Are you thinking of having a party? It could be a birthday party or an anniversary for yourself or a friend or it could only be because you want to have a party. Pool parties are fantastic in the summer, yet, not everyone has a pool and it is not always summer, is it? Did you know that many spas will allow you to hold a party on their premises?

That would be fantastic as well, would it not? Having access to the heated pool, the hot spas and Jacuzzis, the steam room or saunas or Turkish bath. I am not certain that I would be interested in working out at the gym at a party though! A stomach full of cake and lemonade would not work well when working on your abs.

If you are interested in holding a party at a local spa, the first thing to do is locate a local spa that allows the holding of private parties. This is simple enough. Most spas will have a web site which has all the facilities listed on it. So either do a search on the Net for ‘spas in xxxxx’, where xxxxx is the name of your town or look under spas in Yellow Pages yet then use the names to look for the web sites.

There are a couple of things that you need to check next, but first create a list of what facilities you would like to enjoy at your party. Do you want it to be private or open to all? Do you want to let children in? Does everybody have to dress the part or can individuals (older people perhaps) wear street clothes? Is alcohol available and can you take drinks into the jacuzzi?

Once you have your list of requirements and appropriate dates, you are in a position to look for fitting locations. Once you find the nearest fit to your requirements, phone them up and ask if they will allow all your needs. It might not be a problem for them.

How many people are going to be at your spa party and who is going to pay? Well, it depends on the party actually. Say a bride-to-be wants to go to the spa with her bride’s maids before the wedding; the bride should pay.

What if five friends start a night on the town at the spa? Everyone pays their own way.You can discuss a discount at a great deal of spas if over five or six individuals attend as a group, but that discount might not be large.

A spa party is a fantastic day out whatever the reason for the party, and they are very flexible. You could hire the whole spa for two or three hours for mum’s fiftieth and meet up in the bar afterwards or you could use the spa party as a precursor to going on somewhere else. One thing is for sure, you will feel at your best and up for anything when you walk out of the spa party.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now involved with portable hot tubs spas. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Hot Springs Spa Parts

July 1st, 2011The History of Golfing

A great deal of debate has taken place regarding the history of golfing, long traditionally believed to have started in the area surrounding the Firth of Forth in Scotland. A golf-like game is recorded as taking place on 26 February 1297, in the Netherlands, where the Dutch played a game with a stick and leather ball.

However, contemporary research into the history of golf has discovered references to a game very comparable to modern day golfing being played in China during the period of the Southern Tang dynasty, at least 500 years before golf was first documented in Scotland.

It has been contended that the game was first taken to Europe and later Scotland by Mongolian travellers in the later Middle Ages.

In Scotland the first recorded documentary evidence for golf was in an act of the Scottish parliament in 1457 which prohibited the playing of ?gowf? and football in case they detract from the necessary military exercise of archery practice. In a subsequent ban of 1491 golfing was described as ‘an unprofitable sport’!. Something which Tiger Woods is probably ignorant of!

There are reports in the accounts of a Scottish lawyer, Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, that he played golf at Musselburgh Links on 2 March 1672, and this has been welcomed as proving that The Old Links, Musselburgh, is the oldest golf course in the world. Mary, Queen of Scots is supposed to have played there in 1567.

The Company of Gentlemen Golfers, later renamed The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers set down the oldest existing rules of golfing in 1744. Their “Articles and Laws in Playing at Golf, known as the Leith Rules, after the course at which they played support the club’s claim to be the world?s first golfing club, though an almanac published about a century later is the first record of a rival claim that The Royal Burgess Golf Society had been set up in 1735.

The instructions in the Leith Rules formed the basis for all subsequent codes, for instance requiring that “Your Tee must be upon the ground” and “You are not to change the Ball which you strike off the Tee”

When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603 the spread of golfing to become a world wide sport commenced. He and his courtiers played golf at Blackheath, London, from which the Royal Blackheath Golf Club traces its beginning.

The spread of golf world wide was started by Scottish soldiers, expatriates and emigrants who took the sport to British colonies and elsewhere.

The Royal Calcutta Golf Club (1829) and the club at Pau (1856) in south western France are significant reminders of these trips and are the oldest golf clubs outside of the British Isles and the oldest in continental Europe respectively.

Proof of early golfing in the United States includes an advertisement published in the Royal Gazette of New York City in 1779 for golfing clubs and balls, and the notice of the annual general meeting for a golf club in Savannah printed in the Georgia Gazette in 1796.

However, as in England, it was not until the late 19th century that golfing began to become firmly established. There are a number of competing claims to be the oldest club, but what is not contested is that in 1894 representatives from the Newport Country Club, Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, Yonkers, New York, The Country Club, Chicago Golf Club, and Shinnecock Hills Golf Club met in New York City to form what was to become the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on lots of subjects, but is at present concerned with the London 2012 Olympics mascot. Click a link if you are interested in the 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

June 30th, 2011The Benefits Of Athletics

Gymnastics is probably not being taught enough in our schools, but there a lot of advantages to practicing gymnastics. It is fairly obvious that gymnastics will improve physical condition, but there are psychological and emotional advantages too. If you begin learning gymnastics in school and if you like it, it could also supply you with a job.

There are quite a few exercises that the novice gymnast can practice, whilst gradually adding more difficult trials as the gymnast’s body becomes more and more supple and fit. This is a quite slow process, but it is a highly worthwhile one.

Learning how to raise one’s goals slowly but surely is very good for the mind and physical stamina. Stamina is more useful in daily life than strength, although gymnasts have to be strong as well.

This continuous improvement and sense that you can do something that most people cannot is very good for confidence. Children, particularly girls, frequently lack confidence, so practicing gymnastics would help bring them out of themselves.

If the youth enters competitions like representing the school or the town, they will meet numerous strangers in a safe situation which will further enhance their confidence and social skills, This is an area that numerous other children find difficult until they are more than fifteen years of age.

The young gymnast might even be taken abroad to compete or compete against visiting foreign teams. Making foreign contacts like this and perhaps keeping in touch by letter or email with a gymnast friend from the other half of the world will broaden the child’s horizons significantly.

Increasing one’s degree of skill and competence necessitates planning by the athlete and his or her coach. When the blueprint to success has been though out, the gymnast will be expected to stick to the goals they have made together. Learning responsibility like this is a very worthwhile thing for an adult let alone a child. The child will learn self-discipline in training, diet and exercise.

Gymnasts are also judged by people they frequently do not know and in quite a public way. Many people would resent this type of public criticism and find it a problem to bear, however the gymnast must learn to take the criticism as it was meant – not as an attack, but as a useful tool for advancement. This is another difficult lesson to learn for a lot of the general public.

It is easier to conceal oneself in a team. If a football team loses a game, some may blame the defence and some might blame the forwards, but if it is only you on the mat, everything that is said is to do with you and just you. This hurts in the beginning, but it is character and confidence building once you realize that not all criticism is intended spitefully. It can be used to your benefit as well.

If the student gymnast actually likes gymnastics, he or she may go a long way in more senses than one. Even gymnasts that are not the best get to travel, take part in competitions abroad and take sponsorship. After all, not every company can afford to sponsor the top athletes, most are happy to sponsor a pretty good athlete who works hard.

If you get to this stage, your advice will become sought after and there is a career waiting for you once you get too old to take part in competitions yourself – you can pass on your knowledge to other youngsters as their coach.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is now concerned with London Olympic dates. Click a link to find out more 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

Cholesterol has a bad press to be sure, but this is because the press does not normally give the full story. It is easier and scarier to leave a couple of bits out. The fact is that we have to have cholesterol and triglycerides for that matter in order to live normally. The point where these fats get to be a problem is when we have too high a percentage of them in our blood.

This is a similar situation to having a lot of sugar in the blood on a regular basis, which is otherwise known as diabetes. Another word for this is hyperglycaemia and hyperglycaemia can become a cause of having too many triglycerides in the blood too, which by the way is known as hypertriglyceridemia. ‘Hyper’ meaning ‘too much’.

Cholesterol and triglycerides are the two foremost fats in our blood system. Cholesterol and triglycerides come from the foodstuffs that we consume, but our own bodies make them too. Cholesterol is necessary for many fundamental bodily functions like controlling hormones and creating bile.

Having said that, there are two kinds of cholesterol: low and high density cholesterol. The low end can go very low and the lower it goes the worse it is for you. This is a very complicated topic which is better explained in a longer piece, but all you have to bear in mind is that low density or LDL is bad and high density cholesterol is ‘good’.

This is a very simplistic description, but it is the one that we are told about in the popular press. HDL cholesterol is believed to help mop up LDL cholesterol, which is why it is called good.

If this natural process does not take place or goes out of balance, the LDL cholesterol waxy fat will stick to the walls of arteries making them thinner, narrower. This is known as atherosclerosis (furring of the arteries) and means that the heart has to pump blood harder in order to get oxygen to each part of the body.

This is called hypertension or high blood pressure and puts the heart at danger of stress and failure – coronary heart disease and stroke are the possible consequences of furred arteries.

There is a lot that you can do to amend any concerns with your cholesterol levels. Most of our cholesterol comes from eating red meat and full-fat dairy products, so only by replacing every other steak with a salad could hugely reduce your difficulty. There are other methods of doing this as well, like exercise.

Exercise is a useful way of burning up the surplus fats in your blood stream, but it has to be carried out on a daily basis. Not that it takes a lot. If you think about what you consume and reduce the foodstuffs heavy in cholesterol, you might merely need 30 minutes moderate exercise a day in order to be healthy.

The fact is that if you do not do something about your state of affairs, you will be placed on tablets for the remainder of your life. You might think that this is a fair alternative to diet and exercise, but it is not actually. It is merely the simple option.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a lot of topics, but is now involved with the question: what is a triglyceride?. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

June 25th, 2011Relaxing In The Bath

Most individuals like soaking in the bath, even those individuals who say that you can not get clean in a bath. It is very relaxing, but there are some things that can increase your enjoyment of relaxing in the bath. Most of these accessories for relaxing in the bath are good for Jacuzzis. hot tubs, spas and normal baths.

The first thing that helps make a bath more relaxing is bubble bath. You ought to not use bubble bath in a hot tub – hot spa with a filter, because it can clog up the filter, but bath salts are a good alternative to bubble bath. A waterproof pillow also helps you unwind in the bath.

Aromatic bath salts or bubble bath can have a very soporific influence, so make certain that you do not fall asleep, particularly if you are indulging in my second favourite way of relaxing in the bath. I like to have a few glasses of red wine in the bath, but in that case you have to be very cautious not to fall asleep, especially if you have had a hard day.

If you are fond of a romantic bath alone or with a friend, candles are the way to go. Get the large, thick candles so that they will not burn down or fall over. Candles can be perilous if you do not place them on candle holders or loose tiles, which is why I advocate thick candles. Again they can be aromatic.

A lot of people like to listen to music in the bath, but be cautious of using anything that requires mains power whilst you are in the water. It is better to use a battery powered or rechargeable device for replaying your music.

If you have a spare CD player, you could construct it into an outdoor hot tub and run it off the mains for the pump, but just place it out of reach of the hot spa tub. Use a remote if you want to control it. Bathing in the garden is excellent, but we can not all do that.

You can recreate an outdoor atmosphere by putting potted plants in the bathroom. Some plants do not like a lot of light, but do like a humid atmosphere. Some orchids fall into this bracket, but there ought to be plenty of others too – merely enquire at your garden centre.

Mirrors are romantic in the bathroom and will help the room look larger and more full or candles and plants. The bathroom is frequently the smallest room in the house, so a couple mirrors will help make it look bigger.

If you are in a normal bath indoors in the bathroom, you could install a bubble mat. It is like a shower mat, but it pumps air and recycles water through holes in it, making it react a little like a hot tub spa. A bath bubble mat is no substitute for a spa, but it is better than nothing and is fairly cheap.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with the luxury cottage hot tub. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at Hot Springs Spa Parts

From the time that some individuals started thinking that a suntanned body makes them look trimmer, presumably on the same principle that black clothing makes you look trimmer than white clothing, there has been a dash for instantaneous tans and there is no more instant a tan than to have one painted on. This is known as airbrush tanning.

Airbrush tanning can appeal on various levels. It is quick, you can become any shade you like and there is no danger from UV rays natural or artificial. lots of people are frightened by the stories of melanoma that they can get by sunbathing or using a tanning bed, so an instant golden bronze colour appears quite an appealing alternative.

The fad for airbrush tanning has spurred the tanning industry to manufacture a vast range of airbrush-look-alike products. There are creams and lotions and even pills that the manufacturers claim will turn your skin an attractive golden bronze. Unfortunately, most of them turn your skin a rather ridiculous shade of orange.

Then there are the home airbrush tanning kits. Real airbrush tanning is comparable to having your car resprayed. You can either have it done by a specialist who has professional spraying equipment or you could go out and buy a dozen tins of your favourite colour car spray paint and do it yourself.

A car sprayed in the former manner normally looks great, but a car sprayed in the latter manner normally looks awful. Well, the same is true for professional salon airbrush tanning and home airbrush tanning. Even amongst professional spray painters some are better at it than others, so it is best to ask around before you let anyone airbrush you.

So, these are the greatest concerns with airbrush tanning. You cannot do it yourself; you cannot trust a friend to do it for you; it is doubtful whether you can even purchase the right apparatus to do it yourself and where do you find a specialist whom enough individuals have allowed to practice on them so that he or she is any good?

Because a decent airbrush tanner will need the correct apparatus and lots of experience. It is not a trade that can be studied from a book. Airbrush tanning is still a fairly new phenomenon, so a good tanner might be hard to find outside a big city, but you could try asking the owner of your neighbourhood tanning salon to invite one in once a fortnight for those who have booked in advance. A type of guest appearance.

As with any paint work, the secret to a good finish is preparation. If you have never been spray-painted before make certain that you prepare yourself properly. Ask your salon to supply you with a list of things that you can do in order to prepare your body in the correct manner.

Preparatory procedures may include shaving and exfoliating but will involve removing all make-up and body oils by washing well. This will give the paint a decent substrate to cling to. The better the preparation you do the better and longer-lasting the airbrush tan – ask any painter and decorator or car sprayer.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few subjects, but is currently involved with bronzing tanning beds. If you would like to know more or check out some immense offers, please go to our web site at Tanning Bed Bulbs.

A lot of individuals in the West suffer from high blood pressure brought on by being obese or/ |and the high degrees of stress that contemporary life provokes. Most people are told to lose weight, take up yoga or walking or take tablets for life. This means that most individuals end up taking tablets for life, because lifestyle changes are so difficult to accomplish.

However, there is one enjoyable way of decreasing your blood pressure and that is eating tasty food that does not need additional salt, because it is flavoured by other spices. Here are three such recipes.

Recipe One: France

Leeks Vinaigrette (Poireaux En Salade)

Serves 4

12 leeks 1/4 cup olive oil 4 tspn vinegar of your preference black pepper, fresh ground 1 tbls fresh parsley, chopped mustard to taste

PREPARATION: Wash the leeks; cut off most of the green parts and wash thoroughly, split if necessary, under cold running water. If they are large, cut them lengthways; every bit ought to be around the size of a big stalk of asparagus.

Tie them into bundles in two places, place them in boiling salted water just enough to cover, and cook gently for 25 minutes, or until they are softish yet not lifeless. Drain them well (but be certain to save the broth to add to a soup).

The leeks can be presented in a serving dish or arranged on individual plates. Create your vinaigrette in a bowl, adding mustard to taste, and whisk the dressing well until it is almost opaque, or emulsified; pour it over the leeks.

Recipe Two: Germany

Birnensuppe (Pear Soup)

Serves 2

2 tbspn raisins 1 tbspn dry sherry 2 small pears, cored, pared and sliced 1 1/2 cup water 1 inch cinnamon stick 1 pinch crushed aniseed 2 tspns granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

In small bowl combine raisins and sherry; set aside.

In 1-quart saucepan combine pears, water, cinnamon stick, and aniseed; bring to a boil and cook until pears are very soft, about 15 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and let cool. Transfer to liquidizer and whisk until smooth; pour into bowl or container and stir in raisin mixture, sugar, and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

Recipe Three: Greece

Fried Swordfish With Mediterranean Spices

Serves 4

1/2 cups white wine vinegar 1/2 tspn paprika 1/2 tspn red pepper flakes, dried 1/2 tspn oregano 1/2 tspn cumin, ground 1/2 tspn thyme 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 bay leaf 1 1/2 lb swordfish, cut in 1″ pieces olive oil for frying 1/2 cup white flour

PREPARATION: Mix first 8 ingredients in a medium non-reactive bowl. Add swordfish pieces; toss to coat. Cover and leave stand at room temperature at least 1 hour. (Can be marinated for up to 3 hours.)

TO COOK: Heat oven to 200F. Heat oil in a frying pan or an electric deep fryer to 365F. Move swordfish from marinade to a strainer. Drain swordfish; discard marinade. Pat swordfish pieces dry with paper towels, then dredge in flour.

Working in batches to avoid overcrowding, fry swordfish until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain swordfish pieces on paper towel; transfer to a heatproof dish but keep them warm in the oven until about to serve. (Can be kept warm in the oven up to 1/2 hour.)

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several of subjects, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

You will have to make your own mind up on whether cholesterol or omega 6 is to blame for arteriosclerosis. The argument is similar to the dieting problem: do you believe in the old-style fat-reduction, high carbohydrate diet or the newer, Atkins’ high fat low carbohydrate diet?

It is very perplexing for the layman, but that is how specialists sell books. You pay your money and take your choice or you merely go along with your physician.

However, both camps of nutritionists agree that fish oil is healthy for you and in particular is good for decreasing LDL cholesterol and omega 6 overdose. Omega 3 is best taken in oily, cold water fish like salmon, herring and mackerel.

They contain relatively high levels of omega 3 essential fatty acids. Another source of omega 3, but different ones from the fish, is from meat that has been fed on grass.

Garlic is famous for being an antiseptic but it is also useful for decreasing cholesterol. It appears to have a lethal effect on LDL (bad) cholesterol, but leaves HDL (good) cholesterol alone. One clove a day is said to be enough to have a beneficial impact.

Fibre and roughage are crucial for good general health. These components are to be found in fruit and vegetables (particularly the leafy green ones); grains, lentils, legumes and nuts. Roughage and fibre will help remove LDL cholesterol and prevent constipation. They also help avoid bowel cancer which is on the rise in the West.

Some dietitians say that LDL is not dangerous, but is just a threat and it becomes dangerous after it has been damaged. One form of damage is oxidization. Therefore, anti-oxidants will reduce the risk from cholesterol and atherosclerosis. The next question ought to be: what are strong anti-oxidants?

There is a huge array of anti-oxidants ranging from the fun to the boring. I do not know what you find boring, but flavonoids are a useful anti-oxidant and they are present in high quantities in red wine. As well red wine, other anti-oxidants include: Vitamins Ce and E and beta carotene.

These are available in peppers, citrus fruit, strawberries, cantaloupe melons, broccoli, white carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, mangoes and green leaf vegetables. Other good sources are wheat, oats, nuts and seeds.

Mono unsaturated fat is one of the best sources of oil you can find. Mono unsaturated fat comes best from olive oil, which is one of the factors why the so-called Mediterranean Diet is so good for people.

Mono unsaturated fat has another beneficial impact: eating it lowers hunger for a longer time than you would expect for the calories involved. This makes it a good substance for dieters. The same is true of roughage, fibre and eggs.

Mono unsaturated fat is one of your best friends in the fight against arteriosclerosis. However, it is not only present in olive oil, it is also in avocados and nuts, especially pecan nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds.

Last but not least is ginger. Ginger has a high quantity of phytochemicals known as gingerol and shogaol which are also antioxidants. Ginger not just lowers LDL cholesterol, but it also helps prevent the oxidization of LDL

If you can just implement a few these alterations to your diet you may be able to ward off arteriosclerosis and avoid having to take drugs like statins for ever.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, and is now concerned with omega 3 arthritis. If you want to know more, please visit our site at Omega 6 9

Gaining weight and doing less exercise is a characteristic pattern of life for middle-aged individuals of both sexes. When we are young, our metabolisms can deal with most things we throw at it but we start our jobs on the bottom rung and perhaps even have a young family to take care of. This all burns up our calories quite naturally.

However, as we become older our metabolism slows down; we may get a manager’s job and our kids leave home. This all has the result of calories being stockpiled on our waists and thighs. However, there are a few things that can be done about it, but it in essence boils down to taking more exercise and watching what we eat.

This normally has the effect of giving us hypertension, which is what most individuals call high blood pressure. The purpose of this piece is to offer some pointers for dealing with high blood pressure. The fact is that if you do nothing about the condition, you will be taking tablets for the rest of your life.

That is OK, if you do not mind taking medication, but most people would rather avoid taking medicine every day.

So the first thing to do is moderate your weight to what it should be. If you do not know what this is, you will have to enquire of a dietitian or your GP. The handy thing about the majority of of the things you ought to do is that they are all connected with decent health.

For example, if you are overweight, you require more exercise and more exercise will also help lower your blood pressure. Two birds with one stone!

It does not take a great deal to make a big difference, if you do nothing at all now. Strolling for thirty minutes twice a day will make a colossal difference to your body if you do not walk anywhere now. Strolling will have a knock-on effect. It will make you lose weight, it will lower your blood pressure and it will massage your internal organs naturally. Swimming works in a similar way.

Reducing your consumption of salt is a good manner of losing weight, yet you do need professional advice on this subject because salt is a key part of the human diet. However, if you eat too much salt (normally by eating too much processed food), you can change the situation by using herbs and spices instead of salt to augment the flavour of your food.

Other facets of life that escalate blood pressure which do you no use at all anyway are smoking, drinking to excess regularly and allowing yourself to get stressed out. Curing these three habits will have the effect of decreasing your blood pressure.

Taking any of these pointers for dealing with high blood pressure on board will enhance your life and reduce your blood pressure, but you may have to perform all of them to get it down if you have a serious problem.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several of subjects, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

Without doubt just the most dedicated of entomologists and the most fervent followers of Buddha can truthfully say that they like mosquitoes. The others of us in the world hate them. The word ‘mosquito’ comes from either the Spanish or the Portuguese and means ‘little fly’. They live in most countries all over the world and are or have been responsible for spreading a range of diseases throughout history.

Malaria is the sickness most usually connected with mosquitoes and at one time malaria was widespread in Europe. Even London was a malarial city until they drained the marshes to create space for more housing a couple of hundred years ago. Until a hundred years ago, malaria was not thought to be associated with mosquitoes, it was considered to be brought on by ‘bad air’ (‘mal aria’).

Mosquitoes are blood-sucking insects, or at least the females are, that are still to blame for spreading many diseases throughout the animal kingdom. That is right! They do not only have an impact on humans. Dogs in particular get a fairly hard time from mosquitoes.

For a substantial part of their lives, mosquitoes happily drink nectar from flowers like bees do, but when the female is pregnant, she needs animal protein to produce eggs. This is what she obtains from us and other animals. The male never has to drink blood.

It is whilst the female is drawing a little blood, that an infected mosquito involuntarily puts a couple of parasites into the host’s blood stream, which could cause infection with malaria, dengue, encephalitis or many other diseases that are spread by parasites.

Not all bites from infected mosquitoes bring about sickness. In the case of malaria for instance, it has been suggested that a healthy person can fight off the parasites injected by up to fifty mosquitoes in a twenty-four hour period. After that though, the parasites grow in number too rapidly for our defences and reach the organs that they want to inhabit.

When a non-infected mosquito sucks blood from an infected human, that mosquito can pass the parasites on to other non-infected humans. It is thought that most mosquito bites happen indoors when the person is asleep. Therefore, the WHO and other agencies have been handing out mosquito nets treated with insecticide in Africa, where most victims of mosquito borne infections live.

However, there is a concern that treating the problem in this way may make some kinds of mosquito immune to the insecticide or may even raise the likelihood of being bitten outdoors. There have been comparable worries in Cambodia. Until recently, it took three days of hospitalization to cure a patient of malaria, but in one region of Cambodia it now takes five days.

Doctors treating patients in that region say that this is a very worrying development. It is thought that if this local development spreads, then it could result in the deaths of millions of Africans again.

Most mosquitoes do not fly far. Most mosquitoes never go farther than two kilometres from where they hatched out; some move only a few metres away, although others can fly some 5 or 10 kilometres, and a very few varieties will even fly up to 50 kilometres, helped by the wind, from their larval locations.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with work on mosquito bite treatment problems. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.

The percentage of the population in the countries of the West that is suffering from hypertension (aka high blood pressure) is going up all the time. High blood pressure is also called the ‘silent killer’, because there is no real warning that you have it, but it can kill you stone dead all the same.

When people say that they can feel their blood pressure rising, it is normally just an idiom meaning that they are becoming angry or excited. You cannot know that your blood pressure is high without measuring it.

So, how can you decrease your blood pressure or prevent it from going up without resorting to the daily intake of medication? Here are the top 10 causes of high blood pressure.

1] The first thing to do is lose weight if you are too fat. Just losing ten pounds can have quite a significant impact on your BP.

2] Smoking is a cause of high blood pressure, so you could chop that out.

3] Drinking alcohol to excess often also raises BP

4] A desk bound lifestyle or plain lack of exercise will not help either. If you cannot bring yourself to go to the gym, only walk more. A walk of thirty minutes in the morning and in the evening will instigate a lot of difference.

5] Diet. It is important to eat a healthy diet, which will also help you lose weight. Cut out most processed foods; cut down on meats and fatty foods and consume more fruits and vegetables. Sodium plays a big part in weight gain (through water retention) and is a major factor in hypertension. Reduce your salt intake. (Junk foods have a high sodium content).

6] Endeavor to be cheerful. Easier said than done in most cases, but strive to develop a positive attitude. Stress plays a big part in creating hypertension. Exercise is said to relieve stress as is meditation and yoga. Attempt a couple of things and see what works for you.

7] Some illness and sleep disorders raise blood pressure as do some medications. Sleep disorders like sleep apnoea disrupt your sleep, preventing you from getting proper sleep, which increases BP as well. Sleep apnoea can be the result of being overweight, so you know how to deal with that, and if you think that medication is causing high BP, speak to your GP.

8] Age can be a cause but although there is nothing you can do about your age, you can attempt to be a ‘young’ whatever you are. individuals more than the age of 55 by and large start getting hypertension rather than younger individuals. You could try to stay fit and optimistic. See exercise above.

9] Race is another aspect about which you have no control, and Africans and their descendants are more liable to hypertension. If you fit this profile, become aware that you are in danger and check your BP regularly.

10] Fear, anxiety and depression can all have harmful influences on BP, so if any of these incapacitating conditions applies to you, seek help.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several of subjects, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.

June 11th, 2011How Old Is Hurling?

Although hurling is generally recognized as a Gaelic sport it should perhaps be called a Celtic one. For the history of hurling is in fact older than the history of Ireland itself. It started even before Christianity, arriving in Ireland more than three thousand years ago with the Celts.

The first references to hurling in Ireland were in early Irish laws dating back to the fifth century. Hurling played a prominent part in early Irish mythology. Legendary Irish heroes such as Cuchulainnt and Fionn Mac Cumhail and his Fianna are both described as taking part in hurling.

Hurling is, basically, a stick and ball game. The game is thought to be allied to the games of shinty that is played primarily in Scotland, cammag on the Isle of Man and bandy that was played formerly in England and Wales.

The stick was, and indeed, still is known as a hurley and the ball a sliotar. Early Irish lawn Law stated that the son of a r? (local king) could have his hurley hooped in bronze, while others could only make use of copper. It was illegal to impound a hurley.

The object of the game is for players to use the hurley to hit a small ball through the opponent’s goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net defended by a goalkeeper for one goal, which is equivalent to three points.

The sliotar can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or struck on the ground with the hurley. It can be kicked or slapped with an open hand (the hand pass) for short-range passing. A player who desires to carry the ball for more than three steps has to bounce or balance the sliotar on the end of the stick and the ball can only be touched twice while in his possession.

The English occupation of Ireland led to many statutes prohibitting or restricting the playing of hurling as it diverted people from archery practice. The earliest of these goes back to the 13th century.

However, it was the Eighteenth Century that came to be known as the ?The Golden Age? of hurling as members of the Anglo-Irish landowning gentry often kept teams of players on their land and challenged each other’s teams to games for the amusement of their tenants.

Tales of colourful hurling games from this era continue to be collected from contemporary Irish storytellers and newspapers of the period. The contemporary age of hurling In Ireland dates from the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association formed in 1884 in Thurles, County Tipperary under the illustrious patronage of Thomas Croke, Archbishop of Cashel and Charles Parnell.

The 20th Century saw more organisation in hurling. The all-Ireland Hurling tournament came into being along with the provincial championships. Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary dominated hurling in the 20th Century with each one of these counties winning more than 20 All-Ireland titles each. Wexford, Waterford, Clare, Limerick, Offaly, Dublin, and Galway were also strong hurling counties during the 20th Century.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

Cooking inside in the summer is such as a nuisance, is it not? You would like to be outside in the fresh air instead of sweating at a hot cooker but anyway, you are not even sure that the family or even yourself will want to eat hot food once it has been prepared. This is a problem that lots of household cooks face in the summer, especially if there is a young family involved.

Young Johnny will not touch ‘rabbit food’ – he wants meat and little Jenny does not want sandwiches again, because she had them for lunch. So, what do you do?

The crockpot can come to the rescue quite perfectly. Because it cooks over a long time without a lot of heat, so the kitchen will not warm up much. You can put a casserole or a stew in there in the morning before going to work and let it cook all day and then, when you get back, you can just knock up a salad for those who do not require a full meal.

It covers all the bases without costing any extra time on your part. Not just that, but if no one wants what is in the crockpot, nothing is lost and it can be warmed up again the next day.

Utilizing a crockpot to cook in this way will also save a great deal on electricity. Why? Not just for the cooking of the food in the crockpot, but also because if you cooked a traditional meal in the summer heat, you would have to turn on the air conditioning and the extractor fan.

This means that using the crockpot to help supply an alternative or even the primary meal during the summer is a win-win situation whichever way you look at it and it is cheaper too.

That takes care of the primary meal, but if there is more agreement in your family and you know from the start that everybody will eat a salad, you could use the crockpot to prepare a sweet. Or you could purchase a second crockpot.

Regrettably, crockpot cooking has acquired the reputation of just being good for preparing stews, but the fact is that this is very far from the truth. You can use it for roasting a joint or baking a cheesecake with loads of choices in between.

Two more benefits of cooking with a crockpot are:

Firstly, if you cook in a hurry, there is a predisposition to use rice or pasta as a filler instead of vegetables, whereas if you can prepare the vegetables a while before hand it is simpler to include them

Secondly, there is just one pan to clean after eating instead of two or three or more. This saves more time and energy too.

You almost certainly have never been shown how to use your crockpot for cooking anything more difficult than a stew, so perhaps the first thing to do is buy yourself a decent crockpot recipe book which teaches a wide variety of meals including sweets and breads.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the 2 quart crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

If you are reading this article, the chances are that you are at least fifteen years of age, so if you were to make a decision to become a vegetarian at this moment, you would have at least fifteen yeas of eating meat behind you and it is difficult to change the habits of a lifetime.

Lifestyle alterations are the most difficult to achieve, so it is easier to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle, if you have never consumed meat at all. Therefore, the baby of a vegetarian mother has the best chance of maintaining a vegetarian life.

It is a matter of ethics whether a vegan mother should feed her baby on breast milk. There is no reason why she should not do so. Her body is creating milk for her baby, yet she might not like to give her baby ‘animal fat products’. It is a strange decision to have to make.

After the baby has been weaned, the choices are easier again. You can create fantastic baby food recipes with fresh fruit and vegetables and a blender. Soya is another vegetable product that is helpful for your baby’s vegetarian diet because it is one of the few vegetable sources of protein.

Soya is also very adaptable, although not always recommended for very young babies. You can eat or drink soya and you can bake, boil or fry it. It is fairly bland on its own, yet it takes on the flavours of whatever you cook it with, so it can be used to push up the protein content of practically anything.

If you are intent on raising your child as a vegetarian or even a vegan, you have to be very wary after weaning, not to replace your own milk with cow’s milk. However, this is where you will have to take guidance from your doctor or midwife.

Do not let philosophy and principles stand in the way of your baby’s health. If your doctor chooses that your baby really requires the things that are present in cow’s milk, then so be it, unless you seek out a vegetarian doctor for a second opinion.

At about six months of age, babies can start eating cereals. Rice is one of the easiest to digest. You can make a very thin rice meal by boiling the rice in water until it practically disappears, leaving that characteristic white water. Millions of Asian babies grow up on rice water each year.

As a vegetarian of some experience, you will have a good idea about which combinations of food fulfill dietary requirements, so you will be able to use this information to make sure that your baby does not go short of anything, and pay particular attention to any deficiencies that the doctor notices.

Naturally, you have to tell your doctor from the outset that you are a vegetarian and that you want your baby to be brought up in the same manner, because that could well have an impact on the vitamins or supplements that the doctor gives your baby.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous subjects, and is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diets. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com

June 7th, 2011Financial Stress

There are various forms of financial stress, because it can stem from your business events, from your personal circumstances or your family life. However, basically they all from an incapacity to pay bills. However, financial stress does not always result from a lack of money it can also come from having handled money badly. If you are suffering from financial stress, then perhaps we have a few pointers that can help.

The first step is to get your paperwork and bill-writing kit organized. This can become as complicated or as easy as you like. You could have an envelope rack hanging somewhere prominently like in the kitchen. (An envelope rack is like what they display newspapers in at a newsagents).

Get yourself a container and put in it pens, paper, your cheque book, envelopes, a calculator and stamps. Decide on a day every week when you will handle bills, say a Sunday evening.

Every time a bill comes in, you ought to open it and put it in the letter rack. If it does not need your immediate attention, which can occur, over the first month, mark on the outside of the envelope the date you have to post the cheque, say seven days before the due date. Mark your bill-paying days on your calendar.

Create a list of the bills you have paid and strive to keep them grouped together. For example, all your monthly electricity bills on one page, gas on another, mortgage etc. In this manner you will be able to predict what your bill will be next time and the date it will arrive. This will allow you to maintain a basic financial plan. Predictability takes some of the stress out of finances, thereby reducing your financial stress.

If some bills are a bit random, coming in at different times of the month, try writing to the company and asking them if they can consolidate the bills into one monthly bill that will arrive in the week of your choice, normally the first or the fourth week of the month.

In the start, you might have to write a few letters to explain that you have taken your finances in hand but that it might take a few months before you are on top of them. This should stave off any litigation if you have let things slide too far already.

You ought to find that the level of your financial stress should steadily reduce as you become used to your new financial system and as you see that this system works. One last tip is to pay some bills every time you are paid yourself.

It is worth a couple of months of financial difficulties or overtime to reduce your financial stress and get on top of your finances again. Financial stress, like all kinds of stress, is a killer – don’t let it get to you too.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with cheap first aid kits. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.

Hut tubs have been commercially available for around 50 years, so you can guess that the technology has come a long way. In the early days, hot tubs were normally only a small round wooden tub that was bursting at the seams with more than two individuals in it. They were invariably round in shape and there was very little choice.

The first hot tubs to appear in the States were seen in the 1940′s, but they were usually little more that than wooden barrels filled with hot water intended to give a long deep soak. In the 1950′s, the idea grew and families started to create or buy hot tubs in order to relax and to alleviate the indications of arthritis. By the mid 1960′s, individuals were adding home-manufactured heaters and pumps and very crude versions of the contemporary wooden hot tub were being born.

One early innovator was Roy Jacuzzi who invented and marketed the first hot tub that incorporated swirling water and jets. This whirlpool bath literally began the whole industry in 1968. In the early 1970′s, manufacturers began to incorporate stronger jets into their hot tubs and some manufacturers started constructing more comfortable designs out of fibreglass and acrylic. The business was taking off big time.

Jacuzzi started to produce bigger models so that friends or a family could all enjoy the experience together. Most of the modernizations since the late 1970′s have been technical, but these technical improvements have been quite serious.

The filters are more easily accessible these days which means that they are more likely to be cleaned as often as they ought to be in order to avoid the build up of bacteria from rotting vegetation and hair. This will pollute the water and could pose a health hazard. Not only that, but clogged filters means that the pump has to work harder to circulate the water which means more wear and tear and eventually, more cost.

There is a greater choice of materials and colours nowadays. Before, the choice was: what sort of timber do you prefer? Now you can still have that option, plus the choice of any colour acrylic you want too. Or you can have an acrylic tub inside a wooden (or synthetic wood) exterior or skirt.

The advantages of the synthetic materials are that they last longer, are easier to clean and can be impregnated with a substance that kills or wards off bacteria and mould.

The seating arrangement can be personalized in contemporary spas to suit individual bathers. Every seat might have one or more directable jets and the seat itself might be made to a specific height for a certain person or for a certain injury or condition.

The water heating arrangements are a lot more flexible as well. Nowadays, the water can be heated by gas, electricity, your homes central heating system or by solar power, which is a colossal improvement if you live in a country that enjoys a great deal of sun.

To top it all off, you can add aromatherapy oils and spa salt crystals to the water by placing them in a draw like in a washing machine and have them circulated in the water evenly.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now involved with Hot Springs hot tubs. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Hot Springs Spa Parts

Accidents occur even on the most well planned camping vacations. You have to not only plan to avoid injuries, but you also have to plan on how to deal with them if and when they occur while camping. The important thing is to remember to stay calm. The worse thing you can do is panic.

You have to keep a clear head and just let your first aid training kick in. If you don’t have any first aid training then you should attend some classes before going camping. If you are not calm then you may not administer the correct treatment and this could just make it more serious.

Three common ailments that befall campers are dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. To most people these all seem like similar ailments, and they are, but they each need to be treated differently. Confusing which treatment goes with which will not only halt healing, but it could also do damage. The principal common problem when camping is lack of fluids. The best thing to do is just to keep yourself well hydrated with water.

You may drink nothing but lemonade and tea at home, but if you do that when camping you will quickly find yourself in a hospital room for dehydration. There are a few signs of dehydration besides the obvious thirst. Excessive sweating, rapid breathing, clammy skin, and loss of skin elasticity are all signs of dehydration. Children may also have hollow eyes when dehydrated.

If someone becomes dehydrated when you’re camping then you want to have them rest in the shade and drink plenty of cold water. You’ll also need them to remove any unnecessary clothing. Heat exhaustion is another common problem while camping. This is caused by not only excessive heat, but can also be caused by too much humidity.

A person with heat exhaustion will have pale, clammy skin, rapid breathing, excessive sweating, thirst and nausea, headache, and exhaustion. Again you’ll want the individual to take a break from camping and completely rest with their feet elevated. Cool water and a shady place are a necessity.

You’ll even need to sponge the person with water. The third common camping ailment is heat stroke. Heat stroke is caused by your body not regulating body temperature properly, causing your body to overheat. Symptoms are flushed, dry skin, a lack of sweat, rapid and weak pulse, irrational behavior, staggering, headache, and nausea.

If not diagnosed early and treated this can also lead to a collapse, a seizure, a coma, and even death. If someone gets heat exhaustion while camping you need to get help immediately and get an ambulance. Have them rest in the shade with their head elevated.

Use ice or cold water to cool them down and if they are conscious make them drink. These three ailments are common when camping and should be watched for and treated right away.

First aid knowledge is essential when camping. Remember that water always helps, so have a lot of it with you at all times. If anything does happen on your camping trip stay calm and remember what you have learned.

If he’s red raise his head, if he’s pale raise his tail, is a good rhyme to help you remember what to do if something happens while you’re camping. Stay cool and hydrated and you should be able to avoid problems like these on your camping trip.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is at present concerned with wholesale first aid kits. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.

While most people who diet in the world do so to lose weight, there are also those who diet to gain weight. There are far not so many who would like to put on weight, it is true, but the number is still fairly high.

Who would like to gain weight? The overwhelming majority of those who want to gain weight have been ill and perhaps for a long time.

However another group of people who want to gain weight are those involved with power sports. They want to ‘bulk up’ their muscles in order to become able to lift heavier weights. There are a great deal of products on the market to help athletes bulk up, but most of them contain protein and/or creatine and a host of vitamins and nutrients.

The fact is that you can make extra muscle without supplements but you will still have to eat more and train more. Dietary supplements of extra protein, nutrients and vitamins only serve to speed up the process.

Protein is the preferred supplement to gain weight among body-builders, field athletes and weight lifters. Protein can be derived from many sources, but body builders prefer their foremost sources to be whey, soy and eggs.

This is because these sources contain very little or no fat and particularly cholesterol. Most individuals in training seem to prefer around two grammes of protein per pound of body weight. Protein can be bought as a food additive, tablets, milkshake powder or in the form of a nutrition bar.

Creatine is also a very well-liked source of bulking up muscles but it is more complicated to use. You must be willing to read and obey the instructions on the box if you would like to try using creatine.

The fundamental course of action of using creatine is to ‘load’ your body with the supplement with a precise event in mind and then to use it for that event. Some people take this to mean two events a week!

Vitamins and so-called micro-vitamins are also vital supplements if you want to put on weight in a good, healthy way. Each cubic centimetre of your body requires its quota of vitamins, so if you want to gain weight it only makes sense that you will require more vitamins and nutrients too.

If you bulk up by eating healthy food the extra vitamins are not a difficulty, but if you try to take a short-cut by using bulking agents as described above, you will have to check that you really are eating everything that you require to bulk up those muscles.

Muscle-building supplements do work, but they have to be used sensibly. It is not always vital to go to a physician first, but you ought to talk to someone who has some knowledge on the issue. Not another body-builder, but someone like the coach or trainer at your local fitness centre.

If you are way out of shape or have other worries, the trainer might suggest that you go see a GP first, in which case you would be unwise not to follow his or her advice before attempting to use supplements to build muscle.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several topics, and is now concerned with omega 6 and omega 3. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Omega 6 9

June 5th, 2011The Ashes

The Ashes is the nickname given to a biennial series of test cricket matches played between England and Australia. The very first cricket test match was played between England and Australia in 1877, but the notion of ?playing for the Ashes? dates from some five years later after England had lost the ninth test match played between the two rivals.

On their 1882 tour to England just one test match was played at The Oval in August. The ground was almost impossible to play on and Australia, who batted first, scored only 63 runs. England, in reply, played a little better but by scoring 101, did accomplish a first innings lead of 38 runs.

In Australia?s second innings Hugh Massie?s 55, struck at a run a minute, enabled the tourists to reach 122 runs . This meant that England required a mere 85 runs for victory. But they had not made allowance for Fred Spofforth, nicknamed ?The Demon Bowler? who refused to admit defeat.

?This thing can be done? he asserted and promptly succeeded in destroying the England batting. He took his final four wickets for just two runs and England lost the match by only seven runs.

This defeat sent shock waves right through the English sporting establishment and a number of mock obituaries were published in the sporting press, including the most well-known one which appeared in ?The Sporting Times? on 2 September. It read :

?In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P.

N.B.-The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

Therefore this was the first reference in print to ?The Ashes?. The England tour of Australia later that year was captained by Ivo Bligh who was afterwards to be the Earl of Darnley. Bligh said that he would ?regain the ashes? and this he went on to do with England winning the three match series by two games to one.

However the expression ?the Ashes? did not really catch on until 1903 when Pelham (or ?Plum?) Warner led a team out to Australia with the same promise of recapturing the ashes. This England did by winning the series 3 -2 . The Australian press latched on to the phrase and this time it stuck.

An ?urn? to contain the ashes was created and presented to Bligh during the 1882-83 tour. It is rumoured to hold the ashes of a cricket bail. It was presented to Bligh by a group of Victorian ladies which included Bligh?s future wife.

The urn is a small terracotta vase about six inches high and might originally have contained perfume. It is so fragile that it is now kept permanently at the MCC headquarters at Lords.

There is a general conviction that the urn and its contents represent the official trophy played for by England and Australia, but it is in fact a private memento owned by the Darnley family and is just on loan to the MCC.

The trophy actually played for is a larger Waterford glass replica, but the original ?Ashes urn? still stays one of the most well-known sporting icons in the world.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with tickets for London Olympics. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

We all realize that we ought to exercise. Some individuals even like doing it, but unfortunately for society and most of us in it, the majority of us cannot be bothered to get off their backsides, which is why the populations of Western countries are turning to lard before our very eyes. This is a shame not just for the people involved but for the tax-payers who have to refill the public coffers in order to take care of them when they get sick.

So, how can we induce ourselves to take more exercise? Obviously government health warnings are merely benefiting marketing agencies and the media, so what else? Maybe, they could tell us: ‘Play tennis once a week, you will enjoy that vodka a whole lot more afterwards!’. Or ‘Play a round of golf first and that G&T will taste better!’ Or: ‘Walk a mile to the pub, have a pint, walk back and have another one, you will need it!’ The puritanical way definitely has not worked, so why not give realism a try?

I mentioned golf there more or less by accident, but it strikes me that going for a game of golf and having a drink with your friends later is a whole lot better than watching it on TV with a can. It is not merely the walking either, which most of us do not do enough of anyway, but it is the actions connected with hitting the ball – the swing and hand-eye co-ordination as well. And the social life afterwards, and loads of people miss out on a social life especially after retirement or the death of a spouse.

Now golf may not seem to you to be an interesting sport and I understand that point of view completely, but that is because it is not until you realize how hard it is to hit that ball hundreds of yards onto the green that most people can understand the difficulty of playing the game well. That may be true of most sports, but golf does look so unhurried, does it not?

One of the good things about golf is that you can play with golfers of comparable ability to yourself so that you do not feel embarrassed or ‘out of place’. If you join a ramblers’ club after 30 years of watching TV, you will soon feel old and past it, but golf is different, because there is no pace, no hurry, you can take as long as you like, you can let others ‘play through’ (go on before you) and you can call it a day and go back to the club house whenever you like.

Many retired people take up golf, especially if they were used to being active at work, but it is also a hobby, that you can take up if you think that you are not active enough at any age. It is surprising how much a little bit of extra exertion can help stave off stiff limbs and chubbiness.

If you are asking yourself: Is golf a good form of exercise? Or if you are just into golf, please go along to our web site entitled Golfing Tips for Beginners

June 3rd, 2011Water And Exercise

We, as human beings, as very reliant on water. We are approximately 70% water and we cannot live without it. In fact, we can go weeks without food, but merely about three days without water.

One of the sad facts about the Western diet is that a great deal of people no longer drink water. They have completely replaced water with sugary soft drinks, which of course contain enough water but also contain too much sugar or sugar substitute.

The first step that these individuals have to take in order to get back on track is to stop this silly, childish habit and start drinking plain water again. It has been worked out that about two-thirds of individuals do not drink enough water, which is saying that they are in a permanent condition of partial dehydration.

Water has several important functions in our bodies, but one of the most vital ones is to flush out toxins. It is worth knowing that when you feel thirsty, your body has arrived at a state where it is crying out for water. In other words, it has already passed the state where it needs water, so strive not to wait until you are thirsty before you take a drink.

Another fact is that tea, coffee and alcohol (some of our most well-liked adult drinks) are diuretics, which is to say that they force urination, often more than they replace. So you can put 250mm in but you may lose 270mm. This is naturally not the purpose of drinking if you are thirsty

Exercise is another reason why we lose water. In fact, merely by being alive, we lose water due to body heat and evaporation, but while we are actually doing something, we lose water fairly rapidly. You may get worried about drinking water before going to sleep, but if you can do it, it is a very healthy thing.

If you wake up a bit groggy each day and need breakfast, tea or coffee before you can actually wake up, it might be because of dehydration, not because you have problems waking up. Being dehydrated causes drowsiness and lack of concentration.

In fact, dehydration is a major killer in the Third World. This is not because there is no water, but because the water is contaminated. This contaminated water causes diarrhoea which causes dehydration. It is vital to keep drinking when you are sick even if you do not feel like eating.

It is recommended that we drink at least eight tumblers of water (say, of 250mm each) a day. More if you are exercising or sick. It sounds like a great deal of water, but most individuals are awake for about 16 hours a day, so eight glasses works out to merely one each two hours.

It is more of a difficulty to get into the habit of drinking water on a regular basis than it is to really do the drinking, but once you have established the habit, you will feel better on a day-to-day basis. It will not prevent you from getting sick, but your general degree of health will improve, because you are getting rid of toxins.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with Sundance hot tubs. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Hot Springs Spa Parts

June 2nd, 2011Vegetarian Cooking

A lot of people think that they just would not have the time to become vegetarians. This is because if you cut the meat out of a standard diet, you will become malnourished. You need to replace the nutrients and vitamins available in meat with the same or similar nutrients and vitamins in other foodstuffs like lentils, beans, pulses, nuts and legumes.

This means that vegetarians need to plan their meals more precisely that meat-eaters, but it does not have to be an obsession. There are fairly simple methods of getting all your mind and body requires.

It is probably factual to say that it is more difficult to plan meals in the correct manner while you first become a vegetarian, but you will soon get the hang of preparing meals that are nutritious and healthy. However, that gets harder and harder, the more foodstuffs that you leave out from your diet.

Some vegetarians will eat fish but some will not; some vegetarians will eat eggs and dairy products, but others will not. The more dedicated the vegetarian the more difficult it is to replace the vitamins that you are lacking by not eating meat.

One manner of looking at how difficult it is to be a vegetarian is by bearing in mind that meat needs to be cooked but fruit and vegetables do not (or not all of them anyway).

Sandwiches are also a very fast vegetarian snack and you should take full advantage of all the different types of bread on the market to vary the flavours and the benefits from the ingredients.

Each cook should understand how to create a casserole and this is also the case for vegetarian cooks. Perhaps the best manner of making a casserole is in a crock pot, so if you have not got one yet, get one as soon as possible. After using your crock pot for a week, you will be wondering how you ever made the time to live without one before.

You can prepare important vegetarian casseroles for your family when you are at work or doing something else and there are thousands of vegetarian crock pot recipes without having to resort to using a meat recipe and only leaving out the meat.

The attraction of a crock pot is that you can prepare all sorts of food in it, not only casseroles. You can create puddings, breads and cakes, but that can become the subject of future articles. The other godsend to the busy cook is the microwave. You can microwave potatoes and other vegetables in minutes instead of roasting them for hours with the meat.

So next time you or someone else says that you do not have time to be a vegetarian, keep in mind that technology has moved on from the Seventies and it is a great deal easier nowadays. There is a lot more known about vegetarianism now and that information is much more widely available – especially over the Internet and there are also better cooking devices like programmable crock pots and microwaves.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on numerous subjects, and is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diets. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com

Most people do not look forward to death. They would like to live a long life and endeavour to stay eternally young. The peoples of each country spend billions every year on health care and beauty products.

Some individuals believe that the length of time you live is written in fate and there is nothing that you can do about it, others believe that we only have a certain number of heart beats, but most individuals think that genetics, diet and lifestyle are the major influences.

However, there might be another factor worth looking into: your place of residence. There are a couple of places in the world where people appear to live longer, on average, than is normal for their country or globally.

Take the city of Okinawa in southern Japan. Okinawa has more than a million inhabitants, 900 of whom are over 100 years of age. Japan has an aging populace in general, but nowhere there is the same as Okinawa for longevity and the percentage of centenarians is between four and five times higher than in the UK or the USA.

Not just do Okinawans live longer, but they also tend to stay healthy until their dying days, which is everyone’s dream. Diet is thought to be the main reason why Okinawans live such long, healthy lives. They eat a great deal of fish, tofu, soya and seaweed and swill it down with lots of tea.

This makes their diet low in saturated fats and pretty low in salt. However, it is also a widely-held belief in Okinawa that one should just consume until one is 80% full not 100% This may put less strain on the digestive system, but no one is quite sure yet if this has a bearing on living a longer, healthy life.

Then there is Loma Linda in California, the USA. The citizens of Loma Linda live an average of five to ten years longer than the residents of near-by towns. The town is mainly Seventh Day Adventist, which preaches vegetarianism, no smoking and no alcohol. Some will look to these reasons as the reasons for living longer.

However, this does not account for why almost everyone, even the smoking, alcohol-drinking, meat-eating residents, lives longer. Others put the longevity down to religious belief, but researchers are mystified. Perhaps going to church and depending on God relieves believers of some of the stress of daily life and stress is well-known to be a reason for major diseases.

Another strange place is Owoda on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. It is just a village of less than 2,000 residents but it has far more than the average number of 100 year olds than elsewhere. What is even stranger is that there are as many old men as old women which is not the norm anywhere else in the world.

The well-known Mediterranean diet and the pleasant climate are considered to be factors at play here, but it may also have something to do with their genes. The residents were virtually isolated for hundreds of years and marriage among relatives was not unusual. Usually this is not recommended because it can cause abnormalities. It looks like the abnormality that inter-marriage caused for the Owodans is longevity.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with the cause of macular degeneration. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Macular Degenerative Disease

Sleep apnea or sleep apnoea is the condition which causes sufferers to stop breathing frequently during sleep. These interruptions can last anything from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. There are three kinds of sleep apnea Central, Obstructive and Mixed or Complex Apnea. Obstructive apnea is by the most common form and it normally comes about in overweight, middle-aged men.

The most frequently recommended method of overcoming obstructive apnea is weight loss, but as this is not simple for most overweight people, the most usual remedy is CPAP, which involves the wearing of an oxygen mask.

The problem with sleep apnea is that the shortage of breath means that the blood and the brain are starved of oxygen. When the level of oxygen in the brain drops to a certain level, it wakes the body up to do something about it. However, the heart normally beats more slowly at night, giving it a rest, but as the oxygen level in the blood drops, the heart will pump harder to send more blood and oxygen to the areas it is most needed.

Another effect is that people suffer from fatigue during the day, which leads to falling asleep at the wheel and accidents at work. In fact, sufferers of apnea are three times more probable to have an accident than normal.

Sufferers of apnea hardly ever wake up when their brain gets them breathing again, but it can be very distressing for their partners. My wife thought that I had died when she first became aware of my difficulty with obstructive sleep apnea and the spluttering back to a state of breathing resembles a drowning man coming up for the second time.

Other problems that can occur after a night of poor sleep are those linked with tiredness: irritability, mood swings, bad concentration, headaches, excessive anxiety, depression, acid reflux, nocturnal sweating, loss of sex drive and elevated heart rate at night.

Most instances of obstructive apnea can be vastly improved by a loss in weight. In fact, a ten percent loss of weight can produce a twenty-five percent improvement in apnea. Moreover, anything that relaxes the muscles should be avoided – especially alcohol. Stopping smoking can help as well.

Mechanical means of improving the condition are raising the head, so that the weight on your neck hangs down towards the chest rather than pressing down on the windpipe. Sleeping on your side can help as well for the same reason.

Black African males and Indian (from India) males are almost twice as much at risk of suffering from apnea as Caucasians. Approximately 4% of Caucasian males and 2% of Caucasian females suffer from sleep apnea. A surprising statistic is that the same percentage of Chinese men and women suffer from apnea as Caucasians. This is startling because the Chinese are not normally as overweight as Caucasians.

The terms ‘apnea’ and ‘apnoea’ are synonymous; the former being the American spelling and the latter being the English spelling.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. If you want to know more, please go to our web site at Sleep Apnea Surgery Techniques

The FA Cup, or Football Association Challenge Cup to give it its right title, is the oldest football competition in the world. It was started in 1871, when it was proposed that “a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association”.

Only eight teams were entered for the first round which was played on the 11 November 1871. The final was played at the Oval on 16 March, 1872 and was won by The Wanderers who defeated The Royal Engineers by the only goal of the match.

Not only is the FA Cup the oldest association football competition in the world but it is also one of the largest. It is open to teams who play in most levels of the English football league system and during the 2009 – 2010 season, 762 teams entered the competition.

Because it is the one competition that mixes teams of all levels of playing ability, it does allow for the occasional ?upset? when a ?minnow? from a lower league defeats one of the more fancied upper echelon sides.

While at least one such giant killing act will occur in any given season, no non-league club has ever won the tournament since Tottenham Hotspur won the trophy in 1901 when playing in the old Southern League.

For some reason, certain clubs seem to gain a reputation as giant killers and Yeovil Town holds the current record for most wins against teams playing in the league. There are several sporting records associated with the FA Cup, some of them standing for a considerable period of time .

One name connected with numerous early records is that of Lord Kinnaird. He played in the second final in 1873 and then played in a further eight, thus setting up a record which still stands to this day of playing in nine finals. He played for the winning team no less than five times, another record which is still intact.

However he is also credited with a less fortunate record, that of scoring the first ?own goal” in cup history in 1877. He was playing in goal and involuntarily stepped back past his own goal line.

In 1886 Blackburn Rovers were the second club to win three successive finals, and is the sole club still in existence who can claim this feat as the first club to do so. The Wanderers went out of existence in 1883.

The record for the greatest win in FA Cup history is held by Preston North End who in 1887 defeated Hyde 26-0. One of the longest standing sporting records was finally broken in 2009 by Everton?s Louis Saha whose 25 second goal beat that of the 30 second goal scored by Bob Chatt of Aston villa in 1895 . A record which had stood for 115 years!

After a period of seven years when the Cup final was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, while the new Wembley Stadium was being rebuilt, The Cup Final has returned to its traditional home at Wembley where it has been played since 1923 when the famous ?White Horse? took place between Bolton and West Ham. This match also holds the record for fan attendance when an estimated 200,000 fans packed in.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with tickets for London Olympics. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

May 27th, 2011What Is Sleep Apnea?

I wouldn?t bother so much having my bed partner lie on the sofa in the living room snoring, as I would if he suffered from sleep apnea, a more severe and harmful disorder. This breathing disorder during sleep that is followed by interrupted and shallow breathing can be treated easily provided it is found out in time and not mistaken for normal snoring.

Hence it is best to understand what sleep apnea and its indications are, so we can help a loved one that is suffering from the disorder of sleep apnea.

You have to know that untreated sleep apnea could hinder you having sound sleep at night and make you feel tired, fatigued, mentally exhausted and least productive on the next day. The breathing pauses could last anywhere between 10 to 20 seconds, take place up to 100 times on the same night. This would reduce the quantity of the deep natural sleep that is necessary for the body to function properly physically and mentally during the daytime.

Most of us know the implications of not having a sound night?s sleep and this is no exception for a person with sleep apnea. He/she would suffer from chronic daytime sleepiness, loss of concentration and slow reflexes that could make one have higher risks for accidents.

In addition the long-term results of sleep apnea are serious health disorders like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and weight gain.

Watch out for indications of sleep apnea like loud and chronic snoring, choking, gasping, snorting in sleep and long interruptions in breathing. In addition observe if he/she feels tired and sleepy during the day even after protracted hours of sleep at night.

In addition, look out for dry mouth or sore throat on waking up, morning headaches, restiveness, insomnia, moodiness, irritability or even depression. Waking up feeling restive, forgetful, with a lack of concentration power and frequent trips to the bathroom at night could be other indications.

On noticing these indications consult a specialist. He/she will prescribe an overnight stay in a hospital to observe and diagnose sleep apnea. It is best to understand that just snoring or some of these indications does not lead to a diagnosis of sleep apnea.

Snoring could be just ordinary and it does not interfere with the quality and amount of sleep and make one feel chronically tired, sleepy or lack of concentration, all of which could lead to accidents. However the onus of diagnosing rests with the doctor.

It is a good idea to take into account that sleep apnea could be of various types. In an episode of obstructive sleep apnea, the soft tissues on the back of the throat relax and obstruct oxygen from entering the lungs during sleep and it results in a brief disturbance of sleep.

However, central sleep apnea is less well-known but more grave and takes place when the brain fails to signal the breath regulating muscles to breathe and this could make one conscious than one has woken up. The most serious of sleep apneas is the combination of both these apnea known as complex sleep apnea.

Believe me, sleep apnea could be readily discovered in the early stages with your bed partner?s help. A sleep diary would help him/her record your snoring, gasping, choking, or other unusual sounds. In addition a video recording of the patient would help you note signs of sleep apnea.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now concerned with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Sleep Apnea Surgery Techniques

NBA stands for National Basketball Association. It is probably the most active and well-liked basketball association in the world. One of the individuals who can take most of the credit for this is Michael Jordan who worked indefatigably on its behalf in the 1980′s and 1990′s.

The NBA is the leading professional, male basketball league of north America, which encompasses the USA and Canada. The NBA has the best players, pays the highest salaries and has the highest level of competition. At the moment there are thirty teams competing in the NBA, which are located in both Canada and the USA.

The NBA started life as the Basketball Association of America or BAA in 1946. It was set up in order to organize the top professional teams, to publicize them and to raise their popularity.. The first BBA game was played between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers in Toronto. It changed its name to NBA in 1949.

The NBA grew steadily and attracted the best basketball players in the world. In the early days there were such names as George Mikan – ‘the First Big Man’; Bob Cousey and Bill Russell Other great stars that followed were: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Julius Erving, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

Many of the best players came from the United States, but not all. Some were international players. Such players include names like: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Leandro Barbosa, Paul Gasol, Manu Ginobili and Dirk Nowitzki.

Others include Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs; Peja Stojakovic a Serb who won awards at home before moving to north America and the Russian, Andrei Kirilenko who was known as the AK-47. He also won European awards before moving to the States.

Yet other well-known international players are Yao Ming who was chosen for the Houston Rockets in 2002 and Andrea Bargnini who was chosen to play for the Toronto Raptors in 2006.

The teams in the NBA are arranged into two conferences with three divisions in each. 29 of these teams are based in the United States and one in Canada.

The Eastern Conference consists of the Atlantic Division, the Central Division and the Southeast Division.

The Atlantic Division has: the Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors.

The Central Division has:the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks.

The Southeast has: the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards.

The Western Conference consists of the Northwest Division, the Pacific Division and the Southwest Division.

The Northwest Division has:the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA Oklahoma City, Portland Trailblazers, and Utah Jazz.

The Pacific Division boasts the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings.

The Southwest Division has: the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets and San Antonio Spurs.

The NBA basketball league can now be watched all over the world by subscription on the Internet, although the Internet connection speed is too slow in some countries to make it viable.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

May 20th, 2011The Origins of Baseball

Much has been written about the history and birth of the sport of baseball and disagreement has surrounded the subject for over a century.There has long been a legend, once extensively believed by many Americans, that baseball was made-up by one Abner Doubleday in 1839.

However there never has been a single scrap of evidence to support this claim, which was in fact never made by Doubleday himself. There is a wealth of documentary evidence left by him as well as letters and nowhere is there mention of the game of baseball, or that he thought he played any big part in the development of the game.

In fact, baseball (and softball), as well as the other contemporary bat, ball and running games, cricket and rounders, was developed from earlier folk games. Baseball probably originated in Britain, but comparable games were played in many regions of Europe such as a game comparable to the British rounders. It was called schlagball and was played in Germany.

Russians had played a bat and ball game known as lapta since medieval times, while In Romania they played a version called Oina. There is very little information as to how the modern game of baseball evolved from these earlier versions of ballgames .

There is one school of thought that holds that they evolved into a game called town ball which was the forerunner of baseball. Although others believe that town ball and baseball are autonomous developments. The real ?father of American baseball? was not Abner Doubleday but one Shane Ryley Foster, who wrote the first printed rules of baseball in 1845 for a New York (Manhattan) base ball club called the Knickerbockers.

However on June 3, 1953, Congress officially recognized Alexander Cartwright with inventing the modern game of baseball, and he was also voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Alexander Cartwright was a New York bookseller who umpired the first-ever recorded U.S. baseball game with codified rules in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 19, 1846.

He also established the older of the two teams that played that day, the New York Knickerbockers. Cartwright later became contaminated by ?gold Fever? and emigrated to California, introducing the game of baseball to a lot of of the cities he stopped at on his way to California..

In 1857 a conference was held to revise the old rules laid down for the Knickerbocker club and delegates came from sixteen clubs in New York. In 1858, twenty-five teams including one from New Jersey met to form the National Association of Base Ball Players . It governed until 1870 but arranged and sanctioned no games.

During and after the American Civil War, the deployment of soldiers and exchanges of prisoners helped spread the game. In 1869 the first honestly professional baseball team was created. Earlier players were nominally amateurs.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings recruited nationally and actually toured the country. No one beat them until June 1870. After 1870, more and more professional teams were formed and the era of the game that we know and love today was started.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

Although there are references to Native Americans playing ball games, modern American football has its birth in traditional ball games played in villages and schools in Europe for several centuries before America was settled by Europeans.

There are reports of early settlers at Jamestown, Virginia playing games with inflated balls in the early 17th century.

Early games appear to have had a lot in common with the traditional “mob football” played in England, especially on Shrove Tuesday. The games were pretty much unorganized until the 19th century, when a lot of colleges took up the sport.

In those days, each school played its own variety of football. Princeton students played a game called “ballown” as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as “Bloody Monday” began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore students.

Dartmouth played its own version called “Old Division Football”, the rules of which were first printed in 1871, though the game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared a number of commonalities.

They remained largely “mob” type games, with huge numbers of players attempting to get the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. The rules were simple and violence and injury were common .

The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale, under pressure from the city of New Haven, proscribed the play of all forms of football in 1860, while Harvard did the same in 1861

Two basic forms of football had developed by this time: “kicking” games and “running” (or “carrying”) games. A cross of the two, known as the “Boston game”, was played by a group known as the Oneida Football Club.

The club, considered by some historians as the first real football club in the United States, was formed in 1862 by schoolboys who played the “Boston game” on Boston Common.

Walter Camp is widely thought to be the most important figure in the development of American football. He thought of many of the rule changes and playing strategies which made American Football the inimitable sport that it has become today.

His first proposal was to reduce the number of players from 15 to 11. The impact of this was to open up the game and put more emphasis on speed rather than strength.

Camp’s most well-known change, the creation of the line of scrimmage, was also designed to speed up play although many teams utilized it to slow down the play.

Camp therefore proposed that a team be required to progress the ball a minimum of five yards within three downs. These down-and-distance rules, combined with the establishment of the line of scrimmage, transformed the game from a variation of rugby or soccer into the distinct sport of American football.

While it has had a long history as a college sport, professional football is a relatively modern institution . The first wholly professional game was not played until 1895 and the first known professional league, the National Football League was not formed until 1902

At the end of the 1932 season, the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied with the best regular-season records. To determine the champion, the league chose to hold its first playoff game.

Chicago won, 9-0. The playoff proved so popular that the league was reorganized into two divisions for the 1933 season, with the two winners advancing to a scheduled championship game.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

May 17th, 2011Stress Headaches

We all have headaches from time to time, but do you know why you get those headaches? If you merely get a headache from time to time, once every couple of of weeks or so, it is not much of a problem, but if you dread your next headache, then you almost certainly do have a problem.

Tension headaches are the most common and tension can be similar to stress, but there are also purely stress-related headaches. This type of headache can also be driven off by a tablet or two from the medicine cabinet, but it is better to get rid of the cause for the headache. Attack the reason not the symptom. The remainder of this piece is about what to do with the different sorts of stress headaches.

Basically, a stress headache occurs once the obstacles that are presented to you engulf your ability to cope with them. Some people get on well with stress others deal with stress less well. Some people even prosper on it and others have taught themselves how to de-stress rapidly.

When a person comes across stressful situations, a little bit of our mental resistance against stress is worn away. This is fine and is normal, but then as other stresses happen there is less and less defence left to carry on. Trying to cope whilst you are starting to feel weaker and weaker will often bring on a stress headache.

A different reason why a stress headache is the most common kind of headache, is because other forms of headache can bring on a stress headache too. The good news is that almost all forms of headaches can be prevented or cured and a stress headache falls into this category.

There are, naturally pharmaceutical treatments to treat headaches and there are natural, home remedies as well but there are also non-medicinal ways of treating a stress headache. These other ways include: cognitive therapy, behavioural therapy and physical therapy.

These methods can be studied from books, night school classes, the local library, the Internet or by arrangement with your clinic or physician. It is well-worth learning how to use these techniques because taking drugs or treatments can lead to headaches as well.

Cognitive Therapy: seeks to ‘redirect’ stress headaches. In this method, the patient is taught to recognize what begins the stress symptoms and what the onset of a stress headache feels like. Then they are taught how to alter their response to these conditions.

Behavioural Therapy: is a method of changing your life style to prevent the incidence of a stress headache. For instance, numerous individuals reach for comfort foods or alcohol once they get stressed, but it might be better for you to do something else, |when you feel a stress headache coming on.

Physical Therapy: tries using bio-feedback responses, so that when a stress headache starts, the sufferer strives using relaxation techniques (perhaps yoga) in order to reduce their stress and possibly prevent the stress headache from occurring. Meditation, deep breathing and prayer are some of the other techniques that can be tried.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with school first aid kits. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.

May 11th, 2011The Beautiful Game

Football, soccer or ?The Beautiful Game? – are all names employed to describe the most well-liked team game in the world. Although the words football and soccer are largely interchangeable in the UK they have quite different meanings in North America.

In the USA the word ‘football’ is taken to stand for American Football, a game more akin to the British rugby football, whereas soccer refers to the game known to the rest of the world as football.

It is peculiar that the term soccer is in fact an English slang term of the word association in the same way that the word ?brekkers? refers to breakfast.

The regulations of football were first set down in 1863 by the Football Association in the UK and these are in essence the same rules by which the game is played by today. However they were merely the first endeavour to codify and standardize the vastly varying types of the game being played in 19th century public schools in England.

However the game has a much longer history and references to a game comparable to today?s football can be found in the texts of one William Fitzstephen in the late 12th century. At a range of times during the medieval period laws were passed prohibitting the playing of football, largely, it is supposed, because it detracted from the time dedicated to archery practice.

So it could be said that England?s supremacy in France at battles such as Crecy and Agincourt , brought around largely as a result of the success of Welsh and English longbowmen, was a direct result of deficiency of skill on the football pitch!

Football also fell foul of Puritan censorship and attempts to keep the Sabbath holy as of course the only time a working man had any free time to indulge in such activity was on a Sunday (the Sabbath)

Incidentally, the term ?the Beautiful Game as a synonym for Association football has no vast history to it. Its origins are somewhat uncertain as some assert that it was invented by a Brazilian footballer named Valdir Pereira although the English TV commentator Stuart Hall claims to have coined the expression in 1958.

From its primitive beginnings football has now grown into the world?s most commonly played team sport. F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA as it is more commonly known , now has 208 member countries where an estimated 200 million plus players habitually play the game.

Such is the effect of football that star players from the major European leagues and particularly the English Premiership are now household names the world wide and it is common whilst driving through a remote jungle village in South East Asia to get confronted by a larger than life size portrait of say, David Beckham, marketing something as routine to motor oil.

Little did those men meeting at the Freemasons Tavern in Great Queen St,. London on the morning of 26 October 1863 to set the rules of the game know the immense world wide effect their decisions would have.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

People connect sleep apnea with overweight adults, mostly men, and this profile does tie in with most sufferers, but in fact everybody stops breathing at some time whilst they are asleep. Not each night as with sufferers of sleep apnea, but every now and then.

Even babies may stop breathing sometimes. This can be a terrifying experience for parents and carers. If you are worried about your baby suffering from apnea, you could get one of the baby sleep apnea monitors.

There are three forms of apnea, which means ‘without wind’ and comes from Greek: central, obstructive and mixed or complex apnea. Obstructive apnea is by far the most common kind and it is also the explanation why babies get apnea most of the time too.

Although a small amount of apnea sometimes is fairly normal, constant apnea could be a sign that something is wrong medically. Two of the causes in babies could be enlarged adenoids or tonsils, which could have significant consequences.

It is difficult to tell what is going on with babies at the best of times, but when a baby is suffering from apnea, you may become aware of snoring, breathlessness, colouration and restiveness.

Obstructive apnea usually just occurs during sleep when muscles are relaxed, however, central apnea can occur at any time of the day or night. Central apnea is caused by a section of the brain that controls breathing not working properly. This sort of apnea is more common in premature babies.

Mixed or complex apnea is a mixture of the other two types and is also pretty common in children.

Your physician, the nurse or the midwife will check for apnea and may suggest that you buy one of the various baby sleep apnea monitors. One of the problems with these baby monitors is that none of them is entirely dependable to detect the cessation of breathing. Therefore, the better baby monitors will have a heart beat detector as a back-up.

The monitor must also be able to activate an alarm outside the room where the baby is, so that the parent or carer can walk around the house without having to worry about checking up on the baby regularly

These remote alarms are usually wireless these days and they might also have a vibration alert. This is a very useful role. The last thought is the power source. Batteries alone are not really good enough.

The best types are rechargeable. That is, they work like a mobile phone. This means that the sensor can be attached to the crib and the baby wherever it is, even when there is no local power source.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is now involved with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. If you want to know more, please go to our web site at Sleep Apnea Surgery Techniques

A review of the nicknames employed by English football teams reveals a beguiling insight into English social history over the last 150 years.

All football teams seem to acquire a nickname, bestowed upon them lovingly by their devoted fans. Although in one very famous case ? that of Manchester United ? the nickname of The Red Devils was in fact invented by the club itself as a marketing ploy, copyrighted and eventually the Red Devil himself was included in the team’s coat of arms.

The derivation of the name may seem obvious, or may be lost in the mists of time or even not known today.

In many instances the nickname is derived from the colour of the team?s shirts. Obvious instances of these include:

Chelsea ? The Blues Burnley ? the Clarets Watford ? the Hornets Preston North End – The Lilywhites Liverpool ? The Reds Newcastle United ? The Magpies Coventry City ? The Sky Blues Blackpool United ? the Tangerines Weymouth ? The Terras Cambridge United ? the Yellows Hull City ? the Tigers

Other nicknames are far more prosaic in origin, being based upon abbreviations or contractions of the team?s real name. Examples of these instances include :

Middlesbrough ? Boro Rochdale ? the Dale Gillingham ? the Gills Wigan Athletic ? the Latics Queens Park Rangers – QPR Blackburn Rovers ? The Rovers Aldershot Town ? The Shots Shrewsbury Town ? The Shrews Tottenham Hotspur – Spurs Swansea City ? The Swans Woverhampton Wanderers ? Wolves

Location plays an important aspect in many team nicknames

Sunderland ? The Black Cats (named after the Black cat gun battery which was located on the banks of the River Wear) Bournemouth – The Cherries (the sports ground was built on the site of a cherry orchard) Carlisle United ? The Cumbrians (Carlisle is in the county of Cumbria) Bristol Rovers ? The Gas ( their old ground was located next to the gasworks) Torquay United ? The Gulls (Torquay is beside the sea) Tamworth ? The Lambs ( the team plays at The Lamb Ground, named after a local pub) Grimsby Town ? The Mariners (Grimsby is on the coast) Rotherham United ? The Millers ( the ground is called Millmoor) Sheffield Wednesday ? The Owls ( they play in an area of Sheffield known as Owlerton) Kettering Town ? The Poppies ( their stadium was constructed on a poppy field) Blackburn Rovers ? The Riversiders (their site is built on the banks of a river) Bolton Wanderers ? The Trotters (in the 19th century the ground was located next to a piggery)

Other nicknames are derived from local occupations or industries:

Sheffield United – The Blades ( local links with cutlery manufacture) Burton Albion – The Brewers ( Burton is a major centre for the brewing industry ) Hereford United – The Bulls (from the local cattle industry) Wycombe Wanderers – The Chairboys ( local furniture industry) Northampton Town – The Cobblers (from the local boot and shoe industry) Yeovil Town – The Glovers (local links to the glove making industry ) Luton Town – The Hatters (Luton was for many years a centre for the production of hats) Crewe Alexander – The Railwaymen ( Crewe was constructed as a railway town

Finally, a short assortment of some of the more amusing, bizarre or obtuse derivations:

Charlton Athletic ? The Addicks ( A corruption of the ward ?haddocks? after a neighbourhood fish and chip shop) Norwich City ? The Canaries ( Norwich was a leading centre for the breeding of canaries. The team subsequently adopted the green and yellow of the Norwich Canary as their playing strip) Hartlepool United ? The Monkey Hangers (During the Napoleonic wars the citizens of Hartlepool allegedly hung a monkey thinking it to be a French spy) Bury ? The Shakers (The first Chairman of the club, J T Ingham said before a local derby game against Blackburn ?We will shake them, in fact we are the Shakers?) Peterborough United ? The Posh (A previous manager of the team is reputed to have said ?We are looking for posh players for a posh team?)

We hope this trawl though the history behind the nicknames of English football teams has been entertaining and informative.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, but is currently involved with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.

Vegetarians have always had the image of being on the periphery. In the Fifties, they were the Beatniks and in the following decades, they were the Hippies. Vegetarians have always been depicted as individuals with long hair, wearing sandals and dressed in clothes woven from natural products. Weirdos, some would say.

However, things have eventually been altering during the last ten or twenty years. There are so many vegetarians these days that they can no longer be known as on the fringe. Everyone knows a vegetarian nowadays and plenty of people opt not to eat meat at every meal time.

The fact is that vegetarians come in numerous different levels of vegetarian. There are those who will fairly happily sit at the same table as meat-eaters and there are those who will not. I once shared a house with two vegetarians.

When they went away on vacation for a fortnight, I decided to roast a chicken (something I was not allowed to do when they were there). When they came back ten days later, they knew that I had cooked a chicken and I had to promise never to do it again or move out.

Then there are vegetarians who will eat fish and there are those who will not and those who will consume dairy products and eggs, and those that will not. There are numerous degrees of vegetarianism, the strictest being veganism, which means no animal protein whatsoever.

This can mean that vegetarians and vegans experience various nutrient deficiencies that are concentrated in meat, fish, milk and cheese. However, it is normally just novices who undergo these issues. Long term vegetarians know the dangers and either eat a very wide-ranging vegetarian diet or take vitamin tablets.

One effective way of replacing animal proteins is by eating beans, pulses, lentils and nuts. This is not an arduous challenge, but it does take more thought than slinging a hamburger on the griddle or barbecue. This is one of the problems for busy vegetarians – preparing food takes a lot longer.

Tofu and other products derived from soya beans are a boon for vegetarians, because it has all the protein one needs and is very versatile. It does not actually have any taste of its own, but it absorbs flavours from whatever it is prepared with.

In general, it can be said that vegetarians have to eat more bulk than carnivores, because meat is concentrated vegetables. So, vegetarians normally have to eat more and also eat more varied food yet also make sure that they get all the vitamins that a body needs.

The upshot of being a vegetarian though is that no animal suffers for you and you get lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, which do not contain a lot of calories. Vegetarians are not usually overweight and they hardly ever suffer from constipation and the diseases that are associated with eating too much meat, including cholesterol and high blood pressure problems.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous topics, and is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diets. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com

Teenagers are very impressionable and tend to become more left-wing than their parents, because they are under the influence of their teachers, who tend to be more left-wing as well. This tends to make teenagers more in touch with environmental issues and other world problems. This can send teenagers off in many directions, and one of the most well-liked, especially among teenage girls, is vegetarianism.

This phase often passes for one reason or another. Sometimes the parents cannot be bothered to cater to their new diet and occasionally the teenager merely misses bacon sandwiches as well much to sustain the diet. However, a lot do stick to their principles or come back to them later on in life.

Their children going vegetarian is often a cause for concern for parents, but it should not be. If your teenagers take up vegetarianism you will probably be concerned that they get enough protein, yet that can be taken care of. Instead, be thankful that they will be missing out on all the junk food that most teenagers eat in these, their most formative years.

If your teenager wants to become a vegetarian, you ought to encourage it, even though it will cost you more time particularly if you do not know much about vegetarianism yourself. It will be a steep learning curve for you and your children in the starting.

One of the first things that a parent has to assess is to what degree does their child want to go. Does he or she merely want to give up meat or also give up fish or go the whole hog (!) and give up milk, dairy and eggs as well. These three degrees make vegetarianism progressively more difficult.

One of the foremost problems of going vegetarian (especially for growing teenagers) is vitamin deficiency. Meat is concentrated vegetable matter and is our main source of vitamins such as calcium, vitamin B12 and iron.

You cannot do without these vitamins and several others besides, so if you give up meat, you will have to take them in tablet form until you find or adopt a means of re-introducing them into your diet in food form.

There will be many new foods for your teenager to taste in their task to replace meat and some of these alternatives may be unpalatable, depending on your child’s outlook on eating new foods.

Tofu is one. Some people love it and some people can’t stand it, but it is a very handy alternative to meat. There are others, but it could be a long process of trial and error and your teen might just stop.

If your teenager wants to quit, it is probably a good idea to make it easy for them to do so without them losing face or feeling that they have failed. It is difficult to undertake lifestyle changes even at that relatively young age and who knows, maybe they will return to (a level of) vegetarianism after they leave home and begin cooking for themselves.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several subjects, and is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diets. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com

There is an importance of understanding how to give first aid or CPR. Taking a class on first aid can be done at a local community center or hospital. Whilst taking such a class, these are the items an individual will most likely learn. As a person learns what to do in their first aid class, they will get taught the A-B-C?s of first aid.

Now, this does not mean A-B-C as in bullet points, no, this is a mnemonic motto. So, while administering first aid to anybody, they ought to be receiving help from a trained person for clearing their Airway, Breathing properly or Circulation in their heart.

An airway which is blocked has to be attended to immediately. Being able to clear anyone?s airway is important for supporting their life. If the airway is not open, it will most likely affect that person?s mind and body functions. In turn, this will cause a sudden deterioration of that person?s life.

As you can see, having an open airway permits a person to respond to you and sustain their life. The open airway also keeps oxygen going to the brain. Without oxygen to our brain, there may be permanent damage too. Just as important as opening a person?s airway is, so too is getting them to breathe again.

These two aspects, airway and breathing, may seem the same to you, but they have two separate functions for a first aid responder to achieve. When it comes to breathing, that person will need some help. Once the airway is open, they might not be breathing properly.

Having a person breathe, on their own, is just as crucial as having an open airway. Both of these functions need the passage of oxygen to the brain and this is why the goal of a first aid responder is to get that person breathing again without assistance.

Just as vital as opening the airway and breathing is, so also is allowing circulation to the heart. The human heart is an amazing muscle and when a person?s heart is in trouble, they will require urgent help in order to make certain that they remain alive.

If the human heart is not getting oxygen and beating as meant, there may be a loss of life. Every step given to an injured person, from a first aid responder, is important. Every action received, in the order given, is also important.

All three A-B-C measures above, having been learned in a CPR class, and then used as taught by a first aid responder is vital to the survival of the injured person. In fact, seeing if a person has a pulse and is breathing is the first thing to be done while helping a person in trouble.

As recently as 2010, the American Heart Association requested that the A-B-C?s be converted to C-A-B. Now, when performing first aid on an adult, it is recommended to do chest compressions first, and then see if the airway is open and if a person can breathe on their own. The original A-B-C?s can still be utilized on infants and children.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is at present busy with wholesale first aid kits. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please come over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.

There is nothing more fun than being a child today. While I was between the ages of six and ten, I did not have a scooter, but instead a Big Wheel. As much fun as the Big Wheel was, the scooter is lighter and easier to carry around. I know this to be the case because my twin girls both have a Razor Scooter.

Their scooter was a Christmas gift which has been used ever since it was opened. Nothing could be more fun for children six and under than this style scooter. This style Razor Scooters come in a variety of colors to match any child?s personality.

Children today have a lot of choice when it comes to outdoor toys. If a child wants to become mobile, all they need to do is pick up their light weight Razor Scooter. These Razor Scooters come in four styles, depending on a child?s age. There is the A, A2, A3 and A5. Each of these Razor A Scooters is designed for a child?s weight.

So, if a five year old or older likes the Razor A and weighs at least 40 lbs, this is the Razor for them. This razor is made of aluminum, has two wheels, rubber handles, back brake, folds up easily and weighs 35.0 lbs. The rubber handles are great for this toy as it is extremely unlikely to break down as soon as if it did not have such handles.

The Razor A2 can be ridden by kids aged eight and up. This Razor may also be ridden by kids who weigh 143 lbs. The Razor A2, like the Razor A, is also manufactured from aluminum along with steel, has two 54mm wheels, rubber handles, back brake, folds up readily and weighs 6.0 lbs.

With the Razor being so lightweight, it permits a child to carry their Razor if need be. When children start doing tricks on their Razor, this is the model to begin with. This model can also get used for a child reaching ages ten to eleven.

The Razor A3 is designed for children aged five and up. Just like the Razor A and A2, it is manufactured from aluminum and steel, can be folded up quickly, has adjustable rubber handles, wider wheels and has a Rear Fender Brake.

This brake has two components, whereas the back brake on the other two models has one part. The broader wheels make this razor easier to do tricks with as well. This Razor makes for a smoother ride and is easier to handle too.

Then there is the Razor A5 which is appropriate for children eight and up. This Razor is also manufactured from the same materials as the other Razors. Now, if you are searching for a Razor which can hold a weight capacity 200lbs and more, this is the scooter for you. Along with having a higher weight capacity, the bigger wheels provide for a smoother, more comfortable and easier ride. There are two wheels which are 200mm.

The Razor has been around since the nineties and was first used in a Taiwan factory. These Razors then made their way to California where they became an instant hit. Nothing could be easier to ride all around the neighborhood, at local parks and even to work than any one of these razors. One of the best gifts to give a child is a Razor as they will last for a fife time and be used a great deal too.

If this article has whetted your appetite for a Razor kick scooter, just go to our web site at http://razorascooter.com

If you own a business, you are almost certainly required by law to provide some form of First Aid to your workforce. There may well be regulations governing what degree of service you have to provide, but if there are not, this article will try to help you work out a sensible approach to the question. However, whichever way you look at it, the provision of First Aid in the workshop is very important.

There are in essence four reasons involved in the equation: the administerer of the First Aid, the First Aid kit, the First Aid room and the First Aid apparatus. The causes influencing the above components are: the type of industry you are in, the number of workers, the sort of shifts and your distance from the closest hospital.

The shift factor is important because you will need to provide a health care worker (at least one) for each shift. If there are employees from numerous subcontractors on site (such as on a building site) the main contractor ought to provide health care for all the personnel on site and make a charge to the proprietors of the subcontractors’ companies.

Any agreements between workers and employers and main and sub-contractors should be put in on paper and signed by all parties involved. These agreements should then by photocopied and distributed to everyone concerned.

The employer should supply a notice in various prominent locations throughout the site or factory giving details of where the closest trained First Aider is and his or her name. The trained individual should be healthy, responsible, normally at work and be ready to leave his or her workstation immediately when required to help.

The First Aiders should receive training from a recognized body and a certificate of competence should be given. If possible, the training should be given in your own workshop so that the trainers can observe any local hardships.

The First Aider should become trained in keeping records. For example, although the First aider’s responsibility ceases once the paramedics arrive, the supplier of First Aid ought to make and be able to furnish a record of any treatment given before their arrival.

The First Aid box ought to be maintained regularly. Things that have passed their sell-by-date should be disposed of and replaced and someone has to be given the obligation for doing this and signing a register to declare that the inspection has taken place. There ought to be a First Aid box within a few minutes walk of perilous locations like machinery

The kits should contain all standard things such as antiseptic, plasters, bandages, safety pins, scissors, iodine et cetera, but they should also contain remedies specific to your industry, if there are any. It is also a good idea to put a First Aid data sheet in the box simply in case it is not the trained First Aider who has to supply the help.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous subjects, but is at present busy with school first aid kits. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.

When it becomes hot, most people head out the door. A lot go to a public pool, a river, lake or the beach, but others would prefer to remain in their own backyard. Some individuals are lucky enough to have a pool in their back yard, but not everyone has the space or the money. However, the majority of individuals like being wet in order to cool down.

In this article, we will look at some of the things that you do can in the backyard involving water to help you remain cool. The first one is the one we have already touched on and the one home improvement that almost everybody would have if they could. A pool. Individuals love the thought of having a garden pool.

If your budget cannot stretch to a substantial in ground pool, you could buy a smaller above-ground pool. These above-ground pools are a lot cheaper, and while not large enough to swim in, they can certainly get thought of as large plunge pools. Half a dozen people can have a lot of fun in one of these pools.

If this is not feasible, what about a Jacuzzi or a hot tub? There is a great deal of flexibility in hot tubs these days. You can have them built into all types of nooks and crannies in the garden.

You can also get a hot tub of any size you like: two, foru, six, eight individuals and everyone with a moulded seat with its own hydrotherapeutic directional water jets, so that you can play the jets on any parts of your body that you want.

If this is out of the question as well, what of a few garden water sprinklers? You could have plastic waterproof garden furniture and sit under the sprinklers simulating rain. This is an easy and very cheap way of cooling off when it is very warm.

You could get everyone in your garden a water pistol to squirt each other with. This may sound a little juvenile but kids and a lot of adults really enjoy it. Similar to this, you could fill a couple of dozen balloons up with water and use them for throwing at each other like having your own paint ball competition without getting dirty.

Water games are immense fun and a good manner of keeping cool whilst the sun is beating down in the summer. Just one word of warning – sunburn. Water will cool you down and you may not notice that you are burning. Be certain that everybody applies waterproof suntan lotion of a factor that is applicable to the degree of sunshine in your area.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with Sundance hot tubs. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at Hot Springs Spa Parts

Smoking cigarettes used to be a great deal more widespread than it is today. Now most smokers are looking for ways of stopping smoking. This is because smokers and the general public at large are more aware of the risks of smoking cigarettes nowadays.

Just look at films manufactured in the Sixties and before, everyone is smoking. It shows how common smoking was compared with today. This would not be possible now as you may not smoke in public places, on public transport, in restaurants or in bars any more in most Western countries and elsewhere too.

The difficulty with smoking is that not just the smoker suffers, so does everyone around about the smoker. This is called passive smoking and it affects those working or living with smokers – a barmaid or a spouse for example. So, all these individuals are endangering their health so that tobacco firms can become richer.

No matter how long someone has been smoking, it is possible to stop the habit. Anyone who has stopped smoking will tell you that stopping smoking cigarettes is all to do with the mind. You really have to want to stop smoking or you will not do it successfully.

Individuals have different ways of stopping smoking cigarettes. Some say that nicotine patches or nicotine gum help, because you can wean yourself off nicotine slowly without having to inhale the poisonous smoke of cigarettes. Nicotine is highly addictive and most of the chemical withdrawal symptoms have to do with the shortage of nicotine in the body.

Most people find that the only effective way of stopping smoking cigarettes is to quit smoking dead – in one go. It is very hard to cut down or to swap to a weaker brand. You are still inhaling poisonous smoke. It is still no good to you or anyone around you.

Cutting down or switching brands is not effective, because you will still smoke other smokers’ and you will still be in a smokers’ environment. You will also find yourself smoking tomorrow’s five cigarettes today, promising not to smoke any the next day. That never works. You have to quit smoking dead.

There are several situations that can provide the motivation to give up smoking cigarettes. Illness is usually high on the list. A few years ago two friends of mine who smoked heavily stopped smoking cigarettes within weeks of every other.

One was in his sixties and had smoked for almost sixty years: he was told that his lungs were beginning to go, but that if he stopped smoking, the shock might kill him. He quit smoking one morning and survived, but what a dilemma!

The other was in his fifties and drove a lot as a travelling salesman. The physician told him that he would almost certainly have to have a leg removed next year, if he did not give up smoking and that the other may go a year or so after that. He stopped smoking instantly and still has both legs.

So it seems that the trick to stopping smoking cigarettes successfully is to find your motivation (do you want to live long enough to see the grandchildren married?) and bear that image in front of you at all times. Take nicotine substitutes if you have to and stay away from environments where individuals smoke more, like pubs.Join a sports club instead, something like tennis, table tennis, swimming or even chess.

If you want to start quitting smoking cigarettes, you could do far worse than visit our free web site on Quitting Smoking


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