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Illustration: Nishant Choksi for the Guardian

Let’s face it, in recent months it has sometimes felt as if the Labour party is being led by a man rocking the political boat so gently that nobody outside Westminster has noticed that he has even got a boat. And now his friends inside Westminster are muttering ever more loudly about his suitability for the top job, and wondering how long their boss can continue on his leaky vessel, veering towards the region of electoral shit creek with a diminishing number of paddles.

All of these analyses and analogies end up at the same more serious point, which is that the leader of the opposition suffers from a charisma deficit, and that it’s this deficit, not the economic one, that might end up costing him the job of prime minister. Charisma being that magical, ineffable stuff that can turn a brainbox into a popular brainbox, or a charmless man into a charming one. Yet the funny thing is that people who spend actual time with Ed all say the same thing: that he is convincing and heartfelt close up, not to mention rather handsome, in case you cared about that kind of thing. He’s just one of those people who doesn’t work on television, and our elections are still won, largely, via that screen in our living rooms.

It’s surprising, though, that we haven’t got over the alpha thing and decided to allow the geek to inherit the Earth. When I was younger, the telly was full of Knight Rider and Miami Vice and Dynasty, shows that revolved around the smooth, suave ways of Americans. Even the endless repeats of Happy Days centred on the Fonz’s charisma – the effect he had by simply walking into a room was basically the entire plot of the show, and it ran forever. But it was also, crucially, the joke.

Since then, of course, we’ve moved on to The Office, The Mighty Boosh, the IT Crowd, the new Doctor Who and The Great British Bake Off. These are programmes built on massively uncool geekery, dorks and dweebs obsessing about the details. Ed Miliband has told us he can do a Rubik cube, from start to finish, in 90 seconds. With credentials like that, you would think he’d fit right in.

Let’s not forget who last led the Labour party with enormous charisma: Tony Blair. It was revealed this week, via a leaked document, that he brokered a secret deal to give the Saudi royal family access to his friends in the Chinese government, so that they could sell them oil, for which Blair would receive a percentage. Tony Blair Associatesmakes a reported £8m a year from the Kazahkstan government, and the same again from the rulers of Kuwait, to pluck but two gigs from our former leader’s ever-bulging portfolio. Blair can do this because, unlike Miliband, he’s very good at connecting with people, including some of the worst people in the world.

And it’s charisma that allows David Cameron to spin a sad story about the death of his son into proof that the NHS is safe in his hands, something anyone who has visited a hospital recently, or tried to access mental health services, knows to be patently untrue. It’s this focus on building your popularity, rather than your backbone, that sees Miliband courting the Ukip vote by trying to talk tough on immigration, which leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of so many people who actually want to vote Labour. We don’t need charisma in our politicians. What we want is courage.

Readers are now thrilled with Fast sites.

They surf a lot these days. That’s why they want to have fast sites or they will leave your blog without check it.

Not only readers, but also search engines really care about the site speed.

They announced that the speed is one of the factors that affects the rankings of your blog.

So why don’t you care about it?

Here are top 7 wordpress plugins that can help you skyrocket your speed. So continue reading to check them.

W3 Total Cache is one of the most popular caching plugins for WordPress .

Caching is very good .

However small your blog might be , it’ll be helpful to you .

Your users will like the quick page loading time and will keep coming back to your blog .

This plugin has many advanced features like CDN support , broswer , object and database caching . It is one of the best caching plugins ever . It also has good support .

This new jsDelivr plugin hooks your WordPress site with the jsDelivr service .

jsDelivr is a free CDN where Javascript developers host their files for free . You can use this to off load your Javascript plugins.

It will certainly improve your page loading speed to a considerable extent . Another good news is that this plugin is also compatible with W3 Total Cache .

Now this plugin is little bit different . It will analyze your site’s performance .

It will create a dash board widget that will display your Google page speed , Yahoo! Yslow statistics and a link to the full report .

It will also hook you up to the GTmetrix API which allows you analyze , schedule reports and receive updates about the status of your blog directly on your dashboard .

This plugin has a very good rating in the WordPress plugin repository .

Is you site very , very slow . And you don’t really know the cause behind it . Even after running various analysis , you are not able to find the right reason . Then this plugin is for you .

This plugin scans your WordPress installation and tell you each plugin’s impact on your overall site performance . It creates user friendly charts for you to read so that you can minimize the use of unnecessary poorly coded plugins .

The Cloud Flare plugin makes sure that you are properly linked with the Cloud Fare CDN Optimization service .

It ensures that there is not change in originating Ip’s . It also has a coupla more benefits . It reports spam information and gives you good protection .

This plugin also makes sure that your database is running at its best . Cloudflare is a free CDN that can be integrated with WordPress blogs if you have proper hosting .

The BJ Lazy Load is a very unique plugin . It helps your site load faster by loading images and iFrames only when the user is scrolling towards it .

This works automatically for your post content . The plugin also gives you a feature to do this to your Theme images.

There are similar plugins like jQuery lazy load .

WP Super Cache is a very old caching plugin used by a majority of WordPress users .

It is very easy to set up an takes only a minute or two .

It permits you to pre-cache your posts before the time so that they are ready to be served with lightning speed when the user reads .

Did you implement these plugin tweaks on your blog ?

If yes , then let me know about your experience in the comments. I am eager to know how fast is your site.

Among the many hidden gems of Europe, Jersey Island is perhaps one of the best getaway destinations for couples and families looking for beautiful beaches and diverse cultural attractions with Michelin star rated restaurants. The reasons why Jersey has been so laid back is perhaps its name. Jersey in southern most of the Channel Islands, off the coast of France and England, is actually a self-governing British crown dependency nation., but is always confused with New Jersey in the US.

Jersey is a beautiful small island and, though measuring just 116 km² of land area, has over 50 miles of coastline. There are 12 major beaches and many other smaller bays to suit both the young couples and matured parents. With most of them white sand beaches, they are also one of the cleanest in Europe.

If you are looking for fascinating sea views and to indulge yourself on the beach, look no further than Jersey island. Dolan hotels in Jersey, a group of 4 star luxury hotels in Jersey Channel Islands, are great for families and couples. Being the warmest place in the channel Isles, staying with Dolan hotels Jerseywill make your holiday a special one.

Besides the wonderful coastline, Jersey is also famous for its diverse and high quality food varieties. In addition to the 4 Michelin rated and 190 other restaurants on the island, there are numerous lively nightclubs, pubs and wine bars that open until midnight.

For travel photography hobbyists, there are plenty of photo taking opportunities Jersey has to offer. Of which the heritage attractions such as the magnificent medieval castle of Mont Orgueil, Hamptonne Country Life Museum and the Jersey War Tunnels are popular sites. For the adventurous outdoor lovers, there are picturesque ‘cliffpath’ walks along Jersey’s north coast, such as the walk from Bonne Nuit Bay to Bouley Bay. Staying in one of the Jersey hotelswould be a great start to explore them all.

After all, the exhilarating climate of Jersey, with mild Winter and cool Summer, and bright sunlight, has made Jersey and ideal destination for countless outdoor activities and pursuits.

Since Europe travel is so popular among travelers, with European cities top the TripAdvisor chartof best world travel destinations, planning a trip to Jersey Island is undoubtedly rewarding.

Visit Jersey official tourism websitefor more information.

About The Author

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.

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2 Comments

Jersey Island is so beautiful, perfect for holiday vacation…

Jersey is a excellent small island. it is also famous for its different and top quality food types.

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I’ve been struggling with this question for days. It’s been a good excuse to continue taste testing my way through the FIVE DOZEN I’ve made in order to perfect the recipe.

What I can tell you is that they are very good, and that the recipe is wonderfully flexible.

If you want them to be more like traditional soda bread (more biscuit tasting) you can leave out the sugar all together. If you want them to taste more sweet like muffins, you can increase the sugar. If you are going to eat them immediately, or trying to cut down on fat, you can reduce the butter. I made a version with raisins, a version with raisins and caraway seeds together, and even a version with just a teaspoon of orange zest as an add-in. They were all great. I was especially surprised at how good the caraway seeds and the raisins were together, in this slightly sweet biscuit/muffin. Obviously I preferred the full sugar, full butter version, but the lower sugar/lower butter version was good too (I just added more butter and jam to those).

Soda Bread Biscuits Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 12 minutes Yield: Makes 12 biscuits.

Ingredients 3 cups all purpose flour 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want them) 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon Kosher salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 2 teaspoons caraway seeds* 1/2 to 1 cup of raisins* 1 1/4 cups buttermilk**

*These add-ins are entirely optional. You could just do plain biscuits, or add in a teaspoon of orange zest, lemon zest, or a couple tablespoons of chopped candied ginger, or a teaspoon of minced rosemary. Have fun with it!

**You can substitute the 1 1/4 cups buttermilk with 1 cup 3 Tbsp of regular whole milk mixed with 1 Tbsp of white vinegar.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 425°F. Butter a standard muffin pan.

2 In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

3 Cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces into the bowl of flour. Using your (clean) fingers, work the butter into the flour, schmooshing (is that a technical term?) the butter between your fingers and mixing with the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. If you are using raisins, caraway seeds, or any other add-ins, mix them into the mixture now.

4 Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour the buttermilk into the center of the well. Use a wooden spoon to gently mix the flour into the buttermilk until the flour is moistened with the buttermilk. Then use your hands to form the mixture into a loose, shaggy, slightly sticky ball of dough. The dough should be a little sticky, if it’s too dry, add a tablespoon more of buttermilk. If it’s just too wet to handle, add a sprinkling more of flour. Do not over-mix! And at this point work quickly. As soon as the acidic buttermilk interacts with the alkaline baking soda, bubbles will form and leavening will start.

5 Break off 12-equal portions of the dough and place them in the wells of the muffin tin. Put in the oven and bake for 12-13 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple minutes in the pan. Remove the biscuits from the muffin tin to a rack to cool for a few minutes more.

Serve with butter and jam.

Hello! All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on Simply Recipes. Thank you!

Links:

Over-sized cherry chocolate soda bread muffinsfrom Peanut Butter and Julie
Seeded orange soda breadfrom Cook Almost Anything

Virgin Media announces price rises in broadband, TV and phone services.

The cable firm, which supplies phone, broadband and TV to about 4m households, said its landline charge would rise by £1 a month to £16.99 from 1 February.

Customers who take its two smallest bundles – that offer combined TV, broadband, landline and calls – will see their monthly bill rise by £36 a year.

The highest spending households – those on its Big Daddy and Big Kahunabundles, which include Sky Sports/Movies, unlimited calls and the fastest broadband – will pay £4.50 a month more, with some customers paying £99.50 a month, or £1,194 a year, for their service.

Overall customers are seeing an average 5.9% increase, the company said. This is well above the rate of inflation.

Unlike its rivals, Virgin Media said it would not increase its calls charges and that its 1571 ansaphone service would remain free. BT and Sky now charge for this service – £22.20 a year in BT’s case.

Virgin Rental Saver rises by £20 a year to £164, although customers can save nearly £40 by paying for 12 months’ line rental upfront.

Dana Strong, chief operating officer at Virgin Media said: “Some of our prices are changing so we can continue to invest in giving our customers more of what they want – the best entertainment packages and unbeatable superfast broadband.

“There are no changes to our call charges or talk plans. We’re doing everything we can to keep any increase as low as possible, especially for our existing customers.”

From 1 December, BT customers will pay £16.99a month, up from £15.99 a month for landlines, and face higher charges too. In October, Skyand TalkTalkannounced similar moves.

Generally customers who pre-pay their annual landline charges have been hardest hit. The phone companies have clearly decided too many people were taking advantage of these offers, which have hit revenues accordingly.

• Consumers are being offered some very attractive deals to switch supplier. Sky, EE and Plusnet are all offering cashback or vouchers deals for those who are prepared to switch. For a list of the deals, go to MoneySavingExpertsite.

Now my dad will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t like shrimp. Most shrimp recipes I propose are usually met with that reminder and a change of subject. But this one caught his eye for some reason.

We made it early one afternoon so we could get good light for a photograph, and then had to taste it. We kept tasting it, and tasting it, and then we had to call my mother over because we were well on our way to eating the whole pan. The only thing I wish we had at the time was some crusty Italian bread to dip in the sauce.

Baked Shrimp in Tomato Feta Sauce Recipe

Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients 1 Tbsp olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 14.5-ounce cans of diced tomatoes 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley 1 Tbsp minced fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill 1 to 1 1/4 pounds medium sized raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (can leave tails on), thaw if frozen Pinch of salt, more to taste Pinch black pepper, more to taste 3 ounces feta cheese (about 2/3 cup, crumbled)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 425°F. Heat oil in a large, oven-proof skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds more.

2 Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer, reduce heat and let simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the juices thicken a bit.

3 Remove from heat. Stir in the herbs, shrimp, feta cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Place pan in oven and bake, uncovered, until shrimp are cooked through, about 10-12 minutes.

Serve immediately. Serve with crusty French or Italian loaf bread, pasta, or rice.

Hello! All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on Simply Recipes. Thank you!

Recipe adapted from Eat Smartby Taunton Press Fine Cooking.

Previously, I installed ushare easily on Ubuntu following a process similar to this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Xbox360Media

I’ve recently become annoyed that ushare hasn’t been autostarting in Ubuntu 11.04. I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I am using the same machine to host vpn so I have a bridged connection br0 as my main connection. The default script in /etc/init.d/ushare should be able to autostart, and I have tried adding it to rc.d using variation of this command “sudo update-rc.d ushare defaults 80″, however it fails to start. I have no trouble running it manually with the “/etc/init.d/ushare start” command however. So I’m guessing it is just trying to start before the network interfaces come up and failing. The workaround I found tries to solve this by explicitly running after the interface is up. The way to do it, is to add it to the “/etc/network/interfaces” file using something called “post-up”. Since I wanted to have ushare run after my br0 interface is brought up, I added it like at the bottom of the br0 section, see below:

iface br0 inet static   address 192.168.0.198   netmask 255.255.255.0   gateway 192.168.0.1   bridge_ports eth1   post-up /etc/init.d/ushare start

And, now on restart “ps ax | grep ushare” shows the process running. I am also able to connect on my xbox just as before

Sources: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-do-i-run-firewall-script-as-soon-as-eth0-interface-brings-up.html

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