Case of the Missing Mayan Pyramid

It sounds like a Nancy Drew title, but in case you haven’t heard, this really happened in Belize this week. According to reports, a road building company demolished the pyramid named “Nohmul”  to use the material for filling roads. Historic and tourism communities are “outraged” by the episode, but apparently it isn’t the first time this has happened.

Imagine that you are on vacation in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. You are taking in the sites and doing your very best job pretending to be fluent in the native tongue. Suddenly while posing next to a historic landmark, bulldozers and backhoes drive up and start tearing it apart. That would be quite an experience.

The fact that they are using the remnants of the pyramid for road construction seems like something out of a bad novel or political cartoon. Could you see something like this happening in the United States? The Statue of Liberty is made of about 62,000 pounds of copper. In today’s market, that would go for a little over $225,000US and the steel would add about $30,000US to that(Valia Blogs). Wouldn’t it be crazy if some random construction contracting company scrapped the statue for its building materials without any warning or coordination?

I just thought this was an interesting story and I don’t know how it could have happened. You would think that someone who lived in an area with so many Mayan sites would have either the intelligence to know the difference between a random hill in the middle of flat landscape and a pyramid. Either that, or they would have some sort of pride in their history..

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments section down below.

Photo from cbsnews.com

12 Steps to Make Money Online Easily by Blogging

Many of you have asked me how to make money online, simply by maintaining a blog. Well, I have listened to your questions and just like my walk-through on easily writing a research paper, I am going to attempt in at least putting you in the right direction. Continue reading to find the 12 steps to make money online easily by blogging. If my instructions are unclear or you need help in any way, please leave me a comment at the bottom, on twitter, or even Google+. I would love to know how I can make someone’s life easier.

Maintaining a blog is a great way to earn money while working at home. One thing that many people tell me is that they don’t have anything to write about. To be honest, that is perfectly fine. Topics come much easier than you would think. All you have to do is turn on the TV, look at a magazine, or hold a conversation with a random person for more than 10 seconds to generate an opinion on something, and the best part about a blog is that your opinions don’t even have to be completely supported by facts.

1. The first step in starting a blog is to pick a blogging platform. Personally, I like Google’s Blogger because it easily integrates with Google+, YouTube, and Adsense. They make it very easy to set up and customize your blog as well. Click here for 9 reasons to use Google for all your blogging needs.

2. After you set up your blog, you should sign up for a Google Adsense account. If I remember correctly, it doesn’t take long and you don’t even have to give them financial information right away (you don’t get paid until you make at least $100US).

3. Integrate the blog with your Adsense account. To do this, click on the “Earnings” tab on the left of your blog’s dashboard and follow the instructions. As long as you use the same Google account for everything, it is very simple to do.

4. Edit the layout of your blog to maximize your ad-earning potential. The best places to put ads are where your readers will see them, even though it makes you feed obnoxious. I recommend putting them on the top, side, between articles, and on the bottom. The thing is, Google only allows you to display three ads per page, and if you promote the link to just one of your posts there won’t be multiple articles to squeeze an ad between (which is ideal). For this reason, I added another ad position on the bottom of the page and if it isn’t used, that is just fine. Does that make sense?

5. To get even more ad revenue from your blog, I suggest setting up in-text ads. Those are the little links under specific words in my articles. They are pretty unobtrusive, yet allow you to have more than the default three ads per page. I have been using InfoLinks for a while, and I am impressed with the performance. The only downside with going through them is that it might take a few days for your account to be approved.

6. Now that you have your blog set up, it’s time to start blogging! Anything that comes to your mind is fine, but you can only expect to earn a decent amount of money if you have content that people want to view, and also matches up with higher paying ads. Don’t just post a few articles and expect to hit it rich, either. Make blogging a part of your routine and knock out at least a few every week. Starting out, I would actually suggest more – once or twice per day. Remember, one or two pictures could be the difference between getting people to click on your link or not.

7. Now that you have blog entries, you need to find a way to get people to see them. There are many things you can do for this. First, get a Twitter account and do whatever you can to gain followers. To start, follow people who are into the same things you are writinTwitterFeed, that do it for you. I use it and it wor

ks great.
g about. More than likely, they will follow you back. Stay away from #followback and internet twitter follower increasing scams. What you really want is people who pay attention to what you say and want to click the links to your blog articles. You can manually share your articles on twitter, but there are free services out there like

8. Promote your articles through your friends and family. There is nothing wrong with sharing everything you do on Facebook, then asking your friends to do the same.

9. Join blog search engines like Technorati so people can find your blog. Note: Getting approval from Technorati seems to take forever. For me, it was over a week.

10. Use services like PingOMatic, which ping your blog from search engines like Google and Yahoo and can increase your position for searches, also helping people find you.

11. Consider also starting a YouTube channel, where you can also use Adsense ads to make money. The beauty behind this is that you can then promote your videos on your blog, which gives you the opportunity to get double the amount of ad views.

12. Finally, and probably most importantly, create a StumbleUpon account and add the page for every post you make. You can actually sit and watch your page views go up immediately after you do this, which is pretty cool.

That’s pretty much it. Keep in mind that the process is very slow at first, but if you follow these 12 steps to make money online easily by blogging, keep with it, and find your own ways to market to current and future readers, people have gotten quite a bit of money. For other ways to make money online, check out my 4 proven ways to make money online.

Again, if you guys have any suggestions, corrections, questions, or comments, please feel free to use the section below, find me on Twitter, or send a message on Google+.

What Everyone is Afraid to Say About Benghazi

With all this news coverage on Benghazi, I don’t understand why nobody will just come out and call it like it is. Why is everyone in the media afraid to say what everyone knows to be true? The attack on the embassy in Benghazi took place during the time that the President and his cabinet were campaigning for the election. 

Nobody wanted to deal with the attack, the murder of Americans serving their country, the threat of forced retaliation, or the time and effort that would be taken away from the campaign. President Obama knew that any time spent on handling the incident would be time lost, since Mitt Romney would not have to take that time. The race was close and the polls were close.

Stop beating around the bush, Washington. Stop dragging this on in hopes of someone in the State Department will roll over on their superiors and admit that the decision to downplay the crisis came from the top.

I am not in any way playing one side or the other here. If it were a Republican running for reelection, he would have done the same thing. It’s called politics. The campaign advisors did the math and urged the President toward a decision. The campaign won. There isn’t anything we can do about it now, aside from calling The Man to the stand and seeing what he has to say about it.

Am I wrong? Please let me know.

Paper Cuts are the Worst... or Are They? State Department blasts 3D Printable Weapons

Hi People!

How many of you have heard about the newest use of 3D printing technology? Now there are actual designs for weapons and weapon parts that can be printed. The implications are crazy! Imagine a world where people can just print out their own home arsenal for whatever reason they want?

Well the government finally weighed in on the issue after DefCad.org released its plans and files for 3D weapon printing to the general public. The U.S. State Department sent Cody Wilson (owner of DefCad.org) a letter stating that the company is banned from sharing or distributing the files until after their operation and actions are reviewed by the State Dept.

This can be a fairly scary subject from a gun control perspective, especially when you think of background checks, weapon registration, serial numbers, etc. On the other hand, I like the proof on how far our technology has come. Think of other uses for 3D printing, like computer or construction hardware, quick 3D models for school or business projects, on-the-fly toys for cranky kids, the list can go on forever!

What do you guys think? Should DefCad.org be allowed to distribute these plans? How are they technically different than blueprints for traditional weapons (freely available online)? Is the government “shooting down” ingenuity and innovation? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!

-BCS

For the original story, click the link below:
State Dept. Shoots Down 3D Printable Gun

Congress Unintentionally Cuts Funding for Social Programs

When I initially saw the twitter post from Al Jazeera on this topic (Click here for the original article), I have to admit that I was guilty of being slightly positive about the situation. Now before you get excited and start calling me names, let me explain myself.

I see a horrible trend in our country, which I notice only because I have children. People are getting lazy and people are losing their pride. Scratch that - they are giving it away freely. In the time of my parents and especially my grandparents, a person took pride in their job and their family because their efforts defined them. Even the uneducated could invest their time and their future in a trade, and they were determined to be the best (plumber, butcher, stonemason, steelworker) there was.

Now things are different. The trades are almost completely gone and there are not as many good "Plan B's" for those who chose not to work hard in school. Instead of taking a job that they may not have fantasized about when they were in elementary school, they fall into the ease and pseudo-comfort that can be found in the social support system.

I'm not trying to point any fingers here, but I can say with confidence that this trend has bothered me. For that reason, I have made it my life's goal to raise my children in a way that they should never have to resort to those measures.

NOTE: I am not bashing the social programs in any way. When used for their temporary purpose, they have helped many hardworking people through tough times. I am however, bashing the culture that those same programs have seemed to produce (both intentionally and unintentionally).

Now back to the main topic of this submission - due to sequestration, it seems that some social programs are taking a hit. As stated earlier, I am guilty in that I saw this as a step forward until I actually read the news article. After reading it however, I felt like a bag of pig manure. Instead of getting rid of programs for those that don't really need them, the cuts actually effected everyone from handicapped people on unemployment, Meals-on-Wheels programs for feeding disabled and impoverished seniors, and even public preschool programs like More-at-Four and Head Start.

Needless to say, this was not the anticipated story that first popped into my head. It actually opened my eyes a bit, since I have been directing most of my thoughts on this topic toward the negative. Now for the kicker: All this budget cutting, laying off, and belt-tightening has not helped our economy. In fact, it seems the initiative has done quite the opposite and might have even stretched it's skinny arms around Europe's wallet as well.

If you know anything else about this story or have something to add, please leave a comment. I want to know your first impressions, feelings, thoughts, or what you ate for dinner last night. Thanks for taking the time.

-BCS