Internet porn: Automatic block rejected

Ministers have rejected plans to automatically block internet access to pornography on all computers, saying the move is not widely supported.

A public consultation found 35% of parents wanted an automatic bar while 15% wanted some content filtered, and an option to block other material.

But the government says internet providers should encourage parents to switch on parental controls.

Claire Perry, the MP who led the campaign, said she was "disappointed".

The NSPCC said parents' voices were not being heard.
There were more than 3,500 responses to the 10-week consultation - which included those from members of the public, academics, charities and communication firms as well as 757 from parents.

Respondents were asked to answer "yes", "no" or "maybe" to three separate questions about how internet service providers (ISP) could play a role in limiting access.

An automatic block would mean users would have to actively request that pornographic content was made available by their ISP.

Mrs Perry, the Conservative MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, led the campaign and handed over a petition to Downing Street containing more than 115,000 names.

She chaired the cross-party Independent Parliamentary Inquiry on Online Child Protection which concluded in April that government and ISPs needed to do more to keep children safe online.

She told BBC News she was "obviously disappointed that the opt-in option has been rejected" but she added: "Clearly that was not the preferred choice of the 3,500 people who responded to the consultation and we have to base policy on what's been received not what we want."

'Sea change'

She said she was pleased internet service providers would have to actively encourage and prompt parents to switch on filters which will block adult sites to children and verify the age of the person setting up the controls.

She said the exercise had helped to obtain a "sea change in attitude" from ISPs.

The report said there was "no great appetite among parents for the introduction of default filtering of the internet by their ISP - only 35% of the parents who responded favoured that approach".

Some 13% said they favoured "a system where you are automatically asked some questions about what you want your children to be able to access".

And 15% answered "yes" to a system that combined the previous two approaches where some harmful content, such as pornography, was automatically blocked but parents were also asked about what other content their children could access.

The NSPCC said the figures showed that half of the parents who took part in the consultation wanted some sort of automatic block on online pornography.

But the report said an automatic ban - or "opt-in" - approach could lead parents into a "false sense of security" because it could not filter "all potentially harmful content".

'Over-blocking' risk

It also did not "deal with harms such as bullying, personal abuse, grooming or sexual exploitation which arise from the behaviour of other internet users".

It added: "There is also a risk from 'over-blocking' - preventing access to websites which provide helpful information on sexual health or sexual identity, issues which young people may want information on but find difficult to talk to their parents about."

About 70% of the 78 voluntary and community sector organisations that responded answered "yes" to an automatic block while a strong majority of respondents from all other groups answered "no".

While a large majority of the 77 information and communication businesses questioned were against all forms of control, they gave most support (about 18%) to the second approach, in which parents decide what they want their children to access on the internet.

The report found that, taking respondents as a whole, the majority were against all forms of control with more than 80% answering no to each of the three questions.

It praised the the four main ISPs - BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky - for signing up to a code of practice, offering customers a choice of whether to apply filters, but said providers should go further and actively encourage parents to turn them on.

'Right direction'

The NSPCC said that while the government's response was "a step in the right direction in making the internet safer for children" it was "disappointing" it had not gone further.

"The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by internet service providers," head of corporate affairs Alan Wardle said.

"Hardcore pornographic videos are just a few clicks away and a quarter of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material online."

He said it was vital new measures were rolled out to new and existing customers "quickly".

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, which is opposed to default filtering, said: "This is a positive step that strikes the right balance between child safety and parental responsibility without infringing on civil liberties and freedom of speech.

"The policy recognises it is parents, not government, who are responsible for controlling what their children see online and rightly avoids any kind of state-mandated blocking of legal content."

Source : BBC News

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What Is Google Panda?

With the amount of information that is available on the internet these days, it becomes very difficult for search engines to segregate quality content from the duplicate and rehashed content. Looking at it from the user's point of view, it can be very frustrating to find bad and irrelevant content in search results. This is where Google Panda has a role to play.

Google Panda is a change in the algorithm of Google. This was introduced to remove all the junk content from Google's search results. Panda segregates content and ranks good quality content higher in the search results and pushes down low quality content. Low quality content can have a negative impact on the entire website, thanks to Google Panda. As a result, website owners can no longer use low quality content and call it "SEO content".

Google Panda was launched in February 2011 and was made open to the world in April 2011. In March 2012, Google also added a penalty for over-optimization as a part of the Panda algorithm.

The Effect of Google Panda

One of the biggest effects of Panda was that all the websites who used content from other sources saw a drastic fall in their rankings. All the websites which had lots of pages with almost the same content (with a few differences like cities, states or countries) were taken off the search results. All the sites with high quality content saw a rise in their rankings.

Google Panda has not replaced any of the previous algorithms. It is just an addition to the Google algorithm along with the other 200 odd factors that are already there. However, Panda has a greater impact on a website's search engine performance as compared to the other algorithms.

How does Panda Work?

The algorithm of a search engine is like a math formula which takes into consideration a number of parameters before deciding which URL to rank higher in the search engine results. However, the main concern of the algorithm is the person who enters the search query. The search engines strive to provide results that meet the requirements of the person who is doing the search. These algorithms do not promote or demote a website. Sine their main focus is the user, any change that is made to the algorithm is with the intention of providing the user with quality search results. The quality of the website that is there in the search rankings is determined by using high level language and artificial intelligence by Google Panda. Some of the features that play an important role in determining the quality of a site are design, speed and trustworthiness.

Google Panda and SEO

How can one make their website SEO friendly and still do well with Panda? You will not have to do anything new if you make sure that the content of your website is quality content that is different from the rest of the sites that are around. Many white hat SEO companies always stress on the importance of high quality content and its importance to the growth of the site.

If your site has seen a dip in rankings due to Panda, there are certain things that you may do to improve these rankings. These are:

· Make your audience your focus

· Do not keep duplicate content on your site

· Do not spam

· Keep only high quality content on your site

· Engage your audience

Many low quality SEO companies and writes may not be able to survive in the market thanks to Google Panda. The main focus of this is to give importance to quality than cost. The sites that will give importance to content that is well researched and liked by visitors will emerge winners. To win in the age of Google Panda, you need to partner a good internet marketing services company that will ensure your brand grows online, ethically and sustainably.

Tanya Jones is a staff writer for Flying Cow Design, a Professional Website Design company.

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5 Ways To Effectively Review For A CSET Exam

Preparing for a CSET test is no joke and cramming for it is unheard of. You must be well aware by now as a teacher, that a certification exam will require thorough memorization, practice, and review and application. When you prepare well head of time, you are able to exhaust all efforts and resources into reviewing for the exam. This is essential because reading through a CSET multiple subjects study guide and taking the subjects practice test are not sufficient when you review, thus you will need all the help you can get to pass the test. So, what do you have to do to prep up for a CSET test?

Memorization

It is a fact that certification exams especially a multiple subjects CSET exam will require plenty of memorization. You just can not browse through a study guide and think that you already know everything you have read. Memorization helps improve your memory and retain the information being studied.

When you review your CSET study guide and other literature, you may want to read the information out loud and repeat it to yourself. Your brain will be able to remember details which are of importance, so when you repeat it over and over again, your brain automatically comprehends that the information being relayed is important.

However, you must always set a proper study time and place for memorization. Clear out an hour or two each day in your active lifestyle and chose a quiet area with minimal distractions where you can memorize. You must also limit the CSET multiple subjects being reviewed each day. After all studying science, mathematics, reading, language, literature, social science, history, human development, physical education and visual and performing arts all at once is simply impossible.

Review

Consistent reviewing is essential when preparing for a CSET multiple subjects exam. You can not memorize everything in just one review and reading. Like anyone, you can quickly forget information that has been memorized after some tome. To avoid this, you must review again after a few days or weeks.

It is also a good idea to take down notes when you study and memorize your CSET study guide. You can also record yourself when reviewing so that you can play back the recording during your free time or before you go to sleep until the day of your CSET multiple subjects test.

Attend Study Groups

There are also study groups in your area that you can participate in when reviewing for a CSET multiple subjects test. People who participate in such groups are serious about prepping up for the CSET test, yet they make it a point to do so in an active and fun way.

As a teacher you must know that having fun when you learn is an effective form of preparation for an exam. Everyone shares tips and ideas on learning which allows you to tackle the different CSET exam content in your guide.

Practice

Another effective way of prepping for the CSET test is by taking a multiple subjects practice test. You can easily find practice tests being offered online and in books. When you attend a study group, you will find yourself participating in practice tests for different CSET subjects.

Just like how study materials such as a CSET multiple subjects study guide are essential during your reviews, practice exams are as essential too. You can visit your university library or local library for practice test literature or you can easily purchase multiple subjects practice test from reliable websites online.

It is imperative that you take advantage of practice tests considering the fact that a multiple subjects CSET exam will also focus on your skills in communicating the information with your students for effective learning and strategizing your teaching skills to accommodate all types of learners in a classroom.

Application

After consistently reviewing your CSET study guide and taking up a multiple subjects practice test, you may want to try applying what you have reviewed inside the classroom. Preparing for the CSET subjects test also involves real application so there is nothing more effective than trying out what you have studied on your students. When you test yourself on the application each day, you become thorough with what you are prepping for. This will help you keep the studied information in your head for the big day and beyond.

Valerie Grace Vergabera is freelance writer specializing in review preparations and practice tests for certification exams such as the CSET subjects test for teachers.

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5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Change Your Life

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that commitment to a daily inward practice opened the door to wonderful things coming into my life. I was at the darkest hour, it was several years after I tragically lost my son and my husband, and I was plagued with feelings of hopelessness and indifference.

Timothy Ferris says in his best selling book, "The 4 Hour Work Week," that the opposite of happiness is boredom, and the opposite of love is indifference.

In that chaotic chapter of my life, I would wake up and feel no excitement, no desire, and absolutely no joy. I would hear a fearful voice in my head saying, Oh no! What are you going to do now! How will you survive? You experienced the worst that could happen and now you have to be sad for the rest of your life!

When I was faced with a career change and redefining myself I heard... You're getting older, no one will hire you! You can't start a whole new life, now!

And ladies... what about this one... You're fat in those pants! How can you stand yourself?

Does that little voice resonate within you, too? We all have one, living inside our heads. It's the voice of fear, and we will never, ever find peace in our lives if we listen to it, feed it, and give it power.

Tony Robbins says people will change when they've suffered enough. Are you there? Are you exhausted by being you? Or are you at a starting line just waiting for the bell to go off?

I remember one time, my sister said "I feel sometimes like I'm just waiting for my real life to begin." Have you ever considered that your past, no matter how difficult it was, may actually be the platform to your exciting future? I developed these 5 steps to empower your life. It was born out of my own challenges forcing me to look at a new way of life.

The 5 step process below is one way to begin your journey.

It's irresistible, isn't it? To think that you're just five steps away from designing your life, your way.

Step Number 1

Morning Flashcards

Yes! Your mind is a computer. I was shown this right after my son died. My mind began a series of flashbacks, playing over and over in my brain for months. I saw and recalled incidents that were long forgotten, until I didn't need to hold the memories in the forefront any longer. Now they are tucked away inside a folder on my brain's hard drive.

What I learned from this is how to "download" and implement resilience, creativity, motivation, and love.

You can do anything for one minute, can't you? Meditation is a time to be still. It's like prayer without words. Everyone struggles with meditation. It seems boring and impossible. Here's the truth: Expect nothing from meditation, and consistent use will give you everything.

Try to think only of breathing. Every time a thought goes in, breathe it away. Thoughts will flow in and out, in and out. Just keep redirecting your thoughts to breathing. Start with 1 minute, and go up to 5 if you like. Then take a deep cleansing breath to signify the end of meditation.

Keeping your eyes closed after meditation, follow with Morning Flashcards for your brain. Since your brain is clear and relaxed from meditation, it's ready to be programmed with good and productive thoughts.

Your brain can be programmed. So... write these words down on individual cards, then look at the word and think of something that represents each word.

Picture yourself:

• Happy
• Fit and healthy
• Successful
• In love
• Giving love
• Peaceful heart

Step Number 2

Template for Each Day

Every day include:

• meditation/prayer/brain flashcards


• exercise


• mindful and enjoyable eating, meaning choose foods that are good for you and make you happy.


• Friends and Family


• Read at least 15 minutes per day, no matter what. Especially in the areas of mind, body, spirit, your business, or your personal interests. Don't waste time reading the entire newspaper, it will only depress you. If you must, look for the inspired stories and information pertaining to your life.


• If it's a workday, make it count. Find the parts of your work that make it meaningful. Is it contact with people? Using your creative spirit to write ad copy? Designing a new program?


• Down time means relaxing your brain. A lot of people use television to do this, but this is actually stimulating. Try something that doesn't take too much thinking. When my son died, I did gardening or painting. It was soothing and brought peace to my thoughts


• Before Bed, have gratitude for the day and ask for peaceful, restorative sleep.

Gandhi said "We must BE the change we want to see in the world."

Being consistent with this template will change you and change those around you.

Step Number 3

Create the Soundtracks of Your Life

I think just about everyone has an iPod, MP3, iPad, or at least access to iTunes on their computer. Music is a gift of life. From the beginning of time we, as people have been singing, humming, chanting, whistling, playing instruments, or playing music. There's a reason. It balances the soul. Rhythm is in your being. Just listen to your heart, or your breathing, or watch how you blink. It's involuntary, but it's there.

Mary Carden, a teacher of the Carden method puts everything to music for children to learn. Even numbers have a rhythm.

For this reason, give yourself the gift of creating your soundtracks. iTunes makes it so easy. There are other programs out there too. I have my morning soundtrack that gets me pumped up for the day.! It begins with Black Eyed Peas singing "I Got A Feeling."

Sales experts will tell you to play a song before you make the "big pitch." It get's you energized! Excited! Feeling powerful! You're in rhythm and that makes you attract people to your rhythm!

When I'm frustrated, my soundtrack begins with "Let it Be."

When I'm feeling romantic, my soundtrack begins with Peter Gabriel singing "The Book of Love."

When I'm writing, my guilty pleasure is opera. Because it's in Italian, the words don't distract me, but the music is inspiring!

Step Number 4

Defining Moments

What personal life experiences have defined who you are?

Write down moments that were positive and moments that were negative. Positive experiences might be going to college, starting a new career, meeting a significant person in your life. Negatives might be loss of a job, a divorce, or illness.

Positive:

1.

2.

3.

Negative:

1.

2.

3.

Now go back and list one or two words to assign the lesson learned to the defining moment. Here's a hint for finding the lesson. Say to yourself, "If I knew then, what I know now... " For instance, my daughter being born with a facial birth defect taught me the "Beauty of Imperfection."

Step Number 5

Your Table of Contents

Author, William Bridges, of "The Way of Transition" suggests creating the Table of Contents of your life. I know what mine are... do you?

List chapters from your past and your future. Some of my past chapters that were my defining moments:

• Awakening to the Beauty of Imperfection (this one is about my daughter's birth)
• Resilience and the Gift of Re-Inventing My Life after 50 (the loss of my husband and having to create a new career to support my family)

Some of the chapters for my future:

• My Estate of Being (how I gathered together my career and my investments to create a balanced and peaceful future)
• Finding Blissville

I have good news for you. Start this new practice tomorrow and in 21 days it will be a habit. Are you seeing the possibility! All things are possible! As you begin to implement these practices, you will awaken your resilience to discover inner peace, guidance, your ability to receive more abundance and success.

And let's not forget Love! The most important part of your life is the ability to give and receive love.

This is just the beginning of an new amazing life path! May it be filled with purpose and joy.

Sandy Peckinpah is the author of 6 books, is a staff writer for a magazine, and is a speaker. One of her books made it to the Grammy Ballot as a spoken word CD. She focuses on changing peoples' lives by implementing tools that help awaken inner strength, resilience, abundance, and joy. Read more at http://BreakthroughToHappy.com or http://SandyPeckinpah.com

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Investors offer about $38.8 billion euros in Greek debt buyback: source

- Greece is set to purchase back about half of its debt owned by private investors, broadly succeeding in a bond buyback that is key to the country's international bailout, a Greek government official said on Saturday.

Greek and foreign bondholders offered the targeted 30 billion euros ($38.8 billion) in the deal, which is central to efforts by Greece's euro zoneand International Monetary Fund lenders to cut its debt to manageable levels.

"The buyback went well in broad terms. The amount offered by investors was within the range expected, about 30 billion euros," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He did not provide more details.

No formal announcement is expected before Monday, another official told Reuters.

The buyback accounts for about half of a broader, 40-billion euro EU/IMF debt relief package for Athens agreed in November. The package broadly doubles the average maturity of its rescue loans to almost 30 years and cuts its interest rates by one percentage point to a level far below 1 percent.

Under its terms, Athens will spend up to 10 billion euros of borrowed money to buy back bonds with a nominal value of about 30 billion euros. This is nearly half the 63 billion euros of Greek debt held by private investors eligible for the plan.

Since the bonds are to be bought far below their nominal value, the country's net debt burden would fall by about 20 billion euros.

A successful buyback will ensure that the IMF, which contributes about a third of Greece's bailout loans, will stay on board of the rescue. It would also unlock the payment of 34.4 billion euros of aid later this month.

Athens badly needs that money to refloat its ailing economy by replenishing the capital of its cash-strapped banks and settle arrears with government suppliers.

The EU and the IMF have been withholding rescue payments to Greece for six months because it had fallen short of promises to shore up its finances, privatize and make its economy more competitive.

Athens has received 148.6 billion euros in EU/IMF funds since May 2010. It stands to get almost 90 billion euros more by the end of 2014.

But the rescue comes at a heavy price. Austerity measures taken in exchange for aid have plunged the country into economic depression. Unemployment hit a record 26 percent in September, the highest in the euro zone.

The economy is going through its fifth consecutive year of recession and is expected to have shrunk by 24 percent when recovery begins in 2014.

GREEK BANKS ON BOARD

The buyback was expected to go well after Greek banks, which hold about 17 billion euros of bonds, announced shortly before a Friday deadline they would take part. Two Cypriot lenders also said they would offer their bonds.

Foreign investors have offered between 15 and 16 billion euros worth of bonds, Greek newspapers reported on Saturday, citing initial estimates without saying how they got them.

Athens' hopes of drawing enough investors to the scheme grew after it announced better-than-expected terms on Monday, with price ranges at a premium over market prices.

The price range varied from a minimum of 30.2 to 38.1 percent and a maximum of 32.2 to 40.1 percent of the principal amount, depending on the maturities of the 20 series of outstanding bonds.

Hedge funds, which bought the debt at rock-bottom prices when it was feared the country would exit the euro, are estimated to hold a large part of Greek debt and the offer was seen as good enough to make them a nice profit.

"Athens put forth a reasonable if not generous offer for hedge funds to participate," Sassan Ghahramani, CEO at New York-based Macro Advisers, a hedge fund consultancy, said on Friday.

"I expect there will be strong participation from hedge funds, tendering a substantial portion of their Greek bond holdings," he said.

The government also enticed Greek bankers by offering to protect them from possible shareholder lawsuits stemming from the buyback.

Greek bankers had been reluctant to take part, in the fear they would book losses on top of the ones they incurred earlier this year when Athens enforced a debt cut on its bondholders.

But the lenders were nevertheless expected to participate because they depend on the bailout funds that Athens stands to receive if its bailout continues smoothly.

($1 = 0.7735 euros)

(Reuters) 

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Exclusive: U.S. authorities probe SAC for Weight Watchers - sources

(Reuters) - U.S. authorities are investigating Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund for possible insider trading in the shares of the popular diet company Weight Watchers International Inc, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation focuses on trading in Weight Watchers shares in the first half of 2011, when SAC Capital had taken a sizeable position in the stock, and potentially could implicate the billionaire hedge fund manager, the sources said on Friday.

Regulatory filings show that Cohen's $14 billion fund briefly held 2.1 million shares in Weight Watchers during the period under scrutiny by authorities - at which time the diet company's stock price roughly doubled.

The inquiry is in its early stages and it is not clear whether anything improper was done either by SAC Capital or Cohen himself, said the people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity. The trading in Weight Watchers would be permissible as long as it was based on fundamental research or derived from individuals who did not have access to non-public corporate information.

An SAC Capital spokesman said the firm was not aware of any investigation involving Weight Watchers. A spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declined to comment. A spokesperson for Weight Watchers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new line of pursuit ratchets up pressure on Cohen, 56, one of the hedge fund industry's most successful and best-known managers. The spotlight the probe casts on SAC Capital and Cohen could further rattle the hedge fund's investors, who account for roughly 40 percent of the firm's capital.

Two weeks ago, U.S. prosecutors charged a former SAC Capital employee, Mathew Martoma, with using inside information to generate profits and avoid losses totaling $276 million in shares of two drug stocks. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also has formally warned SAC Capital that the firm could face civil charges.

A number of SAC's investors have said they have not made a decision on whether to redeem money from the firm. Investors have until mid-February to put in a redemption notice.

Martoma has not entered a plea but his lawyer has said he expects to be exonerated. SAC has declined to comment beyond saying, "Mr. Cohen and SAC are confident that they have acted appropriately."

Martoma is the seventh former SAC Capital employee to be charged or implicated by federal authorities for insider trading. The criminal complaint against Martoma, who last worked for CR Intrinsic, an affiliated fund of SAC Capital in 2010, for the first time alleges that Cohen personally approved the decision to sell-out of a big stake the hedge fund had in shares of Elan Corp and Wyeth, now part of Pfizer Inc.

Separately, U.S. authorities are also investigating SAC for suspicious trading in shares of biotech company InterMune Inc. in 2010, according to one of the people familiar with the probes. Officials at InterMune weren't immediately available for comment. The SAC spokesman declined to comment on the InterMune investigation.

Federal authorities have not charged Cohen, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at about $8.8 billion as of September this year. The hedge fund manager has told his investors and 900 employees that neither he nor the firm has done anything improper in response to Martoma's arrest.

It's not clear what has prompted federal authorities to look into Stamford, Conn.-based SAC Capital's trading in shares of Weight Watchers. One of the people familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at trading that both booked hefty profits and avoided losses for SAC Capital.

BIG MOVE INTO WEIGHT WATCHERS

Over his 20 years in the business, Cohen has emerged as one of the pioneers of sophisticated trading. His funds, which charge some of the highest fees in the $2 trillion industry, has boasted an average annual return of 30 percent since launch in 1992.

This year, SAC Capital's main fund is up about 12 percent, compared to the industry average of just over 5 percent. SAC Capital's only down year was in 2008, when it lost 19 percent of its value.

Cohen has endured federal authorities looking into trading at his firm for about five years now. The investigation into SAC Capital ran parallel with the federal government's undercover investigation that led to the October 2009 arrest of Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted by a federal jury on May 2011 on 14 counts of insider trading.

SAC Capital's big move into Weight Watcher's stock in early 2011 gained attention in part because it came at a time that the once-heavyset Cohen had lost about 20 pounds. (It's not clear if he used Weight Watchers.) The trader has said he lost the weight to help with a chronic bad back.

A first quarter 2011 regulatory filing for SAC Capital showed the firm had acquired 2.1 million shares of the stock. But by the end of the next quarter, a subsequent filing revealed the hedge fund had unloaded nearly all of those shares.

It is not uncommon for a rapid-fire trading firm like SAC Capital to move in and out stocks - even big positions. SAC Capital, in particular, is not known for holding stocks for a long time.

SAC Capital's trading strategy relies on analysts and portfolio managers gathering information about a company's prospects before making a trading decision. Cohen has told people privately he believes his firm has drawn unwanted scrutiny from the government because of its long history of success.

Cohen has become an avid art collector in recent years, with a number of Jeff Koons sculptures gracing the grounds of his 30-room mansion in Greenwich, Conn.

Cohen, who grew up on Long Island in Great Neck, New York, is also pursuing the kind of charitable legacy building done by other famous Wall Street money managers. In 2010, the North Shore-LIJ's pediatric hospital was renamed the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, after Cohen and his second wife in recognition of their donations.

More recently, he took a minority ownership stake in the New York Mets baseball team after failing to win the rights to buy another team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

(Reporting by Matthew Goldstein, Jennifer Ablan and Emily Flitter; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Bernard Orr)

Reuters

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27 Ways 2 Make Money 4 Teens

1. Make Money Online with Swagbucks

Basically this is a free site that offers you a bunch of ways to earn cash, gift cards, or other rewards.

You can earn by answering polls, taking surveys, doing simple tasks (like giving feedback about a website), trading in old video games or books, and even playing games on their site.

I have tried it out and have received multiple payments from them, so I can attest that it is legit. While you won’t get rich doing this, to me it seems like a great way for internet-loving teens to make some money. Find out more here.

2. Cleaning out Foreclosed Homes

With there being as many foreclosed homes out there as there are, the bankers (who now own the houses) don’t want to clean them up and they are willing to pay hefty sums for those who will. So it is fairly easy to start a Foreclosure cleanup business and get paid pretty well in the process. If you are interested here is a course you can take to learn more.

3. Freebie Trading

A couple years ago I did an interview with a guy who made $28,000 in one year doing this part time. It is work and requires organization skills to do it well, but it is legit.

I tried my hand at it using Project Payday and their training materials to see that it was legit.

Basically companies are willing to pay you to do trial offers for their products. They know that many people who do the trial offer will like their product and continue to be customers, so they are willing to pay people to sign up for trial offers.

So one of the main ways of making money freebie trading is signing up for offers like a Free Netflix trial, emusic.com, applying for a Discover Card, etc. The key to success seems to be having a calendar where you can keep track of when the trial periods end and make sure to cancel before they end.

If you are interested in learning more I definitely recommend Project Payday as they have a ton of training guides (free if you complete a couple offers) that will greatly simplify the process.

4. Take online surveys

This one can be hit or miss. I have used some survey sites and had a bad experience (CashCrate), on the other hand I have found some survey sites to be a decent way to earn a few extra bucks. Here are a few if you want to investigate further:

• Swagbucks
• Global Test Market
• Inbox Dollars
• MySurvey
• Vindale Research
• Fusion Cash

I recommend proceeding with caution and definitely not paying anything to join.

5. Raise Money Online

If you are raising money for a community service project or missions, you might want to check out a site likeGoFundMe.com. They make it easy for teens to raise money for any type of project. People have used it to raise the money for everything from mission trips to medical bills, weddings and honeymoons, business ventures, and even college tuition.

6. Start a Christmas Light Hanging business

If you aren’t afraid of heights and can handle being out in the cold, this is a pretty great business opp. Some people earn a full-year’s salary just hanging lights for 2 months each year. Here is a course that provides some more info.

7. Find odd-jobs on Craigslist

Some of these might be landscaping work, or similar odd-jobs, but it might be great summer time work for teens!

8. Freelance Write

As they say on the web “content is king” and everyone wants it. Places like Elance or Odeskhave thousands of different job openings available for freelance writers. If you are not in a rush for receiving compensation and know how to do keyword research, there is money to be made writing at Hubpages and Squidoo. For more on this method, check out How to make money with Hubpages.

9. Sell Plasma

Not sure how old you have to be, nor how painful it is, but if you are into that sort of thing, it can be a way to make some quick money.

10. Write product reviews

There are places like Ciao, Epinions.com, ReviewStream.com that pay for product reviews – if you have an opinion and can type quickly this might be a good option.

11. Take part in medical studies

I have a couple friends who have almost done this exclusively as a job. They were basically human guinea pigs, but they made some decent cash at it. Sometimes they would have be at the medical facility for up to 48 hours, so your schedule may need to be flexible. Just google “medical studies” + your city to find some options.

12. Get Paid With Your Phonewalk

Juno Wallet and Gigwalk is are fairly new iPhone apps that offer payment for completing simple tasks based on your location. For example users earn by taking pictures of a restaurant’s menu, verifying roadblocks and signage, and other simple tasks. If you are in a big city (which typically has more opportunities) there is some decent potential with this one.

13. Have a Garage Sale

If it is something too large or that won’t sell on eBay for some reason, you can always have an old-fashioned garage sale!

14. Tutor or give lessons

Are you great at math, science, or kicking a field goal? Why not advertise your skills to those a few years younger than you? Many parents are willing to pay a teenager to tutor their child in an area that needs development.

15. Create Facebook Graphics or Pages

or Twitter backgrounds for that matter. Just set up a simple site to sell your work, get a paypal “buy it now link” and you are off and running.

16. Social Marketing Consultant

Many companies are looking for qualified candidates who know the ins and outs of Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter to help them with their social marketing efforts. Head over to a job siteand search for “social media marketing”.

17. Use Fiverr.com to sell some service

Fiverr.com is a service-orientated website that allows you to sell your service for $5. As you can probably imagine there are a lot of bizzarre services that people offer. But if you do some searching on the site you can start to see some opportunities for a lot of different skill-sets.

18. Build Websites For Others

I can’t tell you how many people have asked me to build them a website since I started this one a couple years ago. I am not seeking the work and people are requesting it, so if you do a little legwork and pursue small business owners, there is a lot of work available. Teens might be great for this, because they would be able to work for less than some higher end website developers, which would put them in the price range that it seems many small businesses are looking to spend.

19. Blogging

Two years ago I wasn’t sure if there was money to be made blogging, but I have since found it to work out nicely. It isn’t something that will provide much income quickly, but if you stick at it, it can. I wrote extensively about how to make money from a blog a few months ago.

20. Design Web Logos

If you have a flair for design, it may be worth trying to make some money designing logos for small business or blogs.

23. Sell Digital Photos

Making money as a photographer has become easier over the last decade. There are now lots of sites looking to buy digital photos: Shutterstock.com, 123RF.com, Dreamstime.com,CreStock.com, Fotolia.com. As with most things, the better you are the more money you will make, but it can be nice passive income if you work at it.

24. Sell articles

Following in that same vein, you can sell articles you write at places like Constant-Content.com,ArticleSale.com, Helium.com.

25. Start an eBay business

Last year I experimented with starting an eBay business to see if there was money to be made. While profit margins can be thin selling on eBay, there are over a million eBay businesses, so it is a viable option.

26. Sell widgets on Etsy.com

If you create any kind of arts or crafts or widgets of any sort, you should check out Etsy.com.

27. Join a Focus Group

There are likely to be focus groups in your area that may be willing to hire teens. Organizations are always looking for participants because there are business advantages for focus groups. Just Google “focus group” and your city to get started.

28. Be a Mystery Shopper

This is the dream job isn’t it? You get to shop and get paid! The added bonus is that you secretly have recourse when you are treated poorly in the store.

29. Sell stuff on eBay for your parents

I am sure your parents wouldn’t mind sharing some of the profits, if you sell some of their clutter for them. I say ask them for 50% of what you make from it!

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