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There have been so many discussions on the effects of deforestation in our environment. These effects range from alarming to catastrophic. We have read newspaper headlines that show the wreckage that natural disasters have done. Flashfloods have not only damaged millions of properties all over the globe but it has also collected lives. Landslides have done the same. These two are the results of nature’s balance that has been disturbed—they are the effects of deforestation.

Deforestation is the act of converting patches of forests to become areas of residence or industry. More and more businessmen are pushing through forests to obtain more land. Environment is sacrificed in exchange for profit. And this is a highly disturbing fact.

As an individual or as a part of the global community, you can do something to help prevent deforestation. Maybe you can’t fight off illegal loggers with your bear hands but with some basic ways, you can make a difference—no matter how small. Here’s a list:

1. If deforestation is a negative event, then a positive event should take place to counter its effects—reforestation. Plant trees and begin doing this in your yard. Trees give off oxygen that is essential for human existence and they, in turn, capture the carbon dioxide that humans and animals exhale. Trees also help in containing water in its roots. With this simple act, you are able to prevent soil erosion, which is the root cause of landslides!
2. Use recycled items such as books or pad paper, toilet paper, even shopping bags. If you can, do not waste any of these products so that no new raw material would be required to replace them.
3. If you are a farmer (or if you know someone who works as a farmer), try to rotate your crops. Instead of using a different portion of land each year, why not use the same portion with different crops? This practice also helps in maintaining the fertility of the soil. With the rotation of crops, not only is there a variety on the harvest each year, there is also the possibility of keeping that portion of land for as long as you can.
4. Cut down only the mature trees. Do not kill baby trees. And for every tree that is lost, plant another one as a replacement.
5. Join environmental awareness groups that would help you be an advocate of reforestation. In Washington, specifically in the Washington Middle School, there was a group of students that established a service-learning project. In their project, they asked a penny from each person. They explained that this money would help in buying acres of the rainforest in Amazon. Once this pushes through, no deforestation could take place in that purchased area.
6. There is a report that in Indonesia and Malaysia, more and more trees are cut down to produce palm oil. This massive destruction in the forests of both countries resulted into the loss of habitat for the native orangutans. With the loss of more trees, more animals become homeless. You can’t help prevent this altogether but you can limit your consumption of products that contain palm oil such as breads, chocolates, and even some cosmetics such as shampoo, soap or toothpaste. As to your food consumption, you can begin a diet of roasted or boiled foods instead of frying them.
7. Instead of using firewood, use coals to heat up your fireplaces during the winter season. Remember that it takes only a few hours to consume the firewood but it would take years to grow a single tree. Think twice before purchasing firewood again.
8. Support the laws or programs that were made to protect the forests and to stop any form of deforestation. Programs such as the Tropical Forestry Action Plan have done a major difference on the way deforestation is looked at today. This program spearheaded the discussion of tropical deforestation.

It is imperative to know that there is no such thing as a small, insignificant act when it comes to defeating deforestation. No matter how small your deed maybe, the important thing there is ‘every act can make a difference’. Deforestation can be prevented and you can be an active force in achieving that.

Would you like to experience the benefits of being a good speaker? Speaking before groups offers a tremendous opportunity for personal and professional development. Never before have excellent communication skills been more important than they are today.

This article contains fifteen elements for making a successful presentation. Use these ideas, and you will speak with greater self confidence and ease before a group of any size.

1. BUILD RAPPORT AND TRUST.

Talk with-not at –your audience. Establish some common ground. Communicate with sincerity and warmth, and make eye contact.

In speaking to a large group of secretaries, I established rapport quickly by telling them about my mother’s success as a secretary and how much I admired her. I gave them examples of why competent secretaries are the backbone of my successful organization.

2. DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE OPENING.

Grab your audience’s attention from the start. Use a dramatic or startling statement, a human interest or personal story, a question, an anecdote or illustration, a relevant quote-or a humorous opening, if appropriate. I recently heard a speaker open with, “I wrote that great introduction you just heard. It gives me something to shoot for when I speak.”

3. DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE ENDING

Close with a bang. Use a relevant quote, a poem, or an appeal for action. Give your audience a sincere compliment, a powerful story, or a summary of your main points. Make sure your closing—whatever it is—is relevant to your topic. Also, your entire speech and the ending should be tailored to your audience.

4. REDUCE NERVOUSNESS.

According to the book of lists, public speaking is the number one fear, greater even than the fear of death.

Before presenting: Thoroughly prepare and rehearse before your speaking engagement. When you are about to begin, take several deep breaths. Visualize yourself giving a relaxed presentation.

During the presentation: Focus on your message and your audience, not on yourself. Give yourself opportunities for physical movement. Don’t try to be perfect. Make nervousness work for you. Channel your nervousness into enthusiasm; let your adrenalin take over. Butterflies in your stomach? Let them soar, taking you with them.

5. MAKE YOUR PRESENTATION COME ALIVE.

Talk to the audience in terms of their interests, problems, and concerns. Communicate with vitality and conviction. Talk to, and make eye contact with individual members of the audience. Change the pace with vocal variety and humor, using pauses to emphasize points. Use inspiring human interest stories, making only a few points and supporting them with examples, illustrations, anecdotes, and analogies. Use natural gestures; physically move from time to time instead of remaining behind a podium.

6. USE VOCAL VARIETY.

Variety speed, volume, and pitch. To emphasize points, speed up or slow down, speak more softly or loudly, and allow your voice to rise and fall. Speak conversationally to an audience, but with greater force and energy. Appropriate vocal variety and gestures will naturally occur.

An autoresponder is simply a computer program that automatically answers emails send to it. It is a tool that is used very often in affiliate marketing business to immediately provide information to their perspective customers and then follow up with them a preset time interval. So what can autoresponder do to help you in your affiliate marketing business?

You know the importance and heard from many people saying that you must have your own list so that you will have a long term business. Autoresponder will be a tool that helps you in your list building. The tasks that they do are:

1. Collecting email address (and /or additional information) entered into the opt in form that is on the website.

2. Adding that information into a database

3. Automating the job of sending emails to subscribers in the data base.

These are the 3 steps that the autoresponder will do when you put in the autoresponder code into your website. These will actually makes your life much easier. Imagine that you will have to personally email to every one new people that joins your database if you do not have an autoresponder. The other problem is you will never know when a new customer will join your database.

The autoresponder will solve all your above problems and it actually makes your life much simpler. The most important thing that autoresponder can do is that it automates your lead generation efforts and it will be useful for you to grow your own base of loyal, lifetime customers.

So these are the things that autoresponder can do to help your affiliate marketing business. You will not have a long term business in you do not invest in one and start building your own list. So do keep in mind autoresponder as one of the tools that you will need.

Before choosing a grass for your lawn, it’s best if you spend some time understanding your wants, needs, and surroundings.  It’s best to choose a grass that will require the right amount of work versus one that will require more than you bargained for.  With that being said, there are basically three types of grasses that you can choose from…

• Cool Season Grasses
• Warm Season Grasses
• Native Grasses

Cool Season Grasses
Cool Season Grasses perform their best in the north and in higher elevations in the south.  They stand up to cooler springs and falls, but don’t perform as well during the hot summer months.  Their main growth period is in the spring and fall when the temperature falls between 60 and 70 degrees.  Some of the more common Cool Season Grasses include…

• Kentucky Bluegrass
• Tall Fescue
• Fine Fescue
• Perennial Ryegrass

Warm Season Grasses
Warm Season Grasses perform their best in the southern regions.  These types of grasses are happiest in the hot summer months and have a tendency not to do as well when temperatures begin to dip.  Main growth period corresponds with the increased heat of summer when the temperature ranges between 80 and 95 degrees.  Some of the more common Warm Season Grasses include…

• St. Augustine
• Bermuda
• Zoysia
• Centipede
• Bahia
• Carpet Grass

Native Grasses
Native grasses are more of a survivor type of grass and not necessarily meant for planting in a yard.  They require very little maintenance and provide a grass cover that is more open and natural in appearance than traditional turfgrasses.  These types of grasses grow best during hot summer months and are best suited for the grasslands of the Central Plains.  Some of the more common Native Grasses include…

• Buffalo Grass
• Blue Grama
• Crested Wheat Grass

The rustic country styling of Europe’s villas have often invoke images of sun-washed vineyards, stone farmhouses, wrought iron curtain rods, wrought iron furniture and crumbling stone walls. Popularized in lush timeless regions such Tuscany, the Spanish coast and the South of France, the architecture and ambiance of these locals is still treasured and sought after, even in more contemporary homes. The Appeal lies in its simplicity. A combination of comfortable, worn and sturdy materials can make any room warm and inviting, a down to earth and stylish look that is as well suited in a country home as in an old chateaux.

Black wrought iron and rustic metals are perfect to set the tone in a rustic themed room. Rusted wrought iron furniture, light fixtures, and worn wooden accessories add depth and a casual ‘lived in’ feel. The Tuscan villa style is inspired by elements of nature, and it’s important to pull these elements into your home. Warm, richly colored country curtains; punctuated by bright black wrought iron curtain rods and window treatments, frame any window in a pastoral and inviting manner. Terra cotta or marble flooring add wonderful lines and vintage appeal that will compliment these wrought iron curtain rods and wrought iron decor. This hand crafted authentic look will fit beautifully in to your home. You’ll be surprised at how even small accents such as intricate wrought iron pieces and worn wood furniture can bring a touch of old world charm into your modern home.

At Wrought Iron Haven we have many customers asking about extra wide window treatments and how to go about designing for them. With today’s window treatments in the market place, it is quite difficult to find wrought iron curtain rods that are longer than 130 inches. No matter where you look, they just are not being made today. This poses a problem for those beautiful homes with a lot of window area. So why can you not find these extra long curtain rods? Discussing this in length with a manufacture, we have come to realize that after a certain length the wrought iron starts to bend, even with a support.

So what is one to do with a huge window area? We have devised a design that will work well with windows that require these extra long wrought iron curtain rods without having them look undesirable. With this design idea you can decorate a window treatment as wide as you need.

For bigger window treatments just use two rods or even three! A two rod, two finial combo will work fine. Because wrought iron curtain rods separate into two equal parts, you can mix and match them to create the combination. By using one ball finial curtain rod and one other decorative finial rod, like the leaf, you are able to interchange them so the two ball finials meet in the middle and the two more decorative finials are on the end. This way the break in the rod is hardly noticeable. But remember that you will need a center bracket for the middle of each of the two rods. This however does make it difficult to have only two curtains within the window treatment because the rings will catch on the center support bracket so you will be wise to have a curtain set that will fit in between the grooves.

Before we can sell our products to our prospective customers, we must first get to know them and their needs. The best way to do this is to get them talking.

When you approach a prospective customer, it can be a challenge to get the customers attention, let alone getting them to strike up a conversation with you.

Most people don’t want to be bothered, their perception of a sales person is that of a used car sales man or the Macy’s girl who approaches you in the aisle and wants to squirt perfume all over you.

Another reason people don’t want to be bothered, is because they believe they will end up wasting their money on something they don’t even need.

If you can get them talking, you can figure out what it is they do need, and than explain the products you have that could possibly satisfy their needs.

Getting someone to talk to you is not as hard as you may think.

People love to talk about their job, their company, their family, and their pets.

Believe me, if you walk up to a customer and introduce yourself only to be blown off, say something along these lines;

I’m really sorry to bother you, but may I ask what it is you do for a living?

Ninety nine times out of one hundred, the person will tell you the company they work for, and what they do there.

Everybody is proud of what they do, and they should be. Once you have established what it is that your customer does for a living, get them to elaborate on it. Say things like;

“That’s really interesting, how did you get into that line of work?”

Or

“How long have you been in that line of work?”

Now that you have your customer talking, start digging for more, find out what his needs are.

Most important, as your customer is speaking, listen intently, look for identifiers that can lead the conversation in other directions.

As you listen to your customers talk, try to match up your products to their needs.

Once you have the customer talking, don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the sale right than and there. Not all is lost, in fact, it is just beginning, you have just taken the first steps toward building a relationship with your customer.

Remember, people love to talk about themselves, their jobs, their pets, their hobbies, etc.

So ask, it will get you on your way to more relationships and sales.

It’s almost time, once again for the “Month of May.” Which in past years signified the hubbub surrounding the Indianapolis 500. And although the race has seen significant change since its inception in 1911, the current guise of “I Am Indy” seems to be quite tarnished.

Growing up, I fondly recall watching the Indy 500 on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, as the tape delayed broadcasts were announced by Jim McKay. These were the days of such luminaries as AJ Foyt, Gordon Johncock, Mario Andretti, Al and Bobby Unser, Johny Rutherford, etc.

And back then the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was truly legendary as the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, alongside other “crown jewels” such as the Daytona 24 hours; 12 Hours of Sebring; Monaco Grand Prix; 24 Heurs du Mans and the Daytona 500.

These were the glory years of the United States Auto Club (USAC) when McLaren and AAR Eagle chassis powered by the mighty Drake “Offy” (Offenhauser) 4 cylinder turbo ruled the brickyard.

In 1979 a new Open Wheel racing series known as Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) took over the sanctioning of Indy, leaving USAC to commiserate with the running of Sprint Cars.

Yet in the early 1990’s Tony George attempted to forcefully commandeer CART by announcing his desire to be president (Dictator) of the immensely popular racing series. CART’s governing body responded by telling George he could duly become president but would have no voting powers.

Hence George formed the rival Indy Racing League to host its inaugural race at Indianapolis in 1996. This was the year of the famous 25-8 rule, similar to today’s Nextel Cup top 35 points owners being guaranteed a starting grid position. George’s rule stipulated that the first 25 grid positions would go to IRL entrants with the final 8 up for grabs by CART.

CART countered by running its own U.S. 500 the same weekend as Indy on Roger Penske’s Michigan Oval race track. And “The Feud” between Open Wheel racing series began.

Also known today as “The Split,” both sides refuse to give any ground, as CART has folded after filing for bankruptcy. All of its engine suppliers have left as well as the majority of its founding race teams.

Yet Indy too has seen its share of troubles after loosing engine manufacturer’s Chevrolet and Toyota in 2006 and perpetually struggling to maintain the tradition of 33 starters. For the past several years Bump Day has become a JOKE! Now referred to as “boomp” day with literally NO contestants, which has caused Indy to change its qualifying format. Now all 4 days of qualifying allow competitors 3 qualifying runs per day, with only the top 11 cars being “locked” into their qualifying spots.

And this year’s entry list once again looks pretty pathetic with a total of 38 entrants, with 12 drivers still unnamed. In an attempt to spice up the show, there will be three females competing for the very first time in the track’s history, as George takes a page out of Nextel Cup’s playbook by going after the Latin American market with the inclusion of Venezuelan rookie Milka Duno.

But there’s only a small group of competitor’s who can clearly be seen as potential victors. Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi would have to be considered the favorites, with Andretti Green Racing being the dark horse. Then there’s the remainder of the field to pose as potential spoilers.

And although Champ Car, which is the new sanctioning body that bought CART’s asset’s in 2003 has left a one month hole in its racing calendar for teams to compete at Indy. There appears to be NO takers. Thus leaving the perpetual wounds of the split to continue unhealed as the “800lb Nextel Cup Gorilla” continues to crush anything in its path as Open Wheel racing fades into the sunset…

This ten article series will deal with the various components that need to be addressed when considering the utilization of a particular kick in a combat or self-defense situation. This particular component is really of no use to the tournament competitor since they are fighting barefoot or with minimal protective padding that does not impede the range of mobility of the foot. Although all of these individual components are important, they are most effective when combined together and utilized correctly when executing a kick.

Although I will only be discussing one of the components in this article, here is the complete list of all ten of them.

1. Your Kicking Ability

2. Your Intended Application

3. The Environment

4. Telegraphing

5. Striking Implement

6. Striking the Correct Target

7. Initial Impact

8. Impact

9. Retraction or Follow Through

10. Return to Fighting Position

Component Five; Striking Implement:

In a practice situation in the dojo or gym, the striking implement would be defined as that portion of your foot or leg that is used to make contact with a vital or vulnerable area on your opponent. In a self-defense situation, the striking implement would most generally be defined as that portion of your shoe or leg that is used to make contact with a vital or vulnerable area on your opponent. Always make sure that you strike your intended target with the correct portion (striking implement) of your foot or leg. Remember, that the idea is to inflict pain upon your opponent, not yourself.

Since the only portion of the leg that should ever be used for kicking is the lower portion of the shin just above the ankle, and since most shoes do not cover this area (with the exception of some combat boots) I will be focusing this article on the foot and various types of shoes.

Contrary to what you may or may not have been told, there is a HUGE difference between kicking barefoot and kicking with shoes on. For example:

1. Depending upon the type of shoes you are wearing, you will probably not be able to bring your foot into the exact same foot positions for a particular kick that you could do when barefoot.

2. If you are wearing some type of boot, the toes, heel, and outside edge of the boot should be a lot harder than those same portions of your foot, and they won’t be as susceptible to damage as your barefoot would be.

3. If the soles of your shoes are smooth (like dress shoes or cowboy boots) then you won’t have anywhere near the traction you would normally have when barefoot or when wearing sneakers or hiking boots.

4. Your shoes are going to have some weight to them and that can effect the speed and movement of your kicks if you haven’t had the experience of practicing your kicks while wearing the same shoes you would wear during your normal day-to-day activities.

5. Depending upon your own physical make-up and the type of shoes you are wearing, you will have to adjust your foot positions for delivering almost all of your kicks when wearing shoes. Now this will also vary from shoe type to shoe type.

Generally speaking, you will have a far greater range of movement (and in some
cases 100% range of movement) wearing slipper type shoes that are currently
available from several different martial arts companies.

Tennis shoes or sneakers will also allow you a fairly good range of movement,
although not as much as the previously mentioned slipper type shoe. However,
depending upon the shoe type your range of movement may decrease by 50% or
more.

Hiking or combat boots generally decrease your range of movement by anywhere
from 50 to 75% or more depending upon the style of boot. However, what they
lack in range of movement they more than make up for it their ability for you to
kick harder with minimal chance of injury to yourself. Think of boots as brass
knuckles for your feet.

Cowboy boots are in my opinion the worst shoes to wear if you are going to be
kicking someone. They are very confining and offer very little range of movement
for your feet. The soles are usually smooth and offer no traction and you have an
upraised heel which can prove to be very problematic for the kicker. The one
benefit to kicking with cowboy boots is the small hard pointy toe portion which
can be used to great effect when executing Front Kicks and Roundhouse Kicks.

Now for all you women out there, and those of you who are into cross-dressing,
high heel shoes are without a doubt not the hardest shoes to walk in let alone kick
in. If you are wearing high heels and find yourself in a situation where you
have to kick someone, I strongly recommend stepping out of them if at all
possible and then either running away, or proceed to execute your kicks or
whatever technique that you feel is the appropriate response to that particular
situation.

Suggestions:

I strongly recommend that your first learn how to correctly execute your kicks while barefoot and wearing loose fitting clothing before attempting them in your normal everyday clothes and shoes. This way you will have the correct technique down and will be better able to modify it slightly to adjust for the difference in clothing and shoes without sacrificing too much in technique.

Practice executing your kicks wearing every type of shoe that you might wear including; slippers, sneakers, hiking boots, cowboy boots, high heels, and even those big bulky snow boots. Take note of how each kick feels while wearing each shoe type and compare them not only to each other, but also to kicking when barefoot.

Another factor for consideration is how your base leg foot moves and pivots during the execution of each kick.

Final Thoughts:

Although I primarily focused on several different factors to consider when executing your kicks while wearing various types of shoes, there is one other factor that must be at the forefront of your mind when considering the act of kicking while wearing shoes, and that is the end results of what could happen after kicking an opponent while wearing certain types of shoes.

There have been several criminal cases that determined that kicking someone with heavy shoes or boots on constitutes assault with a deadly weapon. Now this varies from state-to-state and you would have to check your own states laws on this, but it is a very real possibility and one that you need to take into consideration before you are called upon to use kicks in a self-defense situation.

Earning money online through affiliate marketing is simple, right? All you have to do is join an affiliate program, promote their stuff, produce sales and collect commissions. Well in reality it is much easier said than done. We’ve all heard the saying that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Affiliate marketing is not an exception. Every affiliate program you stumble upon will claim to be the best.

A common thing affiliate programs sometimes do is give you the sense that it is extremely easy and effortless to make money from them. They convince you that all you have to do is throw some affiliate links here and there and start watching the money rake in. This is rarely the situation. For those who have already established a successful site and a good foundation, it might be the situation. They probably already have a stable, rich stream of traffic and customers. For the rest of us, affiliate marketing requires a bit of time and effort.

A common method of affiliate marketing is e-mail marketing. If used correctly, it can be very useful. However, you must be very careful with e-mail marketing so that you are not accused of spam. Before you start with e-mail marketing you must learn the basics of it. Otherwise you will waste your time, effort, and money. If you decide to use e-mail for affiliate marketing, you must be sure that you make yourself available for any questions. You will be able to give better, more believable testimonies about what you’re promoting if you have first hand experience. Your subscribers will have more trust in you if you give them free, useful information about topics they would be interested in. You can also give them unbiased testimonies about your product or service. In each article and e-mail you send, you should include a link to your site. You get to promote your business this way and your readers might find something worth spending money on your site.

If you even want a chance to gain from affiliate marketing, then you must be innovative and unique. In affiliate marketing, there are most likely countless amounts of people promoting the exact same thing you are. You have to stand out from the crowd to ensure that it is you that makes the sale and gains the commission, and not someone else. A lot of people promoting the exact same thing, the exact same way might drive potential buyers away from you. Dive deep into your creativity and originality so the potential buyer stays interested in you and what you have to say. Put it this way: if you don’t make the effort to stand out from the herd, then someone who is smarter will, and that person will be the one making all the sales and commissions. It will take time and patience, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Whatever form of advertising you choose, be aware that you can not expect results overnight. Possible? Perhaps, but not likely. Again, this goes back to those who have already established a name for themselves and are more experienced at this than you are. It takes time for people to see your banner, link, or article and become interested. It will take even more time for people to be interested enough to click and buy what you are promoting. Test and retest to see what works and what does not work. Also be aware that some strategies that have worked for you before may not work for other promotions, and that some strategies that worked for others might not work for you.

You’ve heard it time and time again: if you want to get your name out there, write articles and allow them to be freely reproduced (with a resource box pointing back to you, of course). Largely, that is true. A well-written article can:

- help you build your profile as an expert

- draw traffic to your site, and

- help you to build a database of potential clients through associated e-courses or a newsletter.

So far you probably haven’t heard anything you didn’t already know. What YOU are likely to be struggling with is the process of actually writing the article. Sure, you can come up with the content - but how do you really grab those readers? How do you keep their attention all the way through? And most importantly, how do you make them want to come back for more?

Let’s assume that you understand the basics of constructing and editing an article (it has a beginning, middle, and an end and you know how to check the grammar and spelling.) Most of us can manage that. But if you’re not content with simply “getting something out there” - if you want to WIN readers - then you need to start thinking about what they want to know, rather than what you want to tell them.

Put your readers first - every time. Give them what they want, and they’ll be queuing up to read anything you produce. Give them something bland (or worse, blatantly self-serving) and they’ll blast by you so fast you’ll be spinning in the back draft.

The following four steps will give you a blueprint for writing articles that captivate your readers - whatever the topic.

== 1. Find Out What Your Readers Really Want ==

Sometimes you’ll know what they want because you’re an expert in the field, and understand the problems. If you don’t know the subject area well, you’ll have to do more research. Look for forums on your topic and see what people are discussing. What are the problems that need solving? Can you provide an answer? (”If they have a headache, give them an aspirin.”)

== 2. Start With An Attention-Grabber ==

Spend time working on your opening. Try to avoid trite questions like “Have you ever wondered why so many people find it difficult to lose weight?” Firstly, it’s dull. Secondly, it’s not targeting the person reading the article - what do they care about the difficulties “many people” have with losing weight? They only care about THEIR weight problem!

Try to come up with an opening paragraph that gives the reader that warm “Hey, this is about me!” feeling right away. Better still; try to generate a rush of excitement - “This could be the answer I’ve been looking for…”

Example: “The diet gurus make it all sound so easy: to lose weight, all you have to do is expend more energy than you take in. Huh! If it were that simple, the “Big People” stores would be out of business in a heartbeat. Luckily for those of us who are tired of diets, gyms and dull group meetings, there is a back-to-basics way to tackle this. A way that won’t cost you a fortune or leave you feeling deprived.”