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Will constant access to the Internet make today's young people brilliant multitaskers or shallow, screen-bound hermits? A new opinion poll finds that technology experts believe the answer is "all of the above."

According to a new survey of 1,021 technology experts and critics, hyperconnectivity is a mixed bag. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed agreed that the Internet has wired the under-35 crowd differently, and that this rewiring is a good thing, stimulating multitasking talent and an ability to find relevant information fast online. But 42 percent of experts believe that the hyperconnected brain is shallow, with an unhealthy dependence on the Internet and mobile devices.

"Short attention spans resulting from quick interactions will be detrimental to focusing on the harder problems, and we will probably see a stagnation in many areas: technology, even social venues such as literature," Alvaro Retana, a technologist at HP, responded in the survey. "The people who will strive and lead the charge will be the ones able to disconnect themselves to focus."

Dire predictions

According to the Elon University Imagining the Internet Center and the Pew Internet Project, which conducted the survey, the technology expert split is closer to 50-50 on whether the rise of the Internet is a boon or a bane. Many people who responded that Internet-savvy Generation Y is at a mental advantage tempered that opinion with warnings about the dark side of connectedness. [10 Facts About the Teen Brain]

"While they said access to people and information is intensely improved in the mobile Internet age, they added that they are already witnessing deficiencies in younger people's abilities to focus their attention, be patient and think deeply," Janna Anderson, director of Elon's Imagining the Internet Center and a co-author of the report detailing the findings, said in a statement. "Some expressed concerns that trends are leading to a future in which most people are shallow consumers of information, and several mentioned Orwell's '1984.'"

George Orwell's 1949 book described a dystopian society where information was strictly controlled. One respondent who mentioned the book was Paul Gardner-Stephen, a telecommunications fellow at Flinders University.

"[C]entralized powers that can control access to the Internet will be able to significantly control future generations," Gardner-Stephen wrote. "It will be much as in Orwell's '1984', where control was achieved by using language to shape and limit thought, so future regimes may use control of access to the Internet to shape and limit thought."

Online optimism

Many experts praised the talents needed to navigate the Internet, however, and suggested that people who have grown up connected will blossom.

Read the original post:
Expert Poll: Internet Makes Us Smarter & Stupider

We've now seen two Internet marriage proposals in just a few weeks, one onMashableanother onBuzzFeed. Is this an acceptable way to ask for someone's hand in marriage? We discuss.

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Yes! Stop judging. Accept it. Move on.

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It's sweet and thoughtful.Future husband(s): This is not my ideal proposal. But for some women out there, it is! It took Drake Martinet, who Internet-proposed to his now fiancee Stacey Green, more time and brain neurons to createthis infographicthan it takes to buy an engagement ring, go to a fancy restaurant, and ask "the question." Points for effort. Plus, I bet a lot of these online declarations represent some sort of cute personalized moment between these couples. Maybe Martinet and Green have some infographic inside (sex) joke? That makes it a little bit sweeter, right? And, even if zero inside jokes are involved, the Internet proposer goes into it knowing that this type of thing is not yet socially acceptable and most definitely embarrassing, yet, still goes through it anyway! Now that's true love.

RELATED: The People You Didn't Expect to Be Talking Like Pirates Today

Internet proposals are not any more absurd than real life ones.There are lots of over-the-top ways to propose to someone in real life, too. Like,ordering a 7 ounce steak branded with "Will You Marry Me?"making a proposal trailer and playing it in a movie theater, orvia flash mob, just to give some examples.Internet or not, cringe worthy proposals happen.

RELATED: 8.4 Percent of All Marriages Are Interracial Now

Just accept it, we live on the Internet these days.We date online. We socialize online. We watch TV online. We read online. We work online. And, some even have sex, or facilitate something like it, online. The Internet isn't just some B-list society for computer nerds and freaks. It's a world we, the normals, inhabit. If it's totally acceptable to live the rest of our lives on this here web, marriage proposals can happen online, too. In fact, with the rest of our lives here, the cyber world is the most natural place to get proposed to now-a-days -- the Internet is our modern village. A proposal is supposed to be the public declaration of that union. Back in the olden-days that meant a community celebration, these days, the Internet is our public arena, thus the most logical place to tell the world how much you love that special someone. And, the entire world will indeed hear, because, well, this is the Internet.

RELATED: The Secrets of Matt Drudge's Long Success

The rest is here:
Cocktail Crossfire: Are Internet Marriage Proposals Acceptable?

I recently tested out the software SEO SpyGlass which is part of the SEO Powersuite. SEO SpyGlass is a simple-to-use backlink checker. If you want to do well in SEO you have to understand the importance of keeping track of your competitors back-linking strategies. SEO SpyGlass can help you do that and also help you find high-quality links for your website.

SEO SpyGlass helps you see, on your own computer, what strategies your competitors have employed and this data is what you need to create a winning strategy of your own. This important information is for you to keep private and wont be published online for others to see. This is a plus.

SEO SpyGlass answers some pretty serious questions:

SEO SpyGlass Software Key Features:

Background Data on Software

Step one of the process, add a URL of a competitor. If you chose next without the show expert options checked you were given some basic information to start. I chose to not check it for test one.

The software then asked if I wanted to update search engine data.

I, of course, said yes and was given many options to choose from. I was also given the chance to add more backlink factors of my own. Some factors you dont see in the image below:

Continued here:
Review of SEO SpyGlass 5.0.3

29 February 2012

The Isle of Man has no intention of introducing taxes on capital gains, the island's Treasury Minister, Eddie Teare has confirmed, clarifying the situation following the removal of the island's deemed distribution regime.

Following an investigation by the European Union Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation, the Isle of Man agreed to remove its Attribution Regime for Individuals from April 2012 to ensure that the territory meets international standards.

Teare said that the abolition of the attribution regime had removed provisions deemed 'harmful', allowing the territory to retain its zero/ten corporate tax regime. Due to the changes, company profits can only be taxed when paid out as dividends received by Isle of Man shareholders rather than on a deemed distribution basis, ie. with tax chargeable regardless of whether a distribution is made, based on the shareholders' cut of the company's profits in a given year.

Teare said that, to combat tax avoidance as a result of the regime's removal, Practice Note 174/12 was released to outline changes to make more strict the tax treatment of an income distribution to prevent individuals from employing tax planning to avoid the payment of income taxes. However the government has clarified that, contrary to erroneous reports, a charge to income tax will not arise to shareholders when capital gains made by a company are distributed.

Teare said: "It has come to my attention that unacceptable tax planning was being contemplated and I had to take steps to ensure that tax due on income, not capital gains, was paid. This is not an attempt to introduce a form of capital gains tax; nothing is further from my mind, the minister confirmed.

The Isle of Man's attribution regime was introduced in 2008 under The Income Tax (Attributed Profits) Temporary Taxation Order 2007 (Statutory Document 928/07), following approval by the island's legislative assembly the Tynwald in December 2007.

The removal of the regime was announced in Budget 2011, and is effective from April 2012.

More:
IoM Intends No Tax On Capital Gains

Scholarship represents the Governments effort to facilitate more Caymanian involvement in the tourism industry

(PRWEB) February 29, 2012

Since its inception in 1996, this annual scholarship has awarded over 95 students either full or partial scholarships. Many of these students have gone on to work full time in the tourism industry, and some of the Ministrys graduates now hold senior positions at the Department of Tourism and other tourism establishments, most notably the Department of Tourisms Director, Shomari Scott, acting.

One of the primary goals of the online scholarship is to attract a steady stream of skilled and enthusiastic tourism professionals who can actively contribute to the future prosperity of the tourism sector. The Ministry and Department of Tourism are working hard to achieve this through the Scholarship Program and through other initiatives such as the Tourism Apprenticeship Training Program.

Local students were awarded MOT scholarships in disciplines such as Marketing, Public Relations and Communications, Tourism and Environmental Management, Hotel Management, Travel Tourism and Hospitality and the Visual Arts at universities and colleges in the US, England and Canada.

For further information about the scholarship program please contact Ms. Dianne Conolly at the Department of Tourism by telephone at 244-1252 or by email at dconolly(at)caymanislands(dot)ky.

About WizeHive

WizeHive offers a cloud-based platform that automates an organizations forms, workflows and business processes. These tools have been used to automate contests with WizeHive's Online Contest Software; scholarships with WizeHive's Scholarship Management Software; sales processes and more.

About Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism

The Department of Tourism was established in 1974 and falls under the mandate of the Ministry of Financial Services, Tourism and Development. This Ministry organises and directs the activities for many departments all of which have similar goals; to protect the environment, support the economy, promote the islands as a premier destination for visitors and to support local businesses and business people.

Read more:
Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism Continues Scholarship Program for Students Planning Careers in Tourism