I noticed a few WordPress blogs I visit were running slowly (problem is, if you mention it to any of those bloggers, "Lady Java" comes to mind, they interpret your comment as a personal attack)... WordPress suspects the DDOS attack was aimed at one of their non-English blogs, and didn’t identify the blog.

The offensive against the planet's biggest blogging platform involved tens of millions of packets per second and lasted for about two hours, according to a statement on parent company Automattic's status page. The size and scope of the strike indicates that it was launched by a major botnet.

Some users said WP had been running unusually slowly for as long as three days.

WordPress parent company Automattic is warning customers that the attack could resume at any time.

This is BIG important news, as CNN, Techrunch and Microsoft’s Windows Live blogs all run on WP and could experience a recurrence of the collapse at any time.

I wonder: could this be a "test run" to see if the internet could be disabled in selective parts by nations where political turmoil breaks out? We know already that Egyptians credit social network Facebook with the changes that have taken place across North Africa.

Somewhat Related:

Gathering to Celebrate Internet Access in Cambodia

Several sources from Twitter confirm that Google SSL has been interfered by the Great Fire Wall in China. Access to Gmail, GTalk and Google Reader becomes extremely slow. Google's server in Korea (74.125.153.113) is blocked 20-29 mins and 50-59 mins in every hour.

Tags: WordPress, WordPress DDOS

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Although I haven't been well the last few days, I didn't feel like sitting around the house or calling in sick to work, especially with President Bill Clinton scheduled to speak in Albany. You can barely see him in this fuzzy cellphone pic I snapped from the media area. (Hover and click on the pic for higher res shots taken by University photographer Mark Schmidt) Those up-close pix you see on TV and in the papers were taken from the same spot, by reporters and camera operators armed with telescopic lenses!


Wednesday night was very cold, with a icy wind and a touch of snow in the air as I headed out to the University campus. Although I arrived before the 7pm media check-in time, I parked what seemed like miles from the SEFCU arena. (Getting OUT of the parking lot later was tantamount to a 'Keystone Kops' episode. Authorities looped traffic around and back in a confusing fashion instead of allowing what should have been a relatively normal but bumper-to-bumper flow. It wasn't too bad for me, but many other drivers were frustrated!)

It is difficult when you have a prolific speaker like President Clinton to go through minutes and minutes of recorded audio and pick out highlights when the entire speech is in itself a highlight. I could have filled 20 minutes, but squeezed what I could into 4 and a half. Albany County Executive Mike Breslin was among regional officials attending the Clinton speech, which he called "an amazingly optimistic approach to where we are in the world today." And indeed it was. The spark of optimism burned thru each and every person who had sat in that auditorium as they made their way into the cold night. The words of change and hope for the future will stick in everyone's memory, I'm sure.

The Times Union mentioned one of the topics I had to pass on: the volatile situation in the Arab world right now. Clinton said he was concerned about Middle East because people try to hijack every revolution. He said democracy could flourish in those countries and praised the young people for risking their lives to bring it about peaceably. He closed the topic with a "wait and see" flavor applied... had the media been granted access to the President, I'm certain that would have been one of the items Mr. Clinton would have been asked a zillion questions about.

A 2010 Wall Street Journal/NBC news poll determined Clinton is regarded as the most popular politician in the United States.

PS - if anyone finds a "Bill Clinton UAlbany Transcript" link, please drop it in the "comments" area below! THANKS!

Tags: Bill Clinton at UAlbany, President Bill Clinton

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Libya Supply Disruption Could Push Oil to $130... where's Jed Clampett when you need him?

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a potential presidential contender, accused the Obama administration Wednesday of favoring a run-up in gas prices. Politico blog offers a counterargument: that Barack Obama is repeating Jimmy Carter's energy policy mistakes.

Whenever gasoline prices go up up up... elected officials in the U.S. start calling for the President (whoever that may be) to tap into the National "energy reserve" [The reserve, created after the 1973 Arab oil embargo to protect against oil supply interruptions, holds 727 million barrels of government-owned crude oil in salt caverns near the Gulf Coast. While running for the presidency in 2008, Obama was among the lawmakers calling for the government to draw on the reserve. So far, the White House has been noncommittal, with Press Secretary Jay Carney telling reporters that all options are open.(LINK)]: Latest politician to grandstand on this - Kirsten Gillibrand!

Washington, DC – With gas prices rapidly increasing due to turmoil in the Middle East, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is urging President Obama to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). In the last year, gas prices in New York State have increased by 25 percent. This action would immediately stabilize gasoline prices which, according to the Energy Information Administration, were higher last month than in any February on record.

“Gasoline prices are at an all time high this month and are up $0.71 per gallon from a year ago,” Senator Gillibrand said. “Our families are already struggling in this difficult economy, and the last thing we need is rising gas prices. Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is critical to relieve this extra burden on our families here in New York and across the country.”

How to have Gas at $1.50 per Gallon and do good for the Environment and our Health too...
Do what China is doing, which is to operate all the Top energy companies on Nationalize basis. As a result of which Chinese Government subsidies the price of Gas so that Chinese pay MAXIMUM of $1.50 per Gallon. This would be the same as if US Government Nationalized Exxon, Chevron, Texaco, etc. and took the $100s of Billions of Dollars in profit that these companies make per Year, and their $30Mill per year salaries and multiple $50Mill private Jets for their top brass, and passed these SAVINGS to American people/businesses by subsiding Gas to be $1.50 per Gallon. ~ contributed by No2RepublicanConJob

Gas prices have climbed more than 50 cents per gallon over the past 12 months and are now above the $3 mark. These prices are putting a significant dent in the budgets of middle class families across the country. The price of oil has risen over $10 per barrel in the last month, a price that would cost Americans an additional $40 billion annually, according to the Petroleum Marketers Association of America. Source: Gillibrand Press Office

In a letter to the President, Senator Gillibrand wrote, “The current price spike couldn’t have come at a worse time. When gas prices last peaked in July 2008, unemployment was 5.8%. Now, unemployment has been at or above 9% for 21 months. The Consumer Price Index increased 1.5% for all items in 2010, but for gasoline, the increase was 13.8%.”

Geoffrey Styles is Managing Director of GSW Strategy Group, LLC. He bloggeth this: "even if the current crisis in Libya and the Middle East resolves itself quickly and without further impact on world oil supplies, it provides another unwelcome reminder that we live in a world in which the President and other world leaders might need to call on our strategic oil inventories on very short notice to prevent a catastrophic breakdown of the economy."

Tags: peak oil, Gasoline Prices

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Simple yet effective!

If you pay attention to your visitor traffic, and you've been blogging for a few years, you will notice (as I did) that out of hundreds of posts you may upload in your little blog's lifetime, there will be a small handful that continue to attract hits without fail, every single day.

These 3 posts account for 10% of my daily traffic:

• Beyonce's wig tape
• Muslima doll FULLA
• 7 Ways To Get Your Blog Noticed!

You already know that when you post on a current topic (and you get your blog title "just right") you'll get a spike in traffic. But how to draw visitors in AFTER the spike?

Start by breaking your original article into two parts. I was delighted when I wrote "Mubarak You Have Ugly Face," but I wanted to stretch its life and SEO while attracting distinctly different academic and media-colleague streams of visitors via the division post titled "The Internet as a Liberator.

To recap: I divided the post into two, then edited each article so that either one could be stacked on the other to make a complete, sensible story. The posts can stand alone or together! Each links to the other via the link "Continued" at the footer!

Next, Go for the "digital jugular" ---

The third article in the series is titled "#Egypt #Jan25 Collaborate.Participate.Connect " - the hashtags are included because I subscribe to a service that auto-tweets my blog's headlines to twitter... many individuals and services seek out tweets based on hashtags! This post has a footer link that simply says "Previously."

So I have effectively QUADRUPLED the "reach" of three distinct posts by linking uniquely titled entries together and adding "hot" hashtags!

Try it, and let me know how it works for YOU!

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Attention, stalkers!
Find out what somebody else is doing!

• Pinpoint someone's location on a map using the CREEPY app!
• Find Friends With Your Cell Phone's Radio Signal (ToothTag technology)!
• Break-up Notifier lets users select the friends whose love lives they want to monitor and, whenever they change their relationship status on Facebook, it sends an e-mail! Wow!
• WaitingRoom lets users "wait" on Facebook friends who are already in relationships. (Step in and take over at the first hint of romantic troubles!)

Here's the link!

Tags: Breakup Notifier, facebook stalker

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Many EC network affiliates upload a "top droppers" post. Nice. But more importantly: what blogs that I exchange EC credits for advertsing with give me the most bang? Here they are! (*HINT* - you may want to advertise on these sites!)

"This table lists the sites who provided the most clicks over the last 30 days via adverts you ran on their widget. High numbers are good, suggesting that you received many visitors interested in your card, and therefore that the site you bought the advert from did a good job of placing the widget to attract attention."

kimmysharinglight	57
eastcoastlife	54
The Twitterer	52
Confessions of a Fitness Diva	42
Earn cash Online	32
Learn Affiliate Marketing	29
..::AdGitizeR::..	19

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I should like to ask His Excellency: what does the seal of Michael the Archangel look like, how is the seal to be used, and where can one be obtained? Thank you, and God bless you. In Christ, Theodore.

The seal that appears below is carried for protection, and is used by exorcists when engaged in confronting demons. Like all symbols of this kind, its potency lies in the symbol being blessed in the correct manner and, most important of all, the strength of faith held by the person carrying it. Authentic seals are not easily obtainable, and suppliers of esoterica are not to be recommended. Try a traditional Catholic source, and have only a traditionalist priest bless it.

Seal of St Michael

Sigil of St Michael

Sigil of St Michael

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