Supermoon, Why the Moon Looks So Big

When a full moon occurs when it is closest to the earth, it is called a:

Supermoon!

 Photo Credit: Gawker.com

This Saturday, March 19th, the moon will officially be a "full moon" at 2:10PM EST. And, at about the same time, the moon will reach its closest distance to the earth, arriving at 3PM EST. Putting these two events together, this year's Supermoon will appear:

• 14% larger than normal, and
• 30% brighter than usual.

This rare event only happens once every 18 years or so. Since weather forecasts in the eastern U.S. are expected to be clear, we recommend everyone tries to take a break from their normal routines and enjoy the fantastic Supermoon.

Related articles

• Rise of the 'Supermoon': Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years Occurs Saturday Night (space.com)
• What Is a 'SuperMoon'? (abcnews.go.com)
• Do Supermoons Cause Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions (brighthub.com)

Japan Earthquake Spawns Devistating Tsunami

What a difference a day makes. Last night we in the United States went to bed thinking about basketball, baseball, politics, localized flooding and more.  But little did we think of the terror that the residents of Japan would experience due to the effects of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the devistating tsunami that followed.

When man is confronted by nature, nature always wins.

Below are two videos taken in Japan as the tsunami swallows the land. The first shows the tsunami slamming into the coast of northeastern Japan




The second show the raging images from the port city of Kamaishi.



In both instances, notice the power of the water. Cars, boats, and whole buildings are dislodged and carried away as if mere toothpicks in a bathtub.

Our thoughts and prayers to out to all those affected. We pray that the causalities are low, and that most of the damage affects physical items that can be replaced.

How Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Affects the Country

Image by antrover via Flickr

For more than 2 weeks now, Madison Wisconsin has been the focus of heated union protests against Governor Scott Walker's proposal to severely reduce the collective bargaining rights of state workers, and to require the same to pay more towards their health care and retirement costs.

Most of the protesting has concentrated on the collective bargaining provision. It allows the employees to remain unionized, but takes away direct salary negotiation away from the unions.  The state will continue to award the state workers with inflation based increases, but everything above that must be approved by public referendum passed by the voting citizens of Wisconsin.

Well, considering the viewpoints of both the unions and the Governor, it is easy to understand why the stakes are so high.

1. First, from the Governor's side, the State has a budget crisis. It cannot afford to continue to tax the taxpayers for funding state worker salary increases. This action is an attempt to save the State money. It is not denying workers future pay increases, but merely shifting the approval to the voting public.
2. The Unions, on the other hand, cannot afford to lose its powerful control over the workers and the State. If it loses collective bargaining, several things will happen. First, the workers will be less willing to contribute union dues for services that cannot be provided. Next, the union will will obtain less income. This means that they will not be able to fund other causes that they support. But, worse, if they lose collective bargaining in Wisconsin, then other states may follow, and then they will begin so suffer budget shortfalls themselves.
3. According to sources listed below, the Democratic Party will obtain less revenue from the unions. Since the workers get less benefits from the unions, they will pay less. This means that the unions will have less money  to contribute to the Democrats.
4. The Democratic Party will have less influence over the elected politicians. Since the Democratic Party receives large union donations, they can influence legislators decisions. Without collective bargaining, the Party will have a harder time getting what they want.
5. The legislators will have to make their own decisions. If the Democratic Party has less influence over their decisions, the legislators will have to work for the people themselves.
6. From the state worker viewpoint, collective bargaining by the union has been important for them to receive future pay raises. If pay increases are placed in the hands of the voters, they will not be able to count on future income with certainty.
7. The Wisconsin taxpayers have a lot at stake. Currently, they are puppets under the control of the legislature and unions. When these two want to increase worker salaries, the taxpayers have no alternative except to pay. If collective bargaining is removed, then the taxpayers gain more control of the state spending and ultimately their own tax obligations.

Clearly, the decision to remove the collective bargaining ability from the state workers in Wisconsin has national implications. Thus, its not surprising that others outside the State are arguing against its enactment. Consider Democrat Sherrod Brown, the senior US Senator from Ohio who argued for collective bargaining by indicating that Hitler didn't want unions.




Unfortunately, Mr. Brown was wrong about Hitler. Hitler created the German Labour Front, a union that nearly every citizen in Germany had to join in order to work. From this union, Hitler obtained sufficient income to fund his ambitious  plans for conquering the world. Mr. Brown's argument benefits his party and political affiliations. It does not benefit the residents of Wisconsin.

From the above, I understand that many of our political institutions feel threatened by the actions of Governor Walker. However, I believe that the Wisconsin proposal is a State issue, and should be resolved solely by the citizens of that state only. Our states, country and residents are suffering severe economic hardships. To resolve their financial woos, it is the obligation of our elected leaders to become responsible for our spending. In good times, most folks would not care. But, today, we applaud the brave actions of Governor Walker who is trying his best to do a good job.

You can learn more about this topic by reading the references below.

References

• Know the facts: What is collective bargaining?
• There is no right to collective bargaining
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for benefits or pay
• Federal Workers Thrive Without Collective Bargaining
• Wisconsin state government salary
• German Labour Front (Hitlers Union)
  

White House Gone Motown!

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Last night, Michelle and President Barak Obama took a well deserved break from their daily chores of tending to: the unrest in the Middle East, the death of 4 American sailors, two wars, closing Gitmo, moving terrorist trials to New York City, suing Arizona, supporting Gay marriage rights, and more, by hosting "The Motown Sound: In Performance at the White House".

This lavish gala was a tribute to Motown founder Berry Gordy and the early performers who shattered the color barriers of the day and became superstars of our culture. As this year's Black History Month comes to a close, the "Peoples House", as it is now called, was opened to a select audience that included young music students from across the country.

In the video below, First Lady Michelle Obama begins the event by welcoming Smokey Robinson, John Legend, Berry Gordy and others to the White House crowd in attendance.





According to Mail Online the event was held in the East Room and funded by the taxpayers. Included in the diverse set of performers and audience were a variety of previous campaign contributors. The official video of the performance will be aired on March 1st on PBS.

To avoid the harsh conservative criticism that the Obama's Super Bowl party received, last night's menu was not published to the public. However, since yesterday was also National Chili Day, we're sure that varieties of chili were served along with health portions of carrots and celery sticks.

We applaud the First Family for recognizing these early music pioneers at a time the world is in turmoil. It is often important to take a break. We look forward to viewing the edited version of the performance on TV and are pleased to see where our tax dollars are going.

Get More Followers with the BlogFrog

For the past 3 months, I've become more involved with the BlogFrog. This is a social media site that links bloggers together in a number of ways. First, it provides you with the ability to broadcast your blog posts and Twitter tweets to all other members. Second, it gives you the ability to create your own Community and to join communities of others. These are organized by topic, which means that your discussions are targeted to others with similar interests. Third, it helps to bring you traffic by recommending your site to other members.

To me, however, the most important benefit of the BlogFrog is that it provides a free advertising vehicle by which I've gained more Google Friend Connect Followers. Since January 2011, my followers have increased by over 25%. I started the month with 98 followers, and now have 126.

This increase in followers was easy for me to achieve. I log into the site nearly every day and review all of my followers. When I see someone new, I visit their blog and become a Friend Connect follower. Most of these members reciprocate and follow me back.

To help members attract more BlogFrog internal followers, the site suggests a handful of members. I simply click on the "follow buttons" and that's it. Within days, my newly acquired friends become followers of my blog as well.

The BlogFrog was founded by Rustin Banks and Holly Hamann in 2009. I joined shortly after it was launched and have witnessed its explosive growth. Today, the site has thousands of members from all over the country. It's membership base appears to be predominantly based in the United States, which is also my primary target audience.

Compared to Adgitize or CMFads, the BlogFrog community contains a wide range of "affiliate marketing" members. Many are trying to sell something, so having free access to a geographically diverse audience is an important plus. Because the remainder of the membership is female dominated, the entire network is clean and family orientated.

From a technology aspect, the BlogFrog requires a java plug in. It continually displays an updated feed of the latest member posts which helps to spark internal dialogues. However, this capability consumes a great deal of CPU. Navigation between the various sectors is often frustrating because it is slow and often ignored. Therefore, I would only recommend this site to those who have high speed Internet connections which has a lot of bandwidth.

One of the other benefits that the BlogFrog advertises is that it can help monetize your blog. I have yet to experience this benefit and believe it is only offered to the most select of members. Thus, new members should minimize their expectation of receiving any income from them.

On the whole, however, I believe the BlogFrog is an important social networking site that everyone should join. It provides free access to a huge membership base. And, I truly believe that you can get more followers with the BlogFrog.

Related articles

• BlogFrog Launches as Nation's Largest Network of Mom Blogs (prweb.com)
• BlogFrog Takes Leap of Faith with Mom Bloggers (socialtimes.com)

Openness is Key to Establishing Trust Successful Bloggers Learned

Like most novice bloggers, my initial objective of this blog was to simply help fellow bloggers learn how to monetize their newly launched online presence. However, I quickly realized that this type of information was extremely shallow and commonly available.  "Why would anyone follow my advice?" I questioned. To the serious reader, one could take one cursory glance at my early posts and realize that they were primarily filled with affiliate links and written by one without a long term credible reputation. (A common mistake to ruining your reputation).

So early on I decided to expand my reach by discussing things I learned as a website and blog owner. I dropped the "in-post" affiliate links and concentrated on describing my first hand experiences and personal learnings. I talked about new features released in Blogger, other broadcasting tools such as Zemanta, hacking attempts on my site, etc. After a while, I realized that being an experienced author helped to establish and maintain a limited but dedicated following.

More recently, I've begun to include stories of my own personal living experiences as well. I wasn't sure why, but I felt that it was important to interject a personal touch to create a bond with my readership.

Then listening to my favorite radio talk show host, Michael Savage,  this week, I learned why personal stories were important to my blog. It's because:

Openness Creates Trust.

Savage explained that one reason for his radio success is that his listeners trust his opinions and advice. This didn't happen overnight. Instead, it took him 16 years to gain the following he now has.

While his message is primarily political conservatism, he mixes his show with stories of his dog, wife, boat, children, dining and shopping experiences, and more. People trust him because they understand who he is, and he's not a stranger.

Without knowing it, I too began establishing a trustful bond with my readers by sharing some of my Christmas disasters, thoughts about raising children, and political viewpoint. It's not important that readers agree with my message. But, it is important for my readers to understand who I am.

Trust Takes Time

Establishing a trustful dialog with your readers does not occur immediately. Think about the fact that: The internet is full of scam artists who are trying to steal your content, identity, or money. Why should anyone trust a complete stranger?

Whether you are just a beginner or a seasoned veteran in the online world, its important to continually ask yourself:

Why would readers trust my advice?

Once you believe you have the answer, you will find that: Openness was the key to establishing your own online trust.

End of Audi Lease Means Hello Subaru Outback

Image via Wikipedia

Since 1998, we have had three Audi A4's which we used as our primary family car. These were beautiful automobiles with exceptional handling. And, the all-wheel drive feature has been especially important to us living in northeast New Jersey during the winters.

But, like all good things, our lease is about to end in the next two months. While we love these cars, we have decided not to get another one for a variety of reasons.

We purchased our first A4 Avant in 1998. It drove and handled wonderfully. But, after the 4 year warranty ended, we began to experience a number of problems. First, the tires continually wore out. We checked the alignment and balance over and over, but that was rarely a problem. We spoke to other Audi owners and they complained about the same thing. Second, we started to smell a burning odor when inside the car. The dealer said we had to repair the head gasket, so we did. Then, within 3 months, the same odor reappeared. That time, the dealer replaced the head gasket again but it was free of charge. Everything was fine for the next year until the antifreeze warning started going on. We added new antifreeze and within a week, the light appeared again. So we added more fluid. We took it back to the dealer, but they didn't find anything wrong. However, they did agree we were losing fluid somewhere. Finally, they said the antifreeze was leaking into the engine and that would be an expensive repair.

So, that was it. With only 68,000 miles, we decided to turn it in and get a new Audi. But that time, we decided to lease the car. We figured that the lease would be up in 3 and a half years, so any repairs would be covered under warranty. The week before we returned it, we smelled the same burning odor in the car. We knew what that meant and were glad to begin a new lease.

This third Audi will now be going back in a little less that 2 months, but this time we will not replace it with another Audi.  Instead, we want to drive an auto that is maintenance free. This car has less than 24,000 miles. Just last month, I returned home from work and saw a large fluid puddle around the drivers side tire. It didn't smell like oil or antifreeze. So, we had the car towed to the dealer and they found that all the transmission fluid leaked out. Apparently, some gasket broke which caused the problem. Then, three days ago, the drivers side windshield wiper fell apart. Luckily, the warranty covered these repairs.

This current Audi will be returned with a small dent in one of the doors. We were going to have that fixed, but received instructions from Audi stating that any dent less than 2 inches in diameter are considered normal wear and tear and will be free of charge.

Image via Wikipedia

Our next new car will be a Subaru Outback. We owned one of these during the Audi years and had it for 10 years. That car required no maintenance during the 170,000 plus miles that we drove it.



The Outback is 4 wheel drive as well, so we know it will handle well in the snow.  While this car is not as elegant as the Audi, we're looking forward to owning a maintenance free automobile once again.

After all these years, we feel a little sad because the end of this Audi lease means hello Subaru Outback.

Related articles

• Subaru To Give Us 'Confidence In Motion' (ridelust.com)
• Subaru Recalls 2010 Model Year Outback Wagons and Legacy Sedans (ridelust.com)
• Audi launches car assembly in Indonesia (greencarcongress.com)
• Audi Hedges on New Models (wheels.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Subaru Outback (athingforcars.com)