The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

The Inaccurate View of Science

By Punkerslut

If I have one purpose in life, it is to enlighten those around
me. All too often, if one has a social and political awareness,
we are going to hear such statements as, “Science has proved
this,” or “Science has proved that,” and it will be implied in a
way that it is absolute. So often have I heard this statement,
that I feel it is necessary to write upon it.

Science may best be defined as a method of investigation, as
well as the results of that investigation. It allows scientists,
or at least followers of this method, to conduct experiments and
tests. Once the tests are concluded, other scientists may
conduct the same experiment to receive identical or similar
results. This is all simple, though, and certainly nothing new
to anyone well versed in the philosophy of science.

Society can be defined as the attitudes held in the minds of
those who are members of such a society. Reformers and
revolutionaries alike are intrinsic in developing good
societies, as they are the ones to form, mold, or alter the
attitudes of others. In the end, though, of course, only the
person can change themselves, in that they are open minded and
willing to understand new things. Writers and artists can only
help them in their journey to understanding. By creating
awareness about certain social and economical issues, by strife
that occurs between different classes, attitudes are molded and
formed. For example, if writers and poets focus much of their
art on an issue like police brutality, it may instill people
with the attitude that police officers and representatives of
the law have no authority to be cruel or malicious — some of
the population may even fight back, defending themselves and
their rights. In this way, one flick of the pen can incite a
thousand protests. By molding the attitude of the public,
reformers and revolutionaries take on a great responsibility.
Yet it is here that we discover that the attitude of a society
is what makes up its foundation. Sometimes, reformers and
revolutionaries focus their energy solely on infusing the
attitude into a populace that there is nothing wrong in
considering new ideas, that it is no sin to rebuke ignorance of
knowledge, to — in general — have an open mind on all matters.
For example, if Germany’s population had a positive attitude
about tolerance and acceptance, they would have never allowed
Hitler’s policies to come into practice. In the United States,
there was a strong anti-war attitude among citizens, and 1,500
protestors rioted in San Francisco at George Bush’s war.

Most importantly, for a society to flourish, in that it
contributes to the development of philosophical, scientific, and
literary thought — through writing books, conducting
experiments, and creating inventions — for a society to
prosper, it must have well-reasoned attitudes towards the
confronting political, economical, and social issues. In our
society, the belief that science is an absolute, single
figurehead remains as a sign that our attitude towards science
is rather weak. It is true, though, that not everyone will have
such an attitude. The public, though, does have such an
attitude. Science is not one set ideology. It is a mass of what
often seems to be quarreling, bickering, almost
beaurocratic-like scientists, arguing over the validity of
experiments, tests, and criticizing almost every point. For what
evidence you can get to support one theory, there will be five
scientists supporting opposite theories. At least, with new
theories attempting to explain new fields of understanding, this
is the case. There is the case of what I will call orthodox
science, on questions such as the movement of the planets in the
solar system or the roundness of the Earth. When a person states
that science has proved something, it is an empty, hollow
statement. Science itself proves nothing, as it is a method, and
the community that follows this method. If someone wants to
offer evidence that something is true, then show the experiment
or the data supporting it. “This person conducted this
experiment on this date, and found these results,” — this
statement, however, is specific. Unlike the vague “science
proves it,” this statement can actually be criticized.

The importance of having this attitude towards science is
great. What we know as truth, especially in the scientific
community, is always changing and improving, with new
experiments confirming our hypothesis and other ones disproving
what we believed to be ancient wisdom for so long. It is
impractical to rely on “science” as a single body of perfect
knowledge, immune to learning and the passage of time. But it is
more than just knowing that science is one body, but it is
understanding it and having that attitude. It is very possible
to simply know that science always changes, but it is entirely
different thing to have the open mind that what scientists are
predicting is fallible, that our understanding of atoms and
electrons could be entirely false, that our knowledge on fusion
and fission are actually upside down from the actual true
understanding — and that, even in a thousand years, our
knowledge in these areas will still be subject to new
experiments and discoveries. The inaccurate view of science is
that it is a single, immutable body of truth. The accurate view
of science is that it is a method of investigation and the
community that adheres to this method, as well as an
ever-changing collection of theories and evidence to support
these theories.

www.punkerslut.com

For Life, Punkerslut

The first camcorder was invented by Jerome Lemelson in 1980. And
since that time the first bulky analog video camcorders have
evolved into the modern digital camcorder, so small they can fit
in the palm of your hand, and so clear they rival even
professional broadcast video cameras.

Consumers have been using camcorders since early 1980s. Since
then they have gotten better and cheaper, with prices starting
at only a few hundred dollars, making DV camcorders affordable
for anyone. Shooting home videos is fun, everyone loves filming
their families during special events. From your kids birthday,
your son’s soccer game, to the family trip to Mexico, but how
exactly do video cameras work?

Digital video cameras convert analog video into a digital
format. Digital video camcorders take the analog
information in the video camera and then translate it into bytes
of data. Digital video is converted from moving images to a
stream of zeroes and ones. The digital video camcorder records
the bytes of digital information onto one of three items, a hard
disk, a dv tape, or a DVD. From there you have the ability to
transfer the video to your computer. You can then edit the
video, email it to friends and family or even add the video to a
website.

The digital video process begins at the lens in the camcorder.
The lens stores and then focuses light from the video that you
are capturing onto the image sensor located behind it. Because
the Charge- Coupled Devices (CCDs) used by camcorders are
capable only of measuring the amplitude of the light hitting the
photodiodes on their surfaces, a system of filters is required
to establish just what color that light is.

Another part of the camcorder, that plays an important role is
the viewfinder. Originally view finders where black and white,
as time progressed viewfinders have evolved into color LCD
screens. This is a necessary part of the camcorder, it lets you
see what you are filming. Newer models of viewfinders even let
you add effects to your video via an LCD touch screen while you
are filming.

Newer DV camcorders can not only shoot high definition video (up
to 720 lines) but models such as the Sony hdr-fx1 hdv camcorder, Canon xl2 and the Canon zr200 mini dv camcorder even
offer digital still image capabilities. You can snap crystal
clear images with resolutions up to 1024 x 768, perfect for
family photos. Need to email your videos to friends and family
across the globe, no problem. With the MPEG feature you can even
email short video clips to any one with an email address!
Grandparents in Europe can see your daughters birthday 4 minutes
after you have filmed it in the U.S.A!

Even though current digital video camcorders come in a range of
sizes and shapes, the techniques used to convert moving pictures
hasn’t evolved much. But the styles of digital camcorders have
evolved. You can find digital video camcorders come in all
types, from dvd camcorders to mini dv camcorders. As technology changes video is
not restrained to digital video cameras. cell phones now have
the capability to shoot video and email the clips instantly
anywhere in the world. It’s hard to predict how far video
technology can go, the sky seems to be the limit.

Time does not exist. Not in the way we normally think at least. It certainly does not seem to work normally in psychic pursuits at any rate! This creates both problems and opportunities for us. If we can learn to understand the nature of time in regards to our psychic efforts we will have much greater success with them.

Due to the brief nature of this article, the subject will be confined to the issue of psychokinesis and time. While many of the same basic rules will apply to our information gathering skills, such as telepathy, precognition and remote viewing, because of our personal perspective, it is easier in some ways to understand what is going on with time when we try to effect change on the world around us.

Our problems with time, in regards to PK stem from two basic points;

1. Time does not exist, at least not in the way we are used to dealing with it, on a psychic level. This may indicate that psychic effects are taking place at a quantum level.

2. The portion of our minds that controls psychic functioning does not have a concept of time. That exists in a different area of the brain. So our psychic efforts must be linked to events rather than time coordinates.

Between these two points and our common perception of time, we run into a few problems. By noting the problems we can come up with some solutions that can increase our psychokinetic success rate.

PK spreads out over time. When you try to effect anything on a psychic level, the actual effect can be (if a researcher is careful and looks at the data) charted as starting before you begin the attempt, rise to a peak of strength a short while after the attempt takes place and then tapering off over time. Because time does not work in the same way on a psychic level, you can effect things before during and after the actual cause (your PK attempt) happens. Because your mind does not understand time in the portions of the brain that controls psychic functioning, its targeting of a specific event tends towards a more shotgun pattern.

It can take some thought to really understand how to deal with this problem. Time is so integral to how most of us think, that it seems almost silly that we would have to account for drift and PK effects going to the wrong time.

Another big problem is mis-targeting. It is very possible to be 100% successful in your psychic attempt, with the exception of the fact that you influenced an event that happened long ago, or will happen in the far future! It is possible in fact that every PK attempt has real world manifestations, but we are not local to the specific happening, so we never see the results.

To correct for this we will have to make sure that we:

Target specific events and give them unique patterns that our sub-conscious minds can identify easily. Gaining a good feel for the specific target before you begin. Make sure that you identify it as a unique and special happening before you begin. Also ensure you are in a deep conceptual state without too much linking to similar patterns. This will help keep you on target.

Also…

Pick targets that have stability once you have influenced them. Biological processes are a good example. Once you have healed a living thing, or made any change to its system, it tends to continue to reflect the change for a while. Things like the weather, the state of an object or the location of an object are good examples as well. You get more out of each attempt, as it can make changes over time, and not lose most of your effort. All of these things will tend to hold on to the changes made rather than immediately shifting back to their previous state.

Use all of your psychic abilities. If you can locate the specific “now” of the event that you wish to influence on a psychic level, it is fairly simple to “lock” into it, making sure that you are not just throwing psychic power at any similar event that has ever happened. So it is useful to not divorce your psychokinetic techniques from your information gathering talents. Feedback is essential for improvement over time.

We live with a specific relationship to time. While we are not going to increase raw power by improving our targeting in regards to time, we can greatly increase the level of effect, by controlling the “when” of things as well as the “what”.

This article and other helpful information can be found at -http://healing.worldispnetwork.com Please feel free to use this or any other materials on the site as you wish. We only ask that you reproduce this article as a whole, including the above link. Thank you.

About the Author

Dale Power is a psychic healer, researcher and educator that has been focusing on ways to improve psychic functioning in humans for the last twenty years.
Go to: http://healing.worldispnetwork.com to find out more about the work being done.

Not so many years ago, homes across the country watched
their favorite TV shows on a bulky floor model that took
awhile to warm up before you could see the picture, didn’t
offer anything in the way of remote control manipulation
and offered a washed out image on the TV’s cathode ray tube
hosted screen…and folks were thrilled to have such
marvelous technology in their midst. Today, all of that’s
been changed, with the introduction of plasma TV.

Instead of trekking to the local theater to catch a
favorite flick, those who own a plasma TV can get pretty
much the same experience in their own homes. If the
thought of shelling out the amount of money that one of
these sets costs makes you flinch, think of how much you’d
be spending to buy movie tickets, and your perspective will
change. If you multiply the number of movies that you’ll
watch on your plasma set by $8.00 (the average price of a
movie ticket these days), you’ll see that the set will
quickly pay for itself. Even if your purchase price was
$4300 for a 50” widescreen model, you’d see a profit after
just about 538 movies were viewed – watching two movies per
day, then, would have you realizing a profit after about 9
months. When you factor in the cost of popcorn and a
drink, you’ll be seeing a profit a lot quicker than that.

Known for their magnificent color, clarity and brightness,
plasma TVs come in a variety of sizes – from 37” to over
60”. Instead of the bulky floor models of yesterday, the
plasma TVs of today are as thin as 3.25” – demanding far
less accommodation for depth – and can be mounted on the
wall. This helps to provide a true theater experience
without the need for a lot of bulky hardware cluttering up
the room.

Before you run out to make a purchase, there are some
things that you’ll need to consider in order to make the
best decision regarding a new unit for your home. Take a
good look at the size and layout of the room that will
house the plasma TV. If the room isn’t overly large – or
if you have an apartment dwelling – then a 42” screen
should do the trick. For larger rooms, upper range screen
sizes (in excess of 60”) would probably work best.

Pricing is determined by the size of the unit, as well as
the manufacturer. If, for instance, you purchase a model
from Pioneer, Sony or Panasonic, you can expect to see a
higher price tag. On the other hand, the quality of these
units exceeds that of their competitors, so it’s all
relevant. Ranked among the best of the plasma TVs is the
Sony 42XBR, offering outstanding visuals and
state-of-the-art operating tools.

You’ll probably find lower prices when shopping on the
internet, but be sure to look for the Better Business
Bureau seal on the website – which is represented by a BBB
linked logo – or you can’t be sure that it’s not going to
be a fraudulent (or, at least, substandard) transaction.

(c) 2005 Simon Canfield - All Rights Reserved

Simon Canfield is a hi-tech enthusiast and freelance author.

AllAboutHeadPhones.com
BigScreenTVsecrets.com

Sometimes the classic science experiments / demonstrations are classic for a reason. They’re just wonderful at grabbing the attention of students and getting them to think about their world. Such is the case with the delightful “Rising Raisins” and the awesome “Soda Pop Bottle Fountain”. By combining the two, the kids will be begging for more.

First, the “Rising Raisins” have been in print forever, usually just as a diversion or bed time sleep inducement. For this activity it will be used to enhance observation skills as well as a spring board for a discussion of density. Feel free to adapt the activity and questions to suit the age of your students.

Though soda will work for this activity, I always use seltzer water. Soda has a tendency to get sticky upon drying while seltzer water will just evaporate with no mess. No mess, that’s for me.

You will need a sealed two liter bottle of seltzer, a tall clear container, raisins, other testable items.

Ask the student to inspect the sealed bottle. What is seen? (Clear liquid) Are there any bubbles? (No) Now, open the bottle and ask what is seen and possible reasons for the occurrence. (Lots of bubbling, foaming over. Also, sound is heard. This could be caused by a reduction in pressure once the bottle is opened.) Where did the bubbles usually form? (On the bottle’s walls) I wonder if bubbles need someting on which to form?

Now, pour the seltzer water into the tall clear container. No doubt, more bubbles will form on the container’s wall. Show a raisin and have the student predict what will happen when it is placed in the container.

When added, the raisin will sink to the bottom. There, bubbles will form in its nooks and crannies. This will cause the raisin to float to the surface where the bubbles will pop. The raisin will sink again and the process will continue until little gas is left in the seltzer water.

At this point, the experiment can go in two ways. One is for the student to suggest other items that might sink and float like raisins. What are the characteristics of these items that allow the activity? (Lightweight, not really smooth, etc.) Objects may include pieces of broken spaghetti, macaroni, straws, penny, marble, etc. Students can categorize objects that move and those that don’t, then create possible reasons for their activity or inactivity.

Older students may be engaged with a discussion of density once they understand it fundamentally. Why did the raisin float? (It had bubbles around it.) Why didn’t the bubble surrounded penny float? (Too heavy) Is the raisin’s mass more or less at the top? (Same - the mass of the raisin itself remains the same just as your mass remains the same if you are on the ground or jumping into the air.) Continue questioning and move to questions about density. If we were to find the mass of the raisin and the mass of the same volume of water, which would have more mass? (Raisin - it sinks in water). If we were to find the mass of the raisin and its bubbles and the same volume of water as the raisin and bubbles which would be greater? (Water - the raisin/bubbles float because they have less mass combined as the same volume of water). And so goes it… As an inquiry questioning device to check understanding of density, the “Rising Raisin” is a winner.

Next time, we’ll take the bubble formation ideas and use them in creating the “Awesome Pop Bottle Fountain.” Have fun!

Tom Smith, an elementary science teacher, owns and operates Wonder Workshops, an online mecca of hard to find retro toys, puzzles, magic tricks, puppets, books, and DVDs all based in science, math, and problem solving. He also presents hands-on science workshops around the country for teachers and parents. Be sure to visit the store and workshop site at http://www.wonderworkshops.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Feelings and emotions are nerve impulses.

The feel of paper and the flush of shame. Feelings and emotions are relayed as nerve impulses. Nerve endings or sensors report on feelings from tissues all over the body. These sensations include sharp pain, burning pain, cool or warm temperature, itching, muscle contraction, joint movements, soft touch, mechanical stress, tickling, flushing, hunger and thirst. Electrical excitation of certain parts of the temporal lobe, cause intense fear to be produced in patients. Excitation of other parts caused feelings of isolation, loneliness, disgust, or even pleasure. Out of the millions of nerve fibres which relayed these messages, the mind differentiated the active nerve impulses finely to sense feelings and emotions. The mind recognized a combination of inputs to feel hunger, thirst, or much else.

Nerve impulses make you feel good, or awful

While complex mechanisms are used to identify pain, or itching, how could the “pleasant, or unpleasant” quality of nerve impulses be explained? Why should the universal experience of pain be wretched and pleasure agreeable? What kind of code could the mind use to differentiate between nice and awful? The book, The Intuitive Algorithm (IA), explains how mere nerve impulses could achieve this. That view was founded on a crucial new insight. That instant pattern recognition – intuition - could underpin the processes of the mind. This enabled the nervous system to instantly recognize combinations of inputs. This understanding revealed the logic behind the mystery of nice and awful.

Combinatorial coding

Over the ages, science had speculated on the nature of human intelligence. The IA concept was a new view. That the mind recognized objects and events through a neural combinatorial coding process. This recognition process was recently acknowledged by science for olfactory neurons. A Nobel Prize acknowledged that discovery in 2004. For IA, the vision went further. The massive memories of nerve cells for combinations lay behind the immense wisdom of the mind. These memories were both inherited and acquired. These memories enabled nerve cells to finely differentiate between combinations of sensations to recognize objects and events. Intuition was the logical elimination routine, which could instantly sift a single contextual answer from this immense knowledge base. When you reached into your pocket and identified a key, just by touch, you used this process.

A seamless pattern recognition process

So, the mind received, at the input end, kaleidoscopic combinations of millions of sensations. From these, it instantly recognized events. Recognized events triggered contextual feelings. Feelings triggered allied drives. Drives fired sequences of remembered muscle movements. The circuit closed. 100 billion nerve cells recognized events and delivered motor output, within a bare span of 20 milliseconds. The time between the shadow and the scream. All this was enabled by massive memories in neurons and intuition. So, from input to output, the mind was a seamless pattern recognition system.

Intelligent drives.

The current feeling dictated purpose at the highest levels. A hierarchy of intelligences followed through with drives. At the second level, learned movements were inserted. At the lowest level, fine motor coordination delivered the final output – whether a spoken word, or a written line. A feeling expressed a purpose. A feeling of fear could dictate an escape drive, whose purpose was to achieve safety. That demanded instant responses, varying across species. A deer bounded away. A bird took flight. A fish swam off. While the activities of running, flying and swimming differed, they achieved the same objective of escaping. Such activities could not be stupid. Escape was hardly possible by heading into the predator. Increasing the distance from danger demanded uncommon cleverness. That objective could even be achieved by slipping into a safe sanctuary, inaccessible to the predator. Like the underside of a rock. Drives delivered intelligent contributions at every level. Purpose was expressed as feelings at the highest level and remembered contextual drives managed lower levels.

A drive, which assembled combinatorial memories of context

The nerve cell memories, which powered the intelligence were both inherited and acquired. This IA concept of drive channel memories was supported by research. The analysis of cortical activity, while learning skills, remained a mystery to science. PET scans revealed that as a person learned a skill, purposeful cortical activity was initially high. But, with learning, it gradually reduced. Why did practiced effort require less cortical activity? Why should practice need less of these neural interactions? Surely, highly skilled activities should have more cortical neural traffic? Science remained in the dark. However, for IA, cortical purpose differed from lower level drives. Mastering a skill needed attention. Landmarks had to be identified and remembered. Attention increased cortical activity. The combinations of context were recorded by the drive channel. Learning recorded memory at these lower levels. The cortex laboured to teach the drive channel. The memories of the drive channel neurons later responded appropriately, without cortical intervention.

Largely unconscious drives.

The drive channel initially learned by recording context. That was when you first learned to drive a car. As the mind learned, combinations of contextual memories were encoded into the memories of drive channel neurons. Over the years, millions more contexts would be added. Shortcuts, early lane changes, responses to traffic snarls. Because the channel neurons remembered, it was no longer necessary to highlight a landmark through attention. Increased cortical firing was not needed to indicate context. Normal perceptions were adequate. The channel remembered and managed habitual activities, leaving you free to worry about bills, on your drive home. Without conscious management, the drive channel acted through learned memories. But those memories also had inherited components. It was these components, which responded to feelings and emotions. These drives also acted at a subconscious level.

The historic basis of drives.

Purposeful drives had antecedents from the beginnings of life. The Hydra was a primeval example of such a mechanism. It was a branched tubular animal. A netlike arrangement of neurons was interposed between its outside and its internal digestive cavity. A stimulus applied to any part of its body resulted in contraction or bending of its tubular body and its tentacles. The Hydra moved about with this simple nerve net, varied its length and used its tentacles to push food particles into its mouth. Occasional strong contractions of the whole animal served to expel indigestible material from the same orifice. From the beginnings of history, nature had devised ongoing drives, which enabled essential activities - to move about, swallow, or expel food. Across millions of years, more sophisticated feelings and emotions developed. Inherited memories generated a far wider range of drives to meet the needs of these emotions. Drives to nurture the young, to lie in the grass, or to play in the water. But the essentials remained. Drives to seek out and accept, or to avoid and escape.

The agreeable and disagreeable quality.

Medical texts reported that the pleasure emotion was triggered from the septal areas of the brain for rats. The animals were observed when they were able to self stimulate themselves, by pressing a lever, through electrodes implanted in the septal area. They continued pressing the lever till they were exhausted, preferring the effect of stimulation to normally pleasurable activities such as consuming food. The pleasure emotion impelled the animal to repeatedly seek that stimulus. On the other hand, pain was felt in two waves, separated by an interval of a few tenths of a second. The first was sharp and localized. The second wave was diffuse and still more disagreeable. So, also, after an operation called lobotomy, the presence of pain was no longer distressing to the patient who would say that the pain was still there, but it did not “hurt.” Pain was divided into a sensation and a disagreeable element. That element was, in reality, a drive to avoid the stimulus.

Pleasant and unpleasant drives.

The primitive Hydra, moved about, swallowed, or spewed out food. Its drives worked to approach, accept, reject, or escape. Millenniums later, the control systems were more sophisticated. But, humans traveled the seas, enjoyed delicious meals and occasionally became sea sick. Pleasant emotions generated a drive to approach and accept. The rat kept pressing the lever. Such emotions made you feel good. Unpleasant emotions generated a drive to escape, or reject the stimulus. The second wave of pain was a drive triggered by cortical recognition of pain. That feeling triggered a drive to escape. That drive was disagreeable. It made you want to run away. When the drive was disconnected in lobotomy, pain became just a sensation. Drives operated at subconscious levels. When you want to reach out and hug a child, or to hurry away from a gruesome sight, remember, a subconscious drive is in charge.

About the Author

Abraham Thomas is the author of The Intuitive Algorithm, a book, which suggests that intuition is a pattern recognition algorithm. The ebook version is available at www.intuition.co.in. The book may be purchased only in India. The website, provides a free movie and a walk through to explain the ideas.

Stingrays are neither threatened nor endangered species. They
derive their name from their slender, whip-like tails equipped
with venomous spines. Stingrays are neither threatened nor
endangered species. They’ve been hunted for centuries for their
meat and also today stingrays are marketed for food in various
countries around the world, principally in Europe and Asia.

General characteristics of stingrays

Stingrays can be found in the major oceans; Atlantic, Indian and
Pacific Oceans. Most stingrays are marine, living in salt water
but they can be found in freshwater and where salt and fresh
water mix (brackish water). The shape as can be seen in the
pictures, the side of the head has a continuous shape with the
outer side margin of the pectoral fin, the fins that look like
wings.

They breath by drawing water through a small hole behind the eye
and expel the water through gill slits on the underside of the
disc. The dorsal fin or backward fin, does not exist or
sometimes are hard to distinguish. The disc is about 1.2 times
as broad as the length.

The stingray does not have a tail fin (cuadal fin). Instead it
has a tail and it looks like a whip with a long venomous spine
on the tail. The spine is replaced every four months. Most
species have at least 1 long venomous spine on the tail, and
some stingrays that are seen to have two.

Injuries to humans from stingrays occur when an unsuspecting
person steps on a ray, causing the creature to reflexively
strike out with its tail. The stinger apparatus then injects a
toxin, causing immediate shooting pain. Although there is no
known antidote for their toxin, it’s rarely fatal for humans.

The largest of these is the specie is Trygonidae with a total
length of about 4 meters and is approximately 4.8 meters in
total width.

Behavior of stingrays

They live in the bottom parts of shallow tropical waters.
Looking carefully, you are likely to find them lying on a
seabed, buried or partially covered with sand. They can move
very rapidly when threatened or in pursuit of a passing fish.
They also eat mollusks and crustaceans, crushing then with their
flat, strong teeth.

Most of stingrays are not especially afraid of humans. When
approached, they swim gently to another place naturally avoiding
too close contact. In many places around the world they became
tourist attraction, where people can swim together or even feed
them.

Stingray leather

There are very few stingray species that provide suitable leather hides. These
are called “scaly species”. The skin of these stingrays consists
of thousands of tiny rock-hard pearls or scales. This stingray leather is exceptionally strong and by many is
called the most durable leather in the world.
It’s definitely fire, water, tear and “cut” resistant.

The reason of these features lies in the structure of the
leather. In regular leather, the fibres of the leather run
parallel to each other, whereas in stingray leather the fibres
run in all directions. In addition, all the tiny pearls with
their roots are grown into the bottom layer of the leather, to
the effect that you can neither tear the leather apart, nor cut
it easily with the knife.

There are many products that can be made from stingray leather; handbag
s, purses > and wallets<
/a> for example. There are also coin
purses and key
wallets, too. One can choose from a variety of colors and
sizes, all genuine exotic stingray leather.

Buying Your PC

Buying a PC that’s right for you and your family is not all that simple task. More so if you’re going to buy an unbranded or an assembled one. But branded or not, you have to get you facts right before you shell out your money. First, why do you want to buy a PC? Is it because almost every one has one these days, or that you have the money to spare. If these are the reasons are that you want to end up spending a lot of money on something you’re unlikely to use. But if your reasons are that you want it for home based business, or for your kids for their education, or to work at home, or that you want to surf the net, you are on the right track. Now let’s get down to specifics.

What do you need it for?

Take a piece of paper and write down what all you need to do with the pc.

Spreadsheets, Word processing, Surfing the Web, sending e-mail, playing games. Running multimedia, Watching movies, playing music ,CAD drawings, graphics designing, Web designing. Programming and Online learning.

Make your list. Why? Because different needs need Different PCs. You really don’t need the latest computer if all you’re going to do is browsing, no matter what the vendor tells you.

When you make your list be sure to look a little ahead and see what all other things you might be using the computer for. For instance, do you think you are likely to take up graphics designing? Or will the kids start playing all those high-end games?

How much money do you want to spend?

Get hang of the money you can spend on the PC. Then you have to look for the PC that suits your needs and your budget. This may need some balancing even, if your requirements are huge and the budget isn’t. This will also decide if you should go for branded PC or an assembled one.

Brand or assembled?

This is a question that has gone on for a while now. A year ago, branded ones. We recommend that you go for a PC for which you can get assured service and support. Fort a more detailed analysis, catch our July story called Branded or Not?

What is it?

This is the part that has the computer’s basic circuitry and components. The processors, meomory, BIOS, expansion slots, etc all go on the motherboard.

What’s available?

Right now you have two broad choices for a motherboard. The motherboards based on Intel 810 chipset have the graphics and audio capabilities on to the board itself-that’s what they mean by integrated graphics and audio onboard. In case you’re looking for better graphics (say, you will be moving to high-end games, or graphics, or CAD or need better sound environmental audio, sound-editing), you’ll have to get some high-end video and audio cards. Which such a motherboard won’t support. You could, in such cards.

What to ask the vendor :

What are the upgrades possible on this motherboard? Which processors are supported? How much are the upgrades going to cost?

What is it?

The brain of the PC. You don’t always have to go for the fastest. And just having a processor that’s fast won’t do. The rest of the system has to keep up with it.

What’s available?

Among the low-end ones available are Celeron, AMD K6.2 and K6-3, and now AMD”S Duron. They are available in different clock speeds-go for the one you can afford. A Celeron 600MHZ. Among the high-end processors are Pentium III and AMD’s Anthon. A PIII 667 MHz.

Also remember that a processor alone can’t make the PC zip. For instance, A PIII on an 810 motherboard that doesn’t have much graphics capability isn’t of much use.

How much do you need?

If you are going to work on office application like word processors and spreadsheets, and some browsing, a Celeron or an AMDK6 series, or Duron would do. For work that needs more processing power you have to go for a Pentium III or an Anthon. You’ll find some Pentium IIs in the market but Intel Doesn’t makes them anymore.

What is it?

This is the place where all your program and data will b stored on the PC. Your PC’s performance will depend upon the rate at which your hard disk can read data and give it to the other parts. The speed of a hard disk is measured in rpm. These days most hard disks come with a speed of 7200 rpm. And some other available in hard disk 7.5 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, and for more on how to take care of your hard disk, check out The Hard Disk Guide in this issue.

How much do you need?

Most PCs now come with 8-10 GB of hard disk space. With fat OSs and fatter office suites and games, you’ll need some bit of space. 17 GB is quite common, now even 30 GB doesn’t raise eyebrows. So do take those offers of 1GB with a huge bag of salt.

What is it?

The place where information is stored for a while so that the processor doesn’t have to keep hunting for it on the hard disk.

What’s available?

The more you have the better it is. A lot of PCs still come with 32 MB RAM-we advise you to go for 64MB at the very least. If you’re a gamer or into heavy graphics, you’ll need 128 MB.

How much do you need?

The more you have the better it is. A lot of PCs still come with 32 MB RAM-we advise you to go for 64 MB at the very least. If you’re a gamer or into heavy graphics, you’ll need 128 MB

What is it?

This is a card that carries out the processing for all that’s related to the display. You could have a fast processor, lots of ROM and hard disk that keeps pace with it all. But if the display can’t match all this-the speed at which the things have got processed will take ages to show up on screen. The card has its RAM- called video RAM (VRAM).

What’s available?

As we said earlier, some motherboards have this function inbuilt, but others need you to have a graphics card for this. You get a range of cards now.

How much do you need?

If you’re into heavy gaming and graphics and CAD and 3D modeling, you need to have a card with at least 8 MB VRAM, 16MB if you can afford it. For other purpose, 4 MB VRAM is good enough.

All software comes on CDs. A lot of computers magazines that teach you how to use computers come with CDs. So a CD-ROM drive is a must. Now you have the option of going for CD-RW drives or even DVD drives. And some vendors have the check to see PCs without them.

Higher X ratings-such as 48X, 52X for a CD drive doesn’t mean that the drive will run at blazing speeds. In fact for routine things opening a CD tray, making a CD auto run-an 8X will do just fine. But if you were to rip songs from your audio CDs to convert them into MP3s you would need a faster drive.

A DVD drive is great if you are going to be watching a lot of movies on your PC- but make sure video card and sound card and speakers match up to it.

Go for a CD-RW drive if you are going to be burning a lot of CDs-keeping backups, making MP3 CDs, and so on.

The basic PC:

For running productivity applications: word processors, spreadsheet, presentations, Surfing. Using e-mail, using personal information mangers. Play music and videos, some light games and multimedia CDs

Specs:

• Celeron 550 MHz or above/AMD K6 series or Duron 550 MHz or above

• 64 MB RAM

• 15” color SVGA monitor

• 10-12 GB ATA/66 hard disk

• On board video abd sound

• 48 x or higher CD-drive

• 101-keys Keyboard

• 3-button mouse

• 56 kbps modem

The high-end PC –

For heavy gaming, graphics, multimedia creation, sound editing

Specs:

• Pentium III 700 MHz/ k-7 700 MHz or higher

• 128 MB RAM

• 17 GB ATA/^^ hard disk drive

• video card with 32 MB VRAM

• 101-keys keyboard

• on board sound (for those into sound editing and composing, a high-end sound card like Creative SoundBlaster Live is needed)

• 17” monitor

• Scroll mouse

• 56 Kbps modem

Sound card and Speakers:

The sound card processes the sound that you hear on your PC. These days sounds cards not only make multimedia application sound great, they also let you compose record and edit your own music.

Monitor:

14” monitors are out. You can get in your some other type of the monitor in 15”, color monitor, 16 inches and 17 inches monitor are available in the market.

PORTS –

Ports are where you plug in peripherals. The mouse and keyboard go into their respective ports. Serial ports take in modems. Parallel ports take in printer, scanners, etc, There are now USB ports for USB printers, scanners, digital cameras, etc. Now there are Fire Wire ports t00-but these are useful for those into video-editing and such tasks that need a lot of data to be transferred in a shot.

Keyboard and Mouse-

There is a range of mice to choose from Look for one that you fell comfortable working with. There are different types of keyboards. Again look for one that doesn’t require you to thump hard to type, feels ergonomic. You could also go for devices go for devices that have programmable buttons/keys.

Software-

You need an operating system-the common one is of course, Windows 98. Now the latest version of Windows for the home is Windows Me.

You need an office suits, or at least programs that do word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. You need a browser to the Web, and an e-mail program. You’ll also need an antivirus, some system diagnostic tools, some graphics programs, and some useful things like media players (to run your movies and play music), file compression tools like WinZip. Then of course, there is a world of games and multimedia titles to explore.

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,
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With the large variety and quality of digital cameras out there how are going to know what kind you are going to use with ease? You are going to want to go and checkout all the different options and features that you are going to be able to choose from.

You may be looking for a basic digital camera so that you are just going to be able to take regular pictures and nothing else. You could even look for a camera that you will be able to take some small movies with. No matter what kind you are looking for you will soon see that you are going to still have quite a few different digital cameras to look at and choose.

When you are using a digital camera, you will notice that you are going to be able to choose what pictures you are willing to keep before they are printed out. That way there you will not be printing out the pictures that are all blurry and distorted when you are not going to want to keep. Yet, when you are using a convention camera you are going to be getting a better quality of pictures.

With a little practice you are going to be able to adjust the color with the digital images that you have taken. That is with all the different programs that come with your digital camera they will show you some of the better features that are around to change the color contrast of your photos.

Some other great features of the digital camera is you are able to save all of your pictures on a disk so you are not going to have many different pictures laying around all the time. You will want to make sure that you are not leaving many pictures on your computer, if you download them on it, because you may have the problem with your computer crashing and loosing all the priceless pictures that you did take. That is why everyone always suggests that you backup all of your photos onto a disk or print them out all the time.

Some cameras come with a direct connection to Personal Computers and you can view the pictures as though they are part of a disk drive. All you need to do is to connect use a cable and connect it to a computer and it will be viewed as a hard disk. Neat!

For more information about Digital Cameras and the reviews, please check: http://www.1-digital-cameras-reviews.info

When targeting small businesses that are in the sweet spot size, what IT certifications do you typically need? One thing to keep in mind is that you are not selling to a real IT manager in most cases.

Remember Who You Are Selling Your Services To

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule in certain industries and certain types of businesses. Generally you’re selling to a non-technical, small business owner. You’re selling to someone who understands his business really well but is not an IT professional.

As a result, they usually don’t have an appreciation of the differences between someone like a CNA and a CNE, or the difference between an MCT and an MCSE IT certification. This is another case where it’s not absolutely critical that you hold advanced level IT certifications in everything, or even be certified at all.

Start Small with Certification

If you feel that not having an IT certification is holding you back, it could be worthwhile to get one or two entry-level certifications. Then you can start working gradually toward more advanced IT certifications that you want to specialize in.

If you get too caught up in needing various IT certifications to market your business, you may end up losing out on possible business.

The Bottom Line about IT Certification

If you have launched your business, but are not doing the networking thing, not doing the follow-up or going out on sales calls, you may be missing opportunities.

You do not want to be running up bills for classes, have no billable hours and have nothing to show for it from a business development standpoint. It’s really important to set your priorities.

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