10 Ways of Getting Content For Your Site Part 1

Content is really important for webmasters. Why? When people surf the web, they are looking for information. They aren't looking for you specifically, unless you're well-known. If they visit your site and don't what they're looking for, they will leave quickly. And they probably won't return to your site. Well, they might stumble back onto your site, but not on purpose. Quality sites provide quality content. Quality content helps you retain visitors. Visitors may spread the word about your site and thus attract new visitors. Adding new high quality content to your site regularly is also beneficial. With more content, you will have more pages indexed by the search engines. More pages indexed means you will have more opportunities for people to find you via search engines. So how exactly do you get content for your site? 1. Your unique knowledge Everybody knows something others don't. Use your own unique insight and knowledge to provide content. Think of what activities you've participated in the past. Think of what you've learned through past experiences. Any experiences can help, whether at home, school, work, or anywhere else. Of course, providing your own content regularly can be very difficult. 2. Personal stories Personal stories are the basis of some sites and blogs. Want to connect with your audience and let them know more about you? Use personal stories. However, if you don't want to be too personal, make sure you inject your personality into your writing. Personality differentiates you from the rest and can keep visitors coming back 3. How-to guides People have problems and like to figure out how to solve them. Had some problem you struggled with for a while? Did you eventually solve it? The way you solved it could be written into a how-to guide. Or write a how-to guide about your expert area. For example, if you're a technical computer whiz, you could write a how-to guide for fixing computers. 4. Do research Do some research on the web. Use search engines, search directories, and follow links to find relevant sites. Do some research at your local library. Grab some books about your site's topic and start digging through them. Find local experts, teachers, and professors and ask them questions about your site's topic. When you research, note down interesting ideas and you'll undoubtedly learn more. You'll have more unique knowledge that you can turn into content. You might even discover something earth-shattering! 5. Subscribe to newsletters Good newsletters are a great way to keep informed about a particular topic. They can keep you informed of offers that you may be able to provide on your own site. As well, they can keep you on top of what's happening in your area by providing time-sensitive content.

The Fastest Nation

It's quite usual for us to get to know that some American athlete wins another world or Olympic title in sprint event. Last time it was news from Helsinki World Championships, where the Americans had clear superiority over others in individual sprint disciplines. They won more titles than all other nations taken together. Of course, that's not every time that it happens, but the advantage of American athletes which is due to their high level is obvious. While athletes from other countries come to sport elite and go away, Americans always stay in. Moreover, it's impossible to imagine the sprint elite without Americans. They dominate short-distance running championships now. They have been dominating for all history of modern athletics since the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. To prove this point of view I'm giving the so-called rating of all nations' Olympic performance athletes of which ever took prices at the modern Olympic Games. A nation gets 3 points for every gold medal, silver is 2 points and bronze is 1 point. For example, at the 2004 Olympics the Americans won all medals in men's 200 meters dash. In women's 200 meters dash a Jamaican won gold, an American got silver and a Bahamian got bronze. Thus Americans get 8 points, Jamaicans - 2 point, Bahamians – 1 point. Summing up points for all years we get following statistics: 100 meters: USA – 120 Germany – 22 Great Britain – 20 Canada – 14 Australia – 13 Other countries – 69 200 meters: USA – 117 Germany – 18 Jamaica – 16 Australia – 14 Great Britain – 12 Other countries - 63 400 meters: USA – 97 Germany – 22 Great Britain 20 Jamaica – 13 Australia – 12 Other countries – 52 In every event Americans are far ahead of others. However, even if we take into consideration such a huge advantage, it might be still wrong to say that other countries' athletes are much worse trained. During the twentieth century there were stars among British, Canadian, Caribbean and other sprinters whose achievements have become part of sports history. Many of them are Olympic and world champions. There also world record holders among them. Now we talk about Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell and Tonique Williams-Darling. We also remember Linford Christie, Donovan Bailey, Marita Koch and Marie-Jose Perec from the past. However, the point is that they are the only representatives of their nations. They come into sports, show outstanding performance and go away followed by no compatriots matching their level. But only the USA athletes show high-level performance constantly. It's quite hard to find reasons for it taking into account that the level of training process is also high in many other countries. Actually it is not the training process itself that differs the States from other countries. It is rather sports system organization which selects, raises and motivates athletes. Prevalent approach to athletics There are two models of sports system organization in the world. The first one is the system of state financing developed in most countries. State Sports Department exercises supervision over Sports Federations which provide athletes with good conditions for trainings, medicine care, opportunities for preparations and so on. The State takes care of athletes from the beginning of their career and they feel comfortable in such conditions. Many of them come into athletics and train like for fun, considering running from this point of view: "I have an opportunity for training. First I will train for fun and will see if I am good in running. If I'm good, I will pay more attention to trainings. If I'm not, I will just enjoy the achieved level. My country will take care of me and will give me an opportunity to afford such "pleasure" trainings." For some of them sprint is a hobby. Some of them achieve good results at the local level performing time of 10.4-10.2 seconds in 100-meters dash, and think that it is good enough. Those who are highly motivated progress further and sometimes take prizes at international level. But most of such sprinters don't even reach a 10-second barrier let alone 9.8-9.7 second time which is necessary for major competitions. So there are no good selection process and no high competing environment in such a system. The National Collegiate Athletic Association One more model is when business interferes with sports and government doesn't take part in the process simply providing the athletes with conditions. Such model is developed in the USA. Besides professional sports, there is a unique system of university sports organization which gives birth to a huge amount of world-famous stars in athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association sports are fantastically popular and widely covered on television and in press. Even world-known bookmakers provide lines for bets on NCAA leagues. No country in the world can boast of such situation. College teams receive huge money from their team sponsors and are interested in achieving high results attracting well-trained athletes. It means that skilled athletes receive scholarships which cover expenses on study and living. For many of them such way is the only chance to enter a university. Thus athletes who competed for a university team are highly motivated in achieving good results. They don't just train, they secure stability of their lives. Very often at NCAA championships college athletes achieve higher results than professional athletes of other countries. There is one more positive aspect of the USA model. Several sport events are extremely popular in the United States. These are football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track and field and some others. Almost all universities have their own teams for participating in these sports. If an athlete at the beginning of his career chooses some event, and some time later it turns out that he is much better in some other event, he can simply change an event within the same university. There are many such examples among Olympic champions at sprint events. Marion Jones who was member of her university basketball team, later became the fastest woman in the world. Famous sprinter Ato Boldon started his career playing soccer. Jim Hines used to be a baseball player in his early years. Eddie Tolan won Michigan state football championships as a high school boy. Much more examples could be mentioned. Such conditions give an opportunity to find out really talented athletes, and hard competition compels them to develop their skills very fast. Yesterday's NCAA champions become top world athletes today. Now it is John Capel, Shawn Crawford, Justin Gatlin, Jeremy Wariner and Lauryn Williams. In future there will be new stars and the National Collegiate Athletic Association model will never fail. It's worth mentioning that Caribbean athletes are good too. But note that many of them studied in American universities. One might ask why American athletes are not so good at long distance running as they are at sprint events. The answer is simple – they like action. It's much more interesting for them to watch a 100-meter race during 10 seconds than wait for the end of a 10-kilometers race for a half of an hour. They are crazy about eye-catching shows. And what could be more eye-catching than short-distance running? It's not just a part of running or athletics, it's another kind of sport, where limits of human body performance come out. That's why they just go and grab world and Olympic titles in sprint and left the rest of events for the others.

Can I Be My Own Add Coach?

Quite often I am in contact with people who discuss acting as an ADD Coach for their child or spouse. While supporting and helping loved ones with ADD is a great idea, acting as an ADD Coach really isn't a great idea. There is just way too much emotion involved and an ADD Coach needs to be far enough removed from the situation to be an effective ADD Coach. I have recently seen people talking about being their own ADD Coaches. That is just a really bad idea. As both an ADD Coach and a first born child who has a very hard time asking and accepting help myself, I can see both sides of the coin. It just becomes second nature to want to do things ourselves and not trust in others to be able to help us. People with ADD are usually their own worst critics. No matter how well adjusted people with ADD are they can never be fair and impartial when it comes to their own thoughts and ideas. They need another person to bounce their ideas off and for that person to be completely non-judgmental when coaching them. Working with an ADD Coach can be very helpful to people with Attention Deficit Disorder. An ADD Coach can help by adding a different perspective on things. ADD Coaching can help a person with ADD come up with strategies to complete projects and tasks. Some times a very small change in the way a person goes about doing something can make a huge difference. An ADD Coach can help a person with ADD figure out his or her strengths and talents. Quite often when a person with ADD tries to coach himself or herself he or she just focuses on improving areas of weakness. ADD Coaching can help people with ADD find a balance between the two.

Writing Japanese: What is Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana

The Japanese language is so fascinating. The tonal qualities of the language is quite unique and the inherent politeness of the Japanese people is translated well into its language which is in turns elegant and stylish and drips with respect. Japanese writing is also a very elegant script and it has evolved from its original Chinese script beginnings to become something that is intrinsically Japanese. There are actually different types or ways of writing Japanese characters and it has been a source of confusion for people who are not familiar with Japanese culture or for students of Japanese culture who have not yet fully researched the intricacies of the Japanese written language. The three ways of writing Japanese characters are Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana, with another version called Romaji being used for special purposed. Kanji The word kanji is a Japanese derivative of the Chinese word hanzi, which translates to "Han characters". The word Han pertains to the Han Dynasty and is also the name that the Chinese use to refer to themselves. Using Kanji would mean employing between 5000 to 10000 Chinese characters. This meant that writing in this form was very difficult. In 1981, the Japanese government, as a measure to simplify how Japanese is written and read, intrduced the j?y? kanji hy? or List of Chinese Characters for General Use. The list includes 1945 regular characters and 166 special characters that has a use only for writing people's names. All official documents, as well as newspapers, textbooks as well as other publications only use this form Hiragana Chinese characters are considered as the source for Hiragana syllables. Hiragana – which means "ordinary syllabic script" -- was referred to originally as onnade or "women's hand" because women used this form the most. Men are known to write in Kanji and Katakana. But usage of Hiragana evolved through the centuries, and by the 10th century, it was being used by both men and women. The earliest versions of hiragana had diverse characters that represent the same syllable. The whole system was simplified however in order to make it easier to use by establishing a one to one correspondence between the written and spoken syllables. Katakana The Katakana "alphabets" have a very storied history. It was taken from abbreviated Chinese characters that were used by Buddhist monks. They used Katakana in order to illustrate the correct pronunciations of Chinese text back in the 9th century. Initially, there were so many different symbols used just to represent one syllable that it became quite confusing. But through time, it became more streamlined. Katakana was initially thought of as "men's writing" but over the centuries it has been used to write onomatopoeic words, foreign names, telegrams, and non-Chinese loan words. Katakana contains about 48 syllables. There is also another script used in the Japanese language called Romaji. It is basically used to write the Latin alphabet into Japanese characters, especially for English or Latin alphabet-spelled words that do not have a direct Japanese translation.

I Am A Habit

H-A-B-I-T...When 95% of people hear this word, a negative thought pops up in their minds. Typically, most people think of a habit being negative. The secret to your future lies in your daily habits so ask yourself right now, "Are my habits today going to help me achieve my WHY in life?" This is a life-empowering question if you truly ask it and listen for the answer. I received the following excerpt from a very dear friend of mine and felt that it is definitely the best explanation of a habit that I have ever heard: I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great men. And, alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine. Plus, the intelligence of a man. You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am a HABIT! One of my daily habits that is the foundation of my life is spending 45-60 minutes each and every morning feeding my body physically by exercising and feeding my mental spirit by reading or listening to a motivational message. This habit warms me up for the day ahead. Everyone washes their physical body and feeds their body every morning, but 95% of people will find an excuse about why they can not find the "TIME" to invest in a habit of feeding their MINDS! This parallels the statistic that 95% of people are dead or dead broke by the age 65. I consider this particular daily habit of mine to be the driving force behind my ability to consistently maintain my intense focus on the journey of success and living a dream life. Is it easy all the time? Of course not, but when it becomes a habit – you will do it! If you commit today to begin each morning warming yourself up for the day ahead by feeding your mental spirit, your entire life will change in a positive fashion very quickly. It is like driving a race car with the emergency brake on and you try to go ahead, but you can't move. You stay in the same location with your wheels spinning, burning up, making a lot of noise, but not going anywhere! All it takes is to release the brake and you will fly towards toward your WHY in life!! You need to review what your habits are and ask yourself…"Would I recommend MY habits to someone I truly love and care about?" Your entire future lies in your daily habits-positive or negative. You have the most powerful force right now in your hands, the ability to decide what your habits will begin to be. Find Your WHY & FLY!!

The Adopted Child: Trauma and Its Impact

Adopted at the age of six months, Joseph was a fussy and sometimes hard to soothe infant. Feeling as though this was just normal infant difficulties with the adjustment of adoption, Pat and Robert paid it little attention. When Joseph reached the age of two and began to bite the other children in daycare, they chalked it up to the dreaded two-year old stage of which everyone assumes to be okay. Though the biting never quite ceased that year, with a few modifications, Joseph made it through the year. The teachers raved about how smart he was. By the time he was six, the increasing duration of the school day seemed almost more than he could bear. Sometimes screaming for hours at a time, Joseph would do no work and then would spend the remainder of the day in isolation. Prone to striking out when others attempted to soothe him, Joseph had now grown accustomed to attempting to runaway from the school personnel when his behavior would escalate. On many occasions this would lead to Joseph being restrained by the security guards, principal, or coaches. Eventually Joseph began to stack up a list of schools attended and suspended from. By the time Joseph had hit the 5th grade, his increasingly violent outburst coined with outward defiance had gained him two different stays at local residential treatment centers. Not knowing where else to turn or what else to do, and after failed attempts at therapy, and more than eight psychiatric medications had proved of little benefit other than causing Joseph to appear "zombie-like," Pat and Robert felt their only other option was to send Joseph to a boys boarding school. Unfortunately, the above story is not an uncommon plight that adoptive parents face. Though not always leading to a disruption or out-of-home placement, many adoptive families struggle for years to create the peaceful family of which they had dreamed. Regrettably, one of the main barriers preventing such family harmony is one of the least understood when it comes to understanding the plight of the adopted child. The barrier is trauma. Whether adopted from birth or later in life, all adopted children have experienced some degree of trauma. Trauma is any stressful event which is prolonged, overwhelming, or unpredictable. Though we are familiar with events impacting children such as abuse, neglect, and domestic violence, until recently, the full impact of trauma on adopted children has not been understood. What Science Is Now Revealing Scientific research now reveals that as early as the second trimester, the human fetus is capable of auditory processing and in fact, is capable of processing rejection in utero. In addition to the rejection and abandonment felt by the newborn adoptee or any age adoptee for that matter, it must be recognized that the far greater trauma often times occurs in the way in which the mind and body system of the newborn is incapable of processing the loss of the biological figure. Far beyond any cognitive awareness, this experience is stored deep within the cells of the body, routinely leading to states of anxiety and depression for the adopted child later in life. Because this initial experience has gone for so long without validation, it is now difficult for parents to understand. Truth be told, the medical community still discounts this early experience. Nevertheless, this early experience is generally the child's original trauma. From that point forward many more traumas may occur in the child's life. These include premature birth, inconsistent caretakers, abuse, neglect, chronic pain, long-term hospitalizations with separations from the mother, and parental depression. Such life events interrupt a child's emotional development, sometimes even physical development, subsequently interrupting his ability to tolerate stress in meaningful relationships with parents and peers. An important aspect of trauma is in recognizing that simply because a child has been removed from a traumatic environment, this does not merely remove the trauma from the child's memory. In fact, stress is recognized to be the one primary key to unlocking traumatic memories. Unfortunately for both the adopted child and family, the experience of most traumas in the child's life is that the traumatic experiences typically occur in the context of human relationships. From that point forward, stress in the midst of a relationship will create a traumatic re-experiencing for the child, leading the child to feel threatened, fearful, and overwhelmed in an environment which otherwise may not be threatening to other people. 10 Keys to Healing Trauma in the Adopted Child: 1. Trauma creates fear and stress sensitivity in children. Even for a child adopted from birth, their internal systems may already be more sensitive and fearful than that of a child remaining with his biological parents. You must also consider the first nine months in which the child developed. These early experiences as well could have major implications. 2. Recognize and be more aware of fear being demonstrated by your child. Be more sensitive and tuned in to the small signals given such as clinging, whining, not discriminating amongst strangers, etc. All are signs of insecurity which can be met by bringing the child in closer, holding, carrying, and communicating to the child that he is feeling scared, but you will keep him safe. 3. Recognize the impact of trauma in your own life. One of the single greatest understandings parents can have is a self-understanding. Research tells us that far more communication occurs non-verbally than verbally. Understanding the impact of past trauma in your own life will help you become more sensitive to when your reactions are coming from a place other than your existing parent/child experience. Re-experiencing past trauma is common when parents are placed in an ongoing stressful environment. 4. Reduce external sensory stimulation when possible. Decrease television, overwhelming environments, number of children playing together at one time, and large family gatherings. When necessary that these events take place, keep the child close, explain to him that he may become stressed and he can come to you when needed. 5. Do Time-In instead of Time-out. Rather than sending the stressed out and scared child to the corner to think about his behavior, bring him into to you and help him to feel safe and secure. Internally, this will then permit him the ability to think about his actions. Though time-in is not a time for lecturing, it will allow your child an opportunity to calm his stress and then think more clearly. Another effective key is to let the child decide how much time-in he needs. 6. Do not hit traumatized children. Doing so will only identify you as a threat. The biblical verse spare the rod, spoil the child speaks to the raising of sheep. A rod is used to guide the sheep and the staff to pull him back into line when he strays. Hitting children, just like sheep, will cause them to become frightened of you and in many instances to runaway or hit back. 7. There is never enough affection in the world. A very simple technique for time is the affection prescription 10-20-10. Give a child 10 minutes of quality time and attention first thing in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon, and 10 in the evening. Following this prescription of time has proven to have a great impact on the most negative behavior. 8. Encourage an IEP in the classroom to develop an understanding of the child's stress and fear. This may assist in addressing such vital areas as homework, playground, peer interaction, lunchtime, and physical education. All are common areas of reduced structure and increased stress. 9. Educate yourself regarding the impact of stress and trauma on families. Try not to scapegoat your child for their difficulties, but rather take responsibility for creating the environment necessary for healing his hurtful experiences. See below for the many resources available. 10. Seek support. Parenting a child with trauma history can take its toll on the best of parent. Seek out a support system for occasional respite care, discussing of issues, and the sharing of a meal. Such small steps can go a long ways during particularly stressful times. In closing, never forget that you are a great parent. During times of stress you won't always feel like it, but both you and your child were meant to be together. Your child will teach you far more about yourself than you may have ever realized without him. Give yourself time to refuel, connect, and communicate. And finally, a secure parental relationship is the single greatest gift you can give your child. When the parental relationship is secure this will permit the child a foundation to grow from.

Innovation: The Life Blood Of Your Business

If you're running or managing a business and want it to be around for a long time, you need to spend a good part of your time innovating. That's because, in a fast-moving world, where people expect things to get better and better, and cheaper and cheaper, innovation is your route to getting ahead of your competition. Here are 7 ways to put new life blood into your organization through innovation. 1. Create An Innovative Climate. Goran Ekvall of Lund University in Sweden has defined three conditions needed for a climate of innovation. They are: trust, dynamism, and humour. One of Ekvall's case studies was a Swedish newspaper where the team working on the women's section consistently outperformed all the other teams. The reason? Quite simply, this group trusted one another, had a high level of energy and shared a common sense of humour. 2. Develop Washing-Up Creativity. According to the Roffey Park Management Institute, most flashes of inspiration come to people when they are away from work and not forcing their conscious brains to find solutions to their problems. For some, ideas come while mowing the lawn or taking the dog for a walk or playing golf or waiting on a railway station. For Isaac Newton, it was an apple on the head while sitting in the garden. For Archimedes, it was in the bath. For others it's while doing the dishes; that's why Roffey Park calls these flashes of insight: "washing-up creativity". 3. Make New Connections. Making new connections between existing features of your product or service is a popular way to innovate. Akio Morita, chairman of Sony, said that he invented the Walkman because he wanted to listen to music while walking between shots on his golf course. His team simply put together two seemingly incompatible products: a tape recorder and a transistor radio. 4. Find Out What People Need. Necessity is a great spur to innovation. Take, for example, writing paper. The Chinese had already made paper from rags around the year 100 BC but because there was no need for it, nothing came of it. When it did reach Europe in the Middle Ages when writing was all the rage, the supply of rags and worn-out fabric soon dried up. That's when a French naturalist made the discovery that wasps made their nests by chewing wood into a mash that dried in thin layers. Within 100 years, all paper was made using the idea of wood pulp. 5. Test, Test, Test. Product testing is the way most inventors and organizations go about innovation. It may not be the quickest route to success, but it is often the surest. Jonas Salk, for example, discovered the polio vaccine by spending most of his time testing and testing and continually finding out what didn't work. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the filament light bulb, recorded 1300 experiments that were complete failures. But he was able to keep going because, as he said, he knew 1300 ways that it wasn't going to work. 6. Adopt and Adapt. One relatively easy approach to innovation is to notice how others deal with problems and then adapt their solutions to your own. It's known as "adapt and adopt". It's what watchmakers Swatch did when they realized that the more reliable their watches became, the less people needed to replace them. Their solution? Borrow an idea from the world of fashion and collections by turning their watches into desirable fashion accessories. Now people buy Swatch watches not just to tell the time but because it's cool to do so. 7. Take Lessons From Nature. If you really want to be inventive, you can't beat nature. The world of nature gives us an endless supply of prototypes to use in our own world. Take Velcro, for example. Velcro was patented by Georges de Mestral in 1950 after he returned from a hunting trip covered in tiny burrs that had attached themselves to his clothing by tiny overlapping hooks. De Mestral quickly realized that here was an ideal technique to fasten material together. A whole new way of doing things was suddenly invented. The history of the world is the history of innovation. Thomas Kuhn called each acceptance of a new innovation a "paradigm shift". For once a new innovation becomes accepted, the world has changed for ever and can never go back to the way it was.

Equity Theory And Employee Motivation

In business, the Equity Theory of employee motivation describes the relationship between how fairly an employee perceives he is treated and how hard he is motivated to work. Peter Drucker, an author who specialized in economics, first proposed the link between Equity Theory and employee motivation. The basic idea behind the Equity Theory is that workers, in an attempt to balance what they put in to their jobs and what they get from them, will unconsciously assign values to each of his various contributions. In addition to their time, workers contribute their experience, their qualifications, and their capability in addition to their personal strengths such as acumen and ambition. Money, of course, is the primary motivating outcome for an employee, but it is not the only, and in some cases not even the most important, factor. Power and status are also prime motivators, as are flexibility, perquisites and variety. According to the Equity Theory, the most highly motivated employee is the one who perceives his rewards are equal to his contributions. If he feels that he is working and being rewarded at about the same rate as his peers, then he will judge that he is being treated fairly. This doesn't mean that every manager should treat every employee identically, because every worker does not measure his contributions in the same way. For example, flexible working hours might motivate a working mother even more than a pay raise. Conversely, though an across-the-board wage increase may delight most employees, the highest producers may become less motivated if they perceive that they are not being rewarded for their ambition. Research on Equity Theory and employee motivation has shown that, in general, over-rewarded employees will produce more and of a higher quality than will under-rewarded, less motivated employees.

An Interesting Twist On Success Breeding Failure

I make it a habit of listening to successful people. I read their books, and follow their articles, and research some of the same topics of interest they have. I wish I had known this secret when I first started in business 30 years ago. Lou Gerstner is known as the man who turned IBM around. He stepped in as CEO in 1993. The company was bleeding to death internally and literally had 100 days left before it would run out of money. Saving one of the biggest companies that ever existed must have been an extremely difficult under-taking for Gerstner and reading his story is definitely a must. I found myself inquisitive about something he said during a CNN interview in 2004. He said "The more successful enterprises are the more they try to replicate, duplicate, codify what makes us great. And suddenly they're inward thinking. They're thinking how can we continue to do what we've done in the past without understanding that what made them successful is to take risks, to change and to adapt and to be responsive. And so in a sense success breeds its own failure." There is a lesson here we do well to observe. We as humans should be learning all the time. Yet at some point we turn off or shut down the learning machine inside us. It usually happens shortly after we leave secondary school and/or college. Many of us become over confident and question the need to know and we tell ourselves that enough is enough and we stop educating ourselves. The years of complacency set in and no-one can tell us anything unless they get our attention in a big way like dropping a boulder on our heads or something. Just like IBM, we become set in our ways and we get lazy and before you know it the world has changed but we did not change with it. We find ourselves hopelessly lost in premises of the past, and why not; didn't they do us well then? Didn't we succeed with all we knew then? Why should we mess with a good thing? All of a sudden quotes come out of the wood-work like, "Don't fix what's not broken", and "Leave well enough alone." But just as Gerstner observed about the big blue elephant, you must never let complacency set in. Never become complacent about change. Change is necessary if we are to survive. Gerstner paid credit to a quote he heard by Andy Grove: "It's only the paranoid that survive…you can never be comfortable with your success, you've got to be paranoid you're going to lose it." < This is true with our own self-development. We should stay alert at all times and look for ways we need to change. I used to tell my students that they need to develop a state of (PC), permanent cognizance. That means we should develop almost as a sixth sense the ability to always be aware of our surroundings. There are a multitude of examples of how this could be applied: • On a job interview, be aware of the office surroundings and use the particulars in your favor. • On an interview, be aware of the interviewer's style of asking questions. • On an interview, be aware of the interviewer's business jargon. • On an interview, be aware of the companies' needs so you can create needs/benefits statements. • With your spouse, be aware of what triggers his/her emotions. • With your spouse, be aware of what pleases them and what doesn't. • With your children, be aware of the friends they keep. • With your children, be aware of the homework they bring home. The list goes on and on. Mostly we should be aware of our own self development and we should be working on something to improve on regularly. Always be concerned about having an "edge" and keeping it. An edge means how you can be of benefit to someone or something else. In our insecure times, you never know when you are going to need to be good at interviewing again. You might need it sooner than you thought. You should always be selling yourself to your employer anyway. Keeping an edge means you are constantly modifying yourself by taking educational courses that the company or department may need you to take. Think, "What are your co-workers doing with their free time?" Things change constantly and we must be ready to change with them. Never become complacent at home or at work. Sharpening the edge may just be the kind of empowering you need today. Stephen Covey would say, "Sharpen the saw". Today make every minute count and become self-empowered by sharpening your saw. You'll never know when it will come in handy!

Coffee break small daily timeless pleasure

Rarely, however, there dwells to think of the origins of this gesture and this drink become synonymous of behavior. Around this drink have created many legends and folk traditions there who says that already the time of Homer, in the city of Troy, used coffee. The first coffee in Europe seems to be come even around 900 - 1000 AD thanks to the many ships that brought unknown goods from all parts. One thing certain is what he sees sip this dark drink, become, in what is today Yemen, a real custom, even supported by the government that praised its energy quality. For Europe is somewhat 'say that certainly the first coffee came through the Venetian traders, in 1615, especially remembers Prospero Alpini, botanist, physician of Venice's console, who studied the drink and brought to the knowledge of the Venice's city. At first the coffee was also used for its digestive and medical properties and also for this its price was immediately quite high. Today we find yet Caffè Florian, one of the oldest coffee's shop, under the arcades of St Mark's Square, Venice, which even then to disseminate this drink, did distribute a text that praised properties. In today's hectic life can not miss the time for coffee break and is in the workplace as in our homes and in bars has become increasingly demanding, for this reason, coffee machines and drink machines are now becoming increasingly technological equipment and we don't count more versions and variations, all designed to enhance quality in its various aroma of coffee. We find so espresso professional machines, but also those semi-or for private consumption; are available automatic drink espresso machines that allow enjoy anytime of the day, both in workspace and along a corridor, each variant of espresso coffee, barley, decaffeinated. In the new models of coffee machines for domestic use are lines of innovative and elegant design because the machine also expressed become an object of furniture and enriches every environment, joining an increasingly sophisticated technology in making coffee to a design increasingly minimalist. For use in the workplace, very comfortable and versatile are the drink machines, machines that allow fully automated, simply by inserting coins of small denomination, to have ready in a few seconds a hot or cold drink, depending on the request. In these machines the hot drink sugared already exits, with the amount preset and there is a small stick to turn sugar. Now all distributors have the use of key for those who normally use the machine or give the rest to those who are just passing through. In every place, at home or at work, the coffee break is around the corner, the hot drink that hides traditions and ancient stories is a daily pleasure that today, thanks to technological development in machinery and in drink machines, you can consume comfortably in any environment.

The Mystery Behind Saturn's Moon Enceladus

The Cassini-Huygens exploration of Saturn, a seven-year joint venture of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency, is getting a closer look at its current subject of attention, the small moon of Enceladus. Enceladus is one of the most innermost moons of Saturn which scientists had assumed to be largely dead. With a very bright surface it reflects nearly 100 per cent of its heat and thereby has a very cold temperature, minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit. A surprising discovery was that Enceladus, unlike nearby similar moon Mimas, is geologically active due to the emission of ice particles propelled by water vapor into the atmosphere from its south pole. Enceladus is a small moon of approximately 300 miles radius and the existence of any geological activity for a moon that size has scientists pleasantly baffled. Discovery of geological activity on any moon has been a rare phenomenon so far. The wonderful unexplained mystery behind Enceladus is the cause of the tremendous heat source that is warming the ice. Scientists can only guess that it is due to tidal activity or radioactive mechanisms for now. At one time it was believed that the heat was being emitted from the mid-latitude tectonic gashes that circumscribe the south polar region. This was what Cassini's approach in July seemed to imply. However in contrast to that orbit of 286 miles, Cassini's more recent closer approach of 109 miles confirmed that the heat was actually being emitted from what are known as the tiger stripes of Cassini. The tiger stripes of Cassini are 80 mile long fissures running parallel to each other spaced about 25 miles apart. Cassini is only 314 miles across. The hottest spots were found in the south polar region of the tiger stripes. Cassini determined there were two types of ice on Enceladus. An older amorphous variety was due to the constant characteristic of the surface of the planet. However the ice particles vented through the tiger stripe fissure were fine crystalline particles. This ice averaged ten microns in size. It is these tiny ice particles escaping the moon's atmosphere that are making up the composition of Saturn's broadest ring, the E ring. In March of 2008, Cassini is scheduled to visit Enceladus again. Perhaps then more light will be shed on the mystery behind Enceladus. 1) Enceladus Erupting – A Nasa Report – 12-7-05 2) Enceladus Plume – Jet Propulsion Laboratory – 12-6-05 3) Possible Source of E Ring – Bill Arnett – 2-17-05 4) Saturn: Moons: Enceladus – Nasa: Solar Systems Exploration – 10-6-03 5) Enceladus's Tiger Stripes are Really Cubs – Nasa Release

A Fold that's worth a Thousand Gain

How much are you charged for an online ad? How much will you be paying for an advertisement space in a magazine or newspaper? Advertising and marketing can be a very extravagant business. Every second, space and word is paid accordingly. If you have invested a large sum in your ads and promotions, how sure are you that you will get it back more than you expect it to be? How will you profit from it? Some businessmen are having qualm about spending high on ads and promotions. This is because they are not sure that they will profit from it. Some perceive it as just throwing away of money. This may not be a serious bother to multinationals or big corporations and business. Nonetheless, to the point of starting entrepreneurs, spending high may mean 'make or break' endeavor or worst may result to future bankruptcy. When talking about your business, everything matters – even the minutest details. One detail that must not be overlooked is effective communication. Therefore, promotions and advertisements are indispensable. If you are this point worrying about expenses, worry no more. There are affordable alternatives in connection with marketing your business. Tiny pieces of paper can do you a great favor. Brochures for one are effective marketing materials. Brochure may come in a fold or several of them. These folds can give you the edge in the marketing world. In fact, they may return as several folds of bucks. Imagine, you are hitting two birds at the same time. Brochures printing are affordable plus the aftermath of its distribution can be financially rewarding to business enthusiasts. Brochures printing can be had in an easy and practicable manner. In fact, you can transact online. Brochures printing companies are rampant. All you have to do is select the best – the printer with outstanding reputation and credibility can do your printing job superbly. Your friend's personal recommendation is a good recommendation. You can also rely on reviews and goodwill. Just be sure that your printer will bring life to your folds of communication.

All about Cuban cuisine

The East Caribbean island of Cuba has a rich cultural heritage from which has arisen culinary traditions that are as vibrant and varied as the variety of cultures that have contributed to the development of this distinct and delicious cuisine. In addition to the ancient influence of the native peoples of Cuba, the Spaniards brought their own culinary styles, tinged by those of the Moors who held huge parts of Spain for centuries. The slaves that were brought from Africa made significant culinary and cultural contributions, with other culinary traditions being brought to the island with the French colonists fleeing uprisings in Haiti. As these various influences came together, a distinctly Cuban flavor and style evolved, which is reminiscent of country peasant styles of cooking by oral tradition and eye, rather than relying on specific measurements and the creation of dishes that tend towards the simple and hearty, and that can be left on their own to simmer. Fussy, heavy sauces are unusual and deep-frying is simply not a favored cooking method. The island nation, naturally, uses a great deal of seafood in its cuisine, which encourages the use of simple cooking techniques and spicing that is meant to enhance, not smother, natural flavors. The most common spices used in Cuban cuisine are garlic, cumin, oregano and bay or laurel leaves. Sofrito is also popular, and used in a wide range of dishes, from those of beans to those of meats to those that are made from a base of tomato sauce. A typical sofrito is made of green pepper, onion, garlic, oregano and black pepper fried in olive oil until the pepper, onion and garlic are soft and translucent and the flavors blend to perfection. The dense, nutritious, energy producing vegetables commonly used belie the African and native peoples' influence on the cuisine of Cuba. Yuca, malanga, boniato, and plantano are among these, and are often simmered together with complementary vegetables and served simply, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped fresh onion – a satisfying, strengthening and simple dish for a hard working people. Meats are often prepared using island flavored marinades of that use lime juice or the juice of a sour variety of the orange as a base. Then, the meats are roasted or simmered very slowly with spices, often for hours. Beans and rice are an essential part of most meals, with black beans being well known as a Cuban specialty. Cuban cuisine is also notable for its baked goods, which include a variety of turnovers. Some are filled with spiced meats and other types feature a particularly Cuban blend of cream cheese and guava paste. Flan is among Cuba's most beloved dessert items. In Cuban cuisine, the subtle flavors of healthy foods are enhanced by cooking and spicing methods designed to bring out the best in each component of a dish. The culinary traditions of Cuba are a delight to the tongue, naturally, but they also offer a fascinating glimpse into a culture that has brought together many varied elements to create a cohesive whole.

The Scoop On Ice Cream Summer Entertaining

The scoop on ice cream is that it's an excellent choice for simple, delicious and, if desired, elegant entertaining. Whether it's a birthday, graduation, summer holiday or family celebration, ice cream and novelties can make any occasion special. Sundaes, root beer floats, banana splits, milkshakes and ice cream cones are always popular favorites. Serve an ice cream cake for a birthday or holiday celebration and see your guests smile. Add a scoop of ice cream on warm apple pie and you will delight everyone at the table. Serving ideas for ice cream are only limited by your imagination. Other popular entertaining ideas, particularly for children, are the many novelties selections in the frozen food aisle. Novelties are separately packaged single servings of a frozen dessert, such as ice cream sandwiches, fudge sticks and juice bars. Today's novelties offer fun, tasty, convenient dessert options for you, your family and guests. June and July of each year mark the annual Ice Cream & Novelties Promotion, sponsored by the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association (NFRA). That's when you will find special promotions and prices on your favorite summer treats. NFRA has these suggestions on storing and handling ice cream and novelties: • Make the ice cream aisle your last stop. • Put ice cream products in a separate section of the grocery cart or place on top of other groceries. • When your groceries are packed, request a freezer bag or additional brown paper bag to insulate your ice cream for the ride home. • At home, don't allow the ice cream to repeatedly soften and refreeze. • Store ice cream in the main part of the freezer, not on the door, where it is subject to more fluctuating temperatures. Here is an elegant yet simple dessert for your summertime entertaining. Peaches & Cream Shake 16 oz Frozen Sliced Peaches 1 cup Frozen Non-Dairy Creamer, thawed 1 large scoop Vanilla Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt 1/4 tsp. vanilla Place all ingredients in a blender and process on high for 1-2 minutes, or until well-blended. Pour into serving glasses and garnish with a peach slice.

THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

Each and every day as we are building our businesses, we all know the key to a successful presentation is a product being sold to the end-line consumer and/or sponsoring a new person. In an upcoming issue, I am going to write about the difference between making a sale and having customer loyalty in the sales process. In the sales process, you are fighting many different types of animals. For most of us who are in direct sales, you have 45 minutes to present a product/business concept and make a person believe in you, your product, and more importantly have them make a decision that they want what you are offering. When you are presenting the business, it is very easy for you to get very factual and completely lose the interest of your prospect. When you tell a story about the success of someone who is using the product or have a person give a live testimonial about how much they love being a distributor, you will keep the interest of new people who are listening for the first time. For most of us, the first time in our lives that we were ever presented with the concept of a live audience was back in kindergarten when we played "show and tell". Everyone was always interested in what you were saying because you were simply telling a story. We have all heard of the famous K.I.S.S. rule: Keep It Simple Stupid. When presenting your business or product, the key play is to tell a story and keep it simple. Everyone can relate to the grandmother, who can talk about their grandchild as the most beautiful, precious child in the world. She will make you feel as if her grandchild would be such a gift to own as your own. You need to take that same simplicity and utilize it during your presentation and create the same result - ownership of your product As you tell stories, people will remember those stories versus all the facts in the world. "FACTS TELL, BUT STORIES SELL." They should want to get involved in your business or purchase your product because all of the success stories that you told. People love to be part of a winning team. Storytelling keeps people tied into you and your presentation. I always say when in doubt during a presentation, tell a story in order to bring people's attention back to you. When I present, I ALWAYS tell many stories because when I was first introduced to direct sales, what perked my ears was a story of a young lady who had a lifestyle I wanted. The personal story of her lifestyle is what made me decide to get involved in the business. In that business, I went on to build an enormous organization and all I did was tell my story and tell the company's story over and over! Combining the key strategy of storytelling along with the correct mindset, you can achieve your wildest dreams! Find your WHY and Fly!