Making It Easy So That You Can Know The Way E-mail Marketing Works

When you are trying to build a reputation online, you need to maintain interaction along with your clients. One great choice is email promoting. The following tips will bring you started in your email marketing.
Only send messages to the people you know and those that have enrolled. Sending messages to people who do not have any prior relationship together with the company or perhaps your offerings may give the look of spam. The recipients is going to be reluctant to accept your mail when they don’t know you, and they also may not cherish your companies product. It’s likely that they’ll just delete your email, which simply wasted your precious time.
Target your audience. Once you have some readers, try getting them to have their friends to join up. Following every email, provide a “subscribe” button as well as a “share” button so readers can pass on your data to friends. This really is an additional way to grow an email list organically.
Each email should only contain a single topic. You need to avoid boring or overwhelming customers with marketing emails that incorporate excessive content. Create the specific message using brevity and conciseness. Audiences will certainly appreciate your willingness to limit the message just to probably the most relevant material.
Use a variety of resources to find out exactly what you possibly can concerning how to successfully utilize marketing via email. Search on the internet for information, or take a look at books from your library. You might consider attending local classes or workshops in your area for relevant local information.
Use a/B testing to improve the outcomes of the emails’ subject lines. Pick one email then send half of which with one subject line and the other half of all of them with some other subject line. This plan shows which subjects customers open, and which get ignored and delivered to trash.
Fill your marketing emails with helpful tips, don’t simply load them on top of sales pitches. Ensure your subscribers receive special articles that happen to be only accessible via email. Promote deals on goods and services inside your emails which are exclusive to your email customer. Always send holiday greeting and specials. You shouldn’t simply send emails just when you find yourself wanting something from your customer base.
In order to ensure that every single customer in your list has given their permission so that you can email them, you should have customers opt-directly into your list twice before you decide to send the 1st email. Which may seem to be a substantial amount of effort, however you are guaranteed how the person really wants your emails, which erases the possibility that you and your ISP will come across trouble.
Be sure that you come with an unsubscribe link that may be easily visible within your emails. Don’t forget to include one or affiliate marketing bury it so that it is not readily apparent. It is important that your customers feel in control and they aren’t being forced into anything.
Use passive and active feedback to create your email marketing better. Active feedback could be gained by asking your potential customers for suggestions. However, passive feedback is far more subtle and could even be invisible in your readers. Many tools and software permit you to see how many of your emails were opened and exactly how many people clicked on links.
Include a customer incentive inside your emails. If they have a good reason to perform business, they frequently will. Offering free delivery for orders over $50 is a great demonstration of incentive.
Every so often, make positive changes to layout in order to give it more of a private touch. When your messages in marketing via email have been in HTML format, try sending messages developed in text format occasionally. If your message is written well, plain text adds a private touch, making customers feel ‘connected’ towards the products and services that you just offer.
Be sure that every current email address is correct. Having erroneous emails that simply recover will just waste your time and effort. It is just a waste of time.
Always ask permission before adding anyone to your subscriber list. In the event you add individuals who have not subscribed for your e-mails, you will develop a bad reputation. There are actually perhaps you may well be banned from sending emails.
Give everyone on the subscriber list an opportunity to unsubscribe easily and instantly. Certain emails cost money, although it could be a little bit. Being considered a spammer is extremely harmful to business, and you may be blacklisted from certain websites.
Keep in mind that the point of an e-mail marketing plan is always to create a reputation with the customer base. Will not be cheap when it comes to email quality, make sure you concentrate on the right customers for your personal business, and avoid any tactics that may be considered misleading. Your reputation reaches stake, so be sure you take this under consideration.
Test your marketing via email across multiple email platforms just before sending your campaign. You ought to try out your emails on different platforms after you think of a perfect design. An email will appear much different when viewed in Gmail than it does in Microsoft Outlook, as an example.
When individuals sign up for your subscriber list, be clear regarding what they can expect. Outline the kind of emails you will be sending and just how most of the messages will probably be sent. This will assist newer subscribers be aware of your frequency and content.
It is actually your responsibility to ensure that your opt-in list is actually opt-in, so include an email confirmation as being an added security measure. When customers join your list, an automated email that confirms their subscription ought to be sent. The email should consist of a link that this person can click to verify the subscription and another hyperlink to dispute it. This will give you verification that you are currently not spamming, and respects the desires of your own client base.
If you would like have got a successful business, how you will market your products and services could make a significant difference. marketing with email campaigns have grown to be essential tools in today’s marketing environment. You can expect to become successful if one makes good use of the tips mentioned previously.

Would Like Your Business To Get More Profitable? Use Marketing With Video!

Competition between businesses may be tough, even online. You’ll need to use every trick within the book, including online video marketing, to bring in and retain customers. The piece that follows explains how online video marketing plans could be launched with respect to your organization.
Don’t be intimidated by video marketing. Creating videos is as easy as developing a tripod and video camera. You might want to provide a demonstration of the way your products are manufactured or just speak with viewers.
Video marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your audience. Ask customers to email you with queries about everything you offer, or questions about industry topics, and answer the questions you like very best in a weekly video. If you wish to generate some interest, give people a chance to win a no cost product should they provide you with a subject.
When producing video content, video marketing don’t fret too much about production values. Possessing a beautiful video without having reliable information is worthless. Take a page from your playbook of major corporations like General Mills, Dell and Apple, that have enjoyed success just by offering basic, no-frills videos.
You want a backlink to your web site built into your video. This will aid viewers navigate your site. This is useful in how-to videos. All that you should do is save a screen grab of your respective site then edit it in your video with the video editing software you employ.
Use the tool of online video marketing to share with the entire world in regards to the product you might be promoting. Potential clients will gain confidence with your products should you provide short demonstrations and the way-tos. Actually seeing it benefit themselves can help to enhance your sales.
Try to get co-workers or another employees thinking about creating videos. Find a person who seems to be comfortable in front of a camera, smiles a lot, dresses well and talks clearly. You must not hesitate to feature more than one employee or colleague with your videos.
Your opt-in choices for your mailing list must be present on the very same page since the video. Your viewers will sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your social media updates as soon as they watch your video if mention these campaigns with your video making these links visible.
Your audience wants you to be honest. The topic of your video needs to be an issue that holds your interest and believe can last. This will allow you to speak in the heart, which viewers will immediately recognize and answer.
Analyze your video’s statistics. Discover the foundation from the traffic, some time of viewing and the amount of times the video is viewed. You can use this information to discover how to better advertise to a specific group of people.
Online video marketing can improve your web and social media marketing presences. This will assist open up your being exposed to many more potential viewers. They will start to build a feedback loop of self-promotion. Increase the number of visitors to your video websites by including links inside your social websites messages.
Don’t let being camera shy stop you from using online video marketing to advertise your small business. Sponsor a relevant video contest in which those who get the best videos receive prizes. Also, let the contestants understand that you can expect to use the best video as an element of your ad campaign.
Everyone loves stories. Do you have any idea what stories it is possible to share concerning your business or the products it sells? Be sure to share videos associated with a charitable event where your business has participated. Also, consider testimonials from satisfied customers. In this respect, real people are a lot more effective than paid actors.
How-to videos are a fun way to advertise an organization. It is wise to do videos throughoughly. There is nothing more frustrating than simply clicking a video only to find out it explains a bit bit in regards to what it promised it will educate you on each one of. When providing services and products, people will review your company.
To thrive with video marketing, you should quickly react to any comment viewers have left you. Frequently, viewers have queries about your company and what you are offering, and so they require a quick response. Therefore, observe the comments inside your video’s comment section.
The expression “make it real” relates to videos too. Viewers find speech more believable as soon as the speaker is apparently honest. In the event you seem that you aren’t trustworthy, people aren’t likely to really likely to like your video, nor share it.
Should you wish to spend any cash on a marketing and advertising campaign involving videos, you must pay to acquire featured on popular sites to do well. Don’t use services that turn your video into an annoying pop-up. Surveys could be a great tool in aiding you recognize which places your audience is frequenting.
Let viewers understand what you’re providing upfront. Incorporate a detailed description or possibly a brief summary at the beginning of the video. Should your viewers are curious about what you have to say, then they’ll likely watch the entire video and possibly click on the URL link.
Conclude each video with question for your personal viewers. This can help to permit the client feel engaged, and also curious about the subsequent video into the future.
It takes below 10 seconds for a person to consider your video will be worth watching. After you do, they’ll keep watching. What is going to it take to have their attention? This really is determined by what individuals you’re targeting and what kinds of things you’re speaking about inside the video.
Don’t stop creating videos. Don’t quit if you make merely one. You must keep making videos frequently. Consider creating a video series to create things easier. Try to think of making your video about something different that involves your company, so people get a full have a look at what you’re about.
Your marketing with video campaign may help your business succeed in all sorts of ways. You can get huge exposure online easily and cheaply. Have a seat and initiate dealing with your video marketing plan at the earliest opportunity. Your business will quickly reap benefits.

The Way To Optimize Your Presence In Search Engines

With the new website in position, you surely have a desire for drawing new visitors, but perhaps you may not understand how. You must have the website happen in the various search engines. Look to this post for excellent suggestions to help.
When using internal links in your site it is essential to use the key phrases correctly. When you are only typing “click here” and subsequently linking that term, which is doing very little for your personal search results. If you utilize the appropriate keywords with your anchor-text, internet search engine spiders can locate your content quickly.
By using a robots.txt file in your root directory can help you to tuck away content might hurt your research engine ranking. txt file that gets added in your own root directory. This prevents search engines from gaining access to certain files in your site.
Search engines may have difficulty understand dynamic language and session ID names. Take this into account when you design your URLs. Certain language can confuse the search engines, which is why each URL needs to have a meaningful name, in addition to pertinent keywords.
Market yourself as an expert within a field. Becoming an expert within your field can prove lucrative in marketing your internet business. This can be done by starting an internet site focused around your niche. You may additionally implement search engine marketing methods to attract the maximum amount of targeted traffic as possible. Maintain your customers needs in your mind and meet them don’t make assumptions about what they need.
Authoring a blog and email marketing commenting on other blogs related to your website’s niche might be a good SEO technique. Blogs are a great way to have a high ranking. Online search engine robots love blogs since they are constantly updated with new content. To rank sites highly, search engines want to see backlinks.
To increase traffic in your site, carefully review and enhance the content onto it. Men and women not continue to your blog when they cannot obtain the knowledge they are trying to find. You are able to quickly increase your site stats by enhancing your content.
When you use properly descriptive title tags, you will be making certain the major search engines know very well what content articles are in your website. Search engines like google only display 60 characters, so keep it short. Additionally, they offer words appearing right after the 60 character limit less weight.
In addition to link exchanges, check out article exchanges as well for better rankings with search engines like google. Article exchange involves posting an entire article carried out by the dog owner of some other site, giving them a web link and obtaining a similar in turn. This can be more effective than only a hyperlink exchange and gives both sites with new content.
If you listen to some individuals, they still believe that putting keywords from the comment tag section can make them more visible. Spend time making sure the main content of your internet site is tagged appropriately.
Keep the website fresh and relevant with updated content every day, or as much as they are entirely possible that you. Set an objective on your own, and follow through upon it. Search engines like google take frequency of updating into mind when they determine site rankings. Higher page rankings are awarded to sites with frequent new content.
Ensure you register your internet site with all the top search engines like google. Many people think this really is automatically done. Check back periodically to ensure your internet site is still being listed. Even when your site isn’t situated on the first couple of pages, you need to find out when it finds your website.
Don’t overextend by packing in a lot of keywords. You should target approximately 12 primary phrases and keywords that center on your own specific site and niche. Using analytical tools can assist you with knowing which keyword phrases are driving traffic to your web site by far the most.
One method to improve your SEO is by integrating videos to your website. Also, make sure to include a video sitemap. It is actually easy to utilize videos to show how the product is used or to let people know who you and your staff are. Post them to your site with keyword-rich labels. Create a sitemap and submit it through Google Webmaster Tools. Next, post the recording online, Metacafe, Yahoo as well as other video websites. This helps increase web traffic to your site.
Only make an effort to master one area of SEO at one time as an alternative to seeking to implement them all at once. As there is not enough minutes in a day to discover all SEO techniques, find one that appears promising and take full advantage of this place.
Take advantage of the SEO, or seo, services which can be found by many companies. SEO companies optimize your website to rank highly on google search result pages (SERPs). Several companies offer deals on these facilities.
Establishing a search engine with clearly defined parameters allows you to optimize your site efficiently. Use definite commands that gives you the most outcomes for whatever you are looking for when you find yourself optimizing searching.
Seo results will never occur overnight. It is perfectly normal for you to expect to see results straight away for your personal work. It may need patience, work and time to generate traffic online. It is vital that you simply keep it going, even when you feel like effects are not coming quickly enough. Over time, your commitment and work will reward you with your site climbing higher and better in the major search engines results.
Buy a pre-owned website address and acquire a greater ranking. When you have a domain name which has been around quite some time (at the very least for a couple of years), it will likely be given more attention by search engines like google. Hunt for domains that fit well along with your website on lists of expiring or expired website names.
As we discussed, SEO is useful at getting visibility for your personal site. If your website turns up during the search, you will definitely get a boost in traffic. What you’ve learned today will allow you to progress up several spots.

Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93

“I didn’t know lawyers and judges. We were cattle ranchers. That wasn’t — we didn’t know people like that. So I didn’t know what I was getting into, and it never entered my mind that there wouldn’t be opportunities for women lawyers. It just never occurred to me. Should have.” Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman justice on the Supreme Court. During her tenure on the high bench, she was the crucial swing vote, the decisive force in cases that shaped history — from states’ rights to sex discrimination, voting rights to religion, affirmative action to abortion. For nearly a quarter-century, the law was basically what Justice O’Connor thought it ought to be. The onetime housewife from suburban Phoenix came to be known as the most powerful woman in America. It all began one day in July 1981. O’Connor, who was just a mid-level state judge in Arizona at the time, was working in her chambers when she got a bolt from the blue, a telephone call from the White House. President Ronald Reagan wanted to appoint her to the Supreme Court. “Why do you think you were chosen?” “Well, when Ronald Reagan was running for president, he was eager to have some support from women and it was a little dicey for him. There was an abortion issue out there, so women were somewhat skeptical. And he said during the course of his campaign, if I get a chance to put a qualified woman on the Supreme Court, I would like to do that.” For nearly 200 years, the high court was a domain reserved for men. Even the mere suggestion from Reagan made front-page news. “My name surfaced on that list. I’m not sure how or why, except that there were not many Republican women judges. There weren’t many women judges anyway — federal or state. But I was a Republican, I had served in all three branches of Arizona’s government. And unbeknownst to me, they sent a couple of people to Arizona to make inquiry about me. They had a big paper trail to review and see if they thought they approved.” “Perhaps it didn’t hurt that Ronald Reagan was a cowboy at heart.” “I think that was what he most liked, was the fact that I’d grown up on the back of a horse.” Sandra Day was a trailblazer from the beginning. Born in 1930, she was raised on the Lazy B Ranch in a remote corner of Arizona. “We were 35 miles from the nearest town. An adobe house that was plastered and it had a big screen porch around it, where the cowboys slept. No indoor plumbing, no running water, no electricity. It was rather primitive.” “When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?” “A cattle rancher. I liked it. It was wonderful. That was the only thing I knew anything about. I think I was the only student in my graduating class who went away out of state to college.” At Stanford University, the cowgirl met the person who would inspire her life’s ambition, a professor named Harry Rathbun. “He had a spiritual quality almost. He was the first person to really tell the students this is a huge, complicated world we’re living in.” TV Announcer: “Let us face without panic the reality of our times. The fact that atom bombs —” “It’s a dangerous world. We have to learn how to live together in peace in this world. And a single individual, even in this complex world of ours, can make a difference. Because of Prof. Harry Rathbun, I decided to apply to law school.” “Weren’t you told that there was no way for a woman to be a lawyer back then?” “I was not told that. In fact, it was true. And if I had known that, I perhaps wouldn’t have applied.” At Stanford Law School, O’Connor met two men who’d play a big role in the rest of her life: William Rehnquist, her future colleague on the Supreme Court — “I knew him well. He loved to play a card game, or charades or go to the movies. He was really so much fun.” — and John O’Connor, her future husband. “John was a year behind me. I was graduating that year and he had another year to go. One of us had to work and that was going to be me. And I placed calls to many of the firms, and they wouldn’t talk to me. I was female. They didn’t want to talk to me. I didn’t realize that I was going to have trouble even getting an interview. I had an undergraduate friend at Stanford whose father was a partner in a big California law firm. And he said, ‘Oh, Miss Day, you have a fine resume here.’ He said, ‘The problem is this firm has never hired a woman as a lawyer and I don’t see the time when we will. Our clients wouldn’t stand for it.’ And then he said, ‘Well, how well do you type?’ I heard that the district attorney in San Mateo County, Calif., had once had a woman lawyer on his staff, so I made an appointment to go see him. He was in the old San Mateo County Courthouse, which now is an historic building. It had a big, stained glass dome. It was fabulous. But he said, ‘The fact of the matter is, I don’t have any money to hire anybody right now.’ I said, ‘I can work for nothing until you get funding.’ And I said, ‘I know you don’t have an empty space, but I met your secretary and she’s very nice. And there’s enough room in her office to put another desk, if she’s willing to have me.’ That was the deal we struck. So it all turned out for the best, but it was sure hard to get that first job as a lawyer.” “You once wrote, ‘If society does not recognize the fact that only women can bear children, then ‘equal treatment’ ends up being unequal.’ After you moved back to Arizona, how did you manage to both practice law and raise three sons?” “It’s not easy. It was 1957. I was pregnant with my first child at the time I took the Arizona bar exam, and we had a little boy. None of the law firms in Phoenix had yet decided to hire women lawyers, so we opened our own little law office out in a suburb. And it wasn’t the kind of work usually handled at news the U.S. Supreme Court. But I couldn’t go to work every day if I didn’t have adequate and reliable help at home, and I didn’t. So I had to give up my little neighborhood law firm and I stayed home for close to five years.” O’Connor’s law career stalled, but she became a rising star in local Republican politics. “The Republicans managed to elect the attorney general of Arizona and he hired me as an assistant attorney general. Well, the problem was I was the only woman and he didn’t know what to do with me. So he sent me out to the Arizona State Hospital for the mentally ill, and said you can have space out there for your office. I said, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ ‘Well, whatever they need.’ Maybe the most important thing I did there was to start legal aid clinic for the patients. They were losing their homes, their children, everything. They were locked up. The attorney general decided, gee, maybe we could use this woman back down at the headquarters. So, he brought me back. And then I had some very good clients, like the governor and the Legislature. I really enjoyed that work and I certainly got to know state government from the ground up.” When a state senator got elected to Congress in 1969, O’Connor was tapped to fill his seat. “It was great. You could decide what problems you wanted to work on and develop legislation to do something. I had enough of a voice that I could normally get those things enacted. My colleagues, to my shock, elected me as majority leader of the Arizona State Senate. That was the first time in the United States that a woman had ever held a legislative leadership post of any kind. Isn’t that amazing? It had never happened before.” State Senator O’Connor was a loyal Republican, except when it came to issues involving women, whether it was backing the Equal Rights Amendment or avoiding the anti-abortion battles taking hold across the country. After two years at the helm of the Legislature, O’Connor returned to the law, this time as a judge — first on a county court and later, a state Court of Appeals. She’d served on the bench only seven years when that fateful phone call arrived in 1981. “So today I’m pleased to announce the nomination of Judge Sandra Day O’Connor of Arizona Court of Appeals for confirmation as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.” The press and the public were quite taken by Reagan’s revolutionary nominee, but there was opposition from right-to-life conservatives. “Some 200 of them picketed the Senate building.” “We see it as a total repudiation of the views made public by President Reagan.” “They’re already pressuring U.S. senators to vote no on Judge O’Connor to try and block her nomination to the Supreme Court.” “Judge O’Connor, there has been much discussion about your views on the subject of abortion.” “My own view in the area of abortion is that I am opposed to it as a matter of birth control or otherwise. The subject of abortion —” Despite the opposition, the Senate voted 99 to 0 to confirm the nomination. “Do you have any trepidation?” “No, it should be very interesting.” When O’Connor arrived for her first day on the bench, the world was watching to see how a female would fare. “There was neither comment nor ceremony as Mrs. O’Connor took her seat for the opening argument.” “We’ll hear arguments first this morning in No. 1464, James G. Watt, Secretary of the Interior, against the Energy Action Education —” It took almost 40 minutes before she gathered the nerve to pose a question in oral arguments. “If the government complies with what Congress intended — in other words —” “Mr. Silard, may I —” “May I just finish your thought? The congressional —” But just when it seemed the first lady on the high court might wilt under the pressure, the cowgirl found her voice. “It isn’t clear, is it, whether even if California were to win here, that the secretary would be likely to use the bidding systems that California —” With her bold stature and piercing gaze, Justice O’Connor proved herself a force to be reckoned with — not only in oral arguments, but also in chambers. “The most electrifying moment of my first week on the court was that first time I sat in our conference room at the table to actually discuss and resolve cases that had been heard and argued. That was the moment of truth, the rest was grandstanding. That was the real thing.” Right away, the divide on the court endowed O’Connor with the power that defied her position. “We were seated, nine of us, around that table discussing the merits of the cases argued that week. And the discussion starts with the chief justice. And the chief explains how he thinks the case should be resolved and why, and then the next most senior, and on around the table, ending with the junior justice. That was me. The very first case that we discussed came to me 4 to 4. It wasn’t that I was seeking that role, but very often the court was divided in that fashion.” That made the first woman justice the key pivot point, the swing vote who single-handedly decided if the four conservative justices or the four liberals prevailed in a case. In time, it became clear Justice O’Connor valued balance and pragmatism over purity. From her experience in life and local government, she believed impacts mattered. And in case after case, she was willing to reconsider preconceptions and to ally with opposing factions on the court — even on abortion. Initially, she took the side of conservatives, backing laws limiting abortions and attacking Roe v. Wade. “Whether the state may reasonably regulate in the area of abortion in a manner designed to ensure an informed decision by a pregnant woman —” “Counsel, is the city relying on all four of the alleged state interests that you described in this instance?” “That’s correct, your honor.” “OK.” But O’Connor refused to join conservatives when they tried to overturn Roe v. Wade. Twice, she single-handedly had the chance to outlaw abortions and she refused. First, in 1989 — “— require women to have abortions after so many —” “I surely do not.” And again in 1992, with Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a landmark 5 to 4 decision that Justice O’Connor delivered for the court. “We conclude that the central holding of Roe should be reaffirmed. Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that can’t control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” “Do you think the issues decided in Roe v. Wade are now settled a matter for the court?” “It’s always possible that the Supreme Court of the United States can conclude that in some earlier decision it made it’s — it ought to be reversed, that it’s no longer valid. The court certainly did that in a very dramatic way in the 1950s in Brown v. Board of Education, but it is not easily done or lightly done.” When it came to affirmative action, O’Connor began as a skeptic, but became a defender in 2003, with the polarizing case of Grutter v. Bollinger. “Petitioner Barbara Grutter is a white Michigan resident who was denied admission to the law school.” Justice O’Connor cast the decisive vote in the 5 to 4 decision that upheld affirmative action in university admissions. “Showing that such diversity promotes learning and better prepares students for an increasingly heterogeneous workforce, for responsible citizenship, and —” “You wrote, ‘Effective participation by members of all racial and ethnic groups in the civic life of our nation is essential if the dream of one nation, indivisible, is to be realized.’ Do you think this principle is in danger?” “I think it’s a very important principle. I hope it isn’t in danger. It shouldn’t be. We’re a nation comprised of people from many different countries, backgrounds, religions. When I went to law school, 1 percent of the law students were female — today it’s 50. We’ve had what amounts to a revolution in this country, and it’s been all to the good.” “Over the years, is it fair to say your opinions became more moderate? Did the court become more conservative? Are both things true?” “I don’t think either of them are true. The fact of the matter is the Supreme Court considers an amazing array of issues. Amazing. I just don’t think it’s accurate to say somebody has this great unified theory and that’s how everything has to be decided. It’s not that way.” When she retired from the court in 2006 to care for her husband, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Justice O’Connor seemed to have no regrets, even about what was probably her most controversial decision: Bush v. Gore. “An election in turmoil, a presidency in the balance.” “A recount in the Sunshine State is now underway.” “Per the Secretary of State’s request to stop the recount on her term.” In December 2000, Justice O’Connor was part of the 5 to 4 majority that gave George Bush a victory in the disputed presidential election when the Supreme Court ordered four Florida counties to stop recounting votes. “Some of the ballots came out with one hanging chad, and some with two hanging chads, and some with three hanging chads. The counties didn’t have a uniform rule. They just let the vote counters do whatever they thought right. Well, that’s not equal protection. I mean voting matters, doesn’t it? It was a close election. And so we like to think that the ballots are going to be counted, according to some set rules so that it isn’t just the whim of whoever’s counting the ballot. The popular vote count went for Mr. Gore, the Electoral College went the other way. And I think that’s what really bothers people. The Supreme Court didn’t change that.” But O’Connor always remained willing to rethink her preconceptions. In 2013, she told the Chicago Tribune editorial board she had misgivings about the Bush v. Gore decision. She said it ‘stirred up the public’ and ‘gave the court a less than perfect reputation.’ “We were hearing more unfortunate remarks about judges than I remembered in my very long lifetime. Activist judges — godless, secular humanists trying to impose their will on the rest of us. It’s shocking to me because when the framers created our form of government, they created three branches of government. And the framers thought it was terribly important to have a judicial branch that had the capacity, ability and independence to enable them to impartially decide issues of law, even if it meant holding a law unconstitutional or an act of Congress unconstitutional. That was their vision.” “I’m going to ask you a question you were asked at your Senate confirmation, which is: How you would like to be remembered?” “Oh, I said the tombstone question. And I said I would like it to say, ‘Here lies a good judge,’ and I haven’t changed my mind.”

Doctor Who Releases Official Recipe For Sylvia’s Tuna Madras

When Doctor Who returned to our screens this past weekend in “ The Star Beast ,” it brought with it all sorts of weird and occasionally fearsome threats, from the mischievous Meep to the insectoid Wrarth Warriors . But perhaps nothing could send you scurrying behind the sofa than one single joke/threat: a fish curry made by Donna’s mom. “Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” | AI Unlocked When we reunite with Donna and her family in “The Star Beast,” the Nobles are having a bit of a rough time. Having given away the lottery earnings the Tenth Doctor had surreptitiously gifted her with just before his regeneration, Donna is struggling to make ends meet with her husband and daughter, having lost another job herself. One area she remains enriched though, whether she wants to be or not, is the help of her mother Sylvia, who has taken to preparing meals for her daughter’s family to help lighten the load. While we hear legendary tales of a truly gigantic sausage roll, only one of Sylvia’s food experiments has captured the hearts and minds, for better or worse, of Doctor Who fandom in the last week: her perfectly-comedically-timed explainer of what’s on the menu before everything goes sideways in Doctor Who’s trademark style. A tuna Madras curry!
It’s one of the funnier moments in an already funny episode. Jacqueline King’s delivery of the simple line is pitch-perfect, and it’s the perfect microcosm of writer/showrunner Russell T. Davies’s worldview for Doctor Who, the bizarre mundanity of human life clashing with the bizarre, alien world of adventuring in Time and Space. But also: the idea of a tuna curry is just bizarrely gross to a lot of people, hence why Doctor Who fans have become obsessed. Remember, this is the fanbase that willingly tried Fish Fingers and Custard after the Eleventh Doctor snacked on it in his debut episode. A canned tuna curry is practically fine dining in comparison. But while “The Star Beast” left Sylvia’s tuna Madras behind in its alien mayhem, have no fear, culinarily curious Whovians: the BBC has provided an official recipe so you can make it at home. Check it out below! Ingredients 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
Half teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of hot chilli powder
1 teaspoon of ginger
Salt (to taste)
1 onion
Chopped 5 cloves of garlic
Chopped 2 tins of tuna
Drained 1 tin of tomatoes
Half a jar of black olives Method Fry the onion for five minutes until golden brown.
Add the garlic, stir for two minutes.
Mix in the spices, stir quickly, add in two tins of tuna.
Stir again twice.
Add the tin of tomatoes and the olives.
Bring to a boil until the sauce thickens.
Turn down low for ten minutes.
Serve. Although largely unheard of (perhaps for good reason, looking at this ingredient list), the tuna Madras is apparently a staple in Davies’ family, according to  the commentary track for “The Star Beast.” So whether you want to either feast on the fuel behind one of the most influential minds of British television, or you need something to eat when Doctor Who  returns this weekend … maybe you’re brave enough to try this and see what the Nobles missed out on? Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film fashion and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

Why Fast Solution Techniques For Associate Advertising Programs Can Be A Blunder

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Salvadoran Rural Communities Face Climate Injustice — Global Issues

Luis Aviles, standing on a segment of the rock embankment that protects riverbank communities from the overflow of the Lempa River in southern El Salvador, points to the part of the river that makes a turn in its course and hits the levee hard, undermining it. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPSLuis Aviles, standing on a segment of the rock embankment that protects riverbank communities from the overflow of the Lempa River in southern El Salvador, points to the part of the river that makes a turn in its course and hits the levee hard, undermining it. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS by Edgardo Ayala (tecoluca, el salvador) Thursday, November 30, 2023 Inter Press Service TECOLUCA, El Salvador, Nov 30 (IPS) – For farmers in the valleys below the 15 de Septiembre hydroelectric plant in central El Salvador, the rains bring floods. Now that the rains are more unpredictable, the loss of crops and disruption of fishing are even more devastating as they deal with erratic climate-change-induced flooding.  For decades, poor fishing and farming communities in southern El Salvador have paid the price for the electricity generated by one of the country’s five dams, as constant and sometimes extreme rains cause the reservoir to release water that ends up flooding the low-lying area where the families live.
Dozens of communities located in the Bajo Lempa area in southern El Salvador suffer year after year from flooding during the May to November rainy season, when the river overflows its banks and floods corn, beans, and other crops, as well as affecting fishing and other livelihoods.
The ecoregion is the lower stretch of the Lempa River basin, which runs through three Central American countries: it originates in Guatemala, crosses part of Honduras, and then enters El Salvador, where it meanders from the north until flowing into the Pacific Ocean in the south of the country.
The Lempa River basin covers 18,240 square kilometers, shared with Honduras (30 percent) and Guatemala (14 percent). In El Salvador, it stretches across slightly more than half of the territory of just over 21,000 square kilometers.
An estimated 5,000 families live in the 900-square-kilometer Bajo Lempa area. They are dedicated to subsistence farming and fishing and non-intensive cattle ranching, although there are also some families from other regions of the country, with more money, who have acquired land to grow sugar cane. Celina Menjívar (R), a resident of San Bartolo, one of the ten settlements located in the Bajo Lempa area near the mouth of the river on the Pacific Ocean, participates in a neighborhood meeting. She makes the case that the Salvadoran government ought to reimburse local families for the crops they lost as a result of flooding from an upstream dam. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS “In the 32 years that I have lived here, I have been affected just like the rest by many floods,” Celina Menjívar told IPS. She is a farmer in San Bartolo, one of the settlements or communities of Bajo Lempa.
“I plant corn, sesame, and cushaw squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma) on a small family plot, but when the floods come, everything is lost, and in the end we are left with nothing,” said Menjívar, 41.
In addition to subsistence farming, a group of some 50 families set up a cooperative for the organic production of cashew nuts, which they were able to export to the United States, France, and the United Kingdom after achieving certification as organic producers. An aerial view of the state-owned 15 de Septiembre Hydroelectric Power Plant, the largest in El Salvador. The reservoir discharges when rainfall exceeds its storage capacity, causing the Lempa River to overflow and flood dozens of farming and fishing communities in the Bajo Lempa area. Credit: CEL But rising production costs and competition from cheaper prices, especially from India, have hampered exports in the last two years. The cooperative is therefore looking to promote new products, such as pistachios and peanuts.
“We have made an effort to ensure that the farmers can at least sell their cashew seeds” on the domestic market, the cooperative’s administrative coordinator, Brenda Cerén, told IPS. Impact on the Most Vulnerable Most of the residents of Bajo Lempa were part of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrillas, who settled on the riverbanks after receiving land in the region as part of the demobilization process at the end of the civil war in 1992.
El Salvador’s bloody civil war (1980–1992) left some 75,000 people dead and 8,000 missing in a country that currently has 7.6 million inhabitants.
“Most of the flooding is not due to the rains per se, but to the discharges from the reservoir,” said Menjívar, referring to the state-owned 15 de Septiembre hydroelectric plant, the country’s largest, located upstream between the departments of San Vicente and Usulután, in central El Salvador. Manuel Mejía is one of the former guerrilla fighters who received a hectare of land in Bajo Lempa in southern El Salvador, to settle there as part of the demobilization process of the rebel forces at the end of the 12-year Salvadoran civil war in 1992. Now, when the area is flooded by the overflowing river, he says everything is lost, even household goods. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS Another resident of San Bartolo, Manuel Mejía, added: “When there are floods here, everything is lost: crops, livestock, even household goods, everything.”
Mejía, a 77-year-old former guerrilla fighter, told IPS that this year’s rainy season did not produce flooding because the storms began late, and this meant that the drainage channels, located along the road leading to the area, did not fill up and were able to handle the rainfall at the end of the rainy season in November.
Increasingly unpredictable and extreme rainfall periods, due to climate change, generate intense storms in short periods of time, and, as a consequence, the reservoir’s capacity is easily exceeded and water releases are authorized.
Hence, the poor families of Bajo Lempa pay the cost of the dam’s ability to generate electricity for other parts of the country, including those that generate the most income, such as industrial groups and real estate consortiums, whose business activities are among those that have the greatest impact on the environment. Part of the levee that has been undermined by the force of the waters of the Lempa River, near the Rancho Grande community in the Bajo Lempa, a coastal ecoregion located in the municipality of Tecoluca in southern El Salvador. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS This situation falls under the category of climate justice, or, actually, climate injustice: vulnerable groups are more heavily impacted by extreme weather events fomented by others, whether at the national or global level.
“Certainly there is climate injustice: richer people or sectors of the country, who live in urban areas, benefit more from energy, while poor families, who live on the banks of the rivers, take the hit,” environmentalist Ricardo Navarro, director of the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology, told IPS.
The Center is a local affiliate of the international NGO Friends of the Earth.
A light rain that falls for two or three days generates releases from the dam and the overflowing of the Lempa River, which floods the settlements. But of course, the most tragic floods have been caused by tropical storms or hurricanes, such as Hurricane Mitch in October 1998. The Lempa River flows through three Central American countries: it originates in Guatemala, crosses part of Honduras, and then enters El Salvador, where it meanders from the north until it flows into the Pacific Ocean in the south of the country. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS Mitch, a category 5 hurricane, the most lethal, caused such heavy rains that the hydroelectric dam filled in a matter of 36 hours and went from discharging 500 cubic meters per second to 11,500 cubic meters per second, according to a study on flooding in the Lower Lempa.
“During Mitch, I lost 40 heads of cattle; they drowned,” Luis Avilés, a farmer from the Taura community, told IPS.
“Where we live is like living with a chronic illness; year after year we have this anxiety: wondering whether it will flood a lot this year, if I’ll lose my crops, not knowing whether to plant or not,” said Avilés, 53. The Lempa River flows through three Central American countries: it originates in Guatemala, crosses part of Honduras, and then enters El Salvador, where it meanders from the north until it flows into the Pacific Ocean in the south of the country. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS Embankment on the Verge of Collapse A crucial issue in the impact of the floods is the damage that has been suffered over the years to the levee built with Japanese aid funds years ago and which has not been repaired since then, residents of Bajo Lempa told IPS.
The elevation made of different materials on the river bank to contain the overflowing waters runs 18 kilometers along the right bank of the river, from the Cañada Arenera community, in the municipality of San Nicolás Lempa, to the community of La Pita, near the river’s mouth.
“We are in the most vulnerable area of the riverbank, the one that receives the strongest impact of the Lempa, because up there it makes a turn and then it flows down with force,” said Avilés, standing on the damaged infrastructure: a wall of rocks tied together with wire, about four meters higher than the level of the river. Drainage ditches can be seen alongside the road leading to Bajo Lempa in southern El Salvador, to drain the water that accumulates with the rains and floods that occur almost every year in this coastal region of El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS This segment of the five-kilometer-long levee is indeed the most damaged; the flow of the river has been undermining the base of the wall more and more.
“This wall protects the communities of Santa Marta, San Bartolo, Rancho Grande, Taura, Puerto Nuevo, Naranjo, and La Pita, and if it were to collapse, it would be a great tragedy,” said Avilés, also a former guerrilla fighter.
The deterioration of the stone embankment is clearly visible along its five-kilometer length. The production of cooking bananas is one of the most profitable in the coastal area known as Bajo Lempa, although floods frequently swamp crops and ruin the harvests on family farms. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS The rest of the dike is not a stone wall but an earthen elevation about two meters high, and it is also damaged.
The repair and maintenance of the embankment is one of the main demands of the inhabitants of Bajo Lempa, but it has never been efficiently addressed by any of the past governments. Brena Cerén, administration coordinator, shows part of the organic cashew nut production just out of the ovens of the cooperative set up in San Carlos Lempa, in the Salvadoran municipality of Tecoluca. Cashew nut production in the coastal area of the country has a growing market in the United States and European countries. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS Compensation for Damage Avilés said it is obvious that the country needs to generate electricity “because many sectors, factories, industry, and homes depend on it, but we should also consider the cost that we pay down here,” referring to the energy produced by the 15 de Septiembre power plant.
This dam and the other four in the country are managed by the state-owned Comisión Ejecutiva Hidroeléctrica del Río Lempa (CEL). For this reason, he and the other people interviewed argued that the government should take responsibility for the damage and losses caused to gaming the families of Bajo Lempa and create an indemnity or compensation fund.
Avilés said that last year, when there was light flooding, he lost his crop of plantains or cooking bananas, which he had planted on a two-hectare plot. He went to claim compensation from CEL for the 15,000 dollars he had invested.
“They told me that they had nothing to do with it, that the dam was above us and the flooding was below,” he said. Sugarcane monoculture, practiced by families that have invaded and grabbed land in the coastal area of Bajo Lempa, in southern El Salvador, has damaged the fragile ecosystem of the area as it encourages the intensive use of agrochemicals and the burning of sugarcane fields, which often reach the crops of riverbank communities. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS Environmental activist Gabriel Labrador, of the NGO Salvadoran Ecological Unit (UES), told IPS that these families have every right to demand an economic compensation fund for losses and damage.
“It is an injustice—the discharges, the vulnerabilities to which people and territories are exposed—which is a systematic practice that is unjust and ends up burdening the most disadvantaged people with more damage and losses,” he said.
Meanwhile, the residents of Bajo Lempa, already accustomed to the floods, know that they have no choice but to continue fighting, despite the adversities.
“It would be fair for CEL to say, ‘We are going to help you, at least with 50 percent of what was lost’, but it doesn’t give anything. However, we have no choice but to keep working hard,” said Menjívar.
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