The Super Bowl slipped through the well-manicured fingers of New England Patriots Quaterback Tom Brady, and that is a big story in itself, as not much has slipped through the Hall-Of-Famer-To-Be\’s grasp during his NFL career.

Tom Brady has had virtually everything go his way in the NFL. Now, after 18-1, we will see really for the first time how Tom Brady bounces back after being beaten up, pride and all. The New England Patriots and Brady go back to the drawing board, 0-0. There is no shortage of AFC teams looking for their red, white and blue heads going into the 2009 season. But that is for another day.

Tom Brady is a Golden Boy. We see them once in a while in sports. Good looks, great player, luck of a great surrounding cast, the right Coaches, the right system, etc. The white hot spotlight does not (usually) bother Golden Boys, and the stage is always big-always Broadway for their likes.

Now we will see how resilient Tom Brady is. This loss, for this team, with its collective ego, was an absolute crusher. The New England Patriots, although they will never admit it, took their foot off of the pedal ever so slightly during the second-half of the season. Sometimes that is all that it takes to come slowly back to the pack, the days of 40-50 points-per-game becoming a more distant memory as the season progressed. If that team was playing in the Super Bowl, then maybe the outcome would have been different. Maybe.

Bill Belichick knows how to coach football. He has all the fuel he now needs going into next season to motivate the New England Patriots. Question is-just how tough are Tom Brady and the New England Patriots to rebound from an undressing before 97,000,000 Americans?

http://www.fastbreakblog.com

There has been a lot of seemingly contradictory advice about how much water you need to drink while exercising.

Water, per se, is only part of the equation. Of more concern is the loss of electrolytes, primarily sodium and potassium which are critical to the proper functioning of muscle cells in particular.

There is also a difference when you consider gender…women on average need 2.7 liters of water per day, while men need 3.7 liters.
These amounts are for a person who is very physically active or who live in hot climates.
On average 80% of our water consumption comes from drinking water and beverages, and the other 20% comes from our food.

As far as salt requirements, a healthy 19 to 50 year old requires 1.5 grams of sodium and 2.3 grams of chloride each day…or 3.8 grams of sodium chloride…better known as \’table salt\’.
This amount will replace the amount lost due to perspiration and to achieve a diet that provides sufficient amounts of other essential nutrients.
High blood pressure, which can lead to a stroke, and coronary heart disease as well as kidney disease, is associated with sodium intake.
The maximum intake of sodium that people should consume per day, also known as the \’upper intake level\’ or UL, is 5.8 grams of salt or 2.3 grams of sodium and 3.5 grams of potassium.

Older people, those with chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease, are particularly susceptible to the blood pressure raising effects of salt and should reduce their intake.

Dehydration resulting from strenuous exercise can seriously impair the body\’s ability to dissipate excess heat. The heat generated by strenuous exercise is the result from both chemical processes - generating the energy needed to perform the exercise - and the friction of all those muscle fibers rubbing against each other.

To make this issue even more complicated are the reports of people who have consumed too much water - hyponatremia - even some who have died as the result of drinking too much water after exercising.

Fortunately, this problem is actually quite easy to solve. You need to drink as much water as you use. Simply weigh yourself before and after your exercise session and the difference is how much water you used.
Another way to gauge this is to listen to your body…it will tell you when you need a drink. If it doesn\’t tell you it is thirsty, then you are probably OK.

As you age, the \’feeling\’ of thirst alone may not be accurate.
This is why you need to weigh yourself to get a much more objective view of how much water you are using.
And don\’t forget about the electrolytes…you need to keep a balanced intake of sodium and potassium.

The easiest way to do this is with a \’sports\’ beverage, which are fortified with both sodium and potassium.
You need to read the label and factor in the amount of those nutrients into your diet to maintain the correct amount of total salt you consume per day.

To sum it all up…listen to your body and consume the amount of water you need.
Everybody is unique and will need a slightly different amount of water from others, as well as a different amount determined on how strenuous the exercise is and what the ambient conditions are - humidity and temperature.

Maintaining proper hydration is a very important part of your exercise program. A little forethought and understanding will go a long way to your finding the most effective way to achieving your personal goals…no matter what they are.

The author has been an aerobics instructor for over 28 years. He has taught classes for private health clubs and has been a Certified Group Instructor for the Y.M.C.A. since 1980. He is currently developing web sites focused on Health and Fitness.

To read more on health and fitness programs that work Contact the author by email

There is a term from the world of scuba diving that refers to a medical problem that happens when a diver returns to the surface to fast and the shift from high pressure to lower pressure of the world above the water is too fast. It\’s called “the bends” and it\’s a serious medical moment. Well, we don\’t want to get “the bends” when we leave the high pressure world of work and achievement for the low pressure world of retirement and a life of ease.

So to avoid retirement shock, you should start well ahead of you retirement party getting ready for that lifestyle. The worst thing you can do is wake up on the first day of your retired life with nothing to do and that feeling of emptiness and loneliness because you miss your old life and have no plans for how to fill the hours and days that lay ahead in your life as a retired person.

One way to avoid retirement shock is to do a bit of daydreaming about all the things you want to do once you are retired. Many of us put off creative interests and adventures we might have pursued except as a member of the working world, a parent an active participant in school, church and civic groups, there is just no time for that before retirement. But now that you have laid down so many of those responsibilities, give yourself permission to throw yourself into a creative hobby to let that side of you out to grow and mature.

Another great coping mechanism so the shock of moving into retirement isn\’t so severe is to continue to work at a reduced pace. If your employer values your decades of experience and devotion to duty, they may put you on in a part time capacity to come in and help the young people learn the ropes and learn the lay of the land of the business world. You know that landscape well so you can be of real value to make that transition a success.

Retirement is also a time when you can travel and spend more time with family and friends. If you always wished you could be available to baby-sit the grandchildren, now is the time. Your kids not only will love having free child care while they go about dealing with their busy lives but you will enjoy getting to know your grandkids and maybe being a kid with them for an afternoon as well.

Volunteering is another great way to fill all of that extra time you now have on your hands. By keeping busy helping worthy causes, you keep your self esteem because you are making a real difference in the lives of others and for your community. You can meet so many wonderful people while volunteering and the social side of it keeps you young and overcomes loneliness which is a big problem when you first enter your retirement years.

By laying out plans to enjoy a hobby, continue to work part time or volunteer when retirement starts, you can get rid of that sense of dread that you may have about your upcoming retirement. Instead start to get excited about this new phase of life and the new life that lies ahead of you in retirement.

Wayne Miller has written two e-books and has traded serious money inside different stock and commodity markets. One is called The US Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 and the other e-book is called Opportunity of a Lifetime. Top Ten Books and
Money Secrets.

I am a retired expert financial advisor who for several years put out a private high end newsletter that did sell for $6k per subscriber. It was that good of information. In addition has been a trader of the markets for more than 20 years. These financial e-books are for both everyday people and both novice and experienced traders alike who desire to learn how I can predict the future inside these markets. You can you know if you know how within the stock and commodity markets worldwide and by doing so, you can learn how to obtain serious wealth and make your own retirement dreams come true.

Inside “The Financial Crisis of 2007-2008″ e-book I do reveal certain secrets on how I was able to spot major trend reversals (before these events happen).

When it comes to GPS tracking systems and employers there is a lot of talk about how they can be used to help make certain that employees are doing what they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it. There is no doubt that many an employee has been caught going somewhere they were not supposed to, driving faster than they were supposed to, or leaving the car idling for much longer than is necessary or economical. And, yes, as an employer you may find yourself making an example of an employee through reprimand or other action once a GPS tracking system singles out someone as an abuser of company property.

It is also possible that you may find that there is some extenuating circumstance or reason other than flagrant rule-breaking that accounts for an employee\’s lackluster performance. It could be anything, really. An employee who has started drinking a lot of water for health reasons could be stopping off to use the restroom more frequently. Adjustments can be made, but this is something that you wouldn\’t know if you hadn\’t installed a GPS tracking device in your company vehicle.

There is also another use for all of the information that you get with a GPS tracking system. What about using that information to reward employee excellence. If your GPS tracking devices show that there are employees who consistently complete deliveries on time, stick to the assigned route, obey the speed limit and do not waste exorbitant amounts of gas idling, why not find a way to let them know you appreciate their efficient work?

Now some people will say it makes no sense to reward someone for doing what they are supposed to do, and I can understand that line of thinking. There is not need for a grand ceremony to honor a person for performing the job duties they agreed to perform. You can, however let someone know that you are aware that they take the time to do good work.

GPS Tracking Systems
McCord Web Design

An image editor is a computer program that enables you to adjust a photo to improve its appearance. With image editing software, you can darken or lighten a photo, rotate it, adjust its contrast, crop out extraneous detail, remove red-eye and more. Most graphics programs have the ability to import and export one or more graphics file formats. Several graphics programs support animation, or digital video. Vector graphics animation can be described as a series of mathematical transformations that are applied in sequence to one or more shapes in a scene. Raster graphics animation works in a similar fashion to film-based animation, where a series of still images produces the illusion of continuous movement.

Possibly one of the most confusing aspects of dealing with digital imagery is resolution-specifically, what it really is and how changing it affects an image. Simply put, image resolution is the number of pixels displayed per unit of printed length in an image. It\’s a measurement used for printing and it\’s usually stated in pixels per inch (ppi-used when referencing screen images) or dots per inch (dpi-used in printing because printers print dots). The way resolution affects an image is thus: For a given number of pixels in the width or height of an image, the higher the resolution, the closer the printer packs those pixels together in order to make a beautifully smooth and sharp print. The closer the pixels are packed together, the smaller the image will be physically when printed, and vice versa. Because our monitors can only display a certain amount of information that our eyeballs/brains can process, resolution matters only to printing devices. That\’s right, it doesn\’t mean a hill of beans until that image is headed for a printer because only a printer can do anything with the resolution measurement.

The best thing about digital cameras is that it\’s easy to take thousands of pictures. That\’s also the worst thing about digital cameras. After you\’ve owned your camera for a few months, you won\’t be able to find that great picture you took a couple of months ago if your pictures aren\’t well organized or named logically. Folders are the best way to organize groups of pictures, and the My Pictures folder is a great place to start. In your My Pictures folder, create a subfolder for each year: 2004, 2005, 2006, and so on. This might seem silly the first year you own your camera, but after five years, you\’ll be glad you did this because you can go back to your 2005 folder and easily find a picture from a vacation you took that year. Arranging pictures by year is also helpful if you\’re scanning older photos stored in shoe boxes or albums that you took before owning a digital camera. This is also a good way to start organizing the pictures that you currently have on your computer.

With a photo-editing program, you can “fix” or change images acquired from a scanner, digital camera, or the Internet and print them, import them into another document, post them on a Web page and use them for desktop backgrounds. To make the choice that\’s right for you, check reviews in computer magazines and on the Internet to narrow your choices; look for a program that can directly import images from a scanner or digital camera; make sure the program can crop, resize, flip and rotate images; compare color adjustment capabilities of programs. You should be able to adjust contrast, brightness, sharpness, hues and color-saturation levels; change a color; and convert color to black-and-white or grayscale; and compare the ease of using the various programs available.

Sharpen filters bring out detail in images by increasing the contrast of pixels next to one another. More advanced image editing programs offer several options such as Sharpen, Sharpen More, Sharpen Edges and Unsharp Mask (USM). Unsharp Mask gives you a lot of control over how an image is sharpened. Sometimes a photo will benefit from selective sharpening. You select an area with a programs selection tool and only sharpen the area. The important thing is not sharpen an image too much. The sharpening tool that is most useful for photographs is the Unsharp Mask, now available in most raster programs. The Unsharp Mask searches through your image looking for where colors change, and sharpens those areas. The Unsharp Mask is superior to any other sharpening because it makes decisions based on adjacent pixels, not random color changes, so it usually can find and sharpen just the true edges of color areas.

Often times images are posted on the web and resized with HTML code. This leads to an image full of jagged edges. By resizing your image in an image editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop, you can utilize smoothing algorithms that will make an image look much smoother. Additionally, resizing the image will reduce the file size, allowing a web page to load faster than usual. When you resize an image, you are resampling an image. In other words, your program is taking all of the image data and redrawing the pixels so that the image is the desired size. However, when you ask the application to increase the size of the image, the size of each pixel is increased, which inevitably leads to degradation of the image. When you resize an image, you can also change image resolution, to keep the quality of your image.

Cropping refers to the removal of the outer parts of an image to improve framing, accentuate subject matter or change aspect ratio. In the printing, graphic design and photography industries, cropping refers to removing unwanted areas from a photographic or illustrated image. One of the most basic photo manipulation processes, it is performed in order to remove an unwanted subject or irrelevant detail from a photo, change its aspect ratio, or to improve the overall composition. It is considered one of the few editing actions permissable in modern photojournalism along with tonal balance, colour correction and sharpening.

Would like to find out more about editing digital photography? Don\’t trust anybody\’s advice until you read this free report

Insurance scams by individuals against insurance companies are becoming common practice just as it is common practice for them getting caught in their illegal endeavors. Since there are many types of insurance in both the United States and Canada, there are many different types of insurance scams that exist from Worker\’s Comp scams to car insurance scams. In the end, these scams cost the individuals who are playing fair more in insurance than what they should have to pay. Below you will find the top 10 most common insurance scams by individuals.

Car Insurance (scams 1-6)

Car insurance accident scams may just be the most common of them all and there are actually more of them. These scams include:

• The paper accident - The criminal solicits an auto repair or salvage company to participate in an accident that only exists on paper

• Fictitious hit and run - The hit and run never happened

• The Swoop and Swat technique - When the criminal swoops in front of another car and stops while an accomplice pulls to the side of the target car, keeping it from swerving out of the way.

• The almighty sideswipe - This one occurs at turn lanes and intersections. The criminal takes multiple left turns to eventually end up in the targets lane.

• The friendly wave -The criminal waves at the victim to let them in front of them in heavy traffic and then quickly accelerates to have a collision.

Another but more subtle scam that is perpetrated by individuals is the “primary driver” scam. There are times in which an individual in a household may be cheaper on the insurance of a particular car. So instead of the actual primary driver being listed as the primary driver, the one who will be easier on the wallet is listed as the primary driver.

Life Insurance (scams 7 and

This may seem like something from a lifetime movie, but unfortunately it does happen in real life. A spouse takes out a life insurance policy on the other and then they put antifreeze in their coffee to poison them or something so that they can collect on the life insurance money. Fortunately, the perpetrator gets caught most of the time, but it still doesn\’t keep those who feel that, “I\’ll never get caught” from trying.

Lying on life insurance applications is a scam in itself. Individuals are required to fill out certain pieces of information on the insurance application that can influence the price of it, which can actually hurt the perpetrator more than help them. Sure, it helps their pocket, but if it is found that the application was falsified in any way, coverage may not be awarded to beneficiaries.

Worker\’s Compensation (scam 9)

Worker\’s Compensation is meant to help someone who has been injured on the job. Sometimes someone drawing Worker\’s Compensation may lie to their doctor or get the doctor in on it with them so that they may draw benefits longer without having to go back to work. Unfortunately, this practice is all too common and costs lots of money.

Health insurance (scam 10)

Health insurance tends to not be as common a target as those previously mentioned, but it is certainly not out of the question. One scam is the offering of phony health insurance. An individual or group of individuals will call unsuspecting people to offer them health coverage to only receive nothing. The next thing they know they are calling the actual insurance company and there is no record of coverage.

So these are some of the most common scams perpetrated against the different branches of insurance. Some get away with the most subtle of offenses, but the more severe the crime the more likely they are to do time for it. That\’s why it is better to be honest than not even chance trying to illegally obtain money through insurance scams.

Be upfront and legal with all of your business practices, including your home and auto insurance. It\’ll give you peace of mind, and prevent the possibility of you having to pay a fine or even go to jail.

Because I\’m on the Medifast diet plan and often seen carrying these shakes with me, I\’m often asked what they taste like. Most people even scrunch their nose when they ask me this question, as if they are sure that I\’m going to confess something unsavory about them.

The truth is, they are not like the chalky diet shakes that you probably remember or fear. The shakes are also really very filling. At first drink the shakes are pretty good, but there are ways to make them taste even better. I\’ve gotten so good at this art that I actually crave the shakes now in the way I used to crave my morning Star bucks. Here\’s how I make the shakes taste really good:

First, no matter which flavor you\’re using (my favorite is the Dutch Chocolate), make sure you consume it as cold as possible. I wholeheartedly recommend using a blender and ice (Medifasts\’ blender works very well). Doing so will make the vanilla flavored shake taste like a frappacino and the chocolate and banana flavors taste somewhat like milkshakes in their respective flavors. When I have time, I will even refrigerate my shakes over night because this will thicken them up even more and give them a shake like consistency.

Another alternative is to add cold coffee and ice for an iced coffee effect. This is actually very good.

Some people swear by adding no sugar syrups to individualize taste. I especially like raspberry and caramel sugar free syrups added to mine. This gives the shake a really sweet, dessert like flavor. A friend of mine adds crystal light powders to hers to play around with the taste.

With a little practice and individualization, most folks have no problems with making the medifast shakes taste very good and to their liking. Experiment and see what works for you.

Lindsey Price\’s Medifast Review Website features videos, tips, coupons, information and products related to Medifast. You can visit Lindsey\’s Medifast Website by clicking here.

Too many small business websites are merely flyers for your company. They\’re the equivalent of placeholders. At most, they give people a map to your location. But, at best, they can presell the audience on your products and services. That way, when the customer approaches you, he or she is predisposed to buy. This article explores how do you make a website for your small business.

First, put yourself in your customer\’s shoes. When he sits down at the computer, what is he trying to do? Most likely, he wants to solve a problem. If he\’s facing a divorce, he wants information on the legal, psychological, financial, and perhaps even spiritual aspects of his situation. If you are a lawyer, providing quality, relevant information on these topics will pre-sell the customer on your services. That way, by the time he picks up the phone to make an appointment, he\’s already disposed to hire you.

To understand this, you have to understand the buying cycle of YOUR customer. There is not one uniform buying cycle because every product or service is different. Lower priced items typically have a shorter buying cycle than more expensive ones. The urgency of the situation also impacts the speed. If someone\’s bathroom is flooding, they need a plumber now. If they are looking to start a college fund for a newborn, they have more time to make a decision.

So, if your customer needs you NOW, you should have a quick call to action. The client won\’t have time to read lots of articles. But, if this is a “big decision” that she needs time to ruminate over, you need to provide lots of quality content and be able to communicate with her over time.

In this case, a “flyer” website won\’t help you. You should aim to have at least 20 articles on your website that help people make decisions about the type of products or services you offer. Also, you should have a way to collect their email addresses so that you can be in touch with them periodically.

How do you make a website for your small business that meets these requirements? There are three choices.

You can hire a website design team to build your website for you. If you take this route, it will cost you big bucks for a fancy design. They will probably try to sell you a Search Engine Optimization package. If you want copywriting, that will be extra as well.

Secondly, you can put the page together yourself, registering your domain with one company, getting hosting from another, building the designs from free templates, paying for an autoresponder service, etc. This can be a lonely road.

Finally, you can buy a do it yourself package. These include all of the components you need to do it yourself for one price.

How do you make a website for your small business? With the customer in mind!

Stacy Fox has developed a successful local small business website for her husband, a divorce attorney. She\’d like to share with you how she did it on her Small Business Website Marketing blog

Most important is to know why you are trying to improve your abdominals. Are you trying to lose those love handles, or that extra belly fat from to much fast food? If so you need to understand that abdominal exercise will improve the tone and shape your muscles, not reduce your belly fat.
Fat loss is a systemic process…there is no such thing as \’spot\’ reducing. Exercise will help you to lose excess fat, but the fat will come off from the entire body, not just where you are doing the exercise.

Can an abdominal machine really get better results then simply doing situps? The main advantage of using a machine is the improved form you will achieve.
To be effective, any exercise must be done with the proper form. This is the only way to isolate the muscle group you are trying to improve. Incorrect form can actually work against you in a number of ways.

• You will not get the visible feedback so necessary to an effective exercise program as it is simply not working the correct muscles.
• Incorrect form can often cause pain in the muscles you are trying to improve.
• Your body will get used to the wrong form and it will be much more difficult to change it.
• Getting no or poor results will sap your will to continue your fitness program. This may be the most harmful of all the negative factors.

Finding and using a competent personal trainer will also insure you are doing your exercises with the correct form, but many of us do not have the time to take advantage of this option. There is also the consideration of cost as a good personal trainer can be quite expensive over a long period of time.

So we are back to the abdominal machine as the most effective and practical method to make sure we are not just wasting our time. How do we determine which machine will do the best job? There are an endless barrage of ads on TV all claiming their machine is the best.

Some of the best machines available include the Ab Wheel, Ab Trainer, and Ab Slider. For better support of the lower back and neck you can use the Ab Crunch Machine as well as the Back and Ab Machine. This latter group is recommended for those who are over weight and have trouble doing a simple crunch without straining their lower back and neck.

Abdominal conditioning is essential to \’core\’ strength, and core strength is essential to your overall well being and fundamental fitness. It is core strength that insures you maintain balance and the ability to live your day to day life with confidence.

The author has been an aerobics instructor for over 28 years. He has taught classes for private health clubs and has been a Certified Group Instructor for the Y.M.C.A. since 1980. He is currently developing web sites focused on Health and Fitness.

To read more on health and fitness programs that work Contact the author by email

You can build your list through the teleseminars you give on a regular basis. This can be done with free teleseminars as well as with paid ones. There are many ways to use this method in order to build your list of highly responsive and qualified prospects. Here are some of the ways that have worked the best for me.

• I write articles that send people to my sign up page to register for a free teleseminar. When they sign up they are then subscribed to my list. I offer a free teleseminar each week, so any time someone reads one of my articles, even if it is months from now, there will still be a call for them to sign up for.
• Google Adwords is a pay-per-click program that allows you to bid on keywords for your topic. When people click over to your site from an ad on Google, they can opt-in to your list to get more information from you. Again, I am always offering them a free teleseminar so I am willing to pay twenty or thirty cents to Google so that a new prospect can easily find me.
• In my signature line I include my website and an invitation for someone to sign up for my next teleseminar. I use this signature line in my emails, on my business card, and when I visit forums and other online groups. It is also included in my resource box when I submit an article to an article directory.
• When I make a post to my blog I again offer people the opportunity to join my list through signing up for a teleseminar. This way, readers can find out more about me from what I have written on my blog, as well as join me for my next call.

Using these methods will increase your list very quickly. I encourage you to use some of these strategies in your online business.

And now I invite you to join me for my free weekly teleseminars that will teach you how to write, market, and sell your articles and ebook to increase your visibility, credibility and passive income by visiting http://www.EbookWritingandMarketingSecrets.com