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Beside all the organized sports our children are attending throughout the year, summer time provides great opportunities for kids to attend a summer camp and learn new skills or make new friends. In fact, it’s been proven so many times that by keeping kids active and interested in sports or arts, they will stay out of trouble and away from bad influences.

But with all the choices out there it can be difficult to find the right kids summer camps. This article will concentrate on providing some guidelines on the numerous factors to consider when choosing the best camp for your child.

WHOSE DECISION IS IT?

If you want your child to attend the worst summer camp, send him or her to a camp without involving them in the decision. Otherwise, make sure to sit down together and talk about what really interests him, what does he love about a particular activity and what does he want to gain from the camp experience. Regardless of the age of your child remember to include him in the decision. Looking through brochures and sharing some favourite summer camp stories with your child is a great way to build his excitement.

WHAT PROGRAM

Once you have determined your child interests decide if it’s best that he attends a traditional or a specialized camp. Traditional Summer Camps are more appropriate for children who love to do many different types of activities such as outdoor recreation, arts and crafts, individual and team activities, and more. Specialized Summer Camps focus on one activity and are more appropriate for children that are motivated towards one specific activity. The most common kids camps and activities are:

Adventure Camps: hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, rope courses, rafting, outdoor cooking, and fishing.

Watersports Camps: swimming, canoeing, kayaking, scuba diving, snorkelling, waterskiing, windsurfing, volleyball.

Individual or Team Sports Camps: soccer, baseball, football, basketball, hockey, horseback riding, gymnastics, martial arts, tennis, fishing, golf.

Arts Camps: acting, directing, writing, photography, choreography, dance, music, circus, paining.

Science Camps: nature, geology, astronomy, biology, archaeology, physics.

Religious Camps: Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Christian.

Computer Camps: web design, graphic design, video game design, 3D-modeling and animation.

WHAT TYPE OF CAMP?

After taking into consideration your work schedule, child’s age and the experience you and your child are expecting to gain from the summer camp, consider the type of camp that makes the most sense for your child. Depending on the type of camp, you can choose between overnight camps, day camps, all boys or all girls’ camps, or brother and sister camps. Also take into consideration the age groups represented and the percentage.

WHERE IS THIS CAMP?

If it’s the first time your child is attending a summer camp look for something closer in order to lessen some of the anxiety he or she might be feeling. Consider the proximity to your home or work especially if your child will be attending a day camp. Keep in mind the camp environment, security, and medical facility and remember to choose the camp based on your child’s interests rather then how close the camp is.

WHAT ARE THE FACILITIES LIKE?

Most camps will schedule a tour for parents to visit the facility and meet the directors or you can talk to the camp administration on the phone about your concerns if visiting the camp is not an option. Talk to them about your child’s needs and interests and how you can ensure that your child will have a successful summer camp experience. Enquire about the sleeping arrangements and what toilet and shower facilities exist. It is also important to find out what medical facilities are available and where is the nearest hospital.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

As a rule of thumb, non-profit camps are less expensive then the private camps. Most of these kids’ camps are tax deductible under the Income Tax Act, falling under the general rubric of the “childcare expense” deduction. Talk to your accountant to see if you qualify. Beside the actual price of the camp you will also have to take into consideration the extra expenses such as the spending money needed by your child, transportation or camp uniform. Be sure to check the cancellation and refund policy!

HOW MANY CHILDREN WILL ATTEND THE CAMP?

The number of campers will vary depending on the size of the facility. Large camps are often organized into smaller segment groups in order for campers to receive the same attention as they would in a smaller camp.

WHAT ABOUT THE STAFF?

It’s important to enquire about the staff before you and your child commit to a certain camp. Ask questions regarding the camper-to-counsellor ratio, the experience of the staff and directors, background, and what kind of staff training is provided. Don’t forget to ask who prepares the food and what medical staff is on campus. Although most kids’ summer camps are required to undergo detailed staff checks for anyone working with children, you have the right to ask for references of families who have previously enrolled their children in the camp.

Last but not least, visit the Canadian Camping Association’s website for a list of accredited camps and information regarding provincial standards. Make sure your family is comfortable with the program you have chosen and remember that at the end of the day it’s important for your child to have fun, fun, and some more fun.

Kids Activities Castle is an online Canadian community of like-minded parents who are looking to make other parents lives easier by offering information and ideas regarding children activities, afterschool classes and family friendly attractions.

If you are the designer type and take pleasure in adding exclusive expressions in your house, you are perhaps elated regarding the prospect of including interesting elements in your child’s playroom or room. In effect, if you are not expert with designing distinctive styles, you can do minor adjustments for having that enduring effect within your kids room. When it comes to personalization and customization, the choices are endless. You can put wallpapers or paint for extra patterns and color. Among all, the most essential element is adding modern kids furniture in your child’s room.

There is a wide variety of options available in modern children furniture, such as beds and nursery, tables and desks, shelves and storage, activities and toys or my pet lamps for your children room. To select the right kind of kids furniture, there are certain points to consider, such as adaptability, fun and durability.

When picking modern kids furniture, durability is of utmost importance. Children play rough and it is feasible to purchase sturdy kids furniture for both boys as well as girls. You surely want something, which will stay for a longer period of time. Even if the kids do not share a room, the bunk bed is a good option, since it provides them more room to play with friends. Bunk bed can also be a great place for storing some belongings. These beds are generally built better because they are essentially meant to hold years of hiking in plus out of them.    

In addition, adaptability is a good consideration while buying children furniture. There are various convertible cribs, which are flexible enough to be converted into kids beds, twin beds and day beds, with support braces and mattresses. Fun is essential to children. There is numerous imaginative unique kids furniture accessible like the cars shaped beds, P’kolino clothing tree and EVA MINI foam chair.

When making a themed room, consider adding modern kids furniture [http://www.themodernkid.com] in fusion with other pieces for supporting the main kids furniture, such as kids table, kids chair or kids bed. It chiefly constitutes wall décor, wallpapers, my pet lamps or art, which will make the kids room appear cohesive. For instance, you can include an angora, piggy or a nautical lamp to a room with pirate theme. 

For small girls, the princess life can take a totally novel meaning with the modern kids room furniture. A P’kolino toddler bed and matching Bebe 2 Dresser with 5 drawers or Bebe 2 Cabinet with Shelves or canopied bed with vanity could work wonders and offer great fun play time to your small princess.

 

As your child grows, certainly so will the styles of modern kid’s furniture. Luckily, the modern children furniture comes in a huge variety of styles and designs for the adult kids too.

With considerate planning, the parents must always ensure safety guidelines for any equipment or modern kids furniture to which the kid will have access. When picking child furniture for your home, make sure you remember your kids interest as well as lifestyle. Select a bed and kids room furniture, which can grow with your child over time and can also be handled to their little sister or brother.

Ruth A Ford is an experienced interior designer. With her focus being on the use of modern kids furniture [http://www.themodernkid.com].

Politics have been a part of Chicago for some time. By politics we mean the heated politics of Chicago. From the University of Chicago, which has seen some great political leaders, to the leaders of Chicago in the past who were known to have mob connections, Chicago has been a political firecracker for some time.

They say that the two things you should never discuss are politics and religion, but that does not stop a lot of the talk of the heated politics of Chicago. Many people want to know Chicago politics inside and out, and want to know what the big news for the city’s political scene is. This love for the Chicago political scene is something many in the city share. However, finding people to talk to about politics can be extremely difficult to do.

Just as the history of Chicago has been very diverse, so have its political views. The politics of Chicago have not only been heated, but have led to impacts in the nation that is here today. They have also laid the groundwork to a number of events that would be factors in the world as a whole as a well. Some of the newer cities of the United States have to give thanks to some of the greater minds and political views of the Windy City.

In recent years, some of the greats in the corporate world and political world have sought places in the Southwestern United States. Some have seen this as a means of fleeing the fires that they fueled in Chicago, other have merely seen this as them wanting to have a transition to the next stage of their lives. The heated politics of Chicago can literally eat someone alive and spit out the remains without a second thought. That is part of what makes Chicago one of the political centers and also one of the hot spots for change in the Midwest.

Many have seen the legendary Al Capone as a nightmare in the streets of Chicago, and have seen how he would consume the legal system. One can’t say Capone’s name though without mentioning how he was the catalyst in the creation of the FBI. This level of corruption that Capone brought forth also instigated a higher level of how politics were viewed in Chicago and how the dirty politicians were dealt with. In the bluntest of terms, just as the Chicago sports fans won’t tolerate verbal jabs; the political arena of Chicago is no different.

Some have seen that Chicago is one of the harder roads for politicians, yet it is also a road that had garnered a higher level of respect of the politicians that have surfaced from the torrents of the political world there. This has been a city that has shown what a cut throat environment politics can be and also where a politician can be revered by those that support them.

The author runs a website about Chicago politics. This has been truer with the rich political history that Chicago offers and the direct impact it has had on both the state and Federal government.

Cooking games for girls used to be cliche but now with the rise of cooking video games and handy mobile games for cooking that act as self guided cooking classes they are rising in popularity. When you say cooking games for girls and for boys its not just the plastic Fisher Price games that bring the world of make believe to life. Nintendo DS is a popular platform for cooking video games for kids and also adults as it walks you through cooking different types of meals. This article will walk you through the different types of games for girls, boys and adults. The article will follow up with the benefits of using the different games in your childs play time as well as benefits of adults using the cooking video games. Its fun for the whole family.

The first niche of cooking games is the classic make believe games. Generally these games are stereotype as cooking games for girls but as the culture grows games involving cooking should be included in any genders toy collection. Cooking games made by Fisher Price or Smart Gear were top on the list years back when you searched online. Now you have to scroll a few pages to find quality cooking games for girls and boys made from high quality plastics meant to last a childhood or two. The benefits of these types games are the same as you get from sending your child to soccer or youth football. They allow for the creative part of the brain to develop and help with social skills. A few of the children using cooking games will turn out to be the next Chef Ramsey. So be sure that you include cooking games for girls and boys of the make believe variety in your home.

As of recent the top searches for just “cooking games” returns Cooking Mama, Cooking Dash, even Cooking Mama 2 and Cooking Mama 3. What are these titles you ask? Video Games of course. The days of playing outside or playing house and make believe are dwindling sadly taken over by the hand-held graphical games. Nintendo seems to have cornered the market on games about cooking and even pulls in the adult crown with “Personal Trainer: Cooking”. This is not all bad although make believe toys mentioned above such as “Smart Gear Cooking Center” provide imagination through play the video game version can bring the reality of flour plus water and sugar equals dough without destroying your kitchen.

Better yet adults can learn how to cook in the comfort of their home while using their kids Nintendo DS. Personal Trainer: Cooking will have you delivering mouth watering food to your families table in no time. So although cooking games for girls and boys deliver hours of stimulating play for them; these video games can be just as entertaining for adults. Girls cooking games usually come in pink, but recently you will see blue as a popular color for these toys noting the shift in gender role association.

If your child shows interest in these games encourage them to take cooking classes for children. Your local community center often will have cooking classes that you can take with your children. If not be sure to include them in baking activities you partake in. Even if you are not a particularly great cook your children will appreciate the time you give them. Be prepared and don’t get mad there will be a mess made. Make the cleanup just as fun as the cooking. It is important to raise your children with an appreciation for cooking and baking especially as families lose the sit down family dinner and restaurants are more often the default over home cooking.

If you are looking for classic a game about cooking there is a website that has done the searching for you and separated them into cooking games for girls, for boys and for all. The products are all sold from Amazon.com which is a quality online retailer with reasonable shipping especially if you have Amazon Prime. I’ve used this site before just a note though – even though you add items to the cart on the site checkout actually happens in amazon.com so you can be assured of a safe secure shopping experience while shopping. The site is http://www.cookinggamesforgirls.biz a invaluable resource while shopping for any type of game about cooking.

Cut through all the noise and find the toys and games you need. [http://www.cookinggamesforgirls.biz] delivers top quality products on Amazon in an organized fashion. You are actually buying from Amazon when you checkout the site is just a collection of amazon products targeted at helping you find quality cooking games for girls, boys and adults.

You know the feeling. You spend hours, or even days, creating a resume. You pore over every word of your cover letter and agonize over what to say in your email. Then you hit ‘send’ and wait. And wait. And wait. No one calls. No one writes. You don’t know if anyone even saw your resume. When this happens, it’s easy to get dejected and worry that employers are not interested in you. Don’t! Remember, they haven’t met you. They have only seen your resume and that may be the problem.

An overwhelming majority of job seekers make basic mistakes with their resumes – mistakes that ensure that they will not get the interviews they deserve. If you feel as though you’re sending your resume into a black hole, try this ’10 Step Program’ to diagnose problems and get your resume working for you.

1. Is your résumé the right length?

You may have heard that your resume should fit on one page. This is nonsense. Recruiter or hiring managers don’t care if your resume is one or two pages long. But they do care whether it is easy to read and gives key information upfront. Your resume can be one, two, or (occasionally) even three pages. The only rule is that the length should be appropriate for you. If in doubt follow the (very general) rule of thumb that less than 5 years experience probably only requires one page and more than that may need two.

2. Does your resume clearly position you as someone who can meet the needs of the employer?

Think of a resume as an advertisement for a product, only this time the product is you. Just like any other advertisement, positioning is everything. The person who receives your resume will scan it quickly – perhaps for no more than 20 seconds – to determine whether you can help her company. Your job is to say quickly, clearly and loudly that you can!

Don’t just launch into a chronology of your career history. Instead, determine your own positioning by spelling out your message at the start of the resume and giving the reader your version of events upfront. For this reason, you should use the first 1/3 of your resume to create a compelling personal profile which highlights your key strengths in an attractive, easy-to-read format.

3. Does your résumé begin with an objective?

Don’t start with an objective. Recruiters and hiring managers don’t like them because they focus on the needs of the job seeker rather than the needs of the potential employer. Consider this objective statement:

“Seeking a software engineer position with a progressive employer where I can contribute to the development of new technologies and work with bright, committed people.”

This may be very honest but it is irrelevant to the reader, who does not care what you want and only cares what you have to offer. Instead of an objective, try using a positioning statement that clearly and concisely explains what you have to offer.

“Senior Software Engineer with 10 years experience developing leading-edge technologies.”

Now the reader can immediately see your value to the company. (For even greater impact, tailor this statement for each position so that the reader immediately sees a match between his/her needs and your skills.)

4. Does your resume contain specifics?

You must place your achievements in context by providing specifics. For example, don’t say something vague like “contributed to product design.” This tells the employer nothing about your actual contribution. Instead be specific about what you did:

“Conducted market analysis for (name of product) to determine design and mechanics. Led changes to original design spec. despite initial developer objections. Received critical acclaim and sold over 4 million units.”

See how being specific makes a difference? This level of detail shows the reader the contributions you have made in the past (and therefore the contributions you can be expected to make in the future.)

5. Have you outlined achievements as well as responsibilities?

Don’t provide a laundry list of responsibilities without showing what results you achieved. Most employers already know what the main responsibilities of your job were. They want to know what makes you different from all the other applicants. An effective resume summarizes job responsibilities in a few sentences and then provides details of quantifiable achievements.

Focus most of your resume on the results you accomplished, not the regular duties of your job.

6. Are there any typos?

Your resume has to be perfect. Proofread it over and over again. When you are sure it’s perfect, have other people proof it! If even one word is misspelled the reader will assume that you didn’t know how to spell the word (this is bad) or that you didn’t care (this is even worse!) Nothing puts the reader off more quickly than misspellings or typos.

7. Is the resume easy to read?

At least 50% of the impact of your resume derives from design. A strong resume design will pull the eye through the document, making it easy to keep reading and will highlight your key strengths clearly. But if your resume is badly laid out, disorganized or hard to read, it will be discarded before the reader knows how qualified you are.

To see examples of how to lay out your resume, go to the library or bookstore and look in the career section. You will find collections of sample resumes. Take time to understand how the page has been laid out and then apply what you’ve learned to your resume.

8. Have you listed irrelevant information?

Don’t list your hobbies unless they directly support your qualifications for the position. Don’t detail your marital status or the number of children you have. Don’t mention non-professional affiliations such as political or religious volunteer work unless it directly relates to the position you are applying for. Any personal information runs the risk of turning the reader off. However proud you are of personal achievements, you should not run the risk of alienating someone before you even have your foot in the door.

9. Are you too modest?

Don’t be uncomfortable about blowing your own trumpet. Too many people play down their achievements. While you should never exaggerate on a resume, you should definitely take credit for the things you’ve accomplished. Some people feel uncomfortable boasting on paper preferring to explain in an interview. But if your resume doesn’t spark interest, you may never get that opportunity, so don’t be modest!

10. Have you created an internet-ready version of resume?

If you have to post your resume online, or apply to a job via an online system, you will need to convert your resume to a text-only format. If you don’t do this, your resume will be almost impossible to read because most online systems cannot support the type of formatting used in a resume (bold, italics, bullet points, lines etc.)

Summary

When you send your resume out, it must speak articulately for you. You can’t explain inconsistencies, clear up confusion or fill in things that are missing. Your resume has to make your sales pitch in a clear and compelling manner within 20 seconds. Invest the time to make it exceptional and you will see an immediate increase in the response rate.

Louise Fletcher is the President of Blue Sky Resumes (http://www.blueskyresumes.com). She is also the Co-founder and Managing Editor of Career Hub (http://careerhub.typepad.com), a leading source of free job search information for professionals and executives. Louise is a frequent contributor to job search publications such as Monster.com, The Ladders, Net-Temps, Job Bank USA and Employment Spot, and her work is featured in numerous resume books, including the JISTworks “Expert Resume” series. A recognized leader in cutting-edge job search techniques, Louise has helped 1,000s of professionals secure a better position through effective career marketing.

Most people in the United States have heard that if a black cat crosses your path, bad luck will follow. Most people who respond to such an event by saying something like “uh-oh” don’t follow up and blame the cat for the fact that a few days later they are, say, fired from their job or trip over the dog and sprain an ankle. But the notion persists, as do many other folk beliefs about cats-as-trouble. Most of these notions arose (in the West) during the late Middle Ages, persisting well into the seventeenth and even the eighteenth centuries. They come down to us today, happily, for the most part filtered by time and reason into paler, less scary versions. In fact, in England it is good luck if a black cat crosses your path. But Europeans in earlier times found plenty of reasons to be truly horrible to cats, especially black ones.

Black cats were not only nocturnal like all cats, skulking around in the dark as if guilty of something, and they were often indifferent to humans, even haughty, but also they had the misfortune of being black. For Europeans in early times, black was-simply-bad. It was associated with the underworld, with night (when bad things like werewolves were on the prowl), with the dark forests where dangerous spirits and crazy people bent on mayhem lurked. It was a scary world, where Satan himself was a constant threat. He and his dark minions practiced the black arts and were always looking to traduce innocent souls into evil.* The world, back in late medieval times, was also full of somewhat attenuated beliefs based on ancient times. Rome’s Diana the Huntress was associated with cats and later in her career morphed a little bit into Hecate, goddess of the underworld and given to dark doings. Also she was associated with the moon, that unreliable and protean body in the night sky. Cats were awarded these attributes.

Early on, the Catholic Church tried to dispel any such pagan notions, discouraging belief in the witchcraft that appears to have always been part of life in most preliterate societies. But late in the Middle Ages when universal satisfaction with the teachings and workings of the Church began to decay, scapegoats were needed. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX explained that black cats were satanic and suddenly the Christian world was overrun with witches and their “familiars,” which is to say the black cats that the witches sent forth to do harm to people. Indeed, witches often turned into black cats. And witches of course were agents of the devil. Thousands of people, mostly women, were burned at the stake along with their cats. Putative witches were typically tortured, and they readily admitted their guilt to stop the torture, even repeating various totally made-up incantations. Thus the virulence of witchcraft was proved, leading to a kind of mass hysteria in which yet more witches were put to the torch. Meanwhile, with such a bad rap, cats of all colors were persecuted.

In one common event, they were hung in bags that avid medieval sportsmen would attack with lances. Indeed, killing cats by one means or another was a highly popular pastime. In these exercises, there was no special emphasis on black cats-any cat would do. From this era comes the old saying “no room to swing a cat,” another sportsmen’s amusement. Possibly harking back to the Egyptian belief that cats were associated with fecundity, some medieval European farmers would bury a cat-alive- near each field they planted, to ensure the growth of the crops. In one macabre case, English archaeologists in the nineteenth century found the remains of thousands of cats buried by the adoring ancient Egyptians, and shipped them back to Albion to be ground up and used as fertilizer.

Mistreatment of cats in this era took many forms. As James Serpell of the University of Pennsylvania describes it, On feast days as a symbolic means of driving out the Devil, cats, especially black ones, were captured, tortured, thrown onto bonfires, set alight and chased through the streets, impaled on spits and roasted alive, burned at the stake, plunged into boiling water, whipped to death, and hurled from the tops of tall buildings; and all, it seems, in an atmosphere of extreme festive merriment.

Europe was not alone in the world in its distaste for all that cats stood for. Evil cats were common features of some Oriental folklore. In Japan, huge vampire cats took the form of human females and sucked the blood and strength from unwitting men. The Japanese used to cut off cats’ tails, believing the tail to be the seat of their malevolence. On the other hand, cats were looked upon with great favor in many Japanese monasteries, where bobtail cats called temple cats or kimono cats were thought to exemplify much of the wisdom passed on by the Buddha. And today, the Japanese have given the world the manekineko or beckoning cat, which can be found in many Asian restaurants and homes in this country as well as Japan and the rest of Asia.

The ceramic figure, something like a children’s illustration, recalls a cat that legendarily stood at the entrance of a famous temple beckoning a feudal lord to come inside. A lightning bolt struck where the lord had been standing and thereafter the beckoning cat was taken to be an incarnation of the goddess of mercy. It is also said to be good for businesses, beckoning customers, and for happiness and harmony-a long way from the cat vampires of old. Today in the West the association of cats with witches is memorialized in Hallowe’en costumery and iconography wherein witches on broomsticks ride across the disc of the full moon, while cartoonish black cats with malevolently arched backs spit and hiss in the foreground. On the last day of October, diminutive witches with black pointy hats will now turn up on doorsteps cheerfully calling for tricks or treats. And, of course, at least 278 zillion people have read about Harry Potter whose witch-filled world is also populated by kneazles, catlike creatures with spots and big ears, that appear to be mostly benevolent. In Islamic countries, cats are and were much admired, especially since the prophet Mohammed was particularly fond-and respectful-of cats, once cutting off his sleeve rather than awakening the cat who was sleeping on it. On the other hand, most Muslims find dogs objectionable. Dogs are eaten in many Asian restaurants, but I know of no place where cats are part of the normal diet.

The idea that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck is a southern European and Irish superstition, exported to the Americas. The English, as noted earlier, consider such an event good luck, and here and there local superstitions suggest that the appearance of a black cat in the presence of a pregnant woman assures a healthy offspring. Cats, and especially black ones, seem to have enjoyed a remarkable power: to be (in one place or another or at one time or another) all things to all people. Even at the height of cat persecution, plenty of cats lived comfortably with families who valued them for their help in vermin control. Indeed, in some places in England, if someone killed your cat, he would be forced to provide you with a pile of grain as high as the cat was long.

I myself had a black cat for several years. I did not seek him out. Instead, two women in the office where I worked at the time thought it would be funny (I suppose) or somehow fitting for them to present me with a large carton at the end of one October day-it was a few days before Hallowe’en-in which there sat a lanky young black cat with a look in his eyes of what seemed low-level outrage. The carton itself was decorated with various kinds of feline graffiti. I was unable to think of a graceful, or even ungraceful, way to refuse this gift, but the thought of schlepping the elaborately decorated carton to Grand Central Terminal in New York City and boarding a crowded train for the hour’s ride to my town, then arriving at my door and trying to explain to my then wife how we had come to have a cat and then introducing the cat to our dog while our three young daughters enthusiastically mauled it… well, it was not an auspicious beginning.

I was aware that black cats had a reputation for bringing bad luck, but as a science editor I was not going to worry about such nonsense. We found it difficult for reasons I don’t recall to come up with a name for this interloper, so finally, in a burst of paternal authority (this was the late 1960s) and stunning imagination I unilaterally named him Cat. Science or no, I was tempted to look up a few superstitions about black cats and found, of course, that I should be careful about him crossing my path, and if he did the antidote was something like walking around the point where I had seen him twelve times, then heading off backwards in my original direction. I pronounced myself grateful for my exposure to science, thinking how time-consuming it would be for me to feel I needed the antidote, what with Cat strolling though the house day in and day out. Imagine the superstitious life: you would have hardly any time for anything else.

Anyway, I came to know Cat and to be very fond of him, admiring all the things about cats that all cat people admire, though if he ever caught a mouse and dispatched it (or a bird, for that matter), I was unaware of it. I did not consider this a failing-just Cat’s amiable and, I thought, admirable approach to life. He took things easy and stayed out of trouble. Like most people, I have experienced plenty of misfortunes, mostly minor ones, but it has never occurred to me to blame any of them on Cat, who was a really good guy. One day, in his late teens, with out having shown much by way of signs of aging, he simply stopped being alive.

I have since learned that nowadays it is not always easy to obtain a black cat from an animal shelter in the days near Halloween. This is because some of the good people who devote themselves to such places do not want to run the risk of someone taking a black cat off to some horrid altar and performing lethal satanic rituals with it. This, in the twenty-first century!

It is a sad commentary to think that such a precious and complicated organ as the human brain, capable of designing a laser, or a symphony, or a democratic constitution, or of divining the common molecular basis for all of life on this planet, can still be so foully and stupidly misused.

Not all superstitions about cats that persist today are malevolent, of course; most of them are positive and harmless, if a bit silly. Upon reflection, it does seem strange for an animal whose evolutionary history is so steadfastly catlike-you have to go back many millions of years to find a cat ancestor that doesn’t look and act unmistakably like a cat-to be assigned so variegated an array of meanings. The human propensity to imagine the supernatural or the anthropocentric and pin it on perfectly innocent animals is astonishing. Snakes have, as noted, gotten an especially bad rap (aside from the fact that some are poisonous) for conning Eve, and other offenses. Most American Indian cultures believe the presence of an owl, and especially the hooting of an owl, presages a death. Who doesn’t-deep down-believe that the bluebird brings happiness? Dogs have both suffered and been esteemed in their symbolic essences. Horses come off pretty well in this regard: malevolent horses are rarely seen in human folklore or in the tribunals of people of faith.

Cats and dogs are considered either contemptible or splendid in a kaleidoscope of ways and for a host of reasons. The Church of Rome, for example, found dogs to be despicable because of their licentiousness but also heroic for their loyalty. The Church held cats in some contempt (not only were they licentious but they were noisy about it) until a papal successor to Pope Gregory IX began raising them. Then attitudes toward cats slowly changed to mostly positive. Today, in the United States, more cats are pets than dogs.

We have been talking about cats as seen in the mirror that many people carry around, imagining that their own reflections project some truth about the rest of nature. These are what Michael Sims, the scholar of the remarkable tales of archy and mehitabel, calls “symbolic delusions.” It seems to me that all such notions-complimentary ones as well as utterly insulting ones, none of which has been solicited by cats themselves-are, if anything useful at all, a version of a Rorschach test, those ink blot examinations that humans use to try to figure out other humans. But this is a book about real cats, so the rest of it will endeavor to tell the story of cats largely from their own point of view, as best we can perceive that.

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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.

I strongly believe that everyone has to take advantage of the opportunity that blogging offers. Some People would often jump into blogging straight away without even understanding what blogging really is. in this article, I hope I could in some way, get you started to blog.

There are tons of reasons why people might want to start a blog. Finding all the reasons would be next to impossible. After all, there are over 150,000,000 blogs out there and I bet everybody has a different answer to the “why do you blog?” question. In this section, I am going to cover some of the best reasons to why you should start blogging today and hopefully get you to decide if blogging really is for you. There are 4 main types of blog and these are:

• 1. Company blogs – blogs run by a company who are selling a product or service to people. Most of the time, These types of blogs are made to give product/service updates to their customer and usually created to build good relationships with them. A good example of a company blog is the Google Blog which ranks 10th most popular blog in the world (according to technorati)
• 2. Personal Blogs – these types of blogs are more like an ‘online diary’ where you write updates about your life, post some of your cat’s pictures and share those updates to the world. (pretty much like how twitter and facebook are being used today.)
• 3. Blogs that Provide Value – blogs that are usually started by a single person and often run by one. These are blogs that talks about informative subjects and specific expertise. I.e. Problogger for blogging advice, Copy blogger for Copywriting, SEObook for SEO tips
• 4. Automated / fake blogs – these are types of blogs that I wouldn’t recommend but they do deserve a mention since there are literally millions of them out there. Automated blogs are blogs that were setup to scrape other blog’s content. Basically, all they do is steal content from other sites and post it on their blogs automatically by using an Autoblogging software. the owners of these sites makes hundreds of these and even if each one only makes $5 a month, they can make a tidy profit out of it.

Blogs that provide value is written with an ‘underline’ because that’s the type of blog which I recommend you build. So if you’re looking for a way to make money out of creating a spammy auto blog that steals content from others, this article is not for you and you may be better off searching for a guide about it on one of those black hat forums. But if you’re here to provide value (and make money while doing it at least), Then this article may just what have everything that you’ll need to answer the – ‘Why should I start a blog?’ question.

These are the 4 main types of blogs and the reason for creating them includes:

Profit

Money is always a Good Motivator and I can’t hide the fact that most bloggers starts a blog for the sole intention of profiting from it. In fact, (Although it doesn’t sound great) I wouldn’t be into blogging today if I didn’t know that I can make money out of it.

Note: blogging only for money is the last thing you would want to do. Providing Value should be your number one priority and That’s something you should always keep in mind.

below are some examples of successful blogs who were able to make their authors – Millionaires:

1. Johnchow.com – Blog by John chow is a blog that earns over $40,000 per month.

2. Mashable.com – blog owned by Pete Cashmore that’s focused on the social media news. it was said on a recent interview that mashable is now earning over $200,000 worth of monthly income.

3. Problogger.net – Darren rowse the author of Problogger, has never revealed his exact earnings but judging to the numbers of his subscribers and his alexa stats, A good $45,000 per month calculation maybe enough to say that his earning this big every month.

of course, These blogs had been online for a long time and each of the owners had put hard work and effort to get to where they are today. (by the way, if you wish to see more blogs that makes money, you can easily do so by searching on your favorite search engine: “Top Money Making Blogs in the world”)

While Having a $40,000 monthly earning sounds cool, I would still advise you to target a more realistic earning first. $5,000 is a reasonable income to target and there are thousands of blogs out there who earns this much. After you’ve reached that point though, the sky really is the limit.

Showcase your expertise

Blogs will always be a good chance to get you noticed as a Photographer, Designer,Guitar tutor, or even a Food Lover who writes about food. No matter what chosen field you’re in, blogging is always a great way to get you known.

When you blog, you’re providing value and providing value means you’re showcasing your expertise to the world. All thanks to blogging, I had been able to share my knowledge about making money online to a quality number of people including *you* – and that’s a good example of how powerful blogging can really be. You get the chance to Establish yourself.

Ease of use

Before blogging had ever existed, it would had been impossible for a regular Joe to start his own website. He would have to pay a lot of money to some web designer before everything could be set up. But since blog Softwares and CMS (content management Softwares) were born, life had never been so much easier for someone (including me) to build a website.

Today, anyone who could type in a keyboard could literally post content online. Content that does not only comes in Text form, but also in Video, Image – you name it. They can all be easily added with basic computer skills.

Those are basically the major reasons that I think about every time I see someone blogging. Hopefully, This would get you motivated to start blogging today.

elie palima is the author of the blog ” make money online and start a blog with this blog” if you want more blogging and internet marketing tips from him, check out his blog.

Stylish, sexy, sleek, streamlined, spirited and speed demon are all words used to describe sports cars, which are essentially two-door automobiles that are designed for high speeds, great power and smashing good looks. The manufacture of the modern-day sports car began only after 1945, when the economy started booming, technology developed dramatically and better roads were being built. They came in various shapes like convertibles, roadsters, coupes, grand tourers and sedans. Sports-car lovers are either devoted to timeless classics that have been souped up for current times, or are trendsetters looking for the latest kind of exotic car.

From powerful purring beauties like the Mercedes Benz SLK 350 to thundering thrillers like the Ford Mustang V-8, you can choose a sports car that matches your personality. In fact, sports cars are as much about personality as they are about performance – smooth aerodynamic bodies of carbon fiber, chrome pipes and fittings, rich leather upholstery, wide wheels, shiny wooden panels and snazzy paint jobs.

Different brands of sports cars adopt different principles of design. Some cars may be light in order to achieve greater acceleration, others may boast of extremely powerful engines for better car handling and performance, while still others may stress safety and comfort rather than style. The majority of contemporary sports cars have front-wheel drives as opposed to rear-wheel drives, which were more common in the earlier generation of sports cars. Many cars also have the engine in the center, driving the rear wheels, which is unique to sports cars. In these cars, the engine is placed behind the driver, at the middle of the chassis. Porsche is the only sports car that has the engine mounted at the rear, driving the rear wheels. This aspect is a crucial part of car design, as it affects the maneuverability or handling of the car, which is critical at high speeds.

The most well known brands today are Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Triumph. Companies which manufacture other cars also make some sports models; prominent among these are Ford, Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi, Mazda, and Nissan. Today, the design and manufacture of sports cars is becoming more specialized and competitive, with newer, more attractive designs and a higher degree of technical sophistication being utilized.

Sports Cars provides detailed information on Sports Cars, Exotic Sports Cars, Classic Sports Cars, Sports Cars for Sale and more. Sports Cars is affiliated with SUV Vans.

I wanted to cover safety in deep snow today because skiers die unnecessarily every year from not being able to self-rescue in deep snow.

Today I skied Mammoth Mountain Ski Area just after they got 10.5 – 15.5 feet of new snow. I skied today because it is supposed to snow this afternoon and tomorrow. I skied about 6 runs this morning in mostly knee-deep, pretty heavy snow. And just when I thought my balance was perfect, I was 10? tall and bullet-proof, I did something weird and fell in the bottomless powder in the trees. I got snow in my mouth when I fell, and that always gives me a short-of-breath/claustrophobic feeling.

I fell softly with my skis to my left, and my body fell to the right. Suddenly, I knew it would be really difficult to get up and out of this bottomless powder. So I took a moment, took a few deep breaths, and accessed my situation. I was somewhere in the trees that someone was unlikely to find me.

I needed to self-rescue. I knew from experience that I was in bottomless powder, and my poles would be of little help. Some say to make a “t” with your poles and lean on them, but no way would that have worked. The powder was too deep, and deep powder provides unique, potentially life endangering challenges. So we need to be prepared. Larger baskets on your poles are helpful for pushing yourself on powder days, but do not provide enough resistance to aid you in standing up from a fall. Since my body is heavier than by boots and skis, the more I struggle and move, the lower my body will sink putting my feet be above my head.

In this case I was able to slowly over a period of about 2 minutes shift my butt to be more over my skis by pulling my body mass over the skis by pulling on my legs below the knees. The last part was hard because I had nothing to brace against, but I knew if I could make this one last move to get my butt over the backs of my skis, I could stand up. So I pulled on my legs one more time because I knew that would give me the resistance I needed.

I managed to stand up, now about 5 minutes after I fell. Both my skis were on, and sunk deep in the snow. I slowly pulled the right one up breaking the surface of the snow to get higher footing. Then I did the same with the left ski. OK, I was finally able to glide back out onto the groomed part of the run, and complete the self-rescue from bottomless powder.

In another blog post, I have detailed how to find a ski in bottomless powder which can be challenging. Search in the search window of this blog for “Lost ski” or “finding lost ski”, and it should come up. My method has always been able to find the lost ski quickly, so you no longer need to worry about that.

But I still want to cover what happened to me at June Mt. as a kid. It was a week with 8 feet of new snow at June Mt. I skied the face successfully, but fell and made a huge hole in the flat part at the bottom. At first I kind of panicked, and struggled to get to my feet. But the more I struggled, the more I sank down in the powder making the hole deeper. It got to the point where I was 8 feet down in this hole, and still could not get to my feet.

I knew no one was skiing the face that day. If a ski patroller skied by he would not hear my cries or see me unless he saw the track to my hole. I couldn’t count on that!

I was only about 11 years old, and I needed to get resourceful to self-rescue, or I could be there all night and freeze. I decided to take a break. I took out the camera I had in my pocket, and took a photo from the bottom of my 8 foot deep hole. I tried to push my poles to hit something solid, and I sank them all the way to my shoulder. I hit nothing that could support me.

I thought some more and finally I figured that I could take 1 ski off, and use it horizontally to be a form of support. I was able to take 1 ski off and holding the side of the ski and digging it in for grip, pull myself to a standing position this way. Then I pulled my upper body up, and stepped up sideways up the side of the hole. I kept doing this until I got to where I was only knee deep again.

I put the ski back on, and was able to break trail back to the chairlift. Please remember this technique if you get stuck in a hole in deep powder. This same self-rescue strategy could work to extricate yourself from a tree well, which can be fatal if you do not know what to do. More information about what to do if you get stuck in a tree well is located at: http://www.treewelldeepsnowsafety.com. There are some really good safety tips at that site that I have not covered here.

I can tell you from experience it is easier to learn these proven self-rescue techniques from some one else than to have to make up a rescue technique when you get stuck. People die from getting stuck in deep powder. I gave you 2 self-rescue techniques here. I also recommend you always carry a whistle when you ski the trees. It might give you the capability to summon help where you can not be seen. I also recommend you carry a fully charged cell phone with Mammoth Mountain’s ski patrol phone number programmed into your phone. This way, when you get injured, you can call for help and tell them where you are. You should program under ICE for In Case of Emergency, your person to be contacted in case of injury or emergency. Emergency personnel know to look in your cell phone for this, so you need to program your emergency contact phone number in there so they can find it if they need to.

Other emergency stuff I carry because I ski the trees are:

1) Small knife – Can cut you down from a tree, or filet a fish or squirrel if you have to.

2) I told you about the whistle – Can help ski patrol hear you when they are making their last sweep of the mountain at closing.

3) Lighter – If you had to spend the night, making a fire could save you from freezing to death.

4) Your cell phone programmed as recommended above.

5) Cliff Bar – These have a lower freezing point so you won’t have to chew on a rock-solid snack bar.

6) Fleece balaclava – Can really increase heat retention in winds, and if you get stuck overnight.

7) Ski helmet – Wear a helmet every time you ski. You cannot predict when a dangerous situation will present itself. 80% of fatal ski injuries could have been prevented by simply wearing a helmet.

I photocopy my driver’s license and medical card so if I am knocked unconscious they know who I am from my driver’s license. And they know my “ICE” In Case of Emergency person to call because it is programmed into my cell phone I have on me all day.

Being prepared and informed can save your life or keep you from being stranded in the woods for hours or overnight. If you just ski the groomed runs, you only need about 1/2 this stuff. But I like to duck into my tree powder stashes, so I keep this packed in my ski jacket at all time so I will have it if I ever need it. Please teach these deep snow self-rescue techniques to your family, friends and loved ones so they will know what to do in this potentially life-threatening situation. Be Safe On the Slopes!

Larry Conn has snow skied since 1968, and loves Mammoth Mountain so much he moved there in 2005 after taking 2 years off work to “test-drive” living there. Now he is launching Mammoth Ski Club for active adults who want more fun, activities and involvement with snow skiing and other activities at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area and Mammoth Lakes resort. Get your complimentary gifts, full color newsletter, and special report, “Who Else Wants Active New Affluent Friends of the Same Ski Ability Level, and a Lifetime of Great Memories?” by going to http://www.MammothSkiClub.com/

The biggest myth surrounding cat ownership is that cats are worry free, self-contained and self-providing pets that require little or no maintenance. Cats are so good at giving people the impression of independence and self-reliance that people believe they don’t have to provide the highly focused attention to cats that, say, dogs require. The fact of the matter is that cats do require the same attention to detail that any dog does, and maybe even a little more, in some cases. This is especially true when it comes to probing the controversy regarding whether raw cat food is better that canned cat food or kibbles for your feline ward.

It’s a sad thing to look around our country these days and see so many people who have allowed themselves to become overweight and then have to deal with the consequential suffering and ill-health effects of obesity. Diabetes, shortness of breath, constant exhaustion from lugging around so many extra pounds and lowered self-esteem. Of course, the garment industry is singing happy tunes with all the extra thread they have to put together. There’s no shortage of explanations for why this situation has come about, but I think when it comes down to it we can only blame ourselves at the individual level for allowing such a condition to take root. After all, how many pounds overweight does one have to get before they realize that something’s not right and becoming a problem? 10, 20… 50 lbs? And how long does it take to realize that the magic pills, diets, elixirs and effortless, lose-weight-with-no-work-out machines are products being marketed to your ego, to separate you from your bank account, and not to solve your problem? No… the only way to find an ideal normality is with thorough research, discovery and a lot of hard work accompanied with a healthy life style change. But, enough sermonizing about the human condition. This is about cats, their eating habits and raw cat food.

One thing needs to come along with this discussion from the previous paragraph. Most people are not experts in animal nutrition and rely on others to lead them in the right direction. The source for most ‘experts’ available to a person for their daily decision making and selection of choices usually comes to us through the traditional media of radio, newspapers, television and now, the internet. Media offers two kinds of resources. Investigative reporting which is presented in newscasts or opinion pieces, and secondly, the marketing hype that provides commercial broadcast funding. The former is reliable enough to put credence into and might call for further research on your part if it interests you. The latter really only wants you to spend your money with them. That’s not necessarily bad… it does ultimately put people to work and provides many with an adequate, and even comfortable living. Unfortunately, the bottom line is… corporations only have one objective in the end. That is to feed their bottom line. Now recent events have caused many to reconsider the morality behind a corporations goals. But, as long as this market structure is the paradigm for our economy, the ultimate goal for big business will always be to maximize their profit-loss statements towards the profit end of the spectrum, any way they can get away with, and at your expense… literally.

So, what does this have to do with cats and if raw cat food is what you should be feeding them? Simply put, most people rely on the marketing hype to base their decisions regarding the food they feed their pets. Which is exactly the wrong source for basing such a critical decision. Take the cat for example. It’s not only a scientific fact, but a cultural one also, that the cat is described as an obligate carnivore. This defines cats as creatures who derive most of their food nutrients from the animals they hunt and consume (raw cat food). When a cat devours it’s prey, she will eat everything including not only muscle meat, but the brains, organ meat and the stomach and its contents which may consist of grasses and grains. One thing she doesn’t do is fire up a stove and saute or bake her dinner, or prepare a nice sauce to go with it. She eats it raw. Cultural purists use this description as an argument that feeding cats store bought, mass produced canned or dry cat food is doing your cat a disservice by depriving her of the natural nutrients she would normally get in the raw cat food she captures in the wild, and for which she was biologically designed.

Pottenger’s cats

Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. (1901 – 1967) was the son of Francis M. Pottenger, Sr., the physician who co-founded the Pottenger Sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis in Monrovia, California. Between 1932 and 1942 he conducted what is know as the Pottenger Cat Study. One part of this study was what effect heat had on the nutrient value of raw food. In other words, what happens to food when you cook it.

“Pottenger used donated laboratory cats to test the potency of the adrenal extract hormones he was making. The adrenal glands of these cats were removed for the experiments and Pottenger noted that most of the cats died during or following the operation. He was feeding the cats a supposedly nutritive diet consisting of raw milk, cod liver oil and cooked meat scraps of liver, tripe, sweetbread, brains, heart and muscle.

When the number of donated cats exceeded the supply of food available, Pottenger began ordering raw meat scraps from a local meat packing plant, including organs, meat, and bone; and fed a separate group of cats from this supply. Within months this separate group appeared in better health than the cooked meat group. Their kittens were more energetic and, most interestingly, their post-operative death rate was lower.

At a certain point, he decided to begin a controlled scientific exploration. Pottenger conducted studies involving approximately 900 cats over a period of ten years, with three generations of cats being studied.

Meat study:

In one study, one group of cats was fed a diet of:

• Two-thirds raw meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil
• A second group was fed a diet of two-thirds cooked meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil.

The cats fed the all-raw diet were healthy while the cats fed the cooked meat diet developed various health problems:

• By the end of the first generation the cats started to develop degenerative diseases and became quite lazy.
• By the end of the second generation, the cats had developed degenerative diseases by mid-life and started losing their coordination.
• By the end of the third generation the cats had developed degenerative diseases very early in life and some were born blind and weak and had a much shorter life span. Many of the third generation cats couldn’t even produce offspring. There was an abundance of parasites and vermin while skin diseases and allergies increased from an incidence of five percent in normal cats to over 90 percent in the third generation of deficient cats. Kittens of the third generation did not survive six months. Bones became soft and pliable and the cats suffered from adverse personality changes. Males became docile while females became more aggressive.
• The cats suffered from most of the degenerative diseases encountered in human medicine and died out totally by the fourth generation.

At the time of Pottenger’s Study the amino acid taurine had been discovered but had not yet been identified as an essential amino acid for Cats. Today many cats thrive on a cooked meat diet where taurine has been added after cooking. The deficient diets lacked sufficient taurine to allow the cat’s to properly form protein structures and resulted in the health effects observed. Pottenger himself concluded that there was likely an “as yet unknown” protein factor (taurine) that may have been heat sensitive.

Milk Study:

In another study, dubbed the “Milk Study,”, the cats were fed 2/3 milk and 1/3 meat. All groups were fed raw meat with different groups getting raw, pasteurized, evaporated, sweetened condensed or raw metabolized vitamin D milk. The cats on raw milk were the healthiest while the rest exhibited varying degrees of health problems similar to the previous cooked meat study.

This particular Pottenger cat study has been cited by advocates of raw milk as evidence that it is likely healthier for humans than pasteurized milk.” +

Though Pottenger’s experiments don’t conclusively verify that raw cat food diets are better for sustaining a healthy support for the physiological needs of cats than cooked (canned) or dry kibbles, (because he didn’t use canned cat food or kibbles in the experiments) certain conclusions can be drawn.

• Cooking meat can destroy certain food nutrients, namely amino acids (proteins)
• Cats thrive more healthily on raw meat rather than cooked meat with less degenerative results
• Cooking meat for your cat requires the replacement of the essential amino acid taurine, and possibly other nutrients destroyed in the cooking process

Pet food marketing hype says that “XYZ” cat food products are healthy for your pet because it adds “ABC” nutrients, vitamins and minerals to their product which safeguards your cat’s health. Fortunately, marketing laws require that the ingredients in any given product be listed on the packaging of your cat’s food. Ultimately, it is left up to you to make the decision about which is the best shelf product for your cat.

For a discussion that details interpreting cat food labels CLICK HERE

Today’s problem plagued market place has left many in doubt as to whether the corporate entities that supply the bulk of our aggregate necessities can continue to be worthy of our trust. Arrogance and greed have always gone head to head with social morality and it’s usually the end user that ends up paying with unnecessary suffering. Many pet owners have now taken matters into their own hands and are resorting to providing from raw ingredients meals made with their own hands for their pets. It’s not a bad step but certain measures, which include a life-style change, need to be taken when preparing your pet’s meals to keep her safe from bacterial infection and insure that her nutritional needs are met.

Here’s an example of a raw cat food meal preparation from scratch:

• 2 kg [4.4 pounds] raw muscle meat with bones (chicken necks are mostly cartilage, are easy to chop and easy for the cat to digest) thighs and drumsticks or, better, a whole carcass of rabbit or chicken amounting to 2 kg; if you don’t use a whole carcass, opt for dark meat like thighs and drumsticks from chicken or turkey)
• 400 grams [14 oz] raw heart, ideally from the same animal (if no heart is available, substitute with 4000 mg Taurine)
• 200 grams [7 oz] raw liver, ideally from the same animal (if you can’t find appropriate liver, you can substitute 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D–but try to use real liver instead of substitutes).
  • NOTE: If you cannot find the heart or liver and decide to substitute with the Taurine/Vitamin A and D, then remember to replace the missing amount of organ meat with the equivalent amount of muscle meat. In other words, if you cannot find heart, you add another 400 grams of the meat/bones. If you can’t find the liver, add another 200 grams of meat/bones.

• 16 oz [2 cups] water
• 4 raw egg yolks (use eggs from free-range, antibiotic-free chickens if you can)
• 4 capsules raw glandular supplement (such as, for example, “Raw Multiple Glandular” from Premier Labs)
• 4000 mg salmon oil
• 200 mg Vitamin B complex
• 800 IU Vitamin E (“dry E” works well) Buy Vitamin E in dry powder form. It’s much easier to deal with than those little oil-filled capsules.
• OPTIONAL: 1/4 teaspoon of kelp and 1/4 teaspoon of dulse (1/2 teaspoon total) Try and get dulse and kelp in powder form that you can easily measure with a teaspoon rather than in capsule form. Taking apart those capsules is time consuming. If you can only find kelp in caplet form, you’ll need to spend time crushing the caplets with a mortar and pestle.
• OPTIONAL: 4 teaspoons psyllium husk powder (8 teaspoons if using whole psyllium husks) ?

It looks like this recipe will produce about 5- 6 lbs of finished raw cat food product which would feed a single cat for several weeks. That means most of it would have to be frozen in individual air tight containers and thawed as needed.

The digestive system of a cat is designed to handle things human systems can’t. Their stomachs have a highly acidic environment, which is an excellent deterrent to ingested bacteria such as e coli and salmonella. In the wild, cats sometimes eat some pretty iffy stuff with no ill effects. Wild cats die more often from infection due to injuries than from food poisoning. However, there are steps you can take if you have concerns about raw cat food bourn bacteria.

• Avoid packaged supermarket ground beef using whole chunks of meat instead
• Buy “free-range” meat and poultry as fresh as possible
• Add priobiotics (which help maintain intestinal health) to your raw food preparation
• Proper handling of raw cat food is essential since some raw cat food may contain bacteria that could cause illness to you or your pets. Be sure to keep raw cat food meat and poultry separate from other foods. Wash hands prior to, and after handling raw cat food. Wash working surfaces, bowls, and utensils that come in contact with raw meat with hot, soapy water. Always wash your hands after cleaning your cat’s waste; this includes litter boxes.
• Pick up and dispose of uneaten raw cat food within 30 minutes of feeding your cat

Preparing raw cat food meals from scratch for your cat is a labor of love indulged in by purists. Most people don’t have the time, and maybe lack the talent to take on such a task. If you count yourself among this latter group, rest easy. Ready-made products are finding their way to the market place. There are complete raw cat food meals which are shipped frozen and there are mixes which all you have to do is add the meat. Just remember that if you are going with the mix, be certain that the essential amino acids such as taurine are included. If not then be sure to add the heart (a source for taurine) and other organ meat from the same animal if possible, with the raw cat food meal so that your cat won’t be deprived of these critical ingredients.

So, what are the trade-offs you ask?

Well, for one thing you will have to forego the convenience of one-stop-shopping in the supermarket pet food aisles. Orders for raw cat food meals or mixes are mostly made on-line so you will have to deal with credit or debit cards. Pre-planning will have to be regular routine so that you don’t run out of raw cat food before the next shipment arrives. If a shipment thaws, you will have to return it because you won’t want to take any chances with bacterial infection. Most companies will honor returns due to thawing. And, if you prepare raw cat food meals completely from scratch, be prepared to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen with this task.

The real trade-off is with the quality of cat food you will be providing. The store bought ‘meal’ based cereal foods will be replaced with the high quality fresh foods that cat’s were designed for. Some cats may balk at the transition at first because they weren’t socialized with raw cat food as kittens. But, their health will show marked improvement, you will probably be surprised by the results which can be compared to how your cat behaved before being fed a fresh, high quality raw cat food diet that meets their needs nutritionally, plus their immune systems will be stronger giving your cat a chance for a longer, healthier life.

Ask any monk or even the ordinary, next-door-neighbor contemplative type, and they’ll tell you that life is not easy; suffering is the characteristic that describes much of the existence in this corner of the Universe, and that the punishment for ignoring this fact is to bear more suffering. Yet this suffering can be relieved with even a little knowledge and understanding of why and how things can operate to ease your burden. It does take a willingness on your part to change and accept new habits to accommodate a changed life-style. But, knowledge and understanding cannot be acquired through osmosis. It takes a lot of work to comprehend even a small amount of the sense that holds life together. One can’t depend on epiphanies either. Like magic and miracles, instant knowledge occurs only rarely… and you can grow old waiting for it while your cat pines for a raw cat food meal. It’d be like huffing and puffing along wondering why you’re carrying around all that extra baggage.

+ – Thanks to Wikipedia for this excerpt

? – Thanks to Wikihow

Robert J Gallegos is the author of http://www.catlover-giftsworld.com a web site dedicated to proper cat care with quality cat lover gifts based on an understanding of cat behavior, instincts and the unique requirements for healthy cats as pets. Cats are the newest of animals to be domesticated and still have one paw in the wild. It’s a major reason why they’re so mysterious and resistant to human expectations.
Robert is a life long lover of cats. He is dedicated to sharing his understanding of the cat experience, reducing the epidemic feral cat situation, and helping cat lovers to provide the best care for their cats.

Abstract

This article introduces the educational solutions module of the world’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site, describing competitive offerings, the customer profile, problem-oriented solutions, target markets, product offerings, and usability features. It concludes that the module is a major contribution to the information superhighway.

Introduction

The aim of this article is to introduce to the world the educational solutions module of the world’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site. The article is addressed to those readers who may have an educational problem bogging them and who may therefore be looking for a way out of their predicament. The reader may be a parent, child, or student.

It is a common fact of life that we all have problems and that we are often frustrated or we tend to lash out because of our inability to find accessible and reliable information about our problems. This specialist site fills this need – as our pragmatic friend for solving our educational problems.

To be of the greatest use to people a problem solving site must combine pragmatic discussions of their personal or professional problem with merchant products that provide more detailed information. Typically, the web site will provide free information in the form of news, articles, and advice, which direct the visitor on what to do to solve her problems. Complementing this, the web site will also provide merchant products which discuss in detail how the visitor can go about resolving her problem. This means that the most effective, visitor-oriented problem-solving site will be an information-packed commercial site – and so is the world’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site and its specialist sites.

The approach that we have adopted below is to describe competitive offerings, the customer profile, problem-oriented solutions, target markets, product offerings, and usability features.

Competitive Offerings

The following are the top educational sites on the Internet, along with their offerings.

US Department of Education. It defines the US education policy and provides information on financial aid, educational research and statistics, grants and contracts, and teaching and learning resources.

Educational Testing Service. It provides a range of test resources.

FunBrain.com. It provides educational games for K-8 kids.

PrimaryGames.com. It provides fun learning tools and games for kids.

GEM. It provides educational resources such as lesson plans and other teaching and learning resources.

Education World. It provides advice on lesson plans, professional development, and technology integration.

NASA Education Enterprise. It provides educational materials and information relating to space exploration.

Spartacus Educational. It is a British online encyclopedia that focuses on historical topics.

Department for Education and Skills. It is a UK government department site that offers information and advice on various educational and skills topics.

Times Educational Supplement. It offers teaching news, teaching & educational resources, and active forums to help UK teachers.

All these sites are useful in the domains that they cover. Their main limitations are as follows:

1. They tend to cover only a very narrow segment of the educational market.

2. They do not take as their starting point the daily educational needs of the typical family.

3. They lack a problem focus; i.e., they do not formulate the typical learning and educational problems that pupils, students, and parents face on a daily basis.

4. As a result of the preceding point, the solutions offered are not as incisive (i.e. as problem-centred) as they could be.

5. They do not offer merchant products that deepen the visitor’s understanding of her problem and of the consequent solutions.

The educational solutions module of the world’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site addresses these problems by targeting a multiplicity of market segments, adopting a customer profile that fits the typical education-pursuing family, considering the specific needs or problems that this family may face, offering incisive (problem-centred) solutions to the various problems, and offering a range of merchant products that deepen the visitor’s appreciation of her problems and of the solutions that are applicable to them.

Customer Profile

The customer profile or target visitor characteristics of the educational solutions module is the same as for all specialist sites of the world’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site. The site has been designed to meet the needs of visitors who have an educational problem bogging them. It is designed for both males and females, even though it is often convenient to refer to just one sex when writing.

This visitor uses search engines to research information about her personal or professional problem, with the intention of finding solutions to it. The visitor is serious about solving her problem and is therefore willing to buy products that help her to achieve her mission, provided that she can find reliable and honest information about relevant products so that she can make an informed decision about which ones to acquire. This information will help her to apply her finances economically, and hence avoid wasting money.

The visitor will want a money-back guarantee so that if a product does not live up to expectations or if she were misled into buying a product she can get a refund. Such a guarantee absolves her of purchase risks.

The visitor is intelligent (without necessarily being a genius), educated (without necessarily being a PhD), computer literate (without necessarily being a computer guru), and money-minded (without necessarily being a freebie hunter or an unemployed person). This of course does not mean that freebie hunters or unemployed persons cannot gain a thing from the site. To the contrary, there is a great deal of free information on the site. Just that it is hard to see how anyone can gain the full benefits of the site without buying products.

The visitor wants high quality information products (usually in digital form) and wants to pay the cheapest price for these (without paying so much emphasis on price that she compromises quality). The visitor also wants free bonus offers that are attached to the purchased goods.

The visitor is self-reliant and can cope on her own by reading, digesting, and applying advice about her problem until she solves it or discovers that she needs help from a professional, at which point her acquired knowledge will help her to reduce her consulting fees. As a result of the knowledge gained, the visitor will be able to assess consultants in order to avoid incompetent or fraudulent ones.

Problem-Centred Solutions

Our free solutions are organised in the form of pragmatic articles that are written by top experts. Each article addresses a specific daily problem, but does not go into detail. It explains the problem and tells the visitor what she must do to solve her problem. However, it does not tell the visitor how she must solve it – this is too much for an article. To find out about the how, the visitor must buy a product (usually an e-book or e-book set) that goes into greater depth.

The set of educational articles that we have chosen, to provide initial solution to a visitor’s problem are as follows:

Signs of a Gifted Child – Informs parents on how to identify whether or not their children are gifted.

Essential Parenting Lessons for Enriching Your Child’s Education – Teaches parents how to enhance their child’s education.

Using Positive Affirmations to Be a Better Student – Teaches students how to use positive affirmations to improve their performance.

They Are Just Afraid of Writing – Teaches writing skills to students

How Can Parents Encourage Their Children to Read? – Shows parents how they can improve their children’s reading skills.

Test Preparation Tutoring – Discusses the topic of tutoring students to prepare for tests or exams.

Test Taking Strategies – Discusses various strategies for taking and passing tests or exams

Playing and Winning the Scholarship Game – Describes how to win scholarships.

How to Get a Scholarship to a UK University – Describes how to win scholarships to a UK university.

Saving Money for College – Instructs students on how they can save money in preparation for college.

Student Loans: When Your Educational Dreams Can’t Compete with the Cost – Explains to students the benefits of a student loan.

Education Loans Can Fund a Higher Degree to Boost Your Career – Also explains to students the benefits of a student loan.

The Secret to US Department of Education Loans – Teaches students how to get a US DoE loan to finance their higher education.

Student Loan Consolidation – Save Money, Pay Less, Spend More – Explains to graduates how to make use of loan consolidation to reduce their student loan repayments.

Higher Education: Finding the Right College for You – Explains to students how to find the right college or university for their higher education studies.

Mobile Learning – An Alternative Worth Considering – Explains the concept of mobile learning and its place in education.

Online Degrees – Is Online Education Right for You? – Analyses the merits of online learning as compared to traditional learning.

An Online College Education Overview – Reviews the whole concept of online learning.

Finding the Right Quotation for Your Paper or Speech Online – Shows writers and speakers how to find the right quotation to use in their writings or speeches.

Collaboration: An Important Leadership Development Skill – Explores the useful concept of collaboration and its role in leadership development.

At the end of each article is a list of merchant products that supplement the article’s content. A link is also included for accessing the educational product catalogue.

Target Markets and Product Offerings

Now let us turn to the target markets and their associated product offerings. We have positioned the segments to address the various needs of a visitor over a period of time, and at any given time a customer may belong to one or more of the market segments. There are three general classes of products offered: ClickBank products, Google products, and eBay products. Google and eBay products are presented on each page of the site. ClickBank products are grouped into product categories that match the target markets. These categories and their markets are as follows.

Children and Parenting. This consists of visitors who want parenting solutions for improving their children’s upbringing. Their needs are met through the Children and Parenting section of the educational product catalogue.

Difficult Admissions. This consists of visitors who want to learn how to get admission into top universities. Their needs are met through the Difficult Admissions section of the educational product catalogue.

Esoteric Needs. This consists of visitors with unusual needs. Their needs are met through the Esoteric Needs section of the educational product catalogue.

Financial Aid. This consists of visitors looking for scholarships, grants, or loans. Their needs are met through the Financial Aid section of the educational product catalogue.

Leadership Skills. This consists of visitors looking to develop their leadership skills. Their needs are met through the Leadership Skills section of the educational product catalogue.

Learning. This consists of visitors who want to improve their learning ability. Their needs are met through the Learning section of the educational product catalogue.

Mental Speed. This consists of visitors who want to explode their mental speed. Their needs are met through the Mental Speed section of the educational product catalogue.

Positive Affirmations. This consists of visitors who want to transform their negative dispositions into a positive mindset in order to improve their performance. Their needs are met through the Positive Affirmations section of the educational product catalogue.

Speaking. This consists of visitors looking to improve their speaking skills. Their needs are met through the Speaking section of the educational product catalogue.

Tests and Exams. This consists of visitors looking to master exam technique. Their needs are met through the Tests and Exams section of the educational product catalogue.

Writing. This consists of visitors looking to improve their writing skills. Their needs are met through the Writing section of the educational product catalogue.

Usability Considerations

Usability has been enhanced to make it easy for the visitor to find solutions to her problem, by following these steps:

1. The first thing the visitor sees are a set of articles whose titles represent the specific problem area they address. The articles are accessed from the Educational Problem Solving menu of the navigation bar to the left of the screen or from the Educational Problem Solving main page. By scanning these articles the visitor can identify whether or not her problem is covered. If not the visitor can check the educational product catalogue through the Product Catalogues menu of the same navigation bar, to see whether a product exists that answers her query. If she finds nothing she knows that her problem is not addressed. She can proceed to the Related Sites pages, which are accessible from the left navigation bar.

2. If the visitor finds an article that addresses her problem then she can begin to explore that; at the end of the article she will find products that discuss her problem more deeply. She can also access the educational product catalogue through an article page.

Conclusion

This article has introduced the educational solutions module of the world’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site. The article has examined competitive offerings, the target customer profile, problem-oriented solutions, target markets, product offerings, and usability considerations. It concludes that the module is a major contribution to the information superhighway.

A A Agbormbai is the editor and webmaster of Personal and Professional Problem Solving – a web site that fills a vacuum on the Web. He has a PhD from Imperial College London and enjoys an interdisciplinary upbringing having worked or studied in aerospace engineering, information systems development, and management. The educational solutions module is one of many specialist sites of Personal and Professional Problem Solving.

Educational solutions module – [http://www.triplacc.com/educational/education.html]

Educational product catalogue – [http://www.triplacc.com/products/educational-pc.html]

World’s most recent personal and professional problem solving site – [http://www.triplacc.com/]

Having a backyard tennis court is much better than having to go to the local courts everyday. With a back yard tennis court, tennis lovers can play any time a partner is available. With the high gas prices of today, constructing a tennis court in the back yard proves to be economically feasible.

Overview

Having a back yard tennis court is fun for the entire family. It doesn’t matter if there is a tennis player in the family or not. The fact is that the sport provides a wonderful forum for exercise. Being that the game can be played with four players, a family of four can very easily enjoy a game of tennis on their own court.

When making the decision to embark upon tennis court construction, it must be realized that this is an important and a wise investment. It is also important to realize that there is tennis equipment involved and that the court and the equipment need to be maintained well. Tennis courts can be beautiful in a back yard if they are maintained properly

Benefits

A backyard court gives a family a good workout and allows them to spend quality time together. Because of the fact that so many individuals are encountering health issues due to inactivity and many are battling obesity, adding something such as a back yard tennis court can help reverse the effects brought on by these issues.

A backyard court also makes for a great place to get together with friends and have a good time. Individuals can have barbecues and play a good game of tennis or have matches in the back yard. The possibilities are virtually endless. However, most of the benefits lie in what having a tennis court can do for the overall health of the entire family.

Tennis court construction

Tennis court construction isn’t as involved as it may look to some. It is good to have the area fenced in so that the tennis balls do not fly into a neighbor’s yard or into another area where they don’t belong. Fencing also keeps out intruders. You can use a privacy fence and you can even get a green vinyl cover to put around your tennis court.

There is also the fact that the concrete has to be poured at 4 inches. The compressive strength should also be 3,000 psi. Also, the water to cement ratio needs to be no more than.40 with a 6% air content. This is to give the concrete the right feel. Having the right feel is important to tennis court construction and to the overall game play because having concrete with the right air content makes for a lesser impact on the knees. The next step is to paint the concrete green or red. Many individuals use both of these colors. There is also the fact that the lines have to be painted onto the court. A tennis court is not a tennis court until it looks like one.

Some individuals even put stone retaining walls around their backyard court that only sits about two feet off of the ground. They do this to keep such elements as water out and to keep animals out. This is great at keeping the court in tip top shape.

And then of course there is the net. A tennis net is your last step. It is not hard to acquire and is quite affordable. They come in one height, so you don’t have to worry about any particular measurements or anything of that sort. After the net is put in place, you now have yourself a backyard court.

Tennis equipment

When a family is going to have a backyard court, it is important to have tennis court equipment. Tennis equipment consists of such items as windscreens to put around the court, the tennis net, trash cans for everyone to throw their trash, water coolers, net posts, tennis ball machines for solo games, tennis ball baskets to carry around all of the balls, and benches so that others can watch.

Players can also include numbers if they really want to feel as if they’re in a real match. They can even invest in tennis ball mowers to pick up the tennis balls faster. If a person doesn’t want a tennis ball basket, they can have a tennis ball cart. There are so many different types of tennis court equipment that can be used to make playing more enjoyable.

It is more or less up to the individual what type of tennis equipment they invest in. This is because different individuals have different levels of experience. Some also view it as a simple workout and others want their tennis court to look like it belongs at a professional match. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a hefty investment, but worth it to those who really want that game feel.

Love the game

It is hard to not love the game of tennis. It is exciting because of that adrenaline rush that comes about when the ball is returned. It also makes individuals feel really good after a game. That’s because the workout is incredible. And to think that it is possible to have a backyard tennis court is even more exciting. This means no more waiting for other players to get done at the court. Public courts usually have just a few courts open at a time, which means people have to wait for others to finish. Having a backyard tennis court fixes that problem.

Swati is a freelancer, a work from home mom, who loves to write. She is a postgraduate in English and an MBA. She has written on practically every niche on the web. She writes articles, blogs, web pages, reports, press releases, product descriptions, eBooks, sales letters and newsletters. Visit Swati’s blog now if you need content for your business or personal needs.