So not everyone might know that to keep the alignment of the calendar and seasons even more accurate, years that are divisible by 100 are not considered leap years. To complicate things further, they remain leap years if they are divisible by 400 years. Following this formula, the years 170, 800 and 1900 are not leap years, but 1600 and 2000 were, as will be 2400.

A person born on this distinctive date is referred to as “leapling”, “leaper” or “29er”. Statistically, about one birth in 1,461 is leapling births. In 2001, it was estimated that there were about 4.1 million leaplings worldwide. Leaplings are the only people in the world with two birth dates as a choice: February 28 or March 1. But because technically their birthday anniversaries come around only once every four years, leaplings can claim to be only a quarter of their actual age. This means that a 64-year old woman born on Feb. 29 can choose to celebrate a sweet sixteen party. Legally, local statutes apply. Usually, a leapling’s legal birthday is set on the 28^th of February in common years. There are still problems, however, with computer databases and websites that do not recognize the February 29 birthday.

Because only a little more than half a percent of the eight billion people in the world are leaplings, there are comparatively few famous folk who share this birthday. One of the earliest, well-known figures is Pope Paul III, who was born 1468. Others include Italian composer Giaochino Rossini (1792), former Indian Prime Minister Mroarji Desai (1896), French-Polish painter Balthus (1908), and songstress Dinah Shore (1916). You might recognize more leaplings like actor Dennis Farina, who plays Detective Joe Fontana in Law & Order, Italian-born hottie Antonio Sabato Jr. (1972) and American rapper and actor Ja Rule (1976).

• Write a topic that is interesting to it a point that your reader will be interested in your topic. Think of subject matters that you are passionate about and then start from there. If you are interested of your topic, you will never run out of words and stories to tell and share.
• Use a casual tone. Blogging is more informal than writing a news story. Write as if you are talking with a person in a casual conversation. One way to do this is study about other people’s blog and then take a look at their “tone”, “voice” and their chosen words.
• Edit your blog for redundancies, inconsistencies and other possible mistakes. You might find words or phrases that are not important and topics that do not relate with your stories or better left unsaid (or unwritten). Remove anything that is not necessary for your writing like quotes, etc.
• Avoid tired cliches or words that has been used several times already in the past. They are not pleasing to read anymore for blog posts. Write as if you are telling a story or conversing with a friend using plain and simple words.
• Check your posts before publishing it. Check your work for grammar or spelling errors. Use spelling and grammar check to correct your words especially the commonly misspelled words.
• Remember basic rules and guidelines in writing. This includes proper sentence and paragraph construction. Use line breaks and proper formatting of words like the use of bold and italic and capital and small letters. Make sure your blog is easy to read and understandable.
• Use bullets and numbers to make your writing interesting and easy to read. It also helps the readers remember important details in your topic. Avoid using long sentences and paragraphs because it makes your writing boring.
• Use different formats for your posts. You may use bullets or numbers for your other posts while you may tell a story on the other one.
• Use a catchy title or headline. This will create interest for the readers to read your blog and get a peek of what to expect after reading your post. You may also use sub-heads if necessary.
• Don’t take it too seriously, always remember that you are writing to tell something or to give information. You are not writing a president’s speech, just keep on writing what you want to say or impart to people.

Representatives of internet sites such as twitter, Google, facebook, and others have voiced out their opinions on SOPA. They claim that it will reveal and demand United States’ internet and technology companies to consistently monitor websites making them liable and authoritative.

The statement issued by the White House points out that they support anti-piracy steps, it’s just that they found some weakness on SOPA. They stress out the issue on censorship, cyber security risks and internet structure. Originally, SOPA propose blocking of websites that will be found hosting of illegal contents. It was the most arguable part of the proposal but was deserted by Rep. Lamar Smith, the author of SOPA.

The White House recommends that everybody should work together to create an effective and intelligent bill this year for government and public to be able to fight online piracy from other countries without affecting the issues that were raised. The White House, also, will conduct a talk with the organizers of the bill and the signers of the petition via a conference call to talk about the matter with admin officials. They are also preparing an online event to gather more information, answer queries and provide details about events coming.

In the meantime, a rally for the anti SOPA is scheduled on Wednesday (ET and day) at New York. Reddit and Tucows and other online services will join the SOPA protest.

Most fax machines are programmed to perform an easy transmission like redialing system, delayed transmission (according to the time you may want the document to be transmitted), clear copy impressions, abbreviated fax numbers, and more. You may also use the telephone of the fax machines for voice calls.

How the fax works:

1. Place the document, upside down, on the sending tray of the fax terminal.
2. Using keypad on the terminal (or the attached telephone handset), enter the telephone number you wish to dial. Keep in mind that international calls would require country code and area code, while for local calls; you simply dial the fax number of the called party.
3. If the telephone connection cannot be established, the dialing procedure must be repeated. Reasons for failure to establish connection include busy telephone / cable lines, a busy receiving fax terminal, or the receiving terminal is temporarily out of order.
4. When the phone connection has been established, press the “send” key on the fax terminal after the “beep” tones.
5. If the telephone connection has been interrupted before the fax transmission has been completed, the dialing procedure must be repeated then resend the interrupted page.

When the transmission is completed, the Activity Report or transmission slip will automatically be printed. The charges in transmitting documents are based on actual minutes consumed while transmitting the document. The only disadvantage is that every interrupted calls and retransmissions would mean additional cost – you still have to pay the garbled messages.

Some fax machines have key functions like copy, speed / abbreviated dialing, redialing, telephone / fax changeover, voice communications / talk function, confidential communication, relay broadcasting, scanning, and many more.

With the many high technology gadgets/apparatus that are coming out, it is no doubt that facsimile is still useful nowadays.

• Texting is not a substitute for real communication. This is no replacement to a face to face so confess emotions in person, not in text. “I love you” in text is nothing compared to a live, stuttering declaration.
• Texting leaves so much room for miscommunication. You can never tell the information in a text message. You could be mistaken for being bossy when in fact all you wanted to be was decisive. Plus, there’s always the possibility that the person won’t get the text.
• Understandably, boys have become lazy. Expecting old-fashioned courtship? You’ll gather cobwebs waiting for that to happen!!! If you don’t want to feel like a booty call, don’t go out with him if he asks you via text. Wait until he calls you at the very least. Let him make an effort so that he’ll appreciate how special you are. A man always likes a challenge. Don’t let the convenience of texting turn you into a convenient date.
• Don’t clog up your date’s inbox with quotes and graphics. It’s a lame way to call attention to yourself. If you really want to tell him that you had a good time on our date, do it the next morning. A simple “ I really had fun last night” will do.
• It’s so much easier to turn them down in the cell phone age. Maybe you gave out your cell phone number because you were too shy to say no. At least now you can simply ignore his texts and phone calls. You no longer have to brief everyone in your household or office to tell him that you’ve moved to another country. If you’re the non-confrontational type, you can also give this incommunicado treatment to someone you’ve gone out with but no longer want to see. It’s cruel, but painless – for you, that is.

Here are some considerations in choosing / buying your gadget:

• Buy your gadget in cash. You will most likely to get it cheaper than if you use a credit card. If you do, examine your cash flow first and determine if you can pay the whole thing right away once you are billed. If you know from the start that you can’t pay it all off as soon as it’s due, you may be better off programming your payments in installments, rather than “revolving” on your credit card (or paying only the minimum amount due, and paying a hefty interest on the unpaid amount). This is because credit card companies charge “revolvers” interest from day 1 even for new purchases that are paid right once the bill becomes due – that means you’ll be paying interest even on items that have nothing to do with the appliance you just purchased!
• If you want to pay in installments, use a credit card with a smaller factor rate to save on interest payments. Choose 12-month terms, unless the store offers 0% interest for shorter terms. Also, most merchants are willing to waive their credit card surcharge if you buy things on installment.
• Research on the different brands and models of the gadget you’re eyeing. You may end up paying for some high-tech features that you won’t be needing or ever using.
• Canvas several stores and even several branches of the same appliance chain. With big-ticket items, a small 1% mark-up on prices can spell hundreds in extra cost.
• Try to wait for installment fairs or bazaars where dealers give goods on installment without interest.

Undeniably, one of the most popular marketing tool people who venture in different kinds of businesses use is social media. Social media is any platform over the internet which is somewhat the opposite of what above-the-line marketing is. If above-the-line marketing is the use of television, radio and print; not necessarily targeted to a group of people; and epitomizes one-way communication, below-the-line marketing or the use of social media is very different from it. Using social media is using the web and all the platforms of it. Using social media means that your campaigns are always targeted to a single group, sometimes, individuals of a certain specific quality. Lastly, using social media means two-way communication, releasing the campaign on the web and letting the public comment, react on, act upon it, and make it viral.

So, why should small business owners start using social media for their marketing strategies? Here are some of the reasons why:

• Social media is often free or of minimal charges unlike above-the-line tools that would make you spend hundreds of thousand dollars for a 30-second exposure.
• You get to have a wider range of audience when you use social media because when you post something on the web, everyone in the world can be able to view it if they have an internet access.
• It is way easier to communicate to your target market since communication lines in social media are much open through commenting and sharing their opinions on what you post.
• Online reputation management is easier since you will always be on the look of what other people say about your product online. Remember that the internet is almost always free for everyone so anyone can post anything, too.
• Using social media is innovative. You will have more leads with customers and you will be viewed as a company not afraid of innovating.

Major roads and highways are brightly-lit temple to retail and commercialism. Usually in every billboard spot, apparel brands abound, far outnumbering the images for consumer products and bank promos. Few years ago, highways were not as cluttered with this large-scale out-of-home propaganda as it is now. The proliferation of malls and the restaurant boom, however, have given consumers activity options that take them out of their homes and into the streets. Lifestyle of the people is fast changing; more people are more inclined to travel out of their homes – to their office, schools, and groceries. The increase in consumers’ travel time as opposed to their home hours has prompted advertisers to go to the streets as well. It’s also out-of-home media’s advantage that billboard advertising costs significantly less than the more traditional forms such as television and radios. TV ads may dish out more brain food, but billboards subtly target the subconscious.

Advertisers, realizing the limited creativity a billboard allows, just bank on their endorsers to get ahead of one another. The billboards all display one image: a woman who is not necessarily traditionally beautiful, but definitely well-known. In a celebrity-driven society, local brands are now relying on a single criterion in choosing their endorsers, popularity. To sell their merchandise, companies have all engaged the faces off personalities visible in the society – and all over the world.

Billboards and pretty face have always been a surefire combination. A glimpse at the large board may not inspire a mad rush to the boutique, but they are successful enough to tell the public if a company is making enough money to keep with the competition. At best, billboards and endorsers are image enhancers. Much like trophies, they are display material that encourages curiosity about a certain brand. At the very least, they keep our car rides interesting.

• Check account balance. You can already view your account balance over the net in real time. Check if your salary or pension has already been deposited in your account. You can also view your account history and transactions to help you better manage your account as well.
• Pay bills online. No need to go to different establishments to pay for your water, electricity, phone and cable bills. You can do this at your convenient time and day, even before going to sleep!
• Transfer money to other accounts. If you have several bank accounts and need to fund one of them right away, no need to hurry to the bank. You can transfer money to other accounts through online banking.
• If you want a new account or wish to apply for a loan or credit card, you can also do it via the internet. You can also check your banks new product offerings and promotion online.
• Other banking services that can be viewed online are foreign exchange rates and statement of accounts.

Online banking is convenient, fast and effective. It allows you to do banking transactions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You do not have to worry about weekends and holidays. But you must also be extra careful in doing transactions online as it involves your money. Make sure that the website is the legal website of your bank. Always double check your entries if you are paying bills or transferring money. Do not give your passwords to anyone even to a family member. And most of all, keep a record of all the payments done online. Banks will send you email in every successful transactions especially bills payment and money transfers. Keep the email as proof of your transaction.

Thinking of skipping town? You’re not alone. In fact, you’re probably one of a growing number of middle and upper class citizens who are considering moving abroad in the event an “unsuitable” candidate wins in the election. Let’s face it – no matter how politically incorrect it is to think of abandoning your country, many are hopeless as to where their country is heading.

But thinking about leaving is one thing; actually being able to do it is another. So what now? Use your powers as a voter and citizen of your country to steer it in the right direction.

More and more people are realizing that they have a hand in shaping the nation’s political future. The effect is that people are now more conscious of the weight of their vote. This could be the voter’s first step in realizing that they have a choice: they can either sell their votes or they can vote intelligently. There is also a realization that the political decision lies in the numbers, in the majority of the voters.

Consider the following facts

• The most important factor that determines the vote is the candidate’s public image which the voters may easily identify with. Particularly the image of a public figure like a movie idol, with which the voters identify.
• The second most important factor is the endorsement and influence of the church, community leaders, certain organizations and family.
• The third most important factor reflects how the voter saw the candidate in relation to what should benefit him directly. (traits such as approachable, helpful, etc)
• Parties, platforms and programs of governance are at the bottom of the list of considerations of the voters.

These are just some of the factors facing elections. Help turn things around. If all goes well, you just may decide to postpone leaving the country for good.