Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Online CPE courses are a great way for specialists to brush up on the latest developments in their fields from the comfort of their own homes. Very much better than old-fashioned correspondence classes, today’s offerings are interactive and actually fun, making learning easy for busy professionals with sixty hour workweeks!
It’s small wonder then why “online CPE” is one of the most popular of keyword phrases entered into search engines these days. While ongoing professional accreditation has existed for decades, it is only with the explosion of the worldwide web that tele learning, as this form of instruction is know, has truly taken off.
And in this economy, online CPE courses are crucial in helping licensed professionals maintain their professional skillsets. New doctors, lawyers, and accountants are churned out each year by the hundreds, and though seniority and experience does count for a lot, much of the routine work – which comprise the overwhelming vast majority of any firm’s business – may be quite competently handled by new hires. That’s why continuing education is so important: it helps one distinguish oneself from the recently graduated class entering one’s profession every year.
In that respect, however, one important point bears repeating: It’s everyone’s own responsibility to ensure that any continuing education course taken really counts with the most important professional bodies in one’s field. While more knowledge nearly never hurts, a CPE isn’t a matter of exploring your own interests on your own time!
You’re paying money here, so make sure that any credits earned would be acknowledged by whatever governing board that oversees your profession. And speaking of paying money, here’s one more great tip: See if there are pilot courses that may possibly be taken for free. That’s right, free of charge! Check specific policies for details, but generally you only have to complete the course and provide some feedback.
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
We could have brought a backpacking tent along. Instead, being young guys we relished in challenging ourselves and flirting with danger. We cavalierly enjoyed our mountaintop vista even as the sun was about to dip, and by the time we had turned home we could scarcely go another thousand yards before we noticed that we could not see very well.
Real hikers would have just quickly pitched or otherwise put together a backpacking tent but of course we didn’t have one because we are novices and never imagined we’d need to have one. This was meant to have been a casual day-hike, after all. And yet, here we were at the end of the day and barely started on our descent. What we did not count on was how incredibly fast darkness could grow in a forest.
Although light was still in the sky, it wasn’t getting to us because of the thick canopy of leaves. Even during high noon the ground would be mostly shaded, never mind now, right before nightfall. And in one of the most incredible experiences ever, I saw my own hand fade away right in front of me, literally in seconds, melting away into the enveloping darkness like some movie fade-out.
Except that it was happening all to me; We were still almost two thousand feet up from the trail head; and we didn’t even have a backpacking tent!
Fortunately, friends below summoned local volunteer park rangers and we were finally rescued. But not before spending six or seven hours shivering in the cold and dark! Though it had been a humid summer day, it felt more like late fall in rural New York at night. When I started to finally shiver and shiver I thought it was going to be the end of me! So never,never,never – ever – go hiking without a tent or sleeping bag.
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Head pain? Squinting? It might possibly be warning signs of declining eye-sight. So what do you do next? You head to see an eye doctor (of course) and it might possibly be that you will need eyeglasses or contact lenses. Now there is always the option of laser surgery but this article will not talk about that.
Go for the glass? Eye glasses have been around for many years – think Benjamin Franklin, an iconic wearer of glasses. Eye glasses are either created from plastic or glass. The frames for them also come in a selection of materials. And, if you are nervous about not finding the proper frames, don’t stress they now have frameless styles. And if you are one of those folks who can’t even contemplate putting their finger in their eye and flinch at the notion of it, spectacles may be your best choice.
Having said that contact lenses have some advantages over spectacles. One benefit, the rain, I assume you know what happens. Two, fog, eyeglasses tend to fog up. Three, falling down your nose every time you perspire, etc.
Whichever you go for, the most critical issue is the fact that you see clearly.
Monday, August 30th, 2010
As legendary as the team is, it is an open question whether Dallas Cowboys merchandise would’ve been as popular as they are without the equally popular Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. These ladies aren’t just any ol’ football cheerleading squad members, but make up a veritable franchise in themselves.
No less than two made-for-TV movies have appeared about them, not to mention any number of Dallas Cowboys merchandise bearing their likeness somewhere on the product! For when you think of Texas football, you think the Cowboys – and when you think Cowboys, you think of their cheerleaders.
Sure the die-hard fan might prefer his Dallas Cowboys flag “straight-up” but several others who are not so hard-core would most likely welcome a shot of the cheerleaders illustrating their fan merchandise! No other collection of young ladies so epitomize the American woman: young, fun, and fit; spirited; glamorous; intelligent.
Yes, in spite of the voyeurism involved these beauties know how to comport themselves and market themselves. Team try-outs obviously concentrate on athleticism and physical attractiveness but as spokesmodels for the team a good amount of social savvy and hence intelligence is necessary, too.
The only other set of females that have left such a deep impression on popular culture worldwide would have to be Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Bunnies. Interestingly, the Cowboys’ cheerleading squad really started out mixed, with both males and females, as was high school and collegiate football tradition.
And indeed, it was local high school students that actually made up the squad back in the 1960s. In 1969, however a deliberate attempt was made to increase in-game attendance by offering only female cheerleaders whose routines were unlike those prevalent at school games. By 1972, all cheerleaders were over the age of eighteen as their moves became increasingly a lot more like sexy dance routines.
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
Data recovery is an important part of our modern day world, with machines facilitating the vast majority of our lives online and off. The loss of personal information and customer records would be catastrophic for any corporation, and so data recovery software is a popular kind of insurance for many. But, more broadly speaking, data recovery or memory space itself has been a favorite subject of science fiction, with many plots revolving around the uncanny sensation that we are nothing more than our memories – which, in a perfectly digitized world, would be nothing but easily copied bits of data!
Exciting as these considerations are, for an even more explosive idea all you have to do is mix them with old-fashioned notions of clairvoyance and déjà vu. First coined by New Age spiritualist P.M.H. Atwater (née Phyllis Johnston), future memory is conceived of as the phenomenon whereby one can know the future.
With plain old prophetic foresight now repackaged in 21st Century techno-speak, science fiction writers are busy exploring the nexus between man and machine, self and other, reality and virtual reality. The gist of it all is pregnant with implication: if we are nothing more than our memories; if our memories are but bits of data; if technology can capture these bits the same way it manipulates all other information; then what does it mean to be oneself?
Philip K. Dick touched on these very inquiries in his short story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Adapted into a kind of futuristic movie noir under the title of Blade Runner, the concept concentrates on just what it means to be human in a world where very humanlike androids can be made.
Another motion picture adapted from a Dick short is Total Recall, involving a government agent’s manufactured memories. More recently, the Leonardo Dicaprio vehicle Deception also explored the same what-if scenarios: what if memories could be planted? Never mind data recovery; seems like technologies will one day create the need for deliberate data loss! And indeed, there are any number of science fiction stories devoted to that topic, too…
Saturday, August 28th, 2010
The all-important first date. Such getting-to-know-you can be greatly helped along by an amusement ride, and the most exhilarating one of all must be the Skywalk by Zalman Silber. A serial entrepreneur who made his first big fortune with New York’s infamous Skyride, a much ballyhooed but modest thirty-minute movie of helicopter flyovers, Sydney, Australia’s Skywalk is a much more visceral affair – and for a first-date, visceral is where it’s got to be at!
No, get your mind out of the gutter – “visceral” here simply means heart-pounding thrills which, studies show, make dates more attracted to one another. Yes, that’s right: the more physically exciting the activities the more likely dates are to think of one another as being physically attractive. Scientists have paired up total strangers of the opposite sex and asked them to secretly rate one another’s attractiveness. Then each pair was put through a roller-coaster, sitting side-by-side, and asked again to rate one another’s attractiveness after the ride. The second set of responses were almost always substantially higher than than the first set!
So if you need to make a great impression, make sure to get her (or him!) engaging in some kind of physically exhilarating activity with you – such as the aforementioned Skywalk from Zalman Silber. Located at the top of the Sydney Tower, the Skywalk is effectively a catwalk with glass flooring that provides visitors with a panoramic view of the city a thousand feet above street level. Being a catwalk, everything is out in the open, with no windows between guests and…nothingness. The Skywalk offers not only a bird’s-eye view of the Harbour City but all the visceral feelings to go with it as well!
And if the simple fact of being up so high doesn’t get your date’s heart throbbing, make sure she looks down! Visiting the Skywalk is a perfect first date because the Skywalk is the perfect ice-breaker. Don’t be surprised if she reflexively grabs your arm! Even though everyone is tethered by cable to sturdy metal support structures, the frequent gusts of wind can be strong enough to make one forget all the safety features built into the experience. Afterward, you and your date can retire to the conventional observation deck of the Sydney Tower to enjoy the romantic view while sharing fond memories of your Skywalk. Or better yet, purchase another set of tickets to really jack up the excitement and send her emotions through the roof!
Friday, August 27th, 2010
Wine holders hold wine. They store and organize wine, and can be made of any number of different materials in any number of various sizes. Also known as wine racks, large ones could be found in a professional wine cellar while much smaller styles might be wall-mounted in the kitchen to conveniently display an amateur collection.
These latter types will at times incorporate wine glasses for a combination rack that holds both drink and implement. Speaking of which, the truest wine holder of all is probably one’s own mouth! But for innovative aesthetics, nothing beats the man-made designs. Those constructed from metal are particularly imaginative.
The material itself provides for the greatest amount of imagination, allowing as it does fluid sinuous styles difficult or even impossible to achieve with any wood or stone. Numerous are highly whimsical, such as a common favorite where thin metal spirals hold wine bottles upside-down in a haphazard manner suggestive of intoxication!
Individual who take their wines, and thus their display, seriously enough to think about such devices (as opposed to just putting them on a shelf in the fridge or pantry) will usually favor wood due to the role it plays in formulating the flavor of many wines.
After all, wines are aged in wooden caskets for just that all-important reason, and numerous winemakers are even so careful as to factor in the species of wood used for their bottle corks! Therefore the bestselling styles are still wooden, even in the most modern of decors where chrome or stainless steel predominate.
Storing wine is a serious affair if you care about taste. Ambient lighting and even the very angle at which bottles may be tilted during storage are said to help create the flavor of a wine. Keeping your wine in a manner that both highlights the beauty of their bottling while protecting or aiding the creation of their flavors can be challenging, depending on how exacting your expectations.
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
State tax forms are required to file state taxes – but exactly where is our tax money going? Taxes are utilized to support the government, but in a democracy the government is supposed to be “for the people,” as a popular rumor has it. All the state tax forms filed year in, year out seem to have no effect on our local governments, which across the nation are much more likely than not operating at a deficit. How is this possible with all the money pouring into government coffers?
Most individuals merely file their state tax forms and leave it at that, too busy with their lives and some even hoping not to attract any government attention. But a growing number of our fellow citizens and residents are seriously concerned over where “their money” is going. Almost everybody agrees with paying for firefighters, sanitation workers, and other civil servants, but even then there can be a lot of controversy over the details.
Take educators for example. Again, nearly everyone agrees that teachers are necessary. But how to compensate them with our tax dollars, exactly? Currently, numerous individuals across the nation are up in arms over teacher perks and salaries.
It’s felt that educators have things much too comfortable, and there are individuals who would like to make the profession of teaching a job like any other, which in the United States means “hire and fire at will.”
These individuals want to, they say, hold teachers more “accountable” for student performance, which is often proposed to be measured by standardised test scores. But the other side of the argument believes that teaching isn’t just a job like any other, that the training of minds and the inspiration of hearts isn’t something which can be neatly measured on a quarterly or yearly basis like some corporate earnings report.
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Looking to sell your company and retire off the proceeds? Think again. Because of these recessionary times, banks are unwilling to lend money – meaning that it’s harder and harder to sell your company simply because buyers generally can’t borrow more than sixty percent of the selling price.
Everyone is skittish. And numerous company owners are not rueful of not having sold when they had that proverbial chance. It’s more challenging than ever just to stay in business, and while the actual value of your organization may not have declined much, if declined at all, it is merely an extraordinarily bad time to be in business – or to try to sell one, even a successful one.
And unfortunately for numerous owners, they increasingly have to work out alternative payment schedules, more akin to a loan except where profitability is concerned. Nevertheless, all is not lost if you’re determined to sell your company.
For one thing, the tax rate right now is at historical lows, though many industry experts expect it to go up, to twenty percent from the current fifteen capital gains rate, in one more year or so. This means that your after-tax income from a sale right now could be higher than if you wait for the economy to improve and take a hit from increased taxes.
Obviously, it is tough to let go of the notion that your company is still worth what it was during the economic boom years of just five years ago. But it is essential to cut your losses, as it were, while you still can and get out before you put any more time, or even cash, into a company when all you wish to do nowadays is retire to the good life. After all, isn’t that why you’d worked so hard through the years?
Saturday, August 21st, 2010
Stocking and supplying medical office supplies has typically been one of the duties of a hospital dispensary, which is mainly dedicated to dispensing medication according to doctors’ prescriptions. These days, the term “dispensary” refers to a handful of different institutions around the world – or, even, within the country.
For example, in California a dispensary is a specially designated store licensed to sell not medical office supplies but medicinal marijuana (which is also the situation in the Canadian province of British Columbia), while in the states of Idaho and South Carolina a dispensary used to refer to the governmental agency that served as the only legal source of alcohol.
Also no source of medical office supplies is the Kenyan dispensary, a small outpatient health facility usually managed by a registered nurse. These nurses report to clinical officers at a health centre, which is also where patients are referred to for treatment in cases more complicated than a typical ailment like cold or malaria. Modeled on the British system, this sort of health care dispensary is no basic storehouse of supplies but what Americans would call a community clinic.
This kind of medical clinic or dispensary got its start up in London, England back in the 1700s, and is credited with aquainting physicians with the issues of the poor because unlike the case with hospitals or a private practice, this dispensary service actually brought doctors into their patients’ homes. Their social consciences shocked, thus were the first dispensaries set up – free healthcare for the poor.
Indeed, young aspiring physicians of the day were very eager to serve as honorary physicians to the dispensaries, though such an appointment was generally voluntary (with no more than a small honorarium at best) and not as prestigious as a hospital posting. It was nothing short of a health care revolution: for the first time since the Hippocratic Oath, altruistic motivations had been the norm.