The Dart Maker Blog

Table linens should be used to put the finishing touch on a party or occasion. Table linens are not limited to only table cloths but include napkins, place mats, chair covers and/or table skirting. The feel of your gathering, whether it be formal or casual, can be defined by the use of table linens. When you prepare for a dinner party or event, the linens you choose really are the greatest way to let your friends and family know what type of mood the dining should be, maybe even more so than the food you serve up. Due to this, you need to be certain you pick the best table linens for the gathering.

When planning to keep your dining casual, consider choosing table linens made of 100% basic polyester material. It is important for you to be able to easily launder the linens since you will most likely be using them once again. This is what makes 100% basic polyester fabric a great choice. It is a permanent pressed, soil release material that is simple to take care of, keeps its color and does not shrink. Linens that call for particular handling, such as dry cleaning, are not the best choice for casual dining. You don’t want your guests to think they must use extra precaution due to the fact that they are afraid they will ruin your linens during a casual dinner.

For a more formal dinner party or special occasion, the best table linens to choose from are the luxurious cloths such as satin, pintuck, crinkle or sparkle organza. Every one of these cloths are available in many different colors making it easy to match them to your current décor. Even So, if your dinner party or special occasion is occurring away from the home and is considered a “one time event”, consider the option of renting linens such as iridescent crush, matte satin, polystripe or tissue lame. Using any combination of tablecloths, table napkins, placemats, chair covers and/or table skirting is an easy way to have your guests feel special and welcome.

It is simple to determine the mood of your special occasion based on the fabrics and patterns of the table linens you choose. In fact, a host/hostess today is actually limited by only his/her imagination. Consider all the time and energy your spent into preparing a special gathering and don’t let a failure to match linens make your party look unfinished.

The cover of the March 7, 2005 issue of Business Week titled REWIRING THE HUMAN BODY, describes how neuromodulation brings new hope to the four million desperate patients in the United States who suffer from the debilitating disease of chronic or treatment-resistant depression.

The neuromodulation industry is just in its infancy and could double over the next several years as doctors are thrilled by this vision of the body electric. Why these implantable devices work are a bit of a mystery, but the potential upside is great. Unlike most antidepressants, these implants produce few side effects and are aimed at patients that currently have no alternative therapies that adequately treat their depression.

Cyberonics Inc., the manufacturer of the vagus nerve stimulator, was listed as the leading company in the field of neuromodulation. The vagus nerve stimulator has been used to treat pharmaco-resistant epilepsy since 1997, now the FDA has approved the identical procedure to treat depression. This is wonderful news for the millions of desperate patients( and their families) who have been endlessly searching for an answer to their incurable disease.

Learn more about this remarkable device at http://www.VagusNerveStimulator.com You can keep up-to-date on all of the latest developments about this remarkable device. For more detailed information, there is an invaluable book available on the site:

Out of the Black Hole: The Patient’s Guide to Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Depression

The book gives the reader everything they need to know the vagus nerve stimulation therapy for depression. The book is also available on Amazon.com

Last week, as I was standing in the checkout line of my local grocery store, I found myself staring at the dozen or so magazines on display. As I gazed upon the various photos and headlines praising or trashing the celebrity du jour, I got to thinking.

What kind of celebrity would Socrates be if he were alive today? How would we treat him?

In what way would he ask his questions in the 21st century? He never wrote much of anything–we know his ideas mostly through the work of his student, Plato. Would he give speeches? Would he have televised debates? Would he have his own talk show?

If so, who would be his guests?

Socrates was famous in his day. He was loved and admired for his ideas and his relentless questioning, and he was despised for the same things. Like all celebrities, he had his fans and he had his detractors.

Socrates himself said, “I am utterly disturbing and I create only perplexity.” He understood his role as a provocateur, but he also had the best of intentions. He simply wanted to give people the opportunity to question themselves in order to become better humans.

Well, there are a lot of celebrities who push our buttons, but we don’t tend to think of them as philosophers!

What if we did? What if we could separate the thoughts from the thinkers? We tend to dismiss the whole package–the persona–instead of taking a good look at revolutionary or inflammatory ideas. We marginalize our radical thinkers.

The rapper Eminem is a radical thinker, though many would say he is just plain radical. In his way, he is true to himself. He has broken through to mainstream consciousness because he touched a nerve–and got a lot of press.

Would Socrates be a rapper today? Would he be a professor? A performance artist? How would we regard him?

He was notoriously unattractive. Would photographers surround him, taking photos to sell to the tabloids? Would we care about him if he didn’t make it on the cover of our favorite magazines?

At first glance, it may seem that we are sorely lacking in philosophers today. Perhaps we have an outdated idea of what a philosopher looks like. Not all philosophers have beards!

Do you think of Eminem as a philosopher?

Do you think of Julia Butterfly Hill, the environmental activist who lived at the top of a massive tree for two years, as a philosopher?

Do you think of Rush Limbaugh as a philosopher?

Well, they do think. They do question. They provoke discussion and argument, and they are passionate about their ideas. That makes them a lot like Socrates.

Who inspires you today? Which thinkers make you think?

What is it about them that appeals to you? Is it their ideas or the way they are presented?

We’ve become quite savvy about packaging. We expect professional presentation. We discount the ideas of those who don’t look the part of a thinker. Of course, there are exceptions. Albert Einstein could pull off that wild-haired look. Bill Gates isn’t known for his sartorial splendor. Some might argue that Stephen Hawking is actually more compelling and impressive because of his physical challenges.

Whether we admit it or not, we each have our own biases about the appearance, age, sex, nationality, or religion of the thinkers of today. What are yours?

I’m afraid Socrates would need a good public relations team in order to be heard amidst the cacophony of thought-mongers today. The prescribed process for publicizing your ideas now goes something like this: write a book, get a publisher, do tons of interviews and book signings and readings, and cash in. It helps immensely if you appeal to the mainstream culture, or if your book manages to stir up a bit of controversy. Creating buzz is what gets thinkers noticed today.

Socrates was good at creating buzz, but he would face a lot of competition in the 21st century thinkers market. I like to think that he would find a way to be who he was and that we would appreciate his gifts.

Think about what you read, what you listen to, and what you consider worthy of your attention. As you do so, remember Socrates.

There are loads of passionate thinkers in our world today. Look for the ones who aren’t shouting from the rooftops, and consider those who turn you off completely. Expand your view of what a philosopher is. In the process, you’ll become a better one yourself.

About The Author

Maya Talisman Frost is a mind masseuse. Her course, Massage Your Mind!: Defining Your Life Philosophy, has inspired thinkers in over 70 countries around the world. She is the publisher of the Friday Mind Massage, a free weekly ezine serving up a satisfying blend of clarity, comfort and comic relief. To learn more, visit http://www.massageyourmind.com or http://mindmasseuse.com.

maya@massageyourmind.com

Visit and review our tremendous resource for scholarship opportunities for information technology students pointers…

Finding a way to finance a higher education may be difficult and may certainly need time. These scholarships are different from a normal student loan in that they are a grant for your education, so it does not need to be repaid. As you look for ways to fund your academic degree, look into the more special options, for instance scholarships for southpaw scholars.

Southpaw Scholarships: — A southpaw grant may seem out of the norm, however consider this: Benjamin Franklin was a lefty, as is Barack Obama. Raphael, Da Vinci, Ringo Starr also were also lefties. Statistics indicate up to eleven percent of the world’s population are left-handed. Alas in the past lefties have gone through discrimination, in modern times they are frequently thought to be intelligent and more artistic. Stigmatisation is now a thing of the past and southpaws are no longer thought to be odd, in fact they may even be linked with the exceptional individuals noted above. There are numerous grants accessible for left-handed individuals if you look carefully. The Frederick and Mary F. Beckley Scholarship for funding up to one thousand dollars is available at Juniata College in Huntington, PA. Granted to pupils going to Juniata College and founded in the seventies, this school fund has helped over 40 scholars in their pursuit for further education.

Numerous scholarships may have requirements or limitations. In some cases particular grades can be asked for or particular monetary prerequisites must be satisfied. Multiple applications may step-up your chances of finishing with a minimum level of debt. Societies, groups affiliated with hobbies and also local organisations can provide scholarships. Lefty bursaries are not a unusual case; programs are obtainable in other cases for instance to the students from military households or if you are disabled in any way. You will probably have to invest quite a bit of time researching grants, nevertheless the reward will be valuable. The debt generated by a college degree can be reduced by these grants utilised in conjunction regular lending. Be very particular in exploring each scholarship. The above-mentioned scholarships are only one of many choices - be inventive! Go for everything you consider you are qualified for, keeping any costs to a an absolute minimum, and you will probably be looking at a better financial future when you leave school.

Gene therapy is a new technique of treating sicknesses involving carcinomas, made up of peritoneal mesothelioma. It can be termed as the therapy which employs hereditary substances or genes that can express a protein in the microorganism or meddle with the fusion of enzyme in a bacterium to take care of a health problem. DNA are simple organic items of genetics. They are sub-units of RNA which contains the instruction for synthesizing enzymes. These RNA are located in the chromosomes within the center of the bacterium. Pertaining to the Human Genome Project all the DNA in humans have been profiled. Man have between thirty-thousand and 40,000 genes. Whenever these genetic materials are changed either by mutation or by deletion, it may function strangely ensuing in carcinomas.

Research is in progress to employ DNA therapy to battle carcinomas likes malignant mesothelioma. Genetic therapy aims at either improving the ability of the healthy cells to fight the carcinomas or directly wipe out the carcinomas or stunt their growth. At present DNA therapy is just being clinically tested and at the moment it cant be utilized for caring for health problems including carcinoma. It could take a long time to find out if it does have a fundamental role in the curing of carcinomas of all kinds.

In RNA therapy genes are inserted in to the target cells. Most of the clinical testing are performed using protein 53. This DNA is called Tumor suppressor gene. If this DNA does not work properly, it might end in numerous different types of cancer like colon carcinoma, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer,, lung carcinoma, etc. In gene therapy, this DNA and other needed genetic material are introduced in to the selected cells to stunt the growth of carcinoma.

The genes is generally placed to the persons cells by these methods: Microinjection of DNA into the cells and electropermeabilization. gene carriers are given the title of a vector. The vector in nearly all circumstances is a disease. These viruses are altered so that they do not make any illness in the patient and therefore are harmless. The mutation also makes the bug to find the selected cells. The vectors are chosen by the specific details and requirements like how well they drive DNA to the cells they recognize and are able to contaminate, and whether they change the cells DNA forever or momentarily.

Think back on all the people in your life who have helped you attain success in different stages. Teachers, coaches, mentors. These are the people who have guided you, encouraged you, and shaped who you are. Most people associate this kind of encouragement and reassurance with growing up. It’s a part of the right of passage that people encounter throughout life. But what many people overlook later on in life is the option of business coaching. Business owners have a hard road in front of them, and that road looks even bumpier these days due to the nature of our unstable economy. Going at it alone is intimidating, daunting, and at times costly.

Using a business coach to help with important business decisions is just like a sports coach, or life coach. Business coaching helps business owners to stay on track and grow their business. Coaches help to make the tough calls, keep pace, and keep sight of long and short term goals. Using a business coach can be the difference between success and failure for many new and even established businesses. Most entrepreneurs just don’t realize that business coaching is a necessity, not a luxury. For more information about business coaching, visit The Alternative Board website.

For 15 years I’ve taught trainers and leaders and instructional designers the importance of making any learning event more fun. I’ve given them reasons and ways to do it. I’ve written about it many times including

All of the things I have taught and techniques I have used are valuable and helpful.

And they aren’t enough.

The training techniques and ideas all focus on the learning process. And while the process is important; when we focus too closely on a process we can lose sight of the result.

It is like when you tell someone their form is wrong and ignore that they still out bowl you by 30 pins. Or when you tell someone they hold the pen wrong when they write, but they still have pretty handwriting. Or they seem to do something in an unconventional but successful way.

In all of these cases, the focus on process keeps our sight away from the desired result.

So it is with fun and learning.

Will our learning be deeper and more lasting (as well as more enjoyable) if we do things to make the process fun? Of course.

But as I already said, that isn’t enough.

If the person leading the training doesn’t understand why those techniques work, or believe that they will work, they will just be “using techniques” and it will feel just like that to both the teacher and the student. It will be like putting a band-aid over a wound far too big - helpful perhaps, but not really a solution.

So what is the deeper connection?

The Deeper Connection Between Fun and Learning

It is simple. The result of learning is:

• Satisfaction
• Happiness
• Success
• New skills
• Greater confidence
• More security
• Enjoyment
• Fun

The result of our learning something new is supposed to be fun.

This fact is largely why the techniques work - they are putting the process of learning in alignment with a deep human truth. When we learn we are expressing a deep human need and exercising our greatness. When we learn we are doing what we know subconsciously we are supposed to be doing. And when we put our actions in alignment with those needs, it makes us happy.

The result of learning is deep fun, enjoyment and satisfaction.

Too often we forget this - both as students and as teachers. Learning is fun.

Perhaps this article helps you understand why the best trainers seem to make the learning process fun and engaging. Perhaps now you understand why you use those types of ideas. Perhaps you even see ways you could teach coworkers, peers and your kids things more effectively.

I hope so.

But my real hope in sharing this article with you is that you think about your personal experiences and beliefs about learning.

This deeper connection between learning and fun matters to us - and not just because we might be teaching someone else - but because we are learners too.

And we’ll be more effective learners, more productive learners and more successful in our lives when we recapture the joy and yes, fun that inherently comes from learning new things.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

Being able to de-escalate one’s own and the anger of others is an important skill to have in business. Hopefully, this is not something the reader deals with on a regular basis but unfortunately most people in business encounter either their own anger or the anger of others more frequently than they would like.

In order to be successful at de-escalating anger, a person must understand and become skillful in the following areas.

Prevention Steps:

1. Recognize that anger is a choice of a wide range of behaviors that could be used to get what one needs in a situation. It is a behavior that has benefit for its user. Anger can get people the attention they need, help them escape things they don’t want to do, help them gain control over another person or situation, or pump them up when they are feeling small and insignificant.

2. The person interacting with the angry person must identify his or her own emotion at any given point in time. If the helping person is also experiencing anger, then that person will not be very effective assisting others to manage theirs.

3. When potential interventionists are experiencing anger, they must be able to change what they are doing or thinking to get their emotions under control or seek the assistance they will need to manage the situation.

4. Perform a quick self-assessment. A potential helper must ask the following questions. Can I avoid criticizing and finding fault with the angry person? Can I avoid being judgmental? Can I keep from trying to control the other person into doing something he or she doesn’t want to do? Can I keep myself removed from the conflict? Can I believe that the people using anger have the right to make decisions and choices about how they meet their needs and that they have within them the ability to make those decisions? Can I try to see the situation from the angry person’s point of view and understand what need or needs he or she is trying to satisfy? And finally, can I remember that my job is to place the healing of relationships as my primary concern?

If the listener can’t answer these questions in the affirmative, then he or she will need assistance in managing the person who is expressing anger.

5. Recognize early warning signs. Many incidents of anger could be prevented if those who are around a person about to become angry notice the subtle change in the person’s behavior. Quiet people may become agitated; while louder, more outgoing people generally become quiet and introspective. Paying attention to these subtle changes and simply commenting on the change could help the individual talk about things so he or she wouldn’t have to become angry.

Prevention goes a long way. However, there still will be times when you don’t notice the early warning signs or when your first encounter with the person occurs when they are already in an angry state.

Also, it’s possible that you will do everything right in this prevention phase and angry people will still choose anger as their best chance for getting what they want. When any of these situations occur, the listener will need to employ one or all of the five de-escalation skills.

Intervention Steps:

6. Active listening is the process of really attempting to hear, acknowledge and understand what a person is saying. It is a genuine attempt to put oneself in the other person’s situation. More than anything, this involves LISTENING! Listening means attending not only to the words the other person is saying but also the underlying emotion, as well as, the accompanying body language.

By simply providing a sounding board and a willing ear, a person’s anger can be dissipated.

7. Acknowledgement occurs when the listener is attempting to sense the emotion underlying the words a person is using and then comments on that emotion. The person may say something like, “You sound really angry right now!” By acknowledging and really trying to understand what the angry person is feeling, that person becomes able to release a lot of the aggression.

8. Agreeing—often when people are angry about something, there is at least 2 % truth in what they are saying. When attempting to diffuse someone’s anger, it is important to find that 2 % of truth and agree with it.

When someone is angry and the listener attempts to reason with the person, his or her efforts will be largely ineffective. When the listener agrees with the 2% of truth in the angry person’s tirade, he or she takes away the resistance and consequently eliminates the fuel for the fire.

9. Apologizing is a good de-escalation skill. I’m not talking about apologizing for an imaginary wrong. I am talking about sincerely apologizing for anything in the situation that was unjust. It’s simply a statement acknowledging that something occurred that wasn’t right or fair.

This can have the effect of letting angry people know that the listener is sincerely sorry for what they are going through and they may cease to direct their anger at the person attempting to help.

10. Inviting criticism is the final of the de-escalation skills. In this instance the listener would simply ask the angry person to voice his or her criticism of the listener or the situation. The person intervening might say something like, “Go ahead. Tell me everything that has you upset. Don’t hold anything back. I want to hear everything you are angry about.”

This invitation will sometimes temporarily intensify the angry emotion but if the listener continues to encourage the person to vent his or her anger and frustration, eventually, the angry person runs out of complaints. Just let the angry person vent until the anger is spent.

Even when using the above ten skills, there may be a rare occasion when the listener is unsuccessful in the attempts to decrease the other person’s anger. The listener’s safety should be the primary concern. The listener should not get between the angry person and his or her only means of escape and shouldn’t allow the angry person to block the listener’s only means of escape.

Anyone intervening in an emotionally charged situation should always have a plan or an established way to get help if needed and remember to always stay calm. An angry person is generally someone capable of getting out of control. When out of control people sense they are intimidating and scaring others, it can increase their sense of power and control, resulting in an escalation of the situation. The helpers must stay calm and act as if they are in control of themselves and the situation.

Should you want Coaching for Excellence to provide staff development for your employees in de-escalation skills, simply contact Kim at 708-957-6047, email her at Kim@CoachingforExcellence.biz or log on to the website at http://www.coachingforexcellence.biz.

Kim Olver has an undergraduate degree in psychology, a graduate degree in counseling, is a National Certified Counselor and is a licensed professional counselor. Since 1987, Kim has extensively studied the work of Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory, Reality Therapy and Lead Management. She was certified in Reality Therapy in 1992 and continued her studies to become a certified instructor for the William Glasser Institute. She is an expert at empowering people to navigate the sometimes difficult course of life—teaching them how to get the most out of the circumstances life provides them. Her website, http://www.CoachingforExcellence.biz, offers free chats, assessments, a blog and an eZine, as well as workshops, teleclasses, e-courses, counseling and coaching. Visit her website at http://www.CoachingforExcellence.biz or contact her at (708) 957-6047.

Let’s Explore Algebra

Algebra is a wide branch of mathematics that uses abstraction by substituting alphabetic characters for numbers. This abstraction is the very reason why most individuals find algebra scary and too difficult to handle and it is the same reasons why some pupils find it fun to play around with. Algebra topics extend by working through simple tasks such as factoring trinomials and eventually progressing on to finding the product of matrices. Most individuals get down to learn Algebra by adding, subtracting, reducing and simplifying fractions. They then move on to understanding equivalent fractions, finding Least Common Multiples (LCM) and converting fractions to decimals.

Exponents and Radicals and Graphing Oh My!

There are many another advanced themes . To start off with there are exponents. A power is the tiny number placed as superscript to a number or algebraic expression. In this example (x + y)³ where the 3 is the exponent and refers the power to which that number is exponentiated. The above algebraic expression is read as, x plus y to the third power. In working with powers you can add, subtract, multiple or divide them. If you pick up the fundamental principles, you will shortly get down to working with rational and negative exponents and if you think those are not challenging enough, hopefully radicals will spin your head. A radical, simply put, is the reversing of an power. The V beside 4 denote a radical expression which means, the square root of 4, which equals 2. The inverse of “V” symbol is “^” which denotes that the number it refers to is a multiple of the principle number. Therefore, 2^2 which is read as 2 to the 2nd power, equals 4. Additionally, powers can be added, subtracted, multiplied or divided by radicals. Radicals can be converted into powers and exponents back into roots. If you find that exponents and roots don’t really stir your interest, you could move on to graphing. Start with graphing straight lines and determining if the line is horizontal or vertical or neither. Does the line have an x-intercept or a y-intercept? Furthermore, try and see if you can find the slope of a line. Once you master graphing lines, a whole world of circles, parabolas and hyperbolas awaits you!

Want Help?

While you are learning algebra if the terms and concepts seem too much to handle, relax and take a break. It’s time to look around because there exists a wide array of resources that is able to help you master the study. Look for math tutors or software applications that will walk you through step-by-step process on how to solve any problem. Know that frustration is not your only friend because any of these tools can assist you become an algebra expert in no time.