Bed Bath And Beyond Coupon  

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If you are like me then you like to save money. If I can find coupons ways to save money I am going to jump on it. Now I found out that one of my favorite stores is offering discounts. You can get your own Bed Bath and Beyond coupon.
The Bed Bath and Beyond coupon is for 20%. They say that it is for anything in the store. What I really like is it’s not supposed to expire either. What are you going to use your 20% Bed Bath and Beyond coupon for?
To get this coupon all you have to do is subscribe to their news letter. This is easy to do and you will receive news of sales and new products to your email. If you do not want the emails you can stop them at anytime by clicking unsubscribe. Either way you still get the printable Bed Bath and Beyond coupon.

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How to effectively manage your social media time  

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Anyone who has dabbled in social networking knows how easy it is to lose track of time while chatting on Facebook, brainstorming tweets, updating your LinkedIn profile or obsessively checking visitor statistics.

These seemingly innocuous activities can quickly become addictive and can distract you from running your business. And that’s not what you want to happen, particularly if your goal for using social media tools is to build business.

Unless you are one of those rare individuals who has a reliable internal time clock coupled with a high degree of self-discipline, you’ll need to carefully monitor your social networking time.

First, you must become aware of exactly how much time per week you spend social networking. In her book, “168 Hours,” Laura Vanderkam suggests writing down what you do every hour of the day for a full week. “Think of yourself as an attorney billing your time to different projects,” she writes.

After you’ve documented your 168-hour week, categorize your activities. Record how much time you spent working, commuting, interacting with your family, sleeping, watching TV, showering, exercising and checking your Facebook page.

Then ask yourself: Do these numbers reflect the number of hours I’d like to “bill” to these activities?

If your 168-hour chart reveals that you’ve been “billing” too many hours to social media, you need to reprioritize and reorganize your social networking time. Consider bookending your workday with social media, updating your accounts for 15 minutes at the beginning of the day and another 15 minutes at the end.

As an alternative, reserve a specific chunk of the workday for social networking and blogging.

Or spend five minutes, four times per day interacting with friends and fans online. Keep in mind that this method, while enticing, is difficult to maintain because five minutes can quickly morph into 10, and then 20 minutes.

I recommend choosing one method and testing it for three weeks. And because I know you’ll feel tempted to cheat, I am requiring you to set a timer. If you plan a 15-minute social networking chunk, set a timer for 15 minutes. When it dings, you’re done. Period. No excuses.

You can set the alarm or countdown timer on your cell phone or use a kitchen timer or a Web-based egg timer, but it has to be something that dings, beeps, honks or otherwise makes an obnoxious noise to alert you that time’s up.

I use two free Web-based timers: e.ggtimer.com and online-stopwatch.com. With e.ggtimer.com, I type in the number of hours, minutes and seconds and click “Go!” The timer immediately begins counting down. When it reaches zero, it makes an irritating high-pitched hospital heart monitor beep-beep, beep-beep. Impossible to ignore.

Online-stopwatch.com works in a similar fashion. Select the countdown feature, set the time and click “Start.” When time runs out, a jangling alarm clock startles you out of your skin. Again, impossible to ignore.

If you have a mean streak and want to drive others in your office bonkers, you can customize the alarm so it sounds like an air raid siren, a submarine dive horn or a horse race bugle call.

As a less intrusive alternative, you can make the alarm sound like an audience applauding appreciatively. Consider it a reward for successfully concluding your social media session.

Whichever method you choose, commit to using it consistently. Serving as your own gatekeeper will help you use social media tools productively. And over time, strategic use of social media tools may give your business a competitive advantage.

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T1 Quad SIM Four Standby Unlocked Quad Band Phone with TV WIFI and JAVA  

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As an experienced China mobile wholesale, umibuy.com launched a brand new T1 Unlocked Quad Band Phone Four SIM Four Standby with TV WIFI and JAVA after the Chinese New Year.
Online PR News – 11-February-2011 –After a long Spring Festival holiday, umibuy.com continues to provide good service to the old and new customers. Customers can go on online shopping the latest and coolest China consumer electronics.
As an experienced China mobile wholesale (http://www.umibuy.com), umibuy.com launched a brand new T1 Unlocked Quad Band Phone Four SIM Four Standby with TV WIFI and JAVA after the Chinese New Year. This T1 Phone has function like Camera. Image viewer, video recorder, video player, audio player, imichat, slide show, FM, sound recorder and so on
The most attractive feature of the new phone is four sim four standby functions. Break traditional single sim single standby, dual sim dual standby and even tri sim tri standby, the phone supports four sim four standby function. It is really cool to insert 4 sim cards according to the personal needs; it is especially convenient to the business men. It will help them have a clear mobile life.
The cool phone also supports analog TV function. It supports PAL/NTSC color TV. The operation is just like FM radio, users just need to set the location and search; no need to be charged extra fee, users can watch as many as wonderful TV programs of the local channel.
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The T1 phone also has smart G-sensor. It is interesting to shake to change themes, songs, channels, etc. There is no need to press many keys. The operation is easy and convenient.

In addition to the above main functions, the cheap unlocked phone also supports Email, msn, facebook, ebuddy, google map, twitter, yahoo, task, calendar, world clock, calculator, currency converter, stopwatch, health, ebook reader, imichat, slide show, etc.
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If users want to take photo, the T1 phone is a great partner, too. It equipped with high definition dual camera. Dual camera is a fashion feature which can meet the demand of self-capturing.
Except this new cool phone, umibuy.com also publishes another wide selection of China mobile phones. Most importantly, Umibuy.com never ends up paying attention to reliability. Abiding by the "Reliability First", Umibuy.com is always striving for provide customers the first class and safe shopping experience. There are no fake and defective products, no fraud transactions, and no inobservant policies.

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Cardinals undersold Pujols with offer  

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Although the Albert Pujols negotiations have weighed heavily on our minds for much of the past week -- and probably longer for Cardinals fans -- it was impossible to analyze them because we just didn't know what was going on behind closed doors. Well, thanks to Ken Rosenthal's reports and ESPN's Karl Ravech, it looks like we know why a deal didn't get done. Rosenthal tweets that, according to a source, the Cardinals offer would only give Pujols the 10th highest salary in the game, somewhere around $19-21 million dollars per season.

Albert Pujols
Greg Fiume/Getty ImagesSt. Louis was reportedly offering Albert Pujols around $20 million a season.
The Cardinals had to know there was no chance that Albert would sign that offer. People are asking questions like“Is Albert Pujols Worth $40 Million Per Season?” and “Is Albert Pujols Worth 300 Million?", not whether he would sign for $20 million per year. Looking at some hard numbers, Gas House Graphs, an excellent Cardinals blog, comes up with a 10-year value for Albert at $260 million with some help from saberist wonder Tom Tango.

Using Rosenthal's numbers, we get a contract offer from the Cardinals of eight years and $168 million, nine years and $189 million, or 10 years and $210 million. By the Gas House Graphs numbers, the Cardinals are underselling Pujols by some $50 million even if they actually went out to 10 years, a length which the Cardinals seemed reluctant to offer.

It's certainly understandable that the Cardinals haven't come out and offered Pujols the fabled $300 million contract or some other such big deal. Although Pujols’ on-field value is currently untouched by any other player, that doesn't mean the Cardinals should simply empty the coffers in front of Pujols. After all, this is a business.

However, it's obvious that the team is in better shape with Albert on the team. The only way that they remain contenders, at least in the short-term, is with Albert on the team. Thenewly-released PECOTA projections have Albert worth 7.7 WARP -- wins above replacement player. The next best position player? Ryan Braun, at 4.9 WARP. Pujols so outclasses the rest of his position player colleagues that he is nearly three full wins over No. 2.

The Cardinals had a huge asset in their exclusivity to negotiate with Pujols. They could have been able to reach a deal with the superstar for under his market value, and any contract with Pujols will almost certainly offer huge surpluses in the first few years of the deal. The offer that they made, however, had no chance of ever being accepted, and I find it hard to believe that Cardinals management didn't know that fact themselves.

It's not over for St. Louis, though. They'll get another chance, even if it has to wait until after the season, assuming that the deadline set by Pujols actually means anything. If they want to get anything done with their superstar on the second go-round, they'll need to actually acknowledge his value. The Cardinals found out that their reportedly discounted offers just aren't going to fly. We'll see in about eight months if the Cardinals will open up the checkbook and pay Pujols what he's worth.

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Winter Ave Zoli to Appear on Playboy's March Cover  

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Actress Winter Ave Zoli arrives at the premiere premiere of FX and FOX 21's "Sons Of Anarchy" Season 3 on Aug. 30, 2010, in Hollywood, Calif

"Sons of Anarchy" actress Winter Ave Zoli will appear on the cover of the March issue of Playboy, due on newsstands Friday, according to published reports.
Fox News is reporting that Zoli's cover and nude centerfold spread is accompanied by an article in which the Pennsylvania-born and Czech-trained actress says she doesn't find nudity a problem in her career.
It's not a surprising admission, considering that she has built that career on portraying hookers and X-rated actresses. On the FX series, she plays porn star Lyla.
She has also appeared in the TV series "The Philanthropist" and the TV miniseries "Revelations." Her movie credits include "Hellboy," "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," "The Pagan Queen," and "Psych: 9."

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Gotcha! Ways Banks Burn You With Hidden Fees  

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The recent crackdown on banks initially spurred fears that free checking and free credit cards would go the way of the dinosaurs. That hasn’t happened — yet — but like an air pocket that, when squeezed, pops up somewhere else, banks have found other ways to slap customers with hefty fees — many of them more expensive than a monthly or annual fee would’ve been in the first place.
Epoxydude | Getty Images

It used to be that you had to screw up to get slapped with a bank fee — spending the money before it’s in your account or being late on a payment. But now, customers can do exactly what they’ve been doing for years and still get slammed by fees if they’re not paying attention.
“It’s become more difficult to avoid fees if you’re just sitting still,” said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “It’s important to be proactive, not only in monitoring your account and changes you bank may be instituting but also searching out better alternatives,” he said.
Banks behaving badly is such a hot-button issue that one environmental group used it as a marketing gimmick for Valentine’s Day. Green America encouraged customers to dump their bank for a variety of infractions — from “questionable lending practices and outrageous bonuses on the taxpayer’s dime to financial support of environmentally destructive practices to abusive fees.”
The good news is that banks must notify you when they’re making changes to your account, whether it’s a checking account or credit-card account. The bad news is that most of us skim those notices if we read them at all.
“The main thing is, don’t skim!” McBride said. “If they send you out a fee schedule, it’s because things have changed. This is a list of the different charges … think of it like a menu.”
And, if you think you’re safer because you set up electronic payments — think again.
“Electronic transactions are tricky — It’s not at all transparent what the practices are,” said Rebecca Borne, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending. “There seems to be a lot of opportunities for manipulation of the account.”
Here are some of the ways banks are burning customers with hidden fees.
Subtracting Electronic Payments Early. Wachovia customers who pay their bills online were used to having their payments deducted from their accounts and paid to the creditor on the same day. When the bank was taken over byWells Fargo [WFC  33.30    -0.38  (-1.13%)   ], however, many Wachovia customers were surprised to learn that the policy had changed, and the funds were being withdrawn from their accounts two to five days before the payment was due.
So, even those customers who are diligent, scheduling payments after their paycheck is deposited, are now at risk for an unexpected low-balance fee.
The unexpected fees caused such an outcry among former Wachovia customers, that Wells Fargo recently addressed the switch in a blog post: “At Wells Fargo, funds to pay your bills will be withdrawn from your account up to five business days earlier than they were at Wachovia,” the wrote. “With Wachovia BillPay you selected and had a payment sent on a Pay Date. No longer! At Wells Fargo, you enter a Send On date. Funds are removed from your account the next business day after your Send On date.”
Ordering Transactions From High to Low. It used to be that banks posted transactions chronologically — so, the order they came in is the order they are paid out. Now, many are choosing to process the transactions by size — paying out the highest ones first, which increases the customer’s chance of getting snagged by a low-balance fee.
“Today, many large banks reorder transactions and post them from high to low deliberately because they can charge an overdraft fee for every transaction,” Borne said.
So, instead of maybe getting hit with one overdraft fee, the customer now runs the risk of being hit with multiple overdraft fees. The worst part, Borne said, is that bank disclosures about this are often vague. Some will just say “We can post your transactions any which way we like” — without specifying how they were posting them. In fact, Wells Fargo was ordered by a California court to pay their customers $200 million for overdraft fees that resulted from reordering how they post transactions without clearly explaining to customers how they planned to do it ahead of time. When customers wrote a note to complain, that’s when Wells informed them that they were posting the transactions highest to lowest.
“We figure that overdraft fees are costing customers tens of billions of dollars a year,” Borne said. “And we think a significant number of those are the result of this reordering practice.”
Debit-Card Overdraft Fees. The whole purpose of a debit card was supposed to be that it prevented you from spending more than you have. But somewhere in the mid-2000s, Borne says, banks started routinely approving overdraft charges on a debit card and then slapping their customers with an overdraft fee. A few years ago, the Federal Reserve clamped down on this practice and told banks they can’t approve overdraft charges unless the customer consents. That’s when banks started sending out a barrage of “Sign up for overdraft protection or you won’t have a dollar to save your life when you need it” notices.
Those seemed like scare tactics for unnecessary services but Borne said they were quite effective — a lot of customers signed up for overdraft protection.
Citibank [C  4.90    -0.01  (-0.2%)   ] never engaged in the practice of charging overdraft fees on debit cards, Borne said, and Bank of America [BAC  14.84   0.07  (+0.47%)   ] responded very well to the Fed’s new rules, declaring they would no longer charge overdraft fees on debit cards. JPMorgan Chase [JPM 47.94    1.12  (+2.39%)   ] and Wells Fargo continue to charge these fees, she said.
Raising the Minimum Balance Required. While everyone was watching to see if their bank started charging a monthly fee, many banks snuck up on them from behind — raising the minimum required balance to avoid a monthly fee. If you keep the minimum amount in your account — no fee. If your balance falls under that amount, BAM! They slap you with a fee.
The average minimum balance among banks that have a minimum balance requirement jumped 15 percent last year to $3,800 from $3,300 in 2009, according to Bankrate.com.
Returned Mail Fee. It’s important to inform your bank of an address change for your own protection — but it can also cost you if you don’t.
“They could hit you for a fee if you fail to update your address and the mail is returned to them,” McBride said.
And, even when you do change your address — make sure the bank gets it right. One TCF Bank [TCB  16.99    0.16  (+0.95%)   ] customer noted that just before his bank instituted a $3 fee for not having the right address, he found out that when he moved, they had input his address incorrectly.
Unfortunately, bank fees aren’t one of those inflationary items that rises and falls, McBride said. They’re more like the price of postage stamps: The only way to go is up.
The one saving grace for consumers, he said, is that it opens the door to competition, just like we’re seeing in the airline industry where some carriers are setting themselves apart by not charging baggage or other fees.
“Read any correspondence you get from your financial institution,” McBride advised. “Be prepared to vote with your feet and take your business elsewhere.”
The number of banks offering free checking accounts may be on the decline but it’s nowhere near extinct. A recent Bankrate.com survey found that 88 percent of accounts are still free.
Local banks, credit unions and online banks tend to be more likely to offer free checking than their big bank counterparts. Bankrate.com has a tool to help consumers choose a bank in its “Checking and Savings” section. And the Center for Responsible Lending offers a Shopper's Guide to Better Banking.
If you’d prefer to stay with your own bank, he said, ask about their policies for how to get fees waived or reduced.
“[T]he account might still be free if you can jump through a few hoops like direct deposit, using online statements or having other accounts with the same institution,” McBride said.
It’s a good idea to keep a cushion in your account — and make sure it’s enough that you won’t get caught with insufficient funds no matter what trick banks pull. And, spread out transactions to avoid getting caught in any reordering web.
And, while any offer of “protection” from a bank is likely to trigger skepticism, it’s not a bad idea to sign up for overdraft protection if your bank is offering it for free, Borne said.
Bank of America, for example, offers free enrollment in overdraft protection but charges you a $10 “transfer fee” when you do overdraft the account. You might initially be inclined to say “Ah ha! You see? I knew it wasn’t free.” But do the math: Let’s say you paid three bills and the first one triggered an overdraft alarm. If you had overdraft protection, you’d pay $10 even though you overdrew the account three times; If you didn’t, at $35 a pop, that mistake would’ve cost you $105. Ten dollars doesn’t look so bad then, eh?
Now, obviously, it’s never desirable to overdraw your account. But given how many ways banks are trying to trip you up these days, $10 is a small price to pay for not reading the fine print from your bank.
On the back end, some companies are working feverishly to help banks find other ways of filling revenue gaps as an alternative to fee-ing their customers to death.
BillShrink.com recently launched StatementRewards, a program that offers targeted advertising and discounts through a customer’s bank statement. For example, if a customer shops at Safeway [SWY  22.19    0.41  (+1.88%)   ], they might get a coupon for 20 percent off with their bank statement. The merchant, in this case Safeway, would pay the bank a fee for that placement and the customer would get a coupon for a store they already shop at.
“Customers are motivated by rewards. They want to feel like they’re being rewarded or given something of value when they do business with you,” said BillShrink co-founder Samir Kothari. “I think banks are interested in finding other ways to offer that without having to fund it themselves.”
The most important thing for consumers is to remember that in this brave, new world of hidden bank fees — no one is safe.
“It’s easy to think it won’t happen to you,” Borne said. “And then, one day, there’s an oversight and something does happen to you.”

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TheDC Morning: Nir Rosen and Debbie Schlussel do ‘The Creep Read  

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1.) Where’s Rep. Joe Wilson when you need him? — Pres. Obama lied to America’s fat, unemployed face on Tuesday during his budget back-and-forth with Washington’s poor excuse for a press corps. “We will not be adding more to the national debt. It’s — so, to use a — sort of, an analogy that families are familiar with, we’re not going to be running up the credit card anymore,” Obama said, just two days after Office of Management and Budget Pastor Jack Lew told Candy Crowley, “Our budget will get us, over the next several years, to the point where we can look the American people in the eye and say we’re not adding to the debt anymore.” Absent Joe Wilson, who is probably not allowed at these things, Politifact stepped in to provide some clarity. “To extend [Obama's] analogy, this ignores the big credit card debt hanging over you. That debt isn’t shrinking. In fact, the longer you take to pay down that debt, additional interest costs accrue, and the debt grows.” We’ll still be spending money we don’t have, but instead of spending it on things we don’t need, we’ll be using it to pay down interest on the money we shouldn’t have borrowed!
2.) Creepy pundits waste no time politicizing Lara Logan’s sexual assault – Upon hearing the news that CBS correspondent Lara Logan “suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” while reporting in Egypt last week, the entire Internet stopped what it was doing to honor Logan’s commitment to journalism. Everyone, that is, except for New York University research fellow Nir Rosen and pundit Debbie Schlussel. “Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal,” Rosen tweeted, referring to Logan’s defense of Gen. Stanley McCrystal in the wake of a Rolling Stone profile that cost the general his job. Rosen, a liberal, followed with: “Yes yes its wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don’t support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson [Cooper] too.” The conservative Schlussel, meanwhile, captioned a picture of Logan surrounded by Egyptian protestors, “Islam Fan Lara Logan Gets a Taste of Islam,” and concluded her rant by writing, “How fitting that Lara Logan was ‘liberated’ by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the ‘liberation.’”
3.) Obamacare gives birth to a division of pencil pushers — “The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama’s healthcare reforms,” reports U.S. News and World Report. “Among the new corps will be 81 workers assigned to make sure tanning salons pay a new 10 percent excise tax. Their cost: $11.5 million.”
4.) Darrell Issa was concerned about MMS before being concerned about MMS was cool– It didn’t take a massive explosion, several dead rig workers, and many months of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for Rep. Darrell Issa to turn a critical eye to the way the Minerals Management Service was managed, a point the congressman has already made in light of a report by the GAO alleging poor management by the Interior Department. Issa has “tracked concerns with MMS since leading an investigation into the troubled agency’s affairs as an Oversight subcommittee chairman in 2006,” according to the Washington Post. “Then, in Oct. 2009 — six months before the Gulf Coast oil spill — Issa proposed separating MMS from the Interior Department,” because the agency could “benefit from a divorce” from the Interior Department, “and separating it would force lawmakers to track it more closely.” Issa took a moment to gloat last night on his Twitter feed. We can hardly blame him for crowing, what with the Clinton machine attempting to knee-cap him.
5.) Life for Fannie and Freddie execs about to get worse — “Texas Representative Randy Neugebauer on Tuesday said he would bring Fannie Mae chief executive Michael Williams and Freddie Mac chief executive Ed Haldeman before his House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations” to talk salary, reports Reuters. More specifically, Williams’ and Haldeman’s $6 million salaries. Acting FHFA Director Edward DeMarco borrowed a page out of Wall Street when asked about the two men’s princely pay, claiming “his agency aims to protect taxpayers by making sure the firms have executives with the technical expertise to oversee more than $5 trillion in assets traded in global financial markets.” Such expertise led us into a horrible financial crisis. Perhaps DeMarco thinks it can lead us out? [Cue laugh track.]
6.) Genachowski will explain why he needed to regulate the Internet today– In a House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee hearing on net neutrality today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowksi will “argue the FCC’s net neutrality framework is a ‘light touch’ approach that creates jobs and promotes competition among private firms without stifling innovation,” reports The Hill. The chairman will not, however, “address the question of legal jurisdiction in his remarks.” Reps. Greg Walden and Marsha Blackburn will probably ask Genachowski to give it a go anyway.

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Cardinals made low-ball offer to Albert Pujols  

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Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com has the first report on St. Louis’ final offer that Albert Pujolsturned down and … well, it’s pretty shocking.
According to Rosenthal the Cardinals wouldn’t go to 10 years and proposed an annual salary that would make Pujols somewhere around the 10th-highest paid player in baseball.
That’s great money of course–Rosenthal speculates that the average annual value was between $19 million and $21 million–but when you offer the best player in baseball the 10th-highest salary in baseball you’re basically asking him to reject it.
Last spring Ryan Howard inked a five-year, $125 million extension with the Phillies and two offseasons ago the Yankees signed Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180 million deal as a free agent. Those deals pay $25 million and $22.5 million per season respectively, and there’s absolutely zero reason for Pujols to accept a contract that pays him less per season than two excellent but clearly inferior players at the same position.
And that’s without even bringing Joe Mauer‘s eight-year, $184 million deal with the Twins or Alex Rodriguez‘s ten-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees into the discussion. Heck, both Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez snagged contracts that paid $20 million per season a decade ago. Pujols giving the Cardinals some sort of “hometown discount” would be one thing, but for the best player in baseball to accept the third- or maybe even fourth-highest annual salary at his own position is well beyond any notion of loyalty.
Assuming that Rosenthal’s report is correct, it’s awfully tough to blame Pujols for turning St. Louis down and it’s awfully easy to wonder what the Cardinals are thinking.

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Natalie Munroe Blog a Firing Offense?  

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Pennsylvania teacher Natalie Munroe is standing by her blog.

In an ABC News interview, Munroe defended herself for writing harsh comments about her Bucks County high school students and posting them on the Internet, saying she hopes her criticism of student performance will "start a conversation that needs to be had."

Munroe has been suspended with pay, and if her district takes further action, her attorney says he plans to contest it on First Amendment grounds.

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Will you be the next $1 Million Winner?  

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                      \Will you be the next $1 Million Winner? Just enter your email address and name



                 

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Armed with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Students Turn the University of Puerto Rico on Its Head  

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The same day that Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former president, stepped down, the embattled president of the University of Puerto Rico, José Ramón de la Torre, submitted his resignation. 
There was a world of difference between the two, but in their fall, one striking similarity: The embattled administrations of Mubarak and de la Torre succumbed to grassroots movements that, however different in scale, were organized by young people who used social media as a weapon. 
Hours before de la Torre's resignation became official – and prior to officials' denials to the contrary – the news hit the Facebook fan page page of Estudiantes de la UPR Informan. 
The 1:11 p.m. post on Friday spread like wildfire, quickly tallying 500 "likes" and dozens of comments in a matter of two hours.
"Thank God," one of the comments read in Spanish, "a new dawn for our University!"

“You saw this with the disputed Iranian election, with Egypt,” said Wasim Ahmad online journalism professor at Stony Brook University. “It’s a way for other points of view to get out there in a more instantaneous fashion.”
UPR students, who for months have protested the university's imposition of an $800 special fee tacked on to tuition and a heavy police presence on campus, have circumvented a lack of U.S. media attention by getting the word out through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Though difficult to quantify the tangible effects of social media on grassroots demonstrations, UPR students have tried to leverage social media tools to disseminate images, video and messages without filters.
Students, alumni and professors, for instance, launched the Estudiantes de la UPR Informan Facebook page in April to counter "UPR Informa," the University of Puerto Rico's official page. 
The protestors' version, a page by students for students, has been a destination for news favorable to the social movement. With more than 32,000 Facebook fans, the page has easily outpaced its official counterpart – which launched first – by 8,000 fans.
On Twitter, students and a community of followers of developments on campus have used three hashtags to relay news stories, pictures of rallies and protests, and a home for the discourse to flow freely. #UPR, #HuelgaUPR and #LuchaUPR are three conversations on Twitter that are all University of Puerto Rico, all the time.
Postings have ranged from a flier for a vigil for UPR ("Bring a black shirt," it reads in part), to sharing an image of a police officer yelling in the face of a female student, to just giving opinions about the latest developments.
Enrique Oropeza, a student reached through Twitter, shared photos he took at a protest last month.
Even celebrities like "Residente," the lead singer and social activist of international band Calle 13 whose real name is René Pérez Joglar, tweeted in Spanish about the struggles of the protestors.

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Pune raises pitch for World Cup victory  

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As the ICC Cricket World Cup fever reaches a crescendo, Pune’s voice will be heard, loud and clear. For, 42-year-old Makrand Patankar, a city crooner, has lent his voice to the chants of support. Patankar was picked by music director Lalit Pandit to sing a new World Cup 2011 theme song—Come on India Dikhado. Though not an official Cup song, it has already started getting air time on television channels as a mood song in the run up to the Cup.
Speaking from Mumbai where a video for the song is being shot, Patankar said, “The song is going to vocalise all that the Indian cricket fans want to say. It’s all about cheering on our national team, about supporting Sachin Tendulkar. We didn’t want to attach ourselves to any sponsor, and the ICC has rules as to which song is chosen as the theme song. We kept it simple and wrote it as a common fan’s song.”
True to this theme, the video will show Indians across all ages and regions calling out to the team to win the cup. The song, written by lyricist Kunwar Juneja, starts with Manzil pe nazar; haathon mein hunar, Hai josh aur junoon; ab aathon peher, Chhakko ki barish hoti hai, Chaunko ka jaljala atta hai...

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Violent protests break out in Libya  

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Clashes reported in eastern city of Benghazi as security forces and government supporters confront demonstrators.

Protesters have clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, reports say.
Demonstrators gathered in the early hours of Wednesday morning in front of police headquarters and chanted slogans against the "corrupt rulers of the country", Al Jazeera's sources said.
Police fired tear gas and violently dispersed protesters, the sources said without providing further details.
The online edition of Libya's privately-owned Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi, said the protesters were armed with petrol bombs and threw stones.
According to the newspaper, 14 people were injured in the clashes, including three demonstrators and 10 security officials.
In a telephone interview with Al Jazeera, Idris Al-Mesmari, a Libyan novelist and writer, said that security officials in civilian clothes came and dispersed protesters by using tear gas, batons and hot water.
Al-Mesmari was arrested hours after the interview, unconfirmed reports say.
'Day of rage' called
Anti-government protesters have also called on citizens to observe Thursday as a "Day of Rage". They are hoping to emulate recent popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia to end Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year-old rule.
The rare protests reportedly began after relatives of those killed in a prison massacre about 15 years ago took to streets. They were joined by scores of other supporters.
Benghazi residents have a history of distrust of Gaddafi
The relatives were said to have been angered by the detention of Fathi Terbil, human rights lawyer and official spokesman of the victims' families, who was arrested by the Libyan security forces, for no apparent reason.
However, Terbil was later released, according to reports.
Twelve-hundred prisoners were killed in the Abu Slim prison massacre on June 29, 1996, after they had objected to their inhumane conditions inside the prison.
Those killed were buried in the prison's courtyard and in mass graves in Tripoli. The families of the victims have been demanding that the culprits be punished.
Mohammed Maree, an Egyptian blogger, said "Gaddafi's regime has not listened to such pleas and continues to treat the Libyan people with lead and fire."
"This is why we announce our solidarity with the Libyan people and the families of the martyrs until the criminals are punished, starting with Muammer and his family."
Libyan state television reported that rallies were taking place all over the country early this morning “in support of the rule of the people by the people”.
Signed statement
A group of prominent Libyans and members of human rights organisations have also demanded the resignation of Gaddafi.
They said that the Libyans have the right to express themselves through peaceful demonstrations without any threat of harassment from the regime.
 
The demands came in a statement signed by 213 personalities from different segments of the Libyan society, including  political activists, lawyers, students, and government officials.
 
Meanwhile, a local human rights activist told Reuters news agency that the authorities have decided to release 110 prisoners jailed for membership of banned organisation, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
The prisoners to be freed on Wednesday, are the last members of the group still being held and will be set free from Tripoli's Abu Salim jail, Mohamed Ternish, chairman of the Libya Human Rights Association said.
Hundreds of alleged members of the group have been freed from jail after it renounced violence last year.

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The Truth About Sane Jaleh’s Murder — Student Protester Was Killed By Direct Shot  

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While Iranian government media claimed that Sane Jaleh, one of those killed during protests on 14 February in Tehran, was a member of the Basij paramilitary forces, a member of the Tahkim-e Vahdat student organization told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Jaleh was not a Basiji. In fact, he told the Campaign, Jaleh was a member of the Tehran Arts University’s Islamic Association, and that he had attended previous demonstrations as well. He told the Campaign that Jaleh was directly shot at while trying to run away from armed plainclothes forces.
“Sane Jaleh, 26, was a member of the Tehran Arts University’s Islamic Association and a member of the General Council of Tahkim-e Vahdat Organization. He supported reformist candidates in the days leading up to the election, and after the election coup, he attended student gatherings inside the Arts University to protest the big fraud and participated in the 14 February demonstration for the same reason. He was a Kurdish, Sunni drama student at the Tehran Arts University,” the Tahkim-e Vahdat member told the Campaign.
Government media published a Basij forces membership card allegedly belonging to Sane Jaleh. “That Basij membership card is not related to the University. Many students become members of the Basij in high school and through mosques. But at the Tehran Arts University, he was a member of the Islamic Students Association. He was present during the Association members’ meeting with Ayatollah Montazeri, and his photographs are available,” the Tahkim-e Vahdatmember told the Campaign.
The Campaign asked the member of Tahkim-e Vahdat about the reasons government media would want to represent Jaleh as a member of the Basij. “Because they want to make a fake announcement through which to hijack this to their advantage. They did the same thing with Mostafa Ghanian before. It turned out later that he was not a Basiji and that he objected to the election [results],” he replied.
“Sane Jaleh was a resident of the Arts University’s Shahid Rahsaz Dormitories. He was last seen leaving the dormitory at 6:00 p.m., heading for the demonstrations. An unidentified caller contacted his friends at 9:00 p.m. and told them that he has found his cell phone and clothes, asking them to go and pick up the articles. Because the caller was unidentified and the phone call appeared suspicious, Jaleh’s friends did not do anything. But an hour later, a member of the Supreme Leader’s Offices at the university called his friends and informed them that he was killed by a direct bullet. Shortly thereafter, the false statement was made by government media about his membership in the Basij,” the source said about Jaleh’s last hours.
“There are no records available about the murderer, but according to those present at the scene, when it grew dark, plainclothes forces directly shot at people at this location and Sane Jaleh was running away along with other people when he was shot,” he told the Campaign when asked about the murderer’s identity.
“Tomorrow morning, there will be a funeral procession for him at the Arts University. Arts University students and Tahkim-e Vahdat Organization invite the public, and especially the students, to attend this ceremony,” said the student organization source.
“The students are very angry. The green university students throughout the country are planning student gatherings to object to the murder of this member of the Art University Islamic Association and the Tahkim-e Vahdat General Council,” he said about the general mood of the students on campus and in dormitories.
“Over the coming days, there will be widespread gatherings in universities all across Iran,” he concluded.

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Westminster dog show 2011: Scottish deerhound Hickory wins  

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Scottish Deerhound wins Westminster dog show
It's official: History was made when judge Paolo Dondina of Italy awarded the Westminster Kennel Club dog show's coveted Best in Show title to Hickory, a Scottish deerhound, on Tuesday night.
Hickory, a 5-year-old female whose full name is GCH Foxcliffe Hickory Wind (the GCH stands for Grand Champion), is the first Scottish deerhound ever to win Best in Show at Westminster.
She emerged victorious, surprising many, over a field of better-known champions, including four dogs that ranked in the top 10 American show dogs of all breeds last year -- a Pekingese named Malachy, a black cocker spaniel named Beckham, a bearded collie named Mister Baggins and a smooth fox terrier named Adam.
Hickory has an impressive show record of her own: she was ranked fifth among all American show dogs from the Hound group last year. But few thought a Scottish deerhound -- a rather rare breed that is sometimes mistaken for the more famous Irish wolfhound -- would go on to win Best in Show.
Vegas odds-maker Johnny Avello, handicapping the likely winners at Westminster, gave the Scottish deerhound 60-to-1 odds to win.
But Hickory was at the top of her game in her final show before retirement; she "went in there tonight and she showed like she's never shown before," handler Angela Lloyd told the New York Times. "She was solid and steady and even through all of the lights and cameras and the noise and spotlights, she came right through it." 
The shy deerhound's poise will be tested over the coming days; she has many public appearances to make before returning to her home, a farm in Virginia, where her owners hope she'll have a litter of puppies later this year.

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