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Written on May 20, 2012 at 1:20 am, by

BEIJING (Reuters) – China allowed a blind legal activist, Chen Guangcheng, to leave a hospital in Beijing on Saturday and board a plane bound for the United States, a move that could signal the end of a diplomatic standoff between the two countries.

Chen’s escape from house arrest in northeastern China last month and subsequent stay in the U.S. embassy caused huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic rift while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing for talks to improve ties between the world’s two biggest economies.

The U.S. State Department said he was en route to the United States, along with his wife and two children. He boarded a United Airlines flight bound for Newark.

China’s Foreign Ministry limited its commentary to an acknowledgement that Chen had left the country.

“Chen Guangcheng is a Chinese citizen. China’s relevant departments have handled the procedures for exiting the country in accordance with the law,” the ministry said in a faxed statement to Reuters.

State news agency Xinhua said earlier that Chen had applied to study in the United States under legal procedures. The Foreign Ministry said this month that Chen could apply to study abroad, a move seen as a way of easing Sino-U.S. tensions on human rights.

Chen’s friend, Jiang Tianyong, cited the activist, one of China’s most prominent dissidents, as saying that he and his family obtained their passports at the airport hours before he was due to board a flight.

“I’m obviously very happy,” Jiang said. “When he boards the plane, he can finally say: ‘I’m free’. At the same time, I feel a sense of regret because such a large country like China can’t even tolerate a citizen like him to exist here.”

There was no immediate indication where Chen might pursue his studies, but New York University’s law school has previously offered him a position as a “visiting scholar”.

A statement by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland struck a conciliatory note, saying Washington was “looking forward” to Chen’s arrival.

“We also express our appreciation for the manner in which we were able to resolve this matter and to support Mr. Chen’s desire to study in the U.S. and pursue his goals,” it said.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration had feared a standoff over Chen’s fate could sour already strained ties with China and generate criticism of Obama’s policies. Beijing has accused Washington of meddling in its affairs in the case.

Chen’s abrupt departure for the airport came nearly three weeks after he arrived at the Chaoyang Hospital from the U.S. embassy, where he had taken refuge after an escape from 19 months under house arrest in his home village.

Chen, 40, who taught himself law, was a leading advocate of the rights defense movement. He gained prominence by campaigning for farmers and disabled citizens and exposing forced abortions.

He was jailed for a little over four years from 2006 on what he and his supporters say were trumped-up charges designed to end his rights advocacy.

He had accused Shandong officials in 2005 of forcing women to have late-term abortions and sterilizations to comply with strict family-planning policies. Authorities moved against him with charges of whipping up a crowd that disrupted traffic and damaged property.

Formally released in 2010, he remained under house arrest in his home village, which officials turned into a fortress of walls, security cameras and guards in plain clothes.

POLICE AT THE AIRPORT

United Airlines flight UA 88 departed around 5.50 p.m. (0950 GMT), with police officers and plainclothes officers following passengers down the mobile corridor leading to the plane’s door.

The cabin crew waited for passengers to take their seats before closing the curtain to the front section, where the business class seats were located, a Reuters witness said.

Chen had earlier told Reuters he was at the airport along with his wife, two children and hospital staff and he believed he would be put on a flight to the United States.

Two police cars were stationed below the walkway to the plane, and about 10 security officials in plainclothes circulated around the airport.

Passengers at the gate to Chen’s flight appeared not to know that he would be on the same flight.

“If our country is a body, his plight is like a sickness that in the future will help the body to protect and strengthen itself,” said Xi Jingwen, who was awaiting to board a flight to the United States, when asked about Chen Guangcheng.

Chen’s confinement, his escape and the furor that ensued have made him part of China’s dissident folklore: a blind prisoner outfoxing Communist Party controls in an echo of the man who stood down an army tank near Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The Chen case comes at a tricky time for China, which is engaged in a leadership change. The carefully choreographed transition has already been knocked out of step by the downfall of ambitious senior Communist Party official Bo Xilai in a scandal linked to the apparent murder of a British businessman.

On a number of occasions in recent years, authorities have relented to diplomatic pressure and allowed high-profile dissidents to leave China, knowing that its most vocal critics are effectively neutralized once they leave and are without support of friends.

At times, Beijing has appeared to use these deals as bargaining chips in broader diplomatic negotiations or to blunt criticism of its human rights record.

Chen’s supporters, however, welcomed his departure, saying he had indicated that he would like to return to China.

“I even told him…that he has to do a repeat of him scaling walls. If not, we wouldn’t be able to believe it,” Nanjing-based activist He Peirong said of her earlier conversation with Chen. She was one of six activists who drove Chen from Shandong to Beijing after his escape.

Phelim Kine, senior Asia researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said “getting Chen Guangcheng and his family on a plane is the easiest part of this saga.

“The harder, longer term part is ensuring his right under international law to return to China when he sees fit,” Kine said in an emailed statement.

Kine urged Western countries to ensure that Chen’s relatives, friends and supporters secured due protection.

The U.S. embassy had earlier thought it had stuck a deal to allow Chen to stay in China without retribution, but that fell apart as Chen grew worried about his family’s safety. He changed his mind about staying and asked to travel to the United States.

Human rights are a big factor in relations between China and the United States, even though Washington needs China’s help on issues such as Iran, North Korea, Sudan and the global economy.

The village of Dongshigu, where Chen’s mother and other relatives remain, is still under lockdown.

Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, was denied his family’s choice of lawyers on Friday to defend a charge of “intentional homicide”, the latest in a series of moves to deny him legal representation, and underscores the hardline stance taken against the blind dissident’s family.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Michael Martina in BEIJING and Arshad Mohammed in WASHINGTON,; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Written on May 19, 2012 at 12:40 pm, by

FILE – In this Nov. 10, 2010 file photo, singer Loretta Lynn poses in the press room during the 44th Annual Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tenn. Newly discovered documents indicate country music legend Loretta Lynn is three years older than she has led people to believe, a change that undermines the story told in “Coal Miner?s Daughter.? (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

An image of the birth certificate of country music legend Loretta Lynn, who was born Loretta Webb, is seen in an image provided by the Kentucky state Office of Vital Statistics. Newly discovered documents indicate country music legend Loretta Lynn is three years older than she has led people to believe, a change that casts shadows on the story told in “Coal Miner?s Daughter.? The birth certificate on file at the state Office of Vital Statistics in Frankfort, Ky., shows that Loretta Webb was born on April 14, 1932, in Johnson County, Kentucky. That makes her 80 years old, not 77, as numerous books and other references claim her to be, based on her widely-accepted birth year of 1935. The record was filed in 1965. (AP Photo/Kentucky state Office of Vital Statistics)

An undated image provided by the Johnson County, Ky., clerk?s office shows Loretta Lynn’s marriage certificate for her marriage to Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. Newly discovered documents indicate country music legend Lynn is three years older than she has led people to believe, a change that casts shadows on the story told in “Coal Miner?s Daughter.? In Lynn’s 1976 bestselling autobiography, she says she was married at 13, moved with her husband to Washington State at 16 and was a mother of four by 18. Lynn was instead married at 15, which was not unusual at that place and time. (AP Photo/Johnson County, Ky., clerk?s office)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? Country music legend Loretta Lynn is three years older than she has led people to believe, an age change that undermines the story she told of being married at 13 in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Lynn’s birth certificate on file at the state Office of Vital Statistics in Frankfort, Ky., shows that Loretta Webb was born on April 14, 1932, in Johnson County, Kentucky. That makes her 80 years old, not 77. Also on file is her marriage license and two affidavits from her mother, Clara Marie Ramey, and S.W. Ward Jr., who was not related to the family, listing the same birthdate.

The records weren’t filed until 1965, which meant that Lynn needed multiple documents to prove her age at that time. Lynn’s signature appears on the document as Loretta Webb Lynn.

Melvin Webb lists his daughter “Loretta” as 7 years old for the 1940 Census, according to a digital copy on file at the Kentucky Historical Society. Lynn’s marriage license, obtained by the AP from the Johnson County clerk’s office lists her as 15 on Jan. 10, 1948.

In “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the autobiography that became an Academy Award-winning film, Lynn told a different story ? that she was married at 13 and was a mother of four by 18. Most books and public references to Lynn list her current age as 77.

When contacted by the AP, Lynn’s spokeswoman, Nancy Russell of Nashville, Tenn., declined comment. She said that Lynn has told her before in no uncertain terms, “If anyone asks how old I am, tell them it’s none of their business!”

Lynn’s younger brother, Herman Webb, declined to disclose Lynn’s age, although he said there might have been a “mix-up” with Lynn’s paperwork after she moved to Nashville to launch her country career. Her parents and many other relatives are dead, including her husband, O.V. “Mooney” Lynn.

Certainly Lynn isn’t the first celebrity of a certain age to be less than forthcoming about a birthday, but the discrepancy is significant because age isn’t just a number for the Country Music Hall of Fame member. It is woven into her compelling life story, made famous in her 1976 bestselling autobiography, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and the subsequent film starring Sissy Spacek. The movie made $67 million nationwide and was nominated for seven Oscars; Spacek won for her portrayal of Lynn.

The Grammy-winning singer recently announced that it will become a Broadway musical, starring actress and singer Zooey Deschanel.

The way Lynn chose to tell it in the book, she was married at 13, moved with her husband to Washington State at 16 and was a mother of four by 18. Lynn has six kids in all. The marriage certificate shows that Lynn instead married just shy of her 16th birthday, which was not unusual in Kentucky at that time. Her husband was 21.

It would have been illegal for a girl under the age of 14 to marry in Kentucky in 1948, said R. Eric Henninger of the Kentucky State Law Library. At that time, he said, “lots of folks didn’t have any sort of official proof of age.”

An AP reporter recently found Lynn’s birth certificate online that listed a different birthdate from the one listed in the news agency’s database of celebrity birthdays. The reporter changed the date in the database; when the new birthday was used in a recent story, the Country Music Hall of Fame contacted the AP about the discrepancy.

Lynn addresses the perils of disclosing her age in her autobiography.

“When I was born, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the president for several years. That’s the closest I’m gonna come to telling my age in this book, so don’t go looking for it,” she writes. “I’m trying to make a living singing songs. I don’t need nobody out there saying, ‘She don’t look bad considering she’s such-and-such years old.’”

Lynn’s co-author on “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey, said in a phone interview that he did not verify the age claims in the book with official documentation.

“It’s her book, and I never saw a birth certificate, marriage license. It’s what they told me,” he said. “I couldn’t say that she was the one who told me first. Between her manager (David Skepner) who has passed and her husband who has now passed, it was at least three different people telling me that.”

Vecsey said he did not want to speculate on what the age difference means to Lynn’s narrative.

Lynn’s daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Webb, her brother who lives in their hometown of Van Lear, Ky., believes “there might have been a mix–up somewhere along the line” when Lynn first arrived in Nashville and signed with the Wilburn Brothers.

“When she was with Teddy and Doyle (Wilburn), she just don’t tell her age after that,” he said. “I think they got some of her paperwork messed up.”

Webb declined to comment on Lynn’s age. When asked his own birthday, like a good brother, he replied: “I was born a year and a half after she was.”

Research supervisor Walter Bowman at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives said in the early ’30s it was more common for people to register their prized horses or livestock than the births of their children.

Not until the Social Security system was founded in the mid-1930s did parents have a monetary reason to put their kids on record.

Social Security Administration officials said privacy laws prevent them from releasing information about any living person, including a birth date.

Music journalist and author Robert K. Oermann, who wrote “Finding Her Voice” about women in country music, said nothing can overshadow Lynn’s accomplishments.

“In the 1960s, you didn’t have the 24-hour news cycle, saturation of personality journalism that you have today. So what appealed to people was the fact that the songs were so extraordinary. Her singing was so great. Everything about her was so refreshing and country,” he said.

“It wasn’t until much later that people became aware of her backstory, but the music itself is what made her a star. The biography, the life story was just the icing on the cake.”

In 1972, Lynn became the first woman to be named entertainer of the year by the Country Music Association. She is known for hits, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” ”You Ain’t Woman Enough,” ”The Pill,” ”Rated X,” and “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” Her last top 10 record as a soloist was “I Lie” in 1982.

__

Online: http://www.lorettalynn.com

__

King reported from Washington. Contributing to this report were Associated Press reporter Joni Beall in Washington? who discovered the age discrepancy ? Roger Alford in Frankfort, Ky., and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington.

__

For the latest country music news from The Associated Press, follow: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Country

Associated Press

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Written on May 19, 2012 at 2:10 am, by

Master of pranks will host a special episode ahead of the MTV Movie Awards on June 3.
By Kara Warner

Ashton Kutcher in Punk’d
Photo: MTV

If you haven’t been keeping up with our bright and shiny new episodes of “Punk’d,” then you’ve missed a star-studded lineup of guest punk-ers and punk-ees including Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, Lucy Hale and Josh Hutcherson, and Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth.

If you think it can’t get any better than that group of noteworthy, fun-loving and slightly gullible individuals, think again, because the show’s godfather himself, executive producer Ashton Kutcher, will return to host a special episode of “Punk’d” on Sunday, June 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, as part of the 2012 MTV Movie Awards pre-show.

Kutcher is coming back with bigger punks than ever before, and his targets are two of the hottest celebrities in Hollywood, the identities of whom will be revealed soon. Fans will see some of the most elaborate and outrageous punks only the master himself could pull off.

Once the shock and awe has worn off from Kutcher’s expectedly memorable antics, don’t forget to tune in on Thursday, May 31 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, when host Kellan Lutz pulls off hilarious punks on “Awkward” star Ashley Rickards, “Friday Night Lights” actress Aimee Teegarden and “Rock of Ages’” star and “Dancing with the Stars” alumna Julianne Hough.

The MTV Movie Awards will air live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, on Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

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Written on May 18, 2012 at 5:14 am, by

Organize your home by bottling up your yarn and other delicate craft materials. Two liter bottles like those soda come in are great for storing practically everything. Remove the label, cut a slit down the side and insert your skeins or balls of yarn! Pull the loose end through the top and replace the cap to secure it.

If you are interested in saving money on heating and cooling bills in your home one of the first steps you should take are stopping up drafts. It is said that up to 40% of the energy lost in your home is because of air leakages. Start with the doors of your home.

Try your best to color coordinate your rooms when you are repainting them. You don?t want to throw people off when they come visit your home with colors that don?t match. You want to show people that you know style, one of the best ways to do this is with a good color combination.

Smoke detectors are required for safety in your home. Many homes only put them in certain areas. You can increase the safety in your home, by installing additional detectors in places like bathrooms, kitchens and basements. These areas can sometimes be overlooked, though prone to fires as much or more than the rest of the house.

Never, ever attempt to make repairs to your home?s wiring unless you know exactly what you?re doing. Things might look neat and clean, but you won?t be able to spot problems once everything is patched up. An electrical fire will demolish your home almost instantly, so consult the professionals if you don?t know what you?re doing.

Opt to do your laundry every time your hamper fills up, instead of waiting for your dirty laundry to pile for a week. Throwing your laundry in the washing machine every two days cuts down the amount of time you need to spend folding, waiting for the washing machine and the dryer and puts less strain on your machine.

For an unique and highly on-trend look, consider hanging flocked wallpaper on a large focal wall or in the main living area of your home or apartment. This type of wall covering adds texture, color, and style to any room, but is especially ideal for homes without children or in master bedrooms.

Never try to use makeshift solutions or inferior equipment to replace tools you need for your home improvement project. While you may be tempted to save time and money this way, the equipment you attempt to replace is expensive or hard to get hold of for a reason. Using stopgap measures can give you unsatisfactory results or even expose you to danger.

Hire a qualified contractor. If you decide to hire someone to do your home improvements for you, make sure they are qualified. Check with the city to make sure that the contractor is licensed and bonded, and ask for references. Most reputable contractors will also have a portfolio of their previous work. Get a written estimate and projected timeline for completion of the job.

While some people like to do hands-on work such as carpentry, interior decorating is a simpler form of home improvement that anyone can enjoy. Trying new color schemes and adding new materials like silk or velvet can give a room a new atmosphere. Remember the tips in this article for great home improvement!

Melina Bambace looks into internal wall cladding

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Written on May 18, 2012 at 3:03 am, by

By Greg Anderson, May 14, 2012, Leave a Comment

AppCampus, the joint venture between Microsoft, Nokia, and Aalto University with the goal of boosting the Windows and Nokia platforms, has today opened the doors to applications. The program is looking to fund unique, innovative and high impact mobile applications that utilize Windows Phone and Nokia platforms. The program is open to both teams and individuals, and will fund projects anywhere in the world based on their merit. The program will invest in total up to ?18 million over the next three years.

Successful applicants will receive coaching and training, as well as ?20-70 000 depending on the size and scope of their project. Projects admitted to the program will receive 30% upfront, with the rest being transferred once the project is certified and launched in the Windows Mobile Marketplace, and/or the Nokia Store.

No equity or future share of revenue is taken, and intellectual property rights remain in the creator?s hands. ?We are simply looking to support brilliant ideas that would boost this new mobile eco-system and create the next generation of successful companies?, comments Pekka Sivonen, head of AppCampus at Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship.

Windows and Nokia have been missing that special sauce from their app stores, but can they buy their way into it? Who knows how much cash is going into operating costs, but ?18 million split into ?20-70 000 chunks can get a lot of people thinking about WP7 and the Ovi platforms.

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Written on May 18, 2012 at 12:55 am, by

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Written on May 17, 2012 at 12:29 pm, by

By msnbc.com news services

Alfredo Estrella / AFP – Getty Images

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes takes part in a tribute to Mexican writer and anthropologist Fernando Benitez (1912-2000) at the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico City, on Dec. 18, 2011.

Novelist Carlos Fuentes, one of Latin America’s most eloquent and widely read authors and a fierce critic of governments, has died after a literary career spanning more than five decades. He was 83.

Fuentes’ best-known works include “The Death of Artemio Cruz,” “The Crystal Frontier” and “The Old Gringo,” which was made into the 1989 movie by the same name starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.

Local media said Fuentes died in a Mexico City hospital on Tuesday following heart problems.

Dividing his time chiefly between Mexico City and London, Fuentes dovetailed literature ? writing more than 30 books that have been translated into two dozen languages ? and social observation throughout his career.

Fuentes,?an “elegant public intellectual and grand man of letters,” as the New York Times obituary?describes him?? helped spark the explosion of Latin American in the 1960s and 70s known as “el boom” along with Colombia’s Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru and Argentine Julio Cortazar.

In the 1980s he was a frequent critic of U.S. intervention in Central America and lambasted the effects of U.S. immigration policy on Mexican migrant workers in his mid-1990s novel, “La Frontera de Cristal” (The Crystal Frontier).

“They know they need migrant Mexican labor, without which their harvests, services and many aspects of life would go to ruin,” Fuentes once said, calling U.S. policy a farce.

Fuentes also became one of the most open critics of Mexico’s entrenched political system under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before it was ousted in 2000 elections.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other political and cultural leaders quickly paid tribute to Fuentes on Tuesday.

“I profoundly regret the death of our beloved and admired Carlos Fuentes, writer and universal Mexican,” Calderon wrote on his Twitter account.

Fuentes’ critical eye was at work from the start of his career. His first novel in 1958, “La region mas transparente” (Where the Air is Clear), was not only a look at life in Mexico City, now ironically one of the most polluted in the world. It also examined how the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917 had created a new and wealthy elite but did nothing for the impoverished and indigenous masses.

Born in Panama in 1928, Fuentes divided his early years among the United States, Chile and Argentina, following his father’s diplomatic postings before going on to study law.

In an interview with the Academy of Achievement, Fuentes explained how his life growing up as the child of a diplomat pushed him in the direction of writing.

“As a little boy, I read a lot,” he said. “That was solitary in a way, because I knew my friends wouldn’t last more than two or three years, then another change, new friends. So I had to build my own inner world through reading, movies, radio at the time.”

Reuters contributed to this report

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Written on May 17, 2012 at 10:26 am, by

Now hailing 11.7 million unique visitors a month, Pinterest has become the fastest standalone site to pass the 10 million visitor mark since, well, ever. But even more impressive than that are what those 11.7 million visitors are doing once they land on Pinterest ? they?re staying and they?re engaging. Reports say that the average Pinterest user spends 89 minutes interacting, sharing, and posting on the site. And that could be your content they?re interacting with, but only if you?re taking the steps to leverage Pinterest.

If you?ve heard the buzz surrounding Pinterest but weren?t quite sure how to jump in and take advantage of it, keep reading. Below are some handy starter tips that every small business owner can use to build an audience via Pinterest.

Getting Started

If you don?t currently have a Pinterest login, you?ll have to request one as the site is still invite-only. Luck for you, it shouldn?t take more than a few days for Pinterest to send you an invitation to join. Once you get it, you?ll be asked to log in with either your Facebook or Twitter account. Don?t worry too much about which to choose as you?ll have the option later to switch it or to have your account tied to both.

With your account created, go into your Settings and take some time to fill out your profile. You?ll want to set your email settings, fill out your About section, include a Web site and then decide how you want Pinterest to interact with your other social media accounts.

Do you want all of your pins to sync to Facebook? Do you want to link your Twitter account? Depending on how you plan to use the site, this will change. If you?re not sure yet how you want your pins displayed, don?t worry too much. You can always come back and edit these settings.

Create Unique, Interesting Boards

Life on Pinterest starts here. When you start creating boards, focus on putting together boards that show off the lifestyle and beliefs behind your brands, not your actual products or services. The key to mastering Pinterest is to realize that it?s less about promoting your products and more about promoting how you do what you do and how you see yourself in your market. That means creating boards to show off your company beliefs and culture, not your inventory.

For example, maybe you?re a local catering company. If so, you may want to have boards related to:

Healthy Eating
Buying Organic
Going Local
Green Living
Family Picnics
Dinner Recipes
Holiday Recipes
Food Mentors

These types of boards are related to what you do in your day-to-day business, but they also go a step further to show people what you believe and what you represent. That?s what users are looking for.

Do your best to come up with creative and compelling board names, as these will get shared when people pin your content. Similar to titling your blog posts ? putting something eye-catching in there will help your content spread faster.

Assessing Your Pin-able Assets

This is where many business owners start to freak out. Don?t! It?s easy to think that if you?re not in the business of pretty or quirky pictures that Pinterest can?t work for your brand. But it absolutely can! Every site has visual assets that they can take advantage of. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box. For you, pinable content may come in the form of:

Infographics or other data visualizations
Video stills that link off to media where you appear
Covers of books or eBooks you?ve written
Eye-catching visuals for blog posts
Images of customers using your products
Images of how your product could be used

Take a look through your site to identify assets you already own. Once you do that, think forward to brainstorm new ways to incorporate visuals into your Web site. For example, you?ll want to make sure that you?re using images in every blog post or newsletter article you?re creating so that you (and your readers) will have something to pin. Maybe you?ll want to build more data visualization into your content strategy or focus on creating things that lend themselves to visuals. Build the assets you?ll need later.

Get Your Team Involved

One of the fun features Pinterest offers is that you can add contributors to any of your boards to help keep them updated and engaging. As a small business owner there are a lot of neat ways to take advantage of this. You can:

Add employees as contributors to boards about company culture
Add frequent blog commenters/community members to boards related to content/ industry finds
Add your executive team as contributors to charitable pursuits.

The more people you get involved, the more life you?ll add to your Pinterest account and the more others will want to follow what you?re doing. To add board contributors, go to the board you want to add a contributor to and click Edit. On the board?s settings menu, select ?Me + Contributors.? You must follow at least one board belonging to a user in order to add him/her as a contributor. Once you?re there, start typing his/her username into the text field. Once potential matches begin to load, click Add when you see the person you want to add as a contributor. Then save your settings.

Build Followers

The best way to build new followers is to become an engaged Pinterest user. That means following other users, pinning content, repining content others share, etc. Each time you follow someone or engage with their update on Pinterest, by default, they?ll receive a notification email letting them know. This is a good way to build up your followers because, if you have good content, they?ll check you out once they see the email and follow you back. It?s also a good way to show others that you?re interested in the community and what other people are sharing.

If you?re looking for potential people to follow OR simply looking to understand what type of content you should be following, try going to http://pinterest.com/source/yoursitehere. This will show you what content on your domain has already been pinned and whose pinning it. You can also do the same for competitor URLs to see who is pinning and sharing their content.

Promoting Your Account

Once your account is set up, you want to do your due diligence and promote it so that your audience knows it exists. This may include adding a Pin It! button to your blog posts so content can be easily shared, syncing your Pinterest account to Twitter and Facebook, encouraging people to subscribe to your Pinterest RSS feed, mentioning your account in company promotions/emails, etc. The more ways you can make Pintest part of your marketing efforts, the bigger the account will grow and the easier it will be to make content spread.

The above tips are designed to help any small business get involved with Pinterest. How are you using the site to market your business? Any lessons you want to share?

About the Author

Lisa Barone is a noted writer, content marketer and social strategist. She has been a trusted voice in the search world since 2006 and is most known for her brutally honest search observations. She has been featured on sites like The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, PBS, Duct Tape Marketing, Copyblogger and many others. Lisa blogs irregularly at VoiceInterrupted.

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Written on May 17, 2012 at 4:08 am, by

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Written on May 16, 2012 at 5:10 am, by

posted at 12:41 pm on May 15, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Actually, it?s not just the mandate, but also the costs that will drive Franciscan University to bail out of the health-insurance business.? Before now, the Catholic institution required all students to carry health insurance; those who did not have them were required to buy insurance through the school.? That?s not entirely dissimilar to the ObamaCare mandate, although of course attendance at the school is entirely voluntary.

Franciscan University put the HHS contraception mandate as its first justification, however:

?The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover ?women?s health services? including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA),? the university?says in a new post on its website. ?Up to this time, Franciscan University has specifically excluded these services and products from its student health insurance policy, and we will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.?

?Additionally, the PPACA increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies to $100,000 for the 2012-13 school year, which would effectively double your premium cost for the policy in fall 2012, with the expectation of further increases in the future,? FUS continues.

?Due to these changes in regulation by the federal government, beginning with the 2012-13 school year, the University 1) will no longer require that all full-time undergraduate students carry health insurance, 2) will no longer offer a student health insurance plan, and 3) will no longer bill those not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan for student health insurance,? the college said.

A Franciscan University employee blasted the Obama administration and the HHS mandate in an essay at Catholic Vote:

In short: We. Will. Not. Comply. And our students are the first one who will feel the pinch.

Those who are left high and dry by the administration?s intrusion into our freedom to practice our faith are our students. Who knows how many will have insurance, how many will not, how many will have insurance of the quality we offered before, how many will be able to stay on their parents? insurance through the extended adolescence provision of Obamacare, etc.

But there you have it: thanks to the government?s firm desire to make sure the one or two women left in the country who did not have easy and cheap access to contraceptives, abortofacients [sic], and sterilization procedures, our 2,500 students will no longer have an insurance plan ready and waiting for them.

As LifeNews points out, Franciscan warned of this outcome in September, while the Obama administration contemplated how to structure the religious exemption to the contraception/sterilization mandate.? Dozens of Catholic colleges and universities insisted that they would not comply with a government mandate to provide products and services that violate religious doctrine.? As a result, in just this one case, hundreds if not thousands of students will have to get their coverage from the government, subsidized by taxpayers, unless they can get coverage from Mom & Dad.

The cost issue shows that the problem won?t end with the religious exemption.? Franciscan is a relatively small school, one that cannot self-insure and save costs through managing their own premiums.? Many small businesses will have the same problems meeting the new coverage mandates even apart from contraception and sterilization, making it easier to pay the penalties for not providing the insurance and throwing employees onto public subsidies instead.? That will cause an explosion in the overall cost of ObamaCare, and a much higher burden for taxpayers.

Franciscan?s refusal to comply with the HHS edict shows that this issue will not go away quietly for Obama among Catholics and members of other faiths less inclined to vote Democrat.? As more Catholic institutions opt out, the issue will get more and more acute for Obama as bishops press hard for freedom of religious conscience.

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It begins: Catholic university drops all health-insurance coverage in response to HHS mandate

posted at 12:41 pm on May 15, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

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