luni, 16 februarie 2015

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


The Most Intimidating Muzzles You Can Buy For Your Dog

Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:29 AM PST

If you take your dog for a walk while it's wearing one of these muzzles it's safe to say that no one is going to be messing with you.






















These Actors Went To Extreme Lengths To Prepare For These Roles

Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:19 AM PST

When it came to getting ready for these roles, the actors listed below took no chances. This is method acting at its finest.













Via distractify


How Hashtags Work on Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr - Moz Blog


How Hashtags Work on Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr

Posted on: Sunday 15 February 2015 — 23:06

Posted by AnnSmarty

A hashtag is the wonder of the past decade. It was born to address the need to organize and make sense of the overwhelming social media buzz. Thanks to active and creative user adoption, hashtag support has been added to most popular social media platforms.

This article shows how different social media sites make use of hashtags. Most importantly, it shares some insight into how you can make the most effective use of hashtags for your brand.

Twitter

Twitter hashtags don't support special characters like +, !, $, %, -, ^, &, *, etc. They do support letters, numbers and _ (underscore).

There are no hashtag limits (length, number) as long as you keep your message within 140 characters (which is already limiting in itself).

TipWhile Twitter hashtags are reported to increase engagement, the most efficient way to use them is through hosting and participating in Twitter chats. Here's a detailed tutorial on hosting a Twitter chat.

TipEvent hashtags (conferences, festivals, etc.) also work very well on Twitter. You don't need to actually be in an event to network with people through the official hashtag. Event organizers usually market the official hashtag very well, which means additional exposure for you if you use it.

Twitter search results are ranked by most popular. You can switch to "All" results,  which are filtered by date.

Twitter search results

Useful Twitter Hashtag Tools:

  • Hashtagify tracks trending hashtags and shows "related" hashtags for any base terms you provide.
  • TwChat lets you discover, participate in, and easily host Twitter chats. It's also a useful tool for monitoring and archiving any hashtag streams.

Instagram

Like Twitter, Instagram hashtags don't support special characters like +, !, $, %, -, ^, &, *, etc. They do support numbers and _.

You can add up to 30 hashtags to a single photo. You can even tag your photo after publishing it. Simply list your hashtags in the comments. (Note that you can only do this for your own uploads.)

Instagram hashtags increase your following dramatically, especially if you use hot and trending hashtags.

TipThe best use of hashtags on Instagram is to participate in hashtag games like #tbt and #MondayBlues. Both can make your Instagram posting very consistent (e.g., you have a theme for every day of the week) and increase your following and interactions.) In my experience, people are very willing to click these specific hashtags to see the photos of other participants.

TipLocation-based hashtags also work very well for Instagram. I use both abbreviated and full location names  (#la and #losangeles, for instance).

Instagram search results are sorted by "most recent".

Use Websta to track hot hashtags on Instagram.

Google Plus

The only official rule for Google Plus hashtag character support is "no spaces". However, you may have trouble using any characters (which are not letters, numbers or underscore) because Google Plus will attempt to drop them from the linked part of the hashtag.

There's no way to make a hashtag with numbers only (e.g., #2015).

Google Plus has perceived hashtags differently from the very start. Instead of letting users organize and monitor their conversations, Google Plus hashtags allow for greater exploration of the platform, by Google and users. 

This explains why Google Plus updates are auto-hashtagged, meaning that they are added automatically by Google when the topic is clearly discerned.

There are no known limits to the number of hashtags you can add to Google Plus posts.

TipGoogle Plus hashtags seem to work great for exposing your updates to a wider range of people. I haven't found any research to back this up, but I've personally seen them work this way. Any time I use hashtags on Google Plus, I see more people outside of my extended circles like and comment on my content:

Google Plus hashtags

TipUnlike Twitter and Instagram, "specific" hashtags (e.g., games, events, and locations) don't seem to work well on Google Plus. Instead, I try to let Google understand what my update is about by using descriptive hashtags (e.g., #marketingtips).

Google Plus hashtag search results seem to be ranked by popularity. Moreover, search results are powered by "related" hashtags. Sometimes the result will even miss your initial search term.

Google Plus hashtag search results

Cyfe is the only tool I know of that supports searching and archiving Google Plus hashtag results.

Cyfe Google Plus hashtag search results

Pinterest

Pinterest hashtags have been quietly supported for some time. "Supported" means the word after the # is clickable (and only in the description).

There are no official rules or limitations on the number of hashtags you can add to a Pinterest post, and Pinterest hashtags seem to support the same set of characters as most other social platforms do. 

Pinterest hashtags are clickable in the description

Pinterest hashtag support remains limited. If you search Pinterest by a hashtag, search results will include all types of words and phrases from the hashtag. This makes using Pinterest hashtag almost pointless.

Pinterest search

TipThe only reasonable way to use Pinterest hashtags is to use them for branding, especially for cross-promotion (to further spread awareness of your event, Twitter chat, etc.).

Tumblr

Tumblr hashtags work similarly to Wordpress tags. They will be linked only in the "tags" field. You can't create an in-text hashtag by simply adding # in front of a word.

Unlike Wordpress, Tumblr hashtags improve the discoverability of your updates across the whole platform.

Here's a quick example: I am not really active on Tumblr, but I do post random updates from time to time. 

I treat Tumblr more as a curation tool rather than a social media network, so I've never cared about hashtags or if my updates get any visibility, which they didn't until I used a few hashtags in this post. That day I saw a sudden spike in activity on my pretty abandoned Tumblr blog!

Tumblr hashtags

[Note: I did nothing special to create the spike. All I did was adding a few hashtags. Seems pretty easy, right?]

You can have spaces, apostrophes, commas, dots, and many other symbols in your Tumblr hashtags.

hashtags-06.png

There are no limitations as to how many hashtags you can use on Tumblr, but only the first five hashtags you use are searchable. Your update will only make it to the search results if it's an original one, not a re-blog, so don't bother adding tags if you re-blog.

TipAny hashtag search will bring up users who recently used those hashtags for you to follow, which means that hashtags are huge for acquiring followers on Tumblr.

Hashtags search: people to follow

Tumblr filters hashtag search results by "most popular" by default. You can switch this to "most recent".

Furthermore, Tumblr has a "track your tags" feature which allows anyone to add hashtag search results to their "favorite search". There are no stats available as to which hashtags are tracked by more people, though.

Flickr

Flickr allows all sorts of symbols to be typed after the #, but seems to only link letters and numbers. While serving the same goal (e.g., organizing photos), Flickr tags and hashtags do behave slightly differently.

  • Clicking on a Flickr tag brings you to search/?tags= page, where you can filter by license, search for groups, and more.
  • Clicking on a Flickr hashtag brings you to /explore/ page, which shows related [hash]tags and the photos with the same tags (yes, that's confusing). These results are sorted by "most recent" by default, although you can switch to "most interesting."

Flickr explore

It's still not quite clear whether hashtags improve visibility on Flickr, or how different they are from tags, which have existed on the platform for ages. The fact that Flickr hashtags were announced and are now proactively supported in the iOS app may indicate that the whole point of a hashtag on Flickr is to make it easier to organize your photos from the iPhone.

Facebook

Facebook hashtags support the standard set of characters that most popular social platforms support.

Facebook hashtags

There are no limitations as to the number of hashtags you can add to a Facebook update.

Facebook hashtag search is somewhat weird. Try searching for #california, for example. You'll likely end up landing on a Facebook page instead of a hashtag search results page.

Making hashtag search impossible on Facebook

An easier way to generate hashtag search results is to simply add the hashtag after facebook.com/hashtag/ (e.g., facebook.com/hashtag/dogs).

You can also bring up hashtag search results by clicking on any hashtag in your Facebook stream. Facebook's ranking algorithm is complicated. It seems to be a mix of lots of factors, including how closely you are related to the person posting the update, how often you interact with him/her, how popular the actual update is, etc.

I don't use hashtags on Facebook beyond random cross-posting from Instagram. I have also seen quite a few of my friends become irritated when someone uses hashtags, so I guess it's too early to tell. With Instagram's help,  however, hashtags may ultimately become widely adopted by Facebook users.

To sum up...

  Twitter Instagram Google Plus Pinterest Facebook Tumblr Flickr

Introduced

August 23, 2007 January 27, 2011 September 25, 2013 N/A June 12, 2013 August 18, 2009 March 17, 2013

Supported characters

Letters, numbers and _ Letters, numbers and _ Letters, numbers and _ ()no numbers-only hashtags Letters, numbers and _ Letters, numbers and _ Any Letters and numbers

Limitations

None 30 hashtags per update, max None None None None None

TipMost effectively used to...

Brand events and hold / participate in Twitter chats Build a brand following by participating in Instagram games Allow Google Plus to better understand what your update is about
[Don't work for discover-ability. May still be used for branding and cross-promotion] [Don't really work for discover-ability. Getting used more often thanks to cross-posting from Instagram] Organize your updates and build your following Make it easier to organize your photos from mobile device

Search results

Are ranked by most popular (You can switch to "All" which are filtered by date) Are sorted by "most recent" Seem to be ranked by most popular (No way to change) Are ranked by most popular Are ranked by many factors, including relation and popularity Are ranked by most popular by default (You can switch to most recent) Are ranked by most recent by default (You can switch to most interesting)

Best tools

Hashtagify & TwChat Websta Cyfe - - - -

(All images in this post were created by the author)


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Seth's Blog : The first rule of web design

The first rule of web design

Tell me where to click.

Just about every web page is designed to cause me to connect, to buy, to approve, to move to the next step. Okay, great. Where is the button to do that?

Eventbrite_-refund

(click to enlarge). This is the page you see when you want to refund an order on Eventbrite. Question: Should you click on the big green square or the big grey square? Answer: It turns out you click on the little tiny blue words.

NYHX___Individual___Families__

Here's the page you see to log on to a New York State site. Question: Should you log in by clicking the big green button under the box you just filled in, or the smaller blue button across the page? It turns out that the green button (green for go) actually makes you start over.

Suddenly, everyone who builds a website is in the business of making tools, and it turns out that we're not very good at making tools, especially when there's a committee involved. It takes work and focus to create a useful tool, it's more difficult than writing a memo...

Simple question with a simple answer: What do you want me to do now?

And here's why it matters: Tech is expensive. Tech is hard to change. Changing tech has all sorts of side effects and repercussions. 

Language, on the other hand, can be changed on a whiteboard. Language is at the heart of communication, and the only purpose of a website is to communicate.

Get the language right first (and the colors). Tech isn't going to fix your problem, communication is.

       

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duminică, 15 februarie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Greek Negotiations and Philosophical Questions

Posted: 15 Feb 2015 06:42 PM PST

Three interesting philosophical questions have arisen this evening in regards to Greek negotiations.

The three questions I ask at the bottom of this post are based on statements made by a global foreign exchange strategy chief at UniCredit bank and two negotiation demands by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

I highlighted in red and italics the source of my questions. Stop at the questions and think about your answers before reading further. 

 Greece Rift Wider Than Expected

As an 11th hour meeting between Greece and creditors takes place on Monday. But a larger than expected Gap Still Yawns Between the Parties.
Weekend talks uncovered a bigger-than-expected gap between the two sides, setting up a difficult stand-off between Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, and his eurozone counterparts when they meet on Monday night.

Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, is determined that Athens should stick to its rescue programme as a condition of further financial assistance. Dogged resistance to such demands from Alexis Tsipras, Greece's prime minister, has seen his poll standing soar at home, with thousands taking to the streets on Sunday in a support rally.

Panagiotis Lafazanis, leader of Syriza's far-left faction, adopted a less-emollient tone, saying he would not allow his party's economic plans to be "chopped up, subdivided or split into good and bad".

"If our so-called partners insist on an extension of the current programme in one form or another — the sinful memorandum — there won't be an agreement," he said on Sunday.

Germany wants Greece to stay in the eurozone, but not at any price. "If we go deeper into the [debt] discount debate, there will be no more reforms in Europe," said a senior German official. "There will be joyful celebrations in the Elysée and probably in Rome, too, if we go down this path."

Ahead of Monday's meeting, Vasileios Gkionakis, global foreign exchange strategy chief at UniCredit bank, wrote to clients: "I think it is fair to say that . . . the irresistible force will be meeting the immovable object."

Germany and other creditors have agreed that the three organisations supervising the bailout programme — the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank — will no longer be called "the troika", in a nod to Greek demands. But Berlin insists the same bodies will continue as Greece's watchdog, even if renamed "the institutions".

Berlin is also open to easing Greece's fiscal straitjacket. Athens wants a reduction in the proposed fiscal surplus from 4.5 per cent to around 1.5 per cent. In Berlin's view, around 3 per cent might be possible.
"Dignity Not Negotiable"

Reuters reports Greece, Confident Sticks to No-Austerity Pledge
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Germany's Stern magazine that Athens needed time to implement its reforms and shake off the mismanagement of the past.

"I expect difficult negotiations; nevertheless I am full of confidence," he said. "I promise you: Greece will then, in six months' time, be a completely different country."

"The irresistible force will be meeting the immovable object," Vasileios Gkionakis, head of global FX strategy at UniCredit, wrote in a note.

Greek government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis showed no sign that Greece was backing off on its core demand.

"The Greek government is determined to stick to its commitment towards the public ... and not continue a program that has the characteristics of the previous bailout agreement," he told Greece's Skai television.

He later said: "The Greek people have made it clear that their dignity is non-negotiable. We are continuing the negotiations with the popular mandate in our hearts and in our minds."

Some of the problems facing the Eurogroup are semantic. The Greeks, for example, will not countenance anything that smacks of an "extension" to the old bailout, preferring something new called a "bridge" agreement.

Wave of Anger

This is political. Tsipras rode into power on a wave of anti-austerity and anti-bailout anger last month and would have a hard time explaining a row-back so soon. Thousands of Greeks massed outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to back his strategy.

But even a cosmetic change of labels could have practical consequences. An "extension" may not require many national ratifications unless it involves additional financial commitments from euro zone governments.

Any new bailout program, on the other hand, might require several national parliamentary ratifications and could also bring Germany's Constitutional Court into play.
Crunch Time and Domestic Rallies

Bloomberg reports Greece Faces Crunch Talks After Show of Domestic Support
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis leads a Greek government delegation back to Brussels Monday buoyed by a demonstration of support in front of Parliament in central Athens the previous evening that police put at more than 20,000 people. His goal is to secure a bridge accord that allows Greece the time and financial space to negotiate a post-bailout era.

"The stakes are high, but I doubt tonight is much more than theatrics," Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said in an e-mail. "The real showdown will come much later."

While fellow euro-area countries will "of course" discuss Greece's debt levels, "it is out of the question to cancel the debt, we can discuss its maturity," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, told Europe 1 radio Sunday.

While Tsipras's Syriza-led government has no natural political allies around the table on Monday, his support at home remains solid. Sixty-one percent of 1,015 Greek people polled by Kapa Research for To Vima newspaper this weekend said they approved of the government's approach.
Philosophical Questions 

  1. Does "Troika" by any other name stink as bad?
  2. Is there any meaningful difference between "bridge" and "extension"?
  3. What happens when "the irresistible force meets the immovable object"?

Think carefully especially about question number three before reading further. There is a correct answer to question number three that will likely surprise some.

Philosophical Answers

  1. Beauty is in the nose of the beholder. But logically, the answer is yes. 
  2. No. 
  3. The question is ridiculous. In fact, it's impossible. By definition if there is such a thing as an "irresistible force" then by definition, there cannot be an "immovable object". Likewise, if there exists an "immovable object" then by definition there cannot be a an "irresistible force". 
The "irresistible force vs.  immovable object" analogy by Vasileios Gkionakis,  head of global FX strategy at UniCredit, is logically ridiculous.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Creating Incentives to Reduce Healthcare Costs; Medical Tourism Can Save Us All Money

Posted: 15 Feb 2015 09:55 AM PST

An Opinion article in the Washington Post by John R. Graham explains How Domestic Medical Tourism Could Save Us All Money.
One of the most under-reported medical success stories in recent years has been the increase in medical tourism: traveling abroad to get high-quality care at a fraction of what it would cost in the United States.

The same Lasik eye surgery that might cost $4,400 here (for both eyes) is available in India, for example, for $500, according to the Medical Tourism Association. A heart-valve replacement that might cost $170,000 in the United States could cost less than $30,000 in Israel.

While going overseas for care isn't for most people, it certainly should make us wonder why we don't encourage Americans, especially Medicare recipients whose bills are largely paid by taxpayers, to at least shop around in their own states or communities.

The best way to slow this growth is not by putting the squeeze on Medicare beneficiaries, as well as drug companies, hospitals and other providers — as President Obama's $4 trillion budget plan would do — or by creating new bureaucratic barriers to care, but by providing Medicare recipients with incentives to seek the best care for the best price. And you do that by allowing them to share in the gains from reducing costs.
Creating Incentives

Graham proposes that instead of Medicare doing competitive bidding, let medicare recipients shop for services then reward them by adding a portion of the savings to their monthly Social Security deposits.

I suggest that if people are healthy enough to travel, they should be required to get a heart valve operation done in Israel for $30,000 rather than $170,000 here.

And there is no reason to stop at Medicare. Insurers could easily offer reduced-rate plans at less cost for those willing to travel abroad.

Right now, there are virtually no incentives anywhere in the system for people to lower costs. Put incentives in to lower costs, and costs will come down.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com