lyric searching can be a frustrating experience. There are countless sites available that contain lyrics to many popular songs. However, the sites vary considerably on how easy they are to use, the completeness of their database of songs, and their focus on current or classic songs. Over 20 popular song lyric sites were put to the test, and these are the 10 recommend as sites to consider when trying to find the words to a favorite song.
My first yoga retreat
I never wanted it to stop. It was a wonderful feeling of joy, love compassion and connection to everyone who was there with me. This was despite the fact that I had only met these people just three days ago. But at that moment, it felt like I had known them all my life.
This was my first yoga retreat. Four days of total immersion in the practice, philosophy and life of hatha yoga. We practiced yoga twice a day. Spent several hours in sitting and walking meditation and learned about the philosophy of yoga through talks and discussions.
We helped prepare and ate the most delicious home-made vegetarian food. I was on an energy high. I had so much stamina. It was the best short break I had ever had.
So why did it effect me so profoundly?
Our subtle energy body
Yoga works on our bodies and minds at many levels, and in a way that traditional medicine fails. Infact, many of the alternative therapies and practices, that have become so popular, work on our mind and body in powerful ways.
You may not realise it, but your body has a network of unseen energy channels. They follow the pathways of our nervous system and provide a constant supply of subtle energy that keeps us alive.
This complex mesh of energy channels, or ‘meridians’ as the Chinese call them, focus around 7 energy centers or ‘chakras’ that are vertically aligned from our crown to our abdomen. Yoga, and many alternative therapies and practices, increase, balance and harmonise this energy network.
Lao Tsu, the revered Chinese sage and chi kung master, said,
“When human beings are born, they are tender and soft. At death they are stiff and hard. All things, the grass as well as the trees, are tender and supple when alive”.
It’s this hidden energy system that keeps us alive, vibrant and healthy.
Shiatsu, acupressure and acupuncture
The study of our energy bodies can be seen in shiatsu, acupressure and acupuncture. These are just three of the many practices that originate from the East.
Shiatsu is a system of full body massage taken lying down on a futon. But it’s more than just massage. Many part of your body are pressed and massaged where the subtle energy lines meet. The effect is both invigorating and relaxing at the same time. My first massage was so good I fell asleep.
Acupuncture is a curative system that is accepted by the western medical establishment because it works. Needles are inserted so they connect with the energy channels in your body. By placing these needles at the right points your energy and health is both rebalanced and restored.
The ancient art of yoga
Yoga, stretching and pilates is about exercising your muscles and ligaments, but it’s more than this. The gentle stretching of muscles releases trapped energy and energises the muscles and ligaments the pose is working on.
Yoga involves stretching into a pose and holding the position while breathing in or out deeply and completely. There is a dynamic to this apparent stillness. You may be holding the position, but your deep breathing is moving energy and refreshes the parts of your body other exercise cannot reach.
So, the slow and steady movements free trapped energy, energise muscles and ligaments and refresh your whole body. At the same time you are developing strength and stamina while holding these poses.
Mind and body health
Traditional medicine and therapies work with symptoms, known illnesses and diseases. Holistic and alternative practices and therapies view illness as a warning that your system is out of balance. Many of these practices work on you at different levels, especially your subtle energy body.
It’s all about re-balancing your mind and body so that it works properly once again. It’s a ‘whole’-istic view rather than a piecemeal view.
Maybe that’s why modern medicine seems unable to cure some illnesses and health problems.
We have so much to learn.
Terry Dunn writes regular articles on how to use alternative therapies to improve your health.
To read more articles visit his website, http://www.holistichealthtalk.com
As of the suburbs of Kabul, the Afghan State disappears. One finds nothing any more but lords of the war who control like absolute monarchs, take taxes don’t apply the directives of the central government. Even in the capital, one does not know who controls: president Hamid Karzaï and his government? The American ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, this Afghano-American parachuted by Washington? Or the international troops which, with 6 000 men, square all the districts length into broad?
The United States confiscated the largest avenue of Kabul, where they build an immense building for the CIA. The villas in the neighbourhoods, which were sold ten thousands of dollars under the talibans, are worth, two years later, thousand times more. The Afghano-Americans returned to recover their houses in Kabul and to rent them at ransom price to the Westerners. The Afghans of Hamburg and besides encased the step to them. In the eyes of people of the interior they are sag chouyan, “washers of dog”, impure animal for Islam. These Afghano-Westerners, indecently rich compared to the population, came to be added to the diaspora of those returned from Iran or Pakistan, where they could pile up a little money at the price of a hard labour. Enough cosmopolitan, they must adapt to the new conditions: masons, electricians, small contractors or small shopkeepers, some live on the hills which surround Kabul and thus escape from the prices from some avenues. These two diasporas share only their origin. If the second is integrated without too many difficulties, the first, arriving from the Occident, is rejected.
In Kabul one considers that it came to box its goods, but then it will leave or monopolize lucrative stations in order to increase its fortune on the back of the population of the interior. In the bazaar of Kabul misery bursts; people in rags live with almost nothing. Admittedly, the nongovernmental organizations - some two thousand Western ONG which are prosperous and highly respected there - give work to a part of the city. But the noble tasks return obviously to Westerners or to Afghans come from Occident, the menus work - drivers, guides, distributors of assistance, etc - with the Afghans of the interior. The urban average-lower classes fight against impoverishment, but they can easily fall into misery because of inflation. Many of their members do not manage to follow the rise in the cost of living, in a city where the surge from abroad breaks old balances and raises the prices out of arrow. These small townsmen live more and more in the frustration and the hatred of the fortunate Afghans considered as nonMoslems because of their individualism and of their refusal to share and give alms. In the conversations, these townsmen often express their objections in religious terms, making it clear that, under the talibans, at least, all were poor and that the capacity was not dominated by parachuted people of another world. In the name of Islam, the extremists groups will be able, in the future, to exploit this feeling “not to be at home”, to be maintained with the bottom of the social scale, to be scorned and rejected by “foreigners” and the “inaccurate ones”, to reinforce a long-lived islamist movement in the frontier areas of Pakistan. They will thus gain the urban base which they missed and will widen their influence among this recently urbanized population whose life is made of misery, of attempts to build itself a future.
Some, however, succeed while fitting in the meshs of the new system. Omar, a child, was gifted for football. Punished by the talibans, it had to give it up. At present, he tries to play in the team which will become national. His dream would be to find a place in one of the formations of the countries of the Gulf… or besides. Akbar, mason, had left, under the taliban period, to work in Iran. He returned to Kabul to exert its trade. He makes the shuttle between the two countries and is rather optimistic about his prospects for promotion, even if, he recognizes, the situation hardly encourages working and investing. Mohammed also returned from Iran. He works thanks to more or less illegal constructions which proliferate in Kabul. He brought back with him his two daughters and his two boys, who complain: the first (of which one went to the university of Teheran), of little freedom which is left to them; seconds because they are treated as “Iranians” and that one does not recognize them like authentic Afghans. Like the Afghan/Pakistanais duality, the germs of a Afghan/Iranien duality are sown, and the new company will have to be done there, with girls and boys who do not subject themselves easily to the tradition.
The scatter of the capacity and the seizure of the lords of the war on the areas induced notable changes. Omar, small shopkeeper who, under the talibans, bought in Iran and sold in Afghanistan, went bankrupt after their inversion. Firstly, he paid only one tax to insert his goods in the country. From now on, he must pay taxes in each area which he crosses: how to remain profitable? He was transformed into taxi driver, but does not hide his bitterness. In a country more or less unified under the talibans a feudal system succeeded. The underground economy has encouraged all kinds of traffics, from electronic parts to food, but especially opium. The poppy cultivation extended since the fall of the talibans: it touches areas saved before and becomes transnational, by combining the ethnic bonds with the world traffic as well as the political fasteners with the lords of the war, even of the members of the government. It is unaware of the borders and extends in Iran, Pakistan and beyond, in Europe and, much less massively, in California. But it is also at the origin of the redistribution of the economic capacity and policy in Afghanistan: lords of the war take a tax on this culture of opium, even imply themselves there, and sometimes actively, to pay their private army.
In Iran, the use of the ethnic, linguistic and religious bonds, allows the passage of drug: Iranian Baloutchistan is populated of sunnites which make pass heroin to the beard of the pasdarans, the Iranian guards of the revolution. The drug money cements the bonds which, in return, in a mondialized underground economy, facilitate the transfer of the white powder in Iran, in spite of the boundless ingenuity deployed by the army of this country to stop the flow of drug. The traffic towards Pakistan passes by the frontier area of Waziristan, where the talibans, the members of Al-Qaida and the islamist ideology have the wind in poop. There too, it is facilitated by the ethnos groups which, on both sides, make the border porous. The opium produced in various parts of the country is sold easily. The Americans are concerned little. On these traffics, the lords of the war present in the government take in the passing of the taxes which enrich them and allow the maintenance with customers and a militia, of which the nargue number the scanty army like the small national police force.
The government can assume only 12 % of its budget to him, the remainder coming from the Western contributions. In short, all occurs like if a vast network of ethnic, religious and economic alliances enclosed Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Acting of Afghanistan and Pakistan, this play proceeds in countries placed in the formal orbit of the United States, which exerts a limited control and must adapt to the ground, i.e. to negotiate with gangster chiefs. In Pakistan, a great part of the population is antiamerican and favorable to Mr. Usama Bin Laden. In Iran, Baloutches sunnites support Al-Qaida in opposition to theocracy Iranian Shiite. In Afghanistan, a great part of Pachtounes preserve a diffuse sympathy to the talibans. The Afghan government tries to create a “national” feeling by being equipped with posthumous heroes, of which the commander Ahmed Chah Massoud, emblematic “lion of Panchir”. But Massoud is actually liked by only one part of the Inhabitants of Tajik and people of its area (Panchir). The others often hate him, reproaching him for having acted himself as a lord of the war during the catch of Kabul by seven rival factions, in 1992-1994, before the victory of the talibans.
In Afghanistan there is a mondialized economy which has as names dopes, ONG, money of the allies, international assistance under the American aegis and finally gifts made to the government by the rich countries. The State does not exist and, probably, will not exist very soon. It is an unstable and heteroclite coalition of lords of the war and politico-monks leaders who surround the president, driven by the lure of gain, by the ambition or because they feel constrained to play the game wanted by the Americans. To last, the capacity tries to put an end to the reign lords of the war by integrating them in a court, as Louis XIV did it with the aristocracy. But, with France of Ancien Régime, there is a difference in size: without the Western will, this government would not exist. And let’s not forget the ethnicity, which is combined according to several modes: initially religious (sunnites versus Shiites), then linguistics (Persan versus pachtounes), finally ethnic - Hazaras (Shiites), Inhabitants of Tajik (sunnites), Pachtounes (sunnite)… The president makes an effort to “pachtounise” the government, because it is pachtoune and that the ousting of the talibans, them also pachtounes, gave too much weight to the Inhabitants of Tajik. Nothing there, however, which is likely to reinforce the State and its autonomy.
The president tests, without much success, to play the mediator in the multiple conflicts which put at the catches the chiefs of the war: in Mazar-e-Charif, between the lord of the war Mohammed Atta and the chief of the police force, the General Akram Khakrezwaï; in Herat, between Mr. Ismaïl Khan and Amanoullah Khan, etc. The president has tiny room to multiply the nominations and the against-nominations to weaken local potentates, leading to the reinforcement of what one calls here the “warlordism”. Actually, the State, with the assistance of Washington, seeks to enter this power play, especially to weaken the talibans and Al-Qaida, much more than to build institutions worthy of this name. It seeks, in addition, to attract to itself the benevolence of islamist known as “moderated”, in particular a part of the group of Mr. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the historical leaders of the moudjahidins in the anti-Soviet fight, a step in the integration of fundamentalist in its project. In short, “pacification” is less the work of the central State than of a redistribution of the ethnic chart by a government allocating privileges. The chiefs of war collaborated in turn with the Russians, the talibans, the various regional capacities or their opponents; all have blood on the hands. Meanwhile, they are the chaos of universalization, the poppy cultivation and the interethnic bonds revisited which generate money and capacity - the economy of drug would represent more than 2 billion dollars per annum.
The new regional disorders in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Pakistan as well as the consequences of the regional policies in Iran (where the capacity Shiite is not tender with respect to the sunnites of the border) and in Pakistan (where the military capacity must compose with the tribes under penalty of general revolt) make this area explosive. How to wage an effective war against radical islamist groups for which such an amount of injustice and inconsistency creates a fertile ground?
If you have written any article and submitted then you know for the fact that some articles gets unwarranted attention, whereas some articles fades away in piles of articles. Saying it as “unwarranted Attention” might be a bit stretch, but its frustrated as a writer to have written a good article and not get decent attention.
I found these Pro articles have some common elements and duplicated their success.
That’s why In this article I’ll show you exactly what you need to do to get that “unwarranted attention” in 30 minutes or less.
# Step 1 : Decide on the outcome First.
Quick, Open up your browser and check any article directory (say ezinearticles.com). Notice what kind of articles people have submitted. All of them are good articles (grammar, content etc). But they lack one important thing. Most often Author lacks focus. Either the article talks about 10 different things or its get boring after a while.
That’s why when I told you to Decide why you are writing. Is your purpose is limited to getting back links?
Decide out come on 2 points
# 1. Decide Why You are Writing?
# 2. Decide What you are going to talk about in article?
What this does, is help you focus on writing an article that will not only get results but also be completely focused on the topic and not bore the visitor.
# Step 2 : Write your headline
A good headline is always a great starting point for your article. If you have decided on the outcome of the article, your headline will come naturally to you. If you just go through any section of the article directories. You’ll see what I mean. Boring Headlines.
# Step 3 : How to begin writing an article.
It all begins - and often ends - with the title of your article. Pick the right headline and your article practically writes itself. See the headline for this article, as an example. Once I arrived at it, the content was pretty logical - what are the stumbling blocks about article writing, and how to jump over them.
# Step 4 : Are You Boring Your Reader to death?
I’ve noticed how important is this detail. But if you are following me till this step. Just have a big heart and submit your article.
You see, by picking the right focused topic, doing your research and drawing your reader in with a bold, promising, powerful headline, you’ve finished the most difficult part of your task. Until you mess it up badly, in most cases your reader will stick on to the end.
These are the differences between a pro and a wannabe.
So, what do you think? Is article writing like pro’s is difficult - or easy? Like I said in the beginning, without the ’secret formula’ it can be a painful, time-consuming chore.
But with the right approach and constant practice, overcoming the 4 major hurdles we just discussed, soon you too will crank out articles like this one as quickly as I did (by the way, writing this one took me all of TEN minutes! No kidding). And to further refine and hone your technique, you can refer to more advanced tutorials about article writing.
Owning, running and maintaining an internet based business or a site needs articles, plain and simple. Webmasters who have been online for a while would come to know and accept this. After all, the internat is all about communication information.
Even those who don’t have sites but are frequent internet users knows this as well. Articles quench the thirst for information and knowledge of the people. Plus, the articles provides many other benefits for the site.
The benefits that articles provide are putting a site high in the ranking in search results of keywords and keyword phrases that pertains or are relevant to his or her site. They also provide attraction to website visitors when they are appreciated and is linked to your site from another site or newsletter. Articles provide for the increase of the confidence and trust levels of customers to your site and company.
Articles have enormous potential benefits to any company or business owners, particularly the aspect of driving traffic to their sites. People who like reading your articles are more likely to recommend it to their peers, friends or family members, or even their business partners.
This translates into targeted traffic to their sites and it is free traffic as well. You get bigger sales if your traffic trusts and believes in you. Your product or services would be much easier to sell when they know you know what you are doing and talking about.
So ok, we have established that articles are very important to a site and to business. Articles are crucial and to keep ahead in the game, a site must have an article, it is imperative. There is one dilemma though, not many people like writing articles.
Many website owners would rather spend their time on something else, and unless you are a big time company, you don’t have the necessary resources to use on a pool of article writers. Plagiarism or copying of other articles is frowned upon and could easily get you into trouble, worst case scenario; a hefty fine and jail time.
So what are the other options?
Well, for starters if you hate writing articles and you can’t afford to hire people to write for you then don’t. Get free articles. The first place to look at for free articles is the public domain. Here you won’t have problems with copyright infringement and the following penalties and fines if you get caught for plagiarism.
Public domain articles are articles freely given to the public for public use. You can do whatever you want with it. You can place it on your site, name it as yours, put it in a newsletter its you decision. Always remember though that you will have to choose articles that is very relevant to your site.
The downside to public domain articles is that since it is free for everybody, many of your competitors may have access to them as well. Since every site needs to be original and unique even though you have the same niche, this could be a predicament. You may also have to edit them a bit to place more keywords and keyword phrases to make them better.
Another way to get free articles is to allow other sites which has the same subject or topic as yours to submit articles to your site. This would be only to augment your existing content or else all your articles would be leading to other sites since these articles would have resource boxes with them that could link or direct the readers to their site. That’s why it is important to have your own articles; you cold use them to link your site to other sites as well.
But, to truly feel the impact of what a good article to you, go for original ones. There are many article writers who do part time and freelance article writing jobs that charges only minimal fees. You can get good articles that have all the keywords and keyword phrases you need and people are looking for.
The investment you made for these articles would be worthwhile because you could use them for all the benefits you could offer. You hold copyrights to them and you will be able to use them anyway you want. As your articles help you in building your business and your site, you will have more articles to write and maybe then you wont be having second thoughts about articles.
Everything begins with a choice and a decision. Everything is a choice, and if you choose consciously you become the person you want to be and create the life you desire. And when you choose, and commit to your choices with all your strength, you will achieve what you want.
Whatever the difficulties you have experienced in your life, whatever the difficulties you are experiencing at the moment, you can choose.
You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be unhappy. You can choose to be average or you can choose to be extraordinary. You can choose to live a dormant life or you can choose to create consciously the life you want. You can choose to avoid life or you can choose to love it and enjoy it.
You can choose to do anything possible, or you can choose to make conscious choices about what is right and good for you, and what makes you truly happy.
You can choose to be a victim of your past, or you can choose not to let it jeopardize your present or your future. You can choose to feel anger about your past, events, people, or you can choose to take responsibility, forgive and let go. You can choose to cling to the past or you can choose to let go. You can choose to feel depressed or powerless, or you can choose to embrace yourself, your life, embrace your power, and say NO to the past.
You can choose to let yourself become depressed because of your current situation, (maybe your business is not going well, maybe you have financial difficulties), or you can choose to be positive, keep working hard with a positive attitude.
You can choose to be afraid of the future or you can choose to thrive in creating it and be positive. You can choose to think that life is a struggle and people are mean, or you can choose to believe in the goodness of people, in the abundance of the universe, and that life is wonderful.
You can choose to give in to difficulties or you can choose never to give up and keep going, knowing you are going to get there. You can choose to react - get angry, get upset, despair - or you can choose to respond to whatever happens in your life.
You can choose to live a life of fears or you can choose break through them and be free to live the life you want and enjoy. You can choose to be negative or to be irresistibly positive.
You can choose to give up at the first difficulty or you can choose to keep going and strive for what you want. You can choose to be in a job you do not like, and not do anything about it, or you can choose to make the best of it and look for what you want. You can choose to work hard or you can choose to work smart. You can choose to be stressed out by work or to be relaxed. You can choose to struggle in your business or you can choose to be a success and have the qualities that would make it a success.
You can choose to be in a relationship that does not make you happy, or you can choose to have the one you want. You can choose to be in any relationship or you can choose to have the relationship you want. You can choose to have negative people around you, people that drag your energy down, or you can choose to have the people you want around you.
You can choose to conform or you can choose to be yourself. You can choose to be angry with yourself or you can choose to be kind to yourself. You can choose to hate yourself or you can choose to love yourself. You can choose to treat yourself badly or you can choose to break those patterns and love yourself. You can choose to beat yourself up or you can choose to be kind to yourself.
You can choose to beat yourself up or you can choose to like who you are. You can choose to put yourself down or you can choose to appreciate yourself. You can choose to judge yourself or you can choose to accept yourself. You can choose to deny yourself or you can choose to welcome your uniqueness.
You can choose to betray yourself or you can choose to be true to your values and code of conduct. You can choose to think negatively about yourself or you can choose to support yourself. You can choose to talk negatively to yourself or you can choose to talk positively.
You can choose to have negative emotions or you can choose to have positive ones. You can choose to be depressed or you can choose to be well. You can choose to be needy or you can choose to be enough: self-reliant and self-sufficient. You can choose to have low self-esteem or you can choose to give yourself value, respect and appreciation.
You can choose to please others or you can choose to please yourself. You can choose not to listen to and respect yourself, or you can choose to give to yourself all you need. You can choose to watch six hours of television per day, or you can choose to use the time to create your life. You can choose to drink too much or you can choose to take care of your liver.
You can choose to eat too much or you can choose to take care of your body.
You can choose to be socially anxious or you can choose to be confident. You can choose to be anxious or you can choose to feel good. You can choose to be afraid of people’s judgement, of what they think, or you can choose to love yourself, be comfortable in yourself and love them, help them and have the qualities that would make you irresistible to them.
You can choose to avoid people or you can choose to meet them and enjoy them. You can choose to avoid life and people, because of low confidence, or you can choose to be you, be confident, and look for the people you want in your life. You can choose to compare yourself to people and feel bad about yourself or you can choose to welcome and appreciate your uniqueness, start from yourself and be centred.
You can choose to be rude or you can choose to respect people and be kind. You can choose to judge people or you can choose to accept them. You can choose to put people down or you can choose to appreciate them.
You can choose to hate or you can choose to forgive.
You can choose to be without focus in your life or you can choose to plan and act consciously. You can choose to be bored or you can choose to be inspired.
You can choose to give your power away or you can choose to be empowered. You can choose to be miserable or you can choose to embrace your power. You can choose to blame or you can choose to take your responsibility. You can choose to complain or you can choose to take actions. You can choose to moan or you can choose to rejoice and be grateful.
You can choose to give and contribute or you can choose not to. You can choose to grab all the opportunities to make you happy or you can choose to let them fade away. You can choose to give up if you do not achieve what you have chosen, or you can choose NEVER to give up, to KEEP your FOCUS on WHAT YOU WANT until YOU ARE the person YOU want to BE and YOU have ACHIEVED WHAT YOU WANT.
What are You Choosing?
There are two main types of diabetes, type I and type II. Type I diabetes is characterized by the pancreas making too little or no insulin. An individual with diabetes type I will have to inject insulin throughout the day in order to control glucose levels. Type II diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes, is characterized by the pancreas not producing enough insulin to control glucose levels or the cells not responding to insulin. When a cell does not respond to insulin, it is known as insulin resistance. When a subject is diagnosed with type II diabetes, exercise and weight control are prescribed as measures to help with insulin resistance. If this does not control glucose levels, then medication is prescribed. The risk factors for type II diabetes include: inactivity, high cholesterol, obesity, and hypertension. Inactivity alone is a very strong risk factor that has been proven to lead to diabetes type II. Exercise will have a positive effect on diabetes type II while improving insulin sensitivity while type I cannot be controlled be an exercise program. Over 90% of individuals with diabetes have type II.
Exercise causes the body to process glucose faster, which lowers blood sugar. The more intense the exercise, the faster the body will utilize glucose. Therefore it is important to understand the differences in training with type I and type II diabetes. It is important for an individual who has diabetes to check with a physician before beginning an exercise program. When training with a diabetic, it is important to understand the dangers of injecting insulin immediately prior to exercise. An individual with type I diabetes injecting their normal amount of insulin for a sedentary situation can pose the risk of hypoglycemia or insulin shock during exercise. General exercise guidelines for type I are as follows: allow adequate rest during exercise sessions to prevent high blood pressure, use low impact exercises and avoid heavy weight lifting, and always have a supply of carbohydrates nearby. If blood sugar levels get too low, the individual may feel shaky, disoriented, hungry, anxious, become irritable or experience trembling. Consuming a carbohydrate snack or beverage will alleviate these symptoms in a matter of minutes.
Before engaging in exercise, it is important for blood sugar levels to be tested to make sure that they are not below 80 to 100 mg/dl range and not above 250 mg/dl. Glucose levels should also be tested before, during, after and three to five hours after exercise. During this recovery period (3-5 hours after exercise), it is important for diabetics to consume ample carbohydrates in order to prevent hypoglycemia.
Exercise will greatly benefit an individual with type II diabetes because of its positive effects on insulin sensitivity. Proper exercise and nutrition are the best forms of prevention for type II diabetics. It is important for training protocols to be repeated almost daily to help with sustaining insulin sensitivity. To prevent hypoglycemia, progressively work up to strenuous activity.
As with individuals with type I diabetes, carbohydrates should also be present during training to assist in raising blood sugar levels if the individual becomes low.
Georgette Pann, BS health/Physical Ed., Physical Therapist assistant, ACE Certified Personal Trainer, IFA Certified Sports Nutrition. She is owner of Nutrifitness for online personal training ,nutritional counseling, diet and fitness information and more.She has been profiled in the E-Book “Fit Over 40″. To find out more go to: http://allyourstrength.com/fof/gpfof.html
To visit her website go to http://thenutrifitness.com
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about what that particular branch of literature called “Science Fiction” actually consists of. Is it space-ships and monsters? Time machines? Galactic empires? Well, its all of those things, and often none of them.
Science Fiction, broadly speaking, is story-telling that deals with the impact of organized knowledge on human beings. Usually, this means technology, and the way it changes us-and reveals about us. After all, most technology is an extension of our senses, attributes and desires: computers are brains, cell-phones are voices and ears, cars are legs, planes are the dream of flight.
Many classic S.F. films and books take place in worlds identical to ours, except for the creation of some new device, or the appearance of a new life-form. Others take place in worlds so apparently foreign that only the most dedicated and experienced reader can understand what is going on!
But at the core, there are three questions or musings most often asked or explored in any work with the “Science Fiction” label. Those three are:
1) What if?
2) If Only…
3) If This Goes On…
These three overlap considerably, but the first, “What If?”, is the most essential. “What If the Martians attacked?” “What If eternal life was available at a price?” “What If we knew an asteroid would hit Earth in a year?”
The second adds a bit of longing to the equation. “If Only President Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated…” is the kind of question that leads to sociological and historical speculation, or the “Alternate History” branch of S.F. which has become tremendously popular in the last decade. “If Only the gene for generosity (or anger, or bigotry) could be mapped…” “If Only we could selectively prune bad memories…”
There is an emotional quality to the “If Only” questions, and they often speak to a sense of missed opportunity, roads not taken.
The third question, “If This Goes On” is tailor-made for cautionary tales. “If we continue to pollute the environment…” “If one party continues to dominate American politics…” “If more women enter the management class…” “If the space program continues to Privatize” “If human beings become better at modifying their physical characteristics…”
These questions are starting places for speculation. While it is easy to use any of them for trivial or absurd (and entertaining!) questions like “What if a 300-foot radioactive lizard attacked Tokyo?” they can also address profound issues, as in “how would humanity change if we gained incontrovertible proof of intelligent alien life?”
By concentrating on the question, or proposition, at the core of your story, it becomes easier to keep it from becoming a CGI-fest. Ask yourself how YOU would react to a given situation. How your family would react-you know them well. Then friends. Political adversaries. Other nations, and people of other groups. Dig into the meat of it. Study history, and begin to grasp the way societies change in response to technology, for instance the Automobile, or Printing Press, or Computer.
The more deeply you delve, the more likely you will be to create a unique question with unique answers. Then people your world with breathing, believable characters responding as intelligent, feeling people have since the beginning of time. Your work will blossom and reach new levels…
Even if it IS about a 300-foot radioactive lizard!
So you want to lose weight. All of us do at some point and losing weight is a great way to both look and feel better. Not only that, but you’ll feel better about yourself and have more confidence.
A great goal to set for yourself when initially trying to lose weight is to try and lose 10 pounds. This should be an attainable goal for almost anyone. So where do you start?
Most people, when they think of weight loss, think of unappetizing diets or strenuous exercise regimens, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re looking to lose 10 pounds while still having fun and getting some fresh air, look instead to what was probably one of your favorite childhood activities: bicycling. If you base what you do on inaccurate information, you might be unpleasantly surprised by the consequences. Make sure you get the whole weight loss story from informed sources.
There are many benefits to biking, but the main one is that it’s really the only form of exercise that can also function as transportation. The reason it’s difficult for many people to lose weight is because to try work too much time into their already busy lifestyles. For example, let’s say your plan is to lose 10 pounds by getting a gym membership and going a few times a week. While this may be great at first, there’s a good chance that it’s going to start interfering with other commitments: one day you have to stay late at work so you skip gym; one day you have to pick up your son from soccer practice so you skip. Eventually it becomes easy to break the gym routine, because it’s always going to seem like some “extra” that you don’t always have time for.
Now say instead of going to the gym to lose those 10 pounds you decide to bike to work. While it may take a little longer to lose the weight, by biking to work you’re really losing no time at all. If you live in a city there’s a good chance that it’s not going to take you a whole lot longer than a car trip does. So basically you get to lose 10 pounds “for free”, as it were, because you don’t have to make time for exercise.
When you engage in most other forms of exercise, you’re engaging in it exclusively: you’re not getting anything else done when you’re at the gym. With biking, on the other hand, the exercise is almost a secondary bonus to the primary function of getting somewhere you need to go. Add to this the fact that you’re saving money on transportation and doing good for the environment, it’s hard to argue against biking as one of the best forms of exercise.
By simply biking to and from work every day you should be able to lose 10 pounds fairly quickly without affecting your schedule too much. If your employer is a far enough distance away from you that you must drive, consider instead using a bike for errands outside of work. And if you want to really lose those 10 pounds quickly, start biking for recreation too - some weekend bike riding will do wonders for weight loss.
You can’t predict when knowing something extra about weight loss will come in handy. If you learned anything new about weight loss in this article, you should file the article where you can find it again
So let’s answer the first question: What treadmill model should I choose?. Well it really depends on how much you will use it, where you will use it and how much money you have. When choosing a treadmill model you should first look for two things: manufacturer and warranty. If the manufacturer is an established treadmill sports distributor, then you can be half-sure of its quality.
If the warranty is also high, you made ends met and you can be fully certain of the treadmill’s quality. If the warranty of the treadmill is high, it’s like a confidence vote given to the machine by its manufacturer. Think about it, long warranty means a low breakdown rate.
It will be useless for you to choose a treadmill, come home and find out that you have no free space where you can set it up. Try and think of an exercising spot before you choose the treadmill and try to figure out how big or small you need your treadmill to be.
Treadmills come in a large variety of models and some have the ability to fold two thirds of their body, so if you don’t have a lot of room, you might want to consider this alternative.
Another important fact that needs to be taken into consideration when choosing a treadmill is that it maintains healthy exercising conditions. One of the most important factors is the thickness and mobility of the walking deck, which needs to be of at least 3 or 4 inches thick in order to avoid causing you any pains or health problems.
The walking track is also extremely important as it will have to withstand a lot of direct pressure from the person who exercises, so it needs to perform at top speed while maintaining comfort levels high. The walking track should be approximately 17 inches wide in order to provide the necessary leg room for you to exercise correctly and it should also have a length of somewhere around 50 inches to provide your body with a comfortable position.
Other factors might come into play when choosing a treadmill, factors like accessories, special features, electrocardiogram devices, heart rate monitors, book-holders or whatever gadget and feature you think would be useful. Make sure that before you choose a treadmill and purchase it, you thoroughly test it if the store allows you to (and most of the important sports stores offer this opportunity).
Anyone that wants to buy an exercise machine will most likely be a bit confused by this choice: a treadmill or an elliptical? It’s a tough choice indeed, since both exercise machines have great advantages and people always have different opinions about the two. Let’s check out some of the benefits of each.
Basically the two exercise machines have different goals: while the treadmill will help you work out your lower body (legs, buttocks, lombars, abs) and will focus on getting rid of the extra fat, the elliptical works your entire body and better tonifies your muscles. When you’re training on an elliptical, your exercises will be less intense, but they will require a full motion of both your hands and feet, which will result in a well-balance body and healthy muscles.
The treadmill however is more intense and you can better use it to lose fat. Of course, since nothing comes cheap, training on a treadmill is a bit harder than training on an elliptical, mainly because it requires better stamina (if you use the treadmill for running, of course).
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