The Case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn VS. Nafissatou Diallo Takes a Strange Turn...

I had some serious doubts about this case right from day one...

Here's an update 2 July 2011 ::: NY POST: Maid cleaning up as 'hooker'!

UPDATE July 7 ::: Recent Photos of Diallo

::: JULY 5 UPDATE! CLICK HERE! :::

The woman who cried rape may be involved in a lot more than we have been led to believe. Is she really living in a building that exclusively houses HIV/AIDS carriers? The photo displayed here may or may not accurately depict her. Some say the picture is at least 10, maybe 15 years old. Others say it simply isn't her! What do YOU think? The way things have been going in the news, nothing really surprises me anymore. I have some added in some new information to an article I posted awhile ago. Consider this a "working update" vesrion, one where I will add new facts and allegations as they are reported.

"I have not given birth to a bad woman..." ~ quote from the mother of NYC chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo ::: Ms. DIALLO is quoted in the New York Times ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ (Diallo is seen in the accompanying photo)

Attention has now shifted from perp to the alleged victim of an alleged sexual assault of a 32-year old hotel chambermaid in New York City on May 14th by the former International Monetary Fund managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the "devout Muslim Ghanian" housekeeper.

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo from the West African nation of Guinea, told police that the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn came out of the bathroom naked, chased her down, forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear before she broke free and fled the room.

The New York Times reports ::: According to the two law enforcement officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.

That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He was among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York.

They also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five different companies. The woman insisted she only had a single phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.

In addition, the official said, she told investigators that part of her application for asylum included a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.

Inquiring minds want to know more about Diallo, who received political asylum in the US, and has been employed at the hotel for three years: La famille de celle qui accuse Dominique Strauss-Khan de tentative de viol s'est confiée à SlateAfrique. Elle décrit une jolie jeune femme de nationalité guinéenne sans histoire, sérieuse et qui n'a pu être manipulée.

via SlateAfrique ::: The one who is called Ophelia is not from Senegal, Ghana or Puerto Rico, as some journalists have reported, but from Guinea.

The daughter of a merchant form the Peule tribe (40% of the population in a country of 10.3 million), she is from the Labé region in Guinea, and followed her husband, a Guinea merchant, to the USA in 1998. There, she divorced him and has been raising her 15 year old daughter alone in the Bronx. She has some family in Harlem, including her sister, who is married to a Guinean business man working in the import-export trade.

Nafissatou Diallo holds a green card, and has been working as a maid in the Sofitel Hotel for three years. She has a reputation as a serious girl.

“She is as hard a worker as her sister,” said a cousin of hers on the phone. Diallo’s family has not been able to see her yet. Like everyone else, they read the papers, but they hope the sexual assault is “less severe” that what is reported.

Mamadou Chérif Diallo, from the victim’s family, and a 35 year old Guinean who is working for a New York City agency, who is tasked with representing the family, said this:

She’s a good Muslim. She is really pretty, as are a lot of Peule women, but in our culture, we do not accept this kind of behavior. Seriously, Dominique Strauss-Kahn attacked the wrong person. It’s a scandal! It’s really sad, this accident!

Under police protection

The family explained that Nafissatou Diallo is in hiding with NYPD protection to protect her from the media. She presenting has a lawyer. The attorney general’s office in Manhattan, contacted by SlateAfrique, refused to confirm the identity of Nafissatou Diallo, a common measure to protect sexual assault victims in the US.

French-Cameroonian writer Calixthe Beyala wrote an open letter that has been posted on several websites, entitled: “On épouse une Blanche et on viole la femme noire -or- Rape the Black Woman, and Marry the White One” - here are two snippets:

“...he knows perfectly the Sofitel Hotel in New York led by French. In this hotel, work for many black women! Many of them were raped by the former head of the IMF and the scandalous affairs have always been suppressed by the hotel management...”

“It is traumatising to realise that some Black people still have chains in their minds, and do not question the appetite of powerful men for Black women, a morbid attraction, in which relations haven't changed since slavery.”

Global Voices' Julie Owono explores the possibility that Nafissatou Diallo is a "conspirator".

Does machismo cause rape? Tracy Clark-Flory investigates for salon.com.






Tags: DSK, Nafissatou Diallo, Dominique Strauss-Kahn



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

Read more...

Tintin The Movie Review

Tintin will hit the big screen in India six weeks before he makes his entry in the US. In a bid to capitalise on the Indian fan base, the makers of the Hollywood flick, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, have decided to release the film here earlier, even if it means risking global piracy.

Movie Trailers

Read more...

When Nobody Recognised Film Double Dhamaal - Review News

The hilarious promos of Reliance Entertainment and Maruti International's upcoming comedy film DOUBLE DHAMAAL shows the four jokers in some pretty unusual and funny costumes....and one of the most unusual ones is Riteish Deshmukh dressed as a typical Chinese man called Lee!!
 

Actor Riteish Deshmukh, known as a prankster, tricked his "Double Dhamaal" team when he dressed like a Chinese for a scene in the comedy and nobody could recognise him.

And Ritiesh, who never lets an opportunity when it comes to pranks go by...went along with it and didn't tell anyone he was on sets! He in fact went to the Chinese extras and started talking to them...so all the more nobody to think it Riteish along with the group.

Film also features Arshad Warsi, Ashish Chaudhary and Jaaved Jaffery -- along with Sanjay Dutt, Mallika Sherawat and Kangana Ranaut.

Read more...

CALIFORNIA TAXES THE INTERNET

Beginning Friday, Amazon.com and other large out-of-state retailers will be required to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make online. Bold step in a new direction? Will other states soon follow?

The new tax collection requirement — part of budget-related legislation — is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

From FamousBloggers.net::: MOHAMED OSAM on JUNE 29, 2011 ·

In an email sent this afternoon to Californians participating in the famous eCommerce company Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) affiliate program, the company said, “California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com , Endless.com , MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com“. This decision was made Due to a sales tax measure recently passed in CA state legislature and on its way to be signed by GovernorJerry Brown.

This is not the first time, Amazon has actually terminated the associates program in Hawaii, Connecticut, Illinois, and North Carolina because of the passing of similar legal issues.

Read more...

Strategic Flaws in the 2011 US Economy

In a sign of increasing pessimism about the direction of the U.S. economy, roughly 4 in10 Americans now believes it is in permanent decline, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll. (Hover and click on the image below for more details)

(Reuters) - If banks loaned out their $2 trillion cash hoard, if worker training programs were stepped up and if 3 million job openings were filled, the economic recovery would be far stronger, a panel assembled by former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday. [Read Bill Clinton's remarks HERE]

So what the heck is going on with the economy? Gasoline is a big factor. American drivers are to big oil companies what puppets are to puppetmasters. Like a game, the masters rise the prices up to $4 a gallon and beyond, and just as our backs are beginning to crack under the weight, they ease off agin. Cat and mouse game-like. Torture. Push us to the edge of the cliffs, and pull us back a little bit just as we lose our footing. What else is eating away at our money?

Leading the way: HOUSING ::: AdAge reports "Data being released ... from Experian will show that in the first half of 2010, an estimated 275,000 people just walked away from mortgages they could afford to keep paying because they had become such awful investments. That adds up to roughly 17% of defaulters. While that figure is down 35% from the first half of 2009, as evidence of a double-dip housing crash mounts, "we expect the incidence of strategic defaulting to go up," said Ms. Bremmer.

Estimates of the number of mortgages under water in the U.S. hover just over 1 in 4 but that could jump to half in the coming years. Recent data from Corelogic suggests that almost 10% of mortgages originated just last year are already in the negative equity range. The Federal Reserve shows average homeowner equity at just 38% down from 61% a decade ago ...

...strategic defaulters... are no deadbeats in a traditional sense. The Experian data show that they are more likely to have had a jumbo-sized mortgage, have had excellent credit scores, have had more than one house or investment property, and have a higher than average household income. They also stay current on all their other bills. If you look at the incidence in these charts, the proportion of strategic defaulters keeps going up.

They should be owning and spending like home owners. But they're not, and for up to the next seven years they might have a hard time finding a mortgage while their credit recovers. "As many strategic defaulters as there are," said Ms. Bremmer, "there are many more people who are short-selling. Those people are renting, too."" (In other words, they are driving up rents and eventually will end up defaulting on their landlords).

As I have suggested before, if Barack Obama wants to create a REAL stimulus that will "save his presidency" he must give families a 20% cash down payment on a new or existing home that they can afford that is + or - $150 within the amount they are currently spending on rent.

John Sealander ::: Sound Familiar? "I paid all my June bills today. It's weird. Money comes in the door. Money goes out the door. And nothing really changes. There always seems to be enough to pay the bills on time, but I never really get ahead of the game. Maybe in this dismal economy, that's as good as it's going to get. I really need to invent something that I can sell for $19.95 on the cable TV channels and tell people that if they order right now, I'll send them not one, but two useless gizmos for the same price... with separate shipping and handling, of course."



Tags: economy, Bill Clinton



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

Read more...

Wordless Wednesday Evening

Read more...

MySpace is sold for 35 million$

The social network MySpace was sold for the sum of $ 35 million (cash and shares).
The sum is particularly low given that Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace in 2005 for $ 580 million ...
Photo: MySpace logo;
See story The Wall Street Journal ;
See story The New York Times ;

Read more...

The Vatican and the information on Internet...

The Vatican is now a player of the information on the Internet!
One may question where the Catholic Church will go with its technology project but one thing for sure: Benedict XVI seems to love his IPad! To be continued...
Photo Benedict XVI at the Vatican;
See site information Vatican ;
See site Facebook Vatican ;

Read more...

Disasters this September and November? Alignment-Earthquake connection?

I'm not really big on chicken-little style disaster predictions, perhaps the most frightening of which was that whole millenium thing. But I do recall reading a book in the early 90s about Nostradamus, and his prediction (off by a few years) of the 9/11 act of terror "from the skies above the New City".

John Hogue studies Nostradamus. Nostradamus has a few "comet predictions" and as we learned a few days ago, space debris ike comets and asteroids or meteors can pop up out of nowhere, and we'd have about 5 days notice to do anything (if we could do anything) about them.

Elenin is a comet. Hogue writes "As the orbiting earth lined up with it and the Sun a significant earthquake took place either that very same day or within a few days. The first alignment coincided with a magnitude 8.8 quake hit the Chilean coast sending a Pacific wide tsunami on 27 February 2010. Next came a 7.2 temblor shaking up Christchurch, New Zealand on 4 September 2010. The third alignment of Sun-Earth-Elenin happened on 15 March, four days after 11 March 2011 when Japan’s 9.0 quake crushed and later drowned over 25,000 people and knocked out four nuclear reactors along the northeast Honshu coastline with a vast flooding tsunami that also sent waves reverberating across surface of the Pacific Ocean." The comet will align two more times this year, in September and November. Something to think about.

If Hogue's theory is correct, science must assume that earth's inner core can be influenced by gravity or perhaps some undiscovered property of passing celestial bodies. The hardest part of deciphering Nostradamus' predictions is that you have to imagine yourself living in a century where most of the inventions and things we take for granted did not exist. If the man was privvy to "visions" of the future, he must have struggled to convey what he "saw" - especially historical "clips" seen occurring in a different langauage and culture. So if he wrote "Hister" instead of "Hitler" we understand why. We should also understand that until his infamous "Mabus" prediction comes clearly into focus (via the passgae of time), we won't be able to accurately discern the identity of "Mabus".

Nostradamus' 9/11 prediction was accurate, and we come to know that after analysis it conforms to the structure of his previous forecasts. He used anagrams at times (and perhaps other "tricks" so one could not easily figure out exact dates etc.) - and again I'm sure a lot of what he was able to write down he himself probably did not fully understand. Like if you brought Napoleon here to 2011 for 10 minutes and then ask him to write down what he saw - let's assume he was in a room where the TV was on tuned to the news, there were a few magazines and a newspaper on the coffee table, and someone was chatting away on a cell phone. All this stuff is in English and he has to write his experience in his native French.

Back to the comet: we wait and see. What do YOU think? Another "Chicken Little"?

Read more...

Guo Meimei and the China Red Cross Scandal

Pictured: 'Guo Meimei Baby'

The incident has ignited debate regarding corporate social responsibility in Asia.

CHINA'S Red Cross Society on Wednesday was forced to explain several discrepancies in its budget last year, as it battles to quell public anger and mistrust following accusations of corruption.

The aid agency has been hit with claims that a young woman who posted photos online flaunting her wealth is the daughter of one of its vice presidents, and that her lavish lifestyle is being bankrolled by embezzled charity funds.

On Monday, the state auditor also said it had found five problems in its review of the Red Cross' 2010 budget, such as money allocated for training that did not take place, further fuelling suspicion about how donations are used.

So, she has taken the Asian internet by storm. 20-year old Guo Meimei has been the #1 search item on Baidu (the Chinese equivalent of "google") and the subject of much debate: Guo Meimei showcases her lavish lifestyle on her Sina micro blog— she lives in a villa, owns several luxury sport cars and expensive handbags from international brands.

"The row broke after Guo uploaded pictures of what she claimed were her Maserati and Lamborghini cars... She has since become the hottest topic on the country's major micro blog website, weibo.com (the Chinese version of "twitter") . The number of her "fans" on the micro blog shot up from several hundred to more than 108,000 by Thursday night." [1] (AS of now, 309,300+!)

Just like in the USA, SMS messaging plays a role in the unfolding story: "One netizen claimed to have connected Guo Meimei to the Red Cross Society of China's vice-president, Guo Changjiang, and alleged that Guo Changjiang had a micro blog of his own that followed only four other people's micro blogs. One of the four allegedly belonged to Guo Meimei.

In response, Guo Changjiang said Guo Meimei was not his daughter and later shut down his micro blog."[2]

DAMAGE CONTROL ::: On Wednesday, Guo Meimei herself wrote on her micro blog that she had no relationship with the Red Cross Society of China or Guo Changjiang, and that she was indeed an actress and hurt by the negative responses:

"I am an actress the rumors have hurt me," she wrote. "I and my family members are taxpayers. How can people attack us about how we spend our money?"

And indeed, curious netizens uncovered that, in the past she worked as a model and actress, in Shenzhen, but was little known to the public. Her family apparently is not wealthy, and are said to now be wondering how, in the last two years, she has become this rich.

"The conclusion appeared to be obvious: Guo was siphoning off charitable donations to fund her lavish lifestyle. The Red Cross was forced to set the record straight. There was no such thing as the Red Cross Commerce Association and Guo had no connection whatsoever to the Red Cross, it said." [3]

Fauna @chinaSMACK has written up a summary ::: the complete saga of Guo Meimei.



Tags: Baby Guo Meimei, Chinese Red Cross



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

Read more...

Google+ challenges Facebook in social networking

Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.  Google+ allows individuals to share photos, messages and comments but also integrates the company's maps and images into the service.

It also aims to help users easily organise contacts within groups.

But some analysts say Google has simply reproduced features of Facebook while adding a video chat function.

Google, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the US, has taken several stabs at Facebook in recent years.

But its previous efforts ended in failure, with both Google Wave and Google Buzz proving unpopular with users.

New functions
The company is now boasting that four features in Google+ could help make the company a permanent player in social networking:

• Circles - a functionality that allows individuals to place friends into groups, allowing users to share different forms of content with targeted clusters of friends
• Hangouts - live multi-user video conferencing that permits friends to drop in and out of live group conversations
• Huddle - group instant messaging
• Sparks - a feature that connects individuals on the network to others with common interests.
• The current version of Google+ has only been released to a small number of users, but the company has said it soon hopes to make the social network available to the millions of individuals that use its services each day.

Read more...

Japan Hello Kitty Lady Gaga

Read more...

How To Make A Sticky Post

In blogging, "sticky post" refers to a post that remains "above the fold" or at the top of the author's page indefinitely.

On Wordpress? No problemo!
In the Post editor find the "Publish" section.
Next to "Visibility" click "Edit" and then check the "Stick this post to the front page" option there.
Click save and you're done.

If you are using the old or "classic" blog*spot template, and you are comfortable poking around in the html code, you should be able to find the spot beneath your header where you could manually insert a post. A little tedious, but the post will remain "forever sticky" without having to fool with the date.

The easiest way to make the sticky post is like you would any other. Write, edit, embellish and post. THEN you can go back in to the post html and copy/save into notepad. You will have to tinker with the fonts if you want a headline for your post. If you'd rather not do that, create an original graphic or overlay text on to an image that will serve as a "title". There may be a bit of trial and error involved (which is why you should always do an export/save so you have a back-up copy of your original template that you can re-install if anything goes wrong) but eventually you'll get it right. Results may vary depending on the original template that you are using: that's why I'm not telling you specifically where to insert your html. Don't be afraid to experiment!

The 2nd easiest way to make a post sticky is to assign it a future date. It will stay at the top of your blog until that day comes and goes. This is also the simplest method!

Below is a method for the NEWer blogger "Layout" based blogs. I found these instructions via Google. I am reposting the article here because the original page is being hijacked (as soon as it loads halfway it's gone and you'd be taken to a spam website). Click on the URLS below at your own risk!

In blogger post rule, a new post will be shown on the top, while the older one place below/after it or become archive (depending on your post setting), but with this very simple trick you can remain your post sticky at the top.

Actually this trick is very simple, The key is add the "Add a Gadget" widget above Blog Post in Page Element

By default this widget isn't there, we must doing a little trick first to get that widget. If you do not have Add a Gadget Widget yet, please follow this link http://doit2us.blogspot.com/2009/11/add-add-gadget-on-header-and-blog-posts.html

The rest step is just to add our Sticky Post (or you can put picture, message, HTML/JavaScript ) by Add a Gadget Widget above the blog post.

If you want to add a "post form" exactly like your post, then you can add a "Text" gadget.
Please not to write your post title in Title Column because it will show up as a "Gadget Title" not as a Post Title, you better write it in Content. and set the display as a Post Title.

The Problem is: to do this trick, we must use HTML code to make up the text... But don't worry, if you are not capable with HTML Codes, there are simple and fast way to make your sticky post without learn it. Use your "New Post" to make a sample of your sticky post, set the display as close as your real post, use the Preview to check your sticky post display then copy-paste into your content collumn text add gadget.

Open your Blogger Dashboard >> New Post. Write your sticky post.

Use Preview to check your final displal, Block your Sticky Post text.

Open your Dashboard in a new Tab >> Layout >> Page Element >> Add a Gadget (above your blogpost) >> Click Text >> Paste your Sticky Post into content column. and Save it.

And this is the final example...

Tags: sticky post, make a 'sticky post'



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

Read more...

Google+

I took a look at Google's new Social Network today...

...many observers say Google has moved too slowly to counter Facebook. Even Google's chairman Eric Schmidt, the company's CEO for more than a decade, recently admitted that.

Schmidt said he "screwed up" in social networking. "I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do it," he said.

One of the most major screw ups was a social networking service for Gmail users called Buzz which automatically included their e-mail contacts in the network, setting off a firestorm. Google changed the service and in March settled with the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to 20 years of privacy audits.

Google seems to have learned a lesson with Google+ about people's desire to control what information they share...

Google+ is "live" here... but when I entered my signup data, this came back:A Facebook killer? Maybe not! I'm on meds, recovering from a drop in pagerank...

Read more...

Pope Benedict XVI uses an IPad to send out a Twitter message for the first time

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has tweeted for the first time, announcing the launch of a Vatican news information portal.

Benedict’s tweet on Tuesday read:

“Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI”

Vatican officials said the Benedict touched on a touchpad to send the tweet.

The portal www.news.va was launched for the feast day of St. Peter and Paul, which falls on June 29 but officially begins with a vesper service June 28.

Wednesday also marks the 60th anniversary of Benedict’s ordination as a priest.

The portal for the first time aggregates information from the Vatican’s various print, online, radio and television media.

The Vatican, the world’s smallest state and home to the Pope, has flip-flopped between embracing new technologies and standing by traditions, seeking to reach out to younger generations without estranging older, more traditional churchgoers.


Catholics who are more comfortable with technology than with church sacraments can use a $1.99 iPhone application, not endorsed by the Vatican, to help get through the process of confession. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in February 2009, when the application drew attention, that an iPhone is no substitute for a priest.


The application, available on Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, walks users through an examination of their conscience, including a review of past actions and identification of sins.

Read more...

Happy Birthday from Google...

The creator of LeStudio1.com, Bernard Bujold, received soon as his awakening his first Birthday Greeting from... Google!
"It was a surprise this morning when I opened my computer and saw this image of a" birthday gift "on the Google home page! I first thought of a coincidence, but by clicking it, I got directly to my personal page on Google. This thing must be connected to my computer (cookies) and recorded on Google because on the computer of Miss X, nothing appeared.
Google and its technology are becoming romantic ...

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes!

Photo 1: Bernard Bujold in Percé ;

Photo 2: Google Birthday wishes ;

See photo album Bernard Bujold Anniversary ;

See Google profile ;

Read more...

Philip Roth

In 1960 Philip Roth won the National Book Award, America’s prestigious literary prize, for his first book, Goodbye Columbus. Last month he was awarded the Man Booker International, a biennial prize for a body of work. In the half century between, for his astonishing output of 53 books, Roth has also gathered in every one of the important American laurels, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Gold Medal in fiction, the National Medal of Arts


1933 Philip Milton Roth born in Newark, New Jersey, to Herman and Bess Roth (née Finkel).

1950 Leaves Weequahic High School, Newark.

1954 Leaves Bucknell University in Pennsylvania with BA in English.

1955 Awarded MA at University of Chicago; joins US army.

1956 Returns to Chicago after spinal injury. Receives honourable discharge. Roth works as instructor at University of Chicago, teaching English composition.

1957 Roth meets novelist Saul Bellow, and the pair become life-long friends.

1959 Marries Margaret Martinson Williams.

1960 Roth’s first book, Goodbye, Columbus, a novella and five short stories, wins National Book Award.

1962 Letting Go, his first full-length novel, is published.

1963 Roth and Williams separate.

1968 Williams dies in a road accident.

1969 Portnoy’s Complaint published to widespread acclaim and controversy.

1974 My Life as a Man published, the first novel to feature Nathan Zuckerman, his literary alter-ego or “alter-brain” as Roth later described him,

1986 The Counterlife wins National Book Critics Circle Award.

1990 Marries Claire Bloom, a British actress.

1994 Roth and Bloom separate.

1998 American Pastoral wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The first of three novels known as the American Trilogy, it is followed by I Married a Communist (1998) and The Human Stain (2000).

2003 Awarded honorary doctorate of letters by Harvard.

2005 The Plot Against America (2004), which imagines Charles Lindbergh, the aviator hero and political isolationist, elected president in the 1940 election ahead of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wins Sidewise Award for alternate history and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for best historical fiction.

2008 Wins PEN/Saul Bellow Award for achievement in American fiction.

2010 Wins National Humanities Medal. The award is presented by President Obama at the White House in 2011.

2011 Winner of the Man Booker International Prize (www.manbookerprize.com) for fiction. The prize will be awarded to Roth at a ceremony in London on Tuesday.

Philip Roth at home in Connecticut

Read more...

Google PageRank Changed

Maybe you did something to invoke the wrath of the googlegod. Or maybe you're not getting the right keywords out. Or maybe your blog is getting buried beneath tons of other blogs. Relax. There is hope.

NEW: GOOGLE MUSIC BETA

Google Apps manager attacks Microsoft Office 365 http://tgr.ph/lRhdju

Google generally fails at all things social.... Google Now Showing Local +1 Counts http://t.co/ytJk

As of today, I have a PR3. If that dropped to 0 or rose to 7, would it make any difference? Honestly, I don't know for sure. I've been in both places, and nothing seems like it really changed...

This morning Hesham posted "Have You Noticed Google PageRank Update Today?" on Famous Bloggers. He writes:

Check your Google PageRank Now!

Here is the link to Google PageRank checker tool.

I wonder if Google will keep the update going, this is July 2011 update, so the next update should be in three months from now, the next PR update will be next October if I am right!

Have you notice any changes to your site’s PageRank? Positive or negative?

What you did to get higher Google PageRank?

Please, share your blog’s PR and let us know whether you think it’s fair or not!

Now here's a semi-updated traffic article I wrote in 2010:

So you wanna know how to increase traffic without relying on Google or Bing or Technorati?
Here's how! Before you begin: this will take a little EFFORT on your part, but you'll be rewarded in the end!

1 - Twitter - You don't tweet? Open an account NOW. Follow the rules and recommendations. Do a little research. Once you fly with the twitterati, and your blog is linked from your twitter homepage, you'll get a few links every day that go direct to your blog. If you write a great article, others will tweet about it!

2 - Facebook - FB is currently THE place to be! You can get services your automated so that your blogposts show up on Facebook and pass through to twitter. I do that! Now, traffic to your blog isn't going to jump overnight. But in time, if you produce quality stuff, you'll get readers. Trust me, 25 regular solid readers are better than 225 one-time visitors! BTW: MySpace is good too, especially if you are associated with music.

3 - C-Box - *** UPDATE: Unfortunately, SPAMMERS took over C-Box and I had to remove it from my blogs. If you have a small audience with targeted content in a niche area, you may not have any trouble with spammers. But, as soon as ONE appears, others inevitably follow.

Do you have an avatar? Y'now, a little picture, a little graphic image of you - something people will associate with you and your web presence by sight... once you have one you like, get it up there on your blog, on Facebook, MySpace, twitter, MyBlogLog etc. etc.

4 - email - put the URL of your blog in the signature of every email you generate!

5 - Blogs - if you read other blogs regularly, be sure to comment. Don't say something stupid, like "nice blog" or "check out MY blog." Start off by just commenting. Leave your name but NOT your URL. If the blogger you're following happens to write about something you've blogged about in the last 5 or 10 days, THEN add your comment with a link to what YOU posted. Be sure to explain why you agree or disagree with the other blogger's article!

FORGET Digg, StumbleUpon and Technorati. Unless you've written a truly SPECTACULAR article. be honest. When's the last time that you (or I) have done that?

Which brings us to

6 - PRESS Releases - for when you actually DO come out with a SPECTACULAR article (or an EXCLUSIVE - you've got that cellphone in your pocket - most now have cameras - if you snap a newsworthy photo and you can write something about it (interview the person if you're the only 'reporter' on the scene) you have the makings of a SPECIAL article! (You may even catch the attention of MSM (main steam media)!

7 - Business Cards - if you are a problogger or you are in business, as long as your blog isn't some craxy x-rated thing or all about some kooky off-topic subject you'd be ashamed to let people who know you read, add the URL to your business cards.

8 - local newspaper ads - if you blog about things in your area or city, check out some of the weekly tabloids - some accept ads for blogs and they don't charge more than $5 or $10. Ask if they'll give you a discount if you order 10 weeks in a row. Especially NOW, the Autumn-Winter times of year when people will be indoors (and right after Xmas when people will be test-driving new netbooks and laptops) are extra good times to get your URL out there!

9 - PING your blog each and every time you write something new! Try pingler.com for starters!

10 - YouTube - I really don't use YouTube as much as I should. It works VERY WELL for bloggers who have video to share. I mention it here because I've heard so many positive comments from those who do use it. Like Multiply or Mobi, it's a niche group, but if you're "in" with that group, it will help you build traffic!

Feel free to share your feedback with me by leaving me a comment using either "comments" feature below. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help answer them for you. Take a moment to subscribe to my RSS Feed and be sure to start following me on Twitter.



Tags: blog traffic, hits

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

Read more...