Counter Assertion

The fact that spring is here means a few things. Spring means that the coldness of winter has passed us by yet again. Spring means that the school year is winding down and that children will be free again soon. Spring also means that the wonderful season of summer is on it’s way soon. I love spring because it means that warm weather, the best kind of weather, is about to arrive.

Warm weather is full of potential. It is obvious to me that warm weather is the best kind of weather because it allows people to do so many things and to enjoy so many things. Perhaps my favorite thing about warm weather is that I can be outside comfortably for hours on end. I’m kind of an outdoors loving guy, so the cold winter months are really hard for me to get through each year. I love summer days when you can be outside from early morning until late evening and never feel a chill. The warm sun beating down on your face and your body is perhaps my favorite feeling in the world.

Warm weather is great because it allows people to easily be more active and enjoy a healthier lifestyle. In the winter all people want to do is cuddle up in front of a fire, read a good book and sip a hot drink. On warm days many people toss the books aside and enjoy hour after hour of activity. Kids love to run and play with their neighbors, adults love to garden and work outside of their homes. The potential for healthier living that warm weather brings is amazing. It makes me wish we had warm weather every day of the year.

So many of my personal favorite ways to spend time can only be done comfortable in warm weather. Camping, for example, is much better in warm weather. I love nothing more than to pack up my large backpack and take off for the woods for a few days with my sons. We love to fish and hike all day and then sit by a fire and talk at night. Many of my best memories with my sons have been made because of the benefits of warn summer weather. I have also enjoyed watching each of my children play baseball during the warm summer months. I love spending my evenings at the ball fields encouraging my children’s love for the game.

You see, there are endless reasons to love warm weather. I have shared some of mine with you. Now, as summer approaches, it is up to you to enjoy the warm weather in whatever ways you like the best.

Martin Stoleman loves warm weather as much as he loves seeing people become more active and enjoy life to the fullest. See more at www.warmhub.info to learn more about warm weather benefits.

Birds are warm-blooded, bipedal egg-laying vertebrates that are characterized primarily by their physical features of feathers, forelimbs modified as wings, and hollow bones. Birds range largley in size from tiny hummingbirds all the way up to the huge Ostrich. Depending on how you look at it, and what your viewpoints are there are approximately ten thousand different species of living birds. Note the living. there are several others that have become extinct throughout human history. This mass in numbers makes birds the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrates.

Birds are at the majority of times a very differentiated class, with some feeding on nectar, plants, seeds, insects, rodents, fish, carrion, or other birds. Most birds are diurnal, which means that they are active during the day. Some wild birds, such as owls and nightjars, are nocturnal or crepuscular which means that they are active during the night. Several birds will migrate long distances to take advantage of optimal habitats. With that aside there are others that will spend almost all their time at sea. Some birds have the ability to stay up in the air for days at a time, even sleeping while in the air.
All birds have similar characterists:
- Bony beak with no teeth
- Laying of hard-shelled eggs for reproduction
- high metabolic rate
- Light and strong skeleton

Most birds also share the common trait of flight however there are sevaral species of flightless birds, that exist mostly on islands. These are birds that once used to have the ability, but do to adaption have lsost it. A famous flightless bird is the kiwi which exists in New Zealand.

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Bird Spot - www.bird-spot.com, which is the best site on the internet for all bird related information.

The value of the real estate you own, whether it is your personal residence or an investment property, is critical to your mortgage and financial success. If the balance on your mortgage is close to or higher than the value of your property, your real estate is not the financial machine it should be. Therefore, if you want to be successful in real estate ownership of any kind, you absolutely must know how to determine the value of your property.

Now, there may appear to be a simple solution to this problem, you say. Get an appraisal. Sure, this would work, but appraisals are not cheap. For residential property, they begin around $175 and range to $400. For investment real estate, they can be much higher. Imagine owning 25 houses and needing to know the value for each. You certainly wouldn’t want to pay for 25 appraisals. So, here is a simple formula for learning the value of your property.

1. Learn the average rate of appreciation in the neighborhood where the real estate is located. Almost any property will increase in value two to three percent each year, even in depressed areas. So, if your rate of appreciation is three percent and you paid $100,000 last year for your house, it is now worth at least $103,000, based solely on appreciation. You can learn this rate by calling a local realtor. Remember, in affluent neighborhoods, appreciation rates may range from four to eight percent.

2. Estimate the value of any improvements, using a ratio formula. That is, if you improve the structure of the property (new roof, deck, automatic garage doors, windows, etc.), all for about 30 to 40 percent of what you paid for the improvement. Now, this is a variable, depending on location, so don’t take this as an absolute. So, last year I put all new windows in my house. It cost $10,000. I assume I can add $3,000 to $4,000 in value to my house. Cut that ratio to 15 percent for cosmetic improvements like paint, carpeting and landscaping.

3. Know comparable sales within one mile and within the last year. For example, if a house one block away that is almost identical to yours in dimension and style sold last month for $150,000, this is a great starting ground for your value. Now, remember your home may have things the other house didn’t have, increasing your value even more.

4. Other home’s asking price plays a small role. Realtors know their business. If you see a comparable home in the neighborhood, being sold by a realtor, check the listing price. Although not nearly as important as the other parts of the formula, this certainly plays a role in determining the value of your property.

So, use this formula, learn the value of your real estate, and you will wield an amazing amount of financial power.

Mark Barnes is an investment real estate and real estate finance expert. Get his free mortgage finance course at http://www.winningthemortgagegame.com. Mark is also the author of the new novel, The League, a shocking, sports-related conspiracy. Learn more about his suspense thriller at http://www.sportsnovels.com.

I was co-hosting a radio program the other day dedicated to the subject of customer satisfaction.

A caller mentioned that she hated having to stand in line to return items to department stores. I commiserated, but I also pointed out that she shouldn’t show her emotions when she’s standing in line.

The clerks will detect her furor, and they’ll slow down their transactions, hoping she’ll go to a different register, or give up.

I offered another, related tip.

When you reach someone who can help you with your problem, instead of sounding angry or displeased, it pays to manifest a different attitude.

Try curiosity.

For instance, on more than one occasion my charge card payments have arrived late, and huge penalties have been assessed. This bothers me, as it does, you.

Why can’t they get it right?

Anyway, if I come across as angry or in a condescending or haughty way, they blame me for the tardiness, insisting I was late in sending my payments.

If I sound curious, I get better treatment, and any late fees and finance charges are waived. I say:

“I’m a little concerned. I sent in my payment on time but for some reason, it doesn’t seem like you got itwhich is weird!”

“Oh, we got it,” they’ll reply, “but it seems it got here three days after the due date.”

“Wow, that’s unusual!” I’ll say.

“Well, we’ll go ahead and waive it for you.”

Problem over!

You have to try this. I’m sure you’ll get better customer service, and avoid hassles, while saving money.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Fundraising is, without a doubt, extremely challenging work. For any of you with experience in this line of work, you will understand what I mean. For the rest of you, go out and volunteer your time with a local non-profit organization. After that, I think you will understand. While this can be a challenging profession, it continues to be quite rewarding in many respects. This article was drafted with the new fundraising coordinator in mind. So listen up, kids!

There are four major forms of fundraising. When one mentions fundraising to the average person, the image of a well-meaning person going door-to-door begging for support immediately comes to mind. While most of us have been there at some point or other, there is a lot more to this business than meets the eye. And yes, my friends, this is a business. We are in the business of managing relationships; relationships which, more often than not, are the key determining factor for success.

The first major form of fundraising is dealing with institutional grantors. These organizations are often the most difficult to deal with, due to the inherent bureaucratic nature of these types of organizations. On the other hand, grants and endowments from these organizations can often amount to incredible sums of money. For this reason alone, they should not be dismissed. You may have to invest a lot of time and energy into convincing these institutional organizations into supporting your particular cause, and this where the business of managing relationships comes into play. A single grant from one of these groups could secure the future of your non-profit activities.

The next significant form of fundraising is the promotion of special events and product sales. While this area could potentially include thousands of ideas, there is a central theme between them all. What is the donor getting in exchange for their donation? These types of fundraisers are labor intensive, and require a lot of detailed planning. In the case of event planning, spend the majority of your time on ticket sales. While you may want to obsess over every little event detail, it won’t really matter if people do not show up.

Direct marketing is another one of the major fundraising types. This approach includes direct mailings, telemarketing, paid advertising, public service announcements, and door-to-door canvassing. Direct marketing can be extremely effective, as it affords your organization the ability to reach out to a vast number of potential donors. In this area, it is crucially important to have a reliable donor list. There is no point spending resources trying to ask individuals or organizations for donations, if they are not connected with your cause in some way. Be sure that your direct marketing efforts are highly targeted, and you will undoubtedly achieve the desired results.

Last, but not least, we explore the idea of approaching individual donors. This approach is very similar to that of institutional donors, but it is geared towards well-to-do individuals. Individual donors can contribute to your cause in a number of different ways. One area that is common to individual donors is the planned gift. In simple terms, this refers to the choice of an individual to leave a portion of their estate or life insurance policy to your organization. Approaching individual donors should be left to your more experienced team members. As we mentioned before, fundraising is the business of managing relationships. A mentor once told me that “80% of your money should come from 20% of your donors”. Wise words, indeed!

Michelle Pearson is a fundraising professional with over 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She is also a regular contributor to the internet’s preeminent fundraising magazine, fundraisingknowhow.com - a wonderful website with creative fundraising ideas, fundraising books, fundraising tools and more.

The difficulty of physically going to a real life betting hall provides plenty of reasons to drop the idea in the first place. After all, traffic congestion, the difficulty, and to-do lists involved can’t seem worth the exertion for the prospect of placing your bets at real life betting hall, though allowing for this, in case you’re the kind who rather yearns for card-playing then electing to go for virtual games of luck would be a viable alternative. There’s no obligation to abandon the comfort of your home to have a go at online blackjack because everything can be done from your domestic environment provided you own a functional computer plus an internet access account. Nevertheless, don’t get all worked up to soon as there’s a good number of facts that you will want to apprehend regarding online blackjack, notably should you be inexpert in this space.

The topmost thing that your streetwise virtual high roller positively must chase out is an online blackjack site of the category that is prepared to offer top winnings. Make certain the online blackjack site is controlled by an honest accounting company in order to assess their quoted wagers’ pay-outs percentage on a monthly basis. You should ensure the online betting site holds a bona fide license, for example by studying the government operating permit as proffered on the casino site’s About page. If it’s not possible to discover any government operating permit on a given online betting site, do not attempt to place a wager with this establishment. Don’t miss out! Catch the web’s top best online casino and gambling site here.

Moreover, another tip would be to place a wager for a start with lesser sums in lieu of throw away too much on the fly. Check out the security measures of this particular online betting outfit before running any severe injury– notably financial ones… Finally, do mind this particular remark regarding virtual roulette. It is this- always to bear in mind that gambling should be about having fun and less about making a buck. Betting in online casinos isn’t a chore, but a leisure pursuit that ought to help you feel delighted and life as a whole amusing. Thus, having followed the advice above, you can go and bow to the enthrallment of online betting.

Great men are born once in a while. Men are great not because they are born with some attribute of greatness but their deeds make them great and remarkable individuals in history. Such people thus are not born overnight it takes one’s whole lifetime to achieve that success and fame that one only dreamt of. The article throws light on some of the great men who brought revolution in the business world. Their achievements not just brought tremendous credit to their name but are largely beneficial to the multitude.

• The Tobacco Industrialist Washington Duke (1820-1905)- the personal life of this farmer from North Carolina was a sad story for both his wife and son died of the same disease. Adding to the disaster, his cotton crop too failed at the same time. Btu Duke did not let this stop himself from proceeding in life. His life was full of struggle he even became a prisoner of war during the Civil War. Finally the big break that changed his entire life came when he manufactured the popular product ‘tobacco’. The Union Army that was staying in the North Carolina had a great liking for tobacco. Duke’s manufactured tobacco which came to be known as ‘Pro Bono Publico’ was a brilliant sensation that won the heart of all the tobacco lovers very soon. Later Duke also manufactures cigarettes under the name of his company W. Duke, Sons and Company which too was a big hit.

• The inventor of the reaper Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884) has his own place in the B-world. McCormick was the son of a blacksmith who had influenced and helped the people of Shenandoah Valley with his exuberant skill in making agricultural devices. The father made the reaping machine that the son modified extremely and took it to places. The McCormick’s designed inventor was a huge success at his birth place and even when he went abroad. McCormick went to Chicago in 1847 where he opened a factory named the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The factory scaled new heights despite massive competition. McCormick’s device that he had invented and built drastically shrunk the labor and time required to produce grain. Where in 1830 it used to take 20 hours to harvest an acre of wheat, it took just one hour to do so in 1895…all thanks to the great mind behind it- McCormick.

• The industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) needs no introduction in the business market. He was a man who had strived hard against poverty during his childhood. He worked as a bobbin boy and as a telegrapher and also as a superintendent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His petite savings that hye invested in oil, iron and steel during the Civil War fetched him a turning point in his life. in 1880 Carnegie had brought a lot of companies under the Carnegie Steel Company. By 1990 this company produced a fourth of all the steel in United States. Known to be one of the richest men of the world then, Carnegie believed that rich men act as trustees to their wealth and they must administer it in the favor of the public.

• Thomas Edison (1847-1931) perhaps is unknown to none and has his own coveted place in the history. Edison was the man who had about 1100 inventions in his name that have unbeatable use in the world today and then. The man who spent few hours in school, worked as a railroad newsboy was the first to start of a publication typeset and printed on a moving train. The other inventions added to his list are an electronic vote recorder in 1868, quadruplex telegraph in 1874, phonograph, light bulb and a Dictaphone to name a few. But many of these were mere improvements on what a team or so had manufactured and at times he helped others in creating devices. For instance the Dictaphone, working motion picture system that synchronized pictures with sound and the stock ticker were prepared by others under the help and guidance of Edison. He also formed a company that later became General Electric.

• Apart from these the glorious men like George Eastman, Henry Ford, Madam C.J Walker, Joseph Pulitzer and many others have made significant contributions that has greatly helped mankind every now and then

Mansi gupta writes about business greats .Learn more at www.businessgreats.com .

Whereas unusual present giving has its many trends , every now and then it’s Its O.K. to give something that is abnormal. Unusual presents can be just the opportunity you are looking for to be unique. Unusual Presents can switch the ordinary into the stratosphere. You can spot the best circumstances to give unusual presents.

Presents that are unusualsometimes are rare, singular, or even odd. I’m sure by now you are already thinking about many strange and glamorous unusual presents. Though remember at some point you need to keep your head about you and make unusual present purchases. But brainstorming is a great commencement

Commom conformity today, sometimes it’s fun to do something poles apart. From time to time, giving unusual presents at the right time can be entertaining as well. It takes a quick deliberation to outdistance yourself on the same thing time and time again. Therefore providing unusual presents might break the die and make for better and creative presents. Awarding unique presents is enormous pleasure, it might be the variance from all the other presents people collect.

After evaluation, almost certainly you already have some further ideas for unusual presents that could possibly expand on these. Click Here to visit Shodega.com

The 5 star Halkin hotel is located in the heart of Belgravia, approximately 100 metres from Hyde Park Corner tube station. Boasting a total of 41 rooms, the Halkin is the epitome of comfort and luxurious living. En suite facilities are magnificent, huge baths soothe and relax, perfect for contemplating the events of the day and recharging those batteries.

The hotel is within easy reach of Knightsbridge and an abundance of designer shops, restaurants, in fact just about anything that takes your fancy, offering the opportunity to spoil yourself rotten. However, there is no need to dine out; the Halkin hotel boasts an excellent restaurant, almost guaranteed to leave you coming back for more.

Tariffs at the Halkin hotel range from £135 per person per night (based on two sharing) during the months of spring, rising £5 during summer and winter. This includes a full breakfast. The single supplement (if you are staying on your own) means the price doubles. The mid-week (Monday to Thursday) supplement is £37.50 during spring, rising to £58.75 across summer and winter. A deluxe room upgrade is available from £75 per room per night.

West India Quay Marriott Hotel & Executive Apartments 5* (Canary Wharf)

The West India Quay Marriott Hotel exudes grace and charm. With its grand entrance hall and spacious rooms, a stay here will remain long in your memory. Located next to the West India Quay tube station, a trip to the West End is just a short 15 minute hop.

The West India Quay Marriott Hotel is an ingredient of the new development at the celebrated Canary Wharf; its supreme position allows convenient access to museums and leading London attractions.

Tariffs at the West India Quay Marriott Hotel vary from £96.50 per person per night (based on two sharing) during spring, £55 in summer, and £60 during the winter, including a full breakfast. If you are travelling alone, the single person supplement effectively doubles the price. The mid-week (Monday to Thursday) supplement is £32.75 during spring, £91.50 throughout summer, and £86.50 for the duration of winter. Room only rates are available upon request.

Please note all prices are correct at time of writing (December 2005). For reservations call Superbreak on 0870 701 2200. Lines are open 8am - 11pm 7 days a week (excluding Christmas Day).

Steven Cronin owns the Sargas Travel online magazine featuring travel reviews, news, inspiration, advice and special offers. For further reading please visit www.sargas.co.uk

A recently conducted phone survey discloses that choice underclothes are definitely the cosmopolitan on the wish list set to permit both young and elder females to convince themselves they are really ravishing. Being the number one in the exclusive women’s night garments market space, Myla is a famed corporation located in London focused on outfitting both young and elder females to feel enthralling and self-assured in choice lingerie. The Myla list of products spans dream-like garter belts, apart from fishnets, glamorous sleeping garb and, further, high class bed-room dildos.

Solely focused on the absolute in passionate enjoyment the Myla marketing team presents the most stimulating underclothes fashioned in de luxe textile fibers encompassing pure silk, sheer silk chiffon, la frivolité lace and, further, soft mesh. Aiming at flirtatious today’s women you’ll get brassires plus, beyond, skirted hipsters, balconette bras plus, beyond, conforming silk thongs and silk & lace suspenders let alone glamorous playful nightgowns fashioned in sheer silk chiffon and la frivolité lace. Myla’s fabulous range of articles presents shell mesh basques, silk chiffon skirts, sheer chemises and, further, long satin halter pajamas. This, if you’re trying for total dream-like appeal, pick a racy 1/4 cup open bra or that padded plunge bra with corresponding silk chiffon skirts and a suspender topped off with fishnets. Suitable for the bedchamber, you’ll find satin and stays, skirted hipsters, smallclothes, body laces and silk strops.

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