Drinking in Cascais

If you should find yourself at a lose end in Cascais, just outside Lisbon, you might want to try out the Beefeater.

Run by a couple of friends it's the Cascais Sports Bar of choice. All the usual options, draught and bottled beers and cider, large screen tvs and so on.

A menu with both Portuguese food and for those pining for home, cornish pasties and so on.

Germans, eh?

We Brits do have our views of the Germans but even with those, this story does seem a little odd:

A German mistook a subway entrance for an underground car park and her vehicle got stuck on the stairs, police said on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old drove her Volkswagen Beetle across the pavement in central Duesseldorf and into the entrance where it ground to a halt about five steps down, police said.

Police estimated the damage at around 1,500 euros ($2,000).

We're used to them being efficient, humourless, warlike even, but stupidity isn't one of the things we associate with them now is it?

Capella University

We're seeing some interesting changes in the world of online education these days.

The first is the way in which the faculty at the various schools is becoming more like that at the more traditional ones. For example, this adjunct faculty member at Capella University, Sara Orem PhD, has recently published Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change. This is an example of the sort of ground breaking academic research into human psychology that any orf the older colleges would be proud to be associated with.

The second is a change in the way that such online colleges are viewed by hte establishment. It used to be that only schools which had 50% of their students on campus could receive fenderally subsidized student loans. This restriction has now been lifted and all accredited schools can now use this facility.

This is a huge step forward inmaking education available to all.

This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Article Database

Yes, I know, this blogging lark is all about self-expression but here are times when that simply isn't enough. Everyone suffers from writer's block at some time or another and it's at those times that we might find ourselves in need of an Article Directory . Inspiration doesn't strike, there's nothing interesting in the newspapers, but our readers are still revenning for more to read. At thispoint you can go to the Article Directory and pick and choose from amongst the pieces there and then use them in your own blog (or, of course, email newsletter or whatever else it is that you are doing).

Such pieces are entirely free for you to use and while the quality can be variable there's always something to find that is well written and also of interest to your readers.

The reason people add their pieces to such an Article Directory might surprise you. There really are people out there who simply love to write, who gain great pleasure from the act of putting words on paper (or electrons on screen if you prefer) and one of the even greater pleasures is to find that people read them. That your ideas propagate out across the internet, if you wish.

Click through one of those links and check out what they have available for you. You'll almost certainly find pieces which are of interest to both you and your readers.

This is a sponsored post.

HYIP Monitor

Now here's a strange little site with some very interesting information in it. It's called HYIP Monitor but they prefer to be linked to as Adv which strikes me as ever so slightly strange.

Anyway, whatever their quirks about how they wish to be referred to they are in fact offering some very interesting information. They're a huge database of all of the fads and plans and money making opportunities that sweep through the web. You know the sort of thing, astrosurfing programs that pay out for either your own traffic or for traffic that you drive to a site via a link. HYIP programs and HYIP games.

At code for gold they've got what is probably the most important section too. It's all very well knowing who is going to pay you to do what, and it's certainly very nice to know how much they are willing to pay you for whatever it is that you are going to do, but what you really want to know is who is not going to pay you even if you do as they ask. That's right, some of these schemes are in fact fakes, scams, and that's what they have a section on.

So if you're thinking about trying out some of these plans, it's very much worthwhile checking out the site. You'll be able to find the plans you didn't know about and even better, find out whether the ones you want to join are likely to pay you or not.

This is a sponsored review.

Bid 4 Prizes

There's an interesting new site offering free gifts called Bid4Prizes. It's based upon a variation of the auction process: instead of the winning bid being the highest, it's actually the lowest bid which wins.

Aha, but there's obviously a catch to this, right? Such a sweepstake would quickly go bust as everone would bid one cent. And indeed there is acatch but it's one that just makes everything more interesting. It's the lowest unique bid that wins the item. Now that does make it interesting as you need to outgame everyone else to make the lowest bid that only one person does in fact make.

It's a fairly impressive list of prizes too: Apple iPhones, HDTV's and also straight cash prizes.

If you know your game theory this should be a really fun site to play around with so click through any of the above links to see how it works.

That Minty Taste

Well, not so much a taste actually, unless you're in the habit of licking your credit cards.

Amongst all of the competing offers for credit cards you need to work out which is the best one fo you: there are so many different variables that you need to decide which one best suits your needs. For example, do you have a large outstanding balance on your current card? If so, you might want to think about transferring to a 0% interest credit card which will sav you a great deal of money while you pay that off.

For example, the Mint credit card. They've also lowered their typical APR (that is, the rate they'll charge you for new purchases, not transferred balances) which is a saving of even more cash.

Worth clicking through the above link to see what they have to offer.

Disclosure Policy.

That Chinese Socialist Health Care System

I'm not sure that this woman is taking aim at the right people over this:

A Chinese woman's 64-year-old headache has ended after doctors removed a bullet that relatives said lodged in her skull when Japanese soldiers shot her during World War Two, state media reported on Monday.

Jin Guangying, now 77, lost consciousness after a Japanese patrol in Jiangsu province fired on her in 1943 as she went to meet her grandfather, a guerrilla fighter, the Beijing News said.

"When she came to, her head was wrapped in a bandage and she never realized there was a bullet lodged deep in her head," the paper said.

Later, she would regularly have headaches, foam at the mouth and "talk nonsense... like she had gone mad", the paper said.

...

Jin's relatives planned to seek redress for her more than 60 years of suffering.

"As her children, we will soon go to Nanjing to consult with relevant experts as to how to seek compensation from the Japanese government, and will definitely be seeking a public apology," the paper quoted Wang as saying.

Shouldn't they be planning to sue the wonderful Chinese Socialist medical system which left it undiagnosed all those years?

Simulators in Strange Places

I think we're all aware that pilots train on simulators, yes? That it's a great deal cheaper to use some computing power than to allow them to take straight to the air in $100 millions' worth of kit?

What you may not realise is that the cost of said computing power has been coming down so rapidly that the use of such simulators is now extending to many more industries. For example, the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (www.nahets.org) has recently added the requirement to use simulators to the programs used to train the operators of such heavy equipment.

A great idea actually, as it'll save tonnes of money in the training process, thus making al the things built with such machinery cheaper for all of us.

Here's the full press release:

Paul Freedman, President of Simlog, visited the headquarters for NAHETS, the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools, on Monday April 23, 2007. Freedman was awarded an associate membership in NAHETS and wasnpresented with a plaque from NAHETS president, Matt Klabacka.


Freedman granted yellowmetal.tv an interview regarding the significance of simulators in the training of heavy equipment operators.

Nahets Simulator Heavy Equipment Training School Simulator NAHETS logo

According to Freedman, simulators are an essential element in the quality offered by heavy equipment training schools. “Simulators can never replace seat time; however, they do allow an individual the opportunity to enhance their skills”

Simlog was founded in 1999 to commercialize training simulation technology developed at CRIM, one of Canada’s leading research institutes in information technologies.

The Simlog website states:

Today, Simlog is a very special simulator company, for these three reasons:

1. Simlog has a unique product focus: Simlog is pioneering a brand new kind of simulator product called Personal Simulator which leverages the power of your PC to finally provide truly cost-effective training help for heavy equipment operators. Tangible recognition has come in the form of several innovation awards:
* Canadian Construction Association in 2006 for our Hydraulic Excavator Personal Simulator
* Construction Innovation Forum in 2004 for our Mobile Crane Personal Simulator

2. Simlog has a unique business focus: heavy equipment operator training in the crane and construction industries, forestry, and mining. We do nothing else. Practically, this means that you can count on Simlog for more and more simulator-based help to address your heavy equipment operator training needs!

3. Simlog has a unique instructional focus: because we are working in multiple heavy equipment industries, we’ve gained special insights into operator training challenges and instructional design for training simulation. Indeed, every Personal Simulator is developed in collaboration with leading equipment manufacturers, their distributors, owner/operators, and training professionals.

For more information read the nahets blog at http://nahetsblog.wordpress.com

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This'll Wake You Up

It's one thing to go to sleep wit a 5 lb pet moggies, it's another to wake up to a 150 lb one trying to make a meal of it:

An Israeli man wrestled a leopard to the ground after it entered his bedroom in a desert college and tried to make a meal of his pet cat.

"He jumped on the leopard and pinned him to the floor, then his wife called us so we could take it away," Amram Zabari, a local park ranger who rushed to the scene, said on Tuesday.

Arthur De Mosh, a 45-year-old tour guide at the college near Kibbutz Sde Boker in southern Israel, was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the leopard trying to eat his cat.

He freed the pet, which survived the ordeal, from the leopard's clutches.

One of the only 10 leopards living wild in Israel, so they say: still, a story for the grandchildren, don't you think?

Myrtle Beach Golf

Yes, you're a golfer, indulging yourself in the finest game known to man or woman. You're also a perceptive golfer, knowing just where the finest courses are, the best way to play them and in fact, you'd like to test your skills on these very finest courses.

Which means that you know that the reputation of myrtle beach golf is second to none and that means that it's high on your list of where you'f like to play next.

Which means that I've got good news for you. Get thee to Coastalgolfaway.com and see what they can do for you in terms of organizing a trip to Myrtle Beach for you. They've got he full range of packages, the best accomodations and they'll even schedule your tee times for you.

Highly recommended and well worth clicking through wither of those links above as you start to plan your trip to Myrtle Beach for the golf vacation of a lifetime.

Disclosure Policy.

Organ Donor Show

Yes, they're going ahead with this organ donor show:

A Dutch broadcaster will air a show this week in which a terminally ill woman selects a recipient for her kidneys from three contestants, despite government calls for the programme to be scrapped.

Newspaper De Telegraaf said BNN would broadcast The Big Donorshow on Friday during which the 37-year-old woman will choose from three people with kidney problems.

She will make her choice based on the contestants' history, profile and conversations with their families and friends. Viewers will be able to send text messages advising her during the 80-minute show.

Why don't they actualy make an interesting TV show about the subject? Iran has a paid market for kidneys. It also has no waiting list for them. Wouldn't that be interesting.

Refinancing a Mortgage

There's a lot written about mortgages (or to be more accurate, a refinance mortgage loan) and I'm about to add to it.

Some 8 months back we remortgaged our place....seems kike and odd thing to do given that the original mostgage was almost paid off. But we wanted to get a second house. The best way to finance this was to extract the equity we had in the first one. That loan is now being paid off by hte rent that we receive on that first house. So, we're washing our face there.

We then used the money we extracted to buy another house elsewhere, as a place for us to actually live in (it get s complicated because it's in a different country which is one reason we remortgaged, but it doesn't change the basic point). The equity we withdrew was enough to pay to remodel the house as well, so that's just finished and we're now able to live here full time.

But the nett effectof all of this is that we're not really paying a rent or a mortgage anywhere. Well, we are, but that's covered by the rent we're receiving.

Pretty good really and there's a decent site full or articles telling you how you too can do things like this. Here's one on cash-out mortgages and another on upgrade mortgages.

One of the best ways tomake money is to make sure that your money is working for you. So click through to find out how you can do that.

Disclosure Policy.

CITES Extensions

Lord, save us from well meaning fools:

Fish and chips, coral jewelry and wooden musical instruments will take centre stage at a U.N. wildlife forum next week which seeks to curb the billion-dollar trade in endangered marine and tree species.

Commercially valuable species like the spiny dogfish and the porbeagle shark, the European eel, pink coral and rosewood and cedar trees -- all threatened by over-use -- feature high on the agenda of the June 3-15 meeting in The Hague.

The talks will also help shape the future of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), whose restrictions were once aimed at exotic species like leopards and parrots but are now focusing on more commercial species.

Look, banning the trade in valuable species does not perserve them. It simply encourages poaching and smuggling. What is needed here is property rights: that someone owns the resource and thus plans for its long term explaoitation, rather than leaving it vulnerable to hte tragedy of the commons. What's worse is that governments know this but they get railroaded byhhte idiots who don't.

Motor Insurance

Now here's something that's worth having a look at. It's always something of a pain having to deal with motor insurance as there are so many people out there offering it. You therefore end up trawling through vast numbers of offers trying to work out which is the best deal.

You also find that if you don't have a no claims bonus, you're going to get shafted on the price. Which is why you might want to check out CIS motor insurance . Yes, there's the usual no claims bonus for having driven for a number of years without having made any substantial claims. But, for those who do not have this there is an alternative, an introductory discount. So whether you're a new or an experienced driver, you can be sure that you're getting a new deal.

There's also a further 10% discount for buying online: Nnow you know that makes sense, getting extra money off when it's easier for you anyway. Click through hte above links to check it out.

Disclosure Policy.

Beating the Pirates

Now here's a way to beat the video and DVD pirates:

Malaysian cinemas have found a powerful new weapon in their fight against movie pirates -- military-style night-vision goggles.

After showing people to their seats, trained ushers are strapping on the goggles and scanning darkened cinemas around the country to spot anyone trying to make illegal copies of movies with hand-held video recorders or mobile phones.

The Motion Picture Association, which is training Malaysian ushers to catch the pirates, said cinemas had caught 17 people in the past two months, during which Hollywood studios released blockbusters like "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean."

"All of the cases were spotted with night-vision goggles," the association's Malaysia manager, Nor Hayati Yahaya, said on Friday. "Its very successful."

A great idea but one that won't last for very long. All it needs is for one of the pirates to set of a flash gun and those wearing the night vision goggles will be out f action.

Furnishing The House

As regular readers will know we've recently purchased a house down here and then had the builders in getting it all sorted out. New roof, new electrics, new floors, windows and doors.....no wonder, although I'm having a good year, that we don't actually have any money. Still, it's not like spending money on a house is wasting it, right?

But having got all of these things done we now come to the much more contentious problem of actually furnishing it. As I work from home of course I need a decent stock of home office furniture
so that's the part of the FurnitureFromHome.com site that I shall make my own task to sift through. There's so many options that it will of course take me some time.

The wife meanwhile can be pointed at the sections on living room furniture as I know that she wants to mae all of this a really rather grand place. There's one huge advantage to her doing all of this shopping online of course, which is that I don't have to wander around two paces behind her as we trek through store after store. The selection is vastly greater than any one bricks and mortar store could offer precisely because they are online.

So a heart three cheers for the online furniture store I say, for it means that I can stay here working, earning (at least some of) the money to pay for whatever it is my better half decides we should be getting to sit upon. Like a black leather sofa for example. although I will admit that a house with four cats, two dogs and five kittens might not be exactly the best place to have something so likely to get scratched.

So, if you find yourself in the same situation needing to furnish a house, I strongly recommend that you do the same. Point your browser through any of the above links and do all of your shopping the easy way, online.

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Free Funerals!

Italians are used to the way in which politicians suck off the teat of the State while alive but this is going too far even for them:

A free funeral is not everyone's idea of a perk but some politicians in northern Italy's Veneto region defended Wednesday the right to expense their final send-off amid a public outcry about freeloading politicians.

Councilors elected to the regional government housed in a palace on Venice's Grand Canal have voted themselves 7,500 euros worth of funeral expenses, on top of generous pay, free lunches, parking, daily expenses and other extras.

"I don't think it's outrageous for Councilors to have their funerals paid for, as recognition for 10 or 15 years of public service," said Veneto regional council president Marino Finozzi of the right-wing Northern League party.

Tackling reports that Councilors voted the perk months ago under cover of night, he said it was "not true we approved it at night because we were ashamed. It just happened to be late."

Pure public choice theory, of course. Politicians do things that benefit politicians.

Motivational Articles

Roaming around the blogosphere, as one does, I was interested to come across this blog with its series of motivational articles for entrepreneurs . Now the thing is I've been an entrepreneur all of my adult life, ever since I left university. No, I've not gone on to make a fortune but I have been able to enjoy a very good lifestyle, do the things I wanted to do and travel extensively. My time has, in short, been my own while I've been in businesses as varied as newspaper distribution, the restaurant trade, exotic metals and writing.

So I have a couple of decades worth of experience in being an entrepreneur and so am in a god position to judge the advice that's being given.

The advice from this young entrepreneur all seems to be good, top notch even, from my point of view. The motivational articles are indeed full of good advice about what you might think about doing in order to gee you up for the work that lies ahead. The stress on self-discipline makes equally god sense, as when you're working for yourself there's no one standing over you with a whip, telling you to get on with it.

Further, you do indeed need to become better at handling criticism (everyone does) and starting a healthier lifestyle is similarly good advice for everyone, but especially the entrepreneur, who needs that extra energy to get a project off the ground.

All in all, a decent collection of articles with good advice for those considering starting up on their own.

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Hawaii Beach Rentals

As we all get richer (no, do not believe those who tell you that incomes are not going up. It really is true that we've never had it so good. Just look at the increase in quality to see what I mean.) we're able to expand our tastes a little, to up the ante as it were.

Where once an affordable vacation might have been a weekend at Pismo Beach, of a drive a few hundred miles to see the folks, the rise in incomes and the fall in costs has means that something like a Kauai vacation rental is now a serious possibility.

In fact, if you look at this list of Hawaii rentals you can see that it's not just achievable, it's actually quite cheap. $300 to $400 a night might sound a lot, but when you think that most of these Kauai vacation rentals sleep ten or twelve people, the cost per person coms down to well below the rates of even the cheapest motels.

So why not click through one of those links and check out what's on offer? It's affordable now, eminently so, to take your vacation in the Pearl of the Pacific.