Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Daily Dust

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MP Tessa Jowell becomes “2 desks”

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 07:44 AM CST

Tessa Jowell - Olympics Minister

Tessa Jowell was nick-named “2″desks today after it was revealed that she runs two offices.

Not to be outdone by “2″ Jags MP, John Prescott, “2″ desks Jowell also had the offices redecorated five times in six years at an estimated cost to the public of around £350,000.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sports said the Cabinet Office renovations had been planned before Jowell moved in adding "She moved back to Cockspur Street to be in closer contact with officials. There was no choice but to create an office for her there."

No surprise the Olympic budget has risen from £2.4bn to over £9bn..

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Man City get £200m battle fund

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 07:29 AM CST

Mark Hughes - boss of Man City

Manchester City's new Arab owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan has given boss Mark Hughes £200million to spend on new players - and he can start spending in January.

Hughes needs a striker, a left-back and a midfielder - with  Valencia's David Villa, Chelsea man Wayne Bridge and Lassana Diarra at Portsmouth priority signings.

Hughes will need to start winning consistently if he is to really get stuck in to that pot of cash and avoid being replaced.

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I’m a Celeb - I’ll stay at home please..

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 07:20 AM CST

Celeb “Home” - A London bus with luxuries..

First pictures are emerging from the set of “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”, and the rumours have been confirmed, there will be two camps.  “Home” and “Away”.

Camp “Home” contestants get to sleep on the old Routemaster London bus and will eat British food if they sucessfully win tasks.

Camp “Away” (below) is where 5 contestants will sleep on the floor, get to go to the toilet behind a net curtain and will eat Bush Tucker is they win tasks such as kangaroo and emu.  The abandoned campervan is for storage only.

The celebrities this year will also face the worst bushtucker trials ever 'There are new foods, including huge worms and we're going to get a crocodile testicle for the first time on I'm A Celebrity.' said producer Beth Hart.

We can’t wait.

ITV Sunday at 9pm.

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Diana - Tears in rehersal show

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 07:19 AM CST

Struggling with illness - Diana Vickers

Sources at the X Factor have confirmed that Diana is really feeling the strain coming into tonight’s live show.

What with missing last week’s show with illness and the public outrage that followed Laura’s eviction, Diana broke down and wept during rehersals last night.  The 17 year old mentored by Cheryl Cole is said to be in fear of ejection.

Eoghan Quigg is now overwhelming favourite with Ladbrokes confirming the majority of bets are being put on the young Irish lad since Diana’s no show last Saturday.

Favourites for the chop tonight are Daniel and Rachel - but at the DailyDust, we are expecting young Diana to get a lot of votes from angry Laura fans, we’d not be surprised to see her in the final two this week.

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UK’s Energy Firms Profit most from Poorest

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 04:30 AM CST


UK’s main consumer watchdog has warned that power suppliers make the biggest profits through society’s poorest.

Consumer Focus(CF) estimated that people who use prepayment metres make power suppliers make half a billion pounds a year in extra charges. Typical customers using prepayment devices are those on the lowest incomes.

Power companies claim that the extra cost is the result of prepayment meter maintainance. National Energy Action (NEA) said prepayment meter customers paid an average of £359 more a year than normal meters, whereas the annual maintenance cost is £85.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section. Do prepayment meters help people budget as is claimed by energy companies?

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Top of the Pops set to return

Posted: 15 Nov 2008 03:57 AM CST


Within two years of being axed for poor ratings, BBC executives hinted Top of the Pops is set to make a comeback.

Insiders suggest that the series which ran for 42 years can be revamped for the YouTube generation with exclusive songs that viewers can share online.

Mark Cooper, head of music entertainment for BBC TV, said:

“It’s a Sleeping Beauty. One day it will come back, in the way that Top Gear and Dr Who came back,” he told The Times.

“It’s probably no longer the case that Top of the Pops can be revived on the basis of it being an entertainment programme – instead it may have to be judged as a public service.”

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The Great Escape - Turkish Style

Posted: 14 Nov 2008 05:12 PM CST


Turkish prisoner mails himself to freedom.

You have to admire the ingenuity here. A 42 year old Turkish prisoner in Willich Prison, Germany, was working in the prison stationary workshop, putting together supplies for sale outside the walls. And at the end of the working day, he packaged himself up in a 120cm x 150cm box that was then picked up by a courier company and taken outside.

I’m sure you can make up a much better Great Escape joke, so feel free to add them in the comments. We’ll repeat the best this Christmas… and next Christmas… and the Christmas after that…

Just two questions from us here at The Daily Dust. Was the company called “Parcel to Victory?” And did the prison guards wish him ‘Good Luck’ as the van passed through the gates?

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1115a 11/15 Update: Crew awake; heat shield inspection on tap

=================================

CBS NEWS STS-126 STATUS REPORT: 14
Posted: 11:15 AM, 11/15/08

By William Harwood
CBS News Space Analyst

Changes and additions:

   SR-12 (11/14/08): Crew on board; weather appears favorable
   SR-13 (11/14/08): Shuttle Endeavour roars into orbit
   SR-14 (11/15/08): Endeavour astronauts gear up for heat shield inspection

=================================

11:15 AM, 11/15/08, Update: Endeavour astronauts gear up for heat shield inspection; rendezvous burns

The Endeavour astronauts were awakened at 10:55 a.m. Saturday with a recording of "Shelter" by Xavier Rudd beamed up from mission control to kick off their first full day in space.

"Good morning, Endeavour, and a special good morning to you today, Fergie," astronaut Shannon Lucid called from Houston.

"Hey, good morning, Houston," shuttle commander Chris Ferguson replied. "It's always a great day to be in space. I'd like to thank my brother for that song."

Working through a routine-but-busy day in orbit, the astronauts plan to inspect the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edge panels to make sure no impact damage occurred during launch Friday. They also will check out the spacesuits that will be used later to carry out maintenance on the international space station and set up rendezvous tools for use during final approach to the space station Sunday afternoon.

Two rendezvous rocket firings are planned to fine-tune Endeavour's approach to the lab complex, part of a carefully choreographed sequence of "burns" setting up a docking at 5:04 p.m. Sunday.

"Flight day two, we wake up and we immediately go into a rendezvous burn and at the end of the day, we also have another rendezvous burn and that'll set up docking on flight day three," flight director Mike Sarafin said before launch. "We also check out the docking system and some of the rendezvous tools that are necessary for docking and then we get into the grapple of the (heat shield inspection) boom and perform the flight-day-two inspection on the wing leading edge surfaces and nose cap."

Using Endeavour's 50-foot-long robot arm, pilot Eric Boe and Robert "Shane" Kimbrough will lock onto the 50-foot orbiter boom sensor system, or OBSS, and work through a complex sequences of movements to inspect the right wing leading edge panels, the nose cap and then the left wing using a laser scanner and camera system. The inspection is scheduled to begin shortly after 2 p.m.

The reinforced carbon carbon leading edge panels and nose cap experience the most extreme heating during re-entry and data collected today will help engineers assess the health of the critical systems. During launch Friday, flight controllers told the crew that two debris events were noticed, but there were no obvious signs of trouble.

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EST and mission elapsed time; includes the initial release of the NASA television schedule):

EST........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

11/15/08
10:55 AM...00...15...00...Crew wakeup (begin flight day 2)
12:50 PM...00...16...55...NC-2 rendezvous rocket firing
01:00 PM...00...17...05...Shuttle robot arm (SRMS) unberths OBSS
01:45 PM...00...17...50...Ergometer setup
02:15 PM...00...18...20...Spacesuit checkout preps
02:15 PM...00...18...20...OBSS starboard wing survey
02:45 PM...00...18...50...Spacesuit checkout
04:00 PM...00...20...05...Crew meals begin
05:00 PM...00...21...05...OBSS nose cap survey
05:00 PM...00...21...05...Post-MMT briefing on NASA TV
05:50 PM...00...21...55...OBSS port wing survey
06:50 PM...00...22...55...Spacesuit prepped for transfer to station
07:15 PM...00...23...20...Spacesuit prepped for transfer to station
08:00 PM...00...00...05...Mission status briefing on NASA TV
08:05 PM...01...00...10...SRMS berths OBSS
08:45 PM...01...00...50...OMS rocket pod survey
08:50 PM...01...00...55...Laser inspection data downlink
09:05 PM...01...01...10...Centerline camera setup
09:35 PM...01...01...40...Orbiter docking system ring extension
09:44 PM...01...01...49...NC-3 rendezvous rocket firing
10:05 PM...01...02...10...Rendezvous tools checkout

11/16/08
01:25 AM...01...05...30...Crew sleep begins
02:00 AM...01...06...05...Daily video highlights reel on NASA TV
09:25 AM...01...13...30...Crew wakeup

=================================

Quick-Launch Web Links:

CBS News STS-126 Status Reports:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html

CBS News STS-126 Quick-Look Page:
http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/currentglance.html

NASA ISS Expeditions Page:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/index.html

NASA Shuttle Web: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/index.html
NASA Station Web: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/index.html
Spaceflight Now: http://spaceflightnow.com/index.html
GoogleSatTrack: http://www.lizard-tail.com/isana/tracking/

=================================




Hack WordPress

Hack WordPress

Google Releases Official Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Posted: 14 Nov 2008 08:01 PM CST

One of the things that has always made SEO so tricky is that Google doesn’t really comment much about search engine optimization techniques and they are always changing their algorithm, leaving testing as the only way to figure out what SEO techniques work.

Well, in case any of our readers missed it, Google has released an official Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF).  It doesn’t release any of Google’s algorithm secrets, but it does cover Google's best practices for title tags, meta tags, URL structure, navigation, content, anchor text, headers, images and of course, Robots.txt, making this a good way to review the basics and make sure you have that stuff down correctly.

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  1. Search Engine Optimized (SEO) WordPress Theme Gallery
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You are reading Google Releases Official Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide © 2008 | WordPress Hacks | WordPress Forums | WordPress eBook | Premium Themes.

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Does Too Much Sex Make Us Jaded? | The Thrill of the Bar Hook-Up | Obama on Sex Ed

AlterNet: The Mix is the Message   Sex & Relationships Newsletter
November 15th, 2008
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Hillary to Be Obama's Secretary Of State? | Obama and McCain to Meet | Jon Stewart Mocks Bill O'Reilly

AlterNet: The Mix is the Message   PEEK Newsletter
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