Laice's Pics

Jules Verne

laice — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:19:35 +0000

At last something, we Europeans can be proud of. A huge space truck, The “Jules Verne” is Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to fly to the International Space Station. Read on to find out more about its crucial mission.

Another Blog, Another Dime,

laice — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:54:05 +0000

How does one make money from blogging? For newer blogs that are out there it sounds truly like a puzzle to actually make any money doing the things you love to do. If you truly want to make money then this is where http://www.snapbomb.com
comes in!

It’s an up an coming community, where advertisers and bloggers meet. Yes, you may have seen others but have they really fulfilled their initial promises?

There are virtually no restrictions to joining as a blogger to creat buzz and blog marketing, you all know what the power of viral marketing does to an advertisers product, take Cloverfield as an example and the latest Indiana Jones trailer.

Signing up to Snapbomb is easy as 1 2 3. You just fill in your details and your blog. Their system will automatically verify and value your blog.

It is based on the popularity of your blog, how many inbound links you have etc etc. I am not going to bombard you with the technical mumbo jumbo, but suffice to say snapbomb is a different flavour.

Lost

laice — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:09:34 +0000

For those of us, whom have not caught up with the latest goings on in the latest series, now showing on SkyOne.

More…..

10 things…..

laice — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:03:39 +0000

10 things we didn’t know last week

Snippets from the week’s news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Princess Eugenie’s first name is pronounced YOO-jenny rather than yoo-JAY-nee
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2. British intelligence chiefs tried to guess Hitler’s plans by studying his horoscope.
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3. The average midweek bedtime is between 10pm and 11pm.
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4. Two million e-mails are sent every minute in the UK.
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5. Jackie magazine was named after author Jacqueline Wilson, who was a teenage journalist there when it launched.

6. The whitest place in England and Wales is Easington in County Durham.
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7. Prison pay is on average £9.60 a week.
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8. Zombies can’t run because their ankles would snap.
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9. Latvia has the highest cigarette tax in Europe, at 80% of the price. The UK level is 77%.
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10. Households on average spend more on pets than they do on UK holidays.
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Sources: 5 - Daily Telegraph, 7 March

Warrior Prince

laice — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:40:11 +0000

The Prince and The Taliban

Afghan militants claim they knew English royalty was in their midst.Despite the british government’s concerted effort to preserve the secret, a veteran field officer claims he was scarcely surprised by the disclosure that was serving with Britain’s troops in southern Afghanistan. Fearing that insurgents would specifically target Cornet Wales (the prince’s military title) and his fellow soldiers if his presence in the battle zone were publicly revealed, the top British brass did everything possible to prevent leaks about his deployment on Dec. 14 to Helmand province.

But talking to newsweek via satellite phone from that region last week, deputy commander recalled getting an urgent message from Taliban intelligence in late December or early January that “an important chicken” had joined British troops in his area of operations. Karim promptly sent his men hunting for the prince.

“He is our special enemy,” says Karim. “Our first option was to capture him as a prisoner, and the second, to kill him.”

The prince traveled around the province with his unit, says Karim, whose men once or twice reported possible sightings of Harry’s armored convoy in their area of operations, eastern Helmand’s Sanguin district. But Karim and his fighters never got close to their target.

The prince’s Afghan tour of duty had been scheduled to last until April, but it ended abruptly Thursday after the Miami-based Web site Drudge Report revealed the prince’s whereabouts. Less than a day later Britain’s Ministry of Defence announced Harry’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The ministry said the prince had been working as a forward air controller, calling in fighter-bomber strikes against Taliban forces. Karim claims he heard the same thing from Afghans on the ground.

“He may be a prince, but he didn’t have a prince’s heart,” says Karim. “He proved as cruel and brutal as other British soldiers, bombing and shelling innocent Afghans and Taliban.”

U.S. and British intelligence officials are highly skeptical about the Taliban commander’s story, dismissing it as propaganda and “wishful thinking.” They say there’s no evidence that the Taliban had any idea of Prince Harry’s presence in Afghanistan before Matt Drudge put the story on the Web and set off a media stampede. The British press had agreed to an embargo on the story in exchange for journalistic access to the prince.

Suddenly the papers were full of quotes, photos and details about Cornet Wales and his Afghan tour of duty.All the same, Karim may be telling the truth. The Taliban undoubtedly has good sources for inside information on Western forces inside the country: translators and other Afghan support staff can’t be expected to ignore threats to family members who live within easy reach of Taliban fighters. What’s certain is that Harry’s anonymous visit is now over. “It’s very nice to be a normal person for once,” he told British reporters. “I think this is as normal as I’m ever going to get.” See the interview

Related:

Mullah Abdul Karim

The Taliban

Prince Harry of Wales

Do You Need A Hug?

laice — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:34:05 +0000

RSSHugger is a new website developed to help bloggers promote their blogs, and to help visitors discover new blogs that write about subjects that the readers are interested in. Through the power of the internet and viral marketing, rssHugger looks to bring blog writers and blog readers closer together. To learn more about what rss feeds are or how owning an rss page can benefit you; visit the About page.

The concept

rssHugger is a unique website that aims to bring bloggers and readers together. rssHugger aims to provide blog owners with a unique easy-to-use way to promote their blogs by sending them traffic, building backlinks for search engine optimization, as well as attracting new rss subscribers if the content is interesting to the reader. rssHugger aims to help visitors be able to easily find blogs that write about subjects they are interested in. These subjects include: internet marketing, making money online, charity, sports, gambling, and many more. If the visitors find a blog that they had not previously heard about, they can easily add it to their RSS readers or bookmark it.

I have already a rssHugger blog page laice.wordpress.com over there already, When you send visitors over to your page and hit the top 100. Counters are set to 0 every month, so everyone starts on an even keel. It’s a unique way of promoting one’s blog and so different from the others of its ilk.

What better way of garnering unique readers, whom are interested in new and yet unfound blogs that are out there.

http://www.rsshugger.com

In The Pink

laice — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:53:57 +0000

Spring’s just around the corner. Your thoughts are already round to what you should be wearing that you can look good in.

Spending the hours trimming and toning that body, getting right for the spring/summer.

Well ladies there’s help right round the corner in the form of thepinkpatch.co.uk

It’s currently the number one weight loss patch that’s specifically made by women for women!

They are currently offering a free trial, so what have you got to lose other than your weight?

The Pros

All-natural, side effect free ingredients
One-a-day patch for 24-hour appetite control and weight loss
Boost your energy for your busy lifestyle!
Elevate your mood so you’ll look & feel terrific
Free one week trial!

The cons

None!

It’s Only Monopoly Money On A Grand Scale!

laice — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:38:26 +0000

Northern Rock to be nationalised

Northern Rock hit difficulties because of the credit crisis

Northern Rock is to be nationalised, the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston has learned.A consortium led by the Virgin group was leading bids to run the beleaguered bank, while a management buyout had also been considered.

But ministers have decided that nationalisation - the first such move since the 1970s - was the only option.

“They felt that the offers on the table did not offer enough to the taxpayer,” Mr Peston said.

The decision will be a blow to the bank’s shareholders - who will receive next-to-nothing in the short term for their shares

Robert Peston,
BBC business editor

Read Robert Peston’s blog

“It’s a momentous moment. Nationalisation has become a dirty word associated with industrial failures of the past,” he went on.

“Financial services, by contrast, have been considered the great British success story - so for such a seemingly growing bank to end up being nationalised is a big moment for the City and a big moment for the government.”

Northern Rock got itself into financial difficulties last year because its business model left it ill-prepared for the global credit crunch.

It was forced to ask the Bank of England for emergency funding, triggering the first run on a British bank in more than a century.

Nationalisation will be pushed though parliament with emergency legislation on Monday.

Shares in Northern Rock will be suspended on Monday morning.

Under nationalisation rules, shareholders will be offered compensation for their holding, at a level set by a Government-appointed panel.

Investors could begin legal action if they are unhappy with the amount offered.

Job threat

UK taxpayers are now subsidising the bank in loans and guarantees to other lenders to the tune of about £55bn.

The Treasury now feels that nationalisation offers the most certainty of securing these guarantees, Mr Peston said.

It is thought that the business model it proposes will be similar to those put forward by the Virgin Group and the in-house management consortium.

These were likely to see a downsizing of the bank, with job cuts likely, observers say.

The Treasury had already recruited the former boss of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, Ron Sandler, to lead Northern Rock, in case the bank were nationalised.

Mr Sandler is widely regarded as having restored confidence in Lloyd’s after its years in financial disarray.

He is well known to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and worked for the Treasury in developing the so-called stakeholder pension and investment products that were intended to help those on lower incomes save for retirement.

Chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee John McFall said that he welcomed the Government’s decision to nationalise.

“They have explored every avenue. At the end of the day the biggest issue is the safeguarding of taxpayers’ money. If nationalisation saves that money, that has to be the correct step in the long term.”

Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that the right deicison had been taken, though “belatedly”, and that the government should have walked away from the prospect of a private takeover some time ago.

“The important thing now is to do the right thing and the government has got to immediately establish what the problems are with this bank.”

This made for grim reading over the weekend - having to bail these people out. As a democratically elected government, did they bother to inform and consult us? Where is the public out cry of having to subsidize this mess to the tune of 3,50GBP for every tax payer.

Do not forget, we still have to foot the 2012 Olympics! That budget seems to grow like everytime when one of our ministers manage to speak about that. Just to cheer us up a bit please check out this for a bit of therapy!

Monet Not Wanted?

laice — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:58:19 +0000

“Poppies near Vetheuil” (1879) by Claude Monet, and “Blossoming Chestnut Branch” (1890) by van Gogh

were both found safe and sound in a back seat of car parked out near a psychiatric hospital in the city, Zurich police said in a statement.

It was 2 of the 4 paintings that were stolen, it appears the thieves could not handle these two hot properties both valued at over $40 million.

The audacious theft from Zurich’s Emil Buehrle museum was one of the largest art robberies carried out in Europe in the last two decades.

The four stolen Impressionist masterpieces had a joint worth of 180 million Swiss francs.

Three masked men entered the museum on February 10 and threatened staff with a pistol before making off in a car.

The museum had offered a reward of 100,000 Swiss francs for any information leading to the paintings’ return.

For a closer look at switzerlandartcrimetheftpaintings

Sony’s Revenge!

laice — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:27:07 +0000

Ah So! Sony has finally put to bed its horrendous nightmare that once was Betamax