on deposits, savings accounts, and money market accounts. The company will pay $12.4 million up front, with another $2.5 million possible earnout over the next 12 months.

Bankaholic’s sole employee John Wu will assist in the transition and remain for an unspecified period of time. BankRate, of course, is exposed to some of the nastier aspects of the economy, though it’s held up fairly well and continued to grow.

Google Trends reports around 8,000 visitors per day to Bankaholic. What do you think? Is it a bargain at $15 million?

With a team of professional financial journalists working on the blog for 12 months it could be worth twice as much this time next year.

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Bankaholic.com Wordpress Blog Sells for $15m

The Newest 'Catch of the Century'

2008-09-25T17:57:47Z

Filed under: NCAA FB Video, General CFB Insanity

That's Mr. Edwin Baptiste of Morgan State, doin' what he do. Um, can the human body really do that, or was that computer-ehanced? With that absurd reception, Baptiste may have usurped or at least pulled even with Tyrone Prothro's fantastic catch of 2005. Of course, we're talking Morgan State and Winston-Salem State here, but nonethless, that's an amazingly athletic move at any level. Edwin Baptiste, for pulling a human gumby on the gridiron, FanHouse salutes you.

More, please.

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The 35 Greatest Speeches in History

2008-08-01T08:00:56Z

If a man wishes to become a great orator, he must first become a student of the great orators who have come before him. He must immerse himself in their texts, listening for the turns of phrases and textual symmetries, the pauses and crescendos, the metaphors and melodies that have enabled the greatest speeches to stand the test of time.

There was not currently a resource on the web to my liking that offered the man who wished to study the greatest orations of all time-from ancient to modern-not only a list of the speeches but a link to the text and a paragraph outlining the context in which the speech was given. So we decided to create one ourselves. The Art of Manliness thus proudly presents the “35 Greatest Speeches in World History,” the finest library of speeches available on the web.

These speeches lifted hearts in dark times, gave hope in despair, refined the characters of men, inspired brave feats, gave courage to the weary, honored the dead, and changed the course of history. It is my desire that this library will become a lasting resource not only to those who wish to become great orators, but to all men who wisely seek out the great mentors of history as guides on the path to virtuous manhood.

I know that readers of blogs are often more likely to skim than to read in-depth. But I challenge you, gentlemen, to attempt a program of study in which you read the entirety of one of these great speeches each and every day. I found the process of compiling and reading these speeches to be enormously inspiring and edifying, and I feel confident that you will find them equally so.

How did we compile this list?

Great oratory has three components: style, substance, and impact.

Style: A great speech must be masterfully constructed. The best orators are masters of both the written and spoken word, and use words to create texts that are beautiful to both hear and read.

Substance: A speech may be flowery and charismatically presented, and yet lack any true substance at all. Great oratory must center on a worthy theme; it must appeal to and inspire the audience’s finest values and ideals.

Impact: Great oratory always seeks to persuade the audience of some fact or idea. The very best speeches change hearts and minds and seem as revelatory several decades or centuries removed as when they were first given.

And now for the speeches.

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Theodore Roosevelt, “Duties of American Citizenship”

January 26, 1883; Buffalo, New York

Given while serving as a New York assemblyman, TR’s address on the “Duties of American Citizenship” delved into both the theoretical reasons why every man should be involved in politics and the practical means of serving in that capacity. Roosevelt chided those who excused themselves from politics because they were too busy; it was every man’s duty to devote some time to maintaining good government.

Worthy Excerpt:

Of course, in one sense, the first essential for a man’s being a good citizen is his possession of the home virtues of which we think when we call a man by the emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and a good father, who is not honest in his dealings with other men and women, faithful to his friends and fearless in the presence of his foes, who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body; exactly as no amount of attention to civil duties will save a nation if the domestic life is undermined, or there is lack of the rude military virtues which alone can assure a country’s position in the world. In a free republic the ideal citizen must be one willing and able to take arms for the defense of the flag, exactly as the ideal citizen must be the father of many healthy children. A race must be strong and vigorous; it must be a race of good fighters and good breeders, else its wisdom will come to naught and its virtue be ineffective; and no sweetness and delicacy, no love for and appreciation of beauty in art or literature, no capacity for building up material prosperity can possibly atone for the lack of the great virile virtues.

But this is aside from my subject, for what I wish to talk of is the attitude of the American citizen in civic life. It ought to be axiomatic in this country that every man must devote a reasonable share of his time to doing his duty in the Political life of the community. No man has a right to shirk his political duties under whatever plea of pleasure or business; and while such shirking may be pardoned in those of small cleans it is entirely unpardonable in those among whom it is most common–in the people whose circumstances give them freedom in the struggle for life. In so far as the community grows to think rightly, it will likewise grow to regard the young man of means who shirks his duty to the State in time of peace as being only one degree worse than the man who thus shirks it in time of war. A great many of our men in business, or of our young men who are bent on enjoying life (as they have a perfect right to do if only they do not sacrifice other things to enjoyment), rather plume themselves upon being good citizens if they even vote; yet voting is the very least of their duties, Nothing worth gaining is ever gained without effort. You can no more have freedom without striving and suffering for it than you can win success as a banker or a lawyer without labor and effort, without self-denial in youth and the display of a ready and alert intelligence in middle age. The people who say that they have not time to attend to politics are simply saying that they are unfit to live in a free community.

Read full text of speech here.

Winston Churchill, “We Shall Fight on the Beaches”

June 4, 1940; House of Commons, London

Winston Churchill, one of the greatest orators of the 20th century, was interestingly enough, like Demosthenes and other great orators before him, born with a speech impediment which he worked on until it no longer hindered him. One would never guess this from hearing Churchill’s strong and reassuring voice, a voice that would buoy up Britain during some of her darkest hours.

During the Battle of France, Allied Forces became cut off from troops south of the German penetration and perilously trapped at the Dunkirk bridgehead. On May 26, a wholesale evacuation of these troops, dubbed “Operation Dynamo,” began. The evacuation was an amazing effort-the RAF kept the Luftwaffe at bay while thousands of ships, from military destroyers to small fishing boats, were used to ferry 338,000 French and British troops to safety, far more than anyone had thought possible. On June 4, Churchill spoke before the House of Commons, giving a report which celebrated the “miraculous deliverance” at Dunkirk, while also seeking to temper a too rosy of view of what was on the whole a “colossal military disaster.”

Worthy Excerpt

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Read full text of speech here.

Lou Gehrig, “Farewell to Baseball Address”

July 4, 1939; Yankee Stadium

It seemed as if the luminous career of Lou Gehrig would go on forever. The Yankee’s first baseman and prodigious slugger was nicknamed the Iron Horse for his durability and commitment to the game. Sadly, his record for suiting up for 2,130 consecutive games came to an end when at age 36, Gehrig was stricken with the crippling disease that now bears his name. On July 4, 1939, the Yankees held a ceremony to honor their teammate and friend. They retired Gehrig’s number, spoke of his greatness, and presented him with various gifts, plaques, and trophies. When Gehrig finally addressed the crowd, he did not use the opportunity to wallow in pity. Instead, he spoke of the things he was grateful for and what a lucky guy he was.

The Speech

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career to associate with them for even one day?

Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert - also the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow - to have spent the next nine years with that wonderful little fellow Miller Huggins - then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology - the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy!

Sure, I’m lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that’s something! When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something.

When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter, that’s something. When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I might have had a tough break - but I have an awful lot to live for!

Demosthenes, “The Third Philippic”

342 B.C.; Athens, Greece

Demosthenes, master statesman and orator, loved his city-state of Athens. He cherished its way of life and abundant freedoms. And he believed in standing strong against anyone who might attempt to infringe on these privileges. This passion, unfortunately, was seldom shared by his fellow Athenians. While Philip the II of Macedon made bolder and bolder incursions into the Greek peninsula, the Athenian people seemed stuck in an apathetic stupor. For years, Demosthenes employed his powerful oratorical skills in attempts to awaken his fellow citizens from sleep to the realization of the imminent danger Philip posed. When Philip advanced on Thrace, the Athenians called an assembly to debate whether or not to finally heed the great orator’s advice. Demosthenes was sick of his brethren taking liberty and the Athenian way of life for granted and he boldly called upon them to rise up and take action. After his rousing speech, the assembly all cried out, “To arms! To arms!”

Worthy Excerpt:

It is this fate, I solemnly assure you, that I dread for you, when the time comes that you make your reckoning, and realize that there is no longer anything that can be done. May you never find yourselves, men of Athens, in such a position! Yet in any case, it were better to die ten thousand deaths, than to do anything out of servility towards Philip [or to sacrifice any of those who speak for your good]. A noble recompense did the people in Oreus receive, for entrusting themselves to Philip’s friends, and thrusting Euphraeus aside! And a noble recompense the democracy of Eretria, for driving away your envoys, and surrendering to Cleitarchus! They are slaves, scourged and butchered! A noble clemency did he show to the Olynthians, who elected Lasthenes to command the cavalry, and banished Apollonides! It is folly, and it is cowardice, to cherish hopes like these, to give way to evil counsels, to refuse to do anything that you should do, to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that you dwell in so great a city that, whatever happens, you will not suffer any harm.

Read full text of speech here.

Chief Joseph, “Surrender Speech”

October 5, 1877; Montana Territory

In 1877, the military announced that the Chief Joseph and his tribe of Nez Perce had to move onto a reservation in Idaho or face retribution. Desiring to avoid violence, Chief Joseph advocated peace and cooperation. But fellow tribesmen dissented and killed four white men. Knowing a swift backlash was coming, Joseph and his people began to make their way to Canada, hoping to find amnesty there. The tribe traveled 1700 miles, fighting the pursuing US army along the way. In dire conditions, and after a five day battle, Chief Joseph surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles on Oct. 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana Territory, a mere 40 miles from the Canadian border. The Chief knew he was the last of a dying breed, and the moment of surrender was heartbreaking.

The Speech

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are - perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

John F. Kennedy, “Inauguration Address”

January 20, 1961; Washington, D.C.

Young, handsome, with a glamorous family in tow, John F. Kennedy embodied the fresh optimism that had marked the post-war decade. On January 20, 1961, Kennedy took the oath of office as the 35th President of the United States. The youngest president in United States history, he was the first man born in the 20th century to hold that office. Listening to his inaugural address, the nation felt that a new era and a “new frontier” were being ushered in.

Worthy Excerpt:

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Read full text of speech here.

Listen to the speech.

Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on the Challenger”

January 28, 1986; Washington, D.C.

On January 28, 1986, millions of Americans, many of them schoolchildren watching from their classroom desks, tuned in to see 7 Americans, including Christa McAuliffe, a 37 year old schoolteacher and the first ever “civilian astronaut,” lift off in the space shuttle Challenger. Just 73 seconds later, the shuttle was consumed in a fireball. All seven aboard perished. These were the first deaths of American astronauts while in flight, and the nation was shocked and heartbroken by the tragedy. Just a few hours after the disaster, President Ronald Reagan took to the radio and airwaves, honoring these “pioneers” and offering comfort and assurance to a rattled people.

Worthy Excerpt:

We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for 25 years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them……

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honoured us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and ’slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’

Read full text of speech here.

Listen to the speech.

“Speech of Alexander the Great”

326 B.C.; Hydaspes River, India

In 335 B.C., Alexander the Great began his campaign to recapture former Greek cities and to expand his empire. After ten years of undefeated battles, Alexander controlled an empire that included Greece, Egypt, and what had been the massive Persian Empire.

That wasn’t enough for Xander. He decided to continue his conquest into India. But after ten years of fighting and being away from home, his men lacked the will to take part in another battle, especially against an opponent like King Porus and his army. Alexander used the talent for oration he had developed while studying under Aristotle to infuse his men with the motivation they needed to continue on, to fight and to win.

Worthy Excerpt:

I could not have blamed you for being the first to lose heart if I, your commander, had not shared in your exhausting marches and your perilous campaigns; it would have been natural enough if you had done all the work merely for others to reap the reward. But it is not so. You and I, gentlemen, have shared the labour and shared the danger, and the rewards are for us all. The conquered territory belongs to you; from your ranks the governors of it are chosen; already the greater part of its treasure passes into your hands, and when all Asia is overrun, then indeed I will go further than the mere satisfaction of our ambitions: the utmost hopes of riches or power which each one of you cherishes will be far surpassed, and whoever wishes to return home will be allowed to go, either with me or without me. I will make those who stay the envy of those who return.

William Wilberforce, “Abolition Speech”

May 12, 1789; House of Commons, London

When William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament, converted to Christianity, he began to earnestly seek to reform the evils he found within himself and the world around him. One of the glaring moral issues of the day was slavery, and after reading up on the subject and meeting with anti-slavery activists, Wilberforce became convinced that God was calling him to be an abolitionist. Wilberforce decided to concentrate on ending the slave trade rather than slavery itself, reasoning that the abolition of one would logically lead to the demise of the other. On May 12, 1789, Wilberforce made his first speech on the abolition of the slave trade before the House of Commons. He passionately made his case for why the trade was reprehensible and needed to cease. Wilberforce introduced a bill to abolish the trade, but it failed, a result he would become quite familiar with in the ensuing years. Yet Wilberforce never gave up, reintroducing the bill year after year, and the Slave Trade Act was finally passed in 1807.

Worthy Excerpt:

When I consider the magnitude of the subject which I am to bring before the House-a subject, in which the interests, not of this country, nor of Europe alone, but of the whole world, and of posterity, are involved: and when I think, at the same time, on the weakness of the advocate who has undertaken this great cause-when these reflections press upon my mind, it is impossible for me not to feel both terrified and concerned at my own inadequacy to such a task. But when I reflect, however, on the encouragement which I have had, through the whole course of a long and laborious examination of this question, and how much candour I have experienced, and how conviction has increased within my own mind, in proportion as I have advanced in my labours;-when I reflect, especially, that however averse any gentleman may now be, yet we shall all be of one opinion in the end;-when I turn myself to these thoughts, I take courage-I determine to forget all my other fears, and I march forward with a firmer step in the full assurance that my cause will bear me out, and that I shall be able to justify upon the clearest principles, every resolution in my hand, the avowed end of which is, the total abolition of the slave trade.

Read full text of speech here.

Theodore Roosevelt, “The Man with the Muck-rake”

April 14, 1906; Washington, D.C.

Theodore Roosevelt was president during the Progressive Era, a time of great enthusiasm for reform in government, the economy, and society. TR himself held many progressive ideals, but he also called for moderation, not extremism. The “Man with a Muck-rake” in Pilgrim’s Progress never looked heavenward but instead constantly raked the filth at his feet. TR thus dubbed the journalists and activists of the day who were intent on exposing the corruption in society as “muckrakers.” He felt that they did a tremendous amount of good, but needed to mitigate their constant pessimism and alarmist tone. He worried that the sensationalism with which these exposes were often presented would make citizens overly cynical and too prone to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Worthy Excerpt:

To assail the great and admitted evils of our political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping generalizations as to include decent men in the general condemnation means the searing of the public conscience. There results a general attitude either of cynical belief in and indifference to public corruption or else of a distrustful inability to discriminate between the good and the bad. Either attitude is fraught with untold damage to the country as a whole. The fool who has not sense to discriminate between what is good and what is bad is well-nigh as dangerous as the man who does discriminate and yet chooses the bad. There is nothing more distressing to every good patriot, to every good American, than the hard, scoffing spirit which treats the allegation of dishonesty in a public man as a cause for laughter.

Such laughter is worse than the crackling of thorns under a pot, for it denotes not merely the vacant mind, but the heart in which high emotions have been choked before they could grow to fruition.

Read full text of speech here.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “First Inaugural Address”

March 4, 1933; Washington, D.C.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt handily beat incumbent Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election. The country was deep into the Great Depression, and the public felt that Hoover did not fully sympathize with their plight and was not doing enough to alleviate it. No one was quite clear on what FDR’s plan was, but as in today’s election season, “change” was enough of an idea to power a campaign. In his First Inaugural Address, Roosevelt sought to buoy up the injured psyche of the American people and present his case for why he would need broad executive powers to tackle the Depression.

Worthy Excerpt:

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

Read the full text here.

Listen to the speech.

Charles de Gaulle, “The Appeal of 18 June”

June 18, 1940; London

In June of 1940, it was clear that France was losing their country to the German invasion. Refusing to sign an armistice, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud was forced to resign. He was succeeded by Marshal Philippe Petain who made clear his intention to seek an accommodation with Germany. Disgusted with this decision, General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces, escaped to England on June 15. De Gaulle asked for, and obtained permission from Winston Churchill to make a speech on BBC radio. De Gaulle exhorted the French to not give up hope and to continue the fight against the German occupation and the Vichy Regime.

Worthy Excerpt:

But has the last word been said? Must hope disappear? Is defeat final? No!

Believe me, I who am speaking to you with full knowledge of the facts, and who tell you that nothing is lost for France. The same means that overcame us can bring us victory one day. For France is not alone! She is not alone! She is not alone! She has a vast Empire behind her. She can align with the British Empire that holds the sea and continues the fight. She can, like England, use without limit the immense industry of the United States.

This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country. This war is not over as a result of the Battle of France. This war is a worldwide war. All the mistakes, all the delays, all the suffering, do not alter the fact that there are, in the world, all the means necessary to crush our enemies one day. Vanquished today by mechanical force, in the future we will be able to overcome by a superior mechanical force. The fate of the world depends on it.

Read full text of speech here.

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