Culture and Society

The Statue of David was sculpted during a three year period beginning in 1501 by the artist Michelangelo. The subject of the work is the Biblical King David in the moment that he makes the decision to fight Goliath. The seventeen foot tall statue became the symbol of defending the civic liberties of the Florentine Republic, an area surrounded by more powerful states and the powerful Medici family. The sculpture originally stood outside the seat of government in Florence, the Palazzo della Signoria.

Michelangelo wasn’t the original artist of the sculpture. A group of officials sought to commission a twelve sculptures based on the Old Testament to grace decorate a cathederal. The first two were completed by Donatello and Agostino di Duccio, his assistant. The buyers contacted di Duccio to create the work of David. He shaped the legs, feet and figure and began to do some drapery work before he left the projects, possibly due to the death of Donatello. Antonio Rossellino took over the sculpting product but he was essentially fired.

The partially altered chunk of marble sat that way for the next twenty five years in the yard of a workshop. The block of marble became smaller due to exposure to the elements. The deterioration of their pricey investment was enough for the group of buyers to restart the process of finding an artist. Various artists were interviewed for the task, including Leonardo da Vinci, but Michelangelo was finally hired in 1501.

David is thought to be preparing for battle since the body of Goliath is not included and the young man’s body is tense and ready for action. There are bulging veins in his hand and a twisting in his body. But there are those who think it shows him in the moments after his victory, when he is contemplating his victory.

The statue is standing in the contrapposto pose that prevailed during the High Renaissance. His weight is shifted onto his right leg while the left is relaxed. To balance that out, his left arm is in motion (holding the rock) while his right hangs to his side. It is a very naturalistic stance. The pedestal of marble below him is treated as though it were something he just stepped up onto.

His proportions aren’t as realistic. The head and upper region of the body are larger than the lower parts of the body. The hands are also disproportionately large. The proportions are defended by experts as being accurate for the original intended home of the statue, high up on a church where the body’s ratio would have looked accurate. There is some controversy surrounding the fact that the David in the statue is not circumcised when the real life king would have been.

A vandal attacked the statue in 1991, damaging some of the toes on the left foot with a hammer before he was restrained. The first serious cleaning of the statue since 1843 happened in 2003 with no damage done to the statue although there were concerns by many scholars before hand.

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Victor Epand is an expert consultant for magic, art, and Tantra. You can find the best marketplace for magic, art, and Tantra at these 3 sites for magic, Statue of David by Michelangelo, and Tantra.

Article Source: Populate.net

Of all the forms of identity theft that exist, medical identity theft is probably the worst. This crime has some of the most frightening and far reaching ramifications. It can cause mis-diagnosis, cause the wrong treatment to be prescribed, or worse, the wrong medications.

People, by and large consider the medical fraternity to be the most sacred of all. They tend to let their guard down and get complacent about their personal information. People tend to trust blindly, with regard to their medical records, the medical establishment.

The reality is that there have been over 250,000 cases of medical records theft reported last year. This has caused the authorities to define this type of criminal activity and take action to deal with it.

But what kind of information can be there that can cause you harm? You might be wondering. For starters, it contains your social security number, insurance information, medical treatment history, and of course, your address.

This information can then be used to obtain certain types of expensive medical treatments, AIDS testing, and other medical procedures. This type of id thief may even get some sort of medical surgery done that they would not normally have access to. All at the victim’s expense of course.

It is also important to keep in mind that all of these fraudulently obtained treatments, etc. will be added to the victim’s medical record. The results could be disastrous.

Another side effect of this is that the information can be used to obtain credit or even rent a house in your name. The results here can have detrimental effects on your credit rating and credit score.

It has been recorded that sometimes, the health care professionals themselves might steal the information in your medical file to get prescriptions of medicines for someone else.

What can happen as a result? From the medical side of this crime, the victim can lose health care benefits that they would have otherwise been entitled to. To add to that, the victim’s life could be put at risk by being given the wrong types of medications, blood transfusions, and the like.

They could be denied treatment or prescribed the wrong treatments. All due to an id thief altering someone’s medical information.

The financial aspect of this crime can be equally serious, though maybe not life threatening. With your personal information, the id thief can take out credit applications, rent houses, take out cell phone accounts, etc.

What this does to the victim is place their credit history and record in jeopardy. This can tarnish the victim’s credit to the point he or she could find themselves with reduced credit options or even denial of credit.

One of the reasons this type of theft is so dangerous is its public disclosure. When anyone goes into a doctor’s office, he must invariably speak to a receptionist. When that person does so, he or she must disclose personal information, like a social security number or medical insurance information.

Keep in mind that this is a public environment so it is never a good idea to publicly disclose your personal information. If you must do so, speak as quietly as possible, or even better, give it to the receptionist in writing and remember to reclaim the paper when the receptionist is finished.

One important point is that your social security number need not be used. Your medical insurance information should be quite enough. This is arguable as there are no hard and fast rules regarding its use.

Your medical information is as important to you as any other of your personal information and should be protected at all times. Following the simple steps outlined above and reviewing both of them periodically can go a long way in keeping your financial and medical from being compromised. Always remember that if you have any questions regarding anything you find, you should ask immediately.

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Ryan Smith is the author of the hot, new, blog “The 10 Commandments of ID Theft Protection” Learn more at http://www.e-profitsubmissions.com/wordpress

Article Source: Populate.net

When will global oil supply stall and start to decline? An important part of the answer to this frequently asked question comes down to oil field decline rates - that is, the annual rate at which production from existing fields goes down. The decline rate is a key link in the chain of factors needed to understand the future of the world oil supply.

If we want a picture of likely oil production capacity in coming years, getting the decline rate right is critical - at least to understand the below ground potential. Of course, the decline rate does not address the important factors above ground - ranging from geopolitics to investment decisions - that will also affect future production.

Although the decline rates for individual fields can be ascertained, a view of the global decline rate has been notably missing in the past. The absence of a definitive, comprehensive analysis of decline rates has generated much speculation and a range of widely varying estimates.

The assumption that production from existing fields is declining rapidly - 8 percent or more is the figure one often hears - has contributed to pessimistic, “peak oil” views about the future.

In an effort to find that missing link and answer the question about the global decline rate, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) launched a detailed, in-depth research project that culminated in our new study - Finding the Critical Numbers: What are the Real Decline Rates for Global Oil Production?

To do the research, CERA undertook a substantive analysis drawing on the most extensive field production database in the world, developed and maintained by IHS, that includes tens of thousands of fields.

The particular data set used in the study covers the production characteristics of 811 separate fields. These are the biggest producers. Combined together, these fields account for over 60 percent of the world’s current conventional oil production and half of total proved plus probable reserves.

The CERA analysis shows the aggregate global decline rate to be 4.5 percent, rather than that often cited 8 percent. This finding provides additional support for CERA’s view that oil production capacity, at least in terms of the physical resource, can grow enough over the next decade to meet the anticipated increase in demand.

Forecasting how much existing oil fields will produce in the future is challenging because the amount that can be produced from a field in any given year varies over time (see figure, “Oil Field Production Profile”). Production typically rises during a field’s early years. This is the Buildup Phase, which lasts from the onset of production until the field reaches 80 percent of its maximum potential production. After Buildup, a field goes into the Plateau Phase, when it is continuing to produce at 80 percent or more of its maximum potential.

A field then reaches the Decline Phase, which lasts from the time production first falls below 80 percent of maximum until, after a number of years, production declines to a low enough level that the field is no longer economic.

An individual field’s production profile is determined by two things - the inherent reservoir physics and the investment strategies of the operators. Fields of different sizes tend to have different production profiles. Large fields - defined in the CERA study as those with more than 300 million barrels of originally present reserves - typically build up over an average of six years, produce on plateau for seven years and decline on average for more than 20 years.

By contrast, small fields - those with less than 300 million barrels of original reserves - build up over an average of three years, produce on plateau for five years and decline on average over more than 14 years.

Future production from existing fields depends on where along the spectrum - from buildup to plateau to decline - the world’s fields are in aggregate. Thus, the global decline rate is at the center of any estimates about how much new oil must be discovered and brought on line in the future to replace capacity lost through the decline in production from existing fields, as well as to meet anticipated demand growth.

A small difference in assumptions about the decline rate can make a huge difference in projections about how much new oil production will be needed in the future. For example, the difference between assuming a 10 percent global decline rate, as opposed to a 5 percent rate, translates into a swing in which the world would need to discover and bring on line an extra 18.5 million more barrels of oil per day by the year 2017 - an amount equal to nearly one quarter of total oil production today.

Out of the 811 fields analyzed in the CERA study, 400 are large (more than 300 million barrels of originally proved-plus probable reserves) and the remainder, small (less than 300 million barrels of originally proved-plus probable reserves). They can be broken down into two groups: 375 fields are still in the buildup or plateau phases, with 436 in the decline phase.

When the CERA team analyzed recent production trends in its data base, it found that the aggregate global decline rate for fields currently in production is approximately 4.5 percent per year. This is far lower than the 8 percent figure used by many studies. One reason for this difference, we conclude, is that some analysts focus only on the fields that are in decline, not taking into account the production from the many fields in the world that are still in their buildup or plateau phase.

In the database, 46 percent of the 811 fields are in buildup or plateau. More importantly, these fields account for 59 percent of the current production and 63 percent of the reserves represented by the data set used in the study. Only 41 percent of production is from fields in the data set that are into the decline phase of their production lives.

In the fields that are in actual decline, the production weighted decline rate is 6.1 percent. Growing production from fields that are in buildup or plateau is thus able to offset in part shrinking production from fields in decline.

Some analysts have also focused on particular subsets of oil fields that have higher than average decline rates. Small fields, which are increasingly being developed in mature non-OPEC countries, and deepwater projects, which tend to flow at high rates as a requirement of commerciality, both tend to decline more rapidly.

Another important finding is that annual field decline rates are not increasing with time. Large fields in particular have benefited from increased investment, as well as improved planning and technology. Given adequate investment, low decline rates can be maintained in many fields for prolonged periods, and field life is very often longer than originally projected.

It is likely, according to CERA’s analysis, that improved understanding of giant fields’ geology and reservoir models over the course of long life cycles has allowed late field expansion that has arrested decline and, in many cases, allowed production to increase significantly.

Focusing on the subset of 436 oil fields that are past the buildup and plateau phase and actually in decline, the CERA research team found notable differences. Production from individual large fields declines at 5.8 percent on average, while in individual small fields it declines at 8.9 percent.

Because large fields account for 86 percent of production - and 95 percent of reserves - in the data set, the average production weighted decline rate for fields overall is, as noted above, 6.1 percent. The average for onshore fields is six percent, compared with 10 percent for shallow water offshore fields and 18 percent for deepwater fields.

It turns out that other factors - in addition to field size and onshore vs. offshore - also influence post-plateau decline rates, including reservoir characteristics, development location, regional setting and operational tactics. Limestone reservoirs, for example, which are more prevalent in OPEC countries, tend to deplete more slowly than sandstone reservoirs.

A key conclusion of the study: There is no evidence that oilfield decline rates will increase suddenly.

The study of decline rates allows for better and more reliable projections about future oil supply. The new study reinforces CERA’s parallel research, that global liquids capacity - with “liquids” defined here as conventional oil, as well as unconventional liquid fuels such as gas-related liquids, extra-heavy oils like tar sands, ultra deepwater oil and biofuels - which stood at approximately 91 million barrels per day (mbd) in 2007 - could climb to as much as 112 mbd by 2017.

This outlook is supported by a key conclusion of the study: There is no evidence that oilfield decline rates will increase suddenly.

The CERA study is a signpost that shows we are gaining a better understanding of the below-ground factors, such as decline rate, that will shape the future of world oil supply.

We welcome the further research and discussion that will continue to improve that understanding. At the same time, it needs to be recognized that a range of above-ground factors - geopolitics, investment patterns, rising costs, government decisions and environmental concerns - will continue to have a major impact.

These above-ground factors remain even more difficult to parse than the complex geological and engineering factors that underlie the decline rate of the world’s oil fields.

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Daniel Yergin, chairman of CERA, received the Pulitzer Prize for “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power” and the United States Energy Award for lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding. Vist CERA.

Article Source: Populate.net

The death of a loved one is the hardest thing you’ll ever deal with in life. During and after the funeral, there seems to be an endless stream of tears, sleepless nights and sickness in the pit of your stomach. You wonder how you will ever go on without being able to touch, laugh with or talk to that person again.

While a period of mourning is normal, you may find that you’ve lost your appetite for weeks, you find yourself listless and unable to get out of bed, you’re slowly withdrawing from friends and family, and the weight on your heart doesn’t seem to go away. These signs may signal serious depression.

Before this sadness changes your personality in unimaginable ways, seek out support and help. After all, you shouldn’t die, prematurely, with your loved one. You are still here for a reason.

Your friends and family can create a tremendous support net for you following the death and funeral for a friend or family member. Some people instinctively withdraw from others in their time of loss.

This can be hard for the comforters to understand, especially if the person grieving is a spouse. Be aware that people will genuinely want to comfort you, they want you to come to them for an embrace or to talk about your feelings.

The hardest part is feeling shut out and helpless. While it may not be the first thing on your mind or a natural tendency, when you’re ready, accept the help of those around.

Open up to them by trying to recall fond memories of the person who has died. Sometimes there need not be any conversation at all, as the power of a hug is incredible at bolstering emotional strength. Even if you’re not a “huggy” kind of person, the wounded soul seeks this kind of comfort.

Wakes are a good time to seek out a support system. Find others who are grieving as much as you - or even more than you - and bond together. Make arrangements to meet for lunch. Take trips to the gravesite together or flip through old photo albums.

It’s comforting to know you are not alone in your grief. The death of a loved one can be traumatizing, more so than you initially realize, so it’s important to deal with your feelings in a healthy manner.

You may have heard of drugs to treat depression once the death has set in and you feel a lingering sadness. If you find that your psychological grief begins to affect your physical health, eating or sleeping patterns, and your motivation to live, check with your doctor for various options.

Antidepressants like Effexor prevent the Seratonin from reuptake (meaning that your “happy chemicals” are encouraged to stay in your system longer) or like Wellbutrin which prevents Dopamine reuptake. Escitalopram, Sertraline, Venlafaxine and Paroxetine are all common antidepressant drug prescriptions. However, use drugs as a last-resort, as a 2007 study found that 25% of Americans were over-diagnosed for depression.

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Learn more about coping with the death of a loved one at Mike Selvon portal. While you are there leave is a comment at our traditional funerals blog, and receive your FREE gift.

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While there is no doubt that our modern industrial world has added to the richness and diversity of our lives, it could be argued that we have lost an essential understanding of the value of making something with our own hands and we have lost our connection to mother earth.

The industrial age kicked into full gear in the latter half of the 1800’s, within just a few years of the end of the American Civil War. Before the start of the industrial age, nearly all products were assembled by hand and made by craftsmen who enjoyed creating the value that they were making available to others.

But with the rise in industrialization, every product once made by hand took on a level of manufacturing, so much so that today,most products bought and sold today on the world market do not have a single human hand touch the product prior to distribution.

In a world of compressed wood products and staples, it is hard to achieve the beauty of handmade wood furniture. In our world of assembly line glass products, it is hard to gain an appreciation for hand blown glass products. In our modern age of vinyl products, it is hard to experience handmade purses. With the development of plastics, we lost handmade luggage and outdoor furniture.

All around us, our world is changing, and not always for the better.

In the 1970’s, there was a full-service gas station at nearly every major intersection. Full-service has since been replaced with self-service, so much so that one can hardly find a full-service station anywhere.

Handmade toys have been replaced with plastic and metal toys manufactured on assembly lines. Wood and plastic designs, made as cheaply as the manufacturers can make them, have replaced handmade items.

We have replaced all that was beautiful and handcrafted, with products made by cold and uncaring machines. Modern living has transformed the products we put into our homes, from works of fine art to efficient and inexpensive products that we have been
trained to throw away when the products break.

In this new era, it sometimes seems as if the only things we have left to cherish is each other. Of course, we will always cherish each other, but our grandmothers had handmade quilts and beautifully manufactured furniture. Our grandpas had boots or
shoes that were made by hand and taken to the leather shop when it was time to replace the soles on their shoes. Our grandparents even had mechanical watches that were valuable enough to carry to the watchmaker, when the watch stopped working.

Yes, those days are gone.

Before WWII, Christmas was chock full of gifts that were made by the hands of the giver. After WWII, technology began to stamp itself fully into our everyday lives and Christmas was transformed into a “buying experience” rather than a “making
experience”.

When was the last time that you received a handmade quilt as a gift? When was the last time your kids made you something for Christmas? When was it when someone last made you a display piece to showcase in your home?

While I do know that few people in the industrialized nations make anything by hand anymore - an exception being the Rolls Royce and Ferrari automobiles - there are many people who live in South America, Africa, and Eastern Asia who still appreciate the value of making products by hand.

With the global saturation of the Internet, we find ourselves in a unique position that most people have not been able to experience in nearly one hundred years. As global retail corporations continue to shop for cheap, mass-produced goods to sell their customers, their customers have the ability to go online and find inexpensive, handmade goods that they may prefer over the mass-produced equivalents.

Many Internet retailers have searched far-and-wide to bring handmade products to their customers. Products that are made by hand, by real people in Africa and Eastern Asia can be found on many online retail websites.

In my world, that is a beautiful concept. It is wonderful to be able to go to a website and buy a product that is made by a real human, using his or her own hands to craft the product with love, care and commitment.

I love the fact that I can go online to buy handmade, but the thing that is most interesting is that one can frequently get handmade products from other areas of the world for far less money than an American, a European or Australian can get the same kind of machined products for from his or her local brick-and-mortar retail outlet.

If you are like me, and you like handmade products, then it will be worth your time to search the Internet to see what products you can acquire to bring good craftsmanship and mother earth back into your modern life.

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Nicole Maschwitz writes about fashion and design. When you are in the market to shop for Great Gift Ideas, handmade jewellery,Fashion handbags, unique gifts or decorative homewares, please visit Gift Hut and browse their selection of products from around the world at: http://www.gifthut.com.au

Article Source: Populate.net

I read a post recently where a real estate agent was posting about whether they should leave the real estate profession. The market had slowed in their area and their income stream had decreased rapidly. They worried that if the market didn’t pick up soon, they would have difficulty making mortgage payments. It certainly seemed sensible to me.

What surprised me were the responses the post received. Everyone told them not to give up hope. It was a series of quotes that resembled a stack of hallmark cards, quotes about lights at the end of the tunnel. And while I think the commenters were doing what they thought was best I disagree about the advice they were giving. Remember when you see a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes it’s a train coming to run you over.

Let’s consider a few facts. The housing market is going from a period of fast paced growth to a downturn. The amount of business has decreased rapidly. If we all stay in the same business we are quite frankly ignoring the economic realities we are facing. And if as a group we can’t see that the economy has changed, how are we fit to give advice to our clients about what they should do.

And yes there are some people that will leave because they thought this was an “easy” business and they discovered the hard way that it’s not. But I think at the same time a lot of intelligent hardworking people will leave to find other thriving areas of the economy to work in. Or they will leave to pursue other business plans. And there is nothing wrong with that. Simply stated- that is how capitalism works. When certain sections of the economy weaken and others heat up people move around. If that didn’t happen we would all be farmers trying to serve a very, very crowded market making very, very little money. I encourage people with million dollar ideas to pursue them and not feel guilted into not quitting a profession that has a slowing market.

I want to give an example of what I am talking about. I have a friend that grew up on a chicken farm. And for awhile after school he continued to work on a chicken farm. But at some point he saw that the future didn’t look so bright for small chicken farms. So he went to business school. Today he is the CEO of a multimillion dollar company with 1000’s of employees. So I ask you. Is he a quitter? A loser maybe? Or simply someone who found a better opportunity.

In summary I am not saying there is anything wrong with staying in the profession or leaving it. I am simply saying that leaving an industry with declining total revenues to pursue more lucrative opportunities is not quitting. It’s simply the way our economy works. So, we should not guilt those who are thinking of leaving the real estate profession into staying, rather wish them good luck in their next adventure and maybe they will flourish there or maybe they will come back to real estate again some day.

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Ki works a real estate agent in the Austin Real Estate market. His website provides visitors a search of the Austin MLS along with a free real estate mortgage calculator.

Article Source: Populate.net

There are three kinds of people when it comes to shopping - those who are obsessed with brand labels and refuse to buy any product unless it has a known brand label that has a sound reputation on it, those who refuse to go for the brand labels and focus on the cheapest price available, and of course, those who don’t care one way or the other and simply purchase whatever they happen to grab first.

If you do take brand names so seriously that you’ll rarely give other makes a chance, you are letting the advertisers and market departments win, and part you from your money, often without anything much in return.

A brand label is just that - a label, and this is usually the first thing thrown in the bin once the packet is opened. The two things which really matter are quality and price, and it isn’t always the case that the leading brands offer both of either of these.

There are certainly cases, especially with clothing for example, where leading brands which cost significantly more than others create the clothes in a way which improves their life expectancy. Clothes that are hard wearing, wash well and look good may well cost more than cheaper alternatives which may look good to start with, but may deteriorate quickly and may wash poorly and end up sagging, distorting or shrinking. However, this is not always the case, so again it is worth not assuming that this is true. Certainly I know of a top brand name that sells baby clothes, almost all of which end up distorted very quickly when you follow the washing instructions, yet I have found a very cheap supermarket make which seem indestructible and outlasted the baby! It’s always worth giving own brands a go, because the cost difference can be dramatic.

Of course, one of the reasons that some people choose not to go for supermarket own brands is because they look cheap, and the shoppers feel that by buying items which look cheap, it will in turn make them look cheap and ruin their self image. The idea that we go food shopping in order to bolster our self image seems absurd, and of course is a clever tactic fostered and encouraged by the advertisers and retailers to encourage us to pay more for a product than we need to.

The other reason some people choose not to buy supermarket own brands is because of quality, yet very often this is based on assumption, and they have never tried them for themselves. Say a can of beans with a label costs fifty pence, and the supermarket’s own brand costs just eight pence. You may well feel that the difference in quality must be astronomical, but for the sake of an extra eight pence, why not give them a go? Either just buy the store brand, or buy both in case. The chances are, you’ll probably not notice the difference.

The truth is, your local supermarket hasn’t got a thousand factories of its own scattered about creating all these own brand products - they simply buy in bulk from the manufacturers who are already selling these items. I happen to know someone who works at the factory for what is probably the world’s most famous baked bean manufacturer. Apparently they skim off the top quarter of the beans once they’re cooked and package them in the store branded cans, and the rest into their own. The same beans - but some sold at fifty pence, and the rest at eight pence. Not only can you not tell the difference - there is no difference, they’re the same product!

It’s always worth giving them a go - the money you save could well result in halving your shopping bill - and that gives you much more spare cash to work on your image.

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Victor Epand is an expert consultant about luggage, cruises, hotels, and shopping. You will find the best marketplace for luggage, cruises, hotels, and shopping at these sites for bags, luggage, hotels, cruise, and shopping, brands, shopping bills.

Article Source: Populate.net

Whether you do not have enough time to read books or you are searching for a perfect gift for your friend, whatever, audio books might be the most effective answer to come over your path! There are heap of reasons to purchase Audio Books, while shopping for yourself or for your friend as a best gift.

Audio books come in a broad multiplicity of subject matter, from the current New York Times to Old-Fashioned Westerns. You can find Audio Books of your own choice. It is available in a lot of categories. No matter what are your tastes, you’re sure to get an audio book that fits your tastes and demands.

If you want to be an owner of an Audio Book, then you will be able to look at your local bookshop nearby, or you can order it online. If you have decided to download it online, then there are a lot of audio books available in internet which can directly downloaded to your iPOD or CD. You can find audio books in the format on CDs or audio cassettes. If you’re looking to get an audio book online, take a look around and find the book that you want to read.

When you purchased an audio book, you’re helping your mind stay participating and ascertaining that your brain stay occupied. “Use it or lose it” is a slogan that can be implemented to improve your knowledge, and when you hear to a book on tape, you will be able to make sure that your brain stays awake and paying attention in its environment.

When you listen to an audio book, you can hold your brain energetic, something that won’t be if you’re simply staring off into the distance. Once your brain is energizes, it makes it less complicated for you to shift gears and go to work or commence a project.

When you think about how much time you pass in the motorcar, an audio book attains perfect sense. You may accept long trips, or your morning travel may require 20 minutes of attempting to obtain something beneficial on the radio set. An audio book can assist to relieve the boredom of sitting in your car. When you are walking around frequently, having a book on your CD player or on your iPOD can accompany you and also provides you with a concerning reason to keep walking. A lot of folks use their books on tape to spur on their work out routine.

Audio books are a fantastic path to entertain yourself or your friends, particularly if you are going to be in a place or position that’s generally pretty boring. Have a look at audio books if you are fed up with a dumb morning commute.

—
Ranju Kumar is assistant to Sheryl Wardle is an Owner of a Website related to Audio Books and she has been in internet market field from a long time.For more information “Audio Books”

Article Source: Populate.net

The smiling eyes of the American soldiers as they pass out food parcels and toys and dolls and a sense of security to villagers and children who have lost their village to a flood is a sight to behold, and surprise. So much news shows death and destruction, and here, some wise powers have begun diverting war weary soldiers down time on their way home by saving and not risking or taking lives. How good it is for the soldiers is easy to see by their smiles and their words.

We walk alongside a soldier who says after nineteen months in Iraq you have the feeling they all wish you dead or gone. And to alight here, where we are the rescue crew with food and toys, it surely feels good to be appreciated for what we are here to do, and that is to maintain order and get them fed and secure again. The toys and dolls really calm the kids down, after they have been fed and dried off. And that happy conversation with the soldier, ruffling the heads of kids following and smiling, carrying packets of food to their temporary homes, had me realize how powerfully good this was for these soldiers, men and women.

Studies show that we tend to recall that last item on a list of ten, and the longer these soldiers are given this down time, the more virtue to the Army as this is vital rehab work. We all need to feel needed, and when faced with an emergency our impulse is to help, get busy. And it has been shown as highly curative to keep busy with one’s hands and body in an emergency, whether carrying sandbags, food packages, lifting someone out of water or danger, and then feeling the internal self esteem rise.

After Vietnam we ignored wounded men who needed our understanding and help; this time these are our heroes, and they all will need our love and understanding. And who knows? Out of these on the way home rehab duties may come a new Peace Corp of ex soldiers who would rather be a vet, or teach people how to build on higher ground, or become a doll maker. Let us pray that this is actual military intelligence showing it’s wiser Lincoln like emotional leadership in this.

This causing the soldiers to save people and do good on their way home from hell is a very wise return to the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. Brilliant military strategy is creating this rehabilitative opportunity to war torn soldiers; and is here, to be sent to a village in need, a valley ravaged, and lend a helping hand before arriving stateside. Handing out food to all and soft dolls to the most vulnerable, the children and sick, is to allow these Eagle boy or girl Scouts now soldiers, but started out as being, and return home as. Our heroes.

Like my fuzzy dolly? It makes me feel safer when the mountain trembles.

—
Derek Dashwood enjoys noticing positive ways we progress, the combining of science into the humanities to measure politics, wise use and mis use of power and protective love at
Antique Dolls

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Most of the mathematical concepts we encounter every day - numbers, addition, subtraction - seem so basic, so hard to avoid in discussing reality on even the most basic level, that it’s hard to imagine someone having to sit down and invent them. Who was the first person to look at two rocks and think, “Two more and I’ve got four?” The very idea almost seems absurd.

But mathematics is, in part, a language - not just a set of logical relationships and entailments that seems deeper than words, but a set of notations that allow us to discover those relationships. You can’t see that twice two makes four, until you have a symbol for “two” that your brain can operate with. And those symbols - that language - did have to develop, strange as it may seem. (Prehistoric artifacts seem to indicate that the earliest humans had only four “numbers” at their disposal “none,” “one,” “two,” and “many” - showing just how much our ability to talk about numbers depends on having the right words for them.)

We don’t know which culture was the first to develop a number system more elaborate than “one, two, lots!” A 20,000-year-old bone found near the Nile River seems to show a sequence of prime numbers - which would indicate fairly sophisticated mathematical knowledge from fairly early on. Then there was the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley in present-day North India and Pakistan. As far as we know, these folks were the first to use decimals, among many other important concepts.

Archaeology also seems to find evidence of a sophisticated number system during the Shang Dynasty in China, 1600 years before Christ. Archaeologists often turn up new discoveries bearing on the history of human consciousness - so it’s hard to say who was the first to develop this or that idea with any certainty.

But many mathematical ideas - like many other things - begin with the Sumerians. This culture - considered by some historians the cradle of civilization - flourished near present-day southern Iraq between three and five thousand years ago, and besides contributing the world’s first known work of literature (the still-impressive tale of Gilgamesh), they developed a numerical system based on sixes. If you’ve ever wondered why an hour has sixty minutes, or a minute sixty seconds - after all, it’d be much simpler if everything went by 100 (so that our basic unit of time was made of 100 smaller units, rather than sixty seconds, sixty minutes)- it’s in part because of lingering Sumerian influence. As Sumer’s culture declined, it was absorbed into the Babylonian Empire, which also seems to have produced mathematical thought, if the handful of Babylonian mathematical writings still remaining to us provides any indication.

Babylonians, Egyptians and ancient Indians all seem to have shared at least one important discovery - the so-called Pythagorean theorem, a rule having to do with how to figure the length of the sides of certain kinds of triangles. (Clearly, this discovery was of use to the culture that built the Pyramids.) The fact that this theorem was common to all three major ancient cultures suggests the degree of traffic they may have had with each other, despite some historians’ suggestion that each culture was mainly closed-off to other places. And the fact that we know the theorem as the Pythagorean theorem - after the much-later Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras - illustrates the well-known, and often-criticized, tendency of some historians to want to give the ancient Greeks credit for everything.

Not that the Greeks don’t deserve plenty. Greek mathematics grew up alongside Greek philosophy and Greek science - indeed, the three disciplines weren’t really separated; for the ancient Greeks, all the disciplines of knowledge were one thing. Thales, for example - whom you’ll often find cited as the first Western philosopher - used geometry to calculate the height of the pyramids, among other things. In any case, Greek thinkers took the young art of math to a new level of sophistication. Euclid wrote a geometry textbook so percipient as to remain useful today, Aristotle defined laws of logic, and Archimedes remains near the top of some math historians - all-time greats list. The tight relationship between math and philosophy in ancient Greek is well-expressed by the inscription found on the door of Plato’s Academy: “Let nobody ignorant of geometry enter here.”

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Don’t dismiss a free English course as not being comprehensive enough for your needs. When you check out the free courses offered online you will see that they cover instruction and exercises on every part of the language. Not only do they have instruction on grammar and practice exercises, but there are also instruction complete with listening exercises so that you get to hear the words you see on the screen being spoken in English. To help you review what you have learned, there are many games, such as word search puzzles and flash cards.

When you first start learning English, the first important thing you learn is how to introduce yourself and carry on a simple conversation. This is the process used in the free online course. The first lesson usually consists of learning about subject pronouns: I, me, we, etc, and their corresponding verb conjugations. You will see a series of short simple conversations on your and when you click the button next to them, you will hear them being read by a native English speaker. Another page will take you to instruction about this topic and after that you can complete simple exercises. You can repeat the instruction as many times as you want, which is the beauty of taking an online course.

You can repeat the exercises and have them graded by the computer so that you get immediate feedback on your progress.

Depending on your existing knowledge of English, you can choose to start at any point in the program. For example, if you already have a rudimentary knowledge of the basics of the grammar, you can choose to start with an elementary or intermediate course instead of the primary one. The online courses are structured so that both children and adults can take them and advance at their own pace.

Even adults can avail of ESL flash cards, even though they include topics of interest to children. Some of the topics include words for foods, weather, animals and words associated with occupations, so that there is a selection of words used in everyday conversation. For example, if you choose to work with flash cards for foods, you will actually play a game. The picture on the screen is divided into blocks. Each block that you click on turns over a card with a picture of a food and the English word written beneath it. The object of the game is to find pairs of cards with the same picture and words.

Another aspect of an online course in English is learning to read passages. As you progress through the lessons, the passages will get increasingly difficult. There are also extra reading passages that you can open to help you read news and general articles. These usually contain simple words and phrases that you won’t have any difficulty understanding, but if you do you can avail of the online dictionary that will translate any words into your own language. You just click the language you want to translate from and type in the word you want translated.

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All of these services and more are available at the free English course www.1-language.com, a great place to learn English online.

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Do you think West Virginia fullback Owen Schmitt goes on the field wearing mediocre protection? You can bet that when Owen Schmitt gets into position, he is wearing the best protection possible to insure he gets home safely, and so we can witness his skill another day. When it comes to men’s heavy duty jackets, you should never settle for mediocre. You need the best protection, and for good reason. Only accept the best, and when you rely on types of jackets such as Wool and Leather Letterman, Leather Bomber Jacket, , you can rest easy knowing you are getting the best on the market today.

Mens heavy duty jackets are specifically designed and developed with a mans needs in mind. The colors, the fits, and the styles have a proven reputation for providing more of what a man needs and wants. What is it a man needs?

Wool and Leather Letterman

Take this letterman, heavy duty jacket for example. This is stylish, broader in the shoulders, and designed of wool and leather. This is 24-ounces of heavy duty protection that is perfectly trimmed and fitted example of why more people turn to letterman jckets. The back is perfect for adding a logo as is the luscious woolen front. The tone-on-tone coloration is a great way to look stylish in your new, heavy duty jacket.

This wool and leather letterman mens heavy duty jacket is sizes to fit with sizes ranging from XS to 4XL. You get the ultimate in design and fit. Who could ask for more?

Leather Bomber Jacket

When it comes to mens heavy duty jackets, Leather Bomber Jacket really knows what it is a man needs and wants. This is a superb example of why leather jackets are so popular. The quilted lining is just one of the many accents to this traditional style of jacket. The soft grain leather has a way of attracting the most interesting of audiences, and is comfortable to wear. This is definitely a cut above the rest when it comes to what authentic bomber jackets should be.

When you need a heavy duty mens jacket, Leather Bomber Jacket has brought you more with this leather bomber jacket. This is available in sizes from XS to 4XL as well. Perfect for smaller frames and great for those needed the luxury of plus sizes.

Leather Bomber Jacket has opened the door for more and bigger innovations when it comes to heavy duty jackets. Whether you want to wear your mens outerwear as is, or plan on detailing, embroidering, or adding a logo to your outerwear, this is going to get you the full package you demand in your life. Leather Bomber Jacket is definitely just the beginning. You can be guaranteed there are designers and jacket types more than capable and willing to provide you with more.

When it comes to your need for mens outerwear, jackets are just the start. You can also choose heavy duty vests, parkas, and coats. The sky is the limit, and when the result looks this good, you will never be disappointed.

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Your driver’s license is singularly the most important identification document you have. It can identify you nationally and internationally. It has enough information stored on it to give law enforcement officials your entire history in a relatively short amount of time.

This is why, having it stolen can be one of the most disastrous things that can happen to you. In most cases, it can give the thief a shield to prevent his or her identity from being detected. In fact, it should be noted that the 9/11 terrorist used falsified ids during their time in the US.

Sadly, many people do not realize just how much damage can be done, nor do they realize how long it can follow them through out their lives should they become a victim of this crime.

For example, let’s suppose that your driver’s license was stolen by someone who then went on and had a traffic accident. Suppose that person went on to get a ticket or was supposed to appear in court for the aforementioned traffic accident.

The thief, of course, would not show up in court nor would they pay the ticket. Who would get in trouble? You would! With your driver’s license on record, the law enforcement agency would place you under arrest while the real criminal would get away!

Part of the reason is that it is relatively easy to alter someone’s driver’s id. Over simplifying the process, it goes something like this: The outer lamination of a stolen card is peeled away. The photo is then replaced with the thief’s photo and the lamination is replaced.

To overcome the ease of this crime many states are trying various methods to make it impossible for the thief to do this and get away with it. Some states are using a water mark in the lamination, while others are going deeper by adding a second or third watermark elsewhere.

Another important thing to remember is that your driver’s license can be used to obtain a rental property (I.E. house for rent), a cell phone, etc. It is the one form of id that is required above all others to obtain just about anything in this country.

This is called fraud. This can lead to severe financial difficulties for the victim that can last for years. This kind of activity can have detrimental effects on the victim’s credit rating and history.

With all of this being said, what can you do to protect your card? First and foremost, always keep it with you. Never leave it in the car or at home. Never trust anyone with it.

Should you discover that it has been stolen, report it immediately. Should the thief go out and embark on a crime spree, your report is on file with local law enforcement and can act as a testimony in your defense. It also gives the thief very little time in using it.

When reporting the theft, remember to include all the details you can. Date, time, and place you discovered the theft. If there is any wrongful usage after the reported date and time, then you won’t be held liable. You police report is your record of its theft.

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Ryan Smith is the author of the hot, new, blog “The 10 Commandments of ID Theft Protection” Learn more at http://www.e-profitsubmissions.com/wordpress

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A few years ago, it was reported in the news that several female porn stars might have contracted HIV on an adult film movie set. The story caused an uproar in newspapers around the country and probably around the world. The straight adult industry was upset that this could happen to them and to their stars.

Adult film industry leaders emphatically reassured their female porn stars that all safety precautions were taken to prevent HIV or AIDS infection, and that the previous incident was isolated in nature. There was further concern due to some porn companies, particularly in the gay genre, where unsafe sex practices were used. Anal sex without a condom is risky behavior especially where HIV is concerned.

In most aspects of American culture, safety in the workplace is a primary concern. The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) specifically governs safety in the workplace. OSHAs blood borne pathogen standards must be adhered to throughout the health care industry as well as any other occupation in which a worker may be exposed to blood or other body fluids. Employers are subject to stiff fines and even criminal charges if they fail to provide for the safety of their workers.

The adult film industry is not recognized as a legitimate business according to federal and state government, which has positive and negative aspects. If it was recognized as a legitimate business, it would be regulated by federal and state safety and health standards. Government regulations would translate to mounds of paper work, along with audits, inspections, licensing, credentialing, and workers compensation, resulting in increased production costs and decreased profits for the studios.

On the other hand, government regulations would hold each studio and individual making sex films accountable for the safety, health, and well being of their models, as well as the message presented to the viewing public. We must have accountability.

Given the positive and negative aspects of government regulation, it is important no matter what for any industry to ensure its workers safety. If incidences increase government regulation will happen no matter what, and either way, the industry will feel effects. Until HIV/AIDS is no longer life threatening, adult industry filmmakers, producers, distributors, sellers and resellers of porn films have a moral responsibility to workers to promote safe sex practices. Media has the ability to influence sexual practices, and social acceptance of safe sex with condoms.

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If you are considering learning a foreign language, taking Spanish lessons is one of the best ways to enhance your communication skills, and even increase your business or educational qualifications.

Here are some tips for students that are English-speaking or professionals who seek to learn the language that will certainly help to recall the basic elements of the language sooner.

Choosing Your Environment

One of the first things you will want to do is determine the best method for you to take your Spanish lessons. Do you believe you will learn better with a group of people, so you can practice speaking Spanish to other individuals in class?

Would you rather learn how to speak Spanish while you are in the privacy of your own house, so you can study, learn to write and practice the pronunciation at your individual own pace? Questions such as these will point you in the right direction when you are searching for Spanish lessons that might be offered where your local community center is located or at a church or college.

You want to set yourself up for the best chances at success during the learning process, so it is best to ensure that you take a close look at the best methods of learning for you, so do not end up frustrated with the class and resign before attaining your objectives.

During your Spanish lessons, it’s a good idea to take a lot of personal notes, and to tape record your instructor as he speaks Spanish. In this way, you can practice reading and writing at the same time.

And, although you might be somewhat nervous or maybe even self conscious, try speaking the Spanish that you know to friends, colleagues, and family as often as possible. Soon, you will be more comfortable, and you will discover that you will be able to communicate in Spanish better than you had originally thought.

Taking Advantage of Resources

You should also make sure you are using all resources that are available to you when you are taking Spanish lessons. If there are more textbooks available, secondary CDs or videos or DVDs and live conferences that go along with your particular lesson plans, or if your instructor advocates that you obtain certain materials from the local library or bookstore, capitalize on these types of study tools since you will be able to learn Spanish in a way that will fit you.

You should also make sure that you try to turn ordinary everyday experiences into Spanish lessons - try to listen to Spanish radio, watching television shows that are in Latino, or reading street signs and recipes which might be in English and Spanish are excellent ways to make sure you can easily recollect the Spanish phrases and words that you learn in your Spanish classes.

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Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as an expert author and an avid writer in the field of spain travel. If you would like to learn more go to Hotels In Barcelona Spain advice and at Holiday In Spain tips.

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M.C. Escher was a graphic artist renowned for his lithographs, mezzotints and woodcuts inspired by mathematics. Born in 1898, his first remarkable work came in 1937 with the print Still Life and Street, a piece that utilized the play on perspective that would become known as “impossible reality”. The edge of the desk in the foreground continues deep into the drawing and melds into a street and books sitting on it seem to be leaning against the buildings behind them.

An instantly recognizable Escher work is Drawing Hands, produced in 1948. The lithograph shows a paradox (a common theme to his works) of two drawn hands “rising” from their page to draw their counterpart, bound at the wrists to the paper below them. The paradox arises from the fact that each of the hands is being created simultaneously by the other.

Sky and Water I, a woodcutting from 1938, is a regularly divided plane alternating the darkened images of birds with the light images of fish, locking together like puzzle pieces. The animals form a diamond shape with the birds being more obvious to the eye at top, the fish at the bottom and sharing the attention (depending on which shade the eye decides to focus on) in the center. Escher said, “We associate flying with sky, and so for each of the black birds the sky in which it is flying is formed by the four white fish which encircle it. Similarly swimming makes us think of water, and therefore the four black birds that surround a fish become the water in which it swims.” The work is often used in art, science and mathematics courses to show the concept of visual perception.

Relativity, a 1953 lithograph, combines the theme of paradox with another common Escher theme- the staircase. In Relativity, the laws of gravity are ignored in favor of rooms and staircases that are turned in every direction. The inhabitants of this world are going about their daily business (eating, socializing, walking, etc.) as if nothing is amiss. But the “people” are dressed in the same clothing and have oddly shaped heads. The rooms that these people are in have gravity maintained within them regardless of its position. The staircases lead from these rooms and also follow the laws of gravity in relation to the rooms it accesses. But since more than one room applies to each staircase, and those rooms are gravitationally irrelevant to one another, the staircases have two sides and somewhat abstract. It has perhaps one of Escher’s most famous works and has been referenced numerous times in other media sources, including the final showdown scenes in the children’s film Labyrinth.

The Ascending and Descending, a lithograph printed in 1960, shows an enormous building whose roof is a never-ending staircase. Identically clothed men appear in two separate lines on the staircase, one going up and the other down. There are two people away from that grouping- a lone figure in the courtyard and another on the lower staircase. Instead of using relative proportions for an illusion of depth, Escher utilizes conflicting proportions to highlight his beloved paradoxes.

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