Plan on selling your car?

Buying a car is a very important investment. Why? Well, first of all, it is your armour from accidents when on the road and thus is responsible for your safety and LIFE! To add to that, cars are always worth a certain amount of money. But what do car owners who plan on selling their cars often do to try and keep its value? Well, they keep it pretty on the outside by avoiding scratches, weather wear and tear, etc. But why really bother about the outside when it’s really easy to get that part of the car redone and repainted? To add to that, you have very little control over the outside look of your car. You can’t do anything if someone scratches your car, if the weather chooses to make your car paint faint, if a tree brach falls on your car, etc. What you have control of though is in the interior of you car. Keep this part of the car nice, clean, pretty, free from scratches, and smelling nice. It is not that easy to change an interior of a car and make it nicer. To add to that, you have control over the interior of your car. So, by keeping the inside of your car looking new and clean can make it really feel like a new car to the buyer, especially if you repaint the exterior. This will easily add value to your car!!! A nicely painted car with an old, messy, ugly, and smelly interior is not really appealing to a buyer. Think about it!

Source of Image:

www.CartoonStock.com (undated) Showrooms gift image 10 - catalog reference rte0002, Available from: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/showrooms_gifts.asp, [Accessed 24 June 2008].

How to control the sex of your baby

Females have often been viewed as the subordinate sex towards the males. This is obvious in our history books, which are mostly filled with names of men and their achievements. We read of male kings, emperors, magicians, and even with religion the main “GOD” is male (e.g. Zeus, Jesus). To this day male domination is rampant. Most leaders are male, when we marry, the wife and children carry the name of the husband, the father is the “head” of the family, etc. This is why back in the day, and even until today, most couples would prefer to have male children since they carry they family legacy. In China alone, for example, the culture and infertile couples pay more for human-trafficked sons than daughters because a son carries the family line (BBC News 2000). However, the world is changing. Females are starting to take on roles that were thought to be only for males. Despite this, parents still have a preference as to what sex they’d want their baby to be. Listed below are a few tips on how to control the sex of your baby.

So called "methods" on conceiving the desired sex of your child (Ovulation-Calculator.com undated, Bouchez 2004, Life Serve 2005, Yahoo Answers 2007, FertilAid 2008, ninemsn Health 2008, Patterson 2008, Yahoo Health 2008):

• Time of conception

- the parents must make have sex on odd days of the month to have a boy;

- the parents must make love when there’s a quarter moon in the sky to have a boy;

- the parents must get together for an afternoon of love on even days of the month to have a girl;

- Shettles Method (do not have intercourse during your "transitional" fertile days four to five days before you ovulate to have a boy and make love during the transitional days and two to three days before you ovulate to have a girl);

- getting conceived on certain times of the woman’s ovulation cycle/ ovulation calculator could result in the desired sex of your baby; or

- follow the Chinese Lunar Calendar to determine the appropriate time of the year for conception with regards to your age to result in desired sex of your baby.

• Diet (which should be followed 3 months before conceiving)

To have a boy, the woman, yet preferably the couple, must have a diet rich in potassium and sodium, but lacks magnesium and calcium (e.g. carbonated drinks, red meat, sausages, jams, soups, honey, fresh fruit, pastries, fresh vegetables, white bread loaves, pasta, potatoes, salted nuts, chips and rice).

To have a girl, the woman, yet preferably the couple, must have a diet with plenty of magnesium and calcium but lacks sufficient quantities of sodium and potassium (e.g. fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, dairy products, food stuffs that are not too salty, salt-free bread and butter, ice-cream and eggs).

• Weather the baby must be conceived

Having your baby conceived on hot weather will result in a boy.

Having your baby conceived on cold weather will result in a girl. The thinking is, the hotter weather might effect dad's testes, and result in more Y chromosome sperm, which produces boys.

• Position during intercourse

To have a boy:

- the mother must be on top while conceiving;

- the mother must lie down after sex and stay there so that the male sperm have a high chance of beating the female sperm to the egg;

- mothers should sleep to the left side of their husband; and

- the parents must make love standing up.

To have a girl:

- the father must be on top while conceiving; and

- the woman should initiate sex.

References:

BBC News (2000) China’s kidnap victims freed, Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/927309.stm, [Accessed 14 June 2008].

Bouchez, C. (2004) Boy or Girl? How to tell! Available from: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52367, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

Lavigne, S. (1996) How to make a Boy or Girl Baby, Available from: http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Boy-Girl-Baby/dp/044050709X, [Accessed 14 June 2008].

Life Serve (2005) Find Out If It’s Pregnancy Fact or Folklore, Available from: http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/parenting/story.html?id=a6a3a320-d189-4195-b888-24e034ab50e6&k=33019, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

ninemsn Health (2008) What’s Good For You: Is it a boy or a girl? Available from: http://health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=123783, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

Ovulation-Calculator.com (undated) Preconception. The Information you Need to Help you Get that BFP (Big Fat Positive!), Available from: http://www.ovulation-calculator.com/genderselection.htm, [Accessed 14 June 2008].

Patterson, A. (2008) Diet- The Secret That Could Determine The Sex Of Your Baby, Available from: http://ezinearticles.com/?Diet---The-Secret-That-Could-Determine-The-Sex-Of-Your-Baby&id=905433, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

Yahoo Answers (2007) What myths have you heard to determine the sex of an unborn child? Available from: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070326200058AALUvoR, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

Yahoo! Health (2008) Twelve Myths About Pregnancy, Available from: http://health.yahoo.com/pregnancy-overview/twelve-myths-about-pregnancy/harvard--COL020805.html, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

Modern mangrove monitoring technique

Mangroves are one of the many ecosystems in Western Australia that strongly support a number of the Australian recreational lifestyles (e.g. sailing, mud-crabbing, fishing) and Australia’s biggest industry-Tourism.

Most mangrove habitats around the world have experienced significant adverse change in recent years due to human and natural environmental causes. In Australia though, vast mangrove areas are generally undisturbed and remain in pristine state.

To maintain the status of these mangrove areas requires monitoring. This can be an easy or difficult task. Large mangrove areas and widely dispersed mangroves require extensive amounts of time, money and energy to monitor them frequently.

A study on the mangroves of Barrow and Montebello Islands, Western Australia, showed that high resolution images (aerial photographs and Digital Multi-Spectral Video (DMSV)) in conjunction with the cooperation of the organizations and visitors to the area is the most cost-effective monitoring method. The high resolution images better the low resolution images (Landsat Thematic Mapper (Landsat TM)) in identifying most mangrove patches, small change, and discriminating different mangrove types (Figure 1). The size of the identified large mangrove areas though of the high and low resolution images was similar.

Since high resolution images are expensive, they are less frequently acquired compared to low resolution images (Table 1). Adequate monitoring though requires constant information. Therefore, to monitor the large mangroves areas in Australia would be most cost-effective through the use of Landsat TM. For the small mangrove areas that cannot be resolved by Landsat TM, visitors and organizations impacting/visiting these mangrove areas should report any observed adverse change to CALM and follow the regulations for the area. For the mangroves in the Montebello and Barrow Islands, for example, visitors to the area must follow and help meet the management objectives mentioned in the Proposed Montebello/Barrow Islands Marine Conservation Reserves 2004.

Image Type	Cost in Australian Dollars
DMSV (with a 0.64m2 resolution covering only the Montebello and Barrow Islands, Western Australia, 519 km2.	87,190
Landsat TM (625 m2 resolution, covering the Montebello, Barrow, Lowendal Islands and part of the Pilbarra region)	1,200

Table 1: A comparison of the cost for acquiring DMSV and Landsat TM images over the Montebello and Barrow Islands

Reference:

Tarin, J. (2005) A suggested cost-effective monitoring methodology for the mangroves at the proposed Montebello/ Barrow Islands Marine Conservation Resrves, Western Australia, Honours Dissertation, University of Notre Dame Australia.

Carefully removing candle wax from sensitive material

Has anyone ever experienced preparing a romantic evening with their loved one by setting the scene, eg. your bedroom, with lit candles all around? Yes, a beautiful setting that is. The candle light and scent of the smoke just automatically provides that warm and relaxing atmosphere. But often, a result from this well planned romantic getaway is a hectic workout of removing candle wax from the containers you placed the candles in to avoid your house from burning down, such as the floor (if tiled), your favorite glass vase, and other inflammable material. What is often done to remove this unwanted wax is by grabbing a knife and scraping it forcefully off. The aftermath? Scratches. Yes, this is painful especially if that item is of personal and sentimental value to you. So, how do we remove such wax in a less intrusive manner? Easy.....

If you want to remove wax from inside a glass container, the first thing you do is to boil water. You then pour this water into your glass container. This will cause the wax inside to melt. Thus, you can easily pour out the water and the wax will come out with it. Result? No scratches in your glass container.

If you want to remove wax from your floor, table, or any flat surface, the first thing you do is to grab any old paper (e.g. newspaper, magazine) or rug and place it on top of the wax. Then, you get your iron, let it heat up, and place it over the paper/rug that is over your wax until the wax melts. Then, when the wax has melted, you can use the paper/rug to wipe it off. Result? No scratches on that flat surface.

Source for image:

MacGyver (undated) MacGyver Tip: Remove candle wax from carpet, Available from: http://lifehacker.com/software/macgyver/macgyver-tip-remove-candle-wax-from-carpet-134616.php, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

Stop Sweaty Palms and Feet with Tea

There are a number of individuals on this planet, like me, who suffer from insanely sweaty palms and feet. This phenomenon, if we can call it that, creates so much inconveniences such as:

• not being able to wear stilettos/slippers since your feet will always slide forward;
• wearing footwear without socks can cause blisters since your sweat will cause you to slide to and from in it;
• having a difficult time filling out forms, exams, etc, since your palms soak up the paper;
• feeling embarrassed to shake hands since your hands are so "icky" and wet;
• looking tense when your not, since sweat is an indicator of looking tense;
• smelly feet...for those who like wearing closed shoes and therefore you get worried about removing your shoes in times that you have to and you didn't expect to;
• limit of job opportunities...e.g.....it's pretty dangerous to be an electrician....and....what if it's your dream to be a casino card dealer?!;
• you'll often have butter fingers in sports; and
  
• more, which you can feel free to tell me and I will ad to this list.
  

How can we stop this? The most common advices are to wear cotton socks/gloves, carry and handkerchief with you all the time, change footwear every now and then, always have clean footwear, avoid wearing rubber footwear, stick to rubber footwear. How boring!!! This limits ones choice of footwear! Besides, who has find nice, pretty, and sexy looking leather stilettos? I haven't yet. If one knows of a shop that makes them....please....inform me. That will be extremely fantastic. Also, why would one want to wear gloves all the time? You wouldn't want to look like a mime everyday!!! I've heard of a simple household remedy that can solve such a phenomenon. This is through the use of tea that many individuals enjoy drinking everyday. Below is the procedure:

1. Boil five tea bags (black tea preferably) in a quart of water for at least 10 minutes, or longer than you would normally if you were to drink the tea. This is to extract all of the tannic in the tea.
2. Pour the solution into a 2 containers. One should fit both your feet. The other should fit both your hands.
3. When the solution s cool enough for you to stick you feet and hands in, keep them in there for at least 30 minutes at least once everyday for two weeks. You can do this while watching TV so that time will fly by.
4. Dry your hands and feet in a clean towel. Make sure you remove the stains that can be caused by the tea. You wouldn't want to have feet and hand color that is different to the rest of your body. This might be a worse problem than the sweaty feet and hands.
5. After 2 weeks, you can do this every other day, until you wouldn't have to do it as frequently anymore.

Why tea? Well, tea contains tannic acid, which is responsible for its antiperspirant action (The People's Pharmacy 1999) , can even help prevent blisters (Wikipedia 2008), and even remove the stink.


References

Sally aka Fixpert (2006) Pound: The Sweaty Palm Handshake, Available from: http://www.fixpert.com/artwork/sweaty-foosball-palms/, [Accessed 13 June 2008].

The People's Pharmacy (1999) Tea For Sweaty Palms and Soles, Available from: http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/archives/home_remedies/tea_for_sweaty_palms_and_soles.php, [Accessed 1 June 2008].

Wikipedia (2008) Tannic Acid, Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannic_acid, [Accessed 1 June 2008].