So This Is Christmas

Merry Christmas is such an infectious feeling I like to feel that way all year around.

So if you are visiting just before Christmas, just after Christmas or even here on Christmas day I am sure you will find something of interest for you and in the spirit of Christmas.

It may be said that Christmas is no longer a celebration but this must be spoken by people that have never had trouble closing their eyes on Christmas Eve in an expectation of what maybe left for them on the carpet under the tree.

I continue to look forward to the surprise on my Grandchild's faces to this day at Christmas events.

Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas - Merry Christmas

Friday, January 15, 2010

How Solar Air Heating Benefits The World

By Evans D. Smith

Sure, with a solar air heating system in your home you may realize the cost-effectiveness and convenience of it, but did you know that when you rely on solar air heating in your home you are doing good for the world around you? Let's take a look at all the different benefits that solar air heating offers to the world around us.

Clean Energy, No Greenhouse Gases

When you are using ordinary fuels, for example when you go and turn on your gas powered heater, it is releasing harmful CO2 emissions into the environment. This is in reality the real cause of global warming which is one of the most major issues facing us as a world today. Now with the solar power, it is clean energy and so there are essentially no Carbon emissions put out into the air.

Natural Resources

Another great benefit of the solar air heating is that it uses fewer natural resources than conventional energy sources. When you are relying on energy from the sunlight, you are really able to replace the use of stored energy. Now if everyone in the world just did this, it would be an entirely different place.

Reliability

One of the advantages of solar air heating that would likely not spring to mind first is trustworthiness. With solar air heating, you know the entire system is trustworthy and that it is rarely going to run out, or build up too much on you. The sun is always going to be around so you know that you're often going to be ready to get solar electricity.

Renewable Resource

This brings us to the following benefit offered by solar air heating, which is that it is a replaceable resource. This is a particularly significant fact because scientists have calculated that replenish-able resources like solar power are going to be in a position to supply up to half the planet's energy demand over the next half century which is definitely quite inspiring.

When you realize quite how much solar power has to offer you, you begin to grasp why it is so vital to make the switch. The sole reason that so many people have not done it already is really because they suspect that it is going to be too inconvenient or cost them too much when in truth, the precise opposite is true. You are only going to be saving yourself time and money in the long term.

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NFL Clarifies Rules Surrounding Dallas Cowboys' Video Screen

By Ross Everett

The Dallas Cowboys are settling into their new $1.15 billion dollar home stadium, but much of the talk in the NFL preseason has been about the massive video screen hanging directly over the field of play. There's been a bit of a controversy about the height of the video screen, with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones rebuffing suggestions that the board was hung too low.

On Friday, the NFL Rules Committee sided with Cowboys owner Jones, indicating that the board was of adequate height. It also clarified the procedure for kicks that hit the board during play, and will revisit the issue in the off-season based on what happens during the 2009 campaign.

Jones has maintained that much of the concern is due to the sheer size of the board, which was hung 90 feet off the field of play"5 feet higher than NFL mandated guidelines.

The NFL has ruled that if a ball hit the display during play, the clock will be reset and down will be replayed. The replay official will have the authority to review plays to determine if the board came into play during the last two minutes of a half, and the coaches will be able to challenge a play involving the video screen at other times during the game by throwing the red flag. This is similar to rules that already exist for live balls that hit skycams or scoreboard components.

In a statement announcing the rules interpretation, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell commented on the situation:

"We will continue to address the particular circumstances in Dallas, giving full consideration to the competitive, safety and fan experience issues involved. The Cowboys have been fully cooperative as we have addressed this subject, and we will continue to work closely with the club on a longer term resolution."

Cowboys owner Jones then voiced his opinion on the NFLs ruling:

"I don't see it as ultimately an issue. You can anticipate the ball hitting the board from time to time. There's no reason why this can't be something for punters to deal with very similar to the way you'd deal with the wind in your face or with elements; rain, sleet or snow."

Jones is hesitant to move the screen for, among other reasons, the huge cost of the engineering project"estimates suggest that it could cost as much as $40 million dollars to raise the screen. Former Cowboys coach Jimmie Johnson has also made his opinion known, and he's a big fan of the massive video screen:

"If there's anything wrong, it's that people are going to watch the video board and not the game. It is so dominating, but I think it's so cool. I think it's great."

The Cowboys play their final preseason game at the new stadium this Saturday as they host the San Francisco 49ers.

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UFC Struggles To Sell Tickets For Their Latest Event

By Ross Everett

Portland, Oregon has long been considered a hotbed of mixed martial arts. The area is home to numerous MMA gyms, the most famous being Greshams Team Quest. It has produced many top notch professional fighters including Randy Couture, Matt Lindland, Ed Herman and Ryan Schultz. Regional MMA promotions like Lindlands SportFight and amateur MMA draws good crowds, and theres few markets in the country that have such a strong mainstream acceptance and understanding of mixed martial arts.

The UFC scheduled their Rose City debut for August 29th, headlined by a matchup between local hero Couture and tough PRIDE vet Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. They anticipated a fever pitch for Coutures homecoming and the UFCs first ever trip to the Pacific Northwest.

What they received instead was an outpouring of apathy from the community. As of early this week, there had been as few as 8,500 tickets sold in the 21,000 seat Rose Garden Arena. Even media sources like Yahoo Sports, who invariably put a positive spin on everything the UFC, does are reporting just over 10,000 tickets sold. In the final week runup to the event the UFC has been aggressively giving away tickets, so between that and walkup business theyll likely end up with a respectable 15,000 to',000 attendance figure. Itll look fine on the PPV, as they can curtain off unsold sections of seats and shoot the crowd to make it look larger.

Earlier in the week Zuffa announced the postponement of a WEC event scheduled for Youngstown, Ohio. The official reason given was an injury to main event fighter Ben Henderson, and while thats not been confirmed several sources have indicated that he did suffer a minor setback during training. More curiously, the WEC announced that the show would no longer be held in Youngstown despite what they insisted were strong ticket sales. The WEC claimed a scheduling conflict with the site, and the Youngstown arena management played along claiming that the facility was booked for Motorcycle Ice Racing on the rescheduled date in early October.

While Youngstown could have been a bad choice for a MMA event all along, the UFC will probably blame the economy for the poor showing of live ticket sales in Portland. While the high unemployment rate nationally and regionally doesnt help things, it doesnt appear to be a major factor in the UFCs struggles to sell tickets in the Rose City. A mind boggling number of people who self identify as casual or serious fans of the UFC had no idea that an event was being held in Portland at all. Thats likely due to a marketing and promotion campaign locally that is somewhere between misplaced and non-existent.

Even among fans who *did* know that UFC 102 was coming to Portland, theres no buzz whatsoever. Theres a variety of reasons for this"many fans have suggested that the high ticket prices werent justified by a relatively weak card. With the exception of the main event, there arent any fighters on the UFC 102 card that are exactly household names outside of hardcore MMA circles. Others have suggested that they would be interested in attending the event, but theres a whole slew of competing events this weekend including the Oregon State Fair.

The UFC has a misguided notion that they can simply put their name on an arena marquee and local fans will pay top dollar for tickets regardless of who is fighting on the card or what else is going on that night. The reality has demonstrated otherwise with poor ticket sales in Portland and other markets.

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How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs

By Maria Hernandez

Bed bugs in houses are a large issue for the inhabitants. These bugs are notorious bloodsuckers and have a liking for warm blooded animals like cats, dogs and humans, with humans being their first choice. Pest control efforts must be carried out seriously if this issue is to be done away with.

Bed bugs infestation is mainly spread through travellers, but once these vicious bugs reach a new place they make it their own quickly. They invade beds, furniture, carpets and all such items where they can find holes and crevices.

During day, bed bugs stay in dark sites. They prefer cloth, wood, and paper surfaces. They commonly take place in pretty close proximity to the host, although they can go far distances. Bed bugs initially can be seen about tufts, seams, and folds of mattresses, later spreading to crevices in the bedstead.

Quite a lot of people harbour the wrong idea that bed bugs prefer places that are unhygienic. Since these pests survive on blood and not trash, hygiene doesn't help in getting rid of them. However, if the surroundings are kept sanitized, then the pests can be easily detected.

That bed bugs are too small to be seen without any magnifying device is another misconception. The fact is that bed bugs are actually big enough to be seen without any magnifying device but they have a flat body which helps them disappear into little cracks and clothing layers easily, making it hard to spot them.

They will normally bite once a week or so, and they can really survive for a long time without eating - commonly six months, but sometimes over a year.

One of the easiest ways to remove bed bugs is to engage an experienced pest controller who can clean the home of these pests. However, there are some home remedies also to control their nuisance such as laundering bed sheets, carpets and other cloths in warm water and then keeping them in the sun. Cracks in the walls must also be sealed, and furniture having too many holes and other possible locations for bed bugs should ideally be disposed off.

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The Function Of Welding Can Facilitate In This Current World

By Victor Epand

The world is fast and busy and invariably bustling these days. That is the rationale why we see so much expansion all around us these days. Be it any field, what we tend to see is tremendous competition and even greater eye for detail in people who go about building the globe we have a tendency to live in now. The penchant for perfection is getting stronger by the day and in this good world, nobody can afford to slip up or blink an eye lid, because that might mean losing out on opportunities, and losing out on chances would mean losing out on cash, which is exactly what the people hate to try to to these days.

One of the buzzing fields that are on the up swing these days is the industrial field. Lots of money is being pooled in for the sake of infrastructure and sky scrapers as high as 160 stories are in issue now. One amongst the fields that deserve a special mention here is welding. Welding is a method in that two metals are joined by fabricating a filler metal between them by heating those up at high temperatures. Therefore naturally, nowadays, welding material is type of a necessity for several business vendors at completely different levels.

Welding equipment supplies are a must when it comes to infrastructure and additionally when there's want to possess welding works done at great lengths of time. Typically, in the technology world, welding equipment supplies are a should and really rely on what kind of welding the welder desires to use or do with the given assignment at hand. Sometimes, there are a differnet of welding equipments at hand and there is a lot to decide on from these days. Acetylene torches are presumably the favorite welder's tools for variety use of the machinery.

Welding equipments also come with welding cables, that are use in the process of welding. The simplest resort when it involves with welding equipments often to use second hand machine, for those used machines are good for any type of conditional use and also do not cost a lot as compared new ones that may be harder to get and even harder to maintain since they are newer machines and would need a lot of maintenance on the spare parts. As it is, the welding cable and also the electrodes are a vital part of your welding equipment as a result of those are precisely the things that provide the spark that is necessary to makesure the welding machine to operate well.

Welding equipment supplies are in huge demand these days and it utterly depends on person to person as to what sort of provides they need for his or her welding purposes. The welding equipment supplies nowadays are offered on lease further and that is where you'll get convenient deals if you're trying for temporary arrangements to weld locally or in your household premises. Welding is also a field that requires a great amount of skill and necessary precautions have to be observed to really carry it out successfully.

Last but not the least, you must perpetually remember that welding could be a budding profession which holds a lot of promise for the future and can surely not disappoint individuals if it's handled in the correct kind of way. Please weld carefully and do not cause unnecessary injuries to yourself whereas carrying out the process. Therefore, weld safely, and you are sure to induce a good results!

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How To Deal With Your Sick Newborn

By Edie Mindell

Dealing with a sick baby is often the most scary and stressful moment a parent can ever faced. If you could only take away the pain that your baby is experiencing, you will in no doubt do it; but we all know that a baby getting sick is unavoidable, and the least that we can do is to do everything within our capabilities to help make our babies feel better.

If your baby develops a fever, is not interested in feeding,is vomiting, has watery diarrhea, and develops a skin rash, the best thing to do is to contact your pediatrician. It is strongly advisable that you should be alert at all times for these symptoms because your baby is still not capable of speaking and muttering of what he is feeling; you should observe your baby at all times for any physical and behavioral changes. You should always be prepared in case of an emergency.

How to know if it's a fever already?

A temperature of 37.5 degrees celcius is considered a slight fever, but body temperature typically varies during the day. It is usually lowest in the morning, and highest in the afternoon. Normal temperature also differ from one person to another. Babies usually have a higher normal temperature than adults.

Observe your baby's temperature daily. If he has persistent high temperature, or if his temperature is erratic (rising and dropping for 3 consecutive days), you should consult your pediatrician because your baby has a fever.

How to safely treat a fever?

After consulting your pediatrician, there are some steps you can do to hep bring the fever down:

Medication: Follow promptly your pediatrician's advice concerning fever medications. Do not alter or change it for it would result to prolonged infection.

Fluids: Make sure your baby gets enough water and fluids (milk) everyday. This will help prevent dehydration and cool the body.

Warm him up: Most of the times, babies with fever also get the chills. Use a baby blanket for warmth and hold your baby for extra warmth and comfort. Remember not to put your baby in the crib with a blanket, for it could lead to suffocation.

Cool off: Keep your baby at rest in loose, light cotton clothing, and give him a lukewarm sponge bath to help lower his body temperature.

It is always important to monitor your baby closely. Never disregard even a slight change in your baby. Whenever in doubt, it is always best to call your pediatrician immediately.

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Various iPhone Accessories

By James Keyes

There are a plethora of online stores that have all your iPhone Accessories including WiFi networking, vehicle mounts, stylus', speakers, screen protectors, headsets, headphones, cradles, combo packs, chargers, cases, cables, Bluetooth car kits, batteries, and more.

The top 10 iPhone accessories include the Apple iPhone Dock, the iSkin, Boxwave Screen Puffs, the MarWare Quick View, the Incipio Technologies Bikini, the Macally mClip, the DLO Jam Jacket, the Belkin Sport Armband, the Jawbone Bluetooth headset and, the Gomadic Rapid Car/Travel Charger.

If you are you an iPhone 3G user, very mobile, and don't have time to charge your iPhone 3G, then you have the iPhone 3G Solar Charging Case. Not only will it prevent iPhone from being damaged, it can also charge your iPhone 3G on the move using solar energy. The case comes complete with a 1,500mAh battery pack necessary for storing collected solar energy. It takes about 3 hours to charge the battery pack.

If for whatever reason you don't want to appear to be a conformist and admit you have an iPhone or iPod Classic, you can cover it up with a classic Gameboy felt case. It fits the iPhone, Touch, and iPod Classic. As if your iPhone isn't spectacular enough already, there's a case to give it even more shine. The Beamer iPhone case comes with a built in LED bright light, powered by a battery inside the case. It also comes in a range of fun, neon and flashy colors.

Apple's signature white earbuds have been designed to be classic, simple and easy to store. Urban Outfitters has a pair of giant earbud speakers, which will connect not just to your iPod, but your computer as well. Its dimensions are 4" x 7" x 3". Etre is working on the fact that it can be annoying (and very painful sometimes) to take off your gloves when using an iPhone. So their Touchy Gloves have fabric cut off the thumb and index finger spots for your convenient.

You sort of need to see it to believe it. This little robot/droid/whatever comes with a DJ and speaker system, using your iPod as it pleases. The little robot even dances and scratches to your music. Compatible editions are third and fourth generation, iPod nano, video mini, photo, and videonano.

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UFC 87 Flashback: GSP, Lesnar Dominate

By Ross Everett

The last time that Georges St. Pierre defended his UFC welterweight title, it quickly turned into the low point of his career. Already facing a number of personal issues away from the cage, he looked sloppy and distracted as Matt Serra defeated him by brutal TKO. This time, things were different as GSP brutalized Jon Fitch over five rounds to win an easy unanimous decision. The judges scores of 50-43, 50-44, 50-44 underscored the one sided victory.

After a dominant takedown to open the fight, followed by a barrage of GSP punches it looked as if Fitch wouldnt make it out of the first round. He managed to survive, though generated little offense the rest of the way as the champion had his way with him both on the ground and in standup striking exchanges. Fitch landed enough counterpunches to open a cut near the champions eye, but never even came close to winning a round.

As the final horn sounded, GSP bowed down in front of Fitch in a nice, Muay Thai inspired show of respect. The sportsmanship and mutual respect continued after the decision was announced, when Fitch embraced GSP and hoisted him into the air in celebration.

And theres very likely not another athlete like Brock Lesnar even within the ranks of fightsport competitors. In his 3rd professional MMA bout the amateur wrestling legend turned WWE champion displayed a brutally effective new fighting style along with stellar patience and cage control as he obliterated tough and highly experienced Heath Herring. Lesnar received a thunderous ovation from his adopted home state as he entered the cage to the sounds of Motley Crues Shout at the Devil and quickly brought the crowd back to their feet within seconds of the opening horn as a powerful straight right sent Herring to the canvas.

From that point forward, Herring was completely out of the fight though he repeatedly demonstrated his toughness by staying in the fight and not tapping out to strikes as had Min Soo Kim in Lesnars MMA debut. Unlike Lesnars gameplan against Frank Mir in his UFC debut"when he clearly wanted to overwhelm his opponent for a quick win"perhaps the most impressive element of his improvement as a fighter was his patience. There were a number of occasions where Lesnar could have tried and finished the fight by placing himself at greater risk, but took the conservative approach. The result is a fight style that is almost frightening, with Lesnar able to leverage his world class ground control skills"along with his downright indefensible takedowns"to keep his opponent under control while he imposes his will using his size and strength and does damage with his massive hands and knees.

Overall, Lesnars performance bordered on amazing"a serious case could be made that he won all three rounds by 10-8 margins, though all three judges scored the fight 30-26. He repeatedly took down and threw around the 64 250 Herring like he was a welterweight, and controlled the fight to such a degree that his opponent didnt land more than a half dozen strikes during the entire fight"and none which were particularly effective.

Lesnars win gives a much needed boost to the UFCs barren heavyweight division. While it may be premature to consider him a top 10 heavyweight, should Lesnar continue to develop his potential in the sport is limitless.

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