The LuxMob Info Tags

When the crimson sun ends another beautiful day and sets beyond the glistening waters of Bay Ridge where kites fly, joggers jog and lovers gaze beneath the back drop of the glorious Verrazano Bridge, then it’s no wonder why Brooklyn is the star child of New York.

Famous for its humble beginnings, A-list celebrities like Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Marisa Tomei and Tony Danza originated here and when it comes to food, no where on earth will you find better bagels, mozzarella, or pizza. In fact, John Travolta put Brooklyn “on the map” in 1977 when he played the role of a neighborhood ruffian, Tony Manero, ate at Lenny’s Pizza and strutted his way through the streets of Bensonhurst and history when he starred in Saturday Night Fever.

However, in the memorable land of Badda Boom, Fughettabout it, and tough guys are some docile newcomers: the Green Monk (Quaker) Parrots, a.k.a (Myopsitta Monachus) which have inhabited the town’s trees and utility poles. As legend would have it, these beautiful South American decedents destined for sale at local area pet shops escaped (or rumored to have been released) from a shipping crate at Kennedy Airport in 1968 and have brilliantly adapted to harsh NYC winters by nesting near warmer power lines and transformers. Since then the birds have multiplied and appeared in satelite colonies delighting residents throughout the borough. According to parrot www.brooklynparrots.com, the adorable tropical brooklynites are so adaptable in fact, that they’ve developed a taste for pizza!

Neapolitan thin-crust or thick Sicilian, round or square, classic or nouveau, no one makes Americans’ favorite food better than Brooklyn pizzerias. What is it about Brooklyn pizza that attracts tropical birds or anyone for that matter? Perhaps it’s the light, crispy crust in harmony with the freshest possible toppings? Who knows? Parrot Expert, Steve Baldwin tells like this:

“I was walking down Brooklyn’s Bedford Avenue on Friday when I heard a pronounced crunching sound coming from overhead. I looked up, and there in a tree was a pair of wild monk parrots sharing a slice of pizza.

“Eureka!” - I shouted, reaching for my trusty camera, cognizant that I was on the cusp of a new discovery that would forever enlighten scientists studying the fascinating species known as Myiopsitta Monachus. For while it has been known since Charles Darwin studied the monk parrot in the 1830’s that the species is “omnivorous” (meaning that it will eat almost anything, as long as it tastes good), and that bagel-eating among New Jersey wild parrots has been demonstrated in the field (Evans-Fragale, 2004) no actual evidence of pizza-eating among wild parrots has, to my knowledge, existed in the formal literature, until now.”

Despite the neighborhood hospitality and the best pizza in the universe, the birds are moving on. The parrots have relocated and have been spotted setting up nests in the Bronx, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida but haven’t been given such a warm welcome.

While Pizza will always be a staple in Brooklyn and beyond, its a wonderful compliment to be graced with culinary accolades from The Wild Parrots of Brooklyn. The birds add so much to the colorful and cultural palette that exemplifies and comprises Brooklyn neighborhoods and they remind us that the best things in life really are free - even if the pizza is not.

Art imitates life for Brooklyn Author Nancy S. Mure, who created The Pizza Man and the Parrots, illustrated by Tom Torre. The heartwarming and humorous children’s story is about a good natured Pizza Man and the talking birds who prove to be his toughest customers! http://www.nancysmure.com

So let’s begin crunching down these 300 images using Adobe
Photoshop from start to finish. When I say ‘crunching’, to some
300 images may seem like allot, but it’s not. I have done jobs
for clients that have 100,000 plus images. When you have that
many images to produce there are other programs I use that are
designed for this. We’ll cover that another day.

To this point we have ensured that our images are web ready,
cropping, retouching, watermarking, etc. So let’s get at it. I
will assume that we are all using Adobe Photoshop version 6 or
greater.

First we will go to the ‘file’ menu and select ‘Automate” shown
here
http://weprintcolors.com/screens/screen_dw_create_photo_menu.htm
. Now you are ready to create the theme of your photo album by
filling in the required textfields. Remember to be as brief and
descriptive as possible, as this information gets published on
all html pages generated by Photoshop. This is where Photoshop
is seems to offer more that Dreamweaver. You will notice the
first pull down menu ’styles’. There are many different
horizontal and vertical styles available. The second menu allows
you to enter an email address that you may want to be available
to your visitors. However, I advise against it. Remember that
thing called SPAM.

Then next pull down menu allows you to specify .htm or .html
extensions. Now we’ll click the ‘browse’ button and locate your
image source folder. Click the ‘destination’ folder. This folder
should be located somewhere in you website folder. If you don’t
have one, make one. ‘Options’ is, again an area that Adobe seems
far more thorough that Dreamweaver. The ‘options’ menu let’s you
specify every aspect of your photo album…size of small
thumbnails, size of large thumbnails, add custom colors to
better tie into your corporate scheme. Remember to complete the
’site name’, ‘photographer’, textfields tactfully; this is what
tells the search engine what your subject matter deals with.

Are you ready now? Go ahead click OK. Like magic your photo
album manufacturing itself. This is a great tool that can be
used commercially or just for fun. Create commercial product
pages for your clients or create an online photo album for
family and friends in minutes.

Robert

A very busy time begins in the garden as the summer and autumn flowers fade. Although much depends upon the weather, the time is approaching quickly when we must put everything in order for the winter. In my part of the country, Halloween, at the end of the month, usually is heralded in with snow and cold temperatures.

The whole flower garden should be dug over, but it is most important not to injure the hardy plants that will remain. Where there are a lot of these, it is safer to dig with a fork than a spade. A spade is much more likely to cut roots through if it comes across them. This, of course, presupposes you already have a flower bed with easily worked soil. Annual plants may all be pulled up and carted away to the compost bin as they cease to flower.

Remember that many of our hardy perennial plants die down for the winter. Their leaves and stems wither and die. But we must not conclude that the plant is dead just cause the tops die. The roots are very much alive and in the spring beautiful fresh young growth will peep through the soil. This is just a caution for the newbie gardener.

Nature has all sorts of methods to enable her hardy plants to pass the winter safely. Some, like the hardy perennials, are simply going to sleep, in a manner of speaking. Some, like the bulbous plants - the snowdrops, and winter aconites, and others - are waking up, for these sleep during the hot summer months. Some plants remain fresh and green winter and summer alike.

Just as we should have made everything neat and trim for the summer, so during the next few weeks everything should be made neat and tidy for the winter. All dead leaves, stems, etc., should be cleared away, and stakes taken up and stored except where plants still need them.

If our gardens were only made and planted in the spring, our hardy plants will not need dividing. But if they have been around two or three seasons then probably some of them will be better divided. We divide clumps that have grown to a large size because if they throw up too many flowering stems, they will not be well nourished or produce a fine blossom and towards the center the plant will grow poorly.

We should remember that it is good for the future welfare of a plant to replant it in a different spot from where it has been. If we do not need all the pieces we can make of a divided plant, we should replant the strong or outer portions.

About the Author

Sandra is a lover of beautiful things including Flower Gardens. She has created a website for Flower Garden Lovers, and those that love them, with gardening tips, artwork and books on the subject.

What is the attraction and value of these for users and what are retailers and service providers finding them a useful tool as they strive for online sales?

The online retail sector for products and services has been buoyant for a number of years and the level of resource and funding that major retailers dedicate to the online market surges with each turn of the calendar. As the online marketplace has developed, the consumer offerings have become increasingly sophisticated and more reflective of the offline marketplace and traditional marketing. Consumers demand greater choice and shop around for the best deals - the benefit of increased levels of competition. Online comparison sites have developed a niche in recognising and reflecting offline shopping habits and reflecting this in terms of online user search habits.

Indeed the online comparison sites appear to be a making a good fist of it with new research from E-Consultancy revealing that in some industry sectors up to 30% of online sales are referred by shopping or product comparison sites. More and more, online comparison sites are being considered as part of the online marketing mix for retail and service providers and represent the entire business model of a new wave of comparison based reseller and aggregators.

Personal finance is one sector where aggregator and referral sites thrive. The impartial aspect of allowing consumers to compare and contrast a range of services and providers to find the deal that suits them best allows a degree of empowerment on the part of the consumer and offers a distinct competitive advantage for reseller and aggregators. Sites such as http://www.moneynet.co.uk and the http://www.fool.co.uk provide users with information in a simple, no nonsense manner allowing them to select the product or service that suits them and pocketing the referral commission.

Other sites such as http://www.dialaphone.co.uk are more straightforward in their approach to referrals. A bulk reseller, they can display preferential deals from the main mobile phone networks, avoiding the middle man and passing savings on to the consumer. Again, there is an essence of customer freedom involved as the user can compare and contrast various services and offerings before committing to a particular network or package and again the reseller picks up the commission for passing the user on.

With the online marketing model continuing to develop in size, scope and sophistication, the future look bright for online referral, reseller and aggregator sites and these look set to be a continued integral aspect of online marketing.

About the Author:

Michael Hanna is a keen writer, and internet marketer living in Scotland:



Contact details:

E-mail: samqam@googlemail.com

Phone: 0131 561 2251

Michael’s Website: Taxi Belfast