The best and strongest aircraft cable key ring is a simple loop of aircraft cable  

Aircraft cable is a flexible plastic-coated stainless steel wire rope developed to manipulate control surfaces — flaps, ailerons, and tail rudders — on airplanes.  

Aircraft cable now finds uses in bike locks, exercise machines and sailboat rigging.

Why aircraft cable for a key ring?

With a tensile strength of 890 pounds, a 1/16 inch aircraft cable may seem over-engineered for holding keys.  The aircraft cable key ring was introduced in the 1970s.  Some key rings manufactured back then are still in service.

This aircraft cable key ring has been in constant use since 1976. Despite fading, cracks in the plastic coating, and some play in the clasp, this key ring still works perfectly.

Get the right kind of air craft cable key ring, the twisty kind  

There are three kinds of key ring cable clasps:

• threaded carabiner-style — problem: fussy screw connector; can snag
• ball in socket — problem: streamlined but disconnects too easily
• twisty lock — fast, smooth, secure but you need to know how to use it

See this brief video on  How to use the twisty aircraft cable keyring

My personal recommendation comes after trying all three kinds of aircraft cable key rings.

Yes, the ball in socket type does disconnect when the ring is squeezed, if you are lucky, when the keyring is in your pocket.  The threaded variety also unscrew and are fussy.

I have used a twisty lock aircraft cable key ring since about 1975.  In 1976 while visiting a fair booth in San Diego, I talked with the company rep about these amazingly strong and wear-resistant key rings.  

When I showed the company rep my purple aircraft cable key ring, he offered to trade me a brand new red one

I was hesitant to part with my reliable key ring.  When he told me his company did research on wear and tear in used key rings, I agreed to the trade.

That red aircraft cable key ring has been in my pocket every day since 1976.  Perhaps the company will offer to trade me a new one?  I suspect the cable was made by the Loos Company.

Will your aircraft cable key ring last for 37 years?  Get one now and start testing!

• Lucky Line 81101 Key Ring
• List Price: $3.00
• Price: $1.17
• Read Reviews

Best Aircraft Cable Key Ring and Why Not to Get the Wrong Kind originally appeared at Blogs News Reviews - WordPress tips, reviews, blog writing, SEO, superheros, humor

The history of ancient life on Earth is written in its oldest rocks.  Paleontologists, detectives who track the ancient denizens of that early world, continue to gather fossil evidence of the earliest multicellular life, the Ediacara.

These mysterious creatures preceded the famous Cambrian explosion that began 541 million years ago.

The Cambrian, abundant with the fossils from the ancient ocean sediments, including the Burgess Shale in Canada, justifiably captures the popular spotlight.

This little devil, a Devonian trilobite, was armed with an as-yet unexplained trident. Photo credit: Wikipedia

Almost everyone has seen a trilobite, an animal that appeared in the Cambrian and roamed the ancient seas for 270 million years, right up to the Permian-Triassic extinction, the so-called “Great Dying” 252 million years ago.  

Of course, even kids know the names of dinosaurs, which came to rule the Earth after the Great Dying until only 66 million years ago.

Ediacaran life has attracted much less celebrity

Beginning in the 1950s, a few fossils began to tell of complex animals that were not even supposed to exist prior to the Cambrian.  

This pre-Cambrian time, the Ediacaran period, between 575 and 542 million years ago, followed the Marinoan glaciation or “Snowball Earth,” a period when the entire surface of our planet was frozen solid.

Not that long ago, the Cambrian was considered the boundary before which no multicellular life existed.  That’s all changed.  

Simple one-celled life appeared on Earth about a billion years after the planet formed 4.5 billion years ago, a time punctuated by massive meteor bombardments, including a whopping collision with a Mars-sized planet that sent molten rock into space to form our Moon.

White smokers at the Champagne vent, Northwest Eifuku volcano, Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Photo Credit: NOAA

Life Begins

Within less than a billion years life appeared. Life on Earth may have gotten its start near deep-sea geothermal vents, still the home of extremeophile bacteria and the animals that feed on them.    

Whatever process led to the emergence of life, soon single-celled plants began converting the Earth’s carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbohydrates, the stuff you sprinkle on your cereal.

The first oxygen was consumed by iron dissolved in the oceans which became iron oxide or rust, laid down as rich ore deposits later used to make your car.

Dissolved iron in the oceans, which “rusted” when oxygen became plentiful, was deposited as banded ironstones.

The conversion of a carbon-dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere into oxygen may seem like a good thing to mammals like us.  But carbon dioxide traps heat much better than does oxygen.  Simple plants made too much of a good thing!  Oxygen cooled the Earth.

Our planet froze into a Snowball Earth.  Several times. 

Why did ancient single-celled life dominate Earth for so long?

Appearing “only” a billion years after the Earth formed, single celled life took more than three billion years to begin forming more complex multicullular life forms during the Ediacaran Period about 600 million years ago.  Meditate on this time line.

Ancient life took its sweet time to go from single cells, around 4 billion years ago, to more complex multicellular plants and animals, during the Ediacaran period, about 45 million years before the Cambrian. Photo credit: Wikipedia

Some scientists think that low oxygen levels in the oceans 1.8 to .8 billion years ago kept life simple. Others believe that Snowball Earths caused, ironically, by plentiful oxygen in the atmosphere, delayed the appearance of complex life. However, some paleontologists continue to push back the time of the first animals. perhaps even before the last “Snowball Earth.”  In any case, the Cambrian is no longer the first word in multicellular life.

Ediacaran Ancient Life Finally Gets Some Respect

These ancient critters now have their own explosion, the Avalon Explosion, a rapid increase in the diversity of Ediacara body forms that preceded the Cambrian Explosion by 33 million years.  If 33 million years doesn’t sound like much, it’s a quarter the length of the dinosaurs’ reign and half as long as the Cenozoic, the Age of Mammals.

A Sample Collection of Ediacaran Life Forms

Unless noted all photo credits:  Wikipedia

Dickinsonia

Dickinsonia grew as big as bath mats and apparently lay flat on the sea bottom, possibly grazing on microbial mats.  The segments of the soft-bodied Dickinsonia have been described as liquid-filled chambers, something like an air mattress. First discovered by Reg Sprigg in 1946 in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, apparently while eating his lunch, Ediacaran fossils were described in a paper submitted to, and rejected by, the journal Nature.

Charnia

Charnia was first discovered in 1957 in rocks in Charnwood Forest in central England by Tina Negus, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, but her geography schoolteacher ruled out the possibility of Precambrian fossils.  

Later, a schoolboy Roger Mason, who later became a geologist, brought the fossils to the attention of scientists.  Charnia lived attached to the sea bottom, too deep for sunlight to allow photosynthesis, suggesting that they absorbed nutrients directly from the seawater.

 Charniodiscus

Also first discovered in Charnwood Forest, Charniodiscus was first discovered as only the circular base or holdfast that anchored the stalk and frond to the sandy sea floor. Similar to Charnia, the frond structure is different, although the source of nutrition for this an Ediacaran fossil was presumably similar. Two Charniodiscus forms have been found, one with a short stalk and fat frond, the other with a long stalk that held the frond 20 inches above the sea bottom. 

Eoandromeda 

Eoandromeda has eight radial spiral arms, spiraling either clockwise or counterclockwise.  A few dozen fossils are known, ranging from 1 to 4 cm in diameter.  This specimen from Australia has longer, more tightly coiled arms compared to Chinese Eoandrommeda. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/groups/complex_life/ 

Spriggina

Named for Ron Sprigg, this segmented Edicaran organism reached about 3-5 cm in length and may have been a predator. Two rows of tough interlocking plates cover the bottom, while one row covers its top.  Its front segments are fused to form a head, which may have borne eyes and antennae.

These are but a sample of a growing collection of Ediacaran organisms.  Below is an artist’s conception of an Ediacaran garden

The Ediacara appear to have become extinct before the celebrated hustle and bustle of the Cambrian.  Some suggest they are a “failed experiment” that left no descendents.  As objects of scientific study the Ediacara are an active field with a growing list of Ediacaran genera.

Here’s how the Earth’s continents changed from Ediacaran times. 

Finally a treat: David Attenborough shifts focus from life on today’s Earth to First Life, an account that includes the Ediacaran first toddling multicellular steps of ancient  life.  Enjoy!

Ancient Life originally appeared at Blogs News Reviews - WordPress tips, reviews, blog writing, SEO, superheros, humor

Disneyland, Disney World, and California Adventure will ban lone kids under 14 beginning on March 23, 2013.

Previously children of various ages were allowed in the Disney parks unaccompanied by an older person.

The policy will not be enforced based on government-issued identification cards, which youngsters under 14 may not have.  Instead, Disney employees will approach those who look young, and if the children are under 14, they will contact a parent or guardian, according to the Orange County Register.

The new policy for all Disney parks will be the same for Disneyland, Walt Disney World, California Adventure, which previously admitted solo children of varying ages.  

Children visiting any Disney park must be accompanied by someone 14 or older.

A Disneyland spokesperson said that the new rule followed a survey of guests and various child welfare organizations, and that age 14 is the minimum age recommended by the American Red Cross. 

The Orange County Register reported on March 15 that the Disneyland spokesperson said that the policy was not triggered by any specific issue with unaccompanied children in a park.

However, the policy comes within a week of the drowning death of a 13-year-old swimmer in a pool at Disney’s Pop Century Resort on the grounds of Walt Disney World, according to the U.K. Daily Mail and other news organizations.

The boy from Springfield, Missouri, was swimming at about 9:00 pm, March 10, in the hotel pool with a group of children including his little brother and a cousin. The tragedy was discussed on Dizboards. com beginning on Sunday, March 10 and the later drowning death on Tuesday, March 12 was reported by the Orlando Sentinel.  

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Disneyland Bans Children Under 14 Alone, Disney World, California Adventure, too originally appeared at Blogs News Reviews - WordPress tips, reviews, blog writing, SEO, superheros, humor

Serious customers want quick, easy, trustworthy product reviews

As a reviewer or affiliate marketer, you want to feed that customer a useful product review, and serve it up fast.

Below you will find a quick and easy sample template to write the perfect product review.  But first some principles in writing a well structured product review.

The Best Product Reviews Sell Benefits

A customer cares less about features than product benefits. A good product review should tell how the product is going to improve the customer’s life, not necessarily how many megabits or horsepower foot pounds per square inch or the biography of the inventor.  Connect the dots; list the features as they relate to benefits. 

Product review “pros” quickly list the benefits

You want to quickly inform the potential customer of whats attractive about the product.  What are the product pros? Find out!  Read the online product reviews from satisfied customers.  How does the product solve a problem or make life better?  How does the product improve on previous designs?  Is the product easy to use?  Does it save money?  How is the product superior to its competitors?  Does it correct a competing product’s weakness (no radioactive waste, no ring around the tub, does not irritate my baby’s eyes)?  List the benefits with bullets.

Give the customer confidence

Ever hear of “buyer’s remorse”?  The customer fears that they might buy a “lemon” or get a bad deal.  Yes, customers want deals!  The motivated customer really wants to buy and is doing due diligence so they will not kick themselves later over either the quality or the price.   Your product review “pros” should offer solid reasons why the customer will not regret the purchase.

Motivated customers want to know the product “Cons”

As mentioned, a shopper ready to buy is doing due diligence.  Is there any reason that the  customer might not be completely satisfied?  Here is where the true product reviewer gains trust.  Read the negative on-line reviews.  Is there a known dissatisfaction with the product? Mention it. This should not be a fatal flaw.  If it were, why the heck are you promoting the product?

After bringing up a product review “con” the reviewer needs to offer the customer  a remedy or work-around.  A review of an excellent product might acknowledge that the price is higher than a competitor’s item.  Follow up with an explanation that quality costs more due to the benefits of longevity, better performance, or reliable factory service.

The Con Is as Important to a Buyer as the Pros 

If you can find a minor fault that the customer can live with, you will give them reason to feel that they have accomplished their goal of kicking the tires and checking out the product.  The customer has discharged their responsibility of caveat emptor, “let the buyer beware,” and can relax.  The customer may be tired of shopping and can now put down their guard and, you hope, their hard-earned money.  Remember: Con = confidence.

Go Out on a Limb

Make a recommendation.  If you have personally used and sincerely like the product (my favorite products to review), tell the customer.  Relate a personal favorite among the benefits or features.  

If you have done your homework, and read the on-line customer reviews, even if you don’t own the product, you should be confident that you have beat the bushes and found the very best product and best value that you can personally recommend to YOUR customer.  If you can’t, I recommend that you not review the product.

Product Review Pass Off

Your work as a product reviewer is done. Now is the time for the Call to Action, when you ask your customer to click a button to be passed off to the closer, the site where they will buy.    Make the button to buy the last possible avenue.  This may include a link to on-line product reviews (which you should have checked, because a serious buyer will always want those, especially for a big ticket item).

Below is a sample product review, including some SEO advice 

Stick to the script, fill in the blanks and watch your perfect product review emerge.  

That’s the handy dandy product review template.  Select and paste the text when you start your next product review.  BTW, interested in  the code to put the color box?  Use this code: <div style=”padding:12px;background-color:#HEX HERE;line-height:1.4;”>
TEXT HERE
</div>

BTW, This article uses the color #f79f81 to replace “#HEX HERE”  I was shopping recently and apparently f79f81 is really “in” this year for shoes.  Moderately hideous if you ask me.

Are You an Amazon Affiliate with limited time to write product reviews?  

Trick question!  We all have limited time.

I personally use Easy Azon, a WordPress plugin that has paid back its price many times over in time that it has saved me.  Easy Azon lets you find Amazon products, and with one click insert photos, calls to action, and info blocks.  

Click below to learn how Easy Azon can tap your international customers, speed up writing product reviews, and accelerate your Amazon affiliate marketing right here in the USA.

Sample Product Review originally appeared at Blogs News Reviews - WordPress tips, reviews, blog writing, SEO, superheros, humor

I know what angels look like now.

They glow in private ways

They look like us and act like us

And no one ever says

“Hey, there’s an angel!”

‘Cause they don’t know

The work is done in secret

The angels are among us

They glow in private ways

But if you’ve ever known one

You know for all your days

That you have to be an angel now

Whenever you can be

You don’t get a golden pair of wings

You aren’t issued a golden horn

Your just another slob down here

Just trying to stay warm

But the time will come and you will know

It’s time

Your time to be an angel

And it’s never that sublime

Someone needs a flashlight

Or someone needs a tow

Or someone’s lost like you were

And needs a place to go

I know what angels look like now

They look like me and you

They shine the light that no one sees

Until it shines on you

And then you are an angel, too

For you have taken good

And need to pass it on again

The way an angel should

No, you don’t get golden wings my friend

Or bask in misty clouds

The angel glows in private ways

That face among the crowd

When you see one only nod

And smile because you know

Another angel is among us

And adding to the glow

I found this image on the Facebook page of my friend Jupiter Jim and then wrote this poem.  If you like this sort of thing, visit him.

I Know What Angels Look Like Now originally appeared at Blogs News Reviews - WordPress tips, reviews, blog writing, SEO, superheros, humor