Few of us want to be wrinkled, it’s really only a desirable feature when it comes to shar peis and while aging is natural, some wrinkles are unavoidable as time goes on, you can reduce the appearance of wrinkles with a good number of products out there. My patent advice no matter the product, research, if it’s a newer product to you, seek out prototype 37c reviews as an example. Read the testimonials and whenever possible find out of they offer samples or a smaller purchase of a trial size. If they don’t? Carefully read the guarantee and the return policy…

They say the eyes are the window to the soul but they are also the window to your appearance, and if you are tired or if you haven’t been doing a great job in moisturizing the area around your eyes, it can show. It can also make you look older than what you really are. Not all eye creams are the same, so do your homework, ask for samples whenever possible to make sure a formulation will work for you and then? See those peepers look better…

I can’t help the song associations that I make, I think it’s my years of loving music. Example, if you say the words radar detectors, I automatically think of Golden Earring, and their song “Radar Love” — a classic rock and roll song that is hard to not do some serious foot tapping and chair dancing to. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube it’s easy to share it with you so that you can enjoy the moment too.

It never ceases to amaze me how people who want to have internet based businesses don’t take the time to learn more about SEO (Search engine optimization) then they don’t understand why people are not finding their online business in droves. SEO is complex, so while they should have a basic understanding, they should consider turning to professionals. In almost every city in the nation from Search Engine Marketing Chicago based to west coast based, there are companies out there that specialize in SEO. Get recommendations, read reviews and google…

It was impossible to not think about this Steve Martin performance after writing the below post on King Tutankhamen…So without further ado, the 1979 live performance….

How King Tutankhamen died has been a focus of many scientists and archeologists since the discovery of his tomb. The latest theory comes from a German team, according to New Scientist:

From falling off a chariot to murder by poison, the cause of Tutankhamen’s death has been a source of avid speculation since his mummified youthful remains were discovered in 1922. He was 19 when he died around 1324 BC after ruling for just nine years.

The first extensive scientific investigation of the mummy was reported by Egypt’s chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass and colleagues earlier this year (JAMA, vol 303, p 638). After running a battery of tests, including X-rays and genetic analysis, they concluded that an inherited bone disorder weakened the king, before an attack of malaria finished him off.

Key pieces of evidence were severe necrosis in the bones of Tutankhamen’s left foot, and the detection of genes from Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria.

But in a letter to JAMA this week, Christian Timmann and Christian Meyer of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, suggest that Hawass’s observations can be explained much more elegantly by a diagnosis of sickle cell disease (SCD).

While with the summer heat the appeal of a roaring fire in the fireplace is greatly diminished, fire still plays a big role in summer activities from grilling to bonfires. I’ve always wished I had room in our living room for one of those electric fireplaces not just for the heating aspect but for the ambiance without the smoke that an electric or natural gas fireplace creates. We do have a dvd of a crackling fire, but playing it on the television just doesn’t equal the same feeling…

As this Wired article points out, the US has been negligent in it’s funding for weather satellites which are a key component of being able to track and predict weather/climate. I think we’d all agree that’s a critical government function…A recent report from the General Accounting Office of the Federal Government issued a report that is worth paying attention too.

The United States is in danger of losing its ability to monitor key climate variables from satellites, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

The country’s Earth-observing satellite program has been underfunded for a decade, and the impact of the lack of funds is finally hitting home. The GAO report found that capabilities originally slated for two new Earth-monitoring programs, NPOESS and GOES-R, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense have been cut and adequate plans to replace them do not exist.

Meanwhile, up until six months ago, NASA had 15 functional Earth-sensing satellites. Two of them went down in the past year, and of the remaining 13, 12 are past their design lifetimes. Only seven may be functional by 2016, said Waleed Abdalati, a longtime NASA satellite scientist now teaching at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Taken together, American scientists will soon find themselves without the ability to monitor changes to key Earth systems at a time when such measurements could help determine the paths of the world’s energy and transportation systems.

“Can you imagine if we’ve passed the apex of our Earth-observing capability right at a time when we realize that, ‘Hey, we need to understand what’s going on’?” said Abdalati. “We’re talking about less than half the capability in the coming five years than we’ve had in the previous five years.”

The diet industry is a billion dollar one world wide, and it seems on a regular basis there is a new diet pill or a new weight loss plan that is grabbing attention. Whether a pill or a plan becomes successful enough to pass the fad aspect is always the question. Some do, some don’t. I remember when I was a teenager the grapefruit diet was considered “the diet” and I tried it. It was sometime before I ever wanted to eat a grapefruit…

Having accepted the fact that I am no longer worried about how gray my hair is becoming, I admit when the wrinkles come, I probably won’t really worry about them either. Yet for thousands upon thousands of people out there, wrinkles bother them and impact their self esteem. If this is something that impacts you? Finding the best wrinkle cream for your particular skin type may be of interest. Since not all wrinkle products are the same, do your homework…Your skin and your pocketbook will thank you.

The ethical questions of where we go from here have become the topic of conversation with the first successful transplantation of a synthesized genome taking place recently. As reported by Nature this is an ethical and security challenge created by our own scientific success. The scientific accomplishment taking place before we’ve delved into the questions…

As many biologists were quick to point out, this was not the synthesis of life, nor indeed of a cell. But it was the first time that an organism had been put together with DNA constructed from specifications in a computer database, albeit derived from an existing organism rather than conceived from scratch. The long-anticipated development is a landmark in synthetic biology — a field that is burgeoning not only in its science and engineering but also in the discussions that surround it.

Credit is due both to the pioneers of the field for fostering open deliberations about the research-community, societal and ethical issues surrounding synthetic biology, and to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York for its long-standing support of these efforts. Unfortunately, such discussions repeatedly point to key concerns without resolving them. The achievements reported last week underline the need to do better.

While here in the US we have our own insurancespecialists.com insurance is something that sold through out the world. One great thing about YouTube is you get the chance to see commercials for a variety of other products and services in other nations. The below commercial is stated to be one for insurance from Slovakia. Even while you can’t understand what is being said, if you don’t know the language, the message and the humor come shining through…

National Sleep Foundation did a study earlier this year which indicated four in ten Americans were not getting the amount of sleep they needed to function well in their daily lives. This lack of sleep can impact more than just those not getting enough shut eye – research has shown that staying awake for 24 hours in a row impairs performance a similar level with driving drunk, and six hours of sleep per night for two weeks causes a similar level of impairment as staying awake for 24 hours. This means those poor sleeping habits long term could actually cause major problems. Prescription use for sleep aids has increased as well as those looking for natural sleep aids or over the counter products to help sleep. I’ve had problems with insomnia for years, I know that the key is to set a regular pattern of sleep the only bright spot is I can say blogging while tired is not a risk to anyone’s safety…

Leads are an important part of any sales job whether you are selling insurance or cars. Before the internet trying to find ways to capitalize on leads and insurance advertising were more limited. Now, there are services out there that specialize in selling leads for a variety of industries. The prices vary depending on the quality of the lead, with the cost of the leads increasing depending on how interested that particular group truly is in whatever the product or industry has to offer. If you’ve ever wondered how a company contacted you to sell you a product or a service? Chances are you ended up on one of the many lead listings…

Recommended article from Nature on the oil spill and what didn’t happen soon enough. Part of:

When disaster strikes, the priority for governments and individuals alike is to limit the damage and help the people affected. But also critical is the rapid, coordinated collection of data to document the disaster. Getting a full picture of exactly what happened can be a huge help in planning recovery efforts, minimizing losses in future disasters and, if need be, in holding guilty parties accountable.

In the case of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, researchers have been hampered in their desire to collect more data and have been left feeling ill-informed about what has been done so far.

In theory, the necessary mechanisms for arranging data collection exist. The US Incident Command System, which coordinates federal agencies and first responders during a crisis, has a mandate to collect ‘ephemeral’ or ‘perishable’ data. That is also part of the job of the Office of Response and Restoration, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This lack of access leads to later accusations of cover ups, for an administration that promised a higher level of transparency than previously existed, it’s failed…

I remember not long ago the first iPhone was the “must have” tech buy and since that time iPhone has upgraded, Androids have launched and now, Sprint has launched a 4G version that according to this Wired review performs better than the latest iPhone. The problem for many will be that the 4G network doesn’t exist in all areas, which is an important consideration for those debating if the price is worth it…

Our battle against weight has been one that goes back decades, believe it or not at one point in time people actually purposely ingested tapeworms so they would lose weight. It’d be nice to think that this was something that completely fell out of favor but it’s reported that in the 1950’s a popular opera singer, Maria Callas, was accused of purposely ingesting one to lose weight when it was discovered her health problems were related to a tape worm. Now of course the diet pills on the market are either natural product or chemically created. Tapeworm free…

Sometimes names of a product especially when they are diet or beauty related can be difficult to figure out exactly what it’s for and other times? It’s pretty easy to guess (which is what smart companies should do). A recent example is this product, acnepril — the word “acne” gives us the clue, it’s a product designed to help prevent and deal with acne. Now if they would have called it something like “acrapril” — it would have been harder to guess.

A few weeks ago I was thinking of this song by Sugar Ray, and how I didn’t hear it played that much anymore. So, it’s with some irony that I report that the past two days I’ve heard the song played no less than five times on two different radio stations. Which means? I needed to share it with those of you who didn’t get to hear it.

Considering I am now evidently old enough to be a member of AARP given the amount of mailings I get from them, I suppose I’m qualified to write about life insurance for seniors as a topic. Many times economic situations create a scenario where seniors don’t have life insurance or don’t have as much life insurance as they would realistically need to cover funeral or other living expenses for those left behind. Before the internet it was much harder to find term life insurance for those 55 and over that was inexpensive, now it’s much easier to compare terms and to be able to read the fine print of a policy before you buy…