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RT @pmabray: A great @shelisrael interview about his upcoming book with @Scobleizer -

In a surprising move, Pope Francis has come out in defense of atheists. Reuters reports that the Pope recently spoke on atheists and said that those who do good, regardless of their beliefs, are good. Here are his remarks via Vatican Radio: “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.” The new Pope’s comments are a stark contrast to a lot of religious leaders that equate atheism with a lack of morals. In this case, the pope is stating that morality is not mutually exclusive to Christianity, or religion, at large. He argues that everybody has the potential for good and that people of all beliefs should come together under the common goal of doing good. Pope Francis may elaborate on his comments in the coming days via his official Twitter account. It will be interesting to see if he responds to the criticism from some evangelicals who say he went too far.

by Jayson DeMers Penguin 2.0 has just rolled out. Brace for impact. For the approximate 2.3% regular US-English queries that it affects, many SEOs have been waiting to see if the traffic to their website will be negatively affected. While many black-hat practitioners that were affected by Penguin 1.0 can only hope their rankings don't plunge further into the depths of obscurity, the rest of us are crossing our fingers and hoping that we made it through relatively unscathed. However, if your website was affected by Penguin 2.0, there are a few things you can do to ensure that your website gets back on the straight and narrow. And remember: the majority of positive comebacks after Google algorithm updates are from websites genuinely wanting to provide the best possible website for users instead of those just looking to skirt by until the next Google Zoo animal is released. If you were affected by Penguin 2.0, read on. I've done my best to guess what Google has changed, based on information from Matt Cutts prior to the launch of Penguin 2.0, as well as what Google aimed to solve with Penguin 1.0. As the SEO community performs tests and learns more information about specifics of Penguin 2.0, the collective knowledge of the update may change. For now, if you've been hit and are looking for likely answers, here's what you need to do to recover your rankings. 1. Learn From Your Mistakes The previous Google algorithm updates have already told us what Google is looking for-- great content, natural link profiles (both inbound and outbound), and an organic, natural link velocity that steadily increases month by month. If you were penalized by previous Panda or Penguin updates, then it's time to make the changes necessary to get back into Google's good graces. If Panda and Penguin 1.0 were slaps on the hand, then consider 2.0 the wake-up you need to get your website completely back on track. The next updates will be even more intuitive and stringent, so making those big content-focused changes now can prevent even further lost traffic in the future. 2. Stop Shady Practices A crucial step toward recovering from Penguin 2.0 is to stop all "shady" practices as determined by Google. This includes unnatural link building, and spammy or keyword-stuffed onsite content. Besides looking for these types of black hat practices, Google is getting better at recognizing when sites are trying to be deceitful, especially when it comes to focusing on typically-spammy search queries, catching sites that are participating in link swapping schemes, and content that contains keyword stuffing or unnatural links. The easiest step toward recovering from Penguin 2.0 is to stop these sorts of practices all together. 3. Pick up The Pieces The bridge between destruction and normalcy is the recovery phrase, which may take weeks or months, depending on the website and level of black hat SEO practices that Google believed they were involved in.If you believe that your website was penalized because of shady link building practices (which is likely if you were hit by Penguin 2.0), you'll need to identify what links could be causing you harm, and then attempt to have them removed. Any links you fail to get removed, be sure to disavow. To identify what links could be causing you harm, use a tool like Open Site Explorer or Majestic SEO. Alternatively, have a professional perform a link profile audit to identify harmful links for you. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough I wrote that describes how to audit your own link profile. You can disavow links through Google Webmaster Tools. This tool should be used with caution and only after personally reaching out to these websites to get the links removed. I recommend disavowing all harmful links (even ones that have been successfully removed); it can't hurt. Besides attempting to clean up your external link profile, you should al

Children’s Illustrator Kristian Duffy Interview

While we don’t expect it to attract as much attention as the Tumblr acquisition, Yahoo announced that it has acquired gaming platform PlayerScale. That’s not to say it isn’t a big one. “The team has built an incredible gaming platform that is used by over 150 million players worldwide,” a Yahoo spokesperson tells WebProNews. “We intend to continue to support and grow PlayerScale’s technology, and we look forward to building great new experiences on Yahoo! using the PlayerScale platform.” PlayerScale’s Jesper Jensen had the following to say to customers, partners and friends (on its homepage): Today is a great day — both in our journey with PlayerScale and for users of our Player.IO product. We are happy to announce the next big step toward our goal of building the best possible gaming infrastructure platform: we have been acquired by Yahoo!. And don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. Our platform will continue to support the same great games that you love playing today … and in fact, it will only get better from here! Our goal has always been to help developers build the best possible games, without having to worry about building and scaling the infrastructure required to operate today’s biggest successes. In working with the folks at Yahoo!, it has become clear that we share this passion. We have spent the past four years growing a three-person startup into a product that powers games played by over 150 million people worldwide and we are adding over 400,000 new users every day. In the last four months alone, we have increased our daily user growth rate by almost sixty percent. With Yahoo!’s backing, we can crank out awesome products and improvements to our platform faster than ever before. We will continue to support our existing product and deliver new services to help you grow and manage your success in cross-platform gaming — whether it’s casual, social or mobile. Today marks a milestone for PlayerScale and I want to sincerely thank the team, our developers and millions of users for the adventure so far and can promise there will be more to come. This would be, I believe, the twelfth acquisition (or announcement) for Yahoo since October. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. So, is Yahoo cool yet?

Yesterday, I shared a series of questions to help those bloggers seeking a little clarity when it comes to what their blog could be about. Today, I wanted to share 3 more questions – these are not so much focused upon YOU as a blogger but upon your readers. Hopefully they’ll also help you achieve a little clarity. Who are your readers? What do they need? How will they change as a result of reading your blog? Answer these 3 questions and you will actually have a pretty good purpose statement for your blog. You could certainly go into some real depth on each question but even doing it at a low-level will be helpful. For example on dPS I would answer the questions as: My readers are camera owners (who they are) who are not using their cameras to their potential (their need). Reading dPS will help them to gain creative control over their cameras (the benefit). I shared these questions on my Google+ account a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I received an email from a blogger who set aside 15 minutes to answer them. She told me that in doing so she realised that she’d created a purpose statement for her blog which she also turned into a tagline for her blog. Give it a go and let us know how you answer the questions in comments below. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How to Create a Blog Purpose Statement in 3 Simple Steps

BBM for iOS and Android now making sense :D >>>> Going cross platform could skyrocket the number of BBM Money users

Earlier this month, the New York Post published a story on a New York City tour company called Real Bronx Tours. One of the tours offered by the company took tourists on a trip through the poorer areas of the city, showing them housing projects, food banks, and dangerous parks. The so-called ghetto tours have now provoked a backlash from Bronx residents. Once word of the tour reached Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., he and New York City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito sent the tour company a letter, stating that they are “sickened” by the borough’s “despicable” portrayal in the tours. The letter urged Real Bronx Tours to modify the way the tour is marketed and presented. From the letter: We are more than happy to welcome tours to our community that celebrate the rich culture and history of our neighborhoods, treat Bronx residents with dignity and encourage visits to our wonderful landmarks and beautiful parks. However, using the Bronx to sell a so-called “ghetto” experience to tourists is completely unacceptable and the highest insult to the communities we represent. Now, Real Bronx Tours has caved to public pressure, and will no longer offer the ghetto tours. The company’s website has now disappeared, though the company has not issued a statement. “I am happy to hear that Real Bronx Tours has decided to end its inaccurate and disrespectful tours of our beautiful borough,” said Diaz. “The Bronx has come a long way in the past few years, and we will not accept such a despicable and irresponsible depiction of our borough.” (Image courtesy Gryffindor/Wikimedia Commons)

Both Sony and Microsoft will be launching their next-gen consoles with a racing game. EA will be joining them with its own racing franchise later this year. EA announced today that it’s new studio – Ghost Games – is knee-deep in development on the next Need for Speed title. The game – titled Need for Speed: Rivals – will be the first next-gen entry for the series. The game is also coming to current gen systems and the PC. Like other games from EA this year, there was no Wii U version announced. The above trailer indicates that the footage is all in-game. It’s also revealed that Criterion is helping out with development. With their racing game expertise, Rivals may just be the prettiest, and best playing, racing game this year. Need for Speed: Rivals will launch on November 19 for all current-gen consoles and PC. It will presumably be a launch title for the PS4 and Xbox One.

I’ve decided to add a new feature to the blog call Driving with John Chow. The idea is to increase my content productivity by creating new video based content while driving from place to place. On this premier episode, I talk about the car I’m driving and how I got it for free. For those who don’t know, I recently pick up a new 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550. I was driving it to the dealership to get it wash and figured I’ll stick a GoPro to the windshield and just record myself. You have to admit, this is a pretty easy way to create content, and we know that content drives traffic, and traffic equals money. This is also a very easy way to create content. There’s really no editing. It’s just me talking, with mistakes and all. Let me know what you think of Driving with John Chow. Would you like to see more episodes? Would you like to see me do it with a passenger? Would you like the camera pointed at something else instead of on me? I welcome your feedback. Be the first to comment... Related Posts:Filming and Driving – Mercedes-Benz SL550 Safety FeaturesWife Gets Mercedes For Supporting Internet Marketing HusbandThe Winner of The 24″ LCD MonitorMercedes-Benz ML350 – Perfect Car for Asian Drivers In RichmondThis Is Way Better Than Blogging From Starbucks