Jackie Evancho Youtube

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America's Got Talent

August 11, 2010

I still think America's Got Talent should have/was only obligated to take one act from the YouTube pool of contestants. Instead, they felt the need to move four acts to the next round, out of guilt? legal obligation? Who can say. But because they insisted on advancing four of these mediocre acts on, instead of just The One (*cough*Jackie Evancho*cough*), my guesses as to who would move on to the next level was proven partially wrong again. Not entirely wrong, just a quarter wrong. Which means most of my guesses were right. And I've got some tips for you to how you can choose yourself some America's Got Talent winners. Not all of them mind you, but a solid 75% of them.

For instance:

1. America loves a prodigy.

NBC

So, yes. I thought Maestro Alexander Bui's performance was boring. And calling himself "Maestro" is not only kinda pompous but brings to mind a particular Seinfeld character, and that makes me giggle. But, yes, he's supremely talented, and from last night's group of 12, he certainly deserved to move on to the next round. Next up, Maestro needs to play something that America can connect with.

2. A well-performed gross-out act can captivate America.

NBC

Dan Sperry (which, if you say it fast enough sounds an awful lot like "dance fairy," which he most certainly is not) is freaky. But that's kinda awesome when we're talking about pulling Pep-O-Mints with dental floss out of one's throat skin. If you didn't see it, trust us, it was kinda cool. Now he needs to bring the Big Gross-Out. Or at least some sort of gross-out that NBC can get past the FCC.

3. Oh, come on, I need to explain this to you?

NBC

Girl can sing. I'm not saying she doesn't also creep me out a little -- let's all be honest here, that voice is just not normal. What I am saying is: see #1 above: America loves a prodigy. And Jackie Evancho is a real prodigy. In case you were unclear.

4. I don't know, America loves Pat Benatar wannabes?

NBC

I had Cute Boy Cam Hodges on my list, but, alas, t'was not to be. Cam and Kristin Young were the acts that the judges had to choose between, and they went with Kristin. CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT: I think they chose Kristin over Cam, not because she was all that much better than him, because she wasn't, but because they already have a surplus of Cute Boy singers. Anyway! Best of luck to ya, Kristin! Hope you don't have to compete against Jackie again any time soon!

Evolution of Dance

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They split the groups up weirdly on "America's Got Talent" -- and there was one surprising advancing act. Hint: it's NOTJackie Evancho.

Pup, Pizza Pat, Maestro Alexander Bui and Austin Anderson are the first group brought down. I'm rooting for Pat and Alexander, but who knows with the voting public? And the act advancing ... Alexander Bui. Piers is hilariously like, "I am SHOCKED!" It's a tad insulting to the other acts, but funny nonetheless.

Quick Change performs and it's pretty cool. I've seen them live at a minor league baseball game and they're fun. I especially like the changes under the glitter.

Now we have the Evolution of Dance, which is also awesome. It's too bad this was so short because in the original YouTube video he does a lot more dances.

The next group is Dylan Plummer, Dan Sperry and Booker Forte. It should probably be Dan Sperry out of this group. And then it is. Yeah, that's cool. He deserves a chance to do a bigger trick.

 The next performance is the Taiwanese Whitney Houston, Lin Yu-Chun with "I Will Always Love You," a song I personally detest. But the vocal is impressive. 

The next group of contestants is Ryan Rodriguez and Jackie Evancho. Oh, well. Duh. Can we just skip this one? Who thinks he will beat the little girl with the big voice? Nobody. Yeah. Howie asks Jackie to sing a note after she advances, thus hopefully quieting the rumors that she is lip-syncing.

Plutonic, Cam Hodges and Kristina Young are the last group. I hope it's Plutonic that goes through, but at least Kristina should go home before the judges' pick. And then Plutonic goes home first! Did not see that coming at all. Well, Cam should advance then.

After the judges deliberate, Howie sends Cam through, then Sharon sends through Kristina (which surprises me) and then Piers picks Kristina?!  Wow, that is a surprise!  Huh.

So next week is a Wild Card show where they are bringing back Michael Grasso, Connor Doran, Swing Shift Side Show, Kruti Dance Academy, Michael Lipari and Ashleigh Dejon, the Hot Shot Tap Dancers, RNG, CJ Dippa, Harmonica Pierre, Anna and Patryk, Doogie Horner and Rudi Macaggi. Drats, I thought we were onto the semi-finals. Fooled again!  

And in case you missed it, here's Jackie's performance from last night:  

Williams College

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Small private college ranked best in U.S.-report

(Reuters Life!) - A small private Massachusetts college ranked first in a report on the best U.S. colleges in 2010, beating Ivy League contenders such as Harvard and Yale.

Williams College, with about 2,200 students, nudged past Princeton and Amherst, which came in second and third on the list compiled by Forbes.com.

The United States Military Academy at West Point and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology rounded out the top five, while Harvard came in at No. 8 and Yale just slipped into the top 10.

"It's always gratifying to be considered among the top institutions in the county," said William Wagner, the dean of faculty at Williams College.

Forbes and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) in Washington D.C. compiled the list, its third, after considering the cost of tuition, the salaries of graduates and students' experiences.

They also looked at how many faculty and students go on to win Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes, and used data from websites such as RateMyProfessors.com and MyPlan.com to gauge how satisfied students were with their educational experiences.

"Colleges that don't saddle students with a lot of debt and places with small class sizes, rank higher," said David Ewalt, deputy editor at Forbes. "If you compare this year's top ten to last year's top ten, they're very close." said Ewalt.

The highest ranked public university is the University of Virginia, which was No. 44.

"There is a certain amount of, 'you get what you pay for.' Private schools can push class sizes down. There are some wonderful public universities. But private schools tend to do very well on the list," said Ewalt.

The Forbes/CCAP report only looked at nine percent of the 6,600 accredited institutions in the U.S.

Google SEO Book

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We all know that Webmasters Tools by Google are here to help webmasters in every inch of their website career, but did you know there is a Google SEO book available?

I never did, until my friend tweeted about it. Well, there is nothing new in this book but simply the basics covering every aspect of the Search Engine Optimization. This e-book has been named as “SEO for Beginners”.

In this book you can find out about all the terminologies, and important things taking part and organizing the whole SEO setup, but from Google’s aspect.

In this book some basic questions are also well answered, like:

• Can Google index your site?
• What are Robots and what Robot.txt means?
• What is really controlling Google indexes ?
• Robots.txt vs. Meta tags 9
• How to controlling caching and snippets?

Or if you are searching the ways to Increasing visibility of your content, some best practices are also mentioned by Google itself.

Download Making the Most of Your Content – A Publisher’s Guide to the Web – PDF file

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I’m sure none of you like to lose all your post that just wrote because of a power failure or computer crash.

Previously, Windows Live Writer had this auto-save feature enabled by default which would automatically save changes made to our articles after every 3 minutes. But they have left this option unchecked (disabled) in the latest Live Writer release.

This can be enabled by following the steps given below, because you never know when it might come in handy.

How To Auto Save in Windows Live Writer

1. Go to Tools from the top menu and select Options.

2. From the left side, select Editing.

3. The first option you will see at right side will be of auto-save feature.

4. Check “Automatically save drafts every” and enter the number of minutes below after which it is suppose to auto save. I kept it to 2 minutes.

5. Click OK to close the Options window.

Now Windows Live writer will automatically your post after every 2 minutes (or whatever minutes you entered).

Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 Release Date and Availability

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Kinect for Xbox 360 release date and availability has also been announced at today’s E3 2010 Xbox 360 keynote. Microsoft has already managed to steal the show today with their announcement and demo of Microsoft Kinetic.

Microsoft Kinetic will complete change the face of console gaming once it hits the market! Read more after the break for the release date and availability of Microsoft Kinect.

Microsoft Kinect Release Date

Kinect will be releasing on November 4th to the retail stores near you! Even the rumoured Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle will hit the stores on the same day!

Microsoft Kinect Price

Pricing has not been revealed at E3. It will be announced soemtime before Kinect is released to the market!

Windows Live Messenger 2010 Leaked

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Windows Live Messenger 2010 is a part of theWindows Live Essentials 4 that we will be seeing soon by Microsoft. This is something all Windows users look forward to every year.

Windows Live Essentials 4 is still under private beta testing, but it has now leaked over the web and available for download.

This leaked build is only for a few users allowed to beta test the apps, but a patch has been created which would allow you to atleast try out the nextWindows Live messenger 2010.

This is still an early release and many features may differ as the final version approaches, but the main new feature in this release is the social and expanded contacts view.

Rest I’d leave for you to explore and try. Download links given below.

Download Windows Live Messenger 2010, Messenger Patch

Windows Live Essentials 4 (Full Installer)

Windows Live Messenger 2010 Patch

[Via Sizlopedia]