Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Choose your own Path


We start out on a path that has been created for us, each stone picked out and placed by our family, friends and teachers. Once we mature we may start to place the stones on this path ourselves but for the most part we are still receiving them from the same forces that started us on this path. If we are fortunate we realize this and start to choose the stones on our own, but where does this path lead? Is the destination we strive for one of our own choosing or is it one of obligation, persuasion and confusion? We can’t answer this question until we open our minds and look. Look to see what really motivates us along this path and what stimulus dictates the topography of it. This path although not entirely made by us is wonderful. It has gotten us to where we are now and can take us where ever we choose to go. Don't be so hasty as to look to far ahead and not notice the quality of stones you are laying. You may look one day and find you have made yourself a path of hot coals or that of sharp jagged rocks. Slowly pick and choose which stones you would like on your path. Enjoy them and learn from them. Be not too concerned to which direction the path goes for if the stones laid today are ones of love, wonder and creation, your path will always lead you to where you want to go.
Zachery Robert Davis

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

US Infrastructure Disintegrates

On Capitol Hill, the plight of George S. Hawkins [boss of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority] and other utility managers has become a hot topic. In the last year, federal lawmakers have allocated more than $10 billion for water infrastructure programs, one of the largest such commitments in history. But Mr. Hawkins and others say that even those outlays are almost insignificant compared with the problems they are supposed to fix. An E.P.A. study last year estimated that $335 billion would be needed simply to maintain the nation's tap water systems in coming decades. In states like New York, officials estimate that $36 billion is needed in the next 20 years just for municipal wastewater systems. - New York Times

Dominant Social Theme: Time to rebuild.

Free-Market Analysis: It is one more seeming failure of big government in the US. Crumbling roads and highways get the majority of attention from the American press, but the problems with the nation's water and sewer networks are apparently just as severe. Some systems date back to the Civil War, and across the country municipalities are finding that water and sewer grids are aging out and need extensive overhauls. The result, according to the Times article excerpted above, is a national (municipal) movement to raise taxes or raise rates to pay for new municipal water and sewer systems. Yet these money-raising ventures are running into considerable opposition. Here's more from the Times article, above:

In many cities, residents have protested loudly when asked to pay more for water and sewer services. In Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Sacramento ... rate increases have been scaled back or canceled after virulent ratepayer dissent. So when Mr. Hawkins confronted [an] upset crowd near Dupont Circle, he sensed an opportunity to explain why things needed to change. It was a snowy day, and while water from the broken pipe mixed with slush, he began cheerily explaining that the rupture was a symptom of a nationwide disease, according to people present.

Mr. Hawkins — who at 49 has the bubbling energy of a toddler and the physique of an aging professor — told the crowd that the average age of the city's water pipes was 76, nearly four times that of the oldest city bus. With a smile, he described how old pipes have spilled untreated sewage into rivers near homes.

"I don't care why these pipes aren't working!" one of the residents yelled. "I pay $60 a month for water! I just want my toilet to flush! Why do I need to know how it works?" Mr. Hawkins smiled, quit the lecture, and retreated back to watching his crew.

We have in the past alluded to the TARP bailouts and other paraphernalia of the modern regulatory democracy in "crisis" mode. Our point has been that the largesse distributed by the US central bank (and in the EU as well) has probably soured many on the idea of pitching in to alleviate the current financial crisis through higher taxes, rate hikes, etc. People are well aware now of the massive amounts of money available to elite financial programs. They also are personally aware, from bitter experience, of the jobless statistics (in the US and Europe, too) and also of the additional burdens that they are being asked to shoulder as federal revenues collapse and cuts in various services are contemplated, along with the identification of different (taxpayer) revenue sources.

It is an unfortunate fact that many efforts to deliver essential government services tend to fail over time, or at least decay in terms of quality and efficiency. This is because governments are not as good about maintaining projects as they are about allocating funds to create them to begin with. Big projects create jobs and garner votes. But there is not nearly so much benefit to be derived from maintenance as there is from the initial constructions. This is how you get "bridges to nowhere" and the like.

Additionally, because government construction is patronage driven and fueled by gouts of fiat money, it is difficult to tell what government projects are sustainable and practical and what projects are not. Famously, New York City dismantled its trolley system in favor of an elaborate network of highways, parkways and thruways, only to find that traffic projections exceeded all planning estimates. The more roads the city built, the more the traffic increased. This wasn't the plan of course, but it was the result.

Today, New York is saddled with an aging grid of jammed roadways that have not been properly cared for and will need significant upgrades and expansion. The city meanwhile is facing what may be a congenital shortfall in revenues - and the state is in far worse shape. This is not just New York's problem, of course. The difficulties are generic and shared throughout the Western world. The financial crunch is hitting Europe now. In America it has already struck. Municipalities and states are facing million- and even billion-dollar budget holes.

Ultimately, the idea that government can provide necessary services efficiently and at lower cost than the private sector must come under scrutiny. Absent competition, public enterprises will always degrade. Not only is the problem one of lack of competition, but also public services inevitably suffer from the "tragedy of the commons" - where public upkeep is neglected because no one fully takes ownership. This is especially troublesome in modern democracies where administrations come and go. Thus it is, everyone has responsibility for necessary infrastructure - and no one does, until it is too late.

The solution in the recent past when it comes to crumbling public infrastructure has been to consider "privatization." But for governments merely to parcel out inefficient monopoly services to a "private" enterprise does not address the twin issues of lack of competition and the tragedy of the commons. Yes, costs may be cut and services streamlined, but the underlying difficulties will remain as competition cannot be introduced and true ownership cannot be achieved.

Conclusion: It is difficult to predict what will happen as infrastructure and services continue to decline in the West. But an optimistic assessment might be that as other assumptions about government responsibilities come under question in the Internet era, so will the breadth of public services and the ability of the public sector to deliver them. This will not be in a theoretical discussion and therefore the solutions that emerge may be more reality-based and even free-market oriented.

http://www.thedailybell.com/896/US-Infrastructure-Disintegrates.html

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Love heals all wounds


He is a Chief Master Sergeant in the USAF. As high as you can go in enlisted ranks (E-9)
John Gebhardt's wife, Mindy, said that this little girl's entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head...but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John's hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing. He is a real Star of the war, and represents what America is trying to do.This, my friends, is worth sharing. Go for it!! You'll never see things like this in the news. Please keep this going. Nothing will happen if you don't, but the American public needs to see pictures like this and needs to realize that what we're doing over there is making a difference. Even if it is just one little girl at a time.
James Gates U. S. Navy

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Fed's Money Monopoly


Last week, in the name of protecting the little guy from Wall Street, the House passed HR 4173 to increase the little guy's false sense of security in the financial system. This mammoth piece of legislation would massively increase government regulation and oversight in the banking industry under the misguided reasoning that more government could have stopped faulty lending practices, when in actuality it caused them. This bill would also greatly increase the powers of the Federal Reserve, which too many in Congress still see as savior rather than perpetrator in this mess.
One silver lining is that the amendment to audit the Fed is still attached to the bill, and if it survives the Senate, the Fed will no longer operate in secrecy. If any version of HR 4173 becomes law, the Fed will be intervening and bailing out more rather than less, as it will gain enormous new powers in addition to those it already has. Whatever happens, the Fed and its defenders have seen that people are becoming very wary of its methods of operation, and many are downright angry at its very existence. Never again will the Fed be immune from the scrutiny of its critics. This is very positive.
Because of legal tender laws that force acceptance of the dollar, the Fed has absolute power over the currency. This absolute power is leading to the absolute corruption of our currency. The money supply has doubled in the last year or so, which is extremely dangerous. The banks seem to be hoarding liquidity now but once these dollars make their way into the economy, hyperinflation and economic chaos will be a real possibility.
Every time hyperinflation rips through an economy, the middle class gets completely wiped out. It is very alarming to watch the purchasing power of an entire life savings reduced to that of a few pennies. Those savings represent years of real labor, real time, effort and sacrifice exchanged for corruptible pieces of paper that politicians and bankers can destroy at whim.
Legal tender laws force the people to become subject to this risk for the benefit of the rulers. Artificial demand for currency allows the authorities to create arbitrary amounts of it to pay for wasteful projects, like frivolous wars and an ever-expanding public sector. This saps the private economy of jobs and purchasing power, yet the temptation proves too great for politicians, time and time again. Our government is no different. Although our dollar has taken nearly a century to lose 98% of its purchasing power, the fact that we are all obliged to participate in this slow burn of the economy on pain of imprisonment is anathema to the principles of liberty.
I introduced the Free Competition in Currency Act last week to free the people from these governmental threats. HR 4248 would repeal legal tender laws, prohibit taxation on certain coins and bullion, and repeal certain laws related to coinage. The prospect of people turning away from the dollar towards alternate currencies should provide incentive for Congress to regain control of the dollar and halt its downward spiral. Restoring soundness to the dollar will remove the government's ability and incentive to inflate the currency and keep us from launching unconstitutional wars that burden our economy to excess. With a sound currency, everyone is better off, not just those who control the monetary system.
Editor's Note: The Daily Bell is pleased to provide its viewers with editorials from a selection of free-market thinkers. These may have been reprinted elsewhere and are NOT necessarily representative of Daily Bell editorial policy. The Bell itself is unapologetically free-market and its perspective tends toward absolute privatization of all money functions and unconstrained capitalism so long as the capitalistic enterprise is not in any way advantaged by government.
by Dr. Ron Paul

Monday, December 14, 2009

Associated Press Ignores Climategate Source Code


E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data - but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press. The 1,073 e-mails examined by the AP show that scientists harbored private doubts, however slight and fleeting, even as they told the world they were certain about climate change. However, the exchanges don't undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists were keenly aware of how their work would be viewed and used, and, just like politicians, went to great pains to shape their message. Sometimes, they sounded more like schoolyard taunts than scientific tenets. The scientists were so convinced by their own science and so driven by a cause "that unless you're with them, you're against them," said Mark Frankel, director of scientific freedom, responsibility and law at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also reviewed the communications. Frankel saw "no evidence of falsification or fabrication of data, although concerns could be raised about some instances of very 'generous interpretations." - AP
Dominant Social Theme: The AP is on the case.
Free-Market Analysis: This article really is a ho ot. After reading ALL the Climategate emails, the AP has widely disseminated a story (it's really all over the ‘Net) revealing that global warming is taking place even though some of the major scientists analyzing data proving global warming have revealed tremendous biases. As to how AP arrived at its decision, here's the crux explanation as revealed in the article itself:
The AP studied all the e-mails for context, with five reporters reading and rereading them - about 1 million words in total.
So from this we can see that five reporters read every single email before reaching their conclusion. From our perspective, this is a little bit like reading a novel in order to learn how to write one. The mechanics will inevitably prove elusive and the inherent geography will remain submerged. Indeed, it seems that the real problems lie not with the emails but with source code which was disgorged along with the emails. Here's an excerpt from a more dependable analysis found at The American Thinker (a rabidly conservative site that we usually avoid but this article really was good) as follows:

CRU's Source Code: Climategate Uncovered by Marc Sheppard ... One can only imagine the angst suffered daily by the co-conspirators, who knew full well that the "Documents" sub-folder of the CRU FOI2009 file contained more than enough probative program source code to unmask CRU's phantom methodology.
In fact, there are hundreds of IDL and FORTRAN source files buried in dozens of subordinate sub-folders. And many do properly analyze and chart maximum latewood density (MXD), the growth parameter commonly utilized by CRU scientists as a temperature proxy, from raw or legitimately normalized data. Ah, but many do so much more.
Skimming through the often spaghetti-like code, the number of programs which subject the data to a mixed-bag of transformative and filtering routines is simply staggering. Granted, many of these "alterations" run from benign smoothing algorithms (e.g. omitting rogue outliers) to moderate infilling mechanisms (e.g. estimating missing station data from that of those closely surrounding). But many others fall into the precarious range between highly questionable (removing MXD data which demonstrate poor correlations with local temperature) to downright fraudulent (replacing MXD data entirely with measured data to reverse a disorderly trend-line). In fact, workarounds for the post-1960 "divergence problem", as described by both RealClimate and Climate Audit, can be found throughout the source code.
So much so that perhaps the most ubiquitous programmer's comment (REM) I ran across warns that the particular module "Uses ‘corrected' MXD - but shouldn't usually plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures." (Emphasis ours.)
Now we would like to point out that this article (and others like it) spread quickly around the ‘Net and thus this was public information by around November 25. That's nearly three weeks ago. AP, which just released its report, read a million words but STILL couldn't be bothered to deal with the issue of the source code. And we've read elsewhere that there are additional comments within the purloined code itself commenting on the ludicrousness of the exercise.
Now the AP is not alone in its almost comical refusal to deal with the full gamut of repercussions from Climategate. We analyzed an article last week on how major American television programming had not covered Climategate even once. We imagine of course that these same television stations are bringing American viewers breathless reports from Copenhagen where complaisant political figureheads are arguing over the diminunition of cow flatulence.
Can such reporting simply be attributed to ignorance and oversight ? Or is there is a power elite - a muscular, generational entity of wealthy families and individuals responsible for what we call dominant social themes - promotions that are disseminated to frighten (mostly Western) citizens with an eye toward gaining additional wealth and power. In the era of the Internet it is especially hard to avoid this conclusion because the evidence is overwhelming if one only chooses to look. The pattern is evident, even though no one (except the Bell) has explained the mechanism in promotional terms. But there are plenty of documented sources - on the Internet of course. Not one or ten, or even a thousand, but tens of thousands, even millions.
One needn't be a "conspiracist" to read blogs, white papers, articles and reports that prove (to anyone inclined to be moderately receptive) that there is a pattern in play. In fact, none of these promotions are based - from what we can tell - on scientific truths but are cobbled together by a variety of speculative and untrustworthy sources. But once the argument is assembled, tremendous support is seemingly arranged.
Indeed, the highest sources in the West, the most prestigious think tanks and academies lend credibility to what is incredible, and their productions are faithfully reported by the most muscular mainstream media. And eventually of course Nobel Prizes are distributed. Curricula begin to be written. From the foundations of the EU, to the mythic underpinnings of Islamo-fascism, to global warming itself, the average individual is assaulted by this organized, deliberate fear-mongering. And if that's not enough, the Western economic system itself - with its fiat money and central banking - regularly crashes and burns, spreading joblessness and hopelessness at cyclical intervals.
The spectacle in Copenhagen is very obviously an organized one - how could it be otherwise given its political nature. Certainly, the ideology is actually financial and has little or nothing to do with the falsehood of global warming. The AP conclusions are not coincidental within this larger frame or reference. And we have difficulty believing that an absolute news blackout by the major American television stations was somehow coincidental either.
Conclusion: We are not prepared to explain in detail how all this gets done. It is not, in fact incumbent upon us to explain it, merely to observe that there is a wealthy and powerful elite that utilizes sophisticated promotional mechanisms to consolidate increasingly international control and global wealth. We have also noted that in the age of the Internet, these promotions are becoming increasingly difficult to shield from public view. We think, ultimately Climategate may prove illustrative of this.
http://www.thedailybell.com/660/Associated-Press-Ignores-Climategate.html

Friday, December 11, 2009

Who Wants War?



Dr. Ron PaulIf anyone still doubted that this administration's foreign policy would bring any kind of change, this week's debate on Afghanistan should remove all doubt. The President's stated justifications for sending more troops to Afghanistan and escalating war amount to little more than recycling all the false reasons we began the conflict. It is so discouraging to see this coming from our new leadership, when the people were hoping for peace. New polls show that 49 percent of the people favor minding our own business on the world stage, up from 30 percent in 2002. Perpetual war is not solving anything. Indeed continually seeking out monsters to destroy abroad only threatens our security here at home as international resentment against us builds. The people understand this and are becoming increasingly frustrated at not being heard by the decision-makers. The leaders say some things the people want to hear, but change never comes.
One has to ask, if the people who elected these leaders so obviously do not want these wars, who does? Eisenhower warned of the increasing power and influence of the military industrial complex and it seems his worst fears have come true. He believed in a strong national defense, as do I, but warned that the building up of permanent military and weapons industries could prove dangerous if their influence got out of hand. After all, if you make your money on war, peace does you no good. With trillions of dollars at stake, there is tremendous incentive to keep the decision makers fearful of every threat in the world, real or imagined, present or future, no matter how ridiculous and far-fetched. The Bush Doctrine demonstrates how very successful the war lobby was philosophically with the last administration. And they are succeeding just as well with this one, in spite of having the so-called "peace candidate" in office.
We now find ourselves in another foreign policy quagmire with little hope of victory, and not even a definition of victory. Eisenhower said that only an alert and informed electorate could keep these war racketeering pressures at bay. He was right, and the key is for the people to ensure that their elected leaders follow the Constitution. The Constitution requires a declaration of war by Congress in order to legitimately go to war. Bypassing this critical step makes it far too easy to waste resources on nebulous and never-ending conflicts. Without clear goals, the conflicts last forever and drain the country of blood and treasure. The drafters of the Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war precisely because they feared allowing the executive unfettered discretion in military affairs. They understood that making it easy for leaders to wage foreign wars would threaten domestic liberties.
Responses to attacks on our soil should be swift and brief. Wars we fight should always be defensive, clearly defined and Constitutional. The Bush Doctrine of targeting potential enemies before they do anything to us is dangerously vague and easily abused. There is nothing left to win in Afghanistan and everything to lose. Today's military actions are yet another futile exercise in nation building and have nothing to do with our nation's security, or with 9/11. Most experts agree that Bin Laden and anyone remotely connected to 9/11 left Afghanistan long ago, but our troops remain. The pressures of the war racketeers need to be put in check before we are brought to our knees by them. Unfortunately, it will require a mighty effort by the people to get the leadership to finally listen.
Editor's Note: The Daily Bell is pleased to provide its viewers with editorials from a selection of free-market thinkers. These may have been reprinted elsewhere and are NOT necessarily representative of Daily Bell editorial policy. The Bell itself is unapologetically free-market and its perspective tends toward absolute privatization of all money functions and unconstrained capitalism so long as the capitalistic enterprise is not in any way advantaged by government.

http://www.thedailybell.com/index.asp

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

I am not a body. I am free

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
"I call upon God's Name and on my own."
I call upon God's Name and on my own" is another way of reminding me that I am not a body. If my name is the same as God's Name, then I must share the same characteristics as God. God is not a body so I must not be a body. God is innocent and wholly loving, so I must be innocent and wholly loving.

To call upon God's Name is to remind me of my Source and What I am. God has no fear, so fear must be alien to me as well. God does not condemn and so I must not condemn. Any image I believe about myself that is different from this is a false image that limits me and blinds me to the truth about myself.

To call upon God's Name is to open my mind to receive the truth of What I am. That is what I truly desire at the core of my being. I truly want to remember What I am. This Self that God created is where I find comfort and peace. It is the part of me that remembers God's Name is my own, along with all my brothers. It is the part of me that sees only unity and therefore is perfectly safe always.

Holy Spirit, help me see with the vision of my Self. Help me see the loving innocence of my brother so that I may recognize it in myself. Today I would receive Your meaning for everything I would look upon. Help me to be the Love I was created to be and see It everywhere. Help me to answer every call for Love with Love and thereby teach myself that only Love is real.


God is universal. God is the truth of all that is real. When I forget God, I am forgetting my Source, my true Identity. When I forget my Source, I am dreaming a dream of being separate from What I truly am. The way out of this is to return to letting God back into my awareness. The way out of this is to be willing to wake up from the dream of separation.

Anything other than God is a dream. That is why remembering God is my deliverance. "I call upon God's Name and on my own" helps me remember the truth. There is nothing other than God. That truth is my safety and my joy. Remembering that truth is my salvation.

I would remind myself of the truth frequently today. I would let my mind be healed of belief that anything other than God is real. This is how I rest in God today. This is how I wake up from the dream.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Mainstream media ignores climategate 14 days after news broke

Getty ImagesFor the fourteenth straight day, the three broadcast networks have failed to report on the great and growing ClimateGate scandal on their weekday morning or evening news programs. How to explain this? Perhaps it is that ABC, NBC and CBS have not yet heard of the story, despite two weeks of non-stop reporting on and discussion of ClimateGate in a whole host of media outlets. Perhaps the broadcast networks only trust their fellow liberal press outlets, like the New York Times. Perhaps they don't realize the Times exhibited journalistic diligence on ClimateGate, with a front page story the day the story broke. In the event that ABC News, NBC News and CBS News missed the news, the Media Research Center (MRC) is today rushing each of them a copy of the Times story, in the hopes that armed with this new information, they will finally report a story that has been roiling nearly everywhere else for a fortnight. So as not to offend the networks' pro-global warming sensibilities, MRC President Brent Bozell is looking to have the stories delivered by bicycle messenger. - MRC
Dominant Social Theme: Don't look now! ...

Free-Market Analysis: Wow, we didn't realize this was the case. We don't watch that much TV, especially American television, because we just can't stand it anymore. But sometimes you miss things, and this was one of them. We didn't realize that there hadn't been any formal reports on the Climategate controversy on American TV. Now, perhaps there have been reports on various talkshows, etc., but MRC claims that the major networks have not formally gone about covering the story. Incredible!
We have pointed out in the past that a major way of killing true reporting is to ignore it. This is much different than heavy-handed USSR tactics of "making up" news. The Western way has always been more subtle, at least in the 20th century. Not so sure about the 21st because of the Internet. But we watched how the powers-that-be carefully controlled news in the 20th century.
First, reporting was made into a graduate school degree. Second, the major media tended to hire from the graduate schools, and this was exceptionally effective when it came to larger issues of finance and politics. Those who graduated from these schools, especially with high marks, were already entirely conditioned. If you were a major media player with a specific conversational gambit, you didn't have to worry. Just like buying a car from a major producer - you kind of knew what you were getting.
But this wasn't enough, we saw. In the late 20th century, especially in America, which has always pioneered reporting as a good many other things, there was an effort to do away with sourcing. Lawyer Steven Brill, with shadowy funding (from our point of view), attempted to set up a quarterly magazine discussing journalistic "ethics" in general. One of Brill's big issues was that reporters not use "unnamed" sources. It went on for several years, article after article, reporter after reporter beating his or her breast about the sin and mortification of using unnamed sources, and Brill pontificating about the morality involved and how using unnamed sources should be grounds for dismissal.
Fortunately Brill went bankrupt - as regards the magazine anyway - and the movement to report without using the only kind of good source there is (an anonymous one) gradually faded away. (We're sure it will return sooner or later.) More pernicious and still attracting adherents is the whole idea that journalism should be "detached" and even-handed.
We've run several analyses on this issue, showing that journalism was always polemical, both in Britain and America, until well after the Civil War when a number of social standards shifted. We don't believe these changes were for the good, certainly they weren't sensible and in many cases we think they were inspired by determined manipulations that were intended to make news less incisive, less focused and generally less reliable.
Conclusion: And what do we have today, after more than a century of news "improvement?" After 100 years of turning news gathering into a profession, of setting the "highest standards," of ensuring as much as humanly possible that all forms of bias were excommunicated from the news rooms? ... Why we have America's major networks NOT COVERING THE SCIENTIFIC STORY OF THE DECADE FOR A FULL TWO WEEKS AFTER THE FIRST REPORTS. Kind of makes you wonder where all the improvement's gone, huh? Unless it's on purpose ... Ya think?
http://www.thedailybell.com/638/Big-3-TV-Ignores-Climategate.html

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Internet Marketing Is Necessary To Successful Web Sites


Internet marketing
is essential to the success of web sites. You can have a professional looking website but what good can it do if internet users are not able to find it when they need your products and services? That is where an internet marketing campaign comes into play.

"Your website has to magically appear before buyers when they need products and services."

Internet marketing is similar to designing websites- it does not require much experience to do a good job, just good knowledge and a keen eye for details. It is fundamentally important for a good internet marketer to constantly update himself weekly, if not monthly, of online markets. There are many ways to market your website .

-- Find A Competent and Reliable Internet Marketer --

Justify the costs of hiring an Internet Marketer - First of all, getting an internet marketer is not essential for every website. If your website is a business website or a website which you want to generate revenue from, it is good to seek a competent internet marketer to work on your website. For more details visit to www.ultimate-internet-marketing-tricks.com.The costs spent on your website for internet marketing has to be justified and often, they are justified by having more revenue and traffic to your web site.

Potential customers have to know that there are no guarrantees in SEO. Since everything is fundamentally based on search engines, SEO work is at the mercy of major search engines like Google. Many SEO companies tried to secure customers with guarrantees that they cannot fulfil, resulting in lawsuits or customers getting burned for hiring their SEO services.

-- What an Internet Marketer can offer --

In short, an Internet Marketer oversees that your website is built properly for visibility and promoted with the best dollar spent on your internet marketing campaign. It is no good having a website and not appearing in internet searches. Your website has to magically appear before buyers when they need products and services. Internet Marketers deploy search engine optimisation techniques to make your website visible and targeted to internet users.

Internet marketing requires research and analysis effort for individual website, followed by optimisation of website .For more details go to www.perpetual-traffic-generator.com .
Hundreds of hours may be spent on each website, depending on the size of your targetted market. You are essentially paying for the amount of effort involved, effectiveness of your internet marketer and daily sales tracking of your website.

How to choose an Internet Marketer- Internet marketing requires constant updating of skills and knowledge. One crude way to test if your internet marketer is a genuine or fake- Ask your internet marketer about recent events that happened in his field. If he cannot answer that, he must have a genuinely good reason to back himself as a good internet marketer! At times, it is easy to fall prey into the hands of bad internet marketing companies as happened in US and other parts of the world.

It is also important for you to feel comfortable with the amount of money you are spending on getting your site popular before committing yourself to an internet marketing campaign. Internet marketing campaigns typically last a few months and requires monthly tune-ups to your website. Include the costs of an internet marketing campaign when doing your company's advertising budget.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Hunger Crisis Worsens in East Africa as Boreholes, Funds Dry Up

By Jason Gale
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Eastern Africa is threatened with famine after drought parched crops and the financial crisis sapped funds for food relief, aid groups said.
About 20 million people in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda will need life-saving assistance until at least December, Save the Children said in a statement yesterday. The Westport, Connecticut-based organization said millions of children face malnutrition, disease and death.
“We’ve not seen a food crisis of this magnitude and severity in many years, and it is children who will suffer the most if the world fails to respond quickly,” Ned Olney, Save the Children’s vice president for global humanitarian response, said in the statement.
The World Food Programme, the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, said last week it needs $3 billion to plug a budget shortfall. Without extra funding, the Rome-based United Nations agency said it will have to halve the number of people it’s supporting in Kenya and halve rations in Somalia.
“There are more hungry people in the world and less food aid than ever before,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a Sept. 16 statement. “The double whammy of the financial crisis and the still record high food prices around the world is delivering a devastating blow. Throw in a storm, a drought and a conflict and you have a recipe for disaster.”
This year, the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is predicted to reach a record high of 1.02 billion, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Somalia is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years, with about half the population, or 3.6 million people, in need of emergency assistance, the FAO said in a Sept. 21 statement.
Conflict, Displacement
In sub-Saharan Africa 80 percent to 90 percent of all cereal prices monitored by the FAO in 27 countries are more than 25 percent higher than before food prices began soaring two years ago, according to the Rome-based FAO. Below-average rainfall, combined with conflict and displacement are aggravating serious food shortages in the region, it said.
In parts of central Kenya, 50 percent of shallow wells, boreholes and other water sources have dried up. People walk as many as 30 kilometers (19 miles) in search of water in the country where 3.8 million are suffering the impact of drought, the WFP said in Sept. 16 report.
The El Nino weather pattern, which usually brings heavy rains toward the end of the year, may exacerbate the problem by causing floods and mudslides, destroying crops both in the field and in stores, increasing livestock losses and damaging infrastructure and housing, the FAO said this week.
Health officials are battling an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in Ethiopia, where 1,354 new cases and three deaths were reported in one week this month, Save the Children said. The government estimates that 6.2 million people, half of them children, will need emergency food aid in the next few months.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

First “Green Home” on Native American Reservation

Two months later is the first update from the Humanitarian Fields in the US
“We just completed the first home of it’s kind built on any Native American reservation in the history of this country. It is a Natural home that the family who will live in it has helped us to build. This is the poorest place in this country. The cost of a new home on the reservation can be up to $50,000. We have done this Green for FREE with the support of people who care!
We also received a WIND TURBINE donated to the project and it is on the way! We have two more domes (homes) to complete in the week of September and with the help of the HUB community, our goal will be complete!
As the Head of HUB Faculty, Dr. Michael Beckwith, says, ‘We are history makers!’
My heart is so RICH with gratitude and love for LIFE AND ALL OF ITS CHILDREN.”
Charlie Gay, CEO of HUB continues “We recognize the importance of USA based impact programs, and following on from last Novembers historic largest food and personal care drive in US history with Miracle on Mainstreet, HUB is so proud of the brilliance within its community for us to implement the first “Green Home” development in one of the poorest areas of this country”
Temba Spirit, founder of www.NaturesCompassion.com and host to HUBbies September 10th to 14th on the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation, has been hard at work serving the homeless, the incarcerated, and now the Native American community.
If you would like to be a history maker on the Pine Ridge Reservation, please join us September 10th to 14th by emailing sprytel@hubhub.org,
and if you can not be with HUB here please consider making a donation directly to www.NaturesCompassion.com today!
Join us at a HUB event to help make a Future Worth Choosing. Visit HUB’s Live Event section
HUB – Where We Connect to Change Our World
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Written by HUB administration.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

One Fifth of the world lives on less than $1.00 a day


Traditional means of credit and financial support are not aiding those in need.
Microloans are used to help people living in extreme poverty start or expand a range of tiny businesses such as weaving and tailoring, husking rice, tea and coffee production, and delivering cell phone services to remote villages.
Humanity Unites Brilliance (HUB) follows the vision of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Muhammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank which is collectively owned by 6.5 million women, and Micro Credit Summit and Results founder Sam Daley Harris to see micro loans and financial training available to everyone. The Women of Koch live in one of the most violent slums in the world. In Korogocho, generations of HIV infected women are starving and without hope. HUB initiated micro loan programs and within seven weeks the same women grouped together, self proclaimed as “no longer sick but empowered”, and resourced by local HUB organizations, were beading bracelets with sales guaranteed through HUB’s Global Market Place. http://tinyurl.com/EflyerVideo

We know the old models of non-profit are failing; non-profits are on a constant fundraising treadmill and it gets tougher for them every year to receive consistent funding as more non-profits emerge. We see this all the time, where large donations are made for two or three years, but as soon as that funding runs out, there is a scramble for more funds and more often than not great programs now must fold due to lack of resources.
We know that Americans donate just over 4% of their income, and barely 2% tithe. Even though we hear of the large Bill Gates and Warren Buffet donations, the reality is that most great non-profits are extremely underfunded. A donor’s dollar spent will never come back to be reused and there are so many wonderful non-profits all competing for the donor dollar, and as a result, they are isolated in the work they do.
When the United Nations World Food Programs stated they had a 70% funding shortfall, we witnessed 250,000 people in immediate famine. Non-profits by nature are road mapped to go out of business. Over $2 Trillion dollars has been pumped into Africa in the last 30 years, most of which left no sustainable benefits for the people or communities. A dollar comes in and is used, never to be seen again. What we’re interested in is creating a recycling of dollars and helping people move from survival, through self-empowerment, to sustainability.
“Aid alone won’t make poverty history. We’ve got to teach fishermen to fish”
– Nelson Mandela
Within HUB, together we are creating a breakthrough economic engine that will drive a comprehensive global sustainability plan in the places it is most needed. HUB's mission is to move all people of the world from survival to self-sustainability. This movement is committed to returning dignity back to nations. "We don't just give a man a bag of grain; we teach him how to grow the grain himself in the future." http://tinyurl.com/EflyerVideo

We are a global family of entrepreneurs committed to excellence. We act as a catalyst for personal and financial freedom and the actualization of bold dreams. Our collective vision is to positively influence the lives of people on a scale so massive that we virtually change the world.
If you ever wanted to directly help people who are struggling to feed themselves, have clean water, and become truly sustainable, then you can do that through HUB. If you are looking for a way to financially sustain yourself, while doing something that is in total alignment with your spiritual heart, and serve the planet all at the same time HUB is for you.
Our mission is to move all people of the world from survival to self-sustainability. This movement is committed to returning dignity back to nations.
Humanity Unites Brilliance is a model for the future in humanitarian aid and philanthropy as a whole. Be a part of a new shift in consciousness. http://tinyurl.com/EflyerVideo
Zachery Robert Davis
Humanity Unites Brilliance

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Empowering Women in dire need


Humanity Unites Brilliance (HUB) Global Marketplace is dedicated to cultural awareness, preservation, and global outreach through the selling of fair-trade products. We believe that each and every one of us has the opportunity to make a positive impact in the world and through recognizing the power of our purchases we are helping to eradicate global poverty and create a more just and sustainable planet. The purchasing of products on this site impacts the lives of farmers, small cooperative groups, and recipients of HUB sponsored microloans.


The sales of the DO Ubuntu Orphan Bracelet over the last few months went directly to help women in South Africa living with HIV/AIDS, and orphanages throughout Africa who would otherwise have little or no funding. Just recently we received an email from HUB member Louise Hogarth, the founder of the DO Ubuntu project, who is now visiting her craft groups in South Africa. She was so excited to report that this project now supports around 80 women in the Eastern Cape with each woman supporting between 5-7 children. Due to the continual support of HUB, Louise will be making direct donations to orphanages in the Durban region this month, and creating jobs for women in an area where there is 90% unemployment.

Here is an eyewitness account of the inhumane conditions millions of women and children live in everyday and how we can help them move from poverty to self sustainment and abundance.
“Walking into her home I feel as though I am entering a dark cave, a cave harboring emotions of fear, grief, and longing for a better life. The only light comes from the cracks in the mud walls, and I can barely make out her face in the darkness; but I can feel her sadness. Angela is 55 years old and a mother of 6. She is HIV positive along with her mother, daughter, and grandson. Her face is like stone having no expression, but her eyes tell us all. Her eyes speak of the suffering she has endured throughout her life; her eyes speak of the murder of her 15-year-old daughter, and the pain of raising her children in the slums of Korogocho. She tells us that she is unable to sleep because worry fills her mind, and her inability to care for her children haunts her at night. Her HIV medication is no longer working because she has no food and her body cannot absorb the medicine. This was the Angela I met on my first trip to Kenya; on return only 6 weeks later I met someone new. I could hardly recognize her, her face was no longer stone it had softened and now wore the most beautiful smile. Within those six weeks Angela had now become a part of a HUB sponsored microloan group called the Self Empowered Women of Korogocho. This group sponsors 10 women, providing them financial literary, product development training, a means of creating an income, and in January HUB impact partner Feed The Children started providing food for all the women and their children. Angela and I begin to talk and she tells me that she dances for God each day now, and has a reason to wake up each morning. No longer does she contemplate suicide for she now has confidence in her ability, and no longer fears death for she knows her children will be taken care of. Know that Angela smiles now because she feels part of something greater, and because you said yes to being a part of something greater; remember this story when you ever doubt that you can change this world.”


Please support Angela and the women of Korogocho through the purchase of a Korogocho beaded bracelet. Wear a bracelet and know that you are changing the lives of these women, bringing back dignity, and creating a voice for these courageous spirits.

Zachery Robert Davis


Humanity Unites Brilliance