Archive for May, 2009

How Lyrics Set The Mood For A Song

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Daniel Millions asked:


Lyrics or the words of a song are one of the most important parts of a song. The words of a song form the most recognizable part of a song and they can be considered as the meat of the song. Background beats, voice of the lead singer, sound of guitar are some of the important parts of a song but the lyrics are the most recognizable part of a song. They are an integral part of any music tune and they turn a song into an appealing song.

It takes good amount of time to come up with appealing and meaningful words for a song and it would be a mistake for any artist to take lyrics lightly. Lyrics have a significant importance and so, it’s very important to take them seriously. When someone listen a song on radio, he’s likely to remember some key lines of the song instead of the background beats and other sounds. It’s much easier to recognize a song with the help of its words instead of using the drum beats to recognize it.

However, the background music is equally important and it should not be neglected. A good song is a song with appealing lyrics and background beats. People usually relate their own life with lyrics of the song, and some people enjoy songs that convey some message or have some meaning. So, it’s very important for an artist to take lyrics seriously. An artist should spend quality time to make sure that the song has appealing lyrics.

It’s very important to understand the words of a song in order to understand the meaning of the song. Some people find it tough to remember the lyrics completely and this is the reason why most of the artists publish the lyrics. Some artists usually giveaway lyrics with the CD, and some artists publish lyrics on their web sites. Also, there are a number of web sites that maintain a collection of lyrics. Some web sites charge a small fee for providing the music lyrics whereas some web sites provide lyrics for free. So, if you’re looking for lyrics of a particular song then you should use the Internet to find the lyrics.

However, you should make sure that you use a legitimate web site for finding and downloading lyrics as there are a number of web sites which provide lyrics without the artist’s permission. Also, a number of web sites use different kinds of spyware to infect an end-user’s system. They try to infect the user’s system so as to collect the personal information of the user. So, an individual should use reputed web sites for finding and downloading lyrics.

An individual should use web sites which provide legal and licensed music lyrics. It is also safe to use web sites which provide licensed music lyrics. A simple web search can get you hundreds of web sites which provide music lyrics and you can also use the reviews to find a reputable site. It is also very easy to search lyrics on a web site as a search box is usually available on a web site. An end-user needs to fill-in the required details in the search box in order to search the lyrics of a particular song.

At the end, the words of a song are very important as people remember songs by the words, and you can use the Internet to find the music lyrics.



How "green Bags" Can Keep Food Fresher Longer

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Stephanie Larkin asked:


, consumers are bombarded with advertisements. If you watch TV, chances are that you’ve seen the Debbie Meyer “Green Bags,” plastic produce bags infomercials. These bags are marketed as a solution to food that rots quickly under normal circumstances. Whenever a product is advertised to be such a great solution to a common problem, especially in the infomercial setting, one has to wonder – does this product really work? However, in the case of green bags, science is on their side. Green Bags do work, and by understanding the process, you can learn how Green Bags can keep food fresh longer.

The concept for Green Bags first came about when researchers found that produce storage systems in a certain region of Japan were working better than anywhere else in the world. In this Japanese region, farmers were storing their fruits and vegetables in mountain caves. The caves were cool, dark, and dry, but researchers knew that there must have been something else as well. After studying the caves, they figured out that the land in this region had a high percentage of oya clay in the soil. This clay was the secret of the produce freshness occurring in these caves.

What was the clay doing to help with freshness? Well, as fruits and vegetables age, it gives off ethylene gas. This gas is absorbed by oya clay, keeping it away from the product. The Green Bags created by Debbie Meyer take this same concept, so that each Green Bag is like a tiny cave! You don’t have to freeze your produce to use these bags – it is all about a way to store fresh produce in your refrigerator for up to ten times longer.

Ethylene is a chemical compound found in almost all plants. Mostly, ethylene regulates how quickly fruits or vegetables ripen. In flowers, ethylene also controls when a flower blooms and when it sheds its leaves. The release of ethylene doesn’t stop when the fruit or vegetable is plucked from the plant. When you put, for example, strawberries in a plastic container, they release the ethylene. That gas is trapped in the container, where it continues to affect the berries. So, they rot faster, since the ethylene they have released is doing double duty.

With Green Bags, that ethylene is not allowed to continually affect the strawberries – or whatever fruits or vegetables are put into the bags. Instead, those gases are absorbed by the bags. The Green Bags are made from Zeolite, which acts like the clay in the caves and absorbs the gases. Zeolite is also used in water purification, laundry detergent, cat litter, and other products, and it is perfectly safe for containing food.

Green Bags can hold any kind of produce, including washed and cut fruits and vegetables. Keep in mind, however, that Green Bags are very absorbent. That means that they will absorb the odors of the fruits and vegetables. That means that you should have a different bag for each type of produce you keep. Otherwise, smells and flavors can transfer easily. In addition, if you cut the fruit, the juices will be absorbed and your food might dry out.

The Green Bags go farther than fruits and vegetables. Although it started that way, the Green Bags have evolved. Now, you can also get Yellow Bags to hold breads and other grains, Red Bags to hold meats, and Blue Bags to hold cheeses. You can also use any of the bags to hold flowers to keep them fresh. The different colors of bags do different things, depending on the types of gases given off by rotting foods.

Remember, the Green Bags (and other colors) only work well if you otherwise take steps to reducing the rotting of your food. For example, if you wash your peaches before you put them into a Green Bag, it is important to make sure that they are completely dry before storing them. In addition, storing your food in a cool and dark place can help you keep your foods as long as possible.

Although Green Bags can help you waste less food, the real key to storing food in the most efficient way possible is simply to avoid buying more than you need. Purchase your fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis instead of purchasing a lot of food at once. Debbie Meyers Green Bags can help you save money on food by slowing the spoiling process, but make sure that you are being practical with your purchases as well.

Hand Tools: Right Selection And Care Will Save You Money

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Richard Walker asked:


ght (c) 2009 Richard Walker

Hand tools are important to anyone interested in woodworking. Once you get into the hobby you will need to start out by using hand tools. It is important that you make your selection of tools carefully. Careful selection and care of your tools will help you to save money on your woodworking hobby.

Tools For Cutting

There are some general hand tools that you will need to get started. These are cutting tools that are used to cut and shape wood. These tools are made for a particular purpose and are referred to as specialty tools. These basic tools are simple to use and only take basic knowledge to operate them. Basic tools will help you get used to using tools and get you through beginner projects. They will also help prepare you for future, more advanced, projects.

Saws are a basic tool that is used for cutting. There are three types of saws. Handsaws tackle large jobs, like cutting a long piece of wood into smaller pieces. Backsaws are used for joining tasks. For cutting curves there are narrow bladed saws.

Selection tips

When choosing hand tools it is important for you to choose them carefully. You want to make sure that you choose tools that will be easy to use and that will last.

When making your choice you should look for removable handles. Being able to remove the handle allows you to be able o maintenance it easier. You also want to ensure that the handle feels comfortable. You should hold it, move around with it and generally get a feel for it.

When it comes to blades you want a thin blade that works best for wood cutting. Blade quality can be tested by bending the blade and ensuring it is even and smooth. It should also produce a clear ring when tapped.

Care and Maintenance

Taking good care of your hand tools is essential to protecting your investment. Lack of care can ruin even the most well made tools.

Blade care includes checking it often for bends and for rust or dirt. You should pound blades back to their straightened shape and wipe down your blade after use. The blade will need periodic sharpening to keep it working well. If you know how to do this then you can handle sharpening. If you do not know how to do it then it is best to have it done by a professional as incorrect sharpening can damage the blade beyond repair.

Handle care involves removing the handle to clean it and replacing it is it is rotted or broken. Wood cleaner can be used to clean the handle and fine steel wool can clean any metal parts.

Lastly, good storage of your tools will help keep them in good shape. You should always hand up saws to protect the blades from being bent or nicked.

Saving Money

To save money on hand tools it is smarter to buy the best quality possible. Over time you will save money on maintenance and replacement if you buy quality to begin with. You should look for good value which gives you a quality tool for a reasonable price.

Keep up regular maintenance on your tools. Replacing them is much more costly than regular maintenance. Give your tools proper care and you will get long use from them.

Safety Tips

When working with tools safety must always be a top priority. You need to always work with care to keep yourself safe. Always use any guards or safety devices and follow safety precautions. You should only choose tools that are made to safety standards. Look for safety features.

Properly maintenance of the tools will also help keep you safe. Inspect them before you use them for any damage. Keep them sharp and in good condition so that there is not room for malfunction.

Choosing the right hand tools is only the start to ensuring your have a good time with your new woodworking hobby. Proper care and maintenance, buying quality tools and adhering to safety standards will allow you to have the best possible experience.



Football – College Football, Part 1

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Kevin Keene asked:


If you are interested in football, especially in college football, read on to learn some interesting insight into the roots of the game.

In the 1890s college football had already created strong emotions of love and ****. Big-time eastern football had demonstrated that it could draw large crowds, create alumni support, and build an identity that would attract new students. The fact that it had little to do with classical education bothered only the traditionalists on campus and a handful of crotchety purists elsewhere who wrote critically of football in magazines, newspaper articles, and official college reports.

Outward appearances may have changed, but the gridiron problems in that era appear remarkably similar to the present. In the 1890s big-time recruiters and alumni contacts scoured the eastern prep schools for talented juniors and seniors ready to entice them to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Occasionally, unscrupulous alumni convinced students to quit high school before they graduated in order to enroll at an institution with a big-time team. Boosters funneled tuition money to poor but athletically talented boys from the coal fields of Pennsylvania and the industrial towns of the Northeast to preparatory schools in order to prepare them for big-time college athletics. Some of these young men were in their mid-twenties when they finally entered college. Other athletes went from school to school selling their services, phantom players who had no academic ties with the institution.

Big-time alumni football entrepreneurs-the counterpart of today’s athletic directors-arranged a schedule of games which began with weak teams and worked up to big money games held in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Gridiron profits supported stadium building, sumptuous living quarters and training tables for players, as well as Pullman cars for retinues of trainers, massagers, alumni coaches, and other hangers-on who followed the team to the big games. What was left over went to support an array of lesser sports that big-time football had eclipsed.

At the major football schools critics complained that football players became the campus elite, admired by their fellow students and regarded skeptically by many faculty. In the absence of professional football, players basked in the attention of the media, and the names of the gridiron stars appeared regularly in the sports pages of big city newspapers. Even college faculty and presidents had to be properly worshipful of football and its elite because they knew that football advertised their schools and helped to retain the loyalty of alumni. As a result, they often ignored or remained blissfully unaware of scams to admit unqualified students, play athletes who never enrolled, or resort to stratagems to keep weak players eligible.

Though booster organizations did not exist outside of alumni groups, booster alumni and townspeople, student managers, and even faculty engaged in unethical acts. A Princeton alumnus named Patterson entertained football players and made every effort to entice them to his alma mater. Authorities at Swarthmore lured the huge lineman, Bob (”Tiny”) Maxwell, from the University of Chicago and arranged for the president of the college to pass his bills to a prominent alumnus. Professor Woodrow Wilson, a fanatic Princeton enthusiast, shamelessly used football when he spoke to alumni organizations and vigorously opposed football reform in the 1890s and early 1900s. In contrast, Theodore Roosevelt, a Harvard graduate, who gloried in the strenuous life and strongly supported Harvard football, turned against football brutality in 1905 and initiated the first efforts in his capacity as president to reform the spirit in which big-time football teams competed.

We know that the prototype for athletic organization began at eastern institutions in the 1880s and 1890s. Yale’s Walter Camp, “the father of American football,” became the model for the coach and athletic director. While pursuing a business career, he also acted as Yale’s de facto vice president for athletic operations, who dominated the rules committees and ceaselessly publicized the game. From the profits of big games in Boston and New York, Camp created an ample reserve fund that supported lesser sports, afforded lush treatment for athletes, and provided the money that eventually went toward building Yale Bowl, the first of the modern football stadiums. By making Yale into an athletic powerhouse, Camp built the school’s reputation, making it second only to Harvard. Because he succeeded so well, Camp became the first big-name foe of sweeping football reforms-and an especially hard-core opponent of the forward pass.

By the turn of century the deaths of players in football led state legislators to introduce laws banning the gridiron game. Players for big-time teams, critics charged, were coached to injure their opponents or “put them out of business.” The nature of the game, with its mass formations and momentum plays, made football less an athletic contest than a collegiate version of warlike combat. Eventually the violence in football led to attempts to reduce its brutality through reforms. New rules put a strong emphasis on better officiating and on less dangerous formations, but they did not necessarily improve the athletic environment.

The deaths and brutality presented an excellent opportunity to root out the worst excesses of the runaway football culture. In the 1890s and early 1900s, responding to public opinion, professors and presidents spent a great deal of time talking about the overemphasis of intercollegiate athletics-and, in some cases, passing rules at the conference and institutional level to regulate college sports. Why, then, did college presidents and faculty, who had far more authority over their students than their modern counterparts, fail to control the gridiron beast? Put differently, why did school presidents and faculty often themselves become part of the athletic problem?

. One problem might be that faculty members played major roles in introducing early football. In addition to Woodrow Wilson, who served as a part-time coach at Wesleyan, an English instructor at Oklahoma who had recently come from Harvard, Vernon Parrington, taught the fundamentals of football on the windswept practice field in Oklahoma. At Miami University of Ohio the president called upon all able-bodied members of the faculty to go out for football. In a game between North Carolina and Virginia a member of the North Carolina faculty scored the winning touchdown. Often the faculty proved helpful to the budding football programs in other ways such as giving athletes passing grades or writing articles arguing that football built intellect. Only a handful, like Wisconsin’s Frederick Jackson Turner, made a determined effort to root out the abuses in the culture of college football such as the intense media attention given to the sport and its tendency to cushion star athletes from academic requirements. That was more than a century ago. When we turn to the 1980s and 1990s what do we encounter? Outward appearances of football may have changed, but the problems appear hauntingly similar. Big-time football teams induce players to attend their institution with offers of cars and money as well as running booster operations to funnel cash to blue-chip players. Players who obtain special admission or enter the institution fraudulently do so only to play football and often leave without graduating. Schools manage to keep their players eligible by manufacturing credits or by easing them into simple courses in which they are assured of receiving passing grades. Some coaches engage in violence toward players in practice and even try to drive them out of school so that they can use their scholarship slot.

Athletic departments and institutional officials have become obsessed with the potential for profits from televised big games or bowl games. Big-time teams in the NCAA try to manipulate the organization so that they will be able to have more coaches, scholarships, and only minimal academic requirements. Players commit acts of violence and brutality, then manage to avoid the consequences. College presidents whose salaries and prominence fall far short of the head football coaches dutifully show up at football games and related alumni events, treading cautiously around the mire of big-time college athletics.

All of this has added up to major athletic scandals, most of them involving big-time football. Scandals such as the pay-for-play violations at Southern Methodist and Auburn from the late 1970s to the early 1990s man-aged to create internal disruptions and negative publicity at numbers of big-name institutions. Yet, in spite of the obvious flaws in college football, it continues to enlarge its grip on the major universities. The athletic foundations persist in enlarging their massive gridiron complexes, selling the rights to buy tickets for upscale luxury boxes and suites, and then collecting additional revenues for the sale of high-priced tickets. The major teams have created indoor facilities out of donations that might have gone to deserving but impoverished non-athletes for scholarships. While quasi-professional student-athletes play the game, ordinary students have little to do with the sport. In an atmosphere of highly specialized career coaches, publicists, trainers, and tutors, college football reflects more than ever the professionalism that reformers long ago set out to de-emphasize.

No one would deny that football constitutes one of the most entertaining and enjoyable spectator sports. In the early days some faculty believed that the student enthusiasm for football would enable the institutions to alleviate the pervasive antisocial behavior of undergraduates. Being aware of its appeal, most athletic critics and reformers attempted to change football rather than to abolish it. The few colleges that dropped football did so it because the school had no choice or, occasionally, because a college president happened to wield unusual power at a critical moment in football’s history. Far and away the largest group of thoughtful gridiron critics have attempted to reform football and to reshape it in such a way that it fit more reasonably and appropriately into the spirit and life of the university. Why have they not succeeded?

Beginning in the 1890s and continuing into the 1990s, reformers have spent tens of thousands of hours attending meetings and conferences, devising new rules to solve the latest problems that have cropped up, and generally trying to work out better systems for their own institutions; in the early 1900s moderate reformers founded the NCAA to deal with deaths and brutality and to put football securely under the thumb of the faculty and college presidents. Again in the early 1950s, in a groundswell of outrage against cheating, gambling, and subsidies for athletes, college presidents and faculty members tried to create stricter standards to reduce the greed and professionalism in football rather than to drop it altogether. In the 1980s and early 1990s an outbreak of scandal in big-time football resulted the same response of temporary uneasiness and halting reforms which had become by then a pattern in the history of college football.

The outbreak in the 1980s once again clearly emphasized the failure of reform to bring about real change. In three major periods of gridiron upheaval the colleges have been unable or unwilling to eliminate the causes of chronic cheating. While political reforms by Congress and the states have achieved some enduring success, football and big-time athletics generally have had to face the same issues again and again-much like Sisyphus repeatedly pushing the stone uphill. Why does big-time football manage to be almost constantly in a state of crisis? Is there some quality about football, or college sports generally, or a flaw in higher education which causes this turmoil? If the Greek ideal of education stands for the training of body, spirit, and mind, why have the colleges failed so abysmally at their mission?

Good question, isn’t it? But the answer is beyond the subject of this article – and, unfortunately, beyond the expertise of the college football experts.