Today in 1901, the first Nobel Prize was awarded. Alfred Nobel set the prize into motion using his fortune largely earned from his invention of dynamite.

Amazingly enough dynamite was actually a safety improvement over highly volatile nitroglycerine which was under heavy use at the time. Dynamite could be used for the many earthworks efforts of the time, not only in mining but also in clearing away stubborn mountains that stood in the way of a railroad’s intended route.

On the other hand, the convenient nature of dynamite also expanded its use in killing large groups of people in a single effort and was viewed by many as one of the first (arguably) true weapons of mass destruction.

Before his death, a paper accidentally carried his obituary which basically remembered him as a modern harbinger of death due to his horrific creation.

Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead")

it went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

Not wanting this to be his legacy, the Nobel Prize was essentially his effort to "rebrand" himself and on 27 November 1895, Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes.

Did it work?

Before reading this, were you aware of Nobel’s original notoriety?

In spite of the tradeoffs, I’m thankful for the water we have available to us from coast to coast. Yeah, I know it’s got chlorine in it. I’m not a fan of drinking water directly from the tap. I don’t want that chlorine in my body. I’d also rather not breathe it into my lungs in the shower.

Some people say “the poison is in the dosage,” but I consider that an idiot’s mantra. Let’s see one of those people volunteer for a daily dosage of arsenic, lead, mercury, uranium or wood grain alcohol.

Chlorine is easy to filter out though so kudos to the people who work their buts off at the water treatment plants around the US to give us water that doesn’t contain weird forms of life that make us sick.

You may think your municipal water doesn’t always taste the best and if you don’t filter out the chlorine, you’re a dummy, but millions of people around the globe wish they had water half as good as what we take for granted.

Water that doesn’t deliver bacterial infections, parasites and other diseases should not be a luxury.

Clean water should be the norm.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the norm around the globe. Water should be a source of life. Instead it’s one of the greatest sources of sickness and disease.

Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water.

A BILLION!

That’s one in eight of us.

If you’ve ever had Giardiasis (AKA, Beaver Fever), or any other water-borne pathogen in your gut, you know what it’s like to be more focused on clenching your stomach while holding in the pending gastrointestinal tsunami and fighting to keep yourself hydrated at the other end.

It sucks.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick.

What would you life be like if you had to subtract 3 hours from every day, just to get your water?

Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water.  Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

Take some time today and give to CharityWater.org and give others something to be thankful for.

In spite of the tradeoffs, I’m thankful for the water we have available to us from coast to coast. Yeah, I know it’s got chlorine in it. I’m not a fan of drinking water directly from the tap. I don’t want that chlorine in my body. I’d also rather not breathe it into my lungs in the shower.

Some people say “the poison is in the dosage,” but I consider that an idiot’s mantra. Let’s see one of those people volunteer for a daily dosage of arsenic, lead, mercury, uranium or wood grain alcohol.

Chlorine is easy to filter out though so kudos to the people who work their buts off at the water treatment plants around the US to give us water that doesn’t contain weird forms of life that make us sick.

You may think your municipal water doesn’t always taste the best and if you don’t filter out the chlorine, you’re a dummy, but millions of people around the globe wish they had water half as good as what we take for granted.

Water that doesn’t deliver bacterial infections, parasites and other diseases should not be a luxury.

Clean water should be the norm.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the norm around the globe. Water should be a source of life. Instead it’s one of the greatest sources of sickness and disease.

Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water.

A BILLION!

That’s one in eight of us.

If you’ve ever had Giardiasis (AKA, Beaver Fever), or any other water-borne pathogen in your gut, you know what it’s like to be more focused on clenching your stomach while holding in the pending gastrointestinal tsunami and fighting to keep yourself hydrated at the other end.

It sucks.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick.

What would you life be like if you had to subtract 3 hours from every day, just to get your water?

Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water.  Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

Take some time today and give to CharityWater.org and give others something to be thankful for.

If you do any work researching keywords for your Internet Marketing needs, you’ve probably dealt with the concept of long-tail vs short-tail keywords.

The best example I can think of is based on “golf.” That’s a short-tail keyword. It’s just one word.

Google Golf and you’re going to find a lot of results. Each of these results contains the word Golf. For some reason, possibly mystical, one page has the #1 result. Many look upon this ranking with awe.

“How can I get top ranking for a single keyword?”

Now consider the phrase “buy Nike Golf shirts”. This is a long-tail phrase. Google this and you’ll get far fewer results than for golf, but is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Someone who types “golf” is probably at the beginning of the online research phase. These are tire kickers. They’re not likely to buy. A million clicks from this bunch might equal a few sales. It also equals server load and requires your website to bear the traffic. What is that traffic really worth?

On the other hand, less gross traffic from people searching for “buy Nike Golf shirts” seems like a high ROI effort to me.

Long-tail keyword ranking isn’t just about finding phrases that are easier to rank for than short ones, it’s about maximizing results.

Do what you love: Make your business stand out online with Dave Saunders  at http://www.davesaunders.net