jagger

www.marmeladesquest.com

This is the news from Times today:

"Sir Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones are preparing to follow Sir Paul McCartney and Radiohead and abandon EMI, the crisis-stricken British record label.

The likely defection of the world’s most commercially savvy rock band is a further blow to the credibility of EMI’s new owner, the venture capitalist Guy Hands, who is striving to cut costs amid an artists’ revolt. Sir Mick met Mr Hands during the negotiations over a renewal of the band’s existing EMI contract, but the financier whose best man was William Hague, did not make enough of an impression to persuade him to commit to a new deal."

The music industry, as we know it, is changing right under our noses. How many people buy CDs? Well, a lot more than three years ago, and to blame is, of course, the digital music outlets, like iTunes and Napster and of course, the illicit file sharing. Now, I love to buy a CD, to go to the store, take a look at all the offers, check the cover and the playlist on the back and ultimately take it home, tear the cellophane wrap and put in in the CD player. But when was the last time I did it?; that's right, almost one year ago. Because when you have iTunes installed on your computer, and you have all the music in the world so accessible and eager for you to download it, that you just want to skip the foreplay and go for it right here and right now. Also, who carries CDs with them any longer? Because once you buy it and you add it to your music library for your mp3 player, the CD it's just a nice piece of decoration on your dusted CD rack.

Now, what's that got to do with Mick Jagger, you may ask? Well, a CD is inevitably the product of a record company deal. They sign you up, help you produce the album, promote it for you, sell it for you and ultimately pay you the royalties. Does Rolling Stones need all of these? Nada. They can do it easily all buy themselves and sell the music digitally, like the savvy people from Radiohead did it before them. So, basically, companies like EMI lost their negotiation power with their artists, because they have nothing much to offer them. So they need to change their optics, and you what, I'm glad, because so much shitty music I have listened, whether I wanted it or not, just because the people from EMI and the likes pushed it and pushed it on the commercial radios to promote their "stars". Well, apparently they can't do that any longer now, in the peak of the digital era, people can't be so easily manipulated. Because you have so many sources to procure your music. The music that you truly like.

So this poor Guy, hehe, landed in the music business in the worst possible moment. Until six month before, when he bought the company, he owned a successful financial company. But I guess he got tired of it, and he wanted to be cool, to hang out with cool people, like Thom Yorke, Macca and Mick Jagger, but they just didn't accept him. Bummer.

I've seen Rolling Stones live, and trust me, they don't need anyone to start them up.

Life is a constant change, they all say. Nothing in this world is permanent, except for change itself. Everything changes with time, and there is not one thing in this world that s exempt from such a process. Search engines are included and, as trends come and go for the Internet, so do these engines rules and tactics.

Just recently, Google has introduced a critical update to its operation. Nicknamed Jagger, the update was done in 3 parts and practically turned the SEO world around. Jagger has made various changes to the algorithms and rules of how Google judges the relevancy and PageRank of a website.

SEO rules are in for a big revamp, and to survive in this world, sites must change with it.

Coping with Change Ensures Survival

Jagger has made changes to three key areas that are crucial in the calculation of a page s rank. These areas include the lifetime of a website, the calculation of backlinks, and the content and structure of a website.

In order to ensure the present ranking of your website, it is important to understand how Jagger has changed the rules regarding these three areas. That way, as an SEO specialist, you could make the necessary changes and adjustments to your tactics so that you could preserve your current ranking through not just Jagger, but for future updates as well.

Knowing Your Site s History and Backlinks

The first area concerns the length of time that you have been operating your website. When you are introducing a new website, you could expect difficulties and some obstacles in attaining page ranking in Google. You also have to make efforts in the beginning to optimize a website towards a keyword that is less competitive in order to garner more chances of beating the competition.

However, as time passes, you start building up the necessary links in order to gain relevancy. In this sense, a site becomes more and more relevant as its history builds up (providing that its pages are optimized to be actually relevant with certain search terms), and as your site s relevance goes up, you gain in rank among Google s search results.

Google s PageRank algorithm judges backlinks using the factor of relevance in mind. It gives greater weight to those links that point to your site from a site that is related to you. This was done before to answer attempts at link farming (a black hat SEO technique) by spam sites, which involve the establishment of sites that are purely intended to point their own sites in order to gain PageRank. For example, if a web design firm posts a link pointing to your SEO company s site, this link has more weight and importance to Google s eyes.

With this latest update, Google has given more weight to relevant links that have been pointing to a certain site for a certain period of time. In other words, links that have a long history are given higher value under the latest update. Now, not only does Google count the number of links pointing to your site but it also means it is checking for how long that backlink has existed in calculating your PageRank.

As a direct effect of this update, the tactic of building up links by buying them are no longer as effective as it was before. Since Google values older links more than new ones, this means webmasters that resort to buying backlinks will have to wait (while paying money) for quite a while before these links gain any significant value to Google s calculations.

SEO specialists reliance on the keyword density requirement has been critically affected by the update. No longer does Google give weight to specific pages that are relevant to a single keyword. With the Jagger update, Google is now designed to look at a whole site s structure and content for relevancy to a certain theme. This totally changes black hat SEO tactics to gain relevancy for various searches by constructing pages that are individually themed for different keywords.

This means that SEO efforts should now be directed towards structuring a site around a certain theme, not just a single keyword. For example, if your website is about cars, your individual pages comprising your whole site should be centered on topics that are related to cars. With the Jagger update, you could see that general directories that use to appear on top rankings have diminished in numbers. Instead, directories for specific categories are gaining prominence among search engine result pages.

Are you looking for a romantic man in all the wrong places? The secret to find one could be the nose on somebody’s face, or the groove between the nose and the mouth. The Chinese believe that the face provides the answers to your most important questions about personality, internal gifts as well as sex life, popularity, and life expectancy. Who is romantic in Hollywood? Let’s find out if your partner has these same features in his face.

Antonio Banderas. His full lips and eyes reveal that he is one of the most romantic men in Hollywood. His mouth also reveals that this Spanish-born actor has a nice personality. That makes spouse Melanie Griffith indeed one lucky lady! Oh, Antonio says love is the only game not called off because of darkness.

Brad Pitt. No wonder Brad Pitt has been selected many times as the sexiest actor in Hollywood! Chinese face readers agree with this claim completely. His lips are meant for kissing, eyes are full of romantic inner energy, and the cheekbones and jaw line show a pleasant disposition. Brad’s the one the ancient Chinese had in mind when they said a caress to a young girl is faith—to a married woman, hope—to an old woman, charity.

Johnny Depp. Many women agree he is irresistible. Especially his eyes. The eyes represent intelligence, creativeness and vitality. The ideal eyes are large, full and well set with the space of one eye-width between the eyes. Johnny’s eyes say my lips want to kiss your lips then take the scenic trip.

Mick Jagger. According to the Chinese face reading, almost everything on his face is associated with romance and sexual activity. He has large a mouth with full lips, high cheekbones, protruding ears and deep laugh lines. But watch out for Mike’s right hand—that’s the one that went to Night School.

For more, check facereading.cx

Certainly the main attractions of the Loire are romance, history and architecture. The renaissance chateaux built by Charles VIII, Francois I, Catherine de Medici and other royals during the hundred years that the French court relocated to the Loire Valley from Paris it a distinctive storybook charm.

Like the river Loire, this vast region runs through the heart of French life. The lush Loire valley is supremely regal. Its sophisticated cities, luxuriant landscape and magnificent wine and food and wine add up to a bourgeois paradise. It is now classed as part of the world heritage of mankind by Unesco (from Chalonnes-sur-Loire to Sully-sur-Loire).

Overindulgence is no sin in this rich region.

Surly queens, foppish kings, evil princesses and scheming mistresses and aristocrats sculpted a flat riverbed valley into an enchanting fairytale landscape like no other place in Europe or the world, for that matter.

Unlike the chateaux of the Loire Valley, the Loire Valley wines are a perennial secret. Some of France's best winemaking occurs here although few Americans are aware of it. Even many French are unaware of some of the wonders now being produced in the Loire Valley. But wine-shop and wine bar and sommeliers, and all the wine press from Paris, London Brussels and Tokyo in the know spend their vacations visiting the Val de Loire.

The Loire Valley is the location of Sir Mick Jagger's favourite second residence a 16th century chateau called La Fourchette near Amboise. In London he may be affectionately known as the lead singer of Strolling Bones but in France is known as Mick de Fourchette, le pape du rock, le pere Mick, Le Seigneur de Fourchette, Dr. Jagger, sexy papy British and Mister Mick.

He comes here every summer. In under 70 minutes he is whisked from London in a chartered three-person taxi-plane. Here in this quiet backwater of the Loire Valley in Touraine with its caves, woods and vineyards, he can relax with family and friends. He is often seen at the village fete or playing with one of his grandchildren in a local cafe. He drives around in his Opel station wagon or little Nisan micra. He returns year after year for the quality, ambiance, and the unusual. He even plays cricket for Saumur when he is in Touraine.

Todays the vacation industry offers a great number of proposals on luxury vacations, such as romantic luxury villas, luxury home vacations, luxury villa vacations, the world cruise vacations, golfing villa vacation and fairytale chateaux vacation rentals.

The most popular luxury vacations are when you exclusively rent your own castle or villa and you stay there completely alone or with your partner or with extended family and friends all waited upon by staff who make you feel like royalty. Your vacation can be fully catered with delicious gourmet cuisine being served up for every meal.

An exclusive castle rentals can include staff if you require (the number varying depending on the size of castle). Luxury chateaux are fully equipped with all the conveniences of home. Additional amenities such as extensive DVD libraries and CDs with flat-screen televisions, cable television, DVD players if not standard can be requested. Baby equipment and babysitting can usually be provided. These items may also be hired provided advance notice is given.

Limousine transfers to and from airports can be arranged. The chateau can be stocked with any wines, groceries, or special dietary requirements or wine that you require. Hire cars can be delivered to the airport or the chateau.

Many of the visitors are repeat clients. The aim of renting a luxury castle exclusively is to make a holiday as stress-free and relaxing as possible. Luxury castle rentals are known around the world by discriminating traveller's for custom designed vacations of extra-ordinary value and extraordinary value, and for personalized, dedicated service.

Google’s commitment towards creating a healthy search environment has meant that this leading search engine frequently updates and reviews its algorithms to meet challenges. Here is a closer look at the updates made since 2003.

November, 2003. Searching on Google was just not the same anymore. Many pages that had for long been topping the results had disappeared, and it seemed like relevancy which had, in effect, become Google’s middle name, was nowhere to be found. Results were way off the mark, to say the very least.

So what had happened? There are many floating theories about what Google changed in this update known as “Florida”. One possibility was that they had put an SEO filter in place, to identify sites that had done more than the acceptable level of SEO work. The theory did not entirely fit in, because there were sites with no SEO work that had been taken off the list, and many sites that had done considerable amount of SEO work stayed on the list. There were other related theories that suggested that SEO Filter was applied only to a few select search terms, which as it is does not make much sense. Google’s preference for informative pages over commercial pages was also cited as a possible reason.

Yet another probability, and a theory that with no obvious flaws like the aforesaid ones, is that Google has different ways to compile lists for different search terms. And this was what seems to have changed with the Florida update. The obvious question is, what governs the different ways? One sound possibility is that Google employs a system where in a few websites with lots of high quality links on them are taken as reference points. The assumption is that, these pages, and those that they link to can be considered worthy of being on top of the results pages.

The veracity of the theories remains unproved, but the fact is Google was quick to bring out their next update – Austin in 2004.

Austin was released amidst lots of expectation, particularly because many people were hoping that it would rectify the damages that Florida had caused. This new Algorithm was a fusion of the Page Rank algorithm, and another called Hilltop which was created as far back as 1999. There were indications that the latter was incorporated into the Florida update.

And the new search algorithm does seem more reliable, when it comes to identifying and getting rid of websites that indulge in spamming and other unethical practices. And Google has been going all out after such sites in fact, in their attempts to make the search results as relevant as possible.

Unlike in the previous update, which seemed harsh on sites that had got SEO done, the opposite seems to be true with this new update. Recently optimized sites, seem to be doing well on the results page. While optimized sites have seen no change, with this update, the method used to calculate Page Rank seems to have changed. For instance, Google seems to be giving more importance to the thematic relevance of inbound links when calculating the Page Rank of a site. What this means is that if you link within your industry, your PR will improve, but if you happen to have links with sites outside of your industry the PR value will be negatively affected.

Google has always given importance to the relevance of content, and Google’s Hilltop Algorithm is adept at identifying sites that lead the way in terms of quality and value of links, and superior content. Superiority of the content is in terms of its readability i.e. the content must have natural flow and there must not be any unnecessary overuse of keywords. The new algorithm also takes into account the contextual relevance of title tags, and the naturalness

Attempting new techniques, trying fresh algorithms point show Google’s attempts at making the search process more relevant for searchers. Needless to say this is a sort of trial-and-error method, but the heartening fact is that Google is making continuous efforts at making amends for any mistakes made.

And Google’s next update Jagger came as part of these continuous efforts at improving existing algorithms. Jagger was announced in 2005 amidst much speculation that carried on about whether or not there was going to be an update after all. Considering the time lapse between these two updates, it was obvious that a lot was going to change this time around.

Post Jagger update, inbound links were given more importance, because it was becoming obvious that websites were just not being judicious in choosing relevant reciprocal links. Even as inbound links are given more importance, the emphasis on having relevant outbound links remains. With Jagger, once again Google has demonstrated its war against spam sites that negatively affect relevancy, and hamper revenue protection and growth. In particular, Google is doing its best to chase away spam Adsense sites which usually just employ some sort of auto content and link generating services and technologies. CSS Spam is yet another growing area of concern that Google is trying to do something about. The same holds true for the growing menace of Blog spam which has almost coincided with the growth and proliferation of the trend of blogging.

The initial response to Jagger was negative, and it took a few weeks for the true colors of Google’s efforts to manifest. And the process of finding ways to evaluate website content better which Jagger began culminated in the next Google update called Big Daddy in 2006. This last update has been different from the others mentioned so far. Unlike the previous updates, Big Daddy was a change at an infrastructural level in terms of the way crawling and indexing of websites is done. And it is very important to not that the Big Daddy update does more than just change the algorithm of Google.

Amongst the various changes affected by this update, the one dealing with links is crucial. Post this update, the links going in and out of the website would be used to figure out how many of the pages in the website would be included in the index. In other words, a site must have a good number of trustworthy links into and out of the site in order to have all its pages indexed. Many or even all of the pages will be removed for those sites that don’t score very well on this count, but had all their pages indexed before the update. This also means that reciprocal and off-topic links will stop to matter as much as they did earlier.

With this change in the style of indexing, Google has made it possible to index more websites, even if it can’t ensure that ever page of every site will be covered. At the end of the day, from a user perspective they get more number of relevant results, which makes the search a lot more comprehensive.

Big Daddy also attempted to tackle the problem of redirects. The instruction for webmasters is to use the 301 redirect which tells Google the page or a site has been permanently moved. Leaving the content available on two different locations is as unacceptable as dropping one page and replacing it with the other. The use of 301 or 302 redirects shows that a certain level of consistency, and of course commitment.

The introduction of the supplemental index is yet another addition which has attracted much attention. This additional index is meant for sites that Google considers not worthy of its main index. There are many reasons why a site may be sent to this secondary index, but the result would be that when a searcher types in a general search term it will be almost certain that he/she will not be directed to your website.

Big Daddy, it is said, will also take care of the problem of canonicalization which occurred because search engines saw a single site with two different domain names as two different sites. Post the Big Daddy update, the problem of duplicate content will no longer exist.

In conclusion, it must be said that through all the updates from Google one thing never changes – their core agenda. Creating a search environment that addresses first and foremost the needs of the end-user. Every one of the updates mentioned, and by the looks of it, one can safely say that every update that will come in the times ahead, will work to carry out this agenda.

Here’s the first thing I’ll suggest: STOP the endlessly-looping question within your head about whether it was truly a mistake that she made that she’s really sorry about.

Many men are willing to forgive their wife for her infidelity if they can be convinced that she truly made a dumb, stupid, emotional mistake out of reaction to some stress in her life – and that she’s really, truly sorry for her mistake and will never repeat it again.

The man won’t like what his wife has done, but he can logically understand it, accept it, and move on.

The problem arises in that the man cannot become convinced in his own mind. He hashes and rehashes the whole thing over and over in his mind. He thinks of the cat getting its first taste of mouse after which that cat will always be a “mouser”. And every time he sees or thinks of his wife, he wonders...

And so, the endlessly-looping question is, “Was it a mistake or was it cat & mouse?”

Unfortunately, until time reveals the answer, you can’t really know. All you can do is be yourself and continue developing and increasing your attractiveness.

Do you realize you aren’t attractive when you continue playing a negative loop of an unpleasant past event?

Do you realize that by replaying this question, you will literally run your wife off – even if she previously viewed her infidelity as a huge mistake?

Do you realize that often, a woman will determine whether she made a mistake based on how much of a wife-seducer her husband becomes from that point forward.

She’ll either realize that her infidelity was a mistake – or she’ll decide she likes the taste of mouse better – depending upon you.

Now, let me share some good news with you... Contrary to what Hollywood would have you to believe, the overwhelming majority of women who have been unfaithful to their husband report that they really do love their husband and view their infidelity as a very bad mistake that they greatly regret and strongly wish they could go back and undo.

You can know that this is true by considering what sexologists tell us: the more connected a woman feels to her partner the more satisfying the total sexual experience is for her. Further, sexologists tell us that for a woman, an ideal sexual encounter is far more than finding someone to share an orgasm with.

What this means is that a woman who has an anonymous fling or even a fling with an acquaintance will find out that the sexual encounter was FAR LESS gratifying than she expected it to be because it’s not based on a positive, genuine, or honest connection – and therefore, the fling has little to no satisfaction.

Now, in spite of everything I’ve said so far, you may still be trying to figure out why your woman did what she did. So, let me roll one more thing by you...

In general, human beings have a critical flaw – they want external validation. And, when they are shown attention by other people, they feel validated. Therefore, they’ll do anything they can to get this attention so that they can get the validation they crave.

Women crave attention. Your wife is a woman. If your wife has cheated on you, it’s highly likely that someone gave her a level of attention and validation that was too great for her to resist.

Women want to date rock stars not because they find the man himself exciting but because they find the thought of sharing the limelight exciting.

Ask most any young girl what she wants to be and the words model, actress, or singer are highly likely to be a part of her answer.

Consider this case. Mick Jagger, the lead singer of the Rolling Stones is reputed to have had sex with virtually every woman he knows and thousands more that he doesn’t know. And here’s what I want you to realize...

All the women that Mick Jagger has had sex with didn’t have sex with him because they actually wanted sex with him. They had sex with him strictly because they wanted the attention, prestige, and validation that having sex with the lead singer of a popular and notorious band would give them.

If you were to strip Mick Jagger of his popularity and status as lead singer of the Rolling Stones, probably not even a single one of these women would have touched him with a ten-foot pole.

My point is that if your wife has cheated on you, it’s not because you’re inferior in any way. It’s because she has an internal flaw / need for validation and approval and someone, somewhere was dishing it out more so than you were.

If your wife spends lot’s of time hanging out with other people (whether work or play), it’s especially important for YOU to CREATE your own time and space where you do things that endear her to you.

So again, if you should discover or have previously discovered that your spouse has had an affair, you’ll have to decide what the best course of action for you is – but it may well be that the best course of action is to take the high road and just let it go. And, as you let it go, continue to focus on becoming a better and better wife-seducer because that’s a CONSTRUCTIVE mindset that WILL get you what you want – whether with this woman or another one.

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What child reading about fairytale castles in Europe doesn't dream of being a handsome prince or beautiful princess, being waited on hand and foot and living a life of complete romantic luxury. Now you are an adult, you can realise this childhood fantasy by renting a luxury Loire Valley chateau for your next vacation. Here you can totally relax and unwind and feel like royalty.

The Loire Valley is one of France's best kept secrets, located some 200km south of Paris. The Loire River is over 1000 kilometres long and it is the longest last wild river of Europe.

The Loire Valley is actually France's third most popular tourist destination after Paris and the French Riviera. But the Loire Valley is so vast, that families return year after year and never tire of its many attractions. It has something to offer every tourist.

Firstly it is famous for its renaissance chateaux: town chateaux like Chateau Blois and Chateau Amboise, Chateau Usse the original inspiration for Sleeping Beauty, Chateau Cheverney with the best collection of furniture in the Loire Valley and Herge's inspiration for mythical Moulinsart from the Tin Tin cartoon, Chateau Chenonceau spanning across the River Cher mirroring her beauty, Chateau Chambord the largest hunting lodge in the world

Francois I was not content with just Chateau Blois and Chateau Amboise as his residence, he commissioned Chateau du Chambord the largest chateau in the Loire Valley as a mere hunting lodge. It took 20 years to build and then he spent only seven weeks there hunting.

Then there are also Chateau Chaumont with its incredible summer long international contemporary garden festival, and Chateau Villandry with its famous gardens. If you need inspiration for a vegetable garden you must visit Chateau Villandry.

Gardening in the Loire Valley takes on a mystical quality, and even Mick Jagger, gyrating thick lipped lead singer of the Rolling Stones who has his preferred second residence, a 16th chateau he purchased 26 years ago called La Fourchette at Pose-sur-Cisse near Amboise, is a keen gardener. Artistic historian John Richardson says of Mick Jagger and his new walled garden "he became completely part of the garden, knew every single thing about all the plants, the flowers, the way the fruit trees were espaliered".

Fans of Leonard Da Vinci can visit Chateau Clos Luce and admire his bedrooms, kitchen, salons and the chapel and see frescoes painted by his pupils. His paintings and drawings are set out in the park of the castle with giant models of the most incredible machines he invented with voice-overs of Leonardo da Vinci and his disciple Melzi.

There is so much more to the Loire Valley than turrets, towers, topiaries and tapestries. The Touraine region also has the reputation for being the region where the best French is spoken in the world.

The Loire Valley is also a popular destination for followers of the Knights Templar and Holy Grail because of its close association with Leonardo Da Vinci and because it is so seeped in history.

The combination of vineyards and chateaux make the Touraine region of the Loire Valley an incredible destination for any wine lover and his or her family. The Loire Valley really is the most beautiful wine region in the world.

The Loire is France's last great unrecognized wine region. The Val de Loire wine area is located south west of Paris typically a little over 2 hours drive from the Paris peripherique and extending out as far as Nantes. It is a region blessed with rich soil and a gentle climate, allowing for the production of diverse appellations with vast degrees of character.

Some of France's best winemaking occurs in the Loire though few Americans are aware of it. Even many French are unaware of some of the gems now being produced in the Loire Valley. No other wine region in France welcomes visitors with such warmth or simplicity. Sommeliers, wine-shop and wine-bar owners, the wine press from Brussels, London, Paris and Tokyo in the know spend their vacations visiting the Loire Valley.

White wines of the Loire Valley typically improve with being aged from five to fifteen years depending upon the vintage and the AOC. A new bottle of French Loire Valley white wine may be fine, but a properly aged bottle is even better.

Then there is the food. French cuisine is famous and flourishing in the Loire Valley. Little village bistros whip up amazing dishes at incredibly cheap prices. Goat's cheese is a speciality. The local produce is divine. And the glorious local food is best accompanied with a glass or two of Loire Valley wine.

The Loire Valley is especially well-appointed for two wheels because of the gentle gradients and intricate network of back roads that are refreshingly free of motorised traffic. The Loire et Velo track is heaven for cyclists.

The Loire Valley offers everything the travelling golfer requires. If you are a golfer and you bring your clubs you will not be handsomely rewarded.

In France there are 280,000 registered golfers for 340 courses. This translates into lots of available tee times and no crowds on a course. Many golf courses are designed around magnificent chateaux. The finest course in the region, is Les Bordes near Chateau Chambord, consistently ranked in the top five of France's best courses.

This fine relaxed living is one of the reasons why Mick Jagger holidays at his chateau every summer. With his wealth and his connections he could holiday anywhere.

Don't just visit a french castle - rent a castle in France and truly experience the grandeur of living in a castle in France. You will be absolutely amazed.

What child reading about fairytale castles in Europe doesn't dream of being a handsome prince or beautiful princess, living a life of romantic luxury, and being waited on hand and foot. Now you are an adult, you can realise this childhood fantasy by renting a luxury Loire Valley chateau for your next holiday. Here you can totally unwind and relaz and feel like royalty.

The Loire Valley is one of France's best kept secrets, located some 200km south of Paris. The Loire River is over 1000 kilometres long and it is the longest last wild river of Europe.

The Val de Loire is actually France's third most popular tourist destination after Paris and the French Riviera. But the Loire Valley is so vast, that families return year after year and never tire of its many attractions. It has something to offer every tourist.

Firstly it is famous for its renaissance chateaux: town chateaux like Chateau Blois and Chateau Amboise, Chateau Chambord the largest hunting lodge in the world, Chateau Chenonceau spanning across the River Cher mirroring her beauty, Chateau Usse the original inspiration for Sleeping Beauty, Chateau Cheverney with the best collection of furniture in the Loire Valley and Herge's inspiration for mythical Moulinsart from the Tintin cartoon

Francois I was not content with just Chateau Blois and Chateau Amboise as his residences, he commissioned Chateau du Chambord the largest chateau in the Loire Valley as a mere hunting lodge. It took 20 years to build and then he spent only seven weeks there hunting.

Then there are also Chateau Villandry with its famous gardens and Chateau Chaumont with its incredible summer long international contemporary garden festival. If you need inspiration for a vegetable garden you must visit Chateau Villandry.

Gardening in the Loire Valley takes on a mystical quality, and even Mick Jagger, gyrating thick lipped lead singer of the Rolling Stones who has his preferred second residence, a 16th chateau he purchased 26 years ago called La Fourchette at Pose-sur-Cisse near Amboise, is a keen gardener. Artistic historian John Richardson says of Mick Jagger and his new walled garden "he became completely part of the garden, knew every single thing about all the plants, the flowers, the way the fruit trees were espaliered".

Fans of Da Vinci can visit Chateau Clos Luce and admire his salons, study, kitchen and the chapel and see frescoes painted by his pupils. His drawings and paintings are set out in the park of the castle with giant models of the most incredible machines he invented with voice-overs of Leonardo da Vinci and his disciple Melzi.

The Loire Valley is also a popular destination for followers of the Holy Grail and the Knights Templar because of its close association with Leonardo Da Vinci and because it is so seeped in history.

There is so much more to the Loire Valley than topiaries, towers, turrets and tapestries. The Touraine region also has the reputation for being the region where the best French is spoken in the world.

The combination of vineyards and chateaux make the Touraine region of the Loire Valley an incredible destination for any wine lover and his or her family. The Loire Valley really is the most beautiful wine region in the world.

The Loire is France's last great unrecognized wine region. The Loire Valley wine area is located south west of Paris typically a little over 2 hours drive from the Paris peripherique and extending out as far as Nantes. It is an area blessed with a gentle climate and rich soil, allowing for the production of diverse appellations with vast degrees of character.

Some of France's best winemaking happens in the Loire though few Americans are aware of it. Even many French are unaware of some of the gems now being produced in the Loire Valley. No other wine region in France welcomes visitors with such warmth or simplicity. Sommeliers, wine-bar and wine-shop owners, the wine press from Brussels, London, Paris and Tokyo in the know spend their vacations holidaying the Loire Valley.

White wines of the Loire Valley typically improve with being aged from 5 to 15 years depending upon the AOC and the vintage. A new bottle of French Loire Valley white wine may be good, but a properly aged bottle is even better.

Then there is the food. French cuisine is famous and flourishing in the Loire Valley. Goat's cheese is a speciality. Little village bistros whip up amazing dishes at incredibly cheap prices. The local produce is divine. And the glorious local food is best accompanied with a glass or two of Loire Valley wine.

This fine relaxed living is one of the reasons why Mick Jagger holidays at his chateau every summer. With his wealth and his connections he could holiday anywhere.

The Loire et Velo track is heaven for cyclists. The Loire Valley is especially well-appointed for two wheels because of the gentle gradients and intricate network of back roads that are refreshingly free of motorised traffic.

The Loire Valley offers everything the travelling golfer requires. If you are a golfer and you bring your clubs you will not be handsomely rewarded.

In France there are 280,000 registered golfers for 340 courses. This translates into lots of available tee times and no crowds on a course. Many golf courses are designed around magnificent chateaux. The finest course in the region, is Les Bordes near Chateau Chambord, consistently ranked in the top five of France's best courses.

Don't just visit a french castle - rent a castle in France and truly experience the grandeur of living in a castle in France. You will be absolutely amazed.

As more and more entertainment venues close themselves off to the rich, complicated odor of cigar smoke, perhaps it's time to remind ourselves that some of history's great artists - writers, entertainers, musicians - were not just smokers but cigar lovers. From comedians to social critics, from rockstar pianists to Christian apologists, these luminaries found the taste of cigars to be their eleventh muse.

Groucho Marx

With his bushy eyebrows, ducklike walk and - yes - that omnipresent cigar, Groucho Marx (1890-1977) was among the most recognizable of American comedians. And with his legendary wit, he remains one of the greatest. Born into a showbiz family (his uncle was a well-known vaudeville performer), Julius Marx - "Groucho" in later life - was already singing onstage by the age of fifteen, both alone and as part of a quintet with his four brothers. After an especially bad performance in Texas, the brothers began cracking jokes to each other onstage; to their surprise, the Texas crowd liked their jokes better than their singing. The Marx brothers, lower case, became The Marx Brothers. They conquered vaudeville, Broadway, and eventually Hollywood with their rapid-fire comic repartee; their best films include Duck Soup (1933) and A Night at the Opera (1935).

In addition to his other accomplishments, Marx was a furious autodidact and an avid reader - he once remarked, "I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book." He maintained friendships by correspondence with such writers as T.S. Eliot and Carl Sandburg. He also maintained a long love affair with cigars, quipping that "A woman is an occasional pleasure but a cigar is always a smoke."

G.K. Chesterton

Nobody ever wrote more eloquently about the taste of a good cigar than the popular English author G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). On the other hand - in a career that spanned 80 books, 200 short stories, 4000 essays, and a scattering of poems and plays - there are few things Chesterton didn't, at some point, write about eloquently. Loved for his religious works, his mystery stories and fantasy novels, his essays, and his social criticism, Chesterton left behind a fan club anyone would envy: Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Franz Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Dorothy Day, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish Republican Army leader Michael Collins. Director Ingmar Bergman and novelist/comic creator Neil Gaiman. Conservative pundits and liberal journalists, literary critics and social activists, Christians (of which Chesterton was one) and others - his influence knows no bounds.

Chesterton's unique philosophy was rooted in his robust enjoyment of all life's pleasures - including his ever-present cigar. In an era when many well-known Christians defined themselves by the pleasures they avoided, he championed the virtue of moderation, writing "Let us praise God for beer and wine by not drinking too much of them."

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) was born, and died, when Halley's Comet was in the sky. In the 75 years between those two appearances, he led an appropriately unique, prodigious life, working as a sailor, soldier, publisher, inventor, and lecturer, all the while creating the most unique body of work in American literature. Of course he's best known for the iconic Tom Sawyer (1876) and its infinitely better sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1886), but he could also be, by turns, a brave social critic, a champion of the poor and persecuted, a savagely funny satirist, a genial entertainer, and a devoted family man and friend. He was also devoted to his cigars, rarely appearing without them.

Franz Liszt

The Hungarian composer and pianist (1811-1886) once claimed that "a good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world." So, for many listeners, does Liszt's passionately Romantic music. Already a performing pianist by the age of nine, Liszt's mastery of the instrument was so great that it freed him up to write works for the piano that simply weren't technically possible before his ascendancy - no one before him could have hit all those notes. His music influenced the future of composing, while his playing has influenced every significant pianist since. And his great fame - especially with women, who fought over his used handkerchiefs - made him a prototype of the satyr-like, charismatic rock star, a nineteenth-century Mick Jagger. (And what would a nineteenth-century Mick Jagger be without a good smoke?)

There is a lot of talk in the town regarding the latest Google update, which has been nick named as Jagger. Jagger is a 3-part Google update that has changed some of the important rules of determining page rank and this has affected the SEO community in its entirety.

The new Google update has affected the website page ranking and the key areas, which have got affected are:
1 Your web page history
2 Method for counting back links
3 Web site content and structure

Let us look at each one of the affected areas.

Your web page history
One of the important aspects driving Google ranking is the history of your site. If your website has been online for a longer duration then your chances of getting a better page ranking is higher. If a particular internal page from your website has been live for a longer period of time then it will have a better page rank for additional phrases.

So you will have to consider the amount of time your website has been live. In such a scenario, you should approach the promotion of a competitive phrase by selecting secondary phrases that will also contain the primary keyword. For example, you need to choose "guaranteed SEO services" against "SEO services". You will achieve a good ranking on Google for a relevant keyword phrase and at the same time, keep your efforts on building relevant links for your primary keyword phrase.

So if you have competitive phrases as well as a long website history then you stand a better chance at getting high rankings on Google.

Method for counting backlinks

According to the Google update, the history of the links on your site will also get importance while determining the page rank. According to the Google update, the sandbox regarding links are functioning in parts and after a certain period, the links will gain a considerable part of their weight, and after some more time, they will gain some more weight and it will go on. This basically means that if you pursue a link building campaign today then it will not substantially affect your Google rankings for quite some time. Because Google does not show all incoming links you may want to consider using yahoo to check your back linking.

Another important aspect is that the relevancy determining criteria has improved. According to Google, your web pages don not need to have content with the exact keyword phrase but the keyword phrase has to be relevant to your industry. So if you are running a SEO business and if you link your website to that of a website design & development company then the link will be a relevant link.

Another aspect that has gained momentum is natural links. If your links are within the content area of a web page then they will carry a lot more weight than isolated links.

Website content & structure
Another important thing noticed by SEO experts is that there is no change in the optimal keyword density but there has been a decline in its value. Although the importance of having a specific keyword density on a particular webpage has declined but on the other hand there has been an increase in the importance of relevancy.

Google is going to assign relevancy on your overall content and not for keyword specific content on a particular page. There will be a higher visibility for topic-specific directories as against general directories. If your website has a central theme that is carried throughout the website then your web site will have a better page rank.

Google has also added a lot of value or weight on internal links as far as relevancy is concerned. If the internal links are well worded and are built into the entire content of your web site then it will impact your ranking by adding more weight to the internal pages.

The bottom line is that although this is not the perfect Google update on page ranking but it will make sure that people can not have their websites higher on the page rank by buying links or cramming their web pages with keywords.

There is a lot of talk in the town regarding the latest Google update, which has been nick named as Jagger. Jagger is a 3-part Google update that has changed some of the important rules of determining page rank and this has affected the SEO community in its entirety.

The new Google update has affected the website page ranking and the key areas, which have got affected are:

• Your web page history
• Method for counting back links
• Web site content and structure

Let us look at each one of the affected areas.

Your web page history

One of the important aspects driving Google ranking is the history of your site. If your website has been online for a longer duration then your chances of getting a better page ranking is higher. If a particular internal page from your website has been live for a longer period of time then it will have a better page rank for additional phrases.

So you will have to consider the amount of time your website has been live. In such a scenario, you should approach the promotion of a competitive phrase by selecting secondary phrases that will also contain the primary keyword. For example, you need to choose "guaranteed SEO services" against "SEO services". You will achieve a good ranking on Google for a relevant keyword phrase and at the same time, keep your efforts on building relevant links for your primary keyword phrase.

So if you have competitive phrases as well as a long website history then you stand a better chance at getting high rankings on Google.

Method for counting backlinks

According to the Google update, the history of the links on your site will also get importance while determining the page rank. According to the Google update, the sandbox regarding links are functioning in parts and after a certain period, the links will gain a considerable part of their weight, and after some more time, they will gain some more weight and it will go on. This basically means that if you pursue a link building campaign today then it will not substantially affect your Google rankings for quite some time. Because Google does not show all incoming links you may want to consider using yahoo to check your back linking.

Another important aspect is that the relevancy determining criteria has improved. According to Google, your web pages don’t need to have content with the exact keyword phrase but the keyword phrase has to be relevant to your industry. So if you are running a SEO business and if you link your website to that of a website design & development company then the link will be a relevant link.

Another aspect that has gained momentum is natural links. If your links are within the content area of a web page then they will carry a lot more weight than isolated links.

Website content & structure

Another important thing noticed by SEO experts is that there is no change in the optimal keyword density but there has been a decline in its value. Although the importance of having a specific keyword density on a particular webpage has declined but on the other hand there has been an increase in the importance of relevancy.

Google is going to assign relevancy on your overall content and not for keyword specific content on a particular page. There will be a higher visibility for topic-specific directories as against general directories. If your website has a central theme that is carried throughout the website then your web site will have a better page rank.

Google has also added a lot of value or weight on internal links as far as relevancy is concerned. If the internal links are well worded and are built into the entire content of your web site then it will impact your ranking by adding more weight to the internal pages.

The bottom line is that although this is not the perfect Google update on page ranking but it will make sure that people can’t have their websites higher on the page rank by buying links or cramming their web pages with keywords.