Belgian malinois - protector of home family and livestock

The Belgian Malinois is a medium/large size dog that weighs between 40-80 lbs and is between 22" to 26" in height. Their name is pronounced MAL-in-wah. They are one of four Belgian Sheepdogs and are very work oriented and are protective of home, family and livestock.

The AKC recognizes the Belgian Malinois in the colors of fawn to mahogany to red with a black mask, ears and tips. Minimal white on the chest and feet is permitted. The short, smooth, straight and hard outer coat and dense undercoat require minimal grooming and are very easy to care for. Regular washing is not recommended as their coat has water proofing.

This intelligent, energetic, protective breed is still more of a working dog than companion. They have a strong drive to work. The Belgian Malinois makes an excellent farm dog, watchdog, police dog and herding dog because of their instinct to protect their family, home or whatever else they are trained to protect. They can make a great family pet as well. Early socialization is a must for children, other dogs and pets. In fact, they do best if they are socialized from the time they are born. They can be dominant towards other dogs. Early, consistent, firm but not harsh training is important. They are harder for a novice to train than someone who is more experienced. The Belgian Malinois has a lot of energy and loves to be on the go. They require a yard and plenty of room to run and play. They are not meant to be indoors all day. They enjoy being with their family and are not meant to be left alone for long periods of time as they will get bored and find some way to fill their time.

Originating in Belgium, the Belgian Malinois is one of four Belgian Sheepdogs. Their name comes from the Belgian city of Malines. It is recognize as its own breed by the AKC however, in some countries, all four Belgian Sheepdogs are considered to be one breed. The Belgian Malinois is popular in Belgium and is used for herding, police work and as a search and rescue dog.

A breed with such a strong work drive, protective instinct and high energy makes an excellent watchdog and farm dog. They do best with families that are active and will meet their work and exercise needs. An active, busy Belgian Malinois is a happy Belgian Malinois.

On achievement

If a comatose person were to earn an interest of 1 million USD annually on the sum paid to him as compensatory damages – would this be considered an achievement of his? To succeed to earn 1 million USD is universally judged to be an achievement. But to do so while comatose will almost as universally not be counted as one. It would seem that a person has to be both conscious and intelligent to have his achievements qualify.

Even these conditions, though necessary, are not sufficient. If a totally conscious (and reasonably intelligent) person were to accidentally unearth a treasure trove and thus be transformed into a multi-billionaire – his stumbling across a fortune will not qualify as an achievement. A lucky turn of events does not an achievement make. A person must be intent on achieving to have his deeds classified as achievements. Intention is a paramount criterion in the classification of events and actions, as any intensionalist philosopher will tell you.

Supposing a conscious and intelligent person has the intention to achieve a goal. He then engages in a series of absolutely random and unrelated actions, one of which yields the desired result. Will we then say that our person is an achiever?

Not at all. It is not enough to intend. One must proceed to produce a plan of action, which is directly derived from the overriding goal. Such a plan of action must be seen to be reasonable and pragmatic and leading – with great probability – to the achievement. In other words: the plan must involve a prognosis, a prediction, a forecast, which can be either verified or falsified. Attaining an achievement involves the construction of an ad-hoc mini theory. Reality has to be thoroughly surveyed, models constructed, one of them selected (on empirical or aesthetic grounds), a goal formulated, an experiment performed and a negative (failure) or positive (achievement) result obtained. Only if the prediction turns out to be correct can we speak of an achievement.

Our would-be achiever is thus burdened by a series of requirements. He must be conscious, must possess a well-formulated intention, must plan his steps towards the attainment of his goal, and must correctly predict the results of his actions.

But planning alone is not sufficient. One must carry out one's plan of action (from mere plan to actual action). An effort has to be seen to be invested (which must be commensurate with the achievement sought and with the qualities of the achiever). If a person consciously intends to obtain a university degree and constructs a plan of action, which involves bribing the professors into conferring one upon him – this will not be considered an achievement. To qualify as an achievement, a university degree entails a continuous and strenuous effort. Such an effort is commensurate with the desired result. If the person involved is gifted – less effort will be expected of him. The expected effort is modified to reflect the superior qualities of the achiever. Still, an effort, which is deemed to be inordinately or irregularly small (or big!) will annul the standing of the action as an achievement. Moreover, the effort invested must be seen to be continuous, part of an unbroken pattern, bounded and guided by a clearly defined, transparent plan of action and by a declared intention. Otherwise, the effort will be judged to be random, devoid of meaning, haphazard, arbitrary, capricious, etc. – which will erode the achievement status of the results of the actions. This, really, is the crux of the matter: the results are much less important than the coherent, directional, patterns of action. It is the pursuit that matters, the hunt more than the game and the game more than victory or gains. Serendipity cannot underlie an achievement.

These are the internal-epistemological-cognitive determinants as they are translated into action. But whether an event or action is an achievement or not also depends on the world itself, the substrate of the actions.

An achievement must bring about change. Changes occur or are reported to have occurred – as in the acquisition of knowledge or in mental therapy where we have no direct observational access to the events and we have to rely on testimonials. If they do not occur (or are not reported to have occurred) – there would be no meaning to the word achievement. In an entropic, stagnant world – no achievement is ever possible. Moreover: the mere occurrence of change is grossly inadequate. The change must be irreversible or, at least, induce irreversibility, or have irreversible effects. Consider Sisyphus: forever changing his environment (rolling that stone up the mountain slope). He is conscious, is possessed of intention, plans his actions and diligently and consistently carries them out. He is always successful at achieving his goals. Yet, his achievements are reversed by the spiteful gods. He is doomed to forever repeat his actions, thus rendering them meaningless. Meaning is linked to irreversible change, without it, it is not to be found. Sisyphean acts are meaningless and Sisyphus has no achievements to talk about.

Irreversibility is linked not only to meaning, but also to free will and to the lack of coercion or oppression. Sisyphus is not his own master. He is ruled by others. They have the power to reverse the results of his actions and, thus, to annul them altogether. If the fruits of our labour are at the mercy of others – we can never guarantee their irreversibility and, therefore, can never be sure to achieve anything. If we have no free will – we can have no real plans and intentions and if our actions are determined elsewhere – their results are not ours and nothing like achievement exists but in the form of self delusion.

We see that to amply judge the status of our actions and of their results, we must be aware of many incidental things. The context is critical: what were the circumstances, what could have been expected, what are the measures of planning and of intention, of effort and of perseverance which would have "normally" been called for, etc. Labelling a complex of actions and results "an achievement" requires social judgement and social recognition. Take breathing: no one considers this to be an achievement unless Stephen Hawking is involved. Society judges the fact that Hawking is still (mentally and sexually) alert to be an outstanding achievement. The sentence: "an invalid is breathing" would be categorized as an achievement only by informed members of a community and subject to the rules and the ethos of said community. It has no "objective" or ontological weight.

Events and actions are classified as achievements, in other words, as a result of value judgements within given historical, psychological and cultural contexts. Judgement has to be involved: are the actions and their results negative or positive in the said contexts. Genocide, for instance, would have not qualified as an achievement in the USA – but it would have in the ranks of the SS. Perhaps to find a definition of achievement which is independent of social context would be the first achievement to be considered as such anywhere, anytime, by everyone.

Fun at the live roulette table with french bets

One of the appealing features about the roulette table in casinos is the many different types of bet that you can make to keep the game varied and interesting. These bets can even vary from country to country, with certain types of bets allowed in the United States casinos and different types in European casinos.

For most, the roulette wheel can be an intimidating area of the casino. For this reason, many gamblers will stick with the well known types of bets that can be made directly on the table. However, if you want to impress the crowd that you are with on casino night, try calling a couple of French bets out to the dealer. French roulette bets are one of the variations that you can explore in many European casinos, and consist of a number of different types of bets that can add to the fun and excitement of the game.

You have to ask the dealer to place the French bets as they are on the wheel and not the table, and although they are generally not advertised in casinos, the dealer will know what to do. A lesser well known roulette bet is the French bet, the voisins du zero.

The term voisins du zero means "neighbors of zero." This is a nine chip bet that is placed as follows: two chips on zero, one chip on 4,7 split, one chip on 12,15 split, one chip on 18,21 split, one chip on 19,22 split, two chips on 25,26,28,29 corner, and one chip on 32,35 split. Your return will vary depending on the number that comes in on a voisins du zero roulette bet. This type of bet has a high chance of winning, at 45.9%. The house has an advantage of 2.703%.

Orphelins are another type of special bet you can place. The word orphelins means "orphans," and the bet consists of one chip placed on one, with eight orphans placed at four splits along the wheel. One chip is placed on 6,9 split, one on 14,17 split, one on 17,20 split and the last is on 31,34 split. With an orphelin roulette bet, you have a chance of winning exactly 24.7% of your bets.

Neighbors bets are very useful and a player should know how and when to use them. Here is an overview of two different Neighbors roulette bets. "Neighbors" bets are the numbers to the immediate left and right of a winning number on the roulette wheel. The XX and the Neighbors is a bet where you pick a number on the wheel and it covers the two numbers either side of it on the wheel, this usually requires 5 chips for each number as you are covering 5 pockets. So the next time you find yourself in a European casino, staring at the wheel, try something different and test out a French roulette bet, they may not increase your odds of winning, but they will make you look like a seasoned gambler and your friends are sure to be impressed with your knowledge of the game.

Hospitalists can you catch one in the hospital

It's an emerging trend, and one that many patients find confusing and uncomfortable: their primary doctor doesn't visit them in the hospital any more and doesn't manage their hospital care.

Primary care doctors are increasingly turning the care of their hospitalized patients over to specialists called "hospitalists."

The hospitalist is a hospital-based doctor who does not see patients in an office-based practice. He or she manages the care of patients only while they are in the hospital, turning them back over to their regular physicians when they are discharged. During the time a patient is in the hospital the hospitalist is responsible for all decisions about a patient's care.

Advantages of Hospitalists

The hospitalist usually knows the hospital, and hospital politics, very well. This often enables the hospitalist to cut through red tape and "make things happen" more efficiently than office-based physicians.

Hospitalists are more readily available to respond to emergencies in the hospital. Nurses and other care staff can usually reach a hospitalist more rapidly than an office-based physician, especially on evenings and weekends.

Continuity of care within the hospital is often better. When primary care physicians manage inpatient hospital care, the patient is often actually seen by more doctors, as doctors in larger practices often take turns seeing all of the practice's hospitalized patients.

Hospitalists are usually more accessible to family members. Families don't have to try to "catch" the doctor in the wee hours of the morning or late in the evening when he or she is making hospital rounds outside of office hours.

Disadvantages of Using a Hospitalist

The biggest disadvantage to the movement toward hospitalists is the loss of continuity of care between the primary physician and the hospital. The hospitalist has no previous knowledge of his new patient. If communication between the primary care physician and the hospitalist is poor, it falls to the patient and the family to fill in the gaps.

When a patient is discharged from the hospital the hospitalist relinquishes care back to the PCP. If communication has not been good, the primary care physician often has little knowledge of what the patient experienced in the hospital. Records are frequently slow to follow the patient, so on the first follow-up visit the office-based doctor may have scant information.

Without adequate information the PCP frequently makes adjustments to treatment plans and medications that are counter to the treatment plans initiated in the hospital.

How To Work With A Hospitalist

Be prepared. If your trip to the hospital is pre-planned, talk to your primary doctor about the hospitalists in your chosen hospital. Find out which hospitalist communicates best with your doctor, and who your doctor prefers to work with. If possible, ask your doctor to pre-arrange that this hospitalist will be in charge of your care while you're in the hospital.

Arrive Armed: Never assume that things will go as planned. You may not feel well, and you will be under stress. The chosen hospitalist may be on vacation, out ill, or unavailable. Take a synopsis of your medical history, including the results of all recent tests, with you to the hospital. Whenever possible have someone stay with you in the hospital until you have met your doctor and given him or her all the information you have. Have that person take notes, including the names of all your hospital caregivers, their contact information (phone and pager), and the location of their offices in the hospital.

Sign a Release: If you can, make sure to sign a release of information form when you are admitted. This will give the hospitalist and everyone else on your medical team permission to discuss your care with the person you appoint. Even if you have already given that person your Power of Attorney for Health Care, signing a permission to release information is a good idea. You might not be so ill that your Power of Attorney for Health Care goes into effect. In that case, without authority to release information, you might find the staff is less than willing to share information with the person staying with you.

Make 50k a month with an online dating site

It has been well documented that online dating is a phenomenon which has changed the lives of millions of people throughout the world. Two out of every five singletons in Europe and the USA aged 25 - 40 have used an on line service to either find a partner, or simply to enhance their social lives by making new friends.

This exponential explosion in the dating sector has meant that many companies owning and operating the sites themselves have come from a standing start to generating significant revenues in a matter of just a few months. It is possible to make a small fortune from online dating but, then again, it's just as possible to lose your shirt. For every successful site, there are five others which simply 'got it wrong'. If you follow these few basic guidelines, you could join the cyber-revolution which has not only become a lifestyle choice in itself for a great many consumers, but an extremely profitable market for webmasters to enter.

1. Niche works. Yes, we all know the names of the global dating sites which dominate the sector, but if you want to create a site that attracts millions of members, you are going to need very deep pockets just to get on the first rung of the ladder. There are a great many very successful sites that either cater to special interest groups such as bikers, military personnel etc or geo-targeted sites that cover just one city or state. The advantage of this kind of concept is that it is much easier and cheaper to promote than a service which attracts all-comers. The sophistication of online marketing, particularly the various pay-per-click search engines, enables you to target your audience very specifically thereby maximising your return on investment without having to overly stretch your financial resources.

2. Don't over-complicate the design of the site. The primary aim of the homepage should be to encourage visitors to register with your service, not to marvel at your use of different colours or design features. Stick to just two colours (one should preferably be blue - the colour of trust) on a white background and avoid flashing buttons at all costs.

3. Keep your proposition simple. If a dating site looks so complicated that only 'teccies' can use it, you'll lose most of your audience as soon as they land on your homepage. The most successful dating sites tend to offer a very basic system of picture profiles and secure messaging. People sign-up, create their profiles, upload their photos and start sending email messages to other members with whom they think they might be compatible. It's easy and you don't have to have a degree in computer sciences to do it. But there are many sites out there which offer a bewildering array of features - video profiles, psychological profiling and the like; all very expensive to integrate and manage and most, to be frank, are a complete waste of time and money.

4. Offer a free trial. This might seem rather ironic in an article which purports to tell you how to create a profitable business, but in order to get your members to pay you a subscription fee, you have to get them to register with your site in the first instance. If you let people have a look around, browse through the database and perhaps send a couple of messages to other people, they are far more likely to want to subscribe than if you ask them to do so straight away without giving them a taste of what your site can offer.

5. Populate your database as quickly as possible. People follow other people when they join dating sites and if your site looks like it hasn't got many members, then people will give it a wide berth. When you launch, it's well worth you doing a limited email marketing campaign which offers a free subscription to founder members. Remember, the hardest part of creating a successful online dating business is to get your first 100 registrants - you want them there in week one and the quickest way to do that is to offer a freebie to your first sign-ups. You're not losing money - these are the most important members and without them your business will not get past first base.

6. Spend your marketing budget wisely. You don't have to throw money at a dating site in order to promote it effectively - you just have to be smart. Establish an affiliate programme with one of the main networks operating in your country as soon you launch your site. Affiliates are third party web-sites which refer traffic to your business on a revenue sharing basis. You don't have to pay affiliates to join your programme, you just offer them a percentage of any subscription revenue which they generate and this is the most cost-effective way of promoting yourself. And you should also avoid generic search-terms when you instigate pay-per-click campaigns on the major engines. Keywords like 'dating' and 'online dating' are expensive to bid on and convert less well than niche terms which are more applicable to the actual concept of your site. If, for example, you are running a dating service for singles living in Chicago, keywords like 'Chicago dating' or 'singles in Chicago' will be relatively cheap to bid on and will yield a far better conversion rate than the more general terms.

7. Offer good customer service. Remember, your members are real people many of whom will not be as computer savvy as you are and when any of them contact the site with a problem (a forgotten password or log-in difficulties are usually the most common), you should endeavor to respond as soon as you are able. An unanswered message is the easiest way to actually lose a member so don't ignore or put off answering the mails that you will inevitably receive.

8. Communicate with your members. I've left this point until last but it it just as important as anything I've mentioned above. A weekly newsletter to your database will encourage people to log-in to their accounts on a regular basis (particularly if they are able to click through directly from the email to the site without having to log-in) and will also help to foster an emotional bond between your business and it's paying customers. Every business to consumer online entity should have a human face and site owners who ignore this do so at their peril.

So there you have it; take heed of the eight snippets of advice that I have outlined above and you too can reap the substantial rewards on offer in this exciting and vibrant market sector.

Knowing the risk of gastric bypass

There is more to gastric bypass than merely controlling stomach size. During gastric bypass surgery, a large portion of the patients stomach is stapled together, leaving a tiny pouch.

When you get your gastric bypass surgery you will have a new stomach that only holds about three tablespoons of food at a time. With your stomach pouch reduced to the size of a walnut, you'll need to follow a gastric bypass diet.

The surgeon does not remove any part of the stomach or other tissue while doing the gastric bypass operation. This operation is the most common gastric bypass procedure performed. In another more complicated gastric bypass operation, portions of the stomach are removed. In this more complicated gastric bypass operation, portions of the stomach are removed. This is a relatively complex operation. It is recommended against having it reversed.

Results from long-term follow-up data of gastric bypass surgery show that over a five-year period, patients lost 58% of their excess weight.

Eating sweet or sugary foods promotes "dumping," a reaction which can occur after the gastric bypass operation. Dumping syndrome occurs when the small intestine fills too quickly with undigested food from the stomach, as can happen following gastric bypass surgery.

Other commonly seen complications of gastric bypass surgery include intolerance to some foods, vitamin and mineral deficiency, gallstones, bleeding stomach ulcers, hernia and dehydration. The most important of all, given that gastric bypass patients have a new, tiny stomach to fill is diet.

Another recent problem which is fairly common, especially in menstruating women, after gastric bypass, is anemia. Because many nutrients are not absorbed by the body after gastric bypass, anemia can be a long-term effect. Due to the changes in digestion after gastric bypass surgery, patients may develop such nutritional deficiencies as anemia, osteoporosis, and metabolic bone disease.

The gastric bypass operation reduces the progression and mortality of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. However, this complication only occurs to a very small degree in the gastric bypass operation. One of biggest advancements in the gastric bypass operation has been the technique used to enter into the abdomen through the laparoscopic approach.

Gastric bypass surgery creates dramatic changes in the size and shape of the stomach. Barely 16 months after gastric bypass surgery, which reduced your stomach to the size of a hard-boiled egg, a patient is able to shed 185 pounds.

On the horizon future fuels

Between elevated gasoline prices (which show every indication of staying that way) and the current concern about the environmental impacts of vehicle emissions, you've probably been hearing a lot of discussion about the use of "alternative fuels." It sounds like a good idea, you think...but do you know what alternative fuels are actually in the running? Here's the shortlist of the alternative fuels to keep an eye on, and a major advantage and disadvantage for each:

Electric

Electricity is a source of power that we already produce, store, and use. To power an electric vehicle (EV), electricity is produced by a power plant or other standard means and is then stored in the battery that will operate the vehicle.

Pro: A vehicle powered solely by electricity produces no emissions.

Con: In current models, batteries need to be recharged frequently.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel is a fuel that is made from vegetable oils and animal fats through a chemical process called esterification. When the oils and fats are mixed with alcohol, their molecules break down into methylesters, which are then used as fuel, and a waste product of glycerin. It can be used in some diesel vehicles with very little, if any, modification to the existing engine.

Pro: Potential fuel sources vary from grain crops to used cooking grease.

Con: Biodiesel thickens and freezes at low temperatures.

Ethanol

Ethanol is a type of alcohol that is created through the fermentation of substances with high starch or sugar contents, such as corn or sugar cane. In this process, yeast bacteria consume the sugars and starches and produce carbon dioxide and ethanol as by-products. The use of chemical catalysts can be used to make the process faster and more productive.

Pro: Ethanol can be produced from renewable agricultural resources.

Con: Contains less energy than the same amount of gasoline.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Hydrogen fuels cells harness the electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The bonding of hydrogen and oxygen atoms results in two products: energy, which is then stored as power in the cell, and—you guessed it: water.

Pro: Hydrogen engines are typically more efficient than gasoline engines.

Con: Current vehicle designs can only store enough hydrogen for short-range travel.

At first, you’ll most likely see these fuels used in combination with current gasoline-engine technology. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) utilize both a standard gasoline engine and a rechargeable battery, and are already offered by several car manufacturers. Hybrid vehicles with a gasoline engine and a hydrogen fuel cell are currently in development, and are estimated to hit the market in 2008 to 2009. Vehicles that are designed or modified to run on mixtures of gasoline and biodiesel or ethanol show promise, and are already in use.

While some types of alternative-fuel vehicles aren’t yet readily available to the public, keep your eyes open—a combination of research, public encouragement, and lively market competition brings that day ever closer. Honda and Toyota, the first automotive manufacturers to market HEVs in the United States, have already been joined by a handful of others…and the rest are likely to follow suit.