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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I believe that there could be no better wealth in this world than having a good health. We can stay fit and healthy with several options to do. Some are taking health supplements and some are doing some regular exercises but for me, I am doing both. I always do regular exercise every weekends and taking my health supplements everyday. With this way, I am able to maintain my great body figure and so as my health. I never had any illness since I began to be a health conscious person. I am not a wealthy man literally but I am considering myself to as a wealthy man because I am healthy. I really believe that health is wealth.

To call a man a “pig,” or a woman a “sow,” is one of the worst insults in our common speech. This fact testifies not to the nature of pigs, but to our beliefs about them, and only shows how far out of touch we are with these animals. The commonly held image of pigs as greedy, fat, and filthy creatures, gross beasts who eat anything that isn’t fastened down, and who selfishly indulge their basest instincts without a trace of sensitivity, could hardly be farther from the truth. Pigs actually have one of the highest measured I. Q.’s of all animals, surpassing even the dog. They are friendly, sociable, fun-loving beings as well. One person very familiar with pigs was naturalist W. H. Hudson. He wrote in his acclaimed Book of a Naturalist:
“I have a friendly feeling towards pigs generally and consider them the most intelligent of beasts, not excepting the elephant and the
anthropoid ape. . . I also like his attitude towards all other creatures, especially man. He is not suspicious, or shrinkingly submissive, like horses, cattle and sheep; not an impudent
devil-may-care like the goat; nor hostile like the goosç nor
condescending like the cat; nor a flattering parasite like the dog. He views us from a totally different, a sort of democratic standpoint as fellow-citizens and brothers, and takes it for granted, or grunted, that we understand his language, and without servility or insolence he has a natural, pleasant, camerados-all or hail-fellow-well-met air with us. “‘
In the common mind, pigs are disgusting creatures, but in fact the only thing disgusting about pigs is our attitude towards them. They are playftil, sensitive, friendly animals, who like to roll around and rub on things, and consider the earth their home and not something with which to avoid contact. In a state of nature, pigs love to wallow in the mud, just as stags and buffaloes and many other animals do, especially in the hot days of summer when flies are most troublesome. But pigs don’t love mud for its own sake. They use it to cool themselves off, and to gain relief from the flies. They enjoy themselves exuberantly because it is their way to enjoy what they do with robust good nature. People who have seen them in mud have accused them of being filthy animals, not understanding their simple love of the earth. However, when living in anything even remotely resembling their natural conditions, pigs are as naturally clean as any other forest creature.2 If at all possible, they will never soil their own bedding, eating, or living areas.
But for many years it was the belief in Europe that the filthier the state in which a pig was kept, the better tasting the pork would be. Hence it became commonplace for pigs to be kept in a fashion that made it impossible for them to stay clean. Even then, though, they would often go to great lengths to maintain as clean a living situation as they could manage.

In our human blindness concerning the feelings, intelligence, and sensitivity of animals, there is one in particular about whom we’ve been most wrong. If it were possible to measure our misunderstanding about our fellow creatures on some giant scale, our ignorance of this particular animal might well be the greatest of all. This is an animal who has been abused and ridiculed by people for centuries, but who is actually a friendly, forgiving, intelligent and good natured animal when he isn’t mistreated. I am talking, you may be surprised to find out, about the pig.

The poultry producers consider themselves innocent of any wrong doing. They say they do what they do to bring down the price we pay for our eggs and poultry. To that end, they claim they are simply people committed to a well-defined sense of purpose, which is to raise “broilers” for the slaughterhouse and “layer” hens for eggs by the most cost-effective means possible. That this should happen to involve the brutalization of billions of innocent animals is, as far as they are concerned, irrelevant.
The agribusiness companies have their eyes firmly set on the bottom line. But they cannot see there is yet a deeper bottom line. Although they cannot see the more far-reaching consequences of their actions, these consequences nonetheless exist. None of us is immune from the repercussions of our actions and Choices. As we sow, so shall we reap.
“There is a destiny that makes us brothers, None goes his way alone— All that we send into the lives of others Comes back into our own.”
I don’t know what shall be the destinies of those responsible for the animal factories of today. But regardless of the future, it is already sadly true that they live in a heartless world. Treating animals like machines, they are profoundly separated from nature, deeply alienated from kinship with life. They are already in a kind of hell.
If we buy and eat the products of this system of food production, are we not colluding with them in creating this hell? Is that how we want to vote with our lives?

Preferred stock may sound a lot like common stock, but it generally behaves more like a bond. While a share of preferred stock does represent ownership (normally without the voting rights), it pays a fixed yield, like a bond. In general, companies issue preferred stock as a way of raising cash without diluting their common shares. The vast majority of preferred stock is owned by institutional investors, not individuals, and the price tends to be less volatile than common stock.
Preferred shareholders receive dividends before common shareholders, and if a company experiences a financial shortfall and suspends dividends, it is generally required to make back payments to preferred shareholders before it pays common shareholders. Also, in the case of bankruptcy, preferred stock owners are in line to get paid ahead of common stock owners. As a result, while preferred stock is less volatile than common stock, it doesn’t offer the same opportunity for growth and its value is more affected by interest rates. As an added incentive, some preferred stock can also be converted into common stock.

If you want it all—growth and income, as well as stocks, bonds, and cash-equivalent investments—these mutual funds contain a mix of these three asset classes. Talk about well rounded! The beauty of balanced funds is that they spread out your risk among all the major types of investments, which can save you time.
One word of caution, though: Many balanced funds consist primarily of large-cap stocks and Treasury bonds—and may not include small-cap or international stocks. Therefore, if you buy a balanced fund, you need to look carefully under the hood; otherwise you may not be as diversified as you think.

Like stock mutual funds, there are all types of bond funds—from those that specialize in Treasury securities (the safest, with the lowest return potential) to riskier funds that specialize in corporate bonds and offer potentially higher returns. Municipal bond funds usually offer lower returns but are generally tax-free. Regardless, bond funds allow you to take advantage of the same kind of diversification and professional management offered by stock funds. In addition, they can be a convenient way to get monthly income.
One word of caution, though: Unlike individual bonds, bond funds may not provide reliable income payments and do not have set maturity dates. Because a bond fund is a combination of many bonds, their income and principal values will vary based on market conditions and the fund’s underlying holdings. Put more simply, when you decide to sell shares of your bond fund, you will get the current share price (NAy), which may be more or less than what you paid for it.

When you enter the world of mutual fund investing, one of your most important decisions is choosing between an actively managed fund and an index fund. As the name implies, an actively managed fund is run by a portfolio manager (or managers) who carefully selects and monitors the performance of each holding—buying and selling investments and attempting to optimize their overall fund return.
Index funds are a type of mutual fund designed to track a particular market index, such as the S&P 500 Index (an index of five hundred of the largest companies in America) or the Wilshire 5000 Index (pretty much the entire stock market). The way they do this is by simply buying each of the companies in the index (yes, that’s five hundred stocks for the S&P 500) in amounts equal to the weightings within the index itself. So if CE represents 1% of the entire market capitalization of the S&P 500, $1 out of every $100 is invested in CE. Although no index fund will ever exactly duplicate the results of the index it tracks, if the index goes up 10% (or down 10%) in any given year, the index fund will generally go up or down by approximately the same amount.
Because index funds don’t require the intensive day-to-day management that actively managed funds need, their expenses are generally lower and they are generally more tax-efficient (that is, they pass on fewer taxable gains to the investor). Ironically, though, large-cap index funds frequently outperform their costlier managed cousins.

The Athena Review: Journal of Archeology, History, and Exploration features well-written, informative articles addressing current news items in archaeology, history, and exploration.. . profiling and explaining relevant field or research projects in archaeology and history. . . reviewing of key books, journals, videos, and CD-ROMS in these areas. Recent areas of focus include Pre-Clovis sefflement on Virginia’s Nottoway River, Neanderthal DNA results, the search for the Incas’ legendary land of Paititi, and Roman inscriptions in Britain. Here you can also get the scoop on Andean petroglyphs, evidence of the first people to populate the region in and around central Scotland, Palenque Egyptian papyri, and Roman Gaul. Also be sure to check the Athena Review’s great image archive presenting splendid photographs of unique archeological sites in Britain, Bulgaria (Ancient Thrace), Cambodia, Egypt, France, Italy, Scandanavia and elsewhere. And don’t miss the stunning collection of online maps, including Athena’s maps of Buddhist Monasteries in Tibet, Caesar’s crossings in Britain, Celtic nibes and Caesar’s campaigns of the Gallic Wars (58-50 BC), Rome (Domus Aurea and the baths of Trajan), sites of tomb treasures in Bulgaria, site plan for Angkor (Cambodia), and Columbus’s first voyage as shown on the a period map, the famous Map of Antilles (1492).

Founded in 1948, ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine covers all aspects of the human past. It is an official publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, the country’s oldest and largest professional organization devoted to archaeology. Lavishly illustrated and written with clarity and wit, ARCHAEOLOGY conveys the excitement of worldwide exploration and discovery. Its engaging and entertaining stories written by leading experts bring the past into the 21st century. The full texts of newsbriefs and selected longer articles are available online; abstracts of other departments and features are also available. Help solve the puzzle of mysterious burial urns found in caves deep within the Amazon jungle. Discover fabulous geoglyphs, the remains of bunkers and pillboxes built to stymie a Nazi invasion of England, and the “extraordinary folly” of Asia’s greatest brick monument. Take guided tours of Rome as it was at the time of the first-millennium, the Shenandoah Valley as it was in the mid 1BOOs, or Hamlet’s castle. Join the world’s top archeologists as they unearth the secrets of Roman life on the Danube, Armageddon, the physical evidence of the Battle of the Nile, Roman-era tombs southwest of Cairo, and the legendary square-rigger Bounty. Search articles by topic, title or author. Then enjoy full texts of selected items plus dazzling online illustrations.