My latest DeHaan Services blog entry is the public service announcement "Plan to Attend the 2012 Levee at Toronto City Hall".

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"Mascots at Toronto City Hall in 2010" image by happyworker
Unfortunately we won't have these 2010 mascots at the 2012 Toronto New Year's Levée...so far as I know.

Writing Tip

Today's writing tip might have been noted in a previous promotional article.

Write about something useful. What did you need to learn? So share that with others!

In this case, I had the practical question "When is the Toronto New Year's Levée"?

It was surprisingly difficult to find and recognize the answer, because the home page for Toronto City Hall uses a rotating carousel of tidbits of news. I simply didn't stare at it long enough on my first visit or two.

An impractical follow-up question was "Who started this tradition"?

I answer both questions in my article, so go read it already!
 
My first article at the Wizzley site is "How to Exercise at a Good Heart Rate". It is a very brief explanation of how to target cardiovascular fitness training by reaching a good pulse rate during exercise.

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Heart with Anterior Wall Dysfunction, image by Patrick J. Lynch
Immediately upon joining Wizzley, the site prompted me to write an article. I decided to oblige by returning to a subject I already know rather well.

Aspiring authors should do the same by registering under my referral link for Wizzley.

As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services ("Simplified Guide to Exercising at a Good Heart Rate").

Writing Tip

Today's writing tip involves Wizzley.

Wizzley is a lot like Squidoo: you create an article by putting together modules, and can pepper it with affiliate advertising and promotions. Wizzley does not seem to pay per view, or to share revenue from Amazon or other third parties. In other words, you must use your own AdSense, Chitika, Amazon or other affiliations to earn revenue with your articles.

If you already have those memberships, then it is extremely easy to simply copy the code into your profile. They insert your ads into 50% of the page views; they keep the other 50% for themselves.

Weebly has a similar process, although you have to copy more code into the appropriate heading or footer modules.

Wizzley's editors monitor quality; apparently a new member must publish five acceptable articles before everything comes into place, including Google's search placement.

As I noted above, this seems like a good place to write articles in the hopes of earning revenue. If you want to do so, please register under my referral link for Wizzley.
 
My latest DeHaan Services article, "Plan Your Best Furniture Buys for January 2012", shamelessly promotes previous articles found in Suite 101 and Squidoo.

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"William Morris Tiles in Arts and Crafts Style", image by Gruenemann
William Morris was instrumental in the European "Arts and Crafts" style, leading to the (Californian) Mission Style of furniture.

Morris is now known more for tapestry designs; a recent addition to "The DeHaan Lens for Mission-Style Furniture".

I also promoted this article in my Xanga blog post titled "Timeless Furniture You Should Pursue in January 2012".

Writing Tips

Today's writing tip is to know which topics have seasonal interest, and then promote those articles in a timely fashion. It's easy to prepare for big holidays like St. Valentine's Day, Labour Day and the various winter blasts. But did you know that furniture is seasonal?
 
My latest Decoded Science article is "A Discrete Introduction to Probability Functions".
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"One in a Billion Probability" image by Micah Sittig
This article is part of an ongoing series on probability.

Just a note about the process: today my main PC is running FireFox extremely slowly. This is being entered on Internet Explorer, while I simultaneously tried updating another one of my sites using my emergency spare computer. Sorry for being distracted!

As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services ("Introducing Discrete Probability Functions") and in my Xanga blog ("Do You Want Discrete Probability Functions?"). Neither adds much to this discussion.

Writing Tips

Today's writing tips are more suited for anyone who uses computers for work, rather than strictly for the process of writing.

First, ensure you can use a spare computer if there is a problem with your main one.

Second, ensure you have secondary software in case of a problem with your favourite program.
 
Based on what was announced at my local Running Room, I decided to research and write "Masters Runners to be Masters of the 3000m" on my DeHaan Services site.
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"Fauja Singh Age 99 in the ING Luxembourg Marathon 2010", image by Nico* (Nicolas Govetto)
Assuming you may want to participate or be a spectator, you'll have to read my article!

Fauja Singh's tie to the Ontario Masters Athletics organization is, to the best of my knowledge, fully described in my previous article, "Records and Relays Before the 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon".

I also publicize my articles in my Xanga blog, although "A Masters Opportunity for an Indoor 3000m Race in Toronto" won't add anything you won't find here. The main story is in DeHaan Services.


Writing Tip

Today's double writing tip repeats what I've written before.

First, keep your mind open to topics. I have to admit that I heard the announcement twice before saying to myself, "Now there's a topic"!

Second, do enough research to make an article with value for the reader. It was easy to find the Ontario Masters Athletics site, and I have a bookmark for Running Room. But it was trickier to find the specific race information pages in the Running Room site, mostly because I don't often use them. Since they don't often offer 3000m races, perhaps my article will indeed be useful to some readers.
 
My latest Environmental Graffiti article asks the surprising question, "What Do Birds See with their Ultraviolet Vision?".

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"The Very Picture of Bright Plumage" by turtlemom4bacon
Ultraviolet vision is turning up in more animals; first reindeer, and now birds.

As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services ("Does Ultraviolet Vision Help Birds?").

Writing Tip

Today's writing tip is a new variation on an old theme.

You can spot more interesting information as you broaden your interests. You will notice more news about those interesting topics, and be able to turn them into new articles.

Plus, you can link back to a previous article or two, as I did with "The Reindeer Superpower: Ultraviolet Vision". Just be sure you link into the same online magazine, not a competitor!

Bonus writing tip: As I'd noted before, it is wise to put a border around a picture to make it stand out from the background of a web page. I just do this with my images from spread sheets, but turtlemom4bacon does it with any images I've used from her Flickr gallery.

 
My latest DeHaan Fitness blog entry is "Personal Report on Target Heart Rates...".

This completes a series of four articles about target heart rates.

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"Stopwatch" by smaedli (Chad Kainz)
After three articles introducing and explaining target heart rates for different training benefits, it definitely was time to get on the track and test my own pulse.

Did I pass the test? I did indeed get some numbers in the right ballpark.

As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services ("Testing my Target Heart Rate").


Writing Tip

Today's writing tip is to put yourself into the story, at least sometimes.

Fans of A-list celebrities may want the inside scoop on the true inner lives. Many readers want facts, useful tips, "gee whiz" news or pictures of cute kittens.

Almost any self-improvement health or fitness article can be improved with a personal anecdote. How did it feel for an individual to achieve some goal...or miss it?

In this situation, I thought it was very important to share my own experiences, after writing three articles about target heart rates.
 
With a sense of civic duty, I penned "Quiet Pride in Physics Breakthrough at University of Toronto" for my DeHaan Services site.

Actually, the team was recognized by Physics World for making the "top physics breakthrough of the year".

Who made what breakthrough? Read the article to learn!

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"Double Slit Experiment" by cibomahto. The image was NOT taken at UofT, as far as I know. But it illustrates the interference pattern.
Toronto news from the wider world is often worth repeating and explaining for the local audience.

Not everyone can bend Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Writing Tip

Unfortunately, today's writing tip is not a breakthrough, but it does bear repeating.

Watch or read the news, dig into the stories that catch your attention, and then report with something valuable.

In this case, the science media did not play up the Toronto angle; and I have yet to check whether this was reported locally for the "civic pride" angle.
 
My latest, and perhaps bravest, article for Suite 101 is "Will Head Concussion Injuries Kill NHL Hockey?"
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"NHL Pittsburgh Penguins 87 Crosby" by anthony shao
Concussion injuries have been prominent in hockey news, especially with Sidney Crosby sidelined for so long.

That's why the picture is his empty jersey rather than his smiling face.

As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services, although "Does the NHL Risk Death by Head Concussion?" does not have a writing tip.


Writing Tip

Today's writing tip concerns inspiration.

The Suite 101 topic editor for ice hockey invited anyone to write about Canada's national pass-time. (Trivia alert: Lacrosse is our national sports game).

Anyway, I had never considered writing about hockey, but another remark in that discussion thread mentioned injuries. That reminded me of the problem with concussions and long-term injuries for some of the best, and some of the also-ran, professional hockey players.

Voila: inspiration from a couple of thoughts triggered by casual reading. Your writing tip is to find inspiration by simply keeping an open mind and linking ideas as they float through.

Bonus Writing Tip

Today I learned how, in a WordPress blog (or any that allow you to edit in HTML), to make superscript and subscript text. Just_ enclose "script" in the HTML tags <sup> + </sup> or <sub> + </sub> when editing the text in the "HTML" editor.

Is this possible in Weebly?
This is a "custom HTML" element in Weebly, dragged from the "elements" and "more" (in the left-hand vertical menu at the top). Here comes superscript and subscript. Although it works, it seems awkward since it removes access to the usual style menu with its bold/italic and colour selections.

I just discovered a similar approach in Xanga; please refer to "How Will the NHL Adapt to Head Concussion Injuries?".
 
Mathematicians might think that we sabotage our lottery preferences due to the "Allais Paradox".

My latest Decoded Science article, "The Probability of the Allais Paradox in Lottery Preferences", explains this effect and why it actually worries some mathematicians.

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"Taiwan Lottery Dream Sheet" by Prince Roy
This paradox is especially interesting because it might actually lead mathematicians to consider alternatives to the logical and reasonable "Independence Axiom"...which it violates.

As always, I also promote my article in DeHaan Services, where "Lottery Sabotage by the Allais Paradox" adds a teaser for this topic.


Writing Tip

Today's writing tip combines a pair of golden oldies.

If you commit to a series of articles, then you should seize specific topics as they present themselves or, perhaps, based on what is most exciting.

With the "Probability" series just beginning, I had known that I wanted to explore paradoxes. The "Allais paradox" was new to me, but I thought it gave a fascinating insight into the conflict between math and psychology.

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    Mike DeHaan began writing professionally in 2010 as the sole proprietor of DeHaan Services.To see this information with the best background image, please refer to "About.Me",  befriend me at Facebook, or circle me at Google+.

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