A relatively new YouTube user, bradbavarde, compares a description from Webster's Dictionary to his opinion of certain characteristics of a Large Group Awareness Training organization. Take a moment to watch this video about bradbavarde's commentary on these criteria, and decide for yourself:

Here are some additional resources discussing 'cult' criteria:

What is a Destructive Cult? - FACTnet

Criteria for Determining If a Group is a Destructive Cult - Cult Awareness and Information Center

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton's Criteria for Thought Reform - ex-cult Resource Center

Defining a Cult - The Ross Institute Internet Archive for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements

Cults 101: Checklist of Cult Characteristics - International Cultic Studies Association

What are the Characteristics of a Religious Cult? - The Prem Rawat Talk Forum

And once again, a more humorous but also disturbing take on how to start a "Mind Control Cult":

As always, you are encouraged to watch the above videos, read the information provided at the links, research more and educate yourselves - and decide for yourself.

As mentioned in previous articles, Page Rank is one of the familiar variables in determining appearance in SE results. Although today the importance of page rank has been descended, and sometimes we see pages of PR 3 or 4 getting to first places in Google, Page Rank is one of the variables SEO's often deal with because this is the variable we know a lot about and can approach sensibly. The second good reason to learn about PR is using it to emphasize important pages of your website, like the Homepage ( you know how annoying it is when SE presents some negligible page of your website higher than the Homepage)

What is PR?

PR ranges from 1-10 and indicates the number and quality of page incoming links.

Page Rank is calculated as follows:

PR(A) = log10((1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))) when :

0
PR(T1) – Page rank of page T1 linking to page A. T1, ….,Tn

C(T1) – number of outbound links in page T

Notice that the 1-10 scale is accepted because of logarithmization of the equation. Therefore , each group of page rank ( PR1,… PR10) is not equal in size and getting to higher PR group is getting harder with every step.

This article deals with page rank maximization techniques:

PR0 – Page rank zero

This rank is usually given to:

new pages

pages with very few incoming links

websites being caught using Black Hat Strategies to promote their website.

Webpages with PR0 can harm your website in case that one of your pages links to PR0 page. Although, if PR0 page links to your page , your pages is not hurt nor benefited because Google assumes you don't have absolute control over your incoming links. Even so , you may exchange links with PR0 page in case that

The PR0 page doesn't contain hidden text or other forbidden elements of black hat SEO

The page is new and therefore gets zero ranking.

PR leakage

Although PR depends on your incoming links, linking to other websites can cause you PR leakage, therefore use only necessary links to other websites.

Linking to pages inside your website does not cost you PR therefore you can do it freely.

Make sure every page in your website links to other important pages since every link has its contribution. Leaving Dead end pages wastes this contribution.

Use PR to emphasize important pages:

Creating links smartly to most important pages of your website, like Homepage, gives it PR boost and helps emphasizing its importance in front of less important pages in the website.

This is the most popular and beneficial link scheme emphasizing your homepage:

All pages in the website link to Homepage (first priority page)

Page of x priority is not linked to other pages of x priority but only to Homepage, page of x+1 , and X-1 priority. (for example, categories are not linked between them).

No jumping between pages in non hierarchic order : for example Page priority 1 doesn’t link to page priority 3 , and page of same priority are not interlinked.

If we count the relative distribution of PR between all the pages, in this scheme, Homepage gets the highest rank.

If we link the categories , Homepage rank descends and category PR raises a little.

If we link all the pages at the website to each other, all of them get the same but low PR.

To get the highest Homepage PR we must link all the pages to Homepage only and Homepage must link to all the pages.

Exchanging/ Purchasing Links

Incoming link is more effective if it comes from high PR page.

Page with few links is better contributor than page with lots of links (in case they are of same PR)

Exchange links only with well ranked websites because exchanging links cause PR leakage. This leakage must be weaker than link contribution otherwise the exchange is not beneficial.

Don't exchange pages with PR0 pages because in best case scenario it doesn’t help you. (Unless you expect this page to be very popular in short period).

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If you aren’t where people are looking, you CAN’T get the sale.

Even if you aren’t planning on selling anything online, you still need to have an Internet presence, telling your story and being a 24/7 sales person for you. The Internet is information. So, even if you just have an informational website, people can find out more about you, your company, what you have to offer, and why they should choose you over your competition. A website gives you the opportunity to get all of that across to your potential customer.

Following, are proven components of a website and why you will need them in yours.

A Home Page is the window into your website and should be short, sweat, and to the point. Statistically, it has been proven that you get about 3 seconds, once a person arrives at your website, to get them interested enough to click for more information. If you can get them to click, then you have them! If you try to give them all of the information at once, then you will lose them.

Some websites try to give you their inventory on the home page, or write a story that scrolls forever. This is not good. A home page should not scroll. This is a big “No No”. When people get to a home page and see paragraphs, trust me, they go on to the next website. It needs graphics that represent the services, happy pictures, happy customers, and a quick sales pitch. Remember, people are lazy and won’t read large amounts of text, unless they have a need to. And included on the home page, needs to be quickly gotten across, why someone should use you over your competitor.

The About Us page sometimes gets left off, in favor of making the home page the About Us page. You will want to have an About Us page that explains in detail what you have to offer, your history, your mission statement, and a good reason that a potential customer should use buy from you over your competitor. This can be seen as the detailed version of the home page. However, it is a mistake to forgo the About Us page in exchange for a detailed home page. Again, this will just push people away who do not want to read all of the details to find out who you are and what you have to offer. This information should be available for those who wish to see more information after they are intrigued by the home page.

Design rules. For uniformity and good design, websites (any marketing piece) should have rules for graphic elements and text. For example, all headings should be the same size/style/color, etc. All subheads should have their own size/style/color, etc. This helps the eye make sense of what it is looking at. Guide your visitor with well-placed graphics and text.

Make sure that your website has good navigation, with buttons/links for all main sections of your website. And be sure to keep these navigation buttons/links visible on ANY page. There is nothing more frustrating than to not be able to find your way while browsing a website. People will leave before becoming too frustrated. Don’t let this happen on your website!

The constant, flashing email (or other) button/advertisement is a "No No" these days. In the old days, flashing and blinking graphics were used. As websites became more graphically sophisticated, these types of elements were not used any more. It can be annoying to see something flashing just off your vision, when you are trying to read the web page.

Text links at the bottom are rarely used any more. They were implemented back in the day of the text-based websites, when they were just starting out. This was for the dial-up users who had the option to turn off graphics for faster web page loading. When this happened, there were no links for navigation, unless a webmaster placed text links at the bottom. Nowadays, most people have broadband connections, and this just isn't necessary any more.

The biggest problem I see with websites these days is that a person has to read quite a bit to see what, exactly, a website is selling. When people show up at your website, you get about 3 seconds to peak their interest. Get it across very quickly, with icons/graphics/bullet points that are easy to understand. Tell them why they should choose you over your competition. And then tell them where to go to get started.

Another very important element is testimonials. More important than telling them why a potential customer should use your services over your competitions’, is a customer of yours saying the same thing. Not only is a testimonial someone who used your services, but they can say "how" you were able to help them. This gives new potential customers ideas on how your services will help “them”. Testimonials are also sales pitches from your happy customers, people just like them. They are people who were in the same position as they are right now and they got through it, so they can too. They also build credibility. When you are endorsed by other people, you have credibility and that you can do what you say you can do. And even though they may be saying the same thing that you are saying, it is coming from someone just like them, and not someone who is trying to sell them anything. They have nothing to gain by saying this. You do. So they need to hear from them. You absolutely MUST have endorsements for your business; otherwise, you are just blowing your own horn!

The next best thing to a testimonial page is an FAQ page. An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page answers questions for your company 24/7, when you can't be at the phone to answer, and for people who would rather look over your information than speak to someone who might try to sell them something. FAQs also help to give scenarios of how they can be helped, by answering questions that other potential customers have asked, and they might not have thought of themselves. This gets them thinking and gives them answers in a risk-free environment. It is VERY important to have an FAQ working for you 24/7. It's like having a free sales person working for you around the clock, fielding all questions that might come up! It's a MUST-have for ANY website!

Your website should also have a clear "call to action". A lot of websites say that “we are here and we do this”, but they don't tell them how to get started, or tell them where to go to get started right now... no call to action. Now that they have the information, now what? People are like sheep. They must be led. You must lead them to the next level; otherwise, they probably won't get there. You should have calls to action by all services, and on your home page. You should sprinkle testimonials throughout, as well, leading them back to the full testimonials and then to the call to action, which should be placed on the testimonials page, as well. You could offer a FREE Consultation by calling right now… or click HERE now to email us 24/7 for a FREE Consultation… something that tells them where to go from here and a reason to get started right now and how.

There also needs to be graphics to help tell the story; high-end icons that help draw the eye to the item of interest, to get them to read it. Having a text-only page usually does not get read. People are lazy and will not usually read paragraphs of information in hopes of getting the information they are looking for. They would have to first be extremely interested before reading the “fine print”. And to get them interested, it should be broken up with graphics that represent each section. They will see the related graphic first, and then move to that area if interested. But to give them a page of information usually doesn't work.

You also need meta tags. This is very important to search engines. These are hidden key words and phrases that describe what you offer, but also your location, etc. Search engines rely heavily on key words and phrases in order to give your website as a result in a search done for your type of business. In fact, it is also good to have misspelled keywords that people might type in order to find you. Obviously, you won’t want to have misspelled words or phrases on your page, since this will give the wrong impression of who you are. With meta tags, misspelled words are hidden in the code of the website, but can be used to bring people to your website who may not be able to correctly spell some your services. Even putting your competitions’ names and products in your meta tags can help get traffic to your site, so that they can compare your products and services to your competitors’.

Another item that puts you high on the search engine results listing is having articles about your type of business, both on your website, and other websites that link back to yours for more information on the subject. Offering free information makes you an authority on the subject, not just someone trying to sell their wares. This plays heavily in search results, along with one-way links back to your website. When you get one-way links back to your site for more information, this gives you much credibility and definitely helps to make you an authority that other sites rely on. So when someone looks up your type of product or service for more information, obviously the search engine will give a site that has the most helpful and free information (and one that other sites rely on for more information on this subject) a higher rating and puts them higher on the search results list.

A FREE Tips & Tricks or Hints page is also a good way to get relevant traffic. People are always looking for How-To's and DIY information on all types of subjects. On my site I have FREE Tech Tips that get hits all the time, which pertain to my services. Again, a percentage of these hits click on my services. And the only way I got them there was because of the FREE How-To's that I offer. So, you have to entice people to your site, by offering more than your competitor's website. This is where these types of pages come in handy.

It is also good to have a Privacy Policy page. This shows integrity and also builds credibility and a higher ranking in the search engines. This is one item that search engines look for, in particular. Websites with a page dedicated to a Privacy Policy get a higher ranking and your site will show up higher in the search results.

A Guarantee page is also a good idea. Again, this gives credibility and will give you an edge over your competitor, who may not offer a guarantee. A website that has a guarantee, but is hard to find, makes a potential customer feel like they have something to hide and may not purchase from that website. However, if you have an easy-to-find Guarantee that you put right in their face (whether you dedicate a page to it, or you put it right on the Home page), it eases potential customers into a buying position.

You may want to have a form that allows a customer to request more information about your product or service, and which also lets the customer type in their personal information and what they are looking for. This not only helps you by getting their contact information, it also helps by prompting the potential customer into thinking about other aspects. By doing it this way, you will also get all of the information needed to correctly quote a product or service more effectively, without having to make additional phone calls to the customer. The more common way of requesting information is just by posting an INFO email address and hope that the person requesting the info knows enough about what he is looking for to provide all of the info to get a good quote. This is not usually the case. Most of the time they need a form to fill out. In most cases, there is info that is left out. A form ensures that you get everything needed to quote the product or service accurately. And, also, by offering a form to request more info, leads will be generating 24-7 for you. All you have to do is the quote and give them a call. This reduces the need for cold-calling, and gives you an excuse to call and close the deal.

If you incorporate all of the above pages, along with the “way” these pages should be shown, your website will have a higher ranking in the search engines, which puts your website higher in the search results, thus significantly increasing the traffic to your website!

The above categories aren't the only things you can do to increase traffic to your website. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) should also be done, as well as swapping links with relevant websites, and posting articles and links back to your website from online article and content websites.

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In reality the modern Church's biggest stumbling block with regards to Technology and especially Video and Sound is financing and volunteers. With so many things running in the Church; the main threat is  over expenditure of finances and over working of volunteers. That is why you have to first be putting God first (kind of supposed to be a given).  While I think we have been blessed as our Church I still struggle to find people to help. Maybe it is the intimidation factor - who knows. But Video, editing etc is not a one man job or two or three; it is a ministry that requires time, effort, learning, excellence and commitment.

Anyway a good way of evaluating how far to go with this type of technology is to apply the SWOT analysis:

Strong Points, Weak Points, Opportunities, and Threats.

Threats

Over expenditure of finances and over working of volunteers are the obvious threats. Another is the over use of video to the point that it becomes ineffective.

Weak Points

Video is sometimes impersonal and some people; out of preference, would not like to watch too much video or even a complete Video Sermon. 

Strong Points

Video certainly does appeal to the younger crowd; the more upbeat and zooty then the more cool it can be.

Also a pre-recorded testimony, promo or informational segment can get the point across very clearly and effectively.

Opportunities

In today's day and age it is very important to be culturally relevant in order to not only appeal to people who are looking for a modern Church but also to communicate effectively and in the language of the people. I don't mean watering down the message of God, I mean leveraging the technology of today to do God's will to reach the lost. Therefore technology and especially Video should be an opportunity to reach more people.

We are to preach the Gospel to all the Earth. Everyday the world is becoming smaller. And with video, one can hand over a DVD, with a sermon on it, to a friend that could end up in the most oddest of places being watched by someone you may have never thought would have ever wanted to listen to the Word of God. Who knows - God can use anything.

God Tube, God TV, etc videos are being broadcasted to all ends of the earth - to places where you would least expect.

What is important to realize is that this is just a means to an end; an end that would ideally result in someone giving their life to Jesus. Ultimately though - that is not a result dependent on the means you use to acquire that end, it is dependent on God.  And God has given us guys and girls, that have the ability to understand this technology, custodianship and stewardship of that understanding, those skills, those talents and those abilities in order to Glorify Him and to do His Will.

I do a lot of work in video media and my take is that we need to be relevant, interesting and inspiring. Sure one could argue that you should only rely on God and nothing else. Well I believe that we should give God and His message the respect it deserves, and that means creating environments for people to hear God that are relevant, professional and make people want to come back for more. Environments that get people in to listen, respond and accept. Environments that bring people in for the message of God to be sown into their lives because they want to come back and find out more. Therefore is it not obligatory to give your best in every area?

So I am fairly convinced that video plays a very important role in the modern Church. Not for the sake of it. Video, as with any media has to be strategic, it has to serve a purpose - otherwise it just becomes another bit of noise in the background.

I want to give more of my opinion, but first let me explain where I am coming from:

Part One: How We Got Here

Been doing video for the Church going on 4 years now and I can say that it has been an interesting time of challenges, insights and celebration. When I first started I was asked to man the Church's Sony Hi-8 camera for sending through a video feed to the adjoining room where the kids were being looked after. It was only supposed be during the holiday season when the volunteers of the childrens' ministry could take a break.

How was I to know that God was going to take this minor hobby and create a passion in me that would see video media play an integral part in our Church service. Well it was not on my agenda to take it anywhere other than where it was. Ha ha ha. I had to start experimenting. I had to start recording our Sunday morning services and Friday KidStuf. I also had to find out how to edit this stuff and with what equipment. My investigations took me to Apple's PowerMac G5 1.6GHz SP and Final Cut Express. Wow, it was really amazing what could be done. Ok, I did find it very expensive in-spite of the fact that I purchased the bottom of the range G5 available, but I did it without going into debt - and only because of God.

I think that the first major step for the Video Media at out Church was the funky and funny value adds that we put together. Usually on the fly and with the kind of organizing that could only have been God inspired. Then I started putting the recordings of KidStuf and the Sunday Services onto DVD. Initially this was a really cool idea and resulted in some nice products. But I soon realized that the Final Cut Express was a bit limiting in what I was wanting to do, so I purchased Apple's Production Suite. Needless to say, many hours were spend playing around with that cool collection of tools.

The second major step came about when I just had to obtain a better camera, something that had true manual control and that was widely favored in the independent film arena. Seems like a hectic jump, but looking back on it, buying that Panasonic AG-DVX100BE was a pretty good idea. The improvement over the Hi-8 was enormous, both for the DVDs and for the value adds. Soon we were putting together video testimonies that were so professionally done that it looked like we were hiring specialist to get the job done. Hehehehe.

Ok, at the moment, we don't do DVDs anymore. There does not seem to be much of a demand, maybe for the KidStuf footage - but the idea is to get kids and their parents to see the live event together, not to keep the kids distracted with the DVD version. Anyway, currently the big effort for video goes to promoting the environments we create for KidStuf, FazeOne, Building Blocks, Transformers, StartingPoint, GroupLink and the Services. This we do by presenting the promotions of each environment, or informational segments of what is needed in the form of a TenBefore (10 minutes before the Service starts). Also Testimonies for Baptisms, but only the bravest of brave get baptized in  Winter, brrrrr. To a lessor degree I put together Video Title Enhancements to act as transitions for when the speaker gets up.

The TenBefore stuff we do, is based on the very same structure that North Point Community Church's TenBefore has. Very cool to be involved in a Church like that, very cool indeed - especially from a video stand point - very cool.

This is not a ministry that is a one man job, definitely not for a volunteer. Those late night renders are not always good for family life. That is why I constantly pray for God to provide people who are keen, passionate and eager to commit. And I have been blessed in that area with the likes of Shadrach, his son Dylan and Pam. All offering what they can to God in this area.

At the moment there are restrictions and stone walls - like our volunteers and equipment, things that - I am happy to say - are out of my hands and in God's hands. (Well happy is a strong word here cos I am really on the edge of my seat waiting for something to happen that may be the realization of the dream I have for the video team)

To do a simple conversion of images to an animated GIF we invoke the following

>convert -verbose -delay 20 -loop 0 -density 200 *.pdf output.gif

and we get a nice GIF file. This takes the files named *.pdf in the order that they are listed and makes a GIF out of them with a 20 hundreths of a second delay between each frame. The -loop 0 flag makes it loop indefinitely. You can put 3 in there to loop 3 times etc. The -density 200 flag specifies a DPI of 200 for the image. This is only really used when converting postscript images.

On your Windows computer go to Windows Media Player 11 and click on Library > Media Sharing. Go ahead and check the boxes that you want to share media to (i.e. Other PC's, Xbox 360, etc.). You might as well find media that others are sharing as well. Hit the Settings button and add whatever you like.

Now when you go to your Xbox, goto the media tab and go to videos (music, or photos) and change the source to the desktop you just configured. You should see the network name of the computer and set that as the sources (as opposed to the Xbox hard drive). You should be able to browse the folders that you just added in your media libraries now (goto Library > Options > Library > Monitor Folders on your PC to add more monitored folders).

I think his videos speak best for themselves so I will just say go watch them. If you don't have much time, just watch the first one.

Here are his videos about Landmark (there are seven so far):

Landmark Education Lars Bergwik part 1

Landmark Education Lars Bergwik Video part 2

Landmark Education - Lars Bergwik on Randy McNamara - FL

Landmark Education - Lars talks part one

Landmark Education - Lars talks part two

Landmark education -Lars talks part three

Landmark Eduction - Lars talks part four

Some links:

Discussion thread about it at Cult Education Forum

Discussion thread about it at alt.fan.landmark

Blog post at The Macho Response: Go, Lars, Go!!!

Why did Landmark Education Leave France? - Cult News

Okay, so the exercise was supposed to be about 30 seconds to 1 minute, but there were moments when there was only music, so the part I transcripted was from the start to 2:00 into the video. Some wors are between parenthesis, because Hugh Laurie, when playing Dr.House, eats his words, speaks fast, and is hence difficult to understand

Here it is (below :)

Craig Ferguson : Welcome back everybody, welcome back, welcome back to “behind the scenes of 1970 special effects” (screams : aaaaaaaah oooooohhh as he plays with the camera) where we blow the lead of stuff you already knew. My first guest today is the stars on the health show “House”, which is on Monday nights on Fox (spits). But it’s actually good. No, it’s good ! Take a look at that :

Dr.House : So about her, and whatever (happens with) fears and wonders in her sight. She’s gonna lie, and deal, and (trade) your testies to get whatever she wants. Oh wait, let’s do something for Idiot, the second one. Here you know you’ll end up (undeviated), holding her purse, going out to sleep on a new mattress you hate.
Dr. Wilson : What the hell are you doing?
Dr.House : He needs an MRI.

C.F : Hugh Laurie, Everyone ! Well, Hugh, hugh, hugh, welcome, how lovely to see you
Hugh Laurie : Peeves, Craig Ferguson.
C.F : Peeves, Craig Ferguson. Only you’re rubbish.
H.L : No.
C.F : No ?
H.L : No
C.F : Not radio’s Craig Ferguson Anymore !
H.L : I’m just seeing down there, I’m sitting a foot lower than you are.
C.F : Yes, that’s the way we do in here

Brave soul, if you don't feel like reading such a long and media-rich post, I suggest you pass your way and head for greener pastures...

Okay, still here ? Let's start then...

First, let's see the media I gathered about my future professional goals.

There is a YouTube video, that presents an interesting technique on how to make Flash websites with traditional material like paint and clay objects. The final website can be seen here also. It's an interesting video, also the music is nice and peaceful. There isn't much talk, I'm afraid...

Then there's an audio file (podcast) presenting various technology and IT news, well, at least these were news when I researched the subject. Now a bit old, but still funny, and very long ! The speakers are clear, though, so it's not very difficult to understand.

And finally, a website that's very interesting, Lokesh Darak's one : It offers a nice (and famous) JS-based framework allowing one to display images in "modal windows", taht is, without leaving the current window, from a thumbnail. This is very useful when doing art galleries and portfolios.

Wow, still with me? I'm afraid there's more, my friend, so you may not rest yet...

Let's talk about my personal interests, then.

The video I found on the topic is of an amazing artist who can do beautiful images (of cars) with only MS Paint. For me, who know how difficult it is to do such a thing, it's truly an amazing piece. Again, not that much talk. None, in fact...

The podcast is about computer security, which is interesting too, and pertains to computer science and IT too, and interests me in a more personal way since I've developed my own encryption software in the past. Here is the link...

And at last, the link I've decided to select points to one of my favorite artist's gallery on deviantArt.com, a huge and heavily popular website where one can safely publish his/her artworks and get feedback on them, even sell them (if they're good, that is...) !

Now, it's done ! You can safely put back your glasses and relax ! I hope you enjoyed the read...