A Reading Strategy That Makes Students WANT to
Sep 3, 2010 Uncategorized
As an 8th grade social studies teacher I have my students do quite a bit of content reading in class. Unfortunately, as we all know, much of that reading can be quite dry, or dare I say…boring. Therefore, I am always on the look out for reading strategies that are easy to implement in the classroom.
One reading strategy that I have always had great success with areAnticipation/Reaction Guides. These guides can be easily created and can be used for any type of reading.
All the teacher needs to do is create 5-10 statements based on the text the students are about to read and ask students to agree or disagree with each statement. Next, have students work in pairs or in groups to discuss their responses. All of this is done prior to reading. It is not until after students have discussed in their small groups that they can begin reading.
After students have completed the reading, the students then revisit the 5-10 statements and determine once again whether or not they agree or disagree. And, of course, students then share their response in their small groups followed by a class discussion.
I usually set up my Anticipation/Reaction Guides with three simple columns. The first column is a “before reading” column to agree or disagree with the statements, the middle column is where the statements are actually written, and a final column is for “after reading” for the students to, once again, agree or disagree.
This activity can address lower-level thinking skills or higher level thinking skills by simply changing the statements the teacher creates. For lower-level thinking the statement can simply be a true or false statement. This works well when the teacher just needs a quick activity to spark student interest and yes, this really does spark student interest as the students are eager to read just to determine if they were right. However, if the teacher would like to address higher-order thinking skills then the teacher simply needs to create statements that provoke discussion and initiate critical thinking. In other words, statements that do not necessarily have a right or wrong answer.
Either way, what’s great about these Anticipation/Reaction Guides is that it makes my students actually want to read, and as any teacher knows, that is more than half the battle.
Googles ranking factors – onsite
Sep 1, 2010 Uncategorized
About 90% of the searches on the internet are initiated through the search engines and about 80% of that is through Google. So its very important that we understand the ranking factors. Please dont quote me on the figures as many sources claim different amounts. The figures that I have used are average figures. In this article I will be talking about the onsite ranking factors in order of importance first
WEBSITE AGE
Website age is when your website first went live and was crawled by the search engines. Change of ownership can have an affect on this as Google and other search engines get notified when there is big change such as site ownership. Site age is a big ranking factor in Googles algorithm – They are trying there best to improve search engine results and the last thing they want is a fly by night site which hasnt earned its reputation to be there. Google still needs to figure out if the site is a spam site as it has no authority and no age. This factor will become even more important in the near future. Especially for new websites which are in high competitive niches
WEBSITES HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE
A websites history and statistics also play a very big role in Googles algorithm, such as a websites Click Through Rate (CTR), bounce rate, the number of social bookmarks, changes to servers and time spent on a site to name a few. Google collects this information through various tools that we opt in to use such as Google analytics and toolbars. This will have a much greater impact in the near future but its without a doubt that Google collects all of this information.
INTERNAL LINKING POPULARITY STRUCTURE OF A WEBSITE
In the same way as backlinks coming from different c class ips using your anchor text to drive up your search engine rankings, there are a number of sites who have reached page 1 just through the internal linking structure. Use your anchor text links to link internally and build a good internal linking structure. I should also note that your website should have ease of navigation for both the user and the search engine. There are techniques such as the no follow rule which can be used to focus more attention on other pages. This is extremely handy for larger sites.
TOP LEVEL DOMAIN (TLD) OF SITE
The top level domain of a site is .com .co .uk .us .gov .info and so on.This is more important to country specific TLDs like .co.uk and .au
LOAD TIME SPEED OF SITE
Everyones heard about the new Google caffeine update and the new websites loadtime speed ranking factor. If you havnt already done so then read the article here – google caffeine. Now where not sure how important this will be but from looking at the way google is working more towards real time results and faster results, they are also wanting websites to open much more quicker as they feel this is important to the user. Google also has a LAB area in the webmasters account which will show you ways of speeding up your website. If you havent read the article on speed up your website with Gzip compression then Its a recommended read.
THE HTML VALIDATION OF WEBSITE
The HTML validation as according to W3C consortium. Even though this may not be a ranking factor its very important that your code is correct – if you forget to close a tag or open one then there might be much text that the search engine robots are missing. I can also see this becoming more important in the future due to user experience also.
No Findings of Lung, Head, or Neck Cancer Due to Smoking Marijuana
Aug 31, 2010 Uncategorized
The issue on the use of marijuana and cancer aggravation has long been a debate. In 2000, a researcher, Daniel Ford, MD of Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, had presented a study at a meeting of internal medicine on the association of smoking marijuana and cancer aggravation specifically in lung, head, and neck cancer. His study had shown that smoking marijuana does not cause head, and neck cancer unlike use of tobacco and alcohol. Ford had tried to come up with evidence through sorting out the lifestyles of 164 participants who were recently diagnosed with lung, head, or neck cancer.
These participants had used marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco. They were compared to 526 healthy volunteers living within the same area. The patients were aged 49 on the average while the healthy ones were aged 44. Four Baltimore-are hospitals had treated the cancer patients. The controls or the healthy group was picked out from a large group living in the Baltimore, who participated in the medical marijuana and cancer study. Ford had stated that he wanted to discover the truth as to whether the cancer patients were more inclined to using marijuana, drinking alcohol, or smoking tobacco as compared to the healthy volunteers. Ford hypothesized that he would find a link between smoking marijuana and cancer aggravation; however, he said that such link was never evident.
The findings had surprised him because since marijuana is used through deep inhalations, smoke stayed in the lungs, head, or neck for longer period. Nonetheless, no link between smoking marijuana and cancer aggravation had been found.
In addition, Ford had suggested that based on the findings, prevention of cancer should mainly focus on the two known carcinogens, which are alcohol and tobacco. In a previous study, results were different from the conclusions obtained from Ford’s study. Such study had asserted that a link exists between smoking marijuana and cancer development.
Ford had discerned that the difference can be expounded because the healthy volunteers in his study had very low use of marijuana. He said that the use of marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco was common on both cancer patients and healthy volunteers.
Several people had suggested that the lack of quantity may explain the findings that no link was found on smoking marijuana and cancer development. This is because the number of marijuana cigarettes smoked is lower as compared to the number of tobacco cigarettes smoked.
Ford had admitted that it is not possible to associate pack-years of marijuana and tobacco usage; however, he had noted that around 30% of the marijuana smokers never tried smoking cigarettes.
Scoutmaster Magoo (1958)
Aug 28, 2010 Uncategorized
There’s no denying that many of the later Mister Magoo shorts are feeble, especially when compared to UPA’s early Magoo films, but some cool artwork can still be found in the late-period Magoos. Below are a couple eye-catching backgrounds from Scoutmaster Magoo (1958), which was one of only a couple Magoos directed by Bobe Cannon. Background credit on the film goes to Jules Engel and Ervin Kaplan though I’m unsure which of them did these particular paintings. Be sure to click on the top one to get a big view of the opening pan from the short.
Granite Tile Counters: The Economic Investment
Aug 27, 2010 Uncategorized
Natural stone is one of the most admired installations in any home because it’s elegant and unique, and it’s also tough and durable. Of course, countertops are a popular remodel and amongst all the materials in the world, granite has been elected king. It is a wise investment for several aesthetic and practical reasons since it matches any cabinetry system or kitchen décor and it’s a hard-rated stone so it won’t easily scratch and can withstand hot surfaces, such as pots and pans. However, the biggest drawback is that solid stone slabs are extremely expensive. They are quarried and cut in one piece from a single block, making them costly to create, shape, transport, and install. Therefore, a more economic solution to your remodeling budget is to invest in granite tile counters.
The Investment Question
Instead of a solid slab, granite tile counters arrive in several small segments and are easily financially feasible. Stone slabs can cost up to $50-$60 a square foot, and if you have a large kitchen with lots of surface space, natural stone will be a huge investment. There’s nothing wrong with a large investment as long as you know you’ll get a return on it, and oftentimes natural stone does increase the value of a home. However, if you live in a limited area of the market or if the rest of your house isn’t up to par, solid stone installations will actually set you back. In other words, it may never have a chance to live up to its potential since it’ll generate too much value in a single space of your home. A better way to invest is to recreate the look of natural stone while still saving money. Even if you have a small kitchen, it is often smarter to save half the money on granite tile countertops and invest in other areas of the kitchen that require renovation, such as floors, cabinetry, accessories, and new appliances.
One Piece at a Time
Granite tile counters aren’t a cheap imitation of the original. They’re still made from the exact same material as the solid stone slab; it just comes in sections instead of one piece. They retain all the same physical properties, both in terms of minerals, sheen, and design, but instead of coming from a single giant block, these portion pieces come from smaller, unusable blocks at the quarry. If the block isn’t big enough to fulfill an order, they’ll cut up the excess into 12, 24, or even 36 inch squares and sell them at a cheaper rate. It’s the best of both worlds: an inexpensive bargain for the exact same product. They’re also easier to install and can be placed anywhere in the home.
They’re Everywhere
The true beauty of granite tile countertops is that they come with tons of options. Since they’re so large and cumbersome, stone slabs can only be used for big surface installations. However, small squares can be installed anywhere. You can use them to construct a decorative backsplash or even to replace your flooring. Maybe order extra and have a matching bathroom theme. Put them up in a shower stall. Make them into a focal point by laying the squares within preexisting surfaces, such as wood cabinets or Formica tops. Place an inlay near the stove to act as a trivet for hot cookware or a cutting board for chopping. Save money and just install them on an island for a unique counterpoint in the kitchen. As you can see, due to the durability and versatility of granite tile countertops, they could be a more functional and useful investment than most stone slab additions.
Gardening, Landscaping And Shed Plans!
Jul 28, 2010 Uncategorized
In layering your garden for a landscaping effect, you should ensure that the selected plants are arranged in rows and in order of height to give it an organized and well coordinated look.In many places the weather varies greatly and is basically unpredictable; therefore, if you are a resident of a place like this and you desire to landscape your garden, you should consult a professional about the best types of plants to include in your garden that will flourish inspite of climatic changes.
In addition to exploring the different planting needs for your new design. You should also explore the possibilities of installing a do it yourself shed plan which can encompaess lots of different custom features that otherwide wouldn’t be readily available. The good news is that this is quite doable at a cost that is very reasonable.
Selecting plants that are perennial in nature is one way to reduce the cost of maintaining yearly or quarterly uprooting and planting of new flowers as perennial plants are good landscape features because of their longetivity.If you are unsure about what kind of landscape plan you want, you can try collecting landscape idea pictures as these will help you with the visual projection of what you really want; to this effect, you can borrow landscape books from the library and photocopy landscape pictures to help you along your way.
The internet’s repertoire of information includes lucid pictures of landscaping ideas that can trigger off a certainty about what you want for your own landscape plan.One way you can decide which landscape contractor to hire is by going through a compilation of landscape projects that the contractor has executed in the past.
It takes more than knowing about a plant to decide if you want it to be part of your landscape; you should make an extra attempt to see the pictures of such plants because while they might have pretty names and enduring features, they may be quite ugly in reality.You can have an arrangement of potted flowers and plants lined up on the winding path to your front door to welcome anyone coming in to see you.
Ensure that you select colors of plants, flowers or shrubs that give you serenity and flatter your home at the same time.
Knowing the existing laws in your area can go a long way in helping you tailor your landscape plans to them in order to avoid any violations. Also be sure to plan well ahead of time (get your shed plans well organised etc), and you will then have a much greater lieklyhood that your landscaping project will go smoothly.
Eating Out In London Kennington Restaurants
Jul 27, 2010 Uncategorized
You’ll find a number of restaurants and pubs within the London Kennington place serving scrumptious meals and drink.
Right here is often a little list which I hope you may get pleasure from.
1. La Luna Bistro The eaterie can be discovered on Walworth Road, London. In truth not far from La Luna You possibly can discover the Cuming Museum and that is along the road. Foods served are as suggested by its name Italian.
They focus on pizza as well as other freshly prepared every day dishes. The opening hours in the evenings are from six o’clock until eleven o’clock. The weekends see the eatery opened inside the afternoons. A main meal will set you back among 10 weight and 20 pounds per man or woman.
2. Lobster Pot Eaterie Down Kennington Lane you will be in a position to locate this seaside bistro right within the heart of London. identified locally for serving very good foods within a French relaxed atmosphere.
The main meals will set you back in between thirty and forty pounds, although a bottle of wine will cost around fifteen pounds.
3. Grand Union Restaurant A name properly recognized in the Camden place of London. The cafe mainly serves up burgers with scrumptious sauces. You can order a salad to accompany the burgers or to own on their very own.
Wash down having a cocktail or even a cool beer and you will probably be positive to own a great meal.
4. D’Eclipse Restaurant If you ever stroll down Camberwell Road in South East London. You may uncover this chic eaterie which takes pride in serving dishes from close to the globe.
The main foods are reasonably priced at much less than ten pounds per person. Whilst a bottle of wine is priced at close to twelve pounds using a bottle of beer expenses close to 3 pounds. Guests can purchase foods from the Caribbean, Europe and North Africa.
5. Toulouse Lautrec Serving French dishes all through the day. Toulouse Lautrec is situated on Newington Butts in Kennington. On common a main course is twenty to thirty pounds each guest, but has a price tag to suit most budgets. You’ll be able to take along your family to try out the snails, frogs legs or the weekly specials.
Guests will likely be in a position to bring along their blackberry, I phones as wifi is 1 in the facilities of the restaurant.
6. The White Hart Not everybody likes pub foods. Don’t let this put you off venturing into the White Hart which is situated in Kennington Lane. It is possible to purchase a starter or antipasti course from five pounds.
Main courses will start out from twelve pounds to fifteen pounds. If steak is your thing then you’re in for a treat. In the bar you can order wine, beer and cocktails.
Military Drug Test
Jul 27, 2010 Uncategorized
Military drug test involves different sensitive tests to determine the presence of drugs in army personnel. Active duty members of the army, navy as well as air force have to undergo military drug test annually.
The test is conducted on urine samples and the military laboratory has several inbuilt intelligence and protection system to give accurate results. In military drug test, individuals cannot contaminate the sample bottles, as there is a strict vigil.
Procedure of a Military Drug Test:
The sample bottles after arriving in the laboratory have to undergo immunoassay screening. Officials carry out screening using Olympus AU-800 equipment, which is an Automated Chemistry Analyzer. If individuals test positive in the drug test, they have to undergo the screening process again.
Finally, individuals who come out positive in the screening test have to go through specific tests, which include gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry test. The reason is at times, when individuals are on medication they might test positive and their results may show the presence of drug components, which they might have taken as medicines. The specific tests confirm this possibility and help to find out whether individuals had consumed drugs or not.
If an individual’s report shows the presence of drug substance below the threshold level, the outcome of a military drug test is negative. Military laboratories are well equipped to trace all-major drugs, such as marijuana, amphetamines, ecstasy, LSD, PCP, barbiturates, cocaine, and opiates (along with heroin as well as morphine).
Lab officials also carry out military drug test to detect other drugs other than the mentioned ones. These are random military drug tests, but authorities may carry out specific military drug test for each kind of drug. These drugs include anabolic steroids, ethanol, hallucinogens, inhalants and other banned substances.
Cut-Off Levels Of Drug Test:
Cut-off levels of drug test is the minimum concentration or levels of drugs, which need to be present in the sample, before the military lab reports a military drug test outcome as positive. If the presence of drug level is equal to the confirmatory level or below that, the outcome of the test is negative.
In case of marijuana, the cut-off levels are 50 NG/ML (nano grams/milliliter), while confirmation level is 15NG/ML. For cocaine, it is 2000 NG/ML and 4000 NG/ML. For opiates such as Morphine, the cut-off level includes 2000 NG/ML and confirmation level is 4000 NG/ML, while for Codeine it is 2000 NG/ML and 2000 NG/ML.
In case of heroin, the cut-off level is 300 NG/ML and confirmatory level is 10 NG/ML. for amphetamine it is 500 NG/ML and 500 NG/ML. for methamphetamine it is 500 NG/ML and 500 NG/ML. For barbiturates, the cut-off level is 200 NG/ML and confirmatory level is 200 NG/ML.
Military drug test detects the presence of marijuana in the body, if you consumed it one to three weeks before the test. In same way, if you consumed cocaine two or four days before the test, the military drug test can detect it easily.
The Best Way to Backup Your MacBook Pro (Apple Laptop Computer)
Jul 26, 2010 Uncategorized
I’m someone who has experience going through hard drive crash hell with my MacBook Pro. The last time it happened to me was in 2006 and it cost me several thousand dollars to recover most of my hard drive data. Soon after that happened, we wrote about how to backup your Mac intelligently so we could help other people avoid what I had to go through. Although that article is still relevant today, new services and software have come out that make backing up your Mac even easier.
A good backup plan involves having two copies of your data — one local and one offsite. A great plan involves having three copies! I’ll show you how to have either one.
1. External Drive + Time Machine
This first example is a no brainer. If you’re running the latest version of Mac OS X, then you already have Time Machine. All you need is a FireWire or USB 2.x external hard drive, which you then plug in (at least once a week) and you’re good to go. I recommend getting at least a 500GB hard drive. Having a bigger hard drive means you’ll be able to save more versions of your files, which means you’ll be able to recover files after they’ve been changed multiple times or were deleted a long time ago.
2. Online Backup with Backblaze
Online backups have finally come into being for the Mac. The first viable option was introduced by Mozy — a tool I’ve used for quite some time. However, a new service has emerged that is even better than Mozy called Backblaze.
Mozy throttles your upload connection, uses an unreasonable amount of resources, and can occasionally get in your face with application messages. On the other hand, Backblaze allows you to upload your files as fast as your connection will allow, appears to leave a very small footprint on your computer when it’s running, and runs completely in the background (I have yet to see a message pop up from it.)
Backblaze costs $5/mo (same as Mozy) and backs up everything quickly. When you download and install Backblaze, make sure you go into Preferences, click on the Settings button and turn the Throttle up (to the far right) in order to upload files quickly.
3. Online Backup with Carbon Copy Cloner + S3
This third option makes a good backup plan a great backup plan! This example is a little more time-consuming, but is one of the very best ways to truly backup your entire hard drive and have a secure offsite copy of it.
You will need an additional computer, like a Mac Pro, iMac or MacBook Pro, with enough hard drive space to save a copy of your laptop’s hard drive or an external hard drive.
Install Carbon Copy Cloner on the additional computer. Then, with your laptop turned off, connect both computers via FireWire. Turn on your laptop, but make sure you hold the “T” key when you do it. That will turn on FireWire target disk mode.
Once you see your laptop’s hard drive appear on the additional computer, open Carbon Copy Cloner and create a disk image of your hard drive. After you finish making the disk image, upload it to Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). You can easily do that by signing up for S3 with your Amazon account and uploading it using Transmit, which supports Amazon S3.
Doing this third backup step will ensure that your data is always backed up and restorable. However, if the third step is still too much for you to do, the first two steps will still do the trick just fine. With the availability of Time Machine and Backblaze, there’s really no reason why you should ever lose your data again.
Determining Your Best Poker Cash Strategy
Jul 26, 2010 Uncategorized
One of the most enjoyable things about the game of poker is that, while there are certain things a player should endeavor to accomplish and other things a player should endeavor to avoid, there are really no rules as to what is the best way to play the game. The game of poker is part blind luck and part chess match. The game requires knowledge of strategy above all other things and, for each individual player, a poker cash strategy that turns out to be the winning one may be different than it is for other players, even for players of the same level of skill and experience.
One of the most amusing incarnations of the poker cash strategy is seen in what’s termed The Maniac. The Maniac is the individual who makes bets which most people would describe as downright crazy. They raise the pot on lousy hands, raise on the blind, and generally try to intimidate their opponents into folding their hands. This individual, depending on their level of skill, may be a very successful player. They may also be a convenient way for more skilled players to enrich themselves due to the somewhat transparent nature of the strategy.
Another popular poker cash strategy is that of becoming a master bluffer. This is an individual who is completely unreadable, who displays no tells, and who retains an air of quiet calm whether their hand is an obvious winner or complete air. Developing this strategy is very difficult in a live situation but, where online poker is concerned, one need only make certain that the actual strategy displayed to other players is not completely readable. Learn to play the game and avoid using automated features to make certain that other players cannot guess anything about one’s intentions or one’s position.
One’s best poker cash strategy will also depend on one’s position where finances are concerned. For instance, if one happens to have the shortest stack at the table, it is not the time to get overly-aggressive and certainly not the time to become The Maniac. This is the time to; either pick out smaller fish and pick them off or to make very conservative bets and wait for the best hands to come along. The situation is radically different if one happens to be sitting behind a very tall stack of chips.
As is the case in the business world, those individuals who fail to see an opportunity and, thus, fail to take advantage of it when it presents itself are the same individuals who will inevitably fail when they may well have succeeded. When one has a large stack of chips it’s time to take out the smaller players. Being in the dominant position at the table means that it’s an excellent time to use bluffing, intimidation, and even blind raising to force other players into positions that make them too uncomfortable to carry on and which will cause them to fold.
One’s poker cash strategy must not only depend upon the finances they have in front of them at the table, but on the finances they can reasonably afford to bet on any given game. One needs to keep in mind that, if they have too much riding on the game, they will not be playing at their most efficient or effective level. The Maniac and the bluffer will both reveal that a player who is scared and nervous is an easy mark. Set sensible budgets and make sure that the total amount that one is willing to wager does not cause a hardship in one’s life. Above all other things, poker should always be fun.
A good Poker Cash Strategy does not mean being a one-trick pony. It means adapting one’s strategy to the situation at hand and to the level of play with which one is presented by one’s opponents. Good players master all of the strategies. Sometimes they’re maniacs, sometimes they bluff, and sometimes they just sit back and relax and let the other players fall victim to their own lack of skill. The last strategy, of course, requires that the player spent a lot of time at the tables.
