Catha For Council Blog

Let us take the scenario of a seventy-year-old man, who is a nonsmoker and otherwise fairly healthy, approaching the local doctor with complaints of persistent cough, chest congestion and weight loss. Other symptoms may include difficulty in swallowing and loss of appetite. The physician has several options of diagnosis, but pleural mesothelioma, a lethal cancer that originates in the lining enveloping the lungs, may not be considered.

There are several reasons for this. Recognition of pleural mesothelioma as a separate disease entity started as recently as the 1960s. Currently only about 3000 cases are reported annually in the United States. Many doctors may not have seen a single such case during their career. The symptoms are similar to many lesser afflictions. The only general lead is that the disease seems to be more prevalent in the Pacific and Mid-Atlantic States. It is also known that the major cause for pleural mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos. But how much contact with the material leads to this disease is unclear. Even the family members of an asbestos worker are at risk from the dust he carries home on his body and clothing.

This form of cancer has a long latent period and the symptoms manifest only twenty to forty or more years after exposure to asbestos. This also vitiates the possibility of correct diagnosis.

Once the doctor eliminates the chances of other diseases and pursues the pleural mesothelioma line, the patient is subjected to a battery of tests and imaging procedures like x-ray and CT scan. Fluid collection in the thoracic cavity is an indicator, but not conclusive. Confirmation can be obtained with a pleural (pleura is the membrane covering the lungs) biopsy using an electron microscope.

Since pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer, early detection and immediate introduction of appropriate management are of critical importance. The possibility of a doctor who fails to diagnose pleural mesothelioma or misdiagnoses it, being sued for medical malpractice cannot be totally ruled out. But usually the law applicable is asbestos product liability.

It is generally accepted that pleural mesothelioma is a disease that is difficult to diagnose. To help the doctor, the patient should inform him at the very outset about exposure to asbestos, if any.

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I just got off the phone with John, a student of mine.

My conversation with John was thought provoking and exciting and I thought you needed to hear the same powerful information I just shared with him.

But, first I have a few questions…

Do you want to be enormously successful investing in real estate?

Do you want to have the kind of money rolling in that changes your lifestyle into what you dare dream of only in your wildest fantasies?

Yes, of course! I know you do. So what’s the secret to success?

It’s in the numbers!

In a perfect world, every lead you spoke to would turn into a closed deal. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that utopia. In fact, more leads will lead nowhere than those worth pursuing. Your job is to separate the chaff from the wheat. To find the profitable deals hiding behind a motivated seller. Let me make it very simple - increases in the number of seller discussions increases dollars in the bank. It’s a game of numbers.

Regardless of your expertise, you have some ratio of deals
to contracts. This is the heart of this lesson. Instead of becoming depressed because you don’t sign enough seller contracts, recognize this is just a game of numbers. If you
want more contracts, talk to more Sellers. Let’s suppose that your ratio is on the low side - it is 30:1. That means that you have to talk to 30 sellers to sign one great deal.

If you want 2 deals in the next month, then you need to talk
to 60 sellers. If you want 4 deals, then you need to talk
to 120 sellers. To be successful, just increase the number
of sellers to whom you’re talking.

Track your results each month to identify opportunities.

Simply write down every seller that you speak to in the course of a month, and record the results of that call. If at the end of the month, the results fell short of the goal, the tracking form will tell you why. For instance, you may realize that you only actually spoke to five sellers. Sure, you were busy all month. In fact you called these five people repeatedly, following up, trying to make something happen. But in the end, you still only spoke to five potential sellers. This may sound obvious, but many investors try to work a few leads to death, rather than simply increase their number of leads. The answer is to increase the number of calls.

The other answer is to improve your ratio. If you’re at 30:1,
your goal should be to get to 20:1. Are you talking to motivated sellers?

You are not a real estate investor. You are a problem solver.

If the sellers have no significant problem, they have no need
for your services so you’re wasting your time. On your tracking
sheet, write down each seller’s motivation. At the end of the
month, see how were actually motivated. If that number is low,
improve your marketing to attract the right type of sellers.

The best way to improve your ratio is to increase the number of
techniques and strategies you have at your disposal to solve
their problem and ultimately purchase their home. If one technique is all you know you’ll pass over opportunities looking for the one seller that meets your criteria. Constant improvement and education should be something that never stops in your career. As your abilities expand, your ratio will improve. Suppose you changed your ratio from 30:1 to 15:1. Your profits would DOUBLE! Is it worth your time to track your results? You better believe it. Your monthly tracking sheet will provide precise information as to what needs to be done to improve your results: increase the number of calls; improve the quality of the callers - make sure to attract motivated sellers; expand your knowledge base to maximize your
opportunities. Success is not about luck. Success is in the numbers.

Study the numbers and explode your bank account.

Best of Success & Abundance,

Lou Castillo

Now, Easily find all the real estate funding you’ll ever need! This complete system will show you how to acquire unlimited real estate funding, even without using banks, hard money or your own credit! Learn more in this FREE Report!!

Real Estate Financing

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Even though you are charged a monthly fee, additional charges
could drive your bill much higher. If you are keeping your bill
on a budget, here are a few tips that will help.

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- If you are on a tight budget, choose a plan with low monthly
fee and low minutes. You can still use a landline phone or
payphone for the majority of your calls.

- Limit the use of your cellular phone to check voicemail. You
will be charged airtime. Use your home or work phone to check
it. Check with your carrier on how to access your voicemail
using a landline. Usually you just have to push # when your
greeting plays then put in your password.

- Use free calls offered by local businesses - Many times local
companies like TV stations, auto towing, radio stations, etc.
may contract with your cellular provider to offer free calls to
their companies. If you need to call these companies, take
advantage of these special numbers.

- Do you really need the additional features like call waiting,
text messaging and call forwarding? Unless they are included in
your plan, you will be charged extra for these. If you are
paying for a feature but do not use it, contact your carrier and
drop it. Do not keep paying for a feature you don’t use.

- Caller ID might pay for itself if you have a minimum plan. You
can use it to screen out calls that you do not wish to receive.
This will reduce your airtime usage.

- Since incoming calls counts against your airtime, be cautious
about giving out your cell phone number and NEVER post your cell
phone number online.

- Unless you get a really good promotional offer, stick to a
1-year contract. Your usage needs may change or you may find a
better deal after the contract expires.

- If you do not have a nationwide or network plan, be careful
about calling outside your home coverage area. The roaming and
large distance charges will really add up fast. You will also be
charged for roaming and long distance with incoming calls
received out of your coverage area. In some areas, you may pay
roaming charges even if you have a nationwide plan.

- Pay attention to the clock when you call during the week. The
weekday off-peak hours are limited, often 9 pm to 5:59 am
(varies by carrier, check your plan for details).

- Choose the right plan. If you are overpaying for more plan
than you actually need, you are also overpaying in taxes, which
can be 15-20% of your total bill.

- If you need to make a change in your plan, do it during the
first month of your plan. If you wait, you will be locked into
the contract. Carriers have deadlines for changes. If you make
changes afterwards, they add months to your contract.

- Re-evaluate your usage every couple of months - Go over 2-3
months of your cellular bill. If you find that the package plan
you are paying for includes too many, or worse, not enough
minutes, call and change to a different plan.You may have to
extend your contract as stated above.

- Ask for a bill analysis - If you are not sure if another plan
would be better, call customer service and ask them to do a bill
analysis. They will examine your bill for you and compare other
plans to see if they can save you money. They can do this at any
time, but this is especially important when getting ready to
renew a contract.

- When selecting a phone, start with your budget. There are
usually rebates and promotions that result in a free basic phone
with service. You can pay much more for a phone loaded with
features. Features to consider: weight, size, if you can read
the numbers on the screen, paging service, two-way radio
service, customized ring tones.

- Keep an eye on all the charges on your bill. Sometimes you may
be charged for a feature or service you did not request.

- If you sign up for a plan with a rebate, do not forget to mail
in the rebate card. This is how you get your cellular phone for
free from many carriers.

- Call in late payments - If you are going to be late paying
your bill, call them and tell them exactly when you will send
it. This may save you from late fees, being suspended and paying
reconnect fees.

- Suspend the cell phone if you’re not using it - If you are not
going to be using your phone for a while. If you do seasonal
work and are done until next year, or you’re on a trip without
the phone, you can call the company and request service
suspension for a period of time. Make sure to request a specific
time frame. (Voluntary suspension may be limited to a month or
so. Check with your customer service rep.) Remember that you are
still locked into a contract and suspension stops the clock.

- Find out how to call toll-free calls on your cell phone. Most
times 1-800 is not a free call on cell phones. Many times you
must dial #-800, or something similar. Ask your customer service
agent.

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The objective of this article is to teach a unique method of lead generation through reverse marketing.

Reverse marketing is the method of getting real time leads for free by responding to any offer you can find related to your niche market. The idea behind this is that people advertise things for which they have an interest. Somebody selling weight loss information will be always interested in looking out more and more information to improve the quality of his product and make more sales.

Before we get into the concept you can utilize the method to do reverse marketing to get leads. But you must avoid the spamming in the process. We don’t advice to join a bunch of lists and emaling the list owners. This will be treated as spam in the most cases, and it’s not very productive because online list owners know what spam is, and they certainly don’t like it.

You can follow following steps to start your reverse marketing campaign.

1. Go to a search engine and put a keyword or phrase, such as “Lead Generation”.
2. Browse the hundreds of websites that come back in the search results.
3. For each website, note the physical (snail mail) address and contact name of the owner of the website.
4. Send out postcards with your offer to those people.

If you have several different products, you can do this over and over again with different markets. For example, let’s say you have a product on gardening. Just go to a search engine, enter “gardening,” and then contact those people as possible leads for your product. This way you can generate highly responsive leads for your business.

For more information on Lead Generation visit site www.leadgenerationart.com

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So sexual toy are on the lips of every girl these days, either chatting about them in the bedroom, at the disco or on the telly. But which sexual toy is the fav, with the big choice to select from surely someone had to find out the best one.

A new firm asked over one hundred UK shoppers in January what their favourite sexual toy was along with other personal questions.

If you love sex toys you should try out Sexual Lubricants

It was discovered that the most favourite sexual toy for UK shoppers was the vibrator, and they just liked it! UK girls were so excited by the idea of a massive vibrator that many of them would use it straight after coming home from work. The best types of vibrator were the rabbit vibrators as they help to stimulate the clit hood as well as inserting into the love tunnel.

The 2nd most popular sexual toy was the exciting dildo dong. Dongs are similar to vibrators except they don?t have batteries or vibrate. Dongs come in all shapes and sizes from 4 inches to 12 inches. They can come with suction cups to have a super experience hands free and can easily attach to a bath or toilet set. Dongs have been a firm fav since the 70s and looks like they will be around for a long time.

So it was decided that the vibrator was the winner and the dildo came in second place, with some many sex toys out there it was difficult to know which type of vibrator was the most exciting for women to try. The classic vibrator sex toys are battery powered and shaped like a guys penis. Standard vibrator sex toys are shaped just like the real thing and use batteries for power. Stardard vibrators can be manufactured of plastic, vinyl metal or silicone. Stardard vibrators can either be slipped in or placed against your vagina to get the sexual sensation. We supply a wide range of classic vibrator sex toys.

The easiest way to use classic vibrator sex toys is to make sure it is clean before use, make sure it is not too extra big for your vagina, and also make sure that you do not use it every Monday night and you do venture out on a date to the cinema.

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There is a new way to earn money from home, well I say new. What I mean is that it is new to the public because an elite few people have been doing it for some time but I’m blowing the lid on it and showing the public how they can benefit from horse racing

Hi, my name is Rob Mellor and I have been testing horse racing systems for over 5 years with very positive results and over the last year other people have been taking advantage of my systems and winning big money

Every year my profit has been increasing as I have tweaked the systems to out perform the year before

You have nothing to lose as you can try one of my systems absolutely Free, just go to my web site for more details of how you can do this.

Here is what a recent client said about my horse racing systems:

“The free system you gave me alone made me over £1,000 last month, Last week I bought the other systems and have turned my betting around, I often make over £200 per day from only an hours work in the afternoon, thanks for the opportunity” Steve T, Kent

It may be hard to believe that you can actually make money from horse racing betting but you can and I will even show you full proof.

Rob is the webmaster of www.racing-systems-uk.com which sell the e-book, ‘The 20 Best Horse Racing Systems in the World’ which only includes the best horse racing systems

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Many aspects of the personal computer have increased in leaps and bounds in terms of performance and what they are capable of doing.

Computer memory, often referred to as Random Access Memory (RAM), has become of greater and greater performance as time has gone on.

One of the famous quotes from back in the eighties was one made by Bill Gates when he said that no one would ever need more than 640KB of memory. Well that has been passed for ages now, with high performance machines sometimes sporting over 1GB of it.

There are many advantages that can be had with more memory.

• Programs run faster
• Less waiting time for programs to load
• More programs can be run at a time
• Overall computer speed is increased

Double Data Rate (DDR) memory is the staple of the consumer market. It has taken off due to public demand and now comes quite reasonably priced.

Computers don’t generally come with less than 256MB of memory nowadays. My computer after freshly installing Windows 2000 (no, I haven’t gone to Windows XP yet) takes about 80MB or memory. That is the very least, with no additional programs or anything else installed. After I have installed all the graphics drivers, Internet connection software for ADSL, virus protection and firewall it takes around 160MB of total memory.

From my previous experience, 256MB will do, but after it becomes quickly filled when running a few programs, Windows reverts to using the hard drive for memory. It’s a way to fake more memory, by using the hard drive as a temporary store. 512MB now does it for my needs, but if you run many programs or memory intensive ones, 768MB or even 1GB will do better.

But is memory size the only factor?

An equally important factor is the memory speed. It is measured in MHz. Most systems use 400MHz DDR memory. This would be the safe bet with almost any processor you may have. 400MHz has also become the most common to buy, there is not much slower than that left to buy.

Memory from a reputable manufacturer will ensure that you don’t have problems with it and will also provide a certain amount of overclocking if you are into that. Even better would be to get faster memory, it just runs down at the computers speed, even if it is designed for more.

Another aspect of memory has come into play, being highlighted mostly by the enthusiastic overclocking crowd, and that’s latency.

Memory is a bank or table of places where information can be stored. In order to get the specific rows and columns certain things have to be activated within the memory. In a nutshell latency refers to how long it takes to be able to acces another part of memory. The shorter the time it takes, the quicker it is.

Low latency memory comes at a huge price premium, with 512MB of top class memory costing more than some processors.

But does it actually benefit you?

If you are into high-speed 3D games then there could certainly be a difference. For the rest of us, there probably won’t be much difference. It’s still worth it however to keep latency in mind when shopping around. I would certainly choose a lower latency model when buying.

Dual channel memory is another recent addition to memory technology. What it does is it puts the memory into pairs, the two pairs together can increase on the performance and speed of the memory by up to 10%. The motherboard has to support it, and the memory has to be the dual channel kind. Dual channel will work even when not in a pair, but normal memory will have no advantage when put in a pair.

Finally, DDR2 is a newer addition available for Intel systems. It has 240 pins (the little copper strips at the end that plugs into the slot) as opposed to DDR memory’s 184 pins. In this respect the two are completely incompatable. DDR2 is by design meant to be in pairs, they don’t have to be, but they all have dual channel capability. Only Intel processors with LGA775 socket type use this memory, but it is much faster.

So, whenever looking for more memory, try to bear these factors in mind…

• Do you need DDR or DDR2 (LGA775 systems)
• What speed do you need? Usually 400MHz (named PC3200) or faster?
• 256MB minimum, preferably 512 or up to 1GB
• Dual channel pairs. Do you need them and does your computer support them?
• Latency, lower the better, but not essential. CAS of 3 is normal.

Peter Stewart is a computer enthusiast, his interest in computers and focus on practical, down to earth advice inspired his two websites. http://computer-buying-guide.com - Practical buying tips http://computer-reviews.net - Fair and honest reviews and opinions

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So what is credit card debt consolidation?

In a nutshell, credit card consolidation is taking all your
credit card debt dues and consolidating them into one monthly
payment. This way, you don’t have to worry about managing the
payments individually. Aside from that, it may also provide you
additional benefits:

1. Reduce your interest payments

2. Waive late fees and miscellaneous charges

3. Lower monthly payments

4. Debt relief in a shorter time

5. Credit rating improvement

6. Save more money

You will also need to know that there are actually two major
types of credit card consolidation.

First is through a Credit Card Counseling firm. They assist
consumers by consolidating all their monthly payments into one
single payment and then disperse this to the creditors in behalf
of the consumers until they are debt-free.

The other type is through a home equity loan or other secured
loan. This is done by exchanging an unsecured debt (such as
credit card debt) for a secured debt (a debt backed by specific
assets such as real estate).

Now, credit card debt consolidation isn’t a magic cure that will
drive all your credit card debt problems away. But it will make
paying all your debt easier and might save you money in the long
run.

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Banjo lessons are a lot tougher than I thought. I’d been taking these online banjo lessons for months now - you know, downloading videos of this guy strumming his banjo and trying to follow along, stroking that banjo to my heart’s content - but when my first actual, person-to-person banjo lesson came, I felt like I was all thumbs. It was a disaster.

I admit that I was a bit of a slacker following those downloaded video lessons, mostly doing only the lessons and the songs that interested me and skipping the rest. But still, I actually thought I was making great progress. Then I had to take those real lessons and all my illusions were shattered.

I was really and thoroughly disappointed with my first actual banjo lesson. Maybe it was because I was trying to show off and display to my instructor my ‘hard-earned’ banjo-playing skills. Or maybe I was nervous. All I know is, the instructor took one look at me and I immediately missed a chord. Admittedly, I have absolutely zero experience in musical instruments and this was the first time I actually played for someone. But I was always a relaxed and competent public speaker so crowds (even a ‘crowd’ of one) shouldn’t faze me. I thought playing the banjo would be a breeze. After all, I’d been practicing for months, right? Wrong. It was just horrible.

Just the thought of playing in front of my banjo instructor still rattles me. Now, I’m puzzled as to how I can actually learn anything from my banjo lessons if I can’t even play in front of my teacher. He’s nice and accommodating, so it’s not a clash of personalities at all. Not to mention the fact that he plays the banjo great and I gain much just by watching him play. And yet, I have to ask myself, will I sound any differently when my next lesson comes around?

he big question in my head is, how will I know if I’m making any progress if I can’t play in front of him? In fact, how will I even know if I’ve learned anything from one banjo lesson to the next? I realize there’s no way of getting around it, but I still can’t will myself to play in front of him. For now, I’m going to start recording my banjo playing and let him hear it. But even with that, it might still be hard to play, knowing that’ I’m actually still playing for him. I only hope that things will get better eventually.

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“Intellectual government is the government that draws conclusion from public opinion” - Lay Vicheka (2005).

More or less, Cambodia is seen domestically, regionally and globally, immensely favoring “liberal democracy”, especially during and after the transitional period of UNTAC-backed election. As the result, a honeymoon government was born to enrich people’s well-beings, perk up economic prosperity, preserve the remaining territorial integrity…etc.

With obvious written evidence, we see that the government is democracy-oriented; decentralization, accountability, balance of power (as stated in the constitution), market-based policy, open to constructive criticisms…etc. To better the procedure, I, really personally, would like to propose an idea to push Cambodia’s democratic process, more specifically to push the power of transparency, which is one of the indispensable elements of democracy. But from the outset, we must have some notion about what is transparency.

What does transparency, in a practical way, mean?

Transparency, in accordance with my perception, is referred to “nude government”. Government must have nothing to hide from public awareness. People must have access to every conduct of the government, whether it is national spending budget, government’s foreign debts, international affairs, plenary session of the National Assembly, annual development targets, every courts’ judgments, government officials’ dismissing, government’s failures/successes. The different between people and government is just that, ordinary people have no decision-making power, but they have access to everything, known by the government. People almost have every access to all of these information, but one negative point that I have seen is that people have no knowledge at all to the personal background (internal knowledge) of the high-ranking governmental officials, members of parliament/senate, as well as the court. With better awareness of these senior officials data, would bring in three benefits; fortifying trust, selecting best of the best officials, recording a good-model history.

I. Fortifying Trust

Without knowing the personal background of these senior governmental officials, members of parliament/senate, and judges/prosecutors of the court, people would loss confidence with their leaders, representatives and judges. This is one of the reasons that Cambodian people respect this senior officials in the physical manner and not in the mental attitude. If these senior officials’ personal data were widespread dispatched to every corner of the people, heartfelt respect would be appeared out from the people. Lacking awareness of personal data of the leader, I think, would clearly categorize between the leader and the populace. These two levels of people would be clandestinely veiled from each other, as the son and father don’t know each other very well, into the extent that would make them trust and respect each other.

II. Selecting Best of the Best Officials

Though party chooses deputies to represent in the parliament and dignitary to create council of ministers, having the internal knowledge of the senior government officials is still beneficial. Party itself, would have to appoint the best candidate so that it can respond to people’s needs, otherwise, the party won’t be reelected. If they choose the corrupt officials, and people know about this official’s background, the result is clearly seen for the next-term election. Having complete or much knowledge about the senior officials would benefit the party itself, would enrich Cambodia’s social development, and the people-oriented policy of the party would have better prospect to achieve.

III. Recording A Good-Model History

Why Cambodia has this current fruit? How come this person fit for the leadership profession and not another person? Why different leaders yield different fruit? What are the proper characteristics and criteria for leaders?…? The best answer to these questions must be extracted from the history of Cambodia’s leaders or dynasty. Indeed, Cambodia has history on dynasty, but I have never seen or stumbled across the written personal backgrounds of current Cambodian leaders.

History record on Cambodian leaders would serve as incentive for younger Cambodian generation. And without, I think, young Cambodia would never aspire for leadership role, and would never have critical-thinking skills. The final positive point is that, young and next Cambodian leader would never “repeat the past” (this is one of the best essences of history).

Conclusion

One of the reasons for Cambodia’s current grave result, I think, is “unfit people for specific professions”. And I don’t believe that Cambodia will prosper, if this phenomenon still prevails in Cambodia. It is really hard to bring more benefits to explain on this scope of paper, as I tend to make my work practical and brief; targeting the unprofessional people.

Cambodia should draw examples from the developed country and study on how and why they have today. North America and the West alike, always publicly show off their senior officials, especially before the public nomination, and this is one of the reasons why they are always the frontrunners of human-oriented regime (liberal democracy). Not only just showing off, openness to criticisms and personal analysis are also allowed for individuals and state/private entities.

To be even more correspondent to my above article’s essence, I am pleased to invite in all kind of constructive criticisms and opinion participation; domestically and all corner of the world.

Lay Vicheka is the freelance writer for a New York-based research company. 855 11 268 445, vichekalay@yahoo.com. Go to google and type his name: Lay Vicheka to know more about him.

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