Medicare provides prescription medicines

When the Medicare prescription drug benefit begins in 2006, it will provide the most help to those with the greatest financial and medical need. Over 14 million Medicare beneficiaries-those with the most limited income and assets - can get significant financial help from the government to pay for their medicines. The 6.4 million beneficiaries who have both Medicaid and Medicare have their prescription needs covered currently by Medicaid. In 2006, they will be automatically moved to Medicare for their prescription coverage. While those with limited resources have their medical needs covered by Medicaid, many of the remaining eight million low-income beneficiaries (those with income below $14,355/individual or $19,245/couple) are without prescription drug insurance. The Medicare drug benefit and the financial "extra help" are predicted to be a huge relief for these beneficiaries. With the "extra help," they will have little or no premiums and deductibles, as well as minimal co-payments for their medications. The financial need for these eight million low-income Medicare beneficiaries is clearly apparent, but what may be less obvious is the medical need they face. They are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease than those with higher incomes, and they are more likely to have more than one chronic condition. With this medical burden, access to prescription medications can make a real difference in their health.

6 Reasons to join the plug in profit program

There are a number of different internet marketing programs and training courses a newbie can get into on the internet. However, there may be none greater than the plug-in profit site. It has benefited thousands of people in their internet marketing venture, and after several years is still going strong. Here are 6 reasons you too should take advantage of the numerous benefits the plug-in profit site has to offer. 1. Quick to start If you are an internet marketing newbie, time is the most difficult aspect you will face. You are eager to become successful and are anxious to get started, and with the plug-in profit site you can do just that. Although it will still take time to build up a successful home based business, there is a 24-hour service to get you to where you want to be as soon as possible. 2. Famous 5 affiliate programs One of the most notable features to the plug-in profit site is the 5 affiliate business programs that a new member receives for joining. The five programs that are included are Empowerism, Internet Marketing Center, Strong Future International (SFI), TrafficSwarm and Warrior Group/Host4Profit. Within 24 hours of joining the program, you are guaranteed to receive these terrific affiliate programs to help get your business going. 3. Free customizable website Getting started on the internet can be difficult because of the duties and many responsibilities that it takes to get going. The plug-in profit site helps to get you off on the right start by giving you a customized profit site that you can work with and make your own. While you will want to change it as much as possible to fit your needs and your business, it is a great tool to get you started. 4. Internet marketing tools There is no other program on the internet that gives a new affiliate the kind of things you will receive from plug-in profit. Along with the 5 affiliate programs and your very own customizable website, you will also receive internet marketing tools related to your business. This will assist you in customizing your website and adding features that relate to the way you want your business. 5. Residual income In case you're unaware, residual income is when you do something once and make multiple streams of income. With all five of the affiliate business programs offered, you can make residual income because of the affiliate downline system they offer. 6. Help from experts Perhaps the number one benefit from the plug-in profit is the assistance you can and will receive from some of the best internet marketers around. Unlike many internet marketing programs, everyone in plug-in profit is willing to help a newbie and get them started on the right track because they all understand that they too were once in your position.

Predictable certain and secure tax lien certificates produce guaranteed profits of 16 18 even 24 and more

How would you like to find out about an investment vehicle that is not affected by the topsy-turvy nature of the stock market? How would you like to know about a method of investing that locks in your rate of return, regardless of what happens with the so called real estate bubble? If you’ve ever put money into the stock market, you know that it can be a frightening roller coaster ride! The market goes up and the market goes down. Often without any rhyme or reason! Even the expert predictions prove to be wrong time after time! You can lay awake night after night wondering if you will ever see your hard earned investment dollars again. If you are like most people you are probably asking, “When can I have a little predictability?” Well, that is exactly what you’ll find in the little known world of government issued Tax Lien and Tax Deed Certificates! What is a Tax Lien Certificate? A Tax Lien Certificate is a lien on a piece of property for taxes owed. These Certificates have proven to be Predictable, Certain, and Secure! Here’s why... PREDICTABLE...because the rates of return are fixed by law! The rates differ by state and local statutes. For example Arizona pays up to 16%, Florida is 18%, and in Texas you get 25%. In states like Michigan you can earn up to 50%. The best part is that your rates of return are locked in and guaranteed. No matter what happens to the stock market, the economy...your rate of return remains the same. So you know from the beginning what your minimum profit will be! (And in some instances you can earn massive windfall profits up to 500%.) CERTAIN...because you are actually investing with the government! The government makes the rules, the government sets the interest rate you’ll receive, and the government enforces the process! (You will either receive your initial investment back...along with the substantial interest rate as your profit. Or you will end up owning the property itself...all according to government regulations.) SECURE...because your investment is attached to the real estate the taxes are owed on! Your investment is secured by a Government Certificate, which is attached to the real property. The property cannot be sold with clear title until your Certificate is paid off in full. (In other words the Tax Certificate is a priority lien on the property...so nothing can happen with that property until you get paid.) In fact, a Government Tax Certificate is normally superior to a mortgage lien! So if your investment and profit are not paid within the specified time period, the mortgage company might step in and pay you off in order to protect their interest. If they don’t, you own the property for pennies on the dollar. Any way you cut it, Government Tax Certificates offer a solid investment choice that is Predictable, Certain, and Secure! Now, some state use a Tax Deed process. And we’ll cover that next time! The key to success is to arm yourself with the right information and understanding of the rules in your particular locale. For there is power in knowledge, provided you have the right knowledge...and provided you act upon it!

Commodity futures tradings

Compared to cash contracts, which require payment against the physical delivery of goods immediately or after a specified period, a futures contract is a special type of agreement made strictly under the rules of a commodity exchange, which may or may not call for the actual delivery of goods and payment in cash on a future date. According to Emery, a futures contract can be defined as a contract for the future delivery of some commodity without reference to specific lots, made under the rules of some commercial body, in a set form, by which the conditions as to unit of amount, the quality and time of delivery are stereotyped, and only the determination of the total amounts and the price is left open to the contracting parties. Such contracts are meant exclusively for future settlement, though the exact date of the settlement is decided by reference to the wishes of the seller and the established rules of the commodity exchange. Such contracts do not specify the particular grade of a commodity, but impliedly refer to a basic grade called the contract grade, accepted as the common grade for all futures dealings. The details in respect to the amount, the time of settlement, the quality and so forth are mentioned in the rules and regulations, and are common to all such contracts. The contracting parties have to decide upon the price at which the contract is to be settled, sometime in one of the trading months specified by the exchange. Futures contracts are made only in the ‘ring’ of the commodity exchanges, and not outside the exchanges. Only members of a commodity exchange can enter into such a deal. No outsider can become a party to a futures agreement. Such contracts can be made only in multiples of a fixed unit of trading. No such contracts can be made in fractions of these units.

Live poker pros and cons of participating in a tournament

: If you have had enough of playing poker with friends or with playing it online and winning some money and then losing some money to only win that money back again, then you have reached the stage in your poker playing experience where you need to start entering live tournaments. That is the real deal. No more long hours in front of the computer, no more feeling guilty for taking your friends' money: you are now ready to turn pro. But, before you do, here are a few things you must consider: 1) One of the big differences of playing in a tournament is that you need to pick you hands carefully. Spend most of your time throwing your cards away at the right beginning. If you see that your cards won't amount to much, fight the urge to exchange most of them, and just hand them all in. This is what most tournament players do anyway. If you don't believe me, watch the others play. 2) Money you take with you to tournaments lasts for a much lengthier period than when playing with friends or online. This is one of the advantages of not playing every hand you are dealt. (Hint: You should do the same thing when playing with friends even though that then becomes boring.) 3) Do not sit to the left of the dealer. Ensure that there are at least two players between the dealer and the players to the left. Why? Only the first 2 players seated on the left of the dealer have to place the ante. Since, most of the tournaments involve ten players on each table, you save this much each time you play. This also means that each hand that you fold will mean that you have spent only half that of the lower limit. This amounts to three dollars in a two to four dollar rake tournament. 4) Take into consideration that the mere fact that you are away from home means that you will spend money on food and drinks. Try and get your own, but in any case keep it light. 5) Tournament dealers are not paid much, and so it' general practice to give them about three percent of whatever you win. Consider that all gambling halls and poker rooms also take a certain percentage but at least this comes from the money you win and so you don't feel it. 6) One of the other advantages of playing in a tournament is that you can use more money than you had. For instance, for a hundred dollar sit-in, many casinos and poker rooms will give you about five hundred in tournament chips to bet with. 7) If high odds and high risk is not what you are looking for you can take advantage of the late night satellite tournaments. These generally begin at one in the morning and since the number of players won't be high, you stand a bigger chance of winning. Conclusion: Playing poker requires tremendous skill as well as come luck. While you cannot depend on luck, improve your skills and your online casino or other kind of betting account will show a profit.

Detoxify body stop disease reverse aging and improve health

Detox by Bruce Fife to Detoxify Body, Stop Disease, Reverse Aging, and Improve Health All the wealth in the world is useless if you're unhealthy. You can't enjoy your life if your body is weak and unable to function properly. You can miss all the wonderful things offered by our world today. Too exaggerated? Well, not likely. As much as you want to enjoy your life to the fullest, your body is constantly bombarded with harmful chemicals. Where do these chemicals come from you might ask. In you don’t know it yet, your body is loaded with harmful chemicals that came from the food you ate, the beverages that you've drank, the things you use to put up with your daily hygiene, the smoke from cars and cigarettes, and many more. Every day you are exposed to these harmful chemicals found all around you. Although the body has a natural way of healing itself, and freeing itself from these harmful chemicals, sometimes it can't handle the process alone. Most especially if the body already has acid build ups. If you lived an unhealthy lifestyle for many years now, you can expect that you have developed acid build ups, whether you like it or not. It's high time that you detoxify your body, and the time to act is now. Don’t postpone it for later, otherwise you'll find yourself experiencing many symptoms of diseases and other illnesses. If you don’t want to develop further any dreadful disease or illness, why not purchase a book by Bruce Fife. The second edition of his book on body detox costs no more than $20. If you want to start detoxifying your body, buy now, and you'll get help from the expert. Fife's book has gained high ratings in many consumer reviews. The book is able to impart what detox does to your body. Regimens are usually followed to help you get rid of harmful and toxic substances from your body. As you know by now, toxins can be inhaled from the air that you breathe, and from the foods that you ingest. Some toxins are also produced inside the body, and if the body is not properly functioning, these toxins can't be ousted which later on can cause certain body problems. The book contains complete information as to how you are to go about your home detox program. The body's system for natural detoxification needs some sort of support in order to function properly, and this home detox program can greatly help in restoring the body's health, stop certain diseases that you now have, and reverse the signs of aging that you've been experiencing all this time. The body is rejuvenated, and you'll be alive and kicking once again. A diet which consists of all-natural foods is also featured in the book, including fasting among its chapters. The book teaches you how to go about fasting and other natural way of body detox. There are however certain drawbacks on the book, like the author being a vegetarian. Some of the issues regarding eating only toxin-free foods which most people think as impossible and being a vegetarian himself were reflected in some of his biased discussions in some chapters of the book. If you want to try complete home body detox, purchase the book. You'll get a lot of help and important information.

How to get your husband to cancel his weekly poker game

Over the past few years it always bothered me that my husband would go play poker with his friends every Friday night. Whenever I complained that it would be nice to spend time with my husband on Friday, he just complains that this is the only time he gets to be with his friends. I decided I had to come up with a way to make him choose me over his poker buddies so I tried many different things, at first I tried by asking him to stay home so we could have sex all night. That worked a few times but then he caught on to what I was doing. I also tried finding different events that he may want to go to like action movies, car shows and other things of that nature but there were not always things to do, so that was another failed attempt. But after 6 months of trying I had just about given up, finally at my wits end I decided that maybe I could get real good fast I could challenge him to a game and if I won he had to stop going to his game, and if he won I would pay for him to go to Vegas I spent every spare moment I had reading everything I could find online about Texas Holdem. Eventually I decided to go online and practice at some Video Poker. Eventually I started playing for real cash Online, and once or twice while he was at his game I would drive to one of the local casinos and play for a few hours in their poker rooms. Finally I felt I was good enough to make the challenge. So one night I told him that I wanted him to stop going to his Friday night games and to stay home with me, as I had expected it started a big argument. I waited until he made his speech about working hard and needing some “guy” time. So I felt this was my time to strike, I asked him if he would at least allow me to come and watch the game, to which he replied that players only as the rule and that since I did not know how to play I could not go. So I said if he could do it how hard can it be that really got him going, so he then asked me if I wanted to make the game a little interesting with a little bet. Now I had exactly what I wanted. I said if he won I would pay for him to go to Las Vegas alone, he did not know I had made some good money playing poker recently, and if I won he would give up his seat in his regular Friday night game. He looked at me suspiciously at first and I thought he was not going to risk it but he said ok. He ran to the closet and grabbed his chips we each started of with $100 in chips and agreed the first one out is the loser. Well in the end it was me that lost, but he was so excited at how good I was that he did stop going to his Friday night game, now every Friday night we go and play together at the casino. We have been doing this for 2 years now and our relationship has never been this good. Sometimes it really is better to try to get interested in his hobby.

Self abandonment

The Encarta® World English Dictionary defines “abandon” as: “to leave somebody or something behind for others to look after, especially somebody or something meant to be a personal responsibility.” As adults, our own wellbeing is our personal responsibility. Do you abandon yourself, instead making others responsible for you, and then feel abandoned by others when they leave you or don’t take responsibility for you? As an adult, another person cannot abandon you, since they are not responsible for you. We can abandon a child, an ill person or an old person – someone who cannot take care of themselves. But if you are a physically healthy adult, you can be left, but you cannot be abandoned by others. Only you can abandon you. What are the ways you might be abandoning yourself? Judging Yourself How often do you judge yourself with comments to yourself such as: “You are not good enough.” “You are inadequate.” “You are stupid.” “You are an idiot.” “You are ugly.” “You are not attractive enough.” “If you fail you are not okay.” “If someone rejects you, you are not okay.” “It’s all your fault that….” “You will never amount to anything. You are a failure. You are not reaching your potential.” …and so on. Just as a small child feels alone and abandoned when a parent is harsh and judgmental, so our own inner child feels alone and abandoned when you judge yourself. Self judgment not only creates inner feelings of aloneness and emptiness, but it also creates feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, hurt, fear, guilt and shame. Then what do you do when you have judged yourself and created all these painful feelings? Ignoring Your Feelings When you feel alone, empty, anxious, depressed, hurt, angry, jealous, sad, fearful, guilty or shamed – what do you do? Do you attend to your feelings, exploring what YOU are telling yourself or doing to cause them? Or do you avoid them with some form addictive behavior, using food, alcohol, drugs, nicotine, TV, work, shopping, Internet, sex, anger, blame, and so on to avoid them? When you ignore your feelings and instead turn to addictive behavior, you are again abandoning yourself. Once you have abandoned yourself, it is very common to project this self-abandonment onto others and feel abandoned by people or by God. Yet, as a physically healthy adult, the feeling of abandonment is being caused by you, just as most of your other painful feelings are being caused by you. Making Others Responsible for You Once you judge yourself and then ignore the pain you have caused, it is quite likely that you then turn to others for the love and approval that you are not giving to yourself. Your inner child – the feeling part of you – needs love, approval, and attention. When you abandon yourself with your self-judgments and ignoring your feelings, the wounded child part of you turns to others for the love you need. Because the child part of you is desperately needy for love, you likely become manipulative to get that love – getting angry and blaming, or becoming overly nice or compliant and trying to do everything right. You have handed your inner child away to others for adoption, hoping another person will give you the love you so desperately need. You become addicted to approval, attention, and/or sex. The more you make others responsible for giving you the love, attention and approval you need, the more your inner child feels abandoned, leading to more addictive behavior to fill the emptiness and avoid the pain of your self-abandonment. The way out of this is to start to pay attention to your feelings – to put your attention inside your body instead of always focusing outside. The moment you feel badly, notice what you are thinking or doing that is causing your pain. Your painful feelings that come from your thoughts are your inner guidance system’s way of letting you know that what you are thinking is not true, and is not in your highest good. Ask the highest part of yourself, “What is the truth?” Notice how you feel when you attend to your feelings and tell yourself the truth rather than judge yourself, ignore yourself, and make others responsible for your feelings.

Hermits need not apply

Are you too shy to strike up conversations with other people? Hmm… What about email, surely sending someone an email isn’t terribly daunting, right? It is? Well, then you’re in the wrong business. Network marketing means just what it says. You are a network marketer. That means you need to network, and if you don’t do that most important thing, you’ll never succeed. Traffic exchanges are a good place to start honing the art of becoming a good mentor. In most exchanges, when you get a referral into the program, you are notified by the site’s admin. This is great because you can take immediate action to assure that you remain on your recruit’s mind. If you can’t do it immediately, be sure to respond to this alert within 24 hours. Send your referral a private message, if this feature is available at the traffic exchange. If not, send an email, an IM, or even call them on the telephone. I know this isn’t everyone’s choice, but it works even better than mail. Yet, if you insist on sending a written messge of some type, there are dos and don’ts. In your welcome message, do be sure to thank the person for joining you in the program. Point out places where new members will find help regarding the site, such as to a tutorial or an FAQ section. Tell the person that you will be happy to help, if he or she still has questions, and provide your contact information. The more ways you give people to reach you, the better. Give them your email address, your IM address, and even your telephone number. If you’re reticent about doing that, maybe your cell phone number would seem better. Just remember, you can always change a number, but most folks who call you are just looking for guidance in their own online careers. They’re in search of a beacon. You can be that beacon for them, if you don’t abuse the privilege. Sponsors who send an ad for another program in their messages are spamming, pure and simple. Don’t do it. Aside from it being against the terms of service in a majority of exchanges, it’s just rude. Offer help and guidance and that person will probably join your program anyway, just because you’ve taken your time to be helpful. I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve had, telling me that, “I joined Program XYZ, and my upline sponsor said she’d call, but never has,” or “I never knew I had an upline sponsor in XYZ.” Well, it’s a shame you weren’t that person’s upline sponsor in that traffic exchange, huh? You probably will be in others, if you just give him or her a little support. It’s a cold, cruel World Wide Web out there, folks. Be kind to others, and you are sure to succeed.

Cleansing liver herbal teas recharge your body

When spring comes it is time for a liver cleanse. This is a good time to rejuvenate the liver for the coming year of work. One good way to cleanse the liver is to use herbal teas. They are easy to use and they provide a powerful punch to reawaken the liver. Here is a herbal formulation for the liver provided by Brigitte Mars (herbalist in Colorado) called "Puri-Tea" which consist of: · Peppermint, red clover, fennel, licorice · cleavers, dandelion, oregon grape root, burdock root · butternut bark, chickweed, parsley root, nettles. Another liver herbal tea is: · Fennel Seed (1 part), Fenugreek (1 part) · Flax Seed (1 part), Licorice Root (1/4 part) · Burdock (1/4 part), Peppermint (1 part). Here's another herbal combination that is good for detoxifying and cleansing the liver: · Yellow Dock root, Dandelion root, Licorice root · Red sage, Sarsaparilla, Hyssop · Pau de Arco, Milk Thistle Seed, Parsley leaf. Here's something else you can do for you liver. Buy an extract of Milk Thistle Seed. Then when you make the liver tea's list here, add 2-3 full droppers of the Milk Thistle Seed extract to the tea. Here are the effects of some of the herbs listed above. · fennel seed - white cell formation, acid/alkaline balancing · peppermint - body cleanser and toner · red clover - blood purifier · licorice - adrenal stimulation · cleavers - anti-infection · dandelion - cleansing and strengthening · oregon grape root - cleansing, building · burdock root - purifying · nettles - rich in minerals · chickweed - · fenugreek - helps to eliminate toxins and mucus · yellow dock root - cleansing, white cell formation · pau de arco - cleansing, white cell formation · milk thistle seed - cleansing, building You can make these teas yourself or look for a ready made one at a health food store. What I do is buy a 1/2 or 1 oz of each herb. Then I mix one full tablespoon of each herb into a mason jar. Shake it up and its ready to go. Preparing the tea Boil 1 1/4 cup of distilled water in a glass container. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of herbal mixture. Let tea sit for 10-15 minutes. Strain and drink when it cools down a little. Drink one cup of tea before breakfast and one before dinner for about 1-2 months.

Mary ellen s hands a tribute to the women of the quot greatest generation quot

“Remember these hands” were the words of her second-born to the grandchildren present for that inevitable moment when goodbye could no be longer held at bay. As the blood had just gone still and the warmth of her Spirit was slowly leaving them, I struggled to place Mary Ellen’s hands at rest in a position befitting the Life they embodied. My mother was not a woman of words, or money, or song. Mary Ellen expressed her Magic through the labor and artistry of her hands. And what exquisite hands they were; long and slender, tanned and freckled with delicately rounded finger tips; the hands of a lady whose place and time put unreasonable demands upon the hands of a lady. You see, Mary Ellen belonged to the Greatest Generation. A child of Armells Creek, born of the true love of a politician rancher and a poet educator, she was a Montana cowgirl trained as a curious mind to thirst for world travel and dine on fine china. Mary Ellen’s young hands were the hands that carried water home, reined saddle horses, and branded cattle. These were the same hands that mastered penmanship at Trail Creek School and pressed linen for Sunday dinner. When a weakened heart took her mother in her eleventh year, it was Mary Ellen’s hands that chopped and churned and pressed and scrubbed while her brothers fed and herded and branded and harvested. They kept The Ranch alive while Dad’s office took him to town and away from them. It was the Great Depression. Dad had a steady income. They never wanted for food on their table. They were grateful. When the leaders of the time called for a World War to stop the tyranny in a foreign land, it was Mary Ellen’s hands that hid her anguish on Christmas Day 1944, when a ship lost in the English Channel took her closest and most beloved brother. When she came of age, and her father sent her to the university (finishing school), it was Mary Ellen’s hands that earned her degree and set the stage for a teaching career that spanned over four decades. During those early years my mother was free of the domestic servitude of her youth. She sewed the seeds of travel and adventure and romance, especially during the summer of 1948, as my sister and I have recently discovered. Torn between adventure and providence, my mother’s decision to stay single or marry might have gone either way, but adventure rarely won over providence for the infants of the Great Depression. I’ve wondered where my sister and I might have found Life had my mother surrendered to her wanderlust. Mary Ellen gave her hand to a man who was neither a politician nor a rancher. She married a salesman. He was a handsome lad whose rawness and charisma often pulled rank over her common sense. When a bus and an icy winter road put my father in a body cast and nearly broke his Spirit, it was Mary Ellen’s hands that sustained us. Ours was a house overflowing with vegetation. Mary Ellen’s hands filled our windows with blooming African Violets and thumped the lids of Ball jars to be sure they sealed the peaches she had just canned, grown on the trees she tended. Year after year, her garden fed us, and produced an abundance of zucchini, and rhubarb. Every year there was too much zucchini and too much rhubarb. Way too much zucchini and rhubarb… This was an unconscious tradition. My mother was a master seamstress. The sheer volume of thread Mary Ellen’s fingers commanded would surely circle the globe. When I attached the left sleeve to the right armhole at a thousand stitches per inch, it was my mother’s mastery of the seam ripper that quieted my teenage huff, and gave me a second chance to do it right. There were many times during those years when Mary Ellen’s hands undid the damage of my rush to completion. When it was my turn to give Life, it was Mary Ellen’s hands that gave my newborn her first independence by severing the cord that bound her to me. As the doctors finished their work, I watched as my little one grasped my mother’s index finger. It was as if they both knew that touching each other would complete a sacred cycle. Mary Ellen’s hands had been at the wheel of a car only three weeks earlier. Now in her eighty-fifth year and like her mother, her heart had weakened. She and some Great Power had decided this was time that her hands should rest. Those of us facing the void of Life without her were grateful for having had so much time. Still… Time took her too soon. It was still too soon. In my mother’s final moments, we caressed and stroked and kissed and patted her hands and she was very comfortable basking in this attention. Perhaps we were desperately trying to return the decades of love her hands had given us. Admittedly, we wanted to soak up the beauty of the Life within Mary Ellen’s hands while we still had the chance. As I held one, I searched for words to bridge the gap created by sadness and my own wanderlust. I prayed to know what my mother might need at that moment. The answer came. “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women...” Yes. She squeezed my hand. In a now quiet room, the rays of a new morning blinded me. This was the first day in my nearly fifty years of Life, that Life did not have my mother in it. As I fiddled with a curl to style her hair as she would want it; I glanced at my own hand, now the custodian of the diamond that illuminated her mother’s hand on the day Mary Ellen was born. In that moment, a light shadow appeared. A light shadow of that same beautiful hand superimposed itself over my hand. At that moment, I knew for sure that Life has no choice but to go on. Now in my own hand, I saw generations of history and the Life of the one who had given Life to me. Yes. In that moment, I was again blessed by the touch of Mary Ellen’s hand.

Obtaining home loans for bad credit

If you have been looking all over for a home loan, but have found that because you have bad credit, lenders are turning you down, you are not alone. Many people all over the world are looking for home loans for bad credit. What may surprise you is that even if you have much less than perfect credit, it is absolutely possible to get bad credit home loans with various lenders. This is true even if you have no down payment or a small amount for down payments. One thing you should keep in mind is that even though there are many lenders willing to offer home loans for bad credit sufferers, you should expect to pay higher fees and interest on these types of loans. Typically, not only will the rates of interest be higher with home loans for bad credit, but so will the costs of closing. The reason behind this is that because of your bad credit situation, you are deemed at high risk for default. Now when you are looking for home loans for bad credit, there are a few things you should know. The first, as we stated earlier, you will need to expect to pay higher rates of interest than that of a conventional loan. Another thing to consider is the fact that most home loans for bad credit will carry specific terms and conditions. For example, some companies will charge you a penalty for prepayment. It is important to look closely at the terms and condition before signing. There may be a clause saying if you pay the loan off within 6 to 24 months, a penalty will be accessed. Another thing you should do is obtain a copy of your credit report. You want to make sure that every single thing listed on it is completely accurate. Any errors could result in a denial for home loans for bad credit. Make sure you obtain one free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit reporting bureaus, and then verify to ensure that everything is correct. One thing to keep in mind about home loans for bad credit is that it can help you improve your credit score. For some lenders, the more you pay and improve your credit; they may reward you by lowering the rates of interest.

Bluffing tips for poker players

Bluffing has always been an integral part of the game of poker. Bluffing, when done expertly and successfully, can serve as the key to winning crucial rounds in poker. Don’t you feel impressed whenever great poker players are able to remain calm and indifferent even when holding the direst of cards in their hands? Put in their place, you wonder if you can do the same thing. Bluffing in poker may not be an easy art to master but with determination and effort, neither is it an impossible task to achieve. To help you hone your bluffing skills, here are a few tips that you may consider. Bluffing When Playing Online Poker As a rule, players are discouraged from bluffing too much when playing online poker. The reason behind this is simple – what’s the point of bluffing when you can’t maximize the effect? Your opponents are unable to see you! So what good would your poker face do? And since most players are aware of this fact, a lot of them dare to bluff more than they usually do in live poker games. They raise the stakes even if they can’t afford to, hoping that you’ll back off. They call on your shots, thinking that maybe, you’re just bluffing like they do. If you still want to bluff even in online poker games, we advise that you keep your bluffing to a minimum. Be unpredictable so that your faceless opponents wouldn’t know if you’re really holding a good poker hand or you’re just trying to pull all their legs. Bluffing When Playing Live Poker Now this is the time when poker faces give you a distinct advantage. If you feel nervous about bluffing, try circulating the room first and observe how other poker players keep their cool even when they’re up against big odds. Admire and observe. We know how tough it is to keep your face expressionless even when you’re holding five useless cards but remind yourself that if they can do it, then you can certainly do it too. Don’t let anything or anyone affect your game. If it helps, imagine that this game is just a game for fun and there aren’t scores of people around you, watching your every move, waiting to see if you’re going to fight…or fold. I know what I’m asking for is hard work but really, bluffing depends on your mental strength as much as your acting skills!

Playing baccarat online free tips and rules before you play

This is a general outline to playing the game of Baccarat online. Some of the features may differ depending on the online casino you choose to play with but this guide should give you a good understanding and provide you with the knowledge needed to get started. To get started click on a chip of desired value to select it, then move your cursor to the middle of the screen and click on any of the three areas on the table (player, banker or tie) to place your bet there. Every click on the area adds one chip to the bet. Select another chip if you wish to increase the bet by some other amount. Right clicking on the area removes one chip. You can place several chips into several areas at the same time. Now that you have placed your bet you are ready to deal. Click the Deal button and cards will be dealt and you will see the game result. Click New Game if you wish to play again. Place your bets as described above and click Deal. You can also click Rebet to place the same bet as in the previous round. The standard button layout for online Baccarat us as follows: Deal: This will deal out the cards, you must first place your bet. Rebet: Place the same bet as in the previous round and deal the cards. Skip Turn: This will skip your turn when playing in multiplayer mode. New Game: This will start a new game round. Game History: This will show you the dates, bets and results of your previous game rounds. Chat: Used too chat with other players, in multiplayer mode only. Click this button, type your message and then click this button or simply press enter on your keyboard.. Help: This will provide you with help during game play or between game rounds. Options: Open the Options dialog box . Lobby: Press this to exit the game and go back to lobby. You can't exit in the middle of a game round. If you are disconnected from the Internet in the middle of a game, re-establish your Internet connection and log back into the casino. You can then click the Game History button to see the outcome of your previous round. Your play will still be valid and any winning will have been credited to your account. You are now ready to begin playing online Baccarat. Good luck and, as always, please play smartly!

Chevy equinox and land rover freelander

: The sport utility market continues to expand despite higher than normal gas prices. The reason? Because, these do-almost-everything-vehicles provide just what consumers want. Sure, sales are down right now, but they will recover as more economical vehicles enter the mix. SUVs carry people, haul stuff, pull stuff, can go off-roading [okay, maybe not the Equinox], provide superior handling than many cars, etc. Fortunately, not all are gas guzzlers either. Chevrolet’s Equinox and the Land Rover Freelander are two that come to mind. Let’s take a look at these two compact SUVs. Chevrolet Equinox – I like the looks of the Equinox, Chevy’s car-based SUV that is only slightly smaller than the mid-size TrailBlazer. By car-based I mean a vehicle that handles and drives more like a car and is actually built on a car platform [like the Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4, for example]. This means that the Equinox is built chiefly for the road, so if you want an off road experience you would need to opt for the TrailBlazer or get the Freelander. Okay, I digress.

The Equinox is available as either a front wheel drive or all wheel drive vehicle. Seating five passengers, the Equinox comes equipped with a 3.4L V6 that produces 185hp. The engine is paired with a five-speed automatic transmission; no manual transmission is available. A traction control system is standard with the front wheel drive Equinox while all models come equipped with ABS and electric steering. Standard equipment for the Equinox includes power windows, power mirrors, and power locks with Remote Keyless Entry; AM/FM stereo and CD player with six speakers; and air conditioning.

The Equinox has received a 5 star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for frontal crash and side-impact crash tests. Starting prices for the Equinox are very competitive with comparable models in its class. Base MSRP for the FWD is just over 22K; 24K for the AWD. Land Rover Freelander – The smallest of all Land Rovers is the Freelander, a compact full time all wheel drive vehicle available as either a 3 or 5 door SUV. Unlike the Equinox, the Freelander has full off road capabilities as do every Land Rover model.

The Freelander comes equipped with a Four-wheel Electronic Traction Control system; ABS; a 2.5L Quad Cam V6 engine paired with a 5 speed automatic transmission; an AM/FM stereo/CD system with RDS radio; air conditioning; fog lamps; a perimeter security system; and much more. The Freelander, a five passenger vehicle, sells for a price starting at just over 27K. The Freelander is produced in England while the Equinox is built in Canada, In all, both the Equinox and Freelander represent well built compact SUVs with two different purposes: the Equinox is built primarily for the highway and around town and has the stronger engine, while the Freelander is built for both highway and trail.

Powerpoint presentations are great but are you engaging your audience

Getting an audience interested in your presentation is a challenge. No matter the technology used, whether it's a PowerPoint, whiteboard, graphs, or other visual aids, it's your delivery, preparation, or lack of it that will impinge on your performance. The Buzz Is In The Telling If you've been to a lot of seminars or webinars, you can count in your one hand the few which stood out. Ask yourself what you liked about those gigs. Probably these are the highlights: 1. Good presentation material. 2. Good reporting. 3. Great speakers. 4. Lively participants. On hindsight, you'll realize that what made the activity outstanding was your active participation in almost all activities. You asked a lot of questions and were satisfied with the answers, and you probably liked what you saw in almost all the PowerPoint presentations. But it's not actually the PowerPoint presentations that were interesting, it was what you understood. You learned something from the discussion, while PowerPoint only served as a visual aid. You were an active participant like the others. Nobody was ready to rush to the door. People wanted to know more and discuss more. You got the point that the successful presentation was in the manner of showing the ideas and talking about them. The approach was able to draw out or engage the participants. Some of them remember the discussion and not the PowerPoint presentations at all. Repetition and Anecdotes Count You've observed that the speaker made the participants at ease. He didn't have to crack lousy jokes. Simply asking how the people were feeling or if they were ready for the next round of discussion stirred people to action. The speaker (already introduced) starts by telling the audience what he is going to discuss. During his discussion, he guides the audience by telling them that he is now ready to launch on the second or third or last part of his presentation. All the while, he invites people to ask questions. He repeats what he has said as if driving the idea and embedding it into their minds. He does not only tell, but shows how things are done. To find out if people are on his wavelength, he asks questions, not only to test their comprehension, but to gauge the level of the audience interest as well. He is following the outlined course of his discussion, but makes sure that before launching the next step, his audience learned something. He injeced stories and parables to his repertoire, or provided analogies. These are subtle techniques used to repeat his theme and objective. At this extent, he has already grasped the group dynamics and responded accordingly. Make Your Report Dynamic It does not mean you don't have to spruce up your PowerPoint presentations. Don't make the mistake of cramming all the content in your slides. Your slide should serve as a clue to what you are going to elaborate. Remember the guy who read his slides without making eye contact with the audience? He was a bore. Make an outline of your PowerPoint presentations while never losing sight of your objective. Guided by your plan and your thorough preparation (even a dry run to get an estimate of how long you're going to present your ideas), you can be confident to engage your audience.

How to play animals

: While sitting around with friends this weekend I discovered the greatest card game ever. The name of the game is Animals, and the game is very easy to learn, easy to play and a great source of entertainment. The game is not a gambling game but gambling can be done easily enough, but I would not expect to see this game in your local casino anytime soon. I suspect the game started out as a memory game for children, then was taken you young adults and turned into a drinking game, but it does not matter if you are gambling with this game, drinking with this game or just trying to have a fun evening with friends, because it is fun whatever you are playing for. The best way to play the game is with at least 4 people but no more then 8. You will also need 2 or 3 decks of cards to play Animals and a table for everyone to sit around. Before the game starts each player must choose an animal noise and a hand gesture to represent them in the game and going around the table each player must announce the name of their animal, the sound the animal makes and its hand gesture. An example of this would be to say I am a cat, meow and the hand gesture may be wiping your face with the back of your hand. In this game the dealer remains standing the entire round. The dealer will go around the table continuously dealing 1 card to each player until all the cards have been dealt. The dealer must stay at a steady pace and go not too fast and not too slow. the players must continuously scan the other players top cards and when someone has the same number card on top of their pile as you, you have to make that persons sound and hand gesture. If you do it before they do you get all their cards. That person is not out of the game the next time the dealer goes around they still get another card. The person with the most cards at the end of the game winds, and is the dealer for the next round. For kids this is a great game because they have to remember everyone's noise and gesture, this is a fun way for them to help develop their memories, and a great way to get them away from the television for a little while. For those looking to gamble this game may not earn you as much as playing Blackjack but it is a lot if fun to sit around and make fools of yourselves and make a few bucks. All you have to do is set an amount and everyone puts their money into a pot and the winner gets the pot. It does not get any easier then that. The drinking game has an extra rule or two. If you make someone's noise and gesture before they do yours, besides getting their cards they need to drink and at the end of each round all the losers need to drink.

Family vacation deals

Ah, the family vacation. It can strip of you every ounce of patience, and leave you strapped for cash. When all is said and done, you're left feeling more stressed than you were before taking your holidays! Maybe there is another way. To be sure, traveling with the entire family can be expensive and hard to plan; but there are some holiday destinations that will actually help you get great family vacation deals. Family Cruises Cruises are awesome choices for family getaways. There are plenty of deals available, when you know where to look. Search the Internet for cruise websites and you can stumble upon a good deal on a great cruise for your family. Some cruises offer discounts for certain age groups, like "kids stay and eat free" with paid adults. These are the deals that you should watch for. Other package deals can include family-friendly tours and extras, like Disney cruises. Florida Vacations If Florida is your idea of a great family vacation, you're in luck. There are great family vacation deals available for all sorts of Florida destinations. Some packages will include free tickets to the most popular tourist spots, like Universal Studios and theme parks. Many hotels included in package deals will provide free meals for kids--and anyone with hungry mouths to feed will know what a huge saving this can be. Most Florida hotels are kid-friendly and welcome families by offering discounted rates and kids' activities. Air travel Ask questions when you book your airline tickets. While they may not advertise it, some airlines have deals for young passengers. You may save half or even the full price of your child's ticket when you purchase yours. Other airlines offer special rates for kids under a certain age. These savings can really add up, particularly if you have several children. Many travel agencies, resorts and airlines offer promotional periods when they will accommodate your entire family for one great price. These special packages are generally offered once or twice a year as a means to promote their businesses. Ask around to see which companies will be offering special family promotions, and when they will be available. If you've already booked your time off, don't be afraid to adjust it if it means saving a few hundred dollars. If you are still in the preliminary stages of booking your holidays, find out where the family vacation deals are. Locate the big bargains; narrow them down to find the ones that suit your family's needs and fit your budget, then decide together. Some agencies and resorts are so family-friendly, they'll offer tips and tricks to help you find the biggest savings. Do a little research before you book. The time you spend looking for family vacations now will pay off in big savings and a holiday that's truly fun and relaxing.

Add see the sunny side

If you have ADD or ADHD, you may have the tendency to see yourself in a negative light. Don't do that! Don't focus on the bad things. Turn ADD traits around and see them in a positive light. When you do that, you'll be a happier person with a happier life. Let me show you how... First, one characteristic associated with ADD is "impulsivity." So? You think fast on your feet. And when you're able to think fast in a critical situation and make a quick decision, then you're not impulsive. You're decisive! Imagine a big stock buy that your company might be considering. The price is low, but something happened to make the stock start to climb. The instant you see this, you make a fast analysis of the situation, and bang! You buy the stock and make the company 10 million dollars. Your decisiveness just made the day. Be careful about weighing factors involved, though. Buying a Ferrari on a whim isn't a very good idea. In our stock buying case, you saw something that signaled an upward movement and the buy was a smart thing to do. That's part of your ADD, too. You notice changes in the environment because you notice everything around you. Some say that's "distractibility," but in the case of noticing a small change, it was totally positive that you noticed. People who are surveillance people or systems managers need to be aware of small changes, too. In those cases, what society calls, "Distractibility," can be a good thing. Hyperactivity can be good, too. You're full of life and energy, and can really get a project done fast when you turn on the ADD "hyperfocus" jets. Imagine that you have this deadline and your job is on the line. You'll sure see hyperfocus as a great thing when you meet the deadline and save your job, right? The only drawback to this is that you may tend to ignore your own well-being. Remember to work, eat, and rest, too. You aren't very much fun to be around when you're cranky, anyway. Yet, you are a likable person, no doubt. You're so creative that you're always coming up with interesting ideas and things to do. So many non-ADD people have boring jobs and boring lives. They just forget how to have a good time. Not you! You probably have a kick-butt sense of humor and really make the party come to life. However, use your ability to detect small changes when it comes to relationships, too. Generally, non-ADD people don't quite understand attention deficit and may have been put off by something you said or did, when you never meant to hurt their feelings at all. Iron out miscommunications quickly and you'll rock. Don't let what people "label" you put you down. You're awesome! When you start to throw off the negatives and see yourself in a positive light, you'll be a much happier person and your life will be happier, too.

The benefits of having a website

Every businessman or entrepreneur knows how important advertising is for a business. This method of conveying a message from a sponsor through an impersonal channel is designed to push a person to buy a product, to support a cause, to elect a candidate, to raise money for charity or to simply market goods and services. Advertising your Product: Advertising though does not merely rely on the product you intend to market. It also takes into consideration certain factors which may influence any marketing outcome. One such consideration is that the product should meet a perceived need from the consumers. By this, I mean a product that buyers will want to purchase and continue to purchase in the future. The price must also be right when advertising a product especially when it is relatively new in the market. It must be within the range commonly regarded as reasonable and competitive for the type and quality of the product. Most important of all factors is what type of media will be used to advertise the product. There are various ways of introducing one in the market today. The television, newspaper, magazines and radio promotions have jointly contributed to the progress of advertising. But nowadays, with the advent of the internet, entrepreneurs know that advertising now has a newer and broader arena to practice its almost magical persuasion on. Having a Website: Having a website is perhaps the easiest way of promoting your product. It constitutes of a collection of web pages intent on bringing information about your product, benefits gained when using the product and ultimately the persuasion that consumers should purchase the product itself. A website provides a means for accessing various sects of the population and aims to bring to their consciousness the perceived need for any merchandise. Publicly accessible websites are a great way of connecting with even the hard-to-reach consumers from all over the world. It is a way to promote your product globally without the hassle of using traditional channels such as the television and radio stations. Indeed, the internet has revolutionized advertising to ways incomparable to those that preceded it. How to Make a Website: A website need not be so over-the-edge or fanciful to attract consumers. A simple, informative and impressive one should do nicely to fit your needs. When creating one, you need only to focus on the consumers and put yourself in their shoes. Keep user-friendly navigation and search options in mind when making one and your visitors will surely appreciate your thoughtfulness. Try to keep your website simple and easy to navigate through. Expanding the number of your web pages should take a step-by-step process and should never be made hastily. Try to build up on the information first before expanding your website. Unnecessary animations are also a thing to steer clear from when making effective websites. These features take some time to load and may hamper the navigation of your visitors. They might become too impatient with your site and may lose interest along the way. Advertising has indeed become easier and more accessible because of the internet. Advertising focuses on the target market even in any arena you put it on. Keep in mind though that you have to make the internet work for you and not against you. Use it well to your advantage and never forget that you are persuading consumers to purchase your product.

What to do before buying that new car or truck

Ahhhh, that new car smell... It's great isn't it? But it comes at a premium. We all know that it's cheaper to buy used instead of new, but if you still don't think you can live without that fragrance of a new car (the real one, not the one you buy from Wal-Mart in the little spray can) - then at least think about following these steps first: 1. Research! If you absolutely have to have a new car, do yourself a favor and spend some time at Edmunds and research some of the cars that you are thinking about buying. If you have a specific car in mind already, be sure to research the other cars in its class as well. You might even find another one you like better and is rated higher from consumers, has higher crash test scores, better resale value, higher mpg's, or whatever else floats your boat. 2. Once you have decided on a car, Edmunds has a great feature for pricing - it's called True Market Value. That is basically how much other people are paying for that specific car. This can give you great leverage when negotiating the price on your new vehicle. But you also must keep in mind that it's not a definite price level, but more of a guide for haggling with the salesman about the price. 3. Dare I say the "L" word? Loan! There I said it, whew. Once you have settled on a fair price for the vehicle you are buying, it's time to think about how you're going to pay for it. Since most of us don't pay cash for new cars, most likely you'll need to obtain a loan for your new ride. If so, then you need to pay close attention to the interest rate on the loan. This is not something that can normally be negotiated, but you still need to be aware of what your interest rate will be - even 1 percentage point lower can save you over $700 on an average priced new vehicle, over the life of the loan. My advice on this would be to go after those low APR loan offers that the dealerships sometimes have. You know, the "buy now and receive 2.9% apr for up to 60 months" type of offers. That can save you some big bucks, lets take a closer look... How much money can lower interest save? Ok, lets use an interest rate comparison loan calculator and plug in some numbers, and see what we get. Example 1 - lets say it's for a Chevy Impala: Loan amount: $25,000 Regular interest rate: 6.9% Special low interest rate: 3.9% Loan length: 5 years Total savings with lower rate: $2,073.94 That's right, for this example the lower interest rate would save you more than $2k over the 5 year length of the loan. That money would be much better off sitting in an interest bearing bank account, don't you think? Just for kicks, lets do a higher priced vehicle with the same comparison criteria... Example 2 - Let's say you want a Tahoe instead: Loan amount: $45,000 Regular interest rate: 6.9% Special low interest rate: 3.9% Loan length: 5 years Total savings with lower rate: $3,733.08 With example 2, you would save almost $4k in interest over the life of the loan. That would be a nice down payment on your next vehicle don't you think? There are many different things that factor in to what vehicle you actually end up purchasing - comfort, resale value, safety, style etc. Just make sure you add "research" and "interest rate" to that list, and stay informed!

Making money with articles using the yahoo search marketing tools to retrieve free keywords 403

Making Money with Articles: Using the Yahoo Search Marketing Tools to Retrieve Free Keywords When making money with articles, you need to find the perfect keywords to make your niche sites a success. However, many times it is expensive to utilize paid keyword search tools. For this reason, some new marketers may prefer to try and find their keywords for free. One of the best ways to do this is to use the free Yahoo Search Marketing tools that you can find on their website. First, go to the Yahoo website and choose Search Marketing under Yahoo Advertising Solutions. Scroll down to and click on Sponsored Search. You will see a section that says “How many searches can your business get?” where you will type in the main keyword of your decided niche. This will bring up a list a of words that have your niche subject in them and tell you how many people searched for that particular word the previous month. To get an idea of what the competition is like, take each word that had a substantial amount of searches and input it into the Yahoo search engine using parenthesis. This will give you a good idea of how many people search for a particular keyword and how many sites you will be in competition with for the top spots on the first two pages. This will of course take a lot more time than a paid software program and it may not give you all of the great ideas that a program might. On the other hand, it will be free and give you extra funds for other parts of your website. If you can do this for free on your own, search engine optimize your site on your own, and write your own content, then the only thing you will have to spend money on is a website URL and web hosting. This is a great idea for those who have little to no start up cash, a lot of time on their hands, are quick learners, and can wait for the profits to start coming in (which will pretty much be pure profit). However, if you prefer to go the easy route and utilize a keyword generating software program, you can find many online. Some are more popular than others and have been a proven way for people to dig up valuable keywords for their niche sites. Word Count 403

How to s for choosing the best man and matron of honor

The trick with having a wedding party is that eventually you’re going to have to choose someone to be the ‘best’ something. Women have it slightly easier because they can opt to have a Matron of Honor as well as a Maid of Honor, but even so, it’s a difficult decision to make. Any tips? Ladies first Many women feel the pressure of having to choose their ‘bestest’ friend for the honor of being Matron or Maid in their wedding. They feel like they are leaving one of their friends out or hurting their feelings. First of all, realize that the duty of being in the wedding party is enormous. The Matron of Honor has a lot to do before and during the wedding itself, so you will want to choose someone that you think can handle it. If you’re the bride, you may feel that you have to choose a family member as well, but that’s not necessary. You might include them as a part of the party, but if you have a really close friend that you want to bestow the honor upon, then do so. Find someone who isn’t overly busy or committed. If they live in the town that you’ll be married in, that’s great too. Even if you’re out of town, you’ll get to be able to visit each other and she can make arrangements while you’re at your home. You also want to find someone who isn’t financially burdened. The thing is that gowns, showers, bachelorette parties, and gifts all cost money, so you don’t want to stretch them. And then the men Just like choosing the Matron or Maid of Honor, you don’t want to choose someone that ‘should’ be the Best Man. This should be someone that you can count on to plan the bachelor party and get the other groomsmen to stay on schedule. Of course, your best friend may fit this bill, so the decision might be easy. Again, don’t pick someone who doesn’t have a lot of time or is financially strapped. Picking someone to be your right hand person is an important decision and an honor for the person that you ask. Although you may think that they are the right person, they may decline the offer and the extra work. In that case, you will need to find someone else to fill the role.

Peculiarities in breeding canaries

Incubation After the time of incubation, which proceeds for 13 – 14 days , the baby – birds start hatching . The knock the shell from inside with the help of “ the egg – tooth ”, which is a small chalk tentacle on the upper side of the beak and with its help baby – birds manage to make a hole, which they broaden gradually . At last they are able to get out of the egg , breaking its obtuse end . According to some people the just – born birds look like “touching beasts " – nestlings with some fluffs , big raised shut eyes and wide open hungry beaks . Family life Only the female bird warms babies and just on the next day it starts feeding them . On the day of hatching they do not need any food – the yolk that it still in their abdominal cavity as reserve is enough . The male canary takes care of providing food – it often feeds the babies by pouring grounded food into their beaks . The female bird looks after the cleanness into the nest – she either eats alone or takes out of the nest the excrements of the babies that are covered in mucus . In about 7 – 8 days the mucus membrane stops forming and small birds sit on the nest ' s edge alone , put their posteriors out and shoot their excrements away . Cares in the nest take about 16 days . After that young birds leave the nest, but their parents continue to feed them additionally for a certain time . ADVICE : If the bird cage is big enough , leave the family together . But if the female bird starts pulling its feathers out to build a new nest you should separate the young birds from their parents . Controlling the nest You can quietly look in the nest until the 14 th days. Then it is better to leave everything in peace . If small canaries stay deeply crouched and cuddle into each other into the nest , it is very dangerous if you put your hand inside . They can get freighted and to go out of the nest and thus to hurt themselves. ADVICE : If it happens so that a small canary falls out of the nest, take it into your palms and hold it at least for half an hour near the radiator . Only then return it back to the nest . Feeding During the time of incubation and breeding the small birds : Give calcium to the female birds. Generation of eggs spends calcium in great amounts from its body . Add additional nourishing mixtures for the growth of small birds (they can be found in zoo – shops ). They should be at disposal of parent birds all the time while they feed the baby – birds . Besides, often control these mixtures to be fresh . They should be loose and easily to break them to pieces . Growth of baby – birds 1 st – 5 th day . Baby – canaries are still with eyes shut and take up embryonic position ; they lie down with their bellies up without stretching their necks . 6 th day . They open their eyes . The tubules on feathers can be clearly seen 7 th – 8 th day. Canaries start shooting alone their excrements out of the nest . 12 th day . The tubules covering the feathers now get torn and feathers grow . 17 th – 18 th . Yong canaries leave the nest, but they are still additionally fed by their parents . 30 th day . Young birds are fully independent . 2 nd – 6 th month . Languishing because of “ youth change ". All feathers are changed except for the flying ones . All feathers get the same full color that old birds have and now the young ones are sexually mature .

Paying for and getting a refund for your airline ticket

* If you plan to pay in person and with your own bank check, take at least two forms of identification with you like a driver's license, major credit card, or employee I. D. card. Particularly when you purchase tickets far from your home town, airlines, travel agencies and other ticket outlets will want to confirm your identity. If you paid for your ticket with cash and you have a refundable fare, you can often get an immediate refund from the issuing airline or travel agency. If you paid by personal check, the refund will generally have to be mailed to you. NOTE: In some cases tickets purchased overseas in foreign currency can only be refunded in that same currency and country, due to foreign government monetary restrictions. Keep this in mind if you are considering buying a ticket in a foreign country. * When you pay by credit card, your charge account is billed-whether you use your tickets or not. You won't receive credit unless the original unused tickets are returned to the airline. You usually can't get cash refund for a credit card purchase. * If you buy your tickets with a credit card and then change your flights, the ticket agent may want to credit the amount of the old tickets and issue another set with a second charge to your account. You may want to insist that the value of your old tickets be applied to the new ones, with the difference in price charged or credited to your account. While this creates a little extra work for the airlines, it prevents double-billing to your charge account. * There are different rules for different types of airfares. You can purchase discount fares or pay full fare. Check with your airline to find out the rules and cost of different types of fares. Payment by credit card provides certain protections under federal credit laws. When a refund is due, the airline must forward a credit to your card company within seven business days after receiving a complete refund application. If you paid by credit card for a refundable fare and you have trouble getting a refund that you are due, report this in writing to your credit card company. If you write to them within 60 days from the time that they mailed your first monthly statement showing the charge for the airline ticket, the card company should credit your account even if the airline doesn't. This procedure is particularly useful if your airline ceases operations before your flight.

Use short term bridging loan to bridge the cash gap

One day on my way to the office, I noticed something. No, it was not a gorgeous dress or expensive jewellery. But, a house, it was beautiful. At the very first glimpse, I decided to buy it at any cost. Now, I feel proud to live in that house. Thanks to “Bridging Loan”, it is only due to it my dream to own that house could see light of the day, which could have been impossible with little savings in my account. Bridging loan is a short-term loan offered by commercial lenders to borrow for a specific purpose such as for critical and immediate purchase of a property, pending arrangement of a long-term mortgage. Bridging loans are also known as "interim financing", "gap financing or a "swing loan". Bridging loans are commonly used to “bridge the cash gap” when completing commercial real estate transactions. As there can often be a time lag between the sale of one property and the purchase of another, a bridge loan allows a homeowner more flexibility. A borrower can be an individual or corporations and can be customized for many different situations. The purpose of borrowing could be to purchase a land, residential or commercial property. Bridging loan can also be used in case of auction where a borrower can have a bridging facility so that a bid on a property can be done with confidence. A borrower will be asked to secure the loan with some kind of significant collateral. Heavy machinery, business equipment, inventory, other commercial or residential properties owned by the borrower and even properties involved in the purchasing process can be put as a collateral against the loan. Bridging loan can be classified into open and closed bridging loan. Open bridging loan is available to a borrower who goes ahead with the plan to buy a new house without finalising the terms of sale of the existing house. Closed bridging loan is available to borrowers who have agreed on the terms of the home he is buying and selling, but there is delay in moving from the old to the new house. Lenders usually allow bridging loans of up to 65% of the value of the property kept as a collateral against the loan. A standard bridging loan would range anywhere between Ј25,000 to Ј5,00,000. Some lenders can provide a bridging loan for a higher amount too. Repayment term for a bridging loan usually vary from 2 weeks to a maximum of 12 months. The loan term will depend on the lender and the amount borrower wants to borrow. You can look for a bridging loan from a normal bank or an online lender. A strong relationship with a lender can be helpful while applying for a bridging loan. Online loan is convenient; you can apply for it from a computer that has Internet facility. A borrower can browse various online loan websites that provide bridging loans. You just need to fill a small application form to apply for a loan. Online lenders will quickly check the details given by you in the form and will contact the specialist bridging lenders who can offer best loan deal. Collect loan quotes from various lenders and compare them to find the most suitable loan. A great credit history is always beneficial for you and your business; it will help you get the loan easily. Now a days, various lenders offer bridging loan to self-employed or people with bad credit history, who found it difficult to get loans and mortgages in the past. Short term bridging loans can be a solution to your urgent cash need. Make the best use of the loan to fulfill personal desire to own a new beautiful home or a valuable property.

A brief history of anesthetics

: Anesthetics have been used for thousands of years. In fact, the first recorded use of anesthetics was actually in the 'pre-history' era, an era of human history predating written text. Early Uses of Herbal Anesthetics In the pre-history era, anesthetics were herbal in nature. Opium poppies are known to have been harvested as early as 4200 BC, and these plants were farmed first in the Sumerian Empire. The first recorded uses of anesthetics containing opium preparations was in 1500 BC, and by 1100 BC, civilizations in Cyprus and other locations were farming and harvesting the plants. Opium poppies were introduced to India and China in 330 BC and 600 to 1200 AD, respectively. Other types of herbal anesthetics were in use in China during this era as well. In the second century, the Chinese physician Hua Tuo is known to have used an anesthetic derived from cannabis to perform abdominal surgery. In Europe, Asia, and the Americas, several other 'solanum' plant species were used as anesthetics, including mandrake, henbane, and several datura species. Each of these contains a potent tropane alkaloid. In the classical Greek and Roman eras, prominent figures such as Hippocrates and Pliny the Elder noted the uses of opium and solanum-containing plants. In the Americas, the leaves of the coca plant (from which cocaine is derived) were an often-used anesthetic. This was applied by Incan shamans who would chew coca leaves and then spit the leaves into wounds to administer a local anesthetic. Herbal anesthetics of these types were widely used for several centuries; however they were not without drawbacks. One of the main problems with the use of herbal anesthetics was in administering the right dosage-too little would have no effect, and too much often killed the patient. Standardization of anesthetics was difficult, but was achieved to a certain degree prior to the nineteenth century by categorizing anesthetics according to the location in which anesthetic plants were grown. The Discovery of Morphine In 1804, a German pharmacist named Friedrich Wilhelm extracted morphine from the opium poppy, and named the compound 'morphium', for the Greek god of sleep and dreams. However, morphine was not widely used for nearly fifty years. In 1853, the hypodermic needle was developed, and thanks to this new method of administration, the use of morphine increased substantially. Morphine was then widely used as an anesthetic. In 1874, a morphine derivative called diacetylmorphine-commonly known as heroin-was developed. Nearly twice as potent as morphine, heroin was marketed for a short time by Bayer, starting in 1898. However, it was just 16 years later in 1914 that the possession of morphine, heroin, and cocaine without a prescription was outlawed in the US due to the highly addictive nature of these substances. Development of Inhalant Anesthetics Oral and inhalant anesthetics were utilized historically by Muslim anesthesiologists, and the use of these preparations was well known in the Islamic Empire. Several hundred surgical operations were performed which used sponges soaked in narcotic preparations, placed over the face of the individual undergoing surgery. In the Western world, the development of inhalant anesthetics, along with the use of sterile surgical techniques developed by Joseph Lister, was one of the main keys to performing successful surgery in the nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century, both carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide were used in experimental surgical procedures. While the use of carbon dioxide as an anesthetic never became popular, nitrous oxide did in fact become very widely used. The anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide were first noted by Humphry Davy, a British chemist, in a paper published in 1800. However, it was not until several decades later in the 1840s that nitrous oxide became more widely used. One of the first successful uses of the gas for painless tooth extraction was carried out by American dentist William Thomas Green Morton, in 1846. During the same decade, an inhalant anesthetic called diethyl ether was also used for tooth extraction. Diethyl ether was originally synthesized by German physician Valerius Cordus in 1540; however it was not until the 1840s that the first public demonstration of the use of ether occurred. A decade earlier, in the 1830s, chloroform had also been developed. This became more popular in Britain, but even so the dangers of both ether and chloroform were well-noted. Modern Anesthetics Modern anesthetics are of two types: general and local anesthetics. Local anesthetics include substances such as lidocaine and procaine. These work by preventing transmission of nerve impulses in the area where the anesthetic is administered. General anesthetics, on the other hand, are more similar in nature to nitrous oxide in their method of delivery, and in fact this inhalant anesthetic is still in use. Inhalation anesthetics are usually fluorochemicals (isoflurane, sevoflurane and desflurane) that have much lower flammability than diethyl ether, thus they are much safer to use in the operating room.

What is travel insurance

Many of us take out holiday insurance, but few know really what it is and how it can be defined. If you know what is included, you will be able to make the most of your protection. In general terms, holiday insurance protects a traveller’s holiday costs against adverse events such as cancellation and interruption and also reimburses medical expenses, the loss or damage of property and transit delays. Travellers are compensated if they have to cancel or interrupt their travel, they will also be covered should they need emergency medical treatment, medical evacuation and other situations. The main categories of holiday insurance: Delays and cancellation – including curtailment Delay: This reimburses travellers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay. Some plans also cover costs associated with catching up with a cruise should another delay cause the traveller to miss embarkation. Cancellation: Reimbursement comes into effect if travellers have booked and paid for a holiday, but are unable to embark because of personal illness or injury, death (of the individual or of a family member), adverse weather conditions, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, sudden unemployment, jury duty or by sustaining serious damage to their home causing it to be uninhabitable due to fire or flooding. Interruption: Insurance companies pay money to policy holders abroad if they have to cut short their trip due to illness, death (of the traveller or a family member), weather, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, becoming unemployed, and other adverse conditions which mean that, due to events outside the control of the holiday-maker, a trip has to be curtailed. Medical reasons Medical and health reasons: Reimburses medical and emergency dental costs. Almost all holiday insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveller after they have paid locally for treatment. Claims are usually paid within 7 – 10 days. Pre-existing conditions are covered by most policies if the policy is purchased within (at the most) 21 days from the date the traveller made the first payment or deposit. Medical evacuation: This provides emergency transportation to either a local hospital in the event that the traveller is unable to get there by themselves or back to a hospital near the traveller’s place of residence. If family members are covered on the same policy they can return home also. Death of traveller Air Flight accident – this covers death or dismemberment during an air flight only. Usually provides the highest amount of coverage due to fairly low likelihood of this occurring. Common carrier – Covers death or dismemberment while travelling on public transport such as a plane, ferry, train bus or taxi. Accidental death – covers death or dismemberment at any time of your trip. Usually provides the lowest amount of coverage due to a higher risk Loss or damage of personal effects Baggage loss – reimburses travellers for lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is usually restricted to the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline. There are two policy limits, total claim and per item maximum. Some policies also place limits on the type of items that can be claimed for – such as precious jewellery, laptops and sporting goods Rental Car damage – Reimburses travellers for damage or loss to a rental vehicle. It is designed to allow the traveller to decline collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage offered by the car rental companies. Liability coverage should still be purchased through the car rental company. Rental Car Damage coverage is also often included with the credit card used to pay for the car rental which is often matches the coverage provided in the policy. Assistance services – provides a 24-hour collect telephonel advice and assistance service to travellers. This service can be used anytime a traveller needs advice. Make sure you don’t leave home without it. In conclusion holiday insurance is the one product in the modern insurance-saturated world that really is essential. You will not regret taking it out, but not being insured for your travel mishaps is a source of huge regret for far too many holiday-makers every year. Don’t leave home without your toothbrush, a sketch pad, a bar of scented soap and a holiday insurance policy!

Additional features of a home security alarm system

The most basic home security alarm systems include a control panel, a keypad, a siren, access monitors and, in the case of monitored systems, an off site control station. These basic features are adequate for simple home protection against burglars but some people may opt for more advanced home security alarm systems that incorporate more advanced features. Home security alarm systems may include a smoke detection system, glass break detectors, panic buttons and motion detectors. When most people think of a home security alarm system, they think of a burglar alarm system. While it is true that the primary function of a home security alarm system is to protect your home and your possessions from burglars, this is not the only function of home security alarm systems. As the name home security alarm system implies, the system is devised to protect your home. This includes protecting your home from damage due to fires. For this reason, many people have a smoke detection system linked to their home security alarm system. This will sound an alarm and alert the control station if smoke is detected. Glass break detectors are another advanced feature that some individuals like to include in their home security alarm system. These systems are able to identify the sound of glass breaking and will activate the home security alarm system when this sound is identified. This is helpful because most home security alarm systems include access monitors that determine when doors or windows or opened. This makes your home vulnerable to burglars who break a window rather than opening the window to access the home. Installing glass break detectors in your home security alarm system will minimize this problem. Panic buttons are another optional feature in a home security alarm system. These are hand held devices that can be placed in strategic locations throughout the house. These panic buttons enable the homeowner to send and immediate message that they are in trouble to the monitoring center. This alarm can be sent silently or can be an audible siren that sounds throughout the house. Another feature that many individuals elect to incorporate into their home security alarm system is a set of motion detectors. These motion detectors act as a second line of defense in the home security alarm system. If the burglar is able to enter your home without triggering the alarm, the motion detectors will sense that he has entered your home and will trip the alarm, thus sounding the siren and sending a message to the monitoring center if your system is monitored. Your home security alarm system can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Incorporating some of the more advanced features into your home security alarm system can provide your home with better protection. These home security alarm features can be very valuable in the case where a burglar knows how to work around the confines of a standard home security alarm system.

Making life easier with nlp chunking

You know, in psychology there is a rule, especially within the NLP circles that I work in and the literature that I read, it is quite a famous rule; 7 plus or minus 2 – this is the notion that the conscious mind can only keep track of between 5 and 9 discrete pieces of information at one time. Your unconscious can literally keep track of billions and billions of things at the same time aparently (clever thing that it is!), while your conscious mind is more one step at a time and it has a fairly narrow focus. WHatever the truth of this, it is a useful way to expereince your own thinking. Here are a couple of things that you can do to test the extent of your conscious mind: Without writing them down, blurt out now, straight away without thought; - As many brands of cars as you can. - As many film titles as you can. - As many pop groups as you can. Many people run out of steam when they get to ten, usuallly because of the 7+-2 rule. The bottom line is, when the conscious mind is presented with more than 9 pieces of information, it gets overloaded. So before you send me a very clever email telling me off for pointing out the limits of the conscious mind, would you like to know how you can use this to your advantage? Of course you would. When you bear the 7+-2 rule in mind, you can start to organise things so that you work with your conscious mind, playing to its strengths. For instance, if you have a to-do list. Many people that I have encountered have a daily to-do list with 20 or more items on it. This is a recipe for total overwhelm (at which point they often resort to looking for the easiest or funnest thing on the list to do.) The following ideas can help you get a handle on your to-do list really fast, especially if that list has things that are important for your goals and achievements and sense of well-being. Firstly, scan through the list, looking for items that can be grouped together into categories. For example, here is a load of the stuff on my list for this week: Write Adam Up. Bank cheques. Finish writing chapter for new book Prepare for client therapy sessions. Finish project on public speaking. Finish marketing material for new courses. FInish listening to current educational Audio set. Read through solicitors material regarding other business project. Write up script for new audio title. Send out follow-up letters for last weeks clients. Prepare for photo shoot for new Bio. Write up blurb for my new Audio release. Write new web-page copy. Review new CD covers Meet PR people Do proposal for new book for Publishers. Read e-book New course blurb Meet with prospective business artner for new project. Clear inbox. Have a life. Have fun...... The first thing on the list is ‘Write Adam Up’ – for me, "Adam Up" is one of my products, so I write ‘Product’ beside it. Next is ‘Bank Cheques’ – that’s part of our cashflow system, so I write ‘Systems’ beside it. Pretty soon, every item on my list is in a category: Write Adam Up. Bank cheques. Finish writing chapter for new book Prepare for client therapy sessions. Finish project on public speaking. Finish marketing material for new courses. Finish listening to current educational Audio set. Read through solicitors material regarding other business project. Write up script for new audio title: Products. Send out follow-up letters for last weeks clients: Systems. Prepare for photo shoot for new Bio: Marketing. Write up blurb for my new Audio release: Marketing. Write new web-page copy: Marketing. Review new CD covers: Systems Meet PR people: People. Do proposal for new book for Publishers: People. Read e-book: Personal. New course blurb: Marketing. Meet with prospective business artner for new project: People. Clear inbox: Personal. Have a life. Have fun: Personal. This is better! I have now gone from a list of 20 or so items (instant overwhelm) to a list of 6 categories which is well within even my 7+-2 limit. - Products - Systems - Training - Marketing - People - Personal This is what we refer to as chunking in my professional field, and is one of the most effective ways of dealing with any large or complex set of tasks (or set of anything else). You may say “Great, but I’ve got 200 things on my to-do list”. It doesn’t matter – the same principles apply. If you go through your to-do list or your goals lists; just get it whittled down from 200 items to 20 categories, that is better, it is getting it more manageable – go through the 20 categories and see where they group together. Group together goals for your own development; being a non-smoker, growing in confidence, creating wealth, reducing weight etc. The key is to have no more than 9 categories at each level – this way your conscious mind can keep track of it. Secondly, start to manage your to-do list by the high-level categories: You can use this in all sorts of areas to make things more manageable, for example: - To-do lists. - Goals you are working toward. - The filing system on your computer. - Your filing cabinet. - Any project you’re doing. One of the things this allows you to do is notice very quickly if there’s a specific area where you have not been taking much action lately – very useful for helping focus on what needs attention.

A tribute to maria montessori

"The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life — by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i. e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past — and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own efforts." — Ayn Rand, "The Comprachicos" The state of education in New Zealand is a shambles. Parents who are concerned about the future well-being of their children are searching desperately for educational alternatives. The increased demand for private schooling and the dramatic rise in the number of home-schooled children provide an accurate measure of the growing degree of parental dissatisfaction with the current situation. But unless responsible and well-meaning parents are armed with the philosophical knowledge to be able to choose a rational educational method for their children — i. e., a type of educational method that will fully prepare their children for successful adult life — then it is quite likely that the results will be just as disappointing for them as for those parents who have left their children's education in the hands of the state. There is no guarantee whatsoever that private or home-schooling per se will produce satisfactory results. It is one thing to opt out of a state system that not only stunts, but positively perverts a child's intellectual and moral growth (see Editorial, Turning Minds to Mush, TFR #9); it is quite another to choose a rational alternative. This is why philosophical knowledge, because of its specially close ties to education, goes a long way in helping parents make the right choice. The objective of this article, therefore, is to provide not only the knowledge, but also an introduction to a particular educational method that produces exceptional results. The important thing for parents to be aware of is that all educational methods rest upon underlying philosophies. A type of education system that derives its methods and goals from a philosophy that is steeped in irrationality and collectivism will produce a certain type of individual (and society); conversely, a type of education system that derives its methods and goals from a philosophy that advocates and upholds reason and individualism will produce a completely different type of individual (and society). It follows that in order to choose a rational education for your child, it is first necessary to identify an education method's philosophical underpinnings if you want him to have every opportunity of fulfilling his potential as a human being. To begin with — and this cannot be stressed enough — you must know that, ultimately, in order to allow your child to fully develop the potential power of his mind, you first have to know what potential power needs developing. It is only once this power has been correctly identified, and its function properly understood, that it will be possible to go about aiding its development. The power in question, the power that man uses to grasp the world around him, the power that is at the central core of his very nature, is — reason. Unlike the other animals, man is a conceptual being. It is his rational faculty, his ability to reason, that sets him apart. To possess the power of reason is to possess the ability to conceptualise; it is to possess the ability to build, hierarchically, beginning with the perceptual evidence, progressively higher-level concepts that presuppose earlier concepts. Reason is man's sole means of cognition, his only means of knowledge. It is this power which has enabled man not only to survive, but also to progress. It is man's capacity to reason that has taken him out of the caves and put him on the moon. To grasp this point fully, imagine for a moment what it would be like if you lost your ability to reason — i. e., to think. How would you take care of yourself? How would you perform a simple task — such as tying your shoes? How would you structure your day? The answer to all these questions is that without the power of reason you wouldn't be able to. You would be in exactly the same position as a new-born baby — helpless, totally dependent on others to look after you. It is the purpose of education, therefore, to ensure that the helpless, dependent new-born baby makes the successful transition to becoming an independent, mature adult, fully confident of being able to master the world in which he lives. The only way to do that is to provide him with an educational method whose explicit goal is to assist him in such an achievement — by developing his power of reason. The good news for parents is that there IS such a rational educational method. It is known as the Montessori Method, named after Maria Montessori, the Italian Doctor of Medicine who developed her methods while working with mentally retarded children at the turn of this century. Her results with those children were so spectacular that they caused her to wonder what was holding so-called normal children back to the levels she was attaining with her retarded children. In 1907, she founded the first Casa dei Bambini (Children's House) where she applied her methods to children of normal intelligence. Her successes led to the opening of other Montessori schools, and although many intellectuals were (and still are) vehemently opposed to her approach — and even more so to the underlying philosophy of her approach (as they are to anything that provides a foundation for, or aspires to, individual excellence and achievement) — her radical methods were widely acclaimed by the general public. The reason the Montessori Method is so successful is that it is based on the true nature of Man. Dr Montessori did not have a preconceived theory of education into which she attempted to fit the child (unlike other educationalists such as John Dewey); she did not project a type of individual she wanted to create. Instead, she followed the "inner dictates of the child" to guide her in aiding the child's natural development to his full potential. She was fully aware that Man's nature is that of conceptual being, and that the nature of the young child is such that he actively strives to perfect his conceptual faculty as it evolves. Her method works because it advocates and upholds the advancement of a child's reasoning power as its foundational and philosophical cornerstone. Specifically, it is Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, which upholds reason as Man's only means of knowledge, that can provide the theoretical foundation for the Montessori Method. Rand herself paid tribute many times to Maria Montessori's genius in the field of education. Both Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand saw man as, to quote Aristotle's definition, the "rational animal." In his book Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, E. M. Standing eloquently encapsulates Maria Montessori's view of reason: "In the first place it is the intellect or reason which sets us free from the never ending prison of the present moment in which animals live, dominated entirely from moment to moment by their instincts." In an almost identical reference to reason in her major work on education, "The Comprachicos," Ayn Rand states: "Deprived of the ability to reason, man becomes a docile, pliant, impotent chunk of clay, to be shaped into any subhuman form and used for any purpose by anyone who wants to bother." Both Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand clearly recognised the central role of reason in Man's life. Whereas the genius of Ayn Rand was to construct a fully integrated philosophy with reason as one of its central tenets, the genius of Dr Montessori lay in the fact that she devised a systematic, integrated educational method which all but guarantees the child's proper conceptual growth. Although Dr Montessori's personal philosophy was a mix of Western religion and Eastern mysticism, her methods automatise in the child thinking methodology entirely consistent with Ayn Rand's theory of concept-formation. Those who are interested in the more technical aspects of concept-formation are strongly urged to read Ayn Rand's ground-breaking work, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. This book has major implications for education, as it provides the key to understanding how a rational mind functions, and therefore how a forming mind should be guided as it goes through the various developmental stages. Through scientific observations of children (conducted in an environment where the children were free to act spontaneously), Maria Montessori gained first-hand knowledge of the developing stages of the conceptual faculty; specifically, she observed how the children acquired conceptual knowledge. She recognised their intense interest in the qualities of things; she recognised their capacity to isolate qualities or ideas and their ability to form abstractions of such things. She was well aware "of this tendency of the child? s mind to draw off from material objects their intangible essences, thus building up a store of abstract ideas. These ideas reflect the ESSENTIAL nature of the confused flux of merely sensorial impressions — that 'big, booming, buzzing confusion' of which Professor (William) James spoke" (E. M. Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work). It needs to be pointed out that "the first five or six years of a child's life are crucial to a child's cognitive development. They determine, not the content of his mind but its method of functioning..." (Ayn Rand, "The Comprachicos"). Also like Rand, Dr Montessori understood well the importance to the child of these crucially formative years. In a quote which mirrors Ayn Rand's thoughts she said, "There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For this is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed." To that end, and by way of an introduction, this article will be restricted to dealing with those aspects of the Montessori Method as they apply to the child of 2 — 6 years of age. (It should be noted that Maria Montessori devised her system to educate the child from birth through to twelve years of age. Montessorians have since expanded on her work to include the teenage years for which, before her death in 1952, Dr Montessori left only a basic outline.) Dr Montessori's Aristotelian view of reason (and her in-depth studies of the educational methods of Seguin and Itard) led to the development of her specially designed SENSORIAL MATERIALS which are a feature of all Montessori classrooms. She believed in Aristotle's dictum that "there is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses," and knew that the refinement of the child's senses and clarity and precision of his perceptions would affect his ability to conceptualise. By means of a sensorial education she sought to provide the child with the means to exercise his ability to compare, contrast and discriminate, to classify — the goal being the child's acquisition of what she referred to as an "ordered mind." Designed to encourage individual rather than co-operative effort (reason is an attribute of the individual), the sensorial material takes the young child step by cognitive step from the perceptual (concrete) to the conceptual (abstract) level, allowing the "child's mind to draw off their (the materials') intangible essence." This process is imposed on him by the self-correcting nature of the material — its inbuilt "control of error," which only ever allows for one correct answer, making it evident to the child if he makes a mistake (teaching him in the process that reality is not malleable, that things have identity); this demands from him absolute cognitive precision, and rewards him with absolute cognitive certainty. These materials are deliberately designed so that all their attributes are the same except for the single attribute that the child is to focus on. For example, in teaching a child the concept "colour," the child is introduced to the "colour tablets." These tablets are all the same size, weight, shape etc.; they differ in one aspect only — colour. Because of the elimination of non-essentials as well as isolation of the quality (concept) being taught, the child must focus on the particular quality being isolated. The child quickly learns to pair colours of the same hue, and in so doing, makes it possible for the Montessori "directress" to label each quality for him. Later, shades of each colour are introduced, and concepts such as light, lighter, lightest, and dark, darker, and darkest become readily apparent to the child so that "when the child has recognised the differences between the qualities of the objects, the teacher fixes the idea of this quality with a word" (Maria Montessori, Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook). The wide range of sensorial materials, which teach concepts such as length, size, musical pitch etc., are placed in the classroom on child-height shelves where the child can reach them without adult assistance (promoting independence). Within certain limits, the child is then free to work with the material as he chooses. I say "within limits" as (and this is a point of which certain critics of a Montessori classroom should take careful note) the child is free neither to take material from another child — who will be working with it on his private mat — nor to insist that the other child share the material with him (which has obvious ethical implications). He may not interfere in any way with the work of another child; instead, he must wait until the material is returned to its assigned place on the shelves. The child is also prohibited from selecting materials from the shelves which are too advanced for his level of cognitive development. In a Montessori classroom the child works at his own pace with the teacher keeping detailed notes of individual progress. This is done to ensure that intellectual progression is based on certainty — not layers upon layers of mental fog; it ensures that the child is not introduced to material demanding higher levels of abstractions before he has a firm grasp of the lower levels abstractions which they rest upon. For example, the child would never be given shades of colour to grade before being able to match hues; he would never be given a word to read before being able to sound out each individual letter. Why not? Because like Ayn Rand, Maria Montessori grasped the hierarchical nature of knowledge, the obvious implication being that any knowledge presented to the child should follow such logical progression. Instead of ending up as a head full of scrambled and disparate facts, the child's mind becomes ordered. "The little child, who carries within him a heavy chaos, is like a man who has accumulated an immense quantity of books, piled up without any order, and who asks himself: 'What shall I do with them?' When will he be able to arrange them in such a fashion as to enable him to say: 'I possess a library.'?" (Maria Montessori, The Advanced Montessori Method — 1). He will be able to arrange them when he develops, to use Dr Montessori's words, an "ordered mind." The sensorial materials, with their sequential and hierarchical presentation, are but one aspect, albeit a crucial one, of the Montessori classroom. Like every other feature of the classroom, which Maria Montessori referred to as "the prepared environment," they serve a specific purpose. At the central core of that purpose is the attempt to assist and guide the child in the formation of his rational faculty. And while it is certainly true that the primary motive of a Montessori education is to develop the child's rational faculty, that is not to say, as so many of the system's critics do, that other aspects of the child's education are neglected or overlooked. In fact it is precisely because of the development of the rational faculty that these other aspects become possible. For example — imagination and creativity, which, contrary to conventional wisdom, are a direct extension of the fact that "imaginative creation has no mere vague sensory support; that is to say, it is not the unbridled divagation of the fancy among images of light and colour, sounds and impressions; but it is a construction firmly allied to reality... The creative imagination cannot work in vacuo. The mind that works by itself, independently of truth, works in a void" (Maria Montessori, Advanced Montessori Method). A Montessori education also teaches the child to take responsibility for his action. This is achieved by giving him clearly defined and reasonable rules to follow — where the consequences for breaking them are both known in advance and consistently upheld (objective law). He is taught not only to make full use of his time but also always to complete work that is begun (instilling in him the virtue of productivity). He is taught to respect the rights of other children by never interfering with their work — unless it is at the express invitation of another child (teaching him that all interaction between people should be of a voluntary nature). Insofar as the classroom is a microcosm of society, one of the most striking features to any observer of a Montessori classroom is how well the children get along with one another. A typical scene in the classroom is the sight of a number of industrious children happily going about their work, independently or together, in a spirit of real benevolence towards one another. It is therefore both surprising to and frustrating for Montessorians that by far the most frequent criticism of Montessori education is that not enough emphasis is placed on the "socialisation" of the child. At the deepest root, these critics are philosophically opposed to the Montessori method because they are philosophically opposed to reason. This criticism manifests itself, on an ethical level, in a profound hostility towards independence and individualism. It manifests itself in the attitude of those who love to accuse someone of being "too sure of himself — who does he think he is?!" Yet this is one of the many positive hallmarks of a Montessori educated child; he is "sure of himself." It is precisely because he is so sure of himself that he has no desire to succumb to group pressure or obey its whims. Of course, critics then label him "anti-social." "He needs to be socialised," they say — knowing full well that what they really mean is, "he won't sacrifice himself to my (or our) desires." John Dewey, the founder of the school of philosophy known as Pragmatism and the father of modern education (known as progressive education), was one such critic openly hostile to reason and independent thought. "The mere absorbing of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat" (John Dewey, The School and Society). The progressive schools, which follow in Dewey's philosophical footsteps (and whose strands of philosophical thought are heavily entwined in New Zealand's education system) socialise the child by discouraging individual effort and immersing him in the group, or, to use Ayn Rand's words, by "throwing him to the pack." Montessori helps the child develop socially by aiding each child's personal development — primarily, by encouraging independence and self-reliance, knowing that these lead to a high level of self-confidence and self-esteem. The progressives, in direct contrast to the Montessorian emphasis on reason and individualism, promote anti-reason and collectivism. They do so by such methods as only having materials in the classroom which are too heavy for any one child to carry by himself, or by insisting that all learning is done as part of a group project. Or, to use a particularly vicious home-grown example of the application of such monstrous methods, by implying that a cow's stomach is wherever the group deems it to be. (Don't laugh, this sort of thing really happens.) Unlike Montessorians, the progressives don't teach respect for another's property; instead, the child is taught that property is communal. In a progressive school, instead of being taught to think for himself, the child is encouraged, in true democratic fashion, to conform to the dictates of the majority. In such an environment it is only a matter of time before truth, to the child, becomes whatever the group decides that it is. The inevitable result of such socialisation is not a society of capable and productive individuals who think for themselves, but a society of dependents who, to repeat Ayn Rand, are ready "to be shaped into any subhuman form and used for any purpose by anyone who wants to bother." It does not require much imagination to project the future shape of any society made up of such types. In fact, one need look no further than at most of the current local crop of near-illiterate high-school and university students to get the picture. But before rushing off to sign your child up at the nearest Montessori school, a strong word of caution. There is no legal way to stop anybody from calling his school a Montessori school. Consequently, there are a number of so-called Montessori schools without trained teachers, without Montessori materials, or without teachers who have even the faintest idea of the Montessori methods. It is imperative, therefore, that you thoroughly familiarise yourself with both the Montessori Method itself as well as the Montessori school you have in mind for your child. That aside, a Montessori education comes with our highest recommendation.