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Friday, August 23, 2013

What If: Blizzard Gave You Everything You Wanted?

Have you ever heard the expression be careful what you wish for because you just might get it?  Sometimes we want things and do not understand what could happen if we got them.  This means everyone, myself included.  We all say we wish blizzard would do this or we wish blizzard would do that.

Lets have a little fun and scour over the forums and pull out some of the things people ask for and play a game of what if.  What if the person got exactly what they wanted.  What do you see happening?

Case # 1 : What if WoW was made easier?

We often hear people saying that they wish warcraft were easier.  I am guilty to saying that about the LFR.  I always say it is too hard for the masses and it needs to be made much easier.  So let me play with my own little aspect meaning just making the LFR easier before I go into making WoW easier as a whole.

What would happen if the LFR was easier, as in heroic dungeon blow through them nice and quickly with minimal mechanics and the ability for one person (5 in LFR) to carry the rest of the group.  I think it would make the LFR a lot more user friendly.  What I believe upsets people most is waiting in queue for 50 minutes just to wipe 5 or 6 times on a boss you don't even wipe on in normal mode.  If it were made easier to the point were you just run in and kill everything even when with mostly people of extremely limited skill it would be good for the game.

It would make the LFR fill the role it should fill for people that are looking for an easy stepping stone to gearing up. It would serve the purpose of letting others that are not looking to use it as a stepping stone but as a way to see content and play and feel successful within their own right.

I see making the LFR easier, much much easier, as something that would be good for the game.  But...

I could be very wrong.  Maybe I am not seeing something that others would notice that making it easier would bring along.  And that is where I go to the blanket statement of making wow easier over all.

We hear people all the time ask for things to be made easier.  Leveling, solo scenarios, the legendary quest line fights, the mobs on the island, raids, so forth and so on.  Lets give it to them and see what might happen.

I think if they made things too easy it would destroy the game in various ways that most would never even consider.  Lets look at crafting to start off with.  If letting people kill raid bosses were easier then getting the materials needed for top crafting items would be flooding the market lowering their value and the value of the associated crafted items.

If the mobs that gave the best skins could be one shot by anyone just standing there slapping their keyboard without thinking the leather market would be shot to all high hell.  And cloth would be too.  When anyone can go through any area and kills mobs like a level 90 going through a level 20 dungeon would by just spamming AoE and one shot everything the amount of cloth gained would be insane decreasing its value and the value of all items made with cloth.

And lets not forget enchanting materials.  If the game were so easy that anyone could solo the 90 dungeons for enchanting materials it would flood the market with them.  So with leather, cloth, enchanting materials, crafting pieces, and so much more easily farmed by anyone with a pulse the economy would be a shell of what it currently is on some servers and on some servers it is bad already.  It would just be made that much worse.

If raid bosses were that easy those people that want to be raiders and could never cut it would finally become raiders and this would be good right?  But maybe they would clear the tier and get bored and quit instead of sitting on the outside looking in wishing they could do that.  As it stands there are a great many players in the game that would love to raid but they do not because they can't.  Either by being honest with themselves and knowing they can not do it or by people not being willing to take them along.  But even if they are not raiding that motivation to raid will always remain in the minds and will be, at least a tiny bit, a driving force that keeps them playing knowing that some day they too can do that.

If leveling were easier, and I doubt it could really get much easier, people would just do one quest, level up, do another quest, level up, do another quest, level up and in a matter of days, not weeks or months or even years, they would have every class at max level and if that was all they ever really did there would be nothing left in the game for them except the gear grind.  Not everyone wants to do the gear grind, as a matter of fact, the statistics show that most people never even get to it.

Don't discount the number of players that just level and that is all they do.  I read somewhere recently that only 25% of the subscribers have a max level character.  (not sure if that is true so don't hold me to it)  That means the majority of the players are just leveling.  You can read this in two ways.  One might be it is too hard to level and that is why there are only a quarter of their players at max level, or the other, that most people are just having fun playing the game instead of playing the end game.

Leveling is important and if those 75% were given near instant max level characters, they might not keep playing.  Lets face it.  If they were serious about playing they would not be lower than max level for any extended period of time don't you think?

What does the game have to offer those people that are not into "serious" game play at max level?  Nothing much.  If leveling were made any easier than it already is I think it would be a huge disaster for the game as subscribers reached max level that never had before and found there was nothing left in the game for them.  Maybe a few would become max level players but would all of them because of quick leveling or would they just say, I made max level, I beat the game, now lets go find something else to do because there is nothing for me to do now.  I think easier leveling would be bad for the game.

There is a lot that could go wrong with making things easier and this is all guess work of course but I believe if the game, as a whole and not just tiny parts of it, was made too easy then the game could very well crumble.

With raiding a shell of itself and so easy that even the most casual of casual players that has an interest in raiding could get heroic content down in 2 weeks at most they could lose interest and leave.  With the AH and economy destroyed the money making mini game might be boring for many of those that used to get a kick out of.

Those levelers that just wanted to level would find themselves with nothing left to do once they were done with their leveling unless they wanted to do it over again and even at that you can only do it so much.  People would just start to leave in droves and that would mean less subscribers which means less new content, less good content, and even less reason to stay subscribed.  Eventually leaving the game to the few that decide to stick it out and maybe PvPers and role players.  Too easy could be the end of wow.  Be careful what you wish for.

Case # 2 :  What if WoW were made harder?

Just like some could argue the effects of making warcraft easier has lead to losses already in some aspects, making it harder has done so as well.  Yes, you can make something easier and harder at the same time, just in different aspects.  Remember the droves of people that left the game at the beginning of cataclysm because of the heroic dungeons and the ones that followed with the double Zul hell that came later?

The content was good.  I liked it and I did not really find them hard unless I was in a random group but the majority of the player base was completely turned off by them.  Can you just imagine what it would be like if it took 40 days played to get to max level again?  Could you imagine what it would be like if even the most skilled players took 100 wipes to down the first boss of a new raid on normal mode?

Where would that leave the majority of guilds?  Ones like mine would no longer exist, that is for sure. At least not as a raiding guild, that is for sure, and looking at my server neither would any of the other guilds.

Lets say they made the LFR harder. Gave it normal mode difficulty with random people.  How many LFR groups have you been in that you said, I think we could down normals in this group?  Not many I am sure.  I know, not counting when I went in near full guild groups, I have only had one LFR run where I actually thought that the group I was in could clear a few bosses on normal.  So with that in mind, would the LFR ever be used if the odds of success where effectively less than that of winning the mega millions lottery in new york?  1 in 179 million.  That is what the odds of success would be if the LFR were normal difficulty.  Just a guess of course, it would probably have worse off of success, I was just being generous.

When people would level slower they would not feel progress in this instant gratification world and they would leave quickly for something else that made them feel as if they could gain some level of success or at least see some level of progress instead of taking forever to get gtom level 42 to level 43.  The world of gaming has changed since warcraft first came out and warcraft has changed with it.  That is why leveling is faster now, even if I hate it, because it has to be.  It has to be to keep people attracted.

If the quest hubs where so hard that you always needed a group to do them it would alienate the vast majority of the player base that usually prefers to do that stuff on their own at their own time.  If the solo scenario to open the island were harder than the legendary quest solo scenarios how would a fresh 90 ever have a prayer of doing it.  If all end quest mobs where so hard it needed at least a 10 man raid group to do them it sure might sound cool, but how many people would ever get the quest line done?

Even gathering would be harder.  No leather would be anywhere to be found on the auction house if leather workers had to spend 3-5 minutes killing one mob for one piece of leather.  If they did decide to sell that one piece of leather you can be sure it would be for more than an entire stack sells for now.  A lot more.  And forget all other craftable things because if stuff was really that hard no one would be out farming for enchanting materials or cloth.  Lets not even consider getting those top level crafting items when even the best of the best guilds in the world were still wiping on normal modes 10 hours a day 2 months after a raid patch was released.  Gold buying would go through the roof because things would be so expensive and so hard to get.  This would mean more bots.  That can't be good for the game.

Make the game too hard and people will start to leave.  We have seen it already more than a few times in the recent years where something comes out that people think is to hard and they leave.  And just like the too easy explanation the too hard one would end up with the same result.  Maybe all that would be left were a few die hards, some PvPers and role players, and anyone new that most likely would not last long in this harder, and empty, world.  Be careful what you wish for.

Case # 3 : What if everyone had a raid of their own skill level?

I made a post shortly after the LFR was first introduced that said I believed there was room for, and a need for, 2 more levels of raiding.  It went something along these lines.  Super easy (an even easier LFR mode), family and friends (LFR style difficulty), casual (normal mode), dedicated (heroic mode), and hard core (harder than heroic).

It seems like, in part, my design I laid out back then is coming true.  The mode I called family and friends ghostcrawler calls beer league and blizzard calls flex.  We only need the harder than heroic mode and what I predicted some time ago will come true.  But be careful what you wish for.  The extra raid levels mean extra tier levels and extra item level and extra stat inflation and that is really bad.

What is happening now with the levels as we have them even before flex has been released is increased item inflation by adding additional levels of gear.  Now with flex it is even more so.  If they add an even harder mode there will be another.  When is enough enough?

The more modes they add the more people will think they need to do them all, even if they don't need to.  We already hear that coming from the forums left and right saying that they feel adding flex, as it has its own lockout, will add another layer to an already hectic feeling raid schedule.

But everyone wants a level all their own.  What if another version was added that was basically a patch work fight on all fights.  And another that was so hard that the worlds first guild might not even be able to get it down before the next patch came out.  Or one that was heavy on mechanics but light on requirements.  Or one that was light on mechanics but heavy on requirements.  Or one that was meant for 40 men and one that was meant for 15 men.

Everyone wants to see raids designed more to fit their needs and what if the game gave everyone an option to do the raid that best suits their needs?  Would that add more tiers of gear?

As it is now you can go back and do content that is not even a year old putting out double and in some cases triple the damage you did then and that is only one tier ago.  All thanks to stat inflation and multiple sets of gear.  The more levels you add the more gear you add and you are that much quicker to trivialize content that isn't really that old because of it.

Why is that a bad thing you might ask?  Well, because everyone will always be in different stages of the gearing cycle anything new that is added needs to consider all the people involved and the larger the gap the harder it is to add new content that is both doable by the lesser geared and compelling enough for the higher geared.  Remember, content is added with the intention of all to see it, at least when it is out in the world, like the isle of thunder or the barrens.

Lets just look at what we have now.  Go do the entry solo scenario for the island on a freshly dinged 90 and unless you know how to play the class and are a decent player, you are not going get it done.  That is because of gear inflation.  They had to make it a tiny bit harder for the people that had some gear but in the process made it too hard for the ones just starting out.

Try doing the barrens on a freshly dinged character or even one with a little gear and then do it with one that has some raid gear or one that is fully raid geared?  I have and it is a world of difference.  My fully raid geared characters can go in there and pull packs of 20 no problem just mowing them down while other characters without gear have to go one mob at a time and even at that every battle takes forever.

They had to make the mobs a little harder or the raid geared characters would make even more of a joke out of it than they already do, but in the process they left newly geared characters, the ones that actually need the stuff from there, screwed unless they are willing to spend 3 or more hours doing it or can find a group.

The more levels of raiding there is, the harder it becomes to add new patches that are meant for everyone.  If you want to make it so someone that is geared and has been playing from the start can get some, even if minimal, challenge from it, you effective screw anyone that is not raid geared into it taking them forever, requiring them to have a group, or them giving up and not doing it at all because it is impossible.

As it is, things have gone too far.  The first tier of raiding this expansion should have dropped 476 gear on normal and 489 on heroic.  The second tier should have dropped 496 on normal and 509 heroic.  And that would still be quite a leap, but much easier to design for everyone with.  The easy fix would have been the have the LFR drop the previous tiers item level.  Like the original this expansion would have dropped 463 and second would have dropped 476 and the third would drop 496.  With the addition of flex, it just makes it worse, much worse, as there is now another entire tier level of gear.

Adding more tiers is actually a bad thing, a very bad thing, because it makes designing anything new in an expansion a problem if you want that something new to be for everyone once there are gaps as huge as the ones we have seen coming.

So even if one day I said I would like to see those 5 levels of raiding, I was wrong, dead wrong.  It is bad for the game because it adds more levels of gear and that makes things worst as time goes on.  I should have followed my own words of caution here, be careful what you wish for.  But be prepared.  I predicted flex when LFR was first introduced.  So maybe my harder than heroic mode is coming next expansion.  My guess it is.  If you are liking that idea right now, be careful what you wish for.

Case # 4 : I wish my character was OP?

Someone always has to be last.  Lets forget for a moment that if blizzard were to grant your wish and everyone elses that means everyone would be OP and then no one would be OP.  But lets just pretend they are giving you, and only you, everything you wanted by making your class OP.

When your class first became OP you would rule the charts in PvE content, destroy the world in PvP content and all in all be enjoying the every loving shit out of the game because it feels awesome being so over powered.  No one would ever deny that.  Everyone likes being powerful.

For this case we are going to use a druid as the class in question, as a druid is the only class that can fill all four roles.

So you are knocking the ball out of the park on your druid healer in the new raid tier.  The other healers, even if more skilled, are behind you by leaps and bounds.  Oh the joys of being OP.  After a short time, very short if you are in a hard core guild, your healing power will mean that all healers need to switch to druids and get their alts raid ready.  Soon your 25 man is filled with 6 druid healers because they are so OP.

Now I hope you are the best player there because you know what happens to healers that do to good?  The better your healers are, the less of them you use.  They are the only role in the game that one of them can lose their job by doing it too well.  With druids being so OP the need for 6 of them is not really required any longer.  So maybe they go down to 5 or even to 4.

If you happen to be one of the bottom of the list healers guess who is sitting on the bench because they wanted their class OP.  Be careful what you wish for.  You wanted your druid healer to be OP and now you are sitting on the bench because the raid is filled with druids healers and you were not one of the best.  Perhaps next time you should ask to be better at your class than to ask for your class to be better.  Just think about that line for a minute.

Lets say everyone in your raid group starts to get into the OP nature of the druid and soon your 25 man team has 2 bear tanks, 4 tree healers, 9 cat melee and 10 chicken ranged.  Not exactly a good team to be gearing is it?  So much gear will get disenchanted.  Gearing up would be a nightmare of epic proportions when you have an entire raid to roll against.  Better hope you are an agility user there because there are only 11 of them as opposed to 14 intellect wearers.

Just for humor sake, what happens when you have to fill one spot and that person that comes in is not a druid.  Do you fight over who gets to put symbioses on them?  Really.  Would it be a raid roll for who gets it?

Lets go PvPing instead of raiding with your new OP class because you are now benched from the raid team anyway and you start destroying everything in your path.  Your three druid team is ripping up the arena league and you go from also ran to top team in the world in the matter of 24 hours.  You don't think that will go unnoticed by PvPers do you?  Nope, they will notice that druids are now OP in PvP and within a matter of no time every team in the top 100 is a three druid team and suddenly you are not all that OP any more.

You now find yourself losing as much as you are winning.  It is, oddly, balanced because all teams are the same.  Better hope you are one of those better players if you want to keep that top rating otherwise you will once again find yourself gravitating to the also ran position just like you did on your druid healer even if the class is OP.  Let me repeat something I said earlier for further consideration.  Perhaps next time you should ask to be better at your class than to ask for your class to be better.

It might seem nice to think your class being OP would be a good thing but it wouldn't be.  It would water down the game to just a bunch of people playing the same exact thing if they are truly that OP.  Like it or not, and while sometimes heroic guilds might stack for a kill, the reason there is so much diversity in raids is because that one class is not OP.  The closer they can keep things to balanced the better the game is, even if they will never reach a perfect balance.

Having your class be OP would be bad for the game over all.  If you are going to wish for your class to be something, wish to have it be as good as everyone else.  Don't ask for it to be over powered because you never know what will happen if it becomes so.  You might be the healer sitting on the bench.  Be careful what you wish for.

Case # 5 : You pick something you want and lets see how we can turn it around.

There are so many things people ask for that can backfire on them if they got it.  I ask for random not to play such a big part in the game any more and I believe it would make the game better if they went with a more earn as you go system with everything and many people have pointed out how sometimes that could be a bad thing even if on paper it does sound good.

No matter what we want in game, there is always something we forget about.  Always something that should make us think, be careful what you wish for.

What is something you see people asking for all the time that you think would backfire if blizzard gave it to them?

  1. /cheer

    THIS post I like. :)

    Yeah, the balance required to make the game successful must be incredibly tough to implement. Things have to be hard enough (and easy enough) for those who want it hard as well as easy enough (and hard enough) for those who want it easy. In the same game, at the same level of overall difficulty.

    I think as long as there remains multiple levels of difficulty/complexity, people can generally find their level, more or less, whether it's heroic raiding, LFR or just leveling. It's only when people want things to be exactly to their personal taste that it becomes an issue... we all fall into that trap occasionally but hopefully only occasionally.

    As I was reading your 3rd part I had a thought... imagine if flex raiding wasn't flexible in terms of numbers but was flexible in terms of difficulty/loot. You'd have a difficulty slider you could tune, from LFR to normal or anywhere in between, that would scale the gear iLvl equivalently (so at LFR level you'd get i502, at normal you'd get i522 and for various levels in between the iLvls that drop would be appropriately scaled). This seems like it could be an interesting idea... but then try to imagine how a raid of 10 players would decide where it should be tuned. It's hard enough to decide whether to do a fresh run vs locking out to increase progression, imagine having 20 increments you can choose from that impact both difficulty (which you might want as easy as possible) and gear (which you'd want as high as possible).

    Ugh. Yeah, I like how they implemented flex more, I think.

    1. I often complain about things, because it is what I do, but they do a very good job of finding that balance. I do then to believe they lean to far one way or the other sometimes. Like I think leveling is a bit too quick and easy right now and I think normal mode raiding is a little to hard for most people. Over all however, it is a balancing act and they do quite well trying to find that sweet spot, even if they never really do.

      I had a post about that sliding scale idea a while back and scaling the gear with it. I think it would be great. But my idea for scaling gear had very similar item levels, and that would be a turn off to most. I can see it now, someone with 522 complaining that someone did it with the 5% buff bar and got 520 gear instead and complain that his gear isn't as "special snowflake" because this guy has almost the same thing as he does but got it easier.

      Really, that is where the difficulty for the design would be. In the players complaining because they all want something special just for them.

  2. add 1)
    Would love it if you could get a source for that 25%, it's lower than the afaik 30% during Cata (from your Is Raiding Really Compelling? post)
    Personally, it wouldn't suprise me if the relatively high amount of Cata Holdouts would be one of the reasons for a possible decrease.

    add 2)

    The issue argueably isn't that levelling isn't harder, it is that the option to do more difficult content whilst levelling has been removed.

    If they lowered the minimum character level you could pick up Quests for example a lot of the criticism that has been heard since esp. Cataclysm would be solved.

    Sadly, looking at eg the whole mess they made of low-level PvP 'because spending time on a charcter shouldn't give much of an advantage' they are still firmly in the camp of catapulting people to cap to get bored and/or frustrated because they never learned CC etc.

    1. From what I hear from many including people in my own guild was that mists leveling too forever.

      Now do not judge by me because I am a leveling machine and I thought mists leveling was the fastest of any expansion so far, but that might be the reason. I know people that had all 10 classes maxed last expansion by the mid point and only have 1 maxed now.

      I loved the red quest lines. If you wanted the challenge you could take it. I too would like to see the return of taking red quests.

      It is sad they do not pay attention to low level PvP and leave it a mess like it is. I loved low level PvP. More than I do max level, that is for sure. It would be nice if they put more effort into designing the game to work at all levels and not just max level.

  3. -Making LFR easier
    I don't see a problem. We used to get new dungeons every tier which dropped gear of the same iLvL as the previous raid tier. Now, we have LFR instead (with slightly elevated iLvL as you mentioned). It should be the same difficulty as the new set of 5 mans we used to get (and probably the same iLvL).

    -Making WoW easier or harder
    Overall, I don't think that's needed. I think it needs to continue to be more accessible, but that does not imply a change in difficulty.

    -A difficulty for every raider
    I think that if they increase the number of raid difficulties, they need to decrease the iLvL gaps between the difficulties. A tier should span X iLvLs; so if you have Y difficulties, they need to be spread within those X iLvLs.

    for example, X=21 and we have 4 difficulty levels, so the gap is X/(Y-1) = 7
    LFR = 0
    Flex = 7
    Normal = 14
    Heroic = 21

    If they changed it to 5 levels, X would still be 21, so the gap would now be 5.25:
    LFR = 0
    Flex = 5
    Normal = 10
    Heroic = 15
    Insane = 21

    Instead, they keep the gap as 13 and just keep increasing the span of the tier, causing insane iLvL increases.

    It could be done to a certain extent, but there's a point where it'd get to be too much; regardless of how you managed the iLvLs. I think 4 is almost too much already, so I wouldn't want them to go beyond that.

    -Something that I would want where we can weight the pros and cons:

    There are so many things...

    1. The ability to learn all professions on one character.

    2. Gearing progression that is not based on RNG.

    3. Player/Guild housing.

    4. Make all classes into hybrids.

    And so many more things... but I'll stop there.

    I think each can be done appropriately, but each could also be done horribly wrong.

    1. You make a good point. Being accessible does not mean being easier.

      Like making the 522 valor items not require shado pan assault rep would have made it more accessible. Or the old gear going to justice when ToT came out, would have made it more accessible. Not easier, accessible. The game can use a lot more of that. I agree.

      Maybe I should tackle each of those one day in a what if and let my imagination run away with what could happen.

  4. I've only been awake for a short while, so my brain might not be fully functional just yet...but, what if they were to have the ilvl of gear drops in LFR adjust to what you need?

    Say I'm new to the game and just dinged 90 (or I leveled a new toon to 90) during the current tier. Why not have the game see my ilvl and give me drops of an ilvl in LFR appropriate to get me geared for Flex or Normal raiding?

    The way it is now I'd have to take that new 90 through last tier's content to get me ready for the new content. By adjusting the ilvl to what I need for current tier could help with new players/new alts for getting caught up. That way there I could run current stuff with friends/guild instead of last tier's stuff while they all run the current tier stuff.

    With the new loot system this could be something that is possible. They already give us drops appropriate for our spec, why not appropriate ilvl for current stuff? Not sure what kind of coding would be needed to implement it, but it might be able to be done.

    1. That would be a nice catch up mechanic but I am sure they would say that would allow people to gear up too fast. I personally would like it.

      I think they want people going through all the old stuff to catch up. It was done by design that way. The one bad part is that all that gear is tied to the LFR, the single worst addition ever to the game and a place where the community sinks to all time lows that not even I would have thought this community can sink to.

      The gearing process would be so much better if it did not involve the LFR, at all.

      With that said, I still would support and idea of dropping upgrades appropriate for the current tier in anything you do, to speed up the catch up mechanic.

  5. I'd like to have tripple specc - 25k gold

    now please rip my wish apart :)

    Rauxis, chosen of CAT

    1. I can not see how that one would hurt the game but for the sake of finding something I will come at it from a developers point of view.

      It would ruin the choices people need to make when they have everything at just the switch of a button. The last thing we would ever want to do it make spec choice no longer a choice but just another "collect them all" thing in game. And what about poor druids? They would get left in the cold.

      So while I could not see how it would hurt the game, I played the role of a blizzard employee and shot it down.

      Good enough? ;)

  6. And now I have to go listen to 'When I grow up' for the rest of the day...

    1. Oddly the be careful what you wish for saying is probably older than anyone in the pussycat dolls. So it was surely not a reference to them at all.

    2. Of course it wasn't, don't be silly. That doesn't change the fact that the song is now stuck in my head, though.

    3. It does make me wonder where that saying came from to begin with. Off to goggle I go.

    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    5. I figured if there were anyone that reads here that would know where the quote came from it would have been you.


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Course introduction

Corruption is one of the root causes of extreme poverty, conflict and State fragility. It cripples States’ ability to effectively deliver services and maintain the rule of law, it has strong adverse effects on the business climate and stands in the way of sustainable and equitable economic and social development. Moreover, international research has repeatedly shown that poor people suffer most from corruption. Without serious efforts to integrate integrity and anti-corruption measures into development policies, the new sustainable development goals will not be reached.

This course helps you to understand the drivers of corruption and is geared towards strengthening your analytical skills and providing you with instruments to develop integrity and anti-corruption policies and programmes in line with recent international initiatives, legislation and agreements.

International experts will share their personal experience in stimulating a culture of integrity, putting in place anti-corruption controls, recognising red flags and putting in place corruption reporting mechanisms. You will visit Dutch integrity institutions and learn from their successes and challenges. Together we will analyse cases of corruption and assess the effectiveness of transparency initiatives and anti-corruption measures. Special attention will be paid to obstacles and dilemma´s in the implementation process of integrity and anti-corruption policies and programmes and how to overcome these.

Learning objectives

This course will help you to:

  • Examine the cross-cutting nature of corruption and its impact on social and economic development and the rule of law;
  • Assessing corruption vulnerabilities in governance institutions and processes;
  • Learn about innovative instruments and the latest international developments related to integrity and anti-corruption and analysing how these could work in your country context;
  • Engage with government, civil society and the private sector to develop and implement integrity and anti-corruption policies and programmes with a view to achieving sustainable and equitable development;
  • Support the establishment and strengthening of effective accountability and integrity institutions in locally-appropriate ways;
  • Learn from the experiences of the experts, as well as your fellow participants, and expand your professional network in the field of integrity and anti-corruption.

After successful completion of the course you will receive a certificate of The Hague Academy for Local Governance.

This training is designed for

Consultants and professionals working for; government, international organisations or NGOs and who are involved in anti-corruption, transparency and accountability processes in relation to development and governance.

The experts

Senior experts in the field of integrity and the eradication of corruption will share their expertise, such as:

  • Henk Bruning (is an expert and associate of VNG-International and works in Spain and other countries to develop good governance and integrity programs in relation to capacity building and HRM programs. He has a great knowledge of i.e. international standards of HRM and organisational policy and previously he worked as a project manager of large organisational change, transition and implementation programmes.),
  • Ana Vasilache (Director of the Partners Foundation for Local Development, a Romanian NGO enhancing democratic processes worldwide and strengthening civil society. She was appointed Vice-President of the Executive Committee of Partners for Democratic Change International (PDCI). Since 2004,  she addresses corruption in local governments within the CEE/SEE anti-corruption network),
  • prof. dr. Henk Addink (professor in administrative law and good governance, Utrecht University),
  • and a representative of Transparency International NL ( he/she will explain how TI works together with governments, businesses and citizens to stop corruption and the abuse of power.)

In addition, you will also gain insight in the situation in The Netherlands during study visits to Dutch institutions such as the Ombudsman, the National Public Prosecutor for Corruption, the National Police and the House for Whistleblowers.

Practical information

The course fee is € 3.150,-. This includes all training-related costs, as well as drinks, lunches, training materials and travel during the training programme. Travel to and from The Hague and accommodation is not included. Group discounts are available if you participate with three of more colleagues in this course. Email us for more information.
The course language is English.

If you would like to receive more information or in case you have any questions, you can contact us at or +31(70) 37 38 695.

Application procedure

The deadline for application is 6 January, 2017. For more information about how to apply and the online application form click here.

Nuffic Fellowships

Nuffic Fellowships:
The Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (NUFFIC) offers fellowships for training courses, as part of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme for short courses and the MENA Scholarship Programme. The aim is to promote capacity building within organisations in eligible countries (5o for NFP en 10 for MSP) via training and education for professionals. This is initiated and fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the budget for development cooperation.

The application for Nuffic Fellowships for this specific course has passed already (this was 4 October 2016).

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Friday, October 29, 2010

So, Run #2 = Success.

I ran again on Wednesday (shortly after posting about being bummed to have missed runs on Monday and Tuesday). Actually, I feel weird calling it a run because it felt more like a float. I honestly felt as if I were floating over my miles. Like my feet weren't even touching the ground.

It was a super run. I logged 4.1 miles -- 4.1 floating miles. How lucky am I?

Pretty lucky, for sure. I know that I've been fortunate with the whole pregnancy and baby thing: I had an easy pregnancy and was able to run through almost all of it. Then, I recovered quickly after delivery. Two weeks later, I started running and have not had a single ill effect from it. Instead, I've felt terrific. Not everyone has the same experience and I am grateful that I've been able to bounce back the way I have. I chalk it up to the miles I ran while pregnant. Those tough pregnancy miles were deposits in my big ol' running bank -- now I'm raking in the dividends in the form of floaty, easy post-pregnancy miles. Thank you, pregnant self!

And now, it's Friday and I'm looking forward to a fun weekend -- hope you are, too! Big cheers to everyone running the MCM on Sunday, especially first-time marathoner, Amanda! Yay!

~ Felice

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Following the run.

Based on how excited I was to go on my first post-baby run, you would probably think that I would have followed it up by going for more runs. Or, at least, another one.

Yeah, not quite. You see, I'm easing back but, honestly, even I didn't think I would ease back this slowly. I had every intention of running on Monday (after taking Sunday off). My plan for easing back was to run every other day. Seems reasonable, right?

Well, Monday came and before I knew it, Monday went. No run. I had company in the morning and then work to do in the afternoon. We were supposed to have company in the evening, but they cancelled. Unfortunately, too late for me to re-jig my plans and get out for a run.

No big deal, really, except that I couldn't run yesterday, either. So, I made the most of the day and took Niall out for a 2-mile power walk. Not quite the same as a run, but it was a beautiful day so I was happy to be outside enjoying it.

I was even more happy to be enjoying it while wearing my pre-pregnancy running clothes! (Gloating, yes, it's true . . . although I shouldn't gloat too much because I'm not yet back into my regular jeans, just my heavy jeans.)

What will today bring? I'm hoping I get a run in, but that may not be in the cards. I'm quickly learning that flexibility is the name of the game when you have a preschooler and an infant. So, I'll just have to be flexible. That may mean going for power walks instead of runs, running on the treadmill instead of hitting the roads, or lifting weights instead of doing anything else. I'll take what I can get!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

~ Felice

Monday, October 25, 2010

The return to running.

I held off for as long as I could. I lasted two weeks.

Two weeks after Niall was born, I laced up my shoes, tugged on the biggest sports bra I have, pulled on a baggy t-shirt and a pair of running shorts and hit the road. Ah, yes. I hit the road for my first post-baby run. And let me tell you: I loved it. Loved every step of my (just about) 3 miles.

I could have kept going but didn't want to push it. I've been off since I hit 38 weeks in my pregnancy, so with Niall arriving about a week late that's just about 5 weeks of no running. With that much time off, I need to ease back in to the miles. So, ease I will.

Easing back has felt terrific. I have never run such comfortable 9:30 miles. OK, sure, that's not particularly fast but, still. I was practically bounding up my neighborhood hills! Saturday's 3 miles felt like the easiest miles ever and I attribute that to the fact that I had been used to running while carrying about 30 extra pounds, most of them front and center. There's something about being pregnant that makes the miles a bit harder to run. Go figure . . .

So, the Happy Runner is back. Back and running. I love it! I'm even thinking about a race with my running mamas (most of whom, by the way, ran their first 10k over the weekend -- go, mamas!) on December 4th. Will I do it? Based on how I feel so far, I'd say yes. I'm not going to register just yet, in case something changes. But, in my head, I'm planning on it. Woo hoo!

Happy Monday, everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend!

~ Felice

Friday, October 22, 2010

Photo Friday!

I don't want to jinx myself but, yay! Things are going really well just about two weeks into the whole "mother of two" thing.

Sure, I'm getting a little less sleep than I normally do (or, in the case of last night, a lot less sleep than I normally do), but I'm also getting used to it. I feel like I've been adjusting well and, in fact, I've been walking a bit and doing some Exercise TV workouts and generally feeling great. So, no complaints here, just a lot of good stuff. Two weeks in and Niall is, for the most part, a great sleeper. And he's so sweet. And adorable. And cute as can be. And . . . oh, am I gushing? Sorry. Can't help it these days!

Anyway, here are some pics for those of you who are interested:

 Conal holding Niall

 Hanging out.

Resting with the cat, who isn't quite that huge in real life. I swear!

So, that's that. Hope you all have a great weekend!

~ Felice

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Better late than never.

My little guy finally decided to make his appearance, a little later than expected and amid much more chaos. But, he's here. He's healthy. We're happy!

I'll post more soon -- maybe once I feel like some of my brain cells have returned -- but here's a quick pick of little Niall:

Getting some love from his big brother.

Hope you're all having a good week! I am . . .

~ Felice

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Things I'll miss.

Assuming I ever deliver this bambino (and, these days, that seems a little questionable), there are a few things that I will probably miss about being preggo:

  1. The anticipation.
  2. Butter, and smothering my food in lots of it.
  3. A big ol' baby belly that makes my hips and butt look smaller by comparison.
  4. No pressure racing.
  5. No pressure running.
  6. Considering a walk solid exercise.
  7. Having a really good excuse for crying while watching just about anything on tv -- including Modern Family. Only a preggo could generate non-laughter tears from that comedy.
  8. Kind words from strangers and friends alike (including all those from yesterday's post -- thanks! I appreciate them!)
  9. Jelly beans.
  10. Sleep.
Feeling wistful . . . but ready. More than ready!

Happy almost weekend, everyone!

~ Felice

PS: I have an EcoMom giveaway going on over here if you haven't checked it out.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

September recap.

If you're interested, my due date has come and gone. Sigh . . .  Yep. Yesterday was d-day and yet the little guy apparently is in no rush to make his big debut. So, I'm still waiting.

Lesson learned: What all those diet and financial service ads say really is true: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. I thought for sure that since Conal was born 10 days early, this baby would come early, too. Ha! Ha! Joke's on me, huh? Yeah, guess so. And now I wait. I never should have expected this little guy to show up early. Or, I suppose, to even show up on time! Apparently that just wasn't part of the plan.

Well, since I'm just hanging out, re-stocking the fridge, re-cleaning the kitchen and re-catching up on laundry I might as well take a look back at the month that was. September was my last month of running. Actually, my last run was on the 20th -- at my 38 week mark. I'm proud that I ran for so long but I have to be honest and make sure you all know that the last two weeks or so of running was a mixture of running and walking. There were just some times when I was out on the road and couldn't keep up the run. So I walked. No biggie.

Anyway, here's what the month looked like:

September stats:

Running/walking (miles): 21.9
Cross-training (sessions): several, but didn't keep count

So, there you have it. I hope that the next time I post I'm a mama of two . . . but I'm not going to count on it!

Have a great week, everyone!

~ Felice

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From The Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki
Revision as of 02:50, 21 August 2010 by Scruffy (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
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Connor McHarvey
The Flying Spaghetti Monster.jpg
Definition of win.
Planet of originSoviet Russia
First appearance1993

Hey. The name's Connor McHarvey and I like Futurama (duh!). It's like one of my favourite shows and its awesome. I have seen all of the episodes since acquiring the Australian version of Futurama: The Complete Collection 1999-2009. I also have Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection and a calendar as well. I've nominated a bunch of pages for featured article as well. I upload loads of images to here. I'm on Wookieepedia as well.

Now over 2030 edits! Yay! The ones i've done the most work on are the in popular culture pages (Star Wars, Star Trek, The Simpsons), Easter egg and Wall calendars.


text:
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com

View topic - てぃんさぐぬ花 (ryukyuan song)

てぃんさぐぬ花 (ryukyuan song)

Discuss Japanese movies and music.

てぃんさぐぬ花 (ryukyuan song)

Postby suarutsu » Mon 03.09.2009 6:02 am

Hey there!

I'm new in the forum, so if this has been posted; sorry for that.
But. Here's a real cool song on youtube. It's technically not in
Japanese, but in a Ryukyuan language (okinawan). Ryukyuan
is the only proven other language of the Japonic (Proto)Language family.

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Broadzilla DJ’s – The Key Discover Philly's Best Local Music Sat, 21 Jan 2017 15:12:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Introducing: 100 Years of Solid Dudes Mon, 06 May 2013 12:11:52 +0000 Continued]]> 100yearsofdudesAs far as we can tell, the newly launched 100 Years Of Solid Dudes is a project from Jameszilla (of the Broadzilla DJ’s and Phillytronic dance floor wrecking crew Making Time). Head over here to download a 44 minute “car-crash sample symphony” mix that he made that contextualizes Aretha Franklin, the Ides of March, Elvis Costello, Bowie and dozens of more samples into one long funky massive mix, as well as releases from Wooden Email, Universo Paralelo, and Potent Mutant. Dig deeper into 100 Years of Solid Dudes here. Admittedly, we think there’s a little brand confusion going on here, but we like it.

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A Making Time Valentime for you (Parquet Courts and Inc. playing Voyeur on February 16th) Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:18:33 +0000 Continued]]>
Making Time has a “valentime” for you in the shape of a Valentime’s Day weekend show featuring indie-rock’s newest blog rock darlings Parquet Courts and the Los Angeles R&B-tronica band Inc. on Saturday, February 16th at Voyeur. The usual Making Time DJ party crew will be on hand; Dave P, Sammy Slice, the Broadzilla DJ’s, Dave Pak & Mike Z and special guest DJ’s The Crystal Ark. Check out a song from each of the bands below. Go here for tickets and more information about the event.

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Boogie with BROADZILLA and Midnight Magic at The Barbary on 12/1 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:29:24 +0000 Continued]]> Get your disco inferno on with the THE BROADZILLA DJs as they return to The Babary Saturday night with Brooklyn disco collective Midnight Magic. The “disco orchestra” released their debut album, Walking The Midnight Streets, earlier this month which you can stream here. The band’s boogie-filled tracks will have you searching for your sequin-covered pants and platform shoes. Find more information about the 21+ event here; doors open at 10. Check out Midnight Magic’s video for “Beam Me Up” below.

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This weekend: A double dose of Making Time Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:03:09 +0000 Continued]]> Making Time RADio w/ Dave P returns to the XPN airwaves for its monthly two-hour excursion into the “futuristic sounds” this Friday night at 7 p.m. This Saturday evening is a Making Time event featuring The Drums, WU LYF, Crystal Antlers and Beautful Swimmers and the coterie of Making Time DJ’s including Dave P and Sammy Slice, the Broadzilla DJ’s, Adam Sparkles, a DJ set from Pink Skull, Dave Pax and Mike Z. The 21+ show on Saturday is at Voyeur, 1221 St. James Street. Advanced tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Below, check out a video for “How It Ends” by The Drums.

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Introducing: The Hypercage Record Club (via Making Time HQ) Thu, 18 Nov 2010 04:13:25 +0000 Continued]]>
Great news from Making Time headquarters: Announcing the Hypercage Record Club a collaboration between Pink Skull, Adam Sparkles, and the Broadzilla DJs as they launch the label with a totally rad mega mix of today’s hottest indiedancediscorollerskatingrock jams.

The Hypercage crew are kicking it old school and if you want the entire mix you need to send an e-mail to receive a free download of the debut Hypercage Record Club mix. Another way to join the club is to show up at this Friday night’s launch party at Making Time at Voyeur w/ Tensnake’s first live performance in the States and and Teengirl Fantasy’s first show in Philly. Dave P and the entire Making Time crew will be on hand to put some slide in your stride and yes, of course the Hypercage will be rocking with record club radness. And if you get there early they may have some record club treats for you.

Listen to the sample and check out the complete track list below.

Track List

1. Neurotic Drum Band – Neurotic Erotic Adventure (Dub Mix)
2. Crimeax – Liubov
3. Hot Toddy – Won’t Let Go
4. Rollmottle – Take A Break (Maurice Fulton Remix)
5. Dextrax – E-Glez
6. Kid Deep – Looking 4 Someone
7. Chamboche – On The Streets (Brontosaurus Remix)
8. LSB – Cosmic Wild Boar
9. Scissor Sisters – Any Which Way (Tensnake Remix)
10. Cosmic Kids – Reginald’s Groove
11. Sun, Sun, Sun – Curious (Instrumental)
12. Murphy Jax ft. Mike Dunn – It’s The Music
13. Pete Heller – Nu Acid
14. Prinzhorn Dance School – Off The Radar, Off The System
15. The Glimmers & Baby G – Esta Si Esta No (In Flagranti Remix)
16. Munk – La Musica (Azari & III Remix)
17. MMM – Donna
18. Triangle Orchestra – The Strip

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NEON + PASTEL DIY COUNTRY BEACH WEDDING | Good luck ever loving your own dog again, after you see the face of the French Bulldog in this Wedding. | Pure 7 Studios

Attention Photographers! If you’re a photographer who’ll be in the NYC area Friday and are interested in joining us as our photographer for backstage access fun at a particularly incred runway show… let me know ASAP. Thank you! Update: All set now, thanks all!

In other news…

Here is what newlyweds Alyson and Zac said they were going for, with their wedding:

-a laid back feel with minimal décor.

-romantic without feeling stuffy.

-We wanted people to leave with the feeling that they had just been to an awesome concert with the album and poster to remember it by.

Here is what I heard:

Today’s feature, {Continue reading…}

Love all of this...

REAL WEDDING + THE ‘CHILDREN AT WEDDINGS’ ARGUMENT | A simple, chic affair at Watercolor Resort in Santa Rosa Beach, plus… the ultimate question.

Happy lazy afternoon, darlings!  Well, actually, lazy hardly defines today, as I’ve been teaching my inbox a lesson for the entire morning and into the afternoon today so I’m in pretty high spirits at the moment… thank you, Pandora, for THAT.  Aright, let’s get moving – weddings and puppies, here we go… ;)

Ok so first off, someone suggested I check out “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” last week, saying that it was worlds better than The Bachelorette this season.  Turns out the show’s about Irish Traveler brides and their wedding-related shenanigans and how they risk persecution and cancellation if venues find out it’s a Gypsie wedding, but this does not keep them from having Disney-Princess-plot-themed weddings (← you think I’m exaggerating?  If anything, I’m not doing the unbelievableness of this show justice).  Anyway I wanted to thank that person, because I had been looking for a way to lose an hour of my life in the most painful, tacky way imaginable, and you totally found it for me.  So cheers, thanks for that.  No seriously, I appreciate it. {Continue reading…}

Love all of this...


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18 March 2013

"Drink tea with me. I'm Syrian."

I’d like to spare a thought for all the people who have suffered in the Syrian civil war. I travelled solo through Syria in 2004 and I found the people extremely friendly and

[Below] A fishmonger in Aleppo's ancient souk.

[Below] This boy was out the front of the Grand Mosque of Damascus (Umayyad Mosque). He was shooting darts with his blowgun. He killed 16 pigeons and two falafels.

[Below] Lettuce sellers in Aleppo. Only lettuce.

[Below] "Shine ya boots, gov'na?" He actually said that...in Arabic... maybe.

[Below] Fear not, this boy is not a zombie. Nor is he a psychopath - don't let the plastic gun mislead you. No, this boy was merely high on drugs. That's all.

[Below] A nice guy having a smoke and drinking tea. There is no further subtext.

[Below] I think they just found the infidel.

[Below] These kids saw the camera in my hand and asked me to take their picture. The kid on the right was doing his "gangster" pose. The boy on the left thought the boy on the right was being a knob.

  1. Syrian's are very humble and friendly and i really feel sad for them. Unfortunately so many historic countries are in Civil war these days. Seems like we are going back.

    1. Yes, they really are wonderful people. I also feel really sad when I think about what's happening over there. I hope the war ends soon.

  2. Anonymous15:35

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    thumbs up for уour great infоrmatіon уou've got right here on this post. I will be returning to your blog for more soon.

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text:
• Adetoyi Ismail Oke

    His postulations are just factual but the question is: do the current crop of our leaders have the savvy to banish poverty?

  • May Allah help our leaders to be objective on issue of eradicating poverty and sincerely fight corruption. Govrnment should help us to create employment for our youth.We must all prepare to change our attitude for good, have a better orientation. Remember that we all have to give account of our stewardship to our creator. Let make this society better than we met it. May Allah help us.

Copyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved


text:
When you start to make the move to an online presence, small businesses of the bricks and mortar variety are often left wandering in the dark. Unlike national firms, you likely don’t have the budget to hire an outside source to do it for you and with few staff, you’re under some crippling time restraints. There are only so many hours in a day!
effective online marketing strategy

Identifying the strategies that target your local consumer base

For this article, we’re going to identify 5 effective online marketing strategies with the small business owner in mind. It doesn’t matter if you’re a baker, butcher or candlestick maker, these methods are all viable resources for accomplishing the following:

  • Increasing your business exposure to a wider audience
  • Engaging a wider audience as part of your online growth strategy
  • Increasing your potential for sales conversion

1. Leveraging “Google My Business or Google Places” To Target a Local Consumer Base

Google My Business is all about increasing the visibility of your business within a limited geographical area. If you only take one tip away from this article, make it this one; it’s getting increasingly difficult to make an impact in a local area without it. 43% of searches within Google are local in intent, in this case meaning that potential customers are looking for your service within your area.

You can also include the other major search engines, such as Bing in this plan (and should do!), but for the sake of brevity I’ll concentrate on Google and you can move the concept across to the relevant services after you’ve tackled this one.

How does this increase the visibility of your brand to a local consumer base? When searching for a particular town, city or county, Google Places are more often than not the top results (now reduced from 7 to 3) and there’s a direct correlation between the relevance of your Google Places entry and the search position of your website.

  • Under most circumstances, they are listed above all organic results
  • Your contact number is included, as well as a direct link to your website
  • Your business location is marked on the map
  • Business related images are displayed

The Benefits Of Google Places For Business

Double the exposure – Google Plus Local pages give a potential for two results on page one of Google. Let that one sink in for a moment; two results for the searcher to click on that puts you leagues ahead of the competition. Imagine being at number one in both Places and the organic results and the increase in both exposure and click-through rate that can generate.

Increased trust via testimonial and reviews – because Google Places allows previous customers to review you, using an unbiased rating and review system, testimonial placed here is often seen as trustworthy. After all, it’s in Googles best interests to weed out unscrupulous business owners who like to spend an afternoon creating fake accounts for fake reviews.

Its under your control – So many advertising opportunities today are run on an automated basis, to the point where a simple change of business address involves endless emails to a directory site who’s owner doesn’t update. Google Places For Business is entirely editable at all times, even if some changes require review before they become live.

How to optimise Google Places for best results

Before jumping into your account (or creating one!), bear this one point in mind at all times. Your contact details – for example, business name, address, post code and links – should be the same for every entry you make on the web, no matter where. This is called a citation.

Citations make up 25% of the overall local search ‘score’ and the aim is to always provide complete, not partial, citations for maximum impact.

Why are citations so important?

  • Citations help customers find you
  • They are an important part of local search engine optimisation factors, because search engines rely on the consistency of results to give the best results.

Ok, so let’s begin optimizing that account!

Keywords – the search terms you expect visitors to find you with. As with traditional on-page SEO, you need to include these within your listing. Don’t go all spammy on me; you only need to mention this a handful of times within the description of your business. Keep your English flowing and readable; the keywords need to sit as a natural part of the text. Write for humans, not search engines.

DO NOT places them within the title, unless they are part of your official business name. Sooner or later, Google will lunge out of the darkness and drag your listing to hell for trying to game / spam the system. Keep very much to building your brand; if your business is called ‘Italiano’s’, don’t be calling yourself ‘Stone Baked Pizza’.

Set your service area – anecdotal advice is to set your location as a primary physical location, as opposed to a radius. The radius setting waters down the impact a little, with less chance of a strong position. From previous experience, the position of your Google Places account seems to tally up with the health of your website SEO, so if you’re in the top slot already, by all means experiment.

Categories – first up, make sure you’ve got your primary category first. Select as many categories as you think are relevant to your to your business; the more the merrier and it can give added exposure.

Imagery – a decent image is worth a thousand words and Google Places puts them in a prominent position. If you have an elegant restaurant that looks great in photographs, this is going to attract more customers to your fine dining experience than any amount of gushing prose.

Be complete – if it asks you to fill it in, wherever humanely possible, fill it in. Another mention for citations, because as we discussed, the more complete the information the more the search engines have to latch onto. This basic contact information is going to be identical everywhere.

2. Citations & Directory Listings

Remember me mentioning citations earlier? Directories form a very important part of cohesive citations across the web; a large amount of that local SEO impact comes from this, so pay attention!

What we’re not going to do is place an advert on every single directory out there. With a past history of link farms and the newer thin content penalties, choosing the directory website for your listing needs to be done with a critical eye.

Quality over quantity is the name of the game, so we’ll concentrate on those directories that have a sense of quality, which naturally tend to be the ones with a strong public branded image. A diverse link profile is an ultra important part of a modern day back linking profile.

The strongest directory entries are the ones that are both relevant to your industry and trusted

Points to bear in mind when using directories as part of your online marketing strategies

  • Directories offer both paid and free listings. Paid listings are often given more exposure within the directory but the free listing still has great value.
  • Never use a directory that demands a ‘reciprocal link’from your website; as a concept, this is dead in the water and contravenes the google webmaster guidelines
  • As before, be complete. The same contact information across the web is absolutely crucial.
  • Resist the urge to pepper keywords in the anchor titles, i.e. the link within the directory that leads to your listing. Branding is key, because SEO tactics change as time goes on.
  • If the directory in question allows you to write a lengthy description then use it – but don’t bore your potential visitors to death! Vary your descriptions to avoid falling foul of duplicate content issues.
  • As in Google Places, strong imagery is a big seller, so use it to best advantage.

Some great examples of directories you need to be in are:

  • Yell
  • Scoot
  • Thomson Local
  • Touch Local
  • Freeindex
  • Yelp

Consider using a paid for service to handle everything from one dashboard. Moz Local is making good headway and is extremely easy to use, analysing problem areas and duplicate content.

Leveraging local directories

Occasionally, you’ll come across hand curated local directories. These may be specific to your location; obviously, the links to the local area are more often than not picked up up by the search engines as relevant to your listing and give a small amount of lift. Have a read through the site content first – if it’s overloaded with advertising and worthless content, avoid it.

3. Social Media – How, When and Why

The most important part of a social media campaign is to target who your customer base is in the first place and to recognise that it requires time and effort to succeed. You also need to identify which social network that demographic is most likely to use.

As time is money and time is also limited, choosing the two most viable platforms pays greater dividends than using four that you don’t have the time to do a good job with. For this example, we’ll use Facebook.

The approach requirements of other social media platforms vary wildly. Twitter is a constant crash of information that requires posting up to 15 times a day to get yourself heard, Instagram revolves entirely around images (not a good idea if you can’t take the extra time to photograph everything you do) and Linkedin deals with the more professional trades.

Facebook – The Great Leveller.

Everyone and their parents are on Facebook and it is possibly the only social network that allows promotion and advertising at an affordable level to small businesses.

Create a business page from your personal account, not a full blown personal account to promote your business. Facebook is exceptionally aware of those that do and may suspend services.

Tips to follow

Communication – Facebook is a two way conversation between you and your customers. It’s easier for a customer to message you on Facebook than it is to email, so be prepared to answer questions in a timely manner. Switch notifications on and if possible, have mobile access to it at all times.

Testimonial – if you don’t ask, you don’t get! If you have customers who are overjoyed with your services, it’s a simple matter of asking them to leave reviews.

Frequency – unlike Twitter, Facebook isn’t a scattergun of information; the posts you deliver can stick around for a while, so the last thing you want to do is drown people in information. As a rule, stick to a maximum of two a day.

Timing – this is very dependant on your target demographic. If you deal mainly with other businesses, the daytime is your best bet; mid morning lets the business owner get the early tasks out of the way. If your post is intended for Joe Public, late afternoon / early evening is the way forward, as it’s no good to them if they’re at work and unable to check Facebook.

Facebook has some valuable tools which you will need to get to grips with. Insights will be your primary one; over time, you’ll learn which posts got the most traction.

Using post promotion to expand your audience

Post promotion – hypothetically, lets pretend your restaurant has a plan to offer discounts on a Thursday to drum up trade on a quiet day. You’ve made your big announcement on your business page, so lets explore a method of getting that news in front of as many people as possible.

Facebook allows you to boost that post with the following settings

  • Target the audience by location (at a town & city level)
  • Deliver the post according to the age, gender and interests of the audience
  • Allows you to set a budget and the number of days you’d like it to run for
  • Estimates the potential audience numbers for the campaign

Keep track of your campaign on a regular basis – if you’ve boosted for a week and you’ve had no traction a couple of days in, pause the campaign and analyse why it’s failing.

Share and share alike

The more methods you employ for customers to visit your account, the more exposure you get as part of you online marketing strategies. Your social media accounts should be accessible everywhere; clickable icons on your website, email signatures and addresses on all marketing materials. Join groups and (where allowed to) post special offers and promotional material.

Exposure is key, so get liking other peoples posts and sharing their content – a regular sharer of good content often gets shared in return.

4. PPC – Pay Per Click Campaigns

PPC results in all those sponsored ads you see at the top of the page, just before the local and organic listings. Don’t neglect your organic search results and rely on this – good ongoing online marketing strategies are never reliant on any one technique.

For those that have already given PPC a try and given up as their budgets have vanished overnight with no results, this is for you. If you’ve never given it a go, take the following tips on board in order to maximize the potential conversions from visitor to sales.

Create a separate landing page for your campaign.

The aim for this strategy is to deliver what the visitor wants and simply dumping them on your home page is going to send a very confusing message. Your aim is to steer the customer in two directions, giving them a very clear choice of action:

  • Provide their contact details within the form included – this is a ‘call to action’, a method of steering the visitor to the intended result.
  • Phone directly on the number provided

Within the page, you’ll also highlight what the offer is all about and (above all else) highlighting the benefits for the visitor, alongside preferably attractive web page design. Restrict navigation to crucial elements and under no circumstances give too many options. Your goal will be lost.

Analyse your keywords

These are the search terms you want you advert to show up for. Bear in mind that they have to remain relevant to the subject matter of your landing page. Google has a great tool just for this job in the form of Keyword Planner. It’ll tell you how much competition and potential traffic there is for given keywords, as well as the cost you pay every time someone clicks on it.

It’s all in the words

You’ve got a very limited number of words to play with, so you need to write a sufficiently compelling advert that piques peoples interest. They’ve already searched for what they are looking for – it’s up to you to go the final mile and stand out.

Track and adjust

All advertising campaigns should be tracked and reviewed on a regular basis. Never fall into the trap of launching it and coming back to see the results after it’s finished, because by then it’ll be far too late to correct any mistakes and Google doesn’t give refunds.

5. Reviews and testimonials

People sell people and it’s just as true on the internet. Where your customers put those testimonials is just as important. The aim is to maximise visibility and where possible, have those reviews show as part of the pathway to your website, in other words the search results.

The main aims of testimonial are:

  • Building the credibility of your brand
  • Providing proof of your previous track record
  • What are you like to work with

I talked about Google Places earlier on, but didn’t mention one crucial component – the review functionality. Of all the various parts that make up the Google ecosystem, it’s this one that can affect a local business directly and drive the click rate up.

When a customer leaves a review for you on Google Places, it achieves the following:

  • Displays gold stars next to your Places listing, increasing visibility and providing a visual cue
  • Provides verifiable testimonial that is relatively hard to fake

Getting the testimonials in the first place…

… is actually harder than you’d think, but there are ways around it. People are more likely to complain about a sloppy service than praise a good one! But worry not, there are methods for gathering them.

Leverage previous reviews – if someone’s already reviewed you, there’s no harm in asking them to do it somewhere else as well.

Across social media – if you have good standing through the community in general, why not simply ask?

Follow up with email – if you have a method for gathering customer details (and you should), send a follow up email asking if they were happy with the service and provide links to places they can review you.

Provide handouts – even if it’s on the other side of your business card. As before, provide links to places for testimonial.

Of course, don’t restrict reviews to Google Places, there are many other places where reviews would be beneficial. All those directories we talked about earlier would be a great place to put them, including Yelp, Scoot, Touch Local.

Don’t neglect your website!

That lovingly crafted copy is far more likely to sell you when accompanied by testimonial. Choose your top three testimonials and get them proudly displayed in a prominent position on your website, preferably with links out to the original location of the review. By all means include a separate sub page containing your best testimonials.

In Summary

This article was written in order to give a good grounding to those with local businesses 5 effective online marketing strategies that form a grounded base in order to expand from. With so much information available and so many techniques, it’s often hard for the average small business owner to know where to start from.

Guest Post by Kieren from Freshly Blended


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Sparrow is coming to the iPad, prepare for “something bigger”

Sparrow is coming to the iPad, prepare for “something bigger”

Having changed the way people use email on the iPhone and on the Mac, the team behind the popular Sparrow email client have made another important announcement — it’s on its way to the iPad.

If you head over to the Sparrow website, you can enter your email address to be notified when the Sparrow team has something new to share on its progress. We are hoping that push notifications are going to be one of the new features launching in the iPad app, but we can only hope.

Back in May, Sparrow developer Dom Leica said that Push is coming to the existing iOS, but due to issues with Apple restricting implementation of the feature, it will have to be performed on Sparrow servers, requiring a yearly subscription:

You were more than 16 000 helping us on our Apple quest to get the VoIP privilege. We can’t thank you enough for your support. Unfortunately, Apple has confirmed that they are not willing to do any exception to the rule and that Sparrow will NOT be granted with the privilege.

This means we’ll have to do Push on our side and that it will be integrated as a yearly subscription into Sparrow’s future update.

With Apple’s WWDC just days away, there will be renewed interest in Apple’s iOS and Mac OS platform, serving as the perfect time for Sparrow to launch on the iPad and gain even more users.

Read next: Twitter gets a thumbs up from the Online Trust Alliance

Shh. Here's some distraction


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3D Leap Motion Controller shipping date delayed 2 months until July 22nd for more testing

3D Leap Motion Controller shipping date delayed 2 months until July 22nd for more testing

Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald today announced on a conference call that the shipping of the company’s 3D Motion Controller would be delayed until July 22nd. The reasons behind it, Buckwald says, were about ‘living up to expectations’.

“There’s nothing catastrophically wrong,” Buckwald added, “we’re very proud of the product…if we’d tried very hard we would have been able to ship the product [at the original time] but we wouldn’t have had the time to do the iteration and testing that we would want to do otherwise.”

The testing process that it has yet to do will be more along the lines of the way that people interact with the OS and such, rather than technical things like latency or any manufacturing problems. There are 600k devices ready to ship. Buckwald said that the internal conversations indicated that they could ship something in May, but that they really needed more time to polish it. The around 12,000 units shipped to developers will act as the early testing round, with those developers getting the full consumer software suite that Leap Motion wants to perfect before the units ship.

Beta testing of the product will begin the first week of June and pre-orders will begin on a ‘hard date’ of July 22nd, he says. “This will be the first and only delay…we’re 100% confident that there will be a product that we’re proud of and that will delight and amaze our customers.”

The company had previously announced that it will begin shipping its 3D Motion Controller to U.S. and international pre-orderers on May 13th, including a big launch in Best Buy stores. This marks a couple of months delay. Leap Motion recently announced Google Earth support and announced back in early April that it would be bundled with future HP devices. Buckwald noted that this delay will not affect that deal.

Here’s the letter Buckwald will be sending to pre-order customers:

I wanted to reach out to update you on the status of our ship date. After a lot of consideration, we’ve decided to push back the date and will now be shipping units to pre-order customers on July 22nd.

This is not a decision we take lightly. There are hundreds of thousands of people in over 150 countries who have pre-ordered Leap devices, some as long as a year ago. These people are part of our community and there is nothing more important to us than getting them devices as quickly as possible.

We’ve made a lot of progress. When we first started taking orders back in May we were twelve (very tired) people in a basement. Now we are eighty (although still tired and possibly still in a basement). We’ve manufactured over six hundred thousand devices and delivered twelve thousand Leaps to amazing developers who are building applications that let people do things that just wouldn’t have been possible before. These developers have given us great feedback that we’ve used to make huge improvements to the stability and polish of the product. We’re really proud of Leap as both a company and a product.

The reality is we very likely could have hit the original ship date. But it wouldn’t have left time for comprehensive testing. This will come in the form of a beta test that will start in June. We will give the 12k developers who currently have Leap devices access to the feature complete product including OS interaction (today developers only have access to the SDK). We will also invite some people who are not developers to join the beta test.

Ultimately, the only way we felt 100% confident we could deliver a truly magical product that would do justice to this new form of interaction, was to push the date so we would have more time for a larger, more diverse beta test.

I really appreciate your patience. I know it’s been a long wait. Everyone that works at Leap is working tirelessly to make sure that wait is worth it. Thanks so much for your help and support.

David and I will be participating in an open video Q&A using Google Hangout tomorrow. We’ll send along more specific information on that shortly. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact our support team at support@leapmotion.com or my personal email (buckwald@leapmotion.com). As always, we will not charge pre-order customer’s credit cards until the devices have actually shipped.

Thanks again. Michael Buckwald

Read next: Amazon beats Wall Street estimates with $0.18 EPS, sales at $16.07B in Q1 2013, a 22% growth YoY

Shh. Here's some distraction


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2012 Healthy Recipe Roundup

Posted by Olivia on Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

2012 Healthy Recipe Roundup

For those of you looking to stay lean and light this New Year, we’ve compiled a roundup of our freshest recipes from 2012. Read on for our top 5 recipes featuring seafood, vegetables, and uplifting flavors like our Citrus Olive Oils and new Balsamic Vinegars. Stay tuned for more healthy recipes coming just around the corner!

1)      Pan-Seared Pecan Crusted Tilapia

A light dinner solution with crunch and nutty flavor, this easy recipe for pecan-crusted tilapia can be made in less than 10 minutes. Serve with a side of roasted or steamed vegetables and a drizzle of your favorite extra virgin olive oil.

2)      Grilled Primavera Pasta

This pasta recipe is loaded with grilled seasonal vegetables in a no-tomato sauce base. (When it’s too chilly to roll out the grill, simply roast the vegetables instead of grilling them.) Just add extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, and a touch of Parmesan cheese. Tip: Try with whole grain pasta for an extra boost of fiber!

3)      Butternut Squash and Lentils with Clementine-Balsamic Dressing

Cozy up with a hearty, satisfying recipe that’s made without the usual rich ingredients you’ll find in comfort foods. Our recipe for butternut squash and lentils is creamy, soothing, and made with just a few basic kitchen staples. It’s one recipe that shows vegetarian food can still be substantial.

4)      Wilted Brussels Sprouts With Cherry-Balsamic Dressing

We couldn’t get enough of Brussels Sprouts in 2012, and we created this recipe to highlight the versatility of this wonderful green veggie. Thinly sliced Brussels Sprouts are gently sautéed with ginger in extra virgin olive oil, then finished off with a splash of our true-cherry Black Cherry Balsamic Vinegar, chopped nuts, and a hint of spicy chives.

5)      Clementine Sautéed Apples

Whether breakfast, dessert, or a midday snack, these sautéed apples are spiced, sweet, and so scrumptious! Sliced apples are sautéed in our citrus-infused Clementine Olive Oil with warm winter spices. Finish this homey dish off with a dollop of crème fraiche or whipped cream for a hint of indulgence.

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Music Software

Sound Thinking — chord finder

Key Switch — chord transposing tool

Transcribe! — for learning music by ear

Variable speed youTube Playback

Music notation software

Musical slide ruler

Partial capo

Transposing guitar chords string-to-string

Shape shifting the pentatonic scale

Blue — Cycle of 4ths progression

Music fiction — A vs. C

Music fiction — The new grand staff

Zero-latency monitoring

Music theory

Music Reviews

Favorite fiddle albums, CDs & MP3s

Favorite fiddle tunes

Musical innovation (Thru-you.com)

Music Products & Reviews

Book reviews

Product reviews

Encore 5.0 notation software review

Useful stuff

Music manuscript paper

Music education games

Ear Training (coming soon!)

Discussions & Forums

About TheoreticallyCorrect.com

Contact: Theoretically Correct

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Home of things musically edifying

Key Switch: Chord and Song Transposer

Transpose songs and chords to any key ... or to Roman numbering.

With Key Switch music transposition software you can:

  • transpose song sheets (lyrics and chords) to a different key. See example
  • transpose chord charts and chord progressions, like: C7 - F7 - Bb7 - Eb7 - Ab6
  • transpose text-based scales, like:  A B C# D E F# G#

Now, anything you can type or paste you can transpose to a new key! Free!

Explore any instrument, any tuning ... any chord, arpeggio, progression, scale or mode.
Understand popular guitar tunings like EADGBE, DADGAD, DADF#AD, DGDGBD.
Learn about and visualize unusual techniques, like Partial Capo.

Soprano, Concert and Tenor Ukulele chords

Sound Thinking — Scenes

Now you can view demonstrations of scales • modes • scale comparisons

chords • voicings • inversions • chord progressions • the effects of a capo
the CAGED concept • stringed instrument comparisons
experimental tunings and ficticious instruments

Create and share your own scenes!

Articles, graphics, web applications, and all content on this site

© Singingwood Music 2007-2011

Contact: Theoretically Correct


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The Pirates Own Book:
Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers

In the mind of the mariner, there is a superstitious horror connected with the name of Pirate; and there are few subjects that interest and excite the curiosity of mankind generally, more than the desperate exploits, foul doings, and diabolical career of these monsters in human form. A piratical crew is generally formed of the desperadoes and runagates of every clime and nation. The pirate, from the perilous nature of his occupation, when not cruising on the ocean, the great highway of nations, selects the most lonely isles of the sea for his retreat, or secretes himself near the shores of rivers, bays and lagoons of thickly wooded and uninhabited countries, so that if pursued he can escape to the woods and mountain glens of the interior. The islands of the Indian Ocean, and the east and west coasts of Africa, as well as the West Indies, have been their haunts for centuries; and vessels navigating the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, are often captured by them, the passengers and crew murdered, the money and most valuable part of the cargo plundered, the vessel destroyed, thus obliterating all trace of their unhappy fate, and leaving friends and relatives to mourn their loss from the inclemencies of the elements, when they were butchered in cold blood by their fellow men, who by practically adopting the maxim that "dead men tell no tales," enable themselves to pursue their diabolical career with impunity. The pirate is truly fond of women and wine, and when not engaged in robbing, keeps maddened with intoxicating liquors, and passes his time in debauchery, singing old songs with chorusses like

"Drain, drain the bowl, each fearless soul,
Let the world wag as it will:
Let the heavens growl, let the devil howl,
Drain, drain the deep bowl and fill."

Thus his hours of relaxation are passed in wild and extravagant frolics amongst the lofty forests of palms and spicy groves of the Torrid Zone, and amidst the aromatic and beautiful flowering vegetable productions of that region. He has fruits delicious to taste, and as companions, the unsophisticated daughters of Africa and the Indies. It would be supposed that his wild career would be one of delight.

But the apprehension and foreboding of the mind, when under the influence of remorse, are powerful, and every man, whether civilized or savage, has interwoven in his constitution a moral sense, which secretly condemns him when he has committed an atrocious action, even when he is placed in situations which raise him above the fear of human punishment, for

"Conscience, the torturer of the soul, unseen.
Does fiercely brandish a sharp scourge within;
Severe decrees may keep our tongues in awe,
But to our minds what edicts can give law?
Even you yourself to your own breast shall tell
Your crimes, and your own conscience be your hell."

With the name of pirate is also associated ideas of rich plunder, caskets of buried jewels, chests of gold ingots, bags of outlandish coins, secreted in lonely, out of the way places, or buried about the wild shores of rivers, and unexplored sea coasts, near rocks and trees bearing mysterious marks, indicating where the treasure was hid. And as it is his invariable practice to secrete and bury his booty, and from the perilous life he leads, being often killed or captured, he can never re-visit the spot again; immense sums remain buried in those places, and are irrecoverably lost. Search is often made by persons who labor in anticipation of throwing up with their spade and pickaxe, gold bars, diamond crosses sparkling amongst the dirt, bags of golden doubloons, and chests, wedged close with moidores, ducats and pearls; but although great treasures lie hid in this way, it seldom happens that any is so recovered.

Click here to return to the
"Pirates Own Book" Table of Contents

Click on the Piece of Eight to return to the Main Page


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Has the Time Come?

Hobby Lobby and the HHS Mandate

Why has a major retailer decided to defy a federal mandate? The owners are Christians, and they’ve decided to obey God first. Stay tuned to BreakPoint.

Listen Now | Download

John Stonestreet

Earlier this month, Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned arts-and-crafts retailer with 500 stores and 13,000 employees nationwide, announced that it would not comply with the HHS mandate.

By doing so, the company has subjected itself to fines that could amount to a staggering $1.3 million a day.

Chuck Colson warned that the day would come when Christians would have to choose between the dictates of their faith and obeying the government.

And he was right.

As we’ve previously described on Breakpoint, the HHS mandate forces employers to fully subsidize services for their employees that, for many, violate deeply held convictions. Although the media has chosen to focus exclusively on the contraception side of the mandate, under the regulations, employers must also provide coverage for sterilization and abortifacients, such as Plan B, the “morning-after pill,” and Ella, the so-called “week after pill.”

Paying for these abortion-inducing drugs is what Hobby Lobby’s owners, the Green family, object to. They’ve endeavored to run their business on Christian principles, including Sunday closures, treating employees fairly, and honoring the sanctity of life. Paying for abortifacients definitely violates those principles.

So they filed a lawsuit against HHS but, unlike plaintiffs in ten other cases, including other businesses, they were denied an injunction. While appealing the denial, they had to choose between complying with the law or refusing to comply and accepting the consequences.  To their credit, they’ve chosen the latter.

But what do we need to know in light of this? Well, given the trajectory of our culture, the kind of choice the Green family was forced to make is inevitable for the rest of us too, regardless of who occupies the White House or controls Congress. This was spelled out in the Manhattan Declaration. When it spoke of the “decline in respect for religious values” in the law, it anticipated that non-compliance may be required of those of us who claim Christ.

For Hobby Lobby, that time has come. It may be the first Christian-run institution to choose non-compliance with the HHS mandate, but barring a change in the law, it won’t be the last. This weekend, we’re offering a full update on the issue on BreakPoint this Week. The show features Matt Bowman from the Alliance Defending Freedom and Emily Hardman of the Beckett Fund. Listen on radio, or by coming to BreakPoint.org and clicking on this commentary.

But let’s be clear: non-compliance won’t be limited to the HHS mandate. This is the post-Christian America that Francis Schaeffer, Chuck Colson and many others predicted. For many—not all, but many American Christians, this is new and unsettling territory. We’ve become used to a society that, while officially non-sectarian, paid homage to most of their beliefs and values, even if it didn’t always live by them.

As Alexis de Tocqueville put it, “Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”

This has made choosing between God and Caesar unnecessary, unless, as the struggles of the Civil Rights movement showed, you were African-American.

One of the consequences of this close identification was that, for many American Christians, our sense of identity was more shaped by our nation than by our place in the body of Christ. We conceived of ourselves as Christian Americans instead of American Christians.

Now this is in the process of changing. It’s challenging, even painful. And let me be clear: We’re not to give up on America by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve heard far too much despair from Christians since November, as if the Kingdom of God was dependent on the American ballot box.

We’re called to live faithfully and courageously today; to love our neighbor and our country. And the best way to do that is to remember that we first and foremost belong to Christ. And therein, and only therein, lies the hope that gives us the courage for the tough decisions ahead.
Further Reading and Information

Update: John Stonestreet Interviews Legal Experts in the Hobby Lobby Case for BreakPoint This Week (24 minute format).

Chuck Colson's Two-Minute Warning on HHS and civil disobedience: "The Time is Now"
(Note this video came out after the mandate appeared and has over 42,000 views).

Colson Center HHS issues section (including posts on Hobby Lobby's decision to disobey).

Becket Fund

Letter to Diognetus

Manhattan Declaration

Which came first, the chicken or the egg on my fac
As my subject implies, this is very embarrassing. I have no way to tell whether the reference to "The Time Is Now" under "FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION" above was there when I posted my earlier comment or not. I downloaded a copy of this page after I noticed that my comment had been published, apparently about 5 hours after I posted it, and in that copy it is there. Perhaps it was put there during those 5 hours as a result of someone on the webmaster staff reading my comment. But it is also possible that it was already there before I posted it. If I had noticed that I obviously would have mentioned it in my comment. I would have said something like, "He announced that it had come, in the 2-Minute Warning message listed on this very page under FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION." As it is I look like an idiot. I will try to be more attentive in the future, Lord willing.
The late great Chuck Colson didn't just warn that the time would come, Mr. Stonestreet. He announced that it had come, in the 2-Minute Warning message of this past February 7th, titled, oddly enough, "The Time Is Now". It's still available at www.colsoncenter.org.


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Tuesday Teardown: Crucifyre – Infernal Earthly Divine Nov 9, 2010

“Born Again Satanist” off Infernal Earthly Divine

What. The. Fuck. Or rather, where the fuck. Where did these guys come from? Wait, Stockholm? Damn. Crucifyre is a proper old-school death metal band who’s fucking killing it! Their first album Infernal Earthly Divine is absolutely destroying all other death metal albums from 2010. Seriously, I know I get giddy like this quite often when it comes to metal bands but Infernal Earthly Divine is like manna from the metal gods. The vocals, riffs and drums all deserve accolades. I have yet to hear a complete package like this.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin.

Comments are closed.


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Fabric Saddles: Shapes Based on Somotypes Nov 12, 2014

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 8.16.03 AM

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 8.16.15 AM

We’ve all got different bone structures, which ultimately determine our body size, independent of diet. These is one of the factors in determining fit, from clothing to even saddles. These bone structures are known as Somatotypes and come in three varieties; Ectomorph (Light bone structure) Mesomorph (Average bone structure) and Endomorph (Broad bone structure).

Fabric Saddles takes a look at how your Somotype determines your sit-bone width and sizes you off of your height and wrist circumference.

Their line is taking shape and will be available in early 2015. For now, head over to Fabric and check out their saddles. The Cell and ALM models look interesting.

  • naisemaj

    I’m still riding my charge knife and charge spoon saddles (the precursors to these) and I love them. They’re a great saddle at a great price. I will definitely be replacing with the ALM at the appropriate time to try that out, and I love the look of the line as well.

  • Mike

    …Is this for real?? This kind of crap has been widely debunked by medical community like forever ago. It’s discrimination based on appearance and has nothing to do with bone structure or real physiology.

    • http://theradavist.com/ John Watson

      Got any links? I’d be interested in reading it. My lady is doing a lot of research on “fit” and I’d like to forward it to her as well…

      • Mike

        Not really? I was pre-med and one thing I remember learning in a nutrition class is that these bone structures are modern myths. it’s not real. also a quick google search turns up these terms as coined during WWII and encouraging data behind eugenics.

        • http://theradavist.com/ John Watson

          So… what you’re saying is, it’s Nazi technology?!?!??!/!?! ;-)

          • Mike

            Exactly. And if you buy you’re a Nazi sympathizer.

      • Jeepers

        Not surprising coming from a pet-project owned by Dorel (AKA Schwinn, Mongoose, GT etc)

  • Dobry

  • Ultra_Orange

    They look interesting, but so fat all interesting looking things for bikes tend to lad behind the boring. Just listing for price in GBP what are the chance of snagging a test saddle?


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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Path

Inner Landscape #14 - The Path by Ria Vanden Eynde of Painting 2 Cancers

From Ria's website, " But look :) in the photo, where the tree branches are getting entangled and you can't see which is which anymore, where the darkness is most intense, that's where the brightest light is ...."

To learn more about Ria and her artwork, visit her blog Painting 2 Cancers.

Thank you, Ria, for letting me share your work.

1 comment:

  1. My thanks to you, Cyn, and Ria. Beautiful photo, beautiful message.