A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, blocking totally or in part the Earth’s view of the sun. Can we see it from the Philippines?

The solar eclipse that takes place on August 1, 2008 will be a total eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 1.039 that will be visible from a narrow corridor through northern Canada (Nunavut), middle of Russia, western Mongolia, and China. It belongs to the so-called midnight Sun eclipses, as it will be visible from regions experiencing midnight sun.

In Siberia, the total eclipse zone will pass through populated places, including the “capital of Siberia” Novosibirsk, and the cities of Nizhnevartovsk, Barnaul, Biysk. Greatest eclipse duration will be reached near the town of Nadym in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Northern Siberia.

A partial eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbra, including eastern North America and most of Europe and Asia.

Source: Wikipedia

I don’t think people from the Philippines can witness the actual eclipse this time. But there is always the internet, and China will broadcast a live view of the event.

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PAUL PIERCE, who?

Finals MVP Paul Pierce, who recently spent three days at a ball camp in Madrid, is making, ahem, news about what he said to a Spanish reporter. The money translation, via RedsArmy: “Q: Is Kobe really the best player in the world? Pierce: I don’t think Kobe is the best player. I’m the best player. There’s a line that separates having confidence and being conceited. I don’t cross that line but I have a lot of confidence in myself.” Surprisingly, Spurs fans seem more upset by this than actual Lakers fans.
- J.E. Skeets (Yahoo! Sports)

I know Kobe, but Paul Pierce is someone new to me. A succinct “No” reply would have sufficed. The “best player in the world” statement is over-conceited and exaggerated. So what if he won the NBA Finals MVP? I even think that Lebron James is much better a person and a player.

Paul Pierce should better do good in the Olympics and in the next NBA Season.

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I set up this blog too late for the page rank update. I know that timing is very important when you want to get a decent page rank in the fastest time possible. My other blog, Blog From Cebu to The World, was set up weeks after the 1st update of 2008, so it was able to get a PR3 in less than 90 days when the 2nd update happened.

While I was vacationing in some paradise islands in Cebu, Google promoted some blogs and screwed some. I got none of those updates and downgrades. But you may ask, how should one get to PR3 fast? I got some self-explanatory list here, and I’ve tried this twice already:

1. Timing – Set up a blog right after the toolbar update. Normally, Google updates quarterly. Between now and mid-August is the right time to set up a new site.
2. Content – It’s not enough that you set up a blog and write an entry. Regularly update it. If you can post daily or every other day, do it.
3. Inbound links – Request for links from friends. Exchange links with other newbies, as they are most likely eager to fill their blogrolls. Submit your blog to directories. Include the address of your website in your forum signature. Comment on blogs with “Do follow”
4. No to paid links – Don’t immediately ride on the paid link bandwagon. Defer it till you get enough numbers.

And what if you got penalized? My penalized blogspots got zeroes still. I don’t know how I’d plea for my case. But since I am on a free-hosted platform, I cannot really do much. I was expecting that they’d expire the penalties, as Matt Cutts said in his blog. Here’s what to do when you are penalized:

1. Ask for A Reconsideration – This is when you go to your Google webmasters toolbars, click on a button at the lower right of your dashboard that says “Request Reconsideration”. When you make a request, be sure to back it up by following the rules. Some did and got a reprieve.
2. Just blog on – Posting a plea or a rant on your blog won’t do anything. Just blog on like you don’t care for page ranks. If you do paid posts and earn from paid links, as long as there are opps, continue doing your thing. One day, those penalties will expire in time. I’ve seen it in many blogs. But I have not seen it yet on those using blogspot.

By the way, this blog got a PR update from N/A to zero. At this time, I prefer the former.

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The June 2008 Nursing Board Exam Results will be released anyday next week or in early August. That is approximately two months after the examinees took the nurses’ board exams. If you search on Google using the first five words in my title, what will you see? Blogs everywhere! Google Search produces 246,000 results for the first five words in my title. And for the first few pages in SERP, it’s the blogs that rule. Is this public service or SEO to the max?

There are possibly around 70,000 examinees and imagine the traffic to the leading blogs when 20 percent of the examinees scour the net daily. Add to that the friends and relatives. Huge traffic, big numbers, isn’t it?

But I will not post the complete results of the June 2008 Philippine Nursing Board Examination here. If you are looking for the results, go to the official PRC website, Nursing Board, PDI, Manila Bulletin and other leading news organization. I may, however, post the nursing topnotchers. Check the results sometime late July or early August. It will take the PRC around 2 months to check the papers, unlike the CPA board when a machine checks it and the results are released two to three days after the last exam day.

I don’t know how google will handle this post. I am sure it will not reach the first 3 pages of SERP because this site is relatively new and without a page rank. The others have optimized since June. And I don’t intend to ride on the trend. The main reason is that, I can’t take much traffic. Too much traffic can cause server crash.

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This one I found on a blog I don’t often visit. Thank God for Entrecard! I looked at the footer and there I found the source of this nifty-looking template.

This one really looks cool, and I think is much better-looking than the red hot Techmag template I previously used. I’m going to use this one for many months unless the owner of this template requires me to put this down, or put a heavy price on its use. If it’s free, then more power to wiredstudios.com. I’m not going to delete the link at the bottom, as some are in the habit of doing. The link to the theme owner is one way of appreciating his efforts.

How To Find Free Wordpress Templates

The best tool is simply Google. Search it away and the list will simply appear in front of your PC. But beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What appears pretty to them may be annoying to you. So you have to expand your search a little bit. Better SE optimized sites do not necessarily contain the best. Explore further the later pages.

Another way is to blog hop. If you see a beauty, try to look at the footer and follow the theme designer. Some are free, some are affordable, and some are heftily prized.

Or you can design your own. That would be more challenging!

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Xbox 360 price drops? I haven’t even touched an Xbox 360 but I’d like to get on hold one. A $50 price cut on its Pro version is said to be just around the corner, probably on Sunday, in time for the E3 Gaming Conference. The cut will bring the price down to $299.99.

There is no official word yet from Microsoft but some tech blogs are rather quick to the news.

Photo and info source: Yahoo Tech Blog.

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