Men Free Blog

The name Ft. Lauderdale may be inexorably linked with the phrase “Spring Break,” but that could be about to change now that the dingy Marina Marriot is getting a $60 million glamour injection. Full renovations on the newly-christened Ft. Lauderdale Grande Hotel & Yacht Club will be completed next month. The interiors are refreshing, stylish and modern, not to mention well-insulated from the frat boy set.

Meanwhile, a branch of Manhattan restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow’s chic China Grill has already started serving guests lucky enough to snag one of the soft-opening suites. This is Chodorow’s first outdoor waterside space; he’ll also run the hotel’s in-room dining operation. The restaurant overlooks the 33-slip inlet marina for yachting and diving enthusiasts, and a beautifully-redesigned pool area with cabanas and an outdoor fire pit.

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Handmade tooth fairy cushions, add your own touch and you have an original gift. These cushions have little pockets on them for a small child to put their tooth and a letter to the tooth Fairy when a tooth falls out.
 

The tooth Fairy kindly leaves a coin or a special stone / gem in place of the tooth.

Just take a few scraps of pretty material, or recycle a pretty silk dress from a thrift store, some lace and ribbon and in no time at all you have a delightful gift.

Materials

remnant of material (cotton print, silk, satin, velvet, etc.)
length of pre-gathered lace
scrap of material for pocket
ribbon (narrow, stin-finish is very attractive)
filling (old pantihose cut into 5-cm strips)
paper for template
scissors, pins

Method

* Fold the paper in half and cut a heart shape to the size required. Open out. Figure 1 shows the suggested size.

* Pin template on double layer of material, then cut out.

* Sew lace on right side of one layer as shown, with ruffled edge pointing inwards.

* Cut out two layers of pocket shape to size required. Sew together, leaving a small gap (figure 3). Turn right side out.

* Fold and press as shown (figure 4). Stitch to one heart-shaped piece of material. Use press stud to close pocket flap.

* Add ribbon.

* Place two heart-shaped pieces of material with right side together. Stitch together on same line as stitching for lace, leaving a small opening on one side to insert filling. Turn right side out, press.

* Insert filling. Hand sew opening shut.

Believing is important. You don’t have to believe in Fairies.
But when you believe - whatever you believe in - you help that be true.

Fairy Letters

This night it is a special night
As fairies dance upon the roof.
All the fairies must alight,
For Thierry just lost a tooth!

The Fairy Queen gives her commands-
Twelve bright fairies must join hands
Then together in a circle stands
To guard Thierry while he sleeps.

The Tooth Fairy into the circle leaps
The hidden tooth she takes
Ah, but has far to go
Before Thierry awakes.

Three times around the world she flies
Over valleys deep and mountains high;
Skirts the storm clouds thick with thunder,
Wings over waves all wild with wonder.

Deep within their earthly homes
Finally she finds the gnomes,
Who upon the tooth must work
Never once their duty shirk.

Some are hammering, hammering, hammering,
Some the bellows blow
Others sweat at the sweltering forge
And then cry out, “Heigh Ho!”

The tooth’s been turned to a shining stone,
A glimmering, glowing gem
The tooth Fairy takes the gnomes’ good gift,
And bows (curtsies) to all of them.
Before the sun’s first rays are shown,
She returns to Thierry’s bed,
And then - - - away she’s flown!
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In many areas, my own included, now is the time to make summer camping reservations before spots fill up for the summer. Camping is inexpensive family fun and a relaxing way to take a break from this high-tech world.

Savvy travelers can choose a location and reserve a site, without leaving the comfort of their home office chair. State parks can also be reserved online. If tent camping is a big turnoff for you, many state parks offer camper and mini-cabins as well.

If you have more than one camping vacation planned this year, it’ll make your life a lot easier if you streamline your camping gear. That way, when the weekend hits, you can eliminate hours of packing and just grab your things and go.

Be perpetually packed for summer fun by keeping your camping gear in plastic storage tubs. The Art of Manliness has a comprehensive list of things to include in your tub, including sleeping bag, tent, flashlight, first aid kit, batteries, small broom, wet wipes, bug repellent and matches.

Next, create a list of things that you want to bring along, but that you don’t keep in your tub, including: sunscreen, lawn chairs, clothing, toiletries, and food. Plan a simple menu, pack the car, hit the grocery store, then head out into the great wide wilderness for a back-to-nature experience.
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Most of the 500 Metro Detroit doctors who recently evaluated a new online prescription drug program say it improves patient safety and quality of care by reducing the number of pharmacy errors, patient allergies and harmful drug interactions that can occur as a result of hand-written prescriptions. This is good news for the thousands of victims of prescription drug problems who end up needing drug detox.

The majority of drug-related trips to emergency rooms and detox centers – not to mention sudden deaths and trips to the morgue – are caused by problems with prescription drugs. Hospitals, ERs and detox centers in recent years are seeing more dependencies, addictions, overdoses and life-threatening drug interactions as a result of prescription drugs than more traditional illicit street drugs like heroin, cocaine in its many forms, and perhaps methamphetamine.

Most drug detox facilities now provide specialized medical drug detox services for a host of different prescription drugs. And although detox centers help people with problems caused by legitimate prescriptions, many of the most commonly abused prescription drugs have found their way into the illicit street drug pipeline. And virtually all of the popular prescription drugs now found in schoolyards, night clubs and on the streets require drug detox to safely get off them.

The new prescription drug program, called ePrescription, is used by doctors right in their offices to access online information about a prescription drug, including generic alternatives, potentially harmful drug interactions, and potential allergic reactions. Patients already taking other prescription drugs often don’t remember what they’re taking or forget to tell the doctor about them – or the doctor doesn’t ask. But because the program lists all the patient’s medications, it helps avoid the serious side effects or even dependencies that lead to drug detox when the wrong drugs are combined. And because the doctor uses the computer to print out new prescriptions, it helps prevent patients from getting the wrong drug or wrong dosage just because a pharmacist couldn’t read the doctor’s handwriting.

In the two years that doctors have tested the program, 3.3 million prescriptions were written, and nearly a third of them – one million prescriptions – were identified as offering potentially harmful drug interactions, and another 100,000 prescriptions were spotted as being potentially allergic. In all, 423,000 prescriptions were corrected – changes that, if not corrected, might have caused injuries and even deaths. For drugs with a high potential for dependency such as narcotic painkillers and many antidepressants and antipsychotics, keeping track of the prescriptions with the computer surely helped prevent trips to drug detox.

The power of the new program to improve patient health and prevent prescription drug misadventure was lauded by most of the doctors testing it. They said it alerted them to potential problems they wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, and they liked how the program let them check other medicines patients were taking. Mixing prescriptions is always an area of risk that can precipitate dependency or addiction and lead to the need for drug detox or to complications and even death.

Detroit’s new online prescription drug computer program appears to be helping get that city’s prescription drug error and abuse situation under control, and should help save a lot of people from needing a drug detox program.

source: articlescity

Most of the 500 Metro Detroit doctors who recently evaluated a new online prescription drug program say it improves patient safety and quality of care by reducing the number of pharmacy errors, patient allergies and harmful drug interactions that can occur as a result of hand-written prescriptions. This is good news for the thousands of victims of prescription drug problems who end up needing drug detox.

The majority of drug-related trips to emergency rooms and detox centers – not to mention sudden deaths and trips to the morgue – are caused by problems with prescription drugs. Hospitals, ERs and detox centers in recent years are seeing more dependencies, addictions, overdoses and life-threatening drug interactions as a result of prescription drugs than more traditional illicit street drugs like heroin, cocaine in its many forms, and perhaps methamphetamine.

Most drug detox facilities now provide specialized medical drug detox services for a host of different prescription drugs. And although detox centers help people with problems caused by legitimate prescriptions, many of the most commonly abused prescription drugs have found their way into the illicit street drug pipeline. And virtually all of the popular prescription drugs now found in schoolyards, night clubs and on the streets require drug detox to safely get off them.

The new prescription drug program, called ePrescription, is used by doctors right in their offices to access online information about a prescription drug, including generic alternatives, potentially harmful drug interactions, and potential allergic reactions. Patients already taking other prescription drugs often don’t remember what they’re taking or forget to tell the doctor about them – or the doctor doesn’t ask. But because the program lists all the patient’s medications, it helps avoid the serious side effects or even dependencies that lead to drug detox when the wrong drugs are combined. And because the doctor uses the computer to print out new prescriptions, it helps prevent patients from getting the wrong drug or wrong dosage just because a pharmacist couldn’t read the doctor’s handwriting.

In the two years that doctors have tested the program, 3.3 million prescriptions were written, and nearly a third of them – one million prescriptions – were identified as offering potentially harmful drug interactions, and another 100,000 prescriptions were spotted as being potentially allergic. In all, 423,000 prescriptions were corrected – changes that, if not corrected, might have caused injuries and even deaths. For drugs with a high potential for dependency such as narcotic painkillers and many antidepressants and antipsychotics, keeping track of the prescriptions with the computer surely helped prevent trips to drug detox.

The power of the new program to improve patient health and prevent prescription drug misadventure was lauded by most of the doctors testing it. They said it alerted them to potential problems they wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, and they liked how the program let them check other medicines patients were taking. Mixing prescriptions is always an area of risk that can precipitate dependency or addiction and lead to the need for drug detox or to complications and even death.

Detroit’s new online prescription drug computer program appears to be helping get that city’s prescription drug error and abuse situation under control, and should help save a lot of people from needing a drug detox program.

source: articlescity

Whether you are male or female, a mom or a dad, balancing career and family can be really difficult. When you’re a woman, though, the choices you have to make seem especially difficult and the responsibilities all the more great. For some reason, women are guilt-ridden with their career decisions and the choices they make about working while trying to raise their children, providing nutritious meals for their family, keeping a respectable house and keeping their husbands happy. Last on the list, of course, is finding some time for themselves. So how does a woman find time to actually feel happy with her daily activities while keeping up with all of the responsibility?

First, take time to smell the roses! Literally, you can take time to smell the roses but you can actually do this with no flowers in sight. Every day, try to look around and appreciate what you have, taking in the sounds of your child’s laughter, the wag of your dog’s tail, the special glance of your husband as you tell a funny joke. Sometimes, the knowledge of what you have on your plate for the day will feel overwhelming, but a little perspective goes a long way. It may be a cliché and a very tired phrase, but it truly does work. People tend to get lost in the mundane, day-to-day “functioning” instead of really living their lives. For example, next time you are worried about fitting in your exercise with your child’s play date at Little Gym, forego the Little Gym and head out with your son or daughter for a run. Strap the little one in the jog stroller or if he or she is old enough, ask them to put on the running shoes with Mommy and head outside! Once outside, you can literally stop to smell the roses. Just a few minutes of gratitude a day will work wonders for your soul and automatically make your life feel more balanced.

Along these same lines, try and give yourself some “me” time once a week. Once a week may not seem like much, but if you really allow yourself to soak it in and enjoy the time spent, it will make the stress of all of the rest of the hectic days melt away. Take a good block of time on a Saturday or Sunday - 2 hours, maybe - and mark this time in your calendar in pen, not pencil. Keep a standing appointment with yourself, and honor it as you would any other. Think you are too busy on a weekend to do this? You will feel much more productive the rest of the weekend allowing yourself this little ‘refresher’, rather than trying to cram some time in on a random Tuesday or other weeknight. For this special time, you can book a massage or a facial at your favorite spa. Take a couple of hours to go window shopping at your favorites stores, by yourself or with a friend. Take in a matinee with a couple of girlfriends. If your husband is willing to fly solo on a Saturday night, you can even book a girls’ night out once in a while and truly let loose! Even if your budget doesn’t allow for these activities once a week, you can lock yourself in the bathroom with a good book, a bubble bath and a nice glass of wine and feel good about your time alone - you deserve some!

Probably the most obvious way to balance career and family is to incorporate your family into what would otherwise be “work time”. If you have a short commute to work, for example, perhaps you can drive your kids to school each morning instead of having them take the bus. In the alternative, you could have your morning cup of coffee at the bus stop with them and spend a few minutes chatting about their day and what they plan to learn in school as you sip your cup of Joe and breathe in the morning air to mentally prepare for your own day ahead. If you normally exercise in the morning and leave the house very early, switch your workout time to lunch and leave the office to go to the gym, eating at your desk when you get back. You will have more time with your family each day and get a healthy break from your pile of papers to boot.

You may need to get a little creative with your schedule, but there are definitely ways to help balance career and family. Sometimes an extra few minutes each day or a once-weekly good block of time can go a long way in helping restore your peace of mind and help you feel less harried.

source: articlescity

Whether you are male or female, a mom or a dad, balancing career and family can be really difficult. When you’re a woman, though, the choices you have to make seem especially difficult and the responsibilities all the more great. For some reason, women are guilt-ridden with their career decisions and the choices they make about working while trying to raise their children, providing nutritious meals for their family, keeping a respectable house and keeping their husbands happy. Last on the list, of course, is finding some time for themselves. So how does a woman find time to actually feel happy with her daily activities while keeping up with all of the responsibility?

First, take time to smell the roses! Literally, you can take time to smell the roses but you can actually do this with no flowers in sight. Every day, try to look around and appreciate what you have, taking in the sounds of your child’s laughter, the wag of your dog’s tail, the special glance of your husband as you tell a funny joke. Sometimes, the knowledge of what you have on your plate for the day will feel overwhelming, but a little perspective goes a long way. It may be a cliché and a very tired phrase, but it truly does work. People tend to get lost in the mundane, day-to-day “functioning” instead of really living their lives. For example, next time you are worried about fitting in your exercise with your child’s play date at Little Gym, forego the Little Gym and head out with your son or daughter for a run. Strap the little one in the jog stroller or if he or she is old enough, ask them to put on the running shoes with Mommy and head outside! Once outside, you can literally stop to smell the roses. Just a few minutes of gratitude a day will work wonders for your soul and automatically make your life feel more balanced.

Along these same lines, try and give yourself some “me” time once a week. Once a week may not seem like much, but if you really allow yourself to soak it in and enjoy the time spent, it will make the stress of all of the rest of the hectic days melt away. Take a good block of time on a Saturday or Sunday - 2 hours, maybe - and mark this time in your calendar in pen, not pencil. Keep a standing appointment with yourself, and honor it as you would any other. Think you are too busy on a weekend to do this? You will feel much more productive the rest of the weekend allowing yourself this little ‘refresher’, rather than trying to cram some time in on a random Tuesday or other weeknight. For this special time, you can book a massage or a facial at your favorite spa. Take a couple of hours to go window shopping at your favorites stores, by yourself or with a friend. Take in a matinee with a couple of girlfriends. If your husband is willing to fly solo on a Saturday night, you can even book a girls’ night out once in a while and truly let loose! Even if your budget doesn’t allow for these activities once a week, you can lock yourself in the bathroom with a good book, a bubble bath and a nice glass of wine and feel good about your time alone - you deserve some!

Probably the most obvious way to balance career and family is to incorporate your family into what would otherwise be “work time”. If you have a short commute to work, for example, perhaps you can drive your kids to school each morning instead of having them take the bus. In the alternative, you could have your morning cup of coffee at the bus stop with them and spend a few minutes chatting about their day and what they plan to learn in school as you sip your cup of Joe and breathe in the morning air to mentally prepare for your own day ahead. If you normally exercise in the morning and leave the house very early, switch your workout time to lunch and leave the office to go to the gym, eating at your desk when you get back. You will have more time with your family each day and get a healthy break from your pile of papers to boot.

You may need to get a little creative with your schedule, but there are definitely ways to help balance career and family. Sometimes an extra few minutes each day or a once-weekly good block of time can go a long way in helping restore your peace of mind and help you feel less harried.

source: articlescity

We’ve already seen cities turn to technology to combat graffiti, but it looks like the tables could one day be turned,

at least if designer Stefan Rechsteiner has his way. As you can see above, his so-called “Couleur sur l’Objet” robot concept would be able to climb walls (relying on suction, it seems), leaving a trail of graffiti behind it. That would apparently be entirely done using software to plot out its course ahead of time, although we’re sure it could also be rigged with a remote control to allow for a little freestyle spraying. Of course, the chances of anyone actually releasing such a bot are pretty slim (at least for graffiti-ing purposes), although there’s nothing stopping you from taking a certain DIY-friendly solution and trying to build your own.

It may be not be the only bot on the block for long but, for now at least, the Canadian-built Dextre robot has the spotlight to itself, with it set to blast off Tuesday on board the shuttle Endeavor for delivery to its new home on the International Space Station. As USA Today reports, the robot has been some ten years in the making (at a cost of $210 million), and is designed to handle many of the tasks that would otherwise be done by astronauts on spacewalks. Those astronauts will still have a job for a while yet, with one of the main tasks during Endeavor’s mission obviously being the assembly of Dextre, which is currently broken down into nine parts. Even after that’s done, however, Dextre apparently won’t start work until sometime in 2009, at which point it’ll be able to replace nearly 140 parts on the ISS, and be controlled either by mission control or the crew on the space station.

source:engadget

The MAIA BCI not only converts signals emitted by the brain into actions — such moving a wheelchair forward — it also thinks for itself when needed in order to assist the user in getting where he / she wants to go. Essentially, the individual need only think about going left or forward (for example), and the machine itself will automatically detect obstacles and potential barriers in order to move more efficiently. As it stands, there’s still quite a bit of testing to be done before MAIA-based wheelchairs would be available to the public, but researchers are already hoping to integrate said technology into artificial limbs and the like.

source:engadget