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THE RAVEN PARADOX - THE FLAWS IN THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

HEMPEL’S LOGIC All scientists use reasoning and logic at some stage, to create hypotheses and design robust experiments. In a beautiful and elegant treatise, the German philosopher Carl G Hempel, in 1965, showed that there were flaws in these long-established processes. His Raven Paradox called into question the established processes of inductive reasoning, generalization and falsifiability

THE INDUCTIVE HYPOTHESIS Imagine that a scientist, after years of going for long walks in the countryside, observes that every single raven he has ever seen is black. As a dutiful researcher, he uses inductive reasoning to postulate the hypothesis:

“All ravens are black.”

This is a perfectly acceptable conditional hypothesis. Firstly, it is testable, because you could sample raven populations and verify that they are all black. The statement is also falsifiable because even one non-black raven amongst the sampled population would disprove the hypothesis.

This is all great science, so far, following the established methods of inductive reasoning. The researcher could even design an experiment to sample raven populations, with thousands of ravens observed. If they are all black, the hypothesis is supported and plausible. Over time, repeated experiments and observations further confirm this and the hypothesis becomes accepted as a law.

THE PROBLEM OF GENERALIZATION AND FALSIFIABILITY The first part of the Raven Paradox proposal questions the process of generalization. It is practically impossible to sample every single raven in the world and there may a few non-black individuals. Hempel was not trying to comment upon the exact science, but as an interesting aside, about 1 in 10 000 raven eggs contain partially or fully albino birds.

Most albino birds are more visible to predators, suffer from health problems and may be a localized phenomenon. The odds of seeing an albino raven are very small and sightings are extremely rare. A researcher could sample many thousands of Ravens and not see one white bird, even though they do exist.

Thus, the notion of falsifiability is questioned and undermined by the Raven Paradox. Although the original hypothesis is technically falsifiable, in practical terms it is very difficult to disprove, because the chances of observing a white Raven are very slim. Even if you sampled the entire known population of ravens, there may be an undiscovered group containing a non-black individual.

FLAWS IN THE INDUCTIVE REASONING PROCESS The next part of the Raven Paradox questions the processes of reasoning and deduction that are an integral part of the scientific process. When a researcher states that all ravens are black, the laws of logic demand that this conditional statement has a contrapositive, statement.

Therefore, according to inductive reasoning, “Everything that is not black is not a raven.” This means that every non-black object observed, that is not a raven, equally strengthens the hypothesis. There are a countless number of non-black objects in the universe and we should pity the poor statistician who has to analyze this!

To take the analogy further, another researcher in another part of world, through fluke, may have only seen one raven in their life, which happened to be white. Their deduced hypothesis may be that “All ravens are white.” Every non-white object, which is not a raven, strengthens this opposing hypothesis too. This is the Raven Paradox.

THE END OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS? What does this paradox mean? Has the world of science come crashing down around our ears?

The answer is a resounding NO!

The Raven Paradox is a useful philosophical observation and helps to ensure that we constantly probe and test the steps of the established scientific processes. The examples given in the paradox are simplistic and unlikely, merely serving as an exercise to test the boundaries of the philosophy of science.

In reality, for the vast majority of cases, Hempel’s treatise makes no difference and the normal reasoning and experimental design processes work perfectly well. The paradox does not detract from science, but actually enhances it, by preventing scientists from believing that they have proved something beyond doubt.

The Raven Paradox should remind every scientist of the dangers of generalization and that they must ensure that all hypotheses are realistically falsifiable. If the researcher has said, “All ravens in Norway are black”, this is more realistic as ornithologists could feasibly observe every raven in Norway.

PARADIGM SHIFTS Even long-standing theories, which became established as laws and immovable paradigms, can be proved incorrect over time. Science is really all about testing probabilities and assumption. If something has a 99% chance of being correct then it should be accepted as the likely explanation.

The chances of someone seeing only one raven in their life, which happens to be white, are tiny. However, this is not the same as impossible and that possibility must never be ignored. This is why all experiments are rigorously validated and reviewed before gaining widespread acceptance, to minimize the effects of the Raven Paradox.

For example, Newton’s laws were accepted as truth until Einstein’s theories blew them out of the water. In turn, General Relativity is not the answer to fundamental physics and has been superseded by other theories.

This is how science evolves, by challenging and adapting established paradigms and laws. The creation of Chaos Theory was a perfect example of ‘maverick’ scientists chipping away at the established laws until the theory could no longer be ignored. It eventually burst into the public consciousness and fractal models appeared as prints on T-Shirts.

Hempel’s Raven Paradox stands to remind us all that no theory, however established, should be immune to challenge or debate. As new evidence is uncovered, science must adapt and change to assimilate the new data.

Martyn lives in the beautiful Peloponnese area of Greece and is absorbing the philosophy buried deep within the bones of the land.

He specializes in science and philosophy articles.

Please find the original article at http://www.experiment-resources.com

Martyn’s website is at http://www.amethyst-web.net

In sports, there will always be different levels of competition. There are times that teams name their worthy opponents while others just do not want to give others a chance to win over them. This is what we call rivalries. In College teams, it is very prominent. This is a good thing because even though teams are not playing on a championship match, it gives the same feeling that kind of game gives to its audience. The game becomes heated making this as one of the factors why a football match becomes exciting and memorable.

However, there are times when rivalries create chaos. Sometimes, the big guys on the field get on each others nerves and can start a fight. It is inevitable to loose your cool at times, especially when the trash talking in the field gets personal. The force gets very mighty in trying to tackling the opponent. This is a physical sport so it is expected that venting out the anger be easily channeled on natural flow of the game. One of the worst-case scenarios happened during the 2004 NCAA Match. One of the greatest rivals in football started a brawl at the Memorial Stadium. South Carolina Gamecocks and Clemson Tigers players had to be stopped by law enforcements.

Definitely, every team should know how to manage their anger, especially when they get pissed. We cannot avoid the conflicting personalities from different teams. The best thing that these players can do is to maintain sportsmanship. Every athlete is disciplined enough to know how they should act in games. It is no doubt that football is a tough game, and it should be placed in mind that toughness in this game is not all that is needed to win. Proper Decorum should be observed. It does not mean that the nature of the game is violent, then every player should take advantage of it to get ahead of the other team.

Not every player should be eaten up with the history. Every team should ensure that the rivalry is friendly wherein after the game, players get to shake their hands and wish everyone well. In the middle of the match, every player should take the tackle as it is just part of the game. There should also be no extra bumps after the fall. Moreover, when the player is down, the best is to help him up. This can give an impression that you know you hit him to hard and that you did not mean it. It may sound like a practice for the babies, but definitely when the game is heated, it can cool the flames a bit knowing that you one player is not after injuring the other. Rather this is all about business and playing the game the way it should be.

At the end of the game, always try to reach out with the other players. The memory of the game will live but you as a player should put all behind the rough experience after the game. On the next fight, you can start by welcoming your opponents. Not like the way the Clemson Tigers greeted the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Freddie Brister is a huge fan of the SEC and the South Carolina Gamecocks. His love for the game of football started with an older brother passing the pigskin around in the backyard with cousins and neighborhood friends. He later played in high school, college and coached high school football for 25 years, before retiring to write for Sports Fan Treasures. Check out his South Carolina Gamecocks Merchandise.

It’s very unusual for this to happen, but …

A sheriff’s deputy managed to win a libel suit this past summer against the Terre Haute, Ind., Tribune-Star.

It’s an interesting case with two twists to it: 1) is a sheriff’s deputy really a “public official,” and 2) what happens when a newspaper truthfully … and fairly … reports a false accusation?

The paper reported that the deputy, Jeff Maynard, was the subject of a sworn allegation of misconduct made by a driver, Sandra Buczek, after a traffic stop. She said Maynard knocked her to the ground with his clipboard and verbally abused her with sexual innuendoes. The paper also reported that the county sheriff doubted the veracity of the allegations, and that Maynard had refused comment. This shows the paper had sought his side of the story.

A state police investigation subsequently found the woman’s allegations to be unfounded … Maynard was not the officer who pulled her over, and her account of the incident was deceptive. The Tribune-Star reported all this under the headline, “Police: Woman Made Up Traffic Stop Story.” It has admitted the allegations were false.

Maynard sued (this was in 2004), and when the case finally came to trial last July, he and his former wife testified that publishing the false allegations had damaged his reputation and caused them emotional distress. The jury agreed, awarding him $500,000 for compensatory damages and a cool $1 million in punitive damages.

The paper plans to appeal, saying the plaintiff hadn’t proven the malice necessary for a finding of libel against a public official, and that allegations of misconduct against these officials are immune from defamation lawsuits.

The standard of proving malice is difficult if not almost impossible as a plaintiff must enter the reporter’s “state of mind” and show he knew the story material was false, or displayed a reckless disregard for the truth. The USA standard is so tough on plaintiffs and easy on the media compared even to legalistically similar countries like Canada and England that some plaintiffs, in this age of the worldwide Internet, now go “libel shopping” to find a more amenable foreign jurisdiction.

For a so-called “private person” in the USA, the libel threshold is easier… you just have to prove negligence. That’s why so much of the battle is over whether the plaintiff is a public or private figure, with the press trying to widen the net as much as possible to get as many people as it can classified as public.

Of course, is a public official only someone who makes public policy, or can it be anyone on the public payroll no matter how lowly … i.e., a sanitation worker? A clerk in the DMV? A jailer? A sheriff’s deputy doesn’t make departmental policy but has power “on the street” … it will be interesting to see if this translates to being a public official.

The Tribune-Star has indicated it will appeal, and that should help its chances … statistics about libel cases are hard to come by as Google searches turn up nothing except for a finding by the Media Law Resource Center in New York that nearly 58 percent of libel cases lose at the trial level or are overturned on appeal… but that doesn’t distinguish between public and private citizens.

Here’s what I hope the appeals judge will do.

– Toss out the punitive damages. It looks like the newspaper tried hard to be fair and thorough in its reporting … so what’s there to punish?

– Keep the $500,000 for compensatory damages, though, for Deputy Maynard … at least most of it. The fact is, the paper printed false information, and quite damaging information. It certainly didn’t intend to, but this is analogous to an automobile accident in which the driver didn’t mean to run down the old lady crossing the street, but did anyway, and must suffer the consequences. What’s more, the paper doesn’t seem to care the slightest bit that the false information it ran hurt the deputy … in fact, its legal brief calls Maynard’s case “clearly erroneous” and “fundamentally misplaced” because it focused on the falsity of the allegations, not on the accuracy of the reporting of false allegations, which is what the paper prefers to emphasize.

– Most importantly, rule that a public official means a policy maker, and the deputy is not a public official. That’s too much of a stretch. When the press engages in these all-too-obvious contortions, it reduces the public’s respect, and I think it’s at least a small part of the reason why newspapers are plummeting in circulation, advertising, staffing and influence. No institution should have unlimited power. An unfavorable libel ruling if upheld for Terre Haute could, ironically, help the press save itself.

Gerry Storch is editor and administrator of http://www.ourblook.com, a political discussion/media analysis website that fills the gap between a blog and a book. In his journalism days, he was a feature writer with the Detroit News and Miami Herald, and an editor with the News and Gannett News Service.

My previous articles have focused on global warming and assisting people to understand how they contribute to emitting carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. It is my intention to help people understand how they add to all forms of pollution and provide viable, achievable and realistic ways to lessen the impact on the environment. One of the most important areas that people must start to improve on is the amount of detergent that is being dumped into our sewers due to doing laundry.

With all the improvements made in making less harmful detergents available, there is no reason for us to continue to pollute our ground level water. Amazing as this may sound there is technology out there that you can do your laundry without the use of hot water, detergents, bleach or any other cleaning or harmful agents. This new technology uses silver ions, hydro-peroxides and UVX lights to kill and minimize bacteria, purify the water and ultimately sanitize your clothing during the laundry process. Silver has been used for hundreds of years as a method to purify the body and assist in fighting disease. It is also noted that the water discharged down the drain into the sewer is a cleaner form than when it entered your washing machine.

The reason this type of new technology is important is because we can help our environment clean it self, rather than to compound the problem. The current ground level water is being treated at your rural or urban water treatment plant to neutralize the contaminants and in many cases the water treatment plants are recycling our sewage and waste water. In these cases Chlorine is the most commonly used sterilizing agent. Although, Chlorine is a natural element in our environment there are experts who question whether we as a human species should have prolonged exposure through our lifecycle. The reason I bring forward the issue of Chlorine being so widely used in our every day life is because we do not need to expose ourselves on a continual basis.

Chlorine is a toxic gas that irritates the respiratory system and it is my opinion that it may be a contributing factor to the increase in asthma and other breathing problems. A following is a list of the various products that contain Chlorine that we use in our daily lives: disinfecting and cleaning products, processing of some foods, plastics, water purification, swimming pool water systems, it is used to make flame-retardant compounds and batteries and as a bleaching agent in pulp and paper manufacturing and hundreds of other applications. Needless to say that we are being bombarded with it and undoubtedly it will have adverse affects.

We as a society need to cultivate the technology that is at hand and start to utilize these great minds of ours to improve our living planet, rather than to destroy it. One major resource that is over looked is the use of OZONE and the fantastic benefits it has. I will leave that topic for my next article. In the meantime be good to yourself and our environment.

Keith Weir is a social worker by nature and by profession and has been in practise for about 20 years, mainly in Child Protective Services. Although disillusioned by “the system” and having left CPS, he continues to fulfill what he has determined is his mission in life - helping and teaching others to live a better quality of life. Inspired by “The Secret”, Keith has dedicated himself to teaching others how to manifest abundance in health, wealth and happiness while minimizing our impact on our environment.

http://newsoapfreelaundry.com

There are a few general and commonsense rules to follow to ensure a successful start and outcome for a new Investment Club. Usually a club will start with a group of friends and family and it is important to outline to all members what is involved and what the club guidelines are and to ensure that all members participate in the creation of the club structure and have input to decisions.

One of the biggest mistakes that a lot of new club founders make is that they do not tell the club members upfront that they may lose money with the trades that they make in the beginning. Not every trade that the club will make will be a winner, and this is especially true during the first few months of the club. Since many of the investment clubs which are created do not have many members who are familiar with making stock trades, it is a learning process for the majority of the club members. It is essential to inform potential members before they join that the money they put up for investment should be money that they can stand to lose, and not suffer any hardship because of the loss. This being a general rule for all investment with any risk.

In discussing money, it is necessary to make sure everyone agrees upon what the contribution will be for each member on a monthly basis. The amount of the monthly contribution should not be more than what any one member can afford to put in monthly. If all of your members but one can afford to put $100 into the club account, and the one can only put $75 into the club account monthly, then everyone should only put $75 into the club account. Then all members are on an equal footing. All monthly contributions must be equal to sustain the equality of the group and its integrity. The most common monthly contribution amount used for investment groups is $20 per month, but each group decides the parameters for the club.

Make the club official by drawing up a partnership agreement and have everyone who wants to be a member of the club sign the agreement. It is crucial to the success of the club for everyone to know what is expected of each individual, and the group as a whole. By having a signed membership agreement and a copy given to each member, potential disagreements can be largely avoided.

Do not try to start with a large investment group. Having too many members can cause many problems, such as a greater risk for arguments and fragmentation of the group. For the group to work as a team, requires a team of a manageable level of no more than fifteen. Most investment clubs do not exceed 10 members.

Starting your own investment club should not be something which makes you nervous or causes undue concerns. Concentrate on starting with people you know and trust and create a group that can get together and have fun, and you will see that your club will be a huge success, with lots of learning and lots of enjoyment.

Finding the perfect members for an Investment Club -
After the decision to start an Investment Club, the next step is to get together a cohesive group of people as members. Without members, there is no club! It is beneficial if the members know each other, and it is also important to have a group of people who get along with one another.
People who are going to fuss and argue every time you hold a club meeting will be best avoided. By picking wisely, you will have club members who can agree easily with one another which is a crucial element in a successful club.

When a club is just beginning, it is an option to advertise for members if necessary, but once the club has actually been formed, then to add new members later would be done by member referrals only. It is also possible to find initial members online by going to certain investment web sites which allow you to post messages stating that you are interested in starting an investment club.

Also, when starting a group, an important criteria is to you recruit members with similar financial goals so that the group unity is not threatened by arguments later about the direction in which the group needs to go. It is wise to get members who all can agree on a certain amount to be invested on a monthly basis. Since all profits will be split equally, it is only fair that everyone contribute the exact same amount of investment cash every month.

The members chosen to recruit should be easily able to contribute the agreed upon monthly contribution. They should also be able to do their part of the research which is required in being a member of an investment club. Arguments will ensue if any members are not pulling their weight doing the research or making the monthly contribution.

Some people choose not to use family or friends when starting their investment group. This is because they do not want to mix their money with their family relationships and friendships. If there is doubt about getting along with family members or close friends when it comes to dealing in money matters, then it may be a better option to not include them in the investment club.

Once the members and the agreement are organized, it is essential to start setting the goals for the group. The investment club will be ready to start market research and create reports of promising companies to consider for investment.

Courtesy Jules Hawk. For helpful information on starting an Investment Club - http://www.investmentclubs.moneytreecreator.com

The Forex Factory web site is a very popular site among developing Forex traders as shown by an Alexa rating of around 5,400 most visited sites on the web. Any site within the first 100,000 gets serious traffic!

Forex Factory provides 3 main services listed in my personal order of importance:

• Calendar
• News
• Forum

Calendar

The main attraction of the Forex Factory calendar of upcoming economic reports and fundamental announcements is that it is so visual and easy to read.

A color coding system gives an indication at a glance as to how volatile the announcement is expected to be:

• Yellow - Low Impact
• Orange - Medium Impact
• Red - High Impact

Another good feature of this calendar is the ability to customize the time to your own time zone. So instead of having to add or subtract a certain number of hours from GMT to arrive at the time of the economic report in your country, you can set the calendar according to your time zone and see the time accurately displayed.

This feature saves some confusion and prevents a newer trader from leaving a trade in around a volatile news report because of getting the time mixed up!

News

A number of news reports are featured daily from authorities and advisors in the financial markets.

Within a few minutes the trader can come up to speed on the latest economic factors that might impact the market.

Forums

The Forums at Forex Factory have a huge appeal as indicated by the thousands of users online each day.

The forums are divided into various themes including:

General Discussion

Trading Systems

Broker Discussion

Forex Beginner Questions and Answers

How To Get The Best From Forex Factory

For me, the calendar is by far the most useful feature at Forex Factory. I consult it each day in preparation for the next trading session and make sure I am out of the market around volatile news releases (flagged by the red icon) and also many times the medium impact reports (flagged by the orange icon).
The News feature is also useful to get a broad overview of market sentiment. At the same time caution is needed if you use technical analysis as your main trading tool as the comments and opinions of others can sometimes blur your own analysis and lead to flawed trade entries.

You may have detected a perfectly good trade setup and the trade is going well. Then as it starts to stall the comments of a news analyst come to mind and you exit prematurely from what could have been a very profitable trade.

So it is good to view the News objectively and coordinate it with your own technical analysis.

Forums - Be A Little Cautious

For newer traders the discussion forums can be helpful in bouncing ideas off other newer traders. One of the main benefits is encouragement and motivation from hearing how others are getting on.

However, as to whether you can get good trading tips and strategies from the forums is in my mind a little doubtful.

After I attended a Forex seminar run by a licensed professional who trades the Forex every day and is a fund manager, I noted his comment that the really successful Forex traders rarely have time to visit online forums and participate in discussions. They are too busy making money on the Forex!

So as long as you approach forum discussions with the realization that most participants are also in the learning stage, you can evaluate their comments and suggestions accordingly.

There is no doubt Forex Factory (forexfactory.com) provides an excellent group of services for newer Forex traders. Definitely use the calendar to the full and depending on your level of expertise, use the News and Forums features to gain a better perspective of daily market activity.

For a free pivot point calculator, Fibonacci calculator and the best free economic calendars click here:

http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/tools.html

For a free candle & chart pattern recognition reference tool click here:

http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/Candle-Chart-Patterns

How do you trade the non-farm payroll report? Read this:

http://www.vitalstop.com/Forex/Advisor/forex-strategy-non-farm-payroll.htm

My previous articles have focused on global warming and assisting people to understand how they contribute to emitting carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. It is my intention to help people understand how they add to all forms of pollution and provide viable, achievable and realistic ways to lessen the impact on the environment. One of the most important areas that people must start to improve on is the amount of detergent that is being dumped into our sewers due to doing laundry.

With all the improvements made in making less harmful detergents available, there is no reason for us to continue to pollute our ground level water. Amazing as this may sound there is technology out there that you can do your laundry without the use of hot water, detergents, bleach or any other cleaning or harmful agents. This new technology uses silver ions, hydro-peroxides and UVX lights to kill and minimize bacteria, purify the water and ultimately sanitize your clothing during the laundry process. Silver has been used for hundreds of years as a method to purify the body and assist in fighting disease. It is also noted that the water discharged down the drain into the sewer is a cleaner form than when it entered your washing machine.

The reason this type of new technology is important is because we can help our environment clean it self, rather than to compound the problem. The current ground level water is being treated at your rural or urban water treatment plant to neutralize the contaminants and in many cases the water treatment plants are recycling our sewage and waste water. In these cases Chlorine is the most commonly used sterilizing agent. Although, Chlorine is a natural element in our environment there are experts who question whether we as a human species should have prolonged exposure through our lifecycle. The reason I bring forward the issue of Chlorine being so widely used in our every day life is because we do not need to expose ourselves on a continual basis.

Chlorine is a toxic gas that irritates the respiratory system and it is my opinion that it may be a contributing factor to the increase in asthma and other breathing problems. A following is a list of the various products that contain Chlorine that we use in our daily lives: disinfecting and cleaning products, processing of some foods, plastics, water purification, swimming pool water systems, it is used to make flame-retardant compounds and batteries and as a bleaching agent in pulp and paper manufacturing and hundreds of other applications. Needless to say that we are being bombarded with it and undoubtedly it will have adverse affects.

We as a society need to cultivate the technology that is at hand and start to utilize these great minds of ours to improve our living planet, rather than to destroy it. One major resource that is over looked is the use of OZONE and the fantastic benefits it has. I will leave that topic for my next article. In the meantime be good to yourself and our environment.

Keith Weir is a social worker by nature and by profession and has been in practise for about 20 years, mainly in Child Protective Services. Although disillusioned by “the system” and having left CPS, he continues to fulfill what he has determined is his mission in life - helping and teaching others to live a better quality of life. Inspired by “The Secret”, Keith has dedicated himself to teaching others how to manifest abundance in health, wealth and happiness while minimizing our impact on our environment.

http://newsoapfreelaundry.com

The story goes that Hawaiian slack key guitar originated with three Mexican vaqueros, brought to Hawaii to teach the islanders how to raise cattle, who left their guitars behind when they left. The Hawaiians had no idea of fretting or stringing so loosened up the keys until the open chords sounded good when strummed. Then, because they had only three instruments, they developed a technique of self-accompaniment that eventually developed in slack-key as we know it now

Another version is that they were taught guitar by the Spanish, but whichever is true, slack key is an unusual and lovely sound, and one of those styles with so many variations that they are passed down from father to son.

If you want to learn Hawaiian slack key, there is no special instrument needed, although many prefer a baritone guitar with a longer neck that allows sufficient tension in the strings in slackened tuning to create a good sound from the soundboard. However, a normal acoustic guitar is fine for the beginner. In fact, slack key can be played on virtually any stringed instrument, and a ukulele is also common.

The style itself is a fingerstyle, with a fair share of slides and bending, and a number of different tunings. Although the most common slack key guitar tunings are open D and G, there are many more, some of which are secrets that have been passed down through families. Here lies one of the main problems with Hawaiian slack key: the secrecy. Many keys and fingerpicking techniques are endangered because they are no longer being passed down as they once were due to the lack of commercial demand for the style.

Youngsters are taking up more commercial forms of guitar playing rather than the traditional slack key, and the continuation of traditions are now resting on the shoulders of great players such as Keola Beamer, Ledward Ka’Apana and Mark Kailana Nelson. Not only are they great players of the style, but they are also excellent and respected teachers of slack key, and it is to them, and others like them, that you should be looking to learn to play that style of guitar music.

Tuning in slack key can be very personal, and many tunings are close-kept family secrets to the extent that guitars would be detuned after each playing to prevent anybody checking up on the tuning being used. The number of tunings is unknown but it will certainly exceed the 20 - 30 that are currently recorded. Some of these keys are more suited to steel strings, although nylon strings are preferred because they provide a purer tone. The problem with a nylon string is that it has a memory, and tends to return to a previous tuning and so rapidly goes out of tune from the desired key.

If you want to learn Hawaiian slack key guitar it is important first that you get a good teacher. Guitar books are fine, but you really need to see the fingerstyle used, and how the thumb provides the rhythm while the fingers play the melody. This takes practice, but you also have to start right. Bad habits can be difficult to correct in guitar playing, and slack key guitar involves two major components.

These are the tuning and the fingerpicking. Each of these is what makes Hawaiian slack key what it is: a beautiful, calm and sweet sound, soothing to the ears and amazingly easy to learn if difficult to master. It is easiest learned online than by use of a CD or DVD, since the web can be used to teach guitar in innovative ways that normal methods would find impossible to emulate. Not only do you get to hear what your music should sound like, but you can see how it is produced.

You could argue that a video can do the same thing - you can also see and listen with a video, and basically exactly the same lessons can be given on a DVD as online. This is basically true, but an online membership site offers advantages that a video cannot. Updating of the course is one. An online course can be modified in response to user comments, and new music can be introduced, although that is not the main advantage. That lies in the supplementary materials.

An online guitar tuition site can offer written material to go along with the video instruction. You can print off the supplementary material that is generally a description of what you learn during each part of the course, together with diagrams of chord positions, keys and scales. You can also be provided with a separate section on the site showing chord diagrams and the like, and another page offering songs and backing tracks to play along to.

Then there is the question of scope and length of course. An online course has no limitation of space or time as a DVD would have. You can visit any of the courses on the site and learn a few techniques from the heavy metal or rock sections, and perhaps find the bluegrass or fingerpicking course better for you in improving your fingering. Maybe after a hard hour or so of learning Hawaiian slack key you want to relax with a few classical guitar techniques, just for fun. You can then return to your lessons as many times as you like, every day all year.

Whatever method you use, make sure it suits you and that your tutor teaches in a style that you can easily follow. Hawaiian slack key is easy to learn if you already play in fingerstyle (but leave the pick), but even if not it will not be long until you can make some pretty good sounds. The secret is in the open tuning, and one of the beauties of slack key is that you can devise your own keying, and come up with something to give you your very own slack-key sound.

There is no doubt that when you decide to learn Hawaiian slack key you have a wonderful and satisfying road ahead of you, and nothing is more satisfying that listening to those beautiful sounds you are making. So find a good site with a good teacher and get started.

Learn Hawaiian slack key guitar from one of the world’s most respected slack key exponents, at http://www.jamplaynow.com and enjoy all the other benefits offered by a top class online guitar tuition site.

You have your web host, you have carefully designed your web site, and now you have ventured into the wonderful world of e-commerce. Undoubtedly, your web host will offer a statistics package to track some basic information on your site. Depending on what they track you could get some basic information on everything from the total number of visitors to what web browser they are using.

However, if you are planning on making money from your web site you will want more information to analyze and fine tune your web marketing efforts. Successful web marketers track how long visitors spend on their sites, which pages they visit, which page they left the site from, why they left from those pages, some even want to know what type of connection was used and when they visited. The good news is that you can get all of that information and more for free, courtesy of Google just go to, google.com/analytics.

How can you use all this information? Well, let’s say after tracking your site, you find that one of your pages has a high exit rate. You could then analyze the page to see why people are leaving. You could then make changes and track if the exit rate goes down. You could fine tune your entire site and get feedback on how it is working within 24 hours. But, this is only one example.

Google Analytics also play a part in SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. By analyzing which search engines are sending traffic, and changes to traffic from those search engines, you would be able to maximize your SEO efforts. There would be no need to wait for the results either, all of the reports and tracking would be available within 24 hours of making changes.

I use it to track my web site hits on my SEO Blog, so I can see how my optimization strategies are working, and what percentage of new readers become subscribers. With the software installed I can see who sent new traffic, how long they stayed, if my post is interesting, and I am able to use the information to make changes to my topics. I am also able to judge my readers loyalty by how many times and how long they spend reading my posts. I actually have the ability to drill down to see exactly what city my traffic is coming from.

I have only scratched the surface of all the cool features in this tool. It is the first thing I look at on-line each day to see how my sites are doing, but you can also track sales, set up goals, track visitors all the way through the order process.

If you chose to track your sales data, there is a whole variety of additional reports that can be generated including conversion rate, amount earned per visitor, and more

Setting up Google Analytics, Let me first make it clear that I am not a web design expert, and I had no problem installing this and getting it to work without crashing my Blog, this is where I installed the analytics program to test it.

If you are not an expert in HTML, I would suggest you copy the code from your web page into your HTML editor. Play with placement and preview to make sure you don’t mess things up before doing it live on your site. That way if you do make a mistake you can simply close the editor without saving your changes.

After signing up, you will need to set up a new website profile. Click on the “Create New Profile” tab and fill in your site details. The form is pretty straight forward and can be completed in just a few minutes.

After completing your profile, all you have to do is copy and paste the tracking code onto the page you want to track. If your site has a header or footer that comes up on every page, just copy the code there, and all of your pages will be tracked.

Once the tracking code is inserted, Google will update your statistics every 24 hours. Congratulations you now have all the tools to become an Internet marketing guru!

Robert Emmerson is a freelance writer specializing in Internet marketing, Blogging, and making money online. You can read all of his articles, and get some tips and tricks to make money on the Internet at http://www.robemmerson.com

Holiday destinations like Bali can make your holiday a memorable one. Bali is an Indonesian Island located in between the islands of Java and Lombok. The scenic beauty in the backdrops of natural ambiance like rice paddies, volcanic mountains, lush tropical forests, and fascinating beaches surround the city. If you want to explore the diversity of culture, natural beauty, and the Balinese society, then come to Bali.

In Bali, beach lovers will definitely enjoy the white sandy beaches and warm crystal clear water of the Indian Ocean. Apart from these there are many attractive colourful events that take place in Bali. So, to indulge yourself to its interesting happening events what you need is to fix a partnership hotel to stay. If you are looking for discount Bali hotel then undoubtedly you can find such cheap hotels which are pocket and budget friendly.

Before you select a hotel just keep in mind these below mentioned five tips for booking discount Bali hotels.

1. Make a search on the internet search engines by selecting a proper keyword relating booking discount Bali hotels online. A few best search engines must to mention here are Google.com, Yahoo.com, Ask.com, Altavista.com, Msn.com etc.

2. Get confirm about the relevancy and authenticity of the websites which display the search result of booking cheap Bali hotels. For that you can do some research works like domain age. Domain age is nothing but the lease period of that particular website. The trusted partnership always has a domain age of at least 2 years. If a website offers online booking then you must check whether it has secure SSL service or not. SSL gives you the authenticity and protects you from being victimised by internet frauds.

3. Then search the hotel map and see the location and availability. Location can be determined through encyclopedia or Google maps. You can also search by location and preferred language. For that, you can make changes in settings, every search engines has there own settings.

4. Some of the hotel booking sites promises many facilities and offers. Check them whether they are true or not by browsing the particular hotel website. Always compare the discount hotels rates as every hotel has their own discount offers. Also never forget to check the hotel reviews and facilities. Hotel reviews are very popular way to find out about the hotel and its adeptness’s.

5. Don’t be tax in selecting discount hotels for you need a little research work because it is advisable to compare and contrast the rates of the hotels which are offering discountable rates. By doing these you can get the lowest discount rate hotels and on the same time reliable as well.

The aforementioned tips can be a useful advice for the travelers and definitely these five tips for booking discount Bali hotels can minimize the worries and hurries of a budget traveler.

Discount Bali Hotels can be booked easily through disrooms online hotel reservations services. It offers thousands of cheap and discount hotels worldwide. Comprehensive lists of hotels and resorts are available with attractive features and pictures.