Have you ever watched a speaker and said, "Wow, I wish I could speak like that"? or "That person was just so wonderful. I could never do that." Well, I've got some good news for you. You too can be a public speaker. Public speaking is a learned skill, so anyone can do it. You just need to follow some simple steps and practice, practice, practice. If you know how to talk, you can become a public speaker.

Becoming really good at public speaking requires some risk, but you have been taking risks all your life. When you were a toddler, you risked falling down when you took your first steps. You risk scraping your knees or falling when you start roller blading. You risk falling off when you start bike riding. You risk being rejected when you ask someone out on a date, and you risk getting into an accident every time you drive your car.

If you gave up after your first fall, you'd still be crawling. If you were afraid to fall off your bike, you'd still be riding with training wheels. If you were afraid of getting into an accident, you'd never get behind the wheel of a car. And guess what, you're still here - you've survived all of that. You're risk takers!! You've proved that by coming to Toastmasters. The greatest fear is that of public speaking and here you are - wanting to learn how to do it.

How many of you enjoy watching figure skating? Now, you wouldn't expect to be a world class figure skater the minute you put on a pair of skates, would you? No, you'd expect to have to practice for years before becoming that good. Nor would you expect to make the NHL without years and years of winter and summer hockey.

How many of you enjoy watching racing? Would you expect to be another Mario Andretti the minute you get behind the wheel? Now, I will admit that there seem to be a few drivers out there who think they are Mario, but most people would expect to have to practice for years before reaching his status.

Now, I think everyone here knows how to walk. When you think of walking 25 miles, it seems like a long distance, but it is actually only putting one foot in front of the other a number of times and you know how to do that. It just takes practice to go the distance. It's the same thing with public speaking. It just takes putting one word after another.

The key to getting up in front of an audience is believing that you have something to share with them that may make a difference in their lives - by entertaining them, warning them, encouraging them, or giving them direction or information.

The great thing is - you all do have something to say that people would be interested in hearing. Each of you has come through life in a different way. You may have encountered difficult circumstances and survived. Your experience could help someone else in the same situation.

If you remember jokes or enjoy telling stories to your friends, practice a little more and soon you can be telling your jokes and stories to large audiences. If you are really good at something, consider sharing the steps of how you got there.

By following the steps outlined in the Toastmasters' manuals, and with the encouragement of fellow Toastmasters, you can learn how to craft a speech and how to deliver it. You can learn how to use props, how to modulate your voice, and how to use words that your audience will understand.

You will often hear the words "stage time" used by Toastmasters. That is the only way to get better. In order to be good at anything, you have to practice. Winston Churchill overcame a speech impediment to become a master orator. He had to practice for hours to deliver a speech.

You can get very discouraged if you expect to be as good as Zig Ziglar right away. But if you listen to his story, you will find that it took a very long time before he was able to do what he does so well.

The thing to remember is that the only person you need to compare yourself to is you. You are working for your personal best, so when you are preparing your speech and practicing, all you need to ask yourself is - is your second speech better in some way than your first? Did you learn something new as you prepared for your speech? Did you learn something from the evaluative comments of others after you gave your speech? Then, that's all you need to do. You can use what you've learned to make the next speech your best to date and then use the same process for each speech you give. Just take one step at a time.

Remember, public speaking is a skill, so anyone can learn to do it. You just need to be taught how and then practice, practice, practice. Then one day someone may watch you and say, "Wow, I wish I could speak like that."

¶ 10:41 PM 0 comments

Is there any reason on earth to get out of a warm, cozy bed in the morning, if one way or another, your bills will be paid, youll have some dough left over, and the birds will still sing, outside your window?

We like to see human beings as incessantly creative, motivated by higher urges than seeking food, shelter, and the perpetuation of the species. Ever since we were given the psychology of Abraham Maslow and his humanistic cohorts, weve been smitten with the idea that people are inexorably rising up the rungs of being-ness to what he called, self-actualization.

Its certainly a rosy picture of human nature, but is it true?

Probably, not. To paraphrase Dostoevsky, you can put a man in clover, give him everything he wants, and it wont be good enough.

The obverse of this is also valid: You can deny man certain things, putting him behind the proverbial 8-ball, and then, only then, will he get off his derriere and do something.

Do we learn better from success or from failure?

Is adversity or acclaim a better teacher?

Sadly, it is the challenge, according to historian Arnold Toynbee, that makes man respond with ingenuity, with boundless energy, and with determination.

Oysters, you can get anywhere. But pearls can only be harvested after something irritating, a pesky piece of sand has upset the status quo, making what was a peaceful environment, disturbed.

So, be thankful when someone abrasive comes along. Hes just helping to make you a precious, more valuable gem!

¶ 7:17 PM 0 comments

Birds are very interesting creatures. They are vertebrates, because like fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, they have a spinal cord. They are also tetra pods because of their four limbs, two of which became wings, that are, in general, for flying. The other pair is for walking, running, and swimming. All birds, and only birds, have beaks and feathers and all species lay eggs. They have no mammary glands and neither do they have teeth. They are endothermic, that is why they are considered warm-blooded animals. Most of them fly except for some emus, ostriches, and penguins along with a few other species.

They have been around for millions of years and have been helping the environment. They are known to be very intelligent even without having been thoroughly studied. Scientists believe that birds, as a class, have a higher level of intelligence than most reptiles, and can be just as intelligent as many mammals regardless of size. Mammal intelligence testing is based on how they modify their surroundings using their forelimbs, and since birds lack forelimbs it is difficult to test their intelligence as it is tested on mammals.

It is widely believed in the scientific world, that birds actually lack real intelligence; they act upon their instincts and are unable to learn. Scientists who believe this rely on the fact that birds have a relatively small cerebral cortex, which is the area of the brain where most animals use their intelligence. Yet, it has been proven that the bird uses a different part of its brain for intelligence, the hipertriatum.

Birds have excellent vision. They rely on it for flying and navigating. They need their sharp vision for processing large amounts of visual information for locating rodents and other prey on the earth while flying. They usually have monocular vision; their eyes are each on the opposite side of the head. They need great brainpower to process and combine the different information they get from each eye.

Many scientists say that the more social animals are, the more intelligent they are. The greatest argument in favor of this is that humans are the most social and the most intelligent animals. Parrots and corvids both tend towards organized social behavior. Many corvid species separate into clans for nesting or defending territory. Then they usually flock together with different species in order to migrate. When migration is through they go back to their original clans. Scientists say that this behavior indicates real intelligence because of the way the bird can identify each clan member and the changes in temperature and climate while migrating.

While hunting, some birds make use of teamwork. Predatory birds work in pairs, while one bird distracts the prey, the other swoops down for the kill. This is called the "bait and switch" technique.

Similar to primates, many bird species use tools. Some species of crows grip sticks with their beaks to pick out insects from logs. This has been observed as something the young birds learn from their elders, but it has also been observed in captivity. A laboratory crow made a hook tool with wire without having learned this from any other bird.

Birds have no form of spoken language as we humans do, but they do communicate through singing, calling and using body language. Studies show that birds learn their territorial songs at a young age and use them for the rest of their lives. Some species even learn different song dialects.

A bird can instinctively migrate alone for the first time, and as it gets older and more experienced it has a smaller probability of getting lost. This shows that they can memorize places, landmarks, and have a sense of direction.

Many people like to compare stupid people with birds, but actually birds are one of the most intelligent creatures on Earth. They are highly evolved and have developed extremely sharp skills and senses. So, next time you make fun of someone less experienced than you and you say they're "as dumb as a duck", remember this article.

¶ 3:55 PM 0 comments

Football is a sport which is popular in the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Every town in the Gulf has a large stadium and the game is played in the streets and village playgrounds.

The game of football extracts a heavy toll of ligament and cartilage injuries of the knee joint. These are the commonest ligament injuries and the anterior cruciate ligament has been considered as the most valuable piece of connective tissue in the human body as professional football clubs hand over contracts to footballers worth several millions of Euros and dollars and withdraw them immediately if the player is injured. The MOH hospitals in Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia treat a large number of knee injuries. There have been a larger number of new concepts in the treatment of this injury.

ACL Injury(anterior cruciate ligament injury)Anatomical background-

The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is one of four ligaments stabilising the knee joint. Ligaments are cord like tissues, which connect one bone to another. In the knee joint there are four ligaments, namely the medial collateral (inner), lateral collateral (outer), the anterior cruciate and the posterior cruciate. The anterior cruciate ligament runs from the back of the thigh-bone to the front of the inner side of the shin or leg bone. It prevents the leg bone from sliding off in front from the thigh bone. The ACL injury can be a partial sprain or a complete tear

Mechanism of injury-

The most common mechanism is a sports injury where there is a cutting or twisting injury to the knee.

Activities for risk

Injuries in sports like football when the player tries to tackle from the back, his knee twists and he falls to the ground. Involvements in other sports like basketball, cricket, skiing and hockey can also result in ACL injury. A blow to the knee from the front. Patients with cruciate ligament injuries are prone to develop tears of the menisci(semilunar cartilages) and this can lead to secondary osteoarthritis

Symptoms

The person falls to the ground and is unable to continue the sport or activity which he was pursuing. He can feel or hear a popping sound in the knee joint. A swelling develops rapidly. There is a feeling of instability in the knee joint. Pain in the knee immediately, which worsens with the onset of swelling. Repeated giving away of the knee can occur as the patient runs around curves or while coming downstairs

What is the future for a patient with an ACL injury?

Complete ACL injuries result in instability of the knee joint. Whenever the person runs or comes downstairs rapidly the tibia slides off the femur. This can lead to repeated falls. These can result in injuries to the semilunar cartilages or menisci. Meniscal tears can lead to mechanical symptoms like locking or unexpected falls.

A combination of persistent ligamentous laxity and meniscal tears can result in the development of secondary osteo-arthritis.

Treatment- RICE

(Rest, ice, compression, elevation). An ACL injury is a serious one which needs medical attention immediately. The surgeon may aspirate the blood inside the joint to provide comfort. He may order a MRI scan to confirm the diagnosis immediately. An ACL injury can be treated conservatively in those individuals who are willing to restrict their sporting activity. For those unwilling to do so, surgical treatment is advisable. Surgical treatment consists of an examination under anesthesia, arthroscopy and ACL reconstruction. The orthopedic surgeon may decide to take a graft from the patellar tendon or hamstrings. Bony tunnels are drilled through the tibia and femur and the graft is fixed.

¶ 2:22 PM 0 comments

I grew up in the muscle car era of the 1960's and early 1970's, where there was enough time to still influence me before the gas crisis of $1 per gallon gas. These teen years left a lasting impression from that point on where a car must have big V8, loud rumbling exhaust, and big tires, otherwise it did not get a second glance. It was the power hungry performance cars from Detroit's Big Three. The Mustang, the Camaro, the Firebird as well as the Chevelles, and Chargers to just name a few that you could hear coming a mile before they arrived. They got my attention! Over the years as I've traveled around to car shows my appreciation for the automobile expanded. The common thread that intrigued me about all of the car owners was, the pride they took in their vehicle, but what was I missing? Many of these cars did not meet my criteria of a big V8, loud rumbling exhaust, and big tires, so what's the big deal? The intent of this article is to open your mind and recognize the elegance, grace, and styling of cars before you were born, to the present.

It seems that many automotive enthusiasts have at one time encountered a similar dilemma. There are the Mustang specific clubs, the Ford Model A clubs, even the Orange Colored Car club. Everyone has they primary interests, but if you look beyond this, you can see the elegance, style, and beauty that was finely crafted by the automotive artists. Imagine looking through the viewfinder on a camera as you focus on composing the perfect image. With your naked eye, many of the details may not initially jump out. However, when you see the image as the camera does, you notice the shadows, the lighting, and the elements of the vehicle that appear to be magnified and stand out. This focusing forces you to not only look complete vehicle, but down to the individual details that make it up. These details are the core elements of that the artist creates. Like each stroke of the brush, each curve in the chrome makes up the masterpiece.

You do not have to look far to see what I am talking about. Look at a 1958 Chevrolet Belair with its massive grille, large amounts of chrome and the intricacy of the trim accent pieces all flowing together like a sculpture. Unless you pay attention to even the most minuet areas you will not see the entire masterpiece. A person once told me that when he didn't win people choice awards, his wife would say, "Did A Red Car Win?" This statement has some truth. I have seen that if there were two almost identical cars, the red or brightly colored one usually faired better even if it was not in as good of condition. The point I am trying to make is first impression is exactly that, first impression. Whereas, a seasoned judge, goes to the next level looking at the quality of the paint, and in concours judging down to the finish on the bolts. Within this spectrum is where the real artistic nature is.

I recently did some photography and show board work on a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 that I initially seen at a local car show. When I first seen this car what stood out was its massive size, and the glistening shine of the perfect black paint. This was my first impression as it caught my attention. After talking with the owner, Joe, and learning more about his car, the real beauty of this classic vehicle was evident. You could almost see the air flowing along the sleek and graceful body lines as the 30 spokes of each wheel reflected like mirrors. It was obvious that he was focused on a perfect display, ensuring that there was a blinding shine on the chrome and paint, and every component, even the underside was perfect. One could only imagine the many hours and years spent getting to this level of perfection.

The next time you see one of these classics driving down the road, or at a car show try to vision what the automobile artists has in mind. To get a jump start on seeing these classics there is a nice selection of pictures showing exactly what I have talked about at www.PalmieriConcepts.com. The information and pictures on this site will give you many examples of these classics as well as alternative ways of composing your pictures into works of art. Palmieri Concepts focuses on transforming your everyday pictures into custom art, and as a result, attention to detail is key.

¶ 12:38 AM 0 comments