People pray for miracles usually don’t get miracles… But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost; very often find their prayers answered. Their prayers help them tap hidden reserves of faith and courage that were not available to them before.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
LEARNING LOVE FROM A LABRADOR
I love reading stories and this story that I am about to share to you is one that I got from reading the book, Ripples of Joy. Learn and feel the love and share it to others.
My recovery from an intricate foot surgery was long and difficult, and I was feeling very sorry for myself, confined, as I was to wheelchair or hopping about balanced on a walker. I despaired of ever walking again and enjoying normal mobility. To make matters worse, it was summer, and I missed being near the soothing seaside and watching the waves roll in.
One weekend, my daughter Cindy, her roommate Georgan, and their two handsome Labradors came to visit. They had driven from central California in a van large enough to accommodate all of us, including my wheelchair. When asked where I’d like to go for a drive. I immediately responded, “To the beach!”
“Dog’s Beach” is a special section of the coastline nearby where, for stretch of a mile, dog owners are allowed to bring their dogs. Naturally this is where we went, especially as the dogs had never experienced the ocean and the girls were eager to see their reaction.
My wheelchair could not manage the sand, so the girls set me on the sidewalk high above the water, where I had a good view and could watch them play fetch with the dogs. It was fun to see the girls toss a stick into the waves and see the dogs happily bark as they retrieved the sticks and brought them back for more of the game.
Their play had gone on for about ten minutes when one of the dogs, Sky, suddenly left the water’s edge and ran up the bank of sand to the sidewalk where I was sitting. She came up to me, laid her head on my lap, and gazed into my face with her beautiful eyes as if to say, “Are you all right? I know something must be wrong if you’re not down by the water with us.” I gave her a big hug and encouraged her to go back to play.
A few minutes later, Sky was back again, checking on me, head on my lap, and telling me with her eyes, “I care for you.” Those eyes of hers, those soulful eyes, brought me close to tears.
When we got home and the dogs and girls were hosed off and fed, I was relaxing in an armchair with my cast-enclosed foot up on an ottoman. Soon, Sky was at my armchair, her head up and her eyes telling me that she was still on duty watching out for me. So expressive were her eyes that I could almost hear her words of concern and support.
When the visit was over and the girls had gone back to central California, the memory of Sky stayed with me. She had taught me a lesson: just the expression of caring and concern had a salutary effect. It made me feel warm and secure-and yes, loved.
Time passed. I healed and went back to my work as a school librarian.
Back at work, I used the lesson that I learned from Sky to change how I dealt with staff and students. Where once I had passed another teacher with just a quick “Hi,” I now slowed down, made eye contact, asked “how’s it going today?” and waited for an answer. When students seemed overwhelmed by all the books to choose from, I took time to ask about their interests and guided them to books they might like.
Taking time and extra effort to show caring and support was more than its own reward. The staff now comes into the library with big smiles, and the kid think it’s a good idea to give me a hug as a thank you for the experience of a book they enjoyed.
I hope this will be permanent way of life for me-showing that I care. After all, what should Sky think if I failed to put into practice all she’s taught me?
My recovery from an intricate foot surgery was long and difficult, and I was feeling very sorry for myself, confined, as I was to wheelchair or hopping about balanced on a walker. I despaired of ever walking again and enjoying normal mobility. To make matters worse, it was summer, and I missed being near the soothing seaside and watching the waves roll in.
One weekend, my daughter Cindy, her roommate Georgan, and their two handsome Labradors came to visit. They had driven from central California in a van large enough to accommodate all of us, including my wheelchair. When asked where I’d like to go for a drive. I immediately responded, “To the beach!”
“Dog’s Beach” is a special section of the coastline nearby where, for stretch of a mile, dog owners are allowed to bring their dogs. Naturally this is where we went, especially as the dogs had never experienced the ocean and the girls were eager to see their reaction.
My wheelchair could not manage the sand, so the girls set me on the sidewalk high above the water, where I had a good view and could watch them play fetch with the dogs. It was fun to see the girls toss a stick into the waves and see the dogs happily bark as they retrieved the sticks and brought them back for more of the game.
Their play had gone on for about ten minutes when one of the dogs, Sky, suddenly left the water’s edge and ran up the bank of sand to the sidewalk where I was sitting. She came up to me, laid her head on my lap, and gazed into my face with her beautiful eyes as if to say, “Are you all right? I know something must be wrong if you’re not down by the water with us.” I gave her a big hug and encouraged her to go back to play.
A few minutes later, Sky was back again, checking on me, head on my lap, and telling me with her eyes, “I care for you.” Those eyes of hers, those soulful eyes, brought me close to tears.
When we got home and the dogs and girls were hosed off and fed, I was relaxing in an armchair with my cast-enclosed foot up on an ottoman. Soon, Sky was at my armchair, her head up and her eyes telling me that she was still on duty watching out for me. So expressive were her eyes that I could almost hear her words of concern and support.
When the visit was over and the girls had gone back to central California, the memory of Sky stayed with me. She had taught me a lesson: just the expression of caring and concern had a salutary effect. It made me feel warm and secure-and yes, loved.
Time passed. I healed and went back to my work as a school librarian.
Back at work, I used the lesson that I learned from Sky to change how I dealt with staff and students. Where once I had passed another teacher with just a quick “Hi,” I now slowed down, made eye contact, asked “how’s it going today?” and waited for an answer. When students seemed overwhelmed by all the books to choose from, I took time to ask about their interests and guided them to books they might like.
Taking time and extra effort to show caring and support was more than its own reward. The staff now comes into the library with big smiles, and the kid think it’s a good idea to give me a hug as a thank you for the experience of a book they enjoyed.
I hope this will be permanent way of life for me-showing that I care. After all, what should Sky think if I failed to put into practice all she’s taught me?
Saturday, April 26, 2008
THE PERSONAL APPROACH IN DEALING WITH OBESITY
It's fast becoming a problem in many corners of the world, and perhaps most notably in the U.K.: Obesity. The numbers are staggering. According to the BBC, almost a quarter of the adults in the United Kingdom are obese, a fifty percent increase over the last decade.
But, it doesn't stop there. One out of every six children, between the ages of two and fifteen, are obese in the United Kingdom compared to one in ten children a decade ago. The bad news is obesity has been linked to such diseases and illnesses as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, and blood clots. Studies have even found that obesity can lead to a shortened life span.
The good news is you can fight obesity and learn to control your weight if you're willing to commit yourself to it. Following are several ways you can effectively control your weight:
1. Set goals: What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to add physical activity to your schedule? Do you want to cut out the fatty and sugary foods? Set your goals for losing weight before you do anything else.
2. Exercise regularly. The fact is only 40 percent of men in the United Kingdom and 28 percent of women exercise a minimum of a half an hour each week. Exercise is essential to weight loss and to maintaining your ideal weight. Exercising can be as simple as walking instead of taking the bus. Talk with your physician to devise an exercise regiment that is best for your needs.
A word of caution: Before you adjust your diet or begin a regular exercise regiment, be sure that you consult your physician first to determine how many calories a day you should intake and to ensure that you are healthy enough to begin exercising.
3. Drink plenty of water. Cut out the sugary drinks and those drinks that contain caffeine - both also contain plenty of fat. The general rule of thumb is to drink eight glasses of water a day.
4. Create a meal plan. Some medical experts advise, rather than eating three meals a day, eating small meals throughout the day. Talk with your doctor to determine what is best for your individual needs.
5. Surround yourself by those who support you. Combating obesity and losing weight isn't easy, and it's essential that you have a strong support system. In addition to friends and family who support you, you may also want to consider finding a support group in your local community. Support groups are an excellent means of sharing the ups and downs of weight loss with others who are going through the same thing.
6. Keep a daily journal documenting how you've dealt with food each day: For example, write down what you ate, how you felt before you ate, and how you felt after you ate. A daily journal will help you identify behaviours you want to avoid (i.e. overeating because you're upset) and will ensure you remain focused on your goals.
7. Diet Correctly. The word diet strikes fear in the heart of many of us, but diet doesn't have to be a bad word. Learning how to eat healthy is a diet habit that we can do for the rest of our lives.
Most people think of diet as being something that you do until your lose a certain amount of weight, and then you go back to regular eating. This is the precise reason why most diets fail; they are impossible to sustain in the long run.
Learning how to diet right will help you get to a healthy weight and stay there. Staying away from fad diets is vital to losing weight successfully. Low carbohydrate diets are a good example of this.
Millions of people swear by the latest low carb craze, but how many of us know a friend or co-worker who had lost a shocking amount of weight in a short period of time, only to gain it back in an even shorter period? Carbohydrates are an important part of a complete and healthy diet, so they certainly can't be omitted forever. While your body may lose weight while on the diet, you're bound to gain it back when you start eating carbs again.
Everyone knows that too much fat is a bad thing. While certain fats are very good for us, many people on low carb diets are getting too much of the bad fats, i.e. animal fats. It is a shame that people are so concerned with losing weight that they lose sight of the fact that their wonder diet may actually be doing their body harm.
Losing weight can be a struggle, but you don't have to go through it alone. Follow the preceding tips, and you'll be well on your way to a new, healthier you. Remember, in the end, losing weight is all about you becoming healthier: It's not about becoming thinner.
But, it doesn't stop there. One out of every six children, between the ages of two and fifteen, are obese in the United Kingdom compared to one in ten children a decade ago. The bad news is obesity has been linked to such diseases and illnesses as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems, and blood clots. Studies have even found that obesity can lead to a shortened life span.
The good news is you can fight obesity and learn to control your weight if you're willing to commit yourself to it. Following are several ways you can effectively control your weight:
1. Set goals: What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to add physical activity to your schedule? Do you want to cut out the fatty and sugary foods? Set your goals for losing weight before you do anything else.
2. Exercise regularly. The fact is only 40 percent of men in the United Kingdom and 28 percent of women exercise a minimum of a half an hour each week. Exercise is essential to weight loss and to maintaining your ideal weight. Exercising can be as simple as walking instead of taking the bus. Talk with your physician to devise an exercise regiment that is best for your needs.
A word of caution: Before you adjust your diet or begin a regular exercise regiment, be sure that you consult your physician first to determine how many calories a day you should intake and to ensure that you are healthy enough to begin exercising.
3. Drink plenty of water. Cut out the sugary drinks and those drinks that contain caffeine - both also contain plenty of fat. The general rule of thumb is to drink eight glasses of water a day.
4. Create a meal plan. Some medical experts advise, rather than eating three meals a day, eating small meals throughout the day. Talk with your doctor to determine what is best for your individual needs.
5. Surround yourself by those who support you. Combating obesity and losing weight isn't easy, and it's essential that you have a strong support system. In addition to friends and family who support you, you may also want to consider finding a support group in your local community. Support groups are an excellent means of sharing the ups and downs of weight loss with others who are going through the same thing.
6. Keep a daily journal documenting how you've dealt with food each day: For example, write down what you ate, how you felt before you ate, and how you felt after you ate. A daily journal will help you identify behaviours you want to avoid (i.e. overeating because you're upset) and will ensure you remain focused on your goals.
7. Diet Correctly. The word diet strikes fear in the heart of many of us, but diet doesn't have to be a bad word. Learning how to eat healthy is a diet habit that we can do for the rest of our lives.
Most people think of diet as being something that you do until your lose a certain amount of weight, and then you go back to regular eating. This is the precise reason why most diets fail; they are impossible to sustain in the long run.
Learning how to diet right will help you get to a healthy weight and stay there. Staying away from fad diets is vital to losing weight successfully. Low carbohydrate diets are a good example of this.
Millions of people swear by the latest low carb craze, but how many of us know a friend or co-worker who had lost a shocking amount of weight in a short period of time, only to gain it back in an even shorter period? Carbohydrates are an important part of a complete and healthy diet, so they certainly can't be omitted forever. While your body may lose weight while on the diet, you're bound to gain it back when you start eating carbs again.
Everyone knows that too much fat is a bad thing. While certain fats are very good for us, many people on low carb diets are getting too much of the bad fats, i.e. animal fats. It is a shame that people are so concerned with losing weight that they lose sight of the fact that their wonder diet may actually be doing their body harm.
Losing weight can be a struggle, but you don't have to go through it alone. Follow the preceding tips, and you'll be well on your way to a new, healthier you. Remember, in the end, losing weight is all about you becoming healthier: It's not about becoming thinner.
BREAST CANCER THE WHITE SHARK IN THE CANCER FAMILY
Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the cells of the breast. Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer (10.4%; after lung cancer) and the fifth most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer). Among women worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer death. In 2005, breast cancer caused 502,000 deaths worldwide (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths). The number of cases worldwide has significantly increased since the 1970s, a phenomenon partly blamed on modern lifestyles in the Western world.
North American women have the highest incidence of breast cancer in the world. Among women in the U.S., breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second-most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer). Women in the U.S. have a 1 in 8 (12.5%) lifetime chance of developing invasive breast cancer and a 1 in 35 (3%) chance of breast cancer causing their death. In 2007, breast cancer was expected to cause 40,910 deaths in the U.S. (7% of cancer deaths; almost 2% of all deaths).
In the U.S., both incidence and death rates for breast cancer have been declining in the last few years. Nevertheless, a U.S. study conducted in 2005 by the Society for Women's Health Research indicated that breast cancer remains the most feared disease, even though heart disease is a much more common cause of death among women.
Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females, breast cancer also occurs in males. Incidences of breast cancer in men are approximately 100 times less common than in women, but men with breast cancer are considered to have the same statistical survival rates as women.
Breast cancers are described along four different classification schemes, or groups, each based on different criteria and serving a different purpose :
* Pathology - A pathologist will categorize each tumor based on its histological (microscopic anatomy) appearance and other criteria. The most common pathologic types of breast cancer are invasive ductal carcinoma, malignant cancer in the breast's ducts, and invasive lobular carcinoma, malignant cancer in the breast's lobules.
* Grade of tumor - The histological grade of a tumor is determined by a pathologist under a microscope. A well-differentiated (low grade) tumor resembles normal tissue. A poorly differentiated (high grade) tumor is composed of disorganized cells and, therefore, does not look like normal tissue. Moderately differentiated (intermediate grade) tumors are somewhere in between.
* Protein & gene expression status - Currently, all breast cancers should be tested for expression, or detectable effect, of the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu proteins. These tests are usually done by immunohistochemistry and are presented in a pathologist's report. The profile of expression of a given tumor helps predict its prognosis, or outlook, and helps an oncologist choose the most appropriate treatment. More genes and/or proteins may be tested in the future.
* Stage of a tumour - The currently accepted staging scheme for breast cancer is the TNM classification :
o Tumor - There are five tumor classification values (Tis, T1, T2, T3 or T4) which depend on the presence or absence of invasive cancer, the dimensions of the invasive cancer, and the presence or absence of invasion outside of the breast (e.g. to the skin of the breast, to the muscle or to the rib cage underneath).
o Lymph Node - There are four lymph node classification values (N0, N1, N2 or N3) which depend on the number, size and location of breast cancer cell deposits in lymph nodes.
o Metastases - There are two metastatic classification values (M0 or M1) which depend on the presence or absence of breast cancer cells in locations other than the breast and lymph nodes (so-called distant metastases, e.g. to bone, brain, lung).
Early breast cancer can in some cases present as breast pain (mastodynia) or a painful lump. Since the advent of breast mammography, breast cancer is most frequently discovered as an asymptomatic nodule on a mammogram, before any symptoms are present. A lump under the arm or above the collarbone that does not go away may be present.
When breast cancer has invaded the dermal lymphatics - small lymph vessels of the skin, its presentation can resemble skin inflammation and thus is known as inflammatory breast cancer. In inflammatory breast cancer, the breast cancer is blocking lymphatic vessels and this can cause pain, swelling, warmth, and redness throughout the breast, as well as an orange peel texture to the skin referred to as peau d'orange. Although there may have been no previous signs of breast cancer and the cancer might be missed in screening mamograms, Inflammatory Breast Cancer is at least locally advanced at presentation (LABC) and Stage IIIB. Immediate staging tests are required to rule out distant metastes which might already be present making it Stage IV.
Changes in the appearance or shape of the breast can raise suspicions of breast cancer.
Another reported symptom complex of breast cancer is Paget's disease of the breast. This syndrome presents as eczematoid skin changes at the nipple, and is a late manifestation of an underlying breast cancer.
Most breast symptoms do not turn out to represent underlying breast cancer. Benign breast diseases such as fibrocystic mastopathy, mastitis, functional mastodynia, and fibroadenoma of the breast are more common causes of breast symptoms. The appearance of a new breast symptom should be taken seriously by both patients and their doctors, because of the possibility of an underlying breast cancer at almost any age.
Occasionally, breast cancer presents as metastatic disease, that is, cancer that has spread beyond the original organ. Metastatic breast cancer will cause symptoms that depend on the location of metastasis. More common sites of metastasis include bone, liver, lung, and brain. Unexplained weight loss can occasionally herald an occult breast cancer, as can symptoms of fevers or chills. Bone or joint pains can sometimes be manifestations of metastatic breast cancer, as can jaundice or neurological symptoms. Pleural effusions are not uncommon with metastatic breast cancer. Obviously, these symptoms are "non-specific," meaning they can also be manifestations of many other illnesses.
Epidemiological risk factors for a disease can provide important clues as to the etiology of a disease. The first work on breast cancer epidemiology was done by Janet Lane-Claypon, who published a comparative study in 1926 of 500 breast cancer cases and 500 control patients of the same background and lifestyle for the British Ministry of Health.
Today, breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, is considered to be the final outcome of multiple environmental and hereditary factors.
1. Lesions to DNA such as genetic mutations. Exposure to estrogen has been experimentally linked to the mutations that cause breast cancer. Beyond the contribution of estrogen, research has implicated viral oncogenesis and the contribution of ionizing radiation.
2. Failure of immune surveillance, which usually removes malignancies at early phases of their natural history.
3. Abnormal growth factor signaling in the interaction between stromal cells and epithelial cells, for example in the angiogenesis necessary to promote new blood vessel growth near new cancers.
4. Inherited defects in DNA repair genes, such as BRCA1, BRCA2 and p53.
Although many epidemiological risk factors have been identified, the cause of any individual breast cancer is often unknowable. In other words, epidemiological research informs the patterns of breast cancer incidence across certain populations, but not in a given individual. The primary risk factors that have been identified are sex, age, childbearing, hormones, a high-fat diet, alcohol intake, obesity, and environmental factors such as tobacco use and radiation.
No etiology is known for 95% of breast cancer cases, while approximately 5% of new breast cancers are attributable to hereditary syndromes. In particular, carriers of the breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are at a 30-40% increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer, depending on in which portion of the protein the mutation occurs.
Studies have found that "folate intake counteracts breast cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption" and "women who drink alcohol and have a high folate intake are not at increased risk of cancer." A prospective study of over 17,000 women found that those who consume 40 grams of alcohol (about 3-4 drinks) per day have a higher risk of breast cancer. However, in women who take 200 micrograms of folate (folic acid or Vitamin B9) every day, the risk of breast cancer drops below that of alcohol abstainers.
Folate is involved in the synthesis, repair, and functioning of DNA, the body’s genetic map, and a deficiency of folate may result in damage to DNA that may lead to cancer. In addition to breast cancer, studies have also associated diets low in folate with increased risk of pancreatic, and colon cancer.
Foods rich in folate include citrus fruits, citrus juices, dark green leafy vegetables (such as spinach), dried beans, and peas. Vitamin B9 can also be taken in a multivitamin pill.
Breast cancer is diagnosed by the examination of surgically removed breast tissue. A number of procedures can obtain tissue or cells prior to definitive treatment for histological or cytological examination. Such procedures include fine-needle aspiration, nipple aspirates, ductal lavage, core needle biopsy, and local surgical excision. These diagnostic steps, when coupled with radiographic imaging, are usually accurate in diagnosing a breast lesion as cancer. Occasionally, pre-surgical procedures such as fine needle aspirate may not yield enough tissue to make a diagnosis, or may miss the cancer entirely. Imaging tests are sometimes used to detect metastasis and include chest X-ray, bone scan, Cat scan, MRI, and PET scanning. While imaging studies are useful in determining the presence of metastatic disease, they are not in and of themselves diagnostic of cancer. Only microscopic evaluation of a biopsy specimen can yield a cancer diagnosis. Ca 15.3 (carbohydrate antigen 15.3, epithelial mucin) is a tumor marker determined in blood which can be used to follow disease activity over time after definitive treatment. Blood tumor marker testing is not routinely performed for the screening of breast cancer, and has poor performance characteristics for this purpose.
Breast cancer is staged according to the TNM system, updated in the AJCC Staging Manual, now on its sixth edition. Prognosis is closely linked to results of staging, and staging is also used to allocate patients to treatments both in clinical trials and clinical practice. The information for staging is as follows:
TX: Primary tumor cannot be assessed. T0: No evidence of tumor. Tis: Carcinoma in situ, no invasion T1: Tumor is 2 cm or less T2: Tumor is more than 2 cm but not more than 5 cm T3: Tumor is more than 5 cm T4: Tumor of any size growing into the chest wall or skin, or inflammatory breast cancer
NX: Nearby lymph nodes cannot be assessed N0: Cancer has not spread to regional lymph nodes. N1: Cancer has spread to 1 to 3 axillary or one internal mammary lymph node N2: Cancer has spread to 4 to 9 axillary lymph nodes or multiple internal mammary lymph nodes N3: One of the following applies:
Cancer has spread to 10 or more axillary lymph nodes, or Cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the clavicle (collar bone), or Cancer has spread to the lymph nodes above the clavicle, or Cancer involves axillary lymph nodes and has enlarged the internal mammary lymph nodes, or Cancer involves 4 or more axillary lymph nodes, and tiny amounts of cancer are found in internal mammary lymph nodes on sentinel lymph node biopsy.
MX: Presence of distant spread (metastasis) cannot be assessed. M0: No distant spread. M1: Spread to distant organs, not including the supraclavicular lymph node, has occurred
Summary of stages:
* Stage 0 - Carcinoma in situ
* Stage I - Tumor (T) does not involve axillary lymph nodes (N).
* Stage IIA – T 2-5 cm, N negative, or T <2 cm and N positive.
* Stage IIB – T > 5 cm, N negative, or T 2-5 cm and N positive (< 4 axillary nodes).
* Stage IIIA – T > 5 cm, N positive, or T 2-5 cm with 4 or more axillary nodes
* Stage IIIB – T has penetrated chest wall or skin, and may have spread to < 10 axillary N
* Stage IIIC – T has > 10 axillary N, 1 or more supraclavicular or infraclavicular N, or internal mammary N.
* Stage IV – Distant metastasis (M)
Breast lesions are examined for certain markers, notably sex steroid hormone receptors. About two thirds of postmenopausal breast cancers are estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and progesterone receptor positive (PR+). Receptor status modifies the treatment as, for instance, only ER-positive tumors, not ER-negative tumors, are sensitive to hormonal therapy.
The breast cancer is also usually tested for the presence of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, a protein also known as HER2, neu or erbB2. HER2 is a cell-surface protein involved in cell development. In normal cells, HER2 controls aspects of cell growth and division. When activated in cancer cells, HER2 accelerates tumor formation. About 20-30% of breast cancers overexpress HER2. Those patients may be candidates for the drug trastuzumab, both in the postsurgical setting (so-called "adjuvant" therapy), and in the metastatic setting.
The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy (with tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor), chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. At present, the treatment recommendations after surgery (adjuvant therapy) follow a pattern. This pattern is subject to change, as every two years, a worldwide conference takes place in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss the actual results of worldwide multi-center studies. Depending on clinical criteria (age, type of cancer, size, metastasis) patients are roughly divided to high risk and low risk cases, with each risk category following different rules for therapy. Treatment possibilities include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and immune therapy.
In planning treatment, doctors can also use PCR tests like Oncotype DX or microarray tests like MammaPrint that predict breast cancer recurrence risk based on gene expression. In February 2007, the MammaPrint test became the first breast cancer predictor to win formal approval from the Food and Drug Administration. This is a new gene test to help predict whether women with early-stage breast cancer will relapse in 5 or 10 years, this could help influence how aggressively the initial tumor is treated.
A prognosis is the medical team's "best guess" in how cancer will affect a patient. There are many prognostic factors associated with breast cancer: staging, tumour size and location, grade, whether disease is systemic (has metastasized, or traveled to other parts of the body), recurrence of the disease, and age of patient.
Stage is the most important, as it takes into consideration size, local involvement, lymph node status and whether metastatic disease is present. The higher the stage at diagnosis, the worse the prognosis. Larger tumours, invasiveness of disease to lymph nodes, chest wall, skin or beyond, and aggressiveness of the cancer cells raise the stage, while smaller tumours, cancer-free zones, and close to normal cell behaviour (grading) lower it.
Grading is based on how cultured biopsied cells behave. The closer to normal cancer cells are, the slower their growth and a better prognosis. If cells are not well differentiated, they appear immature, divide more rapidly, and tend to spread. Well differentiated is given a grade of 1, moderate is grade 2, while poor or undifferentiated is given a higher grade of 3 or 4 (depending upon the scale used).
Younger women tend to have a poorer prognosis than post-menopausal women due to several factors. Their breasts are active with their cycles, they may be nursing infants, and may be unaware of changes in their breasts. Therefore, younger women are usually at a more advanced stage when diagnosed.
The presence of estrogen and progesterone receptors in the cancer cell, while not prognostic, is important in guiding treatment. Those who do not test positive for these specific receptors will not respond to hormone therapy.
Likewise, HER2/neu status directs the course of treatment. Patients whose cancer cells are positive for HER2/neu have more aggressive disease and may be treated with trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets this protein.
Breast cancer may be one of the oldest known forms of cancer tumors in humans. The oldest description of cancer was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization.The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment." For centuries, physicians described similar cases in their practises, with the same sad conclusion. It wasn't until doctors achieved greater understanding of the circulatory system in the 17th century that they could establish a link between breast cancer and the lymph nodes in the armpit. The French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750) and later the Scottish surgeon Benjamin Bell (1749-1806) were the first to remove the lymph nodes, breast tissue, and underlying chest muscle. Their successful work was carried on by William Stewart Halsted who started performing mastectomies in 1882. He became known for his Halsted radical mastectomy, a surgical procedure that remained popular up to the 1970s.
North American women have the highest incidence of breast cancer in the world. Among women in the U.S., breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second-most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer). Women in the U.S. have a 1 in 8 (12.5%) lifetime chance of developing invasive breast cancer and a 1 in 35 (3%) chance of breast cancer causing their death. In 2007, breast cancer was expected to cause 40,910 deaths in the U.S. (7% of cancer deaths; almost 2% of all deaths).
In the U.S., both incidence and death rates for breast cancer have been declining in the last few years. Nevertheless, a U.S. study conducted in 2005 by the Society for Women's Health Research indicated that breast cancer remains the most feared disease, even though heart disease is a much more common cause of death among women.
Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females, breast cancer also occurs in males. Incidences of breast cancer in men are approximately 100 times less common than in women, but men with breast cancer are considered to have the same statistical survival rates as women.
Breast cancers are described along four different classification schemes, or groups, each based on different criteria and serving a different purpose :
* Pathology - A pathologist will categorize each tumor based on its histological (microscopic anatomy) appearance and other criteria. The most common pathologic types of breast cancer are invasive ductal carcinoma, malignant cancer in the breast's ducts, and invasive lobular carcinoma, malignant cancer in the breast's lobules.
* Grade of tumor - The histological grade of a tumor is determined by a pathologist under a microscope. A well-differentiated (low grade) tumor resembles normal tissue. A poorly differentiated (high grade) tumor is composed of disorganized cells and, therefore, does not look like normal tissue. Moderately differentiated (intermediate grade) tumors are somewhere in between.
* Protein & gene expression status - Currently, all breast cancers should be tested for expression, or detectable effect, of the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu proteins. These tests are usually done by immunohistochemistry and are presented in a pathologist's report. The profile of expression of a given tumor helps predict its prognosis, or outlook, and helps an oncologist choose the most appropriate treatment. More genes and/or proteins may be tested in the future.
* Stage of a tumour - The currently accepted staging scheme for breast cancer is the TNM classification :
o Tumor - There are five tumor classification values (Tis, T1, T2, T3 or T4) which depend on the presence or absence of invasive cancer, the dimensions of the invasive cancer, and the presence or absence of invasion outside of the breast (e.g. to the skin of the breast, to the muscle or to the rib cage underneath).
o Lymph Node - There are four lymph node classification values (N0, N1, N2 or N3) which depend on the number, size and location of breast cancer cell deposits in lymph nodes.
o Metastases - There are two metastatic classification values (M0 or M1) which depend on the presence or absence of breast cancer cells in locations other than the breast and lymph nodes (so-called distant metastases, e.g. to bone, brain, lung).
Early breast cancer can in some cases present as breast pain (mastodynia) or a painful lump. Since the advent of breast mammography, breast cancer is most frequently discovered as an asymptomatic nodule on a mammogram, before any symptoms are present. A lump under the arm or above the collarbone that does not go away may be present.
When breast cancer has invaded the dermal lymphatics - small lymph vessels of the skin, its presentation can resemble skin inflammation and thus is known as inflammatory breast cancer. In inflammatory breast cancer, the breast cancer is blocking lymphatic vessels and this can cause pain, swelling, warmth, and redness throughout the breast, as well as an orange peel texture to the skin referred to as peau d'orange. Although there may have been no previous signs of breast cancer and the cancer might be missed in screening mamograms, Inflammatory Breast Cancer is at least locally advanced at presentation (LABC) and Stage IIIB. Immediate staging tests are required to rule out distant metastes which might already be present making it Stage IV.
Changes in the appearance or shape of the breast can raise suspicions of breast cancer.
Another reported symptom complex of breast cancer is Paget's disease of the breast. This syndrome presents as eczematoid skin changes at the nipple, and is a late manifestation of an underlying breast cancer.
Most breast symptoms do not turn out to represent underlying breast cancer. Benign breast diseases such as fibrocystic mastopathy, mastitis, functional mastodynia, and fibroadenoma of the breast are more common causes of breast symptoms. The appearance of a new breast symptom should be taken seriously by both patients and their doctors, because of the possibility of an underlying breast cancer at almost any age.
Occasionally, breast cancer presents as metastatic disease, that is, cancer that has spread beyond the original organ. Metastatic breast cancer will cause symptoms that depend on the location of metastasis. More common sites of metastasis include bone, liver, lung, and brain. Unexplained weight loss can occasionally herald an occult breast cancer, as can symptoms of fevers or chills. Bone or joint pains can sometimes be manifestations of metastatic breast cancer, as can jaundice or neurological symptoms. Pleural effusions are not uncommon with metastatic breast cancer. Obviously, these symptoms are "non-specific," meaning they can also be manifestations of many other illnesses.
Epidemiological risk factors for a disease can provide important clues as to the etiology of a disease. The first work on breast cancer epidemiology was done by Janet Lane-Claypon, who published a comparative study in 1926 of 500 breast cancer cases and 500 control patients of the same background and lifestyle for the British Ministry of Health.
Today, breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, is considered to be the final outcome of multiple environmental and hereditary factors.
1. Lesions to DNA such as genetic mutations. Exposure to estrogen has been experimentally linked to the mutations that cause breast cancer. Beyond the contribution of estrogen, research has implicated viral oncogenesis and the contribution of ionizing radiation.
2. Failure of immune surveillance, which usually removes malignancies at early phases of their natural history.
3. Abnormal growth factor signaling in the interaction between stromal cells and epithelial cells, for example in the angiogenesis necessary to promote new blood vessel growth near new cancers.
4. Inherited defects in DNA repair genes, such as BRCA1, BRCA2 and p53.
Although many epidemiological risk factors have been identified, the cause of any individual breast cancer is often unknowable. In other words, epidemiological research informs the patterns of breast cancer incidence across certain populations, but not in a given individual. The primary risk factors that have been identified are sex, age, childbearing, hormones, a high-fat diet, alcohol intake, obesity, and environmental factors such as tobacco use and radiation.
No etiology is known for 95% of breast cancer cases, while approximately 5% of new breast cancers are attributable to hereditary syndromes. In particular, carriers of the breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are at a 30-40% increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer, depending on in which portion of the protein the mutation occurs.
Studies have found that "folate intake counteracts breast cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption" and "women who drink alcohol and have a high folate intake are not at increased risk of cancer." A prospective study of over 17,000 women found that those who consume 40 grams of alcohol (about 3-4 drinks) per day have a higher risk of breast cancer. However, in women who take 200 micrograms of folate (folic acid or Vitamin B9) every day, the risk of breast cancer drops below that of alcohol abstainers.
Folate is involved in the synthesis, repair, and functioning of DNA, the body’s genetic map, and a deficiency of folate may result in damage to DNA that may lead to cancer. In addition to breast cancer, studies have also associated diets low in folate with increased risk of pancreatic, and colon cancer.
Foods rich in folate include citrus fruits, citrus juices, dark green leafy vegetables (such as spinach), dried beans, and peas. Vitamin B9 can also be taken in a multivitamin pill.
Breast cancer is diagnosed by the examination of surgically removed breast tissue. A number of procedures can obtain tissue or cells prior to definitive treatment for histological or cytological examination. Such procedures include fine-needle aspiration, nipple aspirates, ductal lavage, core needle biopsy, and local surgical excision. These diagnostic steps, when coupled with radiographic imaging, are usually accurate in diagnosing a breast lesion as cancer. Occasionally, pre-surgical procedures such as fine needle aspirate may not yield enough tissue to make a diagnosis, or may miss the cancer entirely. Imaging tests are sometimes used to detect metastasis and include chest X-ray, bone scan, Cat scan, MRI, and PET scanning. While imaging studies are useful in determining the presence of metastatic disease, they are not in and of themselves diagnostic of cancer. Only microscopic evaluation of a biopsy specimen can yield a cancer diagnosis. Ca 15.3 (carbohydrate antigen 15.3, epithelial mucin) is a tumor marker determined in blood which can be used to follow disease activity over time after definitive treatment. Blood tumor marker testing is not routinely performed for the screening of breast cancer, and has poor performance characteristics for this purpose.
Breast cancer is staged according to the TNM system, updated in the AJCC Staging Manual, now on its sixth edition. Prognosis is closely linked to results of staging, and staging is also used to allocate patients to treatments both in clinical trials and clinical practice. The information for staging is as follows:
TX: Primary tumor cannot be assessed. T0: No evidence of tumor. Tis: Carcinoma in situ, no invasion T1: Tumor is 2 cm or less T2: Tumor is more than 2 cm but not more than 5 cm T3: Tumor is more than 5 cm T4: Tumor of any size growing into the chest wall or skin, or inflammatory breast cancer
NX: Nearby lymph nodes cannot be assessed N0: Cancer has not spread to regional lymph nodes. N1: Cancer has spread to 1 to 3 axillary or one internal mammary lymph node N2: Cancer has spread to 4 to 9 axillary lymph nodes or multiple internal mammary lymph nodes N3: One of the following applies:
Cancer has spread to 10 or more axillary lymph nodes, or Cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the clavicle (collar bone), or Cancer has spread to the lymph nodes above the clavicle, or Cancer involves axillary lymph nodes and has enlarged the internal mammary lymph nodes, or Cancer involves 4 or more axillary lymph nodes, and tiny amounts of cancer are found in internal mammary lymph nodes on sentinel lymph node biopsy.
MX: Presence of distant spread (metastasis) cannot be assessed. M0: No distant spread. M1: Spread to distant organs, not including the supraclavicular lymph node, has occurred
Summary of stages:
* Stage 0 - Carcinoma in situ
* Stage I - Tumor (T) does not involve axillary lymph nodes (N).
* Stage IIA – T 2-5 cm, N negative, or T <2 cm and N positive.
* Stage IIB – T > 5 cm, N negative, or T 2-5 cm and N positive (< 4 axillary nodes).
* Stage IIIA – T > 5 cm, N positive, or T 2-5 cm with 4 or more axillary nodes
* Stage IIIB – T has penetrated chest wall or skin, and may have spread to < 10 axillary N
* Stage IIIC – T has > 10 axillary N, 1 or more supraclavicular or infraclavicular N, or internal mammary N.
* Stage IV – Distant metastasis (M)
Breast lesions are examined for certain markers, notably sex steroid hormone receptors. About two thirds of postmenopausal breast cancers are estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and progesterone receptor positive (PR+). Receptor status modifies the treatment as, for instance, only ER-positive tumors, not ER-negative tumors, are sensitive to hormonal therapy.
The breast cancer is also usually tested for the presence of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, a protein also known as HER2, neu or erbB2. HER2 is a cell-surface protein involved in cell development. In normal cells, HER2 controls aspects of cell growth and division. When activated in cancer cells, HER2 accelerates tumor formation. About 20-30% of breast cancers overexpress HER2. Those patients may be candidates for the drug trastuzumab, both in the postsurgical setting (so-called "adjuvant" therapy), and in the metastatic setting.
The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy (with tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor), chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. At present, the treatment recommendations after surgery (adjuvant therapy) follow a pattern. This pattern is subject to change, as every two years, a worldwide conference takes place in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss the actual results of worldwide multi-center studies. Depending on clinical criteria (age, type of cancer, size, metastasis) patients are roughly divided to high risk and low risk cases, with each risk category following different rules for therapy. Treatment possibilities include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and immune therapy.
In planning treatment, doctors can also use PCR tests like Oncotype DX or microarray tests like MammaPrint that predict breast cancer recurrence risk based on gene expression. In February 2007, the MammaPrint test became the first breast cancer predictor to win formal approval from the Food and Drug Administration. This is a new gene test to help predict whether women with early-stage breast cancer will relapse in 5 or 10 years, this could help influence how aggressively the initial tumor is treated.
A prognosis is the medical team's "best guess" in how cancer will affect a patient. There are many prognostic factors associated with breast cancer: staging, tumour size and location, grade, whether disease is systemic (has metastasized, or traveled to other parts of the body), recurrence of the disease, and age of patient.
Stage is the most important, as it takes into consideration size, local involvement, lymph node status and whether metastatic disease is present. The higher the stage at diagnosis, the worse the prognosis. Larger tumours, invasiveness of disease to lymph nodes, chest wall, skin or beyond, and aggressiveness of the cancer cells raise the stage, while smaller tumours, cancer-free zones, and close to normal cell behaviour (grading) lower it.
Grading is based on how cultured biopsied cells behave. The closer to normal cancer cells are, the slower their growth and a better prognosis. If cells are not well differentiated, they appear immature, divide more rapidly, and tend to spread. Well differentiated is given a grade of 1, moderate is grade 2, while poor or undifferentiated is given a higher grade of 3 or 4 (depending upon the scale used).
Younger women tend to have a poorer prognosis than post-menopausal women due to several factors. Their breasts are active with their cycles, they may be nursing infants, and may be unaware of changes in their breasts. Therefore, younger women are usually at a more advanced stage when diagnosed.
The presence of estrogen and progesterone receptors in the cancer cell, while not prognostic, is important in guiding treatment. Those who do not test positive for these specific receptors will not respond to hormone therapy.
Likewise, HER2/neu status directs the course of treatment. Patients whose cancer cells are positive for HER2/neu have more aggressive disease and may be treated with trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets this protein.
Breast cancer may be one of the oldest known forms of cancer tumors in humans. The oldest description of cancer was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization.The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment." For centuries, physicians described similar cases in their practises, with the same sad conclusion. It wasn't until doctors achieved greater understanding of the circulatory system in the 17th century that they could establish a link between breast cancer and the lymph nodes in the armpit. The French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750) and later the Scottish surgeon Benjamin Bell (1749-1806) were the first to remove the lymph nodes, breast tissue, and underlying chest muscle. Their successful work was carried on by William Stewart Halsted who started performing mastectomies in 1882. He became known for his Halsted radical mastectomy, a surgical procedure that remained popular up to the 1970s.
GWENTH PALTROW SUPPORTS HUBBY'S NEW ALBUM
The Roman Gladiator sandals trend has finally taken over Hollywood and moved on to England. And Gwyneth Paltrow is the most recent celeb to be sporting the trendy footwear.
She was spotted out and about in West London earlier today on her way to a back specialist clinic. And after all the jet-setting promotion she’s been doing for her latest project “Iron Man” it’s no wonder she may need an adjustment.
She was spotted out and about in West London earlier today on her way to a back specialist clinic. And after all the jet-setting promotion she’s been doing for her latest project “Iron Man” it’s no wonder she may need an adjustment.
EXTENDER
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UPDATE YOUR POST WITH A PING
Ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network; it is also used to self test the network interface card of the computer. It works by sending ICMP “echo request” packets to the target host and listening for ICMP “echo response” replies. Ping estimates the round-trip time, generally in milliseconds, and records any packet loss, and prints a statistical summary when finished.
The word ping is also frequently used as a verb or noun, where it can refer directly to the round-trip time, the act of running a ping program or measuring the round-trip time. It is also used in colloquial slang to mean a 'pinging' sound, referring often to the sound made by an elastic band or any similar noise.
Mike Muuss wrote the program in December, 1983, as a tool to troubleshoot odd behavior on an IP network. He named it after the pulses of sound made by a sonar, since its operation is analogous to active sonar in submarines, in which an operator issues a pulse of energy (a network packet) at the target, which then bounces from the target and is received by the operator. Later David L. Mills provided a backronym, "Packet InterNet Grouper (Groper)" (sometimes also defined as "Packet Inter-Network Groper).
The usefulness of ping in assisting the "diagnosis" of Internet connectivity issues was impaired from late in 2003, when a number of Internet Service Providers filtered out ICMP Type 8 (echo request) messages at their network boundaries.
This was partly due to the increasing use of ping for target reconnaissance, for example by Internet worms such as Welchia that flood the Internet with ping requests in order to locate new hosts to infect. Not only did the availability of ping responses leak information to an attacker, it added to the overall load on networks, causing problems for routers across the Internet.
Although RFC 1122 prescribes that any host must accept an echo-request and issue an echo-reply in return, one finds that this standard is frequently not followed on the public Internet. Notably, Windows XP SP1 will not respond to an echo request on the public Internet in the default configuration.
Proponents of not honoring echo requests say that this practice increases network security. However, attackers can still send network packets to a machine, regardless of whether it responds to a ping. Those who insist that the standard be followed say that not honoring ping interferes with network diagnostics.
The word ping is also frequently used as a verb or noun, where it can refer directly to the round-trip time, the act of running a ping program or measuring the round-trip time. It is also used in colloquial slang to mean a 'pinging' sound, referring often to the sound made by an elastic band or any similar noise.
Mike Muuss wrote the program in December, 1983, as a tool to troubleshoot odd behavior on an IP network. He named it after the pulses of sound made by a sonar, since its operation is analogous to active sonar in submarines, in which an operator issues a pulse of energy (a network packet) at the target, which then bounces from the target and is received by the operator. Later David L. Mills provided a backronym, "Packet InterNet Grouper (Groper)" (sometimes also defined as "Packet Inter-Network Groper).
The usefulness of ping in assisting the "diagnosis" of Internet connectivity issues was impaired from late in 2003, when a number of Internet Service Providers filtered out ICMP Type 8 (echo request) messages at their network boundaries.
This was partly due to the increasing use of ping for target reconnaissance, for example by Internet worms such as Welchia that flood the Internet with ping requests in order to locate new hosts to infect. Not only did the availability of ping responses leak information to an attacker, it added to the overall load on networks, causing problems for routers across the Internet.
Although RFC 1122 prescribes that any host must accept an echo-request and issue an echo-reply in return, one finds that this standard is frequently not followed on the public Internet. Notably, Windows XP SP1 will not respond to an echo request on the public Internet in the default configuration.
Proponents of not honoring echo requests say that this practice increases network security. However, attackers can still send network packets to a machine, regardless of whether it responds to a ping. Those who insist that the standard be followed say that not honoring ping interferes with network diagnostics.
INTERNET TOP SCAMS
Tax and Rebate Scams
The Scam: Consumers get a call or e-mail claiming to be from a government agency, such as the IRS or Social Security Administration, that asks for personal information to process a rebate check. These crooks ask consumers to provide personal information like their social security number, bank account number, or other details they can use to commit identity theft. If they resist giving out information, they're told they cannot receive the rebate unless the information is provided.
The Don'ts: Never give sensitive information to anyone over the phone or email. If you get a suspicious email, delete it immediately. Don't click on any links either, for they might take you to a phishing site or install spyware on your computer. Keep in mind that most government agencies don't collect information by phone or email. The FTC recommends you contact the IRS or SSA directly if you have any questions or concerns. To learn more about other tax scams check out the IRS Top 2008 "Dirty Dozen" Tax Scams.
Cheap Electronics Scam
The Scam: Shopping website that appears legit sells electronic products at extremely low prices. The site is so sophisticated, even the most savvy consumer will have a hard time telling it's a fake. One recent article on PCMag, mentions these scamming sites may be part of a bigger network, since they all have a $500 minimum purchase requirement, and may ask for payment in the form of a Western Union money order to be mailed to a foreign address.
The Signs: Things a like a foreign address, a $500 minimum purchase, or the lack of a secure payment transaction form should raise red flags. A site may appear legitimate, but if you have a hard time recognizing the validity of the website, watch out for things like a new domain registration, questionable contact information, grammatical and spelling errors, a no return policy, and untraceable payment methods. Do do some research online because chances are others may already be expressing their concerns on forums or blogs.
Chatroom Scams
The Scam: Russian cyber-crooks have developed a software robot that poses as a human in chatrooms. These bots can chat with up to 10 people simultaneously, and easily persuade them to hand over phone numbers, photographs, birthday, address, and other personal information. The site claims "Not a single girl has yet realized that she was communicating with a program!" Information harvested by these bots can be used by fraudsters to carry out various forms of fraud. Unsuspecting victims may also be tricked into visiting a 'personal site' that could load malware onto their computers. Sergei Shevchenko, Senior Malware Analyst at PC Tools said CyberLover, "employs highly intelligent and customized dialogue to target users of social networking systems. It can monitor Internet browser activity, automatically recognize and fill in the fields in the web pages, generate keystrokes and mouse clicks, and post messages, URLs, files and photos."
The Dont's: Common sense says never, ever give out personal information to anyone you just met online.
Local Charity Scams
The Scam: Fraudsters claiming to be from the local police department or DARE program are calling or approaching private citizens and businesses soliciting donations purporting to benefit police officers. What's convincing some people into handing over personal and financial information to these imposters is the spoofed number that pops up in the caller ID. Police say many victims have reported a phone number that appears to be from the local police department, so don't be fooled.
The Do's: If you want to support the local police or fire department, find out when they hold their annual fund drives. Most departments don't solicit donations via telephone, so it's best to check out their site to find out when and how they seek donations.
Cancer Cure Scam
The Scam: As more people turn to the web for medical advice, they're encountering websites that advertise natural products they claim will prevent or cure everything from cancer to diabetes. Scammers know people are searching for natural remedies online, so they exaggerate the language on their site, and even add a few medical terms to sound legitimate. Oftentimes, they'll claim their supplies are not sold anywhere else, and sell them at a high price. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a miracle cure for cancer, but these scammers will have you believe there is, and will even discourage you from taking real medicine. The reality is many of these products are not proven, effective, or safe, and the sites are full of false testimonials.
The Do's: Canada has already started to crack down on such sites, demanding they remove any false claims quickly. Andrea Rosen, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Canada's Competition Bureau, says consumers should be skeptical of health-related products or services that look too good to be true. People should talk to their doctor before trying any new treatment. Check out the Anatomy of an Online Health Scam before you buy medicine online.
The Scam: Consumers get a call or e-mail claiming to be from a government agency, such as the IRS or Social Security Administration, that asks for personal information to process a rebate check. These crooks ask consumers to provide personal information like their social security number, bank account number, or other details they can use to commit identity theft. If they resist giving out information, they're told they cannot receive the rebate unless the information is provided.
The Don'ts: Never give sensitive information to anyone over the phone or email. If you get a suspicious email, delete it immediately. Don't click on any links either, for they might take you to a phishing site or install spyware on your computer. Keep in mind that most government agencies don't collect information by phone or email. The FTC recommends you contact the IRS or SSA directly if you have any questions or concerns. To learn more about other tax scams check out the IRS Top 2008 "Dirty Dozen" Tax Scams.
Cheap Electronics Scam
The Scam: Shopping website that appears legit sells electronic products at extremely low prices. The site is so sophisticated, even the most savvy consumer will have a hard time telling it's a fake. One recent article on PCMag, mentions these scamming sites may be part of a bigger network, since they all have a $500 minimum purchase requirement, and may ask for payment in the form of a Western Union money order to be mailed to a foreign address.
The Signs: Things a like a foreign address, a $500 minimum purchase, or the lack of a secure payment transaction form should raise red flags. A site may appear legitimate, but if you have a hard time recognizing the validity of the website, watch out for things like a new domain registration, questionable contact information, grammatical and spelling errors, a no return policy, and untraceable payment methods. Do do some research online because chances are others may already be expressing their concerns on forums or blogs.
Chatroom Scams
The Scam: Russian cyber-crooks have developed a software robot that poses as a human in chatrooms. These bots can chat with up to 10 people simultaneously, and easily persuade them to hand over phone numbers, photographs, birthday, address, and other personal information. The site claims "Not a single girl has yet realized that she was communicating with a program!" Information harvested by these bots can be used by fraudsters to carry out various forms of fraud. Unsuspecting victims may also be tricked into visiting a 'personal site' that could load malware onto their computers. Sergei Shevchenko, Senior Malware Analyst at PC Tools said CyberLover, "employs highly intelligent and customized dialogue to target users of social networking systems. It can monitor Internet browser activity, automatically recognize and fill in the fields in the web pages, generate keystrokes and mouse clicks, and post messages, URLs, files and photos."
The Dont's: Common sense says never, ever give out personal information to anyone you just met online.
Local Charity Scams
The Scam: Fraudsters claiming to be from the local police department or DARE program are calling or approaching private citizens and businesses soliciting donations purporting to benefit police officers. What's convincing some people into handing over personal and financial information to these imposters is the spoofed number that pops up in the caller ID. Police say many victims have reported a phone number that appears to be from the local police department, so don't be fooled.
The Do's: If you want to support the local police or fire department, find out when they hold their annual fund drives. Most departments don't solicit donations via telephone, so it's best to check out their site to find out when and how they seek donations.
Cancer Cure Scam
The Scam: As more people turn to the web for medical advice, they're encountering websites that advertise natural products they claim will prevent or cure everything from cancer to diabetes. Scammers know people are searching for natural remedies online, so they exaggerate the language on their site, and even add a few medical terms to sound legitimate. Oftentimes, they'll claim their supplies are not sold anywhere else, and sell them at a high price. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a miracle cure for cancer, but these scammers will have you believe there is, and will even discourage you from taking real medicine. The reality is many of these products are not proven, effective, or safe, and the sites are full of false testimonials.
The Do's: Canada has already started to crack down on such sites, demanding they remove any false claims quickly. Andrea Rosen, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Canada's Competition Bureau, says consumers should be skeptical of health-related products or services that look too good to be true. People should talk to their doctor before trying any new treatment. Check out the Anatomy of an Online Health Scam before you buy medicine online.
MALE ENHANCEMENT
I just arrived from a meeting with my teammates in our marketing division. The penis enlargement product that we are promoting is making waves. Male enhancement products are selling like hotcakes and every time I make a presentation to men, immediately orders come in even before I finish my presentation to them. This only shows that male enhancement products work. There is always a repeat of orders.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
PENIS ENLARGEMENT PILLS
I was just recently hired to be a medical representative for a special medicine. I now promote penis enlargement pills. Many would ask me about the product and they are very curious about it. Penis enlargement pills works effectively. It is a form of male enhancement of their organ and it elevates the self-esteem of every man who thinks that their hard item is not enough. For the past 5 days of being a medical representative of the penis enlargement pill, I am very happy to have helped those men who find their hard item tiny and making it what they expect and want it to be. For more information about this helpful product, visit www.cocktalkonline.com
Monday, April 21, 2008
BROTHER'S ACCIDENT
This evening my brother informed me that his new Honda City car bumped a motorcycle. I immediately asked him the condition of the person riding the motorcycle and he said to me that are okay. The severely damaged in the accident is his new car. Headlights and front bumper are a complete wreck. Luckily nothing bad happened to the motorcycle rider. My brother will be coming tomorrow because he has to report it to their office here in Davao City and he has to get his new Honda City repaired at the Honda office here in Davao City. I will try to verify the car tomorrow since he will be bringing it here at our house.
CASH BOND
Today is indeed a busy day for me. I spent the whole day at the office doing my reports for the field work last week. To top that I also helped one of our salesman and computed his commission add back. In accounting that is what they call work back. The salesman I helped was recently charged with a deduction to his commission/cash bond deposit. The amount involved is very material and it has to be corrected and added back to his cash bond deposit.
Our company salesmen are required to have a cash bond. This is because the company is very conservative in a way that they anticipate that the salesman that they hired will have some problem in his accounts. To protect the company's interest, they decided that all salesman must have a cash bond deposit.
Cash bond deposit in a way is also good. It is because it is also a form of savings (forced savings). As the amount of the cash bond grows it earns interest, just like banks and other investment portfolios. It is just like having a time deposit since the interest rate of our company's cash bond is based on the current banking rate.
I am not a salesman but I do have a cash bond also. It is now earning interest since it has already reached the 10,ooo mark. Cash bond cannot be withdrawn from the company unless you resign or with the approval of the direct superior whom you are under with. My cash bond will only be released when I would decide to leave.
Our company salesmen are required to have a cash bond. This is because the company is very conservative in a way that they anticipate that the salesman that they hired will have some problem in his accounts. To protect the company's interest, they decided that all salesman must have a cash bond deposit.
Cash bond deposit in a way is also good. It is because it is also a form of savings (forced savings). As the amount of the cash bond grows it earns interest, just like banks and other investment portfolios. It is just like having a time deposit since the interest rate of our company's cash bond is based on the current banking rate.
I am not a salesman but I do have a cash bond also. It is now earning interest since it has already reached the 10,ooo mark. Cash bond cannot be withdrawn from the company unless you resign or with the approval of the direct superior whom you are under with. My cash bond will only be released when I would decide to leave.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
5 TIPS THAT COULD BE DONE TO PREVENT CANCER
Cancer is one of the scariest diseases today for most people and being diagnosed with the dreaded word can stop us in our tracks. If there is a history of cancer in your family, like there is in mine, it's something you think about every time you find a lump, notice a new spot or have a pain that doesn't go away.
An article I found showed that Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and a network of collaborators estimated mortality for 12 types of cancer linked to nine risk factors in seven World Bank regions for the year 2001? The following are the nine factors they listed:
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Overweight/obesity
• Low fruit & vegetable intake
• Physical inactivity
• Unsafe sex
• Air pollutants
• Contaminated injection in a healthcare setting
• Indoor smoke from coal furnace or fireplaces
I found these to be pretty common across the board for the most part but a couple surprised me. Some we have no control over but five of the nine we can and should take a serious look at how they play a role in our own life. The following are some life changes to consider incorporating in your life that can make a significant difference in preventing disease. 5 things that you can do now that will reduce your risk of cancer:
1. LOOSE WEIGHT: Now we all know obesity can be the cause of many diseases and our diets play a big role in how our bodies react to disease. It has been proven that our western diet is one of the major problems with our constant consumption of fast food, greasy fried foods and the time saving prepared foods in our daily diet. The lack of exercise is also one of the nine key factors in obesity and can lead to disease. It's also well documented in the medical field that up to 40 percent of cancer cases can be prevented by a healthy lifestyle. Loosing just 5-10% of your body weight can make a huge difference in how your body functions and will take the burden off organs trying to over compensate for that extra weight.
2. REDUCE STRESS: Let's face it we will all have stress on a daily basis probably for the rest of our lives what with today's hectic lifestyle, working long hours and driving in traffic dealing with the activities of our kids. There is good news though, we can learn how to deal with stress so the effect it has on our bodies is reduced to a minimum. If you control your emotions and thoughts surrounding the stressor, weather it's while you're driving in traffic or dealing with a boss that is blaming you for something he did or didn't do, you can change how you feel and the effect it has on your body. The following is a list of ways to control emotions that I found helpful.
• Take 15-30 minutes a day for yourself, try to clear your mind and visualize all stress leaving your body with every breath you exhale.
• Meditation
• Cat naps-small naps if you're able will really help your physical well being.
• Stop and notice how you're feeling when you're in a stressful situation then immediately change your feelings surrounding it.
What you'll find if you do one or more of these is that you will be able to control your emotions and how your body handles stress as it comes along. The key here is to not let the stress get to the point that is can affect your physical well being.
3. EAT HEALTHIER & EXERCISE: Even though some of us who are not over weight are still at risk due to poor diet. Our bodies are starved because of the lack of nourishment in the food we eat. According to a Swedish study published in the "Journal Diabetes Care" elevated blood sugar has the potential of increasing women's risk of pancreatic, skin, urinary tract, womb and breast cancer. We all know that a diet high in junk food and high levels of blood sugar can eventually cause Type 2 diabetes in some people. Also called adult onset diabetes, which happens when the body can no longer regulate hormone insulin, and has been shown to lead to increased cancer risk. However, the Swedish study demonstrated a correlation between blood sugar levels and cancer risk, independent of the occurrence of diabetes. Researchers studied nearly 65,000 adults between the ages of 40 and 60 for 13 years. They found that the 25 percent of women with the highest blood sugar had a 26 percent higher chance of developing cancer than the 25 percent with the lowest blood sugar levels. Breast cancer risk in particular was increased only among pre-menopausal women. Blood sugar levels did not correlate with cancer risk in men.
Our western diet of red meat, starch and sweets may also be a major cause of breast cancer among postmenopausal women. It could double the risk compared to a diet that's rich in vegetables. This is just another reason for people, and especially woman to make small changes that could make a big difference. A lot of women are eating a diet of soy and more fruits and vegetables but as we have discussed already that's not enough.
4. TAKE A GOOD SUPPLEMENT: We all know taking vitamins to supplement what we don't get in our food is not only essential it's mandatory in our changing world. There are a lot of choices out there when it comes to supplements and to get every nutrient our body needs you could spend a small fortune every month and still not know if it was enough or if it was the right nutrient to do the job. The ideal is that we find one that delivers all the nutrition we need while being easy to take without breaking the bank.
5. STOP SMOKING: This is a big one not only will it reduce your chances of getting cancer it will help many other areas you don't even realize. I'm an ex-smoker and I can tell you until I quit I didn't realize how many health issues I had that were exacerbated by smoking and improved once I quit. Not only has it slowed the aging process, smoking can age the skin and cause wrinkles, but I found I slept better and we all know that deeper sleep can greatly improve our overall health. These five things can reduce your risk of getting cancer but the most important hands down is nutrition. I have spent a lot of time researching what the body needs to function at its peak and I found that the nutrients we consume are handled differently by each person. What causes this is our assimilation and how readily we can absorb the nutrition we put in our mouths. If a person has a digestive problem then takes a supplement, let's say vitamin c, they would only absorb a small amount in the blood stream and the rest would be flushed through their system. A liquid supplement is going to be more easily absorbed since it will go directly to the blood stream then a tablet that has to be broke down in the stomach then absorbed so this is a good choice of many.
The key here is to start somewhere, if you eat healthier, get exercise, lose weight (if needed), handle stress and stop smoking you will reduce your chances of getting cancer significantly but giving the body the nutrition it needs to work as it was designed to is the most important thing you can do. Most of us take better care of our car then we do our own body and this is evident when you look at how many people have chronic diseases today compared to fifty years ago. The time to change is today.
An article I found showed that Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and a network of collaborators estimated mortality for 12 types of cancer linked to nine risk factors in seven World Bank regions for the year 2001? The following are the nine factors they listed:
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Overweight/obesity
• Low fruit & vegetable intake
• Physical inactivity
• Unsafe sex
• Air pollutants
• Contaminated injection in a healthcare setting
• Indoor smoke from coal furnace or fireplaces
I found these to be pretty common across the board for the most part but a couple surprised me. Some we have no control over but five of the nine we can and should take a serious look at how they play a role in our own life. The following are some life changes to consider incorporating in your life that can make a significant difference in preventing disease. 5 things that you can do now that will reduce your risk of cancer:
1. LOOSE WEIGHT: Now we all know obesity can be the cause of many diseases and our diets play a big role in how our bodies react to disease. It has been proven that our western diet is one of the major problems with our constant consumption of fast food, greasy fried foods and the time saving prepared foods in our daily diet. The lack of exercise is also one of the nine key factors in obesity and can lead to disease. It's also well documented in the medical field that up to 40 percent of cancer cases can be prevented by a healthy lifestyle. Loosing just 5-10% of your body weight can make a huge difference in how your body functions and will take the burden off organs trying to over compensate for that extra weight.
2. REDUCE STRESS: Let's face it we will all have stress on a daily basis probably for the rest of our lives what with today's hectic lifestyle, working long hours and driving in traffic dealing with the activities of our kids. There is good news though, we can learn how to deal with stress so the effect it has on our bodies is reduced to a minimum. If you control your emotions and thoughts surrounding the stressor, weather it's while you're driving in traffic or dealing with a boss that is blaming you for something he did or didn't do, you can change how you feel and the effect it has on your body. The following is a list of ways to control emotions that I found helpful.
• Take 15-30 minutes a day for yourself, try to clear your mind and visualize all stress leaving your body with every breath you exhale.
• Meditation
• Cat naps-small naps if you're able will really help your physical well being.
• Stop and notice how you're feeling when you're in a stressful situation then immediately change your feelings surrounding it.
What you'll find if you do one or more of these is that you will be able to control your emotions and how your body handles stress as it comes along. The key here is to not let the stress get to the point that is can affect your physical well being.
3. EAT HEALTHIER & EXERCISE: Even though some of us who are not over weight are still at risk due to poor diet. Our bodies are starved because of the lack of nourishment in the food we eat. According to a Swedish study published in the "Journal Diabetes Care" elevated blood sugar has the potential of increasing women's risk of pancreatic, skin, urinary tract, womb and breast cancer. We all know that a diet high in junk food and high levels of blood sugar can eventually cause Type 2 diabetes in some people. Also called adult onset diabetes, which happens when the body can no longer regulate hormone insulin, and has been shown to lead to increased cancer risk. However, the Swedish study demonstrated a correlation between blood sugar levels and cancer risk, independent of the occurrence of diabetes. Researchers studied nearly 65,000 adults between the ages of 40 and 60 for 13 years. They found that the 25 percent of women with the highest blood sugar had a 26 percent higher chance of developing cancer than the 25 percent with the lowest blood sugar levels. Breast cancer risk in particular was increased only among pre-menopausal women. Blood sugar levels did not correlate with cancer risk in men.
Our western diet of red meat, starch and sweets may also be a major cause of breast cancer among postmenopausal women. It could double the risk compared to a diet that's rich in vegetables. This is just another reason for people, and especially woman to make small changes that could make a big difference. A lot of women are eating a diet of soy and more fruits and vegetables but as we have discussed already that's not enough.
4. TAKE A GOOD SUPPLEMENT: We all know taking vitamins to supplement what we don't get in our food is not only essential it's mandatory in our changing world. There are a lot of choices out there when it comes to supplements and to get every nutrient our body needs you could spend a small fortune every month and still not know if it was enough or if it was the right nutrient to do the job. The ideal is that we find one that delivers all the nutrition we need while being easy to take without breaking the bank.
5. STOP SMOKING: This is a big one not only will it reduce your chances of getting cancer it will help many other areas you don't even realize. I'm an ex-smoker and I can tell you until I quit I didn't realize how many health issues I had that were exacerbated by smoking and improved once I quit. Not only has it slowed the aging process, smoking can age the skin and cause wrinkles, but I found I slept better and we all know that deeper sleep can greatly improve our overall health. These five things can reduce your risk of getting cancer but the most important hands down is nutrition. I have spent a lot of time researching what the body needs to function at its peak and I found that the nutrients we consume are handled differently by each person. What causes this is our assimilation and how readily we can absorb the nutrition we put in our mouths. If a person has a digestive problem then takes a supplement, let's say vitamin c, they would only absorb a small amount in the blood stream and the rest would be flushed through their system. A liquid supplement is going to be more easily absorbed since it will go directly to the blood stream then a tablet that has to be broke down in the stomach then absorbed so this is a good choice of many.
The key here is to start somewhere, if you eat healthier, get exercise, lose weight (if needed), handle stress and stop smoking you will reduce your chances of getting cancer significantly but giving the body the nutrition it needs to work as it was designed to is the most important thing you can do. Most of us take better care of our car then we do our own body and this is evident when you look at how many people have chronic diseases today compared to fifty years ago. The time to change is today.
CAR TIPS MADE EASY
To all drivers out there. These are some few basic information that you must know about your automobile. This information can be very handy in time.
#1-crumple zones-A mainstay in todays automobiles, this is the harmonic flow of numerous body panels and brackets that absorb the energy normally associated with a crash. Parts like the hood, bumper and fenders are engineered to crumple like an accordion, therefore taking the brunt in any accidental situations.
#2-Wraparound Headlights-Just like its name implies, it's a one piece headlight design that integrates the low beam, high beam, and turn signals. The headlights wrap around from the front or back of the car to the sides. Not only are the halogen headlights brighter and wider with the use of reflective cuts in the chamber, but folks driving along our blind spots can easily know our lane changing intentions. As a result, causing less accidents.
#3-Breakaway Motor Mounts-These mounts attach the engine to the frame of the car. They're not noticeable, but the life saving impact is huge. In a front impact collision, they're specifically designed to break the engine away from the frame and with the forward motion, will make the engine slide underneath the car at a 45 degree angle. Making it less likely to have an engine sitting in your lap when the crash comes to a halt.
#4-steel belted radials-It's pretty obvious, our tires are very important safety features, it is what keeps the car on the road. Tires are built with steel fibers built right in, how do they help? Well, motorists will have the peace of mind that their tires will hold up in even the most extreme conditions. Those belts will also give these tires a longer lasting life span. Less maintenance in the long run.
#5-ventilated disc brakes-Equally important as the tires are, disc brakes stop the car. Brakes are constructed of a rotor, pads, and calipers for short. The rotors are engineered with internal vanes, to help vent out the heat. And this will help defend against fade and making it less likely to repair the brakes often.
#6-Side Impact Door Beams-Like the crumple zones, this aids in absorbing energy in a side impact collision. They are steel intrusion beams built inside the door for extra reinforcement. Every car and truck have these.
#7-Laminated Windshield-This might be important, it is the very object that keeps bugs out of our teeth, and the rain out of our hair. The windshield is made up of two pieces of tempered glass with a laminate sheet in between. This is a glass sandwich that holds together well when sharp or heavy objects smash into it. There's no shattering or large pieces of glass flying about.
#8-Tempered Safety Glass-The other glass that gives us 360 degrees of protection is also designed with safety in mind. Automotive glass is heat tempered, so that when it breaks, it shatters into a multitude of small cubes. The small cubes won't cut or injure the occupants.
#9-Child Safety Door Locks-As this name indicates, they are small locks in the inside door jams of the rear two doors(4 door sedan or suv only). Lock them up and the little guys in the back seat can't unlock and pull the inside door handles while we are driving.
#10-5 mph bumpers-I would classify this as a safety item for the car itself. In the event a driver lightly hits a lightpole, grocery cart, etc. at 5mph or under, it is unlikely there will be any major structural damage. These days, the government mandated limit to follow is 2.5 mph, most automakers have the 5 mph variety.
#11-Center High Mounted Brake Light-It's actually just a 3rd brake light mounted higher than the two main brake lights, and most autos have them. They're main purpose is to make drivers behind the motorist aware of their braking intentions, normally cars 6-10 back can see this clearly.
#12-Safety Cage Construction-Think of a built in rollcage, it's the main exo-skeletal feature that provides the most protection. In every accidental situation, this protects 360 degrees. We can even literally turn a car or truck upside down on its roof, the cage will support 1.5x it's own weight. There's nothing more important.
#1-crumple zones-A mainstay in todays automobiles, this is the harmonic flow of numerous body panels and brackets that absorb the energy normally associated with a crash. Parts like the hood, bumper and fenders are engineered to crumple like an accordion, therefore taking the brunt in any accidental situations.
#2-Wraparound Headlights-Just like its name implies, it's a one piece headlight design that integrates the low beam, high beam, and turn signals. The headlights wrap around from the front or back of the car to the sides. Not only are the halogen headlights brighter and wider with the use of reflective cuts in the chamber, but folks driving along our blind spots can easily know our lane changing intentions. As a result, causing less accidents.
#3-Breakaway Motor Mounts-These mounts attach the engine to the frame of the car. They're not noticeable, but the life saving impact is huge. In a front impact collision, they're specifically designed to break the engine away from the frame and with the forward motion, will make the engine slide underneath the car at a 45 degree angle. Making it less likely to have an engine sitting in your lap when the crash comes to a halt.
#4-steel belted radials-It's pretty obvious, our tires are very important safety features, it is what keeps the car on the road. Tires are built with steel fibers built right in, how do they help? Well, motorists will have the peace of mind that their tires will hold up in even the most extreme conditions. Those belts will also give these tires a longer lasting life span. Less maintenance in the long run.
#5-ventilated disc brakes-Equally important as the tires are, disc brakes stop the car. Brakes are constructed of a rotor, pads, and calipers for short. The rotors are engineered with internal vanes, to help vent out the heat. And this will help defend against fade and making it less likely to repair the brakes often.
#6-Side Impact Door Beams-Like the crumple zones, this aids in absorbing energy in a side impact collision. They are steel intrusion beams built inside the door for extra reinforcement. Every car and truck have these.
#7-Laminated Windshield-This might be important, it is the very object that keeps bugs out of our teeth, and the rain out of our hair. The windshield is made up of two pieces of tempered glass with a laminate sheet in between. This is a glass sandwich that holds together well when sharp or heavy objects smash into it. There's no shattering or large pieces of glass flying about.
#8-Tempered Safety Glass-The other glass that gives us 360 degrees of protection is also designed with safety in mind. Automotive glass is heat tempered, so that when it breaks, it shatters into a multitude of small cubes. The small cubes won't cut or injure the occupants.
#9-Child Safety Door Locks-As this name indicates, they are small locks in the inside door jams of the rear two doors(4 door sedan or suv only). Lock them up and the little guys in the back seat can't unlock and pull the inside door handles while we are driving.
#10-5 mph bumpers-I would classify this as a safety item for the car itself. In the event a driver lightly hits a lightpole, grocery cart, etc. at 5mph or under, it is unlikely there will be any major structural damage. These days, the government mandated limit to follow is 2.5 mph, most automakers have the 5 mph variety.
#11-Center High Mounted Brake Light-It's actually just a 3rd brake light mounted higher than the two main brake lights, and most autos have them. They're main purpose is to make drivers behind the motorist aware of their braking intentions, normally cars 6-10 back can see this clearly.
#12-Safety Cage Construction-Think of a built in rollcage, it's the main exo-skeletal feature that provides the most protection. In every accidental situation, this protects 360 degrees. We can even literally turn a car or truck upside down on its roof, the cage will support 1.5x it's own weight. There's nothing more important.
TRADE SHOW BOOTH
I was recently assigned as the marketing manager of our company. To create an immediate impact to the marketing group, I suggested that our company must participate in exhibits and trade shows. It is our company's first time to join such an event which I suggested as the marketing manager. Joining trade shows and exhibits are cost less compared to having a sales drive that would cost more with minimal audiences.
To get the ball rolling I immediately instructed my marketing team to conceptualize a booth in which our products will be displayed for the potential customers can see. Since it is our first time to join we have limited knowledge on how a successful trade booth should look like. I made a thorough research about trade show booths and luckily I was able to find CamelBackDisplays.com a site that promotes and sells trade show booths, table skirts, banner stands and other trade shows materials that is perfectly made for such occasion. Looking at their Pipe and Drape item, I found one that I think was perfect when we start displaying at the trade show that we are joining. It is a week long trade show so we must have a catching booth to attract more attention for our products.
When the trade show started, I would say that we have to most attractive booth among others. It definitely attracted the attention that we wanted. Many spectators of the trade show visited our booth and signed up for orders of our products. After the trade show we were able to market our products and converted it into sales. The trade show experience was a success thanks to CamelBackDisplays.com the booth that we got was perfect. For more information about the booths and other trade show materials, visit their site at www.camelbackdisplays.com
To get the ball rolling I immediately instructed my marketing team to conceptualize a booth in which our products will be displayed for the potential customers can see. Since it is our first time to join we have limited knowledge on how a successful trade booth should look like. I made a thorough research about trade show booths and luckily I was able to find CamelBackDisplays.com a site that promotes and sells trade show booths, table skirts, banner stands and other trade shows materials that is perfectly made for such occasion. Looking at their Pipe and Drape item, I found one that I think was perfect when we start displaying at the trade show that we are joining. It is a week long trade show so we must have a catching booth to attract more attention for our products.
When the trade show started, I would say that we have to most attractive booth among others. It definitely attracted the attention that we wanted. Many spectators of the trade show visited our booth and signed up for orders of our products. After the trade show we were able to market our products and converted it into sales. The trade show experience was a success thanks to CamelBackDisplays.com the booth that we got was perfect. For more information about the booths and other trade show materials, visit their site at www.camelbackdisplays.com
Saturday, April 19, 2008
BIOGAS - THE FUTURE FUEL
Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is comprised primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. Biogas originates from biogenic material and is a type of biofuel. Biogas is a product of the anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure or sewage, municipal waste, and energy crops. Other types of biogas include wood gas which is created by gasification of wood or other biomass.
The methane in biogas gives it the ability to be used as a fuel. The combustion of which releases energy. In developing countries biogas can be used as a low-cost fuel for cooking. It can also be utilised in modern waste management facilities where it can be used in gas engines to generate electricity. Biogas is a renewable fuel and electricity produced from it can be used to attract renewable energy subsidies in some parts of the world.
Depending on where it is produced, biogas can also be called swamp, marsh, landfill or digester gas. A biogas plant is the name often given to an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops.
Biogas can be produced utilising anaerobic digesters. These plants can be fed with energy crops such as maize silage or biodegradable wastes including sewage sludge and food waste.
Landfill gas is produced by organic waste decomposing under anaerobic conditions in a landfill. The waste is covered and compressed mechanically and by the weight of the material that is deposited from above. This material prevents oxygen from accessing the waste and anaerobic microbes thrive. This gas builds up and is slowly released into the atmosphere if the landfill site has not been engineered to capture the gas. Landfill gas is hazardous for three key reasons. Landfill gas becomes explosive when it escapes from the landfill and mixes with oxygen within lower and higher explosive limits. The methane in biogas forms explosive mixtures in air. The lower explosive limit is 5% methane and the upper explosive limit is 15% methane. The methane contained within biogas is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Therefore uncontained landfill gas which escapes into the atmosphere significantly contributes to the effects of global warming. In addition to this volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained within landfill gas contribute to the formation of photochemical smog.
The composition of biogas varies depending upon the origin of the anaerobic digestion process. Landfill gas typically has methane concentrations around 50%. Advanced waste treatment technologies can produce biogas with 55-75%CH4.
Main article: Siloxanes
In some cases biogas contains siloxanes. These siloxanes are formed from the anaerobic decomposition of materials commonly found in soaps and detergents. During combustion of biogas containing siloxanes, silicon is released and can combine with free oxygen or various other elements in the combustion gas. Deposits are formed containing mostly silica (SiO2) or silicates (SixOy) and can also contain calcium, sulphur, zinc, phosphorus. These white mineral deposits build to a surface thickness of several millimetres and must be removed by chemical or mechanical means.
Biogas can be utilised for electricity production, space heating, water heating and process heating. If compressed, it can replace compressed natural gas for use in vehicles, where it can fuel an internal combustion engine or fuel cells.
Methane within biogas can be concentrated to the same standards as natural gas, when it is, it is called biomethane. If the local gas network permits it the producer of the biogas may be able to utilise the local gas distribution networks. Gas must be very clean to reach pipeline quality, and must be of the correct composition for the local distribution network to accept. Carbon dioxide, Water, hydrogen sulfide and particulates must be removed if present. If concentrated and compressed it can also be used in vehicle transportation. Compressed biogas is becoming widely used in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. A biogas-powered train has been in service in Sweden since 2005.
Bates' and his biogas car were the subject of a short documentary film called 'Sweet as a Nut' in 1974, at which point he had run his car for 17 years on gas he had produced by processing pig manure. Bates, an inventor lived in Devon, UK and in the film talks through the simple process and benefits of running a car on biogas. The conversion was simply made with an adapter attached to any combustion engine.
In India biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of manure in small-scale digestion facilites is called Gober gas. In India biogas is generated at an estimated 2 million+ household facilites. The digester is an airtight circular pit made of concrete with a pipe connection. The manure is directed to the pit, usually directly from the cattle shed. The pit is then filled with a required quantity of wastewater. The gas pipe is connected to the kitchen fire place through control valves. The combustion of the biogas produced in this manner flammable has very little odour or smoke. Owing to its simplicity in implementation and use of cheap raw materials in the villages it is one of the most environmentally sound energy source for the rural needs.
The Biogas Support Program in Nepal has intalled over 100,000 biogas plants in rural areas.
Vietnam’s Biogas Programme for Animal Husbandry Sector has led to the installation of over 20,000 plants throughout that country.
Biogas is also in use in rural Costa Rica.
In Colombia experiments with diesel engines-generator sets partially fuelled by biogas demonstrated that biogas could be used for power generation, reducing elecricity costs by 40% compared with purchase from the regional utility.
Biogasmax is a large-scale integrated project funded by the European Commission in order to ensure the market penetration of biogas as a vehicle fuel. The European Biogasmax project creates a network of biogas-related demonstrations in order to share best practices in managing sustainable urban transportation. The cities involved in Biogasmax include Stockholm, Gothenburg, Lille, Rome and Berne.
The research and development projects carried out in the context of BIOGASMAX are closely tied to the following four main fields of technological activities:
Production of biogas from various types of urban and organic waste; Upgrading of biogas to a high-quality fuel; Distribution for transport and injection into natural gas grids; Use in vehicles to increase the number of biomethane-fueled vehicles.
The European Union presently has some of the strictest legislation regarding waste management and landfill sites called the Landfill Directive. The United States legislates against landfill gas as it contains these VOCs. The United States Clean Air Act and Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requires landfill owners to estimate the quantity of non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) emitted. If the estimated NMOC emissions exceeds 50 tonnes per year the landfill owner is required to collect the landfill gas and treat it to remove the entrained NMOCs. Treatment of the landfill gas is usually by combustion. Because of the remoteness of landfill sites it is sometimes not economically feasible to produce electricity from the gas.
The methane in biogas gives it the ability to be used as a fuel. The combustion of which releases energy. In developing countries biogas can be used as a low-cost fuel for cooking. It can also be utilised in modern waste management facilities where it can be used in gas engines to generate electricity. Biogas is a renewable fuel and electricity produced from it can be used to attract renewable energy subsidies in some parts of the world.
Depending on where it is produced, biogas can also be called swamp, marsh, landfill or digester gas. A biogas plant is the name often given to an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops.
Biogas can be produced utilising anaerobic digesters. These plants can be fed with energy crops such as maize silage or biodegradable wastes including sewage sludge and food waste.
Landfill gas is produced by organic waste decomposing under anaerobic conditions in a landfill. The waste is covered and compressed mechanically and by the weight of the material that is deposited from above. This material prevents oxygen from accessing the waste and anaerobic microbes thrive. This gas builds up and is slowly released into the atmosphere if the landfill site has not been engineered to capture the gas. Landfill gas is hazardous for three key reasons. Landfill gas becomes explosive when it escapes from the landfill and mixes with oxygen within lower and higher explosive limits. The methane in biogas forms explosive mixtures in air. The lower explosive limit is 5% methane and the upper explosive limit is 15% methane. The methane contained within biogas is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Therefore uncontained landfill gas which escapes into the atmosphere significantly contributes to the effects of global warming. In addition to this volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained within landfill gas contribute to the formation of photochemical smog.
The composition of biogas varies depending upon the origin of the anaerobic digestion process. Landfill gas typically has methane concentrations around 50%. Advanced waste treatment technologies can produce biogas with 55-75%CH4.
Main article: Siloxanes
In some cases biogas contains siloxanes. These siloxanes are formed from the anaerobic decomposition of materials commonly found in soaps and detergents. During combustion of biogas containing siloxanes, silicon is released and can combine with free oxygen or various other elements in the combustion gas. Deposits are formed containing mostly silica (SiO2) or silicates (SixOy) and can also contain calcium, sulphur, zinc, phosphorus. These white mineral deposits build to a surface thickness of several millimetres and must be removed by chemical or mechanical means.
Biogas can be utilised for electricity production, space heating, water heating and process heating. If compressed, it can replace compressed natural gas for use in vehicles, where it can fuel an internal combustion engine or fuel cells.
Methane within biogas can be concentrated to the same standards as natural gas, when it is, it is called biomethane. If the local gas network permits it the producer of the biogas may be able to utilise the local gas distribution networks. Gas must be very clean to reach pipeline quality, and must be of the correct composition for the local distribution network to accept. Carbon dioxide, Water, hydrogen sulfide and particulates must be removed if present. If concentrated and compressed it can also be used in vehicle transportation. Compressed biogas is becoming widely used in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. A biogas-powered train has been in service in Sweden since 2005.
Bates' and his biogas car were the subject of a short documentary film called 'Sweet as a Nut' in 1974, at which point he had run his car for 17 years on gas he had produced by processing pig manure. Bates, an inventor lived in Devon, UK and in the film talks through the simple process and benefits of running a car on biogas. The conversion was simply made with an adapter attached to any combustion engine.
In India biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of manure in small-scale digestion facilites is called Gober gas. In India biogas is generated at an estimated 2 million+ household facilites. The digester is an airtight circular pit made of concrete with a pipe connection. The manure is directed to the pit, usually directly from the cattle shed. The pit is then filled with a required quantity of wastewater. The gas pipe is connected to the kitchen fire place through control valves. The combustion of the biogas produced in this manner flammable has very little odour or smoke. Owing to its simplicity in implementation and use of cheap raw materials in the villages it is one of the most environmentally sound energy source for the rural needs.
The Biogas Support Program in Nepal has intalled over 100,000 biogas plants in rural areas.
Vietnam’s Biogas Programme for Animal Husbandry Sector has led to the installation of over 20,000 plants throughout that country.
Biogas is also in use in rural Costa Rica.
In Colombia experiments with diesel engines-generator sets partially fuelled by biogas demonstrated that biogas could be used for power generation, reducing elecricity costs by 40% compared with purchase from the regional utility.
Biogasmax is a large-scale integrated project funded by the European Commission in order to ensure the market penetration of biogas as a vehicle fuel. The European Biogasmax project creates a network of biogas-related demonstrations in order to share best practices in managing sustainable urban transportation. The cities involved in Biogasmax include Stockholm, Gothenburg, Lille, Rome and Berne.
The research and development projects carried out in the context of BIOGASMAX are closely tied to the following four main fields of technological activities:
Production of biogas from various types of urban and organic waste; Upgrading of biogas to a high-quality fuel; Distribution for transport and injection into natural gas grids; Use in vehicles to increase the number of biomethane-fueled vehicles.
The European Union presently has some of the strictest legislation regarding waste management and landfill sites called the Landfill Directive. The United States legislates against landfill gas as it contains these VOCs. The United States Clean Air Act and Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requires landfill owners to estimate the quantity of non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) emitted. If the estimated NMOC emissions exceeds 50 tonnes per year the landfill owner is required to collect the landfill gas and treat it to remove the entrained NMOCs. Treatment of the landfill gas is usually by combustion. Because of the remoteness of landfill sites it is sometimes not economically feasible to produce electricity from the gas.
BIO GAS - THE FUTURE FUEL
Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is comprised primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. Biogas originates from biogenic material and is a type of biofuel. Biogas is a product of the anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure or sewage, municipal waste, and energy crops. Other types of biogas include wood gas which is created by gasification of wood or other biomass.
The methane in biogas gives it the ability to be used as a fuel. The combustion of which releases energy. In developing countries biogas can be used as a low-cost fuel for cooking. It can also be utilised in modern waste management facilities where it can be used in gas engines to generate electricity. Biogas is a renewable fuel and electricity produced from it can be used to attract renewable energy subsidies in some parts of the world.
Depending on where it is produced, biogas can also be called swamp, marsh, landfill or digester gas. A biogas plant is the name often given to an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops.
Biogas can be produced utilising anaerobic digesters. These plants can be fed with energy crops such as maize silage or biodegradable wastes including sewage sludge and food waste.
Landfill gas is produced by organic waste decomposing under anaerobic conditions in a landfill. The waste is covered and compressed mechanically and by the weight of the material that is deposited from above. This material prevents oxygen from accessing the waste and anaerobic microbes thrive. This gas builds up and is slowly released into the atmosphere if the landfill site has not been engineered to capture the gas. Landfill gas is hazardous for three key reasons. Landfill gas becomes explosive when it escapes from the landfill and mixes with oxygen within lower and higher explosive limits. The methane in biogas forms explosive mixtures in air. The lower explosive limit is 5% methane and the upper explosive limit is 15% methane. The methane contained within biogas is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Therefore uncontained landfill gas which escapes into the atmosphere significantly contributes to the effects of global warming. In addition to this volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained within landfill gas contribute to the formation of photochemical smog.
The composition of biogas varies depending upon the origin of the anaerobic digestion process. Landfill gas typically has methane concentrations around 50%. Advanced waste treatment technologies can produce biogas with 55-75%CH4.
Main article: Siloxanes
In some cases biogas contains siloxanes. These siloxanes are formed from the anaerobic decomposition of materials commonly found in soaps and detergents. During combustion of biogas containing siloxanes, silicon is released and can combine with free oxygen or various other elements in the combustion gas. Deposits are formed containing mostly silica (SiO2) or silicates (SixOy) and can also contain calcium, sulphur, zinc, phosphorus. These white mineral deposits build to a surface thickness of several millimetres and must be removed by chemical or mechanical means.
Biogas can be utilised for electricity production, space heating, water heating and process heating. If compressed, it can replace compressed natural gas for use in vehicles, where it can fuel an internal combustion engine or fuel cells.
Methane within biogas can be concentrated to the same standards as natural gas, when it is, it is called biomethane. If the local gas network permits it the producer of the biogas may be able to utilise the local gas distribution networks. Gas must be very clean to reach pipeline quality, and must be of the correct composition for the local distribution network to accept. Carbon dioxide, Water, hydrogen sulfide and particulates must be removed if present. If concentrated and compressed it can also be used in vehicle transportation. Compressed biogas is becoming widely used in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. A biogas-powered train has been in service in Sweden since 2005.
Bates' and his biogas car were the subject of a short documentary film called 'Sweet as a Nut' in 1974, at which point he had run his car for 17 years on gas he had produced by processing pig manure. Bates, an inventor lived in Devon, UK and in the film talks through the simple process and benefits of running a car on biogas. The conversion was simply made with an adapter attached to any combustion engine.
In India biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of manure in small-scale digestion facilites is called Gober gas. In India biogas is generated at an estimated 2 million+ household facilites. The digester is an airtight circular pit made of concrete with a pipe connection. The manure is directed to the pit, usually directly from the cattle shed. The pit is then filled with a required quantity of wastewater. The gas pipe is connected to the kitchen fire place through control valves. The combustion of the biogas produced in this manner flammable has very little odour or smoke. Owing to its simplicity in implementation and use of cheap raw materials in the villages it is one of the most environmentally sound energy source for the rural needs.
The Biogas Support Program in Nepal has intalled over 100,000 biogas plants in rural areas.
Vietnam’s Biogas Programme for Animal Husbandry Sector has led to the installation of over 20,000 plants throughout that country.
Biogas is also in use in rural Costa Rica.
In Colombia experiments with diesel engines-generator sets partially fuelled by biogas demonstrated that biogas could be used for power generation, reducing elecricity costs by 40% compared with purchase from the regional utility.
Biogasmax is a large-scale integrated project funded by the European Commission in order to ensure the market penetration of biogas as a vehicle fuel. The European Biogasmax project creates a network of biogas-related demonstrations in order to share best practices in managing sustainable urban transportation. The cities involved in Biogasmax include Stockholm, Gothenburg, Lille, Rome and Berne.
The research and development projects carried out in the context of BIOGASMAX are closely tied to the following four main fields of technological activities:
Production of biogas from various types of urban and organic waste; Upgrading of biogas to a high-quality fuel; Distribution for transport and injection into natural gas grids; Use in vehicles to increase the number of biomethane-fueled vehicles.
The European Union presently has some of the strictest legislation regarding waste management and landfill sites called the Landfill Directive. The United States legislates against landfill gas as it contains these VOCs. The United States Clean Air Act and Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requires landfill owners to estimate the quantity of non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) emitted. If the estimated NMOC emissions exceeds 50 tonnes per year the landfill owner is required to collect the landfill gas and treat it to remove the entrained NMOCs. Treatment of the landfill gas is usually by combustion. Because of the remoteness of landfill sites it is sometimes not economically feasible to produce electricity from the gas.
The methane in biogas gives it the ability to be used as a fuel. The combustion of which releases energy. In developing countries biogas can be used as a low-cost fuel for cooking. It can also be utilised in modern waste management facilities where it can be used in gas engines to generate electricity. Biogas is a renewable fuel and electricity produced from it can be used to attract renewable energy subsidies in some parts of the world.
Depending on where it is produced, biogas can also be called swamp, marsh, landfill or digester gas. A biogas plant is the name often given to an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops.
Biogas can be produced utilising anaerobic digesters. These plants can be fed with energy crops such as maize silage or biodegradable wastes including sewage sludge and food waste.
Landfill gas is produced by organic waste decomposing under anaerobic conditions in a landfill. The waste is covered and compressed mechanically and by the weight of the material that is deposited from above. This material prevents oxygen from accessing the waste and anaerobic microbes thrive. This gas builds up and is slowly released into the atmosphere if the landfill site has not been engineered to capture the gas. Landfill gas is hazardous for three key reasons. Landfill gas becomes explosive when it escapes from the landfill and mixes with oxygen within lower and higher explosive limits. The methane in biogas forms explosive mixtures in air. The lower explosive limit is 5% methane and the upper explosive limit is 15% methane. The methane contained within biogas is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Therefore uncontained landfill gas which escapes into the atmosphere significantly contributes to the effects of global warming. In addition to this volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained within landfill gas contribute to the formation of photochemical smog.
The composition of biogas varies depending upon the origin of the anaerobic digestion process. Landfill gas typically has methane concentrations around 50%. Advanced waste treatment technologies can produce biogas with 55-75%CH4.
Main article: Siloxanes
In some cases biogas contains siloxanes. These siloxanes are formed from the anaerobic decomposition of materials commonly found in soaps and detergents. During combustion of biogas containing siloxanes, silicon is released and can combine with free oxygen or various other elements in the combustion gas. Deposits are formed containing mostly silica (SiO2) or silicates (SixOy) and can also contain calcium, sulphur, zinc, phosphorus. These white mineral deposits build to a surface thickness of several millimetres and must be removed by chemical or mechanical means.
Biogas can be utilised for electricity production, space heating, water heating and process heating. If compressed, it can replace compressed natural gas for use in vehicles, where it can fuel an internal combustion engine or fuel cells.
Methane within biogas can be concentrated to the same standards as natural gas, when it is, it is called biomethane. If the local gas network permits it the producer of the biogas may be able to utilise the local gas distribution networks. Gas must be very clean to reach pipeline quality, and must be of the correct composition for the local distribution network to accept. Carbon dioxide, Water, hydrogen sulfide and particulates must be removed if present. If concentrated and compressed it can also be used in vehicle transportation. Compressed biogas is becoming widely used in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. A biogas-powered train has been in service in Sweden since 2005.
Bates' and his biogas car were the subject of a short documentary film called 'Sweet as a Nut' in 1974, at which point he had run his car for 17 years on gas he had produced by processing pig manure. Bates, an inventor lived in Devon, UK and in the film talks through the simple process and benefits of running a car on biogas. The conversion was simply made with an adapter attached to any combustion engine.
In India biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of manure in small-scale digestion facilites is called Gober gas. In India biogas is generated at an estimated 2 million+ household facilites. The digester is an airtight circular pit made of concrete with a pipe connection. The manure is directed to the pit, usually directly from the cattle shed. The pit is then filled with a required quantity of wastewater. The gas pipe is connected to the kitchen fire place through control valves. The combustion of the biogas produced in this manner flammable has very little odour or smoke. Owing to its simplicity in implementation and use of cheap raw materials in the villages it is one of the most environmentally sound energy source for the rural needs.
The Biogas Support Program in Nepal has intalled over 100,000 biogas plants in rural areas.
Vietnam’s Biogas Programme for Animal Husbandry Sector has led to the installation of over 20,000 plants throughout that country.
Biogas is also in use in rural Costa Rica.
In Colombia experiments with diesel engines-generator sets partially fuelled by biogas demonstrated that biogas could be used for power generation, reducing elecricity costs by 40% compared with purchase from the regional utility.
Biogasmax is a large-scale integrated project funded by the European Commission in order to ensure the market penetration of biogas as a vehicle fuel. The European Biogasmax project creates a network of biogas-related demonstrations in order to share best practices in managing sustainable urban transportation. The cities involved in Biogasmax include Stockholm, Gothenburg, Lille, Rome and Berne.
The research and development projects carried out in the context of BIOGASMAX are closely tied to the following four main fields of technological activities:
Production of biogas from various types of urban and organic waste; Upgrading of biogas to a high-quality fuel; Distribution for transport and injection into natural gas grids; Use in vehicles to increase the number of biomethane-fueled vehicles.
The European Union presently has some of the strictest legislation regarding waste management and landfill sites called the Landfill Directive. The United States legislates against landfill gas as it contains these VOCs. The United States Clean Air Act and Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requires landfill owners to estimate the quantity of non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) emitted. If the estimated NMOC emissions exceeds 50 tonnes per year the landfill owner is required to collect the landfill gas and treat it to remove the entrained NMOCs. Treatment of the landfill gas is usually by combustion. Because of the remoteness of landfill sites it is sometimes not economically feasible to produce electricity from the gas.
MYRTLE BEACH CONDO RESORTS
Our family will be having a family gathering and at the same time a family reunion as well. Originally the plan was to have the gathering and reunion at the house of my uncle. With the spacious garden area and 18 rooms available, it will be enough to accommodate all of us, especially those residing in the provinces. But we also consider the option of having it held in a place where it new to all of us. This special event that happens once every 10 years deserves a place that everyone can enjoy. Unanimously our elders decided to have in a place that is new and special. We searched for various venues that can accommodate us all. Finally, we found the perfect place to hold our gathering and reunion at Myrtle Beach Resort and Condos. This is the perfect place that we are looking for. Aside from the resort itself, Myrtle Beach Hotels offer different amenities and the rooms that their guests occupy are very elegant and luxury in style. I have checked the place together with my cousin and we were sold out for the place where our gathering and family reunion will be held. aside from the rooms Myrtle Beach Golf area is on thing that we find very ideal for our gathering and reunion. It is because a lot of my uncles and aunties love to play the sport of golf. I myself also loves to play the sport. After touring the inside of Myrtle Beach Resort and Condos, I left my cousins at the reception area. I immediately proceeded to the beach area where every thing I saw was the beautiful white sand beach that meets the blue and tempting waters. The place is indeed perfect for the event of our family. If you are looking for a place where you can relax and enjoy life at it's fullest, I would suggest that you have a good stay at Myrtle Beach Condo Resort. For bookings and accommodation packages, visit their website at www.seasidemb.com
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING A YOUTH HELMET
Accidents do happen anytime and anywhere. As recorded that there are more accidents involving motorcycles than 4 wheeled vehicles. You dont want that to happen to your youth. Your child just told you that he wants to ride a motorcycle and asks of you would buy him a helmet. Once you manage to get your heart out of your throat and back into your chest, you consider his request. By purchasing a youth helmet for him, you can take some of the decision into your own hands and alleviate your worry. The best thing you can do is make sure you buy him a helmet that fits properly, provides ample protection to his face and head, and has the correct amount of retention.
When you go to get a youth helmet for your child, always bring your child with you. An expert at any shop that sells these helmets can help you find one that has the proper fit. They will measure your child's head and then give you a size to start with. Let your child try on the helmet's that are the right size and in the colors and styles they like the best. By doing this you are allowing your child to have a say in an important piece of safety equipment. Plus you will be able to see if it fits properly. If your child gets to choose their youth helmet, they'll be more likely to wear it.Here are a few helpful tips to get you and your child started on selecting the right youth helmet specifically for them so they can start riding as soon as possible.
The first tip to follow is to allow your child to try on several different youth helmets and wear each one for about five to ten minutes. By having your youth wear the helmet for a small length of time he will be able to tell you what spots on the helmet are not fitting well or what if any parts are bothersome to him. This time will also give you the ability to check to make sure the helmet fits properly, resting just above your child's eyebrows. When you are removing the helmet, check for any indentations or red marks on your child's head.
The second tip when choosing a youth helmet is to make sure the helmet has a comfort liner on the interior. This foam will form to the shape and contour of the child's head and will become much more comfortable with longer periods of wear. By starting your youth off with a well fitted helmet you are offering him the best possible protection while he is riding.
The next tip when buying a youth helmet is to ensure that the helmet has been treated not only with an anti-fog treatment but also with an anti-scratch treatment. This will ensure that the face protection surface will not become scratched or fogged during riding, making your youths vision the best in can be. Also check the visor and make sure it does not touch the outer part of the
helmet. If it does it could cause scratches and make your youths vision blurry through his visor.
When buying a motorcycle youth helmet you should always remember that although the lighter style of youth helmet will be more comfortable to your child, the heavier style will offer more protection. Finding a balance between comfort and protection will give your child the comfort he needs from his youth helmet but also the safety you want him to have.
5 USEFUL TIPS ON APPLYING MAKE-UP
Painted pouts are making a comeback with new textures and finishes giving the face a modern look. If applied well, lipstick will not only look sexier, buy will last far longer than lip gloss! Simple tips that will make you shine among the crowd.
Perfect-Pout Prep - If you're going to wear a strong color, your skin tone needs to look as even as possible - especially around your mouth - so apply a sheer base on your face and neck. Make sure your lips aren't dry or scaly by drinking plenty of water and using a good lip balm.
Expert Application - First, find a lipstick that has enough pigment to stay the course but also has a built-in sheen so it doesn't look heavy. Using your ring finger, dab a color onto your lips around the Cupid's bow - this gives more dimension and a fuller look. For a soft finish, use a wide, flat brush to skirt around the lip line; if your natural lip line isn't even, use a sheer lip liner to tidy up the edges. Remember, always use a liner that's exactly the same color as your lipstick - never darker. Fix up any smudges with a concealer brush.
For Fuller Lips - If lips are thin, use a highlighter pencil or pale concealer to extend the line, then apply lipstick as above, extending to the new line with a wide, flat brush. If your pout is already pronounced, apply lipstick evenly, without concentrating the color in the center.
Suit Your Skin Tone - A bright pink is a great shade for spring - but the darker your skin tone, the richer the pigment can be. If you're Asian, go for a more russet or brown shade of pink; black skin can get away with a touch of burgundy or brown.
Insider Information - Bright pink lips are a quick route to a full make-up look. Ensure your base is done well - a foundation brush should be used even with the sheerest base. With a touch of mascara and the lightest brush of blusher you've got a youthful but sophisticated look. Don't overdo any of your other features or you'll risk looking dated - it's the bareness of the rest of the face that makes this work.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
10 THINGS THAT MUST BE DONE TO BE SUCCESSFUL
All of us want to be successful in life. It can be in the family, friends, business and career advancement. Let this simple tips guide you in that quest of being successful in life.
Step 1- Find and Clarify Your Vision of Success:
If you don't yet know what you want to achieve that's okay. There are ways to find out. Ask yourself what you are good at, what you enjoy doing, and what you would be doing if money were no object. Write out an ideal scenario of you having and doing what you dream of.
Step 2- Define your Goals Clearly:
From your ideal scenario of your Vision of Success identify concrete goals. Define them clearly and write them down. Writing your goals down is very important and gives them more power than just thinking or imagining your success.
Step 3- Visualize Yourself Achieving Your Goals:
Before setting off on the path to success you must first be able to see yourself achieving your success. You must believe that you can do it. Your imagination is a powerful creative tool. Once we can vividly imagine something, it often opens the door to manifesting it (Gawain, 1997).
Step 4- Uncover Psychological Blocks to Success:
If you have difficulty with steps one and two you may have internal obstacles preventing you from having or keeping what you want. On some level you may feel undeserving of success and happiness and this may be reflected in a lack of achievement. To uncover these obstacles ask yourself how you truly feel about having what you desire. Is there any guilt attached to this? One way to uncover any blocks here is to write down why you deserve to be successful. This can reveal any feelings to the contrary. Examine where your attitudes about success came from. Write out all you fears and fantasies associated with being successful.
Step 5- Remove Psychological Blocks to Success:
Often just the awareness of negative attitudes and beliefs about success begins the process of letting them go. You can't force change, but there are different tools and techniques that may be helpful. Some of these include: positive affirmations, therapy, success coaching, support groups such as Visions Anonymous, and rituals to rid yourself of the negative beliefs e.g. write them down then burn/tear them up.
Step 6- Make a Clear Plan With a Timeline:
Consider creating a plan that breaks your goals down into 5-year goals, 1-year goals, 6-months, 3-months and 1-month achievements. After completing this plan you can do weekly goals that will put you on schedule for all of the other goal milestones. Be realistic here so you don't get discouraged.
Step 7- Chart your Progress:
It is important to assess your progress at regular intervals. Pick a day once a week or once a month, read your plan and see if you are on schedule. Reward yourself for achieving milestones. If you need to adjust your plan be realistic and do so. Also, be honest with yourself. Visions and goals can change. If you find that you no longer really want this Vision do not be afraid to change your plan.
Step 8- Enjoy Your Success!
Once you have achieved your goals and your Vision of Success it is very important to acknowledge this. Reward yourself, give yourself credit and allow yourself to feel the attendant good feelings. Don't just rush off to your next goal as if you take your success for granted.
Step 9- Cultivate Gratitude:
Having gratitude is important once you achieve your visions. Literally "count your blessings", give thanks, allow yourself to enjoy them, and relish the experience of the success you already have. This increases success by attracting more of what you currently possess. One simple way to do this is to write a gratitude list (listing everything that you feel grateful for).
Step 10- Give it Away:
Out-flowing (giving away our material gifts and talents) makes room for more to flow to us. When out of feelings of fear or insecurity, we cling to what we have, we cut this flow off. You must not only express gratitude for achieving success, you must share this success with others. Share your resources, time and talents. You are also giving it away when you tell your story to others so that they might be encouraged.
Step 1- Find and Clarify Your Vision of Success:
If you don't yet know what you want to achieve that's okay. There are ways to find out. Ask yourself what you are good at, what you enjoy doing, and what you would be doing if money were no object. Write out an ideal scenario of you having and doing what you dream of.
Step 2- Define your Goals Clearly:
From your ideal scenario of your Vision of Success identify concrete goals. Define them clearly and write them down. Writing your goals down is very important and gives them more power than just thinking or imagining your success.
Step 3- Visualize Yourself Achieving Your Goals:
Before setting off on the path to success you must first be able to see yourself achieving your success. You must believe that you can do it. Your imagination is a powerful creative tool. Once we can vividly imagine something, it often opens the door to manifesting it (Gawain, 1997).
Step 4- Uncover Psychological Blocks to Success:
If you have difficulty with steps one and two you may have internal obstacles preventing you from having or keeping what you want. On some level you may feel undeserving of success and happiness and this may be reflected in a lack of achievement. To uncover these obstacles ask yourself how you truly feel about having what you desire. Is there any guilt attached to this? One way to uncover any blocks here is to write down why you deserve to be successful. This can reveal any feelings to the contrary. Examine where your attitudes about success came from. Write out all you fears and fantasies associated with being successful.
Step 5- Remove Psychological Blocks to Success:
Often just the awareness of negative attitudes and beliefs about success begins the process of letting them go. You can't force change, but there are different tools and techniques that may be helpful. Some of these include: positive affirmations, therapy, success coaching, support groups such as Visions Anonymous, and rituals to rid yourself of the negative beliefs e.g. write them down then burn/tear them up.
Step 6- Make a Clear Plan With a Timeline:
Consider creating a plan that breaks your goals down into 5-year goals, 1-year goals, 6-months, 3-months and 1-month achievements. After completing this plan you can do weekly goals that will put you on schedule for all of the other goal milestones. Be realistic here so you don't get discouraged.
Step 7- Chart your Progress:
It is important to assess your progress at regular intervals. Pick a day once a week or once a month, read your plan and see if you are on schedule. Reward yourself for achieving milestones. If you need to adjust your plan be realistic and do so. Also, be honest with yourself. Visions and goals can change. If you find that you no longer really want this Vision do not be afraid to change your plan.
Step 8- Enjoy Your Success!
Once you have achieved your goals and your Vision of Success it is very important to acknowledge this. Reward yourself, give yourself credit and allow yourself to feel the attendant good feelings. Don't just rush off to your next goal as if you take your success for granted.
Step 9- Cultivate Gratitude:
Having gratitude is important once you achieve your visions. Literally "count your blessings", give thanks, allow yourself to enjoy them, and relish the experience of the success you already have. This increases success by attracting more of what you currently possess. One simple way to do this is to write a gratitude list (listing everything that you feel grateful for).
Step 10- Give it Away:
Out-flowing (giving away our material gifts and talents) makes room for more to flow to us. When out of feelings of fear or insecurity, we cling to what we have, we cut this flow off. You must not only express gratitude for achieving success, you must share this success with others. Share your resources, time and talents. You are also giving it away when you tell your story to others so that they might be encouraged.
EXECUTIVE RECOVERY
When you are a top executive of a corporation, it is always best that you set an example to your colleagues, friends and to your employees. But sometimes not all becomes a picture perfect especially when you become one of those people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Many executives are prone to be addicted to drugs and especially alcohol. It is because of the lifestyle that they have and the kind of people that they deal with. It is often observed that a wine or liquor becomes the sealing part of every business transaction. As you drink it becomes a habit and it will turn into an addiction. In this situation the best way to get rid of the alcohol habit is to an alcohol rehab and this is offered by Executive-Recovery.com the place where business executives get help to solve their problem. They also offer drug rehab and drug treatment recovery program to solve and help top executives in getting rid of that addiction problem. For more information about the drug and alcohol rehabilitation, visit their website at www.executive-recovery.com
Many executives are prone to be addicted to drugs and especially alcohol. It is because of the lifestyle that they have and the kind of people that they deal with. It is often observed that a wine or liquor becomes the sealing part of every business transaction. As you drink it becomes a habit and it will turn into an addiction. In this situation the best way to get rid of the alcohol habit is to an alcohol rehab and this is offered by Executive-Recovery.com the place where business executives get help to solve their problem. They also offer drug rehab and drug treatment recovery program to solve and help top executives in getting rid of that addiction problem. For more information about the drug and alcohol rehabilitation, visit their website at www.executive-recovery.com
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
People pray for miracles usually don’t get miracles… But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost; very often find their prayers answered. Their prayers help them tap hidden reserves of faith and courage that were not available to them before.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
SEEDS OF FORGIVENESS
This is another story I got from the book Ripples of joy. The act of forgiving others is the best virtue that exercises.
A man’s child was killed by a neighbor’s dog. Revenge would not long satisfy this man, so he found a better way to relieve the agony of his heart. That year a famine had plagued the people, and the neighbor’s fields lay bare-he had no corn to plant for the next year’s harvest. So the grieving father one night sowed the neighbor’s field. His reason? “I sowed seed in my enemy’s field that God might exist.”
A man’s child was killed by a neighbor’s dog. Revenge would not long satisfy this man, so he found a better way to relieve the agony of his heart. That year a famine had plagued the people, and the neighbor’s fields lay bare-he had no corn to plant for the next year’s harvest. So the grieving father one night sowed the neighbor’s field. His reason? “I sowed seed in my enemy’s field that God might exist.”
Saturday, April 5, 2008
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING FOR WEBSITES AND BLOGS
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.
In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.
Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.
Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.
As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.
The concept of shared online bookmarks dates back to April 1996 with the launch of itList.com. Within the next three years, online bookmark services became competitive, with venture-backed companies like Backflip, Blink, Clip2, Hotlinks, Quiver, and others entering the market. Lacking viable models for making money, this early generation of social bookmarking companies failed as the dot-com bubble burst.
Founded in late 2003, del.icio.us pioneered tagging and coined the term "social bookmarking". In 2004, as del.icio.us began to take off, Citeulike, Connotea (focusing on social bookmarking for scientists), Simpy, Furl, and Stumbleupon were released, and Netvouz in 2005. In 2006, Ma.gnolia and Diigo also entered the bookmarking field. Sites such as Digg, reddit, and Newsvine are a related type of web service that provides a system for social news. In 2006, Connectbeam was the first company to launch a social bookmarking application squarely focused at businesses and enterprises, and continues to innovate in this direction. In 2007, IBM announced plans to enter the social software market, and the BBC web site added social bookmarking links for its news and sport articles, as many other news websites had done earlier.
This system has several advantages over traditional automated resource location and classification software, such as search engine spiders. All tag-based classification of Internet resources (such as web sites) is done by human beings, who understand the content of the resource, as opposed to software, which algorithmically attempts to determine the meaning of a resource. This provides for semantically classified tags, which are hard to find with contemporary search engines.
Additionally, as people bookmark resources that they find useful, resources that are of more use are bookmarked by more users. Thus, such a system will "rank" a resource based on its perceived utility. This is arguably a more useful metric for end users than other systems which rank resources based on the number of external links pointing to it.
There are drawbacks to such tag-based systems as well: no standard set of keywords (also known as controlled vocabulary), no standard for the structure of such tags (e.g. singular vs. plural, capitalization, etc.), mistagging due to spelling errors, tags that can have more than one meaning, unclear tags due to synonym/antonym confusion, highly unorthodox and "personalized" tag schemas from some users, and no mechanism for users to indicate hierarchical relationships between tags (e.g. a site might be labeled as both cheese and cheddar, with no mechanism that might indicate that cheddar is a refinement or sub-class of cheese). Services which allow both tags and folders for organizing bookmarks (such as Netvouz) make this less of a problem though.
Social bookmarking can also be susceptible to corruption and collusion. Due to its popularity, some users have started considering it as a tool to use along with Search engine optimization to make their website more visible. The more often a web page is submitted and tagged, the better chance it has of being found. Spammers have started bookmarking the same web page multiple times and/or tagging each page of their web site using a lot of popular tags, hence obliging the developers to constantly adjust their security system to overcome abuses. Because of this, some social bookmarking websites were forced to add CAPTCHA protection against spam, which caused some problems for people who use social bookmarking for non-spamming purposes.
In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.
Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.
Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.
As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.
The concept of shared online bookmarks dates back to April 1996 with the launch of itList.com. Within the next three years, online bookmark services became competitive, with venture-backed companies like Backflip, Blink, Clip2, Hotlinks, Quiver, and others entering the market. Lacking viable models for making money, this early generation of social bookmarking companies failed as the dot-com bubble burst.
Founded in late 2003, del.icio.us pioneered tagging and coined the term "social bookmarking". In 2004, as del.icio.us began to take off, Citeulike, Connotea (focusing on social bookmarking for scientists), Simpy, Furl, and Stumbleupon were released, and Netvouz in 2005. In 2006, Ma.gnolia and Diigo also entered the bookmarking field. Sites such as Digg, reddit, and Newsvine are a related type of web service that provides a system for social news. In 2006, Connectbeam was the first company to launch a social bookmarking application squarely focused at businesses and enterprises, and continues to innovate in this direction. In 2007, IBM announced plans to enter the social software market, and the BBC web site added social bookmarking links for its news and sport articles, as many other news websites had done earlier.
This system has several advantages over traditional automated resource location and classification software, such as search engine spiders. All tag-based classification of Internet resources (such as web sites) is done by human beings, who understand the content of the resource, as opposed to software, which algorithmically attempts to determine the meaning of a resource. This provides for semantically classified tags, which are hard to find with contemporary search engines.
Additionally, as people bookmark resources that they find useful, resources that are of more use are bookmarked by more users. Thus, such a system will "rank" a resource based on its perceived utility. This is arguably a more useful metric for end users than other systems which rank resources based on the number of external links pointing to it.
There are drawbacks to such tag-based systems as well: no standard set of keywords (also known as controlled vocabulary), no standard for the structure of such tags (e.g. singular vs. plural, capitalization, etc.), mistagging due to spelling errors, tags that can have more than one meaning, unclear tags due to synonym/antonym confusion, highly unorthodox and "personalized" tag schemas from some users, and no mechanism for users to indicate hierarchical relationships between tags (e.g. a site might be labeled as both cheese and cheddar, with no mechanism that might indicate that cheddar is a refinement or sub-class of cheese). Services which allow both tags and folders for organizing bookmarks (such as Netvouz) make this less of a problem though.
Social bookmarking can also be susceptible to corruption and collusion. Due to its popularity, some users have started considering it as a tool to use along with Search engine optimization to make their website more visible. The more often a web page is submitted and tagged, the better chance it has of being found. Spammers have started bookmarking the same web page multiple times and/or tagging each page of their web site using a lot of popular tags, hence obliging the developers to constantly adjust their security system to overcome abuses. Because of this, some social bookmarking websites were forced to add CAPTCHA protection against spam, which caused some problems for people who use social bookmarking for non-spamming purposes.
TECH TRAINING SCHOOL
Everybody has the potential to become a successful IT expert. All you need is to have the right IT training from a technical school that offers the course. In searching for that school, let Tech-Training-Schools.Org do that for you. They provide you with a list of top tech schools that offers IT courses. A friend of mine was a student of a technical school where he got his IT training. Now he works as a systems programmer for a certain multinational company that offers computer related products. For more information about technical schools, visit www.tech-training-schools.org now
THE CANCUN EXPERIENCE
Cancún (pronounced as IPA: [kan'kun]) is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula best known as the Mexican Caribbean or at the northern section of the Mayan Riviera; however Cancun does not share a similar climate or topography to the Mediterranean.
It is the municipal seat of Benito Juárez municipality and a world-renowned tourist resort. The city center is located on the mainland which connects over the Nichupté and Bojórquez lagoons to a narrow "7" shaped island where the modern beachfront hotels are located. The island of Isla Mujeres is a nearby island located off the coast and is accessible by boat from Puerto Juarez or Punta Sam.
The older section of the city, known as "El Centro" follows the original master plan, consists of neighborhoods called "supermanzanas" (superblocks) that are formed by the intersections of the boulevards and traffic circles (roundabouts). This area is characterized by winding streets with cul-de-sacs that tend to keep out the main flow of traffic, including market places such Xel Ha. They usually have one or more parks, green spaces, paseos (pedestrian walkways) and various national historical monuments. Ave. Tulum is the main north-south artery (connecting downtown to the airport some 30km to south). Tulum is bisected by Ave. Coba (pronounced Koh bah). East of Ave. Tulum, Coba becomes Ave. Kukulcan which serves as the primary road that runs through the long "7" shaped hotel zone. Ave. Tulum is terminated on the north side by Ave. Paseo José López Portillo which connects to the main highway to Chichen Itza and Merida. Another major north-south road is Ave. Bonampak which runs roughly parallel to Ave. Tulum. The main ferry to Isla Mujeres is located off Bonampak.
The original master plan was repeatedly modified and, on the mainland, often ignored. To save on the cost of installing sewage systems and other public services, the design of much of the rest of the city reverted to the grid plan after Hurricane Gilbert (1988). The newest upper-middle-class residential areas reflect the original plan, but are much less intimate. Less expensive developments are comprised almost entirely of identical one- or two-story small row houses, sometimes built around interior plazas. Almost all buildings on the mainland are under four stories high.
Originally known as Ekab (Black Earth), what is now the northern district of the state of Quintana Roo was thickly populated by people speaking the language now known as Maya when the Spanish arrived, according to conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo. In the years after the Conquest, most of the population died or left as a result of disease, warfare, piracy and other factors, leaving only small settlements on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel Island.
According to the Cancún User's Guide by Jules Siegel (an American journalist who has resided in Cancún since 1983), Cancún resulted from a 1967 study by Banco de México to determine the feasibility of capturing more dollars and other foreign exchange through tourism development. Siegel, who was the translator of Fernando Martí's "Cancun, Fantasy of Bankers," explains that although the story goes that Cancún was picked by a computer, it was actually selected after extensive research and exploration by the bank's researchers. Banco de México obtained a $27 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to install the first infrastructure. When development was started on Jan. 23, 1970, Isla Cancún had only three residents, caretakers of the coconut plantation of don José de Jesús Lima, who lived on Isla Mujeres, and there were only 117 people living in nearby Puerto Juárez, a fishing village and military base.
"Due to the reluctance of investors to bet on an unknown area," Siegel writes, "the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels." He reports that the first hotel financed was the Cancun Caribe (now a Hyatt hotel), but that the first hotel actually built was the Playa Blanca, now the Blue Bay Village. The entire project was master-planned, with the island (soon connected to the mainland by a causeways) devoted almost exclusively to tourism facilities, while workers housing and service areas were located on the mainland in what became the city of Cancún.
The city has grown rapidly over the past thirty years to become a city of approximately 600,000 residents, covering the former island and the nearby mainland. Most 'cancunenses' here are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. A growing number are from the rest of America and Europe, according to Siegel. He says that municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as to control squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city. Siegel goes into more detail about common misconceptions concerning Cancun in a three-part article Cancun Bashing Is in Season, a brief portion of which was published in The Nation on October 20, 2003 as a letter in response to what he considered an inaccurate report by journalist Marc Cooper.
According to Siegel, the original master plan was repeatedly modified and, on the mainland, often ignored. He reports that despite initial skepticism that forced the Mexican government to finance the first eight hotels, Cancún soon attracted investors from all over the world. Accurate statistics on Hotel Zone property ownership are not easy to find. Anywhere from 50% to 70% of the Hotel Zone properties are owned by Mexicans, depending on how the figures are calculated -- number of rooms, land area, and type of property -- Siegel explains. The Hotel Zone includes hotels (unofficially estimated at 50% foreign ownership), time shares (ratio unknown but probably predominantly foreign), condominiums (much more likely to be Mexican owned), and commercial buildings and private residences (almost exclusively Mexican). Another complicating factor is split ownership of land and improvements, as the owner of a building may not own the land on which it is located. Mexican ownership is close to 100% for the mainland, he says. Hotel operating companies are international companies that supply administration and marketing services and these companies do not usually own the hotels themselves, Siegel explains. Even outlets of restaurant chains such as McDonald's and Domino's Pizza are Mexican-owned, he says.
There are about 140 hotels in Cancún with more than 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily. The Hotel Zone of Cancun is shaped like a 7 with bridges on each end connecting to the mainland. Hotels on the vertical or long side of the 7 tend to have rougher beaches and beach erosion can be a problem. Resorts on the horizontal or short end of the seven tend to have more gentle surf because the waves here are blocked by the island of Isla Mujeres which lies just off shore. The Hotel Zone offers a broad range of accommodations, ranging from relatively inexpensive motel-style facilities in the older section closest to the mainland, to high-priced luxury hotels in the later sections.
Many of the hotels are time-share condominiums with kitchen facilities. Some are all inclusive hotels which offer unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, hotel activities, entertainment, non-motorized water sports, and 40% discounts on tours to the Mayan ruins. Tips and taxes are included in the price of the hotel rooms. There are also upscale private residences and lavish condominiums for rent that cater to the rich. Restaurants, bars and shops in the hotel zone tend to be rather expensive compared with the downtown area and other Mexican resorts. Travelers will find many well-known theme restaurants and clubs here. Although the Hotel Zone is frequently described as "posh" or "exclusive" the main Cancún tourism market is middle- and upper-middle-class, according to government statistics, which also report that more than 37% of Cancún visitors are Mexican.
On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is the Nichupté Lagoon, which is used for boating excursions and jet-ski jungle tours.
Downtown is home to less expensive places to shop, including many supermarkets such as three Wal-Marts, two Comercial Mexicanas, at least seven large Chedraui's and three Sorianas, not to mention several flea markets like The Zocalo in the heart of the Hotel Zone. Market 28, Downtown, is a well-known shopping place both for locals and visitors. Downtown also hosts a number of American franchises such as Office Depot, Office Max, the aforementioned Wal-Marts, Sears, Sam's Club, Costco, Blockbuster, and a number of Starbucks (also located at the Hotel Zone) just to name a few. It also contains countless smaller hotels that can be had at a fraction of the price for similar accommodations in the Hotel Zone. International brands in Downtown area include Radisson Hacienda Cancún, Best Western Plaza Caribe, Oasis America.
The Hotel Zone offers various "big" name entertainment locations including, Hard Rock Cafe, Dady O's night club, Coco Bongo, Señor Frog's, BullDog Cafe, and the CITY, along with smaller venues. Many tourists mistakenly call this area "Downtown", while it is in fact well inside the Hotel Zone. Downtown Cancún offers a more cultural aspect, there are cuban/salsa type bars/restaurants, especially along Yaxchilan Ave, which hosts several bars and discos.
The temperature of the city is warm and tropical, moderated by the marine breeze which circulates through its avenues. Depending on the season, maximum temperatures are typically between 26°C (78.8°F) and 33°C(91.4°F) in the day and 18°C (64.4°F) and 25°C(77°F) at night. Temperature extremes have ranged between a maximum of 39.5°C (103.2°F) and a minimum of 9.5°C (49.2°F) 5km inland at the Airport. More temperate conditions occur from November to February and it is hottest from April to September, due to proximity to the Caribbean and Gulf humidity is high all-year around (averages close to 70% on rain free days). Ocean borne breezes temper the heat and humidity, espicially in Coastal areas from the hotel zone north, such as Puerto Juarez however this effect is lost the further inland on the Yucatan one goes or further south along the Mayan Riveria (which is more sheltered).
All hotel rooms in the Hotel Zone and many on the mainland are air conditioned. Weather is highly variable. During winter nortes, (northerly storms with a cold front passing southward from the North Amercian continent) drop temperatures sharply to below 20°C (68°F) and even cooler, however such periods are usually short-lived. In the course of a single day, the weather can turn from bright sunshine to dark and stormy and back again. It's not uncommon to look out one's window and see sunshine, while rain is falling on the opposite side. Sun showers and rainbows are frequent throughout the year, but especially during the summer rainy season. Many weather sites on the Internet will routinely report rain every day and this causes undue alarm among future vacationers. Cancun is on the ocean, the high level of humidity near in the air and therefore always the chance for rain, but all-day rain is infrequent.
The tropical storm season lasts from May to December, the rainy season extends into January with peak precipitation in September. February to early May tend to be drier with some occasional scattered showers. Although large hurricanes are rare, they have struck near to Cancun in recent years, Hurricane Wilma in 2005 being the largest and almost twenty years ago, Hurricane Gilbert made a devastating direct hit on Cancun.
There are some (relatively) small Mayan vestiges of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Cancún. Ruinas El Rey are located in the Hotel Zone. El Meco, a more substantial site, is found on the mainland just outside the city limits on the road to Punta Sam.
Very close, at the Mayan Riviera and the Grand Costa Maya, there are impressive sites such as Cobá and Muyil (Riviera), and kohunlich, Kinichná, Dzibanché, Oxtankah and Chacchoben, in the south of the state.
In the neighbor state of Yucatán is located impressive Chichen Itza, The UNESCO World Heritage granted this Mayan archaeological zone World Heritage Site status in 1988 and it was recently voted through Internet as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Although Cancún is better known as a travel and tourism destination, in recent years some colleges and universities have been offering higher educations to both Mexican and foreign students.
The first higher education institution established in the area was the Instituto Tecnológico de Cancún. Some other followed such as Universidad La Salle Cancún, Universidad Anahuac Cancún, Universidad Tecnológica de Cancún, Universidad del Caribe, and more recently the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo and the Tec Milenium.
Cancún is located in one of the main Caribbean hurricane impact areas, but since it was founded it has received direct hits from only two major hurricanes, Gilbert (1988) and Wilma (2005). In both cases, federal, state and municipal authorities were well-prepared to deal with most of the effects on tourists and local residents. After Wilma, emergency plans were modified to rectify areas of weak performance. Among other improvements, a new hurricane-proof traffic light system was installed throughout the city and Hotel Zone. To avoid having tourists wind up in uncomfortable situations in public shelters, authorities asked tourism operators to suspend sending tourists to Cancun when Hurricane Dean approached, and encouraged airlines to send empty planes, which were then used to evacuate tourists. Most recently, remnants from TS Olga caused some localized flooding on December 14, 2007.
It is the municipal seat of Benito Juárez municipality and a world-renowned tourist resort. The city center is located on the mainland which connects over the Nichupté and Bojórquez lagoons to a narrow "7" shaped island where the modern beachfront hotels are located. The island of Isla Mujeres is a nearby island located off the coast and is accessible by boat from Puerto Juarez or Punta Sam.
The older section of the city, known as "El Centro" follows the original master plan, consists of neighborhoods called "supermanzanas" (superblocks) that are formed by the intersections of the boulevards and traffic circles (roundabouts). This area is characterized by winding streets with cul-de-sacs that tend to keep out the main flow of traffic, including market places such Xel Ha. They usually have one or more parks, green spaces, paseos (pedestrian walkways) and various national historical monuments. Ave. Tulum is the main north-south artery (connecting downtown to the airport some 30km to south). Tulum is bisected by Ave. Coba (pronounced Koh bah). East of Ave. Tulum, Coba becomes Ave. Kukulcan which serves as the primary road that runs through the long "7" shaped hotel zone. Ave. Tulum is terminated on the north side by Ave. Paseo José López Portillo which connects to the main highway to Chichen Itza and Merida. Another major north-south road is Ave. Bonampak which runs roughly parallel to Ave. Tulum. The main ferry to Isla Mujeres is located off Bonampak.
The original master plan was repeatedly modified and, on the mainland, often ignored. To save on the cost of installing sewage systems and other public services, the design of much of the rest of the city reverted to the grid plan after Hurricane Gilbert (1988). The newest upper-middle-class residential areas reflect the original plan, but are much less intimate. Less expensive developments are comprised almost entirely of identical one- or two-story small row houses, sometimes built around interior plazas. Almost all buildings on the mainland are under four stories high.
Originally known as Ekab (Black Earth), what is now the northern district of the state of Quintana Roo was thickly populated by people speaking the language now known as Maya when the Spanish arrived, according to conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo. In the years after the Conquest, most of the population died or left as a result of disease, warfare, piracy and other factors, leaving only small settlements on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel Island.
According to the Cancún User's Guide by Jules Siegel (an American journalist who has resided in Cancún since 1983), Cancún resulted from a 1967 study by Banco de México to determine the feasibility of capturing more dollars and other foreign exchange through tourism development. Siegel, who was the translator of Fernando Martí's "Cancun, Fantasy of Bankers," explains that although the story goes that Cancún was picked by a computer, it was actually selected after extensive research and exploration by the bank's researchers. Banco de México obtained a $27 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to install the first infrastructure. When development was started on Jan. 23, 1970, Isla Cancún had only three residents, caretakers of the coconut plantation of don José de Jesús Lima, who lived on Isla Mujeres, and there were only 117 people living in nearby Puerto Juárez, a fishing village and military base.
"Due to the reluctance of investors to bet on an unknown area," Siegel writes, "the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels." He reports that the first hotel financed was the Cancun Caribe (now a Hyatt hotel), but that the first hotel actually built was the Playa Blanca, now the Blue Bay Village. The entire project was master-planned, with the island (soon connected to the mainland by a causeways) devoted almost exclusively to tourism facilities, while workers housing and service areas were located on the mainland in what became the city of Cancún.
The city has grown rapidly over the past thirty years to become a city of approximately 600,000 residents, covering the former island and the nearby mainland. Most 'cancunenses' here are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. A growing number are from the rest of America and Europe, according to Siegel. He says that municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as to control squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city. Siegel goes into more detail about common misconceptions concerning Cancun in a three-part article Cancun Bashing Is in Season, a brief portion of which was published in The Nation on October 20, 2003 as a letter in response to what he considered an inaccurate report by journalist Marc Cooper.
According to Siegel, the original master plan was repeatedly modified and, on the mainland, often ignored. He reports that despite initial skepticism that forced the Mexican government to finance the first eight hotels, Cancún soon attracted investors from all over the world. Accurate statistics on Hotel Zone property ownership are not easy to find. Anywhere from 50% to 70% of the Hotel Zone properties are owned by Mexicans, depending on how the figures are calculated -- number of rooms, land area, and type of property -- Siegel explains. The Hotel Zone includes hotels (unofficially estimated at 50% foreign ownership), time shares (ratio unknown but probably predominantly foreign), condominiums (much more likely to be Mexican owned), and commercial buildings and private residences (almost exclusively Mexican). Another complicating factor is split ownership of land and improvements, as the owner of a building may not own the land on which it is located. Mexican ownership is close to 100% for the mainland, he says. Hotel operating companies are international companies that supply administration and marketing services and these companies do not usually own the hotels themselves, Siegel explains. Even outlets of restaurant chains such as McDonald's and Domino's Pizza are Mexican-owned, he says.
There are about 140 hotels in Cancún with more than 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily. The Hotel Zone of Cancun is shaped like a 7 with bridges on each end connecting to the mainland. Hotels on the vertical or long side of the 7 tend to have rougher beaches and beach erosion can be a problem. Resorts on the horizontal or short end of the seven tend to have more gentle surf because the waves here are blocked by the island of Isla Mujeres which lies just off shore. The Hotel Zone offers a broad range of accommodations, ranging from relatively inexpensive motel-style facilities in the older section closest to the mainland, to high-priced luxury hotels in the later sections.
Many of the hotels are time-share condominiums with kitchen facilities. Some are all inclusive hotels which offer unlimited breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, hotel activities, entertainment, non-motorized water sports, and 40% discounts on tours to the Mayan ruins. Tips and taxes are included in the price of the hotel rooms. There are also upscale private residences and lavish condominiums for rent that cater to the rich. Restaurants, bars and shops in the hotel zone tend to be rather expensive compared with the downtown area and other Mexican resorts. Travelers will find many well-known theme restaurants and clubs here. Although the Hotel Zone is frequently described as "posh" or "exclusive" the main Cancún tourism market is middle- and upper-middle-class, according to government statistics, which also report that more than 37% of Cancún visitors are Mexican.
On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is the Nichupté Lagoon, which is used for boating excursions and jet-ski jungle tours.
Downtown is home to less expensive places to shop, including many supermarkets such as three Wal-Marts, two Comercial Mexicanas, at least seven large Chedraui's and three Sorianas, not to mention several flea markets like The Zocalo in the heart of the Hotel Zone. Market 28, Downtown, is a well-known shopping place both for locals and visitors. Downtown also hosts a number of American franchises such as Office Depot, Office Max, the aforementioned Wal-Marts, Sears, Sam's Club, Costco, Blockbuster, and a number of Starbucks (also located at the Hotel Zone) just to name a few. It also contains countless smaller hotels that can be had at a fraction of the price for similar accommodations in the Hotel Zone. International brands in Downtown area include Radisson Hacienda Cancún, Best Western Plaza Caribe, Oasis America.
The Hotel Zone offers various "big" name entertainment locations including, Hard Rock Cafe, Dady O's night club, Coco Bongo, Señor Frog's, BullDog Cafe, and the CITY, along with smaller venues. Many tourists mistakenly call this area "Downtown", while it is in fact well inside the Hotel Zone. Downtown Cancún offers a more cultural aspect, there are cuban/salsa type bars/restaurants, especially along Yaxchilan Ave, which hosts several bars and discos.
The temperature of the city is warm and tropical, moderated by the marine breeze which circulates through its avenues. Depending on the season, maximum temperatures are typically between 26°C (78.8°F) and 33°C(91.4°F) in the day and 18°C (64.4°F) and 25°C(77°F) at night. Temperature extremes have ranged between a maximum of 39.5°C (103.2°F) and a minimum of 9.5°C (49.2°F) 5km inland at the Airport. More temperate conditions occur from November to February and it is hottest from April to September, due to proximity to the Caribbean and Gulf humidity is high all-year around (averages close to 70% on rain free days). Ocean borne breezes temper the heat and humidity, espicially in Coastal areas from the hotel zone north, such as Puerto Juarez however this effect is lost the further inland on the Yucatan one goes or further south along the Mayan Riveria (which is more sheltered).
All hotel rooms in the Hotel Zone and many on the mainland are air conditioned. Weather is highly variable. During winter nortes, (northerly storms with a cold front passing southward from the North Amercian continent) drop temperatures sharply to below 20°C (68°F) and even cooler, however such periods are usually short-lived. In the course of a single day, the weather can turn from bright sunshine to dark and stormy and back again. It's not uncommon to look out one's window and see sunshine, while rain is falling on the opposite side. Sun showers and rainbows are frequent throughout the year, but especially during the summer rainy season. Many weather sites on the Internet will routinely report rain every day and this causes undue alarm among future vacationers. Cancun is on the ocean, the high level of humidity near in the air and therefore always the chance for rain, but all-day rain is infrequent.
The tropical storm season lasts from May to December, the rainy season extends into January with peak precipitation in September. February to early May tend to be drier with some occasional scattered showers. Although large hurricanes are rare, they have struck near to Cancun in recent years, Hurricane Wilma in 2005 being the largest and almost twenty years ago, Hurricane Gilbert made a devastating direct hit on Cancun.
There are some (relatively) small Mayan vestiges of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Cancún. Ruinas El Rey are located in the Hotel Zone. El Meco, a more substantial site, is found on the mainland just outside the city limits on the road to Punta Sam.
Very close, at the Mayan Riviera and the Grand Costa Maya, there are impressive sites such as Cobá and Muyil (Riviera), and kohunlich, Kinichná, Dzibanché, Oxtankah and Chacchoben, in the south of the state.
In the neighbor state of Yucatán is located impressive Chichen Itza, The UNESCO World Heritage granted this Mayan archaeological zone World Heritage Site status in 1988 and it was recently voted through Internet as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Although Cancún is better known as a travel and tourism destination, in recent years some colleges and universities have been offering higher educations to both Mexican and foreign students.
The first higher education institution established in the area was the Instituto Tecnológico de Cancún. Some other followed such as Universidad La Salle Cancún, Universidad Anahuac Cancún, Universidad Tecnológica de Cancún, Universidad del Caribe, and more recently the Universidad Interamericana para el Desarrollo and the Tec Milenium.
Cancún is located in one of the main Caribbean hurricane impact areas, but since it was founded it has received direct hits from only two major hurricanes, Gilbert (1988) and Wilma (2005). In both cases, federal, state and municipal authorities were well-prepared to deal with most of the effects on tourists and local residents. After Wilma, emergency plans were modified to rectify areas of weak performance. Among other improvements, a new hurricane-proof traffic light system was installed throughout the city and Hotel Zone. To avoid having tourists wind up in uncomfortable situations in public shelters, authorities asked tourism operators to suspend sending tourists to Cancun when Hurricane Dean approached, and encouraged airlines to send empty planes, which were then used to evacuate tourists. Most recently, remnants from TS Olga caused some localized flooding on December 14, 2007.
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