Pros And Cons Of Universal Health Care System | My Handy Infos

Unlike other systems used in provision of medical health services, the universal health care system is unique in its own way. It offers medical services to all people, their social or economic status notwithstanding. Among the nations that make use of such programs are the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. All of them have varying structures and modes of sustenance. There exist different pros and cons of universal health care.

The access to medical services through this system is unlimited, everybody gets the same opportunities. There is no consideration of how well off an individual is, or their social status. As such, the barriers experienced in looking for quality treatment in the medical sector are broken. America is one of the industrialized nations that is yet to embrace the system.

Efficiency is very vital when it comes to the field of medicine. The more efficient a system is, the more likely it is that services delivered will be superb too. This is achieved by the universal system that is fully electronic. Patients never have to fill out papers, which would not only make it easy to make mistakes but also make everything so cumbersome. Consequently, access to records is very convenient and effective.

Having an electronic system forms the basis of accuracy. When documents and records are safely and accurately stored, doctors are able to make proper decisions as concerns medications and therapies for their patients. Errors are minimized and different forms of malpractices are kept at bay.

When it comes to provision of health care services, the single most factor that most people consider is the affordability. This is offered by the universal heal-care system. This can be explained from the fact that costs of administration are considerably reduced through management of the systems by government agencies. Employees do not prefer to pay for medical services offered by employers as these are normally too expensive to comfortably afford.

There are disadvantages that are associated with this program. The first is the number of patients involved. There are numerous patients because every single citizen has the right to receive such treatment. Well, the number of physicians may not necessarily be increased in the same way, which means there will be congestion. This has several consequences. The quality of services offered remains somehow poor, with patients having to wait for long periods to be attended to.

The money to be used for funding the system offers yet another challenge. It is expensive to run and the government normally has to increase taxes levied on its citizens. For people with low incomes, this becomes a heavy burden. The governments that implement it may also look for various ways of getting funds. However, there is likely to be interference of priorities and implementation of other projects.

In looking at the pros and cons of universal health care it has to be considered that the system encourages lack of competition. With ordinary systems, people can always opt for different companies depending on how well they provide services. With this system, any competition is eliminated, bringing about laziness and contributing to poor quality. This can only be sorted out through development of a watchdog system.

Check out www.jesuswasanosteopath.com for details about the pros and cons of universal health care in the US, now. You can also get the latest universal health care system news at http://www.jesuswasanosteopath.com today.

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PNoy admin got the sin tax reforms it wanted ? BIR chief Henares ...

The Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are "happy" with the final version of the sin tax bill even if the measure fell short of the Aquino administration's revenue target of P60 billion, BIR chief Kim Jacinto-Henares said Tuesday.

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The bill is expected to be ratified by Congress later Tuesday.

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In an interview at the sidelines of the signing of the bicameral conference report on the sin tax bill, Henares said the department and the bureau were able to institute the reforms they wanted through the measure.

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She said this included "the removal of annexes, the removal of the prize freeze classification, and the indexation.

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"We got all three... So, for us those are the structural reforms that we were really pushing for. ?We're happy in that sense," she added.

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"Of course, when we went in we were targeting P60 billion... It went down... but that is part of the legislative [process] ? you cannot get everything that you go in for," she said.

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In a compromise, the Senate and House of Representatives agreed to excise tax collections of ?P33.96 billion for 2013, P42.82 billion for 2014, P50.63 billion for 2015, P56.86 billion for 2016, and P64.18 billion for 2017, or P248.49 billion in five years.

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"Actually, yung amount siguro hindi kami dapat ang tanungin kasi dapat health [sector] yun. ?When we went [for the] P60 billion [it was] because... of the health [sector]," she said.

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"So, if the Department of Health is happy with it, then we're fine... For us the reform was the first three that we mentioned and we got it so we're happy in that sense," she added.

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Bill sponsor Sen. Franklin Drilon said 80 percent of the remaining balance of the additional revenue ? after deducting the allocations under Republic Act 7171 and Republic Act 8240 ? will be allocated for universal healthcare under the National Health Insurance Program, for attaining the Millennium Development Goals, and for health awareness campaign.?

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The 20-percent balance will be allocated for medical assistance and health enhancement facilities program nationwide based on political and district subdivisions. The Health Department will set the yearly needs for these allocations.

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Drilon said 69 percent of the revenue allotments would come from the excise tax on tobacco products and 31 percent from alcoholic beverages, instead of the 60-40 earlier proposed by the Senate or the 87-13 by the House. ? VS, GMA News

Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/285892/economy/finance/pnoy-admin-got-the-sin-tax-reforms-it-wanted-mdash-bir-chief-henares

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Cancer scientists identify liposarcoma tumors that respond to chemotherapy

Dec. 10, 2012 ? Liposarcoma, the most common type of sarcoma, is an often lethal form of cancer that develops in fat cells. It is particularly deadly, in part, because the tumors are not consistently visible with positron emission tomography (PET) scans that use a common probe called FDG and because they frequently do not respond to chemotherapy.

Now, using a strategy that tracks cancer cells' consumption of nucleosides, a team of researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Center has identified a group of liposarcoma tumors that can be imaged by PET scanning using a tracer substance known as FAC. Furthermore, they have found that these tumors are sensitive to chemotherapy.

The team's findings are published online in the journal Cancer Discovery and will appear in an upcoming print edition.

Led by Jonsson Cancer Center researcher Heather Christofk, an assistant professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA, the scientists employed a metabolomic strategy that detected nucleoside salvage activity in liposarcoma cells taken from patient samples, cells grown in the laboratory and cells grown in mouse models. The nucleoside activity was visible using PET with the UCLA-developed FAC probe (FAC PET), which measures the activity of the DNA salvage pathway, a fundamental cell biochemical pathway that acts as a sort of recycling mechanism to help with DNA replication and repair.

FAC was created by slightly altering the molecular structure of the standard chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, and in the current study, the UCLA research team discovered that the liposarcoma cells with high nucleoside salvage activity were sensitive to gemcitabine chemotherapy.

In clinical practice, this strategy might be used to identify liposarcoma patients, at the time of diagnosis, who would respond well to gemcitabine chemotherapy, saving time on other treatments and possibly extending the lives of this sub-group of patients.

"It was a satisfying study because it has translational potential for liposarcoma patients now -- and this is a deadly disease," Christofk said. "Our metabolomic strategy is also generalizable to treatment strategies for other cancers, and that is something we hope to do."

The study was a collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians, following the translational paradigm of bench-to-bedside discoveries.

"This was an outstanding transdisciplinary project between a diverse group of physician scientists and basic scientists that translates molecular oncology from the laboratory to the clinic in a rapid and clinically relevant manner," said Dr. Fritz Eilber, an associate professor of surgery and of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA and an investigator on the study. "The findings from this work can be used to directly impact the care of patients with this morbid and lethal malignancy."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Shaun Mason.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. D. Braas, E. Ahler, B. Tam, D. Nathanson, M. Riedinger, M. R. Benz, K. B. Smith, F. C. Eilber, O. N. Witte, W. D. Tap, H. Wu, H. R. Christofk. Metabolomics Strategy Reveals Subpopulation of Liposarcomas Sensitive to Gemcitabine Treatment. Cancer Discovery, 2012; 2 (12): 1109 DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-12-0197

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/ZczoO3406Ic/121210133517.htm

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'Draft Sequence' of Pig Genome Could Benefit Agriculture and Medicine

The detailed annotation of the pig genome will speed along efforts to help breed healthier and meatier pigs and to create more faithful models of human disease

By Alison Abbott and Nature magazine

Duroc pigs, stars of the show. Image: Flickr/Max Westby

T. J. Tabasco is something of a porcine goddess at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where her ruddy, taxidermied head looks down from the office wall of geneticist Lawrence Schook. Now she has been immortalized in this week?s Nature ? not by name, but by the letters of her DNA.

Scientists are salivating. For the past couple of decades they have been slowly teasing information from the pig genome, applying it to breed healthier and meatier pigs, and to try to create more faithful models of human disease. This week?s draft sequence of T. J.?s genome (see page 393), with its detailed annotation ? a ?reference genome? ? will speed progress on both fronts, and perhaps even allow pigs to be engineered to provide organs for transplant into human patients. ?Agriculture in particular will benefit fast,? says Alan Archibald of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, UK, one of the paper?s lead authors. ?The pig industry has an excellent track record for rapid adoption of new technologies and knowledge.?

T. J., a domestic Duroc pig (Sus scrofa domesticus), was born in Illinois in 2001. The next year, Schook and his colleagues generated a fibroblast cell line from a small piece of skin from her ear and commissioned clones to be created from it, so that they could work on animals all with the same genome. One set of clones was created at the National Swine Resource and Research Center (NSRRC) in Columbia, Missouri, along with genetically engineered pigs with genes added or deleted to mimic human diseases.?Making such pigs has got increasingly easier as knowledge of the genome increases,? says physiologist Randall Prather, a co-director of the NSRRC, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH launched the NSRRC in 2003 to encourage research in pig disease models. Pigs are more expensive to keep than rodents, and they reproduce more slowly. But the similarities between pig and human anatomy and physiology can trump the drawbacks. For example, their eyes are a similar size, with photoreceptors similarly distributed in the retina. So the pig became the first model for retinitis pigmentosa, a cause of blindness. And four years ago, researchers created a pig model of cystic fibrosis that, unlike mouse models, developed symptoms resembling those in humans.

Geneticist and veterinarian Eckhard Wolf at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, has exploited the similarity between the human and pig gastrointestinal system and metabolism ? like us, pigs will eat almost anything and then suffer for it ? to develop models of diabetes. One pig model carries a mutant transgene that limits the effectiveness of incretin, a hormone required for normal insulin secretion. Mice with the transgene developed unexpectedly severe diabetes, but the pigs have a more subtle pre-diabetic condition that better models the human disease. ?This shows the importance of using an animal with a relevant physiology,? says Wolf.

Pig models are now being developed for other common conditions, including Alzheimer?s disease, cancer and muscular dystrophy. This work will be enriched by the discovery, reported in the genome paper, of 112 gene variants that might be involved in human diseases. Knowledge of the genome is also allowing scientists to try to engineer pigs that could be the source of organs, including heart and liver, for human patients. Pig organs are roughly the right size, and researchers hope to create transgenic pigs carrying genes that deceive the immune system of recipients into not rejecting the transplants.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=2bd3311db526ebb7f5a5348d36a55765

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Contemporary art gives Sotheby's its best result

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sotheby's staged the biggest auction in its 268-year history on Tuesday, led by a $75 million Mark Rothko and a record-setting $40 million work by Jackson Pollock at its post-war and contemporary art sale.

With an impressive total of $375 million, the auction showed the buoyancy of an art market that has mostly been on a roll since its quick recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Sotheby's said it was the best result it ever had for a single auction, and it beat the high pre-sale estimate.

A "screaming pope" piece by Francis Bacon sold for nearly $30 million, a Willem de Kooning fetched just under $20 million and a $17.4 million Gerhard Richter augmented the muscular results for the vibrant Rothko masterpiece "No. 1 (Royal, Red and Blue)" and Pollock's seminal drip painting, "Number 4, 1951."

Officials said they were thrilled with the outcome.

"If you want to talk about the market being happy, healthy and well, well, here it is," said Tobias Meyer, auctioneer and worldwide head of contemporary art. "That's probably about as good as it gets."

The sale was driven by collectors who flexed their financial muscles after largely sitting on their hands a week ago at Impressionist and modern art auctions. The strong prices gave testament to the deep pockets of determined collectors' pursuit of the rarest and most highly regarded trophy works.

Bidding for the Rothko started at $28 million, but immediately jumped to $35 million. As increments of $1 million drove the price to $56 million, a bidder, who ultimately prevailed, upped the ante by bidding $60 million.

The work, which Sotheby's had estimated would sell for $35 million to $50 million, had been in the same collection since 1982 and thus marked a rare opportunity for trophy hunters. At $71,122,500 including commission, it was the second-highest price paid for a Rothko at auction.

The Pollock, part of a group of eight abstract expressionist works from a private collection, fetched $40.4 million, easily eclipsing Pollock's auction record. It has been estimated to sell for $25 million to $35 million.

Other highlights of the sale, at which virtually every major piece was sold and 85 percent of the 69 lots found buyers, included Andy Warhol's "Suicide," which soared to $15.2 million, or more than twice the pre-sale estimate, and Franz Kline's "Shenandoah," which fetched $9.3 million, beating the high estimate and setting an artist's record.

The auctions wrap up on Wednesday when Christie's holds its sale of post-war and contemporary art.

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/contemporary-art-gives-sothebys-best-result-044627875--sector.html

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Wiz Khalifa Throws Most Terrifying Party Ever In 'Remember You' Clip

Taylor Gang captain made sure the video for his first O.N.I.F.C. single, featuring the Weeknd, was indeed unforgettable.
By Rob Markman

Wiz Khalifa in his video for "Remember You"
Photo: Atlantic

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1697366/wiz-khalifa-remember-you-video.jhtml

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Durant helps Thunder edge Bulls 97-91

CHICAGO (AP) ? Kevin Durant scored eight of his 24 points in the fourth quarter and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Chicago Bulls 97-91 on Thursday night.

Durant iced the game with an off-balance jumper off one foot with 35.1 seconds to play.

Serge Ibaka scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half, and had a team-high nine rebounds for the Thunder, who beat the Bulls for the third time in their last four games at Chicago. Russell Westbrook chipped in with 16 points and 12 assists.

Luol Deng led the Bulls with 27 points, and Richard Hamilton added 20 points and eight rebounds. Joakim Noah had nine points, 13 rebounds and a team-high six assists.

Hamilton made a tying jumper with 2:52 to play, but then Durant took over, making a floater from the top of the key over Deng to keep the Bulls at bay.

Durant was passive for much of the game and didn't attempt a free throw until the closing seconds. He has had just one game without a free-throw attempt since the start of the 2010-11 season.

The Thunder put together a 7-0 to grab the lead with 8:34 to play. Nick Collison capped the surge with a layup off a pass from Eric Maynor.

Deng snapped the run with his third 3-pointer of the game. Deng entered the contest 1 for 11 from behind the arc. Chicago ranked last in the league in 3-point makes, attempts and percentage, but hit a season-high five 3s in the game.

The Thunder responded a six-point run, taking a five-point lead after Ibaka blocked a Deng shot from behind, igniting a fast break and Thabo Sefolosha's layup.

Kirk Hinrich scored seven points to lead a third-quarter Bulls charge, hitting his second 3-pointer of the game and reaching double figures in scoring for the first time this season. Chicago led 72-66 entering the final period.

The Bulls jumped to an early eight-point lead, but the Thunder closed the opening period with a 9-2 run to tie the game. Durant scored the last six points of the quarter on two dunks and a jump shot.

Ibaka scored 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting in the opening quarter and increased that to 15 by the half, when the Thunder led 48-47.

Jimmy Butler helped Chicago stay close the second quarter, putting up six points, three rebounds and three assists in the period, while playing solid defense on fellow reserve Kevin Martin, who scored 15 points for the Thunder.

Hinrich finished with 12 points.

NOTES: It was a season-high point total for Durant, who entered averaging 20.8 points after scoring a league-best 28.0 points per game last season. Durant had scored at least 25 points in his last seven games against Chicago, but his high in Oklahoma City's first four games was just 23. . The Bulls entered second in the league in defensive points allowed per possession. Chicago hadn't allowed a team to score more than 93 points in any of its first four games.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/durant-helps-thunder-edge-bulls-97-91-035237564--spt.html

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Condoleezza Rice: GOP sent 'mixed messages'

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Sweet diesel: Discovery resurrects process to convert sugar directly to diesel

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) ? A long-abandoned fermentation process once used to turn starch into explosives can be used to produce renewable diesel fuel to replace the fossil fuels now used in transportation, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have discovered.

Campus chemists and chemical engineers teamed up to produce diesel fuel from the products of a bacterial fermentation discovered nearly 100 years ago by the first president of Israel, chemist Chaim Weizmann. The retooled process produces a mix of products that contain more energy per gallon than ethanol that is used today in transportation fuels and could be commercialized within 5-10 years.

While the fuel's cost is still higher than diesel or gasoline made from fossil fuels, the scientists said the process would drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, one of the major contributors to global climate change.

"What I am really excited about is that this is a fundamentally different way of taking feedstocks -- sugar or starch -- and making all sorts of renewable things, from fuels to commodity chemicals like plastics," said Dean Toste, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and co-author of a report on the new development that will appear in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Nature.

The work by Toste, coauthors Harvey Blanch and Douglas Clark, UC Berkeley professors of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and their colleagues was supported by the Energy Biosciences Institute, a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and funded by the energy firm BP.

The linkage between Toste, whose EBI work is in the development of novel catalysts, and Clark and Branch, who are working on cellulose hydrolysis and fermentation, was first suggested by BP chemical engineer Paul Willems, EBI associate director. The collaboration, Willems said, illustrates the potential value that can come from academic-industry partnerships like the EBI.

The late Weizmann's process employs the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum to ferment sugars into acetone, butanol and ethanol. Blanch and Clark developed a way of extracting the acetone and butanol from the fermentation mixture while leaving most of the ethanol behind, while Toste developed a catalyst that converted this ideally-proportioned brew into a mix of long-chain hydrocarbons that resembles the combination of hydrocarbons in diesel fuel.

Tests showed that it burned about as well as normal petroleum-based diesel fuel.

"It looks very compatible with diesel, and can be blended like diesel to suit summer or winter driving conditions in different states," said Blanch.

The process is versatile enough to use a broad range of renewable starting materials, from corn sugar (glucose) and cane sugar (sucrose) to starch, and would work with non-food feedstocks such as grass, trees or field waste in cellulosic processes.

"You can tune the size of your hydrocarbons based on the reaction conditions to produce the lighter hydrocarbons typical of gasoline, or the longer-chain hydrocarbons in diesel, or the branched chain hydrocarbons in jet fuel," Toste said.

The fermentation process, dubbed ABE for the three chemicals produced, was discovered by Weizmann around the start of World War I in 1914, and allowed Britain to produce acetone, which was needed to manufacture cordite, used at that time as a military propellant to replace gunpowder. The increased availability and decreased cost of petroleum soon made the process economically uncompetitive, though it was used again as a starting material for synthetic rubber during World War II. The last U.S. factory using the process to produce acetone and butanol closed in 1965.

Nevertheless, Blanch said, the process by which the Clostridium bacteria convert sugar or starch to these three chemicals is very efficient. This led him and his laboratory to investigate ways of separating the fermentation products that would use less energy than the common method of distillation.

They discovered that several organic solvents, in particular glyceryl tributyrate (tributyrin), could extract the acetone and butanol from the fermentation broth while not extracting much ethanol. Tributyrin is not toxic to the bacterium and, like oil and water, doesn't mix with the broth.

Brought together by the EBI, Blanch and Clark found that Toste had discovered a catalytic process that preferred exactly that proportion of acetone, butanol and ethanol to produce a range of hydrocarbons, primarily ketones, which burn similarly to the alkanes found in diesel.

"The extractive fermentation process uses less than 10 percent of the energy of a conventional distillation to get the butanol and acetone out -- that is the big energy savings," said Blanch. "And the products go straight into the chemistry in the right ratios, it turns out."

The current catalytic process uses palladium and potassium phosphate, but further research is turning up other catalysts that are as effective, but cheaper and longer-lasting, Toste said. The catalysts work by binding ethanol and butanol and converting them to aldehydes, which react with acetone to add more carbon atoms, producing longer hydrocarbons.

"To make this work, we had to have the biochemical engineers working hand in hand with the chemists, which means that to develop the process, we had learn each other's language," Clark said. "You don't find that in very many places."

Clark noted that diesel produced via this process could initially supply niche markets, such as the military, but that renewable fuel standards in states such as California will eventually make biologically produced diesel financially viable, especially for trucks, trains and other vehicles that need more power than battery alternatives can provide.

"Diesel could put Clostridium back in business, helping us to reduce global warming," Clark said. "That is one of the main drivers behind this research."

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/8D9lRfLtoJU/121107132910.htm

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Savvy Shopping, Deals & Reviews: 2012 Holiday Gift Ideas: Give ...

Located on Granville Island, Vancouver TheatreSports League is a big part of Vancouver's performing arts scene. Some of the funniest and daring improv is staged in this little theatre. I recently went to a Theatresports night and it was so much fun! Audience participation is encouraged, with audience members yelling out suggestions on what the actors should do in the next scene. The actors have be quick to improvise new and sometimes very random situations on the spot. Everyone was clutching their sides from laughing so hard!?

Drinks can be purchased before the show at the little bar at The Improve Centre, as well as during intermission. Several shows run on any given night, including Pants On Fire, Improve Test Kitchen and Scared Scriptless. Schedules are posted online.?

Ticket prices range from $8 to $12, depending on the show. It's a fun and different experience so why not take a friend or family member out for a night of comedy genius this Christmas? Gift cards are available for purchase as well, and it would make a great stocking stuffer!

Give the gift of laughter this holiday season!

WIN IT!

Vancouver TheatreSports League is generously offering a pair of tickets to one of my readers for a show of their choice! Enter by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Source: http://seapotato.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-holiday-gift-ideas-give-gift-of.html

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No link found between calcium intake and coronary artery calcification

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) ? Researchers at the Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) at Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS), have published a study that shows no evidence of a link between calcium intake and coronary artery calcification, reassuring adults who take calcium supplements for bone health that the supplements do not appear to result in the development of calcification of blood vessels.

The paper, published November 7 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that study participants who had the highest calcium intake, from diet or supplements or both, had the same coronary artery calcification score as those who had the lowest calcium intake. The coronary artery calcification score represents the severity of calcified plaque clogging the arteries in the heart and is an independent predictor of heart attack.

"This study addresses a critical question about the association between calcium intake and a clinically measurable indicator of atherosclerosis in older adults," said Elizabeth (Lisa) Samelson, Ph.D., associate scientist at IFAR and an assistant professor at HMS and the lead author of the study. "There was no increased risk of calcified arteries with higher amounts of calcium intake from food or supplements."

The November 7 article reported on an observational, prospective study using participants from the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running medical study in history. The investigators examined 1,300 participants, both men and women with an average age of 60, who were asked about their diet and supplement use and then underwent CT scans of their coronary arteries four years later.

In recent years, reports have raised concern regarding a potential adverse effect of calcium supplements on risk of heart attack. However, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that evidence from clinical trials does not support an adverse effect of calcium intake on risk of cardiovascular disease. They recommended the following guidelines for calcium intake considered safe and effective for bone health: 1,200 mg per day of calcium for women over 50 and men over 70 and 1,000 mg per day for men between 50 and 70. The guidelines say supplementation can be used if the minimum requirements are not being met through diet.

This paper reassures people who take calcium at levels within the recommended guidelines for bone health that they can continue to do so safely, without worrying about the risk of calcifying their arteries, according to Samelson. However, "it is critically important that each individual discuss with a health care provider whether the recommendations are appropriate given his or her personal medical history."

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Journal Reference:

1. Elizabeth J Samelson, Sarah L Booth, Caroline S Fox, Katherine L Tucker, Thomas J Wang, Udo Hoffmann, L Adrienne Cupples, Christopher J O'Donnell, and Douglas P Kiel. Calcium intake is not associated with increased coronary artery calcification: the Framingham Study. Am J Clin Nutr, 2012 DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.112.044230

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/oyS1bStJn-M/121107145931.htm

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Romney's hedge-fund backers plan to party on election night

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - There is one group of voters Mitt Romney should win in a landslide in Tuesday's U.S. presidential election: hedge fund managers.

Most of the best-known hedge fund managers threw their support and, more importantly, their dollars behind the Republican presidential hopeful long ago.

Now, some heavyweights of the $2 trillion industry plan to break out the champagne and party in style Tuesday night as they cheer on their man at events in Boston, New York and even Las Vegas, according to people familiar with the Romney campaign and some of the big contributors.

Julian Robertson, a billionaire hedge fund manager who helped launch the careers of more than a dozen other money managers, will be in Boston, where Romney and his family will be watching the results come in.

Robertson and Romney have known each other for decades, going back to when Romney was running Bain Capital and Robertson's Tiger Management was one of the largest hedge funds around. At the height of Tiger's success, the fund was overseeing more than $20 billion.

Conventional wisdom suggests that if Romney defeats President Barack Obama, he will be less likely to raise taxes on the rich and will ease off on tough regulation of Wall Street. The stock market is expected to rise as a result.

It is a scenario that appeals to many hedge fund managers, many of whom feel Obama has demonized Wall Street and the rich in general while backing tougher regulations on the financial sector.

Joining Robertson in Boston will be other big donors to the Romney campaign, including New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and controversial casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who has emerged as one of the biggest contributors to Republican candidates this year.

Anthony Scaramucci, founder of investment firm Skybridge Capital, organizer of the popular SALT hedge fund conference in Las Vegas and a long-time Romney supporter, is also heading to Boston. Paul Singer, who runs the $20 billion Elliott Associates hedge fund and has been another strong Romney supporter, was invited to spend the evening in Boston but his plans are unknown.

People familiar with the campaign say Romney's biggest donors and fundraisers will be attending a private party at the Westin Hotel next to the Boston Convention and Exposition Center, where Romney is scheduled to speak after the election results are announced.

PAULSON

But not all of Romney's most loyal backers in the hedge fund world are traveling to Beantown.

A Republican political adviser said less prominent Wall Street fundraisers for Romney will be gathering at Brinkley's Station, a bar and restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It is unclear who will be attending that event, or what will be on the menu, but Brinkley's features a $23.75 lobster club sandwich and $12 Bloody Marys.

John Paulson, who made billions betting on the collapse of the U.S. housing market, is hosting a small election party at his Upper East Side townhouse. Paulson, whose Paulson & Co hedge funds have endured two rough years, has long been a reliable host for Romney events, throwing parties for the candidate at his summer and regular residences.

Hurricane Sandy, which has caused devastation and hardship throughout the New York metropolitan area, has caused other money managers to alter their election-night plans.

One partner at a New York-based hedge fund with more than $10 billion under management had planned to host a party for both Republicans and Democrats at his Lower Manhattan apartment. But after Sandy hit, the soiree was canceled because there was too much damage to the host's apartment, according to a person who had been invited to the event.

Money manager Jason Ader, who gained prominence as a Wall Street gaming analyst and is backing Romney, had been planning to travel to Las Vegas for an election night "watch party" at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.

But in the aftermath of Sandy, Ader says he has decided to stay home. The manager of Ader Investment Management, which provides funding to small hedge funds, "will vote and watch at home with my young kids and educate them about the process and the returns," he said.

The Venetian is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp, a casino and hotel company that is led by Adelson, and Ader is a board member. The invite for the party promises "remarks" by "special guests." A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the guest list.

Representatives for a number of other prominent Romney supporters in the hedge fund industry, such as Citadel's Kenneth Griffin and Third Point's Dan Loeb, declined to comment on how they plan to spend election night.

Robertson and Griffin have each donated more than $1 million to a Romney-friendly SuperPAC called Restore Our Future, campaign records show.

On the Democratic side, the big election-night parties will be in Chicago, where the Obama campaign is based. Mark Gilbert, a director at Barclays Wealth, the private banking arm of Barclays Plc, plans to attend a big Chicago event, according to a person who knows the Florida-based banker.

The few prominent hedge fund managers backing Obama appear to be taking a low-key approach to election night, especially in New York. A person close to Marc Lasry, founder of Avenue Capital Group, who has hosted fundraisers for Obama in the past, is not planning anything special tonight.

The smaller celebrations from Democratic-leaning money managers may be a reflection of the much larger amount of support Romney is getting from the industry.

But even some who favor Romney say they see no reason to get together with friends to celebrate because they expect Obama to be reelected.

David Hinman, chief investment officer of SW Asset Management, a Newport Beach, California-based investment firm, said in an email: "100 percent Obama wins; no reason to party." (Reporting By Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Katya Wachtel and Lauren Tara LaCapra; additional reporting by Emily Flitter; Editing by Matthew Goldstein, Jennifer Ablan, Martin Howell and John Wallace)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-hedge-fund-backers-plan-party-election-night-153018752--sector.html

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Netflix moves to block a hostile takeover

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2007 file photo, private equity investor Carl Icahn speaks at the World Business Forum in New York. On Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, Netflix announced it is moving to protect itself against hostile takeovers, less than a week after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he has accumulated a stake of nearly 10 percent in the online video company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2007 file photo, private equity investor Carl Icahn speaks at the World Business Forum in New York. On Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, Netflix announced it is moving to protect itself against hostile takeovers, less than a week after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he has accumulated a stake of nearly 10 percent in the online video company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Netflix is moving to protect itself against hostile takeovers, less than a week after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a stake of nearly 10 percent in the online video company.

Netflix Inc. said Monday that it has adopted a shareholder rights plan, also known as a poison pill. Such a plan is designed to make it difficult or even impossible for someone to take over the company without an agreement from the board. When the provision is triggered, additional shares flood the market and make it prohibitively expensive for a takeover.

Netflix said the provision is triggered if a person or group acquires 10 percent of Netflix, or 20 percent in the case of institutional investors, in a deal not approved by the board. The Los Gatos, Calif.-company said that its plan isn't intended to interfere with a board-approved transaction.

"Adopting a rights plan is a very reasonable thing to do in light of the recent accumulation of a lot of Netflix stock by an activist shareholder," spokesman Jonathan Friedland said.

Icahn disclosed last Wednesday that he spent some of his $14 billion fortune on his 10 percent stake. The documents he filed didn't disclose why Icahn and his investment funds have been buying 5.5 million Netflix shares since early September. But it's likely that he would press Netflix to make dramatic changes to boost its stock price.

The company has been stumbling since it raised its U.S. prices by as much as 60 percent last year. That triggered a backlash that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands customers and raised concerns on Wall Street that CEO Reed Hastings would have trouble paying for an ambitious plan to expand the company's service into dozens of other countries.

There is some cause for worry. Netflix's earnings through the first nine months of this year have fallen by 95 percent from last year. The company also issued a fourth-quarter forecast that indicated the company might end up with a loss for the full year. This would be Netflix's first annual loss in a decade.

The rights plan expires on Nov. 2, 2015. In a regulatory filing Monday, Icahn called the adoption of a poison pill without a shareholder vote "an example of poor corporate governance."

Netflix shares fell 35 cents to $76.55 in midday trading. The stock has traded in the 52-week range of $52.81 to $133.43. The stock peaked at close to $305 nearly 16 months ago.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-11-05-Netflix-Poison%20Pill/id-79ba597c4abd4b6b93ee8db4454db56f

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Obama rolls to re-election, TV networks project

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won re-election to a second term in the White House on Tuesday, television networks projected, beating Republican challenger Mitt Romney after a long and bitter campaign.

Obama defeated Romney in a series of key swing states despite a weak economic recovery and persistent high unemployment as U.S. voters decided between two starkly different visions for the country.

Obama's victory in the hotly contested swing state of Ohio - as projected by TV networks - put him over the top in the fight for the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House and ended Romney's hopes of pulling off a string of swing-state upsets.

Obama scored narrow wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire - all states that Romney had contested - while the only swing state captured by Romney was North Carolina, according to network projections.

There was no immediate word from the Romney camp on the reported results.

At least 120 million American voters had been expected to cast votes in the race between the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a campaign focused on how to repair the ailing U.S. economy.

Obama enters his second four-year term faced with a difficult task of tackling $1 trillion annual deficits, reducing a $16 trillion national debt, overhauling expensive social programs and dealing with a gridlocked U.S. Congress that looked likely to maintain the same partisan makeup.

Obama's projected victory would set the country's course for the next four years on spending, taxes, healthcare, the role of government and foreign policy challenges such as the rise of China and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Each man offered different policies to cure what ails America's weak economy, with Obama pledging to raise taxes on the wealthy and Romney offering across-the-board tax cuts as a way to ignite strong economic growth.

Inside Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters, staffers erupted into cheers and high fives as state after state was called for the president.

Obama watched the returns on television at his Chicago home. Senior campaign strategist David Axelrod said via email that he was feeling "great."

Romney made last-minute visits to Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday to try to drive up turnout in those states, while Vice President Joe Biden was dispatched to Ohio. Obama remained in his hometown of Chicago.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Chicago, Patricia Zengerle in Boston, Edith Honan in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Philip Barbara in New Jersey, Matt Spetalnick, Lisa Lambert, Susan Heavey, Thomas Ferraro, Susan Cornwell, Anna Yukhananov and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland and John Whitesides; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-race-goes-down-wire-002342258--business.html

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Understanding the Working at Heights Regulations

Many new businesses and entrepreneurs don?t understand the regulations around working at heights and what in fact constitutes working at heights. Professionals are often surprised by the following definition: working at heights means working in any place where, if precautions are not taken, a person could fall down and injure themselves.

Even the most established businesses are often uneducated on what working at height actually means. Here are a few examples of activities in the work place that are classed as ?working at heights?:

1. If you work above ground level at any point you are classed as working at heights;

2. Working in any place you could fall from an edge, through an opening or fragile surface; or from ground level into an opening in the floor or hole in the ground.

Many jobs around the world often require an employee at some point to work at heights on a daily basis or one offs like changing a light bulb. Some of the most dangerous jobs in the world are done at height. If these are done on a daily basis? or you use working platforms such as scaffolds or cranes, you and your employer need to be following the working at heights regulations.

Protecting yourself and your employees

Back injuries are one of the most common in the work place. Falling and lifting are two of the most common claims made against employers. Uneducated employees are more likely to be injured while undertaking one-off tasks like accessing storage, climbing a ladder, cleaning at heights or changing a light bulb. If you have recently taken on employees and you want to protect yourself and your business against a possible claim then you need to carry out a risk assessment; this is a simple process which will help you choose the right precautions to take when working at heights. Employees need to be made aware of the dangers and the precautions and equipment they must use to ensure they are not injured while carrying out their job.

Almost all injuries sustained in the workplace can be prevented with the use of the correct tools and safety gear such as hard hats and eye protection.

Conducting thorough safety training is one of the most effective ways of minimising incidents in the workplace. It?s advisable for all businesses to include working at heights training in the first few weeks of employment and run subsequent refresher courses for long term employees.

Methods of prevention

Many innovations in safety have been made and safety equipment and aids can be purchased cheaply. Businesses should always consider having the following products in storage:

• Long handled brushes
• Roller paint brushes
• Water fed poles
• Hatch openers
• Step ladders

By giving your employees the right tools for the job, you can reduce the risk of personal injury or damage to property. A great tip is to ensure that all fixtures in your premises are secure and safe. If your employees have access to a roof ensure rails and warning signs are in place to remind employees of the danger associated with working at heights.

Additional measures can be taken at work to reduce the risk of personal injury. When using any equipment for working at heights, you need to ensure that:

• The people using it are trained to use it safely.
• It is regularly inspected and well maintained.
• The work is supervised to check workers are adhering to safety guidelines.

It?s not rocket science, the more knowledgeable you and your employees are the less chances of injury at height.? If businesses fail to train and provide safety measures/training to employees and they are injured at height then a business can be hit with? hefty fines. It?s always best to be educated and you will find more information about the working at heights regulations on your local government?s website.

?

About the Author

Karl Young is a regular safety bloggers and blogger creating content on behalf of Loxam Access, specialists in powered access equipment rental.

Source: http://www.informationgateway.org/understanding-working-heights-regulations/

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Laura Prudom: 'Gossip Girl' Season 6, Episode 4 Recap: Everyone Sleeps With Everyone And No One Really Cares

Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 6, Episode 4 of The CW's "Gossip Girl," titled "Portrait of a Lady Alexander."

Do you remember that Season 1 episode of "Friends" where Monica slept with a guy who was still in high school, but broke things off because the relationship was "icky"? That episode was called "The One with the Ick Factor," which should be the title of every episode of "Gossip Girl's" final season. It's all so icky.

At this point, I think the Upper East Side may have House Targaryen and House Lannister beaten in the battle for most incestuous group of people on one TV show. For those keeping track, it was revealed this week that Steven has slept with both Lily and Serena, while Nate has slept with both Serena and Steven's obnoxious, painfully wooden daughter Sage. Thus, if Nate and Sage hypothetically got married, and Steven and Serena hypothetically got married, Serena would hypothetically be her ex-boyfriend's mother-in-law, and Lily would be her ex-bonkbuddy's mother-in-law. At this point, Lily might just be mother/stepmother/mother-in-law/adopted mother to the whole of Manhattan, but whatever.

This is really no more disturbing than Serena and Dan, who were technically stepbrother and sister, dating, especially given that they also have a mostly-forgotten half-brother who is related to them both by blood, thanks to Lily and Rufus (he got a passing mention tonight, woohoo!). Rufus is currently dating Ivy, who pretended to be Lily's (and thus Rufus') niece while Lily and Rufus were still married. Oh yes, and Ivy has also made out with Dan in the past, so Rufus is kind of dating one of his son's exes. Do you feel like you need a scalding hot shower? I do.

All of these people are making Blair and Chuck look like the only sane and rational couple on the Upper East Side, and how crazy is that? They seemed especially normal this week (comparatively speaking), working together and somehow still managing to keep it in their pants until their scheming is complete. The pair were once again a well-oiled machine, and the writers graciously allowed Blair to do something other than sit and swoon or make a public spectacle out of herself this week, which I guess counts as progress on "Gossip Girl."

Indeed, she was the one who convinced Iman to look into the fate of the beloved horses that her father sold to Bart, which were seemingly sent to the stable in the sky while good ol' Uncle Bart was illegally investing in Sudanese oil and breaking all sorts of trade laws. Long story slightly shorter, Chuck now seems to have found a way to land Bart in prison and out of their lives for good, but the storyline is still super boring and needlessly convoluted, so can they just arrest him already?

We were also reminded that, despite how much Lily sucks as a parent to Serena (whom she only periodically sees) and Eric (whom she seems to have forgotten about entirely), she's obviously really fond of stepson Chuck, because she's liable to send out a search party if he dares to ignore her calls. Because of this, when Bart issued an ultimatum that Lily had to stay away from Chuck or risk losing Bart forever, Lily refused to capitulate. You're well on the way to that Parent of the Year award, Lil. Just don't start sleeping with any of Chuck's exes, m'kay?

Meanwhile, when Nate wasn't inexplicably banging an obnoxious high schooler with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, he was attempting to save his floundering media empire. First, he tried to drum up business by publishing salacious stories about Lily (and as a result, Steven), then by doctoring his earnings report, just like his tax-evading daddy taught him. For shame, Nate! We were counting on you to maintain your ethics this season, if not your taste in women.

Elsewhere, creepy Dan was getting back to his Lonely Boy roots by being lonely and whiny, bed-hopping his way across New York but feeling unsatisfied by all the meaningless sex he's been having because he's alienated all of his true friends. Womp womp. Georgina attempted to find him a fake girlfriend to raise his social status, but he continued to be whiny and ungrateful and slouched off to ask Blair if he could crash at her place, because dealing with other people is super exhausting and he's decided that he misses her, or some junk. Just awful.

But, because we haven't had quite enough character assassination yet, Blair and Dan traded long, lingering, meaningful looks after she agreed to let him stay. Dun-dun-dun! Is the show really trying to go back down the disastrous Dair path even after Dan acted like a douchebag to Blair and everyone else in his life in his quest for literary greatness? And do we care? Not a bit. The lights are on but no one is home at this point.

So Serena got over Steven sleeping with her mom with more sex; Sage and Nate also hopped on the good foot and did the bad thing; Rufus is still doing gross things with Ivy and purging all remnants of Lily from his life; Georgina is now in possession of Serena and Dan's sex tape; Blair is sexually frustrated and has a roommate who is even more annoying than Serena (but is also probably still harboring dirtybad feelings for her); Nate did something illegal that Bart now knows about; and Bart did something illegal that Chuck now knows about. Everyone's either going to end up in jail or in an orgy by the end of the season, but I'm mostly just hoping that rocks fall and kill them all.

"Gossip Girl" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.

What did you think of "Portrait of a Lady Alexander?" Weigh in below!

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (L-R): Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey and Michelle Trachtenberg as Georgina Sparks.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured: Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (L-R): Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen and Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured: Sofia Black-D?Elia as Sage.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured: Barry Watson as Steven and Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (L-R): Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald and Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured: Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (L-R): Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald and Sofia Black-D?Elia as Sage.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (L-R): Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald, Sofia Black-D?Elia as Sage, Barry Watson as Steven and Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (L-R): Barry Watson as Steven, Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen and Sofia Black-D?Elia as Sage.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured (center): Sofia Black-D?Elia as Sage.

• Episode 602: "High Infidelity"

  Pictured: Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf.

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

• Episode 601: "Gone Maybe Gone"

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Follow Laura Prudom on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LauinLA

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-prudom/gossip-girl-season-6-episode-4-recap_b_2080948.html

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Are You Counting The Days Until the Holidays? : Ideas For Women ...

Are you counting the days until the holiday season with joy or with dread? The attitude you have towards any stressful time of year makes an impact on your physical and mental health.

Stressing over holiday preparation leads to headaches, increase in bloodpressure, increased risk of stroke or heart attacks, and weight gain even if you watch what you eat. What can you do to make the holiday a healthy experience rather than one that drags you down?

Here are some quick tips to think about before the holiday gets into full swing:

1. Set a limit for holiday activities that you want and need to participate in. School programs, church programs, and family activities need to be fun and not a hassle. Avoid attending parties or social events that do not fit with your family?s goal for the holidays. Don?t be pressured into doing more than you want during this time of year, rather choose to do fewer things that mean more to your family.

2. Decide on menu ideas, baking needs, and? snacks to keep on hand to avoid over shopping and over preparing for food. Make meals simple. Bake fewer things and stick with one or two of your absolute favorites. Don?t stress over holiday meal preparation. It is not good for your health. Plan on fresh veggie trays, fruit trays, and less sugary baked goods too.

3. Think about sparkling water, fruit smoothies, and flavored waters in place of sugary sodas. Hot cider, hot chocolate, and flavored tea also make a healthier beverage to serve guests.

4. Check your attitude during the season. Keeping a positive and grateful attitude will help your get through the season with less stress. Practice forgiveness. And when all else fails, give yourself permission to exclude yourself from holiday situations that will cause mental and emotional pain. Sometimes it is necessary to avoid people or situations until you are in a better frame of mind rather than making a scene during the holidays that affects other people.

5. Avoid over spending. Over spending is a major cause of stress and family arguments especially between marital partners. Stay within your budget and avoid using credit cards. After holiday stress when those bills start coming in can be harmful to your emotional and physical health too.

The holidays should be pleasant. They are never going to be perfect and there will always be some level of stress because we are human and we expect the best.

Source: http://blogs.ideasforwomen.com/blogs/health/2012/11/05/are-you-counting-the-days-until-the-holidays/

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Put your focus on what matters ? Business Management Daily: Free ...

Harley Murphy, head of Ireland operations for BNY Mellon, couldn?t sleep until he took a meditation class and learned to relax and focus. Same for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates

The key: Focusing on what matters. ?There is so much information coming at us, we struggle to remain agile, which is the most critical leadership skill,? says Michael Carroll, who teaches meditation as part of leadership. ?The practice teaches us to slow down.? How?

1. Pause. Turn off your devices and give yourself some quiet. Your blood pressure will drop and you will unclench.
2. Get comfortable. Your environment should not distract you.
3. Focus on your breathing, drawing and releasing air deeply from your diaphragm, not your chest.
4. Clear your mind. Put aside your to-do list. Think: ?I?ll catch up later.?
5. Practice meditation every day.

? Adapted from ?Sit. Breathe. Be a Better Leader,? Tatiana Serafin, Inc.

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Source: http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/32858/put-your-focus-on-what-matters

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Did you hear about the comic who can't say a word? The silent funnyman who brings the house down thanks to iPad app

At first the laughs are, perhaps understandably, nervous. But then Lee Ridley is far from a conventional stand-up comic. For a start, he doesn't utter a single word on stage.Lee, who has cerebral palsy, cannot speak so he uses a text-to-speech iPad app to deliver his lines. During his show, Lost Voice Guy, lines are delivered in the synthetic tones of a computer-generated male voice. "When I realised I'd never be able to talk again, I was speechless,' he jokes, to chuckles from the... read more

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Online Business Opportunities ? Best Internet ... - Ninja SEO Methods

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By Adam S Harding

An online business opportunity is a great way to earn more money from the comfort of your own home whilst actually having to work less.

But some work is required! And many online business opportunities falsely advertise that it will be easy to generate online business success without putting in any effort.

This is simply not true, but if you have the dedication and focus you can be successful with your very own online home based business.

Make sure that the internet business that you join consists of the following factors:

Competition ? Many people get put off when lots of other people are promoting the same home based business opportunity. But I see that as a good thing! If people are advertising it then it is obvious it works. Also, apparently it takes multiple exposures of an advert before someone takes notice of it. So your competitors advertising will help build awareness of your opportunity even before you have placed your very first advertisement!

High Ticket Programs ? Make sure you have top tier opportunities to promote in your sales funnel for the big commissions. It are these high ticket products that enable you to put a lot of money into paid advertising because just one sale of them means you have made your money back. Without these large commissions on the follow-up sequence it is hard to scale your business.

Training ? It is important to have a solid foundation in your internet marketing training so that you can start going about generating leads & sales for your business. Most people jump between different strategies and training products and lack focus. So it is important to use one internet marketing training product and stick to one step by step process to avoid distraction and confusion. Make sure that the internet home business you join gives you all the training needed to succeed.

Turnkey Marketing System ? I think it is important to join a business opportunity that gives you a turnkey marketing system. This means you can focus your mind like a laser on just sending traffic to that system and scaling your marketing. Without a marketing system you will be getting yourself confused with unimportant tasks that don?t make money such as the best theme to use for your blog and how to design your lead capture page etc.

Use the above points as a mental checklist when you decide what the best home based business opportunity to join online is.

For more information on how to join a successful internet business opportunity and then drive lots of traffic into your sales funnel, visit WebTrafficToolkit.com

Source: http://ninjaseomethods.com/online-business-opportunities-best-internet-business-to-join/

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Romney campaign: Sandy didn?t curb momentum

Mitt Romney in Des Moines (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)CLEVELAND?Mitt Romney's campaign is rejecting the suggestion made by a leading Republican official that Superstorm Sandy has stalled the Republican presidential nominee's momentum heading into Election Day.

In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said, "The hurricane is what broke Romney's momentum. I don't think there is any question about it."

Asked about the comment, Kevin Madden, a senior Romney aide, told reporters he "wouldn't entertain the same notion."

"I think we're going to win on Tuesday. And I think we're going to win on Tuesday because we've had the best closing message, the best closing argument and because of the enthusiasm we've seen for the governor," the aide told reporters on the Romney plane as it flew from Iowa to Ohio. "I don't look at what happened with the storm and how it affected so many people through a political lens."

Madden said the campaign remains focused on translating the enthusiasm witnessed at Romney rallies in recent days into a vigorous get-out-the-vote effort and on pushing Romney's message to voters.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-campaign-insists-sandy-didn-t-curb-momentum-192624026--election.html

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Commandment 9: Celebrate Your Love ... - A Relationship Blog

Celebrate love. It is the breath of your existence
and?the best of all reasons for living.
?Author Unknown

As an INFP and someone who puts their relationship as their top priority in life, I can?t agree enough with the above quote.

So often, relationships become stale and boring for the simple reason that people take them for granted. Other things begin to take up time and get in the way, or the people in the relationship simply become complacent and don?t actively think about how they can keep things fun.

I don?t think this commandment really needs much explaining. In so many other posts, we have talked about the need to put effort into your relationship. Celebrating your love is really just an extension of effort.

Essentially, celebrating your love is every article ever written on how to make things interesting again. If you notice, pretty much all the advice is saying is to do all the things when you first fell in love and to act how you were when you were in the honeymoon phase.

The Ease of Celebrating From Day to Day

In all honesty, this commandment is pretty much the easiest to do, with the only exception possibly being to always have manners. There is no deep and critical thinking about who you are and what you need in a relationship. All it requires is taking the time to think about how you can have fun doing something for your partner.

Better yet, you can often take something basic that you would do anyway and make a slight adjustment to turn it into something romantic. Chances are you are going to go out to dinner sometimes with your partner. Half the time you might even call it a date. To all the guys out there: With a simple 10 minute stop at a grocery store, you can get a small and cheap bouquet of flowers that will immediately start the night off right.

Speaking of flowers, do that even when there is no occassion. You don?t have to do it constantly and ruin the idea of them being special; once every 2-4 weeks is quite sufficient. On the other hand, if you are a woman, you might buy your guy a special type of chocolate that he likes while at the store once in awhile to show you were thinking of him.

Don?t think I am excluding gay couples from this as well; the above advice is just as applicable to you lovely people as well.

Need a few more examples? Just do little things like walking up behind the other person and giving them a massage without them asking for it. Make them a dinner they really like once in awhile and tell them it was because you were thinking about them. Surprise the person with a gift certificate to some activity they will enjoy. If your guy likes to golf, get them some time at a driving range. On the flipside, I don?t know many women who don?t like spa days, or at least pedicures. It all doesn?t have to be separate either: go bowling or mini-golfing together, even if you are 50 years old, and share a milkshake with two straws like you are back in high school. It?ll be fun; trust me.

Celebrating Special Occassions: Go For The Gold

I like to do very small and easy things as shown above just so that when the big things come around, we celebrate like crazy.

Birthday dinners, anniversaries, Valentine?s Day, and whatever else are big occassions and they deserve to be treated that way.

A Word On Anniversaries Before I Continue?

I really think the whole idea that anniversaries are completely the guy?s responsibility to both remember as well as execute is a bunch of bullshit.

I?m not saying that there can?t be some chivalry here and the guy can and probably should make dinner plans (and they can even be a special surprise, which is what I prefer to do).

What I absolutely cannot stand is people who use anniversaries as an opportunity to pull a ?Gotcha!? moment and ruin the day for both people. Being completely silent about any anniversary to see if the other person will remember is childish, immature, and it sets you up for failure. Entrapping your significant other is not acceptable in any way when it comes to any aspect of your relationship. To do it on the biggest day of your relationship every year is, in a word, horrific. We all make mistakes or forget things sometimes, so be a team with your partner and be proactive in saying ?Our anniversary is coming up, honey. Do you have any plans made yet or have anything particular in mind that you would like to do??

Ok, Now I?ll Continue

For starters, I tend to go for places that require a reservation when we are celebrating something big, but it doesn?t have to be that way. Maybe your first date together was to a movie and Dairy Queen when you were in high school and borrowing Dad?s car to get there. So instead of going out to a great, big, fancy, and expensive dinner, try cooking a really nice meal at home and then going out for ice cream at that same Dairy Queen. It?ll be special and cost a fraction of what a steakhouse would.

Speaking of cooking at home, breakfast in bed is another great place to start. I don?t mean one person has to do it for the other; you could both go cook and bring it back to bed. Again, at least as far as anniversaries go, it isn?t all on one person to do all the planning and executing. Since it takes two for a relationship, that means the anniversary is for both people too.

Birthdays are of course a different case. Make the other people feel like the world is theirs for the day! Be completely selfless in your acts towards the other person.

Summing It All Up

While other commandments focus on what to do to ensure your relationship has a strong foundation, this one is all about maintaining a great love life as you and your partner both pass through time together.

I feel like this commandment is simply a no-brainer, yet so many people let time pass and begin to take their relationships for granted. The remedy is so simple, and saves so many relationships and marriages: Begin to put effort into your relationship by doing all the little things you used to do when you first started dating, and then continue doing them until you both die. That?s it.

I?d love to see comments on great ideas on how to celebrate your relationship. Maybe some people can even give Laura and I a few new tricks!

Categories: In A Relationship, Latest, Practical Advice, Relationship Concepts
Tags: anniversaries, celebrating love, happy relationship

Source: http://twoinfps.com/2012/11/03/commandment-9-celebrate-your-love/

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