Communication Beat

Instead of Butter: Use top quality, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil, from the first pressing, or flaxseed oil. The taste of virgin olive oil is appealing to millions of people around the world, so why not adopt it to your taste?

Flaxseed oil is prized for health reasons and not for its taste. You can always compensate for that by adding spices to the appropriate dish. Let’s say you want to add a little flaxseed oil to mashed potatoes, instead of butter. You could add basil, oregano, rosemary, curry, garlic, or any other spice that agrees with your palate.

You can use a little virgin olive oil on mashed potatoes with basil and roasted garlic, but it’s up to the individual’s own taste. At home, we use a little olive oil on toast, instead of butter. Again, you could spice it, but try to avoid salting.

Depending on whose study you read, flaxseed oil contains Omega-3, Omega-6, and Omega-9 Oils.

Olive oil has some Omega-6 value, but it tastes great.

If you want to learn a lot more about beneficial oils, visit:

http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~ebender/Health%20&%
20Nutrition/Nutrition/oil_good.html

To name a few of the many conditions improved by Omega-3 Oils: High Cholesterol Levels, Prevention of Strokes and Heart Attacks, Cancer Prevention and Treatment, Multiple Sclerosis, Allergies, Angina, High Blood Pressure, Arthritis, and Asthma.

To read a little more about the link between cancer prevention and Omega-3 fatty acids, please visit:

http://www.seapet.com/EFA_cancer.htm#AICR

It goes without saying any further, that omega-3 fatty acids should be boosted in most of our diets.

You will notice, I did not mention, margarine as a dietary recommendation.
Trans-fats are formed as a result of chemical hydrogenation. Depending upon the brand you buy, margarine may contain up to 45 percent trans-fats.

“The problem with trans fatty acids is that your body doesn’t know what to do with them,” said Brian Olshansky, M.D., University of Iowa Health Care professor of internal medicine.

Trans fatty acids (trans-fats) are linked to diabetes, high cholesterol, sudden cardiac death, obesity, and heart disease.

Expect to see a warning on the labels of food containing trans-fats in the near future. New labeling for foods is expected soon, and total trans-fats contained within a product serving, will be listed. Believe it or not, at least one trans-fat, CLA (conjugated linolenic acid), is considered beneficial, but that is another story.

Suffice to say, it would be wise to avoid margarine until all the research is in. At that point, the composition of margarine will probably change for the better.

Paul Jerard, is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts, with multiple Black Belts, four martial arts teaching credentials, and was recently inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors in the greater Providence area. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher.

www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

It doesn’t matter what your age or ability, anyone who wants to can start running for fitness. It does not appeal to everyone, but it does not take a lot of special equipment or know how to do. Running is a great way to improve your cardiovascular health as well as helping you to maintain a healthy weight. You can run a lot or a little. You can run inside or out. You can go running with other people or by yourself. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Talk to a doctor or another qualified health professional before you start any type of running program. They will be able to help you assess your current fitness level and will give you guidelines for how much to exercise and nutrition advice as well.

2. Your clothing and shoes will be really your most important running equipment. But, you don’t necessarily have to go out and buy all new stuff once you start to run. Clothing should be appropriate for the weather and climate if you are going to run outside. Your shoes should be comfortable and fit well. Once you start to run for longer distances you may want to purchase some better quality shoes with advice from a specialty running shoe store.

3. Warm up before you start to run. This will get your body ready for the increased activity and will help to limit injuries. Stretch your calves and thigh muscles and walk briskly to get your heart rate up.

4. In the beginning you can alternate walking briskly and running for short distances to get accustomed to the activity. If you are new to exercise, you should probably only go for 10 to 20 minutes for the first few times out.

5. Set goals that are reasonable. If you want to do a 5K run, then set little more manageable goals that you can do to reach your big goal. If you are too ambitious in your start, you may burn out too quickly and not reach your goal.

6. Cool down at the end of your run. Stretch again and walk slowly. This will help to keep you from getting sore muscles and limit injury as well as increasing flexibility.

7. Eat right. Give your body good nutritious fuel to work with. Use a calorie calculator online to find out how much you will need for weight management or loss.

Eriani Doyel writes articles about Sports. For more information about running shoes visit runninge.com

Incredibly careful observations revealed from the Bank of England very recently led to the recent English Pound renewal people have beheld being subdued. The recent assessment from the English Central Bank was unreservedly unanimous for interest rates to remain on hold and to preserve the present level of quantitative let-up. Conversely, surprisingly, the noteworthy members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) thought Sterling’s contemporary improvement in value was probably not undeniably the ‘green shoot of recovery’ multitudinous people are predicting and additionally will probably in reality hurt business trade and consequently encumber the UK economies revival. Buying foreign currency can be potentially financially beneficial – it can also be risky.

These unforeseen observations saw the pound drop one United States cent against both the Dollar and Euro and also more that one cent and a 1/2 against the Swiss Franc.

On this day United Kingdom high street retail sales figures and also public finance info might grant extra clues as to the fitness of the UK economy and also can trigger more volatility in the financial markets. So, make sure you are in close contact with your foreign currency account manager so they can keep you educated regarding significant currency market movements.

News released very recently by the Office of National Statistics otherwise known as the ONS, confirmed that unemployment in the UK had risen significantly to more that 2.2 million the peak height ever since Nov 2006 Despite the increase the figure was certainly not as poor as many had suspected nonetheless, with the joblessness rate still more that 0.07 it was seen as negative for the United Kingdom pound. This reality, on top of the cautious remarks by the Monetary Policy Committee merely served to swell UK Stirling’s woes. David Kern, the chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, commented: “These jobless figures are slightly better than feared, but the overall situation remains grim… It is much too early to talk about the end of recession”

The anxiety now is that these data should degenerate as college and also university graduates enter the job market at the most awful potential occasion which is probably going to place farther strain on the UK pound. For that reason, if you have an upcoming currency transfer talk to a dedicated money broker who will often be able to point out all the options open to you including fixing your currency exchange rates for a pre-determined period of time in the future for merely a nominal deposit on a forward contract great to help you budget.

African Aid
By
William Cate

Africa, like everywhere else in the world, has its fair share of honest, intelligent; hardworking people who want to see their families have a better standard of living. Unfortunately, most of these people are living below the poverty line. The reasons that Africa, with all of its natural resources, is an economic basket case are complex. They start with the 16th Century Africans’ failure to adopt an effective immigration policy. The result was the European immigrants divided up the continent without regard to historic tribal boundaries. The modern result has been tribal wars waged with modern weapons from the Sudan to Rwanda.

After WWII, the West’s development schemes have been a long litany in stupid projects. A few of my favorite examples include:
1. The British Groundnut Project: After WWII, the British found themselves with lots of heavy equipment that needed a use. The British shipped it to Africa and cleared thousands of hectares of tropical jungle. The idea was to grow peanuts and export them back to Britain. Nobody considered the fact that the soils in a jungle are lateritic and, once the jungle was cleared, the exposed areas quickly evolved into concrete parking lots. Not one peanut ever reached England.
2. The Americans Built Highways to Nowhere: After WWII, the Americans built four lane roads in countries with less than one hundred cars. The local Government owned most of the cars. Years later, I sat at a roadside food stand and counted three cars passing in the five hours it took the only bus to travel that road to pick me up.
3. If you think stupidity is limited to English speakers, consider that the Norwegian Government granted US$25 million to build a fish-freezing plant in rural Africa. After the plant was built, someone noticed that the local people don’t catch or eat fish. They herd goats.
4. The Soviets built a milk bottling plant in North Africa. The local people don’t drink bottled milk and there is no way to ship the milk elsewhere. The plant has yet to ship its first bottle of milk.
5. In East Africa, the Yugoslavian Government built a factory to can mangos. The factory has a capacity that exceeds the entire world’s trade in canned mangos.
6. The Italians built a banana processing plant, but the quantity of bananas needed for the plant to breakeven exceed the entire country’s banana production.
7. The Americans designed and the Soviet’s build the Aswan Dam. Before it was built, studies showed that by 2006, the amount of new irrigation agriculture developed above the dam would be offset by the salinization of the Nile River Delta below the dam. Meanwhile, the Egyptian population would grow and the result would be a constant threat of national starvation. The studies were right.

Everywhere, politicians and bureaucrats produce nothing. In Africa
and elsewhere, the political system runs on the axiom: What’s mine is mine. What’s yours we’ll share. In all but four countries, upon independence a one party political system evolved with a single ruler. The result was instant corruption. When Mobutu Sese Seko left office, he had accumulated a $10 billion dollar fortune. He could have written a check and paid off Zaire’s $7 Billion foreign debt and still had enough to get by amply in the West. It isn’t simply the fact that almost all African leaders are corrupt and dictatorial, it’s the fact that most opposition party leaders are seeking office to rape the country. The result is a political vacuum that makes it nearly impossible to help the honest, hardworking Africans create a middle class and stabilize their country.

Today, Prime Minister Blair wants to make another attempt at saving African Swiss-Bank Socialism. His plan is to forgive the debt of the poorest African countries. I’d agree, since this debt will never be repaid. Tying it to countries “on the road to economic reform” is nonsense. Mr. Blair’s plan is to double aid from rich nations’ taxpayers to US$25 billion each year and US$50 billion annually starting in 2015. The Gnomes in Switzerland must be licking their chops. . Mr. Blair’s proposal confirms that the Swiss banks can keep their African clients’ accounts and expect to see those accounts grow annually by billions of dollars.

Thanks to the Prime Minister, President Bush has added US$674 million for humanitarian assistance of which US$414 million will go to food aid in the Horn of Africa. Certainly everyone realizes that starvation is a terrible way to slowly die. Unfortunately, due to Global Warming, the 21st Century epitaph for the Horn of Africa will be pending starvation.

Sending money to NGOs (Non-Government Agencies) does see some of that money converted into help for the local people. However, the taxpayer rarely gets fair value for the money sent to any third party. I think funding the eradication of assorted African diseases is in everyone’s best interests. >From ridding the continent of River Blindness to finding a way to remove schistosomiasis from Africa’s waterways, without damaging the environment, is everyone’s social obligation. The West has started to address the issue of African AIDs. We are finding ways to ensure that everyone who is HIV positive has access to modern drugs. Better health for everyone in Africa is a key to allowing a large middle class to evolve.

Mr. Blair and the G8 leaders should realize that trickle down aid is the source of African Swiss-Bank Socialism. If the Prime Minister wants to help the honest, intelligent and hardworking people of Africa, he should take his lead from the women of West Africa. A group of women each put some money into a pot. Then one of the women uses the collected funds to buy something to start a business. As her business prospers, she repays her debt and the next woman, using the same risk capital, starts her business. Eventually, all the women are in business. Usually, about this time along comes a local bureaucrat seeking bribes to allow the women to remain in business. What if the West supplied the local pots of loan capital? What if the local tribal elders had the power to expose corrupt officials seeking bribes? What if the G8 required laws to protect the small businesspersons so that they could prosper? Sadly, none of these options needs to be considered as long as the West thinks African Swiss-Bank Socialism is the way to African Economic Growth. It isn’t.

Given African reality, if I were an African businessperson, I’d follow the lead of African politicians and move my money offshore. My family would soon follow.

About the Author

He has been the Managing Director of Beowulf Investments [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]

If you’ve ever read an article about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make – it isn’t unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay.

Next time you’re on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are: you’ll find quite a few. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that’s eBay’s requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top ranking is Titanium PowerSeller, and to qualify you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month!

The fact that these people exist gives you come idea of the income possibilities here. Most of them never set out to even set up a business on eBay – they simply started selling a few things, and then kept going. There are plenty of people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, and some of them have been doing it for years now. Can you imagine that? Once they’ve bought the stock, everything else is pretty much pure profit for these people – they don’t need to pay for any business premises, staff, or anything else. There are multi-million pound businesses making less in actual profit than eBay PowerSellers do.

Even if you don’t want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay to make a significant second income. You can pack up orders during the week and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday. There are few other things you could be doing with your spare time that have anywhere near that kind of earning potential.

What’s more, eBay doesn’t care who you are, where you live, or what you look like: some PowerSellers are very old, or very young. Some live out in the middle of nowhere where selling on eBay is one of the few alternatives to farming or being very poor. eBay tears down the barriers to earning that the real world constantly puts up. There’s no job interview and no commuting involved – if you can post things, you can do it.

Put it this way: if you know where to get something reasonably cheaply that you could sell, then you can sell it on eBay – and since you can always get discounts for bulk at wholesale, that’s not exactly difficult. Buy a job lot of something in-demand cheaply, sell it on eBay, and you’re making money already, with no set-up costs.

If you want to dip your toe in the water before you commit to actually buying anything, then you can just sell things that you’ve got lying around in the house. Search through that cupboard of stuff you never use, and you’ll probably find you’ve got a few hundred dollars’ worth of stuff lying around in there! This is the power of eBay: there is always someone who wants what you’re selling, whatever it might be, and since they’ve come looking for you, you don’t even need to do anything to get them to buy it.

So you want to get started on eBay? Well, that’s great! There are only a few little things you need to learn to get started. Our next email will give you the lowdown.

Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.

I have had many confidence issues in my life, all of which I have either dealt with or overcome. I have written about some of these issues below.

1. The Bald Patch

2. My height

3. My weight

4. The stutter

5. My lack of belief in myself

6. My career

THE BALD PATCH

Even though to some people it may seem trivial, I was born with a bald patch the size of a ten pence piece. As I went through childhood and especially the teenage years I became more and more self-conscious and paranoid about it.

It was especially noticeable when it rained or when I went swimming as my hair would become wet. People at school would ridicule me and I was forever trying to hide and cover the bald patch even though most people knew about it.

It hurt when people laughed at me and eventually I stopped going swimming altogether.

MY HEIGHT

Out of all of my close male family and friends, I am the shortest at 5ft 4. This probably should not influence my confidence however with people continually looking down on me it did. I have been called many names, the nicest being “Shorty”.

I was always jealous of other people taller than I was. I hoped that one day I might have a late spurt. This never came.

My height affected me with sport. I wanted to be a striker at football however the coaches only wanted people over 6ft tall. At snooker I am constantly have to use the rest which makes it difficult to play up to the best standard and at tennis I was constantly being lobbed.
It also meant that I only felt comfortable dating women 5ft 3 and under which reduces the available market considerably.

MY WEIGHT

During senior school I was very thin. This may have been the result of my parents turning vegetarian when I was twelve. At the time there were very few replacement foods and it seemed as though we went from having meat and two veg to just two veg.

As my parents cooked the food I had little option but to also turn vegetarian. After a few weeks I approached them and told them that I missed and wanted to eat meat. They were understanding to a degree and said:

“If you want it, you cook it”

At this age I could only really be bothered to cook properly a few days of the week and that gradually became less and less.

People at school would call me names like skin and bone and my weight became another area of paranoia for me.

THE STUTTER

At the age of four I developed a stutter. This became gradually worse as I became older even though my parents were told that I would grow out of it.

For what fluent people would class as simple tasks like reading from a book at school, answering questions, saying my name and address, ordering items at the bar or in a restaurant, and speaking on the telephone became a constant battle.

It was a very frustrating impediment, as I seemed to be able to talk quite fluently to people I knew well and whom I felt comfortable with, but at other times especially under any form of pressure could not say a word.

At the age of twenty two after about eleven months of sheer hard work and practice I managed to overcome the stutter and I now help other people who stutter to achieve fluency as well as helping people with confidence problems.

For more information about how I overcame the stutter please refer to http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk or contact me for an information pack.

MY LACK OF BELIEF

I always had a lack of belief in certain areas.

I would notice a female in a bar for example and would want to go over and talk to her but would have the negative attitude of I’m not good enough, why would she be interested in me? I stutter, I have a bald patch, I have a menial job and I am very thin.

Even if I approach her and am successful, I would then be expected to buy her a drink, possibly phone her, possibly meet her parents, and maybe even get married! The thought of attempting these things with a stutter and with a lack of social confidence was far too daunting for me.

I left school at sixteen mainly due to a lack of confidence and the stutter, but then had the problem of finding a job. Again my lack of belief came shining through. Who would want to employ somebody with a stutter, who has a lack of confidence and who is shy around people?

MY CAREER

After leaving school at the age of sixteen I now had to find employment. Suffering with a stutter and a general lack of confidence meant that work involving the phone or regular interaction with other people were not really an option.

I decided that I could probably cope with filing duties in an office and eventually gained a position at an insurance company.

I started at the lowest grade, a grade two and the work was routine and mundane. The average time to stay at this level before being promoted was six months. The grade three post involved sharing a phone and this is something I found very difficult to use.

To become upgraded you had to apply in writing to the personal officer and then if you passed the interview were then promoted. My attitude was that if I don’t apply I would stay as a grade two, which is what I wanted. I was probably the only person in the country who did not want to be promoted.

My boss would ask me at regular intervals why I was not applying and I would make up an excuse. To keep him happy I took the insurance exams.
After three years I had completed the first qualification which was a set of five exams. To my horror my boss congratulated me by stating that he was upgrading me to a grade three starting Monday without the need of an interview.

This promotion should in effect have given me a confidence boost however with my stutter out of control under the pressure and some of my colleagues mocking me I became more and more withdrawn and depressed.

I would be invited to social events and would make up excuses of why I could not go as I had a lack of belief that I could cope with the occasion and all the socialising involved.

If you are interested in a free link exchange program where you receive ten backward links please click here (link to www.internet-webdesign.co.uk).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Hill is somebody who has overcome a stammer/stutter and who now helps other people to achieve fluency. Stephen runs one to one speech courses held in Birmingham, England. For people who are unable to attend there is a seventy minute dvd available. His main website is at http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk.