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A review of the literature reveals that the area of forensic questioning of young children in relation to child abuse is fraught with differing opinions and controversy. The clear need for courts to have accurate information concerning perpetration of abuse on children by adults will continue to exist as long as child abuse does. In the guidelines for the evaluation of allegedly abused children, the American Psychological Association Committee on Professional Practice and Standards (1998) indicates that forensic data and expert witnessing may help the court in understanding, gaining perspective, and increasing the fairness of determinations. Professionals in psychological treatment may be asked to determine if abuse has been perpetrated, and may use the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress as a proof that it has. (Regan, Johnson, Alderson, 2002). In the case of People v Stritzinger (1983), the Supreme Court ruled that unavailability due to a “mental infirmity” must be determined either by the witness refusing to testify, or on the recommendation of an expert witness. While the expert may recommend the child not testify due to PTSD, the expert would be on shaky grounds to state that the PTSD is proof of the abuse. While Fisher and Whiting (2001) agree that some aspects of PTSD symptoms are consistent with a child’s behavioral reactions to abuse, an unreliable pattern of abused children with PTSD make using the diagnosis as a proof a very flawed reasoning. They do add though, that if abuse has been founded, the diagnosis becomes a framework to determine level of impact on the child and as a treatment springboard. This would also then seem to be recursive, with the diagnosis of PTSD following a founded case to suggest the question: should the child be returned to the custody of, say, a parent offender, or a non offending parent who failed to protect the child, and the child is highly reactive to as a reminder of the abuse? Since the persistence of PTSD symptoms are likely closely related to the intensity, volume of critical incidents, and duration of abuse, it would appear that there is no current predictive tool to ascertain how long treatment will take. This situation serves to complicate custody issues, not to mention issues of the child having visitation contact with a person who could be a perpetrator. Further, if the child’s symptoms worsen following contact with their biological parent(s), is it ethical to desensitize a child to contact with their perpetrator in order for the child to return the perpetrator’s care? If there is no “return home” goal, and the child will be adopted, what is the therapeutic point of continuing exposure?

There is of course, no current, valid, and reliable tool to predict if an individual will develop PTSD following a trauma. (Walters, Bisson, Shepherd, 2006) Perry and Azad (1999), in a study on the incidence of PTSD, found that 34% of a sample of children who had been identified as being sexually abused, and 58% of children identified and being both sexually and physically abused met the criteria for PTSD. In addition, the study found that all of the children, while not fully PTSD, had clinically significant symptoms. The children in the study that had only partial symptoms may very well continue development on to full PTSD status. Thus, children diagnosed with PTSD as a result of abuse become a special concern outside of the population of children who have experienced abuse, but have not been diagnosed with PTSD.

Though common sense informs that special care needs to be given to children who have experienced traumatic events, the issues of their post-trauma care can become quite complex. Lieberman and Van Horn state that:

Responses to early trauma need to be understood as the initial manifestation of long-term risks to the child’s unfolding development. (p. 112)

Briere and Spinazzola (2005) assert that in the case of a lengthy history of family interpersonal trauma, a complexity of traumatic stress develops that negatively effects the child’s attachment with the parent. Such complexity of this population of child victims gives rise to the need for specialized attention, study, and formulations of forensic and treatment approaches. In a study concerning the “pathways” to PTSD in abused children, Kaplow, Dodge, Jackson, and Saxe (2005) found that behavioral signs noted immediately after disclosure of abuse might constitute discrete reactions that include avoidance, anxiety, and dissociation. In turn, these then become foundations for further and longer-term symptom development. Briere (2006) notes that the connection between trauma and dissociation may not be as simple as it first appears; there may be multiple components that produce the dissociation effects, including early attachment issues, emotional neglect, and neurobiological disturbances. Briere also states the possibility that dissociation may exist before trauma and be a risk factor for victimization. Again, this points to possible ethical questions: is any forensic questioner trained adequately to assess what may be very subtle and internalized symptoms presenting? One might assume, due to the nature and purpose of forensic examination, the child may reveal critical incident material that was not formerly revealed. Is there any data to show that forensic questioning does no further harm? If the long term research answer to that question is eventually found to be true, professionals may be trapped by the terrible dichotomous question: catch the perpetrator, or heal the child?

In addition to these complexities, the age of the child when victimization occurs becomes a factor in forensic examination and treatment, along with the traditional problem in most witnessing, memory. Nader (2001) states that at issue in younger children are their very age: they may have “literal interpretations, animistic thinking, faulty hypotheses, and inaccurate associations.” (p 281) Nader also asserts that age not only plays a role in perception, but also what details the child attends to, and how the child’s state of mind at the time of the trauma affects encoding of the memory for later recall. And of course, memory of the child victim is key to child protection assessments, police investigations, courtroom proceedings, and to a lesser degree, subsequent treatment.

Leiberman and Van Horn (2001) address the problem of the traumatized child’s behaviors in relation to memory:

Traumatized reminders tend to remain unidentified when they operate outside of the child’s conscious awareness or when the child cannot use language to describe what is happening. The child’s behavior may be strongly influenced by stimuli that act as triggers for memories of traumatic experience. (p118)

This assessment also seems to point to the problem of preverbal memories that do not readily find verbal expression or discernment by the child or the forensic investigator. Ceci and Bruck (1995) expands on the memory issue by asserting that due to the overwhelming amount of simulation during abuse there are likely some parts of the trauma experience that were never encoded in memory, so were never ’stored’. Furthermore, they cite studies that demonstrate that errors in children’s accounts are most often omission rather than commission errors. Such studies reinforce the oversimplified truth that just as in adult female rape victims, child victims do not generally lie about sexual abuse.

With such complexity, subtle nuance, and discrete aspects, how victim witness information is gained and used in child abuse cases becomes likewise a complex and delicate matter. Public opinion, media enthusiasm, multiple court opinions and those falsely accused of maltreatment of children all attest to the struggle to get the process accurate, fair, and unbiased. Many of the criticisms of particular cases, usually targeting child protection agencies and workers, while made by individuals not educated in the nature of trauma or PTSD in children, have validity and serve to press the field into doing a better job. (Wexler, 1995)

 In 1990, Congress enacted the Victims of Child Abuse Act that contains a detailed Article (IV) to guide investigations, prosecutions, and corrections of the Justice Department. These guidelines are an obvious improvement over a system that appears to have had a public reputation for at least some inconsistent and even unethical forensic and clinical approaches. But a simple review of these guidelines reveals that a body that does not nearly understand the nuances and complexities of the problems has created them that child (PTSD) victims suffer. There appears to be no such required guidelines for most county level child protection services. Also in the mix of complications in achieving the truth and attaining justice is the difference in training and philosophical foundations between law enforcement, courts, and the field of psychology. (Wrightsman, 2005) Even a cursory review of questioning tactics between the disciplines yields a wide difference in styles, approaches, and objectives. Not all of these approaches may be sensitive to the victim’s emotional, developmental or mental state. In fact, a very real question is exactly how many police departments have a specially trained staff member to question a child victim. Clinicians may cringe at the image of a rough and tumble officer who has never questioned a child abuse victim doing their best to pick their way through a child’s critical incident account.

Children usually reveal issues of abuse by either deliberately or spontaneously telling someone, or they make an unintentional reference to the abuse. (Ceci, et al., p.75) While these could be done for the first time in the presence of a child protection worker or police officer, they more likely are done first in the presence of a trusted adult. The time lapse between the first telling and the second forensic telling is a time frame that bears study as to the emotional impact and time impact on the child’s memory. This becomes especially concerning in child protective services that have extraordinarily large caseloads in ratio to workers, where time between report and questioning may be days, or even weeks.

 In addition, such aspects as linguistic problems associated with the child’s developmental level and cultural environment add to the challenge of accuracy. (Ceci, et al. p. 76) One also needs to consider the variable of culture, ethnicity, and quite possibly religious background. Should the forensic investigator be less than sensitive, or just perhaps ignorant of a particular culture, response of the child would quite conceivably be altered.

 In cases of sexual abuse, London, Bruck, Ceci, and Shuman (2005) conducted research that found child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome (CSAAS) to be quite valid. The effects of CSAAS are generally accepted as impacting the pattern of disclosure in a particular case, with gradual disclosures, not to mention recantations quite common. A very simple and unpublished experiment in a county in Pennsylvania asking five child protection workers if they had ever heard of CSAAS yielded a negative response in all five. If those so closely associated with child protection are not aware of valid supportive research that has been around for approximately twenty years that so articulates child victim’s experience, there indeed is much training to do.

Multiple cases presented sensationally in the media attest to the importance of questioning techniques. The use of leading questions, questions that are posed in a manner assuming a specific answer, or questions that are too complex for the child’s age are common examples of problematic methods that can cause the child to offer often elaborate confabulated material. (Wrightsman, 2005) Such inadequate methods that ignore the child’s developmental level can produce dramatic, hysterical reactivity in the community, as in the case of People v Raymond Buckey. A number of collected studies indicate that children do make commission errors about things they have never experienced, and can create fantastic, well-constructed, believable accounts of abuses that have never occurred to them. Especially when faced with an adult questioner who is using repeated suggestive methods and has a confirmatory bias, children’s witness accuracy suffers. (Ceci, et al., 1995)

Compounding simply bad questioning and investigative techniques, is the issue of how the symptoms of PTSD interact with forensic questioning. The DSM groups symptoms into three basic categories of re-experience, psychobiological alterations, with avoidance, numbing and detachment comprising the last category. Wilson, Friedman, and Lindy (2001) contend that there may be a need to add three more categories to fully articulate PTSD, including problems in interpersonal relationships, disturbance of ego structure, and alterations to the victim’s psychological makeup. Schuder and Lyons-Ruth (2004) articulate the list further by describing a variety of attachment behaviors that can be seen in traumatized infants. There is some evidence that there are child specific behavioral signs of PTSD, such as precocious development and behavioral regressions. (Nader, p284)

In light of what has been demonstrated thus far in the research on the effects of PTSD in abused children, a diagnosed child pressed into courtroom testimony appears to be contraindicated as to future treatment concerns. It would stand to reason that due to the nature of forensic evidence and information gathering, either by a forensic mental health professional, child protection worker or a police detective, all of whom are focused less on treatment than on the goal of successful litigation, future treatment is a secondary concern. It would seem that the very approach of an investigator and the nature of the questions would have the clear potential to trigger re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing, detachment, and physical agitation. If unenlightened questioners, or questioners not taking into account the child’s developmental level are added to this mix, it would seem likely that triggering may occur with some reliability. This would appear to be a ripe subject for research and testing. Even a child who has experienced abuse and is not diagnosed with PTSD may find the courtroom experience daunting. Wrightsman (2005) explains:

“It can be argued that for any victim of sexual abuse or rape, whether an adult or child, the experience of facing your alleged attacker in court is particularly stressful. The trauma is compounded if opposing attorneys view the children as especially susceptible to intimidation during cross examination, and judges remain oblivious to efforts to “break down the child on the witness stand.” (p 285)

Though one might hope that the aforementioned Article VI of the Victims of Child Abuse Act guidelines would directly address questioning tactics by attorneys, examination of the Article reveals no such measures. It should be noted, though, that the Article does provide for measures that make an attempt to be sensitive to the child’s emotional state such as video taped or closed circuit video testimony with an adult supportive attendant in close proximity to the child. But even these may not be enough to mitigate all of the possible cues and triggers to (post traumatic) stress reactivity. One wonders why these same supportive measures (perhaps with the foster parent or therapist of the child attending) are often not provided routinely, and as mandatory in cases of repeated forensic exam per CSAAS.

The legal and therapeutic aspects of child abuse cases are inextricably entwined. Without accurate information and proofs of abuse, the child may be returned to a perpetrator. The process of gaining that accurate information and proof may negatively impact the child’s symptoms and progression of treatment. Crouch, Smith, and Ezzell (August 1999) cite the fact that research in developing valid and reliable tools to measure relevant variables of outcomes is lacking. One of those variables that bear study is the determination of abuse process and the subsequent legal forensics process to ascertain if there are long lasting effects of the child moving through such a gauntlet. While psychologists may use a collected battery of standardized tests and measures in the determination of a PTSD diagnosis, these may not be sensitive enough to pick up discrete impacts and effects of the abuse on the child. The tools may even misidentify the impacts and effects as an entirely other diagnosis. (Briere, Elliott, 1997) It stands to reason that the same measures may be inadequate to determine if the protective process itself is causing further harm to the child. There are tailored checklists and inventories available, such as the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (Biere, Spinazzola, 2005), but these appear to have inherent limitations. The TSCC is a self report for children ages eight to sixteen, and the CSBI, while evaluating children between the ages of two to twelve, only evaluates sexual behaviors. Given the complexity of ‘complex PTSD’, there may be no adequate tool to ascertain the full, unique impact of the critical incidents on a specific child. Schuder, et al. (2004) speaks about ‘hidden trauma’ that is an integral part of the child’s relational experience and may include behavior sets and interaction qualities that are not noticed as problematic by even a trained observer. Even with the current state of the art questioning environments and protocols, expectations of adults for children to readily speak with a relative stranger following what may be a traumatic and embarassing abuse episode, and that challenges the child’s family loyalty is a tall order.

It is well established that the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was developed out of the middle of the last century’s experience with combat in various wars. The diagnosis was not designed with abused children in mind. Marshal, Spitzer, and Liebowitz (1999) conducted longitudinal studies that used Acute Stress Disorder criteria that suggest that there is a need to reevaluate the DSM approach to stress syndromes. This clearly is the case when considering the expansion of understanding of the experiences and behaviors, and special needs of abused children with PTSD diagnoses. Briere and Spinazola (2005) opine that clinicians often may need to make decisions on what part of the stress complex is most relevant, and that ever more precise tools are needed to fully understand the unique dimensionality of a survivor of trauma. Such understanding should lead to improvements in the forensic questioning of child victim witnesses and legal interventions, as well as treatment. A valid and reliable progress measurement tool for use at the commencement and duration of treatment would bring a wealth of information to the process and outcome of treatment efforts.

There are several efforts attempting to design best practices training programs in forensic interviews of abused children, among them the American Prosecutors Research Institute’s National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and the National Children’s Advocacy Center. (Siegal, 2004) The National Children’s advocacy Center states on their website that their training has an efficacy of gaining enough credible factual witness information to prosecute in 64% of their cases (www.nationalcac.org) The National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse program strives to get training to half of the nation by 2010. There was no current information on the website concerning how many States have thus far been sufficiently trained.

It would appear that Daubert case may point to more than just the ‘junk science’ worry; it may in fact point to the need for some vehicle to educate judges as well as front line workers in the care of abused and PTSD diagnosed children. In May of 1996 in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, a dissenting opinion from Judge Leon Burns typifies the this particular difficulty:

The social worker’s testimony discounted all the familiar facets of impeachment. First, she told the jury that recollection and memory, often and first-line attack in credibility skirmishes, was not important with child victims and should not be considered. Secondly, she discounted the importance of detail, another fertile basis for cross-examination and impeachment. Finally, and more subtly, she explained away the importance of inconsistencies in children’s testimony.

Clearly, Judge Burns was not afforded adequate educational forensic information on disclosure patterns and the many biological effects of PTSD on a child. Had Judge Burn’s opinion been in the majority, the child in question (and perhaps many children to come) may have had a very different outcome.

As stated thus far, there are likely many variables of outcomes from forensic examination of a child who is traumatized by abuse. It perhaps goes without saying that ill managed or outright botched forensic efforts leave behind children who have been further damaged by the ordeal. One might expect that if some kind of ‘psychological first aid’ were to be provided very soon after the child revealing, this might mitigate development of PTSD symptoms, and thus make for a more accurate forensic exam, but Bryant (2007) found that there was no solid validity to the claim that critical incident debriefing was effective in preventing subsequent PTSD. Regardless of the preventive hope for CID, the practice does provide the victim with a here-and-now supportive care. A review of the Field Operations Guide of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2006) shows a highly supportive approach that might be typified as quite gentle, un-pressured, and decidedly ‘un-questioning’. Without such debriefing support at the time of forensic questioning (and one might reasonably contend that a goodly number of children do not receive such debriefing), the initial forensic effort with its primary focus and objective on fact finding, has the great potential to add unnecessarily to the child’s stress load..

Court examination is of course, forensic in nature, and due to the basic philosophy of adversarial face-to-face confrontation of one’s accuser, drastically in counterpoint to PTSD treatment in children. Wilson, et al. state that a “core treatment approach removes obstacles so that the organism can heal on it’s own.” (p40). Most reasonable adults would agree that placing a child on a witness stand, either in front of a jury or just a judge would qualify as an intimidating ‘obstacle’ to the child’s best interest of healing from PTSD. Walters, Bineman, and Wright argue that hearsay testimony by professionals who have worked with the child, though clearly not the norm in a court hearing, is a clearly reasonable alternative to risking further damage to the child. While protecting the child, this may place the clinician in a gray area where the dual role as the therapist and expert witness may come up. Strasburger, Gutheil and Brodsky (1997) note that this can be come very ambiguous, but also may be somewhat unavoidable when clinicians identifying themselves as expert witnesses are unavailable due to locality and economic reasons. In addition, clinicians serving a case may be routinely asked to provide clarification in the form of education concerning PTSD in children to help judges more fully understand the issues.

As time marches on, it becomes ever more clear that specificity in treatment needs to be developed to address the particular idiosyncratic presentations of abused children diagnosed with PTSD. The literature is rife with calls for even more research to study the efficacy of existing treatments and to develop new ones. (Lombardo and Gray, 2005) This wheel turns exceedingly slow. Nader (2004) advises that the practitioner who is going to work with PTSD children who are victims of abuse needs to have a good working knowledge of psychotherapeutic principles as well as a specific, experienced trauma background.

Most models of treatment for PTSD in children are simply derived from adult models, mirroring the earlier criticism of more specific diagnosis criteria for children with the disorder. Most current approaches include multiple recounting of the critical incidents, re-attribution of erroneous responsibility, regaining a sense of safety, and helping the child regain a sense of control in their lives. (Nader, 2004) Other well-known approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, with a focus on trauma seem to be consistently cited as providing significant improvement over other forms of treatment such as child-centered therapy. (Cohen, Deblinger, Mannarino, and Steer, 2004). Other therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) have considerable continuing debate over efficacy and validity with adults, let alone children.

Lieberman and Van Horn (2004) begin to refine a more child sensitive approach by noting that two very important focus areas for children with PTSD as a result of interpersonal violence are re-establishing care giving routines and positive reciprocity between the child and care giver. Gaensbauer (2004) refines this child sensitive approach further, stating that clinicians intervening in the child’s life must take care not overwhelm and allow the child’s emotions to get out of control due to history material. He also comments on “spontaneous play”, but is not clear if this is in opposition to structured play therapy (p. 199) Gaensbaur goes on to note that: “probably the most important contribution we can make as therapists to the child’s recovery is to help parents to deal with the child’s symptoms in the home environment.” (p.199) This certainly would apply equally to foster parents when a child has been removed from an abusive parent(s). Gaensbaur addresses the behavioral acting out related to PTSD by suggesting a two pronged approach that includes firm limit setting and demonstration of empathy for the child’s expressed emotions as attached to the critical incidents. (p. 200)

This author’s anecdotal experiences in the field treating abused children with PTSD for some ten years is that there are many front line clinicians that while having adequate training and experience in psychotherapy and other multi modal techniques, have but a rudimentary understanding of PTSD. In addition, they generally and largely rely on behavioral approaches and techniques to address an abused child’s behavioral expressions of the disorder. Admittedly anecdotal study of the efficacy of such singularly behavioral techniques has demonstrated that the application appears to reliably escalate the child’s symptoms and move them towards ultimate life and developmental altering decompensation. The problem appears to be that children with PTSD often present strong oppositional symptoms that are likely attached to their allosatatic reactivity. This may be in addition to co morbid diagnoses. Many adults, even trained clinicians, reflexively react to a child’s opposition with an increase of pressure by way of behavioral techniques. Such a shift to a behavioral pressure stance can be quite subtle, and even unconscious on the part of the adult, but no less real in effect on the child. Adults, who serve as child protection workers, police officers, attorneys, therapists, and judges, to a child, may begin the cuing and triggering of the child’s stress just by their titles.

Conclusions and Directions

There appears to be enough evidence to show how children who have been abused experience and demonstrate PTSD is qualitatively different from adults. Specific research into these qualities and even possible child-specific symptoms and discrete behavioral episodes need to be explored. Ascertaining if current formats of forensic questioning contribute to driving PTSD symptoms deeper, contribute to their escalation and intensity, or are supportive of healing appears to be a fair area of concern. The development of ever more specific and specialized forensic and treatment approaches, as informed by valid scientific research on child victim’s expressions of PTSD is needed. Accurate tools to guide the process of treatment and measure outcomes are needed. High quality comprehensive education of all professionals involved with child victims about the nature and peculiarities of PTSD in children would allow for more accurate and effective litigation and movement of the child towards and through treatment. There is no specialized, specific, and individualized treatment modality for treating PTSD in children who have been victims of interpersonal abuse. Though all of the mentioned therapy alternatives certainly implicitly contain empathy and gentleness, none articulate gentleness as a key aspect of treating abused children. Perhaps after all of the research and articulation of therapeutic and legal approaches and modalities, simple gentleness may be the healing salve that is needed. Certainly pressing a child through a legal process does not qualify as ‘gentle.’ It is time for the clinical healers to move forward out of repetitions of ’the need for more research’ on the development of more effective forensic and therapy approaches, and do the developing right now, in the field.

William Krill is a clinician working in central Pennsylvania with children who are survivors of interpersonal abuse. He has over twenty five years of experience in the human services and ministry fields. A book about this fresh and innovative approach, entitled “Gentling: A Clinician’s Guide to Treating PTSD in Abused Children” is currently going to press. You can read more of his helpful articles at: http://www.freewebs.com/krillco

There’s an increased need for childcare facilities today which results to more people who are thinking of taking childcare training seminars for this need. Many parents now focus more on their careers so they need to find a good facility where they can leave their children during working hours.

Unlike what most people think, establishing a childcare facility has a number of requirements including training in taking care of children. It’s not just as simple as building a facility, get people, get clients and that’s it. In fact, there are several types of training programs like the following to accomplish:

Actual Childcare Training

Different procedures are used in taking care of children. Even if the facility is going to be a school or a day care center, it’s still important to know the right way of dealing with children of all ages before starting this type of facility. An expert must know the gestures, how to teach children, proper interaction and the right attitude in handling kids. These training programs will teach everything about kids of different ages to know how to take care of them as their second parent.

CPR And First Aid Childcare Training

Children are prone to accidents because of curiosities. With this in mind, numerous facilities make sure that they have staff that knows how to do CPR and provide first aid to kids during these scenarios. They find it helpful not only in providing appropriate care to children but also in finding clients since they can assure parents that their kids are safe in their facilities.

Administrative Training Program

Although a childcare facility is just like any other organization, administrating the staff and overall procedures are different from others. The good thing about these programs is there are a number of childcare training groups that offer them for people who want to establish their childcare facility. This allows individuals to search one company instead of spending hours looking for groups offering this training program. Aside from being a standalone program, some groups may offer them in integrated training program for the benefit of clients.

In conclusion, there are different training programs a childcare facility owner and staff must complete. Parents are very concerned about leaving their children to a facility and getting these training programs assure that they are in good hands. Finding these training facilities today is very simple with the help of the internet and local government offices.

Childcare Training Info Center has everything you need to make your life easier as you begin your career as a childcare professional. The site features state specific training requirements, a step-by-step overview of a typical hiring process, potential employers and interviews to help you get hired. And it also provide a complete range of accredited childcare courses and childcare workers.

The idea behind a conventional, commercial blog is find a money-making marketing niche and then post large amounts of high-quality, original content related to that niche on a very regular basis. If you are an excellent writer who is an expert in the subject of that blog, you might be able to post new content on a daily basis. If you don’t do this, your blog will slip in the search engine rankings and no longer be a profitable venture. So, by starting a commercial blog, you have just signed up for a full-time profession as a writer and webmaster. It would seem that a single person, regardless of how much of an expert they might be, would run out of new ideas for posts at some time and then the blog would fail for lack of new content. At some point, you might want to think about adding posts from sources other than yourself, as long as the content is original. Original content that you did not write yourself is very difficult to find unless you pay other people to create it for you.

You must also monetize your blog, meaning that you must place banner and text ads for products closely related to your blog theme. The idea there is that you will have already attracted highly targeted web traffic to your blog for the very products you are selling.

In order to have this targeted traffic in sufficient quantities to sell enough products to make all your hard work worthwhile you must do the things needed to rank high in the search engines for the best keywords for your blog. Your blog should be optimized for the search engines and you must build as many quality backlinks as you are able in as many locations as possible, all of them pointing back to your blog.

This may include submitting lots of articles related to your blog theme to different article marketing sites. You should optimize your articles to contain your foremost keyword or keywords in a ratio of 1 to 4 percent of the total words in the article. The “self-serving” links you will be permitted at the end of your article will be converted into powerful backlinks for you in the years to come. You might also want to think about paid advertising such as Google AdWords but I would not recommend that because of the high “cost to result ratio,” particularly when you are just beginning with no profits yet to pay for the advertising.

You can also post positive and pertinent comments to closely-related blogs and forums. After all this additional work is done, you may want to think about adding a squeeze page to your blog, building an opt-in email marketing list and formulating email campaigns with the purpose of encouraging visitors to return to your blog and obtain your products.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is and I have simply been talking, so far, about keeping and promoting a single blog related to a single theme and selling only products closely related to that theme. Under the theory that more is better and pretending that you are some sort of gifted being with endless time on your hands, why not create another blog on another popular but different theme and double your profits. How about 4 blogs, thus quadrupling your returns or 7 or 16 or 32 or even 64 blogs and becoming staggeringly wealthy in the process?

I’m sure, by this time, you can deduce where all this is leading: How is a single person going to be ever able to achieve this? This brings me to the subject matter of auto blogging. Auto blogging software was invented to automate the process of periodic blog posting to numerous blogs. At first blush, it sounds like a miracle but it is, upon close inspection, far from a perfect solution. Auto blogging software goes out onto the web and locates articles and videos that can be legally reproduced and which match the keywords related to your niche. You input these keywords into the software during the process of setting up each blog.

After this is complete, you then have to decide whether to let the software robotically post up to a specified number of articles or videos on an hourly or daily basis. Alternatively, you have the option of simply collecting those prospective posts in a folder where they will wait for your personal review. You can then pick which articles and videos will actually be posted on the blog and which will be erased. Using this option will improve the quality of your blogs considerably. It will also take more of your time.

It is crucial not to have the software post automatically. If you automate the process, you will just get a lot of rubbish on your blogs, some of which does not even apply to the individual themes of your blogs. You will be creating a bunch of blogs that no one will want to read. To make matters worse, the search engines will never list your blogs high enough that they will be seen in the listings. In short, all of your blogs will probably fail and you will have wasted all your time and money.

The good news is that there exists a middle-ground alternative to pure auto blogging and that is to post all the articles and videos by hand. It should be understood that the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are biased strongly in favor of blogs using purely-original, high-quality content. As we have already discussed, making such a blog is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming venture but it is frequently rewarded with listings on the first page of search engines in some of the niches that relate to your keywords. These keywords should appear frequently (up to 4%) in your posts to exhibit relevancy to your blog theme.

If you go the auto blogging route but thoroughly screen your posts before permitting them to appear publically, you will increase your odds of excellent search engine rankings. However, you will be still saddled with the search engines determining that your content is not original. The search engines will know that it has showed up elsewhere on the web previously to being posted on your blog. If you keep your content pertinent to your theme and of the highest quality and post systematically (preferably 7 days a week), you can still magnetize an abundance of traffic and fairly high search engine rankings. If you add in some absolutely original articles that you have written, your search engine rankings should go even a bit higher.

Admittedly, you are making a compromise here between top-quality content and saving time and work. Modified auto blogging provides you with a means of making up for using somewhat less-than-original content: You will now have the opportunity to build multiple blogs on different themes and hence promote different types of products in larger quantities. The perception is that while no one blog will perform as well as if it were made up totally of high-quality, original material, some or most of the blogs will, in due course, bring in some amount of cash each day. As an example, if you maintained 50 blogs averaging only $10 each in sales a day, you be raking in $500 each day, on average. That would equate to annual gross sales of $182,500 a year. If your 50 blogs averaged $100 each a day, the annual amount would be $1,825,000. No lone blog is going to provide that for you.

In actuality, you will soon discover that a number of your blogs perform very well in the long run while others bring in no income at all. Even with partial automation, posting to 50 blogs each day and promoting them all simultaneously is going to end up being more than you can manage if you hope to do the best possible job with each individual blog.

When you initially set up your blogs, take care that each is set up to be tracked by Google Analytics so that you can periodically observe and record the progress of each blog in terms of traffic. Keep a spreadsheet of these traffic results and update it frequently. After a couple months of systematically posting to all of your blogs, you will find out that some are beginning to perform very well while others are a big disappointment. You need to give this process sufficient time for your blogs to be discovered and followed.

At this point in time you must cull or get rid of all blogs that are performing below a certain standard while keeping the more lively ones. If you did away with twenty blogs out of your original 50 you could slash your total daily posting time considerably while giving complete support to just high-performing blogs. After a period of time, you might decide to remove even more and replace them with new blogs promoting new products and see how those perform.

Look at it this way: Which is better, 50 blogs bringing in $10 each a day ($500) or ten blogs earning $50 each a day ($500)? The answer is obviously ten blogs each bringing in $50 a day because the labor and time required to accomplish that is just 20% of the first option. Look at the entire process of arriving at that point like planting a garden, waiting for the plants to grow, finding the strongest plants and then weeding out all the lesser plants to provide the sturdy ones the best opportunity to grow while cutting your labor to the bone. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Bob Gillespie

© 2011 Robert M. Gillespie, Jr.

About the Author:

Bob Gillespie writes on many subjects including multi-blog marketing. He is a full-time Internet marketer and author who lives on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Learn more about multi-blog marketing online at Bob’s blog at:

http://multi-blog-marketing.inetwyoming.com

Another blog of possible interest:

http://niche-affiliate-marketing.inetwyoming.com

Colorado fly fishing is an adventure that you won’t want to pass up on your next vacation. Colorado fly fishing offer something for every angler. Mountain streams, river basins, lakes, and reservoirs fill the need of any fly fisherman.

Where to Fly Fish in Colorado:

Colorado offers fly fisherman miles of world class fly fishing streams where the waters are managed by the Colorado Department of Wildlife to guarantee you the populations of large trout that you are looking for.

You may be a crackerjack fly fishing angler and know all the hot spots for fly fishing in Colorado or you may be new to the state and need some expert guidance. When you get your Colorado fishing license, be sure to pick up your free copy of Colorado Fishing Season Information & Wildlife Property Discovery booklet or go to any of the local Colorado Division Wildlife offices and pick up the Colorado fishing map.

Colorado fly fishing is divided into five regions: Northeast Region; Northwest Region; Southeast Region; Southwest Region; and the Denver Metro Region. You can choose many fine Colorado fly fishing spots in any of these prime fly fishing regions. Your Colorado fly fishing experience can be divided into fishing the roaring streams and majestic rivers to fly fishing the many mountain lakes and large reservoirs.

Fly Fish the Northwestern Region of Colorado

The Northwest region of Colorado offers fly anglers a variety of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs to choose from. From the Yampa River and its tributary, the Elk river in the north to the prime Colorado fly fishing rivers of the southern part of this region, the Northwest region of Colorado is noted for fly fishing.

Colorado fly fishing is at its finest from Meeker and the White River to the grand Colorado River running through central Colorado from the high mountains. Fly fisherman will delight in the trophies they find fishing this region’s rivers. Most notably, the Green river, Blue river, Roaring Fork River, and the Crystal River provide anglers with the fly fishing adventure they are looking for.

Colorado fly fishing is found on the lakes and reservoirs of the region too. Grand lake and Grandby Reservoir are found on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park and are both noted for their fishing. Steamboat Lake is in the north of this region and is a picturesque place for the fly fisherman to angle. Other reservoirs include Williams Fork Reservoir, Willow Creek Reservoir, Stagecoach Reservoir, and Wolford Reservoir to name just a few.

Wherever you are looking for a fly fishing adventure, Colorado offers excellent fly fishing conditions and opportunities. Colorado fly fishing is constantly improved by the efforts of the fifteen Colorado Division of Wildlife hatcheries. The Colorado Division of Wildlife stocks over 4.3 million 10-inch fish a year, in addition to 43 million warm-water species and 11 million cold-water species. Catch and release fishing is popular and if you don’t plan to eat the fish you’ve caught, please help conserve Colorado’s precious fly fishing resource by returning the fish to the water.

What to fly fish for in Colorado:

The natural beauty of the Colorado fly fishing spots is distracting even to the most seasoned angler. But distractions not withstanding, and the proper fly fishing equipment, fly fishing anglers and enthusiasts are more than able to hook trout species like browns, brookies, and the rainbow trout in the rivers and streams that fly fisherman prefer. Fly fisherman may also stumble upon grayling and cutthroats too.

The other species that can be found here in Colorado’s fly fishing lakes and reservoirs are Walleye, Wipers, Yellow Perch, Crappie Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Tiger Muskies, Bluegill, and Pumpkinseed. Colorado fly fishing provides any angler with an experience of a lifetime.

Various lures and worms work best during the spring runoff when the waters are high and streams running fast. Flies usually work best during late July, August and September. Watch for what’s hatching in the area where you’re fly fishing. This is the indication of which fly fishing flies will work best. Mayflies, caddis flies, midges, and stone flies predominate in this fly fishing area.

Colorado fly fishing is world class and you will find some of the best fly fishing in North America. There is no excuse not to pick up your fly fishing rod and tackle and set out on a leisurely Colorado fly fishing vacation of a lifetime.

Jim Bruce maintains a website on Colorado travel. Find out more about Colorado fly fishing and the fly fishing hotspots the state of Colorado has to offer by going to: http://www.coloradotravelexperience.com/Colorado_fly_fishing.html

From bunny hills to black diamond runs, skiing is one of the world’s most admired pastimes and leisure activity. From hobbyist and ambitious skiers to regular individuals who ski a couple of occasions a year (or a decade), skiing’s keen admirers are as distinct as a package of 64 crayons. Young, old and every age anywhere between from areas across the country, skiing is a hobby treasured by hundreds of thousands. The innovative background of skiing is chiefly considered to have begun in 1850 in Norway with the original competitive events taking place soon thereafter.

Ski destinations are encountered covering the United States (and world) with concentration on the western United States. Colorado and Utah, essentially, are considered to have some of the highest quality ski vacation resorts around the world. Vail, Colorado, is deemed to be one of the top ski lodges worldwide. It is the biggest single mountain resort in the United States. Vail began in 1962 and has been a holiday location for skiers in search of the best skiing ever since. Aspen, Breckinridge and Crested Butte are numerous other ski attractions in Colorado that deliver you exceptional runs for a multitude of skill set levels.

Utah’s saying is “The Best Snow on Earth,” and the state includes some of the prime skiing in the world. Salt Lake City was home to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and is largely thought to be a front runner to perform repeatedly as an Olympic coordinator city because of to the triumph of the 2002 Games, which had a lot to do with the snow and the ski activities sensational settings. Deer Valley, Park City, Alta and Snowbird are four of the Salt Lake City/Wasatch Mountain’s best known and most popular ski resorts. Deer Valley was the location for the freestyle moguls and aerials and the alpine men’s and women’s slalom events at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Alta is one of the older ski areas in the United States and is one of the few ski areas left in the US that is open strictly to skiers, not to snowboarders. Alta is most widely known for the leading quality of its “powder” snow and is known for long, straight, fall line ski runs. Park City, Utah is comprised of a number of the US Ski Team’s training courses incorporating slalom and giant slalom runs. At the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, Park City managed the snowboarding and men’s and women’s alpine giant slalom events.

Remaining notable western U.S. ski areas include Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Heavenly and Squaw Valley, California; Taos, New Mexico and Sun Valley, Idaho.

Grant Atkins enjoys skiing and the great outdoors. This article is filled with history and ideas about how you can enjoy skiing too.

Understanding Fats…

While cooking oils are pure fat, they are not created equal. All cooking oils are a combination of saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. It is the concentration of hydrogen that determines how they are categorized. Without getting too technical, the following information will hopefully provide a basic understanding of fats.

Saturated Fats:

Saturated fats are found in animal products and are converted into cholesterol by the liver. Butter, margarine, meats and dairy products are especially high in saturated fat. Saturated fat will elevate blood cholesterol levels and is associated with increased rates of heart disease and stroke. It is solid at room temperature.

Unsaturated Fats:

There are two types of unsaturated fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats do not raise blood cholesterol levels. Canola and olive oils contain the highest proportion of monounsaturated fat when compared with other cooking oils. Safflower and corn oil are the highest in polyunsaturated fats.

Trans Fats:

Trans fats are man-made or processed fats, which are made from a liquid oil. When hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oil and pressure is added, the result is a stiffer fat, like the fat found in a can of Crisco. Trans fats are also called hydrogenated fats and are found in margarine and trans fat partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Trans fats pose a greater risk of heart disease than saturated fats (which were once believed to be the worst kind of fats). While it is true that saturated fats (found in butter, cheese, beef, coconut and palm oil) raise total cholesterol levels, trans fats not only raise total cholesterol levels, they also deplete good cholesterol (HDL), which helps protect against heart disease.

Partially Hydrogenated Fats:

If you have health concerns, read food labels to see if they list “partially hydrogenated oil” as an ingredient. Partially hydrogenated oils are present in all commercially made donuts, crackers, cookies, pastries, deep-fat fried foods (including those from all major fast-food chains), potato and corn chips, imitation cheeses, and confectionery fats found in frosting and candies. All of these products contain unsaturated fats which can be damaged at high temperatures and converted to a trans fat.

Understanding the Difference between Refined and Unrefined Cooking Oils…

Refined Oils:

Refined oils are extracted by solvent extraction for further refining in order to produce clear oil that is free from rancidity and foreign matter. These oils are used as medium cooking oils (225°F to 350°F), high cooking oils (350°F to 450°F) and deep frying oils (greater than 450°F). Refined oils are bland and pale. They have negligible flavor and aroma which makes them ideal for preparing delicately flavored dishes. Use for baking, sauteing, stir-fry and wok cooking, baking, searing, browning, deep-frying and pan-frying.

Unrefined Oils:

Unrefined oils are processed by cold-pressed and expeller-pressed methods. They carry the true flavor of the plant from which the oil is made. The strong flavor of unrefined oils may overwhelm the dish or baked good that is prepared with them; however, strong flavor is not always undesirable and some unrefined oils are used as flavoring agents. (Generally, when there is a strong natural flavor and aroma, there is a higher amount of nutritional value.) These oils are typically called salad oils and are used for salad dressings, marinades, sauces and as light cooking oils for light sautes and low heat baking. As a general rule, they should not be cooked at high temperatures. (The one exception is unrefined safflower oil which is capable of reaching a temperature necessary for deep-frying.) Unrefined oils should not be used at temperatures above 320°F.

Various Cooking Oils and Recommended Use…

Some oils have low smoke points, which means that they will burn at low temperatures. These oils, typically called salad oils, are best used for salad dressings, marinades, sauces and as light cooking oils for light sautes and low heat baking. Other cooking oils have a high smoke point, which means that they can reach higher temperatures without smoking. These particular oils are ideal for deep-frying, pan-frying and sauteing. The information below will discuss various types of cooking oils and their recommended use.

About the Author: Janice Faulk Duplantis, author and publisher, currently maintains a web site that focuses on both Easy Gourmet and French/Cajun Cuisine. Visit http://www.bedrockpress.com to see all that Bedrock Press has to offer. Janice also publishes 4 free monthly ezines: Gourmet Bytes, Lagniappe Recipe, Your Favorite Recipes and Cooking 101. Visit http://www.bedrockpress.com/subscribe.html to subscribe.

India’s US$40b education market is experiencing a surge in investment. Capital, both local and international, and innovative legal structures are changing the face of this once-staid sector

The liberalization of India’s industrial policy in 1991 was the catalyst for a wave of investment in IT and infrastructure projects. Rapid economic growth followed, sparking a surge in demand for skilled and educated workers. This, combined with the failure of the public system to provide high quality education and the growing willingness of the burgeoning middle class to spend money on schooling, has transformed India’s education sector into an attractive and fast-emerging opportunity for foreign investment.

Despite being fraught with regulatory restrictions, private investors are flocking to play a part in the “education revolution”. A recent report by CLSA (Asia-Pacific Markets) estimated that the private education market is worth around US$40 billion. The K-12 segment alone, which includes students from kindergarten to the age of 17, is thought to be worth more than US$20 billion. The market for private colleges (engineering, medical, business, etc.) is valued at US$7 billion while tutoring accounts for a further US$5 billion.

Other areas such as test preparation, pre-schooling and vocational training are worth US$1-2 billion each. Textbooks and stationery, educational CD-ROMs, multimedia content, child skill enhancement, e-learning, teacher training and finishing schools for the IT and the BPO sectors are some of the other significant sectors for foreign investment in education.

Opportunity beckons

The Indian government allocated about US$8.6 billion to education for the current financial year. But considering the significant divide between the minority of students who graduate with a good education and the vast majority who struggle to receive basic elementary schooling, or are deprived of it altogether, private participation is seen as the only way of narrowing the gap. Indeed, it is estimated that the scope for private participation is almost five times the amount spent on education by the government.

CLSA estimates that the total size of India’s private education market could reach US$70 billion by 2012, with an 11% increase in the volume and penetration of education and training being offered.

The K-12 segment is the most attractive for private investors. Delhi Public School operates approximately 107 schools, DAV has around 667, Amity University runs several more and Educomp Solutions plans to open 150 K-12 institutions over the next four years. Coaching and tutoring K-12 students outside school is also big business with around 40% of urban children in grades 9-12 using external tuition facilities.

Opening the doors

Private initiatives in the education sector started in the mid-90s with public-private partnerships set up to provide information and communications technology (ICT) in schools. Under this scheme, various state governments outsourced the supply, installation and maintenance of IT hardware and software, as well as teacher training and IT education, in government or government-aided schools. The central government has been funding this initiative, which follows the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and ICT Schools programmes. Private companies such as Educomp Solutions, Everonn Systems, and NIIT were among the first to enter the ICT market, which is expected to be worth around US$1 billion by 2012.

Recently, the central government invited private participation in over 1,000 of its industrial training institutes and offered academic and financial autonomy to private players. Companies such as Tata, Larsen & Toubro, Educomp and Wipro have shown keen interest in participating in this initiative.

Regulatory roadblocks

Education in India is regulated at both central and state government levels. As a result, regulations often differ from state to state. K-12 education is governed by the respective State School Education Act and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Rules and Regulations concerning affiliation and/or the rules of any other affiliating body. Under current regulations, only not-for-profit trusts and societies registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860, and companies registered under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, qualify to be affiliated with the CBSE and to operate private schools.

While the K-12 segment accounts for the lion’s share of India’s educational market, weaving through the complex regulatory roadmap to qualify for affiliation poses serious difficulties for investors. The CBSE requires privately-funded schools to be non-proprietary entities without any vested control held by an individual or members of a family. In addition, a school seeking affiliation is expected to have a managing committee controlled by a trust, which should approve budgets, tuition fees and annual charges. Any income accrued cannot be transferred to the trust or school management committee and voluntary donations for gaining school admission are not permitted.

Schools and higher education institutions set up by the trust are entitled to exemptions from income tax, subject to compliance with section 11 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. In order to qualify for tax exemptions, the trust needs to ensure that its predominant activity is to serve the charitable purpose of promoting education as opposed to the pursuit of profit.

Alternative paths

Alternative routes do exist for investors seeking to avoid the web of regulatory barriers that constrain their involvement. Sectors such as pre-schools, private coaching and tutoring, teacher training, the development and provision of multimedia content, educational software development, skill enhancement, IT training and e-learning are prime sectors in which investors can allocate their funds. These areas are attractive because while they relate closely to the profitable K-12 segment, they are largely unregulated. As such, they make attractive propositions for private investors interested in taking advantage of the burgeoning demand for quality education. Companies such as Educomp Solutions, Career Launcher, NIIT, Aptech, and Magic Software, are market leaders in these fields. Educomp recently acquired a large number of educational institutes and service providers across India. It has also formed joint ventures with leading higher education groups, including Raffles Education Singapore, for the establishment of higher education institutions and universities in India and China. Furthermore, it has entered into a multi-million dollar collaboration with Ansal Properties and Infrastructure to set up educational institutions and schools across the country and closed an US$8.5 million deal to acquire Eurokids International, a private provider of pre-school educational services in India. Gaja Capital India, an education-centric fund, has completed the funding of three education services companies in India. NIIT and Aptech, meanwhile, are engaged in the IT training business.

Core Projects and Technology is also focusing heavily on India and is likely to bid to takeover, upgrade and run public schools for specified periods on a public-private partnership basis.

Higher hurdles

While state governments are largely responsible for providing K-12 education in India, the central government is accountable for major policy decisions relating to higher education. It provides grants to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and establishes central universities in the country. The UGC coordinates, determines and maintains standards and the release of grants. Upon the UGC’s recommendation, the central government declares the status of an educational institution, which once authorized, is entitled to award degrees.

State governments are responsible for the establishment of state universities and colleges and has the power to approve the establishment of private universities through State Acts. All private universities are expected to conform to the UGC guidelines to ensure that certain minimum standards are maintained.

Amity University in Uttar Pradesh is one of the private universities to open its doors. It was approved by the Uttar Pradesh state legislature on 12 January 2005 under section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission Act.

Not-for-profit and anti-commercialization concepts dominate higher education fee structures. To prevent commercialization and profit-making, institutions are prohibited from claiming returns on investments. This, however, does not pose a hurdle for universities interested in mobilizing resources to replace and upgrade their assets and services. A fixation of fees is required in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by the UGC and other concerned statutory bodies. For this purpose, the UGC may request the relevant information from the private university concerned, as prescribed in the UGC (Returns of Information by Universities) Rules, 1979.

In line with the policy on Fee Fixation in Private Unaided Educational Institutions Imparting Higher and Technical Education, two types of fees are required: tuition fees and development fees. Tuition fees are intended to recover the actual cost of imparting education without becoming a source of profit for the owner of the institution. While earning returns on investment would not be permissible, development fees may provide an element of partial capital cost recovery to the management, serving as a resource for upkeep and replacement.

Legal precedents

In order to be awarded university status by the UGC, institutions must comply with the objectives set forth in the Model Constitution of the Memorandum of Association/Rules, and ensure that no portion of the income accrued is transferred as profit to previous or existing members of the institution. Payments to individuals or service providers in return for any service rendered to the institute are, however, not regulated.

In this context recent court judgments on private universities are relevant. The Supreme Court, in Unnikrishnan JP v State of Andhra Pradesh, introduced a scheme regulating the admission and levy of fees in private unaided educational institutions, particularly those offering professional education. The ruling was later notified in the fee policy.

Subsequently, in the case of Prof Yashpal and Anr v State of Chattisgarh and Ors in 2005, the Supreme Court assailed the Chattisgarh government’s legislation and amendments which had been abused by many private universities. It was contended that the state government, simply by issuing notifications in the Gazette, had been establishing universities in an indiscriminate and mechanical manner without taking into account the availability of any infrastructure, teaching facilities or financial resources. Further, it was found that the legislation (Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2002) had been enacted in a manner which had completely abolished any kind of UGC control over private universities.

The Supreme Court concluded that parliament was responsible for ensuring the maintenance and uniformity of higher education institutions in order to uphold the UGC’s authority. Following the judgment, only those private universities that satisfied the UGC’s norms were able to continue operating in Chattisgarh.

Professional institutions

Professional and technical education in India is regulated by professional councils such as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Established under the AICTE Act, 1987, AICTE gives recognition to courses, promotes professional institutions, provides grants to undergraduate programmes, and ensures the coordinated and integrated development of technical education and the maintenance of standards. The AICTE has recently exerted pressure on unrecognized private technical and management institutes to seek its approval or face closure.

A single bench decision of the Delhi High Court in Chartered Financial Analysis Institute and Anr v AICTE illustrates the far-reaching implications this kind of pressure can have on all institutions operating independently of the AICTE. The court found that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, a US-based organization, was engaged in imparting technical education and that its charter, though not described as a degree or diploma, was nevertheless descriptive of the candidate attaining an academic standard, entitling him to pursue further courses, and achieve better prospects of employment in the investment banking profession. The AICTE argued that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute fell within the ambit of its regulation and was therefore obliged to submit to the jurisdiction of the regulatory body. The Delhi High Court upheld the AICTE’s view that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute did qualify as an institution imparting technical education..

This judgment may have emboldened the AICTE to proceed against a number of other establishments that are on its list of unapproved institutions. It holds particular significance since despite not granting degrees and diplomas, the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute was still deemed by the court to be covered under the description of a “technical institute”.

Enthusiasm grows for foreign participation

While regulators such as the AICTE continue to exercise influence in the Indian education system, the sector is expected to witness a surge in foreign investment and perhaps a reduction in the number of regulatory roadblocks as a result of the central government’s enthusiasm for overseas investors. Foreign direct investment in higher education could help reduce government expenditure and there is a general consensus that education as a whole should be opened for domestic and foreign private participation.

The entry of foreign educational institutions into India will be covered by the new Foreign Education Providers (Regulation for Entry and Operation) Bill. The bill seeks to regulate the entry and operation of foreign education providers, as well as limit the commercialization of higher education. Foreign education providers would be given the status of “deemed universities” allowing them to grant admissions and award degrees, diplomas or certificates.

Operationally, the bill proposes to bring foreign education providers under the administrative umbrella of the UGC, which would eventually regulate the admissions process and fee structures. Since these foreign institutions will have to be incorporated under central or state laws, they will also be subject to the government’s policies of reservations. The bill is pending approval from the Indian Parliament but it is unclear if it will be taken by the present government for a vote prior to the general elections in 2009.

Innovative structures unlock profitability

The regulatory restraints on running profitable businesses in the K-12 and higher education sectors have driven Indian lawyers to devise innovative structures that enable private investors to earn returns on their investments. These typically involve the establishment of separate companies to provide a range of services (operations, technology, catering, security, transport, etc.) to the educational institution. The service companies enter into long term contracts with the trust operating the institution. Payments made by the trust to the service companies must be comparative and proportionate to the services rendered by such companies. Furthermore, in order to qualify for tax exemptions, the expenses paid by the trust to the service companies must not exceed what may reasonably be paid for such services under arm’s length relationships.

Despite the regulatory constraints, the Indian education sector is on a path of exponential growth. A growing number of private companies are undertaking creatively structured projects in the education business and the level of investor confidence is demonstrated by the recent spate of M&A activity that has taken place.

With more domestic players emerging, the education sector is likely to witness consolidation, but at the same time, increasing foreign participation will drive competition and raise standards. Liberalization will continue to intensify as the government struggles to remedy its poor public education system and provide quality institutions to educate India’s masses.

Seema Jhingan and Dimpy Mohanty are partners at LexCounsel Law Offices. The firm is headquartered in Delhi and advises on areas including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, projects, telecommunications, software/information technology, education, media and entertainment, taxation, retail, licensing and franchising, insurance, general corporate and commercial work and international arbitration. Seema can be reached at sjhingan@lexcounsel.in

Areas of Practice:

Infrastructure, Telecommunications, Power, Mergers/Acquisition, Software/Information Technology, Business Process Outsourcing, Media & Entertainment, Private Equity and Venture Capital, General Corporate and Commercial, International Arbitration.

Professional Summary:

Seema Jhingan’s practice spans over fourteen years during which she has acquired substantial expertise in representing developers, sponsors/lenders, venture capital investors, international corporations, financial institutions, and other strategic investors involved in the establishment, development and financing of major infrastructure and IT projects in India.

Seema Jhingan is a Partner with a Delhi Based Law Firm LexCounsel, Law Offices and regularly contributes to journals and publications and often takes up speaking engagements.

Are you planning a motorcycle road trip? Made all the travel arrangements – hotel booking, side seeing planning etc.! Have you made packing properly? Think again! Well, when you are planning a biking trip with your friends then make a complete list of all the supplies and the activities you are going to perform in your tour. Usually, in excitement we miss out some of the essentials. But you make a smart move and list out all your essentials like your clothes, eateries, accessories, motorcycle tools and have a joyful vacation. You must be thinking why tools. Let me tell you that more than anything else your safety is supreme. So, for that you require engine repair tools that can safeguard you against any mishap that might occur in your expedition.

Not only on these special events you require these vehicles but even in our day-to-day life these vehicles are very important part of our lives. Without them our life is just so meaningless and go standstill. For such important elements of our life, don’t we need special care tools? Indeed, engine repair tools are a must in our kit. Safe driving ensures long living for which a smooth and healthy vehicle is required, which definitely ask for timely maintenance. So, make sure to keep all the essential car or motorcycle tools in your baggage.

To enjoy safe and smooth ride of your vehicle you need to get it checked from a good mechanic but for that you have to shed big amount. A better and more economical way is to buy good quality engine repair tools which can aid to low maintenance cost. If you don’t know how to handle these equipment’s then don’t feel sad you have these online tutorials or user manuals who can guide you through. But if you don’t like these ideas then ask for a family or friends help. I am sure they won’t mind doing this in exchange of a dinner or a drink party.

So, spend some dollars on your car or motorcycle tools purchase and enjoy a long life of your vehicle.

Kiya Thakur is a Professionalize content writer and basically writes on engine repair tools and motorcycle tools. To get more information about these automotive tools visit at http://www.handsontools.com

It may be hard to believe but a fish tank will require a lot of care and management. If you have had problems in keeping your fish alive even for a few months, you will need to take a closer look at your fish tank. It may sound simple but it’s anything but simple. Taking care of the aquarium will require some effort on your part and you will need to plan in advance in order to get the techniques right. The normal life spans of the archetypal tanks are measured in years and not in months, but the life of the fishes vary from species to species. These fish have the potential to live anywhere between 3 to 7 years, and the goldfish can survive for almost 20 years.

If you are taking the care of your fish tank, the right way, the life span of your fish will increase dramatically and they will be able to live out their whole life span. One of the major requirements you will need to pay attention to are the food supplies. The food supply tends to vary with the change of season and guess what, so does the feed amount. Hence, you should try to serve your fish with less food during winter and more during summer. You may already be aware of the fact that small fishes are under constant threat of an attack from the bigger ones, so it may be a good idea to keep the small fishes separately in a tank all on their own. Usually the fish don’t become old and die, but get eaten by others when they grow weak. As macabre as that may seem, that’s a fact when it comes to fishes, of course, the tank could always do them in first especially if you haven’t taken care of it.

Fish tanks can become breeding grounds for various kinds of diseases, so you will need to sanitize the tank when cleaning it in order to protect your fishes from these diseases. The fish can get various types of illnesses, so you’ll need to do all you can to prevent them from becoming sick in the first place. If you’re a hands on sort of person and would prefer to treat the fish on your own, you would be better off hitting the books in the quest of getting information on fish diseases. You’ll need to learn about the various diseases and the effective methods of treatment for the same. In such cases, prevention is much better than cure, and you should clean the tank regularly to avoid these problems. The fish tank should have good-quality water and the fishes should be provided with a balanced diet. Poor quality water can stress out the fish so you’ll need to take care that the water is of good quality and aerated properly. Generally their immune systems are strong enough to protect them from a few disease-causing organisms, but if you prefer not to leave anything to chance, you’ll need to start cleaning the tank on a regular basis. You should check the tank regularly to ensure that the fishes are in good health, and do not end up falling prey to some disease. You can generally make this out form observing any changes in their physical appearance or in their activities. If you do notice the same, then it’s time to start cleaning the filter, the tank and change at least one third of the water in the aquarium.

Medication can be added to the water in the fish tank but it needs to be done carefully. If the fishes are sick then it is better to opt for treating the fish than just dunking them in medicated water. There are a few fish medications that are not effective and can actually cause more harm to the sick fishes. As the physical condition of fishes start to improve, you can start changing the tank water on a regular basis again. You will need to remember that fishes require constant care and you can do so by cleaning the aquarium first. The water in the tank is the main source of survival for the fishes, and carelessness here would result in loss of their lives.

Remember that certain kind of fish require special modifications to be carried out to the tank in order to ensure that they remain healthy. It could be the ambient water temperature, so you will need to check the water temp every now and then, to ensure that there are no accidents. Other than the temperature, you’ll need to ensure that the water is aerated; you will be able to get all you need at any of top of the line pet supply stores. Maintaining a fish tank can take quite a bit of effort on your part but once you have done it a couple of times, it will seem easy. The hard part lies in actually putting your thoughts to action and getting to clean up that tank.

There are some wonderful resources out there like this site on fish tanks [http://bubblyfishtanks.com]. Alternatively, for more information on setting up a fish tank or fish tank accessories in general have a look at this site full of great information regarding fish tank filters [http://bubblyfishtanks.com/11/fish-tank-filters/].

Are you looking for a car, with a sporty look, but don’t want to spend buckets of cash on a sporty automobile that tends to be very expensive for the pocket, then you should think about a hybrid sports car. These vehicles are very different from a normal sports vehicle. The normal sports car is not very fuel efficient and after spending a fortune to own a sporty car, you also have to spend heavily on the fuel as well. To overcome all your problems, various companies have invented hybrid sports cars. Generally it is believed that hybrid cars are not very fast on the road, but these hybrid cars were designed keeping all these factors in mind.

The hybrid sports car was made by taking various important factors into account. The first factor is the fuel efficiency factor. There are people who wish to buy a trendy automobile, but the factor that refrains them from doing so, is the heavy amount of expenditure of fuel and insurance. Most sporty vehicles have large motors and a sleek body to support their extreme output for high speeds. The reason for this is these automobiles use enormous amount of fuel because their engines are very heavy. But a hybrid sport car was designed to overcome this drawback. These hybrid cars have a comparatively light body and smaller engines. With this kind of structure and engine the hybrid cars prove to be very efficient fuel users. Again the other factor which would concern the prospective buyer is the comparative slow speed of hybrid cars. This factor has also been given consideration and hybrid sports cars have a feature of fine speed attached to it. The hybrid sports cars are also eco- friendly, this means these cars do not emit harmful gases which cause global warming. By using such cars we can assure a better future and a cleaner environment for the coming generation. The fact that hybrid cars are half battery operated makes these cars a good option with people opting for fuel efficient automobiles.

It is believed, that the biggest drawback with hybrid sports car is the cost factor, but if we compare the cost and fuel efficiency then we see that these vehicles would provide us with more long term benefits then a non hybrid car. There are many advantages attached to these hybrid cars. This is a car which can fulfill all your dreams. The car of tomorrow is here. This car holds all the aspects of a good sporty vehicle. It will provide you with assurance of quality and money. There are very limited manufacturers like Toyota, Honda etc which are manufacturing hybrid sports cars. The fact is that, if more of these cars would be in demand then the supply would also increase which would eventually reduce the cost factor. It is very important for the people to know the various positive aspects of these cars. Every now and then there are more features added to these cars. They are not only beautiful, trendy, smart and elegant but also hold all the attributes to be called the car of the next generation. There is a car available in the market which would satisfy all your desires of owning a sporty car and that is hybrid sports car.

If you have been looking into buying a Hybrid Sports Car. Feel free to have a look at our definitive guide to hybrid cars. Be sure to go here if you want to turn your current vehicle into a Hybrids Sports Car.

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I have found that some steelhead flies work better on some rivers but don’t work so well on other rivers. Several instances come mind that helps to point out this fact. One happened about 15 years ago when I was in Northwest Washington State fly-fishing the Stillaguamish River for steelhead. My friend Gordon who lives in the area and I arrived at the mouth of the North Fork early one morning and I asked him, “Well what fly should I start out with this morning?” His reply was “try this one” as he gave me a fly from his fly box that looked like a fluorescent orange wooly bugger. In about 15 minutes I was into a nice fish of about 10 lbs. To this day, that is the only fish I have ever caught on that fly, I have fished it on several other steelhead rivers here in Oregon without success. The Red Ant is another pattern that seems to be a one-river fly. It’s a great fly on the Rouge River, but for me, that seems to be the only river where it catches fish.

Another curiosity about steelhead flies: A fly pattern may catch fish one year, and the following year, it just doesn’t seem to work Therefore, if you’re going to fly fish a new river for steelhead, better check with a local fly shop or the local fly fishing club and find out what steelhead fly patterns are catching fish for that particular river.

I happened to be a firm believer in confidence that you have for a particular fly pattern. For example, when you tie a fly on the end of your leader that you feel good about, and you get that special “feeling” that it will catch you a fish, chances are, it will work. Also when fishing gets tough because of fishing pressure and hot bright days, stay with the time tested fly patterns that have caught fish over the years.

Needless to say, one of my favorite Steelhead Flies is the Green Butt Skunk. I tie it un-weighted in sizes 4 & 6, on a black finish up-eye fly hook. I consider this a good morning and mid-day fly and have also caught fish on it with bright sun on the water. Second is the plain Skunk with an all white wing, I tie it in sizes 2, 4, and 6 on nickel-plated down-eye hooks. I like the size 2 for winter fish and the 4 & 6 during late low light afternoons and evenings for summer fish. The number three and number four favorites, would have to be the Umpqua Special and the Orange General Practitioner, both of these flies are tied un-weighted on size 4 up-eye hooks. I like to fish these patterns early in the morning on the edges of fast currents using a sink tip fly line and a short leader. Pattern # 5 would have to be the Black Wooly Bugger size 6. I usually tie this fly weighted on a 4x long 2x strong down eye hook with a long black marabou tail with a few strands of pearl flashabou and a black cactus chenille body with a black hackle wrap. The # 6 fly and one of my favorites because of its versatility, is the Muddler Minnow and I tie this fly on a #6 down eye, 6x long hook. This fly can be fished wet with a trimmed cone head or it can be fishing dry or skated with a trimmed ball head using a riffle hitch.

I use both weighted and un-weighted steelhead flies. However, I feel that an un-weighted fly has more movement in the water because it is affected more by the different current flows than a weight fly. Some sections of fly-only waters prohibit the use of weighted flies, so check the fishing regulations for those waters. However there are times when you just have to get the fly down on the bottom and a weighted fly may be needed.

The on line source for more fly fishing information and tips on steelhead fly fishing, steelhead flies, rods, reels and fly lines, http://www.oregon-fly-fishing-with-stan.com/tips/fly-fishing-tips.htm

Stanley Stanton: Oregon Fly Fishing Guide and McKenzie River fishing guide, Visit: http://www.oregon-fly-fishing-with-stan.com For trout fly fishing tips, how to fly fish information, plus guided Rainbow Trout Fly Fishing, Steelhead Fly Fishing, fly fishing lessons for beginners and Oregon Salmon Fishing

As we kick off a new year in cinema, I thought I’d take time to look ahead at the films we’ll be hit with over the course of the year. In this article, I’ll be going over what my 15 most anticipated movies are for the year. Now it should be noted, these aren’t the movies that I feel will be the best of 2011 necessarily. Rather, they’re the ones that, as of the time of this writing, I am anticipating the most. So without further ado, here are my most anticipated movies of 2011.

1. Sucker Punch

Director: Zack Snyder

Writer: Zack Snyder and Steve Shibuya

Stars: Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens and Abbie Cornish

Release Date: March 25, 2011

Genre: Action Fantasy Thriller

What is it: A young girl is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility.

Why it should be good: Really hot and badass chicks wearing schoolgirl outfits and other skimpy clothes, with swords and guns, coupled with Snyder’s awesome visual flair? Yea, definitely count me in. The trailer for this thing just looks completely awesome. From the style to the action, even the story (while seeming a bit out there) seems cool. I’m beginning to thoroughly enjoy Snyder’s work. If The Adjustment Bureau could be this year’s new Inception due to its mindfuck story, then Sucker Punch could absolutely be this year’s Inception meets The Dark Knight meets 300 meets Inglorious Basterds due to it’s style and epic adventure, yet dark tone with alternate realities. This movie just oozes style and badass-ness and I really can’t wait for what is sure to be an absolutely entertaining, epic adventure.

Why it could suck: Snyder can be a bit off his mark sometimes. While Watchmen was enjoyable, it did get a bit boring. And Legend of the Guardians is said to suffer from some pacing issues as well and has drawn mixed reviews from critics. Though to be fair to Snyder, he wrote neither of those movies, but is responsible for the writing (or at least screenplay) of the badass 300.

2. Sherlock Holmes 2

Director: Guy Ritchie

Writer: Kieran and Michele Mulroney

Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Noomi Rapace and Stephen Fry

Release Date: December 16, 2011

Genre: Action Mystery

What is it: Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

Why it should be good: I’m a big Sherlock Holmes fan. The Doyle stories still stand as my favorite books today. I love Sherlock. He’s such a badass. And finally, a movie seems to have captured that pretty well. The first was one of the better portrayals of Sherlock I had seen. Rather than being portrayed as a snooty, ‘proper’ and sophisticated Englishman, he was shown with all the rough edges that Doyle wrote him with. While the movie was indeed Hollywood-ized beyond anything you’d find in the books, it was a fun adventure and quite an enjoyable movie. Guy Ritchie is a very good filmmaker as well. For these reasons, and my love for Sherlock, I’m very much eager to see how Part 2 turns out, especially as they go head-to-head with Moriarty. Also, I’m eager to see how well Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,etc) does in her Hollywood debut.

Why it could suck: New writers. The original writers from the first aren’t coming back instead Kieran and Michele Mulroney are taking over the job. So let’s see how they handle it. Relatively new to writing, the two previously wrote Paper Man which didn’t fair so well with critics.

3. Paranormal Activity 3

Director: Tod Williams

Writer: Christopher B. Landon and Michael R. Perry; characters by Oren Peli

Stars: Katie Featherston

Release Date: October 21, 2011

Genre: Horror

What is it: Well, we have no idea what this one is going to be about as nothing has been given. However, the first movie followed a couple that were being haunted by an evil spirit who possessed Katie. The sequel (which was more of a prequel) followed Katie’s sister’s family as that same spirit haunts them and their baby. This all culminates to the two stories converging at the end of Part 2 where it gets to the point where Part 1 ends and we see what happens after the whole event. Undoubtedly, Part 3 is set to pick up where Part 2 and 1 left off. What happens from there? Your guess is as good as mine.

Why it should be good: The first Paranormal Activity became something of a cult phenomenon/sensation. Hailed as the scariest movie of the year, people flocked to the film making it a huge success. And rightly so in my book. It was a minimalistic horror movie that took it back to the roots of the genre by using tension and suspense to really instill fear and terror in the minds of the audience. Part 2, while some people seemed to not like it as much as the first, did more of the same. I actually thought Part 2 was pretty much right on par with the first. And the ingenious storytelling that created a parallel prequel to the first was definitely cool. The creator and writers of this franchise have really shown that the horror genre can be revived and doesn’t have to be all about gore and such. They’ve done a good job with instilling that fear in the audience as well, tapping into that fear, leaving the audience’s imagination to run wild while being completely captivated. I expect no less from the third.

Why it could suck: If you feel the second was worse than the first, then you may be in for some disappoint when you find out the same writers and director of the sequel are back. However, like with Part 2, Oren Peli (the creator of the franchise) is still very much involved and is serving as producer on this film.

4. Paul

Director: Greg Mottola

Writer: Nick Frost and Simon Pegg

Stars: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Seth Rogen

Release Date: March 18, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Comedy

What is it: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) reunite for the comedy adventure Paul as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America’s UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town-a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost). Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes.

Why it should be good: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost back together again. That should be enough. Seriously. When these two guys get together it’s gold, as evidenced by Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This might be my favorite duo around these days. They’ll also be pairing up to write this which is always a good thing as well (well, this will be Frost’s first real writing job, but Pegg has been responsible for their first two outings together). Now, they won’t be reuniting with Edgar Wright for this one, instead they’ll be teaming with the director of Adventureland andSuperbad, two movies which I definitely enjoyed. On top of all of that, they have comedic star Seth Rogan joining them. Sounds like quite the team really and I’m rather excited for what I’m sure will be a very funny movie, and possibly end up being the comedy of the year.

Why it could suck: You do have to wonder if some of that magic from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz will be lost as Frost and Pegg carry on without Wright. I think they’re great comedic talents though and can stand on their own. And the somewhat all-star get-together should compensate.

5. The Adjustment Bureau

Director: George Nolfi

Writer: George Nolfi; Based on Short Story by Philip K. Dick

Stars: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Terence Stamp

Release Date: March 4, 2011

Genre: Thriller

What is it: Just as he is on the brink of winning a senate seat, politician David Norris (Matt Damon) meets a ballerina named Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). Though David is smitten, mysterious men conspire to keep him away from the beautiful dancer. David learns he is up against the powerful agents of Fate itself, and, glimpsing the future laid out before him, must either accept a predetermined path that does not include Elise, or defy Fate to be with her.

Why it should be good: Honestly, this sounds like it could be this year’s Inception. With plenty of mindfucks going on, it’s a thriller involving different levels of reality and mysterious forces. Matt Damon really tends to shine in these types of movies. The trailer has me rather intrigued and looks like it could provide quite an enthralling adventure. While this is Nolfi’s directorial debut, he did write The Bourne Ultimatum, thus will be teaming up with Damon once again. The movie is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, whose work has been the grounds for such movies asBlade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and A Scanner Darkly. So with presumably some good source material, and a writer that can definitely do the part (as illustrated with The Bourne Ultimatum) we could be in for a real treat.

Why it could suck: This is Nolfi’s first time in the director’s seat, so we’ll have to wait and see if he’s in over his head. Furthermore, it is being billed as something of a romance thriller. So let’s hope they don’t go overboard with the romance part and make it some sappy romance film for which they sacrifice some of the plot to focus on the romance.

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Director: Rob Marshall

Writer: Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio

Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane

Release Date: May 20, 2011

Genre: Fantasy Action-Adventure

What is it: Jack Sparrow and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too.

Why it should be good: Some people have hated them. Some have thought they’ve gotten worse as they went along. I’ve found the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to be a fun adventure. Just a fun movie with plenty of adventure, some cool special effects, and just good times. And maybe it’s my man-crush I have on Depp, but I’m absolutely thrilled to see him back as Jack Sparrow. The character is so much fun and always provides for some entertainment. Should be interesting to see how they go about freshening up the franchise as well as they get a new cast of characters while Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are out.

Why it could suck: It’s a Hollywood sequel, those always have chances of sucking. Also, the exclusion of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann could put a damper on things. While there is a chance that it could freshen it up, there is just as much a chance that some of that magic might be lost as they look to replace those characters. Also, while we do get the same writers back, we have a new director taking on this sequel. Pirates seems to be out of Rob Marshall’s comfort zone (best known for Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago) so we’ll have to wait and see how he can handle an action adventure of this scope.

7. The Hangover 2

Director: Todd Phillips

Writer: Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha

Release Date: May 26, 2011

Genre: Comedy

What is it: Not a lot is known about the plot of this sequel. What is known is that the gang is back to get into more trouble as they travel to Thailand. And Phillips promise a lot of fucked up surprises and hilarity.

Why it should be good: The Hangover was hilarious I thought. The cast of the original had good chemistry and the writing was hilarious. It provided for several laugh-out-loud moments and was one of the funniest movies of the year (one of the funniest I’ve seen in a while too). Hopefully, getting the gang back together will provide for more hilarity that the first one delivered.

Why it could suck: New writers. The writers from the first aren’t coming back and have been replaced. Instead we get Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin that have brought us such garbage asSemi-Pro, Starsky and Hutch, Scary Movie 4 and Superhero Movie. If their past work is any indicator of their talent, the writers could really butcher this franchise.

8. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Director: Michael Bay

Writer: Ehren Kruger

Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson

Release Date: July 1, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action-Adventure

What is it: The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the Moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and learn its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers’ final battle.

Why it should be good: I’ve enjoyed the franchise so far. While Part 2, was blasted pretty well by critics, I didn’t hate it that much. Granted it wasn’t as good as the first, but I still found it fairly entertaining. And the movies are always a fun visual treat. Also, Michael Bay. I still have no idea why he receives so much crap while James Cameron is given a pass. Bay is just as adept a director as Cameron is. Anybody that still likes to tell me there’s a difference between Pearl Harbor and Titanic will kindly receive a “fuck off” as you buy into the pretentious drivel. At least Bay knows his place (a mindless action director who can make pretty movies and fun explosions). Whereas Cameron believes his some gift to cinema which often leads to his films being poorly written, yet pretentious as hell. Seriously, I’ll take Armageddon, Transformers, The Rock and Bad Boys over Titanic, Avatar, Aliens, and T2 any day of the week. Even though, yes, I know that will enrage many people and get me flamed for that opinion. Now, this movie (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) surely won’t be a great cinematic piece. But as a mindless “let’s make some cool special effects scenes and also blow some shit up” type of movie, it should be entertaining.

Why it could suck: Well, if I had to pick one movie from the franchise that was better, it’s definitely the first. The writer for this third film, unfortunately, is the same writer from Part 2 rather than the first. Also, it’s still Michael Bay. He’s not the greatest of directors.

9. X-Men: First Class

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Writer: Jane Goldman, Ashley Miller, Jamie Moss, Josh Schwartz and Zack Stentz; story by Bryan Singer

Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence

Release Date: June 3, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action

What is it: Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-MEN.

Why it should be good: A look at when Xavier and Magneto were younger. A backstory to where it all started. For such a thrilling franchise, this could be a nice take on the story and provide quite some entertainment and thrills. Plus, having directed movies like Kick-Ass andStardust, Matthew Vaughn is, I believe, much more adept at creating a movie like this than say a Jon Favreau or such. Vaughn also has the enjoyable Layer Cake under his director’s belt, which very much shows off that he learned well producing Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels andSnatch. Furthermore, his friendship and learning under the great Guy Ritchie, only further adds value to his role as a filmmaker. Meanwhile, the writers have brought us such movies as Stardustand Kick-Ass as well as TV shows such as Fringe and Chuck. Also, it has a pretty good cast.

Why it could suck: Well, those writers did also bring us The Sarah Connor Chronicles andAndromeda. Also, prequels sometimes have a tendency to not do so well. It’s, sometimes, almost as if a prequel is a last resort when the writers have run out of ideas of where the current story can go, so they decide to go back and cash in on the name once more by filling in some gaps from the beginning. I guess only time will tell if this becomes a Batman Begins (ie a very good prequel movie that did very well to reboot the franchise) or it falls more in line with The Scorpion King (ie a complete waste of my time that probably shouldn’t have even been made).

10. Source Code

Director: Duncan Jones

Writer: Ben Ripley

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga

Release Date: April 1, 2011

Genre: Action/Sci-fi-Thriller

What is it: An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

Why it should be good: The trailer just makes this like it could be a cool creative story that provides for an entertaining thriller that could keep you on the edge of your seat. This is Duncan Jones sophomore release, after 2009′s highly acclaimed Moon. So, if he delivers again, we could have a nice treat on our hands and he could solidify his place as a talented filmmaker. I also really enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal. I think he’s a great actor and should do fine in leading this movie. Vera Farmiga is also a really talented actress and one I definitely don’t mind seeing. Meanwhile, Michelle Monaghan isn’t too bad either.

Why it could suck: This is coming from an unproven writer. And while Duncan Jones’ Moon was well-received, it’s not rare that a filmmaker comes in to become something of a one hit wonder. Let’s just hope Jones can deliver a worthwhile follow-up.

11. Battle: Los Angeles

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Writer: Christopher Bertolini

Stars: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez and Bridget Moynahan

Release Date: March 11, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action

What is it: A Marine platoon faces off against an alien invasion in Los Angeles.

Why it should be good: The official trailer makes it look so damn bad-ass. Maybe that’s in part due to the great song selection for the trailer, but it looks just completely thrilling. It looks to be a sci-fi action movie that actually has some depth too. It sort of reminds me of Independence Day but with the seriousness, depth and emotional-center of some type of good post-9/11 movie. It’s like we may finally get a really good sci-fi movie with the heart of the best war movies, coupled with the awesome actual and visual treats of some of the best sci-fi/alien movies. Eckhart is a good actor that should do well in this movie as well. Also, the writer’s only past feature film work was The General’s Daughter which I thoroughly enjoyed. So if that’s any indication of the type of writing we’ll get for Battle LA then we should definitely have a compelling story to go with the visual flare of it all. Likewise, Jonathan Liebesman has brought us The Killing Room which I felt was a fairly enjoyable suspense/thriller movie.

Why it could suck: Liebesman also brought us Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginningwhich was garbage. On top of that, movies like this can often take themselves too seriously and often times become pretentious and/or preachy and just plain unimaginative with no real heart to the movie (I’m looking at you War of the Worlds). Let’s hope they avoid that here.

12. Cowboys and Aliens

Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof; based on the comic book by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

Stars: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde

Release Date: July 29, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Action-Thriller

What is it: A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys are all that stand in their way.

Why it should be good: It just looks fun. It’s like Indiana Jones meets Men in Black with a good western feel to it. This also comes from the writers that brought us such movies as Transformersand Star Trek, and such TV shows as Alias, Fringe and Lost (though in my book “Lost” might be a bad example, though others seemed to enjoy it). Also, there’s a good cast (Craig, Ford and Wilde), coupled with a nice supporting cast which includes Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano. At the end of the day, it may end up being a mindless action movie, but still looks to be fun.

Why it could suck: Jon Favreau. I’m sorry, but the guy hasn’t sold me. People seem to like him, but I’m not entirely sure why. The guy hasn’t delivered any really great movies. And only a few decent ones. Well, Elf I thought was really funny. Both Iron Man movies were really nothing to write home about though. Both were enjoyable, but they definitely weren’t spotlights in their genre. And the second one was panned quite a bit (though I enjoyed both, but the second was a bit lacking). And that’s really the only movies (Iron Man) that he’s done in this genre/realm. So that doesn’t give me a big vote of confidence in the guy. His other movies: Zathura was crap andMade was decent. Nothing else to note really. On top of that, the writers did also give usRevenge of the Fallen, which I enjoyed well enough, but wasn’t on par with the first Transformersmovie. And they’re also responsible for such things as The Island and Legend of Zorro.

13. Apollo 18

Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego

Writer: Brian Miller and Cory Goodman

Stars: None Given

Release Date: April 22, 2011

Genre: Sci-fi Horror-Thriller

What is it: Apollo 18 is a found-footage movie that claims to be “a film about the real mission to space in the 1970′s that was canceled by NASA.” With the tagline “There’s a reason we’ve never gone back to the moon”, while implying a government cover-up of monsters existing on the moon.

Why it should be good: With these found-footage movies, they tend to go terribly wrong or be very entertaining. This one is looking to go the way of the latter. It’s giving a fresh take on the rising sub-genre and taking us to an interesting location. Furthermore, it’s basing itself on some real actual events, thus adding some extra layer to it. The viral marketing on this movie is going along nicely and the film has become something of a hot ticket. Gonzalo is a Spanish-born director who has had a couple of critically-acclaimed films in the past as well.

Why it could suck: It’s kind of the nature of the genre. If they don’t hit they mark, then they tend to really suck. Couple that with a pair of brand-new writers, and there are no guarantees for this movie. I’m getting a feeling though that this will end up being up there with Paranormal Activity.

14. Unknown

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Writer: Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cromwell; based on the novel by Didier Van Cauwelaert

Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and January Jones

Release Date: February 18, 2011

Genre: Drama Mystery Thriller

What is it: A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.

Why it should be good: Liam Neeson is a bad-ass. Watching the trailer, I’m reminded of Neeson’s past movieTaken. Seems to be that similar mystery action thriller type movie. And I absolutely loved that movie. Neeson made it a very good film showing off his bad-assness in it. If Unknown turns out to be as good as Takenwe’ll have a very entertaining movie on our hands. Didier Van Cauwelaert, whose novel the movie is based on, is an award-winning author with multiple best-selling novels. The novel this movie is based on has met plenty of praise. So, we’re sure to find that the story/source material is good.

Why it could suck: Two virtually unproven writers. While the source material may be good, they could mess it up and adapt a bad screenplay. On top of that, the director is responsible for such things as Orphan and House of Wax, neither of which were that good.

15. Red State

Director: Kevin Smith

Writer: Kevin Smith

Stars: Melissa Leo, John Goodman and Michael Angarano

Release Date: TBA (Screening at Sundance 2011)

Genre: Horror Thriller

What is it: A horror film in which a group of misfits encounter fundamentalism gone to the extreme in Middle America.

Why it should be good: Kevin Smith. Smith is one of my favorite directors around. While last year’s Cop Out was rather bland, this year he returns to writing his own material with Red State. Furthermore, he’ll be treading into a new genre with his first horror movie. I love Kevin Smith as a writer/director and have been fond of pretty much all of his work. From Clerks to Mallrats to Clerks II to Jay and Silent Bob, everything Smith has actually wrote and directed, I’ve enjoyed really. Couple that with the enjoyable John Goodman and the “fresh off an Oscar-worthy performance” Melissa Leo, and we should be in for a real treat.

Why it could suck: As stated before, this is Kevin Smith’s first venture into the horror genre. Some writers/directors find that there are just some genres that they can’t do, while they’re better suited for another particular genre. We’ll have to wait and see how Kevin Smith’s foray into the horror/thriller genre goes.

If you like this and found it helpful, visit my site couchpotatoclub.com for other movies related articles as well as the latest DVD and movie news and reviews.

These days, when you are travelling down the highway, you always see a number of different restaurants or signs that are advertising different restaurants. Although some people do not want to admit it, dining out has become a big part of American life. It used to be when the man of the house came home, the wife had already prepared dinner and it was setting on the table ready for the family to eat. Now, dining has completely changed because now when the man of the house comes home, his wife may not even be home yet because she is at work, and if she is, she is more likely to say; let’s eat out tonight.

Dining in restaurants has become second nature when families or busy, or if they want to dress up and go out to a fancy dinner and a night on the town. It is easier to get dressed up and drive to a place where they prepare all of the food for you and just set it on the table for you to eat rather than sit at home for hours in the kitchen trying to make a meal. Even if a family does want to eat in the comfort of their own home, many restaurants offer takeout and delivery to their customers, where a person can come in and pick up the food and take it home or a person from the restaurant will deliver the food right to your front door.

It is also easy for families to do research on restaurants because there are many dining reviews of different establishments available online for anyone to see. These are done by critics who go to the restaurant and have a meal and then write about the positives and negatives on the restaurant so people can easily decide if they want to eat there or not.

Restaurants have also helped boost economies all over the world, often accounting for a big part of the country’s revenue. Corporations like McDonald’s have brought large economic increases and stabilization to different third world countries who have little to no revenue.

Although most people have not realized and just gone on with their regular routines, dining out has become a big part of the world, and people are eating less at home and more in an eating establishment.

For dining out guide, visit JP Pepperdine now.

Feel free to publish this article on your website, or send it to your friends, as long as you keep the resource box and the content of the article intact.

When shopping for a pair of hiking boots, it is important to know how they are made. No, you don’t need to know how to make your own, but you have to understand what goes into them and how it affects the comfort and durability – the overall quality – of the hiking boots. In this article I will describe the parts of a hiking boot, what they are made of, and how they come together to form the ideal hiking boot for you.

Like any shoe, a hiking boot consists of an upper and a sole joined together by a welt and with an inlet at the front covered by a tongue, and the whole is lined with various pads and cushions. I will discuss each of those parts in detail, in terms of what they are made of and what to look for in various types of hiking boots.

Sole and Welt

Let’s start at the bottom. The soul of the hiking boot is the sole.

Soles are usually made of synthetic rubber in varying degrees of hardness. A harder sole will last longer, but generally will have poorer traction on hard surfaces (such as bare rock) and will provide less cushioning. A softer sole gives you the cushioning you need for long hikes and the traction you need on rough ground, but it will wear out faster.

Manufacturers have made their trade-offs in choosing the materials to make their boots out of. The final choice is up to you when you choose which boot to buy. If you expect to do most of your hiking on soft surfaces, such as desert sand or bare soil, you might lean more toward harder soles. But most of us hike on fairly rugged trails with a good deal of bare rock, and we need the traction of a softer sole.

Inside the sole is a shank. It is a stiffening structure, either fiberglass or steel, that prevents the sole of the boot from twisting and that provides arch support. Shanks may be only three-quarter or half-length. Hiking shoes generally have no shank at all, deriving all their stiffness from the molded rubber sole. Good day-hiking boots may have a full-length fiberglass shank. High-quality backpacking boots will give you the choice of fiberglass or steel. It will depend on how strong you need your hiking boots to be, and how heavy.

Look for deep, knobby tread. Deep cuts in the sole allow water and mud to flow out so you can get traction. “Fake” hiking boots, designed to look like hiking boots but not to perform like them, may have thinner soles and shallow tread. Working boots also may have shallow tread, and they generally have harder soles than hiking boots have.

The welt is the connection between the sole and the upper. Virtually all hiking boots these days are glued together rather than sewn. If you are buying a very expensive pair of backpacking boots, give preference to a sewn welt. Boots with a sewn welt will be easier to resole when the original sole wears out. For hiking shoes or day-hiking boots, when the sole wears out, the upper is not worth salvaging, either, so a glued welt is just fine.

Upper

The upper of the hiking boot provides warmth, protects the sides of your feet from rocks and brush, and repels water. It must also allow your feet to “breathe,” so that moisture from perspiration will not build up inside the boots and cause blisters.

Uppers of hiking boots are usually at least partially made of leather. High-quality backpacking boots are often made of full-grain leather (leather that has not been split). Lighter boots may be made of split-grain leather (leather that has been split or sueded on one side), or a combination of split-grain leather with various fabrics.

Fabrics that are combined with leather are usually some type of nylon. Heavy nylon wears nearly as well as leather, and it is much lighter and cheaper than leather.

In any hiking boot, especially those made of combinations of leather and fabric, there will be seams. Seams are bad. Seams are points of failure. Seams are points of wear, as one panel of the boot rubs against another. Seams are penetrations that are difficult to waterproof.

The uppers of backpacking boots are sometimes made of a single piece of full-grain leather with only one seam at the back. This is good, for all the reasons that seams are bad, but it is expensive.

You’re going to have to deal with seams. But as you shop for hiking boots, look for customer reviews that mention failure or undue wearing of the seams, and avoid those brands.

Inlet and Tongue

There are two things to look for in the inlet and the tongue:

1. How the laces are attached and adjusted

2. How the tongue is attached to the sides of the inlet

The inlet may be provided with eyelets, D-rings, hooks, and webbing, alone or in combination. They each have these advantages and disadvantages:

* Eyelets: Simplest and most durable way to lace a boot. Not so easily adjusted.

* D-rings: Easier to adjust than eyelets, more durable than hooks. More failure-prone than eyelets. (They can break, and they can tear out of the leather.)

* Hooks: Easiest to adjust of all lace attachments. Subject to getting hooked on brush, or bent or broken in impacts with boulders, main cause of breakage of laces.

* Webbing: Cause less chafing of laces, slightly easier to adjust than eyelets, slightly more durable than D-rings. More failure-prone than eyelets.

The most common lace attachment of any hiking boot is eyelets below ankle-level and hooks above. You may see eyelets all the way up, as in classic military-style combat boots, or a combination of either D-rings or webbing with hooks.

The attachment of the tongue is a critical factor in how waterproof the hiking boots are. Provided the leather and/or fabric and seams of the upper are waterproof, water will not get into the boots until it gets higher than the attachment point of the tongue.

Most hiking shoes and day-hiking boots have the tongue attached all the way to the top. If the tongue is not fully attached, consider carefully whether you will need that extra inch or two of waterproofing.

High-rise backpacking boots have the tongue attached only partway up, but that still reaches higher than most day-hiking boots. It’s difficult to get the boot on and off if the tongue is attached very high.

Linings and Pads

There are many pieces that go into the lining and padding of a hiking boot, but two in particular you need to pay attention to:

1. The sole lining

2. The scree collar

The sole lining must be appropriately cushioned. You want a firm, durable surface in immediate contact with your socks, but enough cushioning below that to absorb impact.

The scree collar is a cushion around the top of most hiking boots. It enables you to pull the boots tight enough to keep out loose rocks (“scree”) but without chafing against your ankle and Achilles tendon. This is the thickest and softest cushion in the whole hiking boot. It must be soft enough to conform to your ankle and Achilles tendon as they move, and still keep close enough contact with your leg to keep the rocks out.

Very high hiking boots, such as military-style combat boots, may have no scree collar at all. The height of the boot is what keeps the rocks out.

Throughout, the lining and padding of the hiking boots must be thick enough to provide warmth, durable enough to last, and smooth enough that it will not cause chafing and blisters.

Conclusion

So, these are the things you need to pay attention to when choosing a pair of hiking boots. Be prepared to compromise, and pay attention to which features are really important to the style of hiking you intend to do.

Chuck Bonner is a lifelong hiker and amateur naturalist, and webmaster of http://www.HikingWithChuck.com. For more information about hiking boots and other hiking equipment based on many years on the trail, visit [http://www.hikingwithchuck.com/Gear/HikingGear.htm].

Wear stylish maternity clothes and make your pregnancy period more fun. Not all of us can look our glowing best during pregnancy; we can at least try our best to look fabulous wearing trendy maternity clothes.

Expectant women have a lot of choices with maternity clothes being available in all price ranges from stylish maternity clothes designed by some of the top names in fashion to off-the-rack affordable maternity clothes.

There are some top end boutiques that deal in exclusive, ultra stylish maternity clothes that can take your breath away literally on account of the unique fashion as well as the unbelievable prices! Well, you can pay a ton to look gorgeous or pay almost nothing at all and still look gorgeous. There are many women who look stunning wearing discount maternity clothes purchased online. You can even purchase expensive maternity winter coats with discount on these stores.

Factors To Consider While Selecting Your Maternity clothes

No matter where you buy your maternity clothes, be it designer wear or otherwise, you have to consider certain factors before you decide to buy your clothes.

Stylish maternity clothes add a distinct glamour to pregnant women. Maternity clothes have underwent a sea change and now you have a wide range of trendy maternity clothes and funny maternity clothes to choose from. Visit Maternity Clothes for more tips and free articles related to pregnancy and how to get discount maternity clothes or affordable maternity clothes.

One of the main problems for the newcomer to PHP programming is that PHP is a server orientated program. This means that all the PHP scripts have to be uploaded to the server before they can be tested. This can be a major put off for the new PHP Programmer who is reluctant to jeopardise his website by running incomplete scripts.

A way round this is to use Wampserver, an open source windows web development environment. Wampserver allows you to reproduce your server environment on your own desktop thus eliminating the problem of having to upload your scripts to your website to test them.

Wampserver allows you to use Apache, PHP and the MySql database. To implement the latter it also comes with PHPMyAdmin which allows you to easily manage your databases.

That means you don’t need to download Apache, MySql and PHP separately.

So, first goto the Wampserver website and download the latest version of Wampserver and install it. Installing Wampserver is very simple; most of the time you don’t even have to change any installation options from the default. There is one possible problem that users of Skype may have, Wampserver attempts to use the same port as Skype, this can be seen when the icon is not completely white . So quit Skype while you install Wampserver and then reload Skype which will now choose another port. Once Wampserver is installed you can launch it from the start menu or from the desktop icon (if you chose to create one)., you can see the Wampserver icon in the system notification area. The icon colour shows its status (online/offline). Clicking on this icon reveals a menu:

Localhost phpMyAdmin SQLiteManager www directory Apache PHP MySQL

Start All Services Stop All Services Restart All Services

This allows you to manage Wampserver and access all services. When you install Wampserver, all the files are copied in the directory you choose. Config files are then modified to point to that directory.

A directory folder entitled wamp is created with a www folder within it. This will be your document root. It is in the www folder that all your projects will be stored.

As you can see from the menu you can easily view your www directory from the menu

With Wampserver, you will now be able to reproduce your production environment on your personal computer. This now allows you to run and test your PHP Scripts, create databases and test adding, modifying and deleting records in the privacy of your own PC

More information can be found on Wampserver’s website

Now that you have learned something about basic HTML programming go to http://www.reallybasic.com where you can learn basic HTML, PHP, CSS and MySQL

Tony Prodger

For those starting out in bowling who have a good score, it is possible for them to consider trying their skills in an amateur bowling tournament. It not only brings about a confidence but also pays out a good amount in prizes. The amateur tournament is made up of two divisions and has many breaks for those with handicaps.

The amateur bowling tournament started in the later months of 1977. It was created to unite bowlers of all skill levels into one great tournament. They realized that not all bowlers could throw a 200 or higher game and thus is the reason behind the amateur tournament. Not only can you find the amateur bowling tournament in North America but also internationally. This brings together other nationalities with a love of bowling. There is also a senior amateur bowling tournament for those over the age of sixty who still have the bowling spark in them also.

The amateur bowling tournament is no one of the largest tournaments around. It is the only bowling club that gives those participating assurance of winning a minimum amount. Depending on which branch of the amateur bowling tournament participated in will decide what prize is won. It also determines the amount of players participating in each division.

The amateur bowling tournament office is located in California and has since branched out to other areas of the country. This allows for more people to join in the amateur bowling tournament than in the past. There is a Masters Division and a Classic Division in the amateur bowling tournament. Your score will determine what amateur bowling tournament division you participate in. Most amateur bowling players fall into the classic division.

The amateur bowling tournament is designed for those who are bowling under 200 but may allow those with a 220 average in. The Masters Division was originally designed for those joining the amateur bowling tournament having a 190 to 220 average. This was eventually raised to those with a 225. The classic division in the amateur bowling tournament is was originally for those bowling with a 189 or lower but has since been raised to 199 or less.

Since its beginning, the amateur bowling tournament has paid out in the hundreds of millions of dollars for prizes. This means the amateur bowling tournament has paid out more than any other bowling club in existence. This amateur bowling tournament payout is even higher than the professional bowlers association that has been around for half a century. The amateur bowling tournament has only been happening for a quarter of a century. This is a feat within itself.

If you are really into the sport of bowling, you should consider trying your luck with an amateur bowling tournament. You may find that your skills are better than you thought they were. You can also learn a great deal from those who have participated in the amateur bowling tournament in previous years. Being in an amateur bowling tournament will not only be exciting but lots of fun also.

Jordan Matthews is an internet entrepreneur with a 239 average, who enjoys bowling at local ABT tournaments every weekend. Visit Jordan’s Bowling Website for more information about bowling in tournaments and improving your scores.

Looking to buy a new car this year? You may have your heart set on a particular make or model and you might have explored the new and second hand car prices on the internet and have decided that you can afford to purchase the car of your dreams, but a question you have to ask yourself is can you afford to run it? 

Previously you may have asked yourself this question in passing and not really given it any real thought, but with the changes in Vehicle Excise Duty in 2009 and spiraling fuel and maintenance costs, coupled with the Credit Crunch and the through of recession for the next few years then running costs become much more important, therefore compromising and picking a car that you not only like, but will save you money in the long run is a sensible thing to do.  

What about the changes in Vehicle Excise Duty? Now cars are classed by how much Carbon Dioxide they emit, therefore more environmentally friendly cars will be charged less Vehicle Excise Duty than more polluting vehicles. At the time of writing the least polluting cars will be exempt from paying tax at all, where as the most polluting cars (class M) such as large, big engined 4×4 vehicles will have to pay £440 per year. Come 2010-11 then this cost increases further to £455 per year.  

If you’re looking to purchase a brand new car, then there will be another shock for your wallet and it has been dubbed the ’showroom tax.’ If you’re looking to drive that Class M car out of the showroom, you’ll also have to face a bill for a one off ’showroom tax’ payment of £950. 

To help you pick the right car in this current environmental and financial climate we’ve compiled a top ten list of cars and car related schemes to consider that could save you money. 

1. Buy a Small Family Hatchback. Small family hatchbacks are generally more economical to run and are usually big enough to meet most people’s needs. For example the VW Polo Bluemotion 1.4 Tdi is an economical runabout which falls into the Group A tax band. Not only do you not have to pay any tax on this vehicle, you can also avoid paying the showroom tax as this diesel car is so economical it is exempt. This car also boasts around 70mpg which makes it super cheap to run. 

2. Buy a Diesel. When it comes to economical cars, vehicles with diesel engines are first to spring to most people’s minds. Whilst historically this was typically true, with the cost of diesel at the pump increasingly outstripping the cost of petrol, buying a diesel may not be the best way to save money. For drivers who typically need to drive a lot of miles each year then a diesel will still be more cost effective than its petrol equivalent. However if you do not drive many miles then this may not be true. You’ll need to do the maths before you take the plunge in buying a diesel car. On the plus side, the miles to the gallon of a diesel vehicle is typically much higher than petrol cars, so you will at the very least be doing more for the environment. Diesel vehicles are also typically classed into a lower tax band saving money on Vehicle Excise Duty.  

3. Bi-Fuel Cars. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a method of running a car or van is becoming a popular way of running a vehicle more environmentally friendly and economically. Although you can buy a bi-fuel car from new many people pay to convert their current car to support LPG. The cost to convert a car is typically around £1500 and a real saving of around 30% on fuel costs can be made with each fill up at the pumps. Finding a petrol station that sells LPG may be one of the more difficult aspects of owning a LPG vehicle, with at least 10% of forecourts now stocking this alternate fuel type.  

4. Electric Cars. – For many years electric cars have been pitched as the salvation to spiralling fuel costs and saving the environment from car pollution. Unfortunately in reality the electric vehicle hasn’t really lived up to the hype, with slow vehicles and short battery life limiting range. There are a few vehicles on the market which may be suitable depending on your circumstances. If you live in the centre of a large capital city such as London then a vehicle like the G-Wiz may be the right vehicle for you. Owning a G-Wiz in London could make perfect sense as they are exempt from paying parking charges in Westminster, do not have to pay the Central London Congestion Charge and are free from both road tax and petrol costs. However there are some catches. The G-Wiz is a tiny vehicle and feels very cramped inside. The car has a top speed of 50-60 miles per hour, which may not be the end of the world in a city where traffic barely moves faster than a snail pace. Another limiting factor is that the range of the vehicle is just 70 miles and it takes a while to recharge the batteries, which is not quite as simple as filling up at a petrol station! A less extreme version of the G-Wiz is the Toyota Prius, a hybrid electric vehicle which predominately runs off petrol, but uses electric power at low speeds and recharges the batteries at faster speeds. The Prius can do around 65 mpg making it an extremely economical car to drive.   

5. Large Cars For the Family and Dog. If you’re single and want to save money on your car running costs or do your bit for the environment then you have a lot more options than families who need a larger vehicle to fit everyone in. Whilst smaller cars are more likely to be economical there are some larger vehicles out there which have been designed with both space and economy in mind. Take the Ford Focus C-Max 1.6 TDCI LX- a MPV which has been designed to give plenty of room inside. This is a five seat car which boasts a 1620 litre boot space and a top speed of 115mph. With fairly low emissions, helping to save money on Vehicle Excise Duty and decent economy with 58mpg this vehicle is a good bet for a family looking to save money.  

6. Sports Performance in a ‘Green Car’. Traditionally being green means that you also have to sacrifice something. However car manufacturers being aware of this have been trying to come up with a compromise- a car with good performance, yet can also give a decent MPG return. For example the Honda Accord 2.2 I-CTDI Sport is one of these cars with 52.3 MPG and a top speed of 129 miles per hour, a great combination of efficiency and performance that can meet all your expectations.  

7. Buy a Classic Car. If you’re scared that you’ll loose a lot of money on the value of your car then buying a classic car may be the best option for you. Try to avoid fashion trends such as the one for VW Beetles and Camper Vans which inflate the cost of these vehicles short term for them to only crash at a later date. Instead pick a car that pure enthusiasts hanker after, as most classic cars tend to hold their value, or indeed increase over time as long as they are looked after. Maintenance costs are likely to be much higher with a classic vehicle and they may not be the most economical on the market, but for pure return on investment if you pick the right vehicle then you will likely get your money back when you come to sell the car.  

8. Car Sharing Schemes. Those looking to save money on their everyday running costs of their cars could consider car sharing schemes. Basically car sharing schemes are set up for people to take turns when they drive, saving themselves money on fuel, plus gaining the benefit that they do not have to drive all the time! There are plenty of car sharing schemes out there, such as ones set up for parents doing the school run to a scheme for members of the Met Police Force in London. Explore the options in your local area and you may find that car sharing is a great way to save money. Perhaps if you want to get even more involved you could consider setting up your very own scheme.  

9. Time Share Cars. You’ve heard all about time share villas in the Costa del Sol, but you don’t necessary have to be scared of time share car schemes. These schemes can range from clubs where you get a share of a Ferrari or Bentley to drive at the weekend every so often, to pay-as-you-go car schemes where you can join a club, and simply book a run-around for as long as you want from an hour to a day. For those who tend to use public transport predominately and can’t really justify owning a car then a pay-as-you-go scheme may be the perfect way of having access to a car without having to pay expensive rental costs. Live in a city and fancy a country jaunt once a month? No problem, book a car online and pick it up, swipe your membership card on the dashboard and you’re away! Generally fuel costs (up to a point) are included and insurance is also taken car of.  

10. Car Finance Packages.  In the current economic climate taking out a car finance package makes perfect sense as you can split your payments over many months allowing you to fully budget for your vehicle. If you are considering buying a car in cash over a forecourt you may be concerned about the recession and redundancy. Having a nest egg in the bank can help provide comfort and piece of mind. Spending that nest egg in the current climate may not be the most sensible thing to do therefore buying a car on a car finance scheme can be the smart move. Also you will likely be able to afford a better car on finance than you might if you were to buy a car outright. The newer the car the more likely your maintenance costs will be reduced, again saving you money in the long run.

Julie is a freelance writer and loves to write on a wide variety of topics.

PHP is a general purpose scripting language that is well suited for server-side web development. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and has been developing ever since. PHP originally stood for “Personal Home Page”. He used the sets of Perl scripts he called PHP to maintain his resume and keep track of how much traffic his page was getting. He wrote these as “C programming language common Gateway Interface” which allowed the ability to work with web forms and databases. It also enabled users to start developing dynamic web application. He revealed and released PHP/FI or “Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter Version 1.0″ in June 8th 1995 to locate bugs and code improvement faster. This release had the functionality that PHP has today. The syntax was similar to Perl but more limiting and simpler.

PHP 2.0

A development team began to form. They spent months working and beta testing and released PHP/FI 2 in November 1997. Short after, the alphas of PHP 3 were released.

PHP 3.0

PHP 3.0 syntax to closely resemble of today’s PHP, created by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski in 1997. After finding out that PHP 2.0 was way underpowered for eCommerce application. Andi, Rasmus and Zeev decided to work together and announced PHP 3 as the successor of PHP/FI 2.0 and development of it was stopped soon after. The strength of PHP 3 was strong extensibility features. It also provided end users a solid infrastructure for lots of different databases, protocols and API. Another feature was the introduction of object-oriented syntax support. Approximately 10% of web servers on the internet had PHP 3 installed by the end of 1998. PHP 3 was released in June of 1998.

PHP 4.0

By winter of 1998, Andi and Zeev started working on rewriting the PHP’s core. They goals were to improve the performance of complex application and modularity of PHP’s code base. This new engine called “Zend Engine”, met those goals and was announced in middle of 1999. PHP 4 was based on this engine. Additional features were added and were officially released in May 2000. PHP 4.0 included features such as support for many more Web servers, HTTP sessions, output buffering, more secure ways of handling user input and several new language constructs.

PHP 5.0

Today, PHP is being used by developers all over the world and installed on 20% of domains on the internet. The latest release PHP 5 was released in July 2004 and is driven by the Zend Engine 2.0 with new object model and tons of new features.

If your wanting to start learning PHP programming, come check us out at www.phpprogrammingforbeginners.com.