2012年1月4日星期三

Gout recurrence can be prevented

What happened to you is actually not that unusual.Information on useful yeasts and moulds, I do believe that, with some diet changes and maybe a visit to your regular doctor, we may have a chance to make another gout attack much less likely.

Gout is a type of arthritis caused by uric acid crystals forming inside the joint or a space between two bones. The most common location for gout is at the base of a big toe, but it can affect other joints as well.

Uric acid is a product of a breakdown of purines -- substances found in foods like beans, asparagus, mushrooms and certain meats and seafood. The most common symptoms of gout are a red, swollen, painful toe or other joint and, for some, fatigue and fever. The intensity is the worst in the first 12 to 24 hours, but the symptoms may continue for weeks. It is important to know that this is a self-limiting illness, which means that it will eventually go away even when not treated by any medication.

Gout affects about 1 to 2 percent of the population in the United States. It is generally more common in men, but it can attack women, especially after menopause. It is a very old disease -- it was known by Egyptians in ancient times. It has been called the "disease of the kings" due to its presumed association with eating certain foods and alcohol.

Now you may ask why exactly the uric acid crystallizes inside the joints. It is due to one of two reasons. There may be too much of the uric acid made by the body,Take a walk on the natural side with stunning and luxurious Floor tiles from The Tile Shop. which happens in about 10 percent of cases. But, more often, the kidneys are unable to get rid of the uric acid properly and, as a result, there is just too much uric acid in the blood. The level of uric acid can be measured by a blood test and, to some extent, can guide treatment and diet modifications. Interestingly enough, gout attacks are influenced by outside temperatures, which is why they happen more often in early morning.Injection molding and Plastic molding supplier; Uric acid may also crystallize in other parts of the body, causing funny-looking, small, painless lumps around joints and tendons, which doctors call "tophi." Gout is also associated in some people with kidney stones -- again caused by the uric acid.Accept all major credit cards using the top rated third party payment gateway.

This disease does run in families, but just because your dad or mom has had it does not mean you will get it as well.

It is also associated with elevated blood pressure, obesity and elevated cholesterol. As we have mentioned before,Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, excessive alcohol use (more than two drinks daily) is one of the risk factors. Some medications can make gout attacks more likely. Simple aspirin and commonly used water pills -- known in "doctor talk" as thiazide diuretics -- have been associated with gout.

On the other hand, coffee and vitamin C, as well as dairy foods and physical exercise, may be protective for gout sufferers. as they lower uric acid levels in the blood.

2012年1月3日星期二

The South Beach Hotel Boom

Despite the lingering effects of a worldwide recession, South Beach is, once again, proving to be a land of infinite possibility. Throughout Art Basel Miami Beach 2011, lavish new hotels popped up like daffodils, from the Shelborne South Beach, which reopened after a $20 million makeover, to the Surfcomber Hotel Miami-South Beach, the multimillion-dollar effort spearheaded by the international group Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. Hotels have always been part of the social equation on South Beach, but the future looks particularly seductive, whatever might be going on with the Dow or the euro. “South Beach is almost too big to fail now, and there’s a lot of money in play, on the south and north end of South Beach,” says Jason Pomeranc, co-owner of Thompson Hotels, the group rebranding Hotel Victor as Thompson Ocean Drive.

One key reason for the bullish take on South Beach is its extended season, a phenomenon of the last 10 years, paralleling the span of Art Basel. Miami Beach remains a key feeder market for New Yorkers looking for a quick getaway, but unlike the early days (from the 1930s up until the advent of hotel air-conditioning), our town is now more of a year-round destination: Last year, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Miami and Miami Beach welcomed 3 million visitors during the year’s “slow” third quarter— only 400,000 fewer than high season. Even in the summer, occupancy on South Beach now reaches up to 70 percent, and room rates have also increased: According to the CVB, August rates in 2011 were 12.1 percent higher than in 2010, a good bet the market can sustain ever more lavish hotels.

The fact that we’re the gateway to the booming Southern Hemisphere doesn’t hurt, either. Half of Miami’s visitors, according to the CVB, hail from international markets, heading into town to take advantage of favorable exchange rates. While the euro has been strong against the dollar for more than half a decade, some Latin economies—such as Brazil’s—have exploded in recent years, and a swarm of its residents to Miami has, in part, fueled the hotel boom. According to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing organization, Brazil is now the lead foreign market for Florida, overtaking the United Kingdom. In the third quarter, Florida hosted 371,000 Brazilian visitors, a 38 percent increase from 2010. The organization doesn’t maintain specific figures for the number of Brazilian tourists on South Beach, but it’s safe to say that a sizable chunk of those visitors wound up there.

Seeing the chronic interest in South Beach,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, investors, along with a host of hip New York and LA restaurant and nightlife impresarios,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. have been gambling on the fact that the Beach operates by its own set of rules, independent of larger economic gyrations, and have been opening their checkbooks accordingly. Mario Casal, the Surfcomber’s sales and marketing director, puts it simply: “To be on South Beach, guests will pay South Beach rates”—an observation that’s certainly music to an investor’s ear.

“This will always be the world’s playground,” says Keith Menin of Menin Hotels. Unlike many new properties, his 280-room Shelborne, located at 18th Street and Collins Avenue,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, is a hometown effort. “In London or even Milan, no one drives red Ferraris in shorts, but here they do,” says Menin, who worked for his family’s firm since the age of 15, when he manned the front desk.

Even when big money isn’t funding a hotel’s revamp, it still wants the associative power of a South Beach brand.Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, For example, for the Shelborne opening, the Microsoft decision engine Bing sponsored the hotel’s Art of Night celebrations, incorporating a Theophilus London concert and a photo exhibition of Seth Browarnik’s work. The latter’s opening, featuring a cast of Susanne Bartsch-orchestrated entertainers, was widely regarded as one of the best Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 parties.

Not all the new hotels were funded with prescient gambles on the gravity-defying power of the South Beach market, however. Some of the newer ones actually began to germinate pre-recession, but plans were slowed when the economy weakened and bank financing dried up for both commercial and residential ventures. Last year, the Dream South Beach, owned by Vikram Chatwal—known for his innovative hotels with unusual thematic environments,Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services. from Bangkok to New York— suffered a long-delayed opening. (According to signs hung outside the property, it was originally set to debut in 2008.) Brendan McNamara, a senior vice president of brand development at the company, says, “[After] the 2008 downturn, we took that as an opportunity to slow down and complete the project at a pace we could live with, and open into a more stabilized market that we now seem to be enjoying.”

Local players are also betting that even if the weakened economy endures, there’s a silver lining for a destination like Miami. Pomeranc views his rebranding of Hotel Victor as a safe bet. “Miami is going to profit from the economic uncertainty in the world: At times like this, many travelers are more likely to go to a safe domestic destination they know, as opposed to somewhere exotic and remote, where they might have concerns about the stability of a destination place.”

Adding Electric Outlet

When you feel that you want a lot more electric outlets in your own home, then one way that you need to consider can be adding electric outlets on your. By doing so, you are able to conserve a great deal of income that we would currently have invested on hiring a contractor to be able to do the job for we, but yet at the same time you’re furthermore running a risk of a dangerous electric shock, and the damage that your own walls might maintain. Conserve a lot more income making use of Best Buy Coupon Codes!

There are lots of products that we all want to make use of in our homes today, plus a lot more often than not the amount of electric outlets available to be able to you might fall brief. In order to solve this kind of problem, a quite realistic home improvement solution can be to be able to recognize how to be able to add a particular wall socket, because this kind of may provide you with the opportunity to be able to make use of a lot more products.

Adding electric outlets to be able to an area can be not a particular simple task by any means, plus demands some detailed knowledge regarding wiring systems plus the method the electric systems function. It goes with no saying that adding electric outlets can be not a task that really should be tried by an individual which refuses to recognize anything regarding these systems plus the method they function, because it could confirm with be extremely dangerous too.

Firstly, we need to get a hold of the appropriate place for adding wall socket. Scan the area plus get a hold of a particular region on the wall that could hold the outlet. Today, we need to measure the height of the additional outlets, if perhaps any,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, on the wall. Note that this kind of measuring need to be of the height of the hole in the wall, plus not the base of the panel. You will want to eliminate the panel to be able to do this kind of. Inside a standard stick built American home right now there might be studs placed in the wall at equal ranges from every additional. You should get a hold of the studs about the spot where we wish your own outlet with be,Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, plus aim to be able to add the outlet between these 2 studs.

Today, the upcoming step for adding wall socket can be to be able to ensure there are really not an additional outlets or ducts running by the wall you may have selected,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. plus then determining where the electrical power might reach your own outlet from. Making use of existing wiring that currently have some slack can be a a superior idea but yet be extremely careful because electrocuting yourself can be possibly not piece of the plans. Next, you will want to be able to visit a hardware shop plus buy a ‘cut-in’ outlet box. This might provide you with the tools plus instructions needed for adding electric outlets in an area.

Next, you will want to be able to create a hole in the wall that is the size of the cut-in box. Depending on the nature of the material that your own wall can be made up of,Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services. you’ll either will need a knife or maybe a drill. Today,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, you will want to be able to procure plus attach the appropriate kind of wiring from the modern outlet to be able to your own electrical power source. This should be performed carefully plus expertly. When you currently have attached the cable you need to ensure that the outlet box can be tightly attached on the wall plus refuses to wiggle about. Next, you need to ensure that not an base metal wiring are really exposed anywhere across the line before we turn on the electrical power to be able to check, if perhaps your own outlet can be working. The particular financial impact of adding wall socket by yourself will be reduce than the $100 – $240 we would currently have to pay the electrician or contractor for doing the job the exact same job.

Pondering the Artist Statement

In one of my many lives,Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services. I am a portrait/event photographer. I have taken pictures of families, graduating students, Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, and sports events. In May, I will be having a show of some of this art at a local art center.

What is worrying me today is that I have to submit an “Artist’s Statement” for this event, and it’s been a struggle.

It turns out that the only thing less pleasant than reading an artist statement is attempting to write a decent artist statement. It’s ridiculously challenging to put into words why one is moved to create art or the thought processes that are expressed in a particular set of artistic pieces.

Inevitably the writing is either too florid:

“My mosaic marks the unfinished engagement of a myriad of reflecting lights, a chiaroscuro where the resplendent effulgence of the morning star struggles with Herculean vitality against the Cimmerian shade, where a glistening crystalline nimbus confounds tenebrous murkiness, or at least makes an uneasy peace with her ...”

“For thousands of years, pottery has been a practical form of artistic expression. Like the biscuit molds of the 5th century Etruscans,Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, or perhaps more like the slipcasting common in the T’ang dynasty, my pottery attempts to preserve in perpetuity the images of everyday life, while retaining a decided utility. I myself follow the ash glazing process pioneered by Catawba Valley, though I favor ash derived from arable crop wastes to the more common kiln-combustion waste. I believe this makes for a more arresting image on the lower third of the final product.”

“I started painting when Aunt Helen gave me my first set of watercolors on my ninth birthday. For the next few years, I focused on replicating realistic renditions of the family pets. In high school, I began painting bucolic scenes from nature. By the time,Injection molding and Plastic molding supplier; the college years rolled around ...”

Er, what? Where was I?

My mistakes tend in yet another direction; I often err on the side of brevity. Recently, I sent this winner of an artist statement in to the Belmont Gallery of Art for their portrait show “See You, See Me!”, in which I had three photographs on display:

“Lisa Gibalerio is a Belmont mother of three, wife, writer and photographer.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings, Lisa specializes in family photography and you can find her weekly column ‘Slices of Life’ at Patch.Com.”

While less is often more, I must confess that I was simply short on time and opted to take the easy way out.

To build on that those two sentences, I’ve been attempting to pull this together for my upcoming photography show. Here’s my current draft:

“Shortly before my third birthday, my mother became gravely ill with lupus, a chronic and debilitating illness. It follows that the most central figure in my world was a person whose health was constantly vulnerable. I grasped early on a sense of how fleeting life is.

“When I was 12, I received my first camera as a Christmas gift. Then as now, taking pictures was about preserving memories and freezing images.

“I remember realizing long ago that while the people I love will not always be around, I can cherish the photographs I have taken of them. Photos became a source of comfort in the face of permanent separation.

“So, I guess you could say,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. that death has been a driving force for me as a photographer. But I prefer to think of photography as a quest to capture life, to seize a moment in time, and hold on to it forever.

2012年1月2日星期一

Discovery of wreckage brings Brevard man closure

The wait finally is over for a Merritt Island man.

More than 69 years after his cousin’s plane was lost over China, the C-47’s wreckage was found 13,400 feet up a mountain in China’s Yunnan province.

It was Bob Willett’s persistence that led to the search on the other side of the globe. The retired banker and author said the discovery has helped bring closure to his family.magic cube

“It could be said that these efforts were like tilting at the windmill, but to those involved, it is very personal and emotional,” said Willett, whose cousin and childhood playmate, Jimmy Browne, was the aircraft copilot.China Porcelain tile

Browne and two others were flying for the China National Aviation Corp. during the Japanese occupation of China. The Chinese turned to CNAC, a civilian airline it had formed with Pan American World Airways, to transport personnel and supplies to Chinese forces fighting the Japanese.

The Japanese had been seizing control of eastern China before World War II broke out in Europe.

Flight 60 left Kunming,Injection moulds China, where it had dropped off a load of gasoline and ammunition, and was headed back to Dinjan, India, when it disappeared Nov. 17, 1942. The plane, carrying tin cast into molds, was crossing the Himalayas, known to aircrews as “The Hump,” between India and China. It was only the second known aircraft loss on “The Hump” and the first for CNAC.

The crash was one of only a few China National Aviation Corp aircraft losses that had never been found until now.

For years, Willett and other family members wondered about Browne’s fate and whether his plane might ever be located. But the search project was put aside until money could be raised to cover the cost of an expedition.

It wasn’t until Willett met Arizona businessman and adventurer Clayton Kuhles that the search became a reality.Air purifier Kuhles had brought closure to other families through his self-financed searches for American pilots lost and unaccounted for during World War II in China, Burma and India.

“It turned out to be a rather drawn-out affair,” Kuhles said. “It’s not unusual to have to make several climbs.”

Kuhles, 57, of Prescott, Ariz., started his research long before the expedition, which began in September.

Kuhles made contact with a man from a small village in China who said his father was hunting high in the mountain in late 1942 when he saw an airplane spiral down at a very steep angle and crash below the summit ridge.

Following much research, many interviews and calculations, Kuhles set out with his local Chinese guides. After several days of intense jungle trekking and dangerous river crossings, the team arrived as a junction of several mountain streams. There the guides pointed to the distant summit ridge of the mountain, indicating the location of the aircraft wreckage, then stated that it was too dangerous to continue farther up the mountain and insisted on ending the expedition.

“They were not at all comfortable going up that mountain,” Kuhles said.offshore merchant account “They were afraid of the river crossings. The were afraid of being stuck on the mountain in bad weather.”

Three tries later over about 90 days led Kuhles to the wreckage. Among the 44 small pieces found was a metal remnant with the number 4681. It positively identified CNAC 60 because it was the construction number of the Douglas Aircraft assigned to China National Aviation Corp.

The discovery brought to 22 the number of aircraft remains successfully located by Kuhles since 2003.

CNAC was a civilian airline, but because it supported military missions under contract to the Army Air Corps during the Japanese occupation of China, pilots were granted veterans status in 1993.

Kuhles said that although the aircraft wings and other large pieces of metal could no longer be seen on the steep slope, the team easily found the small pieces of wreckage lodged between rocks, stretching far down the rocky ridge. No human remains were found.

The majority of the wreckage is believed to buried under boulders and rocky debris. Kuhles said a major earthquake occurred in the area in 1950. Metal detectors indicated large pieces of buried metal at the site.

“Our goal when we started was to find where the airplane crashed,” Willett said. “As far as I’m concerned, that really satisfied our goal. I think Clayton’s ability to find the plane was miraculous. I’m amazed that he really did produce what we were looking for.”

Other family members were also happy with the results of Kuhles’ search.

Helen Cole, another cousin, wrote to Willett: “A combination of exhilaration and profound thankfulness that in some mysterious way Jim has been drawn back into the family circle again after being lost for so long.”

Mount Washington residents criticize plan to build solar panels in the neighborhood

A proposal to build solar panels on a historic property in Mount Washington has drawn criticism from neighbors who believe it will be an eyesore for some nearby houses.

The Chimes, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, plans to put solar panels in a grassy area between two Victorian houses it owns in the Dixon Hill neighborhood of Mount Washington. The panels would produce electricity for the residences on the property.

"The plan is to put a small ground-mounted system between two of the buildings," said Martin S. Lampner, the president and CEO of The Chimes. The nonprofit provides services to adults in the Mid-Atlantic region who have difficulty living independently, often because they have intellectual or physical disabilities. "The reason we are doing it is that we see nothing but spiraling utility costs."

But some of the neighbors say the panels, which The Chimes installed at its headquarters at Seton Business Park earlier this year, are ugly and they believe they would consume valuable green space.

"I don't question that they have a purpose, but sitting here in a historic neighborhood and destroying really nice property" shouldn't be allowed, said Paul Hanley, who has lived about half a block away for the past 30 years.

Robin Klein, a resident of Fairbank Road where The Chimes property is located, believes the nonprofit is "trying to be a good citizen and find alternative energy sources, which is great."

But,offshore merchant account she said, Mount Washington has a limited amount of green space that should not be consumed by large solar panels. She said the area already has a problem with runoff that could be exacerbated by the panels. A rain garden was built down the hill from the property to try to reduce runoff into Western Run,Injection mouldsAir purifier she said.

Lampner said it is too early to say how much space would be used for the panels because no design has yet been drawn. He described the project as being in the "very early stages." A number of trees would have to be cut down to put in the solar panels, but he said some of the trees had been damaged during storms in the past year and would have to be cut down anyway.

Lampner said he decided to go to the community association first to present the proposal and get feedback that could be incorporated into the drawings. "If we can't make it work in a way that is harmonious to most of our neighbors," the project will not go forward, he said.

The Chimes has not yet applied for any zoning or permits from city planners.

Lampner said The Chimes has invested significantly in solar energy and becoming more energy efficient. Besides weatherizing its facilities, the nonprofit also installed 3,000 solar panels at its city headquarters this year. Because the solar panels have only been operating for several months,China Porcelain tile Lampner said, it is too early to say what the annual cost savings will be, but he believes it will be between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.

The installation was free for The Chimes. BITHENERGY, a local company, built and installed the panels for Washington Gas Energy Services, which financed and owns them. Washington Gas sells the electricity to The Chimes, but at a far cheaper rate than BGE would. "Our price is not going to escalate in the future. So the savings is nice today,magic cube but it should be far nicer in the future," he said.

ART WORLD ACCOUNTS

Artists and collectors say they fell victim to St. Armands art gallery owner Robert Preiss, even as Preiss was facing prison time on an art theft charge. They say they are now missing payments or valuable high-end original paintings and sculptures. Here is a look at what they say happened:

In January, Rut agreed to send Preiss a group of original paintings for a two-day art show in Key Biscayne. "After the event, the paintings - whatever did not sell - was supposed to be brought back to my studio," Rut said.

Rut kept asking Preiss to return the artwork. "I said Robert, I want my paintings back, you're keeping them."

"The next thing I know is he gets arrested," Rut said of Preiss' conviction and jailing in October. "Out of all my consigned artwork, I recovered 5 out of 10."

Rut later went to the home of a Venice dentist who previously had purchased Rut's art. As the dentist gave him a tour of the house, Rut saw one of his missing paintings in the bedroom, a red monochrome of a woman fanning herself. He asked the dentist and his wife where they got it, and they told him Preiss had sold it to them; Rut said he was never paid.

In late 2010, Zhao agreed to send Preiss a few originals and a few limited editions for a new gallery in Tampa called Bugatti Fine Art.

Months went by and Zhao contacted Preiss.Injection moulds "We'd like you to send all the pieces back because we haven't heard anything from you that you had sold anything," said Jessie Zhao, Zhao's daughter.

They were missing three originals and two limited editions. Then, they heard from the manager of Bugatti that Preiss was convicted and in jail.

Later, a customer called to say he had purchased one of Zhao's paintings, "Riders of the Dawn," at an estate sale. It was one of the pieces Preiss had never returned or paid for. "We don't know how that piece got to an estate sale," Jessie Zhao said.

Preiss approached Zimmerman, a renowned portrait artist, with an impressive offer: Paint a portrait of Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, as a gift from Preiss, and Zimmerman would receive a $300,000 commission.

Preiss told Zimmerman it would be in appreciation for the 10-year relationship he shared with Slim as his best client, to be presented to him in Slim's home in Mexico.

Zimmerman created what he considers to be one of his most detailed and meaningful portraits. He incorporated examples of works by Dali and Rodin into the background.China Porcelain tilelandscape oil paintings During the unveiling at Preiss' gallery, Preiss declared the painting a masterpiece that would soon be hanging in Somaya Museum in Mexico City.

Then, in July, Zimmerman said Preiss came up with one excuse after another as to why the presentation to Slim was not happening. Then, Zimmerman heard about Preiss' conviction for fraud.

Zimmerman now has reason to believe that Slim and Preiss were not as close as represented, and that the portrait was just a tool that Preiss was using to get closer to Slim.Plastic molding Zimmerman said he was never paid.

Ginzberg knew Preiss from years ago when he sold art through Preiss' ex-wife's gallery in Miami. So when Preiss called in late 2009 with stories of people owing him hundreds of thousands of dollars, Ginzberg gave him art to sell.

Preiss guaranteed sales right away, and "to show good faith" gave Ginzberg a check and five postdated checks for the full amount. Only the first one was good, Ginzberg said.

Preiss came up with excuses, including sending a photo of himself in the hospital, and always said payment was just around the corner, Ginzberg said.

"We subsequently found out the artwork was already sold, and there was no way to trace it," Ginzberg said. "He was selling the art and not telling us,offshore merchant account but he was taking any price. He sold paintings valued at $40,000 for $10,000."

"Somebody told me they walked into a restaurant on St. Armands, and there was a painting of mine hanging that was retailed at $40,000."

"They said they got it from Preiss," Ginzberg said. "He never paid me for that."

Cloud's husband was a private collector of Salvador Dali sculptures and other fine art, much of it purchased from Preiss. The two became close friends before Cloud's husband died in 2008 and left the artwork to his 6-year-old daughter.

"Robert sent me many emails, beautiful, wise, showing great compassion and how he felt so sorry," Cloud said. "If at any time the storage costs got too much or he needed funds for my daughter, he'd be happy to assist."

In 2010, with the costs of London storage space costing thousands, Cloud decided to sell the pieces and put the money in a trust. She said she called Preiss, who had sold most of the art to her late husband.

Five months later, Cloud started asking about the art or the money. Preiss had neither. In October, someone anonymously sent her a link to a Herald-Tribune news story about Preiss' conviction and prison sentence. "You can imagine, I almost fell out of my chair," Cloud said.