YEN (Young Entrepreneur Of Nepal)

Nepal Tourism Year 2011

2010-04-25T02:39:00.000-07:00

Nepal Tourism YEAR 2011

Federal Democratic Republic Of NEPAL

2010-04-25T02:38:00.000-07:00

UNESCO Nepal
Trekking in Nepal
Nepal Army
Nepal Police
Armed Police Force
UN Nepal
UNICEF Nepal
UNCHR Nepal
UNMIN
ILO Nepal {for more information on NEPAL go to Blog Content April section of this url}

Top Ten Travel Recommendation for 2010

2010-04-25T02:37:00.000-07:00

KYOYO
MOROCCO
SOUTH AFRICA
BULGARIA
ISTANBUL
NEPAL
EL SALVADOR
NICARAGUA
SURINAME
ICELAND

Published in Scotsmsn on Sunday 10 Jan. 2010 by Janet Christie

FIFA World Cup

2010-04-25T02:36:00.001-07:00

The FIFA World Cup, occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of {édération Internationale de Football Association} FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II.

The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).

During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven nations have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.

The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, where an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany. The next World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil.

Global Warming

2010-04-25T02:35:00.001-07:00

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) between the start and the end of the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changecaused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fueldeforestation. The IPCC also concludes that variations in natural phenomena such as solar radiationvolcanic eruptions had a small cooling effect after 1950. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century was very likely burning and and

Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the 21st century. The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the use of models with differing sensitivity to greenhouse gas concentrations and the use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. Most studies focus on the period leading up to the year 2100. However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100 even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects include changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions, and changes in agricultural yields. Warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe, though the nature of these regional variations is uncertain.

Political and public debate continues regarding global warming, its causes and what actions to take in response. The available options are mitigation to reduce further emissions; adaptation to reduce the damage caused by warming; and, more speculatively, geoengineering to reverse global warming. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Weight Loss

2010-04-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

Maintaining a healthy weight is important for a healthy life. Excess weight is a recognized risk factor for many health problems including diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and hypertension. The best way to maintain a healthy weight is to take regular physical exercise and eat foods low in fat. People considered most at risk of developing health problems are those with a high Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is calculated by taking weight in kilograms, and dividing by (height in meters). For people with a BMI of 27 or more, weight loss can be assisted by taking an effective weight loss medicine.

Stock Definition

2010-04-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

> An instrument that signifies an ownership position (called equity) in a corporation, and represents a claim on its proportional share in the corporation's assets and profits. Ownership in the company is determined by the number of shares a person owns divided by the total number of shares outstanding. For example, if a company has 1000 shares of stock outstanding and a person owns 50 of them, then he/she owns 5% of the company. Most stock also provides voting rights, which give shareholders a proportional vote in certain corporate decisions. Only a certain type of company called a corporation has stock; other types of companies such as sole proprietorships and limited partnerships do not issue stock. also called equity or equity securities or corporate stock.

Barclays

2010-04-25T02:32:00.000-07:00

Barclays plc is a British financial services firm operating worldwide. It is a holding company that is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange until 2008. It is also a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Barclays PLC is ranked as the 25th largest company in the world by Forbes Global 2000 (2008 list). According to Datamonitor, by market share, Barclays is the largest financial services provider globally with $3.7 trillion of assets. It is the second largest bank in the United Kingdom and the world based on asset size. Its share price fell by 90% in the year to 23 January 2009, but has recovered substantially, leaving it higher as of 3 September 2009 than it had been a year before.

The bank's headquarters are at One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, in London's Docklands, having moved there in May 2005 from Lombard Street in the City of London.

Ferrari

2010-04-25T02:31:00.000-07:00

Ferrari S.p.A. is a sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929 as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles in 1947 as Ferrari S.p.A.. Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where it has enjoyed great success.

GSM-Mobile

2010-04-25T02:30:00.002-07:00

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile telephony systems in the world. The GSM Association, its promoting industry trade organization of mobile phone carriers and manufacturers, estimates that 80% of the global mobile market uses the standard.^[1] GSM is used by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories.^[2][3] Its ubiquity enables international roaming arrangements between mobile phone operators, providing subscribers the use of their phones in many parts of the world. GSM differs from its predecessor technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital, and thus GSM is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. This also facilitates the wide-spread implementation of data communication applications into the system.

The ubiquity of implementation of the GSM standard has been an advantage to both consumers, who may benefit from the ability to roam and switch carriers without replacing phones, and also to network operators, who can choose equipment from many GSM equipment vendors. GSM also pioneered low-cost implementation of the short message service (SMS), also called text messaging, which has since been supported on other mobile phone standards as well. The standard includes a worldwide emergency telephone number feature (112).

Newer versions of the standard were backward-compatible with the original GSM system. For example, Release '97 of the standard added packet data capabilities by means of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Release '99 introduced higher speed data transmission using Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).

CDMA-Mobile

2010-04-25T02:30:00.001-07:00

Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method utilized by various radio communication technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards called cdma One and CDMA2000CDMA), which use CDMA as an underlying channel access method. (which are often referred to as simply

One of the basic concepts in data communication is the idea of allowing several transmitters to send information simultaneously over a single communication channel. This allows several users to share a bandwidth of different frequencies. This concept is called multiplexing. CDMA employs spread-spectrum technology and a special coding scheme (where each transmitter is assigned a code) to allow multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel. By contrast, time division multiple access (TDMA) divides access by time, while frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) divides it by frequency. CDMA is a form of spread-spectrum signaling, since the modulated coded signal has a much higher data bandwidth than the data being communicated.

An analogy to the problem of multiple access is a room (channel) in which people wish to communicate with each other. To avoid confusion, people could take turns speaking (time division), speak at different pitches (frequency division), or speak in different languages (code division). CDMA is analogous to the last example where people speaking the same language can understand each other, but not other people. Similarly, in radio CDMA, each group of users is given a shared code. Many codes occupy the same channel, but only users associated with a particular code can understand each other.

Bluetooth

2010-04-25T02:29:00.000-07:00

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short length radio waves) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security. Invented by telecoms vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization. Today Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Nokia in brief

2010-04-25T02:28:00.001-07:00

At Nokia, we are committed to connecting people. We combine advanced technology with personalized services that

enable people to stay close to what matters to them. Every day, more than 1.2 billion people connect to one another
with a Nokia device – from mobile phones to advanced smartphones and high-performance mobile computers. Today,
Nokia is integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi (www.ovi.com), including music, maps, apps, email
and more. Nokia's NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens
Networks provides equipment, services and solutions for communications networks globally.

2009 facts and figures
• Head office in Finland; R&D, production, sales, marketing activities around the world
• World’s #1 manufacturer of mobile devices
• Mobile device volumes 432 million units
• Reported net sales EUR 41.0 billion
• Reported operating profit EUR 1.2 billion
• 123 553 employees at year end (including Nokia Siemens Networks)
• Strong R&D presence in 16 countries
• R&D investment EUR 5.9 billion
• 37 020 employees in R&D (approximately 30% of workforce, including Nokia Siemens Networks)
• Sales in over 160 countries

Nokia organization

2010-04-25T02:27:00.001-07:00

• Devices is responsible for developing and managing our portfolio of mobile devices, which we make for all

major consumer segments.

• Services designs and develops Internet services that enrich the experience people have with their mobile

devices and the web. Messaging, music, maps, media as well as Ovi developer tools are key focus areas as we

continue to expand our services offering to consumers and create opportunities for developers and content

providers.

• Solutions is responsible for driving Nokia's offering of solutions, where the mobile device, personalized

services and content are integrated into a unique and compelling package for the consumer. The unit is tasked

with concepting and creating such solutions.

• Markets manages our supply chains, sales channels, brand and marketing activities and is responsible for

delivering our devices, services and solutions to the consumer.

• Corporate Development provides operational support to Devices, Services, Solutions and Markets, and is also

responsible for exploring corporate strategic and future growth opportunities.

• Nokia Siemens Networks provides wireless and fixed network infrastructure, communications and networks

service platforms, as well as professional services to operators and service providers.

• NAVTEQ is a leading provider of comprehensive digital map data for automotive navigation systems, mobile

navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. NAVTEQ's

map data will be an important part of the Nokia Maps service that brings downloadable maps, voice-guided

navigation and other context-aware web services to people's pockets.

Wikipedia

2010-04-25T02:26:00.001-07:00

Wikipedia (pronounced /ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdi.ə/ WIK-i-PEE-dee-ə) is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly-editable model. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles (except in certain cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption and/or vandalism). Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or with their real identity, if they choose, though the latter is discouraged for safety reasons. The Wikipedia community has developed many policies and guidelines to improve the encyclopedia; however, it is not a formal requirement to be familiar with them before contributing. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference web sites, attracting nearly 68 million visitors monthly as of January 2010. There are more than 91,000 active contributors working on more than 15,000,000 articles in more than 270 languages. As of today, there are 3,270,934 articles in English. Every day, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world collectively make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to augment the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
Every contribution may be reviewed or changed. The expertise or qualifications of the user are usually not considered. This is possible since Wikipedia's intent is to cover existing knowledge which is verifiable from other sources; original research and ideas are therefore excluded. People of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles as most of the articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet simply by clicking the edit this page link (found at the top of every editable page). Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references, or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. Substandard or disputed information is subject to removal. Users need not worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors is always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.
Because Wikipedia is a massive live collaboration, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles more frequently contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on historic events within hours, minutes, or even seconds, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.

The Definition of Online Recruitment

2010-04-25T02:24:00.002-07:00

Online recruitment is the process of matching people to appropriate jobs, using the Internet. The most common form of online recruitment is the advertisement of job openings on job sites and corporate sites. Online Recruitment may generate a lot of responses, but simply attracting large numbers of potential candidates is only part of the online recruitment process.

Reach

Posting job vacancies on the Internet reaches a wider audience than posting advertising vacancies in print media. When a message is delivered to a larger number of people, there is a higher likelihood that some of the respondents will be ideal for a particular job. But it also means that an effective sorting tool must be in place to determine which candidates are ideal, because manually sorting through the hundreds of applications will be time-consuming and expensive.

Speed

It is theoretically possible to interview prospects within a day of advertising the job online. This speed is a boon for companies that experience seasonal bursts of activity, needing to recruit staff for the extra workload, and to cover for sickness and staff shortages, in as little as 48 hours.

Cost

Online recruitment may be very cost-effective if the process is planned. Job suppliers can save on time, design and print charges by selecting specific platforms (websites) for the vacancy advertisements. With proper research and planning, companies may learn which websites are likely to attract audience groups that the company is looking to hire from. Along with the initial advertising process, companies can also cut costs by automating pre-selection processes that would otherwise have to be carried out by HR personnel.

Media Buying

Media buying entails getting someone to place the job vacancy advertisements on desired websites, and to negotiate the media rates. Online media buying may be a tricky affair if the advertiser does not understand the market for the message being delivered; for example, a vacancy advertisement for a hairstylist is not likely to attract suitable candidates if it is posted in a site mainly known for hardware specialists. The main objective of efficient media buying is to ensure that the ad yields an adequate number of suitable candidates, rather than a large number of unsuitable candidates.

Interaction

Online recruitment allows for appropriate interaction with candidates. Since the process is personal and direct, questions are addressed quickly, and there is unimpeded flow of information from both sides. Online recruitment brings employers close to potential employees, and when an application is not suitable for the position applied for, companies can retain the resume in their database for future openings that may be right for the applicant.

Definition of music

2010-04-25T02:24:00.001-07:00

How to define music has long been the subject of debate; philosophers, musicians, and, more recently, various social and natural scientists have argued about what constitutes music. The definition has varied through history, in different regions, and within societies. Definitions vary as music, like art, is a subjectively perceived phenomenon. Its definition has been tackled by philosophers of art, lexicographers, composers, music critics, musicians, semioticians or semiologists, linguists, sociologists, and neurologists. Music may be defined according to various criteria including organization, pleasantness, intent, social construction, perceptual processes and engagement, universal aspects or family resemblances, and through contrast or negative definition.

Guinness World Records

2010-04-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records (and in previous U.S.The Guinness Book of World Records), is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. The book itself held a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series of all-time. It is also one of the most stolen books from public libraries in the United States. editions as

On 4 May 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Breweries, went on a shooting party in North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. He became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the koshin golden plover or the grouse. That evening at Castlebridge House he realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird.

Beaver’s idea became reality when Guinness employee Christopher Chataway recommended student twins Norris and Ross McWhirter, who had been running a fact-finding agency in London. The brothers were commissioned to compile what became The Guinness Book of Records in August 1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away.

After founding the Guinness Book of Records at 107 Fleet Street, the first 197-page edition was bound on 27 August 1955 and went to the top of the British bestseller lists by Christmas. "It was a marketing give away—it wasn't supposed to be a money maker," said Beaver. The following year it was launched in the U.S., and it sold 70,000 copies.

After the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year, published in October to coincide with Christmas sales. The McWhirters continued to publish it and related books for many years. Both brothers had an encyclopedic memory — on the TV series Record Breakers, based upon the book, they would take questions posed by children in the audience on various world records, and would usually be able to give the correct answer. Ross McWhirter was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975. Following McWhirter's assassination, the feature in the show where questions about records posed by children were answered was called "Norris on the Spot".

Guinness World Records Limited was formed in 1954 to publish the first book.

Sterling Publishing owned the rights to the Guinness book in the 1970s and under their management, the book became a household name in the USA.

The group was owned by Guinness Brewery and subsequently Diageo until 2001, when it was purchased by Gullane Entertainment. Gullane was itself purchased by HiT Entertainment in 2002. In 2006, Apax Partners purchased HiT and subsequently sold Guinness World Records in early 2008 to the Jim Pattison Group, which is also the parent company of Ripley Entertainment, which is licensed to operate Guinness World Records' Attractions. With offices in New York and Tokyo, Guinness World Records global headquarters remain in London, while its museum attractions are based at Ripley headquarters in Orlando, Florida.

Western Union

2010-04-25T02:22:00.000-07:00

Western Union offers one of the easiest ways for families and friends to send money and stay connected almost anywhere in the world. It all comes down to the relationships we've established over many years. We take pride in being close to our consumers. Together with our Agents, we speak our consumers' languages and live in our consumers' neighborhoods. And we share our consumers' cultures. We are a significant part of each other's lives.

As a result, our Agents and employees are more like ambassadors. They are ambassadors of trust. Ambassadors of responsibility. And ambassadors of hope. They are the living, breathing manifestation of who we are as a company and everything we stand for:

Integrity. Partnership. Opportunity. Passion. Teamwork.

The Internet

2010-04-25T02:20:00.000-07:00

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

Most traditional communications media, such as telephone and television services, are reshaped or redefined using the technologies of the Internet, giving rise to services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IPTV. Newspaper publishing has been reshaped into Web sites, blogs, and web feeds. The Internet has enabled or accelerated the creation of new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking sites.

The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life.

The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own standards. Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.

VoIP

2010-04-25T02:18:00.000-07:00

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VOIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.

Internet telephony refers to communications services — voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications — that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone call are conversion of the analog voice signal to digital format and compression/translation of the signal into Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.

VOIP systems employ session control protocols to control the set-up and tear-down of calls as well as audio codecs which encode speech allowing transmission over an IP network as digital audio via an audio stream. Codec use is varied between different implementations of VOIP (and often a range of codecs are used); some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs.

Web site (or website)

2010-04-25T02:16:00.000-07:00

A collection of interlinked web pages with a related topic, usually under a single domain name, which includes an intended starting file called a "home page". From the home page, you can get to all the other pages on the website. Also called a "web presence".

Love

2010-04-25T02:14:00.000-07:00

Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

The World's Highest Mountains

2010-01-26T22:17:00.000-08:00

1. Everest, Nepal 29,035
2. K2 (Mount Godwin Austen), Pakistan/China 28,250
3. Kangchenjunga, Nepal 28,169
4. Lhotse, Nepal 27,940
5. Makalu, Nepal 27,766
6. Cho Oyu, Nepal/Tibet 26,906
7. Dhaulagiri, Nepal 26,795
8. Manaslu,Nepal 26,781
9. Nanga Parbat, Pakistan 26,660
10. Annapurna, Nepal 26,545

The Himalaya

2010-01-26T22:16:00.001-08:00

The Himalaya Range (Sanskrit: literally, "abode of snow", हिमालय, IPA pronunciation: [hɪ'mɑlijə]), or Himalayas for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. By extension, it is also the name of a massive mountain system that includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and other, lesser, ranges that extend out from the Pamir Knot.
Together, the Himalayan mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks, the Eight-thousanders, which include Mount Everest and K2. To comprehend the enormous scale of this mountain range, consider that Aconcagua, in the Andes, at 6,962 metres (22,841 ft) is the highest peak outside Asia, whereas the Himalayan system includes over 100 mountains exceeding 7,200 m (23,622 ft).[1]
The Himalayan system, which includes outlying subranges, stretches across six countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, People's Republic of China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Yangtze, rise in the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to some 1.3 billion people, including the people of Bangladesh. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia; many Himalayan peaks are sacred in both Hinduism and Buddhism.
The main Himalaya range runs, west to east, from the Indus river valley to the Brahmaputra river valley, forming an arc 2,400 km (1,491 mi) long, which varies in width from 400 km (249 mi) in the western Kashmir-Xinjiang region to 150 km (93 mi) in the eastern Tibet-Arunachal Pradesh region. The range consists of three coextensive sub-ranges, with the northern-most, and highest, known as the Great or Inner Himalayas.

MOUNT EVEREST FACTS

2010-01-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

Age of Everest:
Everest was formed about 60 million years ago

Elevation:
29,035 (8850m)-found to be 6' higher in 1999

Name in Nepal:
Sagarmatha (means: goddess of the sky)

In Tibet:
Chomolungma: (means: mother goddess of the universe)

Named after:
Sir George Everest in 1865 ,the British surveyor-general of India. Once known as Peak 15

Location:
Latitude 27° 59' N.....Longitude 86° 56' E It's summit ridge seperates Nepal and Tibet

First Ascent:
May 29,1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ and Tenzing Norgay, NP, via the South Col Route

First Solo Ascent:
Aug. 20,1980, Reinhold Messner, IT, via the NE Ridge to North Face

First winter Ascent:
Feb. 17,1980 -L.Cichy and K. Wielicki, POL

First Ascent by an American:
May 1,1963, James Whittaker, via the South-Col
Mt. Everest rises a few milimeters each year due to geological forces

Everest Name:
Sir George Everest was the first person to record the height and location of Mt. Everest, this is where Mt."Everest" got its name from(In american language)

First Ascent by a Woman:
May 16,1975, Junko Tabei, JAP, via the South-Col

First Ascent by an American Woman:
Sep.29,1988, Stacey Allison, Portland, OR via the South-East Ridge

First Oxygenless Ascent:
May 8, 1978- Reinhold Messner, IT, and Peter Habeler, AUT, via the South-East Ridge
First woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest from both north & south sides:
Cathy O'Dowd (S.A.) South May 25,1996/North '99
Fastest Ascent from South:
Babu Chhiri Sherpa 34, NP-16 hours and 56 minutes (5-21-2000)
Fastest Ascent (north side):
Hans Kammerlander (IT) May,24,1996, via the standard North Col Ridge Route, 16 hours 45 minutes from base camp

Youngest person:
Temba Tsheri (NP) 15 on May,22,2001

Oldest Person:
Sherman Bull May,25,2001 -64 yrs

First Legally Blind Person:
Erik Weihenmeyer May,25,2001

Most Ascents:
Eleven, 24th May 2000 Appa Sherpa became the first person to climb Everest 11 times-Ten, Ang Rita Sherpa, Babu Chiri Sherpa all ascents were oxygen-less.

Best and Worst Years on Everest:
1993, 129 summitted and eight died (a ratio of 16:1); in 1996, 98 summitted and 15 died (a ratio of 6½:1)

Highest cause cause of death:
Avalanches-about a (2:1) ratio over falls

Country with most deaths on mountain:
Nepal-46

Most dangerous area on mountain:
Khumbu Ice Fall-19 deaths

First ski descent:
Davo Karnicar (Slovenia) 10-7-2000

Last year without ascent:
1974

Last year without ascent:
1977

Corpses remaining on Everest:
about 120

Longest stay on top:
Babu Chiri Sherpa stayed at the summit full 21 hours and a half

Largest team:
In 1975, China tackled Everest with a 410-member team.

Fastest descent:
In 1988, Jean-Marc Boivin of France descended from the top in just 11 minutes, paragliding.
Only climber to climb all 4 sides of Everest:
Kushang Sherpa, now an instructor with Himlayan Mountaineering Institute

First person to hike from sea level to summit, no oxygen.:
11th May 1990,Tim Macartney-Snape, Australian

Largest number to reach the top in one day:
40, on May 10, 1993

First person to summit Everest twice:
Nawang Gombu-Nepal(once with Whitaker in '63,and again two years later in '65)Gombu now works for the Himalayan mountaineering institute

The oldest woman to summit
Anna Czerwinska May 22, 2000.

Travel and Tourism

2010-01-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited". Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. International tourism receipts grew to US$944 billion (euro 642 billion) in 2008, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 1.8%.
As a result of the Late-2000s recession, international travel demand suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008, with growth in international tourism arrivals worldwide falling to 2% during the boreal summer months, and this negative trend intensified as international tourist arrivals fell by 8% during the first four months of 2009. Thereafter this declining trend was exacerbated in some regions due to the outbreak of the influenza AH1N1 virus.
Tourism is vital for many countries, such as the U.A.E, Egypt, Greece and Thailand, and many island nations, such as The Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives and the Seychelles, due to the large intake of money for businesses with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism. These service industries include transportation services, such as airlines, cruise ships and taxis, hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts, and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, various music venues and the theatre.

Resort

2010-01-26T22:05:00.002-08:00

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company. Such a self-contained resort attempts to provide for most of a vacationer's wants while remaining on the premises, such as food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping. The term "resort" sometimes is misused to identify a hotel that does not provide the other amenities required of a full resort. However, a hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan. A resort is not merely a commercial establishment operated by a single company, although in the late twentieth century this sort of facility became more common.
Towns that contain resorts—or where tourism or vacationing is a major part of the local activity—are often called resort towns. Towns such as Sochi in Russia, Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, Barizo of Spain, Cortina d'Ampezzo of Italy, Druskininkai of Lithuania, Nice or French Riviera of France or Newport, Rhode Island or St. Moritz, Switzerland, or larger regions, like the Adirondack Mountains or the Italian Riviera are well known resorts. The Walt Disney World Resort is a prominent example of a modern, self-contained commercial resort. Resorts exist throughout the world, increasingly attracting visitors from around the globe. Thailand, for instance, has become a popular destination. Resorts are especially prevalent in Central America and the Caribbean. Closely related to resorts are convention and large meeting sites. Generally these occur in cities where special meeting halls, together with ample accommodations as well as varied dining and entertainment are provided.

Motel

2010-01-26T22:05:00.001-08:00

A motel is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having direct access to an open parking area.
Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, a portmanteau of motor and hotel or motorists' hotel, referred initially to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and, in some circumstances, a common area; or a series of small cabins with common parking. As the United States highway system began to develop in the 1920s, long distance road journeys became more common and the need for inexpensive, easily accessible overnight accommodation sited close to the main routes, led to the growth of the motel concept.

Hotel

2010-01-26T22:04:00.001-08:00

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning or climate control. Additional common features found in hotel rooms are a telephone, an alarm clock, a television, and Internet connectivity; snack foods and drinks may be supplied in a mini-bar, and facilities for making hot drinks. Larger hotels may provide a number of additional guest facilities such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare, and have conference and social function services. Hotels rooms are usually numbered to allow guests identify their room.
Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In the United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain stated hours; to avoid this requirement it is not uncommon to come across private hotels which are not subject to this requirement.[citation needed] In Japan, capsule hotels provide a minimized amount of room space and shared facilities.
In the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Ireland (and rarely in some parts of the United States), the word may also refer to a pub or bar and might not offer accommodation. In India, the word may also refer to a restaurant.

Holiday

2010-01-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

A holiday is, in the English-speaking world, a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observation is warranted. Examples of types of holidays include:
-Official or unofficial observances of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations or festivities
-A general leave of absence or vacation from a regular occupation for rest or recreation
-A specific trip or journey for the purposes of recreation or tourism
People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances, or for specific festivals or celebrations. Vacation or holidays are often used spent with friends or family.
A person may take a longer break from work, such as a sabbatical, gap year, or career break.

Company Overview About GOOGLE INC

2010-01-26T21:59:00.001-08:00

Our name
Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin named the search engine they built "Google," a play on the word "googol," the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name reflects the immense volume of information that exists, and the scope of Google's mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Search
When you visit www.google.com or one of more than 150 other Google domains, you can find information in many different languages (and translate between them), check stock quotes and sports scores, find news headlines and look up the address of your local post office or grocery store. You can also find images, videos, maps, patents and much more. With universal search technology, you can often find all of these things combined in one query.
Of course, there is a lot of information in the world that is not yet online, so we're also working to get more of it digitized, such as in Google Books or the Google News Archive. We also know that whenever you search the web you want it to be as fast as possible, with all your favorite websites at your fingertips, so we offer software like Google Toolbar and Google Chrome to help you browse the web quickly and easily.
Search is how Google began, and it's at the heart of what we do today. We devote more engineering time to search than to any other product at Google, because we believe that search can always be improved. We are constantly working to provide you with more relevant results so that you find what you're looking for faster. To that end, we've added services such as personalized search, which tailors results for you if you are signed in to your Google account.
Ads
As a business, Google generates the majority of its revenue by offering advertisers measurable, cost-effective and highly relevant advertising, so that the ads are useful to the people who see them as well as to the advertisers who run them.
Hundreds of thousands of advertisers worldwide use our Google AdWords program to promote their products and services on the web. Advertisers bid in an open and competitive auction to have their ads appear alongside the search results for particular keywords. They can specify the geographic location and time of day for their ads to appear. As a result, people see ads that are so useful and relevant that they become a valuable form of information in their own right.
Since we believe you should know when someone has paid to put a message in front of you, we distinguish ads from search results or other content on a page by labeling them as "sponsored links" or "Ads by Google". We don't sell ad placement in our search results, nor do we allow people to pay for a higher ranking there.
In addition, hundreds of thousands of partners, from bloggers to major online publishers, participate in our Google AdSense program. This program delivers ads from our AdWords advertisers that are relevant to the content or search results on partner sites. The AdSense program enables advertisers to extend the reach of their ad campaigns, improves partners' ability to generate revenue from their content, and delivers relevant ads for their users.
In addition to our core AdWords and AdSense programs, we offer a number of other services to advertisers, including various advertising formats on YouTube, Google TV Ads, as well as online ad serving and management services through DoubleClick. Finally, we aim to make advertising more measurable and efficient with free tools for advertisers such as Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, Insights for Searchand Ad Planner. These tools help advertisers to analyze their campaigns, test them, and make them more efficient and effective.
Apps
We build web applications, or "apps", to make it simpler for people to share information and get things done together. Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs help people communicate and collaborate more easily, whether planning a wedding or building a business itinerary. The information is stored securely online, accessible from any device with a web connection. And because it lives online, it's easy to share with a group of collaborators. Everyone in the group can work on the same material at the same time, even if they're working in different buildings, countries or continents.
Today people want the same ease of use on their work computers that they have on their increasingly powerful personal computers. This is why we offer businesses a suite called Google Apps. It's powerful enough for large enterprises (we use it across all of Google, in fact) but simple enough for mom-and-pop businesses too. We're continually improving Google Apps, so you always have the latest version without worrying about maintenance or upgrades. And it's much less expensive than most traditional software. Google Apps is designed to fit the way people naturally live, work and socialize, so they can focus on what they're doing rather than worrying about maintaining the software.
We built Google Apps from the ground up for today's connected world. Our infrastructure is designed to keep our users' data safe and secure and to make our apps fast and responsive. We firmly believe that on the web, your data belongs to you, and should be portable: when you use Google Apps, you can export your mail, documents, photos or calendar entries whenever you like.
Mobile
You should be able to access all of Google's services wherever you are – even if you don't have a computer nearby. We make it easy for you to use your favorite Google products, from Google Maps to YouTube, right from your phone. As mobile devices become increasingly central to people's lives, we work hard to find new and better ways to help you get the information you need when you are on the go.
We're also focused on enabling others to innovate in the mobile space. Working closely with the Open Handset Alliance, we developed Android, the world's first fully open platform that any mobile developer can use and any hardware manufacturer can install on a device. Android was built with the web in mind, and we believe that it will help drive innovation so that more people can use better and cheaper mobile devices to access the Internet.
The road ahead
A lot has changed since the first Google search engine appeared. We have grown and expanded our offerings from a single service to dozens, often in as many languages. We now have thousands of employees and offices around the world. But some things haven't changed: our dedication to our users and our belief in the possibilities of the Internet itself.

Key Facts About 2009 H1N1 Flu Vaccine

2010-01-26T21:57:00.001-08:00

A flu vaccine is the single best way to protect against influenza illness. This season, there is a seasonal flu vaccine to protect against seasonal flu viruses and a 2009 H1N1 vaccine to protect against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus (sometimes called “swine flu”).
This page contains information about the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine.
There are two kinds of 2009 H1N1 vaccines being produced:
A 2009 H1N1 "flu shot" — an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The indications for who can get the 2009 H1N1 flu shot are the same as for seasonal flu shots. The flu shot is approved for use in people 6 months of age and older, including healthy people, people with chronic medical conditions and pregnant women. The same manufacturers who produce seasonal flu shots are producing 2009 H1N1 flu shots for use in the United States this season. The 2009 H1N1 flu shot is being made in the same way that the seasonal flu shot is made.

2. The 2009 H1N1 nasal spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for "live attenuated influenza vaccine"). The indications for who can get the 2009 H1N1 nasal spray vaccine are the same as for seasonal nasal spray vaccine. LAIV is approved for use in healthy* people 2 years to 49 years of age who are not pregnant. The nasal spray vaccine for use in the United States is being made by MedImmune, the same company that makes the seasonal nasal spray vaccine called “FluMist®.” The 2009 H1N1 nasal spray vaccine is being made in the same way as the seasonal nasal spray vaccine.
About 2 weeks after vaccination, antibodies that provide protection against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus infection will develop in the body.
The 2009 H1N1 vaccine will not protect against seasonal influenza viruses.
The vaccine for 2009 H1N1 flu will be the same for the entire 2009-2010 influenza season, which extends into the spring of 2010. The "2009" in the name only relates to the year the virus was first identified; it does not have to do with how long the vaccine will work or the year in which it should be administered. The 2009 H1N1 strain is not included in the 2009-2010 seasonal flu vaccine because it was identified after manufacturers had started making the seasonal flu vaccine.
Initial Target Groups Are
When vaccine is first available, ACIP recommends that programs and providers administer vaccine to people in the following five target groups (order of target groups does not indicate priority):
pregnant women,
people who live with or provide care for infants younger than 6 months (e.g., parents, siblings, and day care providers),
health care and emergency medical services personnel,
people 6 months through 24 years of age (especially those with higher risk for influenza-related complications like children younger than 5 years and those who have high risk medical conditions), and,
people 25 years through 64 years of age who have certain medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.
Vaccines to protect against H1N1 is available; however, initial supplies are limited. Because the amount of vaccine available at first is small and demand is high, the ACIP has made recommendations regarding which people within the groups listed above should be prioritized
Once the demand for vaccine for the target groups has been met at the local level, ACIP recommends that programs and providers begin vaccinating everyone from the ages of 25 through 64 years. Current studies indicate that the risk for infection among persons 65 and older is less than the risk for younger age groups. However, once vaccine demand among younger age groups has been met, ACIP recommends that programs and providers should offer vaccination to people 65 or older.

Vaccine Side Effects

2010-01-26T21:56:00.001-08:00

The same side effects typically associated with the seasonal flu shot and the seasonal nasal spray vaccine are expected with the 2009 H1N1 flu shot and 2009 H1N1 nasal spray vaccine.
These are:
The flu shot: The viruses in the flu shot are killed (inactivated), so you cannot get the flu from a flu shot. Some minor side effects that could occur are:
Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given
Fever (low grade)
Aches
If these problems occur, they begin soon after the shot, are usually mild, and usually last 1 to 2 days. Almost all people who receive influenza vaccine have no serious problems from it. However, on rare occasions, flu vaccination can cause serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions.
The nasal spray: The viruses in the nasal-spray vaccine are weakened and do not cause severe symptoms often associated with influenza illness. (In clinical studies, transmission of vaccine viruses to close contacts has occurred only rarely.)In children, side effects from LAIV can include:
runny nose
wheezing
headache
vomiting
muscle aches
fever
In adults, side effects from LAIV can include
runny nose
headache
sore throat
cough

2012 Phenomenon

2010-01-26T21:48:00.001-08:00

The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs which posit that cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21 or December 23, 2012, which is said to be the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar. These beliefs may derive in part from archaeoastronomical speculation,[3] alternative interpretations of mythology, numerological constructions, or alleged prophecies from extraterrestrial beings.
A New Age interpretation of this transition posits that, during this time, the planet and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Conversely, some believe that the 2012 date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe.
Scholars of various stripes have disputed the idea that a catastrophe will happen in 2012, suggesting that predictions of impending doom are found neither in classic Maya accounts nor in contemporary science. Mainstream Mayanist scholars argue that the idea that the Long Count calendar "ends" in 2012 misrepresents Maya history.[2][7] To the modern Maya, 2012 is largely irrelevant, and classic Maya sources on the subject are scarce and contradictory, suggesting that there was little if any universal agreement among them about what, if anything, the date might mean.
Meanwhile, astronomers and other scientists have rejected the apocalyptic forecasts, on the grounds that the anticipated events are precluded by astronomical observations, or are unsubstantiated by the predictions that have been generated from these findings. NASA likens fears about 2012 to those about the Y2K bug in the late 1990s, suggesting that an adequate analysis should stem fears of disaster.

Volcano

2010-01-26T21:44:00.000-08:00

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, ash and gases to escape from below the surface. The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano island off Sicily which in turn, was named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together. By contrast, volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another. Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust (called "non-hotspot intraplate volcanism"), such as in the African Rift Valley, the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and the Rio Grande Rift in North America and the European Rhine Graben with its Eifel volcanoes.
Volcanoes can be caused by mantle plumes. These so-called hotspots, for example at Hawaii, can occur far from plate boundaries. Hotspot volcanoes are also found elsewhere in the solar system, especially on rocky planets and moons.

Tsunami

2010-01-26T21:43:00.001-08:00

A tsunami (津波?) (English pronunciation: /(t)suːˈnɑːmi/) is a series of water waves (called a tsunami wave train[1]) that is caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean. The original Japanese term literally translates as "harbor wave." Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; approximately 195 events have been recorded.[2] Due to the immense volumes of water and energy involved, tsunamis can devastate coastal regions. Casualties can be high because the waves move faster than humans can run.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (detonations of nuclear devices at sea), landslides and other mass movements, bolide impacts, and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.
The Greek historian Thucydides was the first to relate tsunami to submarine earthquakes,[3][4] but understanding of tsunami's nature remained slim until the 20th century and is the subject of ongoing research. Many early geological, geographical, and oceanographic texts refer to tsunamis as "seismic sea waves."
Some meteorological conditions, such as deep depressions that cause tropical cyclones, can generate a storm surge, called a meteotsunami, which can raise tides several metres above normal levels. The displacement comes from low atmospheric pressure within the centre of the depression. As these storm surges reach shore, they may resemble (though are not) tsunamis, inundating vast areas of land. Such a storm surge inundated Burma (Myanmar) in May 2008.

Earthquake

2010-01-26T21:38:00.000-08:00

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor, or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The moment magnitude (or the related and mostly obsolete Richter magnitude) of an earthquake is conventionally reported, with magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes being mostly imperceptible and magnitude 7 causing serious damage over large areas. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale.
At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacing the ground. When a large earthquake epicenter is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes can also trigger landslides and occasionally volcanic activity.
In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event — whether a natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans — that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear experiments. An earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The term epicenter refers to the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter.

Google AdSense Application form

2009-11-19T04:14:00.000-08:00

Google AdSense is a free program that enables website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads and earn. {View Form}

Free Website

2009-11-19T04:13:00.000-08:00

Internet users now it’s time to have your own website. Create a blog. It’s FREE. {Sign up Now with your Google Account}

Google AdSense recently updated their standard AdSense Terms and Conditions

2009-11-19T04:12:00.002-08:00

Google AdSense recently updated their standard AdSense Terms and Conditions document after a gap of more than two years. The last significant update was made in November 2005.
There are some significant changes in AdSense Terms like you can now have a search box on pages that have no other content, your AdSense earnings could go to charity if you are inactive for a long time, you may show ads on 404 pages and so on.
Here’s an exact summary of the recent changes in the AdSense Terms and Conditions document (or download this side-by-side guide):
1. You can display Google AdSense ads and Referral buttons on error pages and registration pages as the following line is now deleted from AdSense terms.
[Deleted - Prohibited Uses] (You shall not) display any Ad(s), Link(s), or Referral Button(s) on any error page, on any registration or “thank you” page (e.g., a page that thanks a user after he/she has registered with the applicable Web site), on any chat page, in any email*.
*this may be a hint that AdSense for Email program is in the pipeline.
2. You may place the AdSense for Search box on web pages that have no other content.
[Deleted - AdSense for Search] Each Web page(s) that contains a Google Search Box must also contain other content related to Your Site.
3. You may place Google ads associated with multiple AdSense accounts on the same web page.
[Deleted - AdSense for Content] You agree that while You may display more than one (1) Ad Unit on each Site Web page, You shall not display any Ad Unit on a page that contains Ads associated with another Google AdSense customer (e.g., Your Web hosting company), unless authorized to do so by Google.
4. AdSense Referral products (like Firefox, Google Pack, etc) can be placed on web pages that contain no other content.
[Deleted - Referrals]: Each Web page(s) that contains a Referral Button must also contain other content related to Your Site.
5. If you are participating in any of the beta AdSense features (like AdSense for RSS Feeds), you should not talk about them on your blog.
[Added - General Beta Features]: You shall not disclose to any third party any information from Beta Features, existence of non-public Beta Features or access to Beta Features.
6. You can now have ads from other contextual advertising networks alongside AdSense. Similarly, you may have other site search from other providers in addition to Google.
[Deleted - General]: If You have elected to receive content or Site-based Ads, You further agree not to display on any Serviced Page any non-Google content-targeted advertisement(s). If You have elected to receive Search Results on any Site(s), You agree that Google will be the exclusive provider of Internet search services on such Site(s).
7. If your AdSense account is inactive, Google may donate your accumulated earnings to charity.
[Added - Payment]: You acknowledge and agree that Google may, without further notice to You, contribute to a charitable organization selected by Google all funds, payments and other amounts related to the AdSense Program that are held by Google and that are due to you (if any), but which Google is unable to pay or deliver to You because Your account is Inactive.
8. AdSense Publishers probably need to add a new privacy policy to their website disclosing information about ad cookies to visitors.
[Added - Program Participation] You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
Important: If you are an AdSense Publisher, you are required to accept these new AdSense Terms and Conditions before May 25, 2008 else you may not be able to continue using your Google AdSense account.
Disclaimer: The above is based on my understanding of the AdSense terms document. I may have misinterpreted some of the lines so please consult your AdSense rep before taking the next step.
Source: http://www.labnol.org/

AdSense Terms and Conditions

2009-11-19T04:12:00.001-08:00

The Terms and Conditions vary according to the country where your billing address is located. Please choose your billing country below to view the appropriate Terms and Conditions. {Go to Official url for Country wise terms}

Improve traffic with Google Webmaster Tools

2009-11-19T04:11:00.002-08:00

Welcome to your one-stop shop for webmaster resources that will help you with your crawling and indexing questions, introduce you to offerings that can enhance and increase traffic to your site, and connect you with your visitors. {View More}

For Advertisers: Google AdWords

2009-11-19T04:11:00.001-08:00

Google Advertising Programs

Reach people when they are actively looking for information about your products and services online, and send targeted visitors directly to what you are offering. With AdWords cost-per-click pricing, it's easy to control costs—and you only pay when people click on your ad. {View More}

For Web Publishers: Google AdSense

2009-11-19T04:10:00.002-08:00

Earn more revenue from your website, while providing visitors with a more rewarding online experience. Google AdSense™ automatically delivers text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content—ads so well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them useful. And when you add Google WebSearch to your site, AdSense delivers targeted ads to your search results pages too. With AdSense you earn more ad revenue with minimal effort—and no additional cost. {View More}

About Google Inc.

2009-11-19T04:10:00.001-08:00

Google is World’s number one website and Google offers many services to internet users Worldwide. {View More}

Get a fast, free web browser- Google Chrome

2009-11-19T04:09:00.003-08:00

Google Chrome runs web pages and applications with lightning speed. {Download Google Chrome}

Google Earth

2009-11-19T04:09:00.001-08:00

Google Earth offers maps and satellite images for complex or pinpointed regional searches. {Download}

Google Translate

2009-11-19T04:08:00.002-08:00

Translate text, webpages and documents with Google Translate
Google's free online language translation service instantly translates text and web pages. This translator supports: English, Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, ... {View More}

Google Voice

2009-11-19T04:08:00.001-08:00

Google Voice offers; Voicemail like email, call routing transcription and many more. All for free. {View More}

Google Books

2009-11-19T04:07:00.004-08:00

Google's collection of digitized books includes a large number of books related to Old English literature and language. Users can search for books by authors.
Google has reached a groundbreaking agreement with authors and publishers. {View More}

About Google Wave

2009-11-19T04:07:00.003-08:00

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversationand a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. {View More}

Google Scholar

2009-11-19T04:07:00.001-08:00

What is Google Scholar? Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.
Features of Google Scholar
· Search diverse sources from one convenient place
· Find articles, theses, books, abstracts or court opinions
· Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
· Learn about key scholarly literature in any area of research
How are documents ranked?Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature. {View More}

Google Products

2009-11-19T04:06:00.004-08:00

Google Inc offers more Google Products for you. {View More}

Google Images

2009-11-19T04:06:00.003-08:00

Google Images

Google Videos

2009-11-19T04:06:00.001-08:00

Google Videos

Google Maps

2009-11-19T04:05:00.003-08:00

Google Maps

Google News

2009-11-19T04:05:00.001-08:00

Google News

Google Product Search

2009-11-19T04:04:00.000-08:00

Google Product Search

Google Privacy

2009-11-19T04:03:00.000-08:00

At Google, we are keenly aware of the trust you place in us and our responsibility to protect your privacy. As part of this responsibility, we let you know what information we collect when you use our products and services, why we collect it and how we use it to improve your experience.
The Privacy Center was created to provide you with easy-to-understand information about our products and policies to help you make more informed choices about which products you use, how to use them, and what information you provide to us. {View More}

Influenza

2009-09-05T07:00:00.001-07:00

Influenza, also known as flu, contagious infection primarily of the respiratory tract. Influenza is sometimes referred to as grippe. Influenza is caused by a virus transmitted from one person to another in droplets coughed or sneezed into the air. It is characterized by coldlike symptoms plus chills, fever, headaches, muscle aches, and fatigue. Most people recover completely in about a week. But some people are vulnerable to complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia. This group includes children with asthma, people with heart or lung disease, and the elderly. In the United States, people age 65 and older account for about 90 percent of influenza-associated deaths.

Because influenza is highly contagious and spreads easily, it usually appears as epidemics—that is, outbreaks involving many people. If an outbreak spreads around the world—not uncommon in this age of rapid international travel—it is called a pandemic.

Many millions of people develop the flu each year. In most years less than 1 percent of those infected die. Nonetheless, this translates into large numbers. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that influenza causes more than 20,000 deaths in the United States each year; combined, influenza and pneumonia are among the nation’s ten leading causes of death. During epidemics and pandemics, death rates soar. The influenza pandemic that occurred between 1918 and 1919—the worst on record—killed about 500,000 people in the United States and more than 20 million people worldwide.

Influenza Types

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The word influenza is derived from the Latin word influentia. Italians in the early 16th century first applied the word influenza to outbreaks of any epidemic disease because they blamed such outbreaks on the influence of heavenly bodies. The first known use of the name specifically for the flu occurred in 1743 when an epidemic swept through Rome and its environs.

Today scientists know that members of the family Orthomyxoviridae, a group of viruses that infect vertebrate animals, cause influenza. The virus consists of an inner core of the genetic material ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protein coat and an outer lipid (fatty) envelope from which project spikes of proteins called hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. These proteins act as antigens—that is, they elicit an immune response in the human or other host organism that the virus invades. In addition to their role as antigens, hemagglutinin enables the virus to bind to and invade cells and neuraminidase allows the virus to move among cells.

There are three types of influenza viruses, known as A, B, and C. Type A, the most dangerous, infects a wide variety of mammals and birds. It causes the most cases of the disease in humans and is the type most likely to become epidemic. Type B infects humans and birds, producing a milder disease that can also cause epidemics. Type C apparently infects only humans. It typically produces either a very mild illness indistinguishable from a common cold or no symptoms at all. Type C does not cause epidemics.

Influenza type A and B viruses continually change. Some changes involve a series of genetic mutations that, over a period of time, cause a gradual evolution of the virus. Called antigenic drift, this process accounts for most of the changes in influenza viruses that occur from one year to the next. Other changes, less common but more injurious, involve abrupt changes in the hemagglutinin or neuraminidase. This type of change is called antigenic shift and results in a new subtype of the virus. Type A viruses undergo both kinds of transformations; influenza type B viruses apparently change only by the process of antigenic drift.

Scientists further differentiate virus subtypes into strains, generally named for the geographic area where they were first detected. For example, the strains that caused the most infections during the 2001-2002 flu season in the Northern Hemisphere were type A New Caledonia and Moscow strains and Type B Sichuan strain.

Once a person has been infected by a specific strain of influenza, he or she has built up immunity to that strain in the form of antibodies. The person’s immune system then can recognize the strain’s hemagglutinin or neuraminidase and attack them if they reappear. The antibodies offer some protection against antigenic drifts, but not against antigenic shifts. Thus, because the viruses continually change, they can cause repeated waves of infection, even among people previously infected.

Scientists do not understand exactly what causes antigenic shifts. One leading theory suggests that a human strain and an animal strain recombine to create a new strain. This strain has the ability to infect humans but has antigens on its surface that are unfamiliar to the human immune system.

Transmission of Influenza

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Influenza viruses pass from person to person mainly in droplets expelled during sneezes and coughs. When a person breathes in virus-laden droplets, the hemagglutinin on the surface of the virus binds to enzymes in the mucous membranes that line the respiratory tract. The enzymes, known as proteases, cut the hemagglutinin in two, which enables the virus to gain entry into cells and begin to multiply. These proteases are common in the respiratory and digestive tracts but not elsewhere, which is why the flu causes primarily a respiratory illness with occasional gastrointestinal symptoms. In the 1990s scientists discovered that some flu strains also can use the enzyme plasmin to cut hemagglutinin. Plasmin is common throughout the body, enabling the flu strains to infect a variety of tissues.

Although an influenza epidemic can occur at any time of year, flu season in temperate regions typically begins with the approach of winter—November in the Northern Hemisphere, April in the Southern Hemisphere. Flu viruses spread more easily during cold weather because people tend to spend more time crowded together in homes and schools, as well as buses, subways, and other places with poor ventilation. An epidemic may be restricted to a town or city or may quickly spread geographically as infected people travel aboard motor vehicles, airplanes, and ships.

Symptoms and Diagnosis for Influenza

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Influenza is an acute disease with a rapid onset and pronounced symptoms. After the influenza virus invades a person’s body, an incubation period of one to two days passes before symptoms appear. Classic symptoms include sore throat, dry cough, stuffed or runny nose, chills, fever with temperatures as high as 39º C (103º F), aching muscles and joints, headache, loss of appetite, occasional nausea and vomiting, and fatigue. For most people flu symptoms begin to subside after two to three days and disappear in seven to ten days. However, coughing and fatigue may persist for two or more weeks.

Death from influenza itself is rare. But influenza can aggravate underlying medical conditions, such as heart or lung disease. Invading influenza viruses produce inflammation in the lining of the respiratory tract, damage that increases the risk that secondary infections will develop. Common complications include bronchitis, sinusitis, and bacterial pneumonia, occurring most frequently in the elderly, people on chemotherapy, and people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or another disease that compromises the immune system. If properly treated, these complications seldom are fatal.

Because influenza is so common and exhibits standard symptoms, doctors often diagnose the illness based on the season and whether flu cases have recently been reported in the area. To prove a diagnosis of influenza in a patient, the virus must be isolated from the person’s nasal or cough secretions or blood and identified under a microscope.

Treatment and Prevention for Influenza

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There is no specific cure for influenza. Recommended treatment usually consists of bed rest and increased intake of nonalcoholic fluids until fever and other symptoms lessen in severity. Certain drugs have been found effective in lessening flu symptoms, but medical efforts against the disease focus chiefly on prevention by means of vaccines that create immunity.

Drugs That Ease Symptoms
Vaccines

Pandemics and Historic Outbreaks

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Evidence suggests that all influenza viruses in mammals, including humans, derived from viruses in wild ducks and other waterfowl. Some of these viruses could have been acquired by humans thousands of years ago. But medical historians know of no clearly identifiable influenza epidemics until large-scale outbreaks occurred in Europe in 1510, 1557, and 1580. The 1580 outbreak also spread into Africa and Asia, making it the first known pandemic. Pandemics have occurred periodically ever since. Major pandemics took place in 1729-1730, 1732-1733, 1781-1782, 1830-1831, 1833, and 1889-1890. The last of these, called the Russian flu because it reached Europe from the east, was the first pandemic for which detailed records are available.

In the 20th century, major pandemics occurred in 1918-1919, 1957-1958, and 1968-1969. The 1918-1919 pandemic was the most destructive in recorded history. It started as World War I (1914-1918) was ending and caused 20 million deaths—twice as many deaths as the war itself. When and where the pandemic began is uncertain, but because Spain experienced the first major outbreak, the disease came to be called the Spanish flu. The virus was exceptionally lethal; many of the deaths were among young adults age 20 to 40, a group usually not severely affected by influenza.

In 1957 a flu outbreak occurred in Guizhou, a province in southwestern China. Within six months, most areas of the world were battling what became known as Asian flu. Before the 1957-1958 pandemic subsided, an estimated 10 to 35 percent of the world’s population had been affected. The overall mortality rate, however, was comparatively low.

About a decade later, a variant of the virus that caused the 1957-1958 pandemic originated in either Guizhou or Yunnan province in southern China. The variant was first isolated and identified in Hong Kong in July 1968. Within a few months, cases of this Hong Kong flu appeared around the world. Hardest hit by the pandemic were children under age 5 and adults aged 45 to 64. In the United States, an estimated 30 million people were infected and there were some 33,000 influenza-related deaths.

No additional pandemics occurred during the 20th century, but public health experts expect that there will be more pandemics in coming years. While scientists do not yet know how to accurately predict flu outbreaks, they have established an international network to track and monitor outbreaks so that health officials can take immediate preventive measures to avoid pandemics. The international network, called FluNet, consists of about 110 influenza centers in more than 80 countries and several World Health Organization (WHO) centers, all linked electronically.

Influenza Research

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By the late 1890s and early 1900s, scientists understood that microorganisms caused disease. Most disease research focused on bacteria, which are large enough to be visible under a light microscope and can be isolated using filters. But technology at the time prevented scientists from identifying a disease-causing agent as small as a virus.

In the 1890s German bacteriologist Richard F. J. Pfeiffer reported that he had identified the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae as the cause of influenza. Further investigation indicated, however, that this bacterium was not always present in people with influenza. Scientists concluded that the Haemophilus influenzae bacterium probably played a role in secondary infections.

Meanwhile, the long-held belief that influenza only occurred in humans was overturned. Around 1930 American bacteriologist Richard E. Shope showed that it was possible to transfer an influenza-like disease from one pig to another. Thereafter scientists chiefly used animals in their research on influenza.

In 1933 English physicians Wilson Smith, Christopher H. Andrewes, and Patrick P. Laidlaw removed secretions from the throat of a human flu victim, filtered out a suspect infectious agent, and injected the material into ferrets. The ferrets then developed influenza, thereby demonstrating that the infectious agent caused influenza. Research performed by other researchers eventually proved that the infectious agent was the influenza A virus. The influenza B virus was isolated in 1940, and the influenza C virus in 1950.

In 1941 scientists demonstrated that a vaccine could control influenza. The first vaccine was developed to protect soldiers during World War II (1939-1945). Early influenza vaccines produced from the 1940s to the mid-1960s were all made from killed viruses, which cannot cause infection. But these early vaccines contained impurities that produced fever, headaches, and other severe side effects. Improved pharmaceutical procedures have made today’s vaccines almost free from impurities, greatly reducing the chance that the vaccines will cause side effects.

Despite these improvements, developing influenza vaccines remains a challenge. Current vaccines do not provide 100 percent protection against influenza, and they can be quickly rendered ineffective by changes in the viruses themselves. Some scientists, believing that vaccines will never be able to completely control influenza, work to expand the number and variety of drugs available to treat the disease once symptoms appear. Until a cure for influenza is discovered, public health officials hope that identifying and reporting new viral strains quickly will result in timely actions that prevent the recurrence of deadly pandemics. Even in best-case scenarios, however, influenza is expected to remain a formidable opponent of human health.

Entrepreneur

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Entrepreneur, one who assumes the responsibility and the risk for a business operation with the expectation of making a profit. The entrepreneur generally decides on the product, acquires the facilities, and brings together the labor force, capital, and production materials. If the business succeeds, the entrepreneur reaps the reward of profits; if it fails, he or she takes the loss.

The Austrian-American economist Joseph A. Schumpeter stressed the role of the entrepreneur as an innovator, the person who develops a new product, a new market, or a new means of production. One important example was Henry Ford. In the industrialized economies of the late 20th century, giant corporations and conglomerates have largely replaced the individual owner-operator. There is still a place for the entrepreneur, however, in small businesses as well as in the developing economies of the Third World nations.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN WEIGHT CONTROL

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The weight-loss goal of most obese dieters is to achieve an ideal weight often defined by celebrities and models in fashion magazines. But research over the last decade indicates that a 5- to 10-percent reduction in body weight is sufficient to significantly improve medical conditions associated with obesity, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and elevated cholesterol levels. These health improvements occur even though patients may still be overweight.
These new weight-loss goals may be difficult for obese people to accept. Obese people often seek weight-loss goals that may be biologically impossible to achieve or, if achieved, cannot be maintained. One study of overweight women found that the average weight goal was a 30 percent reduction in body weight. Yet no obesity treatment produces long-term, maintainable weight losses significant enough for patients to reach this goal. Physicians and commercial weight-loss programs need to help obese people feel successful when more modest reductions in weight and significant improvements in health are achieved, many health experts believe.

OBESITY

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OBESITY, medical condition characterized by storage of excess body fat. The human body naturally stores fat tissue under the skin and around organs and joints. Fat is critical for good health because it is a source of energy when the body lacks the energy necessary to sustain life processes, and it provides insulation and protection for internal organs. But the accumulation of too much fat in the body is associated with a variety of health problems. Studies show that individuals who are overweight or obese run a greater risk of developing diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and some forms of cancer.

MEASURING OBESITY

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The body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to determine desirable body weights. BMI is a measure of an adult’s weight in relation to height, and it is calculated metrically as weight divided by height squared (kg/m2). People with a BMI of 25.0 to 29.9 are considered overweight and people with a BMI of 30 or above are considered obese .

Body mass index only provides a rough estimate of desirable weight, however. Physicians recognize that many other factors besides height affect weight. Weight alone may not be an indicator of fat, as in the case of a bodybuilder who may have a high BMI because of a high percentage of muscle tissue, which weighs more than fat. Likewise, a person with a sedentary lifestyle may be within a desirable weight range but have excess fat tissue. In general, however, the higher the BMI, the greater the risk for developing serious medical conditions.

CAUSES OF OBESITY

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A calorie is the unit used to measure the energy value of food and the energy used by the body to maintain normal functions. When the calories from food intake equal the calories of energy the body uses, weight remains constant. But when a person consumes more calories than the body needs, the body stores those additional calories as fat, causing subsequent weight gain. Consuming about 3,500 calories more than what the body needs results in a weight gain of 0.45 kg (1 lb) of fat.

TREATMENTS FOR OBESITY

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Obesity can become a chronic lifelong condition caused by overeating, physical inactivity, and even genetic makeup. No matter what the cause, however, obesity can be prevented or managed with a combination of diet, exercise, behavior modification, and in severe cases, weight-loss medications and surgery.

Diets

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The most common and conservative treatment for obesity utilizes a nutritionally balanced, low calorie diet. Most health-care professionals and commercial weight-loss programs recommend diets consisting of 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day, usually in the following proportions: 60 percent carbohydrate, 30 percent fat, and 10 percent protein. Research from university obesity treatment centers indicates that patients who follow a low calorie diet lose 10 percent of their initial weight in 20 weeks. Without further treatment, however, patients usually regain one-third of the weight in the following year.

A more aggressive approach for persons who are more than 20 kg (40 lb) overweight includes very low calorie diets ranging from 400 to 800 calories per day. These diets are usually based on four to five servings of a liquid formula each day. Candidates must be carefully screened and medically supervised while on the diet. People on very low calorie diets lose approximately 15 to 20 percent of their initial body weight in 16 weeks. Once they go off a very low calorie diet, they typically regain approximately one-half of that weight within a year.

Meal replacements are liquid shakes or portion-controlled meals that are substituted for one or two meals a day. They are typically used as part of a 1,200 to 1,500 calorie diet. Studies have shown that meal replacements are often more effective than very low calories diets, resulting in an increase in the amount of initial weight loss and enabling dieters to maintain their weight loss. Unlike very low calorie diets, meal replacements do not require that candidates receive extensive medical monitoring.

Exercise

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Caloric restriction alone will not produce long-term weight loss. While the data from studies on the effect of exercise for short-term weight loss are contradictory, research clearly indicates that regular exercise is the single best predictor for achieving long-term weight control. Regular exercise will also improve some of the medical conditions associated with obesity, including elevated blood cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus.

Behavior Modification

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Many eating and exercise habits combine to promote weight gain. Certain times, places, activities, and emotions may be linked to periods of overeating or inactivity. Many obesity treatment programs recommend individuals keep a food diary that records all food or drink consumed, when and with whom it was consumed, and the mood or precipitating events that trigger eating. After one to two weeks, the diary may reveal a pattern of activities or negative emotions that lead to overeating. Once these eating cues are identified, techniques can be developed and practiced to prevent unwanted eating habits.

Weight-Loss Medications

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Weight-loss medications of any type are only appropriate for people with a BMI of 30 or above, or a BMI of 27 or above accompanied by weight-related medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus or hypertension. Amphetamine drugs were formerly prescribed to combat obesity, but their well-documented side effects, including insomnia, anxiety, and tolerance (the need to take higher and higher doses to continue to produce the same effect), made them less popular by the late 1970s.

A renewed scientific and commercial interest in weight-loss medications was prompted by the approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the appetite suppressant dexfenfluramine (sold under the brand name Redux) in 1996. Dexfenfluramine was the first weight-loss medication approved in the United States in over 20 years and the first ever approved for maintaining weight loss. Although never approved for long-term use by the FDA, a combination of two drugs, phentermine and fenfluramine, or phentermine and dexflenfluramine, popularly known as fen-phen, was used by millions of Americans to promote weight loss. Fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine were eventually associated with valvular heart disease, and the manufacturer withdrew these medications from the marketplace in 1997.

The FDA has approved two medications, sibutramine and orlistat, for long-term use in the treatment of obesity. Sibutramine (sold under the brand name Meridia) increases fullness, making the required dietary changes for weight loss and the maintenance of weight loss easier to accomplish. Unlike dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine, sibutramine does not appear to be associated with valvular heart disease, although a small number of patients may develop significant increases in blood pressure. Orlistat (sold under the brand name Xenical) works by blocking the absorption of fat. Scientists are also investigating the hormone leptin, which plays a role in obesity in mice, as a possible treatment for obesity in humans.

Over a six-month period, weight-loss medications may result in a 10-percent body weight reduction. Weight loss slows or stops after six months, and discontinuing medication usually causes weight regain. The continued use of medications keeps most of the lost weight from returning for two years. Many experts recommend that medications for weight control be used continuously, like medications for diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Unfortunately, few studies have examined the consequences of long-term use of weight-control medications.

Surgery

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Surgery may be a weight-loss option for patients who are severely obese (with a BMI of 40 or above) and suffer from serious medical complications due to weight. While the number of people in the United States who qualify for surgery remains small, the percentage of Americans with a BMI of 40 or above increased from less than 1 percent in 1990 to 2.2 percent in 2000.

There are two accepted surgical procedures for reducing body weight: gastroplasty and gastric bypass. Although these two procedures use different surgical methods, they both reduce the stomach to a pouch that is smaller than a chicken’s egg, drastically limiting the amount of food that can be consumed at one time. Surgery produces 25 to 35 percent reductions in weight over the first year and most of this weight loss is maintained five years after surgery. More importantly, the serious medical conditions that accompany extreme obesity improve significantly. Surgery is not without risk and should be performed by skilled surgeons who also provide patients with a comprehensive program for long-term weight control.

The Seven Wonders of the World

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The Seven Wonders of the World were works of art and architecture considered by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the most fabulous creations of antiquity. They were the Pyramids of Egypt, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Temple of Artemis, The Statue of Zeus, The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, The Colossus of Rhodes, and The Pharos of Alexandria.

1. Temple of Artemis-The Temple of Artemis is depicted in a fanciful reconstruction based on an Italian Renaissance church in this hand-colored engraving by Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck. Built in Ephesus in Asia Minor in 356 bc, the Greek temple was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was destroyed by the Goths in ad 262.

2. Colossus of Rhodes-The Colossus of Rhodes, depicted in this hand-colored engraving by Maarten van Heemskerck, was built about 280 bc. Standing 30 m (100 ft) high, it was built to guard the entrance to the harbor at Rhodes. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered it to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

3. Pharos of Alexandria-The Pharos of Alexandria, an ancient lighthouse, is depicted in this hand-colored engraving by Maarten van Heemskerck. The lighthouse stood on an island in the harbor of Alexandria and was over 134 m (440 ft) tall. It was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

4. Hanging Gardens of Babylon -This hand-colored engraving by 16th century Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck depicts the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Technically, the gardens did not hang, but grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II, the Chaldean king, probably built the gardens in about 600 bc as a consolation to his Median wife who missed the natural surroundings of her homeland.

5. Mausoleum of Halicarnassus-The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, depicted in this hand-colored engraving by Maarten van Heemskerck, was built about 353 bc. The mausoleum was a huge marble tomb built for King Mausolus of Caria in Asia Minor. It was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

6. Statue of Zeus -The Greek sculptor Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 bc. The statue, depicted in this engraving by 16th-century Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck, stood in Olympia and was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece. Phidias made the god’s robe and ornaments from gold and carved the body out of ivory.

7.Pyramids of Egypt-Of the Seven Wonders of the World, the famous pyramids located in Giza, near the city of Cairo, Egypt, are the only ones remaining nearly intact. They are depicted here in an engraving by 16th-century Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck.

Mona Lisa

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Mona Lisa (1503-1506), painted by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, was also known as La Gioconda, possibly referring to the subject’s husband, banker Zanobi del Giocondo. The artist’s use of very deep space in the background with a close-in portrait is typical of Renaissance painting style. The painting hangs in the Louvre, Paris.

Statue of Liberty

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The Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom for many, was one of the first sights to welcome immigrants arriving in the United States. The statue stands 93 m (305 ft) tall on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. It was designed by French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi and is a gift from France commemmorating the first centennial of U.S. independence from Britain.

Acne

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Acne, eruptive skin disease. It is primarily a disorder of the sebaceous follicles of the skin and appears most often on the face, neck, and back. The natural secretion, or sebum, of the follicles accumulates and mixes with dust and dirt. The follicles and surrounding tissue become inflamed and blackheads appear. If the follicle opening completely closes, the accumulated sebum is degraded by bacteria and forms a cyst.

Acne vulgaris, the most common form, is usually associated with adolescence but may also occur in adults. A severe form of the disorder is known as acne conglobata. Other forms of acne are also observed, such as the chloracne caused by chlorinated compounds. In acne rosacea, the capillaries in the cheeks, forehead, and nose are swollen with blood and the oil glands in the skin become infected.

Acne in adolescence results primarily from hormonal changes taking place in the body; the hormones stimulate sebum production. Outbreaks cannot be prevented by a controlled diet and are not a sign of uncleanliness. Good hygiene should be observed, however, to prevent more serious infections. Severe acne may be treated by antibiotics, benzoyl peroxide, or vitamin A derivatives. Severe acne in adults may be a sign of an underlying endocrine disorder.

Mesothelioma-Pneumoconiosis

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Mesothelioma- tumor of body cavity lining: a benign or malignant tumor of the lining of the lungs, heart, or abdomen, often caused by asbestos exposure.

Pneumoconiosis , a general term for any one of several lung diseases caused by breathing dust from industrial occupations like coal mining, sand blasting, and stone cutting (see Occupational and Environmental Diseases). Years of continual exposure to industrial dust can cause the formation of spots (macules), lumps (nodules), or fibrous growths in lung tissue, causing permanent damage or destruction of these tissues. Smoking can complicate or worsen the conditions. Symptoms of the disease include shortness of breath, labored breathing, coughing, and production of phlegm (mucus secreted in the respiratory system when infections are present). Other, often fatal, illnesses such as cancer, tuberculosis, emphysema, or heart disease may also develop.

Both inorganic dust (from minerals) and organic dust (from plants) can produce pneumoconioses. For example, inhalation of inorganic irritants such as coal dust, particularly from mining hard coal, or anthracite, causes the condition known as black lung disease, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, or anthracosis. Silica dust from quarrying, mining, or sand blasting causes the disease silicosis. The fine particles and dust from asbestos, a fibrous material commonly used in construction and insulation until its use was curtailed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1989, causes asbestosis and mesothelioma, a cancer of the chest lining. The inhalation of organic irritants most often found in textile mills such as the dusts of cotton, flax, hemp, and jute causes byssinosis, or brown lung disease. Another type of pneumoconiosis takes the form of hypersensitivity to irritants, fumes, and vapors in the workplace from substances like cadmium, beryllium, chlorine, and fluorine.

Treatment can only relieve the symptoms of pneumoconiosis. Treatment options include medication, removal of the patient from the workplace, providing dust control through added ventilation, or the use of personal protection devices like dust masks.

Asbestos

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Asbestos (Greek a-,“not”; sbestos, “extinguishable”), the fibrous form of several minerals and hydrous silicates of magnesium. The name may also be applied to the fibrous forms of calcium and iron. Asbestos fibers can be molded or woven into various fabrics. Because it is nonflammable and a poor heat conductor, asbestos has been widely used to make fireproof products such as safety clothing for fire fighters and insulation products such as hot-water piping. The first recorded use of the word asbestos is by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century ad, although the substance itself was known as early as the 2nd century bc. The Romans made cremation cloths and wicks from it, and centuries later Marco Polo noted its usefulness as cloth.

Asbestos is of two principal classes, the amphiboles and the serpentines, the former of relatively minor importance. Chrysotile, in the serpentine class, constitutes about 95 percent of the world supply of asbestos, of which three-fourths is mined in Québec. Other large deposits exist in South Africa. In the United States, California, Vermont, and Arizona are the leading asbestos-producing states; however, the majority of United States deposits are of no commercial value.

Asbestos is obtainable by various underground mining methods, but the most common method is open-pit mining. Only about 6 percent of the mined ore contains usable fibers.

The fibers are separated from the ore by crushing, air suction, and vibrating screens, and in the process are sorted into different lengths, or grades. The most widely used method of grading, the Québec Standard Test Method, divides the fibers into seven groups, the longest in group one and the shortest, called milled asbestos, in group seven. The length of the fibers, as well as the chemical composition of the ore, determines the kind of product that can be made from the asbestos. The longer fibers have been used in fabrics, commonly with cotton or rayon, and the shorter ones for molded goods, such as pipes and gaskets.

Asbestos has been used in building-construction materials, textiles, missile and jet parts, asphalt and caulking compounds and paints, and in friction products such as brake linings. Exposure to asbestos fibers and dust, however, can cause asbestosis, a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of asbestos particles, and, after a latent period of up to 30 years and more, various cancers, especially lung cancer and mesothelioma, which is an inoperable cancer of the chest and abdominal lining . At present no wholly satisfactory substitutes are available for asbestos in many of its applications; because of health risks posed by asbestos use, however, research into replacements has been accelerated. In 1986 the Environmental Protection Agency proposed an immediate ban on the major uses of asbestos and a complete ban on all asbestos products within the next decade. This proposal was partially overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which limited the ban to asbestos flooring and new products using asbestos.

Blue Cross

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Blue Cross And Blue Shield, network of companies that provide health insurance to people in the United States and Puerto Rico. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, based in Chicago, Illinois, governs the various health insurance organizations that carry its name. Member health insurance companies are operated locally, but they must abide by standards established by the national association. Historically, Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers have been nonprofit organizations that receive tax-exempt status.

More than 71 million people are members of Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance plans. Most Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations negotiate contracts with local hospitals and physicians to offer services to individuals who have paid premiums (fees) individually or through their employers.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance plans offer a broad spectrum of coverage options, including fee-for-service plans (also known as indemnity plans) and managed care plans. Fee-for-service plans allow members to visit any doctor or hospital for medical services. Managed care plans require members to visit designated physicians and include health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and point-of-service plans (POSs) (see Health Insurance: Types of Plans in the United States). Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations also administer services for Medicare, a government program that provides coverage for elderly people and for people with certain disabilities

Throughout the 1990s Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations faced financial difficulties due to the spread of for-profit health-care organizations. Blue Cross and Blue Shield chapters remained nonprofit groups that enrolled subscribers regardless of their individual risk of illness. Its competitors, which used experience rating, were able to recruit more members by charging lower premiums to people with a low risk of illness. Enrollment in Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans dropped drastically in the early 1990s, and many chapters closed.

In 1994 the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association abolished its requirement that its member groups remain nonprofit organizations. In 1996 Blue Cross of California merged with a for-profit managed care company, WellPoint Health Networks, becoming the first chapter to relinquish its tax-exempt status. During the late 1990s a number of Blue Cross and Blue Shield chapters followed suit and merged with for-profit insurance providers or created new for-profit subsidiaries.

Environmental and Occupational Diseases

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Environmental and Occupational Diseases, illnesses caused by exposure to disease-causing agents in the environment, as opposed to illnesses related primarily to an individual's genetic makeup or to immunological malfunctions. In everyday use, the term environmental disease is confined to noninfectious diseases and to diseases caused largely by exposures beyond the immediate control of the individual; the latter restriction eliminates diseases related to personal habits such as smoking or to the use or abuse of medications or drugs such as alcohol. Occupational disease, a major category of environmental disease, refers to illness resulting from job-related exposures.

Historically, awareness of environmental diseases began with the recognition of occupational illnesses, because exposures are usually more intense in work settings than in the general environment and therefore can more readily produce overt illnesses. Examples include silicosis, a lung disease of miners, industrial workers, and potters exposed to silica dust; scrotal skin cancer in chimney sweeps exposed to soot; neurological disease in potters exposed to lead glazes; and bone disease in workers exposed to phosphorus in the manufacture of matches. Many such diseases first gained public attention during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.

Environmental diseases

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Environmental diseases are caused by chemical agents, radiation, and physical hazards. The effects of exposure, in both natural and work settings, are greatly influenced by the exposure routes: primarily air pollution and water pollution, contaminated food, and direct contact with toxins. Synergistic effects—two or more toxic exposures acting together—are also important, as illustrated by the greatly increased risk of lung cancer in asbestos workers who smoke cigarettes. The potential interaction of multiple hazardous chemicals at toxic waste dumps poses a current public health problem that is of unknown dimensions.

Chemicals

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Industrial society has introduced or increased human exposure to thousands of chemicals in the environment. Examples are inorganic materials such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and asbestos, and organic substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), vinyl chloride, and the pesticide DDT. Of particular concern is the delayed potential for these chemicals to produce cancer, as in the cases of lung cancer and mesothelioma caused by asbestos, liver cancer caused by vinyl chloride, and leukemia caused by benzene. Minamata disease, caused by food contaminated with mercury, and Yusho disease, from food contaminated with chlorinated furans, are examples of acute toxic illnesses occurring in nonoccupational settings.

The full toxic potential of most environmental chemicals has not been completely tested. The extent and frequency of an illness are related to the dose of toxin, in degrees depending on the toxin. For chronic or delayed effects such as cancer or adverse reproductive effects, no “safe” dose threshold may exist below which disease is not produced. Thus, the cancer-producing potential of ubiquitous environmental contaminants such as DDT or the PCBs remains undefined.

Radiation

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Ionizing and nonionizing radiation can produce both acute and chronic health effects, depending on dose levels. The effects of nonionizing radiation at lower dose levels are uncertain at present. Ionizing radiation at high doses causes both acute disease and delayed effects such as cancer. Victims include workers exposed to various occupational use of X rays or radioactive materials. Although the disease-producing potential of ionizing radiation at low doses is also uncertain, an increase in chromosome damage has been observed in workers in nuclear shipyards.

Physical Hazards

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Major physical hazards include traumatic injuries and noise. Trauma arising from unsafe environments accounts for a large proportion of preventable human illness, and noise in the workplace is responsible for the most prevalent occupational impairment: hearing loss or permanent deafness.

FORMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DISEASE
Environmental diseases can affect any organ system of the body. How the diseases are expressed depends on how the particular environmental agent enters the body, how it is metabolized, and by what route it is excreted. The skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, and nervous system are commonly affected by different agents in different settings. Of particular concern is the capacity of many environmental agents to cause various cancers, birth defects or spontaneous abortions (through fetal exposure), and mutations in germ cells, the last-named raising possibilities of environmentally caused genetic diseases in later generations.

Environmental illnesses can be mild or severe and can range from transient to chronic, depending on the doses of toxin received. Some diseases occur abruptly after a toxic exposure, whereas the time of onset of other diseases varies after exposure. Environmentally induced cancers, for example, commonly involve latency periods of 15 to 30 years or more. Those illnesses that occur directly after a distinct toxic exposure are usually easily identified as being environmentally or occupationally caused. If the exposure is not clear-cut or illness is delayed, however, the cause is difficult to identify, as clinical features alone are usually nonspecific. In addition, many different causes, environmental or otherwise, may produce identical illnesses. In such instances, epidemiological studies of exposed populations can help relate exposures to the illnesses they cause.

OCCURRENCE

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Total frequencies of environmental illness are difficult to measure because of the reasons just described. When causes can be identified, however, scientists observe that frequencies of occurrence of a particular illness vary directly with the severity and extent of exposure. Particularly frequent in the workplace are skin lesions from many different causes and pulmonary diseases related to the inhalation of various dusts, such as coal dust (black lung), cotton dust (brown lung), asbestos fibers (asbestosis), and silica dust (silicosis). Environmental agents can also cause biological effects without overt clinical illness (for example, chromosome damage from irradiation). The health significance of such subclinical changes is not yet clear.

AGENCIES AND LAWS

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The regulation of workplace practices and of potential environmental pollution has evolved as the use of chemicals and human exposure to potential toxins have grown more widespread and complex in modern society. In the United States, numerous laws are directed at protecting occupational and environmental health. Most were passed since 1960, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1979. Means for the rapid cleanup of toxic waste dumps were provided in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.

Federal agencies responsible for enforcing such environmental and occupational health laws consist principally of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the Department of Labor. The Food and Drug Administration, within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Agriculture have regulatory responsibility for preventing the contamination of food supplies. Federal field investigations of potential environmental and occupational hazards are handled through the Center for Environmental Health and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which are components of the Centers for Disease Control, within HHS. General environmental health research and toxicological testing are directed through the National Institutes of Health and the National Toxicology Program, also within HHS. Comparable regulations and agencies at state and local levels, working with their federal counterparts, play a crucial role as well.

International coordination of environmental and occupational control activities in many countries is guided through the World Health Organization. In the developing parts of the world, such activities are of critical importance as modern industrialization proceeds in the face of poverty and growing populations

Human Disease

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Human Disease, in medicine, any harmful change that interferes with the normal appearance, structure, or function of the body or any of its parts. Since time immemorial, disease has played a role in the history of societies. It has affected—and been affected by—economic conditions, wars, and natural disasters. Indeed, the impact of disease can be far greater than better-known calamities. An epidemic of influenza that swept the globe in 1918 killed between 20 million and 40 million people. Within a few months, more than 500,000 Americans died—more than were killed during World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), the Korean War (1950-1953), and the Vietnam War (1959-1975) combined.

Diseases have diverse causes, which can be classified into two broad groups: infectious and noninfectious. Infectious diseases can spread from one person to another and are caused by microscopic organisms that invade the body. Noninfectious diseases are not communicated from person to person and do not have, or are not known to involve, infectious agents. Some diseases, such as the common cold, are acute, coming on suddenly and lasting for no more than a few weeks. Other diseases, such as arthritis, are chronic, persisting for months or years, or recurring frequently.
Every disease has certain characteristic effects on the body. Some of these effects, called symptoms and signs, include fever, inflammation, pain, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and rashes, and are readily apparent to the patient. These symptoms offer important clues that help physicians and other health care professionals make a diagnosis. Many times, however, the symptoms point to several possible disorders. In those cases, doctors rely on medical tests, such as blood examinations and X rays, to confirm the diagnosis.

FAQ Equity Loan (Finances)

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Q: I have a 2-year-old daughter. What is a good way of establishing a college fund for her, and about how much should I be setting aside?

A: The best way to get started is to figure out how much money you will need. When you see how much more you have to save each year, it’s a great incentive to start saving!

There are several ways to start saving now for your child’s college education. You can ask friends and relatives to include a small check along with any gift for birthdays and holidays. Then create a bank account specifically for these contributions and show your child how the balance is growing. Studies show that kids work harder at school when they see tangible evidence of college savings and the importance of their hard work.

Another option to consider is an Education IRA, which you can contribute to until your child reaches age 18. There are income limits, however, so you’ll need to find out if you qualify. If you sock away $500 each year (the maximum amount) in the Education IRA for 15 years and earn a 10 percent annual return, you’ll have $15,000 to help pay for your child’s education. Of this amount, you can withdraw $9,000 tax free.

You may also be eligible for a state education plan called the Prepaid Tuition Plan, also often called a U Plan or U Fund, which allows you to buy future college credits at today’s tuition. This Section 529 plan gives you another way to save for your child’s college expenses on a tax-advantage basis.

Q: Should I wait until I have a buyer for my house before putting a down payment on a new one?

A: This question is a lot more complicated than it once was, as mortgage lenders don’t offer “bridge loans” the way they used to. With bridge loans, the lender would lend you the down payment on your new house until your old house sold. So you could find your new house and even close on it before you had a seller for your old house. Those bridge loans are harder and harder to get.

The best thing to do is to become a smart house-shopper. At the same time that you are perusing neighborhoods and checking out schools for your new home, get the best information about how much your existing house will sell for and what small improvements you can make to it that will really increase its value. Ask a couple of experienced realtors to look at your current house and give you a market analysis. When you find the house you want to buy, you will have done everything in advance so that you can put your own house on the market immediately. Sometimes a seller will allow you to put a contingency in your agreement that you are not obligated to buy their house until you have a buyer for your own. Unfortunately, this practice is quickly becoming a thing of the past, so don’t count on it. On the flip side, if you sell your current house before you find a new one, your only real risk is finding temporary housing for a few months. If you have kids in school, you’ll need to make sure there is short-term rental property in their school district.

The bottom line? Know how much you can afford, get your current house ready to go on the market at a moment’s notice, get preapproved for a mortgage, and be ready to pounce when you find the house you want.

Q: Can I improve my financial situation by hiring a financial planner, even if I make less than $30,000 per year?

A: I admit that I am biased on this subject, but everybody needs a financial plan, and most people need a financial planner at some point in their lives. In fact, the less money you make, the fewer mistakes you can afford—and the more professional advice you need. But let’s distinguish between a financial plan and a financial planner. If you have a computer, enjoy using it, and are self-disciplined, I highly recommend using financial-planning software. The programs available today are inexpensive (unlike back in the 1980s, when they cost about $10,000), follow an easy question-and-answer format, and have fun features like DB2 graphs, year-by-year projections, and easy ways to play scenario games. (What if I retire three years earlier; what if my child goes to a public college instead of a private one; what if I inherit $1 million, or $1,000; what if my company’s stock takes off, or what if it tanks?) These programs go a long way toward helping people plan their financial futures.

Now here’s the value of a professional financial planner: This person can act as an impartial mediator to help you and your spouse or partner work better together with your money. A financial planner can make you feel more accountable about your spending and saving and can prod you nicely to meet with him or her on a regular basis to keep you on track. I have been a financial planner for 25 years, but even so I don’t trust all of my own investment and financial decisions to myself. Simply put, I’m too emotional because it’s my money. Objectivity is one of the best things a financial planner can give you. (Plus, your family has someone else to blame besides you for making certain financial decisions that may not have worked out!)

Q: What potential tax benefits do home equity loans offer? What are the dangers?

A: Home equity loans often offer the advantage of tax-deductible interest. If you are making home improvements, a home equity loan is an ideal way to do this. Home equity loans usually have a lower interest rate than consumer loans, such as credit cards and auto loans. The danger is, this makes it tempting to transfer that debt to a home equity loan. Studies often show that within a couple of years, people who do this will have just as much or more credit card and consumer loans than before, but on top of a high home equity loan. So don’t transfer your consumer debt to a home equity loan unless you are committed to paying it off as quickly as possible and not running up those credit cards again.

Q: I live in an area where homes seem overpriced. Even though I can afford to buy a house, would it make more sense for me to continue renting until the market cools off?

A: It’s always hard to know when housing prices are on the way up, at their peak, or about to plunge. Historically, residential real estate has been a very good investment, but the values can fluctuate a lot from year to year. And it’s not a liquid investment; if you are strapped for cash, you can’t just decide to sell your house and have money in a week, as you would be able to do if you were selling stocks or cashing in a money-market account. Here are some things to consider in deciding whether to rent or buy:

* What is your local economy like? Is it still red-hot with a few signs of slowing down? A red-hot economy usually means house prices are rising rapidly, and you may have to wait awhile before those prices come down from the stratosphere. If there are signs that local companies may be having difficulties, you may want to wait a few months and see if house prices go down.

* What time of year is it? Historically, house prices are lowest in the winter.

* How long do you plan to stay in the house? Renting may be the preferred housing choice if you don’t expect to live in a place for more than a few years.

* What’s your tax bracket? If it’s less than 28 percent, all those great interest deductions you get from home interest may not make it worth it for you.

* Are apartments plentiful and cheap compared to houses? It may be that you live in an area of the country with a glut of apartments with bargain rents.

* How much of a down payment would you have? If it’s less than 20 percent of the value of the house, you have to buy extra insurance called private mortgage insurance, which can be pricey. However, there are some great programs, especially for first-time home buyers.

The bottom line? Do some research to find out about home prices in your area. Talk to a mortgage broker or bank to find out how much mortgage you would qualify for and what the monthly payment would be. Ask this mortgage expert to help you figure out whether you are better off buying or renting for now.

I firmly believe in getting your foot in the real estate market as early as possible in life. That way, what you buy will hopefully appreciate in value and make it possible for you to keep trading up houses as your needs grow. Ask any long-time homeowners if it’s been a good investment, and unless they’re dot-com millionaires they will probably tell you there is no way they could have afforded the house they own now if they hadn’t started small many years ago.

Q: I’m 34 years old and in good health. I have a great career, as well as two young children. My husband is a stay-at-home dad. About how much life insurance do I need?

A: You might hear all kinds of rules of thumb, such as the one that says you should have life insurance for five times your annual income. The problem is, life is a lot more complicated than a rule of thumb.

Some of the things you need to think about: your children’s college and other educational expenses, how much Social Security survivor benefits your family would receive, medical and funeral expenses, how much it would cost to pay off your mortgage and other debts, and any special needs, such as financial support for your parents or other relatives. Also consider how much you and your husband would be earning after taxes and child-care expenses if your husband were to go back to work part or full time.

Then there are the assets that you have that would reduce your need for insurance. These assets include retirement plans, other investment accounts, and other sources of money such as inheritances. (But you can’t count on inheritances unless they are guaranteed and in your hands because relatives can always change their minds, especially if you aren’t around anymore and your spouse has remarried.)

Now do you see why rules of thumb are made to be broken? I have worked with many young widows with young children during my career as a financial planner, and I urge you to figure out how much insurance your family needs. Then go for it! You can even shop for insurance on the Web, and more and more companies are offering “low load” (no commission) insurance if you don’t use an agent. But please be fair and ethical; if an agent gives you good advice, you should pay them, either by an hourly fee or by buying the insurance through them.

Permanent insurance pays a much higher commission to agents and can be helpful if you have a long-term insurance need such as a hefty estate-tax bill. It’s also a good way to go if you’ve got lots of extra cash, you are fully funding all of your retirement plans, and you are saving enough for all of your other goals. Otherwise, your focus should be on buying all the insurance you need as term insurance.

Q: I recently received a pay raise at work. Would I be better off paying down some of my home mortgage or paying off my car loan completely?

A: You are smart to want to pay down debt instead of blowing that pay raise on a trip or new clothes, as so many people do in the excitement of getting a raise. But before you pay down debt, here are some other things to consider:

* Are you contributing every dollar you can to your company 401(k) plan or other tax-deferred retirement savings plans? This question is especially important if your employer kicks in money when you contribute.

* Are you also putting money in IRAs, if you qualify? Most people qualify for either a tax-deductible IRA or a Roth IRA even if they are contributing money to their company retirement plan.

* Do you have an emergency fund equal to about three months’ expenses, so if an unexpected roof leak, dental bill, or job loss hits, you’ve got something to fall back on?

* If you have other goals such as saving for college, are you saving money regularly for that?

You don’t have to answer yes to all of these questions, but you do need to think about them before you decide to use your extra money to pay down debt. If your car loan is at 7 percent interest or more, consider paying it off unless you can deduct it for business purposes. I never recommend prepaying a mortgage because that means giving up an interest deduction on your tax form (a nice perk of being a homeowner).

Other financial planners might disagree, saying you could invest that money and get a rate of return that’s higher than the interest rate you’d be saving by paying it off. But here’s my most important advice about not prepaying your mortgage: The more home equity you have and the less cash, the less flexibility you have. It’s great to retire with a debt-free house, but if you don’t have money in the bank, how are you going to pay for food and other living expenses? You can always decide to pay down your mortgage later, when you are sure that you will have enough investments to cover your living expenses when you retire, or if you decide that you are going to sell your house so you can buy something cheaper or rent. If you want to stay in your house when you retire but won’t have that spending cash, there is an alternative: You can take out a reverse mortgage, essentially borrowing on your own home equity and paying interest for the privilege. The more liquid assets you have, the more flexibility you have to meet life’s surprises. These questions are not just about money—they’re about how you want to live your life.

Q: When should I consider refinancing my house loan?

A: The rule of thumb used to be that you should consider refinancing your home loan when the current interest rate is 2 percent less than your existing rate. But with so many different kinds of mortgages and different arrangements for closing costs and those other up-front fees, no one rule of thumb applies in all cases.

Your best bet is to ask your local bank or mortgage lender to prepare a refinancing analysis for you that shows you how long you would have to live in your house to make the refinancing worthwhile. If you are planning to move within the next couple of years, it probably doesn’t make sense to refinance, even if the interest rates drop.

The kicker in refinancing is the amount of closing costs and other costs—appraisal, credit reports, and any “points.” (A point equals 1 percent of the amount of your mortgage and is considered prepaid interest. The more points you pay up front, the lower the interest rate on the loan.) Ask your bank or broker how long it would take before you would break even if you paid no cash up front and financed all of these costs. Then ask how long it would take if you paid 1 percent up front, or any other financing arrangement that’s attractive to you. The only way you can really make a decision is to crunch the numbers, and these numbers are so complicated that your bank or broker should crunch them for you. It’s a good idea to start with your existing mortgage lender because they may offer you lower closing costs just for using them again. Another lender may offer a lower interest rate, however. Also, make sure to look at your credit report before they quote interest rates because your credit history can make a major difference.

Q: I have some stock options with my employer, who also matches my 401(k) contribution with company stock. I don’t have any other investments, and I’m 25 years old. Should I sell some of my shares now even if I’m pretty sure they will continue to go up?

A: Yes! It’s exciting when your company is doing well and the stock price is going up, but it’s another story when the stock price goes the other way. You are vulnerable because you have all your investment eggs in one basket. Even though you are young, that’s too much risk to take. No one stock should make up more than 5 percent of your total investments. If your company will match your 401(k) contribution only with its own stock, you don’t have much choice. However, do not buy company stock with the money you are putting in your retirement plan. Pick a mutual fund that invests in a large number of U.S. stocks, such as a Standard and Poor’s 500 Index fund. This gives you lots of diversification so if one company tanks, your balance sheet doesn’t tank with it. As far as your stock options are concerned, ask your employee benefits person to give you an analysis showing you the tax consequences of exercising and selling your stock.

Q: When should I write a will, and how can I get started?

A: If you are an adult, you need a will. You may not think so if you don’t own any property, but a will does a lot more than just decide who gets the couch and the silverware. In a will you appoint an executor who is responsible for settling your estate, which means filing all the forms—tax and legal—required. If you have children, your will names the guardians of your choice. If you don’t have a will upon your death, you actually still have an estate plan. The problem is, that estate plan has been designed by your state legislature, and the government will be the executor of your estate. So if you die without a will, your wishes are not legally known, and even relatives you really don’t like could end up benefiting from your death.

I would suggest starting with the will-writing computer software that is now available, with specific instructions about how to prepare, sign, and have your legal documents witnessed so that they will meet your state laws. I always recommend having a lawyer look over these program-generated documents, however.

There are other things to consider, too. You don’t only need a will, you also need a durable power of attorney that appoints someone else to make legal decisions for you if you aren’t able to yourself. You also need a “living will” that tells your doctors and your family how much medical treatment you want, as well as a health-care proxy that gives the person you name the right to make medical decisions on your behalf. All of this is complicated, and every state law is different. So start with will-writing software, but get an expert to review it before you make it legal.

Life Insurance

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Life Insurance, assumption by an insuring organization of the risk of death of a policyholder. Unlike loss in insurance on property, loss in life insurance is certain to occur and is total. The element of uncertainty is when death will occur. Mortality is subject to the laws of probability, however, and life-insurance premiums can be calculated from mortality tables, which indicate the average number of people in each age and gender group that will die each year. A person trained to make such calculations, known as an actuary, determines the amount of premiums to be collected yearly from each group in order for the principal (the premiums) and its earned interest to equal the benefits to be paid to the policyholders' beneficiaries. The principal payment required annually constitutes the net premium. A loading charge to cover company expenses and contingencies is added to the net premium, yielding the total, or gross premium, which the insured pays.

History of Life Insurance

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The earliest known type of life insurance was the burial benefits that Greek and Roman religious societies provided for their members. Neither these religious societies nor any premodern systems for paying death benefits employed actuarial calculations. They were frequently financed on a postassessment basis; that is, contributions were made by all surviving members following one member's death. As a result, funds were not always available to pay claims.

The tontine annuity system, founded in Paris by the 17th-century Italian-born banker Lorenzo Tonti, although essentially a form of gambling, has been regarded as an early attempt to use the law of averages and the principle of life expectancies in establishing annuities. Under the tontine system, associations of individuals were formed without any reference to age, and a fund was created by equal contributions from each member. The sum was invested, and at the end of each year the interest was divided among the survivors. The last remaining survivor received both the year's interest and the entire amount of the principal.

The first life-insurance company in North America was founded in 1759 in Philadelphia. It was named the Corporation for the Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers.

TYPES OF LIFE INSURANCE

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Life insurance may be classified in a variety of ways. A classification depending primarily on the manner in which the premium is collected comprises regular ordinary, debit, and group life insurance. Regular ordinary insurance can be further classified into whole life, limited-payment life, endowment, and term. Debit life insurance can be classified into debit ordinary and industrial. Life insurance may also be classified as participating and nonparticipating, depending on whether or not the policyholder shares in the savings or the profits of the insurer.

Regular Ordinary Life Insurance

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Whole-Life Insurance
Whole-life insurance provides for the payment of the face amount of the policy on the death of the insured, whenever it might occur. Premium payments are made during the entire lifetime of the insured person; this differs from limited-payment and endowment policies. All cash-value policies like whole life, endowment, and limited-payment life are required to provide values that cannot be lost should the insured terminate the policy. Such benefits provide that the insured may obtain the cash surrender value and terminate the policy; or the insured may obtain a paid-up whole-life policy in a reduced amount; or he or she may obtain term insurance for the full face amount of the policy for a specified period. A loan provision in all such policies permits the insured to borrow up to the full amount of the cash surrender value at any time, subject to specified limitations.

Limited-Payment Life Insurance
The limited-payment life policy provides for premium payments for a specified number of years (for example, 10 or 20, or until age 65) unless the insured person dies sooner. A single-premium life policy is a special case of a limited-payment policy. Premium rates for limited-payment policies are higher than for ordinary life insurance policies because the pay-in period is shorter.

Endowment Insurance
Endowment policies are payable at the death of the insured or on a specified maturity date if the insured is alive. Premiums generally are payable from the date of issue until the date of maturity but may be limited to fewer years or even to a single lump-sum payment. Premium payments on endowments are high because a large cash value is built up in a relatively short time. Endowments combine savings with insurance, and such policies may be used to provide for college education, mortgage payments, or retirement purposes. This type of policy lost popularity when competing savings mediums began paying higher interest rates in the 1970s and early '80s. More competitive interest rates have not yet restored its standing.

Term Life Insurance
Term insurance provides benefits only if the insured dies within a specified period. If the insured survives up to the end of the specified period, the contract is terminated unless renewed. Because the premium for a term policy pays only for the cost of the insurance protection during the term of the policy, term insurance generally has no cash surrender value. The insured may be allowed to renew for another term without a medical examination. The premium, however, increases with each renewal because it is calculated on the age of the insured at the time of renewal. Term insurance is often used by the head of a family to obtain additional temporary insurance when the children are young. Term insurance policies frequently provide the insured with conversion options to whole-life policies.
Credit life insurance is term insurance against a loan taken out on some major purchase such as an automobile. It generally decreases in amount as the loan is repaid. It protects the borrower's family as well as the lender against the debt that remains unpaid at death

Debit Life Insurance

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Two types of debit life insurance are available. Debit ordinary insurance was designed for wage earners with modest incomes. Premiums are collected by company agents at policyholders' homes. Other than this mode of collection, the coverage has the same characteristics as ordinary life insurance. Industrial life insurance is also designed to meet the needs of low-income industrial workers. Premiums are payable weekly or monthly, and the face amount does not generally exceed $1000. A medical examination is not required to obtain such insurance.

Group Life Insurance

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First introduced in 1911, group life insurance has grown since World War II chiefly because it has been included as a fringe benefit in collective-bargaining agreements. It provides a means of insuring a number of people in a business establishment, society, or other organization. A master contract is issued, and each insured person receives a certificate specifying the amount of the insurance and his or her beneficiary. Group policies contain a conversion clause that permits an insured, on separation from the group, to convert to an individual type of nonterm life insurance policy without evidence of insurability. The new policy, however, is issued at the premium rate applicable at the attained age of the policyholder. Because group insurance is a form of wholesale buying, its economies are passed on to policyholders in the form of lower premiums per dollar of coverage. Group life insurance usually is issued on a 1-year renewable term basis.