junior year

If you hadn’t heard, Prince Harry had been serving covertly in Afghanistan for the past 10 months.  Looks like they’ve decided to get him out, though:

Prince Harry has been withdrawn from Afghanistan because of the media’s disclosure of his deployment there, the British Ministry of Defense said Friday.

The prince had been deployed to Afghanistan since December. Major news outlets agreed to keep the information secret for security reasons, but a Web site broke the news blackout Thursday, prompting the British military to withdraw the prince for security reasons.

“This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier,” the Ministry of Defense said in a statement issued Friday.

The ministry termed “regrettable” the decision of “elements of the foreign media” to reveal Prince Harry’s service in Afghanistan.

“Whilst it had been intended that Prince Harry should return in a matter of weeks with the remainder of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battlegroup,” the ministry said, “the situation has now clearly changed.”

The British Ministry of Defense confirmed to CNN that Harry was en route late Friday from Afghanistan to Great Britain.

Gen. Richard Dannatt, the chief of Britain’s General Staff, said in a statement released Thursday that he judged it safe to send the prince to Afghanistan — so long as the media didn’t reveal his location.

I still think it’s pretty cool that he did that and no one found out for months.

People really like to plan out vacations ahead of time and the Internet is a great way to do this.  Laying out the details of a vacation before it occurs allows you to make the most of your time when you actually arrive at your destination.  What I’ve noticed online is that you see people searching for not only hotels and airfare information but also for activities that they plan to look into in and around their vacation area.  For example, a mother planning a family trip to West Palm Beach probably looks on the Internet for spa West Palm Beach before even traveling to West Palm Beach in the first place.  I know my Dad always likes to plan everything out, and since the Internet is a great way to do this, search trends demonstrate that everyone looks for this sort of information ahead of time.  So, if you’re a small business owner near a vacation destination, you’re passing up increased revenues if you don’t own a website that promotes your business.  A salon in Wellington would be best off to give customers somewhere to look at their services when someone searches for spa Wellington.  If you don’t take this initiative as a small business owner, you’re really letting your money go straight to your competitors.  This doesn’t seem so smooth J  Make the most of your Internet or your competition will. 

Everyone and their mother wishes they knew the secret to Ponce de Leon’s mythical fountain of youth.  Science actually believes we’ll eventually figure out how to live forever.  Apparently some pretty famous scientists have backed the idea, though it obviously seems a little crazy.  In the meantime, though, we don’t really get to do much in that realm.  That doesn’t stop companies from capitalizing on the desire to stay young, though.  Anti aging supplements abound, both offline in retail stores around the globe and online in specialty niche e-commerce storefronts.  Similarly, anti aging vitamins promise to keep your skin and vital functions working as well as possible for the years to come.   As you’ve probably read in magazines like Business Week, the aging of the baby boomer generation is actually making the market for senior-citizen products an ever-expanding and profitable one.  Of course, anti aging products don’t target the senior market exclusively but it can’t hurt that millions of extra people are getting older each and every year. 

One way to know that a business vertical has become unbelievably popular is to wait for it to splinter off into a thousand different niches based on peoples’ special desires and unique needs.  This is something that we’ve definitely seen happen in the online dating arena.  There are so many different things that people look for when searching for a partner online that it’s really difficult  for one site to offer everything that everyone wants.  Hence, you see people looking for what truly interests them:  someone might look for a black dating site if they’re interesting specifically in black dating.  If you’re a Christian and absolutely need to date another Christian, you’ll look for Christian dating websites instead of going to the biggest behemoth websites.  This really only makes sense, since smaller niche websites full of your types are more likely to provide you with the most immediate prospects that might actually appeal to you.  I would expect to see a similar trend in any huge online vertical but its effects have been truly felt across the dating field.  I’ve seen everything from Ivy League only dating to people who love pets dating websites in the past few months alone, and I doubt this will change any time soon. 

As CNN describes, Obama and Clinton are really going at it in the days before the Texan primary:

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled for votes over the airwaves and on the ground in Texas on Friday, just days before primaries that could prove decisive in the Democratic presidential race.

The Obama campaign, as well as former President Bill Clinton, say the New York Democrat must do well in Texas and Ohio on March 4 if she is to continue to battle for the Democratic nomination.

Voters in Vermont and Rhode Island will also head to the polls next Tuesday.

The Clinton campaign Friday launched a new television ad in Texas that portrays its candidate as the best-prepared to take on foreign crises.

In the ad, a phone rings insistently over images of sleeping children.

“Your vote will decide who answers the call,” the ad’s narrator says. “Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military. Someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world.”

It’s already over for Hillary, whether or not she knows it yet.

If you know the Internet and web design at all, one thing you know is that it is near impossible to find a great web host that satisfies all your requirements.  While there are literally thousands and thousands of hosts available, different websites have a variety of different needs and so it’s rare that you happen to stumble upon exactly what you’re looking for on the Internet.  For instance, one person may need CMS web hosting while another might really want a Wordpress-ready host.  One person may need a PHP capable host while another wants an ASP host.  It’s hard to predict.  So, when you go to search for  a host, you really have to do your own research and decide if the host you’re inspecting offers you what you need across a wide variety of spectrums.  Will it let you use SEO friendly CMS?  Or will it regulate you to less helpful design standards?  Will you be able to bring about your website’s full potential through this particular host?  Will they have great customer service and a nearly-perfect online record?  Finding all these qualities in one web host is difficult but if you keep at it long enough and read the right reviews of web hosting services, you’ll find the one that’s right for you.  It can be a frustrating process, though. 

I’ve discussed before how I was really interested in the real estate market when I was younger and considered going into it as a business.  You can read a ton on the Internet about the skills involved in buying and selling houses, apartment buildings and investment properties.  Home auctions are a really interesting way to get into real estate investment because they offer the possibility of getting an investment property at a great price.  What happens is, when homeowners fail to pay their mortgages, banks reclaim homes and occasionally put them up for auction.  These auctions are called foreclosure auctions, because the banks have “foreclosed” on the homes.   This is obviously very unfortunate for the people who used to occupy the house but it presents a real opportunity for investment property seekers t o get a home at a great value—homes being sold as foreclosures often sell below their premium price because banks are in a hurry to get rid of them as soon as possible.  For this reason, going to home auctions and bidding on foreclosed properties is a great strategy for anyone looking to get  involved  in real estate at a young age.

When I was a bit younger, in my mid teens, I went through a period of time when I really wanted to get into real estate development.  I read all about how to flip houses for cash, how to buy and hold apartment buildings, how to cash in on investment opportunities or handyman specials.  Though it seems ridiculous, I knew what a hard money lender was at approximately age 16.  As I got older, I became less interested in real estate and more interested in my academics and technology, but I figure a little education in areas outside your field can’t hurt, right?  In any case, if I ever need any real estate private money loans, I’ll know the type people to find them from, because I looked at becoming involved in this business years ago.  The real estate investment industry is an interesting one because lots of people have been joining it in the past few years to invest savings into tangible properties that they can then rent or sell for a quick profit.  Not all of the people involved in the industry are well off enough to be capable of receiving bank financing, so what tends to happen is some investors loan money at high rates of interest to other investors, hence the term real estate private money.  This can be really helpful for, say, a single mother who knows she can make a quick 30% return on investment, even if she gets a loan at 15% interest. 

Up there with wedding invitations online are other services which are flourishing based on consumer trust, such as companies that offer to print special cards for you.  In this case, I’m referring to holiday cards such as Christmas Cards, which I noticed a few months ago during the rush of the holiday season.  You can actually buy your Christmas cards online, which significant reduces the stress of rushing around town to find a suitable merchant and a good deal.  The truth it, e-commerce has grown so far beyond selling books and t-shirts online; we now buy everything through the Internet and there  is absolutely no reason to believe it’s going to stop any time soon.  In the case of specialized cards, for instance, if your business sends holiday cards to its business partners or the families of top employees, you can buy business Christmas cards online and have them delivered straight to your business.  Services like these profit on the Internet because they are convenient, they give great customer service and they represent a solid value to the end consumer.  If you ever run an e-commerce business, it’s important to realize the various components of success so that you build a great business from the ground up.  If a site selling Christmas cards didn’t do an outstanding job, it would likely be out of business before too long.  However, with hard working employees and a great product strategy, the Internet is t he perfect market for a small business. 

One industry I never really expected to find online was the wedding invitation service industry.  To me, this always just seemed like something I’d expect to find only in posh boutique stores in nice areas of large cities.  It just didn’t seem like something people would trust to the Internet.   However, they do, and extensively, too.  Wedding invitations sell from a variety of websites and feature hundreds of different potential patterns, plus extensive customization.   It’s actually a great deal for consumers that these services are offered successfully online, because what it means is that it’s possible to attain the largest possible selection at the lowest possible price, because the Internet is an extremely efficient market due to the fact that it offers global competition.  I think we’ll see as time goes on that people trust the Internet more and more for niche services like wedding invitations, because as the current generation matures and more and more young people who grew up in the digital world become older and seek out such services, there will be a larger and larger customer base of people who trust the Internet and e-commerce retailers 100%.  Right now, there is still a proportion of Internet users who use it only for email, as they’re scared to pay by credit card.  No one I know my age, though, is afraid of such a thing, and I think this speaks wonders for the future of the web. 

I’ve noticed a really cool online trend that I think is pretty cool, at least if I were a little girl.  Whenever you search for a celebrity or any woman who is well known, some websites show up in the rankings that provide games which allow you to dress up what are essentially online dolls.  These dress up games for girls let you choose clothing, outfits, colors and more from a closet and put them onto a body to see how they fit.  It’s essentially a modernized form of the quintessential playing with dolls that so many little girls do.  Makeover games are similar, allowing you to remake the outfit and getup of an animated figure online.  If you look at this trend from the point of view of parents, it makes a lot of sense to let your little girls play with dolls online—you don’t have to buy real dolls, you know it’s safe because there are no components that they can choke on, and the little girls clearly enjoy the activity.  Lots of websites are presenting this content in a safe, helpful way, and I think my little sister would probably dig it too.  I’ll probably pass it on to her. 

CNN is reporting that a man was exposed to ricin in a Las Vegas hotel room- how unlucky can you get?

A man who stayed in a Las Vegas hotel room where ricin was found is in critical condition at a hospital, where he has been since mid-February, said a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department official.

Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the man called for medical help on February 14, saying he was suffering from respiratory distress, and was transported to the hospital.

A friend or relative of his who came to remove his belongings from the room found the ricin Thursday, Suey said.

Police don’t suspect foul play in the poisoning, CNN affiliate KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported. The FBI said it was treating the case as a criminal investigation and terrorism was not suspected.

Tests confirm the substance found in the room was ricin, police said, but it remains a mystery how it got there.

“We don’t know who [the ricin] belongs to or why it would be here at this time,” said police Capt. Joe Lombardo.

As little as 500 micrograms of the toxin — an amount the size of the head of a pin — can kill an adult.

Well, that’s unpleasant.

This is really crazy– Fidel Castro is no longer in charge of Cuba! Check out what CNN has to say:

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — Cuba’s National Assembly chose Raul Castro, Fidel Castro’s younger brother, as Cuba’s new president on Sunday.

Fidel Castro, 81, who has ruled the country since the 1950s, announced his resignation last week in a letter published on the online version of the state-run newspaper Granma.

He cited his “critical health condition” and said, “it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer.”

Castro entered the hospital in 2006 for intestinal surgery and transferred some powers to his 76-year-old brother Raul, the country’s longtime defense minister.

On Sunday, the National Assembly — Cuba’s 614-member legislature — chose through secret ballot the 31-member Council of State, which acts on behalf of the Assembly when it is not in session.

The nominees for the Council of State — there is only one for each post — must receive support from at least 307 members of the National Assembly.

Fidel Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernandez, who lives in Florida, told CNN that Sunday’s events were unlikely to significantly affect the country.
She has long opposed her father’s regime.

“I think that the government will remain mostly the same, but I think they are going to bring on different faces that they need,” she said.

“Is there going to be a transition here toward something?” Raul Castro once said to reporters asking about a post-Fidel Cuba. “Yes, toward a better form of socialism and — here’s something you’ll like — toward a more democratic society.”

Sounds like things might not change that much, though, since it’s just the brother taking over. Oh well, probably better anyway.

Welcome to my dumb new blog about my junior year at Harvard. Not really sure what I’ll write about yet but we’ll see.