: Caribbean Stud Poker is gradually gaining in popularity as compared to its stud twin: Texas Holdem mainly because it is an easier game to learn and you can play it face to face and still enjoy. Originating in the Caribbean and based loosely on five card stud poker rules, this game offers a fan alternative to traditional table games with an opportunity to place a side bet and hit a big jackpot too. Some of these jackpots are progressive and you can win millions of dollars if you break those machines or tables.. What is Caribbean Stud? It is not a traditional poker game in the sense that you play against the other players and the best player wins the pot. Caribbean stud belongs to the family of games including Pai Gow poker, Let it Ride and Three Card poker for example, where your opponent is the dealer and your goal is to form a better poker hand than the dealers hand. However, basic knowledge of traditional poker hand ranking is required. The Rules of Playing Caribbean Stud: 1) The game begins with the players placing an ante bet at the same amount as the table minimum on the ante circle on the table. 2) At the same time, you should decide whether to place an additional side bet for the progressive jackpot. 3) Then, the dealer deals each player five face down cards plus four face down cards and one up to himself. 4) After looking at your cards, you should decide whether to fold or to call. If you decide to call, you should place an additional bet double the amount of your former ante bet. 5) After all the players have made their decisions, the dealer shows his hand. In order to qualify in a Caribbean stud poker game, the dealer must have an ace and a king or better. If he does not qualify, you will be paid back your ante bet but the call bet is a push. 6) If the dealers hand qualifies, he compares hands against each of the players individually. If his hand is better than yours is, you lose both your ante and your call bets. 7) If your hand is better than the dealers hand, you would be paid even money for your ante while for your call you would be paid according to a paytable. The paytable can vary from one casino to another. Generally, US casinos pay out 50:1 on a straight flush; 20:1 on four of a kind; 7:1 on full house; 5:1 on a flush; 4:1 on a straight; 3:1 on three of a kind; 2:1 on two pairs and even money on one pair or less. In case your hand and the dealers hand are even, both ante and raise will push. One of the reasons that Caribbean stud poker is so popular is the option of placing a one dollar side bet and winning a large progressive jackpot prize. In order to qualify for the bonus payout you should have a flush or better. For a flush, you would be paid a 50 dollars bonus and in order to win the jackpot that usually resets from 10,000 dollars, you must have a royal flush. However, your chances to hit a royal flush are estimated as about 650,000 to 1, therefore I would recommend skipping it.

During the final stages of a painting project, taking a tour through the area and assessing the quality of the job should be first on the to do list. Here are a few tips from professional painting contractors for a finished surface inspection. If possible, examine the painted surfaces in both natural daylight and artificial light. Different anomalies may be visible in different lighting conditions. Even Coverage Look for paint coverage that's evenly and consistently applied. For finding uneven or patchy coverage, your best bet will be to check around window frames and adjacent corners. Make sure that the lines of the paint job are clean and even and that there are no gaps in coverage. No Blemishes Look for bumps, cracks, strange adhesions, and other anomalies on the surface. These blemishes are often the sign of improperly applied coats, or unforeseen complications in the process. If something is wrong, point out the area to your painting contractor and ask for an explanation. No Bleed Through A properly finished painting job requires several coats of product for even coverage and good protective qualities Check to make sure that you can't see any of the old paint through the new paint layers. Similarly, watch out for primer bleeding through the fresh paint. Looks Good Up Close and from a Distance Finally, step back and look at the overall results of the project. Occasionally, subtle problems do not reveal themselves until you take a step back and look at the big picture. If you spot something that is just a little off, it may be a sign of a flaw that slipped by a close-up inspection. Take another swing through the project to discover any hidden flaws. You don't need to do a rigorous inspection all on your own. Good painting contractors will help you appraise their work and walk through the finished project with you.

Credit cards with their schemes of deferred payment provide people with cash they did not necessarily have in their bank accounts. In a flash, we bought that sweet little dress in the shop window or the hard-to resist computer gizmo. Unfortunately, that flash did not come from a magic wand but from credit cards whose bills we ultimately had to pay for with cold hard cash. In this bleak scenario of huge debts came a temporary lifesaver called balance transfer credit cards, a card to which we can transfer our current balance. The debts of all our credit cards are combined into one debt that can be paid off with a single monthly payment with low interest rates. Selecting the Best Balance Transfer Card There are many balance transfer cards available in the market and since it is going to be used to settle debts, it 'pays' to read the fine print. This will help you find the best balance transfer card. Ideally, go in for a credit card that does not charge any fees for the transfer, which has 0% introductory rate and comes without annual charges at least for the first year. You can and should negotiate for the same for subsequent years as well. Generally, the card should only be used to transfer balance, while another credit card is used to make purchases. However, if you do use it for buying things, another reading of the fine print helps. Find out if the credit card limits and the time period for making purchases. Find out if they charge high interest rates on purchases as you may just wind up with one more overdue debt. Check if the credit card offers cash-back rewards, because that can lower your purchasing cost that is useful when you are trying to control your debt. Once you have decided, keep your options open. You can, and many do, move from one balance transfer credit card to another. This can be done when it is time to pay the annual charges or when the zero-interest introductory offer is over. This will keep both your debts and your blood pressure at a manageable level.

Pay-per-click ads like those available through Google Adwords can be a powerful, regular source of prospects for your products and services. However, whenever new clients have asked me to look at their Google Adwords campaigns, I begin to understand one element in Google's growth to more than a $6 billion market value. Many entrepreneurs fail to take advantage of Google's mechanisms for making sure that their search engine ads get shown only to those who are logically potential buyers and that the ads encourage such people to click through. As a result, they pay much more than they have to for the exposure, get discouraged about the return on their investment and yet leave the ads running for lack of ideas about how to improve performance. Don't let it happen to you! Use these tips to keep your costs down and your rewards high. 1. Eliminate countries and languages that do not match what you offer. For instance, if you sell U. S. foreclosure listings, your ads should show only to Google users in the United States and probably only in English. On the other hand, if you have a translation service whose clients can live anywhere in the world, define the countries and languages your ad gets shown to much more widely. 2. Activate Google's ad tracking. It costs you nothing, and enables you to keep an eye on not only your cost per click and click-through ratio, but also which keywords and which ads best lead to your desired result, whether that's a sale, an inquiry for your services or a signup for your newsletter. That way, you can eliminate or try to improve elements that get a lot of clicks or cost a lot but do not get results. 3. Set up negative keywords. If your goal is selling something, why pay for tire kickers and freebie seekers? By defining "free" as a negative keyword (Google has a special button for this), you can keep many of them from clicking on your ads. Equally important, think through alternate and unwanted meanings of your keywords and add negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing to wildly inappropriate visitors. For instance, type "cattle branding" into Google and you’ll see ads for business branding services. Those advertisers' click-through rates will improve when they add "cattle" as a negative keyword. 4. Delete keywords and ads that are not working. Because Google's system rewards a better click-through rate with higher ad placement and lower costs, you are paying Google more than necessary when you leave poorly performing elements running. Periodically clean out your losers. 5. Send people to a landing page that makes perfect sense. People click on search engine ads to learn more about whatever was featured in the ad. It seems logical that they’d look around from your home page for whatever interested them in the ad, but that's wrong. Searchers are impatient. So if your search engine ad mentions a software demo, do not send them to your company's home page. Send them to the exact page from which they can access the demo. When you manage your Google Adwords campaigns according to these guidelines, you’ll be paying less to get a much more satisfying response.

Scabies is a very contagious skin condition that occurs due to infestation with parasitic mites. The mite responsible for causing scabies in people is a microscopic organism called Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis. Although there are many other types of mites that cause scabies in animals, they are not capable of infesting humans. Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis can be acquired either directly, by entering in contact with infested persons, or indirectly, by entering in contact with contaminated objects. Once they find a human host, scabies mites climb onto the skin and hide in less exposed regions of the body. Scabies mites commonly infest the toes, feet, ankles, knees, the genitals, the buttocks, the upper back, elbows and wrists. Rarely, scabies mites can even infest the scalp and face. While the first symptoms of scabies may occur within a week after acquiring the parasitic mites, the first clear signs of infestation can be spotted only after a few weeks. In the incipient stages of infestation, scabies generates symptoms such as persistent itching, skin inflammation and rash. Later symptoms include the presence of burrows in the superficial layers of the skin, blisters, pustules and even nodules. It is very important to avoid scratching, as it can lead to serious skin infections. An appropriate medical treatment for scabies should be targeted towards eradicating the mite infestation as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the treatment for scabies should also ease the symptoms generated at the level of the skin. Due to scabies mites’ increased resistance to topical creams and oral medications, many products that were successfully used in the treatment for scabies in the past are nowadays less effective in dealing with the mite infestation. In addition, many synthetic medications for scabies have various side-effects and are not well-tolerated by most patients. There are many natural alternatives to synthetic medications in the treatment for scabies. One the most effective natural cure for scabies has proved to be Manuka extract. This natural product can quickly eradicate the mite infestation and it can also alleviate the symptoms of scabies. While most synthetic topical creams may actually amplify the symptoms of scabies during the treatment, Manuka-based products can kill the mites and provide symptomatic relief in the same time. The antiseptic properties of Manuka can prevent the occurrence of bacterial infections, minimizing the chances of developing complications such as impetigo. Manuka-based products have no side-effects and they can be safely used by people of all ages. This natural remedy can be purchased under the form of oil, cream or soap. Regularly applied on the entire surface of the affected skin, Manuka-based products can effectively cure scabies within the first week of treatment, also minimizing the risks of second-infestation.

Getting wholesale video games today gets in many rising entrepreneurial minds and in most home entertaining bargain hunting seekers-faster and easier than ever. The usual when wanting games at good cheap prices is to go to the local Sam Club and purchase one or two games at for example the $13.36-$19.86 prices that I see most often here at the states. I even see local businesses believe that the best way to get bargain cheap items is by buying wholesale from general local wholesalers and liquidation centers. For the average businessman that does not like to do their own diligence for getting entertainment games at the greatest wholesale prices - it is fine and ok to purchase locally every week or every other month. Nothing bad with that, but is it enough if you are a wholesale addict like myself or an also entrepreneur like many of us that love playing Xbox wholesale games while getting to make thousands of dollars every month from the comfort of home and having multiple tangible business offline and online. The businesses that need the greatest sources, the greatest prices and the best wholesale business relationships for getting wholesale video games and every other entertainment and business need when it is in-demand for both your home and your consumer relationship with your business. Today savings get harder and business indeed gets a lot more stronger but better than ever. It is of my fact, that the better wholesale sources that you get - the far better business that you will be able to get because of selling at what I love to call, cheap prices. Reality is, the majority in the wholesale business sell for the purpose of getting a 20-30% mark-up when they can get a comfortable 50-80% if having the mentality that both the home entertaining needs and online and offline business profits get made when you make the initial wholesale purchase, not when you sell the item. Whether you end up buying real estate, DVDs, audio or what I love to sell both online and offline, games at wholesale prices-you make your profits when you buy from certain distributors and wholesalers, not when you sell. The profits are always dependent on how low you purchase and what service you ultimately provide when it comes to the sell of tangible items both locally and on the net. It is evident and clear to my wallet that the chances of selling for say: Xbox wholesale games at very cheap prices - will not depend solely on the service, image or credibility you have as a brand - but generally to the average consumer, it will be the price that you offer and low risk type of guaranteed that will have them craving for your wholesale video games business.

The annual winter lull in the real estate market means that the time is good for prospective buyers who like to take their time. With Canadian unemployment at a 33 year low, the realty market looks like holding strong. It is difficult for many of us Canadians to accept that while the US realty market may be floundering, the Canadian market is steady. In fact, due to the strength of our dollar and the weakness of the US dollar against International currencies, many Americans are actually buying into Canada to preserve their funds. While coastal and lake areas would seem an obvious choice for American speculation, many are buying properties simply as an investment project. Renting a condo is one of the easiest way to make money and have the property 'buy itself', and condo sales everywhere have jumped as people are realizing the enjoyment of life without maintenance! Condominium prices in Ottawa have been climbing upwards all year, with an increase of 7% over this time last year. The strong job market was partly the cause of this. The increase in national employment has marked the 15th. straight year of national employment growth. In Calgary, condos are also a good investment and offer a reasonable price range if you are trying to get started on the property ladder. The increased inventory of all properties has slowed the market at the moment, so now is a good time to look for a condo. Some builders have even dropped their prices, so brand new ones can be snapped up by the shrewd buyer. Despite the changes emanating from the famous revisions to the oil royalty revenue, Calgary has a strong economy and has seen a large population increase. According to one national forecast, it is poised to experience moderate growth and a sustainable real estate market though 2008. Average house prices in Calgary are set to increase by 4% and in a slower moving market, first time buyers may be encouraged to put their toe in the water. One of the mandatory requirements for a mortgage for first time (or any other) buyers is a good credit rating. If there is no credit rating recorded against you then apply to a bank for a credit card. They may require you to deposit $500.00 or $300.00 and then you will be required to leave that untouched in the bank as security. By using your card every month, and paying it every month - on time, you will begin to build up a good credit history. Of course, other data is required by a lender. You will need tax forms showing your income and a letter on headed notepaper from your company stating your earnings. It is always advisable to get "pre-approved" before looking for a house. This means you sort out the finance before checking out the realty. If you proceed in this order, you will know if you have to save more money for the down-payment, or which price range you can look in when choosing. Things often 'heat up' in the housing market in the spring, so now may be a good time to invest in some Canadian realty.

: Because of HIPAA legislation, health organizations have to be particularly careful about the vulnerability of the patient data they maintain. Exposing patient data to the Internet through IM exchanges or P2P file sharing can jeopardize their compliance with a variety of state and federal regulations. The popularity of IM and P2P protocols has penetrated every aspect of our society including those organizations entrusted with sensitive data such as health records. The opportunity for data to be exposed to eyes outside an organization has increased whether such exposure is intentional or not and organizations bound by HIPAA regulations are required to protect their patient data or suffer the consequences. Often in hospital situations, employees on different shifts are sharing workstations. Many of them may be communicating with family and friends, outside the organization, via Instant Messaging or P2P and can unknowingly download a malicious agent that can damage not only individual workstations, but entire networks. Because many people may have access to the same computer, this activity is difficult to trace and can occur with alarming ease. When a malicious program is downloaded, it can exploit a back door in the system and proliferate across the network. Depending on the nature of the parasitic code, patient information may be accessed and transmitted from behind the firewall to a designated IP address or it may launch an attack against the host network. These types of attacks can bring the network down. Even short downtime can cause significant financial and data loss. Public Communications Adding more complexity to the situation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. (NASD) identify Instant Messaging traffic as communications with the public that companies must save and monitor. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires even those instant messages that are casual and personal to be saved and recorded as formal correspondence. Many companies capture and store the data as required by law. Because this information can be used as legal evidence, there are several instances where data contained on message boards and via IMs were submitted to support or defeat a case being adjudicated. Imagine if medical advice were contained in an IM, even something as innocuous as advising Tylenol for a feverish child. Such correspondence could be used to make a medical malpractice case against a nurse or physician. Network Security IM and P2P also expose end-user equipment to worms, viruses and other backdoor software that - once introduced, can infect a network and inflict damage on a wide scale. Employee abuse of their computer privileges can be the silent destroyer of networks. Whether it is a dramatic problem such as denial of service or the downloading of backdoor worms and viruses, the misuse can be dangerous and damaging and ultimately undermines network security. Managers of network security need to take advantage of hardware appliance solutions in order to fully protect their networks from employee abuse and misuse. The damage to productivity and profits of a company are only the tip of the iceberg. Introducing a filtering option that does not have a single point of failure, or cause latency in network traffic is critical. Equally important, a solution that doesn’t need to share memory or processing power with another device is the best choice to protect networks against security breaches and legal liability and to help preserve the corporation’s good reputation. Legal Liabilities P2P and IM file sharing can be dangerous applications that quickly devour bandwidth and jeopardize company finances because companies can be held liable for employee actions such as downloading copyrighted song material. In addition, P2P and IMs can contain malicious software that downloads and installs itself into the host network; a company’s computers and networks may be used to launch denial of service (DoS) attacks on other companies and networks. There is an established legal precedent that will hold a company liable in part for the damages inflicted on another company if their computers or networks were used to stage the attack. Because of this legal precedent, the danger to a host network is not just the loss of bandwidth and subsequent breakdown in communications, but also the legal liabilities involved can result in damage to a company or organization’s reputation, and even threaten its financial stability. It’s important to note that the damage to an organization’s reputation can be more costly in the long run, especially if the organization is supposed to be secure and web savvy or if security vulnerabilities can threaten to expose sensitive data such as health records. For hospitals, health insurance and dedicated health care providers, such damage can result in a loss of business over time that devastates their long term prospects and when combined with - short term fines, can even mean going out of business or experiencing a takeover by another health care company.

: Learn How to Play and Win Blackjack after practicing some basic steps that can be learn easily. Blackjack is one of the more easier card games that you will come across, and its basic concept is simple: get 21 as the sum of your cards or get as close to 21 but higher than the sum of your opponent's cards. 1) Do not try and reach 21. Yes. Even though blackjack is also commonly called 21, trying to reach 21 with every hand is an amateurish move. You will, most certainly, lose the hand. Statistical research conducted has shown that the odds of reaching 21 is lesser than the odds of getting more than 21. 2) Try and Beat the Dealer. Since blackjack is a one on one battle: you versus the dealer, focus on beating the dealer. Instead of trying to get 21, try to guess what hand the dealer will receive and accordingly play your hand. Remember that the dealer at a regular casino or even at an online casino has to stop taking more cards if the cards on the table add up to 17. But if their cards add up to 16 or any number less, they will have to take another card. 3) Look at the dealer's card facing up. The only way to play is to look at the dealer's card facing up. If it is a low card like a two or anything up to a 6 or 7, try and get a high number combination. If it’s a 9 or 10, the odds are high that he has a 10 underneath or at least he will be forced to take another card. So, reach anything up to 20 or 21, but its better to even stop at a 18 or 19 and hope they will over-run the sum of 21. How Blackjack is Played at a Casino: 1) Place your bet on the table. Each blackjack table has a set beginning bet and this ranges from a dollar to ten or twenty for the high-rollers crowd. This is the amount of chips you will have to put down, and this signals to the dealer that you are taking part in the next round. 2) You will get a card. The dealer then deals a card to you and all the other players who have also placed a bet down. 3) The dealer places a face-up card in front. This is one of the cards of the dealer, and since its facing up, all the players have a chance to judge the outcome of his cards. 4) The dealer deals the second card. The dealer, then, deals you and all the players an additional card. This is the time to have a look at them and at the dealer's card and decide whether you wish to get another card. 5) The dealer asks. The dealer now turns to each player and asks them if they wish to receive another card. If you wish it, the dealer will give you a card. Then, the dealer will ask you again. Note that the dealer will be with you until you decide that you do not want to receive any more cards. Then, the dealer moves on to the next player, then, the next, and so on. 6) The dealer starts playing. Only when all the players have said that they do not want any more cards, does the dealer start playing. He takes cards until he has reached 17 or above. Then, he has to stop. 7) The dealer opens the cards. When he's done, the dealer first reveals all his cards. Then, he moves from one player to the other opening their cards. After revealing each player's hands, the dealer pays out the bet or takes the bet away according to who has won and who has lost.

There has been another page rank update in the last couple of weeks but it seems as though this has only affected sites which previously had a page rank of zero. The question many people are asking is when will google update the page rank of all of the other sites which already showed a page rank? This latest update seems to be very similar to the previous page rank update in which the older sites were also not updated. When reading on various websites about other webmasters opinions on this current trend, I have found a number of reasons as to why this may be happening. Over the last couple of years there have been quite a large number of link exchange programs which have been created. This have proven to be quite popular but are frowned upon by google as the people who enter these programs are in a way cheating to get to the top. Most people are aware of the importance of backward links and these link exchange programs make it very easy to obtain them. In clearly states however in the google guidelines that webmasters should not take part in these link exchange programs. Webmasters who still go ahead are at risk at having their site or sites banned. The problem could be that it is very hard for search engines like google to establish which links that each site obtains are from these link exchanges and which links are actual real and valid links. It is possible that google is close to finding a formula to this problem and is delaying any page rank updates on older sites until all of the finishing touches are completed. My advice would be to never take part in any of these link exchange programs and that if you are currently in one, to come out of it as soon as possible. There are many valid ways of promoting a website such as via writing articles and by having good content which will encourage other webmasters to want to link to your site. I have to say that for somebody like myself who works very hard to promote my own websites, that it is quite frustrating to not be able to see the changes in the page rank, as when I see my sites go up in page rank it gives me a little boost and shows me that I am still doing the right things. In a way it should not really matter however as I am able to see my websites have higher rankings in the search engines, this itself of course is the most important thing. It is also a good thing that google are trying to stop the people who are trying to cheat their way to the top, that is of course if this is the real reason why there has not been a full page rank update for some time.

The process of detecting skin cancer, the most common form of cancer in the United States, can be practiced with a monthly self examination combined with a yearly visit to your doctor. Early detection is key because, if diagnosed soon enough, skin cancer is almost always curable. There are three main types of skin cancer, all of which are visible if you know what to look for. Melanoma, one of the main forms of skin cancer, is the deadliest. This disease is the most difficult to stop after it has spread throughout the body, which is why early detection and treatment are crucial. Skin cancer, of any kind, can usually be treated with success in it’s early stages. As individuals, everyone has freckles, birthmarks and moles. These are a part of you and you are used to seeing them, but you may not notice slight changes right away and that’s what you need to be watching for. Any change in a mole’s shape, edges, size or color should be checked by a physician. If a mole becomes larger than that of a pencil eraser or if it’s color is multiple shades of brown rather than a solid color, these are both potential warning signs of skin cancer. A mole’s border should be well defined and, if that is no longer the case, notify your doctor. In addition, any sore that will not heal or a mole that grows larger at a rapid speed should be tested immediately. Deciding to seek medical attention is difficult. For this reason, it’s best to choose a physician that you are comfortable with, such as a family doctor. He/she can examine your skin and refer you to a dermatologist if needed. The presence of skin cancer is determined by removing all, or part, of the questionable area and testing it with a microscope. Surgery is often utilized in the removal of ski cancer and, if done in the early stages, can be a very quick process. There will likely be a scar, but the physician may be able to completely remove all cancerous cells with only a very small incision. If the cancer has spread, or is very large in the defined area, additional surgery may be required. In that case, chemotherapy or radiation treatments may be ordered to ensure the cancer is completely removed. Your physician will be able to answer all questions that you may have and should do so without reserve. When meeting with a doctor, ask for an explanation of all treatment options, including their likelihood for success in your particular case. Deciding to seek medical attention is a big step and one that a patient must be mentally prepared for. This article should not be construed as professional medical advice. If you, or someone that you know, is concerned about the possibility of cancer, you should seek medical attention immediately. A medical doctor can discuss various options, prevention and treatment possibilities should the presence of cancer be detected. A series of tests may be conducted in order to confirm, or rule out, any such diagnosis and can only be done by a medical doctor.

Fast cars, fast women, and fast money? You must be thinking of Hot Import Nights, the constantly-on-tour event with chromed-out rides and non-stop hip-hop that’s more interested in showing skin than sheetmetal. And for a whole bunch of people, it pretty much stops there. It’s a safe bet that a good three-quarters of the customized cars roaming the streets are of the all-show-and-no-go kind, most commonly a hopped-up economy car with wheels that scrape its fenders meant to give off the image of speed. Luckily, there’s a select minority that actually prides themselves on their ability to make Import Car more interesting in any number of ways – many of whom have high technical proficiency, take the hobby seriously, and hate being grouped with the former camp. First, there are events in which anyone can participate but where nimble-handling Import Car do best, such as Autocross. Usually held on Sundays (not for free), anyone is welcome to take their best shot at running what they brung through a maze of orange cones and compete for the best timespact Honda Import Car arrive in droves at these things. Obviously, some also race face-to-face. Obviously, no one could get away with the giant organized illegal metropolitan street races you see in movies, and less emphasis is put on drag races (that’s more of an American muscle car thing) but competitions do go on at racetracks and spontaneous challenges happen on the street all the time. But the import scene itself also seems to be inventing new events. After all, the culture, like the majority of the cars themselves, came from Japan, and some of it is spilling over. The most recent and widespread of them all is drifting, a subjectively-judged competition event where drivers compete to see who can boot their car sideways around a track in the most interesting manner. Entire sets of tires easily go bald in a day, and the amount of power isn’t nearly as important as the linearity and controllability. Anyone without a cheap, light, stick-shifted rear-wheel-drive car is toast, and the talent of certain makes and models really springs to the surface. Those of you who’ve been getting ridiculously large offers for that 1986 Toyota Corolla hatchback rusting away in your driveway now know why. Helping to expand the popularity is an entire anime series dedicated to the sport called Initial D, obviously popular with the younger set. Much higher exposure will soon come in the second sequel to that lucrative B-movie The Fast and the Furious, this time titled Tokyo Drift and set for a summer 2006 release.

Banks are defined as a business organisation that performs services in relation to money. Specifically is the process of keeping money for customers and paying it out on demand, in the form of deposits, borrowings and exchanges. It has become a clichй to note the revolutionary impact of information technology (IT) upon any industry, but the real upheaval lies just ahead. As experts back in the 90s stated, "If the number-crunching mainframe computers of the 1970s formed the childhood of IT, and the flowering of personal computers during the 1980s marked its youthful adolescence, then the 1990s seem likely to see the passage of IT into adulthood". As it has been foreseen, during the 21st Century, technology became directly related to almost every single activity and function of a bank. Deposits, withdrawals, loans, transfer of capital and updating are just some of the functions that are carried out electronically, as computers support communication networks or ATMs. In the late 1990s, banks have come to realise even more and understand better the importance of technology since they have tried to take advantage of its progress. The computer sciences and all aspects in telecommunications, with particular emphasis on the Internet capabilities, constituted one of the most profitable areas banks decided to invest. These two fields of technology have had the greatest potential for growth and profitability. Currently, as the banks anticipate the rapid IT growth potentials, they continue to give a lot of emphasis on the technology of e-banking-the transactions with banks through Internet-and e-commerce of products and services. Noticeable is the fact that almost every bank in the globe currently offers e-banking services via their Internet links. During the past ten years, a trend has emerged as major banks or groups of banks have formed alliances with companies in the telecommunications and computer sciences fields, or in other diverse industries. For example, in the UK, two Scottish banks have joined up with major supermarket chains in order to provide an outsourced banking function for the so-called supermarket banks. The motive for such kind of strategic decisions was the profit from a dynamic field that showed revenues increasing in a rapid rate. Furthermore, it is true that the Banking Sector throughout Europe has gradually restructured itself in order to be able to meet the challenges provoked by the unification that has recently reached the milestone of twenty-five member states. Operating in this new environment, banks have to confront some major issues, such as the intensification of competition, the technology breakthroughs referring to transactions, the globalisation of capital and money markets, the development of management and administration, the extensive use of derivatives, the development of international transactions and the introduction of financial innovations. Thus, EU banks in order to cope with the fundamental forces mentioned above, are trying to find ways to improve their productivity and effectiveness, reduce their costs, upgrade the quality of the services they provide, intensify their presence in new markets, reduce the exchange risk, and finally achieve great macroeconomic stability. Experts state that the upcoming changes will also force banks to reconsider their position in terms of effective bank size, economies of scale in the new environment, creation of a new powerful capital base, globalisation of the activities as well as of the wide variety of product/service lines they provide to customers. According to the estimations of "International Monetary Fund" and the "Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development", it is a fact that the banks have already invested significant capitals to new technology applications, while most have already introduced "personalized" services for their European or global customers.

Water conservation is a growing trend among municipalities, townships and through-out the multi-family apartment industry. In a three year study by the “National Multiple Family Submetering and Allocation Billing Program”, the potential savings in the apartment sector from requiring residents to pay for their water consumption separately from their rent, found that billing residents for their water usage by direct metering could reduce annual water consumption by an average of 15 percent. This latest research supports the apartment industry’s known fact that people always place greater value on things that they pay for. Not only do residents use less water when they are paying for it, but it also makes them more aware of the importance of immediately reporting plumbing leaks. A balanced and well implemented utility billing program is one of those rare issues that water companies, regulators, water conservation groups, property management companies and apartment / condominium owners can all be united. American Accounting and Billing Service (AABS) a nationwide full-service utility billing company with the reputation for the lowest billing fees and highest-rated customer service department has compiled a few benefits of why apartment owners and property management companies should install automated meter reading (AMR) water metering systems. Water sub-metering immediately increases property value and cash flow more than any other ancillary service or comparable capital investment. A water submetering system provides for the fair allocation of the property’s water and sewer utility costs among its tenants (Allocation or Ratio Utility Billing do not always allocate fairly, according to the USEPA) so residents are happier. Tenants billed for actual water usage will be able to directly affect water consumption and utility costs by becoming more knowledgeable and responsible users. Water submetering has been shown to decrease water consumption by as much as 8,000 gallons per unit per year according to the USEPA, when compared to non-metered properties thus conserving one of our nation’s most valuable resources. Water and sewer rates and other utility rates are rising as much as 10% or more per year on average. Some areas of the country have seen water rates double in the last year. A water submetering project will protect the property owner from the rising water and sewer utility costs. The property owner can increase the NOI immediately because payback is fast and monies formerly allocated for water and sewer utilities can be reallocated for maintenance and or renovation, a project which further increases property values. These benefits are achieved without increasing the workload on the property’s staff and without the associated liability and costs of monthly visits by a utility meter reader. Implementing a third party water sub metering billing program helps to conserve water and energy and protect the environment. “There is no question that our business has grown steadily for the past five years because owners are now realizing that water and sewer costs can be avoided by putting in place a successful third party billing system” says Sam Kordares, AABS President. “We here at AABS are now expounding on the notion of water conservation through water submetering to include tapping into the municipality and township sector” Kordares says. Having everyone responsible for their own water usage is the first step to conserve one of earth’s most precious resources.

I’ve got my idea – now where do I go? Not sure where to turn to find your stock? The best idea is to find a couple of supply sources for your items so that if one dries up during a busy period, you won’t be left high and dry. 1.Garage Sales Garage sales can be a great opportunity to pick up potentially valuable items selling for pennies. However, they do require a regular time commitment and a lot of patience! You’ll quite likely travel around 5-8 sales before you find anything suitable. Going around garage sales requires planning and rising early. The best idea is to look through the morning papers as soon as they arrive. Plan your route to make most efficient use of your time so that you are not doubling back. Make a list of items you would like to find and the maximum amount you would pay to make a profit. And finally, don’t forget to take cash! Take small bills and some change as most garage sale owners only have a small amount on hand. It’s a waste of everyone’s time if you have to race down to the ATM machine. Garage sales can be useful sources, but they rely on luck and have a high time cost per item. Thus, serious sellers don’t rely on garage sales as their sole provider. 2.Liquidation sales Liquidation sales are a fantastic way of finding brand-name items at enormous discounts. Check your newspapers and look for sales in your area. Before buying from a liquidator check to see why the goods are being sold. Most of the time liquidation sales take place for legitimate reasons such as company bankruptcy, store relocation and so on. However, it always pays to check as you don’t want to end up with a pile of stock you can’t shift. Another thing – don’t bother with liquidation stock that is outside the scope of your business. There is no point buying liquidation bicycle equipment just because it’s cheap when you only sell jewelry. Alternatively, you can find liquidation sites on the Internet – one such site is liquidation. These sites make it extremely easy to buy liquidation, particularly if you live in an outlying area. One thing – just make sure that the possibility of damaged stock and used or returned items included in the lots is small or non-existent. Liquidation sales are a great way to supplement your stock, but they can’t be relied upon to restock the shelves. 3.Estate sales Estate sales can be a goldmine for anyone selling jewelry, vintage clothing, books, furniture and so on. Once again, you need to have an idea of how much you can afford to spend before you go. Don’t forget to buy items your customers would like, rather simply getting caught up in your own enthusiasm for what is for sale. Note that estate sales run by an agent are unlikely to garner the same bargains as one run by the family. 4.Clearance stores At certain times of the year, most major stores will have a stock clear-out sale. Some of these sales give you the opportunity to buy goods 50% or more below the regular retail value. This can be a fantastic opportunity to find items to sell – or replenish your stocks. Good clearance sales can be equal to or even below a good wholesale price. Don’t forget to overlook small hobby shops in your area with clearance sales either. If you know the store is going to have clearance sales regularly, then this can be one method of getting stock. 5.Wholesalers Wholesalers are the most reliable method of sourcing goods. While the initial process can be time consuming at first, it is effort that pays off. When you have found a wholesale, you now have certainty of when you are going to receive stock and how much you will have to pay for it. The best way to find wholesalers is to use a directory. Directories remove the risk of dealing with illegitimate wholesalers and give you some peace of mind when dealing with wholesalers and manufacturers from China. Wholesalers should be the mainstay behind your product sourcing.