Home Insurance Policy - Getting Yours For A Lot Less

Home insurance policy: With the right tips you'll get more affordable rates for sufficient coverage. It's also important that I point out that there are recommendations that might put you at risk even if they save you at the moment. I will, nevertheless, only give tips that will help you save much while you still maintain the right coverage...

1. Having a smoker in your household will increase your rates substantially. And statistics have it that over 23,000 residential fires every year could be linked to smoking. You will spend less in home insurance if no member of your household smokes. If you stop smoking successfully for over 12 months, let your agent know it and demand for a well-deserved discount.

What if your insurance company refuses to grant you discounts because some insurers do NOT have non-smokers discounts? Then it's time to shop for an insurance company who does unless you get something else to make your continued stay with such an insurance company worthwhile.

2. A home that has shatter-proof windows will make it easier for you to get cheaper premiums. Therefore, replace your old windows with these more so if you reside in places that are prone to high winds and hail storms. Always remember to keep your agent informed whenever you take a step like this. I advice that you speak with your agent even before you start the changes as he or she might make inputs that will bring in more savings.

3. Because of gas and oils, your motor garage is a big fire risk. So your home insurance rates will be cheaper if your garage is detached and at a safe distance from your residential structure.

4. Folks seem to take more preventative measures against fire than water damage by not checking their plumbing and upgrading as often as they should. The fact that the most common type of claim on a homeowner's insurance policy is water damage should tell you something. Consequently, proving to any insurance carrier that your home has little or no risk of water damage will result in a good discount. Tell your agent if you've improved your plumbing.

5. Your home's risk perception is strongly affected by your claims records. If you make claims57D for every little thing, your home will soon be assessed as a much higher risk than another similar house where the owner files fewer claims. Once an insurance carrier sees you as a higher risk, you get more expensive rates.

You're, therefore, encouraged to NOT file claims for very little things that won't actually cost you a lot if you handle them on your own. This will help keep your rate affordable.

6. While you take these other steps to lower your home insurance rates, here's something you can do to get lower rates today. Visit trusted quotes sites and obtain quotes. Visit not less than five of such sites for the best results. It's free, quick and easy. Make sure you give your correct details as you fill the forms on each site. All you have to do next is simply choose the insurer that represents the best price/value from the quotes return.

Here are recommended pages for home insurance quotes...

InsureMe Home Insurance Quotes

Home Insurance Quotes

Chimezirim Odimba writes on insurance.

Confessions Of An Unhealthy Home

How To Find The Right Log Cabin Kit

Buying a Log Cabin... Do you love log cabins? Then you may already be familiar with the benefit of log cabin kits, which can save you time and money. This is great when you're just ready to get into your new home. You might like to know that there are some things you should consider when you're searching for a log cabin kit.

Carpentry If You Build It

Reasons to Buy Real Estate in Oklahoma City

There are many questions a buyer of property should ask himself or herself before committing to a real estate investment. It is necessary to ask these questions so that the purchase will be a wise one, and a positive experience. When making a purchase in Oklahoma City there are many attractions that will help to make your experience a positive one. Finding answers that satisfy your needs will turn into your reasons to buy real estate in Oklahoma City.

The capital of the state of Oklahoma is Oklahoma City. A property located there will interest individuals who are active in political events or those who just like to stay where the action is. There are a lot of cultural landmarks such as the Myriad Botanical Gardens located downtown that increases the value of property there. This is a large urban park, which pulls residents and visitors alike to the community. Community value is one element of property ownership that is important whether you are purchasing for personal or commercial reasons. To add more value the city offers many other cultural events like performing art centers, colleges and universities, museums, upscale retail store2208s and trendy restaurants all of which give real value to your property.

Oklahoma City has amenities both city and urban with an average property selling price of $135.000. There are many different neighborhoods to choose from: downtown, Asian district, near the Bricktown Entertainment District, or quiet residential streets that give you the hometown feel. The latest statistics has the population of the city at 589,003 with an owner occupied being at 53%.

When buying investment property here are a few questions to get you started:

1. What can I expect as far as cash flow for this property?

2. Can I afford to support this property if the cash flow should turn negative?

3. What are the local improvements planned for the area the property is listed in?

4. Is there population growth for this area? (You do not want to purchase in an area with negative growth).

5. Is the property and neighborhood tenant friendly?

6. What kind of condition is the property in and how much will it cost to conduct a building inspection? (always get an inspection done).

7. How old is the property? (deprecation benefits are less with older properties)

8. How many industries are present in the city? (If there is only one industry - avoid at all costs).

The statistic of home ownership for 2000 shows 67.7% of Americans own versus renting their home. More adults are realizing that it is possible to have that dream of owning a home. Here are a few questions to ask when taking the plunge to owning personal real estate:

1. Do you know what your total costs will be from Day 1 to closing on the property?

2. Do you know how to find a real estate agent that will look out for your needs and not the buyer's or the agent's?

3. Do you understand the financial aspects of buying a home? (getting a mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance)

4. Do you know what your credit report says about your financial state?

5. Do you know what type of housing and what type of community you are looking to live in?

6. Do you understand basic real estate terminology?

7. Do you know how to negotiate terms for your new home purchase?

8. Have you shopped around for quality and affordable homeowners insurance?

Now that you have your questions, get those answers so that you will know all the reasons for buying your real estate property in Oklahoma City.

Bob is the owner of myrealestateoklahomacityok.com which is an up-to-date Real Estate information website. Finding answers that satisfy your needs will turn into your reasons to buy real estate in Oklahoma City.

Home Repair Ideas

Cheating Wife

Have you got a cheating wife? Most men go out to work every day and leave their wife at home. Does your wife stay at home being a homemaker whilst you are gone for 10 hors a day? More and more women are opting for extra marital activities. So how do you know that you haven't got a cheating wife?

I don't profess to know all there is to know about women or their habits, if I did I would be a very rich person. Women are a law unto themselves; they have habits and foibles which no man will ever understand. But what about those 10 hours, without you in the house; could your wife be cheating on you?

Women are very possessive about things like mobile phones, emails and letters, they have a rule (usually), and men are not allowed to touch these personal items. So how would you know if you have a cheating wife? If your wife has started changing her habits and making drastic changes to her appearance, you can probably take this as a sign of infidelity. This may sound drastic but hear me out. Why does a woman all of a sudden change? It's usually attention seeking or wanting to look nice for someone.

Have you ever turned up early from work only to fine that your wife isn't home? They probably told you that a friend called and needed to talk about "personal problems", the personal problems part of the conversation means that there is no chance of her telling you what they were. If you ask her which friend she will probably say "why do you need to know that, don't you believe me?" that is for the guilt effect, you feel guilty for asking.

Remember a cheating wife has a circle of friends who (once prompted) will validate her story without question, these are usually the same friends who laugh at you behind your back because you are so dumb for not seeing that she is cheating, but they are usually the first to your front door telling you what a shame it is that you were cheated on.

Personal email accounts are very hard to infiltrate, woman are very cunning with these. A cheating wife will probably have a normal email account where her friends send their daily routines or work problems, she will also have a private email account which you know nothing about, and this one is where you will find all of her inner secrets and desires. Cell phone are one of the greatest inventions over the last century, they are the best means of 24 hour contact available, unfortunately for you, they also mean that anyone can contact your wife whenever they want. When was the last time you answered your wife's phone while she was busy only to have the other party hang up, or went to answer the phone but were to leave it alone?

You can ignore it or you can pretend that life is fine, but the fact that you have a cheating wife will not go away, in fact it will probably eat away at you for every hour of every day until you do something about it.

You can lie down and get kicked again or you can stand up like the man you are, and do something about it, It's your choice.

Find out more here Cheating Wife

Stucco Roof Fascia

Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund

Like many large banks on wall street Goldman Sachs offers several hedge funds. A few of these took big losses this summer and in one case with the Goldman Global Opportunities Fund the firm had to inject $3B into the fund to keep it running ($2B of their own money). "Given the market dislocation, the performance of GEO has suffered significantly," Goldman said. "Our response has been to reduce risk and leverage." In other words their losses mostly came from using too much leverage in the first place.

"Many funds employing quantitative strategies are currently under pressure as recent conditions have resulted in significant market dislocation," Goldman said. "Across most sectors, there has been an increase in overlapping trades, a surge in volatility and an increase in correlations. These factors have combined to challenge many of the trading algorithms used in quantitative strategies. We believe the current values that the market is assigning to the assets underlying various funds represent a discount that is not supported by the fundamentals."

Other Goldman Sachs Hedge Funds

The two other funds that have recently come under fire include the multi-strategy fund Global Alpha and the North American Equity Opportunities Fund (NAEO). Goldman has said "The market dislocation impacting equity quantitative strategies has adversely affected NAEO's performance and has been a key contributor to Global Alpha's disappointing performance. We have reduced risk and leverage in these funds as well. At their current levels of equity capital, we believe the funds are positioned to actively pursue market opportunities."

Will Goldman Sachs Leave the Hedge Fund Business?

Never. Doesn't listen to journalists who predict Goldman's flagship fund going down in flames as an end to their play in this industry. The most recent trend with Goldman Sach's strategy towards hedge funds has been to invest and take partial ownership in dozens of medium to large sized hedge funds. This allows them to help grow these hedge funds while also participating in the upside of a diverse ray of hedge fund managers and strategies.

The Richard Wilson Hedge fund Blog (http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com) is a content rich source for hedge fund industry white papers, trends, articles and professional interviews. I also share lessons I learn in my investment marketing and sales (third party marketing) career and earning a graduate degree at Harvard. I live in Cambridge, MA and can be reached at 503.789.7901 or Richard@RichardCWilson.com. This post came from the Richard Wilson Hedge Fund Blog online at: http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2007/10/goldman-sachs-hedge-fund.html

Home Mold Test Kits

History Of Liverpool In A Nutshell (City Of Liverpool)

The view of Liverpools world famous waterfront was a different scene some time ago than what it is today. In 1190 the city was known was Liuerpul, which meant a pool with muddy water and another name that has been suggested is elverpool, which was a reference to the high number of eels in the Mersey.

King John granted Liverpool its charter in 1207 and advertised the establishment of a new borough at Liverpool inviting settlers to come and take holdings there. Rumour had it that the king wanted a port in the district that was free from the control of the earl of Chester and at first it served as a dispatch point for troops sent to Ireland.

Following this, the Liverpool Castle was constructed, which occupied a prominent site overlooking the Mersey and pool of Liverpool. It was described that the castle had four towers, a hall, chamber, chapel, brew-house and bake-house and was surrounded by a dry moat. Liverpool Castle was removed in 1726.

Throughout the 16th century, Liverpool only had a population of around 500 and it wasnt until the late 1600s that Liverpool was made a parish on its own by Act of Parliament. Following on from this the population and commerce increased rapidly and Liverpool became the second metropolis of Great Britain.

Liverpool was the safest landing spot for boats and the first wet dock in Britain was built in 1715. Profits increased from the slave trade, which helped the town grow and flourish.

Liverpools black community dates from this period and grew rapidly, - reaching a population of around 10,000 within five years. By the beginning of the 1800s more than 30% of the worlds trade was passing through the docks at Liverpool and during the 1840s the great famine brought many Irish to Liverpool. By the middle of the 1800s a quarter of the citys population was Irish-born.

Over the period of the 1800s to 1900s the growth of Liverpool continued to expand and the population grew. At the beginning of the 1800s the population was just 78,000 and grew to a massive 685,000 by 1901.

Albert Dock AreaIn 1888 Liverpool achieved city status and by the early 1900s it was announced the second city of empire. During this period the Albert Dock expanded and a number of major buildings were constructed such as St. Georges Hall and Lime Street Station.

As Liverpool was constantly expanding over the years, during the late 1800s and early 1900s people started emigrating from all over Europe to the city and the population continued to grow. It was said that Adolf Hitlers half brother had once stayed with his wife in Upper Stanhope Street but some believe that this is untrue.

Along with the huge Irish community in Liverpool, there were also a lot of other cultures and around the area of Scotland Road was once referred to as Little Italy. In addition to this, Liverpool was also the home to a large Welsh population and some people called it the Capital of North Wales.

Following the First World War, Liverpool experienced a massive slump to its economy, which the city council tried to resolve by making various improvements such as the construction of the East Lancashire Road and the Mersey Queensway Tunnel. When the Mersey Queensway Tunnel was first built it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world.

During World War II, Liverpool was bombed more heavily than any other city in Europe and was almost completely wiped out. At a certain time during this war the city was the headquarters of the Battle of the Atlantic from 1941.

Liverpool BombingHowever, at the beginning of the 1950s re-construction took place and Liverpool was once again the second most important port in the empire. In the late 20th century the dock was redeveloped and the Albert and Wapping Docks were restored as major visitor attractions and retail centres. The installation of new dock gates at Canning facilitated the Tall Ships and Mersey River Festival in the 1980s and 90s.

Since the middle of the 1990s some major redevelopment and reconstruction has taken place and there are many planning projects currently underway to revive economy in Liverpool. For most of this period the economy in Liverpool has grown faster than the national average and crime levels have remained lower than most other metropolitan areas in England and Wales.

Contact Me and Read More At Liverpool In A Nutshell

Home Mold Test Kits

The Secret to Staying Healthy as We Age

Everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. There are some simple steps to assist with this. Eat well and exercise will have a huge positive impact on your lifestyle. For a quick start add these five ingredients to your diet.

Soy to Manage Your Cholesterol

Adding soy to your diet has been shown to significantly lower cholesterol, which can reduce your risk of heart disease. Plus, soy is high in iron, which many women need. Some women also say that soy helps them manage hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, although those benefits have not been proven by long-term clinical studies. Still, its cholesterol-lowering benefits are powerful enough. Indeed, the right diet can lower cholesterol as much as medication.

You can add soy foods such as tofu, soy milk, soy nuts, or green soybeans to your diet. There are meal replacement shakes that contain a high level of quality soy. These are a quick and healthy way to increase your soy and protein intake. You can check this out at my website.

Fiber for Your Whole Body

Once upon a time our diet was made up mostly of whole foods loaded with fiber which helped keep our cholesterol and blood sugar levels low, and kept our bowels functioning smoothly.

Studies have shown that dietary fiber -- including foods such as apples, barley, beans, and other legumes, fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, oat bran, and brown rice -- clearly lower blood cholesterol. High-fiber foods are also digested more slowly, so they don't cause spikes in blood sugar levels like white bread, potatoes, and sweets do. Of course, everyone knows that fiber helps keep you regular, but so do laxatives. Fiber, however, has an added plus: High-fiber foods help us feel full, making it easier to control weight. You could also take a fiber supplement such as chitosan.

Antioxidant 'Superfoods' to Protect Your Cells and Heart

When you're thinking "superfoods," think color. That means foods that are deep blue, purple, red, green, or orange. The carotenoids and anthocyanins that provide the color for these foods contain health-enhancing nutrients that protect against heart disease and cancer, and also improve our sense of balance, our memory, and other cognitive skills. Your "superfoods" color chart should include:

* Deep green -- Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli may help prevent colon cancer, while spinach and kale are good sources of calcium.

* Red -- Red tomatoes, especially when cooked, are beneficial sources of lycopeine, which helps protect against prostate and cervical cancer.

* Orange/yellow -- Squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and yams promote healthy lungs and help fight off skin cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma.

* Deep blue/purple -- Eggplant, plums, blueberries, blackberries (strawberries, raspberries, and cherries come under this category as well) lower your risk of heart disease by helping the liver "sop up" extra cholesterol, as well as improve your mental functioning.

Calcium for Your Bones

If you want to keep your bones strong and lessen your chance of fractures as you get older, add calcium-rich foods such as low-fat cheese and milk to your diet. If you take a calcium supplement make sure it includes vitamin D which helps the body absorb the calcium. Calcium also keeps teeth strong, helps your muscles contract, and your heart beat. Recent studies have even shown that calcium may lower your risk of colon polyps, and help you lose weight. Researchers at Purdue University found that women who consume calcium from low-fat dairy products or get at least 1,000 milligrams a day showed an overall decrease in body weight.

Water for Energy and Your Skin

Most people don't drink enough water. You should aim for 8 large glasses a day. We need water to flush out toxins, keep our tissues hydrated, and keep our energy up. Water is also essential if you're eating high-fiber foods. Water helps fiber do its job. Keep a water bottle with you always. Have one in the car, one where you work and keep a jug of water on your bench at home. Your body will thank you for it.

Exercise

The exercise you do will vary depending on your personal lifestyle. If you are currently not exercising, start slowly, build up gradually. Weight resistance exercises are important for strong and healthy bones. The simplest exercise is walking. Dont catch the elevator, use the stairs. Swimming is a safe exercise for most people. Do not spend too long procrastinating over what type of exercise you will do. Just start some form of exercise today.

Healthy Outcomes

By following these simple steps you will improve your health. Cutting down on processed and fatty, fast food and carbonated drinks will save you money. It will lessen your need for medical interventions. Your body will look and feel so much healthier and younger.

To learn how to create an income stream with work from your home that will replace your job and develop true financial freedom visit: Cheryl Haining is a successful home business owner, weight loss, skin care, body shape and nutrition coach. She has her own successful business. Her mission statement is to ensure everyone reaches his or her optimum body shape, size and condition. Contact Cheryl at http://www.trimlikeme.net To learn how to create an income stream with work from your home that will replace your job and develop true financial freedom visit: http://www.keybusinesstips.info/

Fire Damage Articles
Remodeling Your Home On A Budget

Sudan and One Tourist Me.

In 1985 the Sudan was in considerable trouble. Sudan had been in trouble before but this time the country was almost on its knees. I had been invited to visit relatives of a dear friend of mine, a Sudanese girl I shared an apartment with, and I was hoping to be met by her cousin Zuba.

I arrived in Khartoum at the exact moment the Sudanese decided to sack their incumbent President, Gaafar Muhammad Nimeri. From the first moment of my arrival I could sense the tension; it was an almost tangible thing, raw and exciting. I arrived late at night, tiptoeing over the sleeping bundles of rags propped against scant furniture in the weirdly utility building rumored to be the arrivals hall. At least I was assured it was the arrivals hall.

There were piles of unclaimed baggage strewn in every direction, with locks hanging loosely; obviously having been tampered with by a series of looters. In my innocence and inexperience of life in Khartoum, I had worn a rather smart white dress and jacket for my journey, rather like selecting a wedding gown to explore a coal pit really, although I was unaware of my idiocy at the time.

I was sitting in what can only described as ultimate chaos. The aircraft I had just alighted from had disgorged over two hundred shell shocked passengers into a room only slightly larger and considerably dustier than a scout hut. Floating sand was everywhere, in the air, on the seats, settled into drifts along the counters and over the Perspex barriers which separated the passengers from barely visible immigration officials. Children were crying, some strange Arabian anthem was crackling across a loudspeaker, and outside the building cars and taxis were honking their horns.

As I sat, fine yellowish brown sand floated down onto the shoulders and lapels of my crisp, white dress and coat and onto the black leather of my dressing case and handbag which I carried, terrified to lose sight of my personal belongings in this bedlam.

A cluster of ragged bodies seemed to be pawing at a pile of baggage just in front of me. On closer inspection I managed to read the back of the tee shirt nearest me. ‘Baggage Handling’ it said. The wearer had on only a pair of worn out Speedo shorts, and flip flops. He was puffing away on an evil smelling clove cigarette and he and his friends had already opened a suitcase further along the line.

They had also opened a bird cage for some reason, and the occupant, an African parrot, had flown out in search of refuge. The parrot was now perched on one of the slowly turning blades of the most enormous ceiling fan I had ever seen, and was hurling selections from his considerable repertoire of phrases at everyone who went near him. Each sentence was couched in the most obscene terms and he had collected a group of admirers who were throwing him peanuts to coax him from his perch. I gathered from one of his young admirers that his name was Maxwell.

The collection of rags was now searching through one of my suitcases so I decided the time had come to assert ownership. Just as I arose from my seat, Zuba arrived. I should explain at this point that Zuba, as we affectionately called her, was 36 years old and, as yet, unmarried. In the Sudan, to be this great age and not yet betrothed or married was an unforgivable sin. She was not unattractive in a strange, Zuba sort of way. By that I mean she was of medium height, huge brown eyes with heavy fringes of lashes, smooth skin of a coffee complexion, and dainty hands and feet. Her voice, however, would cut through steel. Most of her remarks were quickly followed by raucous laughter, usually mistaken for male origin.

Zuba was ungainly in the extreme; she walked as a farmer might, when striding through a pig pen, with feet well apart, taking large strides and swinging her arms as she went. Zuba adored Bob Marley, Peter Sellers and going to parties. She had joined the army upon leaving school and had risen through the ranks, training as a medical officer and then as a Psychologist, until by 1985 she had reached the rank of Colonel.

Wherever Zuba went, so her entourage followed. There were two uniformed private soldiers she informed me were her bodyguards, both of whom were of considerably slighter build than she and terrified of her. A further four soldiers just seemed to trail behind the first two and try to look interested in everything Zuba said, or did. The seventh member of her little band was her driver, whom she pummeled with her handbag whenever he misbehaved.

She came toward me through the arrivals hall at Khartoum airport, dressed in her khaki uniform, pips and eagles adorning each shoulder, a gold lanyard swinging from her tunic, looking extremely official and parting the crowds of people by waving her service revolver at everybody who dared to get in her way. She threw her arms around me and lifted me off my feet, kissing me on both cheeks several times over. By the time she had finished planting kisses all over my face her emotions had overcome her and she began to actually cry. Her driver handed her a handkerchief and she blew her nose noisily before shouting to one of her troop to grab my suitcases.

Zuba led us through immigration in a flurry of handshakes and toothy smiles, introducing me to everyone and explaining that I was a VIP from diplomatic circles. I actually was a lowly administrator from Leeds so nothing could be further from the truth and it was very obvious none of them believed her, but they seemed not to care and we were soon outside the terminal doors.

Our transport was an open army jeep complete with flags and hooters. We raced through the hot, dusty trails, you could certainly not call them roads, and after what seemed like hours, we arrived at Zuba’s family home on the outskirts of Omdurman. Tired, caked with dust and filth, I entered the ruined splendor of Zuba’s home.

It was easy to see how in the old days her family had considerable wealth and influence. Now, the marble floors beneath my feet were gritty from sand, brown at the edges where the floors met the walls, bare light bulbs hanging from light fittings, threadbare rugs scattered everywhere. Zuba brought two young girls forward and introduced them as servants. ‘It’s okay Jan, you don’t have to kiss them, they are very black!’ she said! Shocked, I started to scold her about talking of the girls in that manner but she laughed loudly and began dragging me upstairs to unpack.

Zuba’s bedroom had not been decorated since she was nine years old and still had pink painted furniture and posters of pop stars of the sixties adorning the walls. A very young Donny Osmond grinned down at me from above a bed I assumed to be Zubas; cotton throws in bright colors were draped over the chairs to hide the childish Disney transfers of Snow White pasted to the backs. Zuba explained that her bedroom had been left in this state by her mother as a punishment for not getting married at a respectable age. I murmured something sympathetic and she continued to show me around her private quarters.

There was a heavy metal door at one end of the room which turned out to be the door to the flat roof. I stepped through the door, looking forward to seeing a roof garden with perhaps a dining area. Instead I was greeted by a collection of discarded cardboard boxes, some of which still had the smelly remains of fruit adhering to the sides. Beyond the boxes was another door, this time to a bathroom, containing a tap high up on the wall which was the only means of showering, and a toilet, the smell from which was beginning to make me gag. Everything up here was coated in brown dust. The rest of the roof was just an open space with a low wall.

A drunken washing line was strung between the bathroom wall and a hook on the parapet, and obviously it would be impossible to peg washing from it except at its highest point. At the far end of the roof was a plastic chair and table with a suspicious looking object trailing a wire through the wall.‘Here, Jan you can ring your family and tell them you are in Zuba’s wonderful house,’ she said, pointing to the object which I now recognized as a telephone without is plastic cover.

Zuba discreetly retired to the ground floor, leaving me to phone home. It was then I realized there was no dial on the object either, therefore there were no numbers to choose from. I sat on the plastic chair and laughed.

I stayed with Zuba and her family for six wonderful months. I was 31 and had been working as a secretary in the service branch of an engineering company for the past two years. I had been suffering from boredom for so long I was now beginning to accustom myself to the perpetual ennui of my set routine and I was terrified of waking up one morning on the wrong side of fifty and wondering where my life had gone. Sudan was exactly the kind of adventure I needed and I launched myself into the business of living on a knife edge with passionate abandon. I found a job as a temporary secretary with a local oil company and agreed to attend every single function I was invited to for the next three months.

Khartoum was overrun by American pilots who were there to train the local air force. They invited me to their parties and barbecues and treated me like royalty. I joined the Sudan Club, the last relic of British occupation and still inhabited by one or two live-in residents left over from the fifties when the Sudan still had roads and pavements.

At first I was content to stay with Zuba and learn about the way Sudanese families lived. After a few weeks though, I began to understand that I must be a drain on the family resources, in a city where food shortages were becoming more and more worrying each day.

Bread was queued for, sometimes for hours. The two servant girls were sent to wait for hours in the sun outside the bread shop, the grocery shop, and the worst of all, the gas depot, where gas bottles were rationed to those residents who had enough money to bribe the depot officials, thus enabling them to cook and to light their houses. The gas depot was a long walk away, no shelter from the sun when you got there, and no guarantee of coming home with gas.

One of Zuba’s cousins, Ozzy, was a regular visitor to the house. He would arrive late morning and greet Zuba politely, then retire to the front patio with her brothers, to smoke and drink ‘Sid’ – a disgusting concoction of ninety proof alcohol which passed for cocktails in these difficult times. The entire family was devout Moslem I must point out and therefore strictly forbidden to consume alcohol. As in all things, the consumption of alcohol was overlooked and deemed a necessary evil to help overcome the daily tiresomeness of living in reduced circumstances.

One evening about a week after my arrival, Ozzy invited me to visit his mother. I was delighted to be invited as Ozzy’s mother was reputed to be a great beauty of her generation and a highly sophisticated woman. We set out just before dinner and I was fascinated at how Ozzy could find his way around the sandy wasteland of Khartoum. There were no street signs, no signposts, and no stop signs. The sands of time had covered a once beautiful city. Ozzy informed me that long ago, when the British were in residence, the city had fire hydrants, post boxes, beautifully paved sidewalks, shops and taxi ranks and post offices. Now there were just tired, dusty houses facing other tired, dusty houses with a desert wasteland between. You had to use a compass to get around.

We stopped suddenly outside a house with a locked metal gate. There was a Mercedes parked outside the house and Ozzy got out of the car, opened the trunk and took out a plastic canister and a hose pipe. To my horror and disbelief, he began the process of siphoning petrol out of the parked Mercedes into our car! I objected strenuously to this blatant theft but Ozzy just smiled, ignored me and continued to his destination.

My visit to Ozzy’s mother, Una, was the first of a series of visits, each one more enjoyable than the last, and we became close friends. She helped me to find an apartment in Khartoum and I managed to furnish it with donated furniture from a collection of concerned friends.

I felt more comfortable now that I was not draining Zuba’s family’s limited supplies and in fact I was now able to supply them with a few luxuries such as shampoo and toothpaste which I bought at the American commissary, a perk of working for an American oil company. Some days were good and some were unspeakably bad.

One morning I woke to find my apartment flooded. There had been no water for three days and I stupidly left the taps turned to the on position. The water supply had been restored in the middle of the night and overflowed everywhere. On arriving in the street I found my driver, Khamis, busy under the bonnet of the company car allocated to me. After recruiting the assistance of a series of passersby it was concluded there was no petrol in the car.

It was stifling hot in the back seat and I demanded to know why I could not open the windows. Khamis informed me solemnly that he had super glued the windows shut to deter thieves. The front windows were not glued, I pointed out. No, he said, that was because he found it too hot with them shut.

Arriving at my office it would be quite normal to find the telephones did not work, the electricity had been cut off, the water was off, or the caretakers had not shown up to open the building, resulting in a mass adjournment to the cafes for endless cups of coffee until lunchtime. The Sudan Club supplied food most days. It would not do to be too fussy, you had to eat whatever was on the menu for the day. My lunch on some days consisted of a curious collection of pickles and a slice of bread, at other times there would be a veritable feast due to the arrival of a consignment of food which was then distributed by the resourceful characters in charge of imported goods through the ports.

Zuba was a regular visitor to my apartment and she made herself at home, arranging herself on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table and viewing my collection of library videos which I borrowed weekly from the American commissary shop. She would tuck into a large bowl of cereal, her latest fad, glue herself to the television and refuse to talk until she had come to the end of her movie.

I was amazed one morning to spy Zuba alighting from her staff car outside my apartment, in full dress uniform complete with white gloves and sunglasses, looking like a female version of Idi Amin, accompanied by her feckless driver who failed to catch her when she stepped off the sill of her jeep and she stumbled into a hole in the road, slapping him over the head with her handbag and screaming abuse at him top volume. She had been to the hairdresser, and her shoulder length hair had been braided into hundreds of tiny plaits, and secured at the end with multi colored beads; very attractive for party wear, but hardly suitable to accessorize an army uniform. Over the top of her uniform cap she had jammed a set of headphones, and she proceeded to dance up the stairs of the building to the tune of Bob Marley.

Zuba casually asked me what I did at work, and when I told her I typed, processed papers, made coffee, etc, she froze in shock. What did I mean by ‘make coffee?’ I explained that in the modern world secretaries make coffee for their bosses, it was no big deal. The next day she showed up at my office complete with entourage and service revolver, which she waved at my boss and warned him darkly that he was not to ask her friend to make his coffee again if he wanted to survive his term of service in the Sudan. I assured him after she had gone that he did not have to worry, I was quite happy to make his coffee. Nonetheless he never asked me to again.

During my time in Khartoum I explored the seam where the blue and the white Niles meet, helped in a crocodile hunt, survived the onslaught of numerous haboobs (sand storms) and flew into the wilderness near El Obaid, courtesy of the World Bank to meet the field Geologists studying desert life in isolated camps with their families; two years in the desert without any contact with the outside world made them very pleased to see us.

I experienced the discomfort of tear gas during the coup and had to bath in bottled soda water when water supplies completely dried up, and I watched with delight when Nimeri was finally ousted from power, joining the dancing and celebrations in the streets which went on for days. I visited the camps where my friend Marguerita was in charge of vaccines, nursing the children with so many famine connected diseases, and eventually nursed Marguerita while she died of cholera in my little apartment. She was so brave and strong, it seemed unthinkable she should end her days in such horrible circumstances.

My stay in Sudan came to an end when I had the opportunity to visit Dubai over a year later. I found modern desert life fascinating and a new platform for adventure. The Sudan and Dubai were at opposite ends of the spectrum of civilization. Whereas Sudan was poor, underprivileged and shabby, Dubai was sleek, rich and super efficient. I needed the change and went into my new life in the modern Emirates with the same rush of enthusiasm I had felt when I first stepped off the plane in Khartoum. I will always remember them; the Sudan, Khartoum, Marguerita, and Zuba.

Jan Gamm writes reflections on life with an emphasis on world travel. She has lived in many countries and traveled extensively in the Far East, the Middle East, America, South America and throughout the South Pacific. She writes for fun and for money whenever she can manage it.

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My Knees are Killing Me

If you are having an unusually tough time climbing the stairs and your knees feel like theyre being pounded by iron fists, then you might just be suffering from osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the inflammation of the cartilage in weight-bearing joints such as those of the knees and is the most common type of arthritis in both the old and the young. Inflammation is caused by the wearing down of cartilages in the joints which serve to pad or in other words, to serve as a pressure cushion. The wearing down of the cartilage in the joints usually comes as a consequence of age and everyday activities although it can be aggravated by a traumatic injury, problems with ones weight, an unhealthy diet and an inactive lifestyle.

Causes of osteoarthritis in the knees

The abovementioned causes of osteoarthritis are general. Knee osteoarthritis has other affecting factors that could lead inevitably to arthritis pain specifically concentrated to the knee region. Sufferers of knee arthritis are often adults above the age of 40 and obese people. Obesity severely adds pressure, in the form of excess pounds, to ones knees. Knee arthritis has also been associated with past experiences of knee injury and tears, damages, and fractures of the meniscus, ligaments and bones around the knee region.

Diagnosis of knee arthritis

The symptoms of the condition can easily be detected but may be a bit hard to observe since they tend to come and go. Signs of knee arthritis involve pain, swelling, and stiffness in the knees. Sufferers of knee arthritis also find it hard to move a lot and thus the lost and diminishing of flexibility and range of motion is taken as a symptom of knee arthritis. Doctors would do physical examinations to diagnose the condition. X-ray examinations will usually tell you the severity of your arthritis and can also cite whether or not deformities are present.

Treatment of Knee arthritis

Because knee arthritis is highly associated with obesity, weight loss programs which involve regular exercise and a healthy diet are initial treatments. Activity modification is also a basic step that patients undergo in their treatments. Not all patients can do normal exercises straightaway and so alternative forms such as aquatic exercises are highly recommended. Moreover, physical therapy also helps to strengthen the muscles around the knees.

Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs are usually prescribed to relieve pain caused by almost about any form of arthritis but are found to have some side effects especially in the gastrointestinal tract. Fortunately, specialists in the treatment of arthritis have introduced us to dietary glucosamine supplements such as Syn-flex Liquid Glucosamine that not only soothes pain caused by arthritis but also reverses the symptoms by aiding in repairing damaged joints, particularly damaged cartilages in the joints. The supplement contains ample amounts of ingredients that work synergistically to keep your joints in top gear. Since Syn-flex comes in liquid form, faster and more promising results can be anticipated. With the thousands of positive testimonials given by those using Synflex Liquid Glucosamine, both in people and pets, its no wonder why Synflex is the leader in Liquid Glucosamine sales, with close to a million bottles sold already.

Of course, any treatment needs to have been recommended and approved by your doctor. That is why consultation with the doctor is usually the first step when it comes to treatment.

Give Syn-flex Liquid Glucosamine a try. Its backed by a 100% Money Back Guarantee. http://www.syn-flex-usa.com/

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Light Up Your Room's Life

With the flick of a switch, the proper lighting can help set the mood in a room and illuminate dark areas. Lighting can be dimmed for that added ambiance and intimacy during a romantic dinner, while entertaining, or while watching a movie.

There are two types of lighting: task lighting and ambient lighting. Task lighting is necessary while reading or doing detailed work and is achieved with directed and higher intensity light, such as a downward reading lamp. Ambient lighting is softer and can be in the form of sconces, pendant lights, tapered candles, and tea candles. To help create ambient lighting, consider having a dimmer switch installed so that you can control the amount of light and set the mood you are trying to achieve.

Lighting general areas can be addressed through the use of recessed lights, track lighting, floor lamps, table lamps, and chandeliers. Floor lamps and table lamps add beauty to the home, are stylish, and serve the purpose of providing additional lighting where needed. Floor lamps and table lamps come in a variety of different styles from Traditional to Contemporary to Transitional. Also, chandeliers add a touch of elegance to a dining room and kitchen nook area.

Research the different types of lighting available before redecorating. You can consult with a lighting specialist or scour the internet for ideas and information. Also, find out what it will cost for an electrician to install these lights. This way, you will have an idea on whether or not it meets your budget.

Giorgina Devereaux is the creator of FurnitureMedley.com, which features furniture website reviews and articles on home decor and furniture. For more information, please visit http://www.FurnitureMedley.com

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Playing the Wisdom Game

What is wisdom? Like stupidity, we know it when we see it. But because wisdom manifests in so many different ways, it can't be adequately defined in a few words. Short dictionary definitions highlight some of wisdom's characteristics such as "keen discernment," "a capacity for sound judgment," and "the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships," but they don't get to the heart of the matter.

Joseph W. Meeker's eloquent yet concise statement about wisdom is much more illuminating:

"Wisdom is a state of the human mind characterized by profound understanding and deep insight. It is often, but not necessarily, accompanied by extensive formal knowledge. Unschooled people can acquire wisdom, and wise people can be found among carpenters, fishermen, or housewives. Wherever it exists, wisdom shows itself as a perception of the relativity and relationships among things. It is an awareness of wholeness that does not lose sight of particularity or concreteness, or of the intricacies of interrelationships. It is where left and right brain come together in a union of logic and poetry and sensation, and where self-awareness is no longer at odds with awareness of the otherness of the world. Wisdom cannot be confined to a specialized field, nor is it an academic discipline; it is the consciousness of wholeness and integrity that transcends both. Wisdom is complexity understood and relationships accepted."[1]

Wisdom is internal, embodied by persons. Words of wisdom arise from it. Wise behavior arises from it. But wisdom itself is not its products. Wisdom is a mode of cognition one rooted in perspectives, interpretations, and values. Wisdom is not about facts per se, it is about the context-linked meaning of facts. It is about the significance of facts and their implications. Wisdom is a kind of meta-knowledge that helps us make better sense of the rest of our knowledge. Wisdom does this by relating our ordinary everyday knowledge to a variety of contexts, and by viewing it from a variety of illuminating perspectives. Among those perspectives are:

The self-knowledge perspective
Wise people have a greater than ordinary understanding of themselves. They are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and have developed "workarounds" to stay out of trouble. Because they have paid attention to how their own minds work, they are better able to understand the mind processes of others.

Laws-of-nature perspective
We contemplate doing things in the physical world and ask ourselves: Will this work? What will be the consequences of doing this? In such circumstances an understanding of basic scientific laws can at times lead to better, wiser, decisions.

Laws-of-life perspectives
If we are observant, we eventually sense some general rules that apply in our relations with other people: Sexual infidelity almost always causes pain for someone. Angry words shut down communication. We rarely adopt other people's lists of dos and don'ts, but if we see these generally applicable truths for ourselves they can help guide our actions.

The system perspective
The system perspective on reality is a powerful tool for understanding the world around us. Complexity in the natural world emerges as a hierarchy of natural systems or holons which have the property of being a whole at their own systemic level and a part or component in a system at the next level up the hierarchy. The physical hierarchy of systems moves from subatomic particles to atoms to molecules to crystals and cells, to living organisms, then to ecosystems, the biosphere, the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe. In another branch of this hierarchy, human beings start communicating with each other and give birth to those systems we call societies, economies, and nations.

The evolutionary perspective
What is the universe up to? Where does humanity fit in? Have we become agents of the evolutionary process? Some wise people have developed an understanding of our cosmic and evolutionary contexts and found it helpful to look at the human situation from this "big picture" vantage point.

The complexity-of-causation perspective
There is a human tendency to simplify causation. We pick out some dominant element in a situation and call it "The Cause," when in fact there are myriad necessary elements an entire causal matrix with roots that go back to the origin of the universe.

Broadened-identity and "oneness" perspectives
As a person develops psychologically and spiritually, their sense of identity tends to broaden. Their circle of concern and identity widens from me, to us and for a few, to the entire universe and its underlying ground.

The finiteness-of-life perspective
Time is the raw material of our life, and a conscious awareness of our eventual death helps us to keep our life on a meaningful track and avoid meaningless, life-wasting detours.

A host of "high-values" perspectives
The deeply-held values of wise people are vantage points from which to view life situations and the world: Is this just? Is this truthful? Is this caring and compassionate? Etc.

THE ROLE OF VALUES IN WISDOM

Nicholas Maxwell has called wisdom "the capacity to realize what is of value in life for oneself and others."[2] The embracing of "high" or "superior" values is a hallmark of wisdom. High values have two roles in the lives of wise people. First, they provide those illuminating slants on the data of life. Second, they guide the decision-making process toward wiser decisions.

Human decision-making is a largely unconscious process in which a constantly shifting hierarchy of internalized values interacts with a constantly shifting set of perceived circumstances and retrieved memories. Some values, such as survival and reproduction, are hardwired. Other values, and their position in the value hierarchy, are the products of life experience and the influences to which we have been exposed. At any given moment our decisions are made by the combined action of:

1. The brain-mind process currently in charge

2. The hierarchy of value priorities that exists at that moment

3. The perceived nature of the situation calling for a decision

4. Memories of similar or related situations

Regarding item one, above, there are three distinct brain-mind processes, each having its own hierarchy of values:

• The instinctive/reactive process located in the earliest parts of our brain to evolve the structures of the brain stem and limbic system and their change-resistant programming

• The intellectual process: Typically centered in the left hemisphere of the neocortex

• The intuitive process: Less clearly understood, but generally associated with the right, nonverbal hemisphere

These processes and their values work together to make our decisions and control our behavior in the same way a computer's hardware and software work together to make the computer's decisions and control its outputs. We can look at the three brain-mind processes as the hardware of our behavioral control system. And the internalized values that each process utilizes constitute the heart of the software.

If you ask a person to list their personal values in order of relative importance, you are likely to get a list with some pretty impressive stuff on it. Yet if we look dispassionately at that person's behavior, it might soon become apparent that their deep-down, internalized, operational values are not the same as their professed values or at least do not have the stated priority. People always do what seems best, and that "best" is determined by how their hierarchy of internalized values interacts with the brain/mind's assessment of past, present, and anticipated future circumstances. As Nobelist Roger Sperry put it, "Human values...can...be viewed objectively as universal determinants in all human decision making. All decisions boil down to a choice among alternatives of what is most valued, for whatever reasons, and are determined by the particular value system that prevails."[3] Superior values, "the values of the wise," produce superior decisions and superior behavior.

The self-actualizing and ego-transcending people that psychologist Abraham Maslow studied were wise people, and Maslow's reports on their behavior and mindsets tell us much about the nature of wisdom and the values that underlie it. Maslow's self-actualizers focused on concerns outside of themselves; they liked solitude and privacy more than the average person, and they tended to be more detached than ordinary from the dictates and expectations of their culture. They were inner-directed people. They were creative, too, and appreciated the world around them with a sense of awe and wonder. In love relationships they respected the other's individuality and felt joy at the other's successes. They gave more love than most people, and needed less. Central to their lives was a set of values that Maslow called the Being-Values, or B-Values: wholeness, perfection, completion, justice, aliveness, richness, simplicity, beauty, goodness, uniqueness, effortlessness, playfulness, truth, honesty, reality, self-sufficiency.

Wise values express themselves in wise attitudes and wise ways of being and functioning. Among the value-based expressions of wisdom that speak strongly to me are:

• Feeling fully responsible for one's life choices and actions

• A positive, "let's make the most of it" attitude

• A reality-seeking, truth-seeking orientation

• A desire to learn, and a feeling of responsibility for one's own learning

• A desire to grow, to develop, "to become all I am capable of becoming"

• Being attentive: aware of mind events and mental processes as well as what is happening around us

• Being creative: producing uniqueness and novelty that has value

• Being a two-brain-hemisphere person, with intellect and intuition working together

• Being self-disciplined: able to work now for a reward later

• Being courageous: able to face dangers and fears with clarity and skill

• Being aware of one's own eventual death to the degree that it helps guide one's life

• Being able to deal with situations appropriately, using a large repertoire of approaches and techniques. Choosing the approach that best fits each situation: appropriate planning, appropriate timing, appropriate problem-solving, dealing with commitments appropriately, etc.

• Being non-reactive: able to deal skillfully with powerful emotions

• Being deeply loving, and able to manifest love in appropriate ways

• Having a sense of wonder

• Being compassionate

• Behaving in ways that benefit others

• Possessing a deep happiness that is independent of externals

• Recognizing that there are limits to personal knowledge and to the ability of our species to know

The world is not divided into wise and unwise people. None of us is perfectly wise or totally unwise. We are wise to the degree that characteristics like those mentioned above are part of us, to the extent that we actually live them. The specific qualities developed will differ in kind and degree from person to person, and this results in each wise person's wisdom having a distinctive character or "flavor."

DEVELOPING WISDOM

The good news is that the acquisition of wisdom is not something we must leave to the whims of fate, as many in the past have assumed. If we want to become wiser people, we can develop the characteristics of wisdom and incorporate them into our lives. The bad news is that we're pretty much on our own in doing that. It would be nice if we lived in a wisdom-fostering culture one in which every institution was dedicated to helping us become wiser. But we don't. So how do we become wiser people? In short, by

• exposing ourselves to wisdom-fostering influences, and by

• intentionally practicing, with effort, the behaviors and attitudes that we someday hope to become effortless expressions of our deepest, truest self.

THE ROLE OF INFLUENCES

If we don't like the values we have internalized to date or the particular mental process that is calling the shots, then we must change things. We are surrounded by influences that push us toward ordinary behavior and ordinary ways of thinking. But we need not be prisoners of ordinary; we can shift the balance of influences. We can intentionally increase our exposure to positive influences influences that promote and reinforce the kind of changes we are trying to make. We can, for instance:

Hang out with people who are already living the values we'd like to make our own. Where do we find such people? Groups that focus on personal growth and doing good in the world are a likely bet. Among these are some open-minded, non-doctrinaire religious groups such as Unitarians, Quakers, and Buddhists. Local and online discussion and activist groups are another possibility. Some of these focus on psychological or spiritual growth. Others focus on various social issues. We can experiment, and when we find a group that feels right, get involved.

Find out more about the nature and development of wisdom. As a starting point you might want to visit The Wisdom Page, "a compilation of wisdom-related resources" (A link to it appears with the author information at the end of this article.)

Read biographies of exceptional people. Your local library has many of these, and your librarian would be pleased to suggest some good ones.

Learn from the experiences of others. People all around us are struggling to up level their lives some skillfully and successfully, others very unskillfully and unsuccessfully. The world's literature, and movies too, present us with countless additional life stories. What can we learn from them? Can we pick out the strategies and behaviors that work and those that don't? Can we start to sense some general "laws of life" behind the specifics?

Be open to wise sayings that energize and motivate. Twice in my life sets of words have resonated so deeply with me that they initiated significant life changes. The first of these was a statement by Etienne de Grellet, a 19th-century Quaker, that I encountered as a university student:

"I shall pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there is any good thing I can do or any kindness I can show, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

The second turning point, a decision to pursue my own psychological/spiritual development, was triggered by the words "become all you're capable of becoming" at a corporate seminar on Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation.

There was also a third set of words. It didn't change my life direction, but confirmed and clarified it. It is Goethe's admonition to "Go and dare before you die."

THE ROLE OF PRACTICE

Becoming clear about the values we would like at the center of our lives the values we want to make truly our own in a deep and powerful way is the first step. The next challenge is to move these values from our head to our heart and our guts. In psychological terms, we must internalize them so they are not merely nice thoughts, but actually guide our behavior. Doing this takes effort, and during one of his trips to North America the Dalai Lama gave an example of what we need to do. He spoke to an audience about the need for everyone to internalize that key value of wisdom, compassion. His advice to those who wanted to develop compassion was to put themselves in challenging situations and then, despite the natural reluctance to do so, behave compassionately. By making the effort to engage in value-based action again, and again, and again we eventually internalize the value. Expressing the value in action gradually takes less and less effort until it becomes part of our outlook, part of our natural way of being, part of who we are.

Becoming a wiser person is an exercise in inner development, and there are activities that can help us along the way. Counseling and other forms of psychotherapy can, if needed, help us reach the starting point for advanced work which we might call responsible adulthood or mature ego. A person at this stage is free of psychoses and crippling neuroses and has developed emotional control and empathy to an ordinary degree. To help us move beyond this stage we need other resources. Many people start with writings that discuss the farther reaches of human development. The writings, in turn, lead us to do-it-yourself practices: mind-quieting practices, self-knowledge practices, ego-transcending practices, and oneness-realization practices.

It is widely recognized that the fast track to self-knowledge and other important aspects of wisdom is meditation particularly the kind devoted to exploring the mind/body process, variously called mindfulness, vipassana, or insight meditation.

WISDOM ON A LARGER SCALE

This essay has focused on what I call life-centered wisdom the wisdom that results in a happier, more productive personal life and more harmonious interpersonal relations. But there is also the big chaotic world out there that needs all the wise guidance it can get. I have written elsewhere about a variation on the wisdom theme that strikes me as particularly suited to the initiation of wise action in the political, economic, and biospheric arenas. I have called it deep understanding. In short, it involves coupling the wisdom development process just described with the acquisition of intellectual knowledge relevant to the world problematique. To come to grips with the major scientific, social, and economic issues that bear on the present world situation, we must all become more holistic knowers. The way I see it, we can deal effectively with humanity's problems only if we have a deep and comprehensive understanding of the context in which those problems are set. This includes knowledge of the systemic nature of the cosmos, the evolutionary process in its most general sense, consciousness, human cultures, economic systems, and some of the more important principles, laws, and regularities that underlie functioning in all these areas.

If this broader application of wisdom piques your interest, you might want to visit The Wisdom Page. You will find there a compilation of wisdom-related resources various on-line texts concerning wisdom, references to books about wisdom, information about organizations that promote wisdom, wise activities, and listserv groups concerned with aspects of wisdom. (A clickable link to the site appears with the author information below.)

References

[1] From LANDSCAPE, Vol. 25, No. 1, Jan 1981

[2] From Nicholas Maxwell's book Is Science Neurotic?, London: Imperial College Press, 2004, p. 119

[3] From Roger Sperry's article "Bridging science and values: A unifying view of mind and brain," American Psychologist, April, 1977, p. 237

Copthorne Macdonald is a writer and independent scholar. He has written 8 books (3 of them on aspects of wisdom) and many articles, reviews, and column installments. Since 1995 he has tended The Wisdom Page a site devoted to wisdom resources.

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Name Squeeze Pages - What Are They and Why Do You Need Them?

There are many terms that are used in the Internet marketing world. Some are confusing, and some are simple. Some are simple but made to sound confusing. Name squeeze page how to information is a relatively new term, but its a technique that has been around for quite some time. Name squeeze page how to information is one of the first steps used by successful marketers for lead generation. Without leads, sales cannot be made but getting good leads these days can be hard work unless you know how to use a name squeeze page.

Youve surely heard of opt-in lists. If you havent, an opt-in list is an email list of people who have agreed to receive information from you in their email inboxes. If you send them commercial email messages without that permission, you are spamming them and that is against the law now. However, if you have their permission, you are not spamming them. They have the option of unsubscribing from your list anytime that they want to, and you must honor any remove requests that you receive.

An opt-in list is gold to an Internet marketer, and this is the end result of name squeeze pages. A name squeeze page is a webpage on your website that is intended to get the name and email address of visitors to the page. Now, there are many scripts that you can use to collect information about your visitors without them knowing about it, but this is not ethical, and in most cases, it violates the spam laws and privacy laws that are in effect.

To make an effective name squeeze page, you want to provide information that interests your readers and makes them want to be directed to more information, or to receive information via email. The visitor will be required to provide their name and email address for this information. This also works well when you have a freebie to give away, such as an ebook or free report. You can require the visitor to enter their email and name, and agree to receive information from you in the future in order to get the free download.

These names and email addresses that your name squeeze page collects can be added to your mailing list. You are now free to email them your newsletters and offers. But you should mail responsibly. Email good information or product reviews to your list, as opposed to spammy type advertisements. If you are mailing what appears to be spam to your list, you will lose a lot of subscribers in a very short time and all of your efforts will be wasted.

Creating a name squeeze page is not hard. You just need some copy on the page that will make the visitor want to sign up. Of course the page needs to have a sign up form, and the HTML code for such a form can be obtained from your autoresponder service. Using an autoresponder service that requires double opt-in subscribing is highly recommended. The confirmation page that the person sees after confirming the subscription through email should redirect the visitor to the information that they are seeking, or to the free download that you are offering.

Name squeeze pages how to information is popping up all over the Internet. This is happening because this technique works. Internet marketers are using name squeeze pages on a regular basis to build massive opt-in lists. If lead generation is important to your business, you need to get your name squeeze pages up and working for you as soon as possible.

Jason is a successful Internet Marketer, and posts regularly on his Adventures In Internet Marketing blog. Take a minute right now to sign up for his newsletter for more great information!

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How to Find a New Home Builder in Florida

Are you interested in relocating to the Florida area or even just buying a new home in the state of Florida? If you are, do you know if you would like to buy a home that is already listed on the Florida real estate market or would you like to have your own home built? If you are interested in having your own home built, you will need to use the services of a new home builder in Florida.

The first step in using the services of a new home builder in Florida is to find a builder to do business with. When it comes to finding a new home builder in Florida to do business with, you will soon see that you have a number of different options. Before you familiarize yourself with those options, you may want to think about what type of new home builder in Florida you want to do business with. For instance, there are some individuals or companies who are referred to as home manufacturers and there are others who are referred to as custom home builders. Custom home builders allow you to take part in the design of your home and home manufacturers tend to only build pre-designed homes.

Once you have decided which type of new home builder in Florida you would like to do business with, you can begin to start searching for a professional. One of the easiest ways to go about finding a new home builder in Florida is by using the internet. Online, there are a number of different approaches that you can take. You can try to find a new home builder in Florida by performing a standard internet search. When performing a standard internet search, it may be a good idea to search with a phrase like Florida home builders, or something else along the same lines. Your search results will likely lead you to the online websites of local Florida home builders.

In addition to performing a standard internet search, you can also use online phone books or online business directories to help you find a new home builder in Florida. The only downside to using these online resources is that the information given to you is minimal. Often times, you will only get the name of a new home builder in Florida, their business address, as well as their business telephone number. This information is similar to what you would find in your local phone book. In fact, you may also want to think about using your local phone book to find a new home builder in Florida.

Although the above mentioned approaches are ways that you can go about finding a new home builder in Florida to do business with, there is an even better way to do so. That way involves using the assistance of a professional real estate expert. A professional real estate expert is often referred to as a buyers broker or a real estate agent. These types of professionals can not only assist you with finding land to build your new home on, but they can also help you obtain the needed financing, as well as a quality new home builder in Florida to do business with.

Laurence Hammond is a writer for New Home Firm . org where you can find accurate information about a New Home Builder in Florida and other related information.

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The DIY Guy: 10 Home-Selling Strategies

You're anxious, worried and feeling as if you've lost all control. Your stomach is in knots and you have no appetite. You sit by the phone nervously, waiting for it to ring. These are the unmistakable symptoms of someone who has either: 1) fallen in love for the first time, or 2) put a house up for sale. If you happen to be lovesick, you're on your own. But, if you're selling your house, there are steps you can take to ready the property--and yourself--for the sale.

Thought of as an island paradise Barbados has long been a luxury holiday destination and a playground for the rich and famous. Sunshine throughout the year, crystal clear waters, white sandy beaches and some of the most lavish hotels in the world attract over 1 million visitors to the island every year.

A 2 bedroom apartment on the West Coasts classic beaches costs on average 880,000 according to Estate Agents Knight Frank. But on the beautiful east coast which is wild and undeveloped investors can own their own slice of 5-Star Barbados for a quarter of the price.

Construction will soon commence on the Merricks Residence development located in St Philip on the south east coast of Barbados close to the famous Sam Lords Castle, a beautiful Georgian mansion built in 1820. The development will cover some 70 acres and will include leisure areas, entertainment facilities and restaurants together with the focal point 5 star Hotel Resort & Spa, from which property owners will have full use of the facilities.

The British developer of the project has brought in non other than the construction company behind the Royal West Moreland Golf and Country Club on the West Coast as well as Richard Williams, the former Managing Director of Sandy Lane Hotel Group to oversee the management of the resort. There are 700 units planned for the development comprising of luxury apartments, cabanas and villas with a clip top setting and its own private beach.

Greg Walters from overseas investment property specialists offplanpropertyabroad.com says:-

The Merricks Residence development gives investors the chance to purchase property in Barbados at least 40% below market value

His statement is evident, just a few minutes down the coast at the neighboring Crane Resort a 1200 square foot apartment has a starting price of 400,000 with the same size property at Merricks Residence at 225,000.

We expect values at Merricks to be comparable to that of the nearby Crane once it is complete and with the onsite management through the 5 star Hotel, investors can be sure that their properties are rented out on day one

In 2004 property purchase in Barbados became more attractive with the removal of the 10% purchase tax applied meaning there are now no purchase taxes payable, although investors need to budget for around a 1.5% for legal and notary costs.

Studio apartments at Merricks Residence start from 150,000 and buyers will enjoy an 8% Guaranteed Rental Income for the first two years from completion. Only 30% of the purchase price is required at outset with nothing else to pay until you receive the keys to your property, with completion due late 2008. A major Caribbean Bank is providing bank guarantees for the remaining 70% which gives investors added security.

The bank guarantee gives investors peace of mind and underpins the financial stability of the project as a whole, something that too many people take for granted

Barbados will be the focal point of the world of cricket in 2007 when it plays host to the Cricket World Cup which is expected to attract more visitors than ever and send the already prohibitive property prices in Barbados up by a further 10% next year.

For more information on Merricks Residence contact Greg Walters at offplanpropertyabroad.com on 0121 314 8110 or visit www.merricksresidence.co.uk

Improve Your Drinking Water With Under Sink Water Filtration Systems

Purified water is in higher demand than ever before, and under sink water filtration systems are a way to ensure that the water your family drinks is as pure and healthy as it can possibly be. Similar to countertop and faucet filters, systems located under the sink tie into your plumbing system and clean your water before it enters your drinking glass. There are many different options on the market. Doing some research on the various products available will help you choose a system that works best for you.

Under sink water filtration systems installed throughout your home are the most efficient and effective way to filter the water you and your family consumes. Remember that the kitchen is not the only place with a sink; you also ingest water when brushing your teeth. As such, bathroom water should be filtered as well. For the most comprehensive protection in your home, water filtration systems sink based are ideal.

Some people consider installing a system that will filter all water at the point that it enters the home, rather than installing individual systems for each faucet. This whole house filtration option is not the best choice if you are very concerned about the safety of the water you drink. This is because some contaminants in home drinking water, specifically lead and vinyl chloride, can come directly from the pipes in your home. Water filtration systems sink based will be able to filter even these local contaminants from your water.

One of the benefits of using under sink water filtration systems is that they do not take up counter space like their faucet based counterparts. Hidden behind cabinet doors under the kitchen sink, for example, this type of system doesnt crowd the often limited space around the sink and it wont need to be wiped off as stray splashes and food particles escape. And since under sink water filtration systems are installed in cabinets, they can be larger and contain more filtering processors than smaller countertop models.

Effectiveness, availability, and prices vary for water filtration systems. Sink systems can be compared by using data that should be provided within, on the packaging, or on the manufacturers website about the proven effectiveness of the filter to remove specific toxins from your water. If you can find nothing with the products that certifies the effectiveness of the under sink water filtration systems, consider another manufacturer. Companies that have designed a quality product should be proud to share with potential customers the evidence of the effectiveness of the systems they sell.

Beware, though, of water filtration systems sink based that claim to remove all biological contaminants, chemicals and minerals from your water. This may not be what you want. Trace minerals, naturally present in all water, are essential to human health. Studies have shown, for example, that people have developed mineral deficiencies and related other health problems from drinking only distilled water, which is water that has no mineral content at all.

Under sink water filtration systems are a smart choice when it comes to ensuring that your family's drinking water is clean and safe.

Martin Spencer is a health researcher who has been studying water filtration for over 25 years. He is a regular contributor to Water Filtration Guide, a site dedicated to various methods of treating and purifying water. Learn about water filtration systems sink based and whole-house on our site.

Home Mold Test Kits

Water, Water Everywhere on the Waterfront

Waterfront living is among the most desirable of locations in our area (Florida). The views and vistas are fantastic, not to mention the ability to walk out one's door to drop a line to fish or untie a line to enjoy boating. However, all this joy is not without some special concerns.

The most common fear heard from waterfront homebuyers is their concern that the river may rise and roll into their home. While it is not an impossible scenario, it is truly rare. More often than not, the water that posses the greatest risk to the waterfront home is not from the river, but rather from the water flowing overland toward the river.

Always remember that the river is the place that all water flows to. How a particular home is oriented to or obstructs the flow of water moving toward the river determines how dry the house remains. And for many homes in is not just how dry it is in the home, but also under the home.

The majority of water that affects the home is the surface water flowing toward the river. The volume of water can be in the thousands of gallons per hour during a heavy shower. If the grade of the lot is not proper, this can mean thousands of gallons of water in or under the home.

So, when looking at waterfront property, enjoy the view over the water, but be sure to look inland to be sure that your experience with water front living won't be with water in the living room!

But what should you do after you've experienced a flooded home? There is hope! Your home and its contents may look damaged beyond repair, but many items can be restored. There is a high probability that by acting quickly, your flooded home can be cleaned up, dried out, rebuilt, and reoccupied sooner than you think.

After your home has been flooded, play it safe. Always seek professional help. And while in the midst of cleaning and repairing, consider your preparation for the future. The American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suggests the following steps if your home has been flooded:

• Take Care of Yourself First - Protect yourself and your family from stress, fatigue, and health hazards that follow a flood.
• Give Your Home First Aid - Once it is safe to go back in, protect your home and contents from further damage.
• Get Organized - Some things are not worth repairing and some things may be too complicated or expensive for you to do by yourself. A recovery plan can take these things into account and help you make the most of your time and money.
• Dry Out Your Home - Floodwaters damage materials, leave mud, silt and unknown contaminants, and promote the growth of mildew. You need to dry your home to reduce these hazards and the damage they cause.
• Restore the Utilities - The rest of your work will be much easier if you have heat, electricity, clean water, and sewage disposal.
• Clean Up - The walls, floors, closets, shelves, contents and any other flooded parts of your home should be thoroughly washed and disinfected.
• Check on Financial Assistance - Voluntary agencies, businesses, insurance, and government disaster programs can help you through recovery.
• Rebuild and Flood-proof - Take your time to rebuild correctly and make improvements that will protect your building from damage by the next flood.
• Prepare for the Next Flood - Protect yourself from the next flood with flood insurance, a flood response plan, and community flood protection programs. This step also includes sources to go to for additional assistance.

For more information on repairing your home after a flood, please visit www.redcross.org.

Many people highly prize waterfront living, and find it a deeply fulfilling experience. Knowing what to look for when choosing waterfront property will make your life on the water easier and more rewarding. Choose and plan wisely - it's about knowing!

Wally Conway is President of Florida HomePro Inspections, and has been featured regularly on HGTV's "House Detective". Wally has recently written a book entitled "Secrets of the Happy Home Inspector", available at GoHomePro.com or Amazon.com. As a speaker, writer, instructor, and host of The Happy Home Inspector radio show every Saturday at 3 PM on WOKV 690, Wally blends the right amount of up-to-date information with just the right amount of humor, insight, motivation, and real-world application. Visit WallyConway.com for more information!

Stucco Roof Fascia

Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund

Like many large banks on wall street Goldman Sachs offers several hedge funds. A few of these took big losses this summer and in one case with the Goldman Global Opportunities Fund the firm had to inject $3B into the fund to keep it running ($2B of their own money). "Given the market dislocation, the performance of GEO has suffered significantly," Goldman said. "Our response has been to reduce risk and leverage." In other words their losses mostly came from using too much leverage in the first place.

"Many funds employing quantitative strategies are currently under pressure as recent conditions have resulted in significant market dislocation," Goldman said. "Across most sectors, there has been an increase in overlapping trades, a surge in volatility and an increase in correlations. These factors have combined to challenge many of the trading algorithms used in quantitative strategies. We believe the current values that the market is assigning to the assets underlying various funds represent a discount that is not supported by the fundamentals."

Other Goldman Sachs Hedge Funds

The two other funds that have recently come under fire include the multi-strategy fund Global Alpha and the North American Equity Opportunities Fund (NAEO). Goldman has said "The market dislocation impacting equity quantitative strategies has adversely affected NAEO's performance and has been a key contributor to Global Alpha's disappointing performance. We have reduced risk and leverage in these funds as well. At their current levels of equity capital, we believe the funds are positioned to actively pursue market opportunities."

Will Goldman Sachs Leave the Hedge Fund Business?

Never. Doesn't listen to journalists who predict Goldman's flagship fund going down in flames as an end to their play in this industry. The most recent trend with Goldman Sach's strategy towards hedge funds has been to invest and take partial ownership in dozens of medium to large sized hedge funds. This allows them to help grow these hedge funds while also participating in the upside of a diverse ray of hedge fund managers and strategies.

The Richard Wilson Hedge fund Blog (http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com) is a content rich source for hedge fund industry white papers, trends, articles and professional interviews. I also share lessons I learn in my investment marketing and sales (third party marketing) career and earning a graduate degree at Harvard. I live in Cambridge, MA and can be reached at 503.789.7901 or Richard@RichardCWilson.com. This post came from the Richard Wilson Hedge Fund Blog online at: http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com/2007/10/goldman-sachs-hedge-fund.html

Home Mold Test Kits

Building With ICF's - The New Concrete House

Insulated concrete forms (ICF's) are changing the face of home building and construction. It used to be that you had limited options if you were building a new house. Conventional wood frame wall construction dominated the home building market. All of the building trades almost reached a point where they didn't know how to do anything but wood frame walls when it came to building a new house.

You could get a house with all brick walls if you wanted one but even that became little more than a masonry facade over a wood frame construction core. The need for high wall insulation for heating and cooling made it impractical to have an all brick house without insulation so the all brick house ended up evolving into a wood frame building with a brick veneer or facade.

All concrete houses were simply ugly 40 years ago. The building trades didn't really have many cost effective options for finishing off the outside of a concrete wall so it ended up bare or painted. The look became popular with office and government buildings but it was terrible for homes. And of course the problem with insulation was just as bad with concrete walls as it was with brick walls.

All of that has now changed with the invention of ICF's. The concept is really very simple. An ICF combines a conventional reinforced concrete wall with modern rigid foam insulation and does so in a way that is labor and material efficient and cost effective. Most ICF's today are made up of 3 basic parts. The first part is the inner layer of rigid foam insulation. Each piece is usually 2 to 3 inches thick, 30 to 40 inches long and 12 to 16 inches high. You cut and interlock as many pieces as you need to form the inside of the wall. The second part is the outer layer of foam. Usually it is identical to the inner layer of foam but many companies now have provision on the outside for attaching vinyl or wood siding or some other outside house finish. The third part to the system are wire or plastic connectors that connect the outer foam to the inner foam with a 4 to 12 inch gap in between for pouring the reinforced concrete wall. So when the wall is done you end up with a sandwich of 3 layers. Rigid foam insulation, then reinforced concrete wall and then another layer of rigid foam insulation. Because of the connectors the foam becomes a permanent part of the wall and building.

With old-fashioned concrete walls you had to construct a form to hold the concrete in place while it cured and then remove the form after the concrete was hard. A lot of work was involved and you ended up with a wall that was strong but had almost no insulation value. But with ICF's the foam does four things all at once. It acts as the form for the concrete, insulates the wall, forms a vapor barrier for the wall and also acts as an excellent surface for attaching inside and outside final finishes. It goes in easy and you don't remove it when the concrete is cured. You can use ICF's from the footings of a building all the way up to the roof. You end up with a building wall that is superior in almost every way. Much stronger walls, magnificent sound barrier and thermal mass advantages, easier to heat and cool and no wood to rot and grow mold are all powerful advantages of ICF construction. Because the outside siding options are the same with either ICF's or conventional wood frame construction your home will fit into the neighborhood perfectly. From the outside the only thing that would look different is the walls are thicker compared to a wood frame building.

Michael Russell Your Independent Building guide.

Inspectorschecklist

Wood And Bamboo Gazebos

A gazebo is a wonderful solution for your garden and backyard hosting options, gazebos are used for a verity of different tasks today, but first and foremost a gazebo is a great place to have family and friends enjoy your garden or your backyard.

In the recent years more and more people are discovering the gazebo, it is a structure that is placed in the garden or backyard and that is perfect for holding gardening tools and for spending nice afternoons at. The gazebo market has grown considerably over the last few years, offering an abundance of gazebos made of different materials.

Two very unique gazebo materials are wood and bamboo gazebos, wood is considered to be the classic material for a gazebo, it blends in wonderfully with a garden, providing an all natural feeling and a nice flow, wood is the basic material used to construct the first gazebos years ago.

A bamboo gazebo would add an Asian quality to your backyard, some even make it themselves, it is no simple task but it is definitely possible for a person to build his own bamboo gazebo in a few weekends. You will need to find the type and kind of bamboo you want and then you will need to make a plan for the gazebo.

When thinking of a bamboo gazebo you probably think of an elevated structure that has a bamboo flooring a few inches above the ground, open from all sides and with a nice bamboo roof over it, some even add shades so they can close any off the four sides or even all if they wish.

A wood gazebo is much more complicated, it will need serious construction and planning and an individual may not have enough knowledge and tools to build one of those, if you are in the market for a wood gazebo you should try and research as much as you can and have a clear idea of how you want the gazebo to look. The next thing would be to find gazebo plans or even gazebo pictures you can show an expert so that the end result will be as close as possible to what you had in mind.

Wood gazebo price is something that can not be estimated, you need to decide on what kind of gazebo you want, and what wood you want to use, once you got that out of the way you will need to think about how much will you be willing to pay a professional to build this for you, and deliver it to your garden.

A bamboo gazebo may be easier to get, but you should bare in mind that building one should be made by someone who understands the basics of bamboo building and that the place you are placing the gazebo will be suitable for this kind of gazebo, a bamboo gazebo placed on a beach is a great idea, but one placed on a mountain top may prove to be usable only a few days a year.

Gazebos are a wonderful extra feature to your garden, they will also probably add some value to your property, so it is a wise investment, no matter what kind of gazebo you are looking for, I highly recommend researching the market on the internet before making any decisions.

Daniel Roshard is a interior designer fascinated by gazebos and garden architecture, he is currently studying garden design and integration of gazebos to public parks and gardens. Daniel is writing reviews and tips about Wood Gazebo for http://zupatips.com

Remodeling Tips and Advice

Remodeling Porches

Fixing up a porch is a great idea that will extend the use of your home considerably. Using just some paint, stain and basic carpentry skills, you can make your porch a pleasure to spend time on.

An example shown on DoItYourself.com shows a couple from Georgia who wanted enjoy their extended warm seasons of spring, summer and fall, but avoid the problems of mosquitoes and decided to take their slab concrete patio and make it into a screened in area they could enjoy almost all year long.

The patio was just concrete square under a roof overhang. They wanted the porch to blend in with the home, as well as protect the family from the heat, humidity and insects of the Georgia summers. The concrete slab declined slightly to allow for runoff, so there had to be some adjustments made to accommodate this feature.

Here is their step by step solution:

Step One. Cut pre-primed 4X8 sheets of beadboard ceiling paneling.

Step Two. Install the celing paneling and the ceiling fan. They used a nail gun to make the installation of the ceiling panels faster and easier than trying to swing a hammer upward. Before all of the panelling was installed, the ceiling was wired for the fan and light. This will allow the porch to remain cool and the light will allow the room to be used at night. This was a two person job, with one person holding the fan and the other connecting the wires and screwing the fan in place. The finish trim hid the seams in the paneling.

Step Three. Frame out the porch. Using 2X4 boards, they spaced them to allow for standard width screen to be installed. The crosspieces were nailed directly through the vertical braces.

Step Four. Install the interior panelling. Pine and plywood bead board paneling was secured by staple gun. These had to be trimmed along the bottom to accommodate the uneven floor.

Step Five. Install and level the exterior paneling. The harbor ad exterior panels wear put into place, from the bottom up. The first one had to be custom cut to allow for the uneven ground line and then the rest followed. These panels were painted to match the existing exterior of the house, so there was a lot of trial and error to match the aged yellow paint exactly. But weather resistant exterior paint was used so that it can be easily kept clean by rinsing Wit soap and water.

Step Six. Do the screening. Vinyl grids had to be screwed directly into the wooden frames. Then the screens were attached to the channels in the grids, so the fiberglass or aluminum screens could be slid in without using staples. When the screens were rolled into the grids with a spline, the extra screening material was cut off. With a mallet, the caps over the vinyl channels were banged into place.

Being really passionate about tree trimming and saw sharpening, Ray Walberg wrote plenty of detailed articles in this specific field. Sharing his passion in detailed publications, the author improved his experience on topics like chain saws and saw sharpening.