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What to Look For in a Saltwater Fish Tank

The decision to purchase a saltwater or marine fish tank for your home or office should not be taken lightly. Marine fish will have requirements far greater than freshwater fish. However, once you’ve decided to purchase a saltwater aquarium you’ll be rewarded with a stunning range of tropical and reef fish to choose from.

But first you’ll need to purchase your tank. The selection process can be time consuming and confusing because the range of tanks available is large. The best advice is usually to purchase the largest tank you can afford and that will fit in the available space. There are numerous stories of people starting out their fish tank hobby with a small fish tank only to find in a short space of time that they wish they had purchased a larger tank!

A 30-gallon saltwater aquarium is probably the smallest tank you should consider. A fish tank of this size will provide sufficient surface area to allow adequate exchange of oxygen into the water and to provide a comfortable swimming environment for your fish.

The oxygen supply in the water together with the water temperature will determine the success or otherwise of your fish keeping hobby. Tropical saltwater fish require a water temperature of about 75 degrees F. The warmer water in the saltwater aquarium will tend to deplete the oxygen in the water which means that the surface area becomes important. The addition of aeration equipment is usually desirable to increase the oxygen concentration. Aeration can usually be provided in conjunction with your filtration equipment.

Saltwater fish tanks are available in both acrylic and glass. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Some of the advantages of glass aquariums are

o Glass fish tanks are usually cheaper than acrylic tanks

o Glass fish tanks are more scratch resistant than acrylic tanks

o Glass fish tanks won’t discolor with age

o Glass fish tanks won’t require as much brace support as acrylic tanks although the stand needs to be able to support a great weight

Advantages of acrylic fish tanks

o Acrylic fish tanks are lighter in weight than glass fish tanks

o Acrylic fish tanks can be custom made in a shape to suit your home

o Acrylic fish tanks are less likely to break

o Acrylic fish tanks can be purchased online

Setting Up Your Saltwater Fish Tank

Bringing your new saltwater fish tank home from the store is only the first step. Never be tempted to purchase fish at the same time that you acquire your aquarium. There are many steps to complete prior to introducing fish to their new home.

First, you need to install your tank in its desired location. Avoid locating your saltwater fish tank in any spot that receives sunlight. Sunlight will cause algae to grow in your tank and whilst this will not usually harm the fish it is unsightly and spoils the appearance of your aquarium. Also avoid any locations close to room heaters or where the tank will be exposed to drafts.

Many acrylic fish tanks come with a built-in stand. Glass tanks will require a sturdy stand and should have a layer of polystyrene or rubber placed between the tank and the stand to absorb any unevenness. If the tank is unbalanced it will eventually crack.

Check your new tank for leaks. Fill it with water and let is stand for a day or two. Once you have confirmed that it is water tight you will need to thoroughly clean the tank and all equipment. Rinse thoroughly. Do not skip the cleaning and rinsing step just because you’ve purchased a new tank and it appears sparkling clean. Your fish will die if there are any contaminants left in the tank! Don’t forget to wash the gravel before adding it the tank. Add all your other equipment in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. Your pet store will have provided advice on how to set up your saltwater fish tank.

After you have added your salt water and confirmed that the salt and chemical levels are correct you’ll need to run all your equipment for at least 72 hours to filter and heat your water and stabilize your tank. Let the aquarium cycle to build up the correct biological levels.

The hardest part of setting up your saltwater fish tank is now complete and now you’ll be able to go and select your colorful fish!

Alison Stevens is an online author and writes about fresh and saltwater fish tanks to assist anyone who wants to get started with setting up an aquarium fish tank and gain an understanding of fresh or saltwater fish tank maintenance.

To me, education is not just the matter of financial livelihood and social status, but why education is needed? Whether the provided education is authentic, what the lacks or loopholes of education are and to the final stage: would education make the absorbers immortal? These are some of the questions and rhetoric that make me view education very differently from those of my peers and even my parents and lecturers.

Law and Politics are usually confused with one another and cannot be meticulously separated from each other; as we usually hear the Faculty of Law and Politics, Center for Political and Legal Tuition, Professor of Law and Politics, etc. These are the facts that initiate me an idea to bring the core difference between Law and Politics and put it on a public display. The core difference would help the student to deeper understand the subject matters.

Do you have such the wonder? If no, start to make yourself curious about the core difference between Law and Politics to initiate your mental vocation and if yes, this is an article to unveil you a unique difference between Law and Politics to make you deeply understand.

As a student of Law, newspaper columnist, expert author, media liaison officer, legal and political assistant, I have found one complete differences between Law and Politics. This difference is “the interpretation.”

Most students of Law and Politics do not know that the most important theme of their education is “the interpretation.” Why I dare to say this? Up to the present, we have billions of sources ranking from books and international media publication to the abstract sources, but these so-called information will not make us a true political analyst or lawyer.

What we are seeing on these sources is just “plain information”, so what are these information are. If information is just all about information, University is not needed, because most of these sources are available everywhere and even free. The things that we have not found on these sources are “the interpretation” or the path to interpretational secretes. Let’s now jump up to the very core of our article.

Legal interpretation must be “within”: in interpreting the law, the lawyer of any party or the conflicting parties themselves cannot interpret the law out of the law being enforced in the country where the trial is being heard. This may seem very vague and let us bring an example to clarify. If you commit or are accused of committing a crime in the country in which you are residing in, you or your lawyer are not entitled to interpret the law out of the laws being enforced in your residing country. To a stricter extent, the laws being used for interpretation must circumnavigate the crime that you did or are accused of committing. This case is different from “political interpretation.”

Law and Politics may be equally broad, but interpretation in politics is much broader than in legal one. Have you ever noticed that a political analyst for a university in America would use approach in political interpretation by drawing examples from any country, any sources and any celebrities in the world. Political interpretation (analysis) is not as “within” as in law.

Politics is much more flexible and so much softer than law. Other merits why politics allow much broader interpretation, because we even see a huge similarities between socialist and capitalist states (similar political application), but the laws in these two separate kinds of state are totally different. I know the last one sentence is too vague for you, but let’s start the legal and political interpretation.

Lay Vicheka is a translator for the most celebrated translation agency in the Kingdom of Cambodia, Pyramid Translation Co.Ltd.. He is now hoding other two professions: freelance writer for Search Newspaper; focusing on social issues and students’ issues and Media Liaison Officer for Asia’s first free on-line IELTS consultation website. Lay Vicheka is the expert author for ezine and prolific article contributor to other websites around the world such as articlecity, 365articles, spiderden, talesofasia, etc (Just google him). He is also a volunteer Cambodian-newspapers columnist (Rasmey Kampuchea and Kampuchea Thmey). Lay Vicheka has great experience in law and politics, as he used to be legal and English-language assistant to a Cambodian member of parliament, migration experience (home-based business) and in writing. He is also member of a New York-based research company. Posting address: 221H Street 93, Tuol Sangke quarter, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Tel: 855 11 268 445, vichekalay@yahoo.com

For most people, augmenting their compilation of recipes through the inclusion of gourmet culinary recipes for applying them at home is easier said than done. However, things have changed and this no longer holds good.

Today, you can collect every one of the recipes you require and apply them just the way you want since, in the present times, both the recipes as well as the ingredients can be easily found. These days a lot of chefs are creating wonderful dishes for their family with the help of the terrific gourmet culinary recipes that are easily obtainable. You too can attempt something similar.

Handy Hints for Excellent Gourmet Cuisine

Gourmet culinary recipes can be discovered on the internet. However, is it possible to use them? The following are some handy hints that you should bear in mind.

1. Carefully regulate the preparation temperature and time in accordance with the appliances you have at your residence. As these recipes are supplied by certified specialists, they are usually created for use in commercial kitchens, and this may indicate cooking at high temperatures in a particular set up to achieve speedy results.

But these days this not usually the case in many kitchens. The silver lining is that when using these measurements, it is possible for you to modify them in order to match the appliance that you have at home. To achieve this, you can make use of diagrams and tables that you can look for on the internet.

2. Always, go in for good quality ingredients as per the recipe’s instructions. If you wish to achieve perfect results then you need to invest time in searching for and buying the ingredients mentioned and of high quality. Do not be rushed but take your time choosing the proper kind, quality, and size of vegetable, spices and meats that you require. Such a course of action will ensure you prepare ideal gourmet culinary dishes.

3. Familiarize yourself with various styles of cooking food. By attending cooking schools, workshops, reading periodicals and viewing television shows, you can acquaint yourself with various cooking styles used for different recipes. You need to be aware of the proper application of gourmet cooking utensils and appliances to enable you to cook gourmet cuisine with finesse and flair.

For people planning to prepare gourmet cuisine it makes no difference in applying the available recipes. What does count when cooking gourmet food is some sensible advice and plenty of detailed planning. Give utmost attention to the nitty-gritty’s and you can rest assured that you dishes turn out just right.

Abhishek is a cooking enthusiast! Visit his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com and download his FREE Cooking Report “Master Chef Secrets” and learn some amazing Cooking tips and tricks for FREE! Learn how to create the perfect meal on a shoe-string budget. And yes, you get to keep all the accolades! But hurry, only limited Free copies available! http://www.Cooking-Guru.com

More than half the women in the country fall outside what the fashion industry calls standard sizes. This is why there is a need for plus size womens clothing and designers are recognizing that need with new styles and fashions. One thing that many people so not realize is that the “petite” size rating for clothing does not mean tiny. It refers to height and many of the women who need plus size womens clothing also need the clothing in petite sizes if they are less than 5.5 feet tall.

Plus size womens clothing doesn’t mean baggy clothes to hide your rolls. With quality plus size clothing for women, you can show off your full figure with skirts and pants that fit you to a T. You can accentuate any clothing with scarves and jewellery, which helps to draw attention away from your size. You can show off your legs by wearing a knee length dress or skirt and wear a beautiful camisole inside a low cut top.

When women shop for plus size womens clothing they also shop with quality in mind. They want plus size womens clothing that will last and that they can mix and match to produce different effects. The makers of quality plus size clothing for women recognize that women in the plus sizes do need the latest styles and fashions for work clothes as well as clothing for just lazing around the house or for those special occasion.

Whatever kind of plus size womens clothing you need is readily available online. Swimwear, blazers, evening gowns, shorts, work out clothing – all of these are available in quality plus size clothing for women. The sizing chart of the plus size womens clothing site will help you get the best size to fit you perfectly. The site will advise you how the clothing is cut and that if you find yourself in between sizes whether you should order the next largest size. Since some of these retailers use a generous amount of material in the clothing they make, you may not have to do that.

When ordering dress pants in plus sizes, it is important to get the right inseam length. If you have slacks in plus size womens clothing and you don’t bother with the inseam, the result may be that you have to cut off a lot of the leg material in hemming. Then the legs of the pants will be very baggy and will make you look larger and shorter than you actually are.

The secret to looking good when you wear quality plus size clothing for women is to get the right fit. When the plus size womens clothing fits properly, you feel great about yourself and you have a glowing look that lets everyone know it.

The secret to plus size womens clothing is fit. Make sure you get it right.

For a website totally devoted to Plus Size Clothing visit Peter’s Website Plus Size Clothing Ideas and find out about Plus Size Clothes as well as Plus Size Swimsuits and more, including Plus Size Bras, Plus Size Dresses, Plus Size Lingerie, Maternity Wear, Wedding Gowns and Shoes.

Hiking clubs are quite popular among fitness buffs and it is likely you have heard about them before. In the unlikely event that you have not, here are a few words of introduction for you. Hiking clubs can mean many things, but mostly they refer to groups of persons who share a common interest in hiking. They are hikers. They hike on a regular basis, say twice or thrice a week. Hikers who belong to a hiking club often hike together as a group.

Hiking together as a group has many advantages. First, having as company the one who shares the passion of hiking with you makes the hike doubly exciting and satisfying. Second, hiking in groups, especially with experienced hikers, means added security. The combined knowledge and experience of the group can be useful to prevent accidents from happening, or for the group to avoid harmful situations.

There is also the so-called long-distance hiking adventure. These hiking trips take you farther from your usual hiking parks or trails. These trips often entail camping or even checking in at hotels. Due to the relative complexity of ensuring that hiking trips of this kind will become rewarding, organizing them are best undertaken by hiking clubs. This also helps lessen the cost by spreading them equitably among those who wish to make it to these trips. In this sense joining hiking clubs becomes important, if not necessary. You can also draw fraternal support from fellow hiking club members in case any of your family members or friends are unable to join you in these trips.

And when you get to the point of weighing the benefits of membership in hiking clubs, keep in mind that hiking clubs are not of exactly the same makeup. For example, they may differ in terms of how they intend to attain their objectives. There are hiking clubs whose members come together only for hiking trips or adventures. There are also hiking clubs that go beyond these activities, like holding meetings as frequently as once a week or once a month. Their agenda in these meetings ranges from exchanging ideas on hiking equipment or accessories, to planning for hiking trips, to fundraising, and many other things. Enterprising hiking clubs have, for instance, went into car washing and vending chicken barbeques to generate funds for their hiking trips. What all this means is that the benefits you may want to derive from joining a hiking club will depend on what mold of hiking clubs attracts you.

There are other considerations you need to remember when you do decide to join a hiking club. Hiking clubs charge membership fees at rates that vary from one club to the other. Be prudent enough to pick the one that suits your budget. Another point is the structure of your daily activities. For example, is it possible for you to make yourself available for weekly or monthly meetings? If this is not, it might work better for you if you join hiking clubs that demand less of your time for activities like meetings. It will not be good for your reputation if you join a hiking club that requires regular meetings among members only to shun them later on. The point of all this is that hiking club members need to develop trust and camaraderie among themselves, so that when they eventually go out hiking, all of them will find the activity fulfilling.

Once you decide to become a hiking club member, it will often be to your advantage if you first consider joining hiking clubs located near your place before you search for them farther afield. It is likely that there are a number of them to choose from in your area. You can access information on hiking clubs near you from the internet, or from people you know who are familiar with hiking. Offices of local hiking parks are likewise good sources of information on existing hiking clubs in your area.

People who may share with your ardor for hiking converge in hiking clubs. It is just natural for you to associate with them through membership in the hiking club of your choice. If by chance no hiking club exist in your area, it may help fill your passion for hiking if you start organizing one yourself.

Hermilando Aberia is an expert in social development work with at least 22 years of professional experience as either consultant or key staff member of health, community development, education and local governance projects. He has a master’s degree in development management from the Asian Institute of Management. Contact Information: B21 L59 Kassel Kristina Heights, Tacloban City, Philippines. Mobile: (+63) 9058664106; Website: http://www.freewebs.com/iaberia

Movie posters are colorful advertisements for movies that quickly become collector items for movie buffs. Movie posters are posters displayed in public places for people to view and learn more about the movie depicted on the poster.

A commercial movie poster is mass-produced for direct sales to the public. People love to buy posters with scenes from their favorite movie. They may hang it in their bedroom or living room. They make great conversation pieces. Video posters are distributed to rental stores to advertise films. Cable and TV posters are used as promotional material for movies that will soon be featured on a major network or cable station. There are posters that promote movies and come with the purchase of a product as a special promotion. Finally, there is the anniversary issue, special release and limited edition movie posters that are released in limited quantities. These movie posters are favorites among movie poster collectors.

There is also other type of movie poster called advance poster. The purpose of this poster is to promote a movie well ahead of the release. Movie posters can indicate that a movie won an Academy Award and are called award posters. There are some movie posters that advertise two movies instead of one, and these are called combo posters. There are double-sided movie posters, and posters called features that highlight short films and cartoons. Review posters are issued when a movie gets a good review.

Movie posters can easily be bought online or in poster shops. You can also order posters by mail or phone,

Movie Posters provides detailed information on Movie Posters, Horror Movie Posters, Old Movie Posters, New Movie Posters and more. Movie Posters is affiliated with Movie Posters.

If you are buying a new sports car, you may have the opportunity to select its cover from the ever-growing palette provided by auto manufacturers. When selecting a color for your sports car, there are a few factors one should consider.

Individuality may be more of a concern for some than it is for others. If one is seeking an original, or individual look for their sports car, they may be interested in the results of the annual DuPont car color survey. Every year, the survey examines each class of passenger automobiles and finds out which colors are most commonly chosen by consumers.

Based on the results of the DuPont survey, you should avoid a silver paint job if you are trying to stand out in a crowd. Silver has been the most popular color for sports cars each of the last two years and one out of every five sports cars purchased is silver. Those seeking a unique look may also want to think twice about going with red, blue or black color schemes. These three hues were the next most commonly used colors. In comparison, the number of yellow sports cars and green sports cars combined would still only equal approximately half of those sold with a red paint job.

There are few things that are researched as much as consumer habits. Not only are popular colors evaluated by research teams, they have also examined resale values for cars of different colors. Paint schemes that are particularly unique, it appears, are harder to sell used. Of course, this is not surprising. Thus, if you are preoccupied with eventual resale concerns, you might want to pick one of the more popular colors so the sports car will appeal to more prospective buyers.

If you plan on driving the sports car as a primary vehicle or with great regularity, you should consider your environment and usage habits when picking a color. For instance, one who must access a dirt road regularly should probably reconsider a desire for white or similar light hues. Alternatively, a light color might be perfect for someone living in a sunny climate and is more concerned about heat retention and paint fading than with showing a little dust.

When determining which color best suits you and your sports car, there is one factor you should not take into consideration. There is a venerable urban legend that claims car insurance is pegged at higher rates for those driving red cars. Proponents of this myth claim the insurance companies determined those who drove red cars were more prone to accidents and they accordingly increased rates. Today, there is absolutely no evidence to support the red paint insurance story. So, don’t let the fear of a higher insurance premium dissuade you from buying a candy apple red sports car if that is your desire.

One should, however, consider the available interior packages when picking out their paint color. Generally, a dealer will recommend a complimentary color scheme, but many of us have seen cars with interior/exterior color combinations that were anything but flattering. Don’t neglect to consider the look of the interior and the exterior together. Will the red paint really compliment the gray interior or neutral brown interior better? Make sure you put together a combination you will enjoy.

One of the great things about buying a new sports car today is the flexibility it affords you. Gone are the days of cookie-cutter cars with few options and limited paint schemes. Today, you can assemble your car to your custom specifications, including the paint job. When picking your color, be thorough in your thinking and you are likely to end up with the perfect sports car.

For more articles like this one please visit [http://www.SportsCarGuide.org]

PHP web programming services are now much in demand as PHP offers a wide range of advantages like low development cost and high performance. PHP is a script based server side scripting language whose main focus is development for the web. It provides design structure to promote rapid application development and can solve scenarios quicker than some other languages.

Custom PHP programming is a time and money saving strategy. The code written in PHP is simple and easy to understand. It can be embedded directly into HTML coding. It is flexible in database connectivity and can be used in all major operating systems and supports most web servers. It can be used for command line scripting and is very helpful in developing content management systems.

PHP based websites offer more room to grow as PHP adds more functionality to your website and allows your site visitors to interact with you through scripts. It’s easy to add content and additional pages to a PHP base website without doing much editing. The language provides a more effective way to make changes to your website without working on every page involved.

If you have a limited budget, PHP web application development might be a wise choice for your project and its success.

Our PHP development efforts are put towards creating and deploying highly competitive and reliable web solutions that will succeed in the market.

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As their children grow up, every set of parents has a different idea as to what should be the main focus of their upbringing and how they should spend their free time, especially when it comes to extra-curricular activities.  Some parents place a huge emphasis on academics and want their children doing extra reading or working with a tutor.  Other parents are heavily into sports and want their children to focus on sports.  Some parents simply want their children to be children and don’t push them in any particular direction at all.

In most cases, schools give children at least some opportunity to participate in a team sport.  Along with the team sports that are taught during physical education classes, there are usually a few varsity sports teams that will represent the school while competing against other schools in the area.  In addition to this, most communities have a few organized sports leagues that children can be active in.

In my opinion, participation in team sports is vital to healthy social, physical and emotional development.  Participating in a sports team exposes children to a range of challenges in a team environment where they are forced to work with others, rely on others at times and also to encourage or root for others on their team.  All of this leads to the development of a cooperative mindset.  Now although all of this sounds ideal, I am aware that it does not always work out this way.  Some times a child might be a ‘ball hog’ and refuse to pass the ball, or want to score all of the goals themselves.  But with time, even this child learns at some point that they must work with others if they want to see true success.

Some kids just love sports and have a natural tendency towards them.  There is very little that a parent could do to stop a child like this from participating in sports.  Other children are quite nonchalant about sports, and some children even hate sports.  A variety of factors can influence the way that children feel about sports.  Sometimes they are shy or insecure about the abilities yet with a little encouragement they will get out there and do fine.  At times, a child may have a physical attribute that they are conscious or overly conscious about that stops them from doing a sporting activity they would love.  I encourage parents to find at least one team sport that their children can become involved in.  Not all team sports have to be high impact activities or ‘popular’ sports.  A swim team is great for a child that is not boisterous or overly physical.  Some schools have sailing as an extra curricular activity which again falls outside of the typical team sport.

I believe that team sports teach children not only how to compete, but how to compete fairly within structured boundaries.  This is an important life lesson and the skills and the disciplines that they learn in sports will definitely last them a lifetime.  Team sports will teach children how to communicate, since most team sports require children not only to talk to each other while the activity is taking place but also how to plan strategies for an upcoming event and how to debrief or review things that have happened in a game.  Perhaps most importantly, team sports teach children how to succeed and how to fail since inevitably throughout each season of their sport their team will do both.  With every win and loss, children learn coping skills.  These again are important skills to develop in a child and they will last them throughout life. 

Susan Roberts writes freelance for a number of different companies including KS Child Locate on locate child mobile. She has many years experience working with teens and families and also publishes on HubPages on subjects such as “My Childhood and my Children’s Childhood“.

You would be loaded with options if you are looking for someone to teach you gourmet cooking. You need to gain all the education that you desire from gourmet cooking also in instruction. You can learn gourmet cooking through workshops or from any of the culinary art professional schools easily without any hesitation.

If you are planning to teach gourmet cooking then you need to acquire fundamental understanding about the history, skills and techniques of gourmet cooking that are required in every process. You may also need to learn the best and effective way to communicate with the students. If you combine all these requirements, you would be able to understand the process in a better way.

Some of the gourmet cooking strategies that would assist you in teaching gourmet cooking are as follows:

1) Use of demonstrations is the best way to provide education to students in gourmet cooking classes. There are many students who can learn in a better way when they see, touch and smell the recipe along with lecture. More the senses involved, better are the chances that students can understand you easily and quickly. Such practical classes also help students to remember the lesson for a longer period.

2) You need to explain the reason behind every act. For example, you should provide reasons as of why are you using this technique when several alternatives are available. Provide difference between the effectiveness of techniques. This would help the students to understand its importance in true sense and help them remember the technique more easily.

3) You should ensure that there is a positive environment where students can be taught gourmet cooking. Once you are able to establish a positive environment in the class, learning would be an enjoyable experience for your students and you would not feel any task a chore that cannot be achieved. Your students would take it as a challenge and try to excel in that. Such attitude is itself a key to successful training and successful students.

You can join variety of classes or invest in workshops to learn skills that are required to teach gourmet cooking. Once you are delivered with right kind of training and educational foundation, you would be able to cook in a specific style of expertise. It is upto the student that he or she uses, loves it, pick it up or not. Still, teaching gourmet cooking properly would divert them towards the right way to prepare a recipe and learn good cooking skills. Therefore, it is important for an instructor to learn all these fundamentals of teaching gourmet cooking before starting his or her teaching career.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, “Cooking Mastery!” from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.

“With public speaking, your audience will know if you didn’t rehearse.” Colleen Kettenhofen

All of us recognize that public speaking ranks among one of the greatest fears for most people. Whether speaking at a meeting or before a group of 400, many people get nervous just anticipating giving a presentation. A comment I frequently hear in my public speaking seminars is, “What’s the best way to overcome nervousness and gain confidence with public speaking?” Here are some proven secrets many great public speakers practice:

1. Your audience will know if you’re not prepared. They’ll pick up on subtle clues in your body language. 95% of your success is determined before the presentation. Rehearsing minimizes 75% of your nervousness. No one likes to rehearse. Instead, see if you can have a friend or colleague videotape you. Yes, I realize no one likes seeing themselves on video either! Still, the camera will be your most objective ally.

2. Once you’ve fine-tuned your presentation, rehearse and practice in front of family members, colleagues, friends, or a public speaking coach. Ask for honest feedback. What did they like most? What did they think of your energy level, passion and commitment to what you’re saying? What do they think could be improved? Also practice in front of a mirror. This will help you rehearse standing up and let you see what needs to be improved. The more you rehearse standing up, and the more familiar you become with your material, the more comfortable you will be with your public speaking. This one tip alone can dramatically improve public speaking skills.

3. Put your presentation as a “rough draft” on a micro cassette recorder. Listen to it while you’re driving to and from work, picking up the kids, or driving to the supermarket. I know what you’re thinking. “I don’t like how I sound on audio tape!” I realize that. But this is a convenient way to learn material quickly. Again, where do you sound convincing, passionate and interesting? What parts of your presentation do you think need work? The audio cassette recorder is another objective ally.

4. Visualize yourself giving a successful presentation. Better yet, if you know the exact room you’ll be speaking in visualize that, too. Olympic athletes practice visualization. It works for public speaking as well.

5. To improve public speaking skills, do a dress rehearsal. Before I conduct a keynote speech or breakout session at a conference, I take a peek inside the ballroom. If the room’s empty, I’ll go in and practice a “dry run.” This is something I try to do in full dress rehearsal mode. If the ballroom is being used until morning, I go in that morning.

Rehearsing in the exact room will give you an edge in feeling more comfortable and conquering fear of public speaking. This is one of the biggest public speaking secrets of many great public speakers. Guaranteed! If you’re usually presenting in small meetings or groups these same techniques work.

6. Are your notes and visual aids large enough print that you can see them standing up? Your notes should be “fast food for the eyes.” Never read your presentation. You’re the presenter. Your audience expects you to be the expert. You want that connection with them. A secret to effective public speaking is bonding with your audience through stories, activities, appropriate humor and understanding their needs ahead of time.

7. Stand up when speaking in public. Even if only three people attend, it sends a signal that says, “You’re so important that I’m going to stand even for the three of you.” According to a University of Minnesota study, when you stand in presenting your ideas, you are more believable, credible and persuasive.

8. Stand “center stage” when presenting your most important point. It grabs the audience’s attention. The rest of the time you can move around as long as you aren’t nervously pacing like a lion. Again, that’s where the videotaping helps!

Visual Aids and Public Speaking: Less is More

9. With public speaking and visual aids, less is more. Don’t use more than three or four colors per slide. Otherwise, people start focusing more on color and less on content. Use graphs for sales figures or sets of numbers showing a trend over a period of time. Graphs are pictures that increase retention and comprehension. No more than two or three lines on a graph. Use pie charts for market share, budgets, expenses analysis, income sources and the like.

10. Avoid slides with yellow, pink or orange print. They don’t show up well. Dark blue, black or any other dark color is better. White is okay with a darker background. Red stands for negatives like “danger,” or “warning.” Only use red to indicate problems, your competition, stopping or something similar.

11. Public speaking and eye contact: Approximately three to five seconds of eye contact per person with a small or medium sized group. Many public speakers make the mistake of using their visual aids AS their presentation. A key point in persuading your audience is establishing connection and credibility.

12. What if someone in your audience doesn’t like what you have to say because they don’t like the product or service you’re selling? Or what if you fear public speaking because you often have to deliver bad news? Know and research your audience ahead of time. What will be their biggest objections? THINK AHEAD when planning your presentation how you’re going to handle those issues.

13. Never lose emotional control. Often, these difficult people are trying to rattle your cage. They want control. And they want it in front of others. What if they continuously discount what you’re saying? Tactfully respond to them at first. After a while, say something like, “You bring up a good point, and yet, due to time constraints see me at the break and we’ll discuss that privately.” Your audience will be looking to see how you handle the situation.

“When speaking in public, you are your own best visual aid.” Colleen Kettenhofen

Colleen Kettenhofen is a speaker, workplace expert, & co-author of “The Masters of Success,” as featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. For free articles, e-newsletter, or to order the book visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Topics: leadership, managing people, difficult people, public speaking. Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars. 1(800)323-0683 http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com

These days, when you are travelling down the highway, you always see a number of different restaurants or signs that are advertising different restaurants. Although some people do not want to admit it, dining out has become a big part of American life. It used to be when the man of the house came home, the wife had already prepared dinner and it was setting on the table ready for the family to eat. Now, dining has completely changed because now when the man of the house comes home, his wife may not even be home yet because she is at work, and if she is, she is more likely to say; let’s eat out tonight.

Dining in restaurants has become second nature when families or busy, or if they want to dress up and go out to a fancy dinner and a night on the town. It is easier to get dressed up and drive to a place where they prepare all of the food for you and just set it on the table for you to eat rather than sit at home for hours in the kitchen trying to make a meal. Even if a family does want to eat in the comfort of their own home, many restaurants offer takeout and delivery to their customers, where a person can come in and pick up the food and take it home or a person from the restaurant will deliver the food right to your front door.

It is also easy for families to do research on restaurants because there are many dining reviews of different establishments available online for anyone to see. These are done by critics who go to the restaurant and have a meal and then write about the positives and negatives on the restaurant so people can easily decide if they want to eat there or not.

Restaurants have also helped boost economies all over the world, often accounting for a big part of the country’s revenue. Corporations like McDonald’s have brought large economic increases and stabilization to different third world countries who have little to no revenue.

Although most people have not realized and just gone on with their regular routines, dining out has become a big part of the world, and people are eating less at home and more in an eating establishment.

For dining out guide, visit JP Pepperdine now.

Feel free to publish this article on your website, or send it to your friends, as long as you keep the resource box and the content of the article intact.

PHP Development

PHP is an abbreviation of hypertext processor. It is a computer language used to build websites and small applications. PHP language is the basis of PHP website development. PHP is an open source language which is used for developing and designing web pages. When any language is open source, it means that using it and its application is free of cost. You can use PHP development without paying anything to its developers. PHP is a widely used scripting language that are used to create dynamic web pages. It is a general purpose programming language and the code is analyzed and executed by interpreter utility.

Benefits of development in PHP language:

• PHP is an open source language
• PHP development offers best performance at low cost which is very good for dynamic web pages.
• Coding in PHP is very simple and easily understandable.
• PHP language syntax is similar to those of C and C++ languages.
• The framework and structure of its internal designing is very good.
• It is easy to navigate through a PHP developed website
• PHP is an robust and extensive language
• Any changed in the site during or after developing phase can be easily made.
• With the use of PHP Development Company, website can be made rich in terms of functionality. It makes your site more interactive by through scripts.
• It run on almost every operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Unix
• PHP web development is comparatively very cheap and is affordable for small scale businesses and industries that do not require much of security.

PHP is used in some of the core areas such as:

• Custom web development
• Ecommerce solutions
• Database driven websites
• Websites with dynamic pages

Austin Smith works for a web development company where you can get various web development services from the php website development company. It also provides custom software development and content writing services.

You’ve performed three of the most important tasks for a dog owner: decided if you were right for a dog, determined what dog was the best for you and taught your best friend some manners. That should be about it, right? Wrong!

You have an ongoing relationship with your pet, just like you do your children or your spouse. It’s important to maintain the relationship if you want it to be fruitful. If you don’t, all of that training you’ve done so far will be for naught.

Sometimes, though, like all relationships, the one with your dog can be rocky. Even well-trained owners have dogs with behavior problems when things change. Dog have been known to act out when their owners being working more hours, go back to school, have a baby or get married. Dogs aren’t themselves when they are ill or in pain. Some dogs are just never quite right because of problems inherited from poor breeding.

Here are nine things you can do to make sure your well-behaved dog stays that way.

1. Don’t forget that you are leader of the pack. Remind yourself that your dog is genetically programmed to be part of a group and to obey the leader of his pack. If you don’t provide him consistent strong, yet fair, leadership, he will try to become the leader. If he becomes the leader by default, behavior problems will increase exponentially. Here are some tips to make sure he remembers you are his leader:

- Don’t let him pull on his leash.

- Don’t put the leash on your dog until he sits quietly.

- Don’t let him get away with bad behavior.

- Always eat before he does.

- Don’t chase or play rough games like tug-of-war with your dog.

- Don’t allow him to bite anyone.

- Always go through doorways before him.

- Try to always be calm, fair and confident when dealing with your dog.

- Don’t give him anything – attention, food, play – without him doing something for you first, like sitting on command.

- Don’t allow your dog on furniture without your permission.

- Protect your dog from other animals or people who try to harm him.

When you are a strong leader, your dog will respect you. With this respect comes an innate desire to please. He will love you and want to obey your every command!

2. Train with your dog every day. Just like with humans, any behavior you train your dog to do will be forgotten if he doesn’t practice it. Work with your dog at least 15 minutes a day on an aspect of his behavior. This is important, also, to remind your canine that you are the leader of his pack. Try to teach your dog something new every month or two. This will keep him challenged and give you both a sense of accomplishment. Most dogs were bred to do some kind of work, and if you don’t give your dog purpose, he’ll become bored and develop behavioral problems.

3. Make sure to give your dog treats and praise. Continue the technique you’ve used to train your dog. People tend to get complacent, and before you know it, Spot is hogging your bed and dragging you down the street by the leash. To make things worse, he won’t listen to your commands any more. To prevent this, make your dog perform an act of obedience to earn praise, petting or a treat.

4. Never strike or yell at your dog. Hitting or kicking your dog will have about the same effect that it would on a spouse or a child – it ruins the relationship and breaks down all the trust your pet had for you. Some owners use physical abuse to train their dogs to fight for money. Others believe, erroneously, that abuse will make them become better watch or attack dogs. Statistics show that thousands of dogs are killed or injured by people every year. No matter how frustrated you get with him, never, ever strike your pet.

Dogs don’t respond well to yelling. All it does is get your dog more stressed, which will more than likely make his behavior problems worse. Everyone loses their patience from time to time, but remember that your dog only responds to fair leadership.

5. Get your dog proper medical care. Your dog needs a checkup at the veterinarian annually to make sure he’s in top form physically and to receive yearly shots to prevent rabies and other diseases. It’s important to go to the same vet every year so he or she can monitor your pet and notice any evidence of problems. All dogs need a teeth cleaning from time to time, too, to keep them healthy. If your dog is injured or sick, he needs to get proper medical attention. Your veterinarian can also give you advice on behavior as well as diet, breeding, training, and puppy selection

6. Attend obedience training. As an absolute necessity for getting a good to a positive relationship with your dog, be sure to take him to a six-to-eight-week-long obedience class, before his first birthday if he’s a puppy, as soon as possible if he’s an adult dog. A good trainer will teach you the basics and what a good dog/owner relationship is.

If you have an adult dog, don’t worry. That old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is not true! A dog of any age can learn good behavior. Both you and your dog will benefit. He will learn some good behavior and to respect you, the leader of the pack. You’ll learn the subtleties of your dog’s behavior and how to act in a fair, yet dominant, manner. Obedience training is great way to teach an “only dog” how to properly socialize with other dogs and people. Whether you are alone with your dogs or in a group of people and animals, your dog will learn how to behave.

Here are some tips to help you determine what obedience class is the right one for you and your pet:

- Ask your friends, family members, vet or groomer for

recommendations.

- Be sure the trainer uses positive reinforcement and no methods that hurt or frighten the dogs.

- Choose a trainer that focuses primarily on group classes. Although it may seem like one-on-one training might be best, group classes give both you and your dog to observe other people and their pets. Your dog will also focus on your commands, not just those of the trainer. Some owners do both individual and group classes.

- Make sure there are separate classes for puppies and adult dogs. Dogs between eight and 16 weeks should be in puppy classes. You may also feel more comfortable with a trainer who offers beginning, intermediate and advanced obedience classes.

- Ask the trainer you are considering if you can watch a class. While you watch, note some of these details: Notice if the class is small enough that everyone can get some individualized attention. Watch to see if both and dogs and owners are having fun. See if the trainer provides lesson handouts. In a good class, you’ll hear plenty of praise and commands in upbeat, yet firm, tones. Does the trainer give the owners other information about health, grooming or specific breeds? You want to make sure your trainer is knowledgeable about the whole dog, not just obedience training techniques.

- Ask your trainer if he or she knows several different techniques to work with dogs. This can come in handy if your dog doesn’t always respond to the tried-and-true methods.

- Make certain that the trainer requires that dogs be vaccinated and certified healthy by their vet before enrolling in classes.

- Be sure to get a list of equipment you’ll need to bring with you to your first class.

Once you find the right trainer and obedience class, make sure both you and your dog are prepared. Be sure to bring all the required equipment. Don’t feed your dog before class – since treats are part of the reinforcement of good behavior, you want him to be willing to eat the treats, which he might not want if he has a full belly. Don’t forget to do your homework! Practice between classes is essential to reinforce your dog’s behavior.

7. Lean all you can about your dog, his breed, and canine care. You can never know too much when it comes to your dog. Learn all you can from books, television and magazines. Be sure just to take the time to browse at the pet supply store or your favorite online pet supplies merchant to see what kind of new products are on the market. A new toy from time to time is a new adventure for both you and your pet.

8. Keep your dog’s home safe and stimulating. Giving your dog a fun, secure place to live will help to prevent bad behavior and may even prolong his life. Always have a number of fun toys available, including balls, chews and squeaky toys. Be sure to play with your dog daily to give him the necessary exercise he needs, to help you bond with your pet and to just have fun!

If no one is home during the day, leave a talk radio station on. Keep your pet out of areas of your home where he might eat something toxic or injure himself. Keep your fence well maintained.

If your dog starts to have behavior problems, don’t despair! There’s nothing to say that you can’t start training him to change his behavior! With a little patience and perseverance, you will be able to eliminate most bad behavior. In the most extreme cases, you may not be able to stop the behavior, but with training your dog will show improvement.

Some problems won’t be entirely eliminated, especially if you chose a dog that doesn’t have the temperament for your lifestyle. But even some of these dogs can change if you have a good dog/dog owner relationship. Now we’ll look at some of the most common behavior problems and how to re-train your dog to behave appropriately.

Marilyn Burnham

Author: ‘Dog Owners Boot Camp’

The How To Guide, Dog Training Secrets Professional Dog Trainers Don’t Want You To Know!

For More Information On Dog Training

Marilyn Burnham was the owner operator of 4 successful dog grooming stores in British Columbia, Canada for more than a decade. To spend more time with her children Marilyn made the decision to sell her business in the mid 90’s. Get a copy of her book: ‘Dog Owners Boot Camp’ The How To Guide, Dog Training Secrets Professional Dog Trainers Don’t Want You To Know!

Do you know what you’re putting into your dog’s dish every day? Here you’ll learn about some of the most important things to consider when feeding a dog.

Your dog is a cherished member of your family, so you need to give serious thought to feeding your dog the same quality of food that you would actually eat yourself and feed to your kids.

Feeding a dog the right foods with all of the nutritional value a dog requires to keep him or her in optimal health throughout life is a vital component in determining a dog’s behavior and is even instrumental in prolonging it’s life.

There are certain things that dogs just shouldn’t eat, some of which can make them very sick or even kill them. Eliminating the bad foods and selecting the best foods can be a real challenge, especially with all of the inconsistent information and blatant lies being circulated by pet food manufacturers and their agents.

We hope that providing you with enough valuable information, tips and suggestions on feeding a dog a nutritious diet will make those selections easier for you and the everyday routine of feeding a dog an enjoyable experience for both you and your dog.

There are now so many choices available when you shop for dog food it’s mind-boggling, so it’s perfectly understandable why finding the best ones to buy can be extremely confusing. Should you buy canned food, dry food or semi-moist food? Should you spend a lot of money for premium dog food, or is the cheapest brand okay? Should you buy holistic/organic dog food or should you even make your dog’s food yourself. What about the possibility of getting creative with the choices and feeding a dog some combination?

What we just mentioned is only a sample of the many questions and challenges you may encounter when deciding what you should be feeding a dog. If you’d like greater detail and, hopefully, some answers to those questions, stay with us through this article. Also, watch for additional articles, in the near future, where we’ll be providing you with much more detailed information on every aspect of providing a healthy and nutritious diet for your dog.

We are not attempting to tell you what the best food choices are for your dog, we are simply offering as much information as we can and listing various options so that you can make your own informed decisions on what foods will provide the highest level of nutrition for your dog. We realize dog nutrition can be a complex topic, so we’ll try to break it all down and simplify it for you as much as possible.

Below, we list some important basics you should know if you feed any commercial dog food to your dog. We’ll get into greater detail about each of them on our website and blog and in the articles to follow.

So,what’s the most important thing?

Quality: You might think selecting a brand of dog food should be as easy as finding one that fits within your budget and one your dog likes. But you need to very careful; there are a great many brands on the market that are made almost entirely of filler and don’t have many of the nutrients dogs need. In addition, some of them contain toxic ingredients that can seriously harm your dog.

We realize convenience can be one of the biggest factors in feeding a dog commercial dog foods. If store bought dog food is the primary source of nutrition for your dog, it’s very important that it contain all the vitamins and minerals needed by your dog everyday for it’s optimal health and longevity.

The biggest difference in all dog foods is in their source of protein. Cheaper dog foods use the very least expensive sources of protein available, some of which will shock and utterly disgust you. Therefore, the quality of the protein in less expensive dog foods, like generic or grocery store labeled brands, is vastly inferior. Even some of the name brands use inferior ingredients…you really need to know what to look for.

There are so many disgusting “protein” ingredients that some commercial dog food manufacturers use, it’s not only repulsive, it’s outright criminal! Please be sure you know exactly “what” the protein consists of when you’re feeding a dog.

Avoid getting inexpensive no-name or store brand dog foods because they are most often produced by bulk manufacturers who use the worst forms of ingredients, and whose actions and lack of ethics are just plain loathsome. Do your best to find a quality dog food to give to your dog.

Be aware that you can be seriously mislead if you only consider the “percentage” of protein that’s listed on the label. This does not tell you anything about it’s quality, what that protein source is or how well your dog will absorb it. Some dog food manufacturers are very cagey when it comes to listing “percentages”

There are a number of different things you should be looking for if you want to choose high quality food for your dog. You may want to start by comparing the prices and ingredients of various brands of commercial dog food. Start with the premium brands first and then move into the lower quality products. Look for significant differences in where each of the ingredients are listed and what nutritional values each brand contains.

The very best dog foods will list some form of animal meat as their main ingredient on the label or bag. Look for brands that give only the kind of meat used (like chicken, beef, lamb, etc) without adding “by-products”, or anything else along with it. This means that the product contains choice pieces of meat and not low quality slaughterhouse waste, known as “4D Meat” or “Downer Meat” (just awful!!!).

What’s the next most important thing?

Filler: Corn and wheat (not the kind we eat) are used as filler products and make up a large percentage of the ingredients in many commercial brands of dog food. They provide bulk with hardly any useful nutrients for your dog and are also quite difficult for them to digest.

The brands that utilize fillers as their main ingredient will certainly be a lot cheaper than the higher quality dog foods, but your dog won’t get sufficient amounts of the nutrients needed in its daily diet, and that could eventually show up as serious behavioral or health problems.

It could ultimately cost you a lot more, in the long run, because you’ll end up with either high dog behaviorist fees or high veterinary bills, or both…so please beware of filler!

What’s next?

Variety: Alternating between brands is crucial to your pet’s health! (this applies to any and all commercial or homemade diets and recipes!) Do not get in the habit of feeding just one or two dry foods or mixtures of ingredients all the time, day in and day out.

Dog nutrition experts advise dog owners to purchase, or preferably prepare, several different types of high quality foods. They suggest you alternate the foods, giving each one of them to your dog for a given period of time (say for one to three months), so that if one lacks in certain nutrients, the other may make up for it.

If you feed only dry food, you should also consider occasionally feeding wet food to your dog. It’s usually much higher in protein than dry food and doesn’t contain as much filler. Try mixing some wet food in with the dry food but, be careful not to leave it sit too long because there’s a risk of bacteria contamination.

Alternating foods can have valuable health benefits and your dog will probably thank you for it…they love the smell and flavor of wet foods. Just be sure not to overdo it as too much protein can be harmful to dogs…just like “too much of a good thing” can be bad for us!

If you do alternate different foods, be sure keep an eye on your dog’s coat, energy level, eating habits, stool, etc. If there are any noticeable changes, it might indicate an allergic reaction to the new food, or it could mean that the food doesn’t contain enough protein for your dog’s needs.

Every dog has it’s own unique energy level and each also gets varying amounts of exercise each day. A good rule of thumb is that the more exercise your dog gets, the more protein it needs to be fit and healthy.

You get what you pay for…

Price: The quality of any dog food is reflected directly in the price you pay. Remember, like everything else in life, you get what you pay for!

Stay away from brands of dog food that are sold exclusively by groomers, veterinarians or pet stores. They tend to be grossly overpriced and the quality can vary greatly because they’re manufactured by small companies that do not have the resources to monitor the quality of their ingredients. Lots of harmful things can “slip through the cracks”.

They also make hugely exaggerated claims about the ability of their products to cure or prevent every conceivable disease known to dog. They’re just not worth the money…there are better and less expensive alternatives to choose from.

If you prefer to feed your dog a commercial dog food, stick with products that meet high nutritional standards and are produced by large companies that you know and can trust. This suggestion does not apply to the special diet dog foods needed to manage specific diseases and sold by veterinarians. Just make sure you know exactly what’s in those special diet foods, the same as you would any store bought dog food.

Should I Read Labels?

Labels: The first three ingredients on the label are the most important! A number of experts have offered tips on what to look for on the label of any dog food you consider purchasing when feeding a dog.

The three initial ingredients (the ones listed first) need to be some form of protein, containing one word each like, chicken, turkey or beef (and not “protein by-products” or other plural names!). High protein content is considered to be the most essential ingredient in a healthy dog food product. Again, don’t go by just percentages alone, they can be very deceiving!

Those experts also say that you must never purchase dog food that doesn’t clearly display the manufacturer’s name on the packaging, along with contact information, such as website address and phone number. There should always be a way to contact someone in case anything goes wrong…if not, pass!

Some commercial dog food brands are usually safe for feeding a dog and can offer decent nutritional value, but you need to stay on top of things to make certain your dog is consuming a healthy product. Study labels to ensure the ingredients in any brand you choose are high quality, this will help you avoid any health or behavioral issues. You also need to watch for any recalls, which do happen occasionally.

Also, keep an eye on your dog to make sure the food you’re feeding a dog agrees with it and is providing health benefits for it’s overall wellness.

What About Homemade Dog Food?

Cooking For Dogs: Homemade diets can be a wonderful choice for feeding a dog, especially after the latest commercial pet foods scare. When you’re home-cooking your dog’s food you can control the quality of the ingredients that go into each meal, and completely eliminate all of those harmful commercial food additives, colorings and preservatives.

If you think you may want to prepare homemade food for your dog please come back soon and read our forthcoming article on homemade dog food (or visit our website). We will offer loads of information on what’s involved in feeding a dog nutritious home cooked food plus some great recipes that are easy to make and will delight your dog.

*Remember to have fresh water available for your dog, at all times! This is especially critical during the summer months when it’s hot and your dog can become dehydrated.

Important Notice! Although we are long time dog enthusiasts and dog advocates, we are not veterinarians or professional animal nutritionists. Our purpose is strictly to provide you with information, so that you can make your own decisions. Any and all of the information contained or stated in this article is provided for general information purposes. The information provided is not direct veterinary advice for your dog and should not be construed as such nor substituted for a consultation with a veterinarian or dog nutrition professional. Every dog and situation is different. If you have any concerns about your dog’s health, please contact your veterinarian’s office immediately. We all love our dogs and want only the very best for them! “In Dogs We Trust”

Anita Boyd has been a “dog person” her entire life and just recently learned that she’s been feeding toxic ingredients to her dogs over many years through a commercial dog food that she trusted would nourish them. One of her dogs suffered from severe bladder issues and died at a very early age and the others died far too soon from cancer.

Now that she’s learned the awful truth about what’s really in some commercial dog foods, she feels compelled to expose the blatant lies that are being perpetuated by pet food companies. She’s decided to publicize everything she now knows or will still learn about the disgusting, toxic ingredients we’re unknowingly feeding to our trusting dogs.

Here in these articles, on the Dogliciousblogs and Website: http://feedingadog.yolasite.com you’ll be provided with some extremely important and highly detailed information related to this subject. She hopes you’ll visit her Website: http://www.feedingadog.yolasite.com and Dogliciousblogs. And, please come back here often to read new and informative articles, all about feeding a dog.

“In Dogs We Trust”!

On-campus education vs. online education! Is one better than the other? Can one completely replace the other? Indeed it seems that online education is the way of the future. Educational institutions, corporations and government organizations alike already offer various forms of electronic teaching. However, can a computer truly replace a teacher and a blackboard?

How people learn

Each individual has a form of learning that suits them best. Some individuals achieve fantastic results in courses taught online, however most people drop out of 100% computer-led courses. Educational institutions, as well as companies in carrying out staff training, must recognize that there is no ideal way to carry out the teaching of a large group of individuals, and so must design programs that best suits the needs of the group as a whole.

People learn using multiple senses. This involves learning through both theoretical components of a course, as well as social interaction with both instructors and other students. Students learn from each other’s mistakes and successes, not just from what they are told by instructors.

Each individual student has an ideal learning pace. Instructors are therefore faced with the challenge of designing courses that move forward such that those students with a slower learning pace do not get left behind, while not moving so slowly that students with faster learning paces get bored.

Online education

In the age of high-speed information transfer, online education is becoming a popular and cheap means for delivering teaching to individuals outside the classroom, and in some cases all over the world. Teaching can be via CD, websites, or through real-time online facilities such as webcasts, webinars and virtual classrooms. However, different methods of online education each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Online education is still a relatively new concept, and in many respects still in the teething stages. As such, various problems arrive across different online education environments. For example:

1. Lack of immediate feedback in asynchronous learning environments: While some online education environments such as webcasts, webinars and virtual classrooms operate live with the addition of an instructor, most do not. Teaching that is delivered through a CD or website, although having the advantage of being self-paced, provides no immediate feedback from a live instructor.

2. More preparation required on the part of the instructor: In an online education environment, an instructor can not simply stand in front of a whiteboard and deliver a class. Lessons in online education environments must be prepared ahead of time, along with any notes and instructions that may accompany the teaching.

In many cases it would also be necessary that the instructor not only understands the concepts being taught, but the technology used to deliver that teaching. This therefore increases the skill-levels needed of online education instructors, placing greater demand on educational institutions.

Staffing levels may also be higher for courses run in an online education environment, requiring for example:

The Instructor – able to teach both course content and be skilled in the use of technologies involved

The Facilitator – to assist the instructor in delivering content, but may do so remotely

Help Desk – to offer assistance to instructors, facilitators and students in the use of both software and hardware used to deliver the course.

3. Not all people are comfortable with online education: Education is no longer only sought by the world’s youth. With an increased trend towards adult and continuing education, there is a need to design courses suitable for students over a larger age-range, as well as students from different and varied backgrounds. It is difficult, however, to design online education environments suitable for everyone.

4. Increased potential for frustration, anxiety and confusion: In an online education environment, there are a greater number of parts making up the system that can fail. Server failures may prevent online courses from operating. Software based teaching applications may require other specific components to operate. Computer viruses may infect software necessary to run online education environments. If these systems are complex, students may choose the ease of On-campus education rather than taking the additional time and effort necessary to master the use of online education systems.

5. The Digital Divide: Many people who live in remote areas and developing countries do not have access to computers, making any form of online education virtually impossible. For this reason, online education is only able to be targeted at the people lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the technology involved. Similarly, offering live teaching across the world means that different time zones and nationalities increase the demand for multi-skilled instructors.

In addition to these, there are also several legal issues associated with maintaining an online education environment. For example, intellectual property laws, particularly those relating to copyright, may or may not fully cover electronically created intellectual property. For example, information on a website is not necessarily considered to be public domain, despite being available to everyone. However, the Australian Copyright Act was amended in 2001 to ensure that copyright owners of electronic materials, including online education environments, could continue to provide their works commercially.

On-Campus Education

Still the most common form of instruction is traditional classroom-style learning. These instructor-led environments are more personal than online education environments, and also have the advantage of allowing for immediate feedback both to and from student and teachers alike. However, the classroom allows for less flexibility than courses run in online education environments.

Instructors in modern classroom environments are still able to take advantage of several forms of electronic teaching tools while still maintaining the atmosphere associated with the traditional classroom environment. For example, PowerPoint slides can be utilized instead of a whiteboard or blackboard. Handouts can be distributed via course websites prior to the event. However, on the day, students are still able to actively participate in the lesson.

Like online education environments, On-campus education comes with certain drawbacks, the most common of which is the classroom itself. This requires a group of people which, in a university for example, could reach a few hundred people in size, to gather in the same place at the same time. This requires enormous time and financial commitment on behalf of both the students and the educational institution.

However, it is this sort of environment that is most familiar to students across the world. People of all ages can access a classroom environment feeling comfortable with the way that a classroom-run course is carried out. Older students who may not be comfortable with the use of information technology are not required to navigate their way through possibly complex online education environments, making On-campus education the most accessible form of teaching.

On-campus education has one advantage that 100% electronically delivered courses can not offer – social interaction. Learning comes from observing, not only what is written on a page or presented in a slideshow, but what is observed in others. Most students are naturally curious, and so will want to ask questions of their instructors. The classroom environment allows students to clarify what is being taught not only with their instructors, but with other students.

So, Which is Better?

There is no style of instruction that will best suit every student. Studies have shown (Can online education replace On-campus education) that courses where online education is used to complement On-campus education have proved more effective than courses delivered entirely using only one method. These courses take advantage of both online education materials and a live instructor, and have produced results higher than those of students in either 100% online education or classroom environment courses. Students have the advantage of the immediate feedback and social interaction that comes with the classroom environment, as well as the convenience of self-paced online education modules that can be undertaken when it best suits the student.

It would seem that online education environments will never completely replace On-campus education. There is no “one size fits all” method of teaching. Teaching styles will continue to adapt to find the method that best fits the learning group. Using a mix of online education environments and classroom sessions, educational institutions, corporations and government organizations can ensure that training is delivered that is convenient and effective for both instructors and students alike.

Mathew Simond is a journalist and copywriter. He is also a webmaster of many websites including http://www.paralegal-degree.org and http://www.humanservicesdegree.net

He aims to provide healthy information and advice on academic degrees.

Thinking of what education might look like in the next decade, one quickly realizes that the trends in technology are leaving a large number of our students behind. We no longer live in an age of visible movement when it comes to progress and innovation. Today is an age of exponential change. New and ever-improving technologies are popping up every day and in every corner of society.

Educating the best and the brightest in this brave new world will take a new and improved educational paradigm. Allowing our educational tools to age in the corner of the classroom will be the mistake that may cost us our future. Throwing away masses of children to inequitable access will ensure that we languish at the bottom of the global pool of employable workers for decades to come.

The New Toolbox

I was at an auction a few years ago and noticed a few old woodworking tools that I thought I could use. For a few bucks, I was able to snag an assortment of hand tools that may have been in someone’s toolbox for a generation or more. As the next decade passed, I used these tools in my shop for a wide variety of projects until my projects outgrew these old, dull tools. My woodworking creations continued to improve as did my skills and artistry. I quickly discovered that using improved tools would translate into improved craftsmanship. As any woodworker will tell you, new tools require new skills.

Woodworking is a great metaphor for shaping and molding students. There is simply no good substitute for a sharp tool. If you want to build the best projects possible, you need to use the best tools possible. Thinking in terms of the next decade for our country, we will be sorely disappointed in our projects if we fail to improve our tools.

Within this article, I will try to paint a picture of how technology will shape the way we educate students in the next decade. I will attempt to show the amazing possibilities that lay before us if we will simply walk through the doorway of opportunity that is open to us. My focus will be this idea: Transforming the student from being a passenger to becoming a “user.” You may be wondering what I mean by this. Let me explain.

Ask yourself what it means to be a “user.” A user is not simply a person who uses. For the student, being a user should involve using the latest technology in a free and autonomous manner. This new-found freedom will allow the student to become an active participant in his/her education instead of a passive passenger. No other time in history have we been so able to make this a reality.

In our current technological society, being a user also means being tracked. Tracking has become a major part of our daily lives and is precisely the engine that should drive our educational process for the foreseeable future. Tracking a student means having the ability to target education toward weaknesses and strengths. The ability to accurately customize curriculum to the individual has been the holy grail of educational philosophy for many years. This golden age of technological development may soon enable this dream to become a reality.

Current educational curriculum and individual assessment is arbitrary at best. Being able to accurately asses a student can only be achieved by using modern tracking and database technologies. The means by which we can make this a reality is readily available and only needs to be taken off the shelf to be used. If Congress is looking for a shovel-ready project, this may be the one.

Imagine a world where every child has a tablet computer with ready access to the App of virtual photographic memory (internet). Further, imagine that every student can access all the knowledge of humankind freely at any moment in time. Continue to imagine a world where a misspelled word brings up a spelling challenge application instead of an auto correction. Try to contemplate what it would mean for a teacher to have a database of every misspelled word, every misunderstood concept or every missed equation for each of their students. Try to envision a teacher with the ability to customize the experience of the individual “user” with minimal effort. Imagine the curriculum being automatically targeted to the user through an intuitive educational platform that knows every strength and each unique weakness. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

The company that makes this standard available to the educational community will be the company that shapes the future of humankind. Will it be Google, Apple, Microsoft, or some other yet unknown pioneer?

Continuing from the thoughts in my last post, I would like to elaborate on the idea of the student as a user of a new standardized educational platform. It is obvious to me that the future of education will always mirror our everyday lives in one way or another. If you examine how technology has influenced your daily life already, you begin to put together a snapshot of what it will mean to be educated in the next decade.

In the last few hundred years, most individuals would consider an education as something you receive. You often hear the question asked, “Where did you receive your education?” As we proceed through the next decade, education will slowly move away from reception and toward being custom designed for the individual user. New technology will not only allow us to receive an education, but also develop an education. The question we might ask in 10 years is, “How did you develop your education?” The question of where will still be important, but the how of the matter will be the focus that defines the individual.

To make this a reality we will need a standardized platform from which to develop a student’s unique education. This standardized platform will allow us to tailor a custom curriculum that will be matched to talents, interests and life goals. For the educator, a standardized platform will create a way to assist the student in discovering a true purpose in life through a unique educational experience. The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic will not be taught as much as they will be discovered and used. Learning will become a reciprocal experience between the teacher, the student and the machine.

Under a standardized platform, each of these three participants will have a role to play. The teacher will be the facilitator, assisting the development of the curriculum and inspiring the direction the student takes. The student will be the user, gathering resources, skills and knowledge in an efficient and measured sequence. The machine will do the work of data gathering and analysis, which will assist the teacher and student in refining the curriculum. This data gathering work of the machine will also free the teacher from the burden of record-keeping and tedious tasks that currently distract from the real job of teaching and learning.

Under a standardized system, grade level will be far less important. Achievement and progression will be measured by accomplishment and intelligence as a benchmark for success. The question of failure or success will be irrelevant and replaced with a standard and consistent measurement of potential and overall intelligence. Information will no longer be missed but continually rehearsed and monitored for retention by the machine.

In our current educational paradigm, the teacher is in charge of arbitrarily constructing curriculum. This approach to curriculum development is based on inexperience in some cases, outdated materials, inadequate funding and a shortage of time. Measuring the success of a specific curriculum is currently impossible. With a standardized system, comparisons of curricular success can be made across the entire spectrum of education and then continually reformulated and enhanced by the machine.

Sadly, teachers today are bogged down with an assortment of mind-numbing tasks that would be better suited to an off-the-shelf automated system. Tasks such as data tracking, reporting and record keeping are currently accomplished manually. These tasks could easily be delegated to an intuitive database. Developing a standard to follow would eliminate these tasks and free the teacher to do their main job of teaching students.

Education 3.0

Throughout history, man has sought to pass on knowledge to the next generation. This process started with oral tradition, storytelling and writing. With the advent of the printing press, knowledge and information slowly became available to the masses. The amount of information that could be gained by one human in a lifetime was severely limited by his access to printed materials and wealth. The majority of learning was gained through observation and imitation. We can call this Education 1.0.

Education 2.0 starts around the late eighteen hundreds with universal literacy movements throughout newly industrialized regions of the world. Improvements in education slowly transitioned from apprenticeship to formal education and training. Despite our movements toward universal education, access to knowledge and opportunity continues to be inequitable throughout the world. Even with the arrival of the computer revolution, access to the tools of learning continues to define the learner.

The next decade may mark the moment in history when all men are granted equal access to the greatest treasure a soul can possess. I use the word may in the last sentence because there is the chance that we will miss this golden opportunity. Access to Education 3.0 will only be gained through investment and universal standardization. If we continue to divert wealth toward fruitless goals and corporate greed, this opportunity will be lost or hopelessly delayed.

Education 3.0, when it arrives, will be the age of universal enlightenment. Platforms for education and learning will slowly standardize and become globally accessible and affordable. The poorest to the wealthiest will have access to the machine that runs the platform.

The thought on your mind at this point is most likely wondering what machine I keep referring to. The machine in question is the one we have been so busy teaching and training since roughly 1969. You’ve probably guessed it by now that I am referring to the internet. The great cloud of knowledge that we call the internet is precisely the mechanism that we will use to build the platform of Education 3.0. When the platform is finally in place, the decade to follow will see the greatest amount of wealth, discoveries and use of human potential that we have witnessed during our time on this earth. The only question that remains to be answered is the point at which I will leave this article.

When will we allow the user to use the machine to its potential?

Stephen McClard has been the Director of Bands at Bolivar High School since 2002. Mr. McClard graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1990. He started his teaching career in Southeast Missouri before moving to Illinois where he taught band for 8 years.

Mr. McClard’s bands have consistently received superior ratings at contest as well as many other awards and accolades. Since 2002, the band has traveled twice to Chicago, where they won 1st place class 4A and 1st place overall at the Midwest Music In the Parks Festival. The band also traveled to Cincinnati in 2006, receiving the same honors. In 2006, Mr. McClard was named by SBO Magazine as one of the 50 Directors Who Make a Difference. In 2006, 2008 and 2009, Bolivar RI School district was named one of the “Best 100 Communities for Music Education” in America by the American Music Conference. Mr. McClard was previously featured on the cover of the 2003 issue of SBO Magazine for his work with music technology.

In addition to his career in education, Mr. McClard maintains an online woodworking business and is a 3rd generation piano technician. His woodworking creations include custom bass guitars, which have sold all over the world and one-of-a-kind computer desks made from old pianos. His piano desks have been featured in magazines such as Business 2.0 and Piano Technicians Journal and in many other newspapers and television news features.

His first book, The Superior Educator, A Calm and Assertive Approach to Classroom Management and Large Group Motivation, is available on Amazon as well as other book outlets.

So many fashion dolls to choose from

For doll collectors who have a liking for fashion, collecting fashion dolls seem like a logical option as a hobby. And there are so many different types of fashion dolls out there in the market that it’s easy to get confused. There are large toddler-sized fashion dolls, there are teddy bear sized fashion dolls and…let’s not forget those tiny little miniature fashion dolls that you can place over dressing tables, closets or on the bedside table itself!

Although fashion doll collecting is deemed to be a favorite hobby or interest that people of the fairer sex likes to indulge in, some men actually like collecting fashion dolls too! So, doll collecting is not a hobby exclusive to girls…men can and some do collect fashion dolls.

Contemporary fashion dolls, vintage or modern fashion dolls? Your choice

Fashion dolls have very contemporary designs today with a fusion of modern fashion clothes mixed and infused with traditional and conventional elements. Fashion dolls like Robert Tonner dolls are truly made for the hard core doll collector. Their dolls have a whole range of modern fashion dolls, vintage fashion dolls and also fashion dolls based on characters. Fashion dolls with characters, names and a personality profiles written out are often a hit with doll collectors. Barbie dolls sell like crazy – not only a hit with youngsters, but a hit with adults as well. In fact, the Barbie doll is, without a doubt, the leader in fashion dolls. Barbie dolls have been selling like hot cakes for ages and we don’t think it will stop anytime soon, either. As long as clothes designers keep coming up with new clothes and fashionable accessories for their Barbie fashion dolls, people will keep on buying.

Knowing where to find your fashion dolls

Knowing where to find affordable fashion dolls will make a huge difference to your budget, especially if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on this fashion doll collecting hobby of yours. Most of us don’t. You don’t have to have all the fashion dolls in the market today – it’s not urgent! Although a point to note is that new fashion dolls are often grabbed up in minutes after they hit the stalls. Keep some spare money and budget the money you want to spend on fashion dolls every month – and don’t overspend. It’ll make you feel resentful and you’ll soon lose interest in fashion dolls.

Buying fashion dolls online

For sure, you can find a wide range of fashion dolls in supermarkets, hypermarkets, and in children’s toy stores. But the best way to find cheap fashion dolls is online. Yes, online. Be warned that you have to be careful about whom you buy the fashion dolls from if you buy it online. Get to know the seller first before you part with your money….even if you’re desperate to have the fashion doll! Online auction websites like eBay, Amazon and Box Lot have tons of fashion dolls listed for sale at ridiculous prices. But as mentioned, be wary of the seller.

One last point to make about buying and collecting fashion dolls is this; it’s not the number of fashion dolls in your collection that counts. It’s the quality of those fashion dolls that makes a difference!

o Bisque. Many old, foreign dolls have heads and/or bodies made of bisque, which is an unglazed porcelain material.

o Composition. Composition is a (surprise!) composition of wood pulp, sawdust, and glue. The mixture was used to make heads and/or bodies of dolls before plastic came along and took over the industry.

o Celluloid. Before hard plastic came out, dolls were made of celluloid, a thin, highly flammable type of plastic. Don’t smoke near your celluloid doll!

o China. Many dolls that came out in the mid-1800s were constructed from glazed porcelain called “china.”

o Hard Plastic. A very durable plastic that was popular in constructing dolls in during the mid-1900s.

o Vinyl. Vinyl was often used in dolls of the 1960s. It can be hard or soft, and it sometimes has that that yummy plastic smell.

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of [http://www.doll-headquarters.com] on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.

Lawyers face the same challenges any business does. In order to get new business they must market their services, i.e., advertise. And lawyers deal with the same marketing and advertising challenge every business does – how to beat the competition. Plus lawyers have to assume that any Internet or non-Internet marketing or advertising they do may well produce little or no results for the amount of time and money they spend — regardless of what an outside marketing or advertising advisor may say to the contrary.

Prior to the Internet the main non-Internet marketing option or advertising choice for any lawyer was to advertise in the yellow pages. To this day the print yellow pages contain plenty of colorful, one page display ads that feature lawyers offering their services, and lawyers pay a lot for these ads. How effective these ads are is anyone’s guess — it’s hard for your colored, one page display ad to stand out when you have 20 other lawyers doing the exact same thing! The yellow pages companies, however, continue to promote their marketing and advertising philosophy that “bigger is always better” and “everything we sell is an opportunity,” so they often present a lawyer with a non-Internet marketing and advertising solution that costs plenty but often produces little.

This line of thinking, along with the use of print yellow pages in general, has gone the way of the dinosaur at a very accelerated pace. The yellow pages in print form had their heyday for many decades, but the population now goes to the Internet for the information they seek, so most print directories are collecting dust. A lawyer who advertises in the print yellow pages may well get calls, but they’ll most likely be from vendors using the yellow pages as a cheap source of leads.

The major paid search providers (pay per click search engines) tend to offer lawyers Internet marketing and advertising solutions in a manner similar to the way the yellow pages do with their print directories. “Bigger is always better,” so rather than realistically discuss with a lawyer a pay per click Internet marketing and advertising campaign that makes financial sense and produces a decent ROI, the pay per click providers will tell the lawyer to go for as many top listing keywords (the most expensive) as their budget will permit and bid as high as they can. The lawyer may go broke in the process, but at least they’ll get exposure! Many lawyers get into pay per click as a quick way to get leads but quickly exit a month later after spending lots of money for Internet marketing and advertising results that produce nothing but expense.

While pay per click Internet marketing and advertising is the running favorite of Internet marketing advertisers worldwide, pay per click advertising for a lawyer is usually an extremely expensive proposition for what they get. How much a lawyer is willing to “pay for a lead” takes on a whole new meaning with pay per click. The cost per click for many lawyer related keywords, e.g., “personal injury lawyer,” “criminal defense lawyer,” can range from $5.00 to $70.00 per click depending on the market, and when the typical lawyer’s conversion rate (the number of clicks it takes to generate a lead) of one to two percent is factored in, the lawyer can find themselves paying upwards of $500.00 to $7,000.00 per lead, and a lead is not a client.

Part of the problem lawyers face when they work with pay per click (and this translates directly into poor conversion rates) is that (1) they spend little time creating their pay per click ads and (2) the ads direct traffic to the lawyer’s website. Any Internet marketing professional who knows something about pay per click knows you never send pay per click traffic to a website. Instead you create special pages, i.e., “landing pages” for pay per click traffic to be directed to. The landing pages perform the job of convincing traffic to do what the lawyer requires, which is normally to contact the lawyer via e-mail or by phone.

Legal Internet directories and portals offer the lawyer a potential Internet marketing and advertising option because of their popularity and enhanced Internet visibility. How effective a listing in a legal Internet directory or portal can be for a lawyer in terms of marketing, advertising and Internet exposure will depend upon the particular attributes of the legal Internet directory or portal in question. All things being equal, legal Internet directories or portals that charge a fee to be listed in them make more sense as an Internet marketing and advertising choice than similar sites that offer listings for free. The lawyer has to be particularly careful, however, when they consider advertising in legal Internet directories and portals that “look” like they offer a lot — and a price to go with it — but for whatever reasons simply do not produce enough leads for the amount of Internet marketing and advertising money the lawyer must spend.

Many legal Internet directories and portals exist that have a very strong Internet presence, and they are excellent resource centers for lawyers, but this does not automatically make them good places to advertise. With Internet legal portals especially it’s not how many lawyers the portal attracts but how many people the Internet legal portal attracts who are searching for legal services. People have paid thousands of dollars for advertising in Internet legal portals that have produced nothing in the way of Internet marketing and advertising results. A very wise idea for any lawyer who considers advertising in an Internet legal portal is to get some very accurate user demographics on what kind of specific traffic the Internet legal portal is actually attracting.

What is a lawyer supposed to do? Everywhere the lawyer looks, whether the marketing and advertising media is Internet or non-Internet, considerable financial risk is involved, and a guarantee that the lawyer will get good, solid results for the amount of money they spend is often hard to achieve.

Ultimately the best way for a lawyer to go with Internet marketing and advertising – the way that will ultimately get them the best long term results for the money they spend — is to focus on getting their website to rank high in organic search results. When all things are considered, people on the Internet who search for goods and services mainly search for websites to find their answers. They may look to legal Internet directories and portals, and if they don’t find what they want they may turn to pay per click listings as a last resort (only about 30% to 40% of users bother with pay per click) but ultimately people who search the Internet are looking for websites that provide them with the answers they seek.

If a lawyer is looking for an Internet marketing and advertising solution that doesn’t require being part of the pay per click crowd, the lawyer may want to look into pay per phone call programs. Pay per phone call is like pay per click, but the lawyer does not pay for a call unless they receive one. And the costs for pay per phone call are normally substantially less that what the lawyer will pay for a click in many cases. A smart lawyer may even want to consider getting involved with several pay per phone call providers with the idea that between the providers the lawyer will receive enough leads in the aggregate to make involvement with these programs worth it.

Many of the Internet marketing and advertising solutions that a lawyer chooses to look into must be tried on a case by case basis. Absolutely nothing can be assumed. A pay per click advertising campaign that works extremely well for the lawyer with one search provider might fail miserably with another.

One last thing that a lawyer should be aware of when it comes to the Internet and a website presence is that appearances really do count. Many people have been on the Internet for 10 years and have correspondingly seen websites of all types and styles. People are used to seeing professionally designed websites. The lawyer’s website should be too.

Michael Merten is an Internet marketing professional who consults with lawyers and legal finance companies. He specializes in getting legal websites to appear in first page search results on major search engines in record time. Mr. Merten can be reached at Minnesota Internet Marketing [http://www.minnesotainternetmarketing.com].

Again, history is on the path to repeat itself in American Politics. It seems like for 2 different reasons America’s citizens have felt the need for a third party in politics. Either they believe in one or two political issues that they feel are not given a big enough role in either of the two big parties platforms or they don’t believe in anything and are annoyed with how democracy and debate work to solve political issues in society.

The green movement in American politics showed that the first of the reasons for forming a political third party actually are useful way of having an impact on politics. The main reason the American political system has only two parties is the ballot setup and how political elections are won. As we all know, it takes a majority or 51% of the vote to win most elections in politics and 51% of the state’s citizens votes to win all of the state’s electoral college votes.

The majority system in politics pits two candidates against each other and gives no incentives for only winning 15% of the votes. The contrast to the American political system is Great Britain, which has a proportional system. Because of this system, politics in Great Britain are different at their core from American politics. In a proportional political system, if there are 10 seats available and a political party wins 20% of the vote then they win 2 seats out of 10. I’m sure you can imagine how this influences the whole art and strategy of politics in this system.

Ok so what is unity and what do they have to do with all of this?

Unity08 on the surface is trying to sell itself as the party of the people and uses polls and catchy marketing to try to convince people to join their cause. They are a wannabe third party that has no core issue(s) that are not covered by the two major parties. They actually claim that they take on the more crucial issues rather than the somewhat important issues that don’t actually affect people.

They show base for their support by citing a polls that show the American public agrees with some things that are totally unrelated to a third party in politics. Things such as dissatisfaction with the way the country is headed and polarizaton. Also they polled on hypothetical questions of a different unity ticket and probably asked whether they agree or disagree with the idea. Good political pollsters know that people are always more likely to agree on any question when given the choice.

Ok now what do they have to do with third party politics? Well technically, they claim they do not want to be a third party. No No….They want to influence the big 2 political parties by giving them a wake up call. Oh it gets much better than this. They seem to contradict themselves a lot. They don’t want to leave their political parties but they want a moderate candidate or one person from each big political party to join together and run under their ticket.

So on some of their crucial political issues of national debt, nuclear proliferation, health care for all, and the disappearance of the American Dream they just want one candidate from each party to come together and run?

Ok Ok….Slow me down if I am wrong about this but is their differences on how to go about these issues what makes America the model democratic republic? Did our founding fathers not set our political system up with just that clash and debate?

I feel like I am under the Capitol Dome looking at the painting of Thomas Jefferson apparently stepping on John Adams toe and unity asking Mr. Jefferson if they could shake him up and then to embrace Mr. Adams like his political best friend. The political founding fathers setup the American system on the ideals of Newtonian physics where 2 political parties would both butt heads and the equal opposite reaction would end in a balance.

You cannot expect to take bits and pieces from each different approach given by the major parties, throw them into a blender and out comes the perfect solution. Most moderates in politics today hold views on political issues that are held by both political parties. However, they are affiliated with a certain political party because they believe in their core platform.

Finally, if unity08 plans to have one prominent member from each party on their presidential ticket for the 2008 political elections then how do they decide which party holds the President and which one holds the Vice President. I feel like I shouldn’t need to say this but unity08 makes it out like they do not see the huge difference in power between those two political offices.

So my final thought is this…The main founders and backers of unity08 are in this thing for exactly one reason. *Drumroll* MONEY. Plain and simple. Unity08 said they are seeking an advisory council from the FEC to see if they can be considered not a political committee. This means they do not want to be bound to FEC rules. Also nothing states that they are a non-profit and therefore I have to wonder whether they are not just a for-profit company.

Finally, one of the main founders bio on their webpage states this…

“Hamilton Jordan, Atlanta, Georgia. Carter White House Chief of Staff, writer, investor; focused on for-profit and non-profit start-ups; most importantly, father of three.”

This could mean nothing but it sure sticks out…investor;…for-profit and non-profit start-ups. Also, most of these former political people would not have wasted their time on this if they couldn’t control the cut they’ll make as consultants for unity08.

hmmm…This thing smells of scam and unrealistic dreams that not only contradict the founding fathers political setup for America but are also bad for America. The 2 party system is and will always be the best system for America. Does America need political advocates and higher citizen engagement? Of course! Conflict and honest debate is the best path to the perfect solution.

So to end let me say, unity08, no thanks.

here’s a link to their site. I feel like it is doing them a service but for my readers that don’t know what I am talking about I feel I must.

Jonathan D. Rhyne

Editor of The Right Minded Elephant http://rightmindedelephant.blogspot.com