A number of months ago I started to get headaches in the back of my head. Sometimes I would also get them around my left eye. I wasn’t sure what was causing my headaches at the time so I went to see a couple of doctors as well as a physio therapist.

This went on for a few months. It was suggested that I just spent way too much time in front of a computer and not enough time exercising and getting some fresh air. Well…for the most part that is also true.

So, I did just that. I got away from my computer more and started an exercise program with a lot of fresh air. It was great. But as soon as I got back on my computer, which was usually in the evenings, I started to get headaches again if I stayed on any longer than about one hour.

I finally did some online research and came across an article that suggested that one reason many people get headaches is because they are in close proximity with flourescent light bulbs, especially the compact variety.

Fluorescent tubes are different than compact fluorescent bulbs because tubes are usually installed on a ceiling, which is at usually some distance away from any individual (unless they were standing directly underneath it). compact bulbs, on the other hand, can be screwed into any desk lamp.

Well…guess what? My desk lamp is always no more than about two feet away from me. Sometimes I would be on my computer for hours and hours seven days a week with my desk lamp on pretty well the whole time. What was worse was that my computer desk was on the north side of my house with only a small window to direct in some ambient light.

I changed that one fluorescent light bulb with a regular incandescent 60 watt light bulb. After about two weeks or so, my headaches vanished. Wow, was I happy. Yes, the change in lifestyle certainly helped reduce the severity of my headaches, but I couldn’t eliminate them. Changing that one desk lamp from a flourescent bulb to an incandescent bulb really seemed to do the trick…so far!

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So, what are some other Pros and Cons of Fluorescent Light Bulbs over Incandescent Bulbs:

Before giving the pros and cons I just want you to be aware, if your aren’t already, that some traditional incandescent light bulbs are going to be phased out by 2012.

1. Fluorescent light bulbs use less electricity and this of course is much better for our environment. But, I only changed one light bulb to incandescence. I still have about 20 other fluorescent light bulbs around the house, but I am usually never too close to them any more than a few minutes at a time.

2. Because Fluorescent bulbs are more energy efficient and last much longer than regular incandescent bulbs, they are more preferable if you need lighting for longer than 15 minutes or so.

3. On the other hand, Fluorescent bulbs will not be as efficient if you only need lighting for only a few minutes or so…less than 15 minutes.

4. Compact fluorescent bulbs should not be used in ceiling fans. I found this out the hard way. I went through 5 fluorescent bulbs in one year before realizing this. I just kept thinking I had bad bulbs, but it was the vibration from the fan which caused the bulbs inner elements to fail.

5. The thing about using compact fluorescent bulbs is that if they are not used properly the savings you realize could significantly diminish. I wasted about $20 by putting these bulbs into my ceiling fan, when I shouldn’t have.

6. Mercury. Yes. All compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury. Mercury can be very toxic and can be dangerous around small kids, especially if they break. I’ve had a few break on me already. I never knew about this at the time, but I sure do now. Expecting mothers also need to be aware of this as it can affect the developing fetus.

7. Because of this, all CFL’s should be taken to a qualified recycling location for disposal. This applies to unbroken or broken bulbs. If you live close to Home Depot, they should be able to direct you as to who accepts fluorescent bulbs for recycling.

8. I mentioned above that I had a few broken fluorescent bulbs already. I just cleaned it up and threw it in the garbage. This was not right. But I never knew that CFL’s contained the hazardous material, mercury. If you do break or come across a broken compact fluorescent bulb, find an Environmental Protection Agency’s website and seek information to help you with cleanup instructions.

As I mentioned above, I use incandescent lighting on my computer desk, because it can and does cause headaches if you are around it too long. Yes, it’s not as energy efficient, but for one light bulb, my own health is more important.

Technology is also improving and hopefully, this technology will help extend the life of incandescent light bulbs. New technology that looks extremely promising for the future is in the light emitting diode (LED). Light emitting diodes have been in use for some time already, but the time may soon come when all houses will be equipped with these very energy efficient and safer alternatives.

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By Joseph Nykoluk

There has been a lot of websites and videos about the year 2012 and the circumstances surrounding events that may affect how or if we will live to see 2013. After doing some research for a couple of days, I found a few YouTube videos that may, or may not, answer some concerns.

Of all the people that I found that seemed credible, a Dr. Michio Kaku was not only the most qualified to talk about 2012, but also the most interesting. Dr Maku reminds me of David Suzuki in the way he kept my interest alive and wanting to find out more.

In this first video, Dr. Maku talks about how the sun could affect life if the earth fails to protect us sufficiently from predicted solar rays that could hit us in 2012. We discover that scientists have discovered leaks in earth’s magnetic field. If the magnetic filed is weak enough, earth could be vulnerable to solar winds much more so than in the past. Why? Well…for one thing we have a lot more satellites floating around in space than we have before. Watch the video and leave a comment if you’re concerned about this.

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So, tell me, do you believe in life on other planets? I do, and so does Dr. Maku. That life doesn’t necessarily have to be little green men, but life is life. This second video, titled “UFO – What Is Coming Our Way Soon”, Dr. Maku talks about this life on other planets and a satellite set for launch next year that may have a better chance at detecting that life.

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Finally, this video was my favorite. Marshall Masters elaborates on Dr. Maku’s warning by discussing possible scenarios that could happen in this revised video report of a more violent solar maximum in 2012.

Tell me – Have you ever heard of “Planet X” or Nibiru? Yes, there has been a lot of talk about another planet in our Solar System called Nibiru that could make itself known to us at the same time as the projected solar storm that could hit us. Some also say that Nibiru, which is on a 3643 year orbit, can already be seen with the naked eye in the southern hemisphere and could be one cause of Earth’s changing weather patterns (global warming) due to our planet’s axis beginning to tilt. More on this story can be found on www.Discovery.com.

Anyway, watch this YouTube video as Marshall Masters discusses the eight scenarios that could affect all life on our planet beginning with the best case and ending with Armageddon.

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Living on the coast…any coast…can be a very dangerous affair with Mother Nature if you’re not careful with her. Massive floods have crept up on populations all over the world in its bid to keep coast lines the domain of marine dwelling animals.

But the coast is a lure that is hard to resist, so we risk our lives for the serenity, beauty and power that only coastal living can bring. But risking life on the coast doesn’t have to be a crap shoot. There are ways to manage that risk.

If you are intent on living by the sea, you should talk to this Amish family from Missouri in the United States. Their previous home in Texas was destroyed by Hurricane Ike that made landfall over Galveston Texas on September 13, 2008. (Talk about a bad luck day).  Hurricane Ike was one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States and this Amish family wasn’t going to let it happen ever again.

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The applications for this robot suit would be enormous. One application I would love to see is for senior citizens who just can’t get around much anymore. I would have loved to have had a robot suit for my Mom. I could just see the smile on her face.

What applications do you think you can come up with. Let me know.

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]]> http://www.180news.com/science-technology/how-to-walk-easier-with-a-robot-suit/feed 0 http://www.180news.com/science-technology/how-to-stop-a-hurricane-video http://www.180news.com/science-technology/how-to-stop-a-hurricane-video#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:16:23 +0000 admin http://www.180news.com/?p=697 from: Joseph Nykoluk – Admin

I don’t know about the rest of the world but the weather here in North America is becoming more treacherous every year. With global warming making our oceans prime feeding grounds for hurricanes, how can man ever hope to control Mother Nature.

One thing we need to be aware of is that in everything there are usually two sides. Our yearning for growth and ever improving technology has consequences, and Mother Nature always makes sure you know about it.

I brought this post up because I was watching a television show called “Doc Zone”. The title of the day’s show was called, of course, “How To Stop A Hurricane”.  Inside this link there is an excerpt of a video of the show which you can watch online.

There is also a second video that I thought was very interesting which I found on YouTube which is only about 10 minutes long. You can watch that below.

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Personally I don’t think we can or should even try to control weather, but if I were actually asked for an opinion on how we actually can stop a hurricane I would say – STOP POLUTING OUR PLANET.

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If you spend any time on forums or chat rooms while online that deal with the topic of LASIK surgery, you probably wonder why anyone would work up the courage to set up a LASIK procedure, and why in the world they would even want one. Many people make the LASIK clinics sound like they are some type of Dr. Frankenstein’s lab, and they make the procedure itself sounds kind of surrealistic. It seems like the only people that would get Lasik are those with such bad vision that they cannot get out of bed without their glasses on.

If you have a few minutes, I would like to provide you with my story of how LASIK helped me. My vision isn’t great, but it’s not incredibly terrible either. I can actually go to movies and see well enough to enjoy the film without glasses, but I need glasses to drive in order to read the street signs far enough away to act on the information. So for me, Lasik was not necessary, but I figured it would simplify my life. I am outdoors very frequently, backpacking, climbing hills, and mountain biking. I’ve never been able to make a pair of glasses last very long, and I am frequently and a lot of dirty areas, so contact lenses never work very well either. LASIK eye surgery look very appealing to me for these reasons.

The paragraph above might make you think I am a “manly guy” (hope so, think so!), so why on earth would I be afraid of a little Lasik scalpel? OK, technically Lasik does NOT use a scalpel but rather a “microkeratome blade”, but it is still a sharp object approaching my eye as part of the Lasik procedure. LASIK surgeons these days don’t have to use a microkeratome blade anymore though, as they have advanced technology that allows them to make the incision with a laser instead, which is far better than blade. What makes me really nervous is the fact that I’ve had way too many accidents in my life to feel comfortable about anyone coming near my eye with something sharp.

Well I went and talked to three completely different and independent LASIK surgeons, and every one of them assured me that as a 28-year-old man in a really great health, with mild to moderate nearsightedness that I was probably one of the best candidates for a successful LASIK eye surgery procedure. I decided to schedule my Lasik procedure with the one that had the best track record, and coincidentally took the most time to explain everything about Lasik to me.

I was really happy with the fact that the surgery wasn’t painful at all, even though I took everything that they offered to provide comfort, even the sedative and a teddy bear. The only strange thing I remember about the Lasik procedure itself was a smell, something vaguely like hair burning. I’m pretty sure that it was my eye. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t know about that smell before I went into the procedure, because if I had I might not have gone in.

That was a few years ago now, and as it turns out I guess I was a near perfect candidate for the procedure, as my eyes are both 20/20 vision and they haven’t changed at all a long time now. Despite any naysayers out there, if you have been deemed a good candidate for a LASIK vision correction procedure, grab a hold of that teddy bear and get it done.

Astronomy is a very exact branch of science, although a lot of people become interested in it when they are very young. Astronomy is a thought-provoking hobby that can teach children about the other sciences in general. Some astronomical subjects inspire kids and movies like Star Wars and they serve to increase this interest.

Our only natural satellite is called the moon. Its orbit around the Earth takes just over twenty seven days to complete. Man’s knowledge being what it is and because the moon is so near, it is the only space object that mankind has ever set foot on, except for the Earth of course. The effects of gravity between the moon and Earth causes the seas’ tides. The moon is one of the first objects that sparks a child’s interest in astronomy because it can be clearly seen with the naked eye.

Consider Sol, our own star, the sun. The distance between our home and the sun is very large, although it fluctuates from 91 to 94 million miles. The reason for the variance is the Earth’s elliptical orbit. If there were no sun, we wouldn’t be alive. The sun provides both light and heat to the planets. A little known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass in the solar system. That is massive!

We live in the galaxy called the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it’s a collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. That means that most of its volume, 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years diameter, the volume of our galaxy, is empty.

Our Earth is located somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 light years from the very center of our galaxy. The nothingness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact, the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main portion of it.

It resembles a pool of liquid, which is why it was named the Milky Way. There are four sorts of galaxies:

• - elliptical
• - lenticular
• - irregular
• - and, like our Milky Way, spiral

There is a lot of information about astronomy on the Internet that is suitable for children: from dictionaries and encyclopedic references to programs that show the paths of the different planets, solar systems and objects right on the computer’s monitor! In fact, there’s more information than a child could ever get through.

In the Gigaset cordless phone range the Siemens Gigaset SL785 is not only top but one of the best of all phones on the cordless market today. High level phones can often look good in pictures but to hold can feel plastic. The Siemens Gigaset SL785 has been manufactured in actual metal and high quality materials for this reason.

One of the unusual features of the Siemens Gigaset SL785 is that it has Bluetooth headset compatibility built in. This is a very high level feature normally only found on expensive cellular mobile phones. Normally headset compatible cordless phones use cabled headsets so a Bluetooth headset has much more freedom.

As one of the top cordless phones in the range the Siemens Gigaset SL785 has their HDSP quality high definition sound built in. The SL785 is also an ECO cordless phone which helps reduce energy consumption also for energy conscious users.

The Siemens SL785 Gigaset has a digital 45 minute answering machine if a call goes unanswered. Users can listen privately to messages not out loud done through the cordless handset.

Most brands DECT base stations manufactured have a combined phones charger station. However the location best for where you want the signal transmitted is not always where you want the phone. For this reason a separate charger and base is produced on the Siemens Gigaset SL785.

Features such as VIP ringer melody and 500 name and number phone book make this cordless phone very useful. As the Siemens Gigaset SL785 has a handsfree speaker users do not have to use a headset to talk handsfree.

The Feasibility of GPS in sports originated from its primitive use in military and government purposes. But technology enabled receivers to be usable in water though they have electronic components.

This is all possible because GPS is already made waterproof for practical navigation and sports. Though they were originally intended for land use in military and government applications, technology enabled GPS to be functional in water despite its electronic components.

Though waterproof GPS receivers seem to be a luxury before because of its high price, it is now affordable for common people and sportsmen. Sea kayakers can have accurate course information while they are in sea. It is also applicable for non-aquatic sports like biking, because of exposure to weather changes as well as moist and humidity. Because of its portability and user-friendliness, sportsmen see it not as a luxury but vital sports equipment.

Some characteristics should be known before buying waterproof GPS handhelds. Such characteristics are used in specifications sheet, and are good comparison points between units. The following characteristics are not only applicable for waterproof units, but also to non-waterproof handhelds.

Waypoints: It is also called POI or Points of Interest. Waypoints are useful in storing landmarks and important locations along the trip. Sportsmen can store data about the location of their last campsite, or the coordinates where they changed directions. Some units can store 1000 waypoints, but for common usage, 500 will be enough.

Waypoints are analogous to tree markings implemented by past sportsmen when in a forest. In addition, GPS units can do calculations on two waypoint data, or delete past waypoints to free some memory for another. Sophisticated units have the feature to exchange waypoint data among GPS handhelds, allowing sportsmen to share their experience and past routes.

WAAS or Wide Area Augmentation System: It is a corrector for the signal received by the handheld. GPS have the tendency to have higher deviation as distance increases. Enabling WAAS increases the accuracy of GPS up to five times for distances beyond 10 feet as opposed to disabling the WAAS.

Wide Area Augmentation System: Commonly known as WAAS, augmentation system corrects the signal received by the GPS for distances beyond 10 feet. Enabling WAAS can increase accuracy up to five times.

Touch screen and switching between urban driving, hiking, and water sports are some advanced features of waterproof GPS handhelds. It can also have memory slots and digital compass. Since its main feature is usability in water, new models also show sea depth, docks, and other related information. Its package was designed to float to get it easier when dropped in water. Some units have built-in radios to provide communication within 5 miles, as long as there will be corresponding FCC license.

The current economic crisis that has plagued the entire world today has brought about many changes, some for the better, while others for the worse. Everyone is more concerned now with how they handle their money. The way the proverbial belt is being tightened in this time would make any self-respecting miser proud. People have learned how to maximize their purchasing power in a tough way.

This has led to a more rigid approach in acquiring items that are being lined up in the aisles of the department and grocery stores. Today, splurging is not considered as something trendy. It is actually branded as a stupid act. In buying products, an increasing number of individuals have subscribed to the process of cost and benefit analysis.

If you think that you have been working hard for the past few months and you deserve a nice reward, and then gift yourself with something valuable. If it is a video camcorder that you like, buy one either at the nearest mall or through the internet.

The next few paragraphs will expound the ways on how a video camcorder will impress you. Read on.

First, it can be an efficient tool in making you relax. You will be focused in getting the best shots while carrying your handy gadget so time will simply pass without you knowing it. This is a perfect way to take your mind off the competitive environment in your office, or the one that is more popularly called as the rat race. All your worries and cares will simply slip down the drain and you will be more rejuvenated when the time comes that you have to go back to your workplace. You will be more alert to deal with potential problems or obstacles.

Second, a video camcorder will capture the moments that you want to relive over and over again. Is it the wedding of your baby sister, the christening of your eldest son or the graduation of your wife after she has finished her doctoral degree? All these scenarios deserve to be kept in a tape so that your ancestors will have a firsthand view on what happened during the most significant times in your life. They will surely thank you in the future for being a prudent individual.

Last, you will get better in dealing with all kinds of people because you are required to communicate with them. This means that when you explain orders, they must give you feedback so that you can produce a noteworthy output. You have to remember that in choreography, there must be a well established rapport between the director and his actors. Therefore, it is essential that you bond with them during the initial stages of production.

After reading those aforementioned reasons, may you be inspired to get a video camcorder. The benefits are simply amazing. You deserve nothing but the best so grab one now.