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Alaska Natives Benefit from First-Ever Community Energy Development Workshop

As Alaska Native villages prepared for winter and the intensified energy challenges the season will bring, DOE’s Office of Indian Energy (DOE-IE) and DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Tribal Energy Program co-hosted a workshop focused on solutions to those challenges.

Held in Anchorage, Alaska, on October 16 and 17, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency for Alaska Native Community Development workshop was designed to help Alaska tribal leaders and staffs understand the range of energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities that exist in their communities.

“We were pleased that we could offer a workshop focused specifically on the challenges and opportunities for Alaska Tribes,” said Lizana Pierce, Mechanical Engineer and Senior Project Manager for the Tribal Energy Program. “The workshop was intended as a forum to share knowledge and experiences on clean energy options for Alaska. It included presentations by Tribes and tribal organizations on their clean energy projects and panels of experts on workforce development and building green, technology options, financing and funding opportunities, and other resources."

The workshop, which was intended to benefit Alaska Native entities on both a local and regional level, drew a broad spectrum of more than 100 participants throughout the state, from village councils to regional housing authorities and Native corporations and nonprofits.

“Rural Alaska is facing an energy crisis that makes rural community and regional economic development very difficult,” said Sonny Adams of NANA Regional Corporation (NANA), who spoke about the collaborative role NANA and other regional Native corporations have to play in project coordination and crisis management. “Meaningful solutions to this crisis are coming through public-private partnerships, and this forum contributed to an important dialogue in that regard.”

In addition to providing in-depth information on potential renewable energy and energy efficiency technology solutions, the workshop featured case studies and panel discussions on specific projects that are under way in Alaska Native villages.

Workshop attendees heard from state and federal energy experts from the Alaska Energy Authority, the Denali Commission, NANA, DOE-IE, the Tribal Energy Program, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and other agencies and organizations on topics ranging from village energy planning to energy project financing. Through guided panel discussions, they also had the unique opportunity to learn and benefit from the direct experience of a few of the Alaska Native villages that were selected to participate in the Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) program. Through START, which is funded by DOE-IE and the Denali Commission in Alaska, DOE-IE is providing those villages with direct technical assistance designed to move their energy projects from concept to deployment at an accelerated pace, while also building local capacity to maintain and manage the projects over the long term.

“START is focused on providing villages with a pathway to take the concept of an energy project all the way through the development process and installation,” said DOE-IE Deputy Director Pilar Thomas, who kicked off the workshop with a broad overview of the strategic energy planning process and how it is embedded in the community project development process. “Sometimes that can seem very complex and unapproachable, and the purpose of the workshop was to break it down so Alaska villages have a clear understanding of not only the project development cycle but also the various project financing opportunities, including private financing options, that are available to them.”

In the guided discussion that followed, panelists from the Native villages of Kassan, Teller, and Quinhagak shared project successes and lessons learned, providing a glimpse into how the village energy planning and project development process Thomas described is working in practice.

“At the local level, strategic energy planning is a fundamental first step for a community to prioritize which projects will provide the most benefit,” said START team member Alex Dane of NREL, who moderated the panel discussion on “Native Village Energy Planning and Community Project Development Principles.” “START’s approach to strategic energy planning has come in response to a number of questions, such as ‘What should it look like in action and how can the process be replicated,’ ‘How have energy issues affected each village,’ ‘How can START help convene the right stakeholders into the room,’ and ‘How can the energy planning process that DOE developed and has used elsewhere, but is now tailoring to Alaska Native villages, serve as an effective tool for the villages?’” By talking openly about their projects, said Dane, the panelists provided answers to those questions and many more.

One project development challenge Alaska Native villages face, Dane explained, is ensuring that there are members of the community who are trained and employed for the ongoing operation and maintenance of projects once deployed, especially in cases where outside entities go in, install a project, and then leave. “The likelihood of lasting success for renewable energy projects is significantly decreased if there’s no training around their ongoing operation,” said Dane. “Success depends on community support and ownership of the project—how it works, how to maintain it.” Noting that START is focused on addressing that challenge and others, Dane said the panel discussion he led included “some good brainstorming on how existing and future infrastructure can be better maintained if there’s a more proactive approach to ensuring local capacity through technical training at the regional and local levels.”

Project financing is another challenge Alaska Native villages and corporations face in getting energy projects off the ground, Dane said, pointing to the significant role the Tribal Energy Program has played in providing grant funding for feasibility studies and projects that have enabled Alaska Native entities to make renewable energy a reality. Through START, said Dane, DOE-IE and the Denali Commission are on a mission to help the villages take that project development support one step further by understanding, exploring, and pursuing financing options beyond the traditional grant funding that has laid the foundation for many tribal energy projects in Alaska.

The workshop culminated with a panel discussion moderated by Thomas on “Resources for Community Energy Development,” which covered energy policy, intertribal organizations, regional corporations, education, and financing. In discussing funding and partnership opportunities in Alaska, panelist Joel Neimeyer of the Denali Commission offered a big-picture view of why energy, as the common denominator of all infrastructure at the village level, is a critical community-wide issue for Alaska Natives. Noting that everything—from transportation, electricity, heating, and water, to sanitation and health care services—depends on energy and energy efficiency, Niemeyer underscored the importance of addressing energy challenges proactively.

“The cost of energy (both electricity and heat) has increased threefold in the past 10 years for rural Alaska villages,” said Neimeyer. “Many families are finding that they are spending up to 45% of their monthly income to pay heating, electricity, and sanitation bills. I believe the workshop was successful in identifying strategies and tools for rural Alaska villages to address high energy costs. For me the highlight was learning more about energy tax credits and the opportunities for private businesses to leverage the existing U.S. tax code to invest in rural Alaska energy projects.”

Download the presentations from this workshop.

Learn more about the DOE-IE START Program in Alaska.

The Kingdom Of Looting

There is a phenomenon that is readily associated with swathes of Kosovo's post war politicians. In diplomatic terms it is known as "corruption". For me and many of my fellow citizens it is nothing short of robbery.

Sadly, this phenomenon not only has become entrenched in our daily lives, but it has also been nurtured as a vital mechanism in state consolidation.

If the true scale of corruption in this country was fully known, I believe many of our 2 million people would be on the verge of packing everything up and heading towards the border.

The previous statement might sound melodramatic, especially because it brings bitter memories of the agony that Kosovo went through thirteen years ago, but it is unfortunately true.

Those close to the government would, of course, brush off the claims of widespread cronyism. They would even attempt to refute it by referring to the praise lavish on them by the international community as supervised independence officially ended.

During the two-day events in Prishtina, our international partners held up Kosovo as a role model of state building, social and inter-ethnic cohesion.

It is also interesting to note that international media resorted to putting these words in inverted commas, challenging subtlety the over-effusive claims.

In an interview given to the German international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, PDK's Arsim Bajrami claimed that the end of Kosovo's supervised independence means more responsibility for Kosovar institutions for combating organised crime and corruption.

The statement of Mr Bajrami is logical. However, the reality suggests that the government has neither the courage nor the interest to fight what it has tolerated and nurtured for years -robbery and looting.

The fact that this phenomenon has now reached uncontrollable levels is demonstrated with the hopelessness of Kosovo's youth. Most youngsters keep an eye out for the first opportunity to take a ticket abroad and head to the western world for employment. Others chose asylum-seeking or illegal immigration.

A senior politicians who decides to treat a group of women to a trip to Albania for International Women's day, costing tens of thousands of euro, could easily be seen as playing fast and loose with the Kosovo budget.

Using a private jet to return from holidays in Turkey at a cost of 20,000 euro is perhaps a worst example of excessive spending.

You might be wondering about the names of these protagonists. I purposefully choose not to name them in order to test our collective memory.

The examples refer to two different governments of Kosovo, the former currently in power and the latter of 2005. If we struggle to remember the names, our apathy is confirmed.

We need to understand the fact that even if these acts have now faded into history this does not dilute them, nor does it legitimise the situation Kosovo is in. But, what legitimises this Kosovo-wide looting is the apathy of society, which allows this phenomena to turn into a lifestyle.

The time has come to seriously ask ourselves: are we simply unable to react or are we not able to understand where we went wrong? Why do we remain silent while being robbed? And finally, we need to address one issue: how did we accept a leadership who should have been confined to the cells of Dubrava Prison, rather than the glass buildings of government?

Read more articles by Kreshnik Hoxha, and many more by award-winning journalists, on the leading English-language news site covering the Balkans; http://www.balkaninsight.com/

The Importance of Taking Time to Give Thanks

Did you know that in the United States more people go home for Thanksgiving than for Christmas? And yet, no presents are exchanged. It is simply a time to return home and share a meal, conversation, time with close family.Taking time to give thanks is seen as important.

Let's consider areas where it's important to stop, take time and give thanks:

- Many of us take our health for granted. We push ourselves to the limits, disregard stress levels, eat and sleep erratically. It's only when we or someone close to us receives a health warning that we start to appreciate the importance of being more respectful of our health. But taking better care of ourselves minimises stress and improves our quality of life. And then if we do occasionally need to cope with stressful times we are healthier and better equipped to do so.

- Family and friends are often such an accepted part of our lives that we forget to give thanks for them, their support, annoying habits and sometimes unsolicited interference and advice. Finding ways to value and appreciate these relationships and learn to interact appropriately with others are important elements in becoming a functioning human being, able to live a satisfying and successful life in the big wide world away from home and familiar surroundings.

- Often the weather provides us with many reasons to complain but we should take time to give thanks for the seasons, even if we sometimes experience them all in one day! As Winter approaches we can give thanks and consider the different nuances of each season. We can enjoy our homes in different ways throughout the year. Celebrate family, friends, by making our homes more cosy and intimate in the Winter months.

- Many of us may compare ourselves to others. We may see other people as having luxurious homes, wonderful clothes, regular holidays to exotic locations, enviable lifestyles. But those people may well wish that they spent less time at work, more time together as a family. Often business and professional success brings compromises in other areas of life. Finding a balance is often the major challenge.

- Minor inconveniences often bring unexpected opportunities to be appreciative. Forgetting our mobile phone allows us quiet time for ourself. The day without our car means we have to walk and consequently discover surprising things about our neighbourhood. Even the disappointment of being let down enables us to find out how resourceful we are, as we're forced to find a solution to the situation.

- When a special relationship ends badly an important consideration is to remind ourselves how important the relationship was to us once upon a time. We learned to love, share, co-exist and that's something to be thankful for, even if it didn't work out as we would have liked. We may also have learned what we don't want and that's important too.

- Similarly, when someone close to us dies it is hoped that eventually we'll be able to give thanks for their life, the time we shared together, the importance they played in our life, what they meant to us.

- Having a job we dislike can be improved by an adjustment in our perspective. Being thankful for having a job, earning money, having a reason to get up in the morning, something that many people would be grateful for can help to improve our outlook. Using our dissatisfaction as the impetus to take control of our life can be a valuable catalyst for change. It can propel us to take action; to start studying, research what else we could do, discover viable ways to move on.

Stopping occasionally to give thanks for family and friends, the important things in life, our health, home, quality of life is important to do from time to time. Being appreciative of what we have grounds us and reminds of what really matters in life. Giving thanks provides an interlude to value what we have before we once again resume our lives.

Susan Leigh is a long established counsellor and hypnotherapist who works with clients to help with relationship conflict, stress, assertiveness and confidence issues. She works with individual, clients, couples and in corporate situations.

Her book 'Dealing with Death - Coping with the pain' is a self help book dealing with loss, grief and endings in many different life situations. The loss of a loved person, animal, relationship, career is a devastating blow that this book helps the reader work through.

To order a copy or for more information, help and free articles visit http://www.lifestyletherapy.net/

Interesting Information About Parrots and Their Allies

The 315 parrots, parakeets, cockatoos, Lories, lorikeets, macaws, lovebirds, budgerigars, are a diverse group; yet they are so uniform in their diagnostic features that all are recognizable at a glance as members of the parrot order and family. They range in size from the little 3.5 inch pygmy parrots of the Papua region to the gaudy, long-tailed, 40-inch macaws of the Amazon jungles. They vary in shape from plump African lovebirds and South American Amazons to the slender Lories and wildly crested cockatoos of the AustraloMalayan region. The coloring defies summing up in a sentence, but their bodies are usually a solid green, yellow, red, white, or black, with contrasting patches of red, yellow, or blue on the head, wings, or tail.

Identifying characteristics are the large head and short neck, and particularly the strongly down-curved, hooked bill. An equally important structural feature is the parrot's strong, grasping feet with two toes in front and two behind. Parrots also have a broad cere at the base of the bill through which the nostrils open and which is feathered in many species. Their smallish eyes are often bordered by patches of bare skin, particularly in the larger species. Their rather sparse plumage had powder-downs scattered all through it.

The parrots are a distinctive ancient group well warranting their ordinal rank. They show some affinities in anatomy and in habits to both the pigeons and to the cuckoos. Being essentially arboreal birds, their fossil record is poor. The earliest so far unearthed are of Miocene age, less than 15 million years ago. These show parrots were formerly more widespread in temperate latitude than they are today, spreading north almost to Canada in North America and to France and in Europe.

The parrots' present distribution is pan-tropical. They occur on all lands in the Southern Hemisphere except the southern tip of Africa and the more remote Pacific islands. In the Northern Hemisphere they now reach northern Mexico (central United States, until recently) in the New World and southeastern Asia in the Old. Parrots fall into six major groups, which are sometimes given family rank, but the structural difference between them are so slight that most students today accord them subfamily rank at best.

While they have never been domesticated in the sense that chickens, ducks, and pigeons have, probably more species of parrots have been tamed and raised in captivity than any other group of birds. Primitive tribes have kept them as pets since time immemorial. The talking ability of the African grey Parrot is mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman writings. The parrot's appeal is partly aesthetic, partly anthropomorphic. Coupled with their attractive hues and the ease with which they are tamed and maintained in captivity are their intensely human traits of imitating the human voice, of showing affection to each other, of reacting to flattery, and of using their feet almost as hands. No other bird holds food in one foot and bites pieces off, much as one eats a sandwich. Parrots are extremely long-lived. How long the birds live in the wild, where natural enemies take their toll, is unknown, but individuals have lived upwards of 50 years in captivity, and one is reported to have reached 80.

Parrot's Attributes

Parrots develop their ability as mimics only in captivity. In the wild they are raucous-voiced birds that shriek or squawk or twitter, depending on their size, and have a poor range of vocal expression. Yet in captivity they learn to imitate all sorts of sounds, some species better than others. The African Grey Parrot is considered one of the best mimics, closely followed by the green amazons of Central and South America. The larger and the smaller species do not do so well. Cockatoos and macaws can learn a phrase or two, and the little budgerigars and parakeets can be taught to whistle a tune if one has patience enough.

Though parrot-lovers will cite examples to prove the contrary, talking parrots haven't the slightest idea of what they saying. Often it takes a bit of imagination to put the proper words to the syllables they utter. Parrots learn best when young and repeat the simpler sounds they hear most often with little choice or selectivity. A friend kept a young Yellow-headed Amazon on her pouch while a house was being built on the next site. Intriguing by the zipping sound of hand saws, the bird made this the favorite item if its vocabulary. My friend soon tired of hearing carpenters sawing all day every day and gave the bird to the zoo.

Parrot fanciers had a severe blow in the 1930s when it was discovered that parrots suffer from a virus disease, originally called psittacosis, which they can transmit to humans, sometimes in a virulent form. To combat this disease, the importation of wild plants was prohibited, and the traffic in caged parrots suffered from a severe setback. Later researchers revealed that "parrot fever" occurs in almost all birds, including domestic fowls and pigeons, and the disease is now more appropriately called ornithosis. Antitoxins and antibiotics have been developed that greatly reduce the severity of the virulent strains, and fear of the disease has now been largely overcome. Parrots are again gaining favor as cage birds, particularly the little budgerigars, which are now bred in whites and yellows, far removed from the blues and greens of their wild Australian progenitors.

Gaudy Macaws

The kings of the parrot family are the 15 gaudy macaws that live in the tropical rainforests from Mexico south through Central and South America. One of the largest and handsomest is the red-and-green macaw found from Panama to Bolivia. When fully developed its tail alone is more than two feet long. The slightly smaller Hyacinth Macaw, highly prized by parrot fanciers for its lovely coloring, lives only in the jungle vastnesses of interior Brazil. The commonest macaws seen in zoos are the Scarlet Macaw and the Gold-and-blue Macaw. Another species widespread from Mexico southward is the Military Macaw, the all-green one with a red forehead. Macaws usually travel in pairs. As these magnificent birds fly screeching on strong and rapid wings over the high panoply of their native jungles, they are a far more stirring sight than their tamed counterparts on a zoo perch, and one never forgotten. Other members of the group are smaller; all have long graduated tails.

New World Parrots

Perhaps best known of the New World parrots are the 25 or so species of amazons, often kept as cage birds. These are the stout-bodied green parrots with short square or rounded tails, most of them marked with yellow, red, or blue. One of the largest, the Yellow-headed Amazon, is among the best talkers of the American parrots. Other commonly caged amazons are the Yellow-faced and the Red-fronted, one with a yellow and the other with a reddish forehead. One of the smallest is the 10-inch White-fronted Amazon, with a white forehead, bright red lores, and a red wing patch in the male.

Among the less familiar groups of New World parrots are conures, which are smaller and more slender-bodied than the amazons and have longer, pointed tails. Most striking of this group is the Golden Conure of Brazil. Also classified here is the only parrot native to the United States, the recently extinct Carolina Parakeet, a pretty little parrot about 12 inches long with a yellowish green body, a long pointed tail, and an orange-yellow head.

In the early 19th century Carolina Parakeets ranged from North Dakota and central New York south to eastern Texas and Florida, and were abundant in the heavily forested bottom lands of the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic seaboard. Slaughtered for sport and to control their depredations to fruit and grain crops, flocking parakeets had an unfortunate habit of hovering in curiosity and concern over a fallen bird, so that the hunter could often kill them all. They had become exceedingly rare by 1900. The last ones were seen in the Florida Everglades in the early 1920s. Though kept commonly as cage birds in the 19th century, they were never raised successfully in captivity and the species vanished before any determined effort could be made to save it.

Similar in size and form to the amazons is the African Grey Parrot, which commands the highest price of all parrots among bird dealers because of its excellence as a mimic. This grey, red-tailed bird is at home in the rainforests of the Congo from the Gold Coast to Kenya and Tangayika. Like so many of the smaller parrots in the wild, it is generally seen in screaming, chattering flocks flying bullet-like over the tops of the trees. In western Africa it does considerable damage to grain.

Lovebirds

The lovebirds are a group of small, heavy-bodied, pointed-tailed Old World parrots best developed in Africa and Madagascar. They are highly prized as cage birds, partly for their attractive colors, partly for their human trait of liking each other' company. Caged birds sit huddled together by the hour, giving every evidence of fondness for each other. In the wild, lovebirds usually travel in large flocks and often damage crops. In most the sexes are alike, but in the gaudy Electus, of the South Pacific islands, the sexes are so different in color (the male bright green, the female soft maroon) that they were once believed to be different species.

Parakeets

The true Parakeets are a widespread Old World group centered in the Indo-Malayan region. Most of these small parrots have long pointed tails. Many live in cultivated areas and eat grain as well as fruit. They travel in large chattering flocks and often feed on the ground. Best known of the group is the Budgerigar of Australia, now popular as a cage bird. A weird group is the hanging parakeets, tiny green birds found from India to the Philippines that sleep at night hanging upside down from their perches like bats.

Another distinct group of Australo-Malayan parrots consists of the 16 cockatoos, which differ from other parrots in having a crest of long, pointed feathers they can raise and lower at will. Most are fair-sized white birds, frequently washed or tinged with pinks or yellows, and in some the crest color varies. Wild cockatoos are noisy, gregarious birds that travel in small loose flocks through the treetops and perch on exposed limbs, where they stand out conspicuously against the dark foliage. The Solomon Islands White Cockatoos was a familiar bird to Americans there during World War II, and men got live ones from the natives as pets. A Seabee outfit taught one bird to repeat monotonously "Bledsoe said so," to the delight of the troops and the annoyance of their imperial executive officer, Mr. Bledsoe. Among the commoner white cockatoos are seen in zoos are the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo with its bright yellow crown, and the pink-shaded Leadbeater's Cockatoo.

Black Cockatoo

The largest is the 31 inch Black Cockatoo of New Guinea, whose tremendous curved bill ends in a long, sharp point. With it the Black Cockatoo cracks and digs the meat out of hard-shelled nuts that a man has trouble breaking with a rock. Unlike the White Cockatoos, the Black Cockatoo is a solitary bird, usually seen alone or in small groups of two or three in the tops of tall jungle trees. Also unlike other cockatoos, the Black Cockatoo has a bare face, and its cheeks change from pink to red with the bird's emotion.

Lories and Lorikeets

The Lories and lorikeets of the Australasian region, 6 to 15 inches long, brilliantly colored in greens, blues, reds, and yellows, have their tongues edged with a brushy fringe for lapping up nectar and fruit juices. Unlike other nectar-eating birds that siphon flower nectar with thin, tube-like bills, the lorikeets crush flowers with their beaks and lap up the extruded juices with their tongues. A common bird in the coconut plantations throughout the South Sea islands is the painted, or Rainbow, Lorikeet, a slender, long-tailed bird that breaks into many geographical races, each island population vary slightly in color and size. Large flocks of these birds dash twittering and chattering through the treetops and alight in the palm fronds like to many bright flowers. Just as suddenly they take flight again with a great rushing of wings, still chattering.

Pygmy Parrots

Smallest of the family are the tiny pygmy parrots, only 3 to 5 inches in length, whose six species range from New Guinea eastward through New Britain and the Solomons. These midgets act more like small woodpeckers than parrots. They creep about the trunks and large limbs of forest trees prying insects out of bark crevices. They have stiff woodpecker-like tails with spiny tips, and long claws for clinging to bark. They are not so common or gregarious as most other parrots, and are quiet and hard to find in their jungle haunts. They have never been kept successfully in captivity.

Kakapo

Strangest and most aberrant of all the parrots is the Kakapo, or Owl Parrot, of New Zealand. This very rare bird is threatened with extinction by New Zealand's introduced predators, for it has lost the power of flight. A large parrot about 20 inches long, its soft feather is cryptically streaked with greens, yellows, browns, and blacks. Largely nocturnal, it hides during the day in holes in rocks and under tree roots, and comes forth at evening to feed. It runs rapidly on the ground and when in a hurry often spreads its wings. It climbs trees for fruit and nectar and then glides down to the ground. Its longest glide recorded is about 90 yards. In the forest habitat it frequents its keeps path and trails open by snipping off roots and vegetation in its way as it walks along. The Kakapo is believed extinct on North Island but a few have recently been reported still surviving in the extensive beech forests of South Island.

Kea and Kaka

Equally distinct and abnormal are the two other New Zealand parrots, the Kea and the Kaka, both fairly large birds about the size of a crow, brownish-green in color, variously marked with reds and yellows. The Kea is a highland form living above the tree line in alpine regions of South Island, where it nests in crannies and fissures under rocks. In summer, it lives on a normal parrot diet of fruit and buds, supplemented with insects, grubs, and worms. In winter, it descends to lower levels where it becomes a scavenger, and it has acquired the obnoxious habit of pecking into the backs of living sheep for their kidney fat. To curb their sheep killing, a bounty was put on Keas, and paid on almost 30,000 during an 8-yeard period. This had little effect on their numbers, which apparently increased because of the plentiful food supply. Removing all sheep refuse after butchering was found a more effective way of controlling them.

The Kea's close relative, the Kaka, lives in low-level forests on both islands. It is a noisy bird usually seen in flocks. It lives on fruits and nectar, and on grubs it digs out of rotten wood with its powerful beak.

Parrots Breeding

Parrots are remarkably uniform in their nesting habits. Parrot eggs are quite white, round, always white, and fairly glossy. The number per clutch varies from 1 in some of the larger species to 9 or 10 in some smaller ones, and averages 3 to 5. Most parrots are cavity nesters and they usually lay in an unlined hole in a tree. Some nest in burrows on the ground, some in rock crevices. The pygmy parrots and several other small Australasian species dig their nests in termite houses. Incubation is normally by both sexes; in a few species by the female alone. The young usually hatch naked but soon sprout a down coat which makes them look remarkably like fledging owls. Little is known of their incubation periods, but in the smaller parakeets they run from about 17 to 20 days. Both sexes feed the young by regurgitation, much as pigeons do.

The Grey-breasted Parakeet of Argentina nests colonially in huge structures built of twigs high in trees in which each pair of birds has its own private compartment. The birds use these huge nests as sleeping quarters the year round and add to them from year to year until the wagonload or more of twigs breaks down the supporting branches. Other birds, such as tree ducks, sometimes occupy vacant nests in these colonies with the parakeets, and once in a while opossums move in and apparently live at peace with them.

Harness Your Visionary Powers to Accomplish Your Goals

One of my mottos is, Hold fast to your vision, regardless of what is going on around you, because you need the power of your vision to transform your perception and your current reality.

When you truly stop believing (and living) in the past (i.e., past experiences, beliefs, thoughts, traumas, etc.), and instead you appreciate the things and thoughts that bring you joy in the present moment, you begin to pave the way toward a brighter and more fulfilling future.

But how do you hold on to your vision, when the mind is continuously creating a multitude of thoughts, ideas, and desires? How do you differentiate between those that will bring you joy and those that arise from a wounded place (and will perpetuate the wound)? And most importantly, how do you bring them into reality when everything around you seems to be pointing in different directions? Aside from the obvious self-discipline and focus, the keys here are: know and trust yourself.

The mind is tricky, so the difference between true (soul-driven) desires and impulsive (ego-driven) illusions is subtle, and this is why your visionary powers-like those of spiritual entrepreneurs, inspired leaders, and creative visionaries-can either propel you into success and fulfillment or get in your way, creating blind spots that side track you or sabotage your goals and purpose.

Are Your Ideas Blocking Your Goals and Accomplishments?

A visionary mind is a flowing fountain of creative, innovative, and amazing ideas and solutions. If you have tapped into your creative nature, you know what I mean. It seems that no sooner than you start a project, you get flooded with new ideas that may enhance, complement, or improve your project; or maybe these new ideas are independent of your current goal and fuel the impulse to ignite yet a completely new project.

It's a blessing to be able to tap into your creative potential and become an idea generator, but it can also have a downside, because so many ideas floating in your mind can get confusing and distracting, and actually prevent you from focusing on your goal or project to bring it to fruition. It doesn't matter if the project is a creative endeavor, a business, a career, or your daily life. You can start a million things and jump from one to another without ever fully embracing or mastering who you are and what you want.

From the ego-mind perspective, the role of the "eternal beginner" is a safe place, because you can't really fail if you never actualize anything; you can't be judged for what you've done, since you haven't finished it; and you can always improve something that is considered "work in progress" in your mind.

In other words, remaining in the idea world allows you to not take responsibility for what you can do while maintaining a sense of control; after all, anything is possible in the idea realm. Bringing something to reality or fruition requires self-discipline, focus, and conscious action.

Is Your Love of Learning Preventing You From Mastering Life?

Another visionary power that can get in your way is the love of learning. If you are an idea generator, you are probably eager to discover new ideas and acquire wisdom as well. As a visionary, you are a lifetime learner and you also want to have all your "ducks in a row" before you feel ready to step up and present your vision to others. Yet since there is always something more to discover and learn, this may bring out an underlying feeling that "you're not ready" because you may be missing something.

I don't know how many people I've met who attend workshop after workshop, follow one teacher after another, learn all the healing techniques they can, and read all the books they find, and yet do not know who they are or what they want in life. They gather tons of information and teachings, but they lack the self-discipline to integrate it into their personal and spiritual experience.

True knowledge comes from experience, and true wisdom comes from insight. The only way to change the dysfunctional patterns created from past experiences, memories, beliefs, and habits is to replace them with new experiences, memories, beliefs, and habits. Those new experiences have to come from conscious choices you make in a different direction from the unconscious impulses of the ego-mind.

The soul doesn't care about how many certifications, diplomas, books, retreats, workshops, and healing techniques you have acquired; its only concern is what you do with it all and how you apply it for the purpose of expanding your awareness and self-knowledge-that is, of your self-growth (i.e., growing closer to the Self).

So again, not integrating knowledge and experience may keep you as the eternal seeker or student, which is another way to hide and not take responsibility for who you are and what you are here to do. There is nothing wrong with learning (I am a lover of learning myself), but you have to start delving into your own inner wisdom at some point.

You can continue enjoying learning from everything and everyone while also embracing what you have to offer yourself and others. It really is a matter of self-love and self-worth here, and you can begin to believe and value everything you are, no matter where you are at.

Is Your Search for Perfection Sabotaging You?

You may not realize this, but everyone is always giving as much as they can and doing their best. Sometimes that "best" may not seem good enough to you, but it's truly the best that you or anyone can do at any given time, because it is in our nature to be and do the best we can. Yearning for perfection is ingrained in our divine nature, and although it may get distorted and twisted along the way, we can use this natural visionary power to do great things. However, it has a downside, too.

As kids, we all expect love, support, and validation from the outside world (from parents, teachers, friends, and so on). If you grew up in an environment that didn't provide the emotional support you needed, then chances are you acquired the belief that you're not good enough, or that you don't know enough, and so this visionary power becomes the tendency to be a perfectionist, which blocks your ability to feel good about what you can accomplish and also creates the need to always be right.

On the one hand, you're committed to do your best and hold high standards for yourself, but on the other, you don't allow yourself to be at peace with who you are and accept that life is a process where there are no mistakes, only the expansion of awareness that comes from your learning experiences.

If you don't give yourself permission to be wrong, to not know, and to make mistakes, how can you open up to the great wisdom and abundance that is available to you, and how can you continue growing and expanding consciousness? Perfectionism hinders your ability to deliver and share your gifts with others: a great performance, a wonderful piece of work, an innovative solution, or a loving and generous life.

The Time to Master and Create Your Life Is Now!

In truth, mastery is not about knowing what this or that author think, or what this or that teacher says; it's not about comparing yourself to others or waiting for the right moment to start living or loving; it's not about judging yourself or others by the standards of personal or cultural morals or ideals. It's about knowing who you truly are and putting into action what rings true to you from all the information and experiences you have acquired, and allowing your gifts to shine forth and support you in the fulfillment of your purpose.

Perhaps you have forgotten that, ultimately, you are here to touch others with what makes you unique: the singular mixture of gifts, talents, intelligence, intuition, perspective, expertise, experience and style that only you can offer. So here are some pointers to help you start harnessing your visionary powers for success:

Know who you are and what you want to become self-guided;Believe that who you are is exactly who you need to be, and that there is always room for improvement and change;Know that everything has many layers, don't underestimate the power of your ego-mind and remain vigilant in your self-exploration;Stop being the "eternal beginner": acknowledge and value all your experiences (both pleasurable and painful);Give yourself permission to be wrong, to make mistakes, and to not know the answers, with compassion and self-love;Understand that self-growth is a never-ending process because consciousness never stops expanding;Start using your visionary powers to take conscious action and not to procrastinate;Remember that even after you reach a goal, your life path continues;Be gentle and compassionate with yourself and others, nobody said this was easy and we didn't get any instructions either!

And of course, if you need support and guidance to find your life path, your purpose, or to create a successful soul-based business, don't hesitate to contact me and begin harnessing all your potential for a fulfilling, joyful, and abundant life!

© 2012 Yol Swan. All rights reserved.

Yol Swan is an Intuitive Spiritual Counselor, Life & Business Coach offering over 28 years of experience exploring the mind and psyche, Vedic and metaphysical sciences, psychology and spirituality, as well as her intuitive gifts, to help you understand your environment and relationships from a spiritual perspective and remove what prevents you from living a joyful and abundant life!

Intuitive Spiritual Counseling, Life Purpose Coaching, Indigo & Energy Healing, Spiritual Tools for Self-Growth, Meditation, Audio & Video Lectures & Courses. In Person & Online Counseling.

Visit: Online Intuitive Spiritual Counseling for more information. Subscribe to her Spiritual Newsletter for more articles like this one, and receive a free video course: 3 Steps to Start Attracting What you Desire!

Felines Of North America

Even though their numbers are down, North America is home to numerous species of wild cats. The most common and the only one not on the threatened or endangered list, is the ornery Bobcat. He is the "Lynx Rufus" which means he is in same family as the Canada Lynx, but he is a lot more versatile than the Canada Lynx. The Bobcat used to be wide spread over most of the US. But for years he was labeled as a nuisance and was either ran out of the area or was shot, and this has seriously hurt the population numbers. Still though, they are the most successful of any of the North American wild cats. They eat a wider variety of food which is a big help. The Canada Lynx eats almost exclusively Snow Shoe Hares. The Bobcat will eat a wide range of food including hares, Cottontail Rabbits, mice, rats, gophers, birds, eggs, reptiles or about anything else they can catch.

The Bobcat is only slightly larger than the average house cat, at apx 21 inches high and 10-30 pounds. Their back legs are slightly longer than the front which gives the impression that they are a lot bigger than they really are. They usually have 1-6 kittens with 2-3 the average in the spring. The eyes open at 9 days, and they nurse for 3-4 months. At 5 months mom starts taking them out to learn the fine art of hunting. They will stay with mom learning until the next spring and breeding time. The Bobcat has been known to live over 30 years in captivity, but usually only 12-13 in the wild.

The Lynx is like the Bobcats cold weather cousin. Lynx are about the same size as a Bobcat, but the Canada Lynx has cold weather gear on. Their feet are bigger than the Bobcats and with the extra hair they have on them their feet work as snowshoes. Their ear tufts are bigger and the ruff around their face is fuzzier. Canadian Lynx is a good example of the relationship between predator and prey. They have tracked the Lynx for years and watch the fluxuation up and down. Most populations of Snowshoe Hares run in cycles of 8-11 years. The Canada Lynx population followed the flow. If there isn't much food they may skip a year of having kittens. Wait till conditions are more favorable to try to raise a family. Most kittens don't make it to adulthood as is. It's hard raising a family no matter who you are. The Canada Lynx has been recorded living as long as 21 years in captivity and 15 in the wild.

Another North American cat that is pretty scarce is the Ocelot or Painted leopard. The little cat used to run most of the southern US. Now every now and then there is a sighting in Texas or Arizona then as you go farther into Mexico they become more common. The Ocelot has been studied in several different habitat types. Like most cats they are primarily nocturnal, they are territorial and primarily solitary unless mom and kits. The fur trade for the Ocelots beautiful coat has put this cat on the endangered list for US.

KC Evans is a Wildlife Rehabilitator from Wildthings Wildlife Center in Colorado.

A Perfect Life - Ways to Achieve It

Success and Happiness Define a Good Life - How to Achieve It?

There are two things you need from life to make it complete - happiness and success. Both are equally important to mark a good life yet one without the other is meaningless. Together they make a life worth living and to make yours one you need to figure out what defines a good life for you. And unless you do you cannot hope to achieve it and make a difference to the world around you. While the definition may differ from person to person, the underlying need for fulfillment lies deep in all of us.

Let us first look at happiness, its definition and how we can achieve it. According to the Merriam-Webster, happiness is defined as - "a state of well-being and contentment; joy; a satisfying experience". If you notice, no matter which way you define it, the meaning always veers towards the self. And that this where you should begin and end your journey.

Begin by daring to dream. Begin by asking yourself what you want. By giving in to your deepest desires. And when you start traveling on this path you will contentment at every step. With every milestone that you achieve you will feel a surge of satisfaction. And with every small success you will feel the proximity of your bug win and find the strength to achieve it through the true happiness that you feel by following your dream.

Next comes success. Success is defined as "favorable or desired outcome; also: the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence" - according to the Merriam-Webster. When you know what makes you happy and what your heart desires most, you will know which road to travel to achieve the heights of success. Everyone who puts in an effort will achieve some measure of success or minor results. But in order to attain greater glory one must put in more than the ordinary effort. Glory is not meant for the fearful and puny at heart. To achieve it you have to risk the conventions and step into the wilderness. For it is only then that you can carve out your own path.

It is our foremost duty to be happy, to respect the life that we have and to dream. True fruition is the ultimate goal and to achieve it we will have to pass through all odds. As you can see, both happiness and success are deeply and intrinsically linked to each other. Together they form the twin pillars of a life well lived.

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." - Dale Carnegie

Do you want to learn more about personal growth and development to create a happy and successful life of your dreams and desires?

If so, visit http://www.effectivehabitsforsuccess.com/ for more tips, advice and strategies to change your life and achieve greater personal success.

Also download a Free copy of my ebook Grooming Yourself for Unlimited Success.

Wildlife - Indian Tigers

In spite of housing over half of the world's tiger population, India has come down to a low density habitat in recent years. A survey by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in 2008 represented a sorry figure of the declining number of Indian tigers. This survey, indeed, came across as a shocking revelation to a country with abundant wildlife and green areas as compared to other parts of the world.

After a wave of concern from all over the world forced the authorities, especially the National Tiger Conservation Authority, to take a better approach towards wildlife conservation, the index rose to a satisfactory figure in the last 3 years. However, the tiger population in India is still not above the danger mark. The current tiger population in India is estimated to have crossed the 2000 mark.

The cause of the declining figure was tracked down to the decreasing habitat for wildlife owing to severe deforestation, poaching and a food chain imbalance. Not having a better arrangement of tiger tracking equipments and armed approach towards poaching has also increased the danger level.

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 encourages the tracking of the tiger population in protected areas, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and remote jungles to keep a clean record of the population and help them survive all the possible reasons of their depleting number. However, better law enforcement, training and support have recently been helpful in increasing the density.

The current tiger tracking system in India features digital data collection techniques and a higher usage of camera and other devices installed in every few kilometers. Excellent new tiger protection measures have also come up as a regular practice in all of the Indian states. Instructions and methods of data collection are being translated into all the regional languages for forest staffs to understand the necessary measures.

Besides, the shocking number of the Indian tiger count back in 2008 had initiated a lot of awareness campaigns to educate the masses about the importance of wildlife conservation. That is why the most effective way to implement tiger conservation action in India today would be a higher level of NGO participation. A better political approach towards law enforcements can also help the cause gain more attention.

Despite all the current measures, India still has a far way to go in terms of effective tiger tracking methods and conservation. In most of the cases, geographical difficulties hamper the tracking. Particularly, the mountains in the Northeast and the mangroves in Sunderban have intricate accessibility to an accurate tracking system. The disparity in census affects the protection measures to a great extent.

However, it is never too late to work towards ensuring a safer habitat for tigers. The ideal approach would be to follow the territory rules as we human beings have no business hovering around their wild dwellings. Deforestation for industrial purposes and other human usage can only aggravate the problem. The wise thing to do at this point is to draw the line between intrusion and expansion. The rest of the things will fall in places as conservation measures work best when implemented with a clear conscience.

Author loves to write articles on different topics and this article is based on Wildlife India about Indian Tigers.

Interesting Information About Ostriches

The ostrich is the largest of living birds. Adult males stand 8 feet tall and weigh more than 300 pounds; the hens are slightly smaller. Six geographical rates differ from one another slightly in size, in skin color of the bare thighs, head, and neck, and in the size and texture of their eggs. These are all members of a single species, the only representative of their order. Until recently Ostriches ranged from the Arabian and Sahara deserts southward throughout Africa.

The ostrich family is an ancient one. Five fossil species are known, the oldest from the early Tertiary (about 50 - 60 million years ago). These ancient ostriches occupied southern Europe and Asia and as well as Africa, and lived as far north as the Mongolian deserts. Civilization has pushed their descendants into the wildest parts of their former range. The Arabian ostrich has probably been wiped out-the last reported was one killed and eaten by Arabs in Saudi Arabia during World War II. Ostriches that formerly lived in the Egyptian, Nubian, and South African deserts have almost disappeared. Most wild birds survive in dry Central Africa, where they still roam in the protected National Parks.

Ostriches live in open, arid country and usually travel in bands of 10 to 50 birds. They congregate with gnus, zebras, antelopes, and other large grazing mammals in a sort of mutual alliance. The browsing animals stir up insects, small reptiles, and rodents for the ostriches. The ostriches, in turn, with their advantageous height, spot approaching danger. Ostriches also eat fruit, plants, and seeds.

Ostriches have managed to survive on a continent teeming with large predators partly by being alert and shy, partly by their fighting skill, but mainly by their speed. Tales of their running at 60 miles per hour are exaggerated. Pacing with cars shows about half that speed to be their maximum. Though they prefer to run from danger, ostriches will fight when cornered and can be formidable antagonists. They fight with their feet, kicking out and down with vicious slashes of their heavy claws that can easily rip a lion or a man wide open.

The ostrich is the only bird that has lost two of the four toes which most modern birds have. One of these two remaining toes is much smaller than the other, and it too may be disappearing in the evolutionary process of developing a single-toed hoof, as the horse did not so long ago.

As befits the largest of birds, ostrich lays the largest egg of any living bird. Oddly enough, the ostrich egg is one of the smallest in relation to the size of the bird laying it. From 6 to 8 inches long and weighing up to 3 pounds, it is only one per cent of the female's weight. The eggs vary from white to yellowish, and their hard shiny surface is pitted with superficial pores of different sizes and shapes.

For a nest, the female ostrich scrapes out a large depression in the sand in which she lays 10 to 12 eggs. Nests with 25 to 30 eggs results from several females laying in them. The frequency of such nests has given rise to the common belief that the ostrich is polygamous, which has yet to be proved. As in most ratites the cock does most of the incubating and sits on the eggs faithfully each night. The ostrich hen also incubates, always by day when her duller color has a protective advantage. Often the eggs are left partly covered with sand in the daytime for the sun to keep warm.

The incubation is 40 to 42 days. The sturdy, dappled chicks, after a short rest from their labours of pecking into the world, are soon able to travel with their parents. About a foot tall, when hatched, they grow about a foot a month until they reach 5 to 6 feet, when the growth rate slows down. It takes an ostrich 3 to 4 years to mature fully.

Though able to run vigorously soon after hatching, the chicks usually stretch out flat, when danger threatens, necks extended, and "play possum." The chicks' well-known habit of feigning death probably was the origin of the oft-repeated canard that ostriches bury their heads in the sand at the approach of danger. This, of course, just isn't so.

Ostriches were large and conspicuous residents of the land that cradled our civilization, south and east of the Mediterranean. Here they have left their record since the dawn of history. Ostrich-egg cups have been found in Assyrian graves dated 3,000 B.C. Ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Greeks also found the strong shells made handy utensils.

In the Roman Empire, roast ostrich was considered a fitting main course for the Emperor's feasts. Roman physicians used ostrich fat as a drug and prescribed the gizzard stones as a remedy for eye diseases. One ancient and enduring folktale, recorded in the medieval herbals and even mentioned by Shakespeare, is the belief that ostriches can digest metal. This, like the head-burying legend, has some basis in fact. Captive ostriches are attracted by shinning objects and will swallow watches, brooches, bottle tops, and small pieces of metal or glass left within reach. Unless these have sharp points, such items in their diet probably do the birds little harm. They remain in the gizzard to be slowly ground down with the stones the birds swallow to aid their digestion.

Ostriches domesticate readily and do well in captivity, where they have been found to live about 50 years. They have been trained for riding and to pull carts, but do not make good draft animals because they tire easily and send squat down and quit. Inclined to be bad tempered, they make untrustworthy as well as ungainly pets. The voice of the ostrich is a loud hiss and a booming roar.

Ostrich plumes have found a ready market since the days of the Crusades, when knights used them to decorate their helmets (this was probably the origin of their use as an heraldic symbol). The plumes reached their height of fashion in the late 19th century, when they bought from £50 to £100 per pound. As the supply of wild plumes dwindled, it became profitable to raise ostriches in captivity, for a full-grown male bird produces about a pound of plumes annually.

The plumes of commerce grow only on the wings and tail. The 16 wings on each wing are purely decorative, and dangle and flap crazily in the wind, as the bird runs. The 50 to 60 tail plumes grow in layers above the 14 or so true tail feathers. When mature, the feathers are harvested without harm to the bird, which grows a new set each year.

Ostrich farms were first established in Africa in the 1860s. Ostriches were first taken to America in the 1880s, where they were raised first in California, then in Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Florida. The market is no longer as lucrative for plumes as it was 70 years ago, and today the birds are kept mainly in zoos. Their skin makes a fine, soft leather in some demand for some gloves and purses.

Hi, This is Waleed and I'm one of the wildlife enthusiasts and I'm striving to disseminate love for animals which is also reflected through my blogs. How about reading some of the most interesting Bald Eagle Facts For Kids.

Fun Facts About Your Neighbor The Squirrel

There are few creatures that across the United States, whether you're a city dweller or live in the country that are as well recognized. It's your neighbor the squirrel. Anyone who has a yard or took their lunch to the park has come face to face with them. They sit there and look all cute... and we feed them. They win! But not really, they should be out there eating their natural food instead of part of our sandwich. More than a few times I have been left scratching my head thinking how the heck did they do that?!? If you've ever had a bird feeder, you've battled wits' with a squirrel. Don't take it personal... after all they don't have T.V. or computer. They are intelligent, agile, and quick you have to be on your toes when dealing with a squirrel. That's why I love them! They love a challenge and will do almost anything for food. There has been many a debate on how to keep them out of things they wanted in! Just as we figure out a way to put out the seed they figure out a way to get to the seed. But, in their defense, their 4 front teeth are always growing so they have to nibble all the time to keep their teeth from growing too big. Then they can't crack nuts or eat properly. We have rehabbed squirrels for over a decade and they still keep us on our toes and thinking. When squirrels are presented with a challenge you can just see their little wheels turning at high speed and... BAM! They have a plan and are in motion.

Over 200 species of squirrels span across the globe on every continent with the exception of Australia. Those 200 species fall into 3 main groups; Tree or Fox Squirrels which make nests in trees, Ground Squirrels which nest in tunnels under rocks, and Flying that sometimes seem to live more like birds... high up in the trees.

Here in Colorado, mom Tree Squirrel will have her babies in either February or August. It depends on her and environmental factors. She will pick a warm safe spot and fill it with leaves, inner bark, and other soft things. After all who knows what Colorado weather will have in store for them? She will have 2-8 babies. The babies are born blind, deaf, and naked. At about 3 weeks their eyes and ears open.

It will take 8-10 weeks for mom to totally wean them. When rehabbing Squirrels it takes until around 10-12 weeks for us to get them weaned, finding all natural foods (we hide around cage while they are hiding in nest box) so they can be released back into the wild, and able to make a living. Whether the young squirrel lives with their "real" family or with our surrogate family it will be 2-3 months for them to go out on their own.

Squirrels have a basic diet that they all will eat. Nuts, berries, bark, roots, leaves, seeds, flowers, caterpillars and other insects, corn, many other vegetables and plants are all on the main diet, but the diet also varies on location. For instance a squirrel that lives in the tree in your backyard will eat more sunflower seeds than the squirrel that lives in the country.

Wildthings Wildlife Rehabilitation Center rehabilitates Native Colorado Wildlife and has successfully rehabbed and returned to the wild hundreds and hundreds of squirrels.

Industry Best iPhone Application Development

iPhone is a great invention of Apple Inc. Today, it is the king in the smart phone device market. Its popularity and sales volume is very high in comparison to other mobile devices. This is because of its marvel and useful features. Its strong functionality put it in the different row in the smart phone market. It has created its own market 'iPhone Market'. Its large screen and high resolution display is tremendous in gaming, graphics and themes, and provides the best eye-catching output.

You can see or hear its name in your day-to-day life many times. Its popularity is everywhere. It has proven that it is the best from other smart phone devices as far as the application capability is concerned. You can get it from Apple store also. It has covered all the sectors like gaming, sports, entertainment, weather, news and many more. It fulfills the requirement for the enterprise. It proves as the helping hand, in today's life, for the people, whether they are the household, employees, small business owners or large enterprise runner.

To fulfill the requirement of them, and increase the market of it, many companies are in the competition to utilize the demand of its market to earn money. If you are its user and want to utilize your device in the best manner then you need to hire experts. If you are the owner of this device then you are aware of its greatness and capacity. However, they know more than you. They are aware of its complete features.

Now-a-days, almost all the mobile solution companies are engaged in developing it to convert the demand into the financial returns. You can get enough resources for the development but choose the best company containing experts.

Today's demanding iPhone apps are as follow:

• Business and Sales

• Multimedia

• Social networking

• Theme and icon

• Weather

• Travels and Booking

• News

• Gaming

• Entertainment and Fun

• Navigation

• Radio

• Product Catalogue

• Utility

• Internet

• E-Book

• Finance

• GPRS

• Health

• Lifestyle

• Shopping

Apart from the above, you can also come with your ideas and requirement. They can provide you such services because of their expertise and experience. Means, you can customize your existing application into a unique and attractive one. They are the best in providing such service as per your instructions and needs.

Ultimately, one thing left, which is a more important aspect for everyone, is 'Cost'. Don't think much about the cost for these services because they are available at effective cost. You can avail it at an affordable rate. So, fulfill your tremendous iPhone needs to make it more attractive. You can get more than you pay and in a better way.

Thus, iPhone application development is the today's need of the world. It saves time and money both, which is the best thing for every user. It is also very effective from the business prospective. Hire iPhone app developer to get unique and magnetic apps.

Daina Will is working with reputed and professional Mobile Application Development Company - Mobile Development Experts leading for the iPhone app developer service. MDE provides iPhone application development and many other services.

The Reporter

In the context of today's info-rigid world, the reporter is vehemently described as the professional that is in charge of bad news. He is an independent professional that equips himself with all the necessary tools a reporter would need to bring the ugly realities of life to his audience.

The reporter represents the hard truth and he never compromises real and genuine facts. This character gives him an edge on future stories and occurrences. Because of his graceful and unbiased mode of writing, he is quite remembered by his audience when he passes on.

Reporting in journalism is said to have its origin in the 19th century due to the birth of global media organisations that placed reporters on the high level of their preferential scales.

Reporters have a very strong and influential force on the people, such that their works can go as far as bringing down a highly, self-rated and corrupt politician to justice.

He is seen as a watchdog that is always there on time to sniff out bad and implicating "smells" from the political and moral society of his audience.

In the news organisation, reporters are the newsmen and newswomen on our streets gathering facts and figures. They are also the editors in the newsroom that are ever busy and ready to publish the raw truths, irrespective of whatever consequences that lies ahead. In a sense, it can be logical to say that reporters are so allergic to not proclaiming the truth, that they can choke if the fail to pass it on to the audience.

The reporter have been elevated and accorded several prominent positions in the society, positions that are even greater than royalty.

As a way of contrast to the political ruler, a reporter sees public interest as his essence of craftsmanship or professionalism. He checks his own interest to make sure it does not conflict with public interest or the harsh realities of truth. He is seen as someone who spots for mistake in the political arena, and he is so hated for that. Despite the way he is being despised, he never relents in making sure that the conscience of the people is aroused to see not just the fact about public officers, but also the 'gospel truth' in the government, with his reports.

A reporter can bring stories to the people either by pen and notepad or by captured images. A reporter that does the latter is said to be a photo reporter. A photo reporter leverages the advantages of conveying information through pictures by using his photo capturing device to gather images of people, events and places, which goes a long way to spark up the sensual desires of his audience. He knows that a single photo can speak louder than several logical words put together, and it is timeless and it varnishes distance.

Despite the provocative and illustrative goodness of photo news, a photo reporter may promote meanness and upset his audience with his photo stories if negatively used. That is why I regard photo stories as 'coloured exhibit'.

Nonetheless, the different approaches to news has really made reporting worth the while. A reporter (either pen, photo or comic) is known and identified as a good news person if he is enthusiastic, intuitive, relentless or aggressive in acquiring news, easy to talk to, curious to know and find out stories, strikes a balance in his process of gathering stories, patient, long suffering, friendly, reliable and punctual at events. He should also be responsible by not bending the truth about a story, be a good writer and communicator, avoid 'axe grinding' a person, time-conscious, desirable for facts and also be as accurate as possible while reporting.

He also is expected to be versatile in different areas of study, avoid taboos in writing, verifies rumours before publishing, a good answer seeker and a person that knows what can make a news. Reporters are really seen as very important people because of their inevitable role in the society.

The newsroom is one place in the media house that you find reporters that are yet to take an organised pattern of doing things in the media profession. With the disorganised sets of gadgets and writing materials littered on the table, a stranger will see the newsroom as no different from a place where madmen and madwomen operate.

There are several segments or stands in the newsroom. A table holding all kinds of recording equipment and newspapers stand out as the desk of the news editor. He sits and collects on-the-spot stories from a reporter that operates the central radio. The reporters simply stays in the same room with the editor to allow him call for anyone he may need for certain issues.

A copy reader also has a desk close to the news editor in the newsroom. He simply buries his head in stacks of rewritten scripts, and he signals the attention of a reporter when needed.

No doubt, the chaos in the newsroom makes it uncomfortable for people who are no time wasters.

Announcement: Smart Gadget Thieves, Santa Is Watching You!

With the holidays approaching, thieves are alert to your wish list. They have as much interest in your gifts as you do, because they are busy scheming on ways to steal them from you and get them free. Thieves may think they are smart, but there is a new sheriff in town, Santa. He knows they've been bad, not good, and he's watching them.

Our high-end, often pricy, smart gadgets, our iPhones, iPads, and iPods affect every area of our lives. This is never truer than during the holiday season.

Our "Smart Gadgets" have become our constant companion. One device or another awakens us on Christmas morning, travels with us to the bathroom, and lays patiently on the bathroom vanity while we brush our teeth, while we take a shower or a bath. We can check on our latest stock purchase, as we use the bathroom, call the bank and check on deposits, withdrawals, transfers and balance information, call for the time and temperature, the weather forecast, check the movie schedule, call for concert tickets, book and pay over the phone.

Thieves would love to get their hands on your smart gadgets and rip off all the information about you they can. They know you can book and pay for a flight, pay your satellite, pay your cable, Dish or Direct-TV bill, send flowers for births, weddings, gifts for special occasions, book a cruise or schedule a massage therapist, etc. They know if you can envision it or imagine it, you can pick up a smart-gadget and make the connection. You have become a mark for thieves. They can steal your iPhones, iPads, and iPods, sell your device, and steal your identity. It is a win-win for thieves.

We have become a sea of people one-hundred percent occupied with what is going on around us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and three-hundred-sixty-five days a year. In short, we are pleasantly obsessed with our smart gadgets.

You can stop thieves flat in their tracks and protect your high-priced electronics with iPad Counter Mounts, iPad Security Locks, iPad Wall Mounts, and iPad Kiosk Stand -for a few dollars. Don't let thieves think they have the upper hand on you.

You can use the iPad2 Lock, which has a hard, clear plastic case to protect your iPad, weighs nearly a pound, sleek cable, lock-head, has a small diameter, and hand's down, beats the competition. Additionally, it has a security slot built into the case. You can lock the security cable around the case, and then loop the cable's other end to a fixed object. Once you have it secure, thieves cannot get their grubby paws on it, if they do, your iPad2 is not going anywhere. Thieves cannot remove the case and cable without damage to the iPad. The steel cable stops thieves' cold. More and more of you using the iPad2 Lock also use the iPad Kiosk Stand.

Smart gadget thieves, Santa is watching you. He has created smart gadget protection. You can place anti theft devices on all your valuable tech tools by using iPad counter mounts, iPad security locks, iPad wall mounts, and the iPad Kiosk Stand.

Protect your expensive electronics from hardcore thieves who case you out and steal from you. Protect your iPad, and protect your electronic equipment by securing them with a locking device. Stop thieves now, lock it, secure it, and check out the whole line of locks at http://www.locksondemand.com/

How Online Admission Enrollment Process Is Benefitting Class Organizers?

Technological progress, which has made the world, a global village, has equally impacted the education arena. Now, classes and training programs are being conducted online, which is not only saving time but also considerable amount of transportation expenses. Class organizers, who are dealing with such online classes, will surely have to deal with the admission or registration process, before starting classes. Taking the admission process online for your online classes, can be a smart choice, as it will streamline your managerial activities, making it easier for you to deal with the process, effortlessly and conveniently. Here are a few reasons why you should use the online admission enrollment process, for conducting online classes:

· Cost-effective and offers service 24x7:

The cloud-based class management solution offering online admission option is completely free and requires no prior installation or purchasing charges. You will not even have to download any particular hardware or software, for running the application. Thus, it can be a cost-effective solution for the thrift class organizers, as they can save considerable amount of money. The solution also offers services, 24x7, which can benefit your attendees, extensively. Interested students from any part of the world can register for your class, sitting at their comfort zone, any time.

· Hassle-free online registration:

Using the online solution, you can create customized registration forms within minutes, selecting from an array of templates. You can also add up relevant information and customized fields within your form, depending on the nature of the class and make it available online for the registrants.

· Offers easy payment gateways:

The online solution will help in accepting the registration fee via credit cards, PayPal and such gateways. You can also maintain your own merchant account for accepting the payments from the registrants. Security may be question when you are processing online transactions. As the online solution is certified with PCI-Compliant, it assures you and your potential registrants, complete security, where transaction can comfortably be processed online.

· Access to online class calendaring tool:

Being a class organizer, you will have to schedule your classes accordingly before the session starts. The online calendaring tool will help you in scheduling all your classes and programs online, which can be easily viewed by the students. Thus, they can easily track the important classes and can register for selected one accordingly.

· Helps in promoting extensively:

The power of internet has made the social networking sites, an effective platform, for promotional activities. By employing the online solution, you can directly take the advantages of the social networking sites for promoting classes online.

Thus, by opting for the online admission enrollment process, you can be on an advantageous position and can offer rewarding experience to your registrants.

Jonathan is a professional Indian event planner. Event professionals in India are increasingly relying on automated software to streamline the event registration in India along with payment management, and attendee relationship management. Acteva is the market leader in providing event planning solutions in India at competitive price.

Your Happiness Is an Inside Job

Happiness truly is an inside job. Take a real good look at who you really are and you will see how much you actually have going for yourself. Happiness is not something you find, it is something you are. Look around your world and you will find a number of reasons to feel content and happy. Once you have identified all the pluses in your life, make a point of sharing them with someone close to you and allow yourself to feel worthy and content and enjoy the pleasure of who you really are.

Action Idea: Have you ever tried to be unhappy with a smile on your face? Do our emotions manifest in our physical attributes and facial expressions or can we use our physical attributes and expressions to help us shift from an unhappy state to a more desirable one? Whenever you are feeling unhappy or down, put a smile on your face, even if it feels a little weird. I have found that it is difficult to be unhappy for very long when you smile. Use this tool as often as possible; it will help you to get control over your happiness.

Happiness cannot be found in Trinkets or Treasures
When you seek your happiness in acquisitions, trinkets or treasures, you will always live an unfulfilled and empty life.

For example: If your happiness depends on the ice-cream you are eating and the ice cream cone is knocked out of your hand. Then your happiness will be left lying, smashed on the floor. Whereas, when you are living a life of meaning and fulfilment, the ice cream is only something to enjoy in the moment. Your contentment and happiness comes from within. So when the ice cream cone is knocked out of your hand, it is merely a slight inconvenience, not a reason to change your state.

The place to be happy is where you are right now and the time to be happy is as often as you allow. Happiness exists around and within you all the time, open your eyes and you will see it. Real and lasting happiness is found in relationships, appreciating simple pleasures, respecting/ enjoying nature and all actions that express love

Your Ingredients for Happiness
The essential ingredients for living in perpetual happiness, are firstly to have something meaningful to do, secondly something worthwhile to love, thirdly something to hope for and finally a clear vision and life purpose. Invest time to acquire all four of these elements and happiness will no longer be something you seek, it will just be who you are.

Choose happiness as the manner in which you travel through life and joy as your mode of transport. True happiness is never something you discover at one of the destinations you arrive at, it is the very reason we get to make this magnificent journey at all.

Your Happiness will Benefit Everyone
When happiness is who you are it will sow lasting benefits on everyone you have contact with and anonymous benefits upon the world as a whole. Make happiness your number one priority and you and everyone around you will reap the benefits this practice will bring.

How good do you feel when you invite anger into your day, by allowing events around you to irritate you? On the other hand, how good do you feel when you invite contentment and happiness into your day? Which emotive state do you think will empower you to deliver the best results? You owe it to yourself and the world to smile and have a really, happy, fulfilling, meaningful and productive today. My experience has shown me that, when you feel good, you do great.

Happiness and joy are abundance generators. The abundance you will experience in all areas of your life is directly proportional to the amount of contentment, joy and happiness you consistently invite into your life. Stop looking for your happiness in distant things, your happiness grows right under your feet, just reach down embrace it and invite it in to your life.

When you spend your days bringing sunshine to the lives of others, give without remembering, receive without forgetting and always aim to be of service to others, you will then discover the meaning of true joy, real and lasting happiness and complete fulfilment. What are you waiting for, happiness is one good choice away.

Hi my name is Andrew Horton; I am an inspirational Speaker, Master Teacher, Radio and TV Host, Global Traveler and Author. My area of focus is in the field of human behavior, expanded awareness and enlightenment. I travel the planet constantly researching, learning and seeking ways to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. I delve into the inner workings of the universe, always looking for ways to understand my role in making things better and contributing to the improvement of the human experience. Please visit my website to sign up for a daily inspirational message, by following this link Daily Inspirational Message. This is your daily call to action, a reminder to do things better each day. Visit my website at http://www.andrewhorton.co.za/

When What We Have Is Enough

We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~Thornton Wilder~

At Thanksgiving, most of us take time from our busy lives to give thanks for what we have. The next day is Black Friday, a mad scramble to start accumulating what we don't have or don't have enough of. Now Black Friday is creeping into Thanksgiving hour by hour. Soon we will be eating turkey for breakfast before we rush off to shop.

For many of us, gratitude is a brief hiatus from the bustle of our busy lives. We can be so consumed with accumulating the latest gadgets that we lose sight of what is important in life. Most of us do not know true lack until disaster strikes. If we were to travel the back streets of the world or places with no streets, perhaps we would start to appreciate how fortunate we are.

In a consumer culture, it is easy to view our possessions as our treasure. We are only as valuable as what we have. Who we are inside seems to have lost significance. At one time people were valued for their stories and their insights. Now we tend to judge others' worth based on their material wealth.

When I was a child, I befriended older people where I lived and everywhere I visited. I would find a way to wander off from my cousins and friends to seek out people like the Slaters in Newark, New York. I never knew what they did when I was not around. I imagined them sitting in their living room waiting for me to show up.

I sat very still, hoping their snow white angora cat would become less bashful and venture out from behind the couch. I paged through the eight hundred pages of Land and Sea with its color plates of real and imagined denizens of the ocean and jungle. We always ended with a snack, watermelon in the summer or cookies and milk in the winter. I never learned much about them. They spent most of our visits asking about my childhood adventures and reminiscing about our past visits.

Now I am nearly as old as most of the people I visited as a child. I think of all the experiences I have had over the years, all the places I have discovered and all the fascinating people I have met. I am grateful for each day I have lived. Even my difficult times have helped me appreciate how wonderful life can be in contrast.

When I look back on my life, I realize that the people I have befriended and learned from have been far more valuable to me than anything I have accumulated. I hope to continue my life adventure with a sense of gratitude for everything and everyone coming my way, especially those little surprises which I can never anticipate.

Life Lab Lessons

What is important to you?Who is important to you?Value what and who you have in your life.Be grateful for what lies along your life path.Find a way to make the best of whatever happens.

Joseph G. Langen is the author of 5 ebooks, Commonsense Wisdom for Everyday Life, Young Man of the Cloth, Navigating Life, The Pastor's Inferno and A Year With My Muse. See more about his writing at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jlangen Contact him at: jglangen@gmail.com

7 Ways Smartphones Are Making an Impact in Our Daily Lives

A few years ago, no one even knew about the term "smartphone." The scenario is totally opposite today, with a truckload of options in terms of smartphone devices that are available in the market. Almost all big mobile brands such as Apple, RIM, Sony, Nokia, HTC, LG and Samsung to name a few, have launched their own smartphone models, and hence, the users are spoilt for choice.

Such is the penetration of smartphones in our lives that we often rely on it for carrying out most of our daily activities. Let us take a look at some of the areas where smartphones help us carry out our tasks with ease.

• Finance and Business

In app stores, plenty of smartphone apps for business and finance are easily available. These apps are used to manage personal finance like keeping a track of your bills and receipts, maintaining your investment portfolio etc.

Additionally, if you are a business professional, these apps will help you catch up with the latest stock updates or help make payments/transfer money wirelessly.

• Education

Yes, smartphones have invaded classrooms as well. Nowadays, kids are more tech-savvy as compared to their parents and can handle the smartphones and the apps in them quite effortlessly. Using their devices, they can learn a lot from various education apps that are easy to use and make their lessons fun.

• Entertainment

When you are bored on a weekend and have nothing to do, you can turn to your smartphone to entertain you. Watch movies, trailers, videos or listen to songs and do much more using lots of other apps that are meant for entertainment.

• Gaming

Advanced technology has turned smartphones into gaming consoles; now you can use your smartphone devices to play a wide range of challenging games such as - arcade games, racing games, puzzle games, role-playing games etc. Also, challenge your friends and fellow gamers to beat your score. Many of the smartphones present today, have touchscreen, which gives an enhanced experience while you play the games on your device.

• Fitness

Smartphones also act as your fitness companion. This is because you can use it to monitor your calories, watch and learn new exercises, maintain a diet chart and do much more. Also, you can use your device to locate various fitness centers/gyms or health spas near in your locality.

• General Utility

With various general utility apps, smartphones let you do so much. For instance, you can enjoy shopping from the comforts of your home, use GPS navigation to get directions, learn new recipes, jot down something important or record reminders in your own voice etc.

• Social Networking

Like smartphones, Social Networking/Social Media is also an integral part of our lives; there are rarely few people left, who are not there on any of the Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest etc. In fact, there are smartphone apps that are entirely dedicated to these social networking sites.

Apart from the above mentioned points, there are many other ways in which you can use your smartphone devices in your day to day lives.

Alan Hall works with PLAVEB, a company reputed for providing Smartphone Application Development and mobile compatible website development services in Los Angeles. He loves to learn new things around in technology, specially smartphone.

Energy Department Provides Additional Emergency Fuel Loan to Department of Defense as Part of Hurricane Sandy and Nor’easter Recovery

Energy Department Provides Additional Emergency Fuel Loan to Department of Defense as Part of Hurricane Sandy and Nor’easter Recovery | Department of Energy Skip to main content Energy.gov Find information about your town or city. Search form Search Energy.gov Public ServicesTax Credits, Rebates & SavingsHomesVehiclesBuilding DesignManufacturingNational Security & SafetyEnergy EconomyFunding OpportunitiesState & Local GovernmentScience & InnovationScience & TechnologyScience EducationInnovationEnergy SourcesEnergy UsageEnergy EfficiencyMissionNews & BlogMaps & DataAbout UsFor Staff & ContractorsOfficesAll OfficesProgram OfficesStaff OfficesLabs & Technology CentersField SitesPower Marketing AdministrationOther Agencies You are hereHome » Energy Department Provides Additional Emergency Fuel Loan to Department of Defense as Part of Hurricane Sandy and Nor’easter Recovery Energy Department Provides Additional Emergency Fuel Loan to Department of Defense as Part of Hurricane Sandy and Nor’easter Recovery November 9, 2012 - 7:15pm Addthis NEWS MEDIA CONTACT(202) 586-4940

WASHINGTON – As part of the government-wide response and recovery effort for Hurricane Sandy and the Nor’easter, the Energy Department is providing the Department of Defense with additional ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve in response to a request from the State of Connecticut. The Energy Department will be loaning diesel fuel to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), who in turn will provide emergency loans to fuel distributors in Connecticut to address fuel shortages in the state. This is a continuation of the agreement announced a week ago when President Obama declared that Hurricane Sandy has created a severe energy supply interruption and directed the Energy Department to loan the Department of Defense ultra-low sulfur diesel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.

“This latest announcement is part of the broader federal effort to respond to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy and the more recent Nor’easter storm,” said Secretary Chu. “This loan from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve will help ensure communities in the impacted area have access to the diesel fuel they need for their transportation systems.”

The State of Connecticut requested this additional release to address fuel shortages that resulted primarily from curtailed supplies from New York Harbor.  The Energy Department is currently planning to release 4.2 million gallons from the heating oil reserve terminal in Groton, Conn. beginning as early as this weekend.  The fuel, which represents roughly five days worth of fuel consumption in Connecticut, will then be provided to fuel distributors in the state and will be repaid in the next 30 days by the distributors directly.

The Energy Department and DLA stand ready to make available additional fuel as needed. 

The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve was created in July 2000 as a component of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to respond to emergencies and supply disruptions in the home heating oil market.  The reserve holds 42 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel, located at terminals in Groton, Conn. and Revere, Mass.  More detail on the history of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve is available HERE. 

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